Now we figure out what happened to Vel in the previous chapter and if there are other long-reaching implications to what happened.

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Chapter 9

Once again, the battle was pretty rough on Vel. Being in the pocket of an enormous creature that moved with such speed and came to sudden stops was enough to make anyone’s stomach flip. There was also the earsplitting racket. The titans were all swinging around weapons the size of buildings. When they collided, the noise sounded like a lightning bolt striking right in front of his face. Then there was the mental strain.

Though Vel had seen the results of one of Iah’s battles, he had not actually seen her fight. She seemed like a competent warrior, but without being able to see it, he could not confirm that. So, being in her pocket and having his well-being dependent on her skill was very tense. But he managed to survive for a while, so he assumed things were going well.

There was a sudden pause in the combat and he heard Iah talking with someone. Shortly after that conversation began, something powdery began to slip into the pocket with him. While there was not much of it, it was still enough to make him sneeze. That was not the worst of it either. Vel started to feel weird, like his very life’s energy was being drained out of him. Then, the powdery stuff that had made him sneeze seemed to be increasing in volume all around him. In seemingly no time, he found himself getting buried in the powder.

While there was not all that much of it, certainly not enough to hold him in place, he grew ever more fearful. His head was buried in the stuff, and whatever had drained him left him feeling so exhausted that he could barely move a finger. If he could not find a way to pull himself out of the powder, he was going to suffocate in it. Try as he might, it was like his body had no energy left in it. It was all he could do just to wriggle slightly. He could not even call out to Iah for help.

Just as Vel felt like he would black out, a familiar set of mammoth fingers reached into the pocket with him. Vel never thought he would be so happy to see those fingers, tipped with vicious claws larger than a man. They probed around carefully for him, and when they came in contact with Vel, he felt like he could have wept for joy if he had the energy left in him. It was all he could do to just grab onto the fur of a finger and weakly tug at it. If she pulled away, his grip would not have even been enough to hold on to it.

When the fingers wrapped around him and ever so carefully pulled him out of the pocket, Vel felt such joy like he had never known before. He was taken back out into the open world, the sun just barely cresting over the horizon as it greeted the day. Vel was left lying in the gnoll’s vast palm, along with a pile of powder all around him. He could see Iah staring at him with such concern in her eye that it was almost touching. After she asked him if he was alright, he had to take a few seconds to recover from his ordeal before he could finally respond, “I am now you big beautiful gnoll.”

Even though the titan of a woman still looked concerned, her ears did flick briefly in what Vel thought was a sign of amusement. Then she said, “You don’t look alright, you tiny, adorable human.”

“Just tired, is all,” Vel said, still feeling that exhaustion.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Vel stated between deep breaths, “One second, some powder drifts into your pocket, makes me sneeze, and then I’m practically surrounded by the powder and feeling more tired than I ever have in my life.”

“So you don’t know where all this,” Iah began, but then her voice trailed off for a bit. A disbelieving look crossed her face as she suddenly touched the powder next to Vel and began to recite some strange words that he thought sounded like a spell. A small amount of the powder suddenly began to glow, floated up, and vanished just as a small ball of light appeared in Iah’s other hand.

“Vel, this is mana powder,” Iah sounded excited as she said that, verging on the point of shouting, “Did you make this? How?”

Vel could not tell if it was a good kind of excitement or a bad kind. Honestly, he was still too exhausted to even care about that. It was hard to think about an answer to her questions either, as it felt like he would pass out at any moment. Still, he managed to get out, “No idea. I’ve never done anything like this before. Not even sure I was the one that did that. I thought you might have been the one to do it.”

“I can assure you it was not me,” Iah stated, “And I want to know what this gold powder is, mixed in with the normal white powder.”

“If I knew, I would tell,” Vel started, but those were the last words he could get out before he fell asleep midsentence. It was probably a couple of hours later when Vel woke up, surrounded by all three gnolls. He was still resting in the palm of Iah’s very spacious hand, but the powder had been cleaned up and a blanket laid over him, or rather what was probably a small cloth to the gnolls, but was the size of a nice-sized tent to him.

Ryrrg was one of the first ones he saw, and the gnoll smiled down at him, “Welcome back to the land of the living.”

Another voice was able to get his attention, Hestrihz, “You gave my sister a real fright when you passed out, thought you had up and died on us.”

“Sorry about that,” Vel said tiredly, even though he felt much better than he had before falling asleep.

Iah smiled gently down at him as he pulled himself out from under the blanket, but there was something strained about that smile as she asked, “I hate to ask this again now, but since you’ve rested, do you have any idea where that powder came from?”

