Besal wasn’t so sure, but he kept his thoughts to himself as he summoned a crashing wave of eldritch energy. It built and built, but without using Diffusion, the Strain climbed ever higher.
Thinking they meant to return to their earlier battle of essence against essence, the Voidwracked Kinslayer clawed the air, ripping it apart with dragon essence. The two energies collided mid-air, throwing the combatants back.
Even missing one wing, Hal and Besal were able to rush back into position and throw out another wave of eldritch energy, knowing that the Voidwracked Kinslayer would have no choice but to use dragon essence yet again.
Another explosion, another wave of essence, and still their Strain climbed higher. Hal could feel the approach of something tremendous, it was like standing at the very edge of oblivion.
Red-streaked lightning battled against the waves of draconic essence, a roar of dragon-like defiance rent the air with each collision. But while Hal and Besal’s essence grew weaker, the Voidwracked Kinslayer’s seemed undaunted by his widening black hole heart.
By eschewing the use of Diffusion to empower their essence, they were continually pushed back along the ridge with each successive attack. The Voidwracked Kinslayer gained on them, and his grin was savage in his impending victory.
They were less than twenty feet away from the edge of the Manaseed’s barrier. If they were thrust outside, Hal wasn’t sure the Manaseed within his soul would be enough to protect them.
Even worse, the Voidwracked Kinslayer would likely gain a slew of buffs. And that was the last thing they needed.
“Get ready,” Besal said.
The Voidwracked Kinslayer paused fifteen feet away and tilted his head at them. “Oh, but I am,” he said in a voice that sounded like crackling autumn leaves. “I am going to savor this.”
Besal summoned a column of red-streaked lightning, right beside the Voidwracked Kinslayer. If he was hoping to catch the man off-guard, he was sorely mistaken.
With the grace of a dancer, the Kinslayer twisted and leaped to the side. Just as Hal and Besal had planned.
Passing the final barrier of Strain, Besal was overcome by corruption.
Hal, gathering up as much of the manaseed’s strength as he could muster, thrust out all of the silvery mana that he could control at the Voidwracked Kinslayer.
But there was one thing Hal hadn’t thought of.
Caught out as the Voidwracked Kinslayer was, he wasn’t without yet another void-based spell. Unable to dodge, but hardly needing to, he twisted his body and cast Event Horizon.
As Hal’s silvery mana streaked out toward the Kinslayer, it was snared by the tidal forces of the black hole and pulled into itself.
Worse, as Besal battled with the rising corruption with him, Hal was ousted from his body as the corruption began to take root.
Without a body, the only thing holding Hal together was the manaseed’s argent mana. And as Hal began to understand the depths of his mistake, he was pulled out of Besal and into the black hole heart of the Voidwracked Kinslayer.
Time stretched to infinity as the dark orb loomed before him. Light bent around it in a strange distortion that was fascinating and terrible all at once. It was all Hal could do to keep ahold of the mana. If he surrendered it, he would die.
Somehow, he had taken the Manaseed out of his body. And as he streaked away from Besal, their tether was severed. Hal was once again alone.
Not alone, he thought, feeling the warm essence of the Manaseed within the silvery light. You’ve always been here with me, practically from the start.
There was no response. Not one that Hal could make out in any case. The Manaseed communicated more in general feeling and emotion. As the black hole loomed before them as large as a star and dark as the Abyss, Hal felt an odd sense of comfort wash over him.
Besal expected the pain to vanish once Hal was lost to him. Instead, it redoubled. Agony strengthened his muscles, expanded his pool of mana, and regrew his missing wing. He was becoming something more, something stronger.
But he no longer wanted it.
He no longer desired to be an abomination bound for the stars above. He had changed. And it took him until that moment to realize just how much he actually had changed.
He had seen Hal tackle one challenge after the other without ever giving up, even when it would have been for the best. Rather than take his winnings and run, he went out of his way to throw himself in front of a friend or an ally.
It had made no sense to the younger Besal.
Time and time again, Hal put others first when he could have grown so much stronger on his own. They battled all sorts of monsters, and yet Hal never sought to chase them to their warrens and lairs. He could have supped on their essence, and the essence of their weak children.
Besal had even tried to tempt Hal, but the man had somehow managed to retain control and push away the intrusion. How a man, so weak and feeble, could have such an iron resolve was beyond Besal.
But slowly, with every battle won, every friend saved, every ally lifted out of the mud, Besal began to understand. Somewhere, deep inside, with every point of experience he gained alongside Hal, his heart began to change as well.
Hal had been a failure by all measures of the word back in that horrible place he called Earth. It wasn’t until he was forced to reckon with his weakness that he grew and rose to the challenge.
He should have been easy prey for Besal, but he had beaten him. And so Besal had resolved to study him and find a flaw.
There were uncountable flaws within Hal, after all. But they were not weaknesses. This man that had bested him was not perfect - not at all - but he was strong in ways that Besal slowly grew to envy, and then ultimately, to respect.
As Hal continued to grow, Besal grew alongside him without even realizing it. His awareness grew, his understanding, and even his compassion.
