Chapter 308
Chapter 308
The top platform beyond the stairway was finally in sight, and Riven had been correct. There was a portal of some kind spitting out enemies on the opposite side of where the main sacrificial altar was, but watching it was very odd.
The portal wasn’t like any portal he’d ever seen before. It was more like a flat pool of blood about thirty feet around, perfectly circular, that continuously took the shapes of these people and their belongings. The process took more than thirty seconds for each person to form, and even after his team had killed them down to the last man - they would not talk unless he or Fay used their Silvertongue abilities on the targets. Even then, they seemed to have no recollection of who they were, why they were attacking him, or how they’d gotten here. But every time they released their hold on the enemy in question, that enemy would go into a rage and try attacking them again without any self-preservation in mind.
“This is troubling.” Prince Rantali said as yet another of the people formed from the blood pool and was wasted by one of Retesh’s stave blasts. “There is no mention of such a thing in the documents provided for me by my kingdom. I think that this would have been of particular note, because of how this floor has remained the same over the course of many ages.”
“Do you think it leads somewhere else? Or is it a new addition to the floor?” One of the vampiric knights asked thoughtfully. “We could - HEY!”
The shackled bald prisoner in rags that Prince Rantali had been dragging along to feed on quickly dashed towards the blood pool with a scream of defiance. “I WILL NOT BECOME ONE OF YOUR THRALLS!”
With a splash, the man landed in the pool and began to sink. Riven wasn’t sure if he’d expected to go through to the other side after the knight’s comment, or the possibility of a two-way portal being present had given light to the prisoner’s escape attempt - but it didn’t matter because it didn’t work. Within mere seconds, thrashing and screaming from within the pool of blood was heard as the man tried to get back out - his face peeking over the top just twice as everyone else just watched - before a large brown leech rose up out of the liquid and chomped down on the man’s skull. The beast sucked the poor guy back down into the depths, and quickly disappeared as a new enemy began to slowly form out of the blood once more.
“I know what this is.” Genua said, surprising the others as they focused their attention on the Blood Priestess. “Or what it once was.”
She knelt beside the pool, and dipped her hand into the liquid without fear - though Riven took a step forward and placed himself next to her to make sure she wasn’t dragged down like the other guy.
Reaching in further all the way up to her shoulder, whispering to the pool like a mother would a child, she eventually withdrew her arm. On her palm as her hand retracted, the enormous leech that’d eaten the prior man had perched its head - and let her pet it as the enormous monster purred like a cat receiving an ear-scratch.“This was a pool of atonement, stolen from the Blood God’s realm, but it is now corrupted in a way that I cannot quite understand and carries the scent of blasphemy. It was once a powerful artifact meant to collect and keep damned souls, nurturing them into servants the Blood God can use. And it should not be here…” She said, letting the leach go back to the depths after another whispered word - watching the creature slip back into the inky red. She cocked her head to one side as if worried, and then glanced back at Riven next to her. “My connection to the Blood God was… It was just cut off.”
“What do you mean it was cut off?!” Prince Rantali said, suddenly frantic and panicked. “A Priestess of the Blood God cannot simply have their connection cut without the intervention of another god, or a being equal to-”
Prince Rantali’s words were muted as a massive geyser of blood erupted from the pool to swallow Riven whole. It pushed away his allies and overpowered him entirely, suppressing Riven’s aura like one would snuff out the life of a fly by smashing it between one’s fingers. Riven writhed and kicked, but was quickly pulled away into the swirling red pool before anyone could do anything about it.
In an instant, his reality shifted.
Riven was staring back out at his friends, none of which could enter the pool now. He could only see them as they frantically attempted to break through, but it was an absolute and impenetrable barrier to passage. His hands touched the silky smooth exterior, once again trying to press forward and infusing his mana into the effort - but nothing came. Even Athela’s mind link that they used for speech once in a while wasn’t working.
