Chapter 27 - Subtle Advancement

A year had passed since the subjugation of Karok's tribe under the mountain, the tribe had advanced over the months and had grown to be five times the size it was before, the tents were replaced with clay houses, the people of the tribe were given certain roles, some worked on fields while others made clothing and weapons, the women of Karok's tribe were used as a means of breeding to increase the tribe's population.

Quintus and Hagen took up higher roles in the tribe. Quintus was in charge of keeping peace in the tribe, while Hagen was in charge of hunts and the food supply.

After spending several days upward to a week Mishka, maybe because of her guilt, maybe because of their similar fates, she asked Spencer to let her be with Dinah. This eventually proved to be a good choice, as the months passed, Dinah had somewhat recovered from the loss of her child. The two girls were now in charge of tending after newborns in the tribe's reproduction center. Cassius was also in charge of training the tribespeople in combat to further strengthen the tribe's core.

All of these advancements in the tribe's structure were all due to Spencer, who took up the role of leader and watched over the tribe.

For the entirety of the year, Spencer has been watching over them, rarely leaving to prevent the event that happened a year ago from happening again. Regularly, he would go around the tribe and examine the tribe's growth and fix any mistakes that may arise. The resources they took from the previous tribe were enough for them to replenish and rebuild all they lost and more.

At the very center of the tribe, a well-designed small clay mansion, triple the size of the other houses, was surrounded by guards at its borders. Within the mansion, a variety of weapons could be seen hanging on the walls along with the heads of a variety of animals as well as their skins that were made into high-quality clothing for that period. Looking further in the mansion, a large bed could be found, in the center of this bed was a sleeping Spencer.

Many things have changed since the subjugation of Karok's tribe, but the main thing that has changed was how the people of the tribe now treated Spencer. All of the weapons and animal heads on his wall were offerings by the tribespeople, starting from a few months back, the tribe has been looking up to Spencer as a God.

A few months ago another tribe had tried to attack them by charging in broad daylight. Quintus, Hagen, and Cassius were more than enough to deal with the numbers and only six of the tribe's members were hurt in the invasion. Spencer took this invasion as an opportunity to further express his role as the leader of the tribe. Carrying Quintus, Hagen, And Cassius, he went to the attacking tribe and massacred them all with ease.

But the thing that made the tribespeople look at him as a God was not him wiping out invading tribes with ease, it was the event when supporters of the attacking tribe had come for revenge. That time, Spencer did not call for aid from Quintus, Hagen, and Cassius, instead, he told them to stand within the tribe, and then proceeded to vanish and kill the group of invaders in what seemed to be within the bounds of a second.

From that day forth, the people of the tribe worshipped him and treated him as a higher existence. People started praying for his benevolence and offered gifts.

At first, he found this to be tedious, but he soon came to realize that them seeing him as a God would make it much easier to explain all of his feats, and would allow for him to be less restrained when interacting with them.

Coming back to the present, Spencer was waking up, sitting up on his bed made from wood and animal skin. Shuffling to the side he stood up. Walking to a door on his left, he opened it to arrive upon a balcony overlooking the entire tribe. This house was built to Spencer's specifications as the people of the tribe wanted to give him the best treatment they possibly could.

There was some opposition, but it was the minority and it was quickly silenced by the rest.

Looking over the people, Spencer could see the newly reformed tribe; the people each had their roles to play while the structure was stable and in order. Seeing this made Spencer happy as the sunlight washed over his face.

Returning inside of his house, Spencer scanned through the variety of clothes the tribespeople provided for him, choosing one that had the appearance of a robe with striped patterns on its outer surface. Putting it on, Spencer left his house and began walking throughout the tribe.

As he was walking he would notice the glances of the tribespeople falling upon his body without reserve. He ignored this and continued to make his way over to the training area where Cassius could be found training a field of the tribe's members. Females were not normally allowed to partake in training, so all the people on the field were males that survived the calamity that befell upon them a year ago.

All females in the tribe with the exception of Dinah and Mishka were required to mate with a male. One male could have multiple females to speed up the process of replacing the lost members and to provide the tribe with a future. All children conceived were brought to the reproduction center to be raised under the combined love and tender care of the duo and some other female members that joined them along the way.

Walking over to Cassius and seeing him tending to one of the trainees, Spencer called out.

"Cassius!"

The voice of Spencer caught Cassius's attention, causing him to put aside the person he was helping and eagerly run over to him. After reaching over he stood in front of Spencer and greeted him with a slight courteous bow.

"Yes?" He respectfully asked.

Looking at the man, Spencer smiled.

"When you are done with today's training, gather the other, and meet me at my home. I have something I wish to discuss with you guys."

