Chapter 331
Chapter 331
Len frowned down at the red mirror, and set aside the grimoire she’d been studying in her room to give her mother a very serious glare.
“Mommy, you need to make sure Iris is getting fed three times a day. Ok? It’s important for babies to eat. Don’t you forget!” She wagged a finger at Genua through her mother’s Blood Mirror ability - their only means of communication while mommy had been gone all this time. “And feed her lots of treats! Like cookies. She’ll definitely like that!”
Genua smiled lovingly back at her eldest daughter, red eyes twinkling with ill-suppressed and light-hearted laughter. “Yes dear. I’ll be sure to give your baby sister all the treats she wants until we get back and you can meet her in person. But I’ve got to go now, Kara is already having her hands full as it is with how much power that little baby has inside her! To think that she’s so strong at such a young age! Ugh! Anyways, I love you Len! Say hi to Tupper for me!”
“Alright mommy! Love you, be safe!” Len gave a brilliant ear-to-ear grin, and waved enthusiastically as her mother’s ability peeled off. The red mirror used for communication turned into an ordinary one, and Len found herself staring back at her reflection instead.
Her eyes had become a brilliant purple color that literally radiated sin energy whenever she got excited or upset, and two tiny white nubs of bone were growing from her forehead ever since the system had notified her about Riven and Gluttony influencing her future path through their trait ‘Unholy Father’. She was otherwise still an elf… but was something of a hybrid demon too? Her teacher and Fay’s brother Tupper had been in awe when he’d first seen the change, but he’d said it was only something that’d benefit her. And Len was happy that she now matched her baby sister Iris’s own look - even if Iris did have pink eyes instead of purple. It definitely didn’t make up for what Riven had taken from Len after he’d killed daddy and her big sister Ethel, but it was a start. Len was still having problems coming to terms with the idea that Riven had replaced daddy, and that Ethel was gone forever. But as mommy told her time after time, Riven had only been protecting himself and hadn’t wanted to kill Ethel. He’d needed to, or so mommy had said before mommy’s memory went bad and she’d forgotten about Ethel.
Was mommy’s head somehow sick? How did she not remember daddy and big sister?
Len contemplated that question for quite a while, but had no real way to know. Whatever the case, mommy seemed very happy with Riven now - and Riven wasn’t ever mean to Len. So she was trying her best to fit into this new life of hers and focused on making friends at school, or learning magic from Tupper. Tupper was… not the greatest teacher Len had ever had, but he’d been nicest to her while here and not many people outside the staff or guards were allowed inside the mansion. Riven’s sister Allie was just annoying and Len ignored her most of the time whenever Allie tried to talk to her, but Len did like the nice grimoire Allie had given her after getting back to Panu. Maybe Len would finally take Allie up on her offer for private lessons if Tupper couldn’t help Len as much as she’d like. But she didn’t want to take that option unless she had to, because of how annoying Allie was.
Whatever the case, she needed to master a few spells in the next year to impress her classmates - to prove to them that she was just as Unholy as they were now that they’d all turned into undead children. She’d even been getting made fun of for being a high elf up until just a few days ago when the horns and purple eyes came on, and her race changed from high elf into a hybrid elf-demon thingy. They’d definitely have treated her better if they knew who her mommy was, or as much as she hated to say it - if they knew that mommy wanted Riven to be Len’s new daddy. Who would make fun of her then, if they knew the king wanted to make Len a princess?
The thought made her internally recoil though, on an instinctual level, even if she was trying to combat that kind of reaction. She was still angry and very sad about what’d happened, and didn’t have an outlet for her emotions other than when she complained about it to Tupper.Yeah. At least she had Tupper.
A knock at the door caused Len to startle, and she fell off the bed with a thud. Angrily getting back up and thrusting her balled fists down with a HUMPH - she stomped over to the door and began to turn the knob. Who was up at this late hour to bother her so? Was it Tupper again? He usually went to bed this late, and the servants or guards he lorded over didn’t dare mess with her sleeping hours.
