Chapter 75: The end of the ********
Taking a deep breath I placed my hands clad in gauntlets against the giant stone door, and pushed forward.
they didn't budge.
Of fucking course they would'nt John, did you really forget that you absorbed all of the lordsouls into yourself like a goddam fatty? Alright, it was time to test the methods.
First, my favorite: Brute force.
'Transformation: Full Beast!'
I wasn't half-assing this as I pulled out all of the stops. My body grew over 3 meters tall, fur and scales started growing around my body according to the aspects I had collected. 2 sets of horns, one resembling antlers and one that resembled dragons. A long tail with bonelike protrusions, jagged beastlike teeth, 2 pairs of eyes, powerful rippling pitch-black muscles.
This was my "complete" form, mixing both the aspects I had from my dragon transformation as well as my being as the primeval human. Which resulted in this absolute monstrous form. Which was around a dozen times stronger than my "human" form. The caveat is my lack of ability to wield proper weapons and cast actual magic.
Regardless, this was the absolute peak of my brute force. But man did it hurt to maintain this for when my body is fucked up like this. Turning my pain into anger I used every ounce of strength in my monstrous form to push against the door.
Zilch.
Coughing up a glob of blood I reverted back to my human form, that was at least several hours off of my already far too limited life span. Time for option 2.
Breaking that shit down.
...
Nope. Didn't work. That was a whole ass full charge armageddon blade and the thing still didn't break. Which was also another hour or several off of my life expectancy.
...
I tried all I could think of, I pushed, pulled, tried to use a crowbar, used a pickaxe didn't work. I tried the Lord Vessel. I rubbed it, spat on it, pissed in it, poured my blood into it yet the damn oversized plate didn't do jack.
But then it clicked into place. The lordvessel opens the door to the kiln once it feels the presence of the 3 lord souls and then uses them as fuel. Then I just needed to mirror their presence and put enough power into the plate at the same time.
And thankfully it worked when I used armageddon blade, sunlight blade, and gravelord sword at the same time while sacrificing 99 million souls. A hefty price but not hefty enough for me. As I did so the doors opened to reveal a corridor of blinding light which I stepped onto.
Knights of the past walked by me as phantoms, I was stepping into somewhere simply beyond the confines of space and time, the epicenter of this twisted world. With calm steps, I walked down the stairs. This wasn't enough to overwhelm me.
It was my right.
Eventually, I reached the end of the corridor of light. What greeted my eyes was a world covered in ash and soot. Buildings were dilapidated. They were shaped strangely like they were melted by an explosion and then re-solidified, making jagged arches. No doubt caused by Gwyn lighting the flame.
In the middle was a giant tower that reached up to the heavens and then burnt down to the ground. Black, charred, in ruins yet it looked still majestic. This whole place was no doubt once a majestic piece of architecture built over a thousand years to worship the flame that started everything.
Now, after Gwyn tried to relight it, it was black, charred, ruined, nearly forgotten. Isn't it ironic that in the middle is a tower?
The tower of babel.
In their hubris humanity tried building a tower to the sky to reach heaven and god. And in response, it was struck down by lightning and burnt down.
In their cowardice the gods tried to replicate the first flame, burning down the entirety of Izalith and turning many into demons. In that same cowardice, Gwyn tried lighting the flame again. And this was the result immediately after.
A giant altar built to the flame of the beginning now stood at the end of time. An omen to the end amid the yellow dying sky.
*Sigh* What the fuck am I on about, it isn't the time for philosophy. It is time to kick gum and chew ass.
And I am all out of ass.
My silent walk turned into a confident stride as I firmly approached the kiln of the first flame itself. As I did so some foolish black knights tried to stop me. But before they could even get within ten meters of me they all got turned into crushed tin cans from gravity being multiplied to 100 fold. And those unfortunate enough to not get their height vastly readjusted got turned into little less than smithereens by a wave of force.
I didn't even put conscious effort into killing them, I was mostly focused on the scenery. With my powers currently, Black Knights were barely a little more threatening than the average jerky fellow. Disregarding them I strode forward.
It is like a completely different world. A yellow sky obscured by ash. Physically impossible structures. Storms of ash sweep up.
Time and space were completely irregular here. This was the end of the world where time and space starts collapsing. The death of the world and its coffin.
