It's a heccking late chapter im sorri
Armour: Brimflame
Weapon: Infernal Rift, Stormfront Razor
Acc(10/11): Celestial cuffs, Mana Flower, Sorcerer Emblem, Celestial Emblem, Ankh Shield, Deific Amulet, FrostSpark Boots, Grand Gelatin, Amalgamated Brain, Evasion Scarf.
Health: (500/500)
I'm alone now.
Just me and this gray, cloudless sky.
There was little fanfare as I was deposited here, at the beginning of my road to execution. My Teacher simply teleported me to the edge of The Corrupted Badlands and left without even a word of encouragement. I'm certain that he noticed my new armour and weapon (My Old Infernal Rift had shattered during my battle with Braelor) but when he looked me over, he only scoffed. 'Is my situation really so hopeless?' I wanted to ask him... but I refrained. I was too afraid that his answer would shatter away the last vestiges of hope.
If this is even 'hope'... Do I even stand a chance...?
My Teacher's eyes were hard behind his porcelain mask as he left me behind. There was no warmness nor sympathy in him. Neither did he hesitate nor spare me a backwards glance. As I stood there and watched his figure vanish, my heart twisted bitterly in my chest. A chill had rattled through me, running from head to shuddering foot, and my frown deepened until it etches into my expression, and - no, I won't cry.
...
...
Crying will do me no good.
For there is no one to hear me. There is no one who will lift a finger to help. I am now in a world of enemies and mockers. Even my own creator - My Teacher, who wove together my inmost parts as he summoned me from the void - has turned his face away. I'm alone... a pitiful creature, abandoned by all, even his creator - sent to die and be forgotten on the frigid plains of Permafrost.
Shh... Breathe...
I grit my teeth and glare out over the twisted landscape, willing my tears not to spill forth. Had my actions really been so evil that I deserve this fate?! Must I suffer so dreadfully for this mistake? It was merely an issue of pride, was it not? I had thrown an infantile rebellion - and in response, Braelor has sentenced me to certain death. And what more, My only advocate didn't even raise a noise in protest! The Lunatic Cultist behaves as if I had done him some grievous wrong... have I? I am unsure, yet I cannot dwell on it. I must focus...
Focus focus...
Because now, I must struggle. I cannot afford to misstep lest I die and once again find myself floundering in The Crimso-
*clack*
My armoured fingertips collide loudly with my metal visor as I'm overwhelmed with the urge to vomit. Just the very thought of that rotten scarlet landscape causes my throat to constrict. I... I cannot go back there. I was willing do whatever they asked of me. I had clung to My Teacher, begging him to convince Braelor to reconsider... but my pleas were met with annoyance.
(sniff)
Now, if I wish to live, I must prove my worth. I must defeat my death sentence. I must best my executioner. How? I... I don't know. I don't even know what challenges I will engage, neither do I know the enemies that will stand in my way. I was given no information and my research has been futile. I've been hurled into this blind - and all the signs are pointing to a certain demise. I... Can I even win?!
Stay strong...
I swallow hard and turn from the bitter grief pooling in my guts. I raise my head. I need to focus. A stiff wind howls in my ears, blowing eastward over the silent jagged landscape. It stings my nostrils with an acrid burnt scent, and my eyes water from the seepage through my visor. I've been walking for several hours now, my armored heels crunching through the strange porous stone as I make my way further into this bizarre land. Everything is dead here. The skies are gray and placid; the sunlight is diffused into opaque white light. The stone beneath my feet is an odd purple colour, seeming to emit a thin, stinging mist about my ankles. Sometimes when I step, the stone crumbles beneath my feet as if it were calcified sponge. Other times, it gives like something moist and organic.
...! what!?
I inhale sharply and freeze mid-step to squint at the ground; I hear my heart pounding with trepidation. Am... am I seeing things? Must be. Just a moment ago, I was quite certain I saw worms squirming in the crevices of the rocks - but I blink and they vanish. Are... are they real? They look so real - but I know I can't trust my eyes, I can't trust my ears. Something happened to me on those gruesome Crimson plains. Something in my head is broken, and I cannot for the life of me discover how to fix it. I know the worms are fake but... but...
No wonder I've been abandoned...
I force my foot to fall with a crunch, crushing through the rock and propelling me up and forward - over the great pit beneath. Ah, how I wish I had my wings... I'd be soaring in the sky - far above my hallucinations, but instead I see the worms staring at me; they are gray and covered in wide eyes. They gnash their little teeth and emit squealing noises before they twist and vanish into the stone. Even as I fix my gaze firmly ahead, I see them flashing back and forth in the corners of my vision. No, I must focus...
...
But it's not just The Worms... My shadow follows me too. It lives where I cannot see. It squirms in my back and I feel its teeth on the nape of my neck. My own teeth, grinning and clinging to me, spittle trailing down my neck. I've twisted to swat at it a million times - but there's never anything there. I feel the cold moist writhing of worms against my chest, but when I tug open my armour to check - there is no trace of them. I feel them twisting in my guts, but I will not tear into myself now... I simply repeat my mantra as I traverse this rotten land: They cannot hurt me... they can't hurt me. They can't hurt me.
