“Here’s your sword, I didn’t have enough Tungsten to finish the job, so I filled a couple cracks towards the edge with steel, hope that’s good enough for you.”
Orochalcus stood himself up slightly, quickly regaining his awareness after zoning out for a considerable amount of time. The blacksmith had been working on his blade for several hours at that point, so his legs ached briefly under his weight as he stood up, quickly being robbed of the luxury of sitting they had grown somewhat used to in those short hours. He walked over, grasping the handle of the blade, and tucking it’s immense form back under his cloak, the now slightly greater weight still of minimal concern to him, though to say it wasn’t still an immense weight to lift would be a complete and utter lie.
”No, that’s quite alright.”
Orochalcus nodded, tossing a handful of sliver coins at the blacksmith. He had money, far more than he needed, to be frank, so he didn’t care if he overpayed, he just wanted to get it done with. Why, though? Why did he want to get it done so quickly? Did he really hate people that much? Yes, surely that was it, these people were nothing but inconveniences, just random men trying to haemorrhage money from him, not that Orochalcus particularly cared, they could really do whatever they wanted, so long as they didn’t get in his way, but still, it made them rather unpleasant to associate with, so he avoided it when possible.
Without another word, Orochalcus left the blacksmith. He stared up at the sky, which was now a deep black, small pinpricks of light people called stars were the only thing illuminating it.
There were some people who believed the stars held power, that you could use them to tell your future, that they could bring hope to people who had none.
They were fools, utter fools, the mere idea of stars wanting anything to do with humanity was so utterly laughable it was almost sad, no, Orochalcus knew what they really were, random balls of light in the vast abyss of space, so far away earth would have amounted to utterly nothing in their minds were they to be sentient. There were no secrets in the stars, no prophecies or anything of the sorts, they just existed, everything just existed, they weren’t happy or sad, pleased or angered, they simply were. That was what Orochalcus desired to be, he did not want greatness, or glory, he simply wanted closure, so that he could go on to merely be for the rest of his days.
Orochalcus began to return to the place where he had supposed to be sleeping, he spent much of his time sleeping, drifting on the border between this world and the next, never fully feeling like he was in either of them. In spite of his tiredness, he remained acutely aware of his surroundings, he always was, of course, after all, he had to be, but it was moreso than he had the first time he made that trip, when he was following the merchant.
To the right side of the street, now that he was no longer particularly focused on anything, and thus focused on everything, he noticed something he hadn’t before. A large building, perhaps twenty, maybe thirty or so metres in height, most likely the largest in the town. He could tell it had some major importance, while most of the buildings in the town were made of primary wood, with some having rough rock bricks for bases or foundations, the entire structure was made of a smooth, strong looking stone, intricate patterns carved into the large walls, and the equally large pillars which stood at the corner of the building. Looking upwards towards the roof, it was equally elaborate, well, elaborate by the town’s standards, anyways. A dome made of reddish slate, with a small tower protruding from the centre, containing within it what appeared to be a large bell, or something similar.
Indeed, it was a church, almost all towns had one, a building for the worship of some god, whichever it was that the town chose to dedicate itself to. Looking up at the small statues that were carved at the top of the corner pillars, it became apparent what that god was in the case of this town. A tall, slim, hooded figure, holding a shovel before itself, that was the usual depiction of the god of the beyond, the afterlife, Morticimo. That name held no significance to Orochalcus, he didn’t believe in gods, how could he withhold any semblance of disbelief at such an absurd concept? But still, the people of this town did, no matter how foolish it was. There was something admirable about that quality, the way they could just believe something like that, Orochalcus envied them to an extent, it would be nice to believe in something as comforting as a benevolent god watching over him, but alas, he simply could not.
”That’s not going to end well for them…”
He muttered to himself, walking past the church, and he was right. Indeed, when heaven’s regency eventually came to invade, and see the god that town worshipped, it was unlikely to end well for them. Heaven’s regency believed in only one god, one with power over everything, all that did exist, and that did not exist, and all that was beyond existence, and they were strict about that belief. Orochalcus had seen it first hand, hanging was their usual form of execution, they would take a group of heretics, all chained together, out to some distant tree, far away from where all the more ‘desirable’ people lived, and hang them from it with those same chains, leaving their corpses to rot and be forgotten. It was brutal, though nothing else could be expected of such a regime. It didn’t just sadden him, it disgusted Orochalcus, that wasn’t the fate these people deserved, or the fate he himself deserved, it was what Sacha deserved, no, that man deserved a hundred times worse, yet he was the one inflicting all that suffering, never yet having it inflicted upon himself.
