3.18: Death

As I walked past nearly a hundred corpses of various undead monsters, I came to an enormous underground river that glowed with a sickly green light. It had to be hundreds of feet wide, and there was no telling how deep it was. I could easily just fly across it, but I couldn’t see anything to fly to. It just seemed to be an endless sea of glowing green. I began to walk the length of the river, scanning the edge of the shore for anything that might give me a hint as to where my clan members went. As I rounded a bend that was mostly out of sight of the rest of the river, I saw the strangest thing sitting on a small table made of finely polished black wood: a bell in the shape of a small skull. I inspected the object, and it didn’t appear to be trapped, so I drew one of my swords, summoned a set of light armor, and grabbed the small bell. I shook it back and forth gently and it made a tinkling sound that echoed unnaturally throughout the area.

I watched as a skeletal hand reached up out of the green liquid and grabbed hold of the shore just in front of me. I held up my sword in preparation for an attack, until I saw the rest of the figure emerge. It wore a long gray cloak that shrouded its face, and in its other hand it carried an unlit lantern. It held its bony hand up in a sign to hold my attack, and I slowly let my hand drop to my side. My muscles were coiled in preparation for something unexpected, but for now I’d determine what was going on.

The creature stepped forward with its hand still raised and then slowly extended it towards me, palm up, as if it were expecting something from me. I racked my brain for a clue, when I remembered a bit of Greek mythology. Charon, the ferryman, would take the souls of the dead across the River Styx in exchange for a payment that the deceased would have been buried with. Maybe this skeletal being was similar?

I opened my inventory and retrieved a bag of 250 gold. I placed it in the skeleton’s hand, and it gripped it tightly before reaching into its robes and storing the bag. The lantern in its hand began to shine with a very faint yellow light. It held out its hand again, and I scoffed and rolled my eyes. I retrieved a second bag, this one with 10,000 gold, and placed it in the creature’s open hand. It repeated the action of stowing the bag in its robes, and the lantern lit up so brightly it bathed the entire area in resplendent yellow light. It nodded its head wordlessly and turned back towards the river. I watched as the light of the lantern seemed to make the green liquid disappear wherever the yellow light shone brightest. It walked down the bank of the river and into the now dry river bed, slowing only long enough for me to realize I needed to follow. It led me across the vast riverbed until we reached a hidden entrance to a spiral staircase that descended downwards. It stopped just at the precipice and held out its free hand as if to motion for me to go ahead.

“Uh… Thanks, I guess.”

The creature nodded wordlessly and gave a small bow. As it remained motionless, I turned around and headed down the stairs. No sooner had I stepped on the staircase did I see the sickly green liquid swirl overhead as the river returned to the way it had been prior. It was odd to see the liquid from below, and it was like looking up at an aquarium as the water flowed just above the entrance to the stairs. I admired the strangeness of it for a moment before heading down the rest of the stairs.

I came to a hallway made of the blackest stone I had ever seen. Along both sides ran a line of skulls that had a burning candle sticking up out of them. I followed the hallway until it led me to a huge open room made of the same black stone. I saw the other three members of my clan standing in front of a strange massive stone table. Instead of being black like everything else, it was made of what looked like white marble. Scythe must have noticed me immediately, as he turned towards me and waved me over. I ran up to them and they filled me in on everything they had done.

Once they had reached the bottom of the staircase below the bone room, they came across the massive room with a river that contained a darkened green substance. After inspecting everything, they eventually found a strange dagger made of black stone. Once they picked it up, all hell broke loose. They were immediately set upon by hundreds of undead. While each of the creatures was an extremely low level, in such great numbers it was a very close battle. One thing they had noticed after dispatching quite a few was that every single time they slayed one of the creatures, a small green light would shoot from its body and enter the river. The more of them they killed, the brighter the river became. When they finally killed the last one, they heard the sound of a bell ringing softly. They followed it to the same bell I had used to summon the skeletal guide, and made their way down here. They had been looking over everything carefully when I came down.

