Chapter 039: At the bottom

Suddenly I got an idea.

Well, a very basic one. A sketch of an idea. A fragment of inspiration. But it was definitely better than a complete lack of an idea. Improvisation, dammit.

I fired a Holy Bolt. At Syna. Well, more like right in front of her. This brought her attention. She look at me, stopping her constant shooting at Nymph.

I gave her orders. She nodded. And loaded a bullet into her rifle’s chamber.

She had merely eleven remaining bullets in her rifle. They were rather complicated stuff. State-of-the-art ammunition created by a few specialized metalworks in the Imperium, that existed merely to supply the 101st Infantry Division with bullets. No inhabitant of the Dragonspine Mountains could even dream of replicating them, at least since the Decemvirate fell.

Then she closed her eyes and fired her rifle. In the air.

Normally it would be a complete waste of a bullet that we simply couldn’t replace. But the situation was slightly different. Closing her eyes while firing meant that she was using a Guide Bullet spell. It allowed her to take control of the bullet and control it midflight.

It lost a lot of velocity while flying straight up, but soon enough she managed to twist its movement.

Then it hit the Bloodlust’s head. After diving at it from above, completely avoiding her Magic Shield.

It was borderline cheating to be honest. Although it was also nymph’s fault. She used it as her only defensive measure. This changed it into an almost impenetrable wall that she filled with a lot of magic… but made her vulnerable to attacks such as this.

Imperium had enough troubles trying to ban things that seriously endangered the lives and souls of all of its inhabitants. It never bothered to ban dumdum bullets, even if it looked rather unfavourably on people using them against other people. Syna had three hollow point bullets (totally banned on Earth) and I ordered her to use one.

It more than made up for lost velocity. The Nymph’s head exploded when the bullet deformed and parts of it went on a journey through the Bloodlust’s flesh.

She recreated it, of course. Daemons could survive headshots, even as glorious as this one. But… it was costly. Heads were internally complicated, as they included sight, hearing, smell and taste - plus a lot of touch. And a central processing chamber that sifted through their input.

50%. Nymph lost 50% of her power in a single shot.

Welp. I might have found and exploited a weakspot of her defense, but… what now? Even before her head regrew, she already covered herself in an omni-directional version of Magic Shield. Sure, it was weaker and prone to getting pierced by strong attacks, but…

… I wasn’t sure if we had attacks sufficiently strong for this. My strongest attacks - Destroyer Lance and Havoc Bolt - failed to achieve anything meaningful.

Bloodlust once again opened her mouth widely while looking at me. What’s her problem?! Why does she… ugh, fuck it.

I quickly used Localized Distortion and prepared for another leap.

Then she suddenly looked away and fired the ray into a completely random direction. What the…

Simea.

She of course used her Suppress Presence when the battle started and tried to sneak upon the Nymph… but the Bloodlust managed to detect her. To avoid warning her she pretended to target me, only to switch the target of the hex in the last possible moment.

My wife got eviscerated by a ray of blood fired with enough pressure and velocity to punch a hole in metal wall.

Ugh. Just ugh.

Alright, I think I have a plan B. Or at least a desperate excuse of it. I got Transcendentals, so let’s fucking use them. She is a nymph, so she should be vulnerable to them at least to a point.

I used a Depraved Promise on her. She suddenly bent forward, leaning on the edge of the water tank. Her eyes opened wide. There was a sudden wave of lust and arousal visible on her face.

Uh-huh. Someone is really vulnerable to Lust Magic. Too bad that Simea just got blooded to death.

Lena and Leria kept being pushed back. Soon the Bloodeaters will overwhelm them and get to the stairs when me, Syna and Vaera stood. No time to waste.

The Nymph recuperated from the effects of Depraved Promise. She was a daemon and one completely insane. Her lifeforce was so disturbed that even the strongest lifeforce manipulation worked quirky. Well, it could still work.

I quickly communicated the plan to Vaera and Syna. It was a rather crazy one, that could work only because the Bloodlust clearly wasn’t the smartest one around. Insanity does that to people.

Another Depraved Promise. Nymph once again bent, but this time her hand clearly disappeared somewhere around the place where legs started, with red water mercifully covering the troubling details.

Arcane Bullet, Dragon Fireball and Destroyer Lance hit her Magic Armor at the very same second. It held, but barely. This shook her sober. But before she managed to reinforce the defensive magic, she was hit by another Depraved Promise.