“Tupper, is that you!?” Len called through the wood, and yanked the door open a moment later. Her eyebrows lifted in surprise as she stared upwards, and she quickly recognized the man standing there as the boyfriend of that annoying Allie person.
Len pointed accusingly with pooched lips. “You’re Allie’s guy. Why are you here bothering me?”
Lahn, for his part, raised his own eyebrows in amused surprise and put his hands on his hips while leaning against the doorframe. “I couldn’t help but notice that you’re still up. The light in your room is still on, I could hear you talking to your mom through the door, and Tuppre and I just finished some late night snacks before going to bed.”
He shrugged, and looked down the hallway in the direction of the staircase leading to the kitchen. “Allie went off with Kathrine into the city and left a note, so I’ll be up for a while waiting for the girls to get back. I figured I’d ask you how your magical studies are coming along. Need any help?”
Skeptically, Len gave the bigger old man a once over and snorted, before whirling around and heading to the grimoire on her bed. Imperiously, she came back and thrust the book into Lahn’s arms. “That’s what I’m studying but I can’t get any spells to work. I was learning how to do plant magic at first, but since I got these horns my affinities have changed to Unholy, Sin, and Blood. I’ve never been able to cast any magic at all even before the change, but the academy sent over a special guy when Tupper asked them to and they said that my affinities are very very very very high!”
A smile cracked her lips, and Len couldn’t contain her excitement at the idea. “So my chances of making spells are SO good now! But I still can’t do it even while reading this boring stuff. Can you explain it to me in a way that a kid like me could understand?”
Lahn seemed more and more amused the longer Len spoke, but she ignored it. The adults always thought she was funny for one reason or another, so she just took those looks as they came and tried not to stab the man in front of her.
Maybe she’d poison some more cookies and give them to him later if he didn’t stop belittling her with those stupid smiles that the adults always wore.
“Sure thing Len.” Lahn waved at her to follow, and gestured down the hall. “Want to head to the library? It’s better lit in there, and I can at the very least help you with the Unholy aspect of your teachings. I know a few spells myself since becoming an undead, and both Unholy and Death are pretty high up there for my own affinities right now. Sin and Blood though - I won’t be able to demonstrate any of that for you.”
Len hopped out of the room and excitedly raced after Lahn with a giggle. “That’s ok! I’m just excited that you said you could help. Tupper is nice but he’s kind of bad at teaching.” ŔâN𝘰ΒĚṡ
Lahn snorted a laugh. “Don’t say that! You’re being mean.”
“What!? It’s true! The last time we tried to go over the grimoire, he blew up a cauldron and had to get a healer for his face!”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah! And he’s a demon! Aren’t demons supposed to be good at magic?!”
Lahn scratched his chin and turned, descending the stairs to the lower floors as moonlight trickled in through glass windows in their passing. “I would think that most are, but maybe not. Anyways don’t let him know that’s what you think. He’s very much taking a liking to teaching you, and it’d break his heart if he knew you thought he sucked!”
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Len giggled again and bounced down the steps after Lahn. “Don’t worry! I’m not a meanie or a bully. I won’t say a word! That’s a promise!”
***
Riven’s party continued following the abyssal spirit guide King and Queen Rantali had bought for them back on Floor 22 after he’d befriended their son - who had dropped out of the Abyssal Descent a long time ago now. Riven’s eyes shifted over the new sets of traits, including both boons and curses. Unholy Father with Daughter’s Vengeance, Embrace Your Bloodline with Vampiric Abomination, and The Sibling’s Pact with Thrall Cap.
