m/m The Culling Parts 9 - Conclusion

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The Culling Part 9

In the mansion balanced on fountains of water, there was an enormous whale watching the guests at the party.

The whale was in a tank that was hundreds of times bigger than the whole ballroom that the party was being held in. Two whole walls of the ballroom made of a crystal clear substance that were also part of the walls of the tank. The tank was large enough for the whale to swim comfortably in but it frequently swam to the bottom to peer at the small humans having the party.

The dance floor of the ballroom was also clear and we could look down at the sparkling, dancing waters of the fountain that supported the huge mansion. The fountains were constantly changing patterns but the mansion resting on the tops of them was rock solid never betraying it's shifting foundations. The setting of the summer sun made the whole ballroom shine orange through the gauzy curtains that lined the enormous windows.

Scott, one of the hosts of the party, was talking to me. He had light brown, thinning hair, lovely brown eyes with long lashes. He had a cool smile that rarely went to his eyes unless he was looking at his partner Seamus. Scott's big arms, strained the sleeves of his tight, black button down shirt that was tight enough I could see the fabric stretch every time he took a breath. "It was kind of like a pet that kept following Seamus home," he said looking up at the whale as it's enormous bulk moved past the wall. "Seamus would walk along the beach and find this whale beached there. Of course, the first time he tossed it out to sea a few miles, the way anyone would. But when it happened two more times he started to get attached."

Seamus stood up on a platform directly behind Scott, openly ogling me. He was wearing no shirt just a leather vest, a leather kilt and heavy boots. His hair was bright orange and his skin very pale and hairless. His exposed arms looked to be about 40 incredibly rugged unflexed inches, impossibly enormous for a normal man but Seamus was one of the younger, smaller men at this party for the brotherhood. He was doing a kind if stomping dance to the thumping rhythm of the music in the room. He ran one of his veined, meaty hands across the muscular brickwork of his stomach and licked his lips looking at me.

I felt a tremor of...something...all my boyhood I had known that desiring men meant death for me and here I was looking at this spectacular man openly lusting after me. It felt good.

Scott turned briefly glancing at Seamus' display and smiled affectionately, "I can't deny Seamus anything so when I was designing the house I incorporated the tank for his friend."

"It's pretty amazing," I said looking up at the vast tank although I was both complimenting the tank and commenting on Seamus' crude behavior.

I took in the spectacle of the ballroom. Michael was right about getting out to events, I felt more of a connection with my fellow brothers, our similar desires, our miraculous abilities. But I was still troubled by things.

I looked up at Seamus who was joined by Scott on the platform. Seamus was grinding into Scott and seemed lost in his partner's massiveness. Seamus was famous for not controlling his urges. The previous year he had gotten in minor trouble for masturbating across the train tracks. The crime was not the masturbation itself, but the fact that as he was moving his gigantic cock back and forth across the tracks it had struck an oncoming train, crushing the engine and killing several of the non-brotherhood passengers.

Almost none of the brotherhood were on the train (most of us prefer running which is much faster than any train can move) and of course we are, for all practical purposes, indestructible anyway. Since the 25 deaths were all breeders, Seamus had to do some community service. He was lucky no pre-ascension brothers were on that train which I believe was the main source of concern about the accident among the brotherhood.

Most of the brotherhood ranged in height from the shortest 6'7" to about 7'9" which was the height of the tallest elder. Our huge muscularity actually made us look shorter until one of us stood next to a non-ascended person and then our immensity was grotesquely apparent. In the ballroom, I would say the average unflexed arm was about sixty inches in girth.

Even among these impossibly massive men, Michael and I were intimidatingly immense. Michael's arms were almost eighty inches and mine the largest in the room by far, were eighty five inches of striated brawn, which was why we were invited and why everyone stared at us together. It was good our backs flared so wide as the width held the impossible size of our arms out away from our torsos. We were the biggest non-elder men anyone had ever seen. The smaller men moved aside in deference to our ponderous bulk.

Being big, being monstrously, inconceivably powerful, being one of the Brotherhood, it changed my perspective. When a sneeze or a stray gesture can kill a small army of regular people, it changes something inside. Just walking and feeling the massive, hard mounds of muscle of my legs push against the thick swinging girth of my cock and the pendulous bulk of my testicles, I was not who I had been. These men around me were the only people who could stand up to my strength, the only people who could trade blows with me and maybe wound me. They understood the world in a way that only men like us can.

Michael's seven feet of brutally huge mass suddenly filled the entirety of my vision. He gave me a quick hug. The roughness of his dark beard sent shivers through me.

He stood next to me looking at the small waiters weaving through the crowded room, "They are called bodybuilders. They take weird substances and constantly lift things over and over again to make their muscles bigger. Scott thought they would be a great conversation piece at the party." His hand lightly massaged the top of my trapezius muscle and touched my lower back as I stiffened looking at the small men, shirtless and childlike next to the hulking mountains of muscularity of the Brotherhood. They navigated between the canyons of moving muscle with theIr trays. Their faces were rigid with concentration as if each step was a death defying act. Perspiration ran down their bodies despite the coolness of the room. Michael whispered in my ear, "They are being well paid for this work."

"Some things are not worth any money," I grumbled, but held my peace.

Jedrek burst through the crowd bigger than most of the other guests. He walked up to me and clasped me in a hearty hug, "Many good wishes, Gregor and Michael! I wish you joy." he stepped back staring at me in the eye and then he touched the center of my chest, "You have learned the sacredness of the Brotherhood. Of Love."

Some part of me wanted to respond cynically but Michael was a continual joy in my life despite my other misgivings.

I smiled and clasped his large shoulder with one hand, "Jedrek, I have not always been grateful to you. But today and now I am filled with thankfulness."

