Chapter 18

Without having to worry about being seen Malivore made it to the Triad facility in record time. His fire-composed wings may have drawn attention in the real world but in an almost completely empty prison world he found a strange sense of freedom.

He was free to be completely and unabashedly himself, free to act on his every thought and impulse the moment he had it.

All it had cost him was everything he had ever loved.

That thought soured his mood rather quickly. Malivore was unbalanced, he was aware of that from the moment he split off from Kirby. Quicker to anger, and less able or at least less willing to empathize with others left him feeling somewhat volatile. His desire to break everything around him was evidence of his instability.

He ended up making his way through the facility rather quickly. Without any guards present to try and stop him the only impediments in his path were doors, and those he couldn't easily break with his enhanced strength he could bypass with his smoke form ability eventually finding himself in front of a Malivore pit.

To his immense disappointment he felt nothing from the pit. He had hoped that some part of his father's… soul maybe, would be present but all that lay before him was the corpse of a being that once helped protect this world from monsters.

Acting on instinct more than conscious thought, Malivore removed the Gate and dropped it into the pit.

The reaction was instant.

The Gate began to absorb the oil in the pit so quickly it created a whirlpool and in less than a minute, the pit was empty save for the Gate resting at the very bottom. Malivore looked around and made note that not so much as a drop of mud remained.

Jumping down into the bottom of the pit, Malivore picked up the Gate fully ready to be hit with a system prompt, and he was not disappointed.

Due to the influx of Malivore Essence you may choose to amplify the Gate in one of the following ways:

Durability: By reinforcing the durability of the Gate you may ensure that it's shattering is prevented. This will prevent all monsters currently trapped in Malivore from escaping the Malivore Dimension unless summoned.

Attunement: Due to the nature of the Malivore Essence absorbed along with the nature of this plane of existence you may choose to subsume this false reality into the Malivore dimension once the Gate has been properly attuned.

After thinking it over for a few minutes the choice became blatantly obvious. While durability would allow him to honor his father's wishes in the most expedient way, attunement would keep all the monsters trapped in the prison world and would provide the added benefit of monster fodder to increase his level. Just in case his plan to infinitely kill Kai Parker didn't work out.

Malivore left Triad Headquarters feeling renewed. If he could incorporate this prison world into the Malivore Dimension and he controlled said dimension, he should theoretically be able to enter and exit at will.

All the pieces seem to just keep falling into place. He thought to himself, somewhat concerned by how quickly an escape route had presented itself to him.

He resolved to worry about it later, for now he had something more important in mind. Music. Those assholes had trapped him in here with his phone and thus without his music library. He could deal with a lot, but a prolonged period without music would surely lead to insanity and he was not about to travel down that road willingly.

Summoning his shadow mount, he decided to ride to the nearest city he had seen while flying at a leisurely pace. Something about riding the bike through empty streets and backroads soothed him more than the complete concentration required by flight.


Clarke woke in the middle of a tomb with an incredibly painful kink in his neck. He rolled his head back and forth to loosen up the strain muscles only to find The Necromancer himself staring back at him.

Great. He thought to himself sarcastically. According to his notes he hadn't had to deal with this human shaped bag of megalomania since WW2, and he was unlikely to enjoy this re-introduction.

"Ah good, you're awake. I must admit bringing you here and using your body to create my own little portal into your father's world was more challenging than I expected, but in the end, nothing is beyond the power of The Great Necromancer." Ted monologued.

"If you just needed my corpse, what am I still doing here?" Clarke responded with a deeply exhausted tone. If The Necromancer had killed him just to bring him back to life, chances are he still needed him for something and that gave time to figured out how to escape.

"Because, my dear boy, I need a vast amount of black magic and you're going to help me get it." The Necromancer replied with a maniacal grin plastered on his face.

"You know, I might actually have a few ideas about that." Clarke said, his mind already coming up with plans to free himself from The Necromancer's control, all it would require was getting back to the school.


Finding a phone proved simple enough once he made it into a city. With all the empty malls around finding a phone store was child's play. It was significantly harder to find a working credit card. After searching through six houses, he finally found a wallet lying a top a coffee table. Luckily, he had thought ahead and had read through the activation manual before leaving the store and with his increased intelligence he effectively had photographic memory.

