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Arkeems note
Don't hate me... and have fun! :)
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Chapter 8
I curse People, Gods and Sovereigns!
“YOU MAY RUN, YOU MAY HIDE; BUT THEY HAVE EYES AND THEY ALWAYS SEE YOU, THEY HAVE EARS AND WILL ALWAYS HEAR YOU, THEY HAVE NOSES AND WILL ALWAYS SMELL YOU… THEY WILL FIND YOU AND WHEN THEY DO… FIGHT THEM WITH ALL THE WILLPOWER YOU CAN MUSTER TO KEEP YOUR DEMONS AT BAY.”
The last words said to a dammed soul from the Evil god.
Akino’s POV.
It’s funny to think the happiest that I’ve ever been is after death in purgatory. But who knew that the man that would make me that happy is a crazy man from another world. I wish to spend eternity with this man to help him and let him know its ok for him to show happiness and sadness. Too bad fate isn’t so nice to him…
Cough!
I cough up a mouth full of blood and look at the man who is holding me with a firm grip and wish to stay in his hold forever. Seeing the man who always smiles look at me with a blank look makes me sad ‘I want to see his smile again… one more time’ I think leaning toward him and whispering into his ear.
“Arthas….”
Arthas’s POV.
A Moment Earlier…
GRRRRRRRRRRRR
“FUCK!” I shout, running to were Akino is.
As I get back to her; I see she has put her clothes back on and taken out her sword to block a slash from an Orthrus and it sends her rolling through the tent ripping a hole in the cloth. I ran and with the black mist from my dagger slashed at the Orthrus taking one of its heads off. Then went and stood behind Akino protecting her back and blocking attacks from the hounds.
“Akino are you ok!” I shout in worry to Akino
“Ya I’m fine, are you ok?” she asked back
“I’m good” I sigh in relief a little then ask “hey do you see were that grim is?”
“No but we should keep an eye out for him!” she replied
Nodding my head I looked for the grim but the pressure from the Orthrus attacks is getting stronger every second. Every drop of blood and saliva burns your skin and the flames from their mouths make it hard to attack them back; so blocking is all you can do and that keeps getting harder.
Whip
The grims whip catches my hand and stops me from slicing down the middle of an Orthrus.
Bam!
The Orthrus I was about to slice in half; moves away from me and one of the Orthrus’s from my side head butts me sending me out of the circle. ‘AKINO!’ I scream in my head getting off the ground I had hit and then ran toward the Orthrus’s.
One of the Orthrus’s come at me and with an idea from what happened a second ago I charge an attack of black mist and the wind element. As the Orthrus approached I flung out my attack.
Swissssshhh
I aimed the attack right down the middle of the Orthrus between its heads. The attack sliced the Orthrus in half and two bloody slabs of meat fell to the ground. The Orthrus’s turned their head to me and then Akino used this chance to jump on to the back of an Orthrus and stab it in the back.
AOOOOOOO
The hound yelled in pain but didn’t die do to Akino’s weapon not being strong enough. I ran up to that Orthrus and with the Earth element I had added to my dagger slammed it on the handle of Akino’s weapon. Her weapon stabbed fully in to the beast’s heart causing its body to shake violently as its life slipped away; then we jumped off and dodged away from a few more attacks.
I looked at Akino and said “Hey these things aren’t that hard to kill”
Whip!
How wrong I was to say that because as I had, that grim with the whip had used the whip to catch Akino’s weapon in midblock. She couldn’t block the Orthrus’s attack and was sent flying where I caught her. Then holding her tightly I powered up an attack mixing the black mist and earth element and stabbed the dagger into the ground.
Boom
The attack sent the Orthrus’s back. Though they weren’t hurt much from the attack just some limbs missing; but they were already healing back. Then I looked down at the girl that I was holding firm and my face went blank.
She had a slash running deep across her chest and a river of blood was rushing out. Her right arm was missing and her left leg was barely hanging on. I saw she was trying to say something but her chest damage kept her from saying loud words so I leaned down.
