Chapter 258 (Patreon)

Chapter 258

Riven was pushing another spoon full of rich-tasting, brothy soup into his mouth after having Luke and Genua sprinkle some of their blood into it.  Both his thralls were up far earlier than his demons were and the three of them were sitting around a small table over breakfast.  

“So where were you all this time?”

Looking to Luke, where the old elf was examining the recent wound which was already healed along his wrist - Riven waited curiously for the old man to answer.

The elf thrall paused in thought, then grinned and gestured out the window of their booth down the road towards a large but flat one story building where a bouncer could be seen outside.  “Spending my hard earned money at a whore house.”

“That entire time?”  Riven asked, taking a sip from a cold cup of water and draining it over the next two seconds.  He let out a relieved sigh due to the refreshing sensation it let off.  “That’s a bit impressive.  You missed out on a lot of the experience though.  I can’t grow levels here unless I complete quests, but you all still can.”

“Bah!”  Luke waved his hand dismissively at the idea of the fight, setting it onto some cheese and crackers that’d been supplied by the bar next to Gragle’s home.  “This old man is tired of fighting.  I’ll leave it to the youngins like you and the pretty lady sitting next to us.”

He gave Genua a smile, and she hesitantly returned it before taking a bite of her own bowl of soup.  

Riven ignored some of the stares he and his two thrall minions were getting, seeing that Luke wanted to say more by the hesitant way he glanced up at Riven from time to time.  The old man’s body language was also a bit off.  Sighing, Riven set his spoon down into the bowl and steepled his fingers while other patrons of the pub began to settle in.  “Come on Luke, you and I are friends.  There’s no reason to hide anything.  What is it that you’re thinking about?”

Pausing halfway from bringing up another set of cheese and crackers, Luke put the food back down on his plate with a sigh of his own.  Fidgeting somewhat, he leaned back in his chair and stretched his arms before resting his head back on his hands.  “You know that many of the blood priests and priestesses, or other higher ranking clergy members of The Blood God are thralls without masters.  Right?”

Riven raised an eyebrow.  “Yes I’m aware.”

The old man’s eyes fell back down from the ceiling where he’d been staring, and met Riven’s gaze.  “I hold no ill will towards you, but I was hoping you’d let me go.  To let me be masterless.  There’s something that I need to do.”

There was a long pause, and Genua looked over at the old man curiously without saying a word as the two men stared at one another.

“It’s about my grandson, Ren.”  Luke eventually said, eyes falling to the table when Riven didn’t immediately reply.  “I was going to go looking for him, and if you let me go I think Elysium will kick me out of the event and send me back to Panu - based on what the locals tell me; and they know more about system events than we do.  He’s the last family I had before the integration began, and if I don’t go now it may never happen - or I might be too late.  I’m not even sure he’s alive, but he’s a talented young man.  I have to have faith.  I have to find him before the rest of Panu devolves even further into war - and I’m sure those announcements concerning the updated world quest timelines will come any time now.  If what Genua found out from the other clergy of The Blood God’s temple is true, where Greed itself is making a move to intervene against you and there will be more outsiders brought onto the planet, that only decreases the chances of me finding him should he be swept up in the escalating violence.”

Another pause. 

Riven’s eyes fell, and he pushed his bowl away to rest his elbows on the table.  He slowly nodded.  “It makes me sad to hear, but I understand.  Of course I’ll let you go.  Do you have a plan for finding him?”

Genua’s eyes widened in shock, and Luke’s face fell into an expression of relief.

The old man nodded.  “I have already put out notices in the old elvish kingdom of Tereen, and I’ve made requests for information on the Panu Cortex, but haven’t heard anything yet.  Missing people requests come up all the time on those boards and rifling through them is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. I was hoping to cross the sea, to start looking for him there.  I also know he was a skilled mage in his own right and did a lot of work with construction companies before the integration. I was going to start looking at those.  Perhaps he went back to it.”

Riven paused, then pulled out a large sack of coins that he set on the table.  Using paper and a pen from his dimensional back, he started scribbling on a note - then folded the parchment before handing it over to the elf along with the sack.  “Take this to the necropolis and talk to Dr. Brass.  He’ll outfit you with whatever supplies you need, will help you charter a ride to whatever continent you want to go to, and the gold will allow you to buy whatever you want within reason from the Elysium Altar or other merchants we have.  Perhaps you could even hire some mercenaries, I know there are a lot of adventurers looking for work.”