He beamed at us both and shook Michael's hand, smiling broadly. "Gregor and Michael, I have new reason to be thankful myself. I have taken a husband as well. I would like to introduce you to Ryota, the man who finally captured my heart."

A broad black haired man stepped up to me. The cast of his features reminded me of the men that Jedrek had killed in the forest. He was slightly shorter than Jedrek but just as hugely, thick. His clothes were a different style. An almost iridescent ivory material was worn loose and belted around his muscular waist. The material crossed across his wide upper torso exposing almost half his chest. I could see the rippling power of his hairless, pectoral muscles clearly as he moved his hand to clasp mine.

He spoke with a deep, melodious voice, "Gregor and Michael, it is truly a pleasure. Jedrek speaks well of you. I come from Nihan just off the southern coast of your country." Ryota's smile vanished in a moment and he looked seriously at me. "Jedrek, has told me about your misgivings about this country. I need to tell you about my own shame."

Jedrek nodded curtly as Ryota lead me away out the large glass doors to the balcony.

The doors completely sealed the loudness of the party away from us, I could not even hear a distant thump of the music. Outside there was only the slightest of breezes and the soft sound of the fountain. The sun was setting and the air was charged with color.

Ryota smiled a brief smile, his teeth flashing white against his tan skin and black goatee. "This is a hard story for me but I think it will help you to understand the value of the men of Taiga. The value of what they do here," he gestured with a forearm writhing with muscle towards the ballroom.

He sighed deeply and continued, "My people practice the culling, I think we do it better than yours. The wise women were militant about stamping out the male threat. They keep track and search down every male child for the culling.

"My brother and I were born on the same day. We both knew at an early age that we would be killed when we went to the culling. There were a network of caves in the mountains and places where only a young person could squeeze into. We found a place with a spring of water deep in those caves. No one knew of it. For months, we secreted supplies to that place. We laid false trails and sealed parts of paths off. We hid in those caves for a long time. We only had each other and one terrible night we gave into temptation and," he paused a pained expression on his face, "we ascended."

I suddenly understood his shame, not only two men but brothers.

"We thought we were cursed, that the grotesque size was our brand of shame. We blamed, hated each other. We tore the mountains apart, fighting. It was useless we were both too strong to be killed."

"We ran away and both of us soon became powerful leaders and divided the country between us in a civil war. I was miserably lonely and occasionally took men as lovers. Thanks to the culling none of them desired me, they loved me only as their powerful leader. My desires killed them."

He looked sad, "I became aware of a trader, bigger than a bear, who could easily fight off any who opposed him. My first thought was fear and I sent many men to their deaths trying to kill him.

"Then I met this man, Jedrek. He wished to trade I wished to fight. We fought. We were matched in every way, not since my brother had a man moved as fast as me and struck blows that could stagger me. I felt myself drawn to his body, his red hair and beard and soon I was in his arms and making love with my equal and telling my story.

"Gregor, this place is our best hope to live together in peace. It is a refuge from the evil that twists us from our birth. Jedrek tells me you hate it, accept it and your birthright, it is not evil. The evil is out there." Ryota's massive frame was lit by the lights of the ballroom. The air was blue and dark with shadows.

Ryota's dark eyes bore into me, "It is a refuge from the blood that the brotherhood pays every day. That the rest of the world asks of us to pay for our power."

That night in the safe warmth of my bed with Michael, I dreamed of my village of my childhood.

It was the day of the culling and I was standing in the row of boys shivering in terror and guilt. Agnieska, the wise woman released the flower pollen in a fragrant cloud over the stinking crowd of us boys.

Gratitude came on me as the pollen fell on me, hiding my shame from the world. I became aware of a clear space in the pollen cloud as if an invisible force was pushing it away. Guilt and terror made my heart hammer in my thin chest. I saw Ulric's stricken face as the pollen drifted on to the other boys away from him. The witch's knife flashing through the air.

The ground shook and twisted and writhed and pierced poor Ulric's body as it deformed itself. The very earth shrieked with pain as it roiled around me and all was lifeless. I woke sweating.

I knew what I needed to do.

The Culling Part 10

I stood alone on the edge of the twisted plain of Eoghan and Fearghus' folly, known by the breeders as Durness' Folly.

The breeders.

I cursed the epithet, I was thinking with the same smugness I detested in the rest of the Brotherhood. I needed that arrogance though, so I allowed the smugness to creep over me at the various inadequacies, the fragility, the puniness of...breeders.

The green mountains of Taiga lay at my back.

Ahead, the vast and lifeless silences of the twisted landscape were broken only by my own footsteps. I pulled off the only clothing I was wearing, a breechcloth, the tearing of the cloth echoing from the giant misshapen rock formations in front of me,

The sun stood high above me in the sky as I began to concentrate my power. I spat once into each of my hands. I glanced downwards as my big hands began to stroke the length of my manhood. The sunlight threw shadows on the deep, hairy striations of the enormous, jutting shelf of my chest which completely obstructed the view of my hands. I felt the hot, aliveness of my penis, so much a part of me and yet alien in its thick, vein covered enormity.

I purposefully concentrated on my strength. How I dominated every man I came in contact with. I was bigger and stronger than any man I had physically encountered. If I glared people moved away. Mountains, continents were nothing to my massive body.

One of my hands moved up stroking the powerful, stonelike cords of my obliques.

I felt my testicles swell as hard as the fantastic peaks of my muscles. The shaft of my manhood grew rigid, harder than any metal I had forged. The expanding girth of my penis became difficult to grasp even with my big hands. Out past the roiling muscular vastness of my chest, the thickly veined protuberance of my cockhead became visible. The wide, swollen head of my phallus was red with built up pressure and glistening with precum dripping from the slit, it looked like a monstrous, savage weapon.