He found himself helping Hal when the man missed a threat. It wasn’t intentional, he had once told himself, merely a reaction. And when that lie no longer satisfied him, Besal told himself that he was preserving the body so he could one day usurp it.
Besal stood at the threshold of something great and terrible. Something he once ached to achieve with all of his soul, but he could no longer lie to himself.
With the path to becoming a true Horror opened before him, Besal reached forth and shut the door.
His place was beside Hal, not among the stars.
Besal’s eyes flashed open, twin pools of flaming sapphire boring into the look of terror on the Voidwracked Kinslayer’s face.
What’s the difference between a man and a monster, Besal thought to himself, repeating Hal’s questioning refrain.
He finally had the answer.
A monster fights for himself, but a man fights for others.
And so it wasn’t for his own survival that Besal faced down the Voidwracked Kinslayer. It was for Hal’s.
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Hal tumbled forward, hitting something hard and glassy. He fetched up against a wall of some sort sending a wave of agony across his back.
Planting both hands to the floor, Hal noticed with a shock that his skin was made of silvery light. His whole body gave off a faint bit of moonlight, and with that light, he could see within the darkness.
His Shadesight was gone, and he knew without even trying to tap into them that his Beastborne powers were gone as well. His mind was clear. Free of the corrupting influence that had threatened to consume him.
The strength of the Manaseed within his soul was all that gave him a semblance of corporeality. He turned to look around, noticing only piles of rubble and debris.
It took him a moment to realize that they were all the things the Voidwracked Kinslayer had pulled into its black hole. Streams of violent energy streaked high above like a mockery of an aurora. All of the magical essence and attacks that Hal and Besal had failed to hit the Kinslayer with were roiling around up there.
He shook his head, putting a glowing h
and to the side of his head. His entire body was made of the same argent light, casting a pool of soft illumination all around him.
There was a vagueness to his form, he felt keenly naked and yet clearly was not. As he inspected his body, however, a small black flame flickered like a candle where his heart should be.
He touched the spot with a finger, but it had no reaction.
Strange.
From the darkness, a form resolved itself at the very edge of Hal’s light. Despite knowing it wouldn’t work, he reached out to his Beast Magic and tried to cast Divebomb.
Nothing happened.
He silently berated himself. He was defenseless. Practically naked if not for the somewhat indistinct, vaguely humanoid form the silvery light formed for him.
Out from the cover of darkness, a swirling void of purples and black hues approached like a miniature tornado of whipping energy. It roiled and shifted form, collapsing upon itself and being remade a second later in a constant shifting dance.
“What’re you?” Hal asked, surprised at the melodious strength of his voice.
“What’re you?” came back the echoing, strained reply. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something about the pitch and tone made his skin crawl.
Or it would have if he had skin.
He could feel its gaze settle on him and it made him feel uneasy and unclean.
Before his eyes the twisting form of darkness began to change shape, coalescing, and bending into what Hal knew was a mirror image of himself.
Except where Hal was made of shining silver light, the thing that stood before him was of sickly purple tones and darkness so deep it stood out among the lightless background.
Hal cocked his head to the side, unsurprised to find the creature mimicking him perfectly.
“Creepy,” Hal muttered.
“Creepy,” the creature replied. Though it sounded closer to Hal’s voice, it still failed to capture his new melodious warmth.
“Are you an enemy or a friend?” Hal asked it, balling his hands into fists. As he did the light of his body flared just a little.
Across from him, the creature’s body darkened, sucking in that light as his fists balled as well. Surprisingly, his answer wasn’t a direct mimic. “Enemy,” he said and his voice - though so much like Hal’s - was still missing that new quality.
At that, Hal wished he had a sword or a weapon of some kind. He missed his chain and falchion more than he wanted to admit. And facing an unknown threat like the thing in front of him reminded him just how inept he was at unarmed fighting.
Without his magic, he was practically back to the level of strength before he made it to Murkmire.
Or so he thought.
At the very mental image of his blade and chain, Hal’s argent light brightened and a facsimile of his familiar weapons appeared in his grasp once more. A curved blade of curdled moonlight in his right hand, and a chain of congealed argent light wrapped around his left wrist that trailed to the black glassy floor.
Unfortunately, the creature facing him seemed able to summon the same weapons. Just as Hal created weapons of light from nothing, it created weapons of roiling darkness.
“Copying is not very nice,” Hal said.
“Not nice,” the creature agreed a moment before he lunged toward Hal, raising his sword to strike.
Hal lifted his blade and quick-stepped to the side. Their blades met with a clash of violence that was many orders of magnitude beyond the physical force behind those strikes.
There was a brilliant flash and crackle of light as their blades met. The two combatants were blasted back, Hal planted his heels and skidded to a halt just as his opponent did the same.
It didn’t take them long to lash out again, explosions of power between their weapons echoed around them like small supernovae. Hal’s viciousness was mirrored by the faceless form in front of him.
Everything he threw at the man was mirrored. He didn’t exactly have Hal’s fighting style, but every strike, every parry had the creature aligning his strikes to more closely resemble Hal’s style.
