Everlast Online

The blood snake's attention was directed solely on Liz; Nina's illusions doing nothing to slow it down as it had before - all confirming Liz's suspicions.

The snake was nothing more than blood being controlled by the strange robed figure; however, this did leave its own set of mysteries - mainly why ritualistic magic was needed to bring it to reality, why it seemed to be powered by soul - even if the robed figure themself didn't seem to know this - and finally what was the strange crystal that seemed to form the basis of its power.

Unfortunately, Liz didn't have the time to consider each of these peculiarities.

Her mind was already spread thin as she worked to replace the skeletons that were being destroyed in an attempt to hold off the blood snake. There was one saving grace to this all however, and that was the robed figure being just as stationary as Liz was.

Likely as a side effect of the power, the person could not move while controlling it - just as Liz could not move as she utilised [Soul String]. Of course Liz being stationary was due to having a low mastery of her skill, but she was stationary nonetheless.

That created a strange balance of power between the groups.

The snake was vastly superior in strength, speed and endurance - being that it had an intageable form that prevented any meaningful damage - but as Liz's undead attempted to attack the controller, the snake was forced to protect her.

But Liz knew she was on borrowed time as her mana would not last forever so she pushed, trying to manifest as much soul as she could through her string. But she was fighting against the power of 6 other souls; and this was her first time fighting to take hold of what could technically be called a souled being. Even if the blood itself had no soul, it was still a spell powered by 6 other souls and there was a deeper and more sinister power brewing within it as well - but she couldn't focus on that.

Gloria and Nina were in a similar position; mainly that they were the primary force pressuring the stranger. Liz's summons, with the exception of her golems who acted as decent blockages thanks to their size, were ultimately replaceable as they were destroyed in a single attack.

Nina was troubled as, unlike Gloria who had a number of skills with large waves of power behind them, she fit into the role of an assassin with powerful, but precise strikes that offered no further ripple as a result of their power. So, while both fighters were not able to really damage the snake at the very least Gloria was able to disperse some of the blood that made up the snake's body while Nina could hardly do anything.

From the moment she had joined Smokey on her quest Nina had felt she was deadweight and even in the missions where Smokey had assured her she was crucial, Nina knew with certainty that Smokey's overwhelming power could have gotten them through even without her. 

When she had gained the [Duplicitous Jester] class, Nina believed that something would change; that she would finally be able to help Smokey and stop being a leech that did nothing but take rewards that Smokey had earned for her.

But even now she found herself being useless - comparing how pointless she was in this fight. 

Sure she had taken down a number of the soldiers on her way here, but so had Smokey and Gloria - and much quicker too. Nina's attacks began to slow down, feeling the futility of her actions as she turned to look at Smokey and Gloria, fighting with everything they had in order to take the snake down and defeat the stranger.

Wallowing in self pity Nina had all but given up. It was only as she fell to the point of wanting to give up that she felt a strange tugging in the back of her mind; recovering her mentality ever so slightly Nina recognised the source of the feeling: [Opportunistic (D+)].

Attack the stranger... 

You can't beat the snake...

You have a better chance killing the stranger...

It was doing only what the skill should: Guiding her to find the best possible outcome. And it was right, Nina had already determined that the stranger was controlling the snake and for some reason they wanted to kill Smokey as quickly as possible so the best outcome would be brought about if their attention was divided.

Nina smirked as she blended into the background with [Stealth] disappearing from everyone's radar during the chaotic fight. Nina constantly put herself down, comparing her abilities to an anomaly like Smokey, who had found great power through a loophole before making it her own, and a legendary figure like Gloria, who had literally conquered kingdoms in her past life, but in many ways she was no less inferior.

Her combat instinct was incredibly impressive as she created a number of clones of herself, each handed one of the cheap knives she bought, in an instant they threw them towards the figure. Without the ability to use stealth the figure had already noticed them and prepared a countermeasure - but this was Nina's intention as she used the split second in which the figure let their guard down, thinking the attack had failed, to get up close and activate a number of her other skills.

[Ambush Strike], [Triple Pierce] and [Out of Sync] were all activated simultaneously - landing perfectly on the stranger as they were too slow to react; and this was just what the team needed.

Liz had been watching Nina the moment she disappeared from the fight - just cursory glances stemming from her confusion - and grinned slightly as a number of clones appeared behind the stranger to attack. Liz knew that Nina didn't think she was worthy of being in the party, of getting the rewards from their quest - but Liz knew better than most just how amazing Nina was in combat - her escape from the merchants when they had first arrived in the city was a perfect use of her skills, but Nina had brushed it off. Nina was quite literally a perfect assassin player and Liz was proud to have her as a friend.

This moment confirmed that the soul power coming from the blood snake, preventing her from taking immediate control, was being directed subconsciously; as when the real Nina appeared once again to let out a potentially fatal blow to the stranger, most of Liz's struggle ended in an instant.

It seemed the subconscious will of the stranger's soul thought Nina's attack was more of a threat than Liz's parasitic power worming its way inside. All that remained to block Liz out now was the malicious energy that had come from the crystal.

As Nina's attack landed the stranger let out a horrible scream, the snake faltering for a moment as they controlled. Nina was just barely able to evade the grasp of the stranger as they reached out to squeeze the life from her throat - but they had misjudged.

Nina's attack could have possibly killed them, sure, but what Liz had managed to do was much worse.

In that momentary lapse of concentration Liz had managed to push her own soul through the malicious power within the snake. In doing so the figure let out an even more horrific scream, but one not of pain, agony - true and unfiltered torture.

