Chương 43: Chapter XLIII: Consequences of Isolation
A nightmare creature clad in dark armor shuffled aimlessly along the streets of the fallen Kingdom of Leonia; wispy tedrils of dark mist escaped from the confines of the corrupted creature's body . Its weapon, a sharpened mass of black steel almost as tall as the Darkspawn Knight, was being carelessly dragged behind it.
Suddenly, the Fallen Beast's movement halted and it mechanically turned its helmeted head. Two hot coals stared at the shower of sparks illuminating a nearby alley, starkly contrasting the ever-present darkness it was used to.
Experiencing the novel stimulus, the corrupted creature's degraded psyche compelled it investigate the phenomenon.
The Fallen Beast, its primitive curiousity sufficiently stimulated, shuffled towards the shower of sparks.
Step by step it moved closer towards the source of light and just when it was a few steps away from it, the sparks vanished into the darkness only to reappear deeper into the alley. Like a guide, the ever illusive shower of sparks steered the unsuspecting corrupted knight until they reached a relatively secluded area enclosed by the stone walls of the surrounding buildings.
The nightmare creature, finally having caught up to the source of light it was tirelessly following, stretched its gauntlet towards it. Whatever psyche it had left from when it was human held a faint feeling of longing towards the first light it had seen in countless years.
Unfortunately, before it could touch it, the Darkspawn Knight's torso suddenly disconnected from its lower half causing it to fall face first onto the stone ground.
The sound of something hitting stone and smashing it apart resounded in the air. The Fallen nightmare creature, surprised by the sudden turn of events, tried to lift itself up using its hands but his vision suddenly turned upside down as its decapitated head flew through the air.
The last thing it saw before dissipating into black smoke and flowing back into the Source was the chilling blue glow of the sword that killed it.
**********************************
(William's POV)
[You have slain a Fallen Beast, Darkspawn Knight.] (D100 = 8)
[Your soul grows stronger.]
With the Nightmare Spell confirming the kill and seeing the Darkspawn Knight dissipate into black mist, the white-haired youth let out a sigh.
The bone helmet covering his head retracted, releasing his shoulder-lengthed hair and revealing his face. His hardened, blank cerulean eyes moved towards the direction of a demolished wall courtesy of the balista bolt, which had landed itself neatly in a bunch of colorful textile bolts.
His armored hand scratched the stubble covering his jaw and chin in thought. He then looked towards the direction the ballista bolt had come from.
Deep in the darkness of one of the alleys leading into the clearing lay a ballista armed by an exact replica of the nightmare creature that had just been killed; except, that instead of a greatsword for a weapon, it wielded an arming sword and shield. In addition, instead of wispy darkness, the knight was a construct of pure soul essence.
If one looked closely, they would see a translucent bubble that encapsulated the echo and the ballista.
"It looks like using [Sound Barrier] to silence the sound of the ballista being shot works better than expected," he muttered as he picked up the left over Ascended soul shard before promptly storing it in the storage of his [Pale Ring], "The results are... satisfactory. Although, it would've saved much effort to have implemented this idea much sooner."
{A total of 94 other Darkspawn Knights were killed. (D100 = 76, 76, 78, 79, 80, 80, 81, 84, 87, 87, 87, 89, 94, 96, 98, 99, 100) (i.e: weapons x4, armor x4, tool x4, garment x1, charm x3, echo x1)}
(Proof)
As he moved towards the direction of the demolished wall to retrieve the ballista, lines upon lines of shimmering runes manifested:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name: William
True Name: Malevolent Star
Rank: Sleeper
Class: Demon
Iceborne cores: [3/7]
Soul Fragments: [894/3000]
Attributes: [Fateless], [Eidetic Kinesthesia], [Adaptive], [Living Undead], [Monarch Beyond the Grave], [Mental Fortitude (E-)], [Muscle Evolution (E+)], [Essence Assimilation], [Enhanced Reflexes (F+)]
[Essence Assimilation]
Attribute Description: [Through constant exposure of your body to foreign soul essence, it has adapted and is now able to steadily purify and absorb stray soul essence.] {A.N: Speed of the assimilation is dependent on soul rank.}
[Enhanced Reflexes]
Attribute Description: [Through constant struggle, your nervous system is able to send and receive impulses faster and more efficiently.]