She seemed very serious about that and though Vel was not certain about the answer, the look on her face told him that he should put some thought into it. He took a moment to compose his thoughts before responding, “Well, pretty much the moment some of that stuff got into my nose and made me sneeze, I started to feel like something was draining all the life force out of my body. After that, I was too tired to pay much mind to anything. Not long after that, though, more and more of that powder started filling the pocket around me. I couldn’t even pull myself out of it to stop it from suffocating me. If you had not pulled me out when you did, I might not be here right now, Iah.”

All the gnolls looked thoughtful for a few seconds. Then Hestrihz broke the silence, “It’s not possible that he created mana powder just by coming in contact with it, is it?”

Ryrrg doubtfully responded, “It couldn’t be that easy. And Vel’s still alive. If the Gifted could do it just like that, then wouldn’t somebody have found that out by now?”

“When’s the last time you ever heard of a managlass breaking,” Iah asked, “And have you ever heard of anybody besides the elder races even handling mana powder outside of a managlass?”

“No.”

The look on Iah’s face as she thought about her next words hinted at both the seriousness of the situation and hinted at a bit of fear, “Which means it never has happened before, or…”

Hes finished that sentence, “Or it has happened so rarely that they’ve been able to cover it up.”

“And I doubt they would have been satisfied with just bribes,” Ryrrg added.

Iah turned her attention back to Vel, “For all our sakes, please don’t mention this again to anyone.”

“Is it that bad,” Vel asked.

“Vel,” Iah said, locking a piercing gaze on him, “If we have stumbled onto a secret of the elder races here, they would most likely do everything in their power to make sure they keep their secrets, even if that means killing everyone here and probably anyone within a certain distance of this area. The elder races don’t cooperate on much, but keeping their secrets is one of them, and when they do cooperate, there is not much that can stop them. Their control over magic is simply too great.”

That certainly sounded ominous enough to Vel, so he nodded in agreement. Everyone was quiet for a little while, but something Iah had said prompted Vel to ask, “Speaking of everyone in the area, how are the people here fairing?”

The gnolls all visibly winced at that question. Eventually, Hes answered, “I think half of the humans here think we’re demons and, even worse, the other half think we’re gods descended from the heavens.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Well,” Ryrrg started, “Half of them throw pebbles at us whenever we approach, and the other half get into fights with the pebble throwers and try to offer the offenders as sacrifices to us whenever they catch them.”

“I thought you didn’t mind eating humans.”

“Under normal circumstances, we don’t,” Iah explained, “But having them offered as sacrifices as if we were divinity is already uncomfortable enough, but these people really can’t afford sacrifices. Those raiders we faced the other day were the mates of these people. Between their loss and their town getting destroyed like this, they may not be able to recover from it. They need to be given a chance to recover, as slim as it may be, and preying on these people in this condition will be more than they can take.”

“Is there anybody here who can help you clear things up? Surely, the other giants must have needed someone to convey their commands to the Alkur.”

“Indeed they did,” Hestrihz sighed.

“What happened?”

“During the battle, I accidentally stepped on her,” Iah said, sounding embarrassed.

“Oh, I guess she’s not in any condition to translate then.”

Ryrrg said, “She’s not dead, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Vel glanced down at Iah’s paws, either one considerably larger than the average person’s home. He looked up at Iah’s face, confident that his doubt of the truthfulness of Ryrrg’s statement was apparent on his face. Vel could not help but ask, “How is that even possible?”

He watched in astonishment as blood rushed to her gigantic ears, making them turn slightly darker, and Vel realized that the gnoll was blushing before she managed to say, “She somehow got stuck between my toes for a while. I didn’t notice her until well after you passed out. The experience was…was not pleasant for her. By the time I let her out, she was among those who thought me a demon, and now she won’t associate with any gnolls.”

“I guess you need me to go around and clear some things up then,” Vel offered.

“Perhaps,” Iah said, still sounding as bashful as a giant monster warrior could, “But I worry about what some of these people might try to do to you if they think we are associated. The last thing I want is you getting harmed by those who believe we’re demons.”

“I guess at least one of you will need to stick close for protection then.”

Iah nodded in agreement as she said, “Very well, Ryrrg, take Vel and see if the two of you can hopefully talk some sense into these people.”

“Are you sending Ryrrg because he’s the smallest?”

“No, Vel, I realize how large and intimidating even he is to you,” Iah said, “He just has the lightest step and is the most likely to notice those trying to hide from us. So, Ryrrg is the least likely one to step on anybody. I have stepped on enough humans today, and I would like to move around as little as possible right now.”