This time she obviously started masturbating. Fucking Deviation and her fucking Transcendentals.

This was no normal arousal. You would have to be really perverted (and suicidal) to start acting like that mid-battle. But lifeforce… it worked beyond your consciousness. It was a measurement of all this little processes in your body that summed up to living. All the way to a cell level. And Lust Magic suddenly attuned all of it to lust.

Another trio of attacks hit her. This time breaking her Magic Armor. She recuperated… but a second too late.

This time an Arcane Bullet hit her face. Forty percent of lifebar disappeared. It would be an instakill, but Destroyer Lance and Dragon Fireball travelled too slow and her headless body managed to dive in the water tank before they reach it.

Damn it. If I’d known they were gonna miss, I would have ordered Syna to use another material bullet. Maybe not a hollow point one, but…

Nymph started weaving a hex. A powerful one. More powerful than I expected she was capable of.

Oh shitshitshitshitshitshit. AN OVERDRIVE.

“AREA OF EFFECT!” I screamed. Too late.

All Bloodeaters suddenly exploded. Lena and Leria stood too close. They were instantly grilled and evaporate by a cloud of overheated blood-like matter suddenly sublimated by temperature and magic. The wave of heat made me feel like I was burning… and I was standing ten meters away from the nearest epicentre.

The amount of Plague-tainted blood in air skyrocketed.

We triggered an overdriveomgomgomgomgomg.

It was a rather rare occurrence, but one considered something extremely dangerous. DFI didn’t like the idea of strong people being able to enter the low leveled areas and wipe the floor with Uniques there. This would be an obvious risk to local economy (imagine the number of supposedly ‘rare’ items and materials flooding the market). Besides, the Uniques were made to be dangerous and deadly, right?

When an enemy overwhelmed them totally, they could go into Overdrive. It was explained in lore as forcefully opening themselves to the powers of the Dark. To flood themselves with raw power. A desperate move that would leave them crippled for long. But crippled was better than banished for who knows how long.

We just took 90% of her life in merely two hits. While losing only a single member. It must have triggered the Overdrive.

Bloodlust

Unique/Overdrive!

Category: Blood/Bloodletter Plague

Type: Daemon/Servile

Threat Grade: Silver V->Gold V

Once she was a potamide, a nymph of still water, inhabiting the main watertank of the Theta Research Station. She spent most of her life pulling tricks while ensuring that the water remained pure and, in fact, had slight restorative properties.

This changed when her domain was infected by Bloodletter Plague. Now she is an insane, omnicidal wreck.

Known spells and hexes:

Blood Ray

Blood Rain

Summon Bloodeater [8]

Sublimate(O)

Aand… we are so dead.

She emerged from the pool again. Her outer appearance didn’t change, but the leap in power level could be felt.

This time she left the water tank. She almost tripped when she did so, probably not used to this. She stood in front of it, covered in blood and fleshy growths.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Syna tried to load another dumdum bullet. Nymph immediately decided that she was the biggest threat of us all. Bloodlust fired an overcharged version of Blood Ray. Rather than hitting a single point it hit a whole line.

A horizontal wave of magic-charged blood cut the catgirl apart. Her upper part fell back, while her legs remained standing.

Jesus Christ.

I was paralyzed with fear and shock. Vaera wasn’t. But his Dragon Fireball only triggered her counterattack. She… spat blood at him. It, of course, exploded on contact.

His Dragon Shield failed to hold. He died immediately. Then she turned her gaze on me.

FUCK. YOU. I might be going to die, but I AM NOT GOING TO DIE WITHOUT A FUCKING FIGHT.

I had no idea what hex she wanted to cast on me, but she was interrupted. I cast a Dominating Presence immediately followed by a Depraved Promise.

Nymph recoiled, her hex broken together with her concentration. She almost shoved her hands between her legs… but Overdrive must have increased her resistance to Lust Magic at least slightly. If I didn’t sneak in the Dominating Presence it would probably not work at her at all.

She almost immediately started another hex.

You want it rough? Sure thing.

I made a step forward. Grabbed my gasmask and threw it aside. The air was disgusting and tasted like blood. I could feel debuffs settling in.

The same second another Depraved Promise connected.