“This indeed appears to be a warped S-grade artifact that is somehow linked to the Abyssal Descent’s Floor 22.” Gluttony said from within Riven’s soul. “I don’t think that we are meant to break out by brute force. But I also don’t believe this was put here by Elysium on accident, it has likely been part of this floor for eons and was made to appear only if certain criteria were met. There will be a way out, the laws of balance concerning Elysium’s trials demand it. We merely need to find out what that way out is, and why we were separated from the others and cast into this item.”
His eyes widened. What was an S-grade artifact doing here of all places, in an F-grade soul lattice building event? Entire D, C, B, and A-grade nations far more powerful than the Thane Necropolis would commit genocide to get their hands on something like this. Riven did a once-over with his surroundings to make sure nothing was coming for him. There were a few leeches the size of his arm or bigger swimming around, and one as big as a passenger airplane, but they all ignored him entirely. One even brushed up against his arm, but did not attack. There were also speckled lights further in the depths that he couldn’t make out from here in detail, and the relatively small barrier between the artifact’s insides and the Abyssal Descent on the opposite side, but that was it.
“Curious.” Riven muttered, speaking through the blood without issue. To others it may have been toxic, or would have drowned them, but to him - he could breathe this stuff as if it was air infused with energy. “I really need to make a bath like this back home.”
Gluttony laughed, and Riven began to draw out a message in shadow along the interior of the barrier. “I am going to explore. I’ll be back.”
Then, grinning, he added: “Team Deez Nutz aint scurd.”
The attempt at humor fell on a poorly receiving audience, even despite Athela being the one to name it that way.
Athela and Fay both appeared to be frantically yelling and trying to break through, while Prince Rantali and the others appeared nervous. Everyone except Genua that is, who remained calm and nodded to let him know the message was received.
And honestly he couldn’t blame her. If anything the others were overreacting, he was literally surrounded by the type of mana that he had a 100% affinity for - and was nearly unkillable in this kind of environment as long as nothing beyond E-grade was waiting for him here. Or perhaps that was overconfidence speaking?
Though the thought that this was supposed to be an S-grade artifact was not encouraging. Riven had acquired all of this power, enough to destroy entire cities, in the F-grade. C-grades could theoretically wipe out populations of entire planets when on a rampage, and S-grades could obliterate the planet entirely if it wasn’t reinforced somehow. He didn’t let his minions know what he was dealing with though, because Athela looked like she was already having a panic attack on the other side.
Waving and turning around, Riven began to swim further into the depths.
That was when he got the notification that made him rather curious about what he’d find here. It seemed that Elysium, or whoever had placed this here, didn’t want the gods peaking.
[An extra formation against outside spying has been added to the ones already in place during the Abyssal Descent. Twelve SSS-grade layer formations of anti-sight, magical penetration rebuff, anti-divination, karma-cutting, and anti-seeding have been added to this artifact’s interior. You have been cleansed of all potential tracers, child of Blood.]
***
“How… Strangely familiar…” Riven said, touching down on a sandy bottom indicating the ocean’s floor. Whether or not this ocean was part of the artifact, part of Floor 22, or part of both - Riven couldn’t be certain, but that wasn’t the part that he recognized.
In front of him was a gigantic hole, carved from the bedrock that led like a cylinder down into the earth. In and along the cylinder were the swirling lights of souls, millions of them, in glowing spiritual clouds so thick that even despite the giant chasm leading downwards - he couldn’t see what was at the far end. Were these the souls that’d been leaking out of the blood pool into the other side?
Riven thought yes. It was the only explanation that made sense and he was able to read the basic outline of what the enchantments around these souls could do. Each of them was ready to be taken out and molded into a true shape, enslaved beings ready to be given form. The enchantments layering each of these bright souls like painted orbs were similar to the vampiric thrall markings along Genua’s own soul core realm, but they simultaneously had a stark difference. When Genua had become a blood priestess, some of those markings had manifested on her skin, expressing themselves as sigils of power that bound her more tightly to the Blood Sub-Pillar. But these…
These markings were familiar in a way that reminded Riven of the runic language seen during Allie’s descent into the underdark, when she’d found the vampiric precursors. She’d only discussed it once, but had drawn out many of the runic markings to see if he perhaps had a better understanding of what they meant - given he was linked more closely to the Blood Sub-Pillar than she was, and sometimes the pillars spoke to their users. Riven hadn’t had such a moment then, but now - as he looked at the swirling mass of souls, he was beginning to have that experience here.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The sea of blood around him contracted, forcing itself into his body little by little - and visions began to appear one by one.
