Chapter 109 - A Bloody Awakening

He still hadn’t told anyone about what he’d seen. To him, it’d felt real… but to the others, they’d just attribute it to his insanity stat. It was one of those times that he really wished Sithis had still been sharing his mind and conscious thoughts, so that he could express just how different that vision had been from the others. Had it been a warning? A vision of things to come? Was Vick here too? What about the rest of his family.

He simply didn’t know, and had no way of figuring it out. So instead, he tried to keep his mind off of it. He’d walked out to the balcony and sat along the outer wall with his back to it, looking out through the holes in the stone rails and down the hundreds of feet to the ground in the distance.

“Oh hey! There you are!”

His head turned as Ezdeath’s voice was followed by her approach. Sithis and Atharost tailed her, and together the three demons came out to join him and ruin his solitude. Sithis had all four arms crossed over his chest in concern, and Atharost was absentmindedly playing with Boxamoth as the little fire elemental circled around his arm.

Ezdeath clasped her hands in front of her and stretched her wings out, now that she was outside and not in an enclosed space. Her long bare legs were only covered up by the rags she’d come with, and they were as revealing as undergarments at best. Other than the armor she had, it was her only set of clothes. Her snow-white hair was off to her left and over her shoulder, and she pushed it out of her eyes to get a better look at him. “Feeling alright?”

He snorted, eyes half closed and his mind on other things. “I’d say. I’m stuck in an undead-infested land, have no idea where this ring Taen wants is located, am kind of just drifting along and may turn into a spider soon.”

Sithis uttered a deep, guttural laugh. “The arachnid ascension tree is what you speak of?”

Trey banged the back of his head against the wall softly a couple times before letting out an exaggerated sigh and nodding. “Well. There’s no going back apparently, I’m just really worried about it.”

“Why?” Ezdeath seemed confused as she leaned forward over the balcony. The city below was abnormally silent, and occasionally shadows were seen moving in the darker recesses of the ancient stone buildings.

“I mean look at me,” Trey gestured to his horns, tail and then his eyes. “What happens if I grow eight eyes or something?” He looked genuinely concerned. Ezdeath smiled sweetly at the infernal prince while the other two demons, Atharost and Sithis, tried to suppress their laughter.

“I didn’t realize our master had become such a pussy, as Ashe would state it…” Atharost grinned as Trey shot him a deathglare.

“Funny man. You got jokes, but it isn’t YOU who may grow spider limbs out of his ass in the next month or two.” Trey’s mind was completely elsewhere as he sat there talking to his three friends. Ezdeath’s body had pushed up against his arm and he could feel her body heat radiating onto his, calming his nerves and taking his mind off his family.

Atharost banished Boxamoth back into his body, and he scowled at his master from above. “Unfortunately I do not have suggestions, but I do believe you’ve come a long way in terms of power. Continue to progress at this rate and you’ll be quite powerful. People wouldn’t dare to try and stop you if you ascended into a demon lord.”

“Words of wisdom from the Ghandi of our age…” muttered Trey, but he leaned into Ezdeath and glanced up at the ifrit curiously. “Ascending into a demon lord? Can I do that?”

Atharost nodded, and began hovering cross-legged in the air. “It is a class that you can obtain, yes.”

“And one that you likely will not obtain any time soon.” Sithis stated, cutting Atharost off as the devil hunched down to eye level with Trey. “I have already spoken to Eleknar about it, and though it is certainly a possibility - I highly doubt that it’ll be anything you obtain even within the next decade.”

The minor amount of interest immediately receded.

From inside the adjacent room, Napoleon could be heard scolding someone as his voice came nearer. “No no you stop stop! Bad Juila! Bad BAD BADDDDD!!! NOOOOOO!!!!”

What in the fuck?”

Trey heard the laughter of Juila and Rivia just as the two demoness women exited the room to join the others on the balcony. Rivia had a hand held over her mouth and was trying to maintain her composure - stifling laughter with a good amount of willpower - while Juila was playing airplane with Napoleon and zooming him up and over her head before brining him around again.