I stroked harder feeling the pressure continue to build all while willing myself not to complete the orgasm. My cock seemed to swell even bigger. I could feel the need to release boiling throughout its massive length.

Then I came.

The explosion of ejaculate shot out of me and I roared shaking the massive formations in front of me. The liquid struck the hard rock shattering it into pieces of earth. I turned spraying all the formations in front of me. The thunderous report of stone being obliterated filled my ears. I strode forward on the now flattened land, my inexhaustible manhood blasting the formations as I swept it back and forth across the lifeless plain in front of me instantly pulverizing the twisted stone and churning the hard earth up. I do not know the length of time it took me to cross the plain but I only stopped when the last of the formations was exploded into nothingness by the force of my cum.

I made my way naked back across the expanse of the plain. My legs sometimes sinking deep into the dark and muddy earth. Everywhere there was the smell of my seed mixed with the earth. The sun had just risen on what morning it was and how many days I had spent at my labor, I did not know. My shadow was the only shadow cast across the landscape. Reaching the middle of the plain I turned a full circle and saw nothing but dark muddy, flat earth where once there had been only twisted rock.

I turned finally in the direction of my home. I tensed the gigantic muscles of my legs and sprang free from the clinging earth in a mighty leap that sent me flying into the sky, across the miles of the plain, higher than the soaring peaks of the Taiga Mountains.

I called on my other powers to steer and slow my descent so I landed gently outside the home Michael and I shared. I was exhausted and staggered into Michael's arms as he lead me to a hot shower. I then fell into our bed and slept and slept.

It was morning again and I awoke blinking in the light falling through our window. I nuzzled into the deep cavern under Michael's arm, enjoying his hairiness, the hardness of his muscle even as he slept and the musky clean scent of him. I made growling noises like a rutting animal and woke Michael who took my revived manhood easily. "You're stronger than mountains," I whispered as I came in him.

"I know," he growled, tensing as he shot ropes of cum on the far wall of our bedroom.

We spent a week doing the ordinary things in life, not speaking of what we had to do. I savored this time with Michael for we both knew this time in Taiga was to come to an end.

On the seventh day after my return having finished our clean up of the evening meal, Michael came to me with two bundles of blue fabric. He shook out two cloaks of soft blue leather. Stitched across them in gold was a design of two magnificent trees, their trunks separate but their branches intertwined, grown together.

"While you were completing your task, I made these for our next labor. If you pull them completely around and over yourself, they will let in no rain or weather and the colors and designs will fade into the landscape and you will not be seen. They will also make the rockiest ground comfortable to lie upon."

"They are perfect," I smiled in gratitude.

We packed supplies and shut the door of our home. We both wore our cloaks and light short tunics of muslin with loose leather breeches. Except for our richly appointed cloaks, we could be two very large peasants. The sun was high in the sky and in its light I could see the brilliance of the goldwork in Michael's cloak as it bunched and moved over the enormous muscular crags of his back. I felt my manhood stir at this display and I needed to focus on other matters.

"Time to begin the invasion of our homeland, Mediolanum." Michael said with a bright smile and shot into the air. He was instantly a blue glittering dot on the horizon. I took one last look at this place that I had fought with and been changed by. I thought of Ryota's words, a refuge for men like us and I could feel some of the awesome beauty of it leak into my heart.

"Goodbye," I whispered and leapt up into the air.

Once again I was speeding over Durness' Folly, but I could traces of green like a mist running over the dark, fertile land. The curse was gone, the healing had begun.

When Jedrek made his runs across Mediolanum he had purposefully avoided the soldiers because he wanted to avoid creating a situation. Michael and I were creating a situation and so we began with the border guard on the Eastern border of the land.

Using some of my magics, I gentled my landing and barely disturbing the trunks of the trees in the copse I landed beside.

I pulled my cloak around me, blending into the landscape and hunching down and looked at the scene playing out just a few feet away.

Michael was surrounded by soldiers, his 7 feet easily overtopping the tallest man in the group. Michael's thick upper arms were easily wider than the shoulders of these armored men standing around him. His monstrous chest swelled menacingly forcing the men away from his body, a small bounce of that hulking superstructure and the crowd of men would be pounded into oblivion, armor and all. Michael was obviously moving very carefully to keep from hurting these men standing uneasily near him.

"I wish to speak to your commanding officer," Michael was keeping his powerful, baritone voice gentle.

"W-w-w-we are s-s-supposed t-to b-b-b-bind the prisoners up." One of the men barely stuttered out.

Michael chuckled, the unexpected movement of his vast body caused two of the closest soldiers to break ranks and dash away in panic. "That is easily solved, for I am not your prisoner, I am your liberator. Walk with me as friends walk with friends."

Something in the good natured warmth of Michael's voice caused the soldiers fear to melt away. They lowered their useless weapons, although the squad leader kept doggedly on, "We are loyal servants to the great King Whately and the high Wizards Garoth and Reb'kah. We gladly serve at his majesty's pleasure. We require no liberation."

Michael smiled at the man, his beautiful blue eyes gentle, his dark hair lightly tossled by his flight. I felt so in love with this humble, strong but gentle man. "Then lead me as an emissary of a friendly nation, for at this moment that is what I am."

I wanted to watch him win them over, but I had another part to play. After the men had walked away, I sang to the shadows and to the darkness so that magical eyes would not be able to spy on the proceedings. I conjured a blanket of shadow to cover the country obscuring our uprising from the high wizards and from any other magical sight not of the Brotherhood (this was for two reasons: we did not need to hide from the Brotherhood and the magic needed is infinitely more powerful).

