Yeah you all know the drill. I do not own Diablo (beyond the purchased game). I do not own That time I was reincarnated as a Slime (beyond the purchased manga). I do not need to be reminded that I do not own them and not rich because of it. Carry on! (... waits till you leave before breaking down and crying because of the lack of ownership.)
Out of Place: Forced out the door
Chapter Five
Veldora's Caverns (Again)
My mind was torn between continuing where I left off or just writing what could very well be my last will and testament for whatever it was worth...
Technically speaking that was what the journal was for to begin with but I think between the suspected death of the mind and the very real demise that comes with being outright cut off from the Arch... provided of course I don't take... other methods to ensure my survival. Even then that would require extensive experimentation. The raw materials I have gathered thus far just don't hold a candle to what we used to mine from Pandemonium. The results for fusions were just outright fascinating at times when done right! Hell, it outright stripped away most angels' weaknesses that came from prolonged exposure to the Hells' environs when they don't have the benefit of resting to recoup what weak light that comes from the Arch thanks to the sheer hostile nature of the realm. It came with costs however, depending on what was used...
I think I found my new subject as I attempt to recover.
As both The Tinker and the Grand Artificer (and as the ARCHANGEL OF CHAOS!)—
Hehehehe!
—my projects were as numerous and varied over the millennia in an effort to both boost my odds of survival and to give us an edge, which sadly what got Asmodan's attention and twisted interest in the run long. But arguably speaking my more... potent and strange experiments were borne from my days as the Castellan. Kind of ironic really; you would think being on the battlefield as The Tinker would give me an inclination toward seeing the numerous deaths of demons, or as The Grand Artificer where I legitimately commanded the resources as well as be safely tucked away in the safety of the Silver City that I would devote more time for more odd pursuits. No. It was in the one place every one and every thing wanted to claim as their own and practically claim dominion of all that, where failing to defend and leaving it in the hands of the enemy for too long would be nothing less than disastrous, I felt safest to explore the abilities naturally gifted to angels and to test their limits where able.
To be fair though between sieges and one reclamation there was large swaths of, to use the word superficially, peace—the council was more than happy to take advantage of the huge loss of numbers on the demons' side from unsuccessful attempts (plus that civil war over the fortress when Baal psychotic assault which broke my defenses consisted of robbing the other Primes' of their forces to use them as living artillery naturally incurred the wrath of the others. Needless to say that once he was defeated they felt the need to stake their own respective claims on the fortress as 'compensation' for their equally respective losses).
That and, with very reluctant permission, to explore the abilities of the Worldstone... to a very limited degree that basically amounted to 'you can only use the excess energies'. Stingy bastards.
... to be fair given what it was capable of in more and less capable hands, they certainly had a point that I didn't quite appreciate till after a few... incidents that left me question my own sanity. Most of which, incidentally, occurred with what I became preoccupied with the most between sieges once I learned it was possible: Fusion.
And once again for whatever reason I cannot help but be reminded of two men bent at odd angles with their fingers touching. While I still understand its significance, I'm always left scratching my head as to what the hell I am trying to remember. A show? No wait, yes, a show. But of what? In the end though, meh.
The idea effectively came about during a siege interestingly enough. More specifically during a much detested breach in the defenses when a certain angel abandoned his post DURING THE FIGHTING to which I accidentally stumbled upon his half-brained plot which, amusingly upon reflection, was the precursor into my investigations as to the application of Fusion and the excess energies provided by the Worldstone: in short the moron, one Ablexis, was effectively soaking up as much power as he could from the Worldstone without diving face first into my last ditch defenses by coalescing as much of the latent energies as he could and absorbing it into himself. Something he claimed to have been doing quite some time whenever I nor the wardens who patrolled the access points to the Worldstone weren't looking.
The results were mixed.
Yes, he became faster, stronger, so on and so forth. But whether it was given his short-sighted nature or perhaps a sense of blindness induced by the influx of power (much like a drug addict when infused with particular narcotics prone to create aggression) however he ended up being impaled by the blades of the infernal commander who capitalized the weeping gap in the defenses caused by Ablexis. My chief regret throughout it all is that at a later point upon reminiscing about this incident I realized that demon did me a favor twice over—the first and most obvious one that I observed was the idiot's declared intent to usurp and replace me during his little trip on account of both my long standing history of fleeing engagements (because I absolutely refused to die when I was literally the last man standing against a pack of demons (sometimes singular in especially bad encounters) that tore the squad I was with limb from limb while laughing about it), as well as being an "atrocious commander who is unworthy of Tyreal's backing if demons gotten this close to the Worldstone". Which I would love to point out had happened because this MORON literally abandoned his post, leaving his own squad to be killed, maimed and tortured because no one was manning that crystal trap which would've electrocuted/eviscerated those demonic fucks long before reaching them, and thus wouldn't have been an opening the enemy could've exploited IN THE FIRST PLACE. But yes, between his lethal and self-serving stupidity as well as evident plans to murder me, the demon granted me the initial favor in killing him so he could focus on me and my own.
