Chapter 260

Chapter 260

Chapter 260

“Gentry.” The man said, slowly taking Riven’s outstretched hand and warily eyeing the other demons stepping out of their portals. “You’re... a warlock? A summoner? It isn’t often you see true battlemages before the C-grades, but after watching your brief fight I’m not sure whether your strength and speed are your focus - or whether it is your magic.”

Riven chuckled at the uncomfortable dark elf in gold-trimmed blue robes, and shrugged. “Does it matter? The better question is what do you know about this ‘Abyssal Descent’ we’re about to take? There are only minutes left and I’m rather curious about the details.”

Gentry’s purple eyes flitted to the nearby corpses of the two other drow warriors, or what was left of them on the floating mile-wide platform, as Athela and Azmoth went to pick up the spacial bags and whatever materials they could salvage from the dead. “You really don’t know?”

“I’m in the integration phase, remember?” Riven winked good-naturedly despite the man’s discomfort. “My planet hasn’t even entered the true multiverse yet. It’s still shrouded by Elysium’s protections.”

The dark elf scowled, looking down at Riven’s armor, the ancient unreadable tattoos of unholy make scattered across his face where the helmet had been removed, and then to the large sin-afflicted weapon that had actively flowing streams of blood running along the dark metal. “For an integration-labeled planet, you sure do have quite the set of equipment... Equipment that would bankrupt any F, E, or D-grade faction in an instant should they attempt to buy it at a fair price. And I don’t even know how it’s possible to acquire the mythic title and can’t remember there ever being one in our sector of the galaxy.”

“Which galaxy?”

“Narwali sector of the Cheshish galaxy in Universe 16. Not that it means anything to you, but your universe is labeled 78 if you’re in the integration phase right now. Integration is mostly complete, and within the next ten thousand years - Elysium should be moving on to universe 79 wherever it may be.” Gentry’s free hand hesitantly settled into his pockets, curiously studying Riven through squinted eyes. “Just who are you?”

Riven’s eyebrow raised, and he put a hand around Gen-Fay’s waist to pull her close, which is what he was calling the combined bodies of Genua and Fay until they decided to un-merge. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What do you MEAN what’s that supposed to mean?” Gentry asked, exasperated. “Are you a plant?”

“I certainly don’t think I grow leaves, no.”

Gentry snapped his fingers in irritation. “You certainly know that’s now what I meant!”

“I definitely meant ‘what is that supposed to mean’, and I certainly don’t know that’s not what you meant.”

“Stop it!”

Riven chuckled as the amusement from Gluttony rose in turn. “Fine. But in all seriousness, I don’t know what you meant by am I a ‘plant.’”

“It’s a term some people use to describe older factions who breed younglings and place them on pre-integrated worlds in anticipation of Elysium integrating the planet soon. An easy way to conquer worlds.” Athela called out, walking towards him in her rogue outfit of black and red leathers made in part from her own bloodsilk - hooded and cloaked. Her red eyes scoured the drow, before handing Riven a spatial sack. “Very rarely does it work, because Elysium usually punishes both the faction attempting to cheat the rules - and it usually executes the plant as well.”

Riven hummed thoughtfully at the idea, then shook his head and thanked Azmoth when the large demon came over to hand the other drow’s sack in turn. Putting them both in his own, he closed it shut and flicked his gaze to where the portal arch was starting to rotate. “I’m no plant. Not an intentional one, anyway.”

Gentry’s frown deepened. “Not intentional? That’s... an odd way to answer. So you ARE affiliated with another force then?”

Riven shrugged. “Perhaps. Why does it matter?”

Gentry gestured to the two remnants of drow bodies nearby. “Because despite how much I genuinely hated those two self-centered idiots, they were my ticket into an ally enclave. Without them, I’m devoid of any real connections.”

He glared back at Riven, and then to Nora who was flippantly waving around the other token Riven had acquired for her. “And they were also my teammates for descending into the lower levels.”

Azmoth snickered, folding all four of his large clawed arms over his chest. “Bad team mate, let Riven kill all without help fight.”

“He makes a good point.” Gen-Fay said, the two feminine voices overlapping with one another.