Thank God everything is still automated back in 2018. Malivore thought to himself. It took no time at all to activate the phone and then load it up with as many songs from his music collection as he could find.

Apparently, the prison world's reach extended far enough into space to include satellites, so the internet was always still available to him from his phone.

He put in his headphones and began to play a rock station on spotify. The first song that came up was "I Don't Care" by Apocalyptica.

Huh, how ironically appropriate. He thought to himself, unable to contain the smile that emerged onto his face.

Mounting his bike, Malivore began making his was back to Mystic Falls. The sooner he found wherever Alaric had hidden Kai, the sooner he could begin testing his theory about an unlimited XP source and the closer he was to escaping this dimension.

After a few hours on the road Malivore found himself in the middle of an empty back road utterly surrounded by trees near Mystic Falls, and he found himself truly enjoying the environment around him. For a half-person like himself this moment was as close to serenity as he could hope to find. Unfortunately, his peace was interrupted by a new system update.

Creature Summoning from Malivore Dimension is being conducted.

Possession of Malivore Gate will allow you to redirect summon to you.

***Warning***

Redirection may cause errors in the summoning process.

Redirect?

Y/N

What the fuck is going on? Was his first thought, quickly followed by an enraged, Someone is trying to fuck with my dad!

Assuming he was on a timer with his choice he quickly pressed "Yes". He had allowed himself to be trapped in this dimension to keep monsters from killing innocent people. Keeping whoever was trying to mess with his family from achieving whatever they were attempting was a great bonus, despite the risk.

After pressing the "Yes" button, it appeared that nothing happened for a few minutes. He had begun to worry that something was going spectacularly wrong when he finally received the message he had been waiting for.

KRAMPUS has been automatically added to Party – Experience generated by party members is automatically transferred to Player

A quick search through his Bestiary for the Krampus' weakness let him know aim for the heart. So focused was he on searching through the Bestiary that he hadn't noticed that it had begun to snow all around him.

Looking up and taking in the change in the environment he smirked. Feeling like a monster battle was imminent he turned on his phone's speakers and searched for thematically appropriate fight music. Landing on Samuel Kim's version of "Carol of the Bells" Malivore began to mentally prepare himself.

He activated his Mystic Awareness and was nearly blinded by the light. In retrospect it was obvious that activating an ability that allowed him to see the magic in objects was probably not wise in a world created and composed almost entirely of magic, but as it stood it .HURT.

Immediately shutting off his awareness Malivore dropped to his knees, clutching his face, the palms of his hand on his eyes. The song playing in the background kept him from hearing the footsteps approaching him.

Just as he was getting his vision back Malivore felt something slimy wrap around his wrist. Glancing over to his left arm he saw a pink rubbery rope wrapped around his wrist leading to a blurry green figure in something resembling a santa suit carrying a sack and wielding a sickle making it's way closer to him.

With more of his vision returning with every passing second, he decided to buy himself some time until he could see again. Grabbing the rope, that he could now see was actually a tongue, with both hands he braced himself and yanked.

Unprepared for Malivore's enhanced strength, the Krampus ended up in the air, flying past Malivore and smacking dead center into one of the trees along the side of the road. Inspired by this, Malivore started swinging the monster into the trees as quickly as he could.

To the creature's credit despite dropping the sack after the first tree hit, it maintained it's grip on the sickle even after being slammed into the 5th one. On the way to hit the nest tree the Krampus took it's weapon and cut off it's own tongue.

It landed several feet away and began circling Malivore while he in turn circled it, neither of them willing to give the other an advantage. The Krampus then began charging at Malivore. He let it get close to him and when it reached back to strike him with it's weapon, Malivore closed the distance.

He reached up, grabbing it's weapon arm by the wrist and flipped the Krampus onto the ground. Malivore took aim at the monster's face with his right hand and unleashed a torrent of flame.

The Krampus let out an ear-piercing screech and rolled out from the river of fire after the first few seconds. Swiping with it's sickle as it made it's way up from the ground it left a deep gash on Malivore's leg that brought him to his knees once more. The monster quickly patted out the remaining fires on it's face and charged him again.

Note to self: Don't get hit anymore.

