Meditation, and the time taken to ground herself, revealed unexpected results. Curses and not their actions damned the examined Souls of the Revenants to this fate. Within the mists of Ki was a haven from their plight, bringing them to a comfortable silence. A respite from agony and anger that had torn at them since their arrival, no longer away because of another’s foul deeds or dark spells. With no knowledge of what releasing them would do, Julia could only keep them safe and at peace.

In every section, the Revenants swarmed, intrusion into their domain, earning wrath and pain. As health leeched from flesh into their endless hunger, the pain became a constant companion. Her feeding blackness drew back energy as practice continued to refine its use. Their powers of consumption opposed in a cycle of ravenous hunger. Though the swarms in each varied ‘Cremated Revenants’ were the only foes encountered. Most sorrowful of those for Julia were the tiny child-like shells lashing at her in near mindless frenzy. All held here were accursed and forgotten, with no chance of release till now.

As the passageway sprawled into a square, the mist ahead drew aside. It merged with three others, forming a perfect square. The cleared passage Julia hoped was still behind, but other exits required resolution. Memorial walls stretched along every path, without even a hint to show age or origin. Planar Sense seeking the Pit provided a dirge ahead in response, though the fate of those on the other pathways pulled at her compassion. Sharpened eyes checked both sides, but the end of them remained out of range of Julia's vision. The builder had placed crossroads with just metres separating each stacked so close together in both directions; while ahead a long passage lay. There was light visible far away with the same changed eyes, a faint promise instead of flickering candles. Before that light lay five crossroads, with long memorial walls set between each.

“Over two hundred Souls since I came here, with longer passageways all around. What is my limit to harvest? Do they all hold prisoners?” Julia asked the air for only an echo to reply.

Quickly checking the square to the left, its exit the way she’d come showed a fog-filled passage to the right, another long memorial path broken by crossroads, yet ending in a blank wall instead of light. The solid separating walls between each passage looked easily three, maybe four metres wide. Memorial plaques lined the inner wall along every route she’d even partly seen. All appeared as broken like the ones already passed, the energy of Souls torn forth apparent.

{{Make the toys scream. }}

((You’ve done well, child. Keep them safe. ))

How many of them are here?

Could this have been my fate? Would it have just taken different wording to end up here suffering?

{{No one’s leaping to rescue you. Why not just feed a bit? Just a nibble? So tasty. }}

But you don’t need to rescue them all at once, J.

((Even if you can’t, nothing is stopping you from returning. ))

So the Titan cares what he wants to care about, which doesn’t include Souls trapped here.

Just the ones corrupted or harvested by Demons. Go figure. What makes these different? They didn’t earn their tenancy.

Though my profile isn’t complaining about the incoming experience, getting even these to safety would be a welcome start.

I need to find a way out. What a constant theme this is becoming.

Out of the Abyss Order, Stronghold, now this bloody Necropolis. I’d say out of my head next, but that happened some time ago.

The changing light ahead grew closer with every teleport, the last taking her into the midst of a large gate. The Mausoleum interior walls stretched out away to either side, but the sight of what lay ahead stopped progress. While the landscape forward looked shattered and broken to even normal vision, it was lit up in a combination of her Powers. Strands of Mana bound Souls under and over what lay ahead. Mounds of earth and bones alike sprinkled amid embers still glowing around blackened figures chained to pillars. The tortured shadow of the victims stretching out, clawing at mounds and bones alike. Decay and bitter ash scented the air as unsettled ground churned noxious vapours upwards.

The Analysis picked out the names of what lurked ahead, but even gaining those strained at her ability. The knowledge of their names was no comfort; Genocide Graves, Skull mounds, and Brocken bows. As Julia checked each one, it seemed to welcome her drawing near and licked at the air with the hunger. Nothing looked safe about travelling the path in front of her, and overhead a storm of vengeance surged and roiled. Shock waves boomed and shivered off the stonework from frequent lightning strikes, cast downwards almost spitefully at the cursed below. Bone, flesh and hauntings alike were quaking under their blows.

Planar Sense seeking the Pit provided a funeral dirge of sound stretching out across the nightmare ahead.

“How do I get past all those?” Julias asked aloud. The reply: another boom, close enough for flash and sound to arrive as one.

“Or does she want me to die? What debt would I owe if I sought shelter from the Order? If they can’t find me, then I’ll never receive new orders—a win-win situation for her. Either I bring in lots of Souls, or I owe through the nose. If I survive and don’t bring in a mass of Souls, then I’m stronger for whatever she has planned.”

