Tyler’s question was cut off as a hot stinging sensation pierced him from the back and he looked down. What the hell...There was a blade of light. A fucking blade of light sticking from his chest. The thing was even humming. And it had pierced his heart, he could feel it as searing pain like hot lava erupted from the point of contact. He turned around to look at his attacker, just as another similar blade shot into his lung. His attacker was Emilia. The wound in his lung and heart made it hard for him to speak, but he did offer a single word albeit it was more of a gurgle than anything, what with the blood leaking from his lips.
“Why?”
Emilia looked at him, her hood now down and he saw a manic, feverish grin like that of a devil on her pale skin.
“Whatever do you mean, this was the plan all along.”
“She’s right, you know.”
This was Daren, who came out of the shadows. How the man managed to sneak around in heavy plate was anyone’s guess.
“You served your purpose, so now...well, just die already. Your kind are nothing but trouble.”
Emilia stepped back, deactivated her light blades, which she had appeared to have summoned from some kind of ability card. With the healer out of the way, Daren grabbed the dying Tyler by his neck and said a prayer to his goddess. A beam of light erupted around Tyler as his dying body was suffused with holy energy. But instead of healing light, this was pain so powerful it kept him from dying.
You have been smote by a Divine Entity.
Your Class Card has been shattered. You can no longer become an Apostate Mesmer. You are now Classless.
Your ability cards Slow, Lethargy, and Holy Shock have been shattered. They are no longer able to use or relearn these cards.
Tyler’s vision was going back, his body numb. But he turned his bloodshot gaze to the two people who had attacked and betrayed him, he even saw the other two members smirking at the turn of events.
“I’ll kill you…” He ground out with as much anger as he could muster. “I’ll kill every last one of you!”
That made Daren laugh wholeheartedly as he dragged Tyler over to the crevasse.
“No, I don’t think you will. Hope that in your next reincarnation, you end up actually having an ounce of power, trash.”
With that Daren tossed Tyler down the crevasse, getting sick pleasure as the meaty thwacks of flesh on stone could be heard until nothing could be heard anymore. Then, the paladin turned to his party and pumped a fist into the air. “Bless She Who Gave Light, Bless Yavera!”
His allies intoned the same chant and they moved onward towards exit the dungeon.
Tyler’s body tumbled head over heels as he fell further and further down the rocky gash in the dungeon, but no pained cry escaped his lips as he had gone unconscious just a few minutes ago. His body splashed into the water of an underground river, a river that went on and on. For an immeasurable amount of time he was taken downstream before washing up on the shore of a forgotten chamber. In that chamber, a creature stirred, just as battered, bruised, and dying as he was. Countless eyes and mouths twitched as a more humanoid form, connected to it by several tentacles, rattled its chains for the first time in untold eons.
“Fate truly does take her time, doesn’t she?” The being said in a feminine voice, a dry laugh escaping the mouth of the creature as it looked at the body below.
“This should be interesting.”
----------------------------------------
It took an inordinate amount of time before Tyler finally woke from unconsciousness, and he almost wish he didn't. Pain wracked his body and there were blinking system prompts flooding his vision. He tried wave them away with his hand on instinct, only to wince and almost pass out again from the pain. Right, he could use his mind to do that. Stupid mistake. He decided to at least look at them, if only to try and ignore his body's protests and the blinking red of his health bar in his vision.
You have failed your quest.
[The Vault of Lambda’s Pride]
ERROR.
Because you were set up to fail regardless of personal power, no detriments are applied.
Calculating…
This time, the robotic voice of the notifications seemed to glitch out and took on a more airy tone with personality.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Wow, now this is a doozy, huh? Damned gods. Okay look. I do not like people who abuse my power to game the system. The Divines think they know everything, huh? I'm the one in charge here! As a result I have decided to intervene, just this once. Congratulations, you get to live. It's up to you what you do with your life in this world now. Show me why the Church and the heavens themselves fear Transmigrants. And please, do NOT make this kind of thing a habit. Things could get...messy if you force me to intervene too many times.
New Personal Quest received.
[Judgement Day]
Rarity: Unique
You have been sucked from the stream of souls by a higher power, and betrayed by allies under the guise of working together. Kill the traitors and, if possible, put an end to that branch of the Church. Or raze the entire church itself if you wish. That would be fun.
Reward: +5 Levels, Title, Variable
Penalty For Failure: Total Soul Death
Welp. That wasn't ominous, not in the slightest. Tyler looked around where he was. Though moving his head caused pain to wrack his body. Oh, and he could also only see out of one eye. Lovely. From what little he could see, he had washed up in some kind of cavern. It was large and rusty chains littered the floor and walls. He uses the word washed up in his head because he could just barely see a rushing river that ended at the mouth of the cavern. Oh and his clothes were still wet. Reluctantly, Tyler slowly but surely moved his body into a sitting position against the wall so he could get a better stock of his situation. Only for him to freeze as a feminine voice spoke to him.