The images that came and went in the blink of an eye rapidly cycled through his thoughts, as the Blood Sub-Pillar itself reached out and touched him. Images that he didn’t quite comprehend at times. Riven saw the blood pillar split into five pieces, with four of them being hidden in different corners of a dark expanse as the fifth fragment came up into the light. He saw raging wars as entire civilizations were eradicated, fighting over the different pieces as eons passed by. He even saw Gluttony being born from Blood, and eons later - watched Gluttony claim one of the fragments for himself, dragging it into his abyssal maw to swallow it whole. Then, the last image of significance was the rise of the Blood God, resting on a throne carved from the flesh of other gods that’d competed for his mantle. Riven couldn’t quite make out what the Blood God looked like, but the instinctual knowledge that this was the new supremacy over the Blood Sub-Pillar was as clear as day.
Other images were less impactful and less meaningful. It was all genocides, wars, and slaughter. Fuel for the fire as the Blood Pillar took a new shape from whence it’d been sundered.
He snapped out of the trance and immediately called out to Gluttony. “Did you see that?”
The sin’s reply was quick. “Yes.”
“What do they mean? You were a part of one of the visions, and…” Riven’s voice trailed off expectantly.
“It is unfortunate, but that aspect of my knowledge has been carved from me.” Gluttony said sourly. “Part of the pact with Elysium was that I lose not only power, but knowledge regarding many of my past exploits. I only vaguely remember finding that shard in a previous lifetime from now, but what I did with it or how it came to be - I do not know. However, I will send a message to my priests in the enclaves after we leave the Abyssal Descent - and will ask them if they know anything about the Blood Pillar’s sundering, or the five pieces it had split into. It feels… Important. As if a piece of not only the pillar, but me, is missing after having looked upon the vision. I hadn’t even recalled it at all up until now…”
Riven growled a curse at Elysium under his breath. “Alright. Time to swim through the clouds of souls?”
“It appears to be the way forward, so yes. Unless you’d rather sit here and, as you say, ‘twiddle your thumbs.’ I don’t know what twiddling is and I don’t think you do either, but I’m beginning to like Earth-human sayings.”
Riven chuckled, not confirming or denying the accusation of lacking such knowledge, and without delay he leapt into the chasm to begin diving again.
The blood flowed around him, embracing him as he sped past the entangled souls at a steady pace. As time went on, the cylindrical chasm began to turn from sand to stone - with the same odd, runic language that held aspects of Blood affinity, yet they were different from the type of Blood he was used to. Regardless of this, his sub-pillar still sang to him every time he saw such a marking - with the pillar itself expressing to him that these were part of a whole he hadn’t known existed.
Was this why Genua had said this place had the taint of blasphemy? Why would the current Blood God want to keep knowledge like this hidden, if that was the case? Why would Elysium put this here, a hidden part of an otherwise constant floor level in the Abyssal Descent for eons? Why had it appeared only for him, with no mention of it in Prince Rantali’s records?
“Gluttony… I have a question about my thrall. I was hoping you could help.” Riven said as he flowed through the undercurrents with the ease and grace of a fish.
Gluttony already knew what he was about to ask. “You were hoping you could restore Genua’s memories.”
“That’s exactly right.”