Reluctantly, I turned and leapt north towards the icy tower of Reb'kah, the Enchantress also known as the Deadly Terror to her enemies. Since she had sworn allegiance to the king the country had successfully captured much territory from her neighbors. She was deeply feared and hated.

I landed half a mile from the tower, cracking the ground with my impact. The tower was made from a gray silver metal. It looked like something alien perched on a blasted plain.

A green mist rose from the ground and I was immediately confronted by a thousand strong army of dead warriors. The smell of their rotting flesh filled the air. Their number stood between me and my goal. They unslung their weapons and marched towards me. Some of the weapons glowed with power and I recognized at least one of the blades from my studies. These were the men who had fallen against Reb'kah, whose souls and bodies were enslaved by her power.

I put my hands on my hips and simply drew a deep breathe. All of the green mist was sucked into the almost limitless capacity of my lungs. I could see my chest expanding more in my lower vision. The warriors stumbled against the force of my intake.

I put a small amount of effort into blowing out the air.

It was like unleashing armageddon. A great tornado of wind poured from me smashing into the army with enough force to shred armor and disintegrate bones. The wind whipped bodies into nothingness and as the turbulence spread across the army of the dead, nothing but fragments of armor and weapons remained clanking across the hard ground. The tower was buffeted by the raging winds, it shook and bent in the maelstrom of my breathe, the whole structure teetered but held true as I stopped my exhale.

It was suddenly silent and I was alone on the plain. "I'm not here to kill," I said into the absence of sound, "I need to be more careful." By the time, I finished speaking I was at the heavy metal doors at the base of the tower. The doors yawned at least 30 feet above me. I pushed my fingers into the thick metal and then simply pulled backwards, the doors popped off of the building, the torn metal shrieking. I tossed the doors behind me and heard the far off rumble as they embedded themselves into the distant mountains.

I was inside. It was cold, far colder than the icy temperatures outside. There were stairs running up in a spiral up the sides of the tower. A high, piercing, wailing echoed from all sides as giant blades of ice fell from above. I sang out the opening note of the spell of sealing, simultaneously shattering the blades with the power of my voice and magically preventing the flight of my adversary. As I sang the last note, I leapt upwards effortlessly shattering stone and steel as I hurtled to the pinnacle, the room of power.

I burst through the final floor of reinforced steel and wood with an explosion of debris. My invulnerable cloak was dusty but intact, my tunic shredded exposing most of my torso.

The room was long. The floor was littered with the pots and tubes of alchemy. Runes were drawn with a sweeping hand on the floors and ceilings, they glowed a bright and angry red, meaning my magic had successfully been cast over the structure. Hanging in rows along the walls were the heads of men. Their mouths hanging open in a rictus of pain.

At the far end of the room stood Reb'kah. Her hair was long and white almost silver and it spilled down almost to her sandaled feet. She was wearing a long white robe, which almost matched her delicately veined skin in paleness. Her face was a mask of hatred as she launched a knife of ice at me.

The blade broke harmlessly on the hairy rampart of my chest. Instantly I was encased in an enormous block of ice. I felt a momentary panic, which instantly subsided as I took a breathe. The expansion of my chest shattered the block. I could move as if there was no impediment and the crumbled at the force of my limbs as I strode forward.

Reb'kah hissed, "You are the absence of my power. You are the blanket of darkness that hides the rats of men from my gaze! You are.... What are you?"

"I am of the men of Taiga, the brotherhood."

"The stories are true then. Giant apes with the heavy, hideous features of men. You bring my end a rich irony, creature of Taiga." Her rage was pulsing through the room. Several of the heads on the wall burst like overripe fruit, but I was immune. "My life has been dedicated to the destruction of men. My first trophy was the head of the one who called himself my father. I only serve the king," her mouth twisted with even more bitterness, "to serve my own ends. Were it not for the wizard's tricks, I would rightfully be ruler of a land rid of free men."

I tried to think of how Michael would diffuse such hatred but I only had the goal of my mission. "I am not here to end you, I am here to form an alliance---" I faltered, the idiotic futility of my words dying on my lips as I spoke into her hatred, "or neutralize you."

She screeched and lightning whipped impotently around my body. All of the heads burst into flames and it seemed to me that I heard a low moan of pain or maybe release.

There was no choice for me. I stared at her icy blue eyes and sang the song of closing. Lines of black power arced out of her body and a rancid smell filled the room. "You will lose all power and memory," I spoke softly as she slumped to the floor. She looked up with clouded, confused eyes. I touched her arm, as fragile as new ice in my large hand, and carefully helped her to stand, "I am sending you to a village of good people. They will shelter you until you are well."

I whispered the final spell and she shimmered away to the villageas in.

The tower was built for dark purposes and stank of evil. I did not wish such a thing to stand. I tore open a hole in the wall and leaped down the side of the structure.

I looked up at the massive, metallic building looming hundreds of feet above me. I bent my knees spread my arms wide and gripped the building and stood up lifting it entirely out of the ground. The structure squealed as its weight redistributed in ways it was never built for.

I was now holding the doomed tower with both hands spread wide. Then I gave the tower a hug. I pulled and squeezed the tower to my chest. I could feel my biceps harden to something harder than metal or any substance known. My arms worked with a steady, incredible pressure. I easily brought my hands compressing the materials of the tower to my chest which I could feel expanding with a powerful pump. The metal cried in agony as it was stressed in ways that nature couldn’t accomplish. I kept reaching out and gathering a huge mass of steel and compress it to my now heaving pecs. Then I reached and stretched my fingers, which would sink in and deform beams and bring them to me. I began gathering tons of steel faster and faster and driving the cold steel to my deep cleavage. My chest was swelling and bulging and compressing the very matter of the tower tighter and tighter. The metal was turning into hot liquid and then vaporizing in the terrible heat of my powerful muscles. I inhaled the steel steam and instead of tiring, I felt my power increase.