((Grow strong enough to break them. ))

{{POWER!!}

A step through the gate and back confirmed it allowed retreat. Careful steps past the gate again saw a Genocide Grave loom up to greet Julia, a giant made of melded Souls. Its physical form chains of bones and rotting flesh, putrid with sustained decay. As it lashed out an arm made from whole dead bodies, Blink’s quick retreat took her back within the Mausoleum. When looking beyond the gates again, the thing had already started settling back into the earth, pained moans echoing from its depths.

The thing’s quick-strike had left an impression on earth and crushed stone near the gate. The distance between the gate and its edge had been seven, maybe ten metres. Though without Battle Trance’s reactions to aid it, Blink almost wasn’t fast enough. Even as it settled down, churned earth rippled along the blasted ground as others drew closer to the gate.

“Think I’ll take that’s no entry, for now. Oh, Bugger Off, they say,” Julia said.

Looking back along the skipped sections, Julia could only shake her head.

“Souls, they’re only wafer thin. Though if I see John Cleese running away, I know I’m in trouble.”

Experience grinding in games was just part of the process, moving onto the next fight, killing the mobs, getting the loot rinse, and repeating. Here, though, every battle became a game of cat and mouse with destruction. There was no gamer loot gained, just pain, other’s sorrow, spiced with the hope of redemption, the only consolation. Pain, the despair of Souls, and the strain of holding them at rest within; conflicting with the joy of victories gained, yet at every section, another test followed. In conflict, foes fell, skills advanced, and powers levelled, the storm of souls within swelled with strength. The Soul's sensations constrained by the force of will and the mist of Ki. It eased the pain and enfolded with peace, promises of contentment, in a struggle against echos of pain, sorrow and loss.

As Julia cleared foes from sections, more room to work allowed experimentation, so spells filled the air. Trips and Tracing missiles struck targets before Teleport leapt her clear. Though once it had cost her when Teleport itself had brought her in low. Protean turned an arm into a scythe to cut legs free before rushing foes arrived. Feet left behind, an eerie marker of the error merged with stone. Level ups flowed as more Souls joined her, and in the mists of Ki, they groaned. The numbers increased past what battle diminished Ki level could completely calm.

The more rows Julia cleared, the darker the roiling mists overhead grew till the blackness filled every path, and lightning scurried with flickering strikes. Stone rained from memorials plaques hidden unseen in the mist, shattered by the strikes. Cleaned stone floors became littered with rocks and sharpened fragments of heated metal.

((Down!! ))

Not knowing why Protean changed striking flesh even as Danger Sense stayed silent. Flesh formed to flat stone an instant before lightning struck. Memorial plaques shattered under its force. The lightning still whirled over them as the pieces scattered. The broken stone smashed, chasing Revenants, destroying any they struck. Rock rumbled as bolts ruptured walls. Julia got clear under cover of the initial destruction. Static sticking to form danced and burnt reformed skin, the lightning-filled passageway shining clearer than ever before.

Seriously, do I look like a web-slinger? Why is my Danger Sense offline now?

A giant form of blood wine lightning filled the passageway. Metallic blades of ozone’s scent cut the air, cascading out in waves. Blink flipped her away again. Even before Analysis could tell her what she faced, another cascade of bolts obliterated stone in her place. When its hands raised, Teleport took her beyond it. Yet the flash still blinded eyes with searing light. Eyes nestled amid claws locked on the figure, just long enough to trigger Analysis.

[Type:

Level:

Health:

Mana:

Melee Attack Power:

Details: Really, you expect to learn anything about this?]

Fuck! Not even the Truck’s licence plate?

{{Truly shocking. Surprised you didn’t eat one to level something. Boring!!!}}

{{It might have levelled you. }}

((Run Child. ))

A roll changed the momentum and Blink kicked her clear out of sight into another square. Eyes reformed in sockets to clear their blindness as those facing the crossroads went blind. An image of the gates fixed in mind and teleport shifted. Feet dropped to hit the stone as thunder rolled through the cleared passageways. Eyes crossed the churning earth as the deep red flashes, and the echoes grew closer as the wraith flashed into sight in the passage behind. With options disappearing, flesh changed as Flight threw her forward. The three Genocide Graves grasped her nearly as one. Blackness pulsed before Julia’s form crumpled, twisting in their grasp, and a stream of lightning smashed them all. The lightning as dark as blood drove over, and together they fell.

The lightning form paused within the gate and looked over the four remains. Goal fulfilled, it drew back and faded into the clouds above.

[Combat Summary:

Cremated Revanents x14

Genocide Graves (50% share) x3

Behemoth Lightning Golem Evaded.