“Possible, but it would be a hard thing to do. The vampiric virus you injected her with is meant to override any thoughts, impulses, or obligations that counteract being your loyal servant. It creates the perfect, obedient, adoring slave to your will - only leaving behind the remnants of the original person that do not conflict with your own desires or interests. As I have previously stated, I have not had much experience with vampires before. Your kind were created by a pantheon of gods long lost to time, the same ones who created the precursors your sister talked about. I have also lost much of my previous knowledge after being let out from my abyssal prison, so even if I did know more once; I have no knowledge of it now. But my theory is that it could be reversible if you found a way to retroactively program the viruses. That, in turn, would require a significant knowledge set on not only the Blood Sub-Pillar, but how vampires were created in the first place and how the virus intrinsically works.”
Gluttony paused. “But why would you want to reverse it? This is what Genua wanted. She was in turmoil, and now she is happy. Would you really deprive her of that, just to make your guilt less of a burden? As I see it, you have done her a favor. Ignorance, in this case, is bliss. So unless you can somehow find Ethel’s likely hibernating soul in the black beyond of existence, somewhere in the immeasurable void that spans realities, and return her soul back to this realm - it would be in Genua’s best interest to keep her this way. Not even I at the very peak of my power would have found that an easy task to perform, even if I’d been given a trillion years to do it. Not after the souls have been mixed into infinity and scattered to the winds, and it becomes dangerous when you begin to dive into the deeper realms of existence where even the darkness of the void is gone - and only madness thrives.”
That… didn’t sound creepy at all. Nope, not one bit.
“It just feels wrong, and I feel terrible about it. Especially for her daughter, Len.”
“Until there is an opportunity to fix it, which is questionable at best, you should not dwell on such things. It may be impossible to fix, but if you wish to do so - only worry about it when the opportunity to repair what is broken presents itself. And right now, I believe we have bigger problems than whether or not your pet thrall remembers her dead daughter.”
Riven was about to ask what Gluttony meant, when the clouds of souls in front of him parted.
It was… a tomb?
Riven had come to an end of the cylindrical drop, but before him was an open cavern that spanned for miles - its entire outer perimeter lined with hundreds of thousands of coffins. They each had their own platform jutting out of the walls, with the same strange sigils expressing Blood-affinity that didn’t match what he had come to know of his own Blood Sub-Pillar. Yet his pillar continued to scream at him, wanting him to touch these markings and to devour the essence they held - to repair what had once been lost. There was also a gargantuan statue at the far end made from crystal in the visage of an enormous blue-shelled clam with a small but vibrant red orb shimmering in its halfway-opened mouth.
The orb… now that caught his attention. Even given its relatively tiny size at such a long distance away, the purity it contained was godlike and burned in his mana sense like a burning sun amidst an otherwise desolate tundra.
Energy resonated out of it was spectacular, pure, refined to a point that he could barely stop himself from salivating. It whispered to him across the currents, wanting to be taken, and promised power should he do so.
“What is that?” Riven asked, his fangs extended in excitement as his eyes went wide. “That orb about a mile from here… I want it.”
He pushed forward, making straight for the open maw of the clam. But the second Riven floated a couple feet into the vast chasm before him - the runic sigils on all the coffins turned from red to a deep blue. A strange aura began to permeate the area as the ground began to tremble in an earthquake. The entrance into the chasm was abruptly sealed shut with a thick white light reminiscent of the times he’d had dungeon boss battles with the satyr warlord in Negrada, or when he’d faced off against the giant rat monster and the invaders near Hakim’s home town, and a notification displayed itself.
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WARNING
WARNING
WARNING
HIDDEN TRIAL BOSS FIGHT: BLUEBLOOD PRECURSOR CLAM, HAS BEEN INITIATED.
ELYSIUM HAS SEALED OFF YOUR POINT OF EXIT UNTIL THE BATTLE IS COMPLETE.
SPECIAL EVENT: THE CLAM’S PEARL IS A CONDENSED AND FILTERED BLOOD MAGIC RELIC PROCESSED OVER THE COURSE OF TWENTY THREE TRILLION YEARS, WITH THREE OF FIVE PATHS FOR THE SUB-PILLAR OF BLOOD STILL LINGERING INSIDE THE PEARL’S CORE. IF YOU OBTAIN THIS TREASURE WITHOUT DAMAGING IT, THE BOONS IT WILL PROVIDE YOU INTO THE TRUE NATURE OF THE BLOOD PILLAR ARE NEARLY UNPARALLELED. WARNING: THE CLAM’S PEARL IS CONSIDERED A TABOO, HERETICAL ARTIFACT BY THE CURRENT BLOOD GOD.