Cassius nodded in response to Spencer's instructions. Seeing this, Spencer looked over Cassius's shoulder to see the trainees in good shape.

"Really good job, keep it up!"

After taking another glance at the trainee's and seeing that everything was in order, Spencer made his way over to the guard's hall. The guards were in charge of patrolling the tribe's ground and keeping the piece. The head of these guards was Quintus.

To make sure that the tribe was safe, Quintus was often seen joining his tribesmen in their patrols on the tribe's outer borders.

Reaching the guard's hall, Spencer was about to walk in to see how his friend was doing, until he was stopped by two guards. The guards could be distinguished by the insignia burned unto their bodies when they succeeded in meeting the criteria to become one.

The guard's stopped Spencer to see who he was before letting him in, once realizing that it was Spencer, they immediately backed away.

"S...Sp...Spencer!"

Stuttering when saying his name, the two guards moved out of Spencer's way and watched as he walked into the guard's hall. Continuing to walk, Spencer arrived into the hall to see that Quintus was not there to greet him.

"Hmm… Where did he vanish to this time?"

Remembering his smell, Spencer exited the hall and began to follow the scent towards his location. Walking for a bit, he reached a house at the corner of the tribe. Knocking on the door, to his surprise it was answered by a woman that had Quintus's scent on her.

"Is Quintus here?"

When the woman noticed that it was Spencer at the door, she almost panicked. Trying to keep her composure, she stammeringly answered.

"Y..yes, great leader… He is sleeping currently."

"I see. Tell him when he wakes to come to my house." Spencer responded with a nod.

Hearing her answer, Spencer decided he would check on him later and discuss his plans and instead returned to his house. Upon arriving, he went inside and sat on his bed in a lotus position, taking a deep breath and focusing his senses. He decided to fuse all of the creatures he absorbed thus far in this period into his demi-human form as he waited for his three friends to arrive at his house.

After several minutes of silent meditation, his body began to release a purple hue as the essence within him began to converge and clash. The most powerful and dominating traits clashing and expressing themselves over the weaker ones. The air around Spencer thickened as the energy being released from his body seeped into the atmosphere.

Continuing onto an hour, the purple hue around Spencer grew more violent as all of the weaker traits within his body were eliminated, only the most dominating traits remaining and fighting to express themselves over the other.

Reaching near the two-hour mark, the glow emanating from his body dissipated, exhaling strongly, a cloud of hot steam exited his mouth and filled the room. Opening his eyes, his irises glistened with the same purple hue his body was emanating.

"Huh... That's odd."

Spencer felt something strange, it was an itching sensation all over his body, but the feeling soon vanished so he decided to ignore it. Shuffling off of his bed, Spencer heard a knocking sound at his door.

"That should be them…"

Making his way to the door, Spencer opened it to see a half-asleep Quintus, a blood-covered Hagen, and a sweaty Cassius standing in front. With a smile, he stood to the side, letting them in through the door.

Spencer led them over to a table in the center of the room made from wood with four chairs placed around it. Taking a seat, he gestured to the three to follow suit.

Taking his offer the trio sat down and looked at Spencer.

"Why have you called us?" Quintus said with a loud yawn.

Looking at Quintus who asked the question, the atmosphere in the room suddenly turned serious.

"I called you all here to discuss my future plans for the tribe."

Hearing his words and seeing his expression, the trio quickly changed their leisurely attitude and took up the same serious demeanor as Spencer.

"I believe that this tribe could grow further and establish its roots if the four of you took charge and set out to take over all the neighboring tribes. This way, we could increase the living conditions of our people."

Hearing Spencer, the three were surprised at his suggestion, but they began to think about the benefits they could have if they were to follow through with his plan.

Without much hesitation, all three of them looked at Spencer and nodded.

"Good." Spencer said with a satisfied smile on his face.

Seeing that they agreed, Spencer was ecstatic at the thought of subjugating the other tribes. His true purpose for this suggestion wasn't for the betterment of his tribe, the true motive was to fill the gap in his pride that formed after claiming Karok's tribe a year ago.

When he first took over his tribe, the ecstasy he felt when the people looked at him with hatred and fear in their eyes made him addicted, he wanted to feel that sensation once more.

"You can return to your homes. We will start in a few days."

Sending the three off, Spencer went over to his bed to lay down, running through his mind was the thought of taking over all neighboring tribes to make his own more powerful, his violent thirst for conquest was beginning to form.

---

While Spencer and his tribe started marching towards what later would make its mark in history, several thousand miles away, in the city of Hy-Brasil tremendous changes happened in the span of the same one year.

After the shocking discovery of the 'other side' which they now called "Dark World", their technology jumped by leaps and bounds. With the help of their gods, they now developed a stable way to make a connection with this fantastical world, and harness its energies for their own.

