OLD Chapter 195 (UPDATE AS OF 11/23/23 - These original chapters 195-210 will be pushed out to another future part of the book or recycled. New chapters starting at 195 are being posted after the original 210, and these original chapters will soon be removed. For now, skip ahead to the NEW Chapter 195 past old 210) (Patreon)

Chapter 195

Allie’s fist collided with the quivering jawline of Gleetus in a flash.

*CRACK*

Teeth and blood sprayed out of his mouth, and the jarring strike stunned him into silence from the scared whimpering he’d been doing only moments ago.

Whipping out a blade from her belt in a blur of speed, Allie slammed the knife into Gleetus’s left kneecap and twisted.

“AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!”  He let out a scream of horrified pain.

Meanwhile, a malevolent and savage grin with fangs on full display stared back at him from inches away.  Allie hummed in delight, even beginning to cackle as her red eyes went wide.  “What’s wrong Gleetus?  Don’t like it when its YOUR turn to be tortured - is that it?!  WELL GUESS WHAT HONEY!  YOU’RE ABOUT TO UNDERGO THE SAME TREATMENT YOU PUT LAHN THROUGH!”

*CRACK*

The young man’s left arm shattered under another strike.

“PLEASE!” He began to sob through the blood spilling out of his mouth, shedding tears that dripped onto the leather leggings he had on - shaking the chair he was bound to back and forth while he rocked.  “PLEASE STOP!”

Allie wiggled a finger.  “NO!”

*CRUNCH*

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

Riven glanced up at Athela as she stood from her chair, before taking her place on Riven’s lap and curling into his chest to watch the show.

*SNAP*

*CRUNCH*

*CRACK*

“WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!”

Lahn looked on in shock.  Shovi wore a more pleased expression than anyone else, though she tried to hide it.  Meanwhile Lahn’s siblings at the table nearby wore terror-stricken expressions as the torture commenced.

Lahn’s Father, Lord Nikola Lucio, abruptly stood when Gleetus’s right shin bent backward at an odd angle under another brutal strike.  “Queen Thane, please - this is a bit far!”

The vampire queen whirled, deathly red orbs glistening back at him with fangs bared.

“YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP AND SIT THE FUCK DOWN!”  Allie roared in his face, death mana booming around her and causing the building to shake under her aura that caused Linela Lucio to literally piss herself there in the chair.  “YOU WILL WATCH EVERY FUCKING SECOND OF THIS, KNOWING THAT IT WAS YOUR OTHER CHILDREN THAT LED TO THIS SAME TREATMENT FOR LAHN!”

She raised a hand and backhanded the man, sending him stunned and sprawling onto the floor of the room before her hand crashed back down onto one of Gleetus’s collar bones.  The bone immediately snapped, and the blubbering, crying fool could only let out a high pitched moan through the swelling in his face that was nearly making it impossible for him to see.

“You’re going to kill him Allie.” Riven said casually, stroking Athela’s long black hair while she remained silent in his lap - head resting against his chest.

Getting a snarl from his sister, Allie glared back at him.  “And why would I care?”

“Because you still haven’t made him admit to anything yet, and you’re scaring everyone else here.  Lastly, killing him early would deprive you of the opportunity to torture him more.”  Riven raised an eyebrow.  “He deserves more than a quick death, is what I think.”

Allie blinked, then her snarl turned into a calm smile.  She took in a deep breath, stepping away from the broken man with a nod.  Walking over to the fire place in the back of the room, she sighed and bent down to pick up a hot iron that’d been set in the flames.  Bringing it up to hover in front of her face vertically, she narrowed her eyes and circled back to her victim.  “Yes you’re very right Riven, perhaps it’s time for questioning.  Gleetus, dear Gleetus, tell us from beginning to end… Just how did you get into Lahn’s room that fateful day you broke his limbs, and who else was involved in conspiring to hurt him?”

***

Lahn had always been an empathetic person, a kind child growing up and someone who’d give the shirt off his back to a homeless man should the need arise.  It was this mindset that kept him from understand the ‘WHY’ aspect of their actions.

His lips had stopped trembling, his tears had dried.  The knuckles along his hands that’d once clenched the chair he sat in now relaxed.  He let out a shuddering breath, having listened to the words of his two siblings, his father, and Gleetus over the past two hours while Shovi remained dumbstruck and horrified beside her previously crippled son.

“I had never loved that child, he was a disgrace to our house.” Lahn’s father had said.

