Hundar staggered through the portal as it snapped shut behind him. He was enraged his body frozen, charred, and dissolved in places. None of it would be lasting but still to have been defeated by a group of mortals and those strange angelic beings…. He would have to return and strike them all down, he couldn’t show himself to the other gods while the shame of being defeated by those lesser than him still hung over him.
“An interesting showing,” a voice spoke behind him.
Hundar whirled around his leg giving out where it barely held on by a few tendons. It still wasn’t healing despite his godly powers.
Andelar stood there his hands in his pockets as he leaned casually against one of the pillars in the great sky temple that made up Hundar’s divine realm. Lighting flashed outside as winged heralds rode through the skies the souls of Hundar’s followers riding the clouds as they raced and fought each other or feasted on the top of the cloud banks.
“What are you doing here?” Hundar asked.
“Finishing the job,” Andelar said with a shrug. “You have something I want.”
Hundar might have been arrogant but he had wone his own competition and was on idiot. His eyes went wide.
“You’re the one who killed Artrix!” he shouted his hammer snapping into his hands. “When the other gods learn of…”
A blade protruded from his chest before sliding free. Hundar’s eyes began to glaze over as he watched the slender frame of a gorgeous woman sashay past his dying form.
“Thank you for giving me that kill,” Salrilla purred as she melted into Andelar’s arms. “He always annoyed me so much.”
“Of course, darling,” Andelar said nuzzling her hair. “That’s one more down, how much more do we need?”
“Difficult to say,” Salrilla said watching Hundar slowly succumb to the divine level poison. “It might be just a few more but it could take several dozen, maybe even a hundred.”
“If that’s what it takes then that’s how many we will have to kill,” Andelar agreed. “I’ll collect his divine essence you should return to your realm the asteroid is about to strike.”
“Andelar you showoff!” Salrilla said but laughed opening a portal and disappeared.
A burning light appeared over the realm of storms as Andelar knelt and retrieved the divine essence from Hundar’s chest. It wasn’t entirely necessary to destroy the realm it would fall to pieces soon with the death of its creator but he couldn’t afford to give the chance that a witness might escape somehow.
---
While my rage burned within me I wasn’t going to rush my enemies and fall into their traps. I had to prepare; I sat in meditation as I began altering my abilities though it pained me to sit still while my daughter’s life hung in the balance. Fear clung to me but I pushed it off, I would not let my emotions compromise her safety. Embracing Wrathful Meditation I pushed aside all emotion besides the seething malice and hatred I felt for Arthur. Just as he had tried to destroy my world, so I would destroy his.
I examined my new abilities I’d gained and not bothered ranking up. I took Endless Swarm and Swarm of Locusts I felt more confident in not needing to merge three abilities to get a good end result. Now that I knew how to manipulate their effects myself I was sure I could create the weapon of vengeance I needed. If it took hours or a day I wasn’t sure but I braided and joined the threads of the abilities rune script together, this wasn’t a combat ability, nor was it some utility or crafting ability either. This ability had one purpose to bring suffering, not just to those on the battlefield but to anyone who would even raise their voice against me.
My eyes opened as I looked at the new ability.
Scourge of Nature: (Rank 20); You create a swarm of locusts or flies that fill a square mile upon their summoning, afterwards they spread out in an 100 mile radius from you inflicting their devastation until they are destroyed, dismissed or three days passes the life spark that created them fades.
The locusts will destroy all plant life, and edible non-living organic matter under hardness 10.
The flies bite any living creature within the area inflicting Black Death*, Fire Boils*, Rotting Feet* and Maddening Feaver*.
Locusts and flies can now affect monsters, magical plants, and Gifted animals and plant equivalents.
The Locusts and flies cannot be stopped by magical wards or barriers.
The diseases inflicted by this ability take 3x the mana and/or stamina to cleanse and the disease gains the ability to self-propagate no longer requiring the flies to spread from host to host.
*Black Death: Target takes Extreme Disease damage every hour they are affected.
*Fire Boils: Painful burning boils break out across the skin, when broken the release a burning oil that deals Moderate Fire damage to anything it touches.
*Rotting Feet: The flesh on the soles of the targets feet begins to rot and fall away making it impossible for them to walk.
*Maddening Fever: The targets body is racked by fever making the body quickly dehydrate and inflicts the brain with hallucinations and fear.
Cost:
Casting Time:
Upgrade this ability to increase the size, range and area effected by the swarm. Each rank increases your Mind attribute by 2.
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This ability would never harm the likes of Arthur, he was to strong and could easily cleanse any disease that came his way if it could even touch his flesh. But my target was not him it was those who still now served their King. Just as Arthur had cut down my people I would return the favor and avenge myself on him sevenfold.
Closing my eyes, I returned to my meditation. Next, I selected Hail Storm and Raining Light to merge together. The two abilities were very different but there was enough similarities to merge them. Strand by strand I wove them together. This one took a bit longer but the purpose of this ability would be the same as the last, to bring destruction, to make the land unlivable. Soon the land Arthur claimed to love so much would be a wasteland and his own people would curse his name for the destruction he had brought down on their heads.
Burning Skies: (Rank 20); The anger of the storm made You create a storm overhead in a 3 mile radius raining down burning hail-stones on the ground dealing Extreme Fire, Cold, Holy and Bludgeoning damage to all creatures and buildings struck by the hailstone. The storm last for 1 hour or until dismissed.