With that, Vel was passed over to Ryrrg and the two of them started going around what was left of the town. This was Vel’s first look at the town since he had been in Iah’s pocket the entire time. In the light of day, it was genuinely heartbreaking to see. While the Alkur did periodically raid the Empire, not all their tribes participated in those raids. He had done business with a few of their traders often enough. It was how he knew their language. Vel had never actually ventured into their lands before, though, and what he was seeing could not possibly qualify as a town anymore.

Just about every building had been destroyed, and of the ones that were still somewhat standing, not a single roof remained. There was no real shelter to be found here. Sure, it would have been difficult for titans like Iah to get around in a town like this without causing any damage, but the damage to this town was absolute, and he doubted all this had even been caused during the clash of the titans. No, this sort of devastation was malicious, designed to inflict nothing but pain on the people here. Once again, Vel saw the difference between how the gnolls treated humans, who killed for survival, and how the herbivores treated humans, who appeared to think of humans as pests to be exterminated.

Getting taken around the area by Ryrrg was quite the experience for Vel. When people did notice that he seemed to be favored by the gnoll, there were a lot of people who rushed up to him and practically talked to him like he was a high priest. They offered their thanks for saving them from the other giant demons and tried to find out what they could do to get the gnolls to bless them. Trying to convince them that the gnolls were not gods was no easy task. Vel was not even sure he succeeded in doing it, either. The best he could do was get them to stop acting so openly worshipful. He was able to convince them that it displeased the gnolls. Whether they thought the gnolls were gods or not, these people did not want to irritate them.

Those who thought the gnolls were demons were considerably more willing to try and annoy Ryrrg. They were the reason Ryrrg never actually sat Vel on the ground and kept him in his palm the entire time, where his fingers could provide cover for the odd rock thrown Vel’s way. Someone even had it in them to fire an arrow at Vel that ended up embedded in one of Ryrrg’s fingers. Ryrrg did not mind people throwing things at him all that much. It was hard to tell if he even noticed some of the things being thrown at him. But the things getting tossed at Vel was able to get a reaction out of him.

That arrow was the breaking point for the gnoll. He did not attack or anything like that, but his muzzle did wrinkle and he showed a little bit of teeth as he let out a deep, eerie grunt. It was a noise very different from what Vel thought a lion or wolf would make, but there was no mistaking it for a gnoll’s equivalent of a growl. It was probably just meant as a warning, but Ryrrg was far larger than any lion that ever lived. Even though that growl was meant to ward off people trying to attack Vel, he could not help but feel chilled to the bone by that noise just as much as the people trying to attack him.

Most of the people throwing stones scattered like sheep before a wolf. Since no more arrows came Vel’s way, he assumed that the archer may have been one of the people who fled. Still, a few people did remain, ones that had a real look of hatred in their eyes and seemed to be determined to fight this titanic demon in their midst, no matter the consequences.

Before dealing with the crowd, Vel turned to look up at Ryrrg, “What was that, Ryrrg? I’m trying to convince them that you’re not a demon.”

“It was just a warning growl,” Ryrrg protested, “And they did just shoot my finger.”

“I don’t think you realize how creepy and intimidating your growl is.”

Ryrrg looked slightly bashful for a second, but a grin soon broke on his face, “Is it really that intimidating?”

“That’s right, you’re the little one,” Vel remarked, “Please try to remember you’re a tad bit larger compared to everyone than you are used to.” Without Iah or Hestrihz standing right next to him, it was easy to forget that he was so small compared to them. Vel could tell that he was somewhat enjoying the feeling of being this large compared to everyone else. Despite that, he did put in a lot of effort not to frighten everyone after that. When people did cross the line with him, though, he just settled for a very hard glare, which tended to be enough to get the reaction he desired.

Talking with the hostile group was even more challenging than the worshipers. At least the worshipers somewhat trusted Vel. The group that was convinced the gnolls were demons sent straight from the underworld thought everything he said was part of some trick aimed at stealing their souls or some such nonsense. It took a few hours, but he eventually managed to get them to consider the possibility that the gnolls were simply giants, nothing more, nothing less. It also might have helped that he sort of implied that the gnolls did have their limits, and he could not be held responsible for what would happen if they continued trying to push those limits. While that was somewhat the truth, Vel doubted that these people were even capable of annoying the gnolls that much, short of them attempting to kill him. That did at least get them to begrudgingly stop attacking the gnolls, and a few even worked up the courage to ask Ryrrg for help searching the wreckage of the city for any survivors, which he was more than happy to assist with.