Blinking in surprise at the gifts, eyes widening when he saw what Riven had written on the parchment, Luke’s eyes began to water.  Wiping them away, sniffling, and then glancing back up at Riven - he gave the younger man a bright smile.  “Thank you Riven.  I’ll be sure to bring my grandson back if I find him.”

Riven grinned.  “You’ll always have a place back here with us if you want it.  Do you want to say goodbye to anyone else before you leave?”

Luke hesitated, then clutched at the note and the bag of gold with a shake of his head.  “No, I think I’m anxious to get going.  I wasn’t too close to any of your other minions anyways.”

Riven's smile faltered slightly, putting on a tinge of sadness.  “Alright then.  Now, assuming the locals are right about what I’m about to do, I suppose you should probably get going my friend.  Find him soon, so that we can spar again at the manor like we used to do when time wasn’t so tight.”

Reaching over and putting a firm hand on Luke’s shoulder, Riven nodded firmly before accessing his status page.

“Tell Len that I love and miss her before you leave the city.” Genua said somberly, giving a half hearted smile to the old elf who then nodded in turn.  “And that I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Luke attempted to reply, but then shut his mouth and merely gave her a shaky smile.  He nodded to her, and then to Riven, before a set of notifications appeared for both the men.  The next instant, Luke was gone - leaving only Genua and Riven sitting at the tableside, with the cheese and crackers Luke had been eating behind.

[You have dismissed a thrall minion, Luke Blissfallen, from your service.  You gain all willpower attributed to controlling that thrall back as free points to use on other minions.  Luke Blissfallen has been banished from this world quest event now that he is no longer affiliated with you.]

Picking up some of the cheese and popping it into his mouth, Riven slowly waved to the spot where Luke had been not long ago.  “Wish you luck, buddy.”

Genua slowly moved her gaze to her master, who was sitting across from her.  “I’m surprised you let him go so easily.  Don’t you need thralls to maintain a blood source?”

“Well I have you, don’t I?” Riven asked, a bit downtrodden, looking up to meet her eyes.  “Unless you were wanting to leave too.”

She blinked once, then twice, then sighed and put on a warm smile with a slight sideways bob to her head.  Her eyes squinted in amusement, and it was the first time he’d seen in a long time that she’d looked genuinely happy.  “The fact that you’d even give me a choice now makes me feel good.  Appreciated, even.  But no.  Even if it is the effects of being your thrall, I think that we’ve come a long ways over the past couple months - Don’t you?”

Riven’s lips quirked at the edges, thinking about last night, and he nodded.  “Yes.  I think we have-”

Riven’s words were cut off as the pub ruptured down the middle in a flare of cutting water blades and crackling sin energy, the form of a sea serpent created from liquid and bathed in deep purple lightning tearing through Genua’s abdomen in a flash of power.

Riven’s eyes went wide as he watched his thrall get cut in two, blood spraying out her side as she let out a surprised and horrified scream.  Other people in the pub, along with floorboards, pieces of the walls and ceiling, and furniture were all obliterated along with her midsection - but due to Riven’s own reflexes he was able to react just in time to stop the torrent of winding, watery death from crashing directly into him too.

The water around him dissipated as his rage soared, an aura of blood and shadow roaring to the heavens as the land shook.  Black lightning flashed around him and focusing fire back into the direction the attack had come from - he blindly let loose a resounding blast of energy high up into the air.

What remained of the ceiling evaporated in an instant in a storm of red and black, but he didn’t take time to see whether or not he’d hit the ambusher before encasing himself and Genua in a dome of red crystalized ice.

She gasped, shaking violently as her upper body let intestines and her spine dangle from where her waist had once been.  Her legs were nowhere to be seen, swept up in the flood that’d killed nearly everyone else there, and her fingers clawed in wide eyed panic against his chest in a silent scream.

“You’re going to be fine!”  Riven hissed, reinforcing his dome of ice as another, more direct hit slammed into his position.  The earth underneath him shook violently and the barrier cracked, but it held, as Riven activated his Voodoo Doll spell with a quick series of hand gestures.