“It was Gleetus who had the idea to try and kill him, I just wanted to hurt him!” Linela Lucio had admitted.

“Gleetus is a liar, I would never intentionally harm a family member - even if it is my crippled brat of a brother!”  Parius had stated sourly while glaring with intense hate Lahn’s way, blood trickling down one cheek where Allie’s slap had connected.  “He and Lahn were similar in that regard, always lying to drag the family name through the mud!”

Lahn’s eyes slowly hit the floor, shutting out most of what they were saying now during the interrogation - only briefly coming back into the present reality when one of Linela’s fingers snapped with a shrill scream.

His father bellowed in hate but was beaten into the ground, and his mother…

Shovi was too conflicted, too heartbroken to do anything but sob and watch.  Still, she stayed by Lahn’s side, gripping his hand tightly while trying to come to grips with the reality that two of her children had intentionally had Lahn attacked.  And for what?  Because he’d been disfigured?

Lahn couldn’t even bring himself to ask Allie to stop.  He just felt numb, and though he’d suspected many of these things - hearing it from the actual lips of his family was something else entirely.  It was like he’d died, and only a husk of himself remained to witness the terrible things they said.

“I want… to die…” Lahn whispered under his breath, only barely heard by his mother next to him as she frantically shook her head.

“No, Lahn!  None of this is your fault, don’t ever say something like that again!” She managed to gasp with a hand over her trembling mouth, bloodshot eyes still leaking tears.  “You are my little boy, my baby boy, and you are a good person.”

He only blankly stared at the ground beneath his feet, the left side of his body no longer withered but still very thin from lack of use.  “Then why do they hate me so much?”

A whisper in the back of his mind echoed to him, a soothing yet simultaneously malevolent voice that was both familiar and unfamiliar to him at the same time.  “Because you are weak… but you can change that, and you can help her grow.”

A haze clouded Lahn’s mind, and the words suddenly seemed less eerie.

“Just let me in Lahn, and I can make you all strong.  Even you.”

Black tendrils began squirming their way around Lahn’s mind, and he felt a shift in his soul aperture change - only barely seeing the abrupt whip-around of Riven’s head as the vampiric warlock locked wide eyes onto his thin, weak frame.

“Lahn?” Riven said, getting to his feet in a hurry as Athela did the same - also staring with both concern and confusion as they came closer to the sitting young man.  “Lahn what are you doing?  What’s happening?”

Allie had stopped breaking Linela’s fingers, letting Lahn’s crying, squealing sister go after slapping her upside the face.  Standing up, she shot Riven and Athela a confused glance before turning concerned eyes on Lahn.  “What’s going on?”

Words failed to reach him, and Lahn’s vision began to go dark as the tendrils spread along his mind and soul.  His body twitched, and though he could see Riven shaking him - beginning to infuse mana into his body, Lahn could not feel it.  Nor could he hear the man, or anyone else for that matter.

But his mind was at peace… and the more he felt its presence, the more he let the foreign entity in.  Tranquility, calm, and everlasting silence replaced the crushing reality of his family’s betrayal, and without much resistance he let himself slip away - his soul drifting into an abyss from which few ever recovered.

“Let me in…” The unknown entity said soothingly, caressing his mind in ways that caused him to go numb.

Numbness was a gift.

A thing that Lahn wanted.

He let on a soft smile, his vision going completely black as all other senses faded away after it.  He let himself go, his soul falling apart one piece at a time… Only to be swallowed by an enormous, serrated maw in the deep black of the beyond.

***

Riven stared, dumbfounded, as a hole in space ripped Lahn away.  It was a portal both unfamiliar and unfamiliar to him - unfamiliar that he'd never seen an actual portal like it, but familiar because it had the same scent as the Gluttony shards in his soul aperature.

"LAHN!"  Shovi screamed while jumping to her feet, and Allie almost dived headlong into the thing before Riven stopped her with one hand as a notification appeared in front of the utterly black hole that even his vampiric eyes could not penetrate.

That was when Allie let out a scream of anguish and fear, not knowing what had happened but being unable to sense Lahn's presence anywhere.

[An abyssal portal to Gluttony's Underverse has opened.  Gluttony invites you to take part in the ritual of the Profane Baptism now that you have acquired 5 pieces of its core.  Ring the three bells and bathe in the halls of sin to undertake the Profane Baptism; completing your Mark of the Sinner.  Finishing this ritual successfully will also save Lahn's soul, or you may abandon him to try and take this trial later.  Abandoning him will result in his demise and you will lose 1 shard of Gluttony and stall completion of Mark of the Sinner.  The choice is yours, you have 1 hour to decide.]

