Out of the air fell a body. It was the body of the Hand of Greed, Killian smashed and mangled. Melissa then froze the snarl gun from her face as a figure seemed to just materialize from the ether behind her. Figure wrapped in bandages with scribbled runes. The figure walked through Callum's gravity field with no resistance. He grabbed Melissa by the neck and dragged her out of the gravity field she was kicking and screaming. He held her up in front of him and simply shifted his foot stone's an earth erupted around them in casing Melissa.
“L- L- Lord Graves… Melissa stammered. You were gone.”
“And now I'm back.” Graves replied. no with sarcasm in his voice the careless joy was gone. “Adam was a good pupil of mine.”
And with that last statement Melissa went bone white fear coming off of her and waves so strong even Callum could smell it.
“I did say to Killian over here that the boy was under my protection.”
Melissa looked at Killian and spat at his body, “You idiot” she muttered.
“I told him he should have killed her.” The dark cruel voice came again. Callum looked over and was shocked Adam's body was still. eyes open but unseeing. Then he looked above the body and saw the book was floating.
“Shut it Tempist. I'll put you in a dung beetle and you can be the king of shit.” Graves snapped at the book. “As Adam probably told you, we need you alive. Much as I'd like to peel the flesh off your body cell by cell I'm going to let you off with a warning and to show no “I’ll will I'm going to leave this crystal here so that you can revive this idiot Killian. The stone will crumble in 12 hours, don't follow us.” Graves said coldly enforcing with sharp pressure increased slamming Melissa into the ground.
Graves walked over to Adam's body and gestured to Callum to follow. Callum got close; he felt the ground shift and a stone slab rose from the ground carrying all three of them. It starts to zip through the forest at the casual pace of a galloping horse weaving and dodging out of the way of trees. Graves Mr Hargrove dropped to the stone and put his hands in his head weary.
Flying over the forest ground ducking and weaving between branches and trunks. The terrain turned to grassland. Callum looked around taking in the familiar but odd sights, strange creatures like cows with tusk, and long tails ending in a ball. He looked back at the forest that held so much terror for him; it looked dark and unwelcoming. Flocks of batlike creatures flying from the canopy of the trees. As time went on and the sun began to set, Callum pulled up his interface ability looking at his messages.
[Revival has Triggered Undying Flames]
[Undying Flames has been Activated]
[Ability Description is Restricted till higher Tier]
[Unknown Effect Triggered]
[Unknown Effect Triggered]
[Unknown Effect Triggered]
[Unknown Effect Triggered]
[Unknown Effect Triggered]
[Unknown Effect Triggered]
[Unknown Effect Triggered]
[Unknown Effect Triggered]
[Unknown Effect Triggered]
[Unknown Effect Triggered]
[Unknown Effect Triggered]
[You have Increased in Tier Stage]
[You have reached Tier 1 Stage 1]
[Your Base STATS have increased]
[To reach Tier 2 Your Soul Must Be Repaired]
Graves spoke.
“Damn it Adam, I told you to be careful. why were you with the Hands” Graves growled. “You did well back there, Callum.” he added.
Callum looked at him and then to Adam and then looked back. “Can't you.. you know, revive them with a crystal you gave one to revive that dude that was trying to kidnap me?”
“Adam is different; he underwent a procedure of sorts that makes it impossible. And what Adam underwent is blasphemy to any and all gods.”
“So gods and what.. Demi Gods are real? What is adam? Callum blurted out, wantiung answers to so many questions.
Graves took a deep breath and let out a sigh.
“Gods are real. They are the same gods from your world as our events tend to bleed over between the worlds, Zeus, Odin, Ra are all Gods that reside in this universe. They have had some effect in your world due to their great power and influence.” Graves started. “I assume the Heralds are the Demi Gods you are referring to? They are People that have worshiped and given over their souls to their gods and in turn are rewarded with great power and immortality” He continued. “People of power and with power in this world can become Gods in their own rights. Adam was one of these people. He gained much power and renown in his own kingdom. What he is is something new to this world in relative terms. The Sarvaldin’s are people but they have been mutilated and had a ritual put on them that splits the soul.”
“He was strange before he was killed by another personality inside of him.”
Graves looked up sharply at Callum.
“What did you say?” Graves said coldly.
“It's like he had a second personality: that woman had him in a tree thing with some kind of strange magic and was draining him man, from what I can tell and Adam went limp then just awoke these crazy purple gold eyes and everything around felt like it was just gone..”
Callum trailed off as Graves abruptly stood up and went over to Adam's body. He pulled the sword from Adam's head and inspected it thoroughly. The wet sucking noise it made made Callum wince. Adam's body started to shine a dull light then getting brighter and brighter. It then went out leaving a dark, blackened version of Adam's body that crumbled into dust and was taken by the wind.
Graves removed the book from Adam's chest; it wasn't talking; it was silenced since Graves told it to shut up. He laid the book next to Adam's body and started going through the flaps and pouches. As he was doing that Callum was gaining more and more curiosity about the book and what it does. Callum shifted over and grabbed the book, he tried to open it but it wouldn't budge as he put more effort and will into it however it started to crack open everything happened in slow motion. Graves turned around fast with a look of shock on his face and a chuckle came from the book. As it turned into white mist and flowed into Callum's body. Callum felt pain shoot through his body from where the mist entered and everything went black again.
