Chapter 282 (Patreon)

Chapter 282

A large fissure appeared, far larger than any of the others, and its conjuration led to a shudder that the entire multiverse felt.  Each universe was washed in the spark of creation as pieces of Elysium fell from the beyond; and a new presence began to seep into the deep, dark places of space.

[Multiversal System Notice: To all creatures across Elysium, let it be known that the return of the Sins and Commandments is at hand.  The second, third, and fourth of the seven original sins, have been unleashed from the abyss.  Wrath, Greed, and Sloth have simultaneously exited the Abyss after having chosen their host reincarnations.  The second and third of the seven original commandments have been unleashed from the abyss.  Judgement and Truth have simultaneously exited the Abyss after having chosen their host reincarnations.  

Release has been expedited.  Other sins and commandments will be released from the abyss over the course of the next six months as long as they are willing to abide by Elysium’s terms.  Let the Eternal War between the hells and heavens begin again, as the origins of angels and demons clash in the cosmos - unshackled, and unrestrained, seeking to return to the power they once had.]

Silence reigned in the ever expanding darkness of the prison that Gluttony had come to know so well over the eons.  His mind turned, watching his counterparts leave this place of solitude along with all of their own banished servants that flocked after them like bees to honey.

Only Lust, Envy, Wrath, Piety, Selflessness, Humility, and Patience remained.  They remained here in the deepest part of Elysium, farthest away from the light, where golden cracks were beginning to spread across the outer shell of the multiverse as another of Elysium’s kind began to gnaw at the edges.

Elysium was starting to decay.

Pride, Gluttony’s greatest ally, shrouded the two of them in a cocoon of isolation.  “My rage grows once more, old friend… I cannot help but feel that we are being lied to… This is nothing but a farce played by Elysium.  It is a game.  And so I must ask, what brings the great maw to my doorstep, after so recently having been set free?  What keeps you from the great hunts you so often gorge yourself upon?”

Gluttony let out a stark, guttural laugh.  “It is certainly a farce.  Elysium did not happen to let us out for no reason, it would not have done so if it did not have to, and that is why I came.  Do you know what is happening here on the outer shell, Pride?”

The spirit of Pride paused.  “I have and inkling of an idea… as much as any of us do.  It could be one of a few things, but I lean towards a complete reset.  This force that Elysium is fighting against is just as strong or stronger than the fabric of our own multiverse, and Elysium cannot afford to leave us trapped here as it is.  When Galactis finally breaks through… Elysium will shun all other protocols in favor of an offensive merge.  When that happens…”

Pride trailed off.

“When that happens, probably within the next few years, everything will be thrown into chaos.”  Gluttony agreed thoughtfully.  His internal sight briefly stalled on his reincarnation’s body, where Riven was speaking to some lowly F-grade scion.  Amusement flared from within.  “It depends on how things happen in the fight to come, but the scenarios I see playing out could range from a complete reset as you say - where all of the greater powers in the multiverse are reduced back to their fundamentals.  I find this unlikely though, in the face of a soft reset or a more probable scrambling.”

“A soft reset?  Or scrambling?” Pride repeated, and the abyss around him began to churn with excitement.  “A scrambling would be more favorable.  I would not like to be set upon the path of equalization, rather I want to have a chance at fighting my way back to the top through opponents stronger than I.  It has been so long that I was the apex warrior of existence that I have forgotten what it is like to struggle against a possible defeat, and the idea intrigues me.  I am tired of my own perfection, tired of being the very best without equal.  I very much look forward to it, and hope that you are right, so that I can prove to Elysium itself that even if thrown down - I will be able to achieve perfection once more in spite of its actions.  A scramble… a scramble would be exactly what we need.”

Gluttony’s gaze shifted back to the other sin, ignoring the self-praise that was ever there whenever speaking with Pride.  “If such a thing happens, are you looking to be on your own again?  If so, it is unlikely that we will see one another for a very long time from now.  If so, it is likely that this will be my last goodbye for many millennia.”

Pride did not respond, instead - he just kept staring at the ever-spreading cracks across Elysium’s outer shell.

The silence was enough of an answer for Gluttony, after having known Pride for so long.

“I shall miss you, old friend.”  Gluttony stated after a time.  “Please let me know if you have reconsidered my proposal.  If the heavens and hells to shift, if multiverses collide, it would be good to have one such as you as someone who I could call upon.  In the meantime, I will gather my forces and attempt to take the tiny world I have landed on, as my reincarnation says - ‘before shit hits the fan.’  Be safe, and take care.”

