Kal made easy progress down the spire, nimbly moving between the many cracks and protruding rocks along the way. None of the sky hunters had spotted him yet but it was only a matter of time before they eventually found him. For now, at least the many spires dotting the dome gave him plenty of cover to make his way toward the seeker shadow’s territory. The spire was a lot higher than he had originally expected, now that he had started climbing down the side of it he estimated that it was at least a thousand feet tall. He was just lucky his attributes had improved enough to make the climb manageable, the last thing he needed was a repeat of his climb out of the tunnels of the shattered plateau at this height.

He was most of the way down when he finally saw something other than the sky hunters, and he quickly wished he hadn’t. About two hundred or so feet below him, he could see the remains of the garghounds his birthright had killed. How the corpses were still there after the insane destruction he had seen at the beginning of the wave he had no idea. Why they were there didn’t matter, what mattered was what the fuck was happening to them. Before Kal’s eyes, he could see the corpse bloat and distort as if their bones rebelled against their flesh. Kal paused his descent to better gauge what was happening, the moment he did the corpses burst and grotesque limbs of off-white muscle and jagged bones tore their way from the eviscerated skin of the dead garghounds. It appeared only some of the corpses had gone through the horrendous transformation but they weren’t spared from further mutilation as the disgusting creatures immediately began to feed on what was left.

“What the fuck…”He whispered to himself, Kal was not averse to the carnage of battle anymore but the sight still disturbed him. Kal used Identify though he had already figured out what these things were.

[Gorefiend Shaped Ones | Abyss Spawn 27] x 6

The name immediately gave Kal a clue of their origins. If they were shaped, did that mean they were shaped by a sculptor? Probably but the fact they were here wasn’t the issue but why were they here? Did something know he was in the area or did they simply shape the corpses in the whole dome? Both scenarios weren’t great, but Kal hoped for the second, he didn’t want to fight something that could conjure multiple level twenty-seven demons out of nowhere.

Kal wanted to go down and kill the shaped ones but before he committed to it he waited for several minutes, scanning the area. He was low enough now that he was sure that he wouldn’t be spotted by any sky hunters easily but what he was worried about was whatever summoned the shaped ones. Kal even used his mana sight to see if he could see any change in the area around him but found nothing at all besides a slight color change around the shaped ones. With nothing coming of his search Kal made his way down the rest of the spire. He kept an eye on the demons as he went, not knowing what they were capable of. They were only around eighty feet from him when he reached the bottom of the spire. Kal had assumed they would have started attacking by now but they paid him no notice as they fed.

Kal took his time preparing himself, he was confident he could kill them but he wanted to coat his sword with wrath again before fighting. He had dismissed the flame on his way down to conserve the little wrath he had left. Kal activated Flames of Wrath and with a mental command, the crimson flame covered his left hand. He then once again applied it to his sword. He hadn't fought anything like these gorefiends before but hopefully, his wrath flames would work on them as well as they did on the garghounds in his vague flashes of memory. As Kal began to move closer to the demons he could feel that his aura had no effect on them, so Wrath Incarnate wouldn’t be worth using with its intense wrath requirement.

By the time Kal had crossed half the distance to the gorefiends they had finally finished consuming the scraps left from the corpses of the garghounds. The moment they finished their gazes eerily focused on Kal as he approached but they didn’t move to attack like he expected. Instead, they simply watched him, their bodies freakishly still. Kal kept his guard up, he didn’t want a repeat of the times he had listened to the kuroxets. Kal stopped around twenty feet away to see what they were planning.

Nearly a minute passed before Kal got sick of waiting and spoke up, “Are you gonna try and kill me or something?” Kal was carefully keeping his eye on his surroundings expecting some kind of ambush but nothing came. Kal was about to rush them when all together they suddenly spoke.

“Looord Slaahzahk wishes to extend his hospitality mooortal,” They all said in unison, their grotesque mockery of a human's vocal cords dragging many of the vowels out into sounds that reminded Kal of screams of pain. Kal recognized the name immediately to one of the demon lords who became aware of his location during his second core breaking. While still keeping an eye on the gorefiends Kal opened up his log and found the entry.

[Gorefiend Slazak | ??? ] has been notified of your location.

The three question marks didn’t invoke any confidence in Kal about meeting such a being even if it was mortal let alone a demon lord, but either way, he was interested in why it would make such an offer.

“Why would your lord make such an offer?”

The gorefiends groaned in unison at the question, “We aaaare not ones to question the great lord’s desires moortal, but we have been told that it would be in your best interest to return our lord’s conduit.”

Kal was obviously far from convinced about this Lord Slavak’s motives, but was it worth making this apparently neutral party an enemy by outright refusing? Probably not but that was assuming they were truly neutral, which Kal doubted.

“Perhaps, I will need time to consider this. If I decide to go to your lord’s conduit I’ll make my own way there in a few days.”

The demeanor of the gorefiends immediately changed. They didn’t change stances or anything but beneath the disgusting torn flesh that doubled as their skin, he could see something moving, like a snake squirming in a sack,” Noooo, mooortal. You will come with us now or join us in the flesh-!”