….
“Who the fuck are… YOU!!”
Callum roared as he picked himself up from the crater, but the voice wasn't his own; it was that of the one that comes from Adam's Book. The roar punched a hole in the smoke and debrid which a figure walked as it cleared. The figure came into view long dark red hair and braided ropes cascaded down his back and around the front of his tattered torn silver plated armor. His face was kind but tired. His eyes glowing gold flecked with purple. Across his shoulders hung a tattered cloak blue turquoise silver centered orbs floated around him. Several rings of a black flames surrounded his right arm as he carried a crystalline blue sword in his right hand. The black flames licked along the edge, the blue crystal line blade flickering as it moved through the air. The figure's left arm was covered in stone and ice, a slight mist drifting off down his arm into his hand, surrounding around a black dagger.
Callum lunges forward at the figure. The figure didn't move, just simply turned and looked at Callum before Callum knew what happened; he was on the ground again and in another hole. The figure appeared above him stabbing the sword into the ground and extending his flame raised arm out the circles of flames sprung off his arm that latched around Callum's wrists, bonding his legs together pinning him to the ground.
It doesn't matter who I am but the task that's set before me, stay down Greed. Pressure slammed down on Callum like the weight of a 10 ton truck leaving an imprint in the crater. The figure sad and tired his voice was calm and firm. Callum tried to struggle but realized he wasn't moving his body at all; he was simply a passenger in it. The body looked down and around Callum and realized it wasn't even his body. His body is much longer with a dark beard obscuring most of his lower features from him being pinned on the ground.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Another figure just flickered and appeared in front of Callum next to the first and the tattered armor.
Callum growled and spat at the new figure
“You scum loving traitor meridan will watch you burn for this one sloth!’
Callum roared
“Leachim what have you done, The others were not accepting that you know the rules of our order.”
The tattered figure Leachim turn to the newcomer
“I'm sorry Andrews but I had to do what needed to be done. There's much more at stake than we had originally realized.”
Andrews looked to Leachim and then to Greed “What are we going to do with this one we can't very well kill him as you know.” he said.
“I have something else in mind for our friend Greed here.”
Leachim put his hands together as if praying there is a verb operation in the air and when he separated his hands it was as if he was pulling reality apart itself there was just a dark void in between his hands, two more arms and hands made of stone sprouted from his chest and reached into the hole and they pulled out a black ornate sword with a glowing silver crystal. Callum felt fear flood through the body that he was inhabiting and knew what this item was capable of because he made it.
The stone arms pulled the sword completely free as his regular hands closed the tear in reality. The sword looked a plain steel but radiated so much power Greed was stunned in his own averise for he knew it would kill him to use it.
Callum look to Leachim
“You have grown very powerful having you little leech”
“I'm sorry he has become so twisted by your compulsion Tempist I do have fun memories of you.” Leachim said as he plugged the sword into Callum's chest.
[Your Soul Has Been Attacked]
[Your Soul Has Been Consumed]
…
Callum awoke with a start beating away a sword that wasn't there from his chest. Several system messages appeared in front of them. Groggily Callum waved them aside for the moment and took in his surroundings he was in a room of very smooth stone. In a bed under some sheets. He looked around his room. It was a simple nightstand and a chair in the corner. He took the sheets off and swung his feet out of the bed and in the corner of the room where the chair was a figure rose from the ground wrapped in bandages with scribbled runes.
“Good, you're awake.”
Callum tried to leave the bed and walk closer to Lord Graves but was stopped by an invisible barrier
“There is a force inside of you that is to its nature detrimental to our survival. Before I release you from the shielding I'm going to need to know that you can control this force. How do I know about your soul damage state and severity of it? I would not have left the book laying around as I did. This is as much my fault as it is yours.” Grave’s said has he got up from the chair and began pacing
“All right someone's going to have to explain something to me I have this interface system I've died, I've seen people killed, magic is a thing, people have used it against me, I've used it to kill things, I've killed!!!” Callum went on and on his voice rising in timber losing control as he continued to freak out.
“You're my teacher from another world but you’re here dude and wrapped bandages you have history with people here that's over thousands of years old what the hell is going on.”
Graves stopped pacing, he looked at Callum long and hard and he entered the field and sat down on the bed. Callum felt an urgent need to take but subsided as quickly as it sprung up.
Graves patted the bed “sit down I have a lot to explain and I don't know what Adam has already told you so I'll have to start from the beginning of what I know and there are some things that I cannot tell you because they are not mine to tell I am honored bound to some secrets and I will keep them.”
“As for my part I am known as Lord Graves in these parts. I used to own quite a sizable estate before joining a certain group that opposed the rising power of the Sin Empire. The Sin Empire was once known as the Nyxian Court. Several kingdoms of powerful wizards in kings that got together in peace after one of our most terrifying and devastating wars that covered the entire globe. The Nyxian Court ruled for several millennia after this war until a disaster struck. There was a seal that was broken and it released what were known and sealed as sins. The Sins are powerful beings that utilize magic in ways that the natives of this world cannot and will never be able to replicate.”
