Chapter 218: From Destruction, Creation.
Time passed. I found myself back at Pandemonium’s depths. Here, the manor’s smithy resided, and its hellflames burned hotter than ever before. Curse oozed off the walls, empowered by the enchantments Moonwash drew.
I sought to create a new blade, from the ashes of the old. I held Devilcalibur, and remembered all the good times we had together. I took its curse unto myself, and my life flashed before my eyes.
It was filled only with death. My many minds visualized all the violence we’d wrought, distilled into one eternal moment.
I shook, took one deep breath, and got to forging.
Moonwash held down the glowing hot new blade that we were making. An alloy of the greatest metals, deadly cursed remains, and the hellixir of my demon-birthing Hell of Creation. She gestured to where I should hit it, and I did as she wordlessly asked with perfect accuracy. Curse seeped into this new creation as I served as the pained conduit to transfer the infusion. The bloodshed had only grown Devilcalibur’s power, and I suffered through it as every swing of my hammer began to ring and chime like an eerie symphony.
It took days of my body being on the verge of unraveling, but my old reliable friend Devilcalibur finally gave its last effort as it turned to dust.
Its spirit passed on to a new blade fit for The Devil.
I wasn’t done.
I took out another sword, and took its far weaker curse upon myself. I was unshaken by the force of this weapon’s memories, but I still cried for its history was my own. The one that was lost. It looked like a mere shortsword today in my massive arms, but it was the greatsword that I once wielded for one wonderful decade.
It was my weapon of choice, back during the prime of The Harvesters. I lost it when I was captured and separated from all that I ever loved. I never did manage to find where it went, until the Angel’s Demise dug through the ashes of Gardine, where they somehow unearthed the weapon that I thought to be lost forever.
Cursifix's last remaining legacy returned to me my own history, as if they truly understood.
I had to remember that these were murderous creatures hellbent on wiping out a civilization. They made it really hard not to like them sometimes.
I continued to forge. I poured the wrath and its hints of menace into my new creation. It took only some hours, until that old history of mine too returned to dust. But now its legacy was secured once more. The chain that was broken, forever made whole again.
I lifted my creation in triumph, a dark whispering miasma oozing off of it. It cackled, raged, foretold of all the worst secrets. A greatsword just for me, its blade sharpened to perfection, yet one might hallucinate a far more deformed thing if they stared too long into this abyss. It was painful to the touch, even for me. I felt like my hand might just fall off.
“It’s beautiful,” I whispered. “The Atrocity. For all that I have done, what I’ve become, and the choices I can already see on the horizon.”
~~~
The dwarves and harpies gawked at me as I arrived upon their literal mountain of treasures. They mined the surface of the Geonesis wonderzone, taking its steadily regrowing ores, while fending off the monsters that sought to disrupt their operations.
“Oh?”
“Is that… Haell?”
“She looks different.”
“She’s bigger.”
“Ah, you’re right!”
“Hello, Demon Queen!”
“Hi!”
I smiled and waved back at them as I landed among the jagged spires of glimmering earth that coated the mountainface. I exchanged a few words with their leaders, before finding the nearest tunnel that led deeper into the mountain.
I took one step inside, and immediately encountered the golams!
They looked like the classical golems, but they were actually thin creatures of flesh that covered themselves in rocks. I brought out Atrocity, and even these normally quite fearless creatures froze in place. I marched a few steps towards them, before they finally started moving again, more frantic than I ever remembered them being. With desperation they punched towards me, but that was when I swiped Atrocity with my greater reach.
They were all sliced in half with a single swing. Even those who coated themselves entirely in mythril failed to stop my blade for even a moment. The natural decay of Atrocity consumed most of their actual bodies, leaving little in the way of flesh.
I grabbed some of the best mythril pieces they had, before marching further in. I sensed a few dwarf/harpy parties across the tunnels, and we gave each other a friendly nod when we met. I began to run faster once I was at a depth that few of them could ever reach. I hardened the ground under my hooves with my newly remade horseshoes, but I still caused a few cave-ins in places. I stepped on a camouflage lizard in passing, and I charged right through a swarm of worms that dared to bar my path. I did not bother to actually chase down any of the monsters, until I finally encountered one that was at least at my Level.
It was one of those anglerfrogs, shining a light upon this dark. It took a defensive posture upon seeing me, but it did not run. I slashed Atrocity towards it as the beast tried to ram its thick head onto me. Its flesh was sliced right through, but the bone managed to finally rebound the blade as the angle was super poor. On the other side, the anglerfrog did manage to hit me, but I redistributed the force and only staggered back. My armor came out barely dented, while any bruising across my muscles were swiftly healed.
I cracked my shoulders and grinned.
The anglerfrog was currently stumbling away from me as it tried to heal the slice it suffered. The rot was steadily being expunged, but it’s still crazy how much damage I was able to inflict without even using my magic just yet!
I allowed my enemy the minute it needed to fully heal.
The anglerfrog tried to run away afterward, but I can’t have that!
I chased after my prey. My grin stretched wider across my face. My boundless wrath seeped into my grin, as both my body and sword became an expression in itself of my magical might unmatched.
I sliced Atrocity through the creature’s neck, and it cut cleanly through skin, muscle, and bone. The cut left behind, however, did not remain clean at all. The red of its blood quickly turned black. Way more of its meat was ruined than I ever anticipated. The bats, mice, and other critters who’d been watching from the periphery ran the fuck away once Atrocity became coated in my actual active curse.
“Damn. I really did a fucking good job with you.” I smiled at the weapon I just used to kill.
~~~
I was really impressed with the anglerfrog’s abilities as a guinea pig, so I went ahead and found another one!
It was peacefully mating with another of its kind…
I really did not need to see that! It made me want to launch my untouchable memory core into the bottom of the Endless Dive.
I left them alone, much as I wanted to kill them for the image I would never be able to forget. I wouldn’t just ruin someone’s fun like that! I had values!
I found another anglerfrog that was just sleeping! Good enough!
I marched towards it as my three minds activated the magic all across my body and sword. I immersed myself in the way that I felt as I watched Angerly and Luine die. From the anger, to the despair, and then the violent apathy born from it. Senseless destruction was the result. I took out my anger upon millions of innocents, so powerless compared to me, like ants who just wanted to thrive.
I had my regrets. I refused to let my self-loathing stop me. I cared for people, but even that painful empathy, I found a way to use as a weapon. I allowed the madness to take hold, for it only wanted the same thing as my lucid mind.
By the confluence of my wrath, I slashed down. I smashed my Atrocity upon my foe. A cataclysm of curses was unleashed, pulverizing the entire body of the anglerfrog!
Its parts came splattering across every facet of the cavern. I bathed in the blood of an animal that only wished for peaceful slumber. Not an inch of its splintered flesh remained usable, for it decayed and morphed, decayed and morphed, in an endless ouroboros cycle of self-consumption. Pulped masticated mush destroyed itself further, to the point that literally nothing was left of the smaller pieces.
This anglerfrog was a monster my level, who was supposed to be built for resilience, yet it died just like that. It succumbed so horrifyingly to my powers.
This was no longer the confluence of my wrath, but something more.
Through endless battle.
Through constant bloodshed.
The blood of various origins I’ve bathed myself in.
The additional minds that could finally comprehend the enormity of my atrocities.
I have created something beyond the confluence of wrath.
I understood its origin.
I looked upon that abyss, and seized its very depths.
At the end of my eternal trail of destruction, I have found my greatest creation:
“The Confluence of Curse.”