Chapter 8

The larger semi-dead recovered first. It turned its head a few times before freezing into a similar posture to the one it had before assuming the semi-dead state. Maybe the posture held special meaning to it. I wasn't sure, as it didn't seem to be a useful posture. Neither of its feet were on the ground, nor were its hands. It was resting on its knees and elbows, face pressed to the ground.

It would be a challenge to assume any useful posture from such a state. Perhaps that was the point? Was it trying to be non-threatening? That made sense. It couldn't extend its will past its flesh, so the only threats it would offer would be physical ones. As it was, I didn't think it could pose a threat to anything. Maybe if it was exceptionally fast, but then it wouldn't really matter what posture it held.

It trembled, but aside from that it didn't do anything. Unlike Glrt, it was very boring to watch. The will was similar, dense and high reactivity within the will but fleeting intent and nearly no will left the body. The main difference was that Glrt didn't fear me while this one did. I could understand it fearing my current state, as my constructs were built from the viscera of its former allies, but why fear me before? "When the others fled, why did you remain with Glrt? There is also no need to assume such a posture. You're no threat to me whatever stance you hold."

It jumped and looked around. After what felt like a long time to me it finally managed to respond. "Nagt was wizard's pet, once. Remembered feeling of aura searching everywhere. Master Necromancer's aura much bigger. Know who runs dies. If Nagt can be useful, maybe not die. Glrt too." It rolled to its back, looking into the air. A significant portion of the fear left its will, but it was still terrified. My constructs being made of its friends probably had something to do with that.

Interesting. I brushed across it with my will and noticed it tremble. It had awareness of will, if not the ability to move it outside of its own body. It called it aura, but that was a small issue. "Which wizard?" I wasn't sure how to know if this was a former servant of my Creator. Maybe not. I wasn't sure how many wizards existed. Maybe there were thousands. "Do you know how to worship someone?" That was my main question. I wanted a worshipper more powerful than my Creator. This one was less of a blank slate than Glrt, but its will was also utterly unrefined.

"Wizard master died. Nagt run away long time ago." Nagt cocked its head as it considered my second question. It gave up quickly, however. I'd definitely need to strengthen their intent when I accepted these creatures as my worshippers. "Nagt doesn't know what worship means."

"Yay! Nagt woke up!" apparently Glrt had recovered as well. It bounced around the constructs for a second. "Where'd Mr. Bone Golem go, Mr. Blood? You're redder, Mr. Blood. Did you know? Never mind, Nagt! Glrt's horny! Fuck Glrt, now!" Glrt slammed into Nagt and started rubbing with its whole body. Glrt specifically grabbed Nagt's hip region with one hand. Nagt was paralyzed with fear still, but something else was actually managing to push it aside. Its will was begging me for permission as stridently as Glrt was begging Nagt. Remarkably, this was the strongest intent I'd seen from either. It was an even stronger intent than I'd felt from my Creator. Perhaps this would be a good starting point for their improved intent, once they were worshippers.

I wasn't sure what was happening, but I could tell that neither would be able to focus on anything else until they finished. The strength of this shone a spotlight on how weak their intent usually was. "Go ahead." After permission was granted, the rubbing became mutual. It proved an interesting object lesson for me as they explored every variance between each other.

I'd thought they were the same type of creature, but I was wrong. The differences were small, but there. It also showed more differences between my Creator and these creatures. Their proportions were similar, but not identical. My Creator's legs had been shorter in comparison to his torso, his hands had been of similar size despite being much larger overall, my Creator's hair was thinner, but spread across the entirety of the head instead of a strip down the middle, and my Creator's ears, nose, and eyes had been much smaller despite the respective size. Their bite pattern had hardly anything in common. My Creator had also worn much thicker clothing, and many more layers. I wasn't sure why, but these creatures barely wore any clothing. Seeing as how this intent needed both of them to be expressed, perhaps that was the reason. Neither were wearing their clothes anymore. My Creator had been alone, so it would have been able to wear heavier clothing without being as impeded when needing to remove them.

Watching also taught me the purpose of the differences. They also described what they were doing and to what as they went, so that was helpful. After a long period of grunting and moaning, spreading lustful intent wider than any intent they'd managed so far, Nagt spent a fluid I hadn't noticed in the others into Glrt. I couldn't figure out what it did without breaking into their bodies and eradicating their will-cores in the process, but I'd fix that soon enough. I looked deeper into my constructs to figure out where the creamy liquid went in my constructs, as it wasn't left behind and I didn't see a circuit that would allow for the creation of a new substance, and found it in the blood construct. It was slightly different, however, as it didn't seem completely stable within the construct. I quickly had the blood construct abandon the miscellaneous fluid to make sure it was as pure as possible.

Now I had a new substance to find runes for. Since Nagt and Glrt were still busy, I used the time to understand this new substance. I created another construct, as I wasn't sure of the potential of this new product. I was sure it had potential, though, as it had far more runes than any of the other substances. Something about it felt inherently invasive. It was still far too small to build anything but link and cohesive circuits for, but it would eventually grow into something powerful. Anything with a mana-core could become powerful, given time. All of my constructs had plenty of room to grow, this new one included.

"So what's a necromancer?" I asked Nagt once they were done with fucking. It took longer than I'd expected, so I was a bit bored. My splooge construct wasn't interesting enough, yet. I needed a lot more before I'd be able to make it into a proper construct.

Glrt jumped up, excitement flooding her will. "So Mr. Bone Golem was one of these other guys? Which one is Mr. Bone Golem?" Glrt was stopping Nagt from answering, so I had my bone construct gesture. Glrt giggled and dashed around my constructs, demanding names from each.

"Necromancers are golem users, Master. Nagt assumed Master was one." Nagt looked pointedly at my constructs. So he knew them as golems. Seems he had a similar education to my Creator. My Creator hadn't noticed my will, though. Why was that? Was my Creator less educated than a wizard's pet? I wasn't sure if that would irritate me or make me happy. "Master's golems are different. Don't have aura. Only Master's aura."

Observant for a pet. Maybe wizard's pet was a higher station than I'd thought. Regardless, it was time to gain worshippers. Nagt didn't know how to worship and Glrt didn't know anything. That wasn't entirely accurate, Glrt did know some things. It had barely taken it a lap to figure out that all of my constructs spoke with the voice it associated with Bone Golem. It had dubbed my bone construct "Bone" and my voice "Golem".

Using my bone construct, I grabbed Nagt's head. "Speak nonsense while I move your head. It will be easier on you if you relax." as Nagt started speaking intent into the air, I moved its head in the shape of a worship rune. I couldn't form it out of mana or show it to them because it would take effect. That would be untenable. Even worse than worshipping my Creator.

The first attempt failed due to Nagt stopping his talking. After that I had to start again, this time periodically reminding it to speak and relax as I moved its head. Finally the rune was built, now all it needed was mana from both it and me. It didn't have control of its mana, so I cut its face to spread blood into the rune as I powered it with a little of my mana. Nagt didn't complain, instead stared in wonder at the glowing rune before it.

Once the rune activated, Nagt screamed. It wasn't a pleasant experience having your will-core ripped into two. Specifically, half of its sense of self and half of its ability to make decisions. Now it would no sooner harm me than itself, feeling intrinsically that any damage to me was damage to itself, and every decision it made would be warped by my influence. It still had a working will-core, it was just a dependent one.