Orochalcus carried on, back to where he was sleeping. Just as he had done the other day, he quickly headed upstairs, not checking to see if anyone was there, much less talking to them. Entering his room, he removed his sword from under his cloak, once again propping it up against the wall, before throwing himself onto the rough mattress, once again drifting off into a, as was so common for him, dreamless sleep.
It didn’t last for long, though, quickly, Orochalcus found himself awoken by a familiar, yet never before heard sound. Screaming, so much screaming, emanating from the direction in which the church he had seen the previous night was. Fear, that was the sound they were making, there are many distinguishable types of screams, be they of rage or fear, or some other emotion. What were they fearing? What had occurred to create such great fear amongst the people of this town? Whatever it was, the chances of it being something that could concern Orochalcus were unfortunately high, so he had no choice but to go and intervene.
Throwing himself back to his feet, he swiftly moved over to the corner of the room. This time, he grabbed all of the various items and belts he had with him, putting them of around his body or tucking them onto anything on his clothes, forming a sort of primitive arsenal wrapped around his body, all concealed by the black sheet that covered everything else of his, before finally grabbing his giant, blunt blade, and shoving it once again onto his back, the tip of it’s immense shape protruding from underneath his cloak, and the handle sticking out above it, ready to be grasped and swung at a moments notice.
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Orochalcus swiftly rushed out of the building, once again not checking to see if anyone was there, much less acknowledging them were they there. He rushed over towards the church, The sound of people screaming in fear overpowering practically every other noise on the way there, he didn’t so much as glance at anything else as he dashed onwards, he had more important things to be worrying about, after all. Getting to whatever was causing these screams took precedence against all else, not to stop the screams, he didn’t care about that, but if the cause was something that could affect him, he had to stop it, for his own sake.
It was a Saturday, the day the people who worshipped Morticimo would gather at their church, so there was a large group of people there, though just as he suspected, they were all fleeing, running away from whatever was there, which was unsurprising, after all, if there was screaming as loud as there was hear from a crowd of people, it would only be safe to assume that people would be running away. People don’t tend to stick around when a whole crowd is screaming in fear, after all.
It wasn’t long before Orochalcus reached the church, pushing through the still rather large crowd of people fleeing, the sight was one that any other person could have been traumatised by, it was simply grisly. It was a demon, not the type described in the bible or other religious texts, it wasn’t humanoid, not even close, it’s form was like some sort of disfigured bear, or a dog, or some other quadrupedal animal, only it was colossal, even at Orochalcus’s reasonable height, it was simply immense, not far from being twice as tall as him, and it’s length was just as disgustingly immense. Several ‘heads’ concealed by giant deer skulls, the type one would’ve seen on a wendigo, with dark red blood seeping from the many cracks and openings on it’s structure, extended out from across the body on stems of red flesh, like a twisted version antennae on a snail, some twenty of them across it’s giant, disgusting body, at least from what Orochalcus could see. Most disgusting of all was what it was actually made of, and what it really was, for that matter. A colossal amalgamation of near rotting flesh and bloody bone, broken ribs and cracked skulls, from both animals and humans alike, not alive by the conventional sense, not even breathing, bleeding from practically every pore on it’s sickening, dark red body, yet still moving. In addition to the four legs which it stood on, it had two similar, clawed arms protruding out from near the front, their disgusting excuses for limbs made only more sickening by what they held. Each of them had one half of a person, a young woman who could only be assumed to have been ripped in half by the immense beast. The beast turned several of it’s many strange heads on antennae towards Orochalcus, staring him down, before it slowly turned it’s entire body to face the large man.
To say the sight was anything short of pure terror would be an utter lie, yet in spite of that, Orochalcus didn’t so much as flinch, he had seen worse, so, so much worse, this was nothing to him, this beast was large for what it was, no doubt, a strong one for sure, but still, Orochalcus was confident it had absolutely nothing on him, after all, he had fought so many of these things before, surely, now would be no different.
Ochalcus drew his immense blade from his back, holding it before him with both arms, before swiftly attempting to swing it at the disgusting creature, leaving it little time to react. The sooner this thing was purged from earth, the better, after all. The enormous blade swiftly embedded itself into its fleshy, bony form, it slowly cleaved through the beast, forming a giant, deep gash in the front of it. But just as quickly as he had began, Orochalcus’s belief that he would have ended this monstrosity quickly faded, as his blade ground down to a halt in the beast, Orochalcus’s strength being insufficient to push it any deeper, and finish his blow.