Undead Monarch Abilities(Not Aspect Abilities) : [Mantle of Death], [Undead Resilience], [Soul Sight]
Aspect: [Living Lich King]
Aspect Rank: [Semi-Divine]
Innate Ability: [Anomaly]
[Anomaly]
Ability Desciption: [You are an unknown variable in the weave. Your abilities are empowered when altering fate. However, doing that puts you in the crosshairs of fate itself, and antagonizing fate has never been good for one's health.]
Aspect Ability: [Raise Undead]
Aspect Legacy: [Frostmourne], [Profane Grimoire]
[Frostmourne Description: The fabled, nigh-unbreakable mourneblade, Frostmourne, has chosen you as its new master and is the new conduit of your immortality. However, its powers have faded due to its long slumber. et, even in its weakened state, Frostmourne will not sit to be wielded by a weak-willed coward. Strive to stand at the top lest your soul be consumed as many previous unworthy masters.]
Memory Name: Frostmourne
Memory Rank: ?
Memory Tier: II [1220/2000]
Memory Type: Weapon
Memory Enchantments: [Soul Rune], [Forge Rune]
[Soul Rune]
Enchantment Description: [Just as the blade cuts flesh, so does Frostmourne rend the soul and feeds on it.]
[Forge Rune]
Enchantment Description: [Frostmourne can cannibalize other weapons and take up their appearance and enchantments.]
Absorbed Weapons (4/4):
- Black Spear - [Masterwork], [United We Stand], [Fleet Foot]
- Ram-Headed Club - [Bone Breaker], [Siege Weapon]
- Ramming Shield - [Stubborn], [Ramming Speed]
- Tarnished Duty - [Rally], [Sentinel], [Burden of Responsibility], [Duty Above All]
Flaw: [Hollowing]
Description: [To live forever, one must forget. Your immortality is imperfect. Every time you suffer fatal wounds and die, you shall lose a part of yourself until nothing remains but a shell of your former self.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Looking at the new attributes he had gained thanks to [Adaptive], several phantom pains momentarily flared up around his body. As a Dormant awakened, he had absolutely no business hunting Fallen ranked nightmare creatures; yet, here he was doing something that would've put him in a psyche ward back on earth.
The [Essence Assimilation] attribute had suddenly popped up while he was in the midst of reading through whatever books were available in the Temple of the War God. Following its acquisition, the dark energy that pervaded his wounds began to slowly be absorbed into his own soul cores. It wasn't a fast process by any means of the word but it was a welcome change to the status quo.
Unfortunately, the wounds on his face and abdomen left scars that didn't get healed. In a way, it served as a reminder for him to always stay on his toes.
At any rate, he didn't know how much time had passed with him being confined in that temple due to his injuries.
{A.N: It has been 11 months since William entered Leonia}
After the dark essence that was tormenting him was finally fully absorbed, William had exited the temple and went on a hunting spree in an effort to increase his personal strength similar to when he was fighting against the Caprigors and Darkspawn Soldiers in the slums. Except, this time he was against creatures that were two whole soul ranks above him. He had no notion of fighting against such odds face-to-face, especially with how royally he had been fucked the last time he faced against one of them.
Thus, he began to slowly and methodically pick away at the Darkspawn Knights that were roaming independently roaming the streets. So far he had managed to defeat 95 of them, which was easier said than done. If not for the healing ability of his half-undead physique, then his body would've been a mass of scars. Hell, he had even lost his right leg due to a miscalculation on his part, causing him to replace it temporarily by a prosthetic thanks to his armor's [Living Bone] enchantment.
Thankfully, the cut was clean and the amputated leg wasn't destroyed in the fight so he was able to reattach as good as new thanks to his half-undead physique.
He had to undergo much hardships in his stay here but it at least had some benefits for him. More specifically, his [Muscle Evolution] trait had upgraded twice during his battles and he even got a new trait called [Enhanced Reflexes].