I studied the table closely, and saw that it had small channels running down each side that led into a hole that descended deep into the ground. I looked at the intricately carved runes on the side of the table and my eyes opened widely as I realized what it was. Scythe must have come to a similar conclusion at that same moment, because we both shouted in unison.

“It’s a sacrificial altar!”

We both chuckled lightly, but the sound was cut off immediately as we realized the implications of our discovery.

“So… are we supposed to sacrifice something?”

I had a suspicion that I knew the answer to that, but I hoped I was wrong.

“Nialla, that dagger you guys found, can I see it?”

She retrieved it from her inventory and handed it to me. My heart sank and I sighed loudly as I saw the weapon in her hands: it was an athame, a ceremonial dagger used in various rituals, including sacrificial ones. She must have seen the look on my face, because she cocked her head and her tail started lashing back and forth. I explained what I knew about the dagger and her ears went flat as she realized the same thing I had. Unless we were able to find someone or something else, one of us would have to be the ‘sacrifice.’ We studied the room closely, hoping to find some clue that would give us a better option. After spending nearly 15 minutes searching, we all returned back to the white marble table.

“I’ll do it.”

“No, Allie. Having you stuck at level 1 for a day would set us back a lot for getting the castle set up. If anyone’s gonna do it, it’ll be me.”

I turned towards Scythe and gave him a questioning look.

“Like it or not, at this point I’m the weakest member of this little team. If some BBEG shows up, you three stand the best chance of beating it.”

I wanted to argue. I wanted to tell him he was wrong, but… I knew that he wasn’t. I nodded to him slowly and pursed my lips. He unequipped his armor and the chainmail shirt beneath, so that he was left in his leggings. My eyebrows shot up as I saw just how muscular Scythe was, and he smirked at me as he caught me staring.

“What, you didn’t think Bray was the only one who spent time in the gym?”

I laughed softly and shook my head.

“Your clothing hides it well. You and Bray are a gorgeous couple.”

“Seriously, Allie? You’re complimenting us as you’re getting ready to stab my boyfriend in the heart? Remind me to gush about how cute you and Em are the next time we’re in battle.”

We chuckled nervously as Scythe stepped up onto the table and laid down. Because Bray’s hands were far too big to handle the small dagger, Nialla handed it to me and I moved close to the table. I looked down at Scythe and narrowed my eyes.

“Are you sure about-”

“Yes. Allie. Just do it. Before I lose my nerve.”

“Right. Sorry. I’m uh… Sorry.”

I placed the tip of the knife above his sternum and drew in a sharp breath. He winked at Bray before giving me a single nod and then closing his eyes. I used a bit of demonic strength to push the dagger into him, and he groaned in sudden pain. I pushed until I felt the small blade penetrate through his back, which meant my hand was now buried up to my wrist inside of his chest. Blood flowed out of him liberally, running down the channels and draining into the holes. All at once the table began to glow faintly. I pulled my hand out of Scythe’s chest and stepped back.

The runes on the table were glowing brightly and I watched as a bright blue liquid bubbled out of the holes in the table and flowed upwards, into the lifeless body of our friend. His wound glowed brightly, and we watched as the liquid spread through his veins, causing his entire body to glow from within. When the last of the liquid flowed into him, the wound in his back closed up and a scar made of that same blue substance formed. The athame pushed itself out of the front of his chest, and I watched as a similar scar formed where I had stabbed him. Scythe’s back suddenly arced like he was in pain, and then settled onto the table, where it remained motionless. We stared at the body for a moment, waiting for something else to happen.

“Was that i-”

As Nialla spoke, Scythe’s eyes snapped open, two bright blue glowing orbs of eldritch power. His head snapped to the side and looked up at the startled catgirl. His body suddenly rose up in the air, like some invisible hand was pushing him upwards to his feet. He hovered in place just above the table. He looked at each of us before settling his eyes on me. His lip curled into a sneer and he held his hand out to the side like he was reaching for something. I watched as a weapon made of that same blue energy formed, and took the shape of a giant weapon that was nearly as tall as he was. Despite the gravity of the situation, I still laughed softly as I saw the shape of the weapon: a massive scythe.

