Chapter 306
The ocean rushed past and the yacht created waves as Riven’s mana blasted out the back - sending them at high speed. Meanwhile Riven’s storm lances of blood and shadow arranged in patterns around his totems. The totems themselves were given control over the magic chained to Riven’s soul, and although they could not produce actual storm lances themselves yet - they could produce similar magics and had enough of a hold over them to auto-cast if enemies were inbound.
Sitting in the very front of the yacht where a set of seats were crafted further away from the rest of the group in a semi-secluded location. Or at least as secluded as one could be on a ship this size.
“So… What is it you’d like to talk to me about?” Riven casually asked while continuing to steer the large boat. This time around no one was partying, as they were intending to head out soon into more serious situations after leaving this floor. “Does it happen to do with what… Uh… We did together, recently? I hope you didn’t feel like Athela or Fay were pressuring you.”
Kara furiously shook her head and blushed, but kept her eyes on him and didn’t look away with her hands clenched on her lap. “No! No, not at all, it was very enjoyable - your excellency!”
She fidgeted with her hands and awkwardly smiled. “I’d, uhm, do it again if the time comes! But that isn’t what I came to talk to you about.”
“Oh!” He smiled. “Good to hear. Alright, well go on and tell me then. And please don’t call me excellency.”
She hesitated, and tucked her hair behind her ears before adjusting her cloak around her shoulders. “Uhm… What about Majesty? Or would you like me to call you-”
“Just call me Riven, please.” He said with a barely stifled sigh. But when he saw how uncertain she was, he gave a firm squeeze to her shoulder and smiled encouragingly. “I prefer Riven from the people I enjoy being around. Just pretend like you don’t know I’m Gluttony’s Reincarnation. Forget everything my sister said when she was in bitch-mode. It was certainly uncalled for and I’m sorry she said those things to you.”
Kara stuttered in her response. “I w-would never consider your sister a bitch! Please don’t-”
“Well she was certainly being a bitch then, regardless of whether or not you want to say it.” Riven replied without hesitating. “I’ll talk to her about it next time I see her, even if you won’t be there to see it. Just know that it’s coming, and that I am truly sorry for her putting you on the spot like that. She of all people has little to no room to talk about the things she said.”
A storm lance smashed into a gigantic squid that tried to leap out of the water as one of his totems activated, and the corpse ended up spraying viscera all over the yacht. Riven barely had time to deflect the bulk of it with an ice shield, but he heard cursing and screams of disgust in the background which made him cackle a bit.
Kara remained wide-eyed and horrified at the plastered remnants of the titanic squid now pressed up against the shield, but Riven flung it away a second later and she regained her composure. “Riven, do you feel completely at ease right now?”
“Yes.”
She paused. “How does it feel?”
“How does what feel?”
“Being completely in control of situations like this all the time.”
“All the time?! Ha! Definitely not the case, my friend. Definitely not.” Riven shook his head. “I am the supreme victim of happenstance through my life, and in many aspects I simply got lucky. I’d say that 50% of what I’ve done is because of me, and 50% of what I’ve done is because of the heritage I have and the people I have come to know.”
“That could be said for most, if not all people.”
Riven thought about it, and gave a cheeky smile. “Yeah I suppose you’re right!”
She gave him a momentarily flat look, then burst into laughter at his expression and waved a hand in front of her face. “I should probably get to why I came to talk to you then.”
“Yes. You should. You look like it’s been eating you up inside.”
Kara grimaced. “More or less. Ever since I found out I had to come here with my father’s demands to reach floor 40 or be disowned, I’ve had something of a life crisis. I thought I’d die in that room two floors back until you found me and helped me for no reason.”
“It wasn’t for no reason.”
“Riven, please be real with me.”
“I am. Everyone has a reason for doing the things they do.”
“And what was yours? Boredom?” Kara replied with a sour expression. “Or was I just another pretty face to take advantage of?”
Riven’s expression fell, and his words came out with a hint of sadness. “I really hope you don’t think that.”