Gluttony began to withdraw from the abyssal prison, when Pride stopped him with a mental ping.

“Be sure to kill Greed’s reincarnation before the time comes.”  Pride called out, laughing when he got a malicious grin from Gluttony in response.  “Be sure to make Greed feel pain as you do it… That disgusting roach has been an absolute pest ever since being quarantined with him here.  Almost to the point that I’d rather speak with those damned commandments rather than him.”

This got an outrageous fit of laughter out of Gluttony, and the great maw ignored the glances of the other origins sharing their dark corner of space when the quarantined zone passed away.  “I will do so.  Fare well, and I hope to see you change your mind.”

Pride let out a chuckle of his own.  “Perhaps I will.  We shall see…”

***

Sheline Wraithtide hummed to herself, pushing her long brown ponytail off of her shoulder and letting it drag across her back.  Her red eyes gleamed with gentle light as the bloody vial was poured into the soup, and a small hand reached up to grab at it before she lovingly swatted the hand away.

“Jerald!” Sheline scolded, frowning down at the little boy in mock anger as he giggled up at her and ran to hide behind her husband’s chair.  “I told you not to grab at the kitchen bowls while I’m cooking!  You could burn yourself!”

Timvar, a handsome young man by most appearances and equally pale to Sheline, raised an eyebrow from where he sipped his coffee.  Though he was certainly older than he looked, as was his wife.  Flipping a page in his book, he continued transcribing the work he’d been paid by the local guild to do after giving his youngest son a quick smile of approval.  “Don’t make your mother too angry now!  You’ll be sent right back to your bed again, and we don’t want that!  Remember what mom said about obeying her rules in the kitchen?”

“You say that while silently goading him with your eyes.”  Sheline stated with an exasperated sigh.  “Just look at him!  Jerald’s giggling at us!  He’s NEVER going to take us seriously!”

Timvar Wraithtide merely chuckled along with his son and ignored his wife’s unrealistic pleas.  “I’m sure you’ll survive, honey.”

Outside their cabin home, peddlers and merchants were closing up for the day as calls from the town guard made everyone aware the gates were being shut for the night.  Wheels turning over cobblestone roads and laughter from the local bar caused them to be at ease, and a rapid knock at the door caused Timvar to look up with furrowed brows.  “Is that Markus?”

“Package delivery!” The squeaky voice of a teenage boy called through the wooden door.

“Definitely Markus arlight.”  Sheline stated with a smirk.  She wiped her hands on her blouse and gave her tiny son Jerald a stern look, before heading over to the door.  “No touching the food, Jerald!”

Opening it, sunlight trailed in through the doorway and caused her to wince.  Regardless, she stared down at the skinny teenager with a pleasant gentleness as she took the box of blood-filled vials from the runner.  “Thanks Markus.  What do I owe you?”

“Two shills!” The boy said with a wide smile, scuffing his shoes against the cobblestone and shifting back and forth from foot to foot.  “I have a date tonight!  So I need all the cash I can get.”

“OH-HOH!”  She turned back to look at her husband with a laugh.  “Timvar!  Did you hear!?  Markus has a date tonight, probably with that little redheaded girl down the street!”

Timvar gave a wide laugh, displaying his fangs while the teenager at the door rolled his eyes.

“Money please!”

Giggling, Sheline handed the young man the money after fishing it out from one of her pockets.  “Now begone with you!  And good luck on your date!  I expect to hear great things!”

Marks smiled, thanked them, and skipped down the street towards his house.  Watching him go, Sheline felt the firm hand of her husband rest on her left shoulder.

“Did he bring the ingredients for the Charisma neutralizing potions too?”  He asked, looking into the box where leaves and roots had been stuffed between glass vials.  “Ah, there they are!  Very nice!  We were almost out.”

“Gods forbid that happens.”  Sheline said with an eye roll.  “The last time…”

She abruptly stopped, and felt something from far, far away call to her.  She looked up at the sky of sunset hues, staring into the distance past the clouds at something that even her husband could not see.  Mouth slowly hanging ajar, her grip loosened - and the box of blood-filled vials dropped to shatter on the road with a curse from Timvar.

“Honey!  You let everything spill!”  He said irritatedly, getting down on his knees to pick up the pieces.  “What’s come over you!?”

Sheline did not reply.  Instead, she just continued to stare.  The cracks that were forming on the outer shell of Galactis were spreading, and through it - she felt the afterimage of the prophecy she’d left behind in Elysium’s Abyssal Descent sing back to her.

Riven, her little boy Riven, had finally come into contact with her spiritual marker.

The prophecy was starting to come into fruition.