Surprisingly enough, Riven actually felt one of his gluttonous shards inside his apperature reach out and touch the portal.  Stabilizing it, a connection was formed - and he could feel the fluctuations radiate across his body in an odd, tingling sensation.  Instinctively he knew that he could cut this safely, but that the piece attaching him to the portal would be sucked inside and the portal would close.

And the stabilizing effect was slowly, ever so slowly, waning.

The room was utterly silent, with Athela scowling down nervously at the message - and Shovi to the right continued to read and re-read the notification over and over again.

His mother took in a sharp inhale of air while the rest of her family just remained in a state of shock, bruised and beaten in the corner.  She didn't look like she could care any less about the rest of them now that her youngest was gone.  "Is... Is this your fault?"

Shovi turned her eyes menacingly upon Riven, who glanced back at her and then took a step back when she rushed him.  Grabbing his shirt with both hands and shaking him, she began to snarl while nearly spitting out her words.  "What are you waiting for!?  Go in there and get him back!  Finish whatever this damnable baptism is and GET MY BOY BACK TO ME!"

Riven held up a hand to stop Athela whenever she began to move in, then met Shovi's eyes with a frown.  "We still have an hour to decide, but I'm not taking any suicide missions if that's what this is.  It may be a trap."

"It's not a trap." Athela cut in hesitantly, slowly moving Shovi's hands by force off of Riven's shirt and stepping between him and the enraged mother.  She turned around to look up at him, and then to Allie who was still staring wide eyed in shock at the portal that'd sucked Lahn away.  "I have heard about this step in the ascendancy process of the great sins before.  I am not sure of the details, but it is known to me that something like this could eventually happen.  I had just thought it'd be many decades or centuries until the main aspect of Gluttony set its sights on you as a potential flame-bearer."

Riven's eyebrows lifted, and he turned his gaze onto the demoness.   "You know what this is about?"

"Tell us everything." Allie snarled, whirling on Athela and jabbing a finger into Athela's chest before Riven shoved his sister back with a glare - interposing himself between the two.

The siblings continued to glare at each other until Allie stepped back, but she was still seething and crossed her shaking arms to stare at the arachnid woman.  "Please."

Athela took in a deep breath, then nodded and pointed to the portal.  "As I said, I don't know much... but what I do know is that the Abyss is a danger that none of us have much of a chance at surviving.  If we go through that portal... none of us may come out alive.  It is outside the system's purview, where the original aspects of the universe before Elysium's existence were born.  It is where Angels and Demons originated, where the oldest of our kinds still remain, and it is a battleground of gods and titans.  If we go in there, we would be ants to most of the other things that live there.  Keep that in mind, but if you wish to progress on your path of cultivating Gluttony... it may be needed.  Gluttony has chosen to let you in, has given you a calling card, and it is up to you on whether or not you think you are ready."

"You're saying if we go in there, we won't have access to Elysium?" Riven asked hesitantly.  "What implications would that have on us?"

Athela shook her head.  "Elysium still exists there, it just isn't the major player there.  What I meant by that, is things far greater than Elysium's system call it home.  How that effects us depends on who or what we come into contact with, but I cannot say for sure.  It is my suggestion that, despite Lahn's sacrifice, we leave him to die and try again when we are much stronger.  It is sad, yes, but it would be even more sad if we all perished in an attempt to save him."

"We are strong enough!" Allie snarled, and Shovi glared with a nod of agreement.

"You destroyed an entire army!" Shovi hissed, looking to Riven with white knuckles - standing off the bed with shaking legs.  "You are Lahn's FRIENDS!  Some of the only friends he has, and it is YOUR fault he was taken!  Give me my boy back!  If you are truly a good man like you claim to be, then take responsibility for him and get him back!"

Riven silently stared at the portal, then looked to Athela who slowly shook her head despite the rage visibly building up in Allie a few feet away.  "Just how much stronger are they?"

Athela shrugged.  "They're not all stronger.  But to put it in perspective, you haven't even hit level 200 yet, and so you haven't even escaped F-Grade yet.  Riven, there are creatures inside the Abyss that are Triple-S-Grade.  Creatures that've been around since the beginning of time.  There's a pecking order but... we will be in very, very grave danger entering that place."