Too bad Ikelos isn’t here to see this, he’d think it was hilarious that Scythe is actually using the weapon he’s named after instead of a katana.

My demonic reflexes went into overdrive as Scythe suddenly burst forward, swinging his enormous weapon in a flurry of attacks. I quickly brought my sword up to block what I could, but I still felt the powerful blade slice through my arm and hit the side of my chest. I roared in pain as I spread my wings and flew backwards. I dropped my sword to the ground and ignited my hand in [Corrupting Fire], and touched it to the bloody stump of my arm.

“Power limiter release: 80%! [Corruption’s Caress] [Thorns of Corruption] [Blessings of Corruption]!

“Nialla, keep his focus on you so that Bray can maneuver behind him. Bray! You need to hold him still, I’m going to see if I can’t hit him with my [Corrupting Touch] after I weaken him a bit with my hex spell!”

I had no clue if this was even going to work, but at this point I had no idea what to do to stop Scythe. If it was even him. His status screen showed his name, but it had a bunch of question marks after it that made me curious what the hell was actually going on.

“Allie, are you telling me your grand plan involves basically hitting my boyfriend over and over until he submits?”

“That phrasing… sounds so wrong, Bray. But… yes? Unless you have a better plan.”

“Come on, you know me… hitting stuff is my bread-and-butter. If you think this will work, who am I to argue? Babe… If you're in there just know that I'm sorry for this.”

If Scythe or whatever was possessing him heard him, he gave no indication. He swiped at me from below before growling softly. As he stood motionless for a moment I thought maybe the real Scythe was gaining some semblance of control, until I saw two bony protrusions push their way out of his shoulder blades. They extended outwards until they were each roughly five feet long. Smaller bones grew from the larger one in several places along the length, and as the space between the long thin bones filled in with a thin membrane of glowing blue flesh, I saw that he had grown wings.

Well… Shit.

He burst off the ground towards me, just out of the reach of Bray who had almost caught him in his grasp. I flew backwards again, attempting to keep him away from me as best I could. As my demonic speed ramped up, everything blurred around me. I flew quickly across the enormous room and touched my free hand to the skeletal left hand that had recently formed. My [Corrupted Regeneration] had worked quickly to replace my lost limb, but I figured I'd speed the process along with a few healing spells.

After I used Spoken Word to cast [Corruption’s Caress] a few times, I had to dodge out of the way out of Scythe, who had caught up with me looking none too pleased at my attempts to evade him. I felt muscles and sinews form and connect on my arm, but I ignored the sensation as I moved to intercept Scythe.

I focused on speed and strength and grabbed his arm that held the scythe as tightly as I could. He struggled hard against my grip, but I bared my fangs and growled as I squeezed harder to maintain my hold on him. I reached out and placed the other hand that was still in the process of growing several layers of skin against the bluish scar on his chest.

“Spencer, if you're still in there, I apologize in advance for this… [Corrupted Ruination]!

My hex shot down my arm and left a black mark on his chest in the shape of the hand that had been pressed against his chest. I grit my teeth and pulled back my free hand before I unleashed a flurry of quick jabs to his midsection. Each time I struck him, a black fist shaped mark appeared. After the twelfth hit, I had to duck out of the way of his other hand, which now held a smaller handheld scythe.

When I realized that I didn't even have to use any of my speed to dodge the strike, I released my grip on him and began to pummel him relentlessly. I was intentionally pulling my punches and not using my demonic strength, but I could still hear the sound of bones breaking as I continued to strike him again and again.

I saw the look of pained exhaustion on his face and his wings splintered and crumbled to pieces. He started to fall back to the ground, and I grimaced at the thought of him hitting the ground so hard, until I saw a pair of red arms reach out and grab him out of midair.