[Voodoo Doll (Blood)(Tier 2): Scan your target to map out their vessels and infuse your mana into their bloodstream.  You then gain the ability to replicate their bloodstream regardless of whether or not they have extensive wounds - enabling you to keep them alive as long as their brain remains intact.   You may also use this ability on hostiles to form painful blood clots.  Heart attacks caused by this ability do critical strike damage.  Dependent on both Intelligence(90%) and Willpower (10%) stats.  Medium cooldown.  This is a channeling ability and will not work if interrupted by using other spells.]

Redirecting the blood that was pouring out of Genua’s upper body like a spurting fire hydrant, he stopped her from completely going into shock and made sure it remained oxygenated as he fed it right back into her brain.

Gripping one of her bloody hands, he looked up into her eyes where tears were flowing down her cheeks, and frantically snapped in front of her face to get her attention.  “Genua, I don’t know where your lower half is so you’re going to have that body fusion miracle that came with your class!  Do you understand?”

She only continued to gasp, looking blankly at him while continued to shudder - her hand clasped in his own as yet another resounding boom tore layers off his red dome.

“GENUA!”  Riven screamed, looking up and seeing a swirling storm of sin and water condensing overhead.  “I CAN’T KEEP YOU ALIVE AND FIGHT WHOEVER THAT IS AT THE SAME TIME!  FUCKING ACTIVATE THE-”

Azmoth’s flaming figure blurred through the sky and slammed into whatever or whoever was attacking Riven’s position, and the loud cackles of Athela were heard as she screamed: “I SHOULD PLAY BASEBALL!”

They’d likely been woken up from the blast since they’d been only a few houses over, while having a nap in Gragle’s place.

Calming slightly and grinning at what had likely been Athela throwing Azmoth like a pitcher would, he began snapping his fingers in front of Genua’s pale face again on repeat.  “GENUA!  Pay attention, get a hold of yourself!  I know it hurts, but I’m keeping you alive.  Ok?  Just concentrate on fusing with me, can you do that?”

Genua rapidly blinked the tears out of her eyes, holding onto Riven’s hands for dear life, and shuddered with a nod.  “It… It hurts so badly!”

“I know it does!”  Riven hissed.  “But the pain will likely go away if you use your body fusion technique.  Can you do that?  Have you done it before?”

Genua hesitated.  “I haven’t t-tried it before, but I…”

Her eyes went wide, and she gasped.  “OUR CHILD!”

***

Netithi Bluskish, the Apex ranker naga at number 6 in the power boards, cursed; and swat the large demon back to the ground in an explosion of water before taking higher to the skies again.  A large searing set of claw marks through his scaled side still burned with hellfire, but it was rapidly healing due to his body’s natural regenerative properties.  He couldn’t keep this flying ability up for very long and needed to expel tremendous amounts of water mana to do it, using the pressure it provided as a form of propulsion, but at the very least he’d be able to make it to the next River before being caught even if Riven did give chase.

Looking back  down at the archdemon who was attempting to pursue him as it scrambled out of the town borders, and then glancing beyond that to where the pub had once been, he chuckled to himself while his eye prosthetic scanned the building.

It’d been a direct hit, and he wasn’t entirely certain if he’d actually killed the child in her womb - but at the very least it’d been a decent attempt.  Worst case scenario, she and Gluttony's child would likely be severely injured and the message will have been sent.  Best case scenario, both child and the mother would die.

Greed’s demonic envoy, the one who called himself ‘The Gambler’, would be pleased either way.

“We will see if all those rumors of your power are true, or bluster, vampire prince.  Come and find me, or better yet - I’ll be finding you again soon enough.”

He let out a husky laugh.  With a snap of power, large tentacles akin to the kraken spread out all around him, and Netithi Bluskish rapidly accelerated into the distance through the clouds - creating a trail through the sky with a shockwave of sin.

***

An enormous bridge of dark gray stone with rolling hills of bloodied corpses marked the entrance into Negrada’s demon city of Herenwa.  On one side were the defending forces, mostly made up of demons and some of the stray groups of mercenaries from Brightsville that’d been overly eager to get there early, illuminated by the fires of the trench under the bridge and the torches along the high city buildings - while the other side contained a swarming army of undead that had been repelled seven times over now.  In the sky, battles between harpies, gargoyles, phantoms and other winged creatures clashed as corpses fell like rain.