"F-Grade?  Triple-S-Grade?" Riven repeated, confused.  "Does this have anything to do with how you were describing the Blood Moon Requiem as S Tier?  Or how items can go up in tier at the auction house concerning taxes?"

Athela nodded.  "Yes.  On a galactic scale, the Blood Moon Requiem's most powerful members - namely their queen and your grandmother with a few other elders, are S-Grade creatures.  You don't know this because your planet hasn't gone that far yet, but when you hit level 200 you are able to evolve into another grade of existence.  The power level dramatically increases and the amount of XP needed to level increases with it, exponentially so.  It is so exaggerated that if you were to fight an E-Grade creature as you are now, even a weak one, you'd have a hard time winning without me.  The floor would likely be wiped with your entrails if you met even a mid-tier E-Grade.  High tier?  You'd instantly die.  There's no question, and E-Grade beings in the Abyss are considered VERY WEAK.  Do NOT take this decision lightly, because you are very realistically risking being crushed by 90% of the things that live on the other side of that portal.  The Abyss is incredibly dangerous Riven, I think you should wait at LEAST until you are C-Grade to pursue this path of Gluttony any further."

Riven checked the timer.  52 minutes left.  "So we have less than an hour, and you're saying to abandon Lahn to the Abyss to try this gain in what - another... 600 levels or so?  Assuming each grade is 200 levels?"

"Yes."

"And you're sure that we're really that weak when compared to-"

"Yes."

Allie's voice cut in, shaking angrily as death mana began to pulse uncontrollably around her.  "Well I'm going with or without you Riven, even if I need to get him back myself."

Riven's grimace remained, and he held up a hand to calm his sister.  "Despite this sounding more and more like a suicide mission, I agree with you Allie.  We need to go, but let's not be hasty.  We still have a small amount of time to prepare."

Athela' face sank, while Allie and Shovi became slightly less tense.

"I'll summon two more minions and we'll stock up on supplies." Riven said flatly, rubbing his forehead and shaking it back and forth.

A knock at the door interrupted them, and when all heads turned - it was Kathrine who walked inside.

The vampiric princess softly shut it behind her, sheepishly looking towards Riven and Allie, before clearing her throat and smoothing out her already perfect brown hair.  "Don't ask why I overheard, but I did.  Riven, it would be a very bad idea to summon your minions here when you're about to take a leap."

Riven's eyebrows raised in surprise, not even bothering to ask her about the eavesdropping.  "Why's that?"

Kathrine clicked her tongue, then began to remove various trinkets from a storage ring on her right hand.  Putting down a number of potions, scrolls, and other various treasures Riven wasn't familiar with - she straightened and gave him a very deep frown.  "I don't approve of you going either.  The Blood Moon Requiem will most likely lose a very valuable resource if you choose to go.  But since you seem to want to go anyways despite Athela's warnings, and knowing how Allie feels about that silly boy, you should take these.  These are some supreme potions of protection, a couple warding scrolls, and some treasures that will help keep you hidden if you have them on your person.  Hiding will be your best bet to survive, and I'll have you know these cost a fortune to take to this planet due to the taxes.  You owe me because these are my personal belongings, even if it is my duty to help keep you safe to the best of my ability.  As for why you should wait to contract a demon, well Athela already told you."

She gestured towards the demoness with a flick of her wrist.  "The cream of the crop in terms of demonic creatures will be there in the Abyss, it should be a warlock's wet dream if you can promise them a way back out of that abyssal hole.  Wait until you get there and then contract your new partners, and I promise you that the quality of what you get will be astronomically higher than anything you can find in the mortal realms."

***

In the end, there was no persuading Allie that it should only be him that would go.  She was adamant to tag along, and with ten minutes left before the portal closed they'd gathered all they needed to in terms of supplies.

The two siblings touched the portal while holding hands, and in an instant - they were sucked inside.  The abyss swallowed them whole, before closing the hole in space behind them with a popping sound.

Dropping through an expanse of nothingness, Riven felt... cold.  He lost sensation in his right arm first, and then his left leg, and then his whole body began to tingle as his senses fled from his mind.  Only his hearing remained soon enough, long enough to hear a malevolent laugh that echoed through the dark heavens as yet another notification plastered itself across his conciousness.

[Your sister Allie Thane has been set as a target you need to kill at the end of-]

[Error.  Error.  Error.]

