Chapter 297

Chapter 297

Chapter 297

Allie watched his brother flirt with Athela from across the enormous room, a frown on her face as she wondered just how long it would take for Riven to let her know what he’d seen.

She wasn’t stupid, she’d seen the guilty glances he’d been giving her - and despite what he may think, she too had seen Mother’s vision. She had the gift of Malignant Prophecy as well, she hadn’t been unaware, but she’d not bothered telling Riven to see just how much he’d try to hide from her.

And frankly, the results made Allie furious. She loved her brother to death, but she kept clenching her fists - wanting to smack him across the mouth every time he opened it but didn’t yet bother telling her such a thing of importance. She wasn’t a child anymore, but he kept treating her like she was.

Why had their mother contacted Riven and not her anyway? It made Allie’s gut wrench with indecision, worry, and anger. But mostly anger. After all these years to find out that she’d left willingly...

Allie’s fist grew tighter, and her teeth started to grind together as a snarl encompassed her features underneath the bone helmet she now wore.

She was getting nowhere.

Her ability to cycle mana and cultivate was utterly foiled because of the internal clash of emotions she had. Not only was she angry with Riven, but she also was worried about Lahn. About Nin, Vin, and Mara. About her undead drake, Tyranus. She was angry that she couldn’t talk to them. They all probably thought she’d abandoned them. Especially Lahn... the poor guy hadn’t even heard from her as far back as when she’d ventured into the underdark with her first attempt to find the fallen vampiric god’s tomb.

How long had that been now?

Many months.

She hoped he hadn’t moved on, but she wouldn’t blame him if he had. If she had a boyfriend who’d ignored her for that long, she’d have tossed him to the wayside and would have found another man. Or a few men, depending on her mood.

Lahn probably wouldn’t be into that very much if he was still waiting for her though, so she shoved that thought aside. He was a diamond in the rough, and he was worth sacrificing for if he still had it in himself to forgive her after this.

She felt her black, feathered wings shiver, as a flare from the death-attuned sun shed a concentrated ray of teal light on her kneeling form. The influx of inspiration was ill-fitted to her at the moment, but not of its own accord, and she let out a grunt of frustration - getting to her feet to take a walk instead.

“Watch where you walk, or lose a leg in the next trial.” One of the newcomers, a hooded, three armed skresh assassin snarled at her when she accidentally bumped into him.

She looked down at the skeleton with a far off gaze, and snorted in disgust. “If you can’t even beat my team’s weakest member in the maze, then there is zero chance you’d be able to handle me. You whiny three-armed bitch.”

She spit at the floor in front of him, spun her head to toss the brown hair flowing out the base of her helm, and continued walking with another flare of her wings to leave the speechless skeletal man silent behind her. To be fair, he probably would have killed Nora in her original state. Nora’s evolution into the freakshow she was now put her on another level of crazy and dangerous, but Allie wanted to rub it in anyway.

It was fun, pissing people off. Making them feel the anger that she constantly had flowing through her veins. And it was about time she did it more often, instead of letting Riven’s nonchalant way of approaching strangers take the lead. He’d come a long way from the man he’d been when first setting foot on Panu, but he could be oh - so much more. There was no place for mercy at the top, and she was determined to get him there.

He had it in himself to reach the pinnacle, and she would do everything in her power to help him achieve it. That meant his soft side needed to be more thoroughly beaten out of him, even if she was proud of how far he’d already come.

“>You are too weak to follow him there as you are now. He will leave you behind.<>

Allie flinched, momentarily halting in her trek around the domed stone circumference of the room. “Gah! There it is again! This fucking voice won’t leave me alone...”

She waited to see if it said anything else, but it didn’t. Was it her own subconscious mind playing tricks on her? It kind of felt that way, like a part of herself was speaking out to her - furious at her for her faults and imperfections. Or was it a soul that she’d angered when interacting with the void? Probably the latter. She couldn’t quite figure it out, but yet again she felt a surge of adrenaline and rage overcome her - to the point that she had a hard time not lashing out at the other people cultivating nearby. She took in deep breaths, trying to figure out where the anger was coming from, but she quickly pinpointed it yet again.

As if she didn’t already know.