With that out of the way, Ryrrg and Vel started making their way back to the other two gnolls, and that was when Vel was greeted with what he thought to be an odd sight. Iah and Hestrihz had not been sitting idly by as he had been talking with the rest of the humans. They had gathered the remains of their fallen foes and piled them outside the city, which was probably a good thing. Having such vast quantities of rotting meat just sitting around in the city was a good way for some sort of outbreak to occur.

The strange thing, though, was not that the corpses had been pilled up. What was weird was that the only ones that had been butchered for a meal for the gnolls were the kobolds. Everything else was still more or less intact. The only damage done to them were the injuries that had presumably ended their lives. As Vel wondered just what was going on, Ryrrg walked up to Iah, not seeming to think that anything was amiss, and handed Vel over to her custody once more.

Vel thought something was bothering Iah the second he stepped into her gigantic palm. While she was still being careful with him, she only absentmindedly paid any attention to him. When he was out in the open like this, he was usually either the center of her attention or very close to it. Now, she was staring straight at the pile of bodies and Vel had a hard time making out the expression on her face. There was a hard look in her eye, and the muzzle was slightly wrinkled, just barely exposing some wicked-looking fangs. He would not have described her as angry. Vel had seen her angry after all. No, perhaps she was annoyed, or maybe perturbed. There was only one way to find out, even though Vel was not all that anxious to get the attention of a giant when she appeared to be in an unpleasant mood.

“Iah, what’s the matter? You normally look pretty happy when you have a, uh, sizeable meal in front of you,” Vel stated.

Iah did not react to Vel at first, but an ear did tilt in his direction eventually and she said, “Sorry, Vel. What was that you were saying?”

After Vel repeated himself, Iah spoke in a soft, solemn voice, “I would not knowingly carry the souls of such tainted beings with me or any of my clan.”

As Vel wondered what she meant by that, he noticed that there were more than just the bodies from the previous battle. He spotted the butchered remains of those she had defeated in battle before meeting up with the others. Hestrihz was walking up to the pile, and, much to the surprise of Vel, she had taken out tools to light a fire. Vel had not even known the gnolls carried such tools. They did not cook their food and their fur kept them warm enough at night. Despite the gnolls clearly seeming to believe that cooking food was disrespectful, Hes looked like she was trying to set the pile ablaze.

“What makes you believe they are tainted,” Vel asked.

“That’s right, you wouldn’t know,” Iah said, finally turning her great head to face him in her hand, “I have no doubt in my mind that these were Djallowuo cultists, a group of death cultists that tend to grow in popularity among the plant eaters during times of convergence.”

“What makes them so bad,” just as Vel finished asking that question, Hes managed to set the bodies on fire. It took quickly. Within seconds, Vel found himself looking at the biggest fire he had ever seen. Someone would have had to burn down a city to even hope to exceed what he witnessed here.

Iah sighed, “The Djallowuo hate the world as it is. A long time ago, they tried to exterminate all predators. They did that by trying to get rid of our dumb, feral food sources. And they succeeded for the most part. For some foolish reason, they did not seem to think we would be so willing to eat the leaf eaters that were people.”

Vel’s mind was sent reeling with that revelation. The gnolls and whatever other titans existed on her world had once had another food source that was not people. Actually, he had been hoping that they still did have that source of food since Iah had seemed enamored with the concept of raising things like cattle. But, some idiots had eliminated their natural prey without even considering that they themselves were made of meat. How different would things be today if that decision had not been made?

“And what are they like today?”

“They want to destroy the world, Vel,” Iah explained, “These cultists hate it so and use their hatred as justification for all manners of evil. They always claim to have some means of carrying it out, but they never come through. Usually, their plans don’t amount to much. But, sometimes things can get very bad, especially when things start to fall apart during a convergence event, and the plant eaters start to fall for their nonsense.”

As Vel started to think about just what he had been told, the consequences of that started to make him sweat. He had seen what a few prey species thought of humanity so far, but he had not realized that their hatred extended so deeply that they wished to see an end to everything. Eventually, humanity would have to share the world with such creatures as well. At that moment, he was not the least bit jealous of Iah’s long lifespan. He was not sure if he wanted to live long enough to see such a world.

Iah must have noticed his discomfort because she smiled gently at him, “You needn’t worry all that much about them. My clan will protect your friends and loved ones like we agreed to. And the cultists will lose popularity, like they always do, once the convergence event is over and the world recovers.”

“Why doesn’t anybody do something about them? Permanently, I mean.”

Iah snorted, “That’s easier said than done. The Djalluwou enjoy the support of and are probably led by unicorns, one of the elder races. They’re not to be trifled with all that easily.”

Vel thought about that for a moment before asking, “You’ve mentioned these elder races before, but what makes them so powerful? Even you and the other gnolls seem to be afraid of them, and I’m just having a hard time imagining what could strike fear into something as fearsome as yourself.”