My arms moved so fast, they were a blur. My chest muscles pumped like gigantic sledge hammers as they compressed the solid matter against my blurred hands. Within moments there was nothing. I rubbed my bare, extremely hard* and hairy chest steaming from the heat of tearing a structure into nothingness. Nothing of the structure remained, no stick or stray bolt. Only a hole that had been the resting place of the building.

I turned away, my cloak blowing back behind me and leaped away.

I camped that night alone in a forest between the wizards' towers, leaving Michael to his work. I pulled the cloak around me and I was sheltered from the cold of night and listened to the night sounds. I knew I need not fear any creature or even the raw forces of nature but still I felt comforted by the cloak. I shut my mind from the raw fury of Reb'kah. I hoped that our opposition would not be so dedicated.

The next morning I leapt towards the fortress of Garoth.

The fortress rested in a high rocky valley. The fortress was huge, literally miles across. It was made of a strange marbled blue and white stone. The center of the building rose in a peak that towered over even the mountains. A cloud blew across that high tower even as I watched.

I walked towards the gigantic iron doors, they rose almost as high as Reb'kah's entire tower. The valley was lightly wooded with the wiry trees of the mountains.

The doors were suddenly flung open by a gust of wind which pulled several trees out by the roots. I marched into the hurricane and saw emerging out of the doors the enormous golden head of a dragon. It roared and shook the ground with its fury. It clamped jaws bigger than whole houses. Acid dripped smoking from the gaping maw of its mouth. It snorted flame that bounced harmlessly off the clearly dragonfire proof bricks of the fortress.

Monstrous chains bound its rear legs. The creature pulled fruitlessly on those chains. It turned its vast eyes and regarded my approach. Its mouth opened and a torrent of hellfire ran towards me.

Without slowing my forward stride I opened my mouth and simply inhaled the flame, creating a gigantic torrent of suction that pulled all the flame into my mouth. I felt the gentle warmth of the fire that ran hotter than the rivers of lava in the earth, hotter than any fire known to normal creation in my vast chest. I felt an internal friction which caused it to grow, by my gut feeling, slightly warmer. I expelled the flame on to the wall next to the dragon.

It was white hot, its brilliance blotting out all other sight fading the colors of the day to nothingness. It struck the side of the building, melting the dragon proof bricks to steaming liquid then to vapor in seconds. A huge hole had been opened up in the side of the fortress exposing that side of the dragon's chamber and several other rooms.

The beast made a feeble mewling sound and retreated leaking a foul yellow liquid and brown substance as it pissed and shit itself in fear of me. I strode forward finding the vast thing covering itself with its wings quivering. Its scales rattling with the force of a seizure.

Its huge claws were easily larger than me but I did not hesitate to lay my hand gently on one and begin stroking the creature. "Oh Great One, my quarrel is not with you. I do not wish to do battle only to pass and to parley with he who built this fortress."

The creature shook slightly less and I could feel it coming out of the shock of our first encounter. I moved past its enclosing wings to where its legs were bound. I grabbed hold of the metal chains which shattered like glass in my grip.

"Go free and fly to others of your kind and be not so lonely," I intoned.

In a great flurry and buffeting of wind the dragon was gone.

The dragon room only had a small door made out of the same brickwork. I was deciding my next move when I felt a transformation spell starting to work on me. I waved it away and watched the bright lines of power dissipate.

Moments passed and I was thinking of following the power lines to their source. Before I did though I heard a musical trilling as the rear wall of the chamber simply reformed itself into a stairway of blue stone leading up to the top of the tower.

It is nice to be invited, I thought and marched boldly to the tower and my host were waiting.

The doors of the tower were worked with white gold and I recognized some powerful protective runes worked within the ornate designs. The doors opened and from the inner chamber a pleasant voice, "Welcome and enter!"

The room was dark and suffused with a reddish glow. There were a series of dark curtains that I pushed through until I was in a large round drawing chamber with long couches arranged around in a rough circle.

On one lay an attractive black haired man with his eyes closed and no shirt. Kneeling before him, clearly pleasuring him was a winged creature with a female body, a succubus. He groaned, clearly climaxing in the creature's mouth. The creature dutifully swallowed and retreated to the shadows. The man spoke, “She wants to destroy me, but my power makes her give me the most exquisite of pleasures.”

The man opened his eyes and stared at me his eyes widening a bit as he scanned my full size, "I must apologize," he said rising with his hand extended, "you have caught me celebrating, the end of my most powerful enemy. I am Garoth, the wizard." I took his hand gently but I could see him wince at the force of my grip.

"That would explain the dragon at the door rather than a smiling greeter, Garoth. I am Gregor." I gave the sentence a twist.

The man's confidence looked shaken for a moment. A look of fear or something I could not read. “Yes, that was a costly mistake. I will miss Mnementh, he was a great pet and guardian. It was only with great sacrifice that I was able to hold him here. I should have made sure you had a proper greeting.”

“Gregor,” he continued, “I assume you are also what ended the career of Reb’kah? I felt that only one such as you (I am assuming you are of the properly legendary brotherhood of Taiga) could end her power signature so completely. I also assume you are responsible for the darkness that clouds my vision of the king’s lands. Seeing these signs, I did put out certain protections. Which I should have guessed would prove useless.”

“You have guessed a’right, Garoth. I am responsible for both situations and I am of Taiga.”

He prodded me further, “I had always thought the legends were true. I actually made quite a study of the history of Eoghan and know of his partner Fearghus. At a foolish time in my life I even pursued the company of men who did not pass the culling to elevate as your people do.

