That was not the sort of answer I needed. “Do you know anyone by the name… Apophis?”
Erzili stumbled. She backed away from me, fright rapidly increasing in her eyes, as she backed up against her books, tripped and sprawled against her cauldron and backed up against the wall.
“W-who are y-you?”
“What?”
“Names have power!” she screeched. “Names have power!” she cried a second time. “You – you don’t just mention the name of a Night Emperor – you can’t just know the name of a Night Emperor. T-they only reveal their names to those they kill – or to those who kill them –”
Fascinating info. “I’m… someone special.”
Waving my hand into the air, I focused on [Earth Control], forming sand. With the sand, I arranged letters, familiar letters that spelled the words in English:
MY NAME IS JANUS.
Erzili dropped to both knees. “The… Mothertongue…” she whispered. “The Lost Language… you… you can use it. You… can understand it.”
Erzili’s bowed. Kowtowed. Her forehead kissed the floor as did her hands. “Forgive me. I did not know you were a Demiurge.”
It was the first time I’d heard Erzili use the first-person pronoun. The first time the Slithercreep referred to herself with I. The change in demeanor threw me off. The words she uttered gave me pause. Demiurge? Isn’t that one of my titles?
Title: [Demiurge]
Details: A special-mythic title. Grants [Special Title] benefits. Grants [Accursed One] benefits/disadvantages. 70% chance of inflicted [Horrified] on whoever witnesses you use the Antediluvian Hieroglyphs. 30% chance of inflicting [Curse of Insanity] on whoever witnesses you use the Antediluvian Hieroglyphs.
“Please!” Erzili roared. The Slithercreep’s head never left the ground. “Allow me – allow me to serve you!”
“W-what?”
“You – you are a Demiurge!” Erzili exclaimed again. “A Demiurge – and yet – yet – you lowered yourself to converse with me, with a lowly Slithercreep – I – I should have been destroyed a thousand times over for my impudence, but yet – yet you show mercy –” Erzili’s head snapped up. “Please! Allow me to atone with my servitude! My loyalty!”
I didn’t know what a Demiurge was. I didn’t know why it was an important title. Erzili seemed to know. Erzili seemed to understand the significance. I remembered her mentioning Demiurges amongst the likes of Champions and Anathemas – but I had no clue if it was supposed to mean anything.
Do I go along with this, or admit that I have no idea as to what is happening? No – no, the second I admitted that I was ignorant of what a Demiurge was supposed to be, there was no guarantee that things would progress smoothly from this point onwards. Admitting ignorance was best done in the presence of friends and allies who would be willing to correct that ignorance without ulterior motives. I didn’t quite count Erzili amongst that number. The Slithercreep had already admitted that she would do and say anything to survive – and that was not the type of individual I wanted to let know of my ignorance.
At least, not quite yet.
“I will allow it.”
The relief couldn’t have been more visible on Erzili’s face. “Thank you – thank you –”
“I wasn’t finished.”
The trepidation returned. “Y-yes?”
“I will allow it, on a condition,” I said. “First… tell me your greatest strengths and what your [Epithet Skill] does. Second, tell me your greatest weakness – and how to kill you.”
“As you wish,” she said, without so much of a lick of hesitation. “My epithet skill is [Muliebrity]. It grants me the power of feminine allure, making me desirable by all creatures, and reducing their likelihood of them wishing to harm me. It enables creatures to feel more comfortable and at ease with me as a man would be with a woman that lends a kind ear. As a result, all will speak the truth from their hearts when exposed to my aura, and they will find themselves growing to love me, whether they desire to or not.”
Never did I believe I would be glad to have been a skeleton.
“My greatest strength is a result of my Slime physiology and heritage. I can transform my body into any liquid as long as I understand the components, and my default secretion is a powerful hallucinogenic aphrodisiac that will entrap creatures in vivid visions of pleasure. I can change my form to appear as whosoever or whatsoever I desire at will, however, I cannot change my voice to match, hence, I restrict myself to mostly feminine forms.”
“My greatest weakness is my only weakness – Holy Magic. Perhaps Dark Magic and other esoteric arts may affect me, but I have never been hurt by them to know. I regenerate instantly from damage, and as long as so much as a teaspoon of my body remains, I can regenerate from it. To kill me, you would need to find the six thousand and fifteen parts of me that I have scattered across Alamir, and eliminate all of them, before destroying my main body. Unfortunately, I do not know where all the parts are, as a safety precaution should one ever attempt to glimpse them from my memory.”
So my mission was futile from the start? Six thousand and fifteen parts – scattered across the world like phylacteries and I could not kill Erzili without destroying all of them. To go to such extents just to survive?
“Have… have I satisfied you, my Lord?”
I did not feel easy with being addressed by my lord. I wanted to know, to ask, what is a Demiurge? Yet, I couldn’t. An instinct, or perhaps, a sixth sense, told me, that I should not ask that question. That something extremely bad would happen if I asked that question. The instinct was such that once I opened my mouth to ask it – I found the words dying immediately.
“You have. You may serve me.”
“Excellent, my lord!”
New Notification!
Erzili the Slithercreep is requesting to become your Minion.
Would you like to accept Erzili the Slithercreep as your Minion?
[Yes]