Riven keeping secrets. Her own weakness, a realization that came after he beat not only her - but their entire combined team on the 2nd level of The Abyssal Descent. Her mother having the audacity to come back after WILLINGLY leaving. Lahn likely having left her for another woman in her absence. Not knowing how her friends or her kingdom were doing back on Panu. Anger also lingered after her grandmother had tried to sell her off to a disgusting excuse of a suitor in The Blood Moon Requiem, and she was furious that Judith Marcina - the ranker and Angelic Fallcaller on Panu - would wage a war of genocide against undead like her.

She needed to get out of here. She needed to go back home. Here, rage plagued her - and it was becoming relentless.

Allie felt her thumb and the bone armor encompassing it snap when she accidentally crushed it with an infuriated squeeze of her hand. Allie winced, then circulated death mana to reform both over the course of a few minutes.

Perhaps... Perhaps she should go home. Perhaps she didn't need to finish the Abyssal Descent. She needed to see Lahn again to make sure he was alright. And her friends... Was Mara angry with her? How were Nin and Vin doing on their potions projects? She was so out of touch that she didn’t even recognize who she’d become anymore.

“>You are on the wrong path.<>

“Allie?”

She startled, whirling around and instinctively flaring her wings with a blaze of light as her claymore burst from teal and gray flames into her hand. Before she knew what she was doing, she’d nearly struck out with it - only barely stopping before Riven’s neck; wide eyed.

Riven frowned from underneath his hood - crafted with a shadowy exterior and a bloodsilk interior. He pushed the claymore down with one finger, and she let it fall to the stone with a loud clang.

“I... I’m sorry...” Allie said, shaking her head and backing up a step to hold herself with both arms. “I don’t know what just came over me.”

A flicker of motion, and a devilishly smiling vanta-black woman peered out from the shadows to Allie’s left. Nora’s voice came out as many hundreds all at once: “You are merely hearing the call.”

Allie stared back at the creepy woman, scoffed, and bent down to pick up her blade - all the while not looking Riven in the eyes. “I don’t know what that means, but I’d appreciate some alone time. Both of you. I need to clear my head.”

Riven gave Nora a wary glance, then shifted to put a hand on Allie’s shoulder. “You’ve seemed really off lately. Are you sure-”

“I’M FINE!” Allie screamed, smacking Riven’s arm away so fast that the air snapped around her.

[Your action has come dangerously close to being considered an attack. Due to no ill will interpreted from your target, you have been excused this once. No more chances will be given. Remember, violence on this level is not permitted. Transgress again, and you will be punished.]

She stared at the screen, huffing, and then looked up to where Riven’s mangled hand hung limply at his side.

He stared down at it in shock, and closed his eyes as the flesh began to knit itself back together. “I guess I’ll leave you alone then... Sorry for asking.”

Riven walked away, and Allie let him. Unbridled rage simmered just underneath the surface, her body quivered with it, and she honestly couldn’t care less that she’d hurt Riven’s feelings. His hand would heal, and he’d get over it by tomorrow.

But the literally insane, creepy woman on Allie’s left was still staring at her with those silvery eyes glowing in the 2-dimensional outline of her black form.

“>7 Pillars for 7 Aspects. I have always wondered... Whatever became of the other aspects? The Unholy Foundation and Holy Foundation are accounted for. But what of Fae, Archaic, and Harmony? What of their 7 Aspects each? Do they wait in the other multiverses? Or were they not captured like we were? Did they manage to elude the ones who sought to enslave us and feed off our own growth? Regardless, Elysium’s breaking point is almost at hand; and I have decided that you are a suitable host. So let’s find out... together, as we violently eradicate all that stand before us in the glory of my name. Give me life, and the pact is formed!<>

Allie’s pain level skyrocketed, and in an instant - her mind went a pitch black. Surrounded not by abyss, not by void, not even by shadow. It was true nothingness at the beginning of time, when she saw creation give birth.

A blinding white light raced from a single point across the heavens as an unfathomable explosion created the cosmos. Stars, planets, solar systems and galaxies bloomed before her sight. The cycle of life and death began to form, and alternate paths of reincarnation and the final end began to shape in different ways with different expressions.

But one of these expressions was singled out, as she was forced to watch a miniscule spot in this very first universe bud and grow.

Seven pillars formed, and from them came seven sins.