“The seal was broken and the sins got out but we're stopped. They were believed to be resealed in vessels known as sages. These sages were the contingent that managed to survive when closing the breach on the seal. The Sins had already escaped and had possessed these individuals to plan to take over; these individuals happened to be in key positions to do just that; it was a huge orchestrated plan with many contingencies. And as you know the center empire is in the rain now and they did succeed.”
“The Sages were powerful wizards and magicians in their own right and coupled with the sealed essence of the Sins they became one man armies Living Gods. The seals on the vessels however did not last. And the vessels were overcome one by one. And just 2 years after they managed to take over and a decade after that they established the Sin Empire.”
“I was part of this in the Empire and profited off of it mightily. I use those profits to fund and aid resistance groups around the planet. Eventually I was found out and had to go on the run. My bandages are to stop a curse of a sort from taking hold of me the scribbles as people put them are ruins that were hastily done by someone dear to me”
Graves trailed off.
It was silent for a long moment and then the grave spoke again. All of that happened just over a thousand years ago now. And in your world time it would just be a few years.
“Wait what, there's some time dilation effect between this world and the other.” Callum cut in is interesting sci-fi pushing through the fear and panic.
“Yes is due to the nature of the breach between our worlds. And also due to the nature of the exotic particles on this planet. You might know them as radiation.”
Callum flashbacks to when he first got here and how his skin was dissolving and disintegrating and sloping off in front of his face and realized that that was heavy radiation poisoning that he was experiencing and that much meant that he died when he blacked out.
A small window popped up with Callum's basic information, not a bottom of skull icon with the number two beside it. Callum ignored it with the other windows for the time being.
“Roughly one day in your world Callum would be a year here in this world. I ran with a rebel group for some time until an old friend of mine asked me to do a favour and look in on you in your world. Travel between worlds is highly restricted but due to my nature I'm able to pass between them quite easily.”
“I won't say who has I mentioned before, some secrets are not mine to give. Now I'd like to interrupt your questioning and ask you a few of my own. I need to know who healed you and how you survived the radiation poisoning.”
So Callum explained what happened, what he remembered and his interface that seems semi sentient. He explained the information that he saw and that's when graves froze. You look at Callum really hard and tell him felt something shattered around him as Graves came to himself.
“Interesting so this is the protection he gave you. You need to understand something Callum very very important: there was a war not too long ago that ended in the release of the Sins. The war was with an enemy that left unchecked would devour the worlds of the cosmos. This enemy was the Varyn'Kyth. It translates to Energy Syphon. They're essentially vampires of radiation. And depending on their stage of infection in various states of cyborg, you would understand it. There is a mechanical magical nano virus that was created by a scientist a few thousand years ago. This virus once infecting the scientist gave him strange powers and abilities that surpass anyone wielding magic in the known worlds. He created an army of others like himself. This army then was able to infect others through their magic and touch. And convert others to things like them. They ravaged several continents on this world before being put to a stop by their creator.”
Callum relaxed a bit as he took all this information in. As he did so I noticed the lethara of notifications off in the corner of his vision. He decided to take a minute to start looking through them. First couple were just more gibberish and warning signs and next one however was interesting
[Foreign entity has attempted to imprint onto your soul.]
[In printing a temp has been stopped.]
[Foreign entity has attempted to take over body control.]
[Foreign entity has attempted access nyx particles.]
[Foreign entity has been firewalled.]
[Analyzation]
[Foreign entity has been identified.]
[Foreign entity essence of sin.]
[Sin essence Greed.]
[Firewall syphoning energy off entity.]
[Energy used to repair the soul.]
[Soul strength at 100%]
Callum finished looking at the messages, put the rest aside and looked up to Graves.
“I have something to tell you I haven't told you everything. I have an identifying power that allows for analysis and tells me information. I think it's part of this techno vampire curse.”
“That thing and the book that you're so worried about it's contained”
“And how would you know this?” queried Graves
“I don't know if I can share this….” Callum trailed off as a message popped up in front of him asking if he would like to share a status log. Callum paws for a moment and then agreed
Graves' eyes went wide as information appeared in front of him, a text log of all the notifications Callum had gotten.
He got up and started pacing, taking himself outside the bubble protection. He kept hasting for minutes before he looked up at Callum and apologized, dropping the shield. Kelly got off the bed and stretched his legs as graves continued to pace back and forth.
First things first grave said Callum
You are going to have to rank up if you're going to survive and it's going to take time. Good news is we have plenty of time where we're going.
The entirety of the building started to rumble. The rumbling intensified as Callum ran to the window and looked out. The entire structure he was in was rising out of the ground off of the ground and into the air at a very fast pace.
As they got an unknown height above the clouds the structure slowed and before it opened a swirling sucking vortex of blue greens and purples. In the center of the swirling vortex was a pin prick of blackness that widened, getting bigger and bigger as it opened up. Callum saw a swirling tunnel vortex Nexus of space. The structure lurched forward entering the portal and the portal snapshot behind it.