Tre’Zix of the Purple Claw, archdemon of the Klinac’Tal Clan and officer in Gluttony's legions stood tall over his comrades in the lesser hellscapes of Negrada.  His large pointed legs dug into the mountain of undead bodies over a large bridge entering one of the key locations in Negrada’s defenses, facing off against the hordes of undead that were regrouping after the latest bloody rebuke.  Other archdemons of his clan, also devout followers of Gluttony, were with him and jeering or laughing loudly at the pathetic attempts of their enemies while flaring their insectoid wings out to either side - with a demonic, unholy touch to their textured chitin carapaces.

Tre’Zix was a hulking creature akin to that of a mutated deep-red and purple praying mantis, over ten feet tall, with a pincer-like mouth and a set of long, retracted blade arms that dripped crimson droplets against his insectoid chest.  His face was similar to that of a praying mantis but thinner, with narrow, yellow, catlike eyes and three curved horns sticking out of its head in a triangle formation.  Four thick, armored insectoid legs had serrated blades on their extensor sides, and a set of blood covered wings which also had purple blades attached to the edges was displayed out to either side of his large body in challenge.

“COME, DUNGEON TARUS!  DO NOT FALTER NOW!”  Tre’Zix crowed with a mocking laugh that echoed across the rivers of hellfire to either side of the bridge, with an army of friendly forces at his back made from gargoyles, red ape-like jabob demons, satyrs, minotaurs, imps, and then other scattered breeds of lesser demons intermixed into the masses.  They all stood far behind where he and his seven brothers and sisters were though, as they would only get in the way of the Klinac’Tal clan’s slaughterfest.

And Tre’Zix would not be kept from his glorious victories in Gluttony’s name.  If the forces of Negrada got in his way to try and steal his kills, he would simply throw them off the bridge; into the depths on either side of the choke point he and the other archdemons now stood on.

“COME!”  He roared again, with the clacking of his comrades on either side - their mandibles gnashing, wings flaring, and blood-bathed scythes glinting in the light of the hellfire rivers.  “OR IS THAT FEAR I SENSE?!  I CHALLENGE ALL OF YOUR BROOD, ALL OF YOUR LEGIONS, ALL OF YOUR ARMIES TO MEET THE EIGHT OF US HERE ON THIS BRIDGE SO THAT WE MAY SHOW YOU THE MANY GLORIES AND HORRORS OF WAR!!!”

His seven clan mates screamed their approval, all eight of the archdemons flaring with power that boomed in a shockwave of challenge - out across the hordes of mulling undead that had invaded Dungeon Negrada from another subsection of hell.  Dungeon Tarus had pushed far into Dungeon Negrada’s second level by now, wiping the first levels entirely clean, but they’d come to an abrupt stop when Gluttony’s forces had arrived to wreak havoc in their old stomping grounds.

But Tre’Zix, along with some of his clan, were only a few of the groups now manifesting to power level under the banner of Gluttony.  Seventeen more defensive points had been selected with telepathic communication keeping their officers in contact with one another in case reinforcements needed to arrive, and forces from Brightsville in the form of other FRIENDLY undead had bolstered the battlefront in an absolute rebuke of this invasion.  Tre’Zix was personally responsible for one such regiment which was currently marching here after Negrada had been mass-hiring them as mercenaries through the guild systems, though it was more of a babysitting job for Tre’Zix than anything else.  Tre’Zix wasn’t necessarily commanding Brightsville’s regiment, that was the duty of the officers General Bruner had selected, but the archdemons felt it was their duty to oversee these battles at least it an extent so that Gluttony’s new forces would be able to grow at a faster and safer rate.

As long as they didn’t deprive him of his choke-point kills that is.  They could fire spells and projectiles from behind his position.  After all, he needed to power level and he was in many ways doing them a favor by saving their sorry hides from dying this day.

“DEMON SCUM!” A voice boomed out from the roiling hordes of undead.  Between ruined buildings and the wreckage of the city beyond, a huge explosion of death mana rocked the ground and shattered the ruins around the point of detonation in sprays of debris.  Hundreds of undead were annihilated in an instant, with more falling just afterwards, as a large humanoid figure stepped out with power roaring about his figure.

It was a death knight with two skulled heads, each  one glaring out at Tre’Zix with balls of neon teal flame for eyes.  A huge claymore wreathed with the trapped bodies of screaming ghosts and wraiths screamed, echoing power as the spirits tried to escape and giving the large blade a ghostly-gray coloring that shifted and writhed around it.  A single intentionally shattered pentagram was laid out across the huge black chestplate of the death knight’s plate armor, with the image of a scythe crossing it at a diagonal overlaid on top.