To my horror I've come to realize that he unwittingly granted me a second favor within the same stroke: given what Ablexis had done and planned to do, and would've likely done, I would've used him as my test subject till he broke without the hint of remorse in my own vengeance for what he had done and wished to do. A notion which quietly disturbs me to this day.
I had to pause at that, at the favor portion. Then remove it. Write it back down again out of guilt. Remove it again, and thus the cycle repeated itself before deciding the wasn't enough of the page left with or without that segment. As such I bailed to another page entirely to avoid that damn subject altogether.
Typically whenever an angel is 'empowered' it is with the energy provided by the very foundation of the angel's being, the energies provided by the Crystal Arch. Or even its more condensed forms that have a more liquid appearance which is typically used like a salve or, as it appears, like water. Even then it's less 'empowering' or more akin to being fed (energized or healed rather) like a mortal being given food and water. After the Ablexis incident (burn in metaphorical hell you fuck) I grew curious if a similar phenomenon would occur with more unconventional methods seeing as given that same incident the council mandated a greater amount of guards around the Worldstone, plus restrictions that forbade any non-sanctioned use of its power—I outright had to fight tooth and nail to convince them that using the Worldstone would help lessen the demand for materials for my later project involving the creation of the cherubs and the sentinels, thus free up angels for the war effort.
The experiment started small given the materials I had at the time: crystals. In a theumatically charged environment such as Pandemonium I learned they held all sort of uses ranging from simple lamps, improvised bombs, or even enhancing the overall combat power of angel weapons of an ethereal make just to name a few; sadly crystals harnessed from Sanctuary were not as baptized by the chaotic energies that would be called mana, and thus are typically less potent unless either carefully engineered to do so or else harnessed from regions where the use of spells were as common as breathing for periods of time exceeding a century in length (or else prolonged habitation by an exceptional powerful being by virtue of proximity). Regardless, some of the various strains I had at my immediate disposal were prone to react with mild provocation be it through agitation or simply the presence of another, creating energy arc or even combusting when disturbed. A perfect example, if any, to begin the initial phase of testing. Admittedly it wasn't as special as one would imagine, but a simple arc of electricity between two shards that were just part of the same cluster.
What intrigued me however was that, after a few tries, my candidate, Lynellian, was able to snap up a bolt and 'fed' herself after finally finding the right 'tune' of the energy surge. I ended up beating my head against the wall in trying to decipher what she meant by 'tune'; as much as I comparatively love those who were a part of The Choir their thought processes continue to baffle me even to this day.
Regardless, from there the experiments slowly became more advanced in nature.
Bolts of energy, spells, anything of an ethereal nature could be absorbed by an angel provided of course they are prepared for it. At most the observable results were temporary boosts in strength or in energy use with greater concentrations providing more lasting affects; mental affects were, at most, negligible even in a case by case basis where most of the subjects experienced their own version of a sugar rush; the only it was ever a concern was when the source of these 'power ups' were from a demonic source, and in the end the temporary aggression that comes with it faded as soon as the 'boost' faded from the angel.
... provided of course it ever left their system. I tapped the sheet in front of me in thought—should I mention how much I accidentally fucked up in my curiosity with prolonged exposure to demonic elemental sources—wait, was... oh shit... the fallen that tried to gut me before I ended up here, she was one of the escapees, wasn't she?
DAMN IT.
... Graaaahhh!
... back to writing.
It was when I ramped up to absorbing solid objects that things became much more interesting.
Coward.
... as if this is something new to me, dumbass.
Still—bastard.
... JUST GET BACK TO WRITING FOR MY OWN PIECE OF MIND!
I wasn't even sure if it could happen to begin with. And admittedly I wish it wasn't so in some cases where the lucky ones had to be killed out of mercy. To make a long story short the results were... mixed, especially with different materials. Even now I'm not entirely sure if it was a case where different individual angels could only handle so much or the samples used were that wildly different from each other despite some sources coming from the exact same cluster; in some more radical and sad cases a mere sliver of any named test object was enough to induce some... horrific results whereas the reverse, as in whole chunks which had doomed many others, had only worked to benefit the angel in question.
