Chapter 270

Chapter 270

Chapter 270

6 weeks since arriving in The Abyssal Descent...

The training regimens were brutal for everyone, but most of all - Fay continued to have the hardest time. They pushed her the most because she was, above all, the least useful.

And thus she tried the hardest.

On one of the abandoned peaks surrounding the city of the Abyssal Descent on Floor 1, she remained sitting in meditation just like she’d been doing for what seemed to be days on end now. Time did not seem to have substance here in this state of everlasting torment, as the cyclic rotations of her cursed energies continued to eat away at her from the inside. Blood trickled down her face in place of tears as she concentrated on maintaining her spells past the normal breaking point. But the more she inflicted self harm through the curses, the stronger they became - and the more her body adjusted to the backlash, allowing her to push even further.

So far she’d increased her available power output by nearly 20%, and that amount was only climbing by the day.

“Concentrate, Fay.” Her self-appointed mentor, Lavini, said while steepling her fingers in a sitting position across from Fay’s own meditative pose. “You are improving. Do not give up now, push through the pain. It is only mental, and as long as you don’t push too hard too fast - your body will be able to maintain a steady climb until you reach the precipice at level 200. Only then will your soul lattice be able to connect, and you have the most to climb of all.”

Fay winced, but kept her eyes closed and did not falter. The green flames of cursed energy that Lavini herself had imparted knowledge about now rotated around Fay like planets orbiting a sun, five fireballs imbued with malice that both outstripped normal Unholy energy in power but also applied “Insanity” debuffs to enemies that temporarily afflicted an opponent’s outlook on reality. The problem was that channeling such a potent, destructive curse also did damage to Fay’s mind as well - but the images of alternate truths about the universe at large had been kept to a minimum with Lavini interfering whenever Fay drifted too far into madness.

“Your break is over. Open your eyes, Fay, and tell me what you see.” The redheaded, winged woman commanded in a tone that brokered no argument.

Fay, though not necessarily wanting to, did as asked - and a torrent of images slammed into her mind as the world twisted and the flames grew larger. The fires rose higher and higher, forming outright pillars of cursed energy in a swirling vortex as the five points began rotating even faster while the madness took hold again.

Fay stuttered a reply. “I see... I... See...?”

She stopped, shuddering when the image of Lavini turned into that of Riven - his headless body leaning forward with hands steepled in front of him. The sky above them shattered and broke, and the laughing faces of the cultists who’d kidnapped her months before rose up from the ground like wraiths.

“Concentrate Fay. You know what to do.” The headless version of Riven told her without a mouth to do it.

Fay shuddered again, pushing the cursed mana through her pillars in ways that circumvented her core - only releasing them at the very tips of her pillars and putting up mental barriers in her mind. Real teardrops intermixed with the blood leaking from her eyes, but her jaw clenched in firm resolution while she pushed through. She knew this wasn’t real despite what her mind was trying to tell her, and slowly - ever so slowly - the images began to take on their real forms. The laughing cultists disappeared, Riven’s body vanished - in its place the other succubus sat smiling across from her, and yet - the pillars of green fire swirling around Fay remained just as potent.

Yes! She was making progress! It’d only taken her half the time to complete this round from when she’d first started, only half the time to regain control of her mind.

Smiling despite her internal agony, Fay met Lavini’s eyes and flared her wings. “May I try the next step?”

Lavini glanced to the sky where a rumbling sound echoed out, the flashes of deep purple sin energy lighting up the darkness on the outside of the system’s dome protecting the city of The Abyssal Descent. Out there in the beyond, two void titans - each larger than the city itself - were having a herculean battle to the death with powers so beyond them that it made the two succubi feel like nothing but ants.

“Yes...” Lavini eventually stated, regaining her senses and shaking her head after wrenching her eyes off the awe-inspiring battle above. “Next step, create the illusions. This time, when you cast your Dreamwalker Zone - be sure to imbue the images you project with the same cursed energies you used with the fire. Keep that energy on the outer edge of each illusion like a shell. If you are able to reinforce the illusions like this consistently, you will create semi-solid objects that can manipulate the environment as if they had real physical substance. And if you eventually perfect your craft, somewhere in the E or D grade you may even be able to provide minor amounts of consciousness to each of your images - creating copies of yourself or others, or even creatures, that do your bidding.”

Fay let out a small laugh. “I think I’m quite far from anything like that. Static images, and temporarily moving images are the best that I can put out at this point.”

“And that’s why we’re training you!” Lavini retorted, reaching out and smacking Fay upside the head playfully through the gap between flaming pillars while she rolled her eyes. “Is your grimoire still bound to Dreamwalker Zone?”

Fay nodded, reaching into her satchel and taking out the black book with etched unholy runes and the depiction of a glowing green viper on its cover. It was her most prized possession, and had already been granting her insights that had tweaked her Cursed Traps ability to a minor extent. Now, she’d been putting most of her focus into the illusions. Flipping the book open, she watched as the grimoire wrote and rewrote diagrams, runes, and other magical sigils in different sequences like a computer shifting codes around. Sequences were erased, changed, or reorganized at random and repeated over and over again across all its many pages, while it experimented with her chosen skill and attempted to find ways to better the illusions for her.

What a fabulous item indeed.