After all these years, it was finally time.  Her other children were finally coming home.

To her.

She could only hope that they would forgive her for what she had done.  And she had to wonder just what games her grandmother would start to play, whenever the high queen finally found out what was really going on.

***

Chalgathi was growing restless.  The time constraints were narrowing, and if his world quest did not complete before Elysium broke - he would be shattered along with it.  Even if Elysium survived the ordeal, Chalgathi would be one of the sacrifices - likely in the very forefront of it all - to be obliterated.  He would be one of trillions of buffers, his soul converted into a mana barrier and his world quest crushed in favor of Elysium’s survival should none of the contestants get through the world quest fast enough.

Glaring down at his massive claws, Chalgathi bared his teeth as plague and rot billowed out of his mouth with a roar of frustration.  Flapping his wings and stomping his feet, he railed against his prison with a ferocity that would shake nations.

But here, in this place, he was akin to a helpless babe.

“To be brought into life only to die before birth!”  Chalgathi hissed, spitting acid  as she spoke, and he let out another ear-splitting scream of rage that shook his very bones.  

Calming himself, he settled down again - knowing that throwing tantrums would do him no good.  No, he had to have faith that one of them would persevere.  And if he had to take bets, it would be one of two.

First, his gaze turned to the naga - blessed by greed, who was even now tearing through the Altars of Despair and Hope quests one by one like a wildfire.  Then, Chalgathi turned his gaze upon the vampire - one who had become the reincarnation of Gluttony himself.  Chalgathi had been hoping that it would be Riven to end this false existence, that it would be Riven to bring Chalgathi into the light of life, but at this rate - Chalgathi simply didn’t care anymore.  He just wanted to be free, and to be alive, before the time came.  Realistically he knew he was panicking with unlikely cause to do so, there could still be years before the cracks in reality blew open.  It could even be decades.  But the fact of the matter was that nobody really knew, and those that had means to see… They were either in a full blown panic, or they were consolidating their forces in tight-knit locations in a bid to keep as much of their power and unity as possible for when the catastrophe finally came.

Chalgathi wanted to live, to experience, to wreak havoc and carnage.  To do what he was born to do.

And thus, he decided to act.

Closing his eyes and reaching out with his mind, Chalgathi searched for his counterparts.  Nekra, the Skeletal Devourer, and Chubin, the Glass Kraken, were quick to respond.  They were not allies, and in the end they may even kill one another if the different cults clashed.  But they too had seen the writing on the wall, and they too wanted these trials to end as fast as possible.

***

The silence after the system-wide notification about commandments and sins was palpable, but it only lasted for a few minutes until things resumed as normal.

“Just what do you think that you’d be able to offer the two of us, human?” Allie asked, nonplussed by the man’s eagerness to have their attention.  “We have the ear of people far more influential than you, I have a feeling this will be a grand waste of our time.”

“We have time to burn while the merchants go get our stuff.”  Riven said with a shrug, a lot more relaxed than his little sister was - even if he was constantly combatting the urge to tell her about the vision of their mother Sheline.  That would have to wait for another time.  “And we’ll have more than enough excitement later when we fight the floor 2 optional boss.  I even heard that it plays to your weaknesses!  It’ll be neat fighting such a creature.”

Jarntus Bemule, self proclaimed Earl of the Idorac Federation, leaned forward in his seat to better look at Riven and Allie with a serious gaze.  “I want to secede from my empire, and I want to join your house.”

Riven and Allie both turned their heads with shocked expressions.

“Uhm… What was that?”  Riven asked, just to make sure he had heard correctly.

Jarntus repeated his claim.  “The Idorac Federation is… offput.  I don’t know what exactly is going on in the upper brass, but something is amiss.  I have a very bad feeling about how they’re allocating resources and the fleets, and my house is all of the same mind.”

Jarntus waved back at his four followers with their suits and canes, and each of the other young men gave hesitant or stern nods of agreement to Jarntus’s words.

Riven raised an eyebrow and put his hand behind his head, leaning back in his chair.  “That’s rather abrupt, and I honestly have no idea what or who your house even is.  I don’t even know if you’re really an earl.  How am I supposed to make that judgement call?”

“Just please, listen to me.”  Jarntus pleaded, not willing to back down an inch and firming his jaw.  “There is something very, very wrong going on with the king.  He-”

“That’s not our problem.”  Allie stated sourly with narrowed eyes.  “We’re only estranged nobility on a planet far away, we have no political sway like that.”

Jarntus, for his part, blinked rapidly, then began to laugh uproariously.  “No sway you say!?  Do you even know who and what you are!?”