Shut up philosopher, it is time to turn Gwyn into Gwyn'nt.
I walked down flights and flights of stairs as I slowly crept toward to dilapidated tower in the middle of all of this. In front of the entrance of the kiln was a giant wall of fog. One that I had become intimately familiar with over my time in lordran. Closing my eyes I brought one hand up to the fog and dispersed it.
I softly stepped into the... crater, there was no other way to describe it. What was once undoubtedly a miracle of architecture was now burnt beyond any recognition from the explosion of Gwyn fueling the flame. Almost like the ground zero of a nuke, a testament to how powerful Gwyn was even with his soul split.
In the very middle of all, Gwyn stood with his back turned to me. His royal clothes nothing more than tattered rags. His once mighty figure barely looked bigger than mine. His stature was frail and thin, with his skin being a charred dark grey and his hair being the color of ash. His crown melted and reformed jagged. He held a greatsword that emanated divine flame yet it was barely more than a smoulder.
He turned toward me and I saw his eyes.
They were completely hollow. Lacking any will whatsoever, only running on remnants of the past. Behind him was a tiny, insignificant speck of flame that was barely bigger than the palm of my hand yet I couldn't discern it at all. Before I could observe more however Gwyn jumped toward me. In almost slow motion.
*Clash!*
I raised my arm and intercepted the blade. Forcing Gwyn back to the ground as he staggered. His former strength nowhere to be seen. All that was left was an empty husk.
I extended my hand and gripped around Gwyn's head. And without resistance, I crushed his head. Within seconds his entire being faded to dust. Leaving behind only his sword and a small flame but unbelievably bright flame behind which I also grasped and sent into my soul in which it merged with the rest of its shards, becoming one incredibly bright flame that intensified the pain I felt tenfold.
*Crack*
My finger fell off as it cracked and shattered, dying the floor red. The crack around my body started growing bigger and spurting more and more blood. Ignoring all of that I raced over to the first flame. And once I arrived before it I stood over it as it waned, now lacking its fuel.
I coated my hand in a dense layer of humanity, forming an ethereal claw of a beast. And before long slammed my hand down on the fire. Light and darkness clashed as they tried to swallow each other. But the waning first flame couldn't resist much as I grabbed it and inserted it into my chest. Shoving it inside along with the other soul.
Immediately my vision went white from pain. But I didn't stop as I walked toward the entrance of the kiln as my souls were starting to awaken. all 3 lordsouls along with the first flame were trying to fuse with my own soul. Once I arrived at the entrance of the kiln and stepped foot into the altar
t h e y were waiting for me.
"My lord, bless thy safe return."
All of the primordial serpents were awaiting my arrival, bowing their heads before the Dark Lord of Humanity. Not acknowledging their presence I kept moving. The power inside me was almost ready to burst along with my violent emotions.
"Let Kaathe, and the primordial serpents serve Your Highness."
In the middle of all of them, I stomped on the ground. The ground beneath me obeyed my command as a throne rose from the ground, pitch black with white and orange crack-like details. Under the gazes of all of the primordial serpents, I sat down and crossed my legs while putting my elbow on the armrest and resting my chin on my closed fist.
My very prescence akin to a god before them. None of them could move under my heavy gaze. My very existence suppressed them.
I closed my eyes, even through the agony that felt excruciating I could still recall the scenes. My eyes lazily opened up as I stared down all of the serpents that bowed to me like they were bugs. My mouth opened as an ungodly amount of energy surged. As if the very world itself was obeying my command.
"As the Dark Lord of Humanity, I order you all."
"Die."
Before they could even move their heads the gravity on them intensified over a hundredfold as space itself twisted to keep them in place. And as they were held in place giant black and orange guillotine blades over 20 meters tall formed above the head of each and every one of them. And then with one single motion of my finger, they all fell down. Decapitating all of the serpents at once.
Surrounded by the corpses of the immortal serpents I sighed as I felt my body starting to finally break down to my final death. But just as I was about to close my eyes, I saw it. As I expected the quest had been completed.
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QUEST COMPLETE
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USING ACCUMULATED ENERGY TO TEMPORARILY EXECUTE SYSTEM RESTORATION...
SUCCESS
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I felt a wave of soothingness wash over me as a lot of the energy inside me was sucked out only to be