Waiting to die was oddly calming Alex found, even as the firmament above her slowly degraded into a grey void filled with colours that made her eyes bleed. Well, one of them anyway. She could taste her own blood as her blessing prevented one of her eyes from leaking.
It was part of hundreds of niggling distractions that she quashed, one by one. The cold, the stink, the collapsing sky... All faded away as she contemplated the vast creature that stood in the centre of the valley doing war with the sky.
That battle was unfolding in constantly escalating storms as the dragon swept tendrils of mist and swirling gyres of fire up into the clouds which answered with spears of lightning to scatter the tendrils and rains of icy spears to tear apart the flames, all the while exerting a vast psychic pressure on the valley.
Other things had died, and one thing keeping Alex alive was the fact that something profoundly foul cast a shadow at everything around her. What vegetation was left was leaking blood, and if her eardrums hadn't ruptured she was pretty sure she would hear the stones around her screaming.
Pure white snow fell from the sky, gently covering her shoulders and bringing with it a vague sense of holiness and cleansing. "Funny" Alex mumbled through blue lips. The power, effectively, would cleanse her - and likely strip away the growing aura of evil around her.
She tore a chunk off the spirit's corpse and fed it into her lantern, and then burnt her aura to boot. A rush of pink-brown flames, each no larger than that of a candle, swept out and turned the snow into... yet more blood. At this point, she could probably bathe in it if it didn't almost immediately freeze.
Another chunk of spirit flesh was fed into the lantern by her shaking hands, slowly relieving the pangs of hunger and thirst - the slow river of power even seemed to warm her a little bit. It was an odd little stalemate which she missed the ending of.
She did hear the sudden silence that followed the endless crashing of thunder, and wrapped her arms around her legs. Alex was under no illusion that she could fight or even escape the dragon, even had she started when the tribulation did.
The dragon's attention fell on her like a hammer, crushing the breath out of her lungs and sending her into a vicious coughing fit. Her heart thundered in her ears, primal terror freezing her in place so that she could not even shiver. Her coughing stopped dead as well, her lungs aching in her chest as the muscles in her torso strained against themselves.
Just a fragment, not even a whole soul. She was made to think. It would be a waste of the excellent dragon's efforts to kill me... I should just do it... myself?
The thought twisted oddly through her mind, and the spear was halfway to her throat when the quivering emotional part of her tore her reason to bits, rage igniting her heart.
Choose a Technique: Burning Fury, Vital Surge.
Normally, the voice Alex had come to associate with Justice was calm, monotone, collected - this time she thought she detected a faint hint of smugness as a choice was presented to her in a timeless moment. She chose quickly, and forced her eyes open.
The spear had stopped and... well, she had expected Vital Surge to heal her, honestly but it wasn't doing that. Instead, strange flowers were blossoming around her casting out a dark miasma. She took a deep breath... and then she was back to coughing again.
The dragon was both amused and bemused at the same time, its red eye settling on her. A significant fragment. Her own voice echoed in her mind. How curious.
"Get out of me head" She hissed through gritted teeth, shoulders still shaking. No no, that won't do at all....
She was forced down onto her knees. I am much superior to a fractured soul like you, and you will know your place.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Her mind turned numb, and her senses blurred. She hated it. Well, if you hate it so much the dragon purred as it caressed her mind, why don't you kill those flawed vessels holding the rest of your soul and come back here when you're actually worth something? Oh, I suppose you lack... Well, lots of things. May Fortune favour you. Now get out of my kingdom.
Alex screamed as she was shoved through a hole in space only to find herself in a cavern. Wild eyed men turned to look at her, children with shimmering eyes bared teeth that had been filed to points, and women wailed in the distance.
A grossly fat man with oddly compelling tattoos chuckled from next to a fire. "Well well" His voice was a soft reverberation. "Looks like we won't have to leave our cave. The Lord has delivered us... a sinner."
Alex fired off an Identify.
