Stepping across the wooden threshold, I noticed a faint firelight coming from somewhere within the cave reflecting off of the walls up to the entrance.

  The humanoids in the cages began clamouring amongst themselves as I rounded the corner heading deeper inside. I figured their hushed conversations might yield another language or two for my growing list, so I ejected a drone and had it hover above the cages to listen in while I progressed.

  A quirk of my mind processing things as quickly as it did is that I could simultaneously track all these actions as they happened. I could muse to myself, engage with the goblins, analyse the data acquired from the orcs, listen in on the huddled groups within the cages, and inspect my surroundings without missing a single bit of information.

  Even if I had missed some benign detail, it would be stored in my memory for later recollection with precise clarity. The groups in the cages were now arguing over the nature of my existence; what I had been, what I wanted from the goblins, how I could speak goblin, if I was a messenger from Rel, was I sent here to cleanse the lands?

  They seemed to recognize, at least, that I wasn't human.

  My stunt with the Gate had made that clear to them.

  Among the group, it seemed there were three new languages to collect: one from the lizard-like people, one from the stone-like people, and one from the wolf-like group. The 'regular' looking humanoids all spoke the language that Seta and the children had, so they must have been fairly local.

  Something I hadn't expected was the mention of other gods. It seemed like the different species each had their own god as well. Either that, or just these local groups had their own gods from whatever religion they'd come from, and there were other gods even among their species.

  This kind of splintering meant one of three things: either all the gods were real, none of the gods were real, or some of the gods were real.

  It would have been far more convenient if there had simply been one God in this world, but I supposed that might have been too much to ask for. If all the gods were real, then this might end up being somewhat of an uphill battle for me, depending on the kinds of gods they were.

  Seta had mentioned being blessed by Rel at her birth, and she was preternaturally intelligent. Not exactly concrete evidence of a God's existence, but not something to be written off either. Being one of the first beings I'd interacted with on this planet, and being blessed by a God meant that I'd have to consider the mediocrity principle, regardless of whether she'd actually been blessed.

  The other three gods mentioned were Dersio, Fulmer and Yüthrie. None of the humanoids in the cages spoke about the gods, so much as they uttered words of prayer to them, either to protect them, guide them, or both.

  From what I'd gathered so far, Rel seemed to be a god of intelligence, learning, or knowledge. I'd have to see if I could gather more information about this world from Seta when the opportunity presented itself. As I strode down the torch-lined hall, my sensors picked up sounds ahead of me.

  Boosting the sensitivity, I soon resolved the sound of grunting and rustling, pig-like oinking and heavy breathing rippled through the smoke ladened air of the passage.

  Rounding the corner, I came across what appeared to be an antechamber. It was adorned with skinned pelts hung from the walls—foxes, rabbits, wolves and the like. A bear's pelt sat under a small table straddled by two chairs, one of which was massive, easily capable of seating two full-grown adults.

  A small chest sat at the end of the table, secured by what looked like an iron lock. Across the room was yet another wooden door, behind which the grunting and panting originated; the sounds of a female were audible just under the disgusting snuffling being produced by what I could only assume was the leader of this group.

  Walking past the table, I tore the door from the wall, the frame of which had been crudely chiseled into the stone. A simple wooden dowel held the top and bottom of one side in its frame and immediately splintered as the whole thing was ripped away and flung across the antechamber. Soft candlelight filled the small bedroom. The walls had evidently been carved out over time with a pick of some kind.

  In the centre of the room against the back wall was a bed; on that bed was a hulking mass of flesh. It resembled a ball of curdled green cheese that shook violently and spasmodically as its hips feverishly pumped back and forth. Sweat had been beading up along its back, and its head was curled in towards its chest.

  I barely caught sight of the woman's legs splayed out to either side of the monster's bulk.

  As the door and parts of its frame clattered to the floor behind me, it stopped its motion and swivelled its fat head towards me. Black, beady eyes glared over at me as it huffed from the physical exertion it had been engaged in, then, the beast began to laugh.

  The chuffing snorts came up from inside it like a smaller animal had been trapped in its throat and was trying to claw its way out. The thing looked like it easily weighed in excess of 400 kilograms, and as it rotated its mass to face me, stepping half off the bed, it spoke. I was grateful for this, as it saved me from having to waste more words than I wanted to on it.

  "-cking get in here?! Where are my guards?! I'm going to mount your skull in the center of the camp for all those sniveling little cows to cry over after I've finished thoroughly fucking it! How dare you interrupt me!!"