“NOOOO NOOO BADDD BADDDDD!!” Napoleon was frantically swatting at the tall red-skinned woman as she laughed like a madman and twirled him around. It only got worse as she began swinging him around by his tail in a circular motion - causing the imp to shriek. “BAAADDDDDDDD!!!”

“This is what you get for stealing my bread, you little rat!” Juila yelled out above his screeching, laughing loudly as Sithis just shook his head and facepalmed with one of his enormous four clawed hands.

Atharost stood watching, jaw slightly dropped until he snapped out of it and snatched the poor imp out of Juila’s hands. “Stop torturing my little homie!”

Napoleon clutched both sides of his head, trying to regain his composure an turned to fiercely hiss at Juila who continued to laugh.

“Homie?” Ezdeath asked curiously from where she sat clinging to Trey’s arm.

Rivia was still chuckling, and leaned against the wall while blowing Trey a kiss. “It’s a term Trey taught us from back on Earth. It means ‘good friend,’ I think.”

The succubus shrugged with a giggle, still keeping her arms wrapped around him and seemingly enjoying the position she was in as her tail flipped back and forth like a puppy’s would when having a good time. “So… are we all homies then?”

From across the room, Jason suddenly got up and made a commotion while doing it. The others turned curiously, and even Trey leaned over to get a look at what was going on. All he saw was Jason angrily walking out into the hallway and proceed down the stairs, past the zombie sentries, and out of sight.

“What was that about…?” mumbled Trey as Ashe, Bann and Izumi went to follow him. Three of the men who had originally set out with Coctim started murmuring to one another and glanced to Juila, Ezdeath and Rivia briefly before Trey caught the hint. Guilt began to rise inside of him as he thought back to Elise and how he had failed to save her from death. He knew for a fact that Jason at least partially blamed him for her death. Whether or not that's fair was debatable, but then again… Trey blamed himself too. His incompetence had been undeniable. And now here he was… Ashe had said Jason was jealous. But Trey had just shrugged it off. He might have to take it more seriously sometime soon and bring it up to Jason, maybe have a sit-down talk with him. The thought of having to do that made him very sad though, he had never intentionally done anything to hurt Jason…

“Master?” asked Sithis. “Are you alright?”

Trey snapped out of his trance and nodded quickly. “Yeah! Sorry, just thinking.”

A loud hard, thud rocked the huge building to startle everyone present. From high up above them, a roar sounded out to echo through the city. The vibrations echoed out as the roar was held.

“The HELL!?” Trey, along with everyone that hadn’t followed Jason down to the ground floor, hurried over to the balcony and looked up to see a massive green dragon had perched itself at the very top of the skyscraper they were staying in. Thick armor-like scales covered its body, and fire flared out from numerous nostrils along its snout. Rows of curved sharp teeth protruded form its mouth, and acidic saliva dripped from the huge maw - but it wasn’t looking at them. No, it was hunting other prey. It roared, echoing out across the city, and spread its enormous yellow wings out to either side. A moment after spying the creature - it took off by leaping off of the building to shake the structure again - sending rubble and dust falling to the ground below.

“LOOK OUT!” Coctim said as he pulled the other mage, Claire, from out of harm's way when a piece of rubble landed directly where she had been a second before.

A second later and Rivia’s lantern flared with green light as a barrier was erected around the balcony, letting the rest of the rubble bounce off harmlessly as they watched in silence.

Wailing Soulcatch Lantern

Item Tier: (10) Epic

Bonuses: +20 Intelligence, +30 Faith

Requirements: 8 Faith, Dark Attribute

Durability: 540/540

Specials:

1 - Dark Grace: Spend 1 DP point and channel it through this lantern to cast this

innate miracle. A barrier of dark power will encompass you and everything

around you within 10 yards for 60 seconds. Moderate cooldown.