Kara for her part looked shocked that she’d even said it, and quickly hid her face behind her hands. “I didn’t mean it. I apologize. If someone like you wanted to take advantage of me, you could do it a million different ways. There’s no way I could stop you and no reason for you to hide it behind nice words. There’d be no reason to gift me this bow you’d created, as if you hadn’t just made an absolutely amazing weapon many would kill for in the course of a few minutes like it was trash. You wouldn’t have spent three billion coins on me either, a sum that could bankrupt my entire clan, in order to save my life. I just am not used to people being kind to me, not since my mother died. It’s easy to snap, and it wasn’t long ago that I’d felt like I’d lost my mind - and even tried to kill you because I just assumed you were the same vampire who’d stolen my things. I was and still am a complete mess.”
Riven stared ahead, focusing on the oncoming ocean that continued to pass them by at high speed. “There’s nothing to forgive. I’m not angry.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. If anything, I feel bad for you. Outside of you trying to stab me when we first met of course!” He winked when she began to laugh, causing her to hide her face again. “But you’re beating around the bush, so to speak. What is it that you wanted to talk about?”
Kara let out a long sigh. “Back to what I was saying then. My father had sent me here with the demand that I reach floor 40 or be disowned by the family. It was essentially a death sentence, due to political pressure by Zefima’s mother as we’d talked about before. It was in that moment, that I realized… That I realized no one truly cares about me.”
Her voice cracked with a stifled sob. “No one. No one left in my family cared. No one in the entire world, the universe, or even the multiverse cared about Kara Blackbow. Not until you came along and showed me the smallest bit of kindness as a complete stranger, and that was after I had tried to stab you.”
Her words pandered off, and she sniffled while wiping at her eyes. “I just… I want you to know that I appreciate what you did. And that if I can ever repay the favor to you, I will. But I don’t know how someone as worthless as me could ever help someone like you, a prince of an S-grade faction and the idolized reincarnation of an original sin that demonkind literally worships! I tried thinking of things that I could do to show you what it meant to me, but everything that I thought of seemed absolutely futile and meaningless in the end. I thought about trying to help you to the end of the Abyssal Descent, but I would only be a burden and would essentially be freeloading off your power to get me further, because there’s no way I could make it by myself. I thought about trying to pay you back after begging my father for the funds in small amounts over many decades so that our clan could save face, but it’d take generations to do so and there’s no chance he’d agree for someone as lowly as me. I thought about becoming your thrall, but I can’t stomach the idea of my mind not being my own, and it wouldn’t really be me anymore. I thought that if I did turn into a thrall, it would be spitting in your face after you’d gone out of your way to save me in the first place, especially after I overheard you say something along those lines in the last floor. That in turn made me even more certain that I wanted to pay you back somehow, and I thought that perhaps showing you how I felt through making love would be an appropriate expression of my feelings… but even that is a farce. There’s no way I could compete with Athela and Fay, and they seemed to be more interested in me than you were when we-”
“To be fair-” Riven cut her off with a raised hand. “I thoroughly enjoyed it. Don’t think I didn’t. But yes, I’m emotionally invested in those two and barely know you. I think you’re playing me up as the hero a bit too much here.”
“But you ARE a hero! To me!” Kara said with a wide smile and wet eyes. She clasped her hands in front of her. “What may seem like something small to you is literally life changing for someone like me. And you’re the only person in this entire cosmos that has taken the time and energy to help me when others would not.”
“You’re going to make me blush, woman. Please don’t do that.”
Kara choked back a laugh, but managed to shake her head in exasperation with an eye roll. “By the gods. You are truly something else. What I am trying to say, Riven, oh great Reincarnation of Gluttony, is that I have only come up with two means of ever paying you back. And I want you to choose one.”
Riven skeptically pooched his lips. “Uh huh. And what would those two means be? Pitch it to me straight.”
Kara blinked away more tears. “I want to be your sacrifice at the last altar like Prince Rantali told you to-”
“Absolutely fucking not.” Riven nearly stopped the boat to smack the dumb bitch. “I nearly stopped this boat to smack you, dumb bitch! Do you think that I went through all this just to kill your depressed ass!? No! NO! I already said that you’re not getting sacrificed so don’t pitch that stupid bullshit again or I really will stop this motherfucking boat and smack a hoe. This is you going back to crazy mode Kara like the one where you tried to stab me for looking like another vampire asshat even though I look FAR better than that asshat vampire who stole all your shit!”