The thing with Lust Magic was that it was influenced by a lot of factors. For example your clothing, actions and whether the target considered you attractive. A pretty girl making a striptease would be much more successful in attacking me than an elder, ugly man covered from head to toe in clothing.

I made a rather desperate bet. But I won. It seemed like my face fit her preferences. Or maybe me throwing away the mask felt to her like a beginning of a striptease? What really mattered was that it worked. It strengthened my Transcendental enough to break her concentration completely.

Another step. She lost it, began fingering herself and made a step forward. That’s right, come here. Good girl.

Another step. She paused her actions, her mind fighting to regain control over her body. Another Depraved Promise fixed it for a while. My manapool was running thin and I had no chance of breaking her Overdrived magical defenses.

There was a single chance for me. A desperate bet, but… what other option I had?

Another step. And another. She walked closer, her face filled with nothing but lust. I threw away my gloves, just in case the hexes were really strengthened by a striptease expy. Uh, no way I’m going to tell the rest the details of what I was doing while they were dead.

Once again she seemed to fight my hex. She might be a pervert (judging from her vulnerability to Lust Magic), but she either had a shitload of willpower or her insanity and the Plague modified her somehow. A mortal after get hit by Lust Magic Transcendental would already be broken completely, unable to think or do anything but sex for a few hours. Even the average nymph, with her daemonic nature, would be out of commision for a while.

Another Depraved Promise. Another steps. Almost. ALMOST.

She fell on her kness before me. Her defensive magic dispelled and her face filled with nothing but a silent beg and a desire to get ravaged. My manapool was almost empty, enough for a single hex.

Begone, thot. I’m married. And you are too squicky for me.

I gently grabbed her head. Our eyes met.

She regained control a second too late.

“HAVOC BOLT!”

***

Simea died as a first one, so she was also the first one to arrive. She must have ran the whole way.

I sat beside the water tank, with my back on its metal wall. It was quite comfortable, mostly due to fleshy growths on it. Squicky, but comfortable.

“So… we won?” She said as I raised.

“Yes, kinda.” Alright, it was crazy and slightly shameful, but you promised to not withdraw informations from her, right?

I described what she missed. She chuckled when she heard about my little… striptease. Ugh.

“Well, at least she is dead. Any loot?” I shook my head.

“I wouldn’t touch anything belonging to a Bloodletter Plague-infected daemon with a ten foot pole.” I answered. “Sure, it might not be a true Bloodletter Plague, but still.” If it was a true form of the disease I vaguely remember hearing about while playing World’s Requiem, we would already have succumbed to it. Together with everyone in the sewers and most of the city.

“I see. So, we’re waiting for the rest, right?” I nodded. Well, it shouldn’t be that long.

We had luck. The only reason we won that battle was pure luck. Overdriven boss, even with 10% of HP, should mop the floor with us. If not for me exploiting her weakness… and even then I was almost out of mana. The way of accelerating its restoration wasn’t really possible (despite Simea being with me) due to poisonous air and generally unpleasant surroundings. Not to mention the others could come any minute now.

At least I had magic stored in the crystal ring of Ardent Flame. Enough to restore 75% of my manapool one time. Then I drank a Weak Mana Potion. No more tricks, no more fights for attrition. One final push. And if the end of the Adventure isn’t close… we are fucked.

***

Maybe twenty minutes later (I’m going to buy myself a watch) we were already back together.

The decision to continue the Adventure was unanimous. Just as the knowledge that we were getting close to the climax of the quest. The disease was already in our veins, we all started showing early symptoms.

The part about five available resurrections was a bullshit. They only had three left. The disease progressed regardless of us dying. I probably had three lives left as well. Maybe even two if my desperate striptease worsened my condition.

The device led us to a hatch in the floor. Well hidden on the very edge of the hall and touched by the Bloodletter Plague… but only partially. It was enough to cover it under a thin layer of red moss, but not enough to make it impossible to open.

It was obviously secured from the Plague. I think we are getting close to the cult headquarters.

The second we opened it, a wave of red air came at us from below. The walls beneath the grate were moving. Pulsating. Everything was covered in flesh growths.

Seems like we are also getting close to the source of infection. Wonderfuckingful.

Suddenly I could feel Vaera poking me. When I looked at him, he waved his head.

Oh. Syna looked like she was trying to get my attention. She found something?

***

She found someone.