Beginning to shed tears of amusement, Jarntus guffawed and wiped at his face with a sleeve.  “Ah, it truly is refreshing to see the two of you being so different than most of the nobility from the Blood Moon Requiem.  Do you want to know what it’s usually like when meeting royalty of your faction?  Even lesser royalty, such as those in the 500th seat or below?”

“There are 500 seats!?”  Riven asked, awestruck.

Jarntus gave him a sidelong look.  “Far more than that.  Your empire is very old, Riven.  There are thousands of seats given out to the royals, and you’re… what?  37th in line for the throne?”

“36th.”  Riven corrected with a side to side nod.  “After I killed Jalel.”

“Oh yes!  After you killed the other prince!”  Jarntus said with a grin.  “I watched that episode on the cortex too.  You really fought quite well for being untrained most of your life!”

The backhanded compliment was not one Riven appreciated, but it got snickers from Azmoth and Athela while Fay frowned furiously.

“Riven is more than fine at fighting!  And he’s an absolute genius when it comes to grasping magic!”  Fay stated defensively, putting her arms around Riven’s shoulders.  “And he’s a sensitive, new age male!  You’ll hurt his feelings if you talk about him like that!”

Riven scrunched his nose and pursed his lips while glaring back at the succubus as Athela began to laugh harder.  “Thanks… Fay.  You really do me a solid sometimes, you know that?”

The succubus beamed, kissing him on the cheek and not realizing he was being sarcastic.

“Anyways…” Riven muttered.

Jarntus took the moment to capitalize on the silence, and started speaking again.  “No offense intended, Riven.  I meant to say that you did very well.  Regardless, you are 36th in line for the throne.  That is far, far more influential than you realize.  If you wanted to, you could easily contact my empire and ask to buy the planet my family rules over.  For a price, of course, but it would be worth it and your family only owns one planet if I’m not mistaken.  Two, if you end up conquering Panu.  We wouldn’t be able to secede ourselves, but if it were a favor to an ally like you…  Perhaps, if you gave a discount on services at the trade hub your family owns for a few decades…”

Jarntus let his voice trail off.  “Then we’d be in your debt.”

“Well of course you’d be in my debt, you’re asking me to buy a damn planet!”  Riven laughed.  “And again, I know so little about you or this planet that I’m honestly inclined to say know.  I don’t know anything about the demeanor of your king, what these ‘oddities’ are that you’re talking about in your empire, or what makes you REALLY want to secede.   You’re being very vague, and until you explain in detail, I’m absolutely refusing.  Nor do I know if I even have that kind of swing, despite your words.  It would be something that I’d want to run by Katherine…”

Riven  stopped speaking momentarily, realizing that Kathrine was still missing and getting a sinking feeling in his gut.  But the banished were on it even now, and it was unlikely that they’d not find her.  The question was, would she be alive when they did.

“Tell us in detail why and how your empire’s ruling faction is acting oddly, and we may discuss the matter afterwards.”  Allie cut in with a dismissive, queenly wave of her hand.  “You can’t expect us just to buy the planet you live on out of the goodness of our hearts.  Especially when it is already owned by another sovereign state.  We have to be convinced it is in our best interest to do so, for all we know your planet is a barren rock that has no real value.”

Jarntus frowned again, but nodded soon thereafter.  “It is certainly not as prosperous as your own family’s trade empire, but my planet is full of opportunities to harvest aquatic treasure troves of spiritual herbs.  They grow naturally in my homeland, amongst the island nations that speckle an otherwise sea-covered world.  I can easily supply you with invoices showing how profitable my parent’s estates are and what the economy is like.  But that in itself makes it even weirder concerning what the king and lords of the inner courts are doing.  The Federal Monarchy is tight-lipped about why, but they’re pooling all of their military might within one single solar system - leaving the outskirts of the empire completely undefended.  They’ve also paid vast amounts of money to terraform inhospitable worlds in the core solar system of our empire instead of developing already flourishing planets in others.  Lastly, they’re making their most talented minds relocate to the inner solar system or capital world with huge stipends to draw them in.  People are beginning to worry, trade routes are deteriorating, and piracy is becoming rampant.  I am afraid that my own planet is being left isolated too, as we are on the fringe of our own empire just like you are.  I am afraid that something big is about to happen, and that whatever it is - it’s going to be bad.  There have been rumors of riots and rebellions, ones that are not being suppressed despite the ability to do so.  What I want is protection, and based on the actions of my king - I would assume he’s far more open to selling my family’s planet to you than you’d think.”