His lack of combat experience was beginning to show. His previous victories were more a matter of surprise than skill and in a fight that lasted longer than one or two exchanges it was being made blatantly obvious that he couldn't just rely on his attributes to carry him through while they were so low.

The Krampus renewed his attack on Malivore with a series of slashes that he didn't quite manage to avoid despite trying to roll out of the way.

While most of his wounds were painful but shallow, two of them managed to score fairly deep hits into his back and other leg.

Finding himself on his back and barely able to move, Malivore began to will his flame to coalesce and condense in the palm of his right hand. It was a last-ditch attempt at gathering as much power as he could for a final shot at the monster.

If he could gather enough power before the Krampus closed the distance between them, he had a chance at completely obliterating the creature, heart and all. It would be a suicidal attack for anyone else, but dying had never stopped him before and he wasn't about to let it now.

It's amazing how many insane plans become viable once you stop considering survival as a prerequisite. He mused sardonically to himself.

No plan could have prepared him for what came next.

As the Krampus awkwardly ambled towards him, it was launched face first into one of the still standing trees from a punch by a jolly looking fat man in a white shirt and red pants held up by holiday themed suspenders.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me." Malivore let out in an exasperated sigh.

"Language Mr. Kirby." Santa chided him before walking toward the Krampus, which had actually managed to imbed itself into the tree from the force of the blow.

Dazed as he was from his ongoing blood loss, the pain of his injuries, and the surprise appearance of fucking Santa Claus, Malivore couldn't muster up the energy to correct the Christmas legend. Especially not when most of his focus was being taken up by pouring more power in the fireball in his hand while maintaining it's stability.

He needed a backup plan in case St. Nick failed to bring down the Krampus.

In the end his precautions ended up being completely unnecessary.

As the monster struggled to dislodge itself from the trunk, Santa strode towards it with a distinct sense of purpose, picking up the creature's own sickle as he walked.

"I've been waiting for this moment for a long time. You tried to steal Christmas! All those children I couldn't bring joy to, trapped in the darkness as I was. It ends now!" Roared Santa as he diagonally slashed at the monster's back with the sickle leaving a cavernous gash in it's wake.

He then proceeded to reach into the wound, and with his bare hands tear our the still beating heart of the Krampus from behind.

The KRAMPUS has been eliminated – 1000XP awarded (Bonus XP awarded for Unique creature death)

You have reached level 13 – You have 16 unspent Skill Points to distribute

His work done, Claus made his towards Malivore's side.

For his part Malivore harmlessly dissipated the fireball he had been forming. He might effectively be Landon's version of Hyde but he'd be damned before he'd try to kill Santa. Some things were sacred.

"Ho, ho, ho. You seem to have gotten yourself into quite the pickle Mr. Kirby."

This time Malivore refused to let it slide.

"I'm not Kirby."

"I believe that you are more Kirby that you are will to admit." Santa countered.

"Just because you believe something doesn't make it real." Malivore replied bitterly.

"On the contrary, believing is the only thing that can MAKE things real." The smug bastard responded with an honest to God "jolly" grin plastered all over his face.

"Then you should probably stop wasting your time on me."

"Oh, why is that?"

"Because while I understand and accept that I needed to be here, I haven't forgiven them for forcing it on me."

"That's completely understandable." St. Nick said, nodding along.

"Maybe, maybe not. Either way, when I get out of here, and I WILL get out of here, I'm going to be out for blood. And while I haven't made any real plans yet, believe me when I say that I'm likely going to be shooting up to the top of your naughty list." Malivore continued with a level of vehemence he had never heard in his own voice before.

"Well, my boy, if I may offer a suggestion?" The personification of Christmas asked.

Malivore nodded his head finding the motion easier than attempting to talk. His injuries and blood loss had taken their toll leaving his thoughts incrementally foggier and his vision ever blurrier.

"You have been wronged, young Mr. Kirby, and it is quite understandable for you to seek renumeration to address those wrongs. But there IS a difference between justice and vengeance, and I wish only that when the time comes to decide between the two you choose the right one."

"Two sides, same coin." Malivore barely managed to rasp out.

"I see. Best of luck to you Mr. Kirby. Do keep what I've said in mind." Santa replied before gathering up his sack and tapping his nose twice before completely disappearing leaving Malivore to bleed out.