“Arthas… PLe… Please B.. be Happy” she smiled at me then said one final thing “hold me… I don… don’t want to… be… be aloneeee…..” her body went limp; the smile was gone her sparkling eyes now dull.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
I howled at the top of my lungs and black mist started to seethe out of my body pushing back the Orthrus’s that had healed and I cried out.
“Akino no, no, no, no! Akino! You can’t do this to me!” I pushed my head in to her chest as I cried out and then… Laughed!
HAHA!
HAHAHAHA!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!
I lifted my head that was covered in Akino’s blood to the sky and looked at the silver light that sat up in the sky of purgatory and roared out at it.
“Gods again you have taken from me! Have I angered you, have I called the suffering of a thousand sinners upon myself!” I clenched my fist as my eyes filled with the black moving mist that started too leak out.
“Oh Gods, Oh Sovereigns how has this being called your wrath. Then Gods and Sovereigns I say this” I stuck the middle finger to the sky “Fuck you! Fuck your rules, fuck your laws! I curse you!”
After saying I ‘curse you’; the black mist exploded out of my body pushing dust and Orthrus alike away; then a familiar voice spoke to me.
The voice started to speak in my head and I said what it was saying aloud “Give me demons and I’ll drown them in the ocean of my hate, give me despair and I’ll create my own hope for my future, give me no world of my own and I’ll take the worlds from you. You’ll try to break me but my heart and soul is mine.”
I smashed the ground with my fist creating a crater and yelled some more “I curse the OH so mighty Gods, I curse the OH so divine Sovereigns.” I took a long breath and the voice said something that confused me.
After that the voice went quiet and the mist went down showing the 4 Orthrus’s that were left and the single grim. I stood up and threw my dagger at the grims head with the wind element added to it.
Swish
The dagger stabbed the grim in the right eye socket and the grim stumbled back and when it lifted its head I was in front of it. I stabbed my hand into its chest and pulled out its black core and stuck it into my mouth and swallowed it. The sour core entered into my body and I felt thousands of souls move through my body giving me a huge amount of energy.
I looked at the Orthrus’s but the hounds bowed their heads and turned and ran. Seeing this I stumbled over to Akino’s body and kneeled in front of the mangled corpse of the second woman I had loved… I held the dagger in front of me and I spoke aloud to myself.
“To be alive is to follow the rules of gods, to be a rightful soul is to follow the laws of sovereigns… never again”
Stab!
I drove my dagger into my core causing blood to spurt out onto Akino’s body from my chest. As I was blacking out the dagger started to meld into my core and black mist shot out of my eyes, ears, nose and mouth; then the dagger was gone, I felt weak and the black mist around me was gone.
“Ha, ha, ha, ha” I laughed weakly “It seems that voice is not me just being crazy” I said, remembering how it had told me to stab the dagger into myself and let it ‘return’.
Then as I was kneeling beside the body of Akino a pale white hand touched my shoulder. I jumped up and knocked the hand away from me and looked at the person in front of me; he had a hood that hid his face in blackness.
“ARTHAS IT SEEMS WE MEET FINALLY” the man said; his voice filled with so much power my eardrums felt like they were going to explode.
“Who are you?” I asked feeling weak and not in the mood to fight someone that seemed so powerful.
“MY NAME IS DAMION AND I MAY BE ABLE TO HELP YOU SAVE THE GIRL BUT…” before he could say anymore, I grabbed his shoulders with both hands and yelled.
“Please I don’t care what you have me do just save her!” somehow I felt this man could indeed help me, but no one does anything without wanting something out of you.
“HEHE I SEE YOU’RE NOT STUPID; SO TO ANSWER THE QUESTION I CAN SAVE HER SOUL NOT THE VESSEL AND I DO WANT SOMETHING OUT OF YOU” Damion said, he spoke like the world belonged to him.
“How can you save her?” I asked
The Damion man took his hood off showing a face that looked like he was no older than 21; but his eyes that were a vortex of black mist showed an ancientness of a long life,
“As long as her core is undamaged I can help her reincarnate together with you” Damion said, but before I could agree he put up a single finger stopping me and continued. “But I need you to gather grim cores and a lot”
“I don’t care as long as you save her” I said pointing at Akino’s body.