[Viper Grimoire of Curses and Schemes (Unholy Specialization Grimoire, Unique): +129% mana regeneration when held. +9% damage to all curses when held. Binding this grimoire and adding a single one of your curses to its pages, you will decrease the cooldown time on your chosen curse by 10% while simultaneously allowing for spontaneous evolution options of that curse with insights drawn from the Unholy Foundational Pillar and its related sub-pillars. Spontaneous evolutions will occur as the grimoire actively writes out different variations of the curse across its pages with random trial and error experiments in an internal, limited plane. Evolution options will occur in the form of insights once a breakthrough is made.]

“I don’t think you realize just how valuable that book really is.” Lavini whispered from across the few feet separating them, looking longingly at the grimoire with a mixed expression - until she rubbed the sides of her temple and sighed. “Anyways, let’s move on. Keep the book in your hands while it regenerates your mana, and we can start with the more energy-intensive portion of your training. Create an image of me, infuse it with the fire’s cursed energy, and try to give the image a solid outer shell. Please begin.”

***

The souls, wraiths, and ghosts around her drank it up greedily - empowering themselves on the passive presence of their master, as Allie opened her deep gray eyes and lowered herself to the ground. Her foot touched down on the bloody body on the altar, and a pulse of power absorbed the sacrifice with the rush of an echoing whisper. Picking up her Blade of Soulcry, the Divine-Ranked claymore moved - causing the world to move with it as she raised it. She then clutched the magnificent weapon to her chest in an embrace.

“And what would the clergy of this temple ask of me?” Allie asked, her gray halo glowing in the dark room alongside the souls that encircled her. “Speak.”

The hooded skresh bowed low, clasping his skeletal hands in front of him in a gesture of respect while maintaining a 90 degree angle at his waist. “My lady, I was hoping I could speak to you about the whispers I have heard in the darker places of this city. Our agents have heard of unease and restlessness from others who take the path of the descent, and I would not see one of your stature fall prey to them.”

Allie raised an eyebrow, and stepped down from the sacrificial altar - glancing up at the laughing stone skulls above her only for a moment. “I was deep in meditation, priest. Please make haste in what you have to tell me, so that I may return to gleaning the insights that have eluded me over past weeks.”

“Apologies, mistress.” The skresh said again, bowing even lower this time before standing straight and huffing slightly. “Whispers have reached me. The Church of Greed likely moves against you.”

Allie raised both eyebrows this time, but eventually let on a slow nod. “I am aware they are not friends of my brother. But they target me now?”

The priest hesitated, looking over to where Retesh had come out of his own meditation to pay attention to their conversation. “Yes, though the time is not yet ripe.”

“And how do you know this, priest?” Allie asked, taking a step forward to be within arm’s reach of the skresh man.

“The reapers.” He replied at once, nodding over to where Fimrindle had come out from the shadows to stand beside his master. “Two of them had come forth with information on contracts that were not specifically naming you, but were rather obvious by the nature of what specifics they did give.”

“What were those specifics?”

The priest hesitated. “They did not say. But when two separate agents come forth with the same suspicions, it is likely they are on to something. They would have nothing to gain from lying, but by declining the contracts they are able to send word without breaking the reaper oath of silence.”

“Oath of silence?”

This time, it was Fimrindle’s turn to speak - and he did so in the same, raspy voice he usually had that sounded like a wind being drawn through a metal pipe. “When we accept a mercenary contract, we sign in the name of The Scythe. Part of our earnings will go to the church, and we gain power from fulfilling the contract, but we are also oath-bound not to speak of the contract during or after its completion. By declining the contracts, they are able to let their thoughts be known - but it is unlikely the client gave much information about their targets away before the reapers accepted their task.”

“And what if they’d not wanted to proceed after taking the contract?” Allie asked curiously.

Fimrindle shrugged. “We may refuse it afterwards, but the oath of silence still stands. Breaking the oath will result in disastrous consequences for our cultivation. It is partly why the reapers are held in such high esteem. But if two agents came to this church to warn the clergy of what they suspected...”

Fimrindle’s metal head abruptly turned to face the skresh in an uncanny, quick motion between blinks.

The skresh priest nodded. “Yes. It is likely that other reapers will accept the contract and proceed with it, if the Church of Greed pays enough to do it. Even if the target were, perhaps, a Hero of Death. The Death God may play favorites, but the contractual rules of the reapers do not penalize them for killing one such as you. Only the priesthoods are protected from such assassinations, and any foul play between contenders in the orders are otherwise allowed to promote growth.”

Allie frowned slightly, but nodded in time and turned to watch Retesh amble over with a creak to his bones - his rotten organs shifting across his skeletal frame.

“Do you have a guess as to when they will strike?” The old lich asked, his eyes burning with neon teal light while clasping his hands behind his back.

The priest hesitantly shook his head. “As stated, we are unaware of the exact details. But we can guess as to when it will be, if they do so at all. These are merely educated guesses though, so please do not think ill of me if I am mistaken.”

“Well go on then.” Retesh replied impatiently, mirroring Allie’s own misgivings on being interrupted while cultivating. “What are your educated guesses, and how did you arrive at them?”

The skresh priest glanced over his shoulder, looking down the long hall through the temple halls where it appeared to be utterly deserted - but they all knew better.

“It may be now, it may be months from now - and it likely revolves around a particular event outside of this realm.” The priest said.

There was a pause.

“Have you heard of the Seventh Wing?” he eventually asked, continuing his thoughts and turning back to the others. “And have you heard, perhaps, of the potential reincarnation arriving in the third universe?”