NOVPUB’If I remember correctly, I just need to press this button and pull it like...this!’
*OMINOUS VIOLIN NOISES!*
|The demon lord has come! Bow your heads, you beasts of desire, swear fealty to him!|
’Ah...right...forgot about that bit...I can feel my Junior High Syndrome screaming...and I forgot how edgy this armor looks.’
[Did you want one of us to combine with you so we can ditch the armor and look like a legitimate monster?]
’Perhaps, but let’s see how this goes, yeah? I’d rather not gleefully murder people if I can help it.’
[Did...didn’t you just literally rattle a man’s brains into-]
’I SAID IF I CAN HELP IT! Also, I think that guy was still alive when I left him.’
<=[Are you sure about that?]=>
’...yes. Anyways...showtime.’
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*Bing-Bong*
To those who are curious about the timeline, this was around the same time as Spring Brawler launching Razorstella like a lawn dart from hell.
Thank you.
*Bing-Bong*
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<<So...how much longer until we can leave?,>> a bored looking man dressed in leather armor asked his counterpart.
<<That depends,>> a more serious looking man dressed in similar garb replied. <<Did we get a signal from our leader?>>
<<No.>>
<<Then shut up, and continue standing guard!>>
<<But there’s no glory in this! And this urn smells like death!>>
<<I don’t care, shut up and guard!>>
In a hidden space beneath the Zhen Clan arena, a pair of Fallen Clan Aether Masters were standing guard over an evil looking aether treasure known as the [Malice Blood Urn].
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Name: Malice Blood Urn
Rarity: Four Stars
Attribute: Curse/Blood
Description:
A cursed aether treasure created by taking the lives of a thousand people of the same ancestry, crushing their bones into the ceramic powder necessary to make the urn and then using the drawn blood of the slain people as the foundation of a glaze, the Malice Blood Urn has exactly one purpose: Genocide.
By feeding the urn the blood of a specific bloodline over the course of a year, it ferments the stolen life essence with a special type of cursed energy that when fully activated, releases a terrible malady in the form of the [Hateful Blood Fog].
This fog has the ability to slow the circulation of blood and aether of the intended victims to that of a crawl, something that would outright kill lesser men and horribly cripple stronger ones.
Nobody knows who made the first of these insidious treasures, but its been said that once the treasure is activated, there is no way to destroy or stop it until the curse has fully run its course.
The only upside is that the urn enters an eighty year hibernation after being used.
Extremely Dangerous, please destroy this cursed treasure on sight.
Note to the Kaijin and Kaijin Lords:
This is not the only aether treasure that can produce this type of curse, so it has been renamed as [Foul Blood Aether Curse] on all internal records due to this being actually the weakest version of a blood curse recorded in the Library of Nowhere.
This is not to be taken as a challenge to make stronger versions of these types of curses, you know who you are.
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From this accursed urn flowed a thick, roiling red fog that was laced with a fiendish aether and had the distinct smell of sulfur mixed with rusted iron and rot.
The two Aether Masters standing guard were unaffected by the curse laden in this disgusting blood fog, due to the treasure being keyed to the Zhen Clan bloodline, but they did make sure to wear facemasks to try and filter out the smell as much as possible...it kind of helped.
That being said, this was the type of smell that would never really wash out...ever.
The Fallen Clan Aether Masters stood in silence as they did their best to ignore the smell, but their stoicism was about to reach a breaking point...again. As such, they did the one thing they knew could help in such a situation: argue. It was a surprisingly potent method to stave off both boredom and bad smells.
<<I’m just saying, it probably won’t be a big deal if we just leave the urn here to do it’s thing while we go and participate in the attack. Nobody knows that it’s here,>> the bored looking guardsmen started.
<<It’s precisely because nobody knows it’s here that we have to keep guard. We have no idea if someone might discover it and ruin all of our plans in the process!>>
<<Are you kidding me? Not only is this urn a fourth tier aether treasure, meaning it’s borderline impossible to destroy without an [Astra], of which most of the Zhen Clan elders that can do that are occupied by our own elders, but we have it secured in a spatial aether array that not even that crazy tattooed bitch can detect. There’s absolutely no way anybody short of someone with enhanced detection abilities or comprehensive understanding of spatial law can find us.>>
<<Well, how do you know none of the Zhen Clan members have that...sort of...hey...is it just me or does it suddenly feel a lot colder in here?>>
<<I highly-wait, what?>>
Having not expected this sudden change in topic, the once bored looking guard suddenly perked up as he tried to ascertain the truth of his companion’s statement.
A quick exhalation of misty white breath confirmed his friend’s suspicion...not that this was a good thing.
The spatial array that they had set up to protect the treasure was made in such a way that it would mimic the area it was located in, including temperature, but essentially be a separate room. The drawbacks to such a method was that it made the guards essentially watchers of an empty room, and that the array had to be modified in order to let the blood fog out of the room in an invisible manner, at the cost of being unable to mimic ambient changes in surrounding like smoke or mist, hence the location being underground.
In essence, it was a transdimensional boiler room.
The surrounding temperature of the underground chamber was cold to be sure, but for it to suddenly drop further than that was worrying, to say the least.
He was just about to address his friend directly about this sudden change, when he was interrupted with yet another unsettling observation in regards to the ambient noises. Namely that there was one.
<<Do you hear that? It sounds like...hissing...>>
Hisss...
<<Yes...I can...>>
The hissing sound that was filling their ears at this time was decidedly unnatural sounding to the two Fallen Aether Masters. In fact, this sound was so unsettling to the two warriors that they both ended up taking fighting stances while circulating their aether into every part of their bodies at this time. Logically it made no sense, instinctually...they felt as if something very big and very nasty was on its way to murder them, with that hissing sound being its arriving chorus.
The two warriors looked uneasy as they tried to wrap their heads around on what could make such an unsettling hissing sound.
<<Seriously though what the fuck is making that...uh oh.>>
<<Hold up, did you just swear? You normally don’t swe->>
<<SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LOOK AT THAT CORNER! SOMETHING IS MELTING OUR BARRIER!>>
<<Oh fuck!>>
Starting from a small corner of their spatial barrier room, the two warriors could see that their barrier was slowly melting upward like an ice sculpture exposed to sunlight or a candle burning into a puddle of wax. However, this was a spatial barrier and not something that was designed to eventually melt, so the two warriors were understandably freaked out. If anything, they expected their spatial array to shatter into pieces like glass but that was besides the point. They needed to act fast or things were going to go very badly for them and their attack.
<<Fuck! I need to patch this up, now!>>
The more serious looking of the two Fallen warriors proceeded to make a hand seal and began to channel his aether into the barrier. It worked to an extent, but not by much. Right now, they needed help.
<<I’m going to try and repair the barrier before the urn’s aura gets detected by any intruders. I need you to go and...what the fuck am I sensing and why is it making my skin crawl?>>
<<I don’t know...but...this is a new feeling that I do not want to comprehend.>>
As the two warriors stood and stared at the melting barrier, they could feel an increasingly sinister, increasingly unnatural aura leaking through the opening.
It was in this moment, as they felt this overwhelming dread fill their souls, they realized something.
The owner of this aura was the one breaking the barrier...and he was making it slow on purpose.
He wanted them to know that he was coming.
<<Something wicked this way comes...full of sorrow, malice and dread...>>
<<Oh...and they’re singing now...great...>>