Damion nodded his head and walked up to Akino kneeled down beside her body and reached into her chest and pulled out her core then he frowned and looked at me as he stood. He let black mist out of his finger and then added some kind of rune to the core and the bright white core turned to a dull grey colour. He handed it to me and said.
“I saved her core but it got hit in the slash so most likely when she reincarnates she won’t remember you” them he started to walk away and I grabbed his shoulder to say something he smacked my hand away.
Hit felt like he had smashed my hand with a hammer then he grabbed my collar and said.
“Now that I’ve helped you it’s time to keep your side of the deal” then he smiled.
“No. you said you’d save her” I said back, as I went to grab his collar.
Boom!
Before I could grab him he kicked me in the gut sending me flying back and causing me to roll backward a few times.
Cough
Spit
I coughed and spit out some blood. ‘Fuck how can someone kick like that?’ I thought as the hit reminded me of being hit by that semi. Then I looked up and the man was right in front of me moving at an impossible speed.
“Mere Ant what right do you have to demand that I do anything; I said I’d save her soul and I did save it” he walked up right in front of my face.
I threw a punch filled with black mist but he caught my fist with his hand with ease. Then he lifted me in the air and slammed me into the ground and stepped on my face pressing it into the ground and said.
“Listen here boy; I am a follower of the great Evil God and was called the dark lord on my world of World Asura.” He let his foot off me and kneeled down beside me “I am a 7th soul Earth Immortal no one in purgatory is a threat to me but the great protectors; so the only reason the Orthrus hounds let you live is because I showed up to help.”
Him saying that made me realise something and I looked him straight in the eyes and said “so you’re saying that you could have come earlier and saved Akino but you waited till she was gone to get me to owe you a favour” I clenched the ground “you could have saved her… you could have fucking saved her!” I yelled but he slammed my head into the ground again this time with one hand.
“Haha do you think you have lived this long because of your own power” he shook his head and smiled at me “your only alive because I let you live that long; it was me that kept the large number of grims away from you and it was me that let only a small number of Orthrus’s after you” he lifted my head up to his and said “I’m not your fucking hero but a debt collector”
He smashed my face into the ground again, this time I blacked out…
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When I awoke I was chained to a wall and in front of me was two Orthrus`s hounds sitting and staring at me. I looked around the cell that was keeping me separated from the Orthrus hounds and saw it was made of a black metal.
Bark
One of the Orthrus hounds barked and I heard someone’s footsteps and the same man as before was in front of me… Damion.
“Glad you woke up” he said, in an amused tone.
“Were is Akino’s soul!” I yelled at him.
“Right here on me don’t worry its safer here with me then with you” he signalled at an Orthrus and it lied down behind him and he sat on it “I feel like I should tell you why I want you to gather Grim cores… so I will”
‘Fuck more god dam life stories’ I thought rolling my eyes.
“so it all started when I was on my way to becoming a 8th soul Immortal after waiting 2000 years; but as I was passing the soul test. 7 immortals from the holy union came and attacked me almost killing me but I made it out” his face turned sour.
“Then some pricks that called themselves ‘Heroes’ came and attacked me in the name of the holy god of light to stop me from committing more ‘evil acts’ even though it was the union that had committed those acts” he shook his head.
“Anyways the damage to my body had brought my power down to a 1st soul immortals power so these pricks only at emperor saint level could force me to sacrifice my body so I could come here, then I created a new body out of magic here and so I can’t go past the power of 7th soul immortal without a new real body” he seemed to be getting off topic so I said to him.
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“YO just tell me why you need me to help you!”
He looked at me and smiled “oh you seem to be getting over the girl’s death pretty easy.”
“No not really, I’m just really good at hiding my emotions” I said with a smile.
“Ok anyways there are 3 high realm Demi Gods that protect the order of purgatory they are two Orthrus demi gods and one grim demi god. They leave me alone as long as I don’t cause trouble and this is where you come in; your…” he was about to say what my job is but I interrupted him.