*krrrr*
There's a rumble from deep underground. It shakes the land; everything goes silent, and I too freeze - nerves taut as wires. The great jagged chasms yawn wide all around me, abyssal pits punched into the flat landscape, so deep that light cannot reach their depths. How have these come to be? Had some tremendous creatures tunneled through the strange rotting organic stone? Perhaps a tremendous wor-
Stop! Stop with the worms.
I grit my teeth and forcibly turn my thoughts away from the squirming at the edges of my vision. What is wrong with my head! These hallucinations will be the death of me! How will I fight if I can't even walk across a dead landscape without having a mental breakdown! I shake my head and grit my teeth, terribly annoyed with myself. Focus damn you! I stand there dumbly and glare at nothing, desperate to take my mind off of these fucking worms!
Stupid... focus!
I sigh and shut my eyes, gritting my teeth and berating myself for such foolishness. I take a moment to analyze myself. What's real? What's not... Everything pertaining to worms is not... so that hot stinging in my skin might be real. It's a persistent ache that seems to grow more poignant the further I traverse into the corrupted lands... Strange... What is the nature of this 'Corruption'? and what of that strange microbial mist that rises wherever I walk? I blink as I taste bile and blood at the back of my throat... has that always been there? I tear off my helmet to hack out the fluid; My spittle is foaming and streaked with a lurid green.
Oh...
...that's not good
As I stare at the ground where my spittle bubbles - steaming and acidic - against the rotting stone, I'm suddenly filled with a sense of dread. What is this Corruption? For what reason did The Resistance require that I first pass through it on foot before climbing to the Permafrost Plains? Is it to ensure I'd face Cryogen already crippled? Quickly, I tear off one of my bracers and tremble as I stare at my arm.
Shit!
Purple stains - like bruises - mark my skin in a visceral organic pattern. I can see it fighting against my natural regeneration, eating into me before begin driven back. I... I'm unsure what to do. I've never learned any first-aid, for I've never needed it - but if it's poison, I must cut it out. With trembling hands, I draw my dagger and cut a long slit along the infection. In times past, I would have been afraid to mutilated myself like this - but one isn't squeamish of their own blood after dying a thousand times.
*splat... splat*
I watch my blood spill to the ground; it's coagulated and clumpy, full of strange purple growths and so viscous it might be tar. My hallucinogenic worms swarm to where my blood seeps into the ground, but I deliberately ignore it. I stare at the stinging wound until it runs thin and red, then shuffle through my inventory for regeneration potions. I down one, then pour the other into my open wound and watch the laceration close, praying it will hold back the rest of the infection... at least until I get out of this land of death. A snowy mountain is barely visible in the distance. I fix my eyes upon it.
I need to get out of here... I need to go...
I snap all of my armour back on and begin to run, stumbling over the jagged volcanic rocks - sharp as obsidian, staggering as the ground shakes beneath my feet and leaping over the chasms that litter the ground. I see imaginary wormy creatures all around me, leaping out to snap at my heels, spewing greenish flames from their gaping maws. I ignore them all. I have my goal, that great looming mountain atop which is Permafrost's plateau. I will push onwards to my execution grounds. I need to get out of here. I cannot stay here. This place will be the death of me.
I pant.
I taste bile.
I hear my pulse pounding against my throat. My vision doubles; my head aches. I feel as if I'm running through a dream. Everything is a blur as adrenaline pumps thick through my veins. The ground is alive as I fly over it. I see worms staring up at me from those great chasms. I hear their bodies rippling and piercing the soil. They look so real, but they are nothing. They can't hurt me, They can't hurt me, They can't hurt me...
A creatures rises from the chasm and lunges at me. It's like nothing I've read about, but then again - I wasn't provided education on zoology. The thing is larger than I, a bristling, floating shrimp whose back is covered in a thick Crustaceans armour. Great fangs jut out from both side's of its hissing mouth, and its single large eye stares at me with naked hunger. By the time I realized what is happening, I've already hurled my blade at it. My aim is true, the blade pierces the creature's eye to the hilt - and a shock of electricity kills it. The returning spell on my dagger causes it to reappear in my hand, and I continue to run. I dare not slacken my pace.
Go, go, go!
The ground is squirming beneath my feet now. Behind me, I know the landscape is red and writhing with the things of my nightmares. Small ones, big ones, shadowy and lurid, with great eyes and teeth and mouths. The Worms follow me everywhere, they make up my shadow, sticking to me, crawling on me, sliding over and against me, down my throat, in my guts. They can't hurt me, but I cannot escape no matter how fast I run... yet I run, and the worms can't hurt me, but I... I just need to get out and I-
"ggh!"