The horde of undead creatures of varying species reeled back from the skeletal champion as he stomped forward to the edge of the bridge with a hiss and cackle from his two respective heads.  Lifting his enormous weapon and causing the air to shake with another fluctuation of his mighty aura, the being called out to Tre’Zix with malice oozing off his words.  “DEMON ABOMINATION!  IT IS KNOWN THAT WE WHO WALK THE PATH OF DEATH ARE ABOVE YOUR KIND, THOSE WHO CLING TO YOUR NETHER REALMS TO CODDLE YOUR YOUNG LIKE THE WEAK COWARDS YOU HAVE DEVOLVED INTO!  THIS CLEANSING OF NEGRADA CANNOT BE STOPPED, IT CANNOT BE CHANGED, AND DUNGEON TARUS ALONG WITH HIS COALITION OF ALLIED DUNGEONS WILL SEE TO IT THAT ALL OF YOUR CORPSES END UP ON OUR DINNER PLATES THIS NIGHT!”

The death knight shot his left arm out, and a massive tower shield rushed from a pocket dimension to his calling - slamming into the bridge and causing it to shudder under the strike.  “I CHALLENGE YOU, BUG DEMON OF NEGRADA, SO THAT I MAY HAVE YOUR DECAPITATED HEAD AS A CUP TO DRINK FROM AFTER THIS WAR IS WON!  FACE ME IN ONE ON ONE COMBAT, AND WE WILL SEE WHO IS SUPERIOR HERE IN THE DEPTHS OF HELL!”

The cheers and roars of the undead horde echoed like a tidal wave from the opposite side of the bridge, while Negrada’s forces stoically watched to see what Tre’Zix would do.  This particular death knight commander had already slain many of Negrada’s champions in this same exact duel setting, and though it wasn’t something one had to accept - the death knight was an even bigger menace on the bigger battlefield.  There he could utilize recent kills of his own make to strengthen his sword by absorbing their souls, many of which had already been added to the collection of trapped wraiths and ghosts fluttering along his sword.

Despite the confidence of the enemy and the wariness of his other allies, Tre’Zix began to laugh alongside the others of his clan.  Their laughter heightened and continued to rise until he had reached a hysterical state.

The demon called out above the ruckus.  “YES!!!  THIS IS WHAT I CAME FOR!”

Wiping one arm over his face to get rid of a tear, Tre’Zix brandished his two scythe-like blades and jumped off the mountain of bodies to slam further onto the huge bridge.  Just like when the death knight had slammed his tower shield into the thick metal, so too did Tre’Zix’s landing cause the bridge to shudder under his impact.  Flaring his wings out to either side and opening his mandibles wide to reveal three writhing, pronged tongues each the size of a human arm, he began circling the death knight while his clan members continued to laugh.

“It has been some time since I’ve had anyone brave enough to challenge me in a one on one duel!  Aside from Lillith, that is!” Tre’Zix called out while the two-headed death knight got into a defensive stance.  “It appears that my brood and I, and perhaps even most of the others of our order have been long forgotten due to the passage of time.  So much so that a babe in the eyes of the multiverse such as yourself would so confidently rush to his death!”

He cocked his head to the side with an amused chuckle when the death knight flashed forward in a blazing ball of black and teal flames.  “PERHAPS IT IS TIME TO REMIND EVERYONE OF JUST WHO I AM!”

Tre’Zix slammed his two scythes directly into the bridge in front of him, and fissures split through the deep metal with waves of kinetic force that reached the sky.  They blurred ahead and shattered the death knight’s armor, taking off both arms of the commander only a split second before Tre’Zix moved to flank the undead.

Before the death knight even had time to stumble forward, armless, Tre’Zix’s pronged tongues crashed into the skulls of his enemy - drawing him back into the mandibles with a resounding crunch as his scythe arms criss-crossed so fast that the very air around them was sucked into a billowing cyclone.

The duel was over before it even started.

Bone, metal, and what little flesh the death knight had left all crashed into the floor as Tre’Zix screamed in victory to the roars of his comrades.  Then, turning to the hordes beyond, his yellow eyes began to glow.  After images of his form tore out of his position as he collided with the nearest clump of skeletons, liches, and ghouls; and like a frenzied storm of sharp steel he began to tear apart the enemy army.