Chapter 195: Prep For War; Demme's Prayer (P3)

A cold air bristles past me and I peer open the eyes I hadn't realized I'd closed. 

Sure enough, I'm exactly where I intended to be. Lotar's Realm.

This time the Wolf stands before me in its genderless form, it's tall, several feet taller than I. Larger, wider and over all just bigger than the average human and perhaps even the odd ones.

Its arms are crossed and its face tells me all I need to know about what's going through its mind right now. I always had trouble reading the Wolf when it was…a Wolf.

With a cheery smile already plastered on my face from the start, I spread out my arms and full of mirth, I greet my patron god, "Lotar! Good to see you!"

It doesn't seem to share the same sentiment as I do. Still, I walk towards the tall, lumbering Wolf Deity who for once barely had anything related to the creature its Lord over.

"Why the grumpy look? Aren't I just your favourite Warlock? Your first follower?" I snort, "Perhaps your only follower seeing as you have me trapped with Hunger."

It growls and takes a single, threatening step forward. But I'm not worried, it's already established that the Deities are forbidden to h-ack!

With a swing of its palm across my face my body is limply tossed several paces behind my original starting point.

"What the fuck!" I growl out the moment I don't have dirt in my mouth. I jump to my feet and rather than back down in the face of the lumbering, angry Deity I step up to it. "If you want to fight me, you'd best be honest about it you ungrateful fuck!"

It growls, the first bit of audio from it and it's a growl. Typical. "Do you have any idea what you're doing to me?" Lotar yells, angrily gesturing at its body.

"If I were to take a guess, I'd say that's the result of an entire village of people, thousands of them, loyally praying to YOU by MY order!"

"Exactly!" Lotar screams, infuriated, "You're right, the reason I'm a Deity now, even a Lower Deity is largely credited to you giving me the push I needed to cross the threshold."

"You're welcome!"

"No!" Lotar rebukes, "You've caused a change in me, one that wasn't meant to be, that wasn't by my will."

"What change? Made you more powerful you mean?" The giant man falters in its anger at this and I smirk, "You're not displeased at that part, of course not, who would be displeased with power when it comes to them on a silver platter."

Lotar growls again, "You're changing my responsibilities, while I surely appreciate having thousands of people pray to me, frankly it's a feeling of power, a surge I've only ever felt when HarlFary…" Lotar stops here, clearing its throat, "Nevermind that, the point is, with more humans worshipping my name, they're changing my duties as a Wolf Deity, the very thing I was created to be."

At this I hum, "Were you actually created to be a Wolf Deity or was that just what you happened to be?"

"What do you…mean?" He trails off and I think I made a bit of sense with what I said.

As far as I know, Lotar was created by the God HarlFary, a being I haven't yet the privilege of meeting. He was created possibly as a means of controlling sections of the Gods domain it was rather too unbothered with.

Lotar became stronger as a spirit, becoming a Great Spirit as I fondly remember the System declaring when I got my first boon from it. The Wolf Spirit likely did the same it did with me with several of the other Warlocks scattered across the World that it had serving it.

And from them he gained power, from their actions in its name and their reliance on its power. That gave Lotar power, power enough to teether on the threshold of Godhood.

And then Lotar met me, and I made it a Deity by killing the servants of another Deity in its name. I suppose such an action would warrant a huge boon of power. Before long I knew Lotar as a Lower Deity.

"But just because all you've known are wolves and beasts doesn't mean humans, elves or dwarves can't serve you as well." I say, breaking through its frozen thoughts. "Don't you want to be even more powerful? Powerful enough to stick it to Frozia."

At this he revives and points out, "You realize you're meant to be propagating her worship, not mine."

I chuckle, "I took that into account when I made the decision to pray to you, Frozia is the Goddess of Winter and all that freezes, not exactly the right fit for a population of people that are starving and need harvest urgently."

At this Lotars nods, agreeing entirely with my words.

"Besides," I continue, "I figure if I make you powerful enough, you could help me with my Anselm problem."

Setting slit, canine eyes on me he asks, "You mean his soul? The one in the grip of a Goddess at a much higher level than I and perhaps even HarlFary himself?"

Not hesitating, I nod full of enthusiasm, "Yes, the very same."

For the first time since our meeting the Wolf Deity smiles, "I'll think about it. But you have other problems down there, namely the other presence that's challenging mine."

"You mean the Daemon from Reais, the one they used to serve."

"Yes, I don't think its very pleased to have been pushed out of its farming grounds, I bet it was going to use this village as an entry point to the material realm. Although, I'm more surprised the Forests Guardian didn't sense any of this and do something about it."

I shrug, "Having met the Spirit of the Forest, I have no doubt it could stomp the hell out of me, but the Daemon on the other hand, likely not without losing its precious Forest."

Lotar shakes its head, "That's a foolish line of thinking if true. A Daemon from Reais like this wouldn't see the Forest as anything else apart from more sustenance, especially the spirit. If it gets out and manages to eat the Spirit, it'll be as strong as a Beta warrior."

That paints the picture very clearly.

Lotar continues, "I can't help you with the battle to come,"

Wait, what battle to come?

"But my presence will stifle the Daemon's ability to spawn its stronger minions. On the other hand, I'm not exactly a Deity of Vegetation or bounty so it'll be a bit difficult to spawn the needs of your…people." It snorts.

If I were to take a guess, I'd say Lotar's laughing at my budding Kingdom!

"If I were you, I'd make nice with the Forest Guardian, they can carry it out better, but of course, since you've been so generous to supply me with new followers and so many at that, I will personally facilitate relations between you two."

I open my mouth to say something but apparently Lotar's done talking and simply snaps its fingers. In a blink of an eye I'm transported right back into my body, stumbling a bit in front of the waiting, watching crowd.

I wonder how long I was out…