Sighing, and glaring, Gentry lifted his hand and facepalmed, before dragging that hand over his face with a defeated look. “Alright, how about this. I’ll tell you all I know about the event, and in turn you’ll escort me to my sister’s complex on the third floor down. She and I aren’t close, in fact I haven’t ever even met her, but she’s been there for the past 600 years and last two cycles. She’ll know who I am after I take the bloodborn test, I’m sure she’ll have some advice on how to go about this.”

Riven, who’d been listening intently up until this point, blinked rapidly in confusion and scratched the back of his head with a clawed gauntlet. “Uhm... Did I hear you right? Your sister has been there for 600 years? Two cycles of 300 years each?”

Gentry raised his own eyebrow, unamused. “Yes. That’s what I said. Some cultivators stay in this place far into the E-grade even after their soul lattice is completed. Why?”

Pausing and not knowing how to proceed with that information, Riven clicked his tongue a couple times and stared up at the sky. “Well... how old are you exactly?”

“Me? I’m 192 years old.”

Riven nearly choked. “You don’t look like you’re more than 30.”

Gentry did not reply, only continued to stare.

Clearing his throat, Riven continued. “And you’re just now hitting level 200?”

Gentry’s face darkened, and his hand reached for his blade before taking a quick hiss of air into his lungs - letting the anger go. “Are you insulting me, vampire? Unlike some races, the drow do not go around butchering others for their meat. Nor am I on a planet that is full of opportunities that an integration could provide, with wars between our clans only seldom coming. That may be a foreign concept to you, but that is the reality of it.”

Drow - or dark elves, were in abundance; their chief features being silky white hair, dark skin and fair features. As were chaos dwarves like the berserker cultist he’d recently killed in battle, with inherent runic sigils of gray and black light carved into their very bodies at birth. There were enormous amounts of undead from dozens of varying races - including vampires like himself, a significant amount of demonic races in equal varieties, and a paltry amount of scattered humans too. Then there were the less common races, or the ones that didn’t fit the mold. A few fallen angels on black wings, though rare in number, were seen flying overhead along with some of the winged demons like imps or devils. There were some humanoid rock-based golem creatures with red eyes that lumbered down the walkways and trampled people who were too slow to get out of their way. Wingless draconic races of humanoid sorts were seen in small amounts too, and the occasional gnome or pixie were also noted.

“Fascinating...” Riven muttered to himself, appreciating the variety of species coming to intermingle here in the abyssal depths. “I’ve never seen so many races at one time, in one place.”

An abrupt shove from behind nearly caused Riven to fall, and he heard a gruff voice bark out a shout. “Move faster, blood sucker! You’re in-”

CRASH

Riven asserted dominance by whipping around and smashing whoever or whatever it was that’d shoved him with a spiked fist. Body parts exploded under the charged strike with a resounding crash. Not wanting to be seen as weak in front of so many other elites of the multiverse, he wasn’t taking any chances of making himself a mark.

What he left behind was a smoldering wreckage of blood and gore, flickering with black lightning that sparked out of the crater he’d created; with numerous people nearby who’d either dodged out of the way or had managed to erect shields in time to stop from being thrown back. Other people HAD been thrown back, being blasted into others in the ground or off the ledge to roll down the slope into one of the buildings on the mountain, but nobody but the creature who’d shoved him had taken the direct hit. Riven had been careful to keep his power isolated to a single point as best he could, but he honestly couldn’t even tell what or who had shoved him after the devastating attack had landed.

Perhaps he was just on edge.

The others wordlessly stared, some sneering, some expressionless, and others giving him impressed looks.

“Keep moving.” A horned draconic man in flowing silver robes hissed from between bronze scales, notably with a LEGENDARY tag and at level 200 when Riven identified him. “You are holding up the line.”

Riven blinked, then nodded after making sure no one else was coming to bother him - and he steadied himself before turning around and following the others in his group who’d stopped to watch.

“You heard the man, let’s move." Riven began to head out, but stopped as Gluttony pierced his mind with a mental message.

"There is a hot springs further down in the city. Travel with the others to the location I've marked, and you may find that it is more than what it appears."