Maximillian Humberts
A fraudulent criminal, this specimen of humanity has become a [Mini-Boss] in the [Caverns of Condemnation], an E-Ranked Dungeon.
He possesses the [Compelling Tribal Leader] special quality. He can be easily slain by you.
Alex took in the half naked men, humans walking towards her, rage and... other things clear in their eyes and raised her spear.
"Now now. You can't go around killing your fellow monsters like that." Maximillian chuckled, his words echoing in her mind. Alex dispassionately crushed them. "Fuck you." She enunciated, and fed her breath into the lantern. The shadows rose up, the cooking fires turned into messes of green, brown and pink flames, the pots boiled over and the men... didn't recoil.
Alex stabbed the closest one through the heart, and then they were upon her. Maximillian looked flabbergasted for a moment, before he started at turns exhorting his men and yelling at her that she shouldn't kill her fellow humans, but she hadn't seen any other living things in this cavern apart from humans, and the cookpots were suspiciously full.
The men were frightfully easy to kill, compared to the spirits. They had no special abilities... or so she thought. They were getting faster as more of them died, and they showed no regard for their own lives. A faint memory tugged at her, from her time in the void, but she was too busy.
The fight ended abruptly, the men suddenly retreating away from her in a large circle, leaving her surrounded by bodies that were bleeding out. From behind the crowd, Maximillian howled out for a blessing from his god.
The blood began to bubble, and Alex quirked her eyebrow. "Omvorthox." The blood vaporised, the dead and dying were instantly mummified, and Maximillian's prayer died in his throat.
A flare of white light still ruptured the space above them, illuminating the pale flesh of those men and children filling the cavern. It burned her skin, carrying with it a hypocritical echo of the same purification that had tried to walk her to her own death what seemed like only moments ago.
She sneered, and fed more of her breath into the lantern, setting virulent pink flame against the harsh glow. "Is that all?" She said, letting saccharine condescension fully colour her words. She was barely tired now, and it seemed like Omvorthox at least favoured blood since she had paid no great cost for invoking his presence this time.
The men seemed uncertain, but their leader seemed both confused and angry. "Get her!" he barked, and instantly the men surged forward. Some of them had sparks of reluctance in their eyes as they rushed her from all sides, but it didn't matter. Even as their speed and strength rose, Alex found it easy to weave between them, to spill their blood and scatter what few attempts at co-ordination there were.
The next lull in the fight was as sudden as the last when she pierced a man through his throat and whirled around to find that all of the others lay dead or dying behind her. She spun around again, to see a giant of a man standing next to Maximillian.
Nameless Enslaved Berserker.
Possesses the [Frenzy],[Enraging Presence] and [Devoted Slave] qualities.
Possesses the [Raging Fists] technique.
The giant blurred and his fist crashed into her even as she stabbed him in the chest. His blood... instantly evaporated, closing the injury as it boiled it his flesh shut. He howled into her face, as her ribs creaked and her feet left the ground.
She would have slipped in the bloody pools behind her, but another evocation cleared that up even as it dried her throat. Maximillian was still howling at her, outraged as she refused to deliver herself. Alex sighed and hefted her spear, squaring up with the giant who could actually hurt her. Maybe he would even kill her but she felt oddly detached from that thought. He simply didn't compare to the dragon.
Alexandra Johnson
Faction: Monster
Subfaction: Itinerant
Species: Human
Blood: 37(+11.1% Endurance, +37% Bloodline)(+1.37)% Bonus Bloodline, Total:(38.37%)
Bone: 10(+3% Tool Use, +10% Aura)
Flesh:10(+3% Technique Efficiency, +10% Regeneration)
Blessings: [Identify(Justice)][Omvorthoxan Devouring Eye]
Techniques: [Spear-Fishing][Walking][Vital Surge]
Equipment Slots: [Weapon: Spear][Offhand: Tarnished Lantern]
Bloodline: First Serpent