Unbound Deathlord: Obliteration (The Unbound Deathlord Series Book 2)
Page 51
No damage dealt to Devourer.
He sighed. "I can't kill you," he said. "The Blight and the Divinity inside me are locked in eternal stalemate, and I can only use dark magic, to which you're immune. But you also cannot damage me. You're too weak."
Ignoring him, I attacked again, this time with my bare hands, hoping my immunity to darkness might allow me to harm the dark side of his body, even a tiny bit, but I met only empty air as he opened a hole in his smoky body, instead of allowing me to touch him.
Well, the fact that he didn't want me to touch him at least proved that my immunity was uncomfortable to him.
"Foolish child," he said. "I have gifted immunity to Divine magic to tens of thousands in the hope that they may be able to stop me should I lose myself again, and you think you can stop me alone? How naive and arrogant are you?"
Things weren't going according to plan. "It doesn't even make sense," I said. "If you can't use Divine magic, what use is their immunity? Shouldn't you give them immunity to darkness instead?"
"To the Blackguard I give immunity to Divine magic, in case my Divine side prevails and tires of being here," he replied. "To the High Assassin, I also grant immunity to the Blight, in case I become a Fallen God; he's the only one, because for a being who is tainted by the Blight as the drow, being made immune is both excruciating and maddening. But if they were also granted immunity to darkness, they would lose all reverence for me. Instead of a god, I would be little more than a caged animal, milked for the gifts they would force me to bestow."
It was interesting, because the drow had been elves just like any others, prior to following the Devourer to the Underworld. Clearly, not only he, but the entire race was affected by the corruption of the Blight.
"Dude," I said. "You killed what, half of all the drow with a single attack from your Soul Avatar? They can't stop you if you get out."
"My Soul Avatar is sealed out of the dimensions composed of lightsteel; I'm sure you saw them awaiting there, in case I break free." He explained. "And they need not defeat me, only keep me within the prison dimensions long enough that divine aid could be summoned, since I could immediately escape into the Divine Realm, where no mortal could follow, if I ever were allowed out into the world."
That made some sense. I hadn't heard about the Divine Realm before, but it wasn't hard to imagine it was a kind of Mount Olympus for the gods of Valia.
"But the High Assassin is fighting the Ruined Mage Kings," I pointed out. "What if you turn into a Fallen God right now and use the Blight to kill the guards and flee?"
"Then, a new war would ensue, with me leading the Legion." His voice went up in pitch as nearly a hundred green lights shone on the ground around the hill.
I smiled. "You know what? I like you." I said sincerely. "You answer my questions and don't talk down to me like I'm vermin, even if you were a little harsh before."
"I'm alone," he said with a ripple in his substance that looked like a shrug. "Even the High Assassin would be overwhelmed by the dark magic here, in my Heart of Hearts, if he remained for long, and the other gods haven't visited in centuries. I'd prefer you to leave, but if you will not, a chat is less tiresome than futilely trying to kill one another, don't you agree?"
"I'm glad to see you can be a sensible deity.” I said “So, let's do things this way: let Samantha Hidden Daggers go, give me some kick ass dark magic, and I'll leave you in peace."
It wasn't such a bad deal for me. It might give me the edge I needed to keep playing in the Underworld longer, and try to accomplish something new.
"Impossible," he replied. "The Rite of Sacrifice is sacred and cannot be broken. She'll become another of the souls trapped here with me for eternity." He said, while indicating all the tormented 'statues' around us.
"Man, I just said how reasonable you are. C'mon."
"It cannot be done," he said firmly.
I sighed sadly. "You said I'm inside your Heart. As in inside your body?"
"Yes. All of this is a part of me."
"Well... I'm sorry, then. I gave you a choice, but you chose the hard way." I put my Circlet of Enlightenment and my Ring of Fire inside my storage ring, then placed my ring in my purse, which had a lower chance of dropping on death.
"Is this supposed to be intimidating?" He asked sarcastically. "Like a man rolling up his sleeves before a fist fight?"
"What?! No! I'm just not expecting to survive this." And with that, I took the ring with the Fallen God from my purse and threw it on the ground.
The ring was proof that neither Laureth nor Manhart had told me the whole story about the Fallen. Manhart's version about the Mother imprisoning the Fallen in objects didn't explain the Devourer, and Laureth's version, which had even been revealed in a cool cutscene, didn't explain the ring.
I didn't really care either way; the Devourer had confirmed that the Divine and Blight within him were in a precarious balance, now all I needed to do was put my thumb on the scale.
The Devourer regarded the ring curiously for a second, then it suddenly shot towards him like an arrow. Just as he had done when I tried to punch him, he formed an opening in his body for the ring to pass through.