“I got him, Allie… Jeez, he’s still fighting me. Calm down, babe, we’re trying to help you!”

I flew down and landed on the ground next to Bray, who was barely managing to keep his hold on Scythe despite my hex sapping all of his stats. Whatever effect had reanimated Scythe’s body was incredibly powerful, and I started to worry that maybe my corruption ability wouldn’t be able to affect him.

“Well, here goes everything…”

I focused on my speed and grabbed one of Scythe's thrashing shoulders with one hand to hold him still, while I pressed my palm against the glowing blue scar on his chest. I could feel a sort of tingly feeling in my fingertips and I watched his body for any changes.

“Anything?”

“Not ye-”

Suddenly Scythe stopped struggling in Bray's grasp and his muscles relaxed. His eyes rolled back into his head and his jaw went slack. I watched as the glowing blue veins all over his body slowly turned black, and when the blue light shining from his eyes faded, he went completely limp. Bray gently eased him to the stone floor and we both knelt down beside him. I heard movement to my left and saw Nialla crouching down beside me. We sat in silence as we watched his body, but he remained totally motionless. I yawned and looked over at Bray.

“That was an intense fight. If he’s still in there and this works, he’s going to be an absolute badass.”

Bray yawned loudly and nodded his head.

“And the fact that he is actually using a scythe as a weapon is more than a little ironic.”

I felt the urge to yawn again and my arms and legs felt heavy. I saw Nialla stretch her limbs in that very catlike manner as she let out a long slow yawn as well.

“OK. What the fuck is going on?”

Bray was having trouble keeping his eyes open and a wave of panic spurred me into action. I looked down at Scythe’s body and saw that his veins were slowly starting to shift back to the glowing blue they had been before, and the black marks from my hex had all but faded. I forced my body up and just as I was about to reach over and grab Nialla, a hand shot up and grabbed my wrist. I focused on my speed and power, but as I saw Scythe’s other hand swinging a weapon I knew I was going to be too slow. Nialla jerked her body back slightly and turned her head to look at me, when her eyes adopted a distant look and I felt a splash of blood across my chest. I watched in horror as the life drained from her face and her severed head tumbled down at my feet.

My vision went red. I reached up and placed my fingers on the deactivating runes of my Power Limiter. Instead of feeling the typical orgasmic surge of energy from taking my Limiter off, pure unadulterated rage coursed through my veins. I heard the large ogre demon standing to the side of me speaking, but it fell on deaf ears. The creature that killed one of my consorts was going to die in the most painful way possible.

In one world-blurring motion I drew my sword, cast [Demonic Chains] and used it to grab my target, and in a fashion very reminiscent of a particular video game character, I yanked him towards me.

As he came within my attack range I sliced him across the chest. I followed that up with a swift knee to the groin, used that momentum to vault off of him upwards before stabbing downwards with my sword. I impaled the blade just below his collarbone and forced it to the hilt within his body. Still holding the handle of the sword, I ignited my hand with [Corrupting Fire] and channeled it into the blade. The creature roared in pain and I bared my fangs in its face as I released my grip on my sword and placed my palm on its face.

“[Blastburn].”

The explosion bloomed around my hand and blasted directly into the creature’s skull. I felt a rush of pain as the blast from my attack tore through my arm and smashed the bones to pieces. I ignored it as I reached across my body with my other hand and ripped the destroyed limb off without taking my eyes off the creature in front of me. I channeled my energy into my [Corrupted Regeneration] and clamped my razor sharp fangs down onto the neck of the being in front of me. I growled in fury as I twisted and tore a chunk of flesh out and reveled in the shower of glowing blue blood that coated my face.

A giant red hand grabbed my shoulder and attempted to pull me off of the creature, but I grasped the muscular arm and cast my [Coldfire] spell. As the red flesh froze around my fingers I extended my claws, lifted them up, and then slammed them back down with a great deal of force. I heard a yelp of pain and the arm withdrew. I turned my attention back to the creature who was struggling to free itself from the chain that was embedded in its shoulder using one of its scythes. When it realized it couldn’t easily cut through the metal, it placed a hand on both of my shoulders and gave me an intense glare out of its one remaining eye.