When striking land the hail-stones shatter dealing double damage against all plants in the area and inflicting Ignite* against any flammable substances the shards come in contact with.
Creatures hit by hail-stones are inflicted with Staggered* and are Ignited* for 10 seconds taking Holy damage equal to the Fire damage dealt.
Ground struck by the hailstones is inflicted with the Barren* condition
Creatures killed by the hailstones are immolated leaving behind no consumable flesh.
*Ignite: Target is set on fire and takes Moderate fire damage per second until the flames are put out.
*Barren: Plants will not grow and conceiving while on this type of ground is impossible.
Cost:
150 mana per second
Casting Time:
Rank up this ability to increase its range, duration and effects. Each rank increase your Power attribute by 2.
I looked over the ability and its effects, I had to lean on the System for some of the stabilization but in the end it did exactly what I needed it to do. After all of this I moved onto altering one of my abilities for my Heralds. Phantom Form wasn’t an ability I used all that often anymore, there were times but the nature of it made it something I’d grown not to rely on to much. Its short duration and cooldown period made it a excellent card in the deck but not something to be relied on.
I selected the new ability, Spirit Avatar; I would merge it with Phantom Form along with Storm Soul. I’d hesitated to touch Storm Soul at first but ultimately, I had more than enough mana now and its other effects and uses were just not enough to justify not using it. Besides that, all my Heralds abilities had always been formed from three other abilities and I didn’t want to change that.
Because I was using three abilities and not just three it took even longer. Storm Soul was very different from the other two and there weren’t many possible connections to connect the two. That didn’t mean there were none and I began weaving the strands together. I altered the rune script in places heavily, I didn’t want this to just be a defensive ability but something I, and by extension Karnen, could use to aid my allies. I made sure it would do the same thing as Phantom Form had before even improving much of that taking away certain vulnerabilities and significantly increasing its duration. The cooldown period had to be mostly stay the same or risk destabilizing the entire ability but I did knock it down by a few seconds. I made sure the final bonus stayed the same. I was able to take the effect from Storm Soul where I regained mana when struck my lightning to instead let me regain mana when struck by almost any type of damage while in this form.
All of these changes were mostly theoretical until it was finalized. Eventually I had to call it good and release the floating of motes of light within my soul to spin free. I opened my ability and read over the changes.
Holy Spirit (Rank 20, Max Rank); Soul and body have no distinction for you and you can exist without the confines of flesh to hold you. You can turn incorporeal for up to 5 minutes becoming immune to most types of damage accept for Curse, Holy, Psychic and Soul damage. While in this form all your damage is converted into Holy and Soul damage.
Turning incorporeal cleanses, you of all effects and conditions (harmful or beneficial currently effecting you).
Attacks that hit you while in this form but are unable to deal damage will instead restore a Severe amount of mana in proportion to the damage received.
Your touch while in this form repairs Extreme damage per second to any creature you willingly touch.
You gain resistance to Curse, Holy, Psychic and Soul damage.
Your touch now cleanses a target of all conditions afflicting them.
Final Rank Bonus: You cannot be dealt a mortal blow while you are incorporeal and cannot be killed for the duration.
Cost:
95 mana per use
Cast Time
Instantaneous
Cooldown:
3 seconds
Upgrade this ability to increase the time you can remain incorporeal and reduce the cooldown time. Each upgrade to this ability to increase your Spirit Attribute by 3.
Nodding in satisfaction I stood and walked to the front of the temple. Arthur probably thought me dead, he had killed me after all. He was about to find my return to his world was not going to be a gentle one as it had been the two other times I had come to Talba.
Stretching out my hand I opened dozens of portals across the globe. The Magi had portaled me to various locations at my request allowing me travel there at any time I needed. My voice rang out loud as I used the power of the Void to make sure every person across Talba could hear my message. It wasn’t so much that my voice was loud but that it carried to the soul itself bypassing even the need for ears. My Void Angels flew through the portals to act as amplifiers speaking with my voice like a worldwide network of speakers.
“When I returned to this world, I had a vision for what I wanted to bring to it, I wanted to give another way for people to achieve power. I wanted to free those from the game of the gods and give hope to even other Champions that there was another way. But your righteous man, your chosen leader, Arthur King of Camelot struck not just at me but my infant daughter; even now she hangs at the precipice of death. Now there will be retribution, the kid gloves are off. People would have looked to the heavens and felt hope, opportunity for the future…now they will look and find only one choice, serve me or despair.”
I looked through my angel’s eyes seeing the frightened faces of the millions of people. Already there were attacks being made on my Void Angels, but I was almost done.
“In my world there is a story of spreading the blood of a lamb over the door so that God’s angel of death would pass by them and not kill their firstborn. Now I offer you that blood, swear the oath to me and the plagues I am bringing on your world will pass you by just as the angel of death did God’s chosen people. Do not swear the oath, rely on your Champions and gods for protection and the very land you walk upon shall be cursed. You have three days, after which you shall discover that I can be the very thing you feared I was.”
The heroes and Champions of Talba crushed my Void angels but their souls only returned to the Void and were reformed moments later. It was fine I let the portals close, my message was sent out in three days this world would be judged by Old Testament wrath.