Successful fusions gained visible qualities reminiscent to their subject matter—angels who enveloped crystals into their being ended up with crystalline appearances, those who absorbed metals gained a more metallic bearing, so on and so forth. Any additional abilities, inherent in the object beforehand or somehow the result of the process, were seemingly random in that it ran the gamut from some merely having their appearances changed, merely being physically tougher regardless of the substance they had used, to being able to command powers/elements angels were never recorded to have any access to in the first place. There was only one commonality to it all however that wasn't discovered until said individuals ran missions in the Burning Hells where the Arch's light was weakest—they were, for lack of a better word, nearly autonomous. When deprived of any access to the Crystal Arch's radiance an angel will functionally wither away much like a starved man, though the rate of which differs drastically depending on both their overall strength, their physical condition plus any experience they have of functionally mending their wounds: for example an unblemished 'blank' angel could last for months whereas one with a leg missing would last closer to one month; a member of the Choir, the closest we have to medics and doctors as well as dedicated spell casters, in a similar state could potentially last for years. An archangel—
Who has bothered to conserve his strength rather than be a dumbass to make himself more comfortable/go fucking nuts in a crazed quest for confirmation would significantly longer than me by maybe a century if they didn't have to fight.
BAH!
Next section!
Then came the final phase of my fusion experiments. Sentient fusions. Or rather angels bonding and becoming a single entity with other angels... and captured demons.
This, believe it or not, had far less having catastrophic results for the angels in question. True, some were maimed, but seven out of eight times where the result failed it was more akin to the bodies launching away from each other as if they ran full tilt into each other in the first place. But it worked. The ratio for success far exceeded the inanimate objects. The results were almost glorious even. Stronger, faster, able to utilize weapons that would've came at great cost otherwise for most angels, these giants among angels easily put our elite units to shame. The chief drawbacks however was a marginally greater dependence on the energies of the Arch or other sources nominally safe for an angel to utilize, meaning they were in greater danger than before in the Burning Hells or forced into prolonged engagements. Arguably worse however was that once done it cannot be undone.
And we tried.
Especially when my curiosity demanded tests involving demonic foes...
My pen tapped the sheet of paper once more.
Getting the council to agree was... a war onto itself. I was sorely tempted to simply go behind their backs and perform my research as I gathered every verified report of angels being taken alive and being possessed long before my ascension as the castellan, as well as ordered both the investigation for and the capture of this wretches to shove in their faces until they agreed. Ithereal was the only one to offer any real support in this endeavor in the beginning, both in supplying information as to where the possessed were and primarily backing my notions in the meetings. Auriel came next when I was grasping at straws; she hoped that my research would lead to undoing their affliction. Tyrael for the same reason, especially since my 'list' as it were included Izual (whom we sadly could not recover prior to his death centuries later). Seeing how the wind blew Maltheal folded, and as usual Imperius held out in the end ONLY TO LOSE! (IN YOUR FACE!)
Sadly the results were rather similar to the earlier phase involving inanimate materials... if more catastrophic for the angels involved.
No. They were actually worse.
Imps, troopers, warlocks, beasts (by demon standards), there was nothing that could resemble a baseline in the long run. Of the forty tests before the project was forcibly canceled only three were truly successful, the rest, assuming the angel wasn't killed in the attempt, were effectively possessed during the fusion attempt and thus had to be slain or else reduced to raging abominable amalgamations that had to be put down for everyone's safety in the end.
The three successful fusions, like the previous results of fusion prior to the sentient phase of the project, showed actual independence from the Arch and to a degree were empowered by the Burning Hells. The chief cost however came in the form of bleed over from the demons they essentially subjugated: far greater interest in pursuing personal interests and objectives, increased aggression, callousness and even outright psychopathic behavior in Mav'Gor's case.
... needless to say they were stuck with me as I them when it quickly became apparent that their newfound maverick nature couldn't confirm enough to more regimental standards. "Birds of a feather" I suppose. That being said Mavis prior to his transformation into Mav'Gor was vastly more preferable however.
"Uh, hello?"
My hand jumped, scratching the parchment with a line. Irritating but something that could easily be fixed. What really got me however was that I was apparently so entranced in my writings that I wasn't aware a party of three had essentially snuck up on me.
Good thing I had my back to the wall—aside from the occasional drop from above I had yet to meet anything to defeat this method!
The ones who rammed through the walls and buried me alive most definitely do not count. Especially considering they surprisingly seldom expect to actually crush an angel that way even if caught off guard.