[Chalgathi has sent Allie Thane, your sister, to help you on your journey into the abyssal underverse.  Gleetus Nefrand has been set as a target you need to kill at the end of this dungeon in order to recreate a portal back home.  System Quest Dispensed:  Three Folds in the Path - You have been marked as a holder of original sin.  Gluttony calls, and the fates answer.  You have chosen to embark further upon the path of sin.  Your chances of survival are slim, but you have shown promise enough to be invited to the abyss early.

To complete the Profane Baptism, Ring the first bell at the cathedral on high and achieve enlightenment into the path of original sin.  Ring the second bell in the depths and achieve enlightenment on the path of Gluttony.  Ring the third bell in the castle of ashen lords and achieve understanding in the duality of Gluttony and Original Sin.  Then bathe in the halls of sin using the blood of your enemies.  Doing so will finish your Mark of the Sinner, and will release Lahn's soul from Gluttony's hold; giving him a new path to power for being the catalyst of creating the portal into the Abyss.]

Riven gasped, finding himself standing in the wreckage of an ancient fortress that spanned for hundreds of miles with various battlements, where purple lightning streaked across the sky and clouds thundered overhead.  Cliffs ahead of him shouldered the weight of the majority of that city, with a large gate many times the size of the titanic leading into the depths of the mountain - while far overhead and into the clouds, the sound of a bell could be heard ringing across He fell to his knees, shuddering as the sensation of being watched by a thousand eyes centered on him, only to have Athela, Azmoth and Allie appear beside him with blips of light.

That was when Allie let out a scream of anguish as her body shook with some kind of affliction, and she began to bleed out of her nose and eyes.  "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Death mana blasted the ground around them when her knees hit the ground, but unusually enough the dark gray stone of the fortress was only barely scratched.  Gray mists around them seemed to absorb much of her outburst, and the death mana quickly dissipated despite being something that could level entire villages back on Panu.

Broken statues depicting armored warriors, castle ramparts rising high into the sky to jut in and out of the gigantic cliff before them, shadows shifting in the air with beating wings all gave Riven pause.  To his left and right there were buildings created and molded from the stone underneath his feet, and before he knew it he was pulling Allie into the one on his right and covering her mouth with one hand.

Something was coming, he could feel its aura, and it was far more dangerous than anything he’d ever seen or faced before.

Whatever it was, this creature was a hell of a lot stronger than him.

“Allie shut up!  You are fine!” Riven barked with mounting dread after seeing her body begin to heal from whatever affliction passing into this realm had instilled in her.  He was still trying to understand what’d just happened, who's laugh that'd been in his mind before landing here, and he was reeling at the such sudden changes to his surroundings.

He continued to drag Allie over towards one of the stone buildings nearby, with Azmoth and Athela quickly followed behind and shut the rotten wooden door behind them.

Athela could feel the incoming aura too, and she was far more scared than he’d ever seen her before.  She nervously shifted left and right, eyes wide and a look of horror overcoming her before she turned to her master and lover.  Her words were frantic, but came out as a whisper so that she didn’t make much noise.  “She'll be fine.  She likely is just feeling the aftershock of landing in a consecrated space, the Abyss is full of Sin and Commandment energy... not being attuned to it like you are, or like demons and angels are, can really have a rough initial shock."

The thundering boom of a clawed foot caused the ground outside to shudder, and black flames licked a clawed draconic foot as rippling waves of shadows enveloped the area outside.

Allie slumped to the ground, overcome with pain as she blinked rapidly to regain her mind.  Then, getting to her fee to stare out the window of this small stone building they now found themselves in; she shuddered and leaned on Riven for support.  “I… I don’t understand.  I watched Lahn’s soul just… it just shattered.  It shattered and formed a portal to wherever here is… W-Why is Lahn dead?  What happened, and where are we?”

Her lips began to tremble in frustration and rage, and she took in a shuddering breath.

Riven shook his head , peering out the window with her.  "She must be in some kind of shock after the transition.  Allie, Lahn isn't dead.  Get a grip, and try to be quiet!  Something is coming!"

Riven held up a finger to his lips, not looking at her - but rather continuing to stare out the window as another shadowy hand crashed into the opposite side of the street - demolishing the mirrored stone building without so much as a single iota of effort.  Sweat began to trickle down his neck, and he dared not summon Messenger or Jackal just yet.  He could literally feel the presence of Gluttony on whatever this draconic monster was, and he already had five shards inside him… if he was to bring out even more Gluttonous equipment, it’d no doubt give off a stronger signature.

And if his guess was right by the way his soul was pulsing in its presence, this monster was hunting him for the shards he carried.