Kara blinked at the slew of cursing and insults, but merely giggled instead of getting offended. “Fine. But if you don’t do that, then the only other option I see is to let me pay you a life debt back, by working for you until that debt is paid in whatever way I can.”
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“Kara be realistic, there’s no way I can get you back to my world from here.”
“You’re Gluttony’s Reincarnation and a prince of the Blood Moon Requiem. You already spent three billion to save my life. There are less expensive means of traversing universes, so of course you can.”
Riven thought about it.
Was she right? He had no idea how traversing universes worked.
But yeah, she was probably right. With his connections he could probably get it done. He even had a few items on him that may be able to do it. But why would he?
He stopped to stare at her, as she continued to silently cry with a happy smile, on her knees with her hands clasped pleadingly in front of her. She’d been sent here to die by her own family. In that moment, he realized that she truly had nothing. Nothing but the idea that he gave an inkling of a shit about her, when literally no one else did.
It broke his heart.
Letting out a groan and rubbing the bridge of his nose, he exhaled with a wheeze. “Fine. I’ll consider it, but no promises.”
“REALLY!?”
“Yes, but I’m only taking you on as a friend. Ok? Don’t get any ideas.”
Her gaze softened, and her hands fell to her lap. “All I was wanting was a friend anyways.”
God damn it, he needed to harden himself by eating more people so shit like this didn’t tug at his heart like she was doing right now. She was just so fucking pitaful!
“There are a few ways I can think of off the top of my head.” Riven eventually said after a long bout of silence. “First is we could try to add you to the guild, and have you access the guild hall feature to teleport home. Second is my staff can create portals to places I’ve already portaled through, such as my world Panu at Riven’s Eye Wormhole. But I’m not convinced either of those options are enough to traverse across universes. Third is I could always hire someone to take you there by ship, but that’d take a long time, I’d have to pull a lot of favors, and it may be unsafe. Yet again, I don’t know if any of that will actually work, I’ll have to think about this - but I’ll try to get it done before we leave the descent.”
Her lips quivered, and she nodded - before lunging forward and throwing her arms around him in a bear hug. “Thanks.”
“Yeah, no problem. Now let me go before you make me cry too. The Reincarnation of Gluttony isn’t supposed to cry. I’m just supposed to kill and eat things and look badass.”
She sputtered a laugh, squeezed him hard one more time, and did as he asked by letting go. “You don’t know what this means to me-”
“I said shut up and go away didn’t I?! You’re making me get emotional! Less QQ and more pew pew! Go away, Athela probably wants to hit on you and try to bed you again anyways.”
Smiling wide, Kara yet again shut up and gave him a firm shoulder squeeze like he’d done to her earlier. Then she stood, brushed against him one last time, and left the front of the boat to go sit next to Athela further back.
***
[You have entered the pocket realm of Floor 22: Ocean of Wrath. You have been designated Team Leader of team DEEZ NUTZ. Your objectives are simple: survive the monster attacks for at least 24 hours while traveling over or through the ocean of blood. Acquire gifts from the sacrificial altars, where opportunities to enhance your gifts will be presented to you should you decide to take them at the last altar, where contact may also be established with outside entities to help to further your goals at a price. You must touch all three altars from Floor 22 in order to proceed to Floor 23. The majority of identification information will continue to be unavailable until Floor 40.]
[You have touched 2 of 3 sacrificial altars, accepting 2 Blood Tokens to be used at the very last sacrificial altar without having taken the opportunity to sacrifice any of your party members. You have stolen 18 Blood Tokens from a rival team. You have 3 mandatory hours left to spend on this floor.]
The third and final sacrificial altar was straight ahead, looming over them like a spire from hell that flowed up into the sky where a flat platform was waiting for them, just like the others. It too was covered in a shield that prevented people from flying to the top, meaning that a straight walk was the only way to get up there. At the very least, the spiral staircase was huge and big enough for demons even Azmoth’s size in his larger form to pass by - so it wasn’t cramped.
“Everyone off.” Riven called, parking the ice yacht next to the spiral staircase leading upwards. “And no funny business. Athela, I’m looking at you.”
“I’m an angel! Figuratively speaking, of course!” She made a heart symbol with her hands and put on an innocent face.