  The rumbling cacophony of its words made it sound like it was chewing on the fat of its cheeks just by speaking. Its jowls wagged as spittle flew from between its thin, drool-covered lips. The indignation and self-aggrandizing victimhood in its voice were both laughable and pathetic.

  I glanced past it to the bed that it had just eased itself off of. The woman was conscious and staring at me; tears stained her cheeks, and her eyes were blank and distant—obviously dissociating from the situation as much as possible in order to cope with the horror.

  She looked human, save for the two fuzzy, pointed ears extending from the top of her head and forearms covered with thick fur. She appeared to be physically healthy, though there was already heavy bruising forming around her face, neck, and abdomen.

  As if realising I wasn't an orc, and that none of this was typical, her eyes cleared and she scurried to the end of the bed and began screaming at me to run.

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  Admirable of her to look past her own wellbeing in order to prevent me from suffering any harm. Even in these dire circumstances, she was extending empathy to me, a complete stranger who she clearly thought had wandered into too much trouble.

  The creature swept a hand back and attempted to swat her across the face; a piece of myself reached across the space and stopped the hand before it could connect with its target. It fought against my whip-like limb, trying to free itself from the completely unyielding grip my God had given me.

  "Are you an orc?"

  My question seemed to give it pause; it hadn't spoken in the same language as the other lifeforms I'd encountered, and the orcs hadn't spoken beyond screaming at me. If it was an orc, then it was horribly out of shape.

  "I'm not some disgusting ANIMAL like those idiotic knuckle-draggers! I've evolved beyond their pathetic existence and ascended to the position of WARLORD!"

  This declaration was accompanied by a spike in energy similar to the one the other orc had produced. Assuming it was like the theta wave from before, I allowed it to hit me again.

  This time, fire leapt up around my body; perplexed, I sped up my thoughts and reviewed my memory of the wave coming towards me. This one was way up in the gamma ray range, but once again, it had been bent and shaped by the same forces as the last one, so much so that upon reaching me it actually combusted the ambient oxygen in the air and set me ablaze.

  ***

  My clothes were incinerated instantly as the heat of the fire climbed well over 1,200 degrees Celsius. This wasn't just combusting the surrounding air; it was also somehow fueling the flames via the energy projecting out of the fat pig. Taking a quick scan, I located the crystal in the beast's guts.

  I needed to collect that and study it to find out what mechanism produced these... mutated radiation waves, if not to better combat their effects, then to add them to my arsenal. This particular attack interested me because whoever was subjected to it was just as likely to succumb to radiation poisoning as they were to the flames. Gamma radiation was no joke for organic lifeforms.

  I flung trillions of minuscule arms out of my skin and gathered every molecule of oxygen into myself, snuffing out the flames. Both the Warlord and the woman gaped at me, eyes wide and mouths slack.

  The Warlord recovered first and shoved a hand towards me; on his palm, a small sigil blazed into existence, glowing a harsh purple before another spike of energy pulsed through his core and up his arm.

  It then occurred to me that I had been witnessing magic this entire time. The crystals, the energy, and now a glowing sigil — it didn't get any more magical than that.

  It was odd, however, as the magic seemed to be taking physical properties of the universe, and subtly warping them through some unknown manner. There was a force at work here that I couldn't observe, something invisible to my sensors that involved the crystals, and I knew I had to have it.

  A gout of fluid burst forth from the warlord's hand.

  Having slowed my relative time down, it was no issue for me to reach out and collect a sample to analyse before the main body of liquid reached me. It seemed to be a concentrated acid, 2 hydrogens, 1 Sulphur, and 4 oxygen molecules... sulfuric acid?

  Where was the Warlord generating sulphur from? Was its body breaking down sulphides in order to provide the material? No, that was impossible with the volume of material it was ejecting.

  Most carbonic life possessed an infinitesimal fraction of what would be needed to produce this volume of acid, so the 'spell' being cast was converting some matter into the necessary elements in order to fuel this jet of liquid. Was the sigil responsible for that process?

  It splashed across my face and chest and simply slid off of my body, splashing to the floor around me and sizzling viciously as it reacted with the ambient moisture and minerals in the dirt and stone floor. The woman had screamed and turned away, not wanting to see the horrible fate I'd be subjected to.

  The Warlord smirked. Briefly.

  The smug satisfaction of having brutally murdered me slid rapidly from its face as it realized its acid had absolutely no effect on me.