I inhale sharply as a worm emerges from a chasm and rears its head directly in my path. It's a horrible thing, as thick as my waist and covered in wrinkly gray-brown skin and barbed tooth-like protrusions. The large staring eyes that stud each of its segments stare at me with unintelligent cruelty. I can hear my heartbeat accelerating as I find myself charging into it - I'm moving too fast to change direction... but it's not real. It can't hurt me. It can't hurt me.
It can't hurt you? Do you really think it can't hurt you?
I steel my heart as I plow into it, clinging to that desperate hope that this is all in my head. My hands tremble and my guts rearrange themselves, sliding like cold snakes in my stomach cavity. I squeeze my eyes shut as I whisper that mantra to myself. The worms can't hurt me. They haven't hurt me yet. I'm crazy. I'm seeing hallucinations. I need to overcome this. I need to be strong to preserve my life. I cannot run from this... My Teacher's scrying eye is on me. I must ignore my visions. I must push forward. This worm is merely a figment of my imag-
*crunch*
*thud*
"Ahh- Ahh!? Ahahaha!"
Laughter echoed in my ears, and - to my great shock, I realize it's my own. I'm laying here with tears streaming down my face and my teeth bared in a grin as this horrible worm tears into my calf. I tremble as I crane my neck to stare at it, and in my periphery, the landscape roils and writhes. The worms... they're real! They're fucking real! They're real! They'll eat me alive in this lurid rotten plain. They'll tear me to bits, They'll string out my intestines, flay me, twist off my limbs, gouge out my eyes, smash my bones, crush me, destroy me, kill me...
...
...
I sob.
I'm paralyzed.
I tremble and shake terror. My heart sinks in my chest and I am overcome with a wave of despair. Why? Why me!? Why did this happen to me? Oh, how desperately I wish to be home. I want to go back to my little library, with its plush red carpet and its myriad of books. I want to sit next to the great fireplace and stare into the flickering flames as the peaceful hours pass me by. I want to delve into the stories and novels, cheerfully escaping my dull work with great adventures of fictional beings. I want to discuss my studies with My Teacher, who - until the day I rebelled against Braelor - had remained patient with me...
I was a child then, enjoying the innocence of infancy. I neither knew nor suffered the consequences of my actions. When I threw tantrums, I was tolerated and coddled. When I was being difficult and refused the myriad of gifts and items The Resistance offered me, my ungratefulness was met with earnest pleading. I had been carefree and foolish. My chief concern had been how to best stroke my own ego, and in my ignorance, slowly stored up for myself the wrath I must now drink down to its dregs. How it's broken me... I've become so pitiful.
*crack*
*crunch*
My wound is bleeding freely now - the loss of blood, making my head spin. The Worm is digging into me with gusto. All the worms beneath my armour begin to bite, and more creatures rise over me. Worms that spew green flames. Large floating corruptors. They gnash their teeth and I feel my sanity slipping. My shadow laughs aloud. The sound burrows into my brain and drives me mad. I holler and cackle. I keen and howl, drowning out the monster's noises with my own wild laughter. My magic wells within me, surging in response to my terror and desperation and threatens to burst, searing from my fingertips.
My wand appears in my hand, almost as if it had a mind of its own.
My mana surges, draining me dry in an instant.
The sky turns red. The earth shakes violently and a terrific sound drowns out all my thoughts.
*Ka-BOOOM!*
...
...
My ears ring as I stare straight up into the bloody spears falling from the sky. They are coming down fast, so thick I can scarcely see the spaces between them. I release a long breath and dry my tears. I stare at the comforting red and sigh.
Because the worms are gone.
"Ahahahaha!"
In my personal pandemonium, in this moment of destruction... I've found my peace. The red sky pounds down around me, crushing everything in sight, shattering the stone, breaking the strange orbs at the bottom of the pits and obliterating the offending creatures that dared to attack me. They disappear as if they had never existed, not even dust remains. The Worms in my visions have temporarily disappeared, my nightmares purged by that cleansing blaze. My Shadow is nowhere to be seen, yet curiously, I'm still cackling like a madman.
"Hehehe, hahaha!"
The ground rumbles. Laying on the ground, I can feel the vibrations of something tremendous approaching from the deep. But I'm not afraid. I roll to my side. I crawl to stand shakily to my feet. The tears are still running beneath my visor and have pooled uncomfortably in my chin-piece, but I know I'm no longer helpless. I take a deep breath and narrow my focus, ready to drown whatever monstrosity that would dare confront me in a sea of scarlet blades.
When the tremendous worm rises up over me, so large it blots out the sky...
I laugh in its face.
Slayer: Hero, Dad says it's my turn to play Xbox
Hero: No.
S: *summons 999 worms, throws them*
H: *screams. throws himself out the window*
Boss Fight next chapter! This took forever to write like for real smh.
So Faze is showing signs of pretty bad schizophrenia. O.o
leave thoguht ty