Chapter 273 (old chapter 270. You can skip this one and go on to Ch.274 if you don't want a refresher) (Patreon)

Chapter 273

4 Months Later…

They ate, breathed, cultivated, trained, and fought in the arena events to test their progress.

Then they slept and repeated - with only a few exceptions to spare.

Each of their soul lattices were slowly building up, but the descent down through the abyss had still been on standby.  Despite Gluttony’s urge to find Purity’s Reincarnation, the so-called Seventh Wing, Greed’s ‘Gambler’ had provided them with information that was vague at best.  Not only that, but if the two sins did go after the commandment of Purity - it wouldn’t be Riven who was participating.  Riven was far too weak, comparable to a bug when the true titans and monsters of the multiverse under Gluttony’s control were getting themselves involved - even if the churches were scattered and only a shadow of the powers they’d once been.  S-grade agents of the highest orders from the churches of Greed and Gluttony had, grudgingly, started working together to comb a very specific area in the third universe for the potential target - and that’s all Riven really knew about it for the time being.

Yet neither he nor Gluttony trusted Greed’s henchman even despite the temporary truce concerning Purity, and fully expected Greed to betray them at a moment’s notice when opportunity presented itself.  It would be stupid to think otherwise.

But still, he was interested to see whether or not they’d succeed in finding and kidnapping the commandment’s reincarnation at all.  Too much lacking information and a heavy angelic presence made for poor prospects at best, but even poor prospects were better than no prospects to the demons who wanted Purity out of the game.  Any time Riven even thought about it during his bouts of combat training, mana sensing, and soul lattice building - he got an abrupt and angry surge of emotions from Gluttony.  Those emotions weren’t directed at him, but it was obvious that Riven’s counterpart had a long, long, long history with this particular commandment.

A history that Riven was now dragged into regardless of whether or not he wanted to be, given his status.

Only time would tell how this all played out.

***

His soul cracked, shifted, and groaned as bridges formed, broke, and reformed while the lattice built itself up.  His pillars were creating bridges, forming threads that became cords that became rivers of intermixed attunements.

He was on the path of transcendence, and he could feel the abyss deep in the descent calling out to him even from here.

His eyes flashed open with a spark of primal ether, merging his mind with Gluttony’s own as the two of them watched their souls intertwine with one another at a rapid pace.  In the meditation chamber, his skin - etched in ancient lost scripts of unholy origin - radiated wisps of power.  A calm lake of purple, teal, black, and above all - crimson, that shifted around him and rose into the air - dissipating after leaving his body to fall back into the environment where the mana was less condensed.

His senses had been refined.  He could now sense any F-grade and most E-grades that Lillith sent to hide around him via mana pulses.

His skills had been refined.  He was now winning more than 9 out of 10 fights without the use of his minions, summons, or Gluttony’s interference.

His way of thinking had been refined.  He would no longer overestimate his own abilities, and would rid himself of the fatal flaw of taking an enemy for granted.  He was imperfect, and had room to grow.

Though it had only been four months, and though he still had a long way to go, he was far from the man that’d set foot in this place when first arriving.  For an F-grade, he was at the pinnacle.  Even here, in the Abyssal Descent, where the elites of the Unholy-oriented multiverse sent their young to create their soul lattices.  And he intended to move forward with that mindset as he continued his training elsewhere.

But his minions had all reached their own level caps now under the rigorous training and power leveling of Gluttony’s church.  The opportunities no longer lasted here in the top level of the descent, but rather - they existed in the lower floors where the condensed energies of the abyss called to him.

Now it was time to move on.

The black scripts shifted across his body and set into a new formation as he floated down from his hovering position and touched foot-first onto the stone floor.  A silent shockwave radiated through the room, immediately highlighting the seventeen assassins in various locations as they launched themselves at him.

Seventeen rifts, twenty spikes of crimson ice, twelve wretched snares, and eight quick black lightning strikes in the next three seconds resulted in the assassins all being incapacitated with varying types of wounds.

