Chapter 114

Chapter 114

Chapter 114CHeCk for new stories on no/v/el/bin(.)c0m

“Fine!” Riven laughed and held up both his hands in surrender when Allie whipped out her wand and started jabbing him in the side. “I’ll stop fucking with your hair, ok! Jesus! OW!”

He snickered at the expression she was wearing, then took a look at the fields of grass and wildflowers immediately adjacent to their position. “This should be a LOT more than 3 square miles. Are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be. We only barely have an idea of what to expect, so let’s get it over with.” Allie snorted and waved over Mara, Vin and Nin - who’d been waiting dozens of yards away to give Riven and Allie some privacy before planting the Elysium Altar’s rod.

The three necromancers walked forward along with a host of undead minions. Riven’s demons were all present too, with Azmoth coming out from the ruined chapel to stand beside his master, and the scarred orc chieftain Gurth’Rok followed behind the undead with a couple of his elites.

Azmoth presented Riven with the red box the system had presented Riven with upon initially receiving the rod, and the vampire warlock pulled out the item a moment later. It was mostly as he remembered it, but the colors had changed since acquiring an unholy orientation. It still had golden trimmings along the shaft, but the shaft had turned from porcelain white to a deep gray color. The previously white jewel fitted into the top had turned from white to black.

[Elysium Altar Planting Rod (Unholy Orientation): Plant this rod into the ground to begin creating an Elysium Altar. An altar requires at least 3 square miles of space in all dimensions in order to place it.]

Riven looked back at the others, then signaled Fay over to him. “Take me over.”

The succubus smiled, spread her wings, and her tail whipped about as she launched herself into the night sky while holding Riven by the waist.

She picked up speed, wind whistling by them as they traversed the grass-laden fields for only a minute before landing about four miles out. Riven intended to place his guild hall near Jose’s grave, and he didn't want the altar immediately on his doorstep - but rather he wanted it just comfortably close by. Putting a mile or two inbetween his to-be home and the altar would mean less foot traffic he had to deal with but also would make it convenient to visit.

The succubus gently brushed Riven’s hair with slender blue fingers after the wind had tossed it about, stepping back with a slight bow and letting Riven find a spot he wanted to plant the rod. He wasn’t too specific on any exact spot, so it only took him a couple of seconds before he slammed the rod like a spear into the earth beneath his feet.

[Do you wish to activate Elysium Altar Planting Rod (Unholy Orientation)? Doing so will lay claim to the Elysium Altar that forms, allowing you to choose a terraforming option from the presented list. You will also be able to select who can and cannot use the altar functions if you wish to exclude others from the opportunity. Killing you will change ownership of this altar to the one who has slain you. This Elysium Altar will take up approximately 3 square miles of land, and is approximately 1200 feet tall at its highest point. After planting the rod, you will have opportunities to buy from the system store, or you may allow foreign entities across the multiverse to set up shop within your altar’s structure if you and the trading partner meet the right requirements. This Unholy Orientation also allows willing participants to change their affinities to those of the Unholy Foundational Pillar. Other Elysium Altar functions are available but locked until bought with the appropriate fee cost.]

1200 feet tall? That was almost the height of the world trade centers before 9/11. This thing must be utterly huge.

Riven scratched the back of his neck with raised eyebrows, but he turned when he heard Fay cough to get his attention. “Yes?”

The succubus met his gaze, then shuffled awkwardly and hummed. Clasping her hands behind her back, her tail went rigid and she set her posture straight with determination. “Uhm, my brother... He was wondering if he could join us after you set up your guild hall tonight?”

There was a long pause.

“Your... brother?” Riven asked curiously, one eyebrow raised in amusement. “Interesting. Why bring this up now?”

“Because you’re probably going to hire a bunch of mercenaries to protect the guild hall and fill up the slots with other contracts soon. I wanted to get ahead and reserve him a spot...” She gave Riven a sheepish but hopeful smile. “He’s honestly not that great at fighting though... Honestly it’s more that I’m asking a favor. In fact the rest of my family thinks he’s something of a failure. He doesn’t like violence at all, not very... demonic. Even less so than me. He likes petting animals and exploring nature... that kind of thing. But I-”

She was cut off with a snorting laugh from Riven, and she immediately frowned. But he waved his hand in apology and bade her continue.

“It’s not funny!” Fay stated, angrily puffing her cheeks and stamping her foot with clenched fists. “He’s a terrible incubus and he gets bullied all the time! Can we at least talk about it later!? Before you decide!? I think this would be a good opportunity to get him out of a bad situation. Please?”

"You do realize I live a very violent life right?"

"Yes but binding to the guild hall isn't the same as binding to you with a minion contract!"