Still, they have my attention now and they know it given their awkward smiles and the sole woman was meekly waving at me. Given they aren't trying to rob me (yet) I may as well be courteous. "Hello."
With any luck that'll be enough.
"Hey," the one to the left said, "if you don't mind me asking, what are you doing here?"
Sadly my luck comes and goes much like a cat.
"Exploring. Taking notes of what's in here and their various properties." Not entirely untrue. That strange mana—oh wait, 'magicule' infused ore that was sprouting out of the ground like a crystal certainly caught my attention during my first venture here. The plants too when I gave them a closer look considering few petal bearing plants survive within environments without even a brief dose of sunlight. But they didn't need to know I primarily came here in a pitiful attempt to recover from my latest bout of stupidity under the guise of collecting trade materials.
The swordsman nodded. "Oh! That's great...!"
... oh just spit it out already.
"Erm, if you don't mind us asking you further," the woman start with a shy smile, "I don't suppose you seen a dragon in here, have you?"
Thank you! But still. "Veldora, you mean?"
They all affirmed this and nodded in unison far more eagerly, sincerely, not to mentioned excitedly, than the blanks could ever manage even with a council member breathing down their necks.
"I have searched high and low when I was made aware of his disappearance. So far I have yet to find any evidence that there was a dragon here to begin with despite spending days in here." More like I day nearing two total, but they didn't need to know that.
They gawked, then huddled and whisper/argued with each other with doubtful questioning, semi-confident confirmation and stating of facts that was apparently readily known such as a 'hero's seal' to bring about a seemingly fairly valid hypothesis. They were even double checking an apparent map plus some notes to confirm their location and what they knew.
... and now they were looking at me in mild suspicion. Surprise-surprise. My flat stare must've made the point all the clear when they grimaced and huddled into a tighter formation as they harshly whispered to each other anew. A part of me was keen on listening if only to have an idea as to what they were planning on doing, but frankly I couldn't muster up the care to make the effort.
"Right!"
With a clap of her hand the sole woman suddenly stood up and turned to face me whilst the other two mirrored her at varying paces. "We're sorry to bother you! I'm Ellen by the way!" She then gestured to the one with the headband. "This is Gido and this is Cabal!" she finished by gesturing to the one with the sword, the both of them letting out their own version of a greeting. "If you'll excuse us, we're going to see if there is any evidence toward Veldora's disappearance. Do you want to join us by chance?"
"Hey, that's my line as the party leader!"
They descended into mild bickering whereas the third, exasperated as he was, offered me a wan smile. As for myself, I cleared my 'throat' to catch their attention. For good measure I held my hand up in a 'stop' motion. "I appreciate the offer," not really, "but I was planning on leaving as soon as I finished with this right here." I tapped at the paper with my pen. Also not untrue; with my malaise I probably would've dawdled here for maybe an hour or two longer if nothing prompted me to leave, and unwanted company sufficiently prompts me to leave.
"Ah! Okay then!" the woman chuckled nervously as she scratched her head. It was then the swordsman point into one of the tunnels. "We're gonna go on ahead then. See ya later then."
I gave a out a wave of my hand and they scurried off. Once they thought they were out of earshot they began to mutter about the 'off putting weirdo back there'. I would roll my eyes if I could. I settled for a sigh before turning my attention back to the paper where I quickly fixed the radical line. It took more effort than I desired but I put it to paper.
As you might suspect at this point there was one last subject to these tests: Nephalem, humans in the long run. Like before getting permission was like pulling teeth with the additional disadvantage that having done the experiment with demons beforehand there was less cause and greater worry. Ironically the positions were reversed so to speak in the end, only Tyrael and Auriel objected in the end.
We never did get a nephalem test subject—their might only served to fuel the newfound resentment towards them and their descendants even when they are by large virtually powerless toward those not originating from Sanctuary. Humans however, centuries down the road, were almost tragically easier to acquire: slaves, marauders, street urchins, frontier villages too far for help to arrive, anyone in a dire spot, the hopeless... generally speaking those that came to my halls were the quality that few missed or were even noted to begin with. Aside from the bandits however I did offer the rest an informed choice, that they could walk away. A good many did. In the end there was still a horde's worth who were in desperate enough straits or devastated to the point that it was either the alternative or suicide in the end, or in some cases viewed it as the highest honor to be had. Plus the occasional soul that tried to take advantage of the entire endeavor...
In terms of special abilities to be gained like is the majority of the previous experiments there was none to be had aside from independence from the Arch. If anything it was more costly for the angels involved where the fusion succeeded. After all, not only they wouldn't know what it was like to lose their physical sense of humanity in the first place.