“So my job is to gather grim cores for you and to make sure I do my job, you’re keeping Akino hostage” I stopped and looked at the mad Damion “so when I bring back the grim cores everything goes well for us both right no betraying each other we just shake hands and go on our way right”
“Right” he said, nodding his head and looking me in the eyes as I stared him in the eyes.
“Hahahaha” we both laughed
‘Ya right like it’s that simple, nothing is ever that simple even he can’t keep a straight face’ I said to myself.
“Oh and one more thing I have to say is that the grims jobs our not to just keep people from eating souls but they collect souls too as I’m sure you felt when you ate the grim core… oh and here.” He threw a bunch of weapon matter into the cell.
Then the chains turned into black mist and were absorbed into Damion’s body he looked at me and said “happy hunting” then left.
I walked up to the weapon matter and started to drink it and after the first container my arm started to morph and a sword was pushed out of it then my arm returned to normal. ‘So that’s what they mean about the weapon coming from your body’ I thought then started to drink more weapon matter even pulling out the weapon matter from my void pouch.
After drinking and strengthening my weapon I looked at the weapon and saw it was a Katana and was about 2 feet long. The blade was a glossy black and the handle and guard were an ice blue colour. It had an average katana look to it just like the one I used to use before I died. ‘Oh and you ask why a katana? Well I’ll answer your question with a question why not? But a real answer is because they are badass and you look cool as fuck using them even if they aren’t practical to use’.
I looked around and the cell was open with a single Orthrus watching me and when I walked toward it and it stood up and walked past me. I followed it up a lot of stairs and when I got to the top I saw Damion and he looked at me then stared out into the grey and dull nothingness that was purgatory.
“2000 years I have stood here looking at this dull place hehe” he said and chuckled; as I walked beside him “cute creature’s right” he said looking at one of the Orthrus’s.
“Sure if that’s what you’re into” I said, giving him an appalled look.
“Oh I don’t want that look from you of all people hehe” he chuckled again “these hounds were made by the Evil God and then were given to the sovereign of death. They are one of the many creatures made by the Evil God as he was the only god capable of creating beings with conscience only; sovereigns should be the only ones able to make beings.”
He looked at me and I sighed and said “continue.”
“haha you see the sovereigns were only capable of making one type of being each; the Sovereign of death made the grims but they can’t create more of themselves and only the Sovereign of death can make more of them and they have no real intelligence” he smiled as he got more into telling me about this.
“Then we have the Sovereign of life who made his helpers the Angels and he tried to make another being but ended up with more powerful Angels he calls the Archangels. The Angels can’t create angels from mating but found a way to make less powerful beings we call the sheng.” He took a breath “the sheng are the result made from mortals and angels mating. Oh then there are the fallen angels who have fallen out of grace and are sent to Denma; but I don’t know how they fell out of grace but I do think the Evil God was involved.”
‘Man this guy has been alone for far too long’ I thought feeling a headache coming from all the stuff he was telling me.
“Then let’s talk about the beings that the evil god made; he…”
Before he could go on I said “just tell me about the Orthrus’s please I don’t have years to listen to you” I said this, even though I do have that long.
“Ok fine” he sighed “well the Orthrus hounds are hounds he made with the help of the Cerberus hounds as he tore apart the Cerberus hounds and used them as a base to build the Orthrus hounds out of them, anyways the hounds are most of the time used to guard the void just like the grims.” He smiled as he looked at the hound again” and to help them survive the void he created them with their base being hell fire; that ice blue fire that burns and freezes everything that you see in their eyes. Then he added his own power in the form of a blessing to them which is why they have that black mist coming off them; oh and that black saliva and blood they have is a substance called Corrupting Crud and is poisonous and corrosive hmm”
He seemed a little too in love with the Orthrus hounds but anyways after more useless stuff about Orthrus’s later he finally got on to the main part.
“Oh so just to let you know I need about 60 grim cores and the only way to get that amount is to cause trouble and eating cores is one way but eating peoples souls for too long will hurt you if you don’t let the souls break down first. So just go to trading centers kill all the people and kill the grim that comes to collect the cores” he said, like this was going to be easy.
