Chapter 121 (Marked for editing) (Patreon)

Chapter 121

Blood and viscera tore through Kathrine’s abdomen and white sparks of high-speed shrapnel blasted towards Allie’s face with a high-pitched screeching sound that dulled the senses.  Allie’s eyes went wide, Kathrine let out a horrified scream, the heavily armed guards jolted forward with shouts of alarm, and more of the flaring metals continued to blast out of the exploding thrall to head towards the three royals.

*THUMP*

*THUMP*

*THUMP*

The world turned into shades of gray, black, and red; slowing momentarily and then speeding back up within the course of a few seconds.

The metals whipped forward and shredded Allie’s face, neck, and brain - sending gray matter peeling out the back of her skull and letting her body slump to the floor.  Riven saw himself scream out and rush towards her only to get blasted himself, being ripped apart a thousand times over by a swarm of small burning metals that eviscerated his body and tore the head cleanly off Kathrine’s riddled body.

They were all so close to the thrall that’d ruptured and there’d been so little time to react… it was inevitable.  The guards hadn’t been able to take more than two steps forward even despite super-human speed before all three of the vampiric nobility were utterly torn apart in a storm of white fire, glowing metal and body parts that refused to heal.  The nearest guard to them stumbled to a stuttering stop, gawking and dropping his halberd in utter dismay at witnessing the carnage before them.  Athela screamed, Azmoth looked on in shock, and Fay put her hands up over her mouth in horror right before all three demons were ripped from this plane of existence and vanished into portals leading into the nether realms.

And thus, Riven watched himself die over and over again - the image replaying in front of him.

Riven’s eyes dilated and the world around him abruptly calmed on the fifth replay, slowing down just when three shimmering fragments of metal were within an inch of Allie’s face.  The land around them was still tinged in shades of black, red, and gray, and the familiar out-of-body experience halted space all around him as cold, resonating energy rippled across his skin.

His ethereal body, a replica of his own but without physical representation stood staring at the scene before them - blinking red eyes and looking down at a hand created from gray wisps of mist.

[Malignant Prophecy has activated.

Desired Action: High Tier Manipulation.  Current Willpower stat: -380.  Sufficient Willpower to perform desired action.  Performing this act will put your malignant prophecy on cooldown for significant amounts of time.  Do you wish to proceed?]

*THUMP*

*THUMP*

“Yes.”

[Desired action: Save yourself, Allie, and Kathrine from impending death.  Malignant Prophecy’s two options are as follows:

• Option 1:  Create an exact replica of miniature rifts in space to match incoming projectiles by.  At least 137 individual miniature rifts must be properly timed and created to divert all vital strikes.  Up to 320 individual miniature rifts can be created at short distances and at enough of a narrow space-time before your mana runs out.  Chance for success:  High.
• Option 2:  You must force Core of Original Sin - Gluttony, to awaken early.  This will empower you enough to survive and devour incoming projectiles, but it will greatly damage your soul’s Blood Sub-pillar to the point of non-use.  Chance for success: High.]

[Desired action has been selected: Option 1: Create an exact replica of miniature rifts in space to match incoming projectiles by.  At least 137 individual miniature rifts must be properly timed and created to divert all vital strikes.  Up to 320 individual miniature rifts can be created at short distances and at enough of a narrow space-time before your mana runs out.  Chance for success:  High.]

Immediately time unfroze and the colors of the world went back to more normal hues.

Blood and viscera tore through Kathrine’s abdomen and white sparks of high-speed shrapnel made from silver blasted towards Allie’s face with a high-pitched screeching sound that dulled the senses.  Allie’s eyes went wide, Kathrine let out a horrified scream, the heavily armed guards jolted forward with shouts of alarm, and more of the flaring metals continued to blast out of the exploding thrall to head towards the three royals.

A half-second later and flaming white-hot shrapnel was within a centimeter of Allie’s head, and less than a millisecond after that a small black rift opened up in between her and the incoming missile that would mark her death.