“To what purpose, do you do these things? I won’t say I’m not grateful of being rid of the scheming witch, the release of my dragon and the obscuring of my magic, are impressive but terrifying to me.”

I found myself turning his words in my head. He had tried to elevate himself through the company of men, but he was not attracted, did not truly love them. The change had not happened but this might make him more open to treating with me, perhaps.

“You hardly seemed terrified, Garoth. I am here to take over my home country of Mediolanum and rule it.” I said carefully.

“And you are removing the pillars that support the king. First Reb’kah and now...I see. Why this sidelong approach, Gregor? Your people have been known to take on bigger forces directly. You certainly are more than capable of destroying my great power and Reb’kah’s in tandem and take on the army without much effort. I will freely admit that I not only admire your great power but it makes me jealous.”

“I have spent the fullness of my life pursuing power such as yours. It is an honor to be near one who has achieved more than my greatest imaginings.”

I felt an impatience growing in me. “My reason are my own, and since you are meeting with me you must understand, I wish to treat.”

“Of course, I submit. I do not wish to be destroyed or lose my power. I see fighting as hopeless. You may dictate the terms. It helps of course if we mingle our blood. It binds us.” Garoth was doing exactly as I hoped. It is old magic that a contract drawn with the blood of both parties does completely bind both parties to the terms of the contract.

He summoned a quill which he allowed to stab his arm. I willed the quill and used my power to strengthen it slightly pierce my impenetrable skin to take some of my blood. It suddenly leached on to my arm and pulled deeply from me.

Garoth was chortling and I felt light headed for a moment and realized that the quill had injected something into me. I could feel my body destroying whatever it was but I was still light headed.

Garoth himself was changing growing in size and strength. His muscles were swollen and covered in blue veins. His once slender limbs were now heavy with muscle. Nowhere near even the smallest of the Brotherhood but larger than any mortal man I had seen. A golden glow seemed to be coming from him and the sorceries embedded in the building came alive and wrapped around me and tried to slow my recovery. I opened my mouth to sing and thick black ropes of pure power ran into my mouth, stifling my voice. I could feel Garoth attempting to use my blood to pull my power into him.

“At last, at long last. my pursuit of power is complete. This is my dream!

The power it courses through me!!” he screamed triumphantly.

The ornate and careful runes and sorceries were as nothing to me. I let a fraction of my power down the lines. The effect was immediate. The dark ropes of power burned white and then exploded, writhing like snakes upon the ground. The sorceries that were in careful balance burst all over the room. The succubi, suddenly freed from their sorcerous bonds, attacked Garoth with ferocity. Vainly he fought their claws and teeth. His strength and speed inadequate to the fury of the attacking creatures. They began flaying his skin from his bones. His triumphant grin suddenly became screams of terror as the she demons pulled him down devouring his flesh. They did not attack his vital organs. They wanted him living.

A dark hole to another place opened and the succubi pulled Garoth’s still screaming carcass into it. The hole grew pulling pieces of the tower into it. I leapt away, easily escaping the pull of the darkness which was now pulling the whole of the fortress into itself. I watched the hole grow larger destroying all of Garoth’s foul work.

Then I sang the song of closings, my voice shook the mountains and the trees and the forces obeyed me. The hole sealed itself and the doorway to that dark place was closed.

I felt exhausted and slept that night in Garoth’s valley now cleansed of his evil. Nothing disturbed my rest and I awoke to prepare the final pieces of my plan and rejoin with Michael.

To be continued....

The Culling - Conclusion

A sitting room. Red all around, a diffused glow. In the middle of the room, a pinprick, a dot of darkness floated suspended in the air.

The darkness started growing tearing open bigger and bigger. I opened my mouth to sing a spell and my voice was stopped I couldn't make a sound. Fearfully, I backed away from the growing darkness.

A hysterical, gibbering sobbing scream filled the room and I saw Garoth trying and failing to grab the sides of the void with bleeding hands. He saw me and lunged forward his mouth filled with fangs...

My eyes opened to see the blue of my cloak stretched above me in the morning light. I could hear a light tapping of rain on the outside. I slowed my breathing as I looked around my small makeshift tent. Absently I traced the muscles of the hard bulwark of my chest with one hand. I felt calmer. It had been only a dream.

I was camped in a stand of trees by the King's highway several miles from the castle. I was waiting for Michael to rejoin me. As the tapping of rain subsided I crawled out into the drear of the early morning.

I peered through the grey mist at the highway. It was completely deserted.

Then I heard it. Maybe it always been there as a low thudding but it was getting louder. The heavy beat of drums the sound of thousands marching forward. The sound obscured all others and the ground was shaking with the force of it. I quickly gathered up my cloak, feeling it reform from a tent as I pulled it over my shoulders.

A massive shape was coming towards me in the mist. It was huge, large enough to make one of the giant grizzly bears of the forest look minuscule by comparison. I knew instantly it was, "Michael!" I felt his huge arms around me before I even saw his face.

He kissed me and all of me felt for a moment like it was just us, we were the only two in existence, the whole world was the two of us kissing. We paused and I looked into his blue eyes.

"Gregor, my life. It has been many days. The world is not lovely when you are not beside me." His voice rippled through me.

All I could do was breathe his name once but he heard everything in that.

We walked to the highway where the army was marching forward. As they passed, they saluted us and continued their march forward. "I bring you a gift Gregor! All the king's men! We have the full army without a drop of blood spilt."

"Michael, this was our dream. You are repairing the wound of Durness and Eoghan, here and now. And you have done far better than me these past few days." I said thinking of my encounters with the wizards.

