Chapter 41: Some Secrets, Some Admissions
Max saw a number of things over the course of Qetsiyah's 2000+ years of life — so many things.
But it was only one thing that had really garnered his eyes: A face.
A really handsome face of a man that was not in the original story. A hidden son, one born from Qetsiyah and Silas…
His entire story was absorbed into Max's mind — How Qetsiyah had lost her maidenhood to Silas and how it only took that one moment of intercourse to get impregnated;
'Talk about robust and fertile nutmilk. My insides feel all warm just thinking about the taste,' Maximus thought, mouth watering at just the thought of Silas' sacred jizz. 'Maybe I should charm my way into Stefan's bed? Get some of that doppelganger juice but with a vampiric kick to it...'
The thought made Max swallow hard, before gathering himself. 'Maybe whenever Elena breaks up with him I can have a turn… Right now, though, I need to focus.'
Max continued processing the memories — The rest of her memories on a sealed and forgotten son that Max was definitely gonna claim as his one day. Of course, the son is a grown man. Max was no monster… Because Fuck Diddy — And not the fun kind.
Max even saw all of Qetsiyah's secrets — All 2,000+ years of them.
And, among those secrets, Max saw why male Bennetts were rare — A curse placed on the lineage by Qetsiyah herself to limit the power of warlocks on the Bennett line.
'Yeah, no, I'm abolishing that curse entirely,' Max plotted, when an even better idea came to him. 'That could work…'
Max surfed through the rest of the old witch's memories, experiences and knowledge, assimilating all that made Qetsiyah… well, Qetsiyah.
And when he finished, he realised something else.
He had also assimilated the "Other Side" into his Psychic Realm, the two dimensions easily becoming one under his control and reign. The souls of the Other Side suddenly was given life once more through this integration — All concluding with Maximus becoming both the anchor and arbiter of countless supernaturals and humans who made up his domain — And any new ones who automatically joined either everyday.
'As I am now, I don't think I even need any sacrifices to destroy Esther's sealing of Klaus' werewolf side,' Max thought to himself, clearly already thinking ahead. 'Of course, I do intend to upgrade Klaus even more and I definitely still want Lucien, too. That Shen Min is also quite the looker… So many different flavors of man and not nearly enough time… Fuck, Maximus, focus.'
Max waved a hand and the appearances of three witches appeared before him — The Original Witch Esther Mikaelson, her powerful Bennett witch mentor/bestfriend, Ayana Bennett and the Witch of the Five — Another Bennett whom Max didn't care to know the name of.
"Of all the witches here right now, only you have a physical body, Esther," Max didn't offer the Original Witch a chance to gather herself, instantly using the Rune of Assimilation on her. "I can't have any of your schemes come into fruition, Esther. That period of the plot is unncessary. And don't worry — Dahlia isn't too far off from you… Through me, of course."
Max then assimilated the two other witches — Not out of maliciousness, but because he wanted their knowledge, spells and techniques with no strings attached — And what way to achieve this better than just having assimilated? None.
Max pulled out a golden crystal, twirling it in his hands as he placed it into the center of the same magic formation he used to bind/trap Qetsiyah, and with a simple wave of his hand, the formations, equations and setup was reconstructed, rewritten and redrawn, not wasting a drop of the resources used to make it.
'To upgrade Kol and create a new and superior hunter's mark for Jeremy and Alaric, I'll need to learn from the blueprints of the original sources, no?' As Maximus thought this, he began drawing power from the same sources as before, just, instead of a binding or entrapment, he was reaching out — Reaching out to every male warlock soul of the Bennett line across the entire multiverse, linking with hundreds— no, thousands of them per Earth, across all timelines, all at once — with a deal.
Form a covenant with him.
That was what he wanted.
Ditch whatever meager existence their standing as a male Bennett afforded them and become part of something greater than themselves. A brothehood to last the test of time, where one's value was…well, valued.
He allowed them to bring their mates with them or any significant other.
That was his offer.
And, surprisingly? Most of them took it immediately, cutting themselves off from their ancestors or their ancestral wheels and entering gateways to Max's Earth. Millions of them flocked to Maximus — Most of them were souls — about 97% of them were — but a small handful of them that were living people, who agreed to join his coven — easily about 250 of them were living — shunned warlocks who needed guidance and brotherhood, a second chance or were just unvalued or bored and wanted something new.