The density of dark energies was growing harder, thicker, and more potent the further they delved - and that meant his attempts at meditation were growing in productivity as he laced pieces of his soul lattice together like strings across a tapestry. While he continued meditating on Azmoth’s shoulder as their group continued down a long spiral staircase to Floor 45, he could also clearly see the pieces of soul lattice responsible for the curses plaguing him. They were intertwined with other functions of the soul pillars and core, but he and Gluttony both had confidence that they’d be able to purge the curses in due time. It may take a while, perhaps even years or decades, but it was doable. And he certainly didn’t intend to have a figment of Ethel haunting him for all time, or a Thrall cap. Thrall cap would be the first he needed to purge due to his hard limit on 10 thralls, and despite being angry with Athela and Fay about lying to him - their idea about having a blood farm through thralls was a good one. Thralls possessed blood that was both better in quantity and quality, and synergized with himself if he was the one to have turned them. He also had the trait ‘Enhanced Thrall Minions’ that boosted their power, obtaining it here in the descent for Genua’s sake. Considering he had four thralls in the making, inside Fay’s pocket realm dungeon, he would have four including Genua after cutting Luke’s connection - having let Luke Blissfallen go on a quest for his nephew. Er, son? Grandson?
Definitely not a daughter though, Riven was pretty sure it had been a male relative.
Damn he should really pay more attention to these things. Luke would be pissed if he knew Riven didn’t even remember what kind of younger relative he’d gone looking for, but regardless of who or what - Riven wished the old man the best. Hopefully he’d even see Luke and his remaining family sometime soon after getting back to Panu, under the assumption that Luke’s quest had been successful.
Gah, he hated meditating. He’d completely lost track, and Riven let his eyes open with a grunt and an annoyed snort - allowing himself to finally see the oncoming portal leading into the next floor just ahead of them.
“Weirdo ahead.” Athela stated, landing next to him in a crouch in a flicker of blood that formed her body within milliseconds. She pointed a long red katana down the stairway. “Other side of the portal, eating a bunch of other descenders. Kind of like you when you get hungry, but this guy is a lot more gross about it? Really strong aura when I got in close too. Comparable to yours or that dragonkin named Hatchmire we saw in the temple of altars. Be wary.”
Riven’s vertical third eye opened up with a deep purple light across the center of his forehead. “Noted.”
Athela disappeared in another flash of blood, Fay continued circling overhead on outstretched wings, and Retesh seemed to be snoozing on Azmoth’s other shoulder with his bony legs crossed and his hands behind his head.
Did elder liches even need to sleep?
Riven directed his attention to the oncoming portal, and then beyond it. From their direct vantage point, it was hard to tell what was beyond the large mass of swirling energy leading to the next floor. But when he really strained his senses, he was able to pick up faint heartbeats and a steady thrum of tainted energy.
By tainted, Riven truly meant it. There was lots of Sin or Unholy energy around, along with all the other aspects of the dark arts. But this particular flavor of energy was… odd, in a way that he’d never seen before. It was like touching a familiar painted masterpiece, only to find that instead of paint - the picture was created from crayons. The mana seemed to want to leave or escape whatever entity it was bound to beyond the portal, but for some reason it couldn’t.
Mentally signaling Azmoth to halt when the abyssal spirit guide stopped at the next portal’s edge, Riven dismounted his large brutalisk and let himself float to the obsidian stairway below - lightly touching down and then creating a portal to shift right. He flashed ahead in a blur of shadow, and appeared on the outermost right side of the swirling orb of energies to behold a truly mesmerizing sight opposite the descending stairway.
Though some may have found it sickening, it spoke to Riven in a way that resonated with his gluttonous tendencies… and he could certainly place a finger on why that was.
Five crucified victims had been flayed open, and left on large beams of wood, with each of the victims being placed at the tips of a five-point pentagram’s star. The victims were still alive, but their energies were visibly being drained with wisps of light into the center of the circle. Maws similar to Gluttony’s own, but corrupted and burgundy in color, hissed and gnawed at the air to consume the energy within the center of the ritual as a lone naked man on the outskirts tossed in body parts.
Probably the body parts he didn’t want for himself, considering the disfigured man was eating from a pile of deceased men and women of various races while performing strange rites under the light of two large candles radiating green light. He had sickly, unnatural green veins that bulged and pulsed every couple seconds across much of his otherwise pale white body. Blood covered much of his front, splattered across his face, and his eyes were a pitch black. His jaw split down the center, creating a three-way mouth that was unhinged from its sockets and extending far more than what a normal human would be able to do as he ate various pieces off the corpses and absorbed their items into a spatial sack off to the side.