There was a pause.

Riven's brows furrowed at the information being laid out in his head after Gluttony's words, before his brows rose with mixed emotion. "Hey... Maybe let's find something to eat? Or a place to relax? Maybe a hot spring. Do they have hot springs here?”

Gentry chuckled nervously as the others in the crowd occasionally shifted their gazes his way amidst the descent. “I’m not sure, but we could find out. Regardless of where, it would certainly be wise to get off the main path near the base of the mountain before getting our bearings. We can then get insider information from people that’d lived here for a the last few centuries, and we can compare it to the information my own house has acquired to assure ourselves of its validity. Does that sound ok with you?”

Nora nodded vigorously. “Sounds good to me.”

“Me too.” Azmoth grunted, growling at a passerby who got too close. “I not like these crowds. Need larger space, more room.”

***

The first level of the Abyssal Descent did indeed have a hot springs, though it was quite pricey. As was everything here in this alternate realm, which Riven quickly found out. His sum of 22 million that he’d thought so outlandish back on Panu was pennies and pocket change here in the abyss, where the young elites of the Unholy-oriented multiverse were congregated by the millions. A basic meal for one person cost thousands of Elysium Coins, and most of the people either dealt in platinum or in coins that Riven had never seen before such as ‘Etherium’ - which was the equivalent of 100,000 platinum, or ‘Basdum’ - which was the equivalent of 10 Etherium.

One platinum Elysium Coin was equivelant to 1000 bronze coins. Thus the amount of a single ‘Etherium’ coin was worth one-hundred-million Elysium Bronze Coins, and a ‘Basdum’ coin was worth one-billion Elysium Bronze Coins.

Meaning that Riven’s total wealth of 22-million coins - even after all he’d done only attributed to about one-fifth of the wealth of a single Etherium coin, and he wasn’t anywhere even close to having the wealth of an equivalent Basdum coin.

Yet he saw many people exchange these coins with one another somewhat flippantly, for various items or services around the city as they went. The amount of money some of these people had just mind-boggling, and he wandered what kind of stuff he could buy with that kind of money from the Elysium Store back home. He honestly hadn’t explored the store much, but what he had seen from it - before even upgrading the altar at all - had led him to believe that the utmost of what he could afford were basics and necessities.

Then again, he was on an integrating planet that was only starting to reach the 1-year mark.

“You will have your meals delivered to you in the springs, and your time is reserved for two hours.” A pretty but stern-looking succubus with red hair said, eyeing Gen-Fay warily before handing each member of Riven’s party a set of keys. “Storage containers with basic alarms and wards are in the hall, but are not guaranteed for safekeeping. Any theft that occurs here is not our responsibility, so keep that in mind.”

Gentry’s eyes lingered on the woman’s bosom for a short time before he snapped out of it and gave her a nod. “Thank you.”

“It is appreciated.” Riven stated with a smile, laughing underneath his ivory helmet as his girlfriends tugged at his hands excitedly. “I suppose I’ll be going now. Make sure you bring the scones!”

With a final tug, Athela dragged Riven off into the changing rooms with Azmoth coming in last.

***

Behind them and out of sight, the redheaded succubus rubbed at one of her horns under the stone ceiling of her hot springs abode. Hesitantly picking up a communication orb, her eyes lingered on the presence of sin left in the vampire’s wake - and the image of the maw across his chest was prominently burned into her retinas.

She waited for the click, then the light flashed in the stone she held and she began to whisper into it with concerned glances in the direction of the springs she’d just rented out. “Amano? Yes, it’s me. Please contact the church, I think I may have some information that they’d be very interested in learning about regarding a certain individual who just entered my establishment. Yes, yes I think so. Well that’s why I’m calling. Of course. No. Alright, I’ll do my best to keep him here. I’ll see you soon.”

There was another click, and the stone faded away.

Taking in a deep breath, the succubus looked at herself in the mirror across the room and turned around to make sure she was showing a lot of skin that evening. Hastily getting out a brush and combing her long locks of red hair, she scurried into the kitchen - where she began yelling at the cooks to prepare a special meal for the newcomers that’d just arrived.