2 - Soulcatch: You may store 1 soul of mediocre power or less within this lantern

indefinitely by commanding the lantern to take hold of the soul. Target soul

must not have a living body.

The party members waited for the rubble to stop falling before peering back out, and just as the dust cleared they saw the dragon doing battle with the enormous slug-like blightvar feeder they had earlier seen down below.

The larger, fiery, green dragon had picked the demon up into the air and tossed it onto a nearby rooftop, leaving a large bite wound in one of the slug-like creature’s sides. The blightvar feeder struck out with its many hooks, extending its wormlike appendages far into the air and clipping the dragon’s wing. The dragon roared again in anger, flexed the muscles along its neck and sent out a hail of fire before flying high up into the air and slamming down with tremendous force into the demon. The impact sent both the demon and the dragon through the roof of the building and into the level below. The tops of the two battling monsters could be seen as the dragon tried its best to put the demon down, but the demon was resilient.

Blows, bites, fire and acid were all exchanged as the two monsters grappled with one another. The dragon’s head suddenly jerked up to reveal a large piece of the slug-demon had been pulled off the main body, spine and internal organs hung from the jaws of the dragon and it seemed to be a fatal strike. It quickly swallowed before going in for the final kill. Screeches and rumbling were heard for another ten seconds before the fighting finally died down, and the dragon had won. Picking itself up out of the rubble of the ruined building, it dragged its large dead prize with it.

The draconic beast had some obvious wounds present, visible even from where they sat watching a few streets over, but none of them were anything serious. Triumphantly the great green dragon spread its wings and heaved, clutching the carcass of its prey with its four sets of claws as it beat furiously against the air. Within two minutes the dragon had left, leaving the signs of battle far behind.

“Well I’ll be damned…” muttered Taen as he watched the dragon fly off.

“Is everyone ok!?” Izumi yelled as she and the rest of the party leapt up the flight of stairs. “No one got hurt by the rubble right?!”

“Everyone is fine,” stated Trey. “I’m glad none of you got hit either.”

“That was intense!” said Jason who was seemingly in a better mood than earlier. “Did you see the way that dragon ripped the demon apart? It was no competition!”

“A little too gory for my taste,” commented Ashe, flicking his fox tail back and forth in a slow wag. “I sort of felt bad for the poor animal.”

Coctim, the wirey middle-aged mage, gave her a dismissive gesture with one hand. “HA! Do you hear yourself!? That dragon did us a favor by taking that brute out. Now we have one less problem to worry about.”

Ashe frowned, furrowed her brows and began tapping her foot. “I just wish it had been a quicker death. It was obviously in a lot of pain with all the squealing it did at the end.”

They continued to talk about the fight for the next while, it’d been the most excitement they’d had for the last couple days. The fruits of their search parties had been zil, and they’d not come into contact with many enemies that didn’t skidaddle every time they saw the group composition.

However, other people had different ideas on how to pass the time.

To Taen’s left, Ezdeath was pulling on Trey and insisting he come practice swordplay with her. Teasing, poking, and over-the-top flirting with him as she pulled Rivia down to sit on her lap with a wink. Based on everything he’d heard, Taen was pretty certain she just wanted some quality time with Eleknar’s heir, and worshipped Eleknar like a god.

Piggy and Rivia were the same way, that much had been obvious. The friction Ezdeath had undergone with Rivia in the early stages of meeting one another had also reduced to nothing once the succubus had started including the priestess in her attempts at flirting. If anything, those two women had seemed to really hit it off as friends recently.

“Lucky guy!” Taen chuckled as he made off into one of the other rooms.

“What are you snickering about?” said Ashe haughtily as she munched down on an apple.

Taen’s phantom Coriana drifted overhead, always following him around and attached like a puppy-dog as of late. He and the phantom both glanced over Ashe’s way at the question, and he gave her a friendly smile. “You really seem to like those apples. I see you eating them every time I look over.”

“You got something to say, pretty boy?” challenged Ashe. “Don’t you dare say I eat too much.”