Of course, Maximus teleported all of the ones who were living to the Forks Estate — But only after binding them to his specific lineage with an originally created compulsive incantation, ensuring their loyalty.
The souls, however, he bound to the gold crystal and that to his psychic dimension — specifically a new layer to the dimension itself, one where it would be a heaven for them, tailored to their specific interpretation of a jolly afterlife. It would be their resting place but also a new wellspring of spirit magic power — An ancestral well made up of a couple hundred thousand Bennett warlock souls who would never tire and never truly die despite being spirits, as the psychic dimension itself both fed them and fed on them in a symbiotically beneficial way for all involved.
'Yet another new source of power to draw from…' Max smiled to himself. 'This is working good. I'll use my telekinetics to build new housing in the Forks Estate property….Or… I can just create such housing, can't I? An original usage for adaptive magic — One I've never really tested, but it's not like I'm imprinting it on my soul, so what's the worst that can happen…?'
Max doubled down on what he wanted to do, mentally visualizing it utilizing the natural resources of the surrounding forests of the estate itself.
With a snap of his hand — only after focusing on what he wanted — he felt reality bend to his will — The full instantaneous construction of 3 whole apartment complexes on his Forks Estate — Each big enough to house the 250 or so new warlocks he had gathered, with a huge amount of space to spare. It took soeme of the resources of the surrounding land — timber from trees, stone from the earth bu it was done in a way to only minorly affect the surrounding land, if it does at all. Max utilized nearby stores, warehouses and businesses for supplies he couldn't generate himself, making use of city wide compulsion to erase his "footprints".
'I'll expand on it on a by-need basis,' Max murmured. 'Now speaking of the Forks Estate… It's about time I have a talk with Kol. Better to rip the band-aid off than to keep letting it fester.'
[General POV:]
[Ten Minutes Later…]:
After teleporting back to Forks, Washington and getting everyone settled in, Max led Kol to a private patch of forests, alone, far enough away from the main property that no vampire or werewof would be able to hear them — And, with the Rune of Privacy active, no spirits or other unwanted eyes would be privy to Max and Kol's potentially dramatic situation — That is to say, to unfold.
Max walked longer, taking Kol deeper in the woods, concentrating deeply on how he was gonna break the news to him.
He must've had the conflict written in red on hisrehead, because Kol seemed to instantly pick up on something bothering Max.
"Max…" Kol grabbed Max's hand in a firm grip, forcing Max to stop walking and look at the Original vampire, heart racing. "Are you ok?"
Max said nothing.
Kol narrowed his eyes briefly before smoothing his face into one that could comfort. "Whatever it is, let's talk about it. I'm not wholly comfortable with this kind of silence from you."
Max bit his lip, frustration and something akin to shame spreading through him. 'How do I tell him what I did? I wanted him to be my first. That fucking rune — It ruined everything!.'
Max fought every instinct to flinch his fists.
"Does it have anything to do with your disappearing yesterday?" Kol asked, deducing something to have occurred but uncertain what it could've been. "Whatever it is, let's talk about it. I'm sure it can't be too bad."
Max nearly flinched at those words, the slight twitch of movement picked up by Kol, who began to wonder what Maximus could have possibly done or what could have happened to garner such a reaction from him.
Instinctively, Kol had been sniffing the air around Max to get a feel of his emotions, any slight waiver to the younger man's scent — anything at all — but, for some reason, even despite the rich forest wind blowing around them, Kol couldn't pick up anything other than his unusually racing heart.
It was an ability more common to werewolves than most elder vampires, whom only Elijah had only ever mastered the basics of — Kol, meanwhile, mastered the skill to a much higher degree — And, yet, he was getting no scent at all from Maximus whatsoever.
'He's shielding himself,' Kol realized, briefly after. 'Has been since returning from wherever he disappeared to last night… But why? Does it really have something to do with whatever he had to do in such a rush?'
Max sighed, mentally deciding to just rip off the band-aid instead of torturing both parties with the buildup.
He released the telekinetic shell from his being, watching as Kol's nostrils flared up, picking up on the scent of still wet cum plugged up his ass — And the smell of men all over Max — OTHER MEN.
ON HIS MAXIMUS.
It happened faster than anyone else would've been able to react. In a blur of motion, Max was held up on the base of a great pine, by the throat.
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A/N: The next chapters will be a fun surprise. It will contain smut. Just FYI.