It was hardly human, like a sound brought directly from lovecraftian myth echoing through the chamber. The blood snake had dispersed, but none of the trio cared as they fell to the ground - echoes of evil running through their heads.

There's something greater at play... Liz thought, that scream was not something that any mortal being could produce - she was sure of it.

That malicious energy, the darkness of it could not possibly have come from something with even a shred of peace.

Just barely managing to look up, Liz's attention was drawn to her enemy. With [Soul Sight] she could see something happening; it wasn't just the original soul and the crimson stakes any longer, but Liz's soul as well.

Fractures were building along the central figure's soul; this ethereal flame burning within them cracking like a crystal under pressure. Liz was overcome with an impending sense of doom, frantically pulling her own soul out of the mixture - but doing nothing to further stop the stranger's soul from imploding.

Liz could only watch in horror as cracks formed along the soul and something malicious bled out from within. The screaming never stopped, not even as the stranger's vocal cords ripped to pieces - it persisted with an eldritch horror.

Liz watched as the soul disappeared and fear overwhelmed her as something else replaced it. A soul in the form of a snake, burning not an ethereal green, but a deep crimson like the pits of hell - wrapping itself around the stranger's body as though it were a snake constricting its prey.

No one else could even see this as the soul was destroyed and something far more sinister appeared from within.

For a second Liz felt as though it were looking directly at her; only for a moment, before it faded - the power unable to manifest itself without its vessel.

With this the screaming stopped and everything was silent besides Nina's bated breaths. To a resident of Galdrash, this silence would persist for many minutes more - but not for the 2 players present; not for the players across the entire world:

Nina only looked over at Liz, completely shocked - a shock that would have been reciprocated on Liz's face had it been at all capable of showing it.

I destroyed... A soul! Even Liz could recognise that her actions were not on a regular skill - she hardly knew what destroying a soul entailed, but for it to grant a world announcement it was hardly insignificant.

And the rewards were impossibly large as well. Usually world announcements gave small increases to reputation and gold with some powerful, but ultimately random, rewards - but Liz had been given 2 titles and some kind of item.

Put in another light, 5 was the most rewards any player had gotten from a world announcement yet. Some people only got gold and reputation - of course these were smaller achievements - but even the first evolution was only 4, and yet Liz had gained a whole extra award.

Liz was incredibly shocked and did not immediately look at the titles she received, but when she did she found the powers to be beyond shocking:

The power of the titles were beyond what she was expecting. Although Liz didn't have much use for soul damage at the moment, the increased stats and intimidation were incredibly well received.

[Whitestar City Key (~~~): Allows user to enter Whitestar city (3/3). Use does not yet possess qualifications to enter Whitestar city]

The key item did nothing but add more questions to Liz so she put it away. It even looked strange, having almost no mass and feeling to Liz as though she was not holding anything - further confusing was that she could hardly remember what it looked like, the moment she looked away it was as if its appearance had been wiped from her memory. She just hoped that by the time she was ready to use it she would remember it existed.

A while after their enemy had died all 3 women got back up, Nina bombarded Liz with questions - the only ones she was able to answer being those pertaining to her rewards, getting quite the reaction out of Nina.

Gloria seemed kind of nervous, but when asked further her answers were not easy to interpret.

"Soul destruction is not a trifling matter, master." She said, "It puts targets on the backs of people who can do it, for good or bad reasons."

When pressed further she didn't say anything. This troubled Liz, but there was nothing she could do.

One strange thing she noticed was that she had not gained any increase to her level - only having [Soul String] jump up to 10% which in and of itself was quite superb as Liz was now capable of using 8 puppets at once - almost reaching her previous limit with puppet hands.

"Well, we need to get moving." Liz said with a serious tone, "There's something more sinister afoot here and I need to let the Marquise know about it."

Liz was assigned a kingdom quest, a quest that could change the fate of an entire kingdom and the only thing she had found that gave her the feeling it was capable of such a feat was the source of the malicious energy. Something was heading towards the kingdom of Vrador and it was not the forces of a rebellion.

CassReyes

Hey, thanks for reading.

Much shorter chapter today, so sorry about that - but still I hope you enjoyed it and the ramifications going forward.

Here's some lore:

Spoiler

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The current story is taking place on the Esuries continent, the first continent where players spawn.

On the Esuries continent there are 5 major territories.

In the centre is the kingdom of Vradora, where Liz currently is.

To the west is The Great Empire of the Sun - otherwise known as the Solaria Empire. A human supremacist empire led by the Divine Emperor who acts as both the leader of the empire and as the pope of the Dawn religion.

To the east is the Magica Kingdom, the kingdom of magic and sorcery led by the Great Magus. In pursuit of greater magical knowledge they became enemies with the Solaria Empire as they refused to outlaw magic that they consider evil.

North of Vradora is the Great Mouth Canyon, and deep inside it is the Steel Fortress Alliance. Led by a mixed council of Gnomes and Dwarves living in a symbiotic relationship due to their matching interests.

Finally south of Vradora is The Divine Peaks. This territory is not owned by any group as it's extremely hazardous and full of dangerous monsters; more than that it is almost impossible to terraform making it impossible to claim. Although not much is known about the Peaks there are rumours of a number of immortal beings residing within them, with the rare occasion of a person being able to come back alive claiming to have seen dragons and true basilisks within the mountains.

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And of course, the patreon link to get chapters 3 days early :)