Taen rolled his eyes and folded his arms after adjusting the black cloak around his leather-clad body. “Nah, it’s just an observation. You’re nowhere near fat so chill out.”

“That’s damn right!” replied Ashe with a humph. “So Taen… what’s the deal with this job you’ve been assigned? My friends and I have no problem following you around because we have nothing better to do, but don’t you feel like it’s a bit ridiculous to assign you the task to find a tiny ring and say ‘hey, it’s somewhere in Ornthas’? That’s nothing to go off of.”

Ashe continued to chomp down on the apple as Taen eyed her. She was definitely the sassy type.

“Yeah it is a bit ridiculous,” replied Taen sadly. “I don’t know what I’m doing. But I have to do it.”

“Why?” asked Ashe. “Didn’t you say something earlier about a numen?”

Taen nodded. “Maltetious. Ever heard of her?”

“No.”

Taen cleared his throat. “Well I’m soulbound to her until I finish these tasks she’s set out for me. I kinda need to get them done.”

Ashe clapped her hands together excitedly. “Like Hercules!”

“Uh… yeah, kinda like that I guess!”

“Well don’t you worry, we’ll stick around until you give up!” Ashe winked with a laugh and trot off... to leave Taen feeling like an idiot.

***

Taen reached out to hug his mother, a perfect spitting image of her that his dream had concocted. Brown curly hair that went down past her shoulders, and that everlasting smile she always had. “I’ve missed you so much!”

Tears streamed down his face and his mom laughed innocently before letting go of her son in the kitchen of their Texas home.

“Missed me so much huh!? Has medical school really been that hard on you? I hope you’re not going to give up!” His mom wiped tears away from Taen’s face as he calmed down.

“Of course not! I wouldn’t let the family down like that!” Taen smiled stupidly as he went over to hug his father too. “I missed you both! I love you guys so much.”

His father - a big burly man with a well-trimmed mustache frowned. “Did some girl break your heart again Taen? We told you, you need to start choosing more wisely.”

“No!” Taen exclaimed enthusiastically. “That’s not it! Oh hey there!”

Taen’s dog, a golden retriever by the name of Rufus, had jumped up into his lap and began to tug at his shirt over and over again. “Stop that Rufus!” Taen smiled widely and began to ruffle up the dog’s golden hair, but was surprised when Rufus started yelling at him.

“WAKE UP TAEN!” Rufus screamed. “WAKE UP!”

Taen was seriously confused. Since when had Rufus talked like a human? Whatever. It was nice he’d finally be able to converse with his puppy!

“WAKE UP!”

Taen shot up out of his sleep as Coctim shook him violently.

“FINALLY!” screamed Coctim as a loud boom vibrated through the floors, unsettling dust from years of buildup. The noise was quite close, and looking down the small hallway Taen could see a number of unfamiliar corpses wearing unique and individualized outfits. They weren’t undead, rather they seemed to be shoddy-looking warriors intermixed with a few robed and hooded human figures. “GET UP! WE’RE BEING ATTACKED!”

Through the wall, the figure of a huge heavily armored man was sent flying in a spray of rubble and blood as Sithis stepped forward to laugh wildly in a deep demonic tone. The devil followed up with a torrent of hellfire to decimate the man, not allowing him to even scream before his body was turned into a pile of ashes, metal and charcoal. Behind the archdemon was a brawl all along the wide stone staircase that erupted with screams, magics, arrows and bodies being thrown around like ragdolls.

In particular, Juila was having the time of her life as she stomped one hoof down to crush a screaming robed man and drawing blood from the dozens of nearby enemies to heal her wounds just as fast as they came.

“Are you going to join the fun?” asked Sithis slyly as a rogue slipped in behind him and tried to stab a dagger into the devil’s back - failing to do so as the blade could not penetrate the hide of the archdemon. Sithis slowly turned and ripped off the man’s head in a swift decisive motion to devour it in a single bite soon after. The devil swallowed, grinned Taen’s way, and then turned around to enter the fray once more as the man’s headless body toppled to the ground.