But it didn't, it stopped with his body and transformed. Instantly, it became a silver fog with streaks of gold that slowly turned green, and perfectly filled the hole.
"What—" The Devourer said, and then he let out a scream of pain. "What have you done?!" He yelled and dispersed his form, seemingly trying to flee in all directions at once. The silver and green part of the fog, however, went with him.
The Destiny Spirit didn't reply.
After a deep sigh, I sat on the ground, pulled a beer out of my bag, and waited for whatever was coming.
The fog covering the ground had been a mix of black and green, but it quickly divided itself in half by color, reminding me somewhat of opposing armies squaring off in formation. In the middle there was an opening, where the patch of fog which had been the Devourer's body moments ago was writhing.
The silver fog was being consumed by the Blight, which was growing visibly stronger and gaining dominance. When there was nothing else within its range, part of the green vapor condensed into a liquid and fell to the ground, which it corrupted as well.
The section of the ground which had been corrupted was suddenly, violently uprooted by an invisible force and compressed into a sphere. It looked like the Devourer wasn't going down without a fight after all. The Blight consumed the spherical scab, and then......
The air itself split open with a thunderous crack. It was like a bullet through a pane of glass, a luminous green hole suspended in space, with cracks radiating out from it like the legs of a spider. Was the Blight eating into the space-folding magic sustaining this pocket dimension? Whatever was happening, tongues of green energy licked out of the cracks, they spread and multiplied until the air was checked like a piece of wood being consumed by a fire.
"That was a valiant attempt," I remarked. "I also cut off a piece of myself to keep the ring from taking over my body. But you already confirmed to me that everything here is a part of you, there's nowhere you can put it that isn't inside your body."
"Stop it!" The young sounding voice of the Devourer rang out from all around me. "You've no idea what this will do to the world! You're dooming Valia entirely!"
"Glad to hear that." I took a sip from the beer. "It wasn't all for nothing, then."
"STOP!” He shouted in rage and pain as the fog attacked from around me, like a hurricane. Thousands of immunity messages spilled across my vision.
The Devourer shrieked in agony and the fog fell away. "I'll do it! I'll give you the Bloodied back! I'll t
each you dark magic, and even Divine magic!"
I gave him a weak smile. "That's a pretty good offer, and I'd take it, but it's too late. I can't stop it."
"No!" He howled in despair. "I'm the Devourer!" He declared forcefully. "I'll Devour this puny Fallen God!"
"Suit yourself," I said with a shrug. "If you let him consume you, your body will be taken over by a Fallen God. If you consume him, the balance between the Blight and the Divine inside you will be destroyed, and you'll turn into a Fallen God yourself. Either way, I get what I want."
"Why?" The voice asked. "You are dooming the world!"
"Revenge."
"Revenge? What great sin have the inhabitants of Valia committed that you'd condemn them to this Apocalypse?" He couldn't understand.
"None. But you're all children of the creators of this world. They took my parents, my family, away from me. I'm taking this world they've created away from them."
"Creators of this world?" He asked confused. "Have the Guardian and the Mother mistreated you?"
I shook my head, and stopped replying. He was just a game character; he couldn't understand.
The green web continually expanded, touched the ground and once again began to corrupt it. When the 'statues' turned green, I could hear the sickening crunch of bones being rearranged as they were transformed into giant spiders.
"You'll die as well," the Devourer said desperately.
"I know." I replied without concern. Even if I wanted to run, I had no idea how to get out of here.
Time passed as I sipped at my beer. Half the world had turned green and the cracks in the air had resolved into a massive and perfectly symmetrical spider web. At least for now, the hill I was on remained unaffected.
"There is an alternative," the Devourer said at least, his voice strangely calm and resolute. "I can still save Valia. A temporary salvation, but the best I can do, since none of the other gods have heeded my call."
I froze with my beer halfway to my mouth. "You're bluffing," I said.
"You gave me a choice before, so I'll return the favor," the voice said, but this time it was immediately behind me. I jumped, and brought my shield up between myself and the Devourer.
He had changed. Now, only about one third of his body was still black; the other two thirds were green, and shone brightly.
"I can use your body. The Blight acts slowly on Travelers, it will take exactly one year and a day for the process to complete. That will buy time for my brethren to create a defense plan for Valia. And before you think that you can foil my plan by killing yourself, let me present your choice: I'll either corrupt you, or the Bloodied. I needn't ask her permission; she already gave herself to me."
"Shit!" I said.
From what I understood he was going to start the process of turning either Dagger or I into a Fallen God, similar to what would've happened if we wore the Spider Ring. If that happened to me I was sure I would lose my character, since Sam's choice had already shown me such a thing was possible, depending on what the player chose to do in the game.