Riven’s hand shot forward and dozens upon dozens of small rifts in space blew holes open around them, each one only an inch in diameter with a cost far less than a normal riftwalk.  His red eyes quivered and shot back and forth at insurmountable speeds while following the patterns Malignant Prophecy drew out in his mind, and his Shadow Sub-pillar flared to life.

Missiles intended for himself, Allie, and Kathrine were all simultaneously swallowed in the blink of an eye and were launched elsewhere onto the surrounding landscape around them.  Explosions of hot-white flames dotted the black floor of the altar, and the sound of metal scraping on metal could be heard when many of the projectiles came to a grinding, sparking halt.

Riven’s heart pounded in his chest, and blood leaked from his nose as his body shuddered.  He dropped to one knee, vision going in and out while shouts from his allies and the vampires rushing over to help Kathrine up quickly started healing her and making sure he was ok.

He heard the enraged screams of Allie not but moments later, felt the strong armored claws of Azmoth pick his sagging body up, and then his mind faded into darkness as he passed out from the strain on his body.

[Your manipulation of fate has gained you 3 Malignancy Points.

Current total Malignancy Points: 4]

***

Jalel ran a hand up through his short, silver hair.  He watched, awestruck, as the queen’s fury was unleashed on the idiot who’d tried to circumvent Elysium’s bylaws in order to kill the three younglings on the integrating world.  If the man had only tried to kill Kathrine, that’d be one thing.  He’d have succeeded, without any trace of what he’d done.  But even despite being many millennia old and being well over level 1000, this moron had still failed to cover up his tracks well enough to subvert the wrath of Elysium’s administrator.

Within mere seconds of the assassination attempt being orchestrated, curses of magnitudes far greater than Jalel had ever seen visibly washed over the greater noble while his body began to rot and whither.

But it only took mere seconds for Queen Nephridi to realize what her distant cousin had tried to do to her nieces and nephew, and she’d acted to save her cousin so that she may exact vengeance herself.

And she was certainly making an example of the man.

The prince, once the head of a great house of their empire, was stripped naked of clothes and titles before being nailed on a cross right there on the platform in front of the entire empire.  She’d flayed his skin from his body, torn scars through his very soul, eviscerated him over a hundred times, broken all his bones dozens of times over and was slowly pulling his brain out of his skull just fast enough to keep him alive while he regenerated it bit by bit inside his head.

All the while, the queen wore a cold expression of contempt as he and his family begged for his life while he let out inhuman screams of pain.  And all the while, the crowd jeered and cheered to keep it going while chanting for his death.

Jalel understood why his relative would have tried it.  The situation represented a great opportunity, one he could capitalize on to kill other competitors in the aristocracy.  Kathrine in particular was of a house that this man had conflicting interests with off world concerning competing trading companies and slave harvesting along the border of their empire, but Kathrine is where the man should have stopped.  He’d gotten greedy, foolishly thinking his use of a thrall would not tag him as the perpetrator of the crime.  Perhaps the man had used multiple lines, multiple people beneath him, one after the other to pass the traitorous message along so that he wasn’t immediately responsible for the act.  Perhaps the man had not thought Riven or Allie to have a full grasp on their Malignant Prophecy’s powers yet.

But he should have known better, and Jalel could only shake his head at the absolute idiocy of it all.

“Quite the bold move.” Another man on Jalel’s left said, and his red eyes shifted to where another aristocrat, another prince by the name of Blosuth, calmly watched the torturous execution with an unwavering gaze.  “What an amateur.  He deserves to die simply for the inability to properly carry out a plan, and even moreso for poor judgement of time and place.  He should have left it at Kathrine and the system wouldn’t have intervened.”

Blusoth adjusted his ornate, platinum-trimmed silver robes and smoothed back his blonde hair.  His lips quirked into a predatory grin and his sideways glance at Jalel was met in stoic repercussion.  “Oh, don’t be like that dear cousin.  I’m just voicing my thoughts is all.  I had been wondering if you were going to be the one to try it, unfortunate that wasn’t the case.  It appears you have more of a brain on your shoulders than I’d anticipated.”