Izumi lay wounded with a gash in her abdomen nearby while one of Coctim’s sailors wrapped her up in a bandage. She gave a brief pained thumbs up before pulling out her pistol and blasting a hole in another man’s chest as he entered through the hole in the wall. She then grimaced and yelled out to him. “Some of the others are down on the lower levels! They ambushed us through another entrance we hadn’t known about!”

Coriana sailed by through a stone wall to rip out another man’s throat as he prepared a lightning blast - cutting the spell short and self-imploding to detonate himself as well as many of his comrades just as another explosion from down a couple floors rocked the building.

Quite the bloodbath he'd woken up to.

“Holy shit!” Taen sprung to his feet, and he dashed over to his eid longsword. Through the hallway he saw Atharost towering over two opponents as he flung waves of fire at them, burning them alive as they rushed him with axes before piercing a third man’s skull with his tail. He spun his flaming body around menacingly to face his next set of victims - and Boxamoth peppered them with firebolts as Napoleon flung his own, green, curse-imbued flames from behind to barrage the incoming enemies.

Coctim motioned Taen to follow as he sprang through the hole in the wall to follow Sithis out into the battle. Claire was directly in front of them as he stepped through the hole. She had just unleashed a bolt of lightning from her hand and had two arrows sticking out of her chest.

“CLAIRE!” both Taen and Coctim said as they rushed forward. She irritatedly pushed them aside.

“I’m FINE! It barely hurts! Can’t believe I’m saying this but being a ghoul is really coming in handy right now!” She grinned reassuringly at the two men before turning back around to fire another lightning strike into the fray.

Two of Coctim’s sailors lay dead in the mass of bodies. Grimy the thief was dead too, laying in a pool of his own blood on the stairwell with his guts hanging out and a dagger in one hand. Jason was next to them, trying to drag himself towards the group just before being impaled with a spear. He cried out, only to have a ninja-like Ashe swoop in to unleash eight dual-wielded consecutive and calculated stabs with her daggers while sidestepping and deflecting attacks to kill three nearby assailants. Taen dashed forward to block an attack aimed at the Earthborn girl, then to cleave the attacker’s arms off before stabbing the man through the heart and blasting two more with pale soul-bolts that sent the armored warriors tumbling down the stairs in a clatter of metal.

“God damn it! These motherfuckers are all GOING TO DIE!!! Oh - and thanks for the block Taen!” Ashe quickly gave him a head nod as she pulled the dying Jason up and dragged him into the next room to where Rivia was now healing Izumi and another sailor. Telipe was with them, but huddled in the near corner and absolutely useless.

Another four opponents casting arcane magics had squared up with Atharost, Boxamoth and Napoleon along the stairwell, blasting back and forth while erecting barriers and dodging incoming blasts of fire - but were soon dispatched with minimal effort after Napoleon rushed them in a blur of black to leave them alongside their dead comrades with their throats ripped out.

Sithis followed up with another group of advancing archers that turned around a hallway on the lower level, blasting through a stone wall and ripping off their heads and limbs one by one as Juila cackled and joined him in the blood bath.

“About time you woke up.” noted a burning Atharost as he finished cooking another of his screaming opponents alive. The armor the man had worn acted as an oven as Atharost’s flames turned the plate armor a bright molten red. “We were wondering if you were going to have us do all the work for you.”

Taen grimaced apologetially as three of his humanoid zombies and another of the weaver zombies rushed past him to the level below to continue the fighting - letting out moans as they rushed the living without a single care for their own safety. “I’m... sorry…”

The level Taen now stood on was clear, but the levels below were still madhouses. How had they gotten this close? Why was the group split up? Where were the others? Screams and projectiles met the oncoming zombies to cut them down - and the screams heightened as Juila jumped down the flight of stairs with a roar and charged the out-of-sight enemy group to mow them down using the maul she preferred with numerous arrows sticking out of her body.