Half of its skull was exposed and a large portion was covered in burned flesh, but as I watched it for a few seconds I saw that the muscles and skin were starting to regenerate. I felt my own regeneration slow and a sudden wave of lethargy passed through me. I fought against the feeling and began to slice savagely with my claws over and over. Each time I brought my claws down I cast my [Corrupting Fire] spell and channeled the flames through my fingertips. The more I slashed at him, the heavier my arm seemed to get. I growled in irritation as the wounds I had just inflicted on the creature started to close up. The creature wrapped a hand around the hilt of my sword and glared at me as it pulled it out slowly. Once the blade was free from its body, it swung my sword and the scythe in its other hand at me in a downwards motion. I focused on my speed and barely moved out of the way.

I should have been able to dodge with ease, but my body felt sluggish and unresponsive. I released the [Demonic Chains] spell and staggered backwards as the creature continued its assault. As its attacks picked up speed, I quickly found myself overwhelmed and my strength waning. As I stumbled backwards I felt a pair of strong hands catch me from behind. I suddenly felt a spike of pain in my back and turned on my heel. I saw the giant red demon holding the handle of a small dagger that was now stabbed into the back of my shoulder. Blood poured from the wound and I felt it cascade down my back. The demon pulled the dagger out and shoved me from the side with a tremendous amount of strength. I toppled over and hit the ground hard. I looked up and saw the massive red demon plunge the blade deep into the creature’s chest. As the blood on the end of the dagger mixed with the creature’s glowing blue blood, I watched its face contort in pain. The enormous red demon staggered back from the creature and we both watched as it dropped to the ground and started writhing back and forth. After a few seconds it stopped and lay there just breathing heavily.

The feeling of exhaustion wore off and I felt the intense emotions starting to rise within me. I again focused on my healing and grinned in satisfaction as my arm regenerated. I turned back to the creature and stood up. I sneered at it and started walking towards it, when a massive red fist smashed into the side of my face with a brutal sucker punch. I glared at my attacker and began to charge up a spell when the demon started ruthlessly slamming his fists into me over and over. I could hear him saying something over the ringing in my ears, but instead of focusing on that I merely spread my wings and started to fly backwards.

The creature that had been laying on the floor gasping shot up suddenly and burst into the air. Something was different about it, I wasn’t sure what, but I didn’t have time to figure it out as he slammed into me. Just like the ogre demon, he seemed to be saying something to me, and I felt his arms wrap around mine.

“Allie! Allie! Snap out of it! Allie! Shit… Bray I don’t think she’s coming out of it. I can’t hold her much longer.”

“If you can get her down to the floor I have a really stupid idea.”

“I don’t care… how stupid it is… as long as it works!”

I started to feel that same wave of lethargy pass through me and I struggled in the creature’s arms. I ignited both of my hands with [Corrupting Fire] and touched them to my sides. Fire swirled around my body and I heard the yelp of pain from behind me as the creature was engulfed as well. I tried over and over to summon up my demonic strength to push against the creature’s iron grip, but the more I did, the worse my fatigue got. I felt us slowly descend towards the ground and then we both landed with a hard crash. As soon as the creature’s arms loosened just slightly, I was up and on my feet in a second, until a huge haymaker from the colossal red demon knocked me on my ass. I was a split second away from casting my [*Overlord of Corruption*] spell when something caught my eye and made me pause. A huge mountain of red flesh filled my view, and I couldn’t help but stare at the enormous “club” hanging inches from my face.

“Don’t make me beat you down with this thing. I don’t want you to have to feel shame from being beaten by taking an ogre demon’s cock to the face.”

As my emotions flooded back into me all at once, I fell to my side and started laughing harder than I ever have before.