Total Experience gained: 28,160

Monk: 3,000

Wizard: 10,580

Succubus: 14,580

Wizard Level Up!

Succubus Level Up!

Electricity (M) (10 -> 14)

Abyssal Adaptability [Ad] (6 -> 7)

Blink [J] (22->23)

Teleport (Self) [Ap] (30) -> [J](1)

Blink merged with Teleport (Self).

Greater Teleport (Self) Unlocked.

Greater Teleport (Self) [J] (5).

Ki Armour Unlocked (1)

Acrobatics [J] (5->6)

Battle Trance [J] (6->7)

Bite [Ap] (30) -> [J](1)

Claws [J] (9->10)

Danger Sense [J] (5->6)

Mental Hardening [J] (25-27)

Pain Tolerance [J] (4->10)

Stealth [J](14->15)

Unarmed Combat [Ad] (8->9)

Arcane [Ap] (16 -> 17)

Undead (3->5)

Current Soul capacity exceeded.

Excess Souls released to Judgement.]

No. Not my Blink! You better be worth it, Greater Teleport!

Still another level in Wizard and Succubus after that massive experience feast.

Julia floated above, looking down at the three foes beneath her, grasping the crumpled steel husk. She'd formed, then reformed as they grabbed at the initial steel bar. Growths of spikes had driven into their hands and conducted the power thrown their way. She’d drained at them for the Souls just before Blink had taken the nearly free-floating core away. Eyes regrown, Julia looked down over her self flayed form. It seemed while they massively out-levelled her, their mindless hunger had almost no willpower to resist her feeding. As bones reformed, black blood mingled with the smoking ichor below.

That fucking hurt. Glad these fellows seem not to have global roaming.

Thank goodness for Arcane knowledge. The key to that was knowing magical lightning grounds just as well. It seems the system agrees with the experience assignment.

Do the excess Souls go to Judgement? Or to their Judgement? That so better mean the cloudy plane.

Still glad I didn’t get hit with those bolts. Hate to think what one solid connection would have done. Those brushing past had hurt enough.

Dark Sight had provided images of thunderstorms easing into mist again. Will alone caused Greater Teleport to shift her to float still limbless above stonework before the gate. With still no sign of lightning and the cloud continuing to ease towards mist, she drifted within as the regrowth moved below ribs. Though this time, she’d be taking care to heal completely before feet eased to stone, let alone settling to her knees.

Analysis

[Greater Teleport (Self): This allows the possessor to teleport without risk of merging into an object at the target location. Previous travel to the target location is no longer required, but they must have received a reliable description. Interplanar travel is not possible.]

Analysis

[Ki Armour: This power allows the possessor to spend Ki to shield the surface of their skin from contact. It increases normal physical defence. It also provides the effect of slipping aside touch attacks before they contact flesh. Such touch attacks instead will need to overcome the opposing defence rating. The higher the effective power level, the Ki’s protection continues without additional expenditure.]

Focused on putting together a mental image from Lêdhins’s description. The image as if looking down over a massive mist-filled Pit, with its outer stairs spiralling down. When Julia activated Greater Teleport, the shift moment almost went unnoticed instead of the jar of reality jumping. Around the Pit sprawled a procession of broken buildings, and rubble-filled streets below the mists blocked sight. The only way to learn what lay beneath apparently required descending into the mists. However, packs of non-humanoid figures roaming rubble-filled streets certainly gave her enough pause. Their feathers slick with oozing gunk cresting down the back and side. Certainly not how she’d pictured them, yet the form seemed to match.

Analysis

[Tar Pit Velociraptor

Level: 40

Defence: 50

Health: 720

Mana: 0

Melee Attack Power: 70

Combat Skills: Claws [Ad] (12), Bite [Ad] (15)

Details: Yes, it’s a Dinosaur. It died. It’s now undead after getting sucked here.

Agile, it likes to eat faces and disembowel foes. Also, hunt children in kitchens according to your mind.

Beware, the door handles turning.]

Planar Sense provided her direction now to Roûercev, deep resonating tones. On impulse, she tried for Ùeqräkas, and the tones returned hit her mind hard as reverbing death metal rang out. Compared to the dimmer tones, or crystalline tones of other places, it was a rude surprise. Danger sense had her drop just in time; as a shape swooped in towards her, the clack of a boned beak snapped at empty air.

Analysis

[Pteranodon

Level: 45

Defence: 52

Health: 540

Mana: 0

Combat Skills: Bite [Ad](16), Claws [Ad](1)

Special Attack: Fly-by swoop]

How the heck does a skeleton fly?