For his part Malivore lay there fully content to wait for his inevitable end and equally inevitable revival. It was taking much longer than he expected given the severity of his injuries.

Best guess, my endurance is managing to just barely keep me alive…. I really need to figure out some kind of healing ability. He lamented internally.

After about thirty minutes he decided to try and help the process along and began gathering as much fire as he could internally. Hopefully he could manage to blow himself up quickly enough that he wouldn't be able to feel too much more pain.

His plan was rudely interrupted by the appearance of four individuals. Well, less their appearance than their bickering.

"See! I told you I heard something over here, and this entire place smells weird too!" One of them exclaimed.

I must have lost more blood than I thought. I could swear that one is a weird half-man half-wolf thing.

"Yeah, yeah, and we're all very impressed Fido. Now be a good boy and check to see how close he is to dying. We have no idea who he is so if we can keep him alive but weak we'll be the ones with an advantage." The other male said.

"Don't call him that!" One of them said as they raised a fist engulfed in flames up to the antagonizing one's face. As the got nearer he was able to make out that this one was a woman along with the remaining member of their group.

Fido approached him lacking any sense of caution whatsoever. Probably thinking that Malivore was deathly injured and posed no threat to him.

He was half right.

As soon as the wolfman got within five feet of him, Malivore unleashed all the power he had been building up to self-immolate in the direction of the stunned puppyboy.

It was a testament to how drained he was that Malivore's blast didn't render the creature completely into ash. Merely everything from the waist up.

"Diego!" the fire wielding woman screamed.

Taking note of the name Landon's mental preparations to be killed by the rest of the group were interrupted by two system updates.

Shunka Warakin Bloodline Unlocked – You now have access to the following abilities

Enhanced Senses | Werewolf Hunter | Beast Form

The second message was somewhat more confusing.

***Warning***

XP Collection is being blocked via unknown means. Attempt to collect XP regardless?

Y/N

Fuck it. He thought before mentally hitting "Yes" after which he was instantly greeted with another prompt.

You have eliminated a WEREWOLF – 180XP awarded (90XP x 2 due to Werewolf Hunter)

At this point he noticed that he was entirely drained of energy. Even if he wanted to fight the rest of them, he had nothing to fight with.

That was when one of the women, the one who hadn't just spoken, came over and sat on his waist. This effectively pinned him in place while she took the opportunity to look over his injuries. From the way the veins around her eyes were pulsing black he guessed she was a vampire.

He took a moment to wonder about them not having tags above their heads denoting their species and found his mind going down a rabbit hole trying to remember if or when he had turned that feature off.

Bringing himself back to the present with a slight shake of his head, he glanced up into the vampiress' light blue eyes and noticed her mocking grin.

"Hey there new blood. We're going to have a lot of fun with you." She stated before extending her fangs and ripping into his neck.


"WHY ISN'T THIS WORKING!?" The Necromancer bellowed out, frustrated that the creature that had responded to his summons had not made it's way out of his newly constructed Malivore Pit.

"Maybe your Black Magic isn't as strong as you think it is?" noted Clarke.

"Fool! My magic is as potent as that of the river Styx itself! But if is not a question of quality, it may very well be a question of quantity. How go your preparations to re-enter the Academy?" The Necromancer asked bombastically.

"I should be able to explain away my escape no problem. After that it's just a matter of finding the right witch and pressing the right buttons. Soon enough you'll have more black magic than you'll know what to do with." Clarke appeased the current holder of his leash.

Clarke was a survivor, he could and would do anything to ensure he made it out of these supernatural situations alive. The fact that in this case surviving and helping the Necromancer looked remarkably similar was incredibly lucky.

Clarke frowned at that thought. Every time things seems to be going well for him something disastrous inevitably followed. He'd need to act carefully, but he couldn't wait for the day he'd finally be able to shut the Necromancer's boisterous mouth permanently.


A/N: Merry Belated Christmas. Time with family kept me from writing more than I would like but I wouldn't change it for the world. Fully aware that I'm playing fast and loose with the time frame of some of the music's availability. I'm just operating on Rule of Cool and not trying to be too nitpicky with certain choices that don't impact the central storyline. Also, since this will be my last post this year, Happy New Year!