Waves of light washed out from their attacks. The glass floor cracked and bucked as they came together again in a violent crash. The darkness around began to break from their relentless assault, glowing rents of light ruining the dark Abyss around.
This wasn’t the Abyss, Hal realized. It was a mockery of it. He had been there, in the heart of the deepest darkness. His realization gave him power over his environment, pinpricks of light like stars began to blossom in the floor and ceiling.
There was a malevolence behind the creature in front of him, something he had felt during the assault. It was the Shadesblight, the force of vile intent behind the voidmist.
He could just barely see its designs like faint reflections around the dark figure that attacked him. When he lunged forward with a thrust meant for Hal’s heart, he saw it coming a fraction of a second before it actually hit.
Sidestepping it was as simple as leaning out of the way. Confused, Hal didn’t even bat the sword away as he easily dodged the lethal blow.
Again came the shadowy premonition of an attack, and once more Hal reacted just as the creature began its strike. Understanding came to Hal in bits and pieces.
The Shadesblight couldn’t create.
It had no imagination. It could only see the world as it was, its opponents as they currently existed. It possessed no creativity of its own.
That was why it took bodies for its own, twisting and changing them but ultimately doing so in a mockery of the Abyss. Unlike even the meekest child, it could not see the world as it could be, only as it was.
And that was its true weakness.
Hal had stared into the depths of the Abyss, and it had left an indelible mark on his soul. Now he understood the small black fleck in his chest. He would never be free of it, not completely.
That was fine by him.
His glimpse into the Abyss had changed him somehow, he still didn’t quite fathom the extent of that change. There was more afoot than the Shadesblight, Rinbast, or even the Manastorms.
He heard Feril’s voice recounting a world that would be unrecognizable to the current inhabitants of Aldim. All these thoughts rattled around in his head as Hal dodged and quick-stepped away from the shadowy premonitions.
The Shadesblight coveted creation, but all it could do was mimic and corrupt into a form that was a sad imitation of something grander. To the Shadesblight, Hal’s chain was just a chain. It didn’t understand it could be used creatively, that wasn’t how the world worked.
Hal lashed out with the chain, confident that it had the same properties of his lost [Chain of Binding].
The glowing metal of the chain rattled against the glassy floor as Hal enacted its binding enchantment and pulled, suddenly shifting his angle of attack. He came up under the guard of the dark form and dealt a devastating blow to the creature’s middle.
Skidding to his knees as his blade jammed up to the hilt in the dark copy’s stomach, he bore the other man to the ground. As he did, the darkness around the man’s body shattered like a thin veneer, revealing his own face.
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As soon as Besal shut that door in his mind, pain wracked his every cell.
Strength flowed into his veins like nothing he ever experienced before. Every beat of his heart was stronger than the last.
The burning blood that coursed in his limbs scoured away weakness, rebuilding him with every heartbeat.
Pain was a constant companion.
Corruption, dark and impenetrable, flowed out like somebody had ripped a hole into the vast emptiness of the night sky. Even the Voidwracked Kinslayer, beginning to recover from whatever Hal did was wary of Besal’s change.
As well you should be, Besal thought darkly. You will not survive this. Though I fear I may not either.
Flooding shadow rolled out from Besal, coating him and changing him. Breaking bones, remaking them stronger and larger. A brume of pitch spra
ng up around him, hiding him in darkness more complete than anything save the Abyss he recalled from Hal’s memories.
Strain Affliction Lv.5 (Antecedent).
Untold power flows through your veins. You have rid yourself of your host, of the anchor tying you to morality and petty concepts such as "good" and "evil." Your ascendance is all but assured. Few "Beasts" have ever made it to this point, fewer still with their cognitive faculties fully intact such as you.
The path to the stars was open to you, your ultimate evolution awaits. You have chosen another path. A path never walked by a member of your kin from this Worldshard. Should you persist down this path, you will precipitate untold changes in both yourself and in your host's body which you have usurped control over.
Continue to stem the tide of otherworldly corruption, hold onto the shreds of humanity you have inherited and the changes that have begun to cascade within your soul will be irreversible.
The stars yet beckon.
Beast Magic Efficacy +500% | Beast Magic Damage +500%
Essence Tier +5 | Beast Magic Tier +5
HP Reduced to 1 | MP Reduced to 1
Regenerative Effects Halted
Strain Accumulation +500%
Unlocked Ability: True Abomination
Strain has become both your bane and your lifeblood. As it wounds and burns your veins it provides unmatched power if you know how to use it. You can now fully alter your host’s stats as you see fit, augmenting them temporarily with Strain.
Unlocked Trait: Feeding the Beast
While Antecedent, your Strain sustains you in every way imaginable. Your Strain limit is removed. All abilities, spells, or traits that require HP, SP, or MP now draw from your Strain. All learned Beast Magic spells are available.
Unlocked Trait: Unnavigable Seas
You are perpetually shrouded in a sea of impenetrable pitch that disorients others and saps their lifeforce. All effects of The Dark Between remain in effect but now extends to objects as well, infusing your darkness within them.
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