“The fuck 60 how many years is this going to take!” I yelled at the amount he wanted me to gather.
“About 84 years when you add in travel times” he said all matter a fact
FUCK…!
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After who knows how long of traveling ‘I stopped counting OK!… or I may have lost count halfway and got mad and said fuck it… believe what you want’. Back to the story; I finally reached a trading center and looking at it I stopped and pulled out my mask.
“Even though you’re not here I’ll wear this mask, just for you haha” I talked to the sky and slipped on my mask.
Then walked toward the front gate and as I started to walk through the stone gateway a guard went to touch me and said.
“Hey no masks allowed inside the… AHHHHH” he screamed in pain before he could finish what he was saying.
As he was about to touch me I cut his arm off at the elbow then after few quick slashes I walked past him as his body fell to pieces; as I had diced him up and yes I was just showing off sue me.
The next guard that tried to stop me lost his head ‘literally’ as it fell from his shoulder. Then two men came over with big swords and with heavy overhead swings brought their weapons down at me. But I added earth element to my body and weapon and blocked both at the same time; causing them to look worried; then I pushed up their weapons, spun and ducked slicing at their waist cutting them in half.
So I went through the trading center hacking and slicing even the occasional stab was used and at the end a lot of people died… again. Anyways then I had to wait for the grim… and that bastard made me wait a few god dam days! When he showed up the normal blood cloud and blood rain showed up with him and he entered the center then the grim looked at me and its weapon showed up in its hand; from sovereigns know where.
The weapon was one I had seen before Meteor Hammers. ‘Motherfucking Meteor Hammers grim from a few years ago’ I thought seeing the Meteor Hammers it was holding. I took out my sword and walked toward the grim and the ice blue flames; I found out is called Hell fire lit up in the Meteor Hammers. He started to swing the two hammers on the chains.
“YO man remember me!” I said to the grim even though they can’t talk… because they our skeletons…
The grim just turned its head at me; making me sigh lightly to myself. Then the grim swung the first hammer at me and I bent backward under the hammer and chain then the second hammer on the other side went for my right leg. Still bent backwards I stabbed my sword into the ground and lifted my leg letting the Meteor Hammer wrap around my sword then the first hammer came back at me.
I put my weight quickly onto my sword and with one hand did a handstand off my blade just dodging the hammer. Then the hammer that was wrapped up on my sword was pulled by the grim causing the sword to come out of the ground. I pointed the sword at the grim after landing to the ground letting the wrapped chain and hammer slide off my sword.
Then as the hammers spun around the grim I charged; but then he kicked one of the hammers at me and before it reached me he pulled it back causing the hell fire within to splash out on to me. I used the black mist to block the flame but I still got burnt; then the second hammer came flying at me horizontally but ducked under it. I started to charge at the grim but found that the closer I was to it the faster the hammers came at me.
And after backing off I found out the reach of the dam thing is far; as even after backing off he still flung the Meteor Hammer at me its long chain reaching close to my face. ‘Fucking shit… how did Akino fight this dam guy’ I thought back to when Akino had fought this guy. Then I got an idea and that was to use a technique of quick draw from the style Iaijutsu.
Rip
I pulled out a robe and ripped a piece of cloth from it then tied it around myself like a belt; still backing away from the grim. I placed the sword into the ‘belt’ and held the sword with my right hand and stopped. Then I added some wind element to my blade and charged at the grim trying to dodge the hammers and fire but still getting some burns.
Then as I was just close enough to hit the grim I drew my sword and with the wind element my blade was like lightning as it slammed into the grims head. But this wasn’t my dagger and it didn’t cut the grims bones; it did however knock the grim to the ground. As the grim hit the ground I jumped onto it and stabbed my blade into its chest right beside its core adding earth element to it to make the blade stay in the ground.
I grabbed its core this time the core started to burn my hand but I still tried to pull it out.