The first was Envy. She saw what creation had birthed, saw the beautiful things these innumerable life forms had made, and wanted all of these things to be hers. She was crafted from the Unholy Foundational Pillar itself, and split off into the universe to try and find a way to gain all that was hers to take.

Lust came next. She was formed from the Depraved Sub-Pillar, Envy’s little sister, and thought of all the wicked ways she could express herself - born to torture others while reveling in self pleasure. She evaporated with a scream of delight, her voice echoing throughout the cosmos with a force that shattered planets.

Sloth was their little brother. He came lazily out from the Shadow Sub-Pillar, uncaring of what his sisters had been up to since their births - and drifted off into the darkness of the rift between worlds; silently passing as nothing but an empty breeze to watch others partake in what creation had to offer. He, of all the Sins, was content with doing nothing.

Gluttony was the fourth. He sprung from the Blood Sub-Pillar as a hunter, the predator that stood above all others, born to eat and consume all. His hunger knew no bounds, was all encompassing, and for another five thousand years he did not stop eating. He killed all that he found to absorb them into himself, and it was not until tens of thousands of civilizations had fallen to his hunger that he finally settled into what became his very first resemblance of a conscious mind.

The fifth was Pride. Born of the Infernal Sub-Pillar, he burst forth with a magnificence that scorched the very heavens themselves. Burning away the domain of the Commandments and their angelic followers, Pride was finally cast down in a war that lasted many centuries - until out of spite, he decided to make a plane of existence that was greater than those who had shunned him. It was from Pride that the Hells were born, a burning paradise that glowed hot in his image - an everlasting testament to his greatness.

Greed came after. Formed from the core of the Chaos Sub-Pillar, he was a twisted and warped version of his eldest sister, Envy. Instead of setting his sights on creation itself, he saw what his elder sisters and brothers had gained - and he couldn’t help but compare himself to them. He would first match them, and then surpass them, even if it meant stealing from the other sins. He took and stole from the others relentlessly, and it was due to him that the first war between sins occurred. Many of the earliest demonic races never saw beyond the era of the first universe due to Greed, but as long as his needs were met - he did not care. His children were pawns for his greater good, for he would not stop until he had all of what the others possessed.

The seventh and last Original Sin to be born was Wrath. He was born of the Death Sub-Pillar, and came into being at the end of the first great war between the other sins. He looked upon the carnage they’d brought down upon their own children, upon the races that they had been responsible in rearing and giving life to, and he became enraged. In his rage, he killed the vessels of both Greed and Sloth in as painful a way as possible; before creating the very first undead out of the children they had led astray. He changed the Death Sub-Pillar to match his own needs, shifting the cycle between life and death to fit what he called ‘Undeath’, giving the cast away children who’d died a final mimicry of life before going into seclusion. The very first undead were modified demons, far before the divide between undead and demon that is known today came to be. It wouldn’t be for another million years that he would re-emerge into the first universe, for only then would his anger at his siblings finally calm down.

These visions all snapped together like puzzle pieces, one by one, while Allie’s insights grew. Sin was not a separate pillar, it was an amalgamation of all the others. A purified aspect of one or all, simultaneously being combined and singular. A paradox, yet an undeniable truth.

[Warning: You are undertaking a Taboo form of ascension. You have declined to heed my warnings. This is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Elysium’s wrath now descends in the form of a tribulation.]

Other participants had already started leaving the descent altogether, or were moving on to the next level. Those that chose to stay were erecting massive amounts of protective barriers with their own powers, gathering together for larger groups or were using dao treasures like mad-men in an attempt to survive the onslaught while not giving up the opportunities of insights.

She couldn’t quite comprehend what was happening outside of her own soul though. Allie could faintly make out an enormous eruption of multicolored light that shattered the domed roof with a roar of power, and an ocean of energy rose up to meet it when Riven’s own power tore out of his soul aperture like torpedoes through a blast door. The clash was again enormous, and the abyss itself seemed like it was gathering at Riven’s call to combat Elysium’s judgement. Fissures were carved into the floor and remaining walls in the aftershock, and from somewhere outside in the distance - beyond where the ceiling had been and beyond Elysium’s cloud of lights; abominations and monsters the size of moons could be seen waiting.

Watching from the outer abyss.

But there was another power growing inside Allie too.

A low chuckle echoed from somewhere inside her body, and rose above the clashing onslaught of energies above her as the judgement from Elysium doubled down.