Rather than chase it, the predator became target practice as Tracing Missiles loaded with Jade Court Mana rammed it, even before it could pivot and turn to come around. The second missile hit it as it swooped to strike, Flight took her past it faster than it could match. Before it got a third chance, it was all over.

[Mana Spent: 27

Tracing Missile x3

Energy Damage: 168

Energy vulnerability applied: 504]

“Go back to the park bird brain,” Julia said, her tone growling as the remains plummeted.

[Combat Summary

Pteranodon x1

Total Experience earned: 1,440

Wizard: 1,240

Succubus: 200

Fly [Ap] (5->6)

]

Better get out of here before ‘Big Bird’ turns up.

Focused on the growling death metal, Julia pushed with Flight and Teleport. Eyes looking far ahead to jump repeatedly and race towards however distant was the goal. The destroyed city stretched along the path to Ùeqräkas, the architecture that remained standing odd to her eyes, with weird corners and twisted lines.

Climbing out of a crevice in a rock face, Julia shot a look back at the undead pressing against the Necropolis barrier.

That’s one mob train. Who's the bad player, Julia. Admin, can I get a permaban from this MMO?

No? Really??

Dick!

Changing her form back to a normal Succubus in dominator leathers. The key changes were wearing a distinctly fresh face and the wings on her back hidden eyes faced in various directions. A focus of will later and reality changed. Julia found her standing on the Docks outside of Ùeqräkas, heading back towards the docks gates. As she passed Demons, some look her way with far too much interest. The ping of Dominion’s level up message prompted her to turn it off.

[Dominion [Ap](15->17)

Hit a few too many at once, it seems.

A long insectoid demon clicked towards her; it’s shelled body curving upwards away from the dock. A growling sound coming from within its thorax even as Julia's aura turned off. However, it seemed more incensed by her ‘backing’ down from its challenge. Large curved sickle arms extended from the top of its body to supplement more normal arms and hands extending from its abdomen's upper curve. The hands pulling curved blades across the front of its body as it stomped towards her.

Analysis

[Name: R’nlai

Species: Thalaix Mantis

Class: Fighter

Level: 3 / 40

Defence: 50

Health: 1,080

Mana: 0

Combat Skills: Claws [Ad](6), Falchion [Ad] 12

Details: These insectoid Demons are fast ground combatants and have a limited flying capacity from wings that fold along their back. Generally, they pursue some type of fighting class, either an informally skilled warrior through to class specific to their preferred role on a battlefield. Most follow the trained Fighter class at least, as they’re taught by their brood or by whatever army employs them.

]

“You dare little Succubus bitch,” its voice a whistling accented.

{{Let’s Agent Smith its arse.}}

Resisting the urge to attack, Julia turned the aura back on with a smile that didn’t match the flat look in her obsidian eyes. Willpower focused on the fresh memory of flayed flesh. She enabled Stimulation and shared every detail with it repeatedly.

[Stimulation (Critical Success) boosted by Dominion

Willpower 52 vs 19

Level Totals: 70 vs 58

Do you wish to amplify the sensory experience?]

Yes

[Stimulation[B](16 -> 18)]

The Demon staggered back, hands suddenly empty as its blades dropped. It grabbed at its chitin as it squealed and clicked in pain. Its large body thrashing had other Demons at first making space. When a BrÍn came up and threw it off the edge of the Docks, Julia stopped Power and Aura's effect. As she walked past where it had fallen, each blade it had dropped disappeared into inventory.

“He might want those back,” said the BrÍn, apparently amused.

“What they want is not important,” Julia replied, heading through the docks as the BrÍn roared with growling laughter.

After that, getting through the docks didn’t take long, especially given she was carrying no apparent item. Julia had tucked even her pendant away into inventory before getting to the ‘custom’ inspector. When she arrived at the Treasury, waiting Demons filled the area before the gated section. Their various large shapes preventing her from seeing what Hags were dealing with customers. Finally getting to the front of the queue, she saw Usd’ghi wasn’t present, but all the Hag appeared to be the same lineage.

The Analysis skill gave Julia the name of the hag that she approached, but it provided nothing more.

“Hurry up. What do you want?” Uelian’ghi asked.

“I was told to ask for your Matron Usd’ghi,” said Julia

“She's busy. Now, what do you want,”

“Usd’ghi is the one that told me to ask for her,”

“Right, that’s what they all say. Now, what do you want or get out,”

“I’ll just be leaving Uelian’ghi, and I’ll pass your name along when I see her,” Julia said, just nodding as she turned to go.

“Who are you then?”

“I know your name. You don’t need to know mine,” Julia said, slipping away between two waiting Demons.