"Gregor, I believe you repaired the folly by yourself, with your own magnificent rod several weeks ago," Michael said with a salacious wink, "But what of the wizards? We have seen no sign and the men have ceased worrying about their retribution."

I told him briefly about my dealings, finishing with, "So one is in some kind of eternal torment damnation and the other has had her identity and powers destroyed. Clearly, I am not so persuasive as you."

"Gregor, it is the nature of the world that those with the most power never give it up easily. Their ambition and hatred destroyed their ability to work with us long before you ever came to call."

"Then what of the king, Michael? Will he also be destroyed?"

"I think not Gregor, for he has realized by now that his power has fled, he has no power to lose," Michael smiled confidently.

We led the army until we were within hailing distance of the squat gray fortress of the king. It looked hunkered down, smaller and less grand than either of the wizard towers, this building was designed for defense.

An inhuman bellow issued from the open gateway of the fortress and an enormous troll thundered out. It was dressed in filthy, rotted rags which exposed most of its body including its fetid, bulbous sexual organ. The smell of rancid piss and shit accompanied its appearance. The creature was dragging a club made from the entirety of a felled redwood, spikes thicker than an ordinary man's neck studded the free end of the massive weapon.

"Even though you are the stronger, allow me some fun," Michael breathed in my ear, simultaneously staying me with a gesture and sweeping off his cloak. He was still wearing the simple tunic and breeches of a peasant, his hard and huge muscles only slightly obscured by the loose clothing.

He strode up to the giant beast. The creature snickered, leered and scratched its big organ at seeing a lone figure moving toward it. I saw the creature's eyes focus and then widen with fear as it took in Michael's monstrous size. Its own hulking bulk was no match for the overwhelming thickness of Michael's colossal muscularity. As Michael sauntered nearer, his overpowering size became even more apparent. The creature's great legs would humble most tree trunks however Michael's forearms massively gnarled and distended with muscle were easily twice the girth of the troll's gigantic limbs.

The creature should have run or been paralyzed with fear. Even if it didn't understand how infinitely more powerful, Michael's strength was, some animal survival instinct should have sent it running like a fragile fawn from a crushing avalanche of granite. The creature had no awareness of how disproportionate the fight was. It grunted with effort as its two great arms levered up the great redwood club. Ponderously, it swung the bulk of the club, twisting to torque up the greatest force into the movement. Michael could have easily evaded the blow but instead kept walking right into it.

A great, cracking roar of sound erupted as the irresistible force of the giant swing met the titanic, immovable object of Michael. The club shattered against Michael's impenetrable mass, shredding his outer clothing. We watched as the heavy metal spikes, literally splattered by the force of the blow against the hairy alabaster of Michael's skin, bounced away flattened, unrecognizable.

Michael's manhood was fully exposed and his flaccid magnificence was fully five times the size of the troll's now puny looking genitalia. The creature gaped at the impotence of its blow and the useless remnant of its weapon.

Michael paused and moved one of his behemoth arms up, explosions of muscularity rippled across his exposed torso with the motion, and theatrically yawned covering his mouth with his hand.

The soldiers cheered for the bravado of their humongously massive leader. The troll bellowed in a rage and began to charge Michael. It would have been so easy for Michael to destroy the foul, creature utterly with a single blow but Michael suddenly moved in a blur away from the creature.

Before the troll could even take a single step Michael had crossed several hundred feet to the castle. With a single easy motion he yanked out the heavy portcullis. The shattered steel chains were still in the air while he blurred back towards the charging troll with the massive gate, ripping it into pieces as he moved. His hands moved fast warping and reshaping the hard metal into giant sized manacles.

Then he was behind the creature almost gently manhandling its great limbs and manacling them with the transformed pieces of the gate. He finished by chaining the creature with a thick metal stake driven deep into hard rock. This all happened in almost a blink, I was startled by the sound of portcullis chains crashing down. I wondered if the soldiers thought it was magic, so quick were Michael's movements.

The troll struggled helplessly against the weight of the metal that Michael had effortlessly forged with his grip. It's sluggish brain not comprehending what had occurred. It let out a mewling, beaten sound at Michael's retreating figure. I summoned clothing to cover Michael. We were overwhelming enough without Michael's nakedness awing everyone into stupefaction.

After Michael's little show of force, the king's instant surrender was anticlimactic.

The day moved forward in a blur of military displays and speeches and by the evening Michael and I were both crowned as kings while the former king was escorted to his home village.

We acted quickly with multiple decrees. The first was that the culling ceremony would result in the chosen boys to be sent to training at the castle. It was our idea that the Brotherhood in our fair land would become all variety of public servants, that the strength of our kind would serve the weaker making all the land a stronger place. We also treated with the men of Taiga to open the former lands of the Folly for cultivation. The once sterile lands were now the most fertile in our corner of the world.

Years past and the work of transforming a broken country to a land of prosperity and happiness, seemed unending. Having the power to single handedly annihilate any hostile neighbors around us made coming to agreements an easier task than that faced by our predecessors.

This part of my life was filled with much happiness, but the darkness of the culling, while scrubbed from my own country, remained in the world.

One night, I left my body and floated free in the nether world of the spirit. The world still was mostly covered in darkness however now the lights of Taiga were joined by the lights of my own Mediolanum. I felt pride at that. I turned towards the blinding white brilliance of the valley of the Elders. I now approached with ease no longer buffeted by the power that they emanated.

They became aware of me.

Many of the men I had known had passed beyond the bounds of the world since my visits so many years ago. A few of the brightest burning lights still remembered me.

"Ah, Gregor who changes the world, we see our prophecies fulfilled," spoke a familiar burning form in the voice of gales.

My own burning light did not waver from the force of his voice and when I spoke the shock waves of my power buffeted many of the elders' flames. "I am honored to be remembered by the elders and wish to discuss the possibility of changing the deep magic."