Haunted ForestHellscapeShadowlandsOther options are available, to see this list in further detail and to expand your options please pay 300 million coins to the Elysium Altar.]

*WWHHHOOOOOMMMMMMMMM*

The spire at the altar’s center radiated with unholy, green and black light before radiating out in all directions when the halo surrounding the top of the structure blew apart. A shockwave rippled through Riven’s body, not affecting him much at all but giving him a little bit of a tingling sensation. However when he turned around, his eyes widened - as he saw the landscape the shockwave passed over abruptly change.

First was the grass. Swaths of it across the fields, along with wildflowers, all abruptly mutated from vibrant green and spotted flecks of yellow. The grass turned a silver-gray, though it didn’t look unhealthy. It just looked... different. As for the flowers, the majority of them turned into plants with silver stalks, black petals, and neon-teal bulbs that literally radiated death mana in small amounts. Scattered amongst them were other wildflowers that’d become a bright neon green, with unholy power that looked ominous, but also beautiful.

The forest beyond was similar in its change. The bark of trees went from brown to shades of gray or black. About a third of the trees even withered and appeared to die, though many of these actually grew in size which made Riven question whether or not they’d actually become some kind of death-oriented plant species? The ones who didn’t lose their leaves varied in color between black, silver, and neon-teal - with rare smatterings of neon green.

And just every once in a while, unique-looking vines colored a bright red could be seen growing up the black bark of what had once been oaks.

Fay gasped aloud and covered her hands, jumping up and down on the balls of her feet. “It’s so pretty!”

Riven tried to ignore the bouncing succubus for two obvious reasons and stared out at the scenery, quite flabbergasted himself. “This... this is not what I expected. You’re right, I didn’t expect it to be so nice to look at. It’s like... an evil paradise, of sorts? It’s like the forest became sinister, but with an artistic stroke of genius to it.”

Fay snickered and glanced his way, nudging him with a hand. “Come on! You can’t keep correlating the Unholy with Evil. That isn’t how it works.”

“That’s not what Athela told me. She said that in order to get the Unholy affiliation without being born into it, evil acts helped quite a bit.”

“That’s because Athela only has a basic understanding of the pillars.” Fay crossed her arms and confidently smirked. “I’ll have to re-educate her.”

“Her and me both then.”

Now that the altar had completely organized itself and the ring of green fire reformed, Riven’s group of allies had started making their way over to the huge structure he stood in. Technically he was standing ‘in’ the altar, even though it was open to the air, because the dark stones underneath his feet were all part of it.

But as Allie, her undead, his other two demons and the orcs neared the newly founded Elysium Altar - another notification sprung into space.

[You have gained access to the Elysium General Store. You may restrict who can and who cannot use this altar by thought, be it generalized or specific, and Elysium will comply. You may sell wares to the general store at any time for Elysium coins at a marked down price. The most basic forms of amenities of many categories can usually be found here in abundance at marked up prices. These prices are always compared to average prices across your sector of the multiverse and may be prone to fluctuations. Elysium buys low and sells high, which in turn gives you incentive to trade with others.

The platforms arrayed around your Elysium Altar are called trading ports. Each port may be given to another faction, as long as they have their own port to sync with at another Elysium Altar. Factions that have chosen to sync with your own will be able to send representative merchants to this altar for trading purposes, with all interactions being taxed by the Elysium Administrator at a 1% fee. If trading partners are off-world, their merchants will not be allowed to leave the vicinity of the altar’s boundaries unless they travel back through their link to the homeworld they came from. If your trading partners are on-world, they may leave at any time but will be warped back to the altar after 24 hours of absence. Destruction of any altar or transfer of ownership will disband all merchants and send them back to their original home-bound location.

Due to your world being in an integration phase, all off-world trading partners have a maximum merchant level set to level 90.

You currently have 0 requests for trading partners.]

[Update available. Update available. You currently have 2 requesting trading partners. These factions each wish to set up a trading commune designated in the space enclosed by one of your altar’s platform barriers. Please decline or accept the following faction offers:

Negrada, Minor Hellscape DungeonThe Blood Moon Requiem]

Riven nearly laughed out loud. “Negrada wants to say hello!? Wow. Didn’t see that one coming... but who the hell or what the hell is this ‘Blood Moon Requiem’? Any ideas Fay?”

He turned to the succubus, who was staring at his notification with a paling face.

She looked up at him with genuine concern, then back to Allie, and then back to him. If she’d had cat ears, he was sure they’d be laid back against her head by the stare she was giving him. “Oh fucking roach tits... Uhm... That may be an iffy subject for me? I’m not entirely sure it’s my place to say. Perhaps you should ask Athela... she’d be able to explain things in more detail.”