And he hadn’t moved from his position.

He looked around at the many opponents, demons all, who now lay on the ground in pained heaps.  Men and women or creatures of unknown gender who’d once wiped the floor with him in the arena only three months ago, now reduced to groaning and bloodied messes around him with little expenditure in his mana.  His skills had been focused and clean cut, without redundant use of unnecessary power, and his identification of their positions had been both simultaneous and immediate.

He exited through the next door, and came face to face with a grinning Lillith as the healers rushed him by to get into the room he’d just left.  His body still radiated with a myriad of unholy energies, and his black-red eyes narrowed as he gave his teacher a bow of respect with hands clasped in front of him.  “I believe I am ready, Lillith.  Please, let us proceed.”

Lillith looked over his shoulder, smiling.  Then she nodded, and turned while walking him down the hallway.  “Let us go then.  The others are waiting.”

***

Genua was noticeably pregnant now, but merely nodded to him as he passed her by to join the others in the gathering hall.  She would be heading to The Blood God’s realm soon enough, to avoid any of the fallout until he summoned her at the bottom of the descent for inspiration’s purpose.

The others of his group were all ready to leave, and not including minions - only 5 could be grouped for descending floors and layers per Elysium’s regulations.

Nora had been given twin daggers made from the bones of void eels, creatures that dwelled down here in the dark - with each weapon being infused with sin energy itself that she used to devastating effect.

Azmoth now had an entire outer layer of actual armor on top of his natural plates.  It was a very dark gray, with holes in it for the black spikes of his body and fire-drawn runes that continued to burn even now while not in combat.  Twin halves of a huge tower shield were held in each set of hands, for a total of 4, with large blades attached to the ends and outer edges that made the shields act simultaneously as odd swords too.  His flaming antlers, given to him by Riven a while back after a dungeon raid, had also been added and forged into his armor which gave him a rather interesting change in appearance now that they’d been applied.

Athela had been given a cloak made from shadow, flickering in and out at random intervals even while standing still in the far corner - leaning against a wall with a smile under her hood.

Allie’s soul-woven bone armor had been reforged, enhancing the legendary-quality F-grade set and turning it into an E-grade set after immense expense had been undertaken on behalf of the reaper’s organization here in the abyss.  Her glowing gray halo and pale eyes reflected off ivory plate as her black wings drifted out to either side amidst a swirling vortex of souls - and the divine claymore with teal runes etched into the large weapon danced with shifting patterns from time to time as she held it tucked to her chest.

Retesh and Fimrindle hadn’t changed much on the exterior, but they’d undergone advancements of their own concerning their cultivation and skills - while Fay had been the most dramatically changed of them all.

She was, even by Lillith’s standards, finally a somewhat competent underling.  In large part, it’d been due to her secluded bouts of meditation every other day while investing her time in deep meditation with the Viper Grimoire of Curses and Schemes.

[Viper Grimoire of Curses and Schemes (Unholy Specialization Grimoire, Unique): +129% mana regeneration when held.  +9% damage to all curses when held.  Binding this grimoire and adding a single one of your curses to its pages, you will decrease the cooldown time on your chosen curse by 10% while simultaneously allowing for spontaneous evolution options of that curse with insights drawn from the Unholy Foundational Pillar and its related sub-pillars.  Spontaneous evolutions will occur as the grimoire actively writes out different variations of the curse across its pages with random trial and error experiments in an internal, limited plane.  Evolution options will occur in the form of insights once a breakthrough is made.]

Her skills had developed significantly.  Curse Traps, a staple of hers in the early days, were now far larger and stronger, and could be triggered by certain actions or criteria rather than manually needing to be set off.

Dreamwalker Zone now let her illusions do small amounts of damage even though they weren’t actually real, which added up over time and made her offensive abilities go up drastically.

Her Curse of Rot cloud could detect friend from foe, and wouldn’t afflict allies - allowing her to bathe entire battlefields in her dark green clouds that ate away at the flesh of enemies with potent necrosis.