No wonder we missed him. He was lying beside the wall of the shaft, in a place that seemed to be devoured by the Bloodletter Plague. It devoured him as well. Merely part of the head (with one eye) was visible.

I appraised him.

Synvek Valorian

PLAYER

Gender: Male

Species: High Elf

Level: 8

Class: Blade

Active Effects: Cyst

Known Spells and Techniques:

???

“Oh shit.” I said loudly. “That’s one of Kovacs men.”

Cyst

[Very Rare]

Target has underwent a violent changes due to being infected by a Bloodletter Plague.

Rather than falling into coma, due to the proximity to the source of the infection, he skipped all phases of the infection and reached the last one. While still conscious, he is slowly changing into one more cyst, his body used to produce more of the disease.

DFI, you bunch of motherfucking madmen. I knew the rest appraised him as well and took a good look at the active effects. So let’s skip the part with describing them what was going to happen.

I kneeled beside the still living remains of the adventurer.

“Can you hear me? Blink once if yes.” He blinked. My God. Wasn’t this literally a Fate Worse Than Death scenario? If the city fails to repel the infection, if it grows into a full-blown Bloodletter Plague outbreak… how long was he going to stay like that? How much worse could it get?

I could hear the rest swallowing the news behind me.

“Kovacs and the rest went further?” Blink. “Did you manage to defeat the nymph?” Two blinks. Ah. They had lower levels than us and failed to defeat the Bloodlust. After one or two attempts they decided to push through, regardless of casualties.” You remained behind to keep it busy while they went further?” Blink.

Well, at least he seemed to still be sane. And that certainly required a lot of courage. On the other hand. it means that Kovacs group was running out of resurrections.

“Shouldn’t we… free him or something?” Simea spoke. I shook my head.

“I’d like to, but… I don’t know how. If we kill him, won’t he just resurrect in the same form? Or can he still resurrect? And what if he no longer is a part of an Adventure and he gets resurrected on the surface?” Which would mean spreading the disease there. I didn’t need to add that, though. They knew. Thankfully, I surrounded myself with intelligent people.

“Alright, buddy. I’m sorry but we have to leave you here.” I made the decision, so I at least should have the moral courage to say that to him directly. “We are going after Kovacs. If we managed to find the source of the disease, we might be able to help you.” After a while he blinked. Once.

Seems like Kovacs surrounded himself with intelligent people as well.

***

Beneath the hatch was a ladder. Obviously a modern one. I wouldn’t risk using a four hundred years old ladder. Even stairs in the shaft seemed risky. But it seems that the cult replaced it.

Wall surrounding it were completely covered in flesh growths and cysts. Only the ladder was clean. Too clean. Obviously the Baptism of Blood knew how to secure things and people from the disease.

Perfect hideout for the cult. Whoever wanted to assault its headquarters had to fight Bloodlust and then go deeper. With disease being everpresent.

Our aura manipulators went down first. I was in the middle of the ladder when I heard sounds of a fight going on beneath me. I looked down (fuck I hate ladders) to see them finishing up a Bloodeater.

So, finally. Red Forest lite. The place inhabited by daemons and corrupted humans serving the unnamed deity of some antediluvian race of blood-obsessed people that considered blood sacrifices a national pastime.

Fuck, I hate this place. Can we go back to the Hold already? Please?

***

The more I thought about it, the less sensible the Theta Research Station was. The only potential explanation for its totally schizophrenic design was that its makers built it underground, using naturally (or not) existing caves.

If that was the case, the Decemvirate architects had to be fucking drunk.

Or the area kept growing on its own, with new facilities added where they were needed, whenever they could be fit. Now that I think about it, teleportation was a thing even today. It was costly (and grew even more costly with distance), but on a short range… in Apostasy era… maybe they simply teleported themselves between separate facilities, built close enough for the costs to be negligible?

If that was the truth, then the place we descended into must have been a technical corridors. Probably connecting facilities. Places that the flesh failed to devour included a lot of metal grates, plates and pipes.

It was also damn tight.

According to the device we were quite close to Kovacs’ position. Despite this, this place could be a maze. Who know how big. It could connect many facilities. Some of them could be as big as the one we walked through… and completely overtaken by the disease. We could only hope to avoid running into really powerful creatures. We had no strength left for a prolonged battle.

Bloodeaters at the end of the corridor made sounds similar to groan before they started crawling towards us.

“Well.” I said. “It’s time to end this.”