AOOOOOO
The grim roared in pain as I ripped its black core out of its chest then after a few seconds the core was out. I looked at my now burnt and somewhat frozen hand and sighed ’59 more to go’ I thought getting up and leaving out the gate but stopped at the gate and looked at the wall made of stones and asked myself.
“Now where the fuck do they keep getting these large ass rocks from” then I shook my head and walked away.
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40 years of killing and I can’t say I’ve had it all that easy; I’ve gone through 3 swords. But I finally got a lightning rune; though I don’t know how to add it to my dagger. I sat on the pile of bodies I had made in the middle of a camp. I looked at my chest and then at the rune in my hand and pushed the rune against my chest… nothing happened.
“Fuck!”
I didn’t know what to do as my dagger was now in my core and the voice no longer talked to me. Then I shrugged my shoulders and popped the rune into my mouth and then the rune went off in my chest and lightning attacked the inside of my body. I felt the rune pushing itself toward my core; the pain of this caused me to fall off the pile of bodies I’d made. Then I heard a sound I didn’t need to hear.
Rumble!
The blood red clouds had showed up, it brought its blood rain and howling wind. I looked at the two grims that were walking into the camp these men had made; still clenching my chest as pain shot through me.
“Hey shit! Om YO grims can you guys give me like a minute to finish here, as I may or may not have the ability to move” I said on the floor as the lightning from the rune was causing my muscles to spasm and lose most of their strength.
But the grims just pulled out their weapons; the one on the left had a long double-sided Glaive and the one on the right had a Ranseur. The Glaive had to long blades at each end of a middle handle and the Ranseur was a spear with cross-like blades at the hilt of the spear, as the two side pieces were blades that were angled forward it looked similar to a trident. The Glaive grim spun his weapon and the Ranseur grim pointed his weapon forward.
The Ranseur grim was the first to move and it stabbed downward at the ground where I was laying. I had to use all the strength I could muster to move and after some success I had just moved out of the way of the stab and then I rolled and rolled and rolled some more. The Ranseur grim kept stabbing at me but I kept dodging it by rolling away. This had to look weird as even the Glaive grim was staring at us and had stopped spinning its weapon.
Zzzzzap!
A zap was heard as purple lightning arced off my body and I felt strength in my body again. I jumped up and called my weapon out and knocked the Ranseur coming at me with the side of my blade; then did an overhead strike to his head. This knocked his head back and I moved up and kicked the left leg of the grim from under it; as it fell I stabbed my sword into its chest.
Due to my years of taking grim cores I have found a way of grabbing cores without hurting my hand. As I quickly grab the core I cover my hand in earth element and the black mist; the earth element stops the burning and the black mist lets me pull the core out easily.
My actions were very fast and the Glaive grim had no time to reach me and by the time it did reach me I had already put away the core and took my sword back. The grim sliced with one side, which I side stepped then the grim sliced up with the other side. This caused me to have to parry with my sword; but the other side of the Glaive came back down at me and I side stepped that swing.
The grim spun the blade at its side and sliced at me horizontally at my right side which I ducked under. With my blade low at my left I upwardly swung at the grim hitting it in were the nuts would be and I also added earth and wind to the strike; making it fast and hard. The grim was lifted into the air a bit and I spun around and stabbed it in the chest.
With my sword in its chest I grabbed the handle of the double-sided Glaive with my left hand and with my right leg stepped behind its left leg. Then I pushed with my right and left arm and the grim lost its balance and fell to the ground; where in a second I ripped out its core.
“Hot dam, that’s 37 down and 23 more to go!… who am I talking too?… well anyways I think I’ll be done soon yea ‘clap’ ‘clap’” I clapped and started walking to my next destination “well let’s hope this blade is fine”
I checked the Katana for chips and saw it was fine; as I had broken 3 swords already. But thanks to the kind people I’ve met on my journey for their weapon matter they gave me, I even got to make a sheath for my Katana; so now I can do a real quick draw. Weird to think how long I’ve been here at this point around 82 years.
After a long travel I see a oh so familiar place… ladies Hold
“Hehe let's see if they remember me and have some fun hehe…”
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Arkeem's note
Sorry about the Akino thing but a new part of my story is coming!
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