Side Story - Astra's Ritual (Patreon Exclusive) (Patreon)

[I WROTE THIS LONG TIME AGO AND NOW I THOUGHT I SHOULD SHARE WHAT HAPPENED]


Blood magic. Leylines. Star mana. 

These were the three things Astra knew of this world that possessed tremendous magical power in itself. Blood magic was what gave rise to hexbombs, leylines were the spawning source of countless dungeons, and star mana, the superjuice of heroes. 

And he had ten years. He had to get it ready within ten years. 

He didn’t tell them. He didn’t think the idealistic Harris, Becky or Mirei would understand. He didn’t tell Gerrard either, he didn’t think he cared. He was too busy being drunk. 

If he was to prevent this massive disaster again, it was going to be him who did it. 

240 or so countries, between 50 million to 500 million lives lost. All in the span of almost a single day. The numbers were vagur, after all data collection and census information were not commonplace in this world. 

It haunted him. It stuck in his memories, and when he slept.

Travelling out of ground zero, watching the miles and miles of wasted, broken terrain. Cities, flattened overnight. The bodies of the dead scattered everywhere. 

If this was war, it was horrifying. So horrifying that he puked every time he woke up from those bad dreams.

He had to stop the demon king. The next one. He didn’t want this to ever happen again, and he didn’t plan on leaving any stone unturned. Even if it is cursed magic. 

Once he got over his initial shock, repulsion, depression and anger at the enormity of the destruction, he got to work. As a hero, he had many tools, and many... benefits. 

Heroes could make special items, heroic items, infused with star mana. And he did so in large quantities, and traded them with the surviving leaders for information, for land, for money, for people. All these kings, leaders, sheikhs, sultans, they have all seen the destruction, and they were more than happy to pay a King’s ransom to protect their own lives, their cities, and their family. 

Within a year, he was wealthy and had titles from many, and he had an army of mages willing to do his bidding. So he set out in his search.

He had two conditions. One, a location close to at least 2 magical leylines. Two, a large location capable of housing at least 1,000,000 people, and land fertile enough to feed them.

He found a place on the Eastern continent, there was already an adventurer’s town when he got there, the 2 magical leylines spawned dungeons that fed the adventurer’s guild and markets, along with the wealth from selling the spawned loot. 

But he had other ideas. A farm for magical items? What’s that when a hero can make star-mana infused items easily ten to hundred times stronger? 

And so he claimed it. No one was actually going to stop him. He gave enough heroic items to the King who owned that plot of land, that the King literally just agreed to sign away the land there and then. And then some more to the neighbours, so that they kept their mouth shut. 

The town became his new capital, and he renamed it Astranomicon. 

Over the next 9 years, he constructed a massive tower mounted with a massive cannon. He destroyed the dungeons, and built massive contraptions to channel the energies of the two leylines into an array of mana-batteries. 

Next, with the help of his newfound army of mages, he made star-mana batteries. Storing star mana required some of the most valuable items in the world, incredibly rare gems and crystals that cost a fortune, but a hero could easily do it. That took time, but within 5 years of Astranomicon’s founding, his star-mana supercharger was ready. 

Then, the last part, was the secret part. He used his contacts to speak to various occult leaders, and learned about their cursed blood magic. 

Astranomicon was already growing, after all, the King was a hero, and it was going to be a great nation. Those who seek greatness would want to serve under a hero, because the hero would soon rule over it’s neighbours. Many came to ride that surging tide. 

He gladly welcomed the citizens of the world who came seeking his protection. And he made a special medallion for every single one of them. Proof of their loyalty to Astra and Astranomicon. 

Blood. They all dropped a bit of blood into the medallion, and it bound their body to it. It gave them protection, he said. The new citizens swallowed the messaging, hook, line and sinker. And so the city grew, and by the 9th year, as the demon king was about to return, it grew even more. Citizens heard of the destruction and death, and so they went and sought out the former heroes, believing they could offer them protection.

There were skeptics, but his fame won through.

He had about 1.3million people in his city. Every single one had a medallion. 

The massive city was bustling, filled with life. The entire kingdom was secretly one massive magical formation. He had many test firings, at first, relying just on the two leyline’s power. It’s comparable to the demon supercannon in strength, and had similar range. 

But he knew it’s true potential was more than that. 

So when the demon king came, Astra was eager to test out his passion project for the past 10 years. 

He was eager to stop it before it caused too much damage. But he had to get a good shot. He only had one chance. One single ritual, where he went all in. 

It took two months to find and accurately pinpoint the demon king's location. One moment when the demon king appeared to rest and motionless. He activated his weapon.

Ten years for this moment.

1.3million died. The supposed protective medallion ripped their souls out of their bodies, and pulled it along the magical formation that covered the entire city. 

The two leylines drained of their mana. 

All his star mana, and everything he had. 

One condensed shot. One small reddish ball flew across the ocean, containing the captured energies of 1.3million souls remnants fused together, mixed with massive quantities of mana from the two leylines, and then capped off with Astra's own star mana. 

It hit the demon king right in its massive body. And it detonated with a fury so intense, the demon king’s body was instantly vaporized. 

He did it.

But the ritual was an ancient poison. The massive metropolis of Astranomicon turned into a ghost town, as the death of so many in a single moment, bound by a blood ritual, cursed the entire land. Every great spell lkke this usually had a drawback. The formation could not contain all the negative energies from this single moment of betrayal, and it made a hex so strong, the entire capital turned into a hex-wasteland. Towers and buildings turned into haunted houses, streets filled with life now spawned monsters overnight. 

The two leylines were drained. Poisoned by the blood magic and turned into a spring of hex. The terrain, once fertile, turned toxic and inhospitable. Grotesque monsters took the place of animal herds. 

When he saw the system's prompt, all he did was laugh. 

[You have performed a cursed ritual of horrific proportions. You have been excommunicated, and you are now a Fallen Hero]
[You have gained 73 levels in your class [Blood Mage]. Blood Mage class evolved and merged with your Fallen Hero class to transform into a Deity Tier class - Dark Ichor]

[You are now a Level 151 Dark Ichor]
[You've gained the Domain of Blood]
[Domain Skill : Firstblood Vampire Servants obtained]
[You've unlocked the special mana type : Soulblood Mana]
[Access to star mana revoked.]

“I sacrificed 1.3million lives, to save tens of millions more, and this is what I get?” He laughed. 

There was no one to hear him laugh, in his hexed, cursed and crumbling capital. Only monsters.