There it was, the same old homicidal aggression he had been expecting from the start. Kal didn’t bother letting them finish before he charged them bringing his sword down on the closest of the six. The gorefiends flesh seemed to rebel as the blade came and Kal could see that it had begun to tear itself apart in the attempt to avoid the strike but Kal was fast enough to land the blow anyway. Crimson flame immediately spread over the gorefiend as if it was made from pitch and Kal felt his wrath drop to zero. He didn’t have much time to inspect how much damage it had done but he was able to see that much of the gorefiend’s bloody remains that made up its body had begun to shrivel and a gargling cry began to pour out of the disgusting mouth. He was fast enough to get the first strike in but the other five shaped ones quickly moved as one, their bodies bursting apart as thick cables of viscera speared toward him, each tipped with what Kal suspected was a rib bone.

Backstepping Kal was able to chop down three of the five coming attacks with one swing from his sword but the other two landed and to his surprise managed to pierce his left shoulder and thigh. The pain was minimal but Kal immediately felt something wrong as he continued moving back to try and judge the damage. The flesh of his shoulder and thigh began to move. It almost seemed to vibrate before quickly becoming incredibly painful. It was painful but his health hadn’t dropped at all so not wanting to give up any more momentum Kal charged back toward the gorefiends, hacking his way past another barrage of the spiked tentacles. Several tentacles like intestines came free with the swing and Kal felt the rush of the potential wrath increased as multiple mutilation bonuses were being applied.

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Kal reached the shriveled and burned gorefiend that had stopped burning the moment his wrath reached zero. It had barely been able to reform the part of itself that it had sacrificed in an attempt to avoid his first blow, likely due to the damage from his crimson flame. Before it got a chance to get any further Kal pierced through the center of the demon’s grotesque body, when his blade had got about halfway through he felt something solid break within it and suddenly the flesh around melted away into a black sludge.

You have slain [Gorefiend Shaped One | Abyss Spawn 27] - Bonus experience award for defeating a higher leveled entity.

Mutilation bonus added to total x 2

The smell was horrible, Kal would have gagged if he hadn’t been forced to defend himself from another barrage of strikes from the remaining four gorefiends. With the rush of his wrath increasing by four hundred points due to the mutilation bonus Kal willed the flame from his sword to spread along the attacking gorefiends tentacles, making their flesh shrivel up, almost like it was removing all the moisture from them. They each groaned in agony as the crimson flames spread over them. Two of the five managed to withdraw their tentacles before being burned but the other three weren’t as lucky. Kal pushed his advantage as he felt his wrath quickly bottom out as maintaining the flames on the gorefiends was apparently quite expensive. Kal hacked through the next closest and immediately moved on to the next before it could recover.

You have slain [Gorefiend Shaped One | Abyss Spawn 27] - Bonus experience award for defeating a higher leveled entity.

Mutilation bonus added to total

Kal was about to end the third demon when he staggered as the pain in his shoulder and thigh grew to a new height, “What the fu-” Suddenly the flesh of his wounds burst apart spraying the area around him with his blood.

Health:

1123/1850

Stamina:

2700/3000

Wrath:

405

His health dropped much further than he expected it would but worse was what he saw leave his wounds.

[Gorefiend Flesh Burster | Abyss Spawn 9]

[Gorefiend Flesh Burster | Abyss Spawn 9]

Kal paled as two worm-like creatures fell with a wet splat to the stone ground before turning to face him with a mouth full of needle-like fangs. With hesitation, he stomped on one and felt a wet pop as it burst under his foot, then chopped the next in half.

You have slain [Gorefiend Flesh Burster | Abyss Spawn 9] Minimal experience earned for slaying a lesser being.

You have slain [Gorefiend Flesh Burster | Abyss Spawn 9] Minimal experience earned for slaying a lesser being.

Disgusted Kal continued his fight, expending any excess wrath on his Flames of Wrath skill. Kal defended himself from any repeat injuries, desperately not wanting anything like that under his skin ever again. With the fewer numbers and his wrath growing Kal was able to more freely use his crimson flame, even letting it completely consume the corpse of the final shaped one.

You have slain [Gorefiend Shaped One | Abyss Spawn 27] - Bonus experience award for defeating a higher leveled entity.

You have slain [Gorefiend Shaped One | Abyss Spawn 27] - Bonus experience award for defeating a higher leveled entity.

You have slain [Gorefiend Shaped One | Abyss Spawn 27] - Bonus experience award for defeating a higher leveled entity.

Level up!

Kal hadn’t taken any further damage from the shaped ones. They appeared to only really have one trick, using their foul tentacles as both piercing weapons and to implant one of those disgusting flesh bursters. Kal wouldn’t hesitate to slaughter every one of those bloody things if he got the chance. Glad to have leveled up after that disturbing ordeal Kal split his free points between agility and intellect. He still had his free points from leveling to twenty five so he did the same with those as well before heading off towards the seeker’s territory.

Kalum Lesta

Status

Class:

Slayer of Fate [Epic] [Anomalous]

Level:

26

Race:

Human?

Health:

1123/1880

Stamina:

2567/3080

Wrath:

687

Attributes

Strength:

264

Agility:

130

Endurance:

308

Vitality:

188

Intellect:

117

Perception:

159

Will:

307

Wisdom:

145

Available:

0

Titles

Ascendant, Core Bane, Core Smith, Defier of Dhinir, Planeswalker, Planar Appetite, Slayer of the Strong, Endurance Elite, Strength Elite, Will Elite, Demon Slayer, Paragon of Man

Skills

Soul Forge [Rare], Wrathful Regeneration [Common], Wrath Incarnate [Uncommon], Abyssal Consumption [Rare], Flames of Wrath[Uncommon] [Soul Forged]

Race

Birthright: Confined