With the discovery of this energy, they started using it in militaristic advancement, as a power, and as a light source. The torches gradually got replaced by small boxes that could emit light purple light. Lighting in the streets was no longer carried out by the Guards, but there was now a constant light source from light posts.

However, the biggest change was experienced by the military. The swords and spears were thrown away and were replaced by their energy empowered variants. Energy Swords, as they called them, look relatively the same as their simplistic counterparts.

However, if an Atlantean warrior, a Man-of-War wielded it, they could use their connection with the energy to coat the blade with a purplish plasmic hue, giving much more power behind each swing or thrust. A simple swing with the energy-coated blade could easily slice a large boulder in half.

Instead of the ornamental spears, the royal guardian now carried something similar in look, but they could now harness and gather this energy with a mere thought from its holder, and then shoot it out in a concentrated beam of energy.

The new group that emerged from the priests, the scientists were still working on how to put this energy to good use in terms of defense. The first prototype was a singular shield, which surface could be coated with a layer of purplish energy. Besides looking threatening, it could also stop the same energy blade, and could also melt iron upon contact. Still, it was not perfect as the power behind a powerful swing would still let the force go through upon contact, causing potential damage to the wielder.

Besides the harnessing of the other world's energy, they also kept contact with the beings on the other side, their gods. One of the main projects they were working on, with their guidance, was to summon them to Earth. This still required a bit of time, however, as the Atlantean's understanding of universal laws and how to effectively utilize the energies was still too shallow.

At the end of the year, as their military power grew they sent out their first group of scouts to explore the world and scout potential new locations for settlements and slaves…

---

The wails of men could be heard echoing throughout the forest, only to be sharply silenced. The elegant hue of flames flickered as the feeling of fear permeated the atmosphere, blood fertilized the soil and bodies embraced the earth.

Following the screams of agony back to their origin, three shadows could be seen flashing through a tribe consumed in chaos. With every passing moment, the shadow's claimed the life of another and proceeded to the next, forming a wave of dead bodies that only grew larger with time, killing any who resisted and sparing those who did not. Strolling not far behind these shadows was a man wearing a striped animal skin robe.

Walking leisurely through the field of death, the man shrouded by the chaos was Spencer, the three shadows leading the wave of death being Quintus, Hagen, and Cassius. This scene playing out was one of the many that have transpired thus far, many other tribes have suffered and fallen by the hands of Spencer and his three shadows, this tribe being only another victim in his lust for power.

As the night continued, the four swiftly killed all those who tried to oppose their inevitable subjugation and spared the ones who gave in to the overwhelming force they faced, along with the women and children.

The shroud of night was vanquished by the crimson glow of the rising sun. At this point, all screams coming from the tribe had silenced, the remaining members were all on their knees at the tribe's center with their leader prostrated in front of them. Spencer was standing over the leader and looking at the members of the tribe.

"Your leader was WEAK!" He shouted in an overpowering tone, basking in their hateful stares. "He could not protect you, and allowed you all to fall by only the four of us!"

Spencer talked down the people of this newly subjugated tribe, treating them as if they were mere ants in his presence. Not showing a shred of mercy to the man before his feet.

"You will all be moved into my tribe as spoils of battle. Any objections?"

Saying these words, Spencer scanned the group to see if any objected to his rule. To his surprise, two men stood up. They seemed to have held higher positions in the tribe as the clothing they wore was more extravagant in comparison to the others.

***

Seeing the three people that opposed him, Spencer smiled and vanished from his position, the two standing men suddenly lost their heads and fell to the floor, The prostrated tribespeople seeing this was overwhelmed with fear, their bodies frozen on the floor as they couldn't comprehend what had just transpired. The woman that stood up with the two men was unharmed and just as frozen in fear as the others, Spencer appeared in front of her and placed his hand on her chin.

Seeing the two opposing his will, Spencer simply smiled and vanished from his position. The two standing men suddenly lost their heads and fell to the ground with a loud thud. The prostrated tribespeople seeing this was overwhelmed with fear. Their bodies are frozen on the floor as they couldn't comprehend what had just transpired.

Standing back he looked through the frightened people, with a satisfied grin on his face.

"Any more objections?"

The people were silent and kept their gaze lowered to the ground, vigorously shaking their heads in denial. Seeing their response, he turned and looked at Quintus, Hagen, and Cassius.

"Gather the people and let's head back to the tribe. We have achieved enough for a single day."

He watched as they carried out his order, as he dusted off his robe. As the large group of people started their march towards their new 'home', he leisurely followed behind, already thinking about their next conquest. He wanted more, he wanted this feeling, he needed more of this feeling...