Iah smiled a bit at that last comment, “Vel, the elder races are…were different from everyone else. Back in their glory days, nearly all members of their races used to be gifted, like yourself. Having such an abundance of people like that let them delve deeper into the secrets of magic than any other race. They can do things others can only dream about doing. Some members of their races even have special abilities left over from their more gifted days, like the ability to breathe fire and other elements, unbreakable horns, feathers that can vastly enhance healing magic, and such things.”

“Does that really make them that much more powerful than other titans like yourself,” Vel asked.

“Titan, I suppose I am compared to you,” Iah chuckled, “But let me answer your question by asking you this. Have you ever heard of black powder weapons?”

Vel thought for a moment before responding, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Well, they’re practically mythical among my people now,” Iah explained, “Supposedly, they were weapons that used an explosive powder to fire a metal ball down a tube. They were not all that great when they were first created, but they were starting to get highly effective when our world went through a convergence event. It was said they could penetrate even heavy armor and required a fraction of the training to get good with them as compared to a bow. After the convergence, they just stopped working.”

“Why? How?”

Iah looked at Vel in the palm of her hand solemnly, “No one knows for certain, but it is suspected that the elder races are behind it. There are a few races that have similar stories to us gnolls. Some had stories of even greater technological wonders. But anything over a certain level of advancement always stopped working after convergence. The elder races are thought to have such control over magic that they can alter the fundamental rules by which the universe works. For all we know, they could even be the ones behind the convergence events.”

That was a stunning piece of information. If what Iah was saying was true, these elder races had powers that verged on the divine. He stammered, “They really do sound terrifying. But why would they do such a thing?”

“The elder races are masters of magic, not technology. In that field, they are no more advanced than anyone else,” Iah explained, “If they are behind what happened, then that ensures that they control the most potent forces in the world. They are the ones that stay in power. It is a rather impressive way of making sure they remain dominant.”

“Can anyone compete with their power?”

“Some have tried. It never turns out well. If they manage to survive, it mostly ends up with their race getting enslaved. It’s what happened to the kobolds,” Iah shrugged.

“And now you know a secret of these elder races,” Vel said, not being able to help but sound a bit nervous now that it was dawning on him just what the so-called elder races were capable of.

“Well, at least it's only the unicorn cultists that know that now,” Iah said reassuringly, “They aren’t exactly on friendly terms with any of the other elder races.”

“I don’t suppose you have any plans to deal with any other of these unicorns we might encounter,” asked Vel.

Iah scratched awkwardly behind one of her ears as she nervously looked away from Vel for a moment. If he did not know any better, he would have thought the gigantic gnoll was too embarrassed to look at him. That thought seemed preposterous, though. She was a titan, and he was little more than her pet bug. Iah might as well have been a war goddess to him despite her claims of being a mere mortal. What could she be so embarrassed about around him?

“Well, while you and Ryrrg were off smoothing things out with the other humans, I was thinking about something,” Iah said, still not looking at Vel, “But I think you might be able to help counter them.”

“Me,” Vel spluttered, “Any one of you giants could kill me with a flick of your finger.”

Iah did turn to look at Vel now, “Vel, you made mana powder. A part of the elder races’ power rests in their ability to create mana powder. But you can help me make more, even if a managlass does not protect it. Just having some spare powder around could make for a very unexpected surprise, if you would be willing to make some more for us, maybe around the time before we stop to rest each night since it exhausts you.”

Vel did take some time to think about that one. This was all a lot for him. Iah’s very existence and the prospect that so many other titans were out there was just overwhelming for him. And now, here was one of those titans, a being powerful enough to single-handedly take on a legion, was proposing that he could be of any influence in a conflict between titans. Vel was just a simple farmer turned militiaman. Now, it also looked like he had become a valuable magical tool through some fluke of fate. He was sure one or more gods was having a laugh about this.

The thought of saying no did occur to Vel. As friendly as Iah was now, she was still a man-eating monster of staggering size. But she was also a monster who promised to protect his people, and he believed she would keep her word. Then there were these cultists. Vel had seen what they did to people, and it sounded like the rest of the herbivores were not much better based on how the gnolls talked about them and the evidence that Vel had seen with his own eyes.

Vel also remembered how exhausting the experience of creating that powder had been. He remembered that he had nearly suffocated in that powder, too. He doubted Iah would let that happen while under her watchful gaze. So, Vel said, “Just don’t let me drown in the stuff, and make sure I pass out in a nice soft patch of fur.”

With a broad smile, Iah said, “You’ve got a deal, Vel.”