"Ah, so the realm-hopper is finally awake. I guess the system decided you should live. Be careful, it tends to...get weird if you mess around too much."
If he had been standing, he would have fallen over from the shock. Tyler's head swiveled to the source of the voice and he choked out a muffled grunt of pain before he tried to wrap his mind around what he was seeing. It was a pale nude woman with alabaster skin and hair the same color. Though perhaps calling the one before him a woman was a bit of a stretch. Her torso was human enough at least. A thin frame that, were it not so gaunt and nearly skeletal, it would have looked straight out of a playboy magazine. Despite this, there were obvious breasts that he forced himself to look away from. Her face was slender and beautiful, even with hollowed cheeks caused by desiccation, and was looking at him with a raised brow. It was also chained in gold manacles and bindings. The real strange part was her lower half. Where one would expect feminine legs and other well known female parts was a mass of tentacles, mouths and eyes that seemed to gaze into his very soul. Each eye was a different size, shape and color. And each blinked separately from another. The mouths were gnashing about soundlessly and filled with row after row of sharp dagger-like teeth.
"Done ogling me, yet? I know I am attractive, but neither of us are in the best position to do anything together I think, no?"
It, no she, for that is what she was, replied with a sardonic lilt to her voice. That made Tyler sputter a bit as he turned his face to look at the woman properly.
"Sorry my mind is...all over the place." He replied, and had he been healthy and not damaged to hell and back, would have rubbed the back of his head.
"Indeed. Now, tell me, hatchling. Just how did a human, and a transmigrator of all things, end up in my forgotten jail cell, hm?"
"It's...a long story." Tyler stated bluntly.
"We have nothing but time, I assure you. Revel me with your tale." She said, leaning back and waiting, making the chains holding her clink and rattle.
And so, Tyler did as requested. He told the woman, being, whatever, everything about himself. Really he was rambling and just trying to ignore the pain. He was in shock still but he told her everything, from his earliest memories to his most recent experiences.
"I trusted them! I should have known something was up, there was just...no way someone manages to summon a person from a whole nother fucking world without an ulterior motive!" Tyler growled out, flinging his hands into the air in irritation and anger as he relieved his experiences so far.
He HATED being used, being seen as trash, disposable. It made him feel small, worthless. And the only ever time he had remembered feeling like that was when he was a kid. With his father. Just the thought of that man, the man who had nearly fractured his family, made deep resentment crawl out of him in nearly palpable waves of rage. No, Tyler thought. Not again. NEVER again. The roiling waters of his emotions were once again shoved behind a mental dam, something that he had been doing his entire life. Not healthy in the slightest. But with a concentrated effort, he pushed his feelings aside.
"And how does that make you feel? To be betrayed by those you trusted, by the so-called champions of the light?" The woman asked, petting one of her...tentacles in a creepy manner.
Tyler glared at her, but she didn't seem to notice or care.
"What do you think? I feel angry, livid, but most of all, helpless! They gave me an ounce of power and I thought for once I could control my own fate, this was a second chance without cancer or mediocrity bogging me down and for what, to be literally stabbed in the fucking back. I want to take revenge, to kill them. I know it's not healthy but...I just don't know what to do or how to even get out of this place, if I even could."
Tyler sagged as he vented out his frustrations, letting his mental dam build back up as he took several calming breaths. It took several minutes, but the woman finally spoke.
"Yes, that was exactly how I felt eons ago. Back when my sister and her ilk usurped the pantheon and cast us down."
Tyler blinked several times as he processed the information.
"Huh? Your sister...?"
"Yes, the one those champions serve. She grew arrogant in her rise to power and cast us down. Those of us that survived the Uprising were chained to wither slowly."
Tyler furrowed his brow before it clicked. "Oh the one who brings light or whatever, what was her name again...right. Yav-"
A tentacle covered his mouth before he could finish and he had to suppress a shiver as it nearly entered his mouth. "Names have power, hatchling. Yes, that would be her. Quite an arrogant title but fitting I suppose."
When she saw that he understood, she withdrew her slimy appendage with only a hint of mirth in her eyes. Tyler gave her a glare, then tilted his head as something made its way known to his mind.
"Wait, if you're her sister, then that makes you a god, right? Wait, are you the tentacle dragon depicted on the doors to the Lambda's Pride? Who even are you?"
That made the woman laugh wholeheartedly as she held her stomach. "T-tentacle Dragon?! Oh System that's hilarious...but not entirely wrong given the murals. Yes, that is indeed me. Or my 'battle form' back then. As for who I am, that is a loaded question. I have many names depending on who you ask. Ut'ha, The Whore of Darkness, Face Eater, The Fiend of a Thousand Faces, Queen of Knowledge, Mother of Monsters, The Lucid Dream. My true name still holds a modicum of power, but I suppose in this instance you can call me Yarla."