Zev
Zev Andar, the Violet Mountain Lord, was scared, and there were three main reasons why. First, his simple contract with Lander Haxor had disappeared, almost certainly due to Lander’s death, which didn’t bode well for the rest of his sect. And, if a force could kill Lander, they could possibly kill him as well. Second, his hidden wealth and the natural treasures he needed for advancing his race to A rank were all in the Violet Mountain Blessed Land, and, if Lander was dead, it was likely whoever had done so had access to the blessed land and could ransack it as much as they wanted to. Finally, third, if the five A rank forces he was subordinate to investigated before he himself could get back and cover some things up, they would almost certainly kill him.
In his position as Violet Mountain Lord, Zev had been underreporting the production of the blessed land’s resources for over a million years, using that wealth to secretly improve his own power instead of passing it on as agreed. And, in his wanderings over the years, he’d chanced on several natural treasures in the territories of the five forces and taken them instead of just reporting their existence as he should have, two of which the individual A rank forces were aware had been stolen, even if they didn’t know it was him who’d done so.
And this left him no choice but to return.
Landing his ship near where the entrance to the Violet Mountain Blessed Land had been, Zev immediately noticed two things as he put his personal spaceship, a roughly 20-meter-long violet triangular fighter, back into his spatial storage ring. First, the main city of the planet had been mostly destroyed, and, from the remnant energies, it seemed to have been through non-magical means, which was odd. But this didn’t occupy much of his attention, and he pretty much completely ignored all the dead bodies all over the planet, as the second thing he noticed was that the portal entrance to the Violet Mountain Blessed Land was gone.
The portal, which had existed on the planet since longer than the Violet Mountain Sect’s recorded history, had disappeared, and with it all of his stuff!
He was about to go ballistic, but then he realized nine different diseases had entered into his body since he’d landed, likely what had killed everyone he could sense. And, as he was about to move his energies to completely rid his body of every single one of them, he suddenly realized he couldn’t move his qi, mana, or psyforce at all. He couldn’t even fly to get away or activate his spatial storage ring to take out his spaceship.
His mind and body were still those of a B rank, but he couldn’t use his skills, and he could feel himself gradually weakening, like some type of energy was repeatedly attacking him from inside his own body with the power of a weak C rank.
It seemed he hadn’t just been infected by magical plagues, but he’d been cursed as well, and the curse was powerful, making him almost helpless.
If nothing changed, he’d be dead within three fourths of a year.
Zev didn’t panic, however. He was too old and experienced for that. Instead he just focused his senses on the curse and locked in on the direction it was coming from. Then he began running in the direction of the Kimali Mountains.
Even with his energy inaccessible, he was still faster than any C rank, and the suppression from the planet’s rank was slowly lessening with the Violet Mountain Blessed Land having disappeared, something the previous Violet Mountain Lord had theorized would happen, so he made good time.
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When he arrived in the center cave of the Kimali Mountains, however, what he found made him despair.
There was an Altar of Sacrifice there, the obvious source of his curse, but, when he grew close enough to see it, the altar broke down into tiny black particles which all flew into his body through his ears, eyes, nose, and mouth. Whoever had cursed him had sacrificed the powerful altar, and this meant that, without help, he wouldn’t be able to rid himself of the curse no matter what he did.
And, temporarily, the curse increased in power, Zev falling to the ground on one knee, unable to keep himself standing as the attacks from inside his body intensified and all his vitality worked to fight against it.
Then a golem showed up, entering from the same entrance he had, and Zev recognized it as one of the golems from the inheritance of Steel Swamp Sorin hidden within the crystal mountain of the Violet Mountain Blessed Land.
From the speed at which it moved, it was only E rank, and it wasn’t armored like the golems he’d seen when he’d undergone the inheritance’s E rank test back before the inheritance had stopped giving out rewards, nor was it wielding a sword. Instead, it had some sort of rocket launcher which looked tiny next to its four-meter-tall frame, and, as it entered, it pointed the launcher at his kneeling leg and fired.
A black ball left the launcher and, as it flew, it expanded into some kind of band, which wrapped around his leg when it hit him below the knee.
For a second, Zev couldn’t figure out the purpose of the band, but then he felt the effects of spatial magic and realized the band was a spatial storage item which was letting something out right next to his skin. For a split second, he thought it would be another kind of biological weapon, but, when the amorphous lump left the spatial storage and began mutual annihilation with part of his calf, he realized it was nowhere near as bad.
There was a large explosion as the antimatter and his flesh annihilated each other and Zev was launched through the roof of the cave, through the mountain above, and into the atmosphere of the planet.
Then, as his leg began to bleed profusely from the wound, he fell to the ground on another mountain, and on the top of that mountain, about three kilometers away from him, a man he recognized as the Heavenly Spark Soul King was glaring down at him, his almost orange eyes seemingly trying to judge Zev’s fate.
He was different than when Zev had briefly seen him before, his aura no longer that of a G rank, but of an E rank. And it was infused with 36 different Law Pupae, which was insane. Also, unlike before, there was a large violet sword on his back, its material seeming to be Zev’s violet titanium quintessence.
“Are you the one who stole the blessed land?” Zev was on his back and had to look up to see the Heavenly Spark Soul King, completely unable to move, but he wasn’t that worried. The explosion hadn’t done much damage other than causing him to lose the roughly two kilograms of his right calf which had been annihilated, and the wound was already starting to heal. At the same time, the fact the Heavenly Spark Soul King was trying to attack him meant it was likely the curse had some kind of time limit.
The Heavenly Spark Soul King didn’t respond with words, however, just continuing to glare, and the sword on his back flew up into the air, seemingly moving through a version of the Telekinesis skill, only its speed was something only achievable with B rank level Spirit, while Zev was pretty sure the Heavenly Spark Soul King was only E rank.
Its tip then slammed into Zev’s forehead at full speed, but, as Zev had expected, it did absolutely nothing.
Zev was a B rank warrior, and a quite powerful one at that, so there was no way an E rank could hurt him, even if he was slowly dying from a curse and plagues, completely unable to defend himself in any way.
“You can’t hurt me with a sword, even if your Spirit is ridiculous.” Zev was feeling extremely frustrated. “Why don’t you just tell me what you want?”
The Heavenly Spark Soul King leapt from the top of the mountain and landed next to Zev. Then he reached down with both hands and turned Zev over onto his stomach before calling the large flying sword back into his hands. “What I want is simple. I want you to die.”
With both hands, the Heavenly Spark Soul King slammed the tip of the sword into the still open wound on Zev’s calf with all his strength, and the blade entered into Zev’s flesh by about 3 millimeters. But that was apparently enough.
Zev didn’t know how the blade did it, but it was suddenly like he’d broken the terms of every contract he was under, several of which had the punishment of death. And his soul started to burn.
“You shouldn’t have killed Epecteos.” The Heavenly Spark Soul King spoke quietly as he resheathed his blade. “And you shouldn’t have threatened to rape my future wife.”