At first, he didn't feel that much different from before having the traits so much so that he wondered whether there was a problem with the desciption. However, after several battles, he noticed that he was marginally better at tracking the movements and reacting to the attacks of the Darkspawn Knights, which had saved his skin in many occasions.
William passed through the broken wall and prompty stored the ballista bolt into the storage of the [Pale Ring] along with several bolts of textile that looked expensive.
It was then that a sound akin to glass breaking resounded in his ear which was quickly followed by the voice of the Nightmare Spell.
[The Teardrop Amulet has become fully corrupted and has been removed from your soul.]
The white-haired teenager watched as the memory that he had received at the end of his first nightmare broke into motes of light and quickly dissipated.
With the protective enchantment of the memory gone, he could feel the darkness around become much thicker and insideous than before.
The young sleeper quickly ran out of the building and moved towards where the ballista and the echo stood. He promptly dismissed the echo and quickly stored the ballista before sprinting as fast as his feet would carry him towards his new base.
After a while, the doors of a building burst open as William rushed inside before closing it. Immediately, he fell onto the floor in a fit of heavy coughing. The white-haired teenager looked at the white surface of his armored hand to see it dotted with pitch black dots.
He looked on as the black dots began quickly evaporating and disintegrating into nothingness under the mysterious protection of the place he was in.
William nonchalantly cleaned the saliva and spit around his mouth. He grabbed onto the wooden pew next to him and lited himself up, "That was... unpleasant."
He observed the statue of the War God at the end of the room.
"With my only means of defense against the darkness gone. I guess I have to be more efficient in my methods," he said in a monotone voice that eerily lacked emotion even though he had just lost both of his mentors who had offered him much help in the few months they were together.
Yet, William found it hard to sprout any emotion from the barren wasteland that was himself. He didn't truely know when it had started. However, the longer he stayed in this place and the longer he fought, the longer he began to discard extraneous stuff like emotions.
Humans generally used emotions to express themselves to others. However, here, in the dead kingdom of Leonia, he had no one to express himself to - no one who cared anyways. Thus, true to it functon, his [Adaptive] trait had done its job faithfully and fully adapted his mental state to best survive in this desolate land.
At the end of the day, he was naught but a weapon to kill nightmare creatures and what weapon has need of emotions?
After making sure that there were no problems with his body, William summoned some of his echoes.
Five Dormant scrawny goatmen looked at him with a blank look that had the slightest smidgen of intelligence.
"Go and search for more prey," the youth commanded naturally as he sat down on one of the wooden pews and took out a book from his storage to read. The echos bleated in unison and began scrambling up the walls of the temple to reach the exit on the roof.
William's eyes passed through the previously foreign symbols on the book's pages. He had been lucky enough to find a book that was used to teach children how to read and write the Dream Realm language among the books scattered in the room where he found Damas' skeleton. Thanks to it, he had been able to teach himself how to read and write the dead language. Of course, he was by no means a master of said language since the book was primarily used to teach children but he knew enough to allow him to read and comprehend much of the written words in books.
The book he was currenlty reading talked about the creation of the world or as the book calls it: The Myth of Creation. It provided William with answers to many questions that he and other fans of Shadow Slave often asked during the early chapters of the novel.
For instance, it explained that before everything there was the Void, everlasting and everchanging, which was inhabited by horrendous beings. Then, from that void emerged Desire quickly followed by Direction. The Gods were born of Desire and due to its antithesis nature to the Void, a bloody war erupted between the Gods and the creatures of the Void known as the Old Ones that ended with the former's victory.
At the end of the war, the Gods used Direction and their weapons to wrap around and seal the Void - in turn creating the world.
However, some of the void creatures were able to evade the seal and spread chaos in the world. These were called The Corrupted in the book but it didn't take a genius to infer that they were the nightmare creatures humanity is battling these days.
William's train of thought was cut short by a sound coming from the temple's roof. He wasn't worried about being attacked in this place since the nightmare creatures roaming around the kingdom made visible effort to not avoid the vicinity of the temple.
The sound of several cloven hooves falling on stone resounded in the empty room until the source stopped next to where the youth was sitting half-way through his book.
"Have you found a target?" he asked rhetorically as he stored the book and rose from his place.
The echos bleated affirmatively.
"Good, lead the way."
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