“That’s a gods damned lie and you know it! Now move that ass of yours as hop to before I have Azmoth carry you!”
Azmoth let out an evil laugh and cracked his knuckles.
Athela grumbled and stuck her tongue out at both of them, but jogged off the yacht along with the others as they all started up the staircase that wound around the altar’s tower. Unfortunately he heard the telltale thuds of heartbeats far overhead, and was quick to inform the others that it may another group waiting in ambush - or just another one passing through. Either way, given how this entire floor revolved around sacrificing other people for blood tokens to exchange for prizes at the end - it wouldn’t surprise Riven at all if they came across campers. They’d already seen it once before.
“Azmoth, to the front buddy. Take your giant form, possible ambush ahead. Athela you’re in second, and when we get near the top - scout for traps. Retesh, Genua, Fay, and Kara to the back with me as usual.”
“Azmoth likes ambushes!” He replied, shoving ahead of the other vampires and Retesh, who more than happily gave up their spots at the lead in order to let the bigger, far tankier demon take any hits thrown their way. Azmoth then began to morph, his bones and armor cracking and snapping with a rush of flames as he became many times larger - eventually presenting at about 50 feet in height with his wings, appendages and shields all following suit.
The lich, archer and two support mages quickly adjusted their own spots in line, letting Athela take second place. Prince Rantali and the other warriors took the middle just ahead of the casters while Riven kept guard at their flank - with Kara’s bow having locked in the arrows Riven made for her from blood lances, and Fay’s grimoire held tight against her chest.
Around and around the spiraling staircase they went, higher and higher as the ocean below became smaller.
It wasn’t long before the sound of battle cries and metal on metal ripped through the air, as arrows and spears raced down the staircase near the last third of the way up. The curve didn’t allow Riven to see who was attacking his largest archdemon, but sparks of the projectiles continued to skid off Azmoth’s huge frame and the shields he’d brought up in front of him. Athela hadn’t even had time to get ahead at this point, but she didn’t care as she vanished into thin air with a malevolent laugh.
“SHIELD WALL!” Prince Rantali roared, as he and the three vampire knights next to him all slammed their shields into the spiral staircase floor and projected four large barriers ahead of them - protecting themselves and the casters behind.
An explosion of green Unholy light rocked the spire, pushing Azmoth back a single step before he roared and rushed ahead with a burst of flame.
“Keep going, we’re right behind you.” Riven called out to Prince Rantali in his golden set of tacky armor, and the other vampire quickly acknowledged this by passing the order along to his men as they kept the projected barrier shields out in front of them and proceeded up the stairs.
Screams and the echoes of battle filled the stairway, and Athela had no doubt joined in the fray up ahead as screams of “MONSTROUS DRIDER” and “TWO ARCHDEMONS” filled the hallway; alongside the plastered remains of multiple enemies now smashed against the walls, ceiling, and floors.
But there were too many of them to be just one group, and Riven’s hearing confirmed it as more and more heartbeats started filling the stairway from above. Now that they were closer he could tell the individual beats apart, whereas earlier and farther below it’d been hard to do so.
Interesting. They continued to march, and slowly but surely the battle came into view.
It wasn’t one group, but dozens or even hundreds. That, or someone in the enemy camp had some kind of minion ability or enslaving power - but identification information didn’t work here so he couldn’t be quite sure. Regardless, his two massive archdemons were being piled with attacks on the enormous stairway by dozens of other descenders at a time, throwing off curses, projectiles, lightning strikes and fireballs in a vain attempt to bring Athela and Azmoth down. The descenders seemed rather weak to be here though, far weaker than many of the other groups that’d been present. That didn’t mean their enemies were weak by normal standards, but by descent standards? Absolutely. Their numbers made up for it, but in a one to one match they were rather poor in the power category.
Retesh clicked his bony fingers together and raised his staff to start absorbing ambient mana into its gemstone. “Go!”