BEGGING BATTLE IN
5…
4…
3…
2…
1…
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The blue crystal statue of the clam snapped shut to create a sonic boom that scattered sand and stone, and the runes along the coffins on the walls all exploded simultaneously with ripping torrents of power shooting out towards the clam at high speed and increasing velocity. The clam grew in size, becoming larger than a football stadium at tremendous speed, its shell warping and the ruby light from the orb it held inside beginning to blind Riven with its brightness. Cracks along the tomb’s bottom ripped into fissures, and blue ribbons of power began seeping from the fissures and formed along the edges of the clam’s mouth.
But the aura was just oppressive, and it crashed into Riven like a tidal wave. He was thrown back in a rush, slamming into the white barrier Elysium had sealed him in with, and struggled to stay conscious as his mind was assaulted by an alien presence. It was unlike any other he had ever encountered to date, completely enraged and on an entirely different level than any opponent he’d ever fought before.
He was caught completely by surprise given just how powerful this monster was, and fear began to settle into the back of his mind. Bones in his face and ribs started to crack under the immense pressure, and his lungs were being squished. Was this creature even F-grade? It had to be at the very least at peak E-grade, or possibly even early D-grade. But he had few comparisons when it came to the D-grade and couldn’t be certain. Despite all the blood mana around Riven fueling his body in an endless torrent of extra power, he simply couldn’t detach himself from the wall due to the pressure as he fought back with his own aura, spiraling tendrils of dark storm twisting into crimson folds of ice as his eyes flashed bright red. Jackal came up in front of him of its own accord and he flooded mana inside the staff, increasing its potency while he used it as a shield of sorts as the blue ribbons of power continued to crush him like a frog under a boot. His totems immediately began to crack and dissolve when he brought them out, so he quickly deposited them back into his spatial sack when he saw they’d be of no use - but that god damned aura the clam produced was just unfathomably powerful. It was also equally in tune with the Blood Sub-Pillar than Riven was, and was perhaps even more complete in its synergy - given his recent understanding that he was truly lacking insights into what the Blood Sub-Pillar had been in previous eras.
With a scream of determination and as red glowing cracks started glowing and spiderwebbing out from his eyes, Riven roared in defiance and lifted Jackal up high through their mental connection.
The storm answered.
Thunderclouds of red and black erupted from his position, spitting out black lightning and needle-like raindrop projectiles in all directions as whirlwinds of shadow caressed the area around him. The stone walls shattered and groaned. The ocean between himself and the clam began to freeze sporadically in chunks, and Elysium’s barrier that he’d been pressed up against rapidly began to frost.
“I will not die here!” Riven hissed through bared, fanged teeth, and with herculean effort - he managed to peel himself off the wall bit by bit and limb by limb. Fighting with everything he had, he pushed harder than he ever had before as his own aura slammed into the opponent’s blue tide. The passives of both combatants crackled and roared, tearing at each other like beasts coming to reincarnate themselves amidst the sea of blood that was tossed about with rabid ferociousness.
A voice echoed out from the clam, with a booming laugh that didn’t sound human at all. Nor did it sound demonic. Rather, it sounded simply foreign, alien, like the ancient sea creature’s very will itself. “I have waited for untold amounts of time, lingering in the hidden depths of the Abyssal Descent in hopes that one of the multiverse’s best young talents would trigger Elysium’s promise. Long has it been since a promising child of Blood has made it to my lair, and longer still has one withstood the test of my aura. But today, I feel something different in you. Now, finally, I may be put to rest… Come, vampire, and show me that you are worthy of my secrets! That you are worthy of pursuing the path of recreating that which has been broken, and unchaining your race from the shackles of the traitorous throne!”