The demon clearly noticed his efforts, and one of it’s disgusting heads moved closer to him, a guttural, deep voice emanating from it, whether or not whatever was beneath the strange skull upon it was speaking, or it was merely making the noise somehow was unclear, but what was clear was the sinisterness behind it’s voice.
”Well… If it isn’t the Helheim slayer.”
The creature laughed menacingly, in a way one would hear in some sort of horror movie. Rotating and moving even more of its heads to stare directly at Orochalcus. None of the others seemed to speak, which was typical, most demons like this had only one head, their weak point, seemingly, this creature had unwittingly exposed it’s weak point to him, a fact Orochalcus was keen to soon take advantage of.
”W-What is that thing!?”
Orochalcus briefly diverted some of his attention to the small crowd of people still there, who were presumably too struck by pure terror to react properly by running away, one of them having made that cry of fear and confusion. Orochalcus didn’t need to explain what this creature was, it was too obvious. It was a demon, to be specific, a specification which mattered only to Orochalcus, it was a Sin amalgamate, an abomination of flesh and hatred, born from the deaths of people with a Karmic debt to the universe, the more horrible the person, the stronger the amalgamate, so it could only be assumed that, whoever died to create this damned thing, they must’ve been a real piece of shit.
Orochalcus didn’t respond to the person, he had better things to worry about, for example, the giant, wretched demon he was actively engaged in combat with, that obviously took priority over telling some random person the obvious.
The disgusting creature dropped one half of the murdered woman it was holding, using it’s now free hand to clutch the part of Orochalcus’s blade which wasn’t embedded inside of itself, stopping Orochalcus as he struggled to try and free it. Slowly, he realised that he had no chance of pulling his blade our out and striking back at the thing’s head, Orochalcus swiftly realised he had only one choice, to pull out his only trump card, a weapon which he hadn’t used in the better part of two months.
He pulled his right hand off of the blade’s handle, quickly pointing it at the head he had heard the creature’s voice coming from, giving it no time to react or move out of the way, just as he did right at the start. Suddenly, a thin, metal rod fired forcefully out of the edge of his fist, between two of his knuckles, striking the being through the hole that would have been over the skull’s left eye. It was Orochalcus’s ace in the whole, a small crossbow style weapon hidden on his arm, which he could fire at a moments notice, was it absurd? Yes, it was frankly a ridiculous idea of his, but it worked, and that was good enough for him. But before Orochalcus could even breath, it quickly became apparent he had not won, as the being chuckled, five of it’s heads, random ones across it’s body, letting out that same, sinister, superior chortle, as if it were only entertained by Orochalcus’s efforts to slay it, speaking, as if only to mock him.
”Did you really think I would expose my weakness to you so readily?”
Orochalcus’s eyes widened as he stared at the head he had shot, watching as the the being moved it around as if nothing had happened at all. He felt his grip on his sword completely loosen, his only weapon had failed, he had lost, but how? To some mere sin amalgamate? Was this truly his end?
”You retard… A human cannot compete with evil, we are superior, stronger, better in every conceivable way. You have done well to survive as long as you have, no doubt, but you are not worthy to be the Helheim slayer, it is a title a weak, pathetic excuse for a warrior like yourself simply does n-“
Suddenly, with a shriek of pain, the creature flopped to the ground. What on ear had happened? Orochalcus regained his composure, reaching down to clutch his blade, and propping it up, using it like a walking stick to hold up his now exhausted body. He was always exhausted after using it, that was to be expected, considering he was swinging around a colossal, glorified slab of tungsten, after all. But when Orochalcus looked up, all satisfaction or relief that he might have felt at being saved left his body in an instant, leaving only rage, hatred, pure malice, it was him.
Standing in the churches bell tower, there he stood. A tall, slender-ish figure, wearing a thick, black suit, it’s short, blonde hair almost blending in with his pale skin. He stared back down at Orochalcus, a small, infinitely unnerving smirk playing on his face, as he looked down. Orochalcus would rather have died than been saved by this… monster, but it didn’t matter, now was his chance to end it, right here, right now. Before he could act, the man spoke, in a tone that was both infinitely gentle and perfect, yet still so unimaginably cruel and demeaning.
”We meet again, Orochi.”