“I fail to connect the dots on why you’d think I’d attempt to assassinate the newly found royals.” Jalel stated flatly, hands clenched in the pockets of his well-made black robe-suit and fingernails digging into his skin as he tried to subdue his rage.  His red eyes narrowed.  “Do enlighten me.”

Blusoth smiled widely, exposing his fangs as red flowerpetals from above them continued to shower the crowds; as the screams of the tortured man not far off echoed out above the shouts for his death.  “My dear cousin, I just find it humorous you tried to hide what you found there; deep in the heart of hell.”

Jalel’s blood ran cold, and he stiffened even despite an act of willpower to not do so.  His pale face got paler, and the reaction was all Blusoth needed to start laughing.  “I’m not sure what you mean by that, Blusoth.  Stop speaking in riddles.”

“Oh come now.” Blusoth teased, nudging past Jalel to step away with a paused, backwards glance.  “I wonder what the queen would think if she noticed you failed to mention the shard held within Riven’s soul.  Perhaps, if you pamper me enough with bribes, the money may make me forget that little bit of… oversight.  However, should you fail to do so, it may very well be that I accidentally let it slip.  Who knows.  Anyways, have a jolly time with the show!  I’ll see you around, cousin!”

Blusoth sneered and continued his step, walking away and across the platform to where some of his concubines awaited his return, and Jalel’s heartbeat raced as he silently pondered on what to do.  Did he kill Blusoth to try and silence him?  If so, how would he do it?  Could he even do it if he wanted to?  And if not, how much money was Blusoth going to milk out of him before Jalel was a broken beggar of a man?

And what was even worse, was that Blusoth and possibly other nobles of the court now had knowledge of Riven’s shard.  Of his building core of Gluttony.  How had they found out!?  That piece of Gluttony was his, NOT Blusoth’s!  Jalel had been the one to find it, and he’d be the one to claim it!  Jalel’s forehead popped with a vein as internal rage boiled up to the surface, and he silently swore to himself as he concocted a new plan to get him out of this mess.

***

Two days had passed and the meeting with the rat man Snagger was coming up very soon.  Gurth’Rok and the greenskins had been placed as overseers of the enslaved adult elves and areas of land for farming had been designated in the fields adjacent to the Elysium Altar, with the elves being particularly good at growing crops due to their affinities and plant-based magic.  The elf children had been sent to the tower at the center of Brightsville where they were enrolled in re-education programs under the thumb of their new undead teachers.  Their entire force had been fed easily enough by buying various foodstuffs from the altar’s central spire - the general system store, or from Negrada.  They'd used half of Riven’s accumulated money, but this also allowed them to stock up on enough food to last their entire small nation - slaves included - for at least half a year.

The Yellow Skull Tribe as well as the adult elves had been placed under direct supervision by Riven while Allie maintained control of the undead part of their faction.  Allie was assimilating smaller groups of humans either by force or by coercion in the northern reaches of the city, and the Thane Necropolis now controlled the entire eastern, north-eastern, southern, and central grounds of the city with only northwestern and western reaches being controlled by other, smaller groups.  The western reach was now controlled by the convicts in the prison, who’d enslaved most other small groups in the area and were living like kings while abusing their lessers - and the northwest part of the city was still being battled over by numerous gangs in the suburbs that refused to bow to anyone or anything.  They were high on the newfound power their classes gave them, obsessed with the new inhuman powers the system brought, and were determined to remain free of others despite the Allie's announcement declaring Brightsville as under the control of the Thane Necropolis in the cortex forums.

Meanwhile meetings with The Blood Moon Requiem had indefinitely been put on hold, and Riven was half tempted to banish them from the face of their planet despite pleas and apologies offered by Kathrine or her subordinates.  He didn’t necessarily blame Kathrine and he also wanted to know more about his parents, which were both reasons why he hadn’t outright dismissed their trading commune from the altar, but nevertheless he and Allie had almost been killed that night.