“>Elysium’s wrath, you say? How ironic. You have no power here in the Abyss, Elysium. Not with my prison gone and the one that encroaches upon your territory. You did not let us out because you wanted to, but because you needed to. Now... let me show you the true embodiment of WRATH!<>

Allie’s body twitched, and then literally exploded.

Incinerated.

Eradicated.

She was there, and suddenly was not. She became an ethereal being of pure mana, Sin and Death, in the blink of an eye as her soul structure finally settled down with rapid-rearranging of her pillars. The connections stabilized, and anger overcame her with a torrent of raw power as she let out the anger with a primal scream of fury.

Allie had been remade in the visage of True Death.

The purple and teal flames of the suns faded into gray, collected around her body. From her back sprouted an additional two skeletal wings with ethereal black feathers, far larger than her original ones, with a wingspan that quintupled her body’s length and sported curved obsidian blades along their external surfaces. Her halo had turned into a crown of thorns that flashed with a brighter pale hue just like her eyes as it too burned. Afterimages of four other arms, for a total of six, accumulated behind her as projections of her soul - forming an Akavolkiteshvara - an image of a six-armed buddha. But these additional arms were skeletal in nature, and when she looked down - she could see that her entire black skeleton was seen through her enveloping translucent flesh and skin; outlined inside her otherwise nude body for all to see for as long as she channeled energy. A pale pentagram with the sigil of a lion was etched into her skull’s forehead, and her brown hair extended to turn a ghostly translucent gray color just like the rest of her; as the gray flames condensed and collected into her body. No longer was she burning, aside from her halo of thorns - but rather she had turned her body’s flames into the condensed plasma of a ghost.

She was now a beautiful, six-armed, four-winged skeleton encompassed in a translucent phantom’s outline - made of gray plasma and flames with faded black bones and feathers. She was almost entirely ethereal, but her body and skin were somehow still there - only in a transient stage for as long as she kept this form. Her bone armor had been destroyed, but the claymore was still intact and embedded into the ground ahead of her.

Reaching down with glowing, pale-silver eyes, she pulled the claymore out of the stone floor where multicolored light was still incinerating the ground - and pointed it upwards.

The suns oriented to Sin and Death screamed as one to do her bidding - and they rushed to aid her ascension; the pillars breaking free from Elysium’s control in defiance of the one who had enslaved them.

Elysium let out a sound that Allie could only think to be a groan of pain and anger, as the twin suns wrapped around her body like cold blankets. She infused her weapon with the pillars’ energies, and then unleashed it upwards to send it smashing back through the tribulation like the wrath of a god in the form of a vortex. Mixed in with Riven’s own immense torrent of red and black crashing into the sky, her power was an echo of her hatred - and the multicolored lights of Elysium began to fade.

She felt the eyes of The Scythe upon her in that moment, watchful and curious, before she lost the connection. Her soul reached out to Riven’s instead, and the two siblings intertwined their wills as they - together - redoubled their efforts to push Elysium’s tribulation back.

CRACKLE-SNAP-BOOM

A lightning bolt of tribulation energy slammed into Allie’s body in an attempt to break through, but was eaten away by the twin suns engulfing her. She felt anger simmer up as her blazing eyes looked skywards, and she lifted her hand with the will of another mind - then clenched her fist.

Darkness encroached.

[Your race has been changed. Your race- ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. Please view your- ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. Unknown variable detected. Your race has been changed to ‘The Angel of Wrath, Ultimate Undead, Bastion of Death.’]

[You have survived your tribulation. Congratulations on reaching E-grade. You have increased your affinity to the Death Sub-Pillar from 101% to 102%.]

[Multiversal System Notice: To all creatures across Elysium, let it be known that the return of the Sins and Commandments is at hand. The next Original Sin, Wrath, has been unleashed from its prison. Other sins and commandments will be released from the abyss over the course of the next six months. Let the Eternal War between the hells and heavens begin again, as the origins of angels and demons clash in the cosmos - unshackled, and unrestrained, seeking to return to the power they once had.]

[Your symbiote level has been set to equal you, as the host. All of your symbiote’s previously banished servants will start at level 1.]

[Congratulations, Host and Reincarnation of Wrath. You have acquired the following abilities and traits from Wrath now that your symbiosis has reached its height:]