  "Was that all?"

  I cocked my head to the side, waiting to see if there were more 'spells' I could observe.

  Its face screwed up in an indignant rage, the look further warping its look into something truly wretched.

  "How dare you use my words, filth; I WILL DESTROY YOU!"

  it bellowed at me with a petulant frustration.

  Clearly, something that wasn't an orc, speaking to it in its own language, was some kind of affront to it. I'd have to make sure I remembered that the next time I encountered orcs.

  Its battle cry preceded its mad rush toward me; I released its arm and allowed it to barrel toward me at full force.

  Yet another pulse of energy surged from its crystal, looping back in on itself over and over, imbuing the creature with unnatural strength, allowing it to accelerate from standing to a full sprint in less than two strides. Something it would never have been physically capable of achieving through any normal means.

  Naturally, I didn't so much as sway as the creature collided with me. Even if I hadn't already weighed several tons, I could manipulate gravity at will; I could cause my body to weigh as much as this planet if I wanted.

  The Warlord's head struck me centre mass, its spine absorbing every ounce of kinetic force produced by its obscenely obese body decelerating to a dead stop instantly. Predictably, it was rendered unconscious and dropped to the floor in a boneless heap.

  The woman, who had turned her head back when the notable lack of screaming drew her attention, was utterly gobsmacked.

  I stepped past the prone body of the pig and attempted to communicate with her.

  "Are you well?"

  Honestly, not one of my finer questions given the situation, but to my benefit I hadn't been in this position before. It seemed as though my question didn't quite hit the right emotional note as the woman shook her head, tears slowly forming in her eyes as she started sobbing.

  Realising I'd asked her that question while we were both fully nude, I quickly remade my clothes from materials I'd pulled into my body, and then tried again.

  "It's alright now; you're safe; the others in the cages are all fine, too. It's over now."

  I resisted the urge to reach out to her; after her experience with the pig... thing, I figured being touched probably wouldn't be a terribly positive experience. Instead, I synthesised some clothes for her as well and set them on the bed next to her.

  "Those should fit you, I think."

  I averted my eyes after placing the clothes down. She turned to regard the clothes, then looked back at me with a strange expression. It was a mix of scepticism, caution, and sadness. Good thing I hadn't opted for the touchy-feely route.

  "What are you?"

  She made no motion to go for the clothes, and didn't look interested in moving past this question; she wasn't even covering herself when I looked back around at her.

  "I'll explain all of that when we free the others from their cages; I was somewhat preoccupied with eliminating the threats."

  I looked over to where the unconscious warlord lay.

  "He'll be coming with us, for now."

  She stared at me, somehow even more deeply confused than she had been, but, with a final wipe of her eyes and not much else by way of acknowledgement, she reached for the clothes.

  I turned and grabbed the Warlord by the ankle, dragging the corpulent monster up the cave and out into the open night air. The murmuring of the caged people stopped immediately upon my exit from the cave. I drug the orc warlord between the cages, and moments later the woman from inside stepped out.

  I walked to each cage and snapped the locks off the doors, allowing the people to file out and into their regained freedom.

  One benefit of not having muscles, or any sort of skeleton, was that every single 'cell' of my body could be coordinated to focus the entirety of their power to a task, and the more energy I could pour into them, the more force they could exert. Every 'muscle' I had could be used for any action I wanted.

  The result of that, and the mechanical nature of my body, meant that my strength was overwhelming. Snapping a wrought-iron lock with my fingertips was as simple as snapping a toothpick. Hauling the bulk of the unconscious warlord was like dragging a down pillow.

  They gathered together, some stretching their limbs, others nervously shifting their weight from one foot to the other. The woman from the cave stood next to me instead of rejoining the group, and collectively, they waited for me to speak.

  "Before anything else, please decide among yourselves what is to be done with that."

  I motioned at the unmoving body of the warlord; the only sign of life was the slow rise and fall of its chest as it breathed.

  "It has wronged you, taken much from you, and is now at the mercy of your justice. This is not something I can take from you, as I have not suffered as you have at its hands."

  I stepped back and allowed them to talk it over.

  The discussion was short; the warlord was to be killed by committee. Each person would take their pound of flesh from the beast that had taken and caged them. The women who had been violated would be given the chance to vent their rage, if they held any.

  I wasn't familiar with this custom, and it seemed as though it would likely lead to deeper feelings of resentment down the line from those who took part, but this was not my time to inject myself.

  My time would come later.