A swirling in the matter of the elders and all was silent and then, "Gregor, for one such as yourself there exist many possibilities. The deep magic is all that makes up the movement of the universes. It is the substance of creation. To change it is to threaten the very fabric of what is. Even for you it may be impossible to make a change without being destroyed utterly and the danger of destroying everything that is, is very great.

"We tell you this because among all we know, you are like our beloved son and we trust what drives you forward." There was a long, considered pause. Finally, the great voice spoke again, "If you must attempt this, go to the forest of green silences where the heartbeat of creation is most easily heard."

"Great fathers, you are what has bound me to the Brotherhood even in my darkest days of bitterness. I am always your grateful son." I became briefly one with them, part of their tremendous energy. I could feel a change in my place among them. I felt I was at least as powerful as the mightiest among them and I drew them to my greater light. Despite this we all understood I was not ready to join their number, I still had my own life to live and promises to keep. My beacon like light separated from the elders and then I departed to my earthly form.

I opened my eyes. Michael lay sprawled beside me softly snoring, the moon's light in our room turning his magnificence to silver. The dark hair of his chest breaking the sheen. Some part of me wanted to curl up in his safe warmth and never leave, I leaned over and kissed his forehead and breathed in his scent.

My dearest forgive me.

I left our room and crossed the castle to a room shielded from the rest of building for magic lessons. I sat on the cold flagstone and thought of the forest of green silences and began the spell of passage. The room melted away and I was sitting in a meadow outside near a dense thickness of trees.

The trees were enormous, larger than even the great buildings of Taiga. The woods were so densely grown on all sides that no passage was possible for even a small child much less a being as large as I.

I called out, "To she who walks between branches and he who guards with fang and hoof Lady and Lord of Green Silences one who has need begs entrance."

Her voice was melodious and almost evaded the edge of my hearing, "Gregor, we know of what you would do and grant you leave to enter."

I heard not a sound but the shadows around the trees seemed to deepen and I found myself peering at a path into the wood.

I entered the stillness of the forest, the ground was soft with moss. I could feel a sense of the center of the place and my path led me to it. The morning light was lifting the gloom and for a second I thought I saw the green skin of the lady and the antlered head of the lord watching me. But when I looked more closely there was nothing but the forest.

In the heart of the wood, I stripped my clothing and lay face first in the moss and sang a spell of joining. I felt myself falling into a vastness of life of power. I felt my being pushed into the big pulsing rhythms of the world. Was it breathing or a beating? It was through me and I was of it. I could feel the earth leaning and spinning to this huge movement.

I began to be aware of parts, fit together, it was a massive machine exquisitely balanced and fit together each part depending on the other. Did it have awareness; this great engine of everything that was? I could not tell, I only felt my heart beating in time to its workings. For the first time in many a year, I felt small and insignificant.

I pulled energy from within and sent a questing. Something in these intricacies answered me and with effort I moved through the colossus of the framework, feeling the deep magic pulling me back towards the world I belonged in.

After what seemed days or hours, time has no meaning here, I saw it and recognized it as my goal. It sat dark and precious turning in the light, linking and continuing. I studied its place in this great machine.

I then pulled all of my power into me, feeling my strength, my great potency even in this place. I flung my force at the darkness pulling it by force from its place.

It came away, unmoored from its place in the magic. It burst into red and vanished.

There was a sudden wrenching a tearing and I was pulled apart. I could feel my limbs being pulled, popping from their sockets, my essence was being pulled into microscopic thinness. I pulled with all my power but the force was relentless. I could only slow its unyielding tearing of my being. I felt a blackness descending and some part of me wondered what I had wrought.

Dark and pain and coldness was the tendril of my consciousness as I held on.

Light and warmth bathed me and I pulled new power into me. The force began to slowly yield. Small, infinitesimally small movements drew me back into my form and so slowly the pieces fit back and the great beating continued. I was myself and I let the current of the deep magic sweep me back to my place in the world.

Darkness again but warmth. I slept.

Light flickered and my eyelids flickered open to the green and gold of the forest. I heard a familiar soft snoring and felt Michael's massive arms wrapped around me. I turned in his arms to face him and kissed the dark stubble on his face, "You saved me."

His eyes rimmed with exhaustion blinked open, "Gregor, you are awake. I feared you would never again awaken. I felt you slipping away." Michael's eyes sheened over with tears.

"I am here my dearest and thanks to your strength, I believe I am well." I beamed my smile, my love into him.

Michael smiled,"If this is a dream, may I never waken and if this is real, then I am truly the most fortunate of all men who walk this earth."

"Oh my tired savior. I put you through this and you are thankful. I ..." I stopped too full of feeling and kissed him pulling the bulk of his body into mine. I could feel his pulse, the physicalness of him. I squeezed him.

We made love in that sacred place and I felt blessed and completely restored. Michael was kissing the vastness of my chest as I held him. He suddenly stopped.

He gently pulled out of my embrace, blinking wetness from his eyes, "But Gregor what did you do here? What evil came upon you that was so great?"

"The world is now a changed place, Michael. The culling is no more. No longer will the pollen refuse to fall on one of the brotherhood. No longer will the wise women use that tool to kill us when we are young."

Michael sat up looking startled, "There will be many of us Gregor, maybe too many for the world."

"I know the culling is the greater evil and the world will find a balance. It will and we will shape it in a better way."

We pulled on our clothes and walked out of the forest in our own thoughtful silence.

Michael's smile broke through like sunlight, "How we will recruit our civil servants?"

I returned his grin, "Maybe we can just ask them. There is no longer a reason to hide."

The end

of The Culling

but ideas will be continued in a brave new world.