Upon seeing Riven, the eating man quickly stopped what he was doing and snapped his attention to where Riven stood watching about fifty yards away. When he spoke, his voice was crazed, high pitched, and even gleeful to address Riven without moving.
“So the rumors are true! You’re actually here, you’ve actually arrived! Oh my! Have you finally come to partake? I knew you’d be coming! I just knew it!”
Riven’s eyebrows raised, and the purple eye across his forehead narrowed. He recognized these people, this crucified group, along with some of the bodies in the pile nearby. They’d been on the same floor where Allie had ascended into the Angel of Wrath - and had been a particularly strong group at that if he’d read their power levels correctly back then.
Messenger’s gluttonous maw across his chest gave a warning hiss to the man when the naked, bloodied stranger stood.
But the stranger raised his hands and stepped back placatingly, gesturing to the flayed victims crucified to the wooden poles around the pentagram. “I’ve even prepared some of the best of the Abyssal Descent as a feast in your honor, oh gluttonous one!”
Meh. Riven wouldn’t say they’d been even close to the best, but yeah these victims had certainly been strong.
Riven continued staring, ignoring the people crucified nearby, and leaned on Jackal to inch closer with more than a little bit of curiosity at the forefront of his thoughts. “What have you done to create those figments of Gluttony? They seem very off.”
“Oh! Oh they are wrong! Yes, yes I’m glad you noticed! As expected of a reincarnation! Hehe!” The naked man giddily hopped from one leg to the other in what seemed to be anticipation, giggling madly to himself while muttering under his breath. “That’s actually why I’ve been waiting for you after I’d heard you were delving! I was hoping you’d help me figure out what it is that I’m doing wrong. You see, I actually cultivate Sin more than anything else… In particular, a variant version of Gluttonous Sin twisted into the shape of my soul core. Who better to ask than you about where I’m going wrong? But it’s my own brand, unique to me, and if I don’t fix this little problem and get rid of the impurities before my soul lattice completely solidifies…”
The naked man shrugged helplessly. He held up his bloody hands to either side as his split jaw snapped out to either side with a long fleshy tongue snapping forward and back in. “Then this entire trek through the Abyssal Descent will have been a waste for me! And I’ve killed far too many people to get to where I am now without results. With the bottom of the descent so close at hand, I am aware that I’m running out of time. So if you would… Please, partake in this feast with me, and hopefully we can come to some kind of agreement! I have a lot to trade after feasting on so many. I’d have more too if that damned Hatchmire prick didn’t nearly kill me after I’d set off one of Elysium’s tribulations for insights into taboo practices, and I’d been left weak in the aftermath. That is the way of the strong though, they take what they want when they can get it!”
Riven pursed his lips, and tore his eyes off the odd stranger to inspect the snapping maws in the pentagram’s center. Fay landed beside him and Azmoth stood a bit further back. Athela was nowhere to be seen as he gestured to the middle of the ritual with his staff.
“This pentagram is a representation of what you’re trying to incorporate into your soul lattice, as an external construct? Like an additional pillar, I assume?”
The man eagerly nodded. “Yes, yes! So insightful! So grand!”
Fay loudly scoffed and tipped her witch’s hat to cover her eyes with a head-shake, but surprisedly yelped when she got a playful jab to her stomach with the butt of Jackal.
“Yes, quite grand indeed.” Riven mused while examining the ritual in greater detail and listening to Gluttony’s whispers in the back of his mind. “And just for curiosity’s sake… What happens if I don’t end up helping you, oh naked one?”
“Oh that’s easy!” The man replied with a genuine smile, black eyes turning into large orbs and expanding as his skull began to crack as dark tears trickled down his face. “I’ll just eat you and hope to absorb some of Gluttony’s power for myself! That’s about as fair of a bargain as you can get, me thinks!”