I wasn't sure what would happen if I deleted my character with all the Blight of the Devourer inside of it, but I was certain that it wouldn't accomplish my goal. Without a dead Devourer, Valia definitely wouldn't be destroyed, it might even improve things if he was trapped inside me.
The child voice laughed in my mind.
"Shit!" I cursed. "Shit, shit, shit! You bastard!” I shouted at the Devourer. He didn't reply.
The asshole had found a way to thwart my plan, at least for a year. If Sam or I were corrupted and then deleted our character it sounded like the Mother may even revive the Devourer. I'd seen players abuse the system in games, but seeing an NPC do it was a novel experience.
And it was personal, too; he could go for Sam but he wanted to make me pay for killing him.
In this situation I would either have to destroy Valia with my own hands in the next year of gameplay, or hope that when my avatar became possessed by a Fallen, it could do the job for me. But if the Devourer was to be believed, the gods would soon be making plans specifically to thwart that, and if they'd beaten the Fallen twice before, and now had a year's warning, it seemed likely they could do it again.
So much delay, all because I'd overestimated my abilities. I sighed for the fourth time since entering the Devourer's heart.
"Fix me up," I said.
The fog of the Devourer's face split into a truly sadistic smile; then he was upon me.
The vaporous deity swathed my body, forcing his way in through my nose, ears, mouth, and eyes. The whole world shuddered violently as a loud, shrill cry came from the green side of the world. The Blight there condensed into a lance that shot my way, aiming for my head. However, a shield of black smoke formed to defend me. When the two clashed, the entire world rang and shook like an anvil struck by a sledgehammer. I was falling over when my body started floating.
The Blight, its attack thwarted tried to escape by becoming a fog once more and flying away, but the Devourer lived up to his name and created a multitude of tentacles with monstrous mouths on the end which quickly sucked it in and began force feeding it to me in the same way he had been doing with the substance of his own body.
The energies continually poured into my body, it felt like my blood was becoming ice water.
Then whole sections of the ground began exploding, along with the 'statues' upon it and the debris flew my way. I saw that the statues were flesh and bone on the inside, some were even ectoplasmic. That's when I realized that most of them must be the victims of the tidal wave of darkness magic that had destroyed Ter'nodril, not just dead but devoured. A vortex of black smoke and green light appeared in front of my chest and began converting everything into more energy which was pumped into my body, as the sensation of cold intensified.
I had no control of myself as I floated and was was pumped full of arcane energies; then, a window appeared in front of me.
Critical Warning!
Your character is undergoing changes that will make it unplayable in...
12 months, 23 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds
You may cancel this process now. Doing so will lead to unpredictable consequences.
Are you sure you want to proceed?
Yes, I thought, and the window disappeared.
As the energies built up, black scales with a tint of green appeared all over my skin. I could now see nothing other than the debris flying into the vortex before me.
The energies inside my body were fighting each other and when they clashed, parts of my body would be destroyed and then reform.
For once, mercifully, there was no pain involved.
Finally, after a few interminable minutes, it was done. The vortex itself entered me and I found myself floating in nothingness.
"The Ways have been violated," a celestial female voice said from nowhere.
"The First Guardian is no more," another ethereal voice, this one male, replied.
"The drow have failed the gods," a third voice declared.
"We sentence them to Obliteration," the three voices said in unison.
White and golden fire appeared all around, but didn't touch me. Instead, it expanded outward. The nothingness shattered and I saw that I was in the center of the room of chains.
The wave of white fire shattered the chains like glass, as it expanded ever outwards. The whole chamber burst as the
blast impacted the walls, millions of tons of lightsteel reduced to splinters by the divine fire.
The room containing the drow guards, and all the priests within it were gone before I even saw them, but the Blackguards' divine magic immunity protected them for a second, until the flying lightsteel debris ripped them apart.
The blast destroyed absolutely everything, until it reached the blood which shone a brilliant red and resisted the white fire, which rushed around it, consuming the room which had contained it.
Soon, the dimension itself was destroyed and I found myself floating at the peak of the Dark Temple. The ball of darkness and the beam which had fed it were no more, but the High Assassin was still fighting the three Mage Kings.
The Dark Temple was ripped apart as a massive gout of fire erupted from it and slammed into the ceiling. The fire rolled across the top of the cave chamber, then rained down. The Mage Kings' eyes widened and they opened a purple portal, immediately going through it. The High Assassin hesitated for an instant before following suit.
The floor of the chamber burned away, revealing the drow's livestock on the cave bellow before they were burned away as well. Even then, great torrents of fire burst outward from every exit of the chamber, leaving them much wider than they had been before.
All that left was me, the huge floating lake of blood, and a few huge chunks of lightsteel which had somehow survived, still glowing from the heat of the blast.