And his malignancy points, of which he still didn’t now the true value of detriment of, had built because of it.  Whatever it was, his body had ached and occasionally spasmed for more than a day after doing what he’d done to avoid death.  Allie had theorized this was in large part because of how he’d split his ‘Riftwalk’ spell into numerous and very small versions of itself, which had likely damaged his mana channels due to the overdrive of power he’d experienced, but he wasn’t entirely convinced that was the case.

But now he was finally recovered, and standing outside the chapel next to Jose’s tombstone in the late hours of dusk, Riven was about to conjure his guild hall.

[Guild Hall: Stone Manor

*Plant this at a chosen location to create your pre-made guild hall.  This is a packaged, one time use item*

• Homeward Teleportation: Very long channel time
• 15 attendant spots available, 600 Elysium Coins per month per active attendant are taxed by the system administrator
• 3 mile exploration radius for attendants before forced retrieval back to guild hall
• Core Sturdiness: Moderate
• Defensive wards: None
• Other features: Library, kitchen, dungeon, cellar, armory]

His demons were obviously there.  Azmoth was stoically standing by, playing around with his large magma-imbued hammer but being very careful not to damage anything in the area under strict orders from Riven.  Fay was somehow telepathically talking to her brother in the outer realms, letting him know that they’d contact him soon for a guild hall contract.  Dr. Brass, Gurth’Rok, and Genua were all present.  Dr. Brass was excitedly shifting back and forth, knowing full well that his impending turn into a vampire was going to be done tonight, and was animatedly talking to Athela about it on the sidelines.  Genua wore a heavy iron collar and shackles, was chained to a nearby tree, and was glaring up at the others with ill-hidden rage.  Gurth’Rok was merely here to talk to  Riven about how things were going on integrating the greenskins into the city, but had told Riven he’d wait until the manor was summoned and explored before going into any details as they weren’t urgent.

“Hurry it up!” Athela called from the back.  “Dr. Brass is talking my ear off!  It’s torturous!”

Riven chuckled and looked over his shoulder to where the old man quickly scowled Athela’s way.  “Alright!  Alright, hold on.”

The rod he held in his hands was quite similar in design but different in color to the altar rod he’d used to create the enormous structure not far off from their current location.  Only a few miles away through the silver, death-attuned fields to the south, over the hundreds of tents and small wooden houses being built by the orcs and goblins, over the pens and farmland occupied by the enslaved woodland elves, the unholy altar and its halo of green flames was easily seen in the distance.  The rod was blue and gray, with a simple power stone in the pommel and a sharp pointed end to jab the thing into the ground.

Which he promptly did, and a notification screen appeared soon thereafter.

[Do you wish to activate the item ‘Guild Hall: Stone Manor’?  Doing so will lay claim to the guild hall that forms: allowing you to access the guild hall functions, enlist attendants through contract, and assign it to a guild.  This guild hall will take up approximately 7000 square feet of land, and is approximately 60 feet tall at its highest point.]

Pictures and visions of the guild hall displayed next.  It was a rather luxurious-looking stone mansion, 3 stories high, and was very similar to Victorian-style architecture with a rectangular build.  It had a wide tower climbing up over the front entrance, stone gargoyles holding up the balconies, and a wide metal gate around the front courtyard with gardens in the back.  Inside, red carpets lined hallways with empty picture frames on the walls.  There was an indoor pool with a skylight, a large dining room and kitchen, dozens of empty rooms for living in or storage areas, a library at the top of the central tower and a large meeting area for social gatherings in the front that wasn’t necessarily a ball-room but had the same feel.

Visualizing where he wanted the guild hall in his mind.  He made sure that the willow tree over Jose’s grave - now changed into an unholy-oriented tree species that stood up straighter with slightly glowing neon-teal leaves - was placed in the center of the garden out back, and incorporated the chapel’s garden into it while building the manor adjacent to the old chapel so that they’d be able to touch up the ruined building and make it an extension of their guild hall later on.

[Activating ‘Guild Hall: Stone Manor’.  Please hold.]