From behind their group, the dozens of bone wyrms Retesh had created earlier in the floor began swarming up the stairs. The lich then proceeded to raise his hands out to either side, and from thin air - siege weapons of familiar make began to take form. They were large, strange, cone-shaped things made from bone that glowed with green and teal energy within the holes leader down at their tops. They looked almost like spiraling seashells with an evil twist, and they were the same creations that Retesh had used to attack Riven back on Floor 2’s boss fight - where Riven had to fight off his entire team to win it. Cannonballs of miasma quickly formed within the cores of each of these siege engines, and within moments there were dozens of the miasmic projectiles flashing overhead and into the enemy lines. From what Riven could gather, each of these siege weapons were actually attacks the lich himself was making as they were drawing on his own mana - given the rippling mana signatures in the air between them. But the attacks were being concentrated and empowered with whatever the creations or skill did, exemplifying their explosive power and range.
“Genua, unleash your aura for passive healing and smite any motherfucker who comes too close. Are you able to concentrate it on Athela and Azmoth?”
“Yes, I’ll concentrate the effects on them. The aura will also damage any enemies within its effect and give them bleeding debuff stacks.”
“Good. Prince Rantali, if you want to go ahead and fight you can - I’ll be staying back here to make sure the other casters are safe. Otherwise you can keep the barriers up and just watch.”
“We’re fine watching, thanks!”
Riven chuckled at the man’s remark. “Fine. Kara, try to snipe as many of their casters as you can.”
“Uhm… Ok! B-but there are so many! How do I know who to target!?” She replied, her arrow literally shaking in her grip as she drew it up and aimed at one of the distant wizards throwing useless lightning bolts at Azmoth’s back as he stomped through the enemy crowds with carnage in his wake.
Riven exchanged a look with Fay, and then put a hand on Kara’s shoulder. “Steady yourself. Take in a few deep breaths, and pretend this is just a shooting range. There’s no reason to be scared.”
She shifted her gray eyes to stare at him wordlessly, but hardened her jaw and tried to stop the shaking. It only worked partly, but it was better than previously. Riven didn’t know how she’d made it to level 200 with that kind of mindset, and was curious what her story was. He’d have to ask later, but nerves could be fixed.
“Are you going to help?” She asked sheepishly. “With the fight?”
He smiled. “Only if needed. It’s time to pull your weight! Now shoot!”
He watched the arrow fly overhead, and it did end up hitting someone - though it certainly wasn’t her target. Instead it was an armored tanky chaos dwarf with burning black eyes, that let off a howl of pain as the arrow ripped through his shoulder and sent him spiraling down a few steps.
“Good.” Riven said, patting her on the back encouragingly and moving on.
Fay for her part had already set up a wide swath of curse traps in front of their backline, and was setting them off further ahead into enemy lines. They were far more powerful now that she’d become an archdemon, with the flashing runes lighting up and blowing away multiple people at a time as she lazily pointed to spots she wanted to eradicate. A dreamwalker zone was also in effect, making enemies see them at odd angles or not at all depending on where they stood - as their projectiles fired wide and way off the mark well over half the time.
“Riven, do you mind if I go collect some specimens?” Fay casually asked, keeping her eyes ahead but beginning to transform as her Greater Succubus traits began to manifest. Her horns changed from small pointy ones to long, curling goat’s horns wrapping around the sides of her head - forcing her to take off her hat. Her tail began to turn from black to blue, and grew neon blades down its center with a long pointed stinger at its end. “May I?”
“Specimens of what?”
“Enemies. It has to do with my new insight and ability.”
“You’re not going to expand further?”
“Not unless you force me to! It’s a surprise!”
Riven pursed his lips. “Then go right ahead, but be careful! You never know when some asshole is going to bring out one of those swords that almost killed Athela back on Panu, and we surely aren’t the only ones that have such a thing. You’re not as sturdy as the other two archdemons and I get worried that-”
“You worry about me too much! Haha but that’s why I adore you!” She covered his mouth with a hand, blushing, and gave his forehead a nuzzle with her nose before laughing again and taking off with a quick flap of her wings. “I’ll be right back!”
Coating herself in illusory magic, she headed into the fray and disappeared entirely. Though there were signs of her arrival, as people were sliced apart and skewered by something invisible - or in some stranger cases, they disappeared entirely.
Just what exactly was she collecting from them?
And what was this surprise she was talking about?
Riven really hadn’t the faintest clue. It would have helped if she told him what her ability was, but he wasn’t about to spoil the surprise that Athela and Fay were concocting behind the scenes. In some ways, he was a little bit excited to see whatever it was.