“No time for that,” stated Sithis as he pointed down the stairs. “Ezdeath, Piggy and Trey are still fighting.”

Napoleon gleefully cackled, rushing down the stairs ahead of them. “Still fight fight!”

The giant devill motioned for the others to follow and jumped down the stairwell too - soaring down the flights of steps to hit the bottom with Atharost trailing not too far behind him.

“You go, we’ll stay here and make sure no one comes up to attack our injured,” stated Coctim as he tended to Claire’s wounds. “RIVIA! Claire needs help!”

The demoness scowled his way as she was already tending to some of the others, but gave him a brief nod. “I’ll be there soon!”

Taen griamced, and without hesitating sprinted after the other demons down the stairwell. He was genuinely surprised at the amount of carnage decorating the walls and steps as he descended the four flights of stairs - and didn’t bother stopping to help Napoleon or Juila as they tore into the cornered, unfortunate group of eight enemies who’d holed up on the floor beneath their camp. One glance into that long hallway, painted with blood, bodies, and guts, was all he needed to know as Juila and Napoleon continued cackling amidst the terrified screams of the attackers.

How had he slept through all of this fighting? There were hundreds of bodies along Taen’s path, making the floor a slippery red, but it was certainly good for minion recruitment. He’d have to come back later and raise a few of them to replace all the minions he’d lost - because looking at his status page briefly told him that almost all his zombies were dead… and he could see more than a couple of them scattered amongst the bodies he passed even now.

He even nearly passed Bann up before recognizing the ghoul laying dismembered on the second floor, but quickly stopped to kneel down with a worried frown once he recognized his minion.

“Bann! Holy shit you look terrible!!!”

Bann coughed up blood, and flipped him off. A bad habit he’d taught the undead, but if it had been any living person they’d not have been able to even do that. Not in the condition he was in. The blood was drained from his body. Three of his four limbs were completely severed with only his left arm intact. His armor might as well not have been there at all with all of the damage it had sustained, with signs of both magical and physical trauma very apparent. Thankfully though, a faint hint of life still remained in Bann’s body - and although he wasn’t talking, he was still able to follow Taen with his eyes.

Taen frantically searched for the missing limbs, only able to find two of the three as he tried mending them back to the ghoul with magic. He did his best to seal up the remaining right arm wound and promised the unconscious Bann he would be back before sprinting down the next flight of stairs into the main hall of the large skyscraper - almost slipping on the trails of coagulated blood and bodies while he ran.

As he reached the bottom floor, he instinctively phased into the void by gravewalking and reappearing to dodge a blast of holy magic. He looked to his left and saw his comrades.

Trey’s greatsword sparked with chaos mana as he cackled with insanity. Ezdeath, fully armored and spinning her glorious black halberd around, whipped her tail about with wings spreading out in challenge. Atharost and Boxamoth both floated slightly above ground, burning lights in the shadow of the building awaiting Trey’s orders. Butcher, the hulking monstrous flesh golem, cocked its relatively tiny skull while its pits for eyes bore down on the enemies across the street. Coriana, Taen’s phantom, flickered in and out of the void - appearing here and there sporadically within a ten-foot diameter and looking as beautiful as a ghost could. Piggy was standing calmly beside Trey, covered in blood, with the tattoos across her skin writhing to life with green light. Then there was Sithis, the ten-foot-tall archdemon had his wings outspread to either side - and all four of his arms clutched the limp bodies of ruined warriors as hellfire seethed from his mouth.

They all stood amongst dozens of slain enemies, and some of Taen’s dead zombies, laying about on the ground before them… and well over 100 enemies were being assembled into a battle formation just across the street in preparation for a new attack. Armored shield-bearing infantry were lined up at the front, archers, mages, and healers were in the back - and a single knight in dark armor with a red-feathered helmet stared them down at the front.

That was when Taen realized - he hadn’t missed the main event after all… the major battle was yet to come. He didn’t know who these people were, or why they’d attacked, but they were only just beginning.