And short of dominating the other personality like with the demon variation of experiments, they now had a second mind to deal with. For a time at least until both minds meld into one at any rate.
My quill tapped the parchment in thought before I finally deigned to set them away.
With a pair of wings I dragged my bags of samples to my and eventually hefted them over my shoulders. I then made my way out. Once outside and sure that there was no one to spy on me I spread my wings and flown back to the village of goblins as it made its preparations... if it ever qualified as a village.
With their newfound evolution the now human-like goblins, hobgoblins and goblinas as per according to gender... for some oddball reason they couldn't go with a more classical case of just lumping it in one group without some outstanding justification... proven themselves superior to their more baseline counterparts in all aspects from physical strength to endurance to speed and reflexes. As for intelligence that will always be too variable to properly measure in a civilization-capable species; what few goblins from other villages that ended up wandering into own proven themselves wittier than their evolved cousins and remained so after being given a name whereas the ones that could be objectively declared 'dumb' did not necessarily become smarter upon evolving. That being said, while some have purported to have claimed newfound abilities upon their evolution (the only ones that held any validity being the sudden increase in magic users in the camp, mostly concentrated amongst the 'goblinas' which might indeed justify the division in classification), trade skills were evidently not amongst them.
Without supervision the best they could do amounted to simple village life prior to my arrival, rather it was comparable to tribes living in lands beyond established kingdoms that had the benefit of relative peace: hunting, gathering, hut building, primitive tool making and equally low key cloth making. Industry was nonexistent, though due to outside factors such as the local fauna and territorial neighbors there was only so much they could do outside of trading what they needed with the occasional lost merchant or daring a two-to-three month long journey to reach and return from the nearest city. Without anything to of perceived worth to regularly trade with beyond caught game, gathered herbs and the occasional skinned hide there was only so much they could barter for, never mind try to attract an artesian of some kind, ultimately explaining the few iron and steel tools and weapons they had as well as their pitifully maintained state.
It almost made me want to cry.
As such I came to a decision: Dwargon, better known as the Armored Nation of Dwargon, the closest city, was likely to have at least a handful of craftsmen that could be convinced to come to this village and teach the goblins what they know, preferably before I croak of course. From there (ideally) a city would eventually be built to help encourage the outlying villages to gather, forming a nation which in turn would force a sense of peace amongst the other species who at best were carving out their own territories in the forest still to call home... at the bloody cost of the original inhabitants. It wasn't exactly ideal but I had neither the time nor the patience given my current state.
Even so I could rest a little easy—so far the dire wolves, now functionally allied with the goblins by virtue of defeat, were the only decisive threat to this particular village. That and with the aforementioned alliance the overall capabilities of the hunters and warriors are essentially boosted ever since I mandated were to work together in pairs. Doesn't hurt that the dire wolves evolved into "Great Wargs"... solely by naming the one that had an x shaped pattern of fur "Pack"... because that makes sense. Somehow.
... I sincerely don't understand this world. To make matters worse there's something niggling at me, trying to remind me something I doubtlessly forgotten the more I look at the oversized wolf. Like I'm ruining something. All the while another part screams I had doubtlessly forgotten another subject altogether that I actually meant to do.
But as usual it will have to settle at being a secondary concern at best for now.
The team had been selected—a total of twelve wolf riders to help carry the trade materials, and if all went well they would help ferry whatever contingent I can scrounge up. They would also be my guides... or rather, more accurately, they would be more or less guarding the only person who was for all intents and purposes our guide to Dwargon by virtue of having to visit it before the troubles started... whose name I forgot in the chaos that was the name granting. Doesn't help that I'm usually terrible with names without some sort of connotation in the first place.
"You ready to go, Gobta?"
"Yeah I am!"
Oh right, that was his name.
... looking at him more closely I'm surprised his form retained its original appearance as a regular goblin despite the name given to him. He wasn't the only one either now that I'm thinking about it. I would ponder it further but between age regression in some cases, "additional abilities", and one case a goblin was colored black, the most I have to say that it's ultimately a case-by-case basis at this juncture.
... not to mention different species seem to operate by different conventions within the rules.
... bah.
The village as a whole had its orders and its guidelines. We have our objective. Might as well make my last few months(?) somewhat constructive if nothing else if I can't find a suitable... partner(?).
"Ah! Lord Jack!—"
Ugh...
"—Did you collect the last of the items you wanted to bring with us?"
"Indeed," I say with a nod of my head before giving one last inspection of the group before me. "Is everyone ready then?"
"Yes!" they all cheered in unison. Yes, this included the wolves.
"Very well. Let's get going then."