Charm was extra effective up close.

Dark Pact healed others more than it used to, though its slow was the same as it had been, and it also hurt her less while using it.

Not to mention she’d also learned a cursed flame technique taught to her by the other succubus Lavini, which allowed Fay to create whips and fireballs from green fire to attack her enemies with.

Due to her drastic improvements, she’d been given a set of silver illusionist’s robes that left little to the imagination as they were partially see-through and fit rather tightly.  She was also given a silver hat that matched the set.  Despite how revealing they were, and they were damn revealing - the skin-tight robes and hat also gave significant boosts to any illusion-based spells a caster may use.

As the others were his minions, Elysium registered himself, Lillith, Nora, Allie, and Retesh as the ones who’d be going down the descent together later that day.  And after saying goodbye to half-gargoyle half-minotaur Amano, and Lavini the redheaded succubus instructor, Riven left the halls of the underground enclaves to finally reappear on the surface of the abyssal city with his group in tow.

***

Not three, but four of the icosahedrons that he’d originally asked Gragle the gnome to create.  Riven had been somewhat surprised to see the gnome alive, but he was happy for it and gave Greed just a bit of a mental acknowledgement for not butchering the little enchanter on a  whim.  The totems had also been reduced in mass, each of them being baseball sized metal objects with 20-sided faces each adorned with glowing red and flickering black runes.  Above all else, the graphic that Gragle had infused into them concerning the ‘Hive’ and ‘Swarm’ aspects was absolutely fascinating.

And through Riven’s link to them, he could either manually control the creations - or set them up with given orders that the soul fragments inside would follow to the best of their ability.  Thus, as he walked, the four almost-spherical artifacts of his totem set swirled around him like planets orbiting the sun.

[Hive Totems of Bloodforged Rift Sparks (Lesser Artifact, Elite Tier, Level 6 Totem Swarm): These totems come as a set, and new totems can be added to this number at the additional cost of Willpower - with each totem adding exponentially more Willpower to the cost.  Cost of Willpower is based upon attitude towards the wielder of this totem set, as well as current combat level.  Current Requirements:  119 Willpower, Blood Sub-Pillar, Shadow Sub-Pillar.  Bound to Riven Thane.

Adding different types of totems will change the name and description of this totem set.

Current Totems in Hive Swarm:

• 4 Totems of Bloodforged Rift Sparks

The Path of Red and Black has been imbued into these totems, along with numerous different sigils, and has used the blood of an ancient avatar of original sin to fuel its growth.  This totem has the ability to grow and level up, but diminishes in level each time one of its totems are destroyed.  This totem swarm can currently perform the following abilities:

• Black Lightning

• Crimson Ice

• Rift]

They truly were remarkable.

Yet, despite his fascination with the little deadly creations, he didn’t let his gaze linger on them for very long as his team walked through the city.  Through the streets of dark stone that were bustling with activity, he passed like a silent tidal wave of oppression as the other residents of the Abyssal Descent quieted and stood aside.

Wide eyed stares of varying species greeted him as his group moved forward.  Non-demons kept a wary eye on them as they passed, and nearly half of the demons gave them signs and gestures of respect or reverence when they realized who it was.  The burning purple MYTHIC statuses on both Riven and Lillith were in obvious contrast to everything else that resided here, and due respect was given in one way or another.

Meanwhile, as they made their way to the central portal of the upper first floor in order to begin their descent into the depths: Athela, Nora, and Fimrindle all stuck to the shadows as an anti-assassin measure.  That left Riven, Lillith, Allie, Retesh, Azmoth, and Fay leading the front of a pack of hundreds of mindless skeleton warriors and skeleton monsters being controlled by the lich and angel of death.

“Has your man completed the upgrades to my armor?” Riven asked Lillith, ignoring the stares as they passed crowded shops by.

“Messenger and Jackal have both been fine tuned to better fit your revised style, they’re waiting at the portal with the smiths and enchanters..” Lillith replied evenly, her long black hair made from shadow itself flowing out behind her like a cape.  She turned her eyes up at the large black-and-yellow flower that had now spread along all seven of her horns, and gave it a firm pat while moving along with silent footsteps.  “I think you’ll like how they turned out.  Have you given any thought to the last minion slot you have available to you?”

Riven’s gaze shifted forward, and they turned left with a direct shot towards the city’s center with a black hole looming in the backdrop of the buildings.  “No.”

“Do you intend to fill it any time soon?”

He didn’t miss a beat.  “I do not.  I’ll be temporarily binding to your fill-in for the descent down when we get to the portal’s edge.”

Lillith evaluated him for a time, then nodded.  “Very well.  You’ll be meeting him when we arrive.  He’s a Beholder demon, to shore up your weaknesses - even despite your improvements concerning finding enemy assassins.”

Riven’s face turned into a grimace, and he scowled from underneath his Chalgathi-hood with a sideways look.  “Beholder demon?”

Lillith’s eyebrows raised, and she let out a laugh.  “Do you have something against Beholders?”

Glancing over his shoulder, he gave Fay a knowing look.  “Let’s just say that I haven’t had the best experiences with Beholders thus far.  They’ve turned out to be rather treacherous… But hopefully this one that you’ve chosen will prove me wrong.”

***

The silent parade of demons and undead It was certainly an intimidating site, but even despite this - there was one in the crowd that was not impressed.

Scarred blue scales rippled underneath a ragged cloak in a hidden alcove obscured by wards that impaired others from seeing inside.  He lay coiled up, watching and waiting, with the communication orb in his hand laying dormant… for now.

Netithi Bluskish, Champion of the Kraken, newly appointed Disciple of Greed, had a job to do.  The gift of Sin energy had been more than enough of a payment for his loyalty, but the more Netithi performed - the more power he gained, and he’d found a very profitable partnership out of this allegiance to The Gambler and the great sin of Greed ever since their first encounter.  

And despite the ‘ceasefire’ Greed and Gluttony had, it wasn’t as if Greed would actually abide by such things.  Not in truth.  As soon as their agents off world made their move against The Seventh Wing, all bets were off, and Netithi’s hired scythes would move in to kill.

For even despite the presence of an Angel of Death, scythes - despite their reputation as elite assassins - were in the end just extremely expensive mercenaries.  Even with one of their own in the mix, such as that scarecrow character, they would not hesitate to fulfill contracts to eliminate the high priority targets below.  With the Church of Greed was there to back them up, it was going to get very heated - very fast.

He just had to wait for the confirmation… confirmation that The Seventh Wing was under Greed’s control, and that the S-grade Gluttony warriors off planet had been left behind to fight Purity’s forces while Greed’s own escaped.  Only after that confirmation could Netithi truly move, because if he acted too quickly - all bets on cooperation were off, and The Seventh Wing was an even greater prize than Gluttony’s Reincarnation was.

His left prosthetic eye, a purple gemstone enchanted to help him evaluated energy signatures, quickly worked over the crowd and found his targets easily enough even at such a distance.  Energy roiled within his core as he cycled and pondered on his plan to be, only for the communication orb in his hand to start buzzing.

He looked down with a wicked smile, fangs bared, only for him to abruptly stop as a shadow crossed his peripheral vision.  Was he imagining things?  He blinked, looking around and not finding anything, until his prosthetic noticed just a slight-

-Netithi barely had time to blink before twin red blades snapped through his heart - and a crimson web slapped across his face to prevent his scream.  Simultaneously a scythe ripped through his upper spine - making him go limp while his body started to spasm.  He let out a gasp as blood sprayed from his body when some kind of poison began to seep into his brain, and the last thing he saw before the world turned black was a woman wielding twin bone-crafted daggers lunge forward from the darkness to pierce his skull with a thunk.

He was thrown from the Abyssal Descent and back into Chalgathi’s realm for respawn, with no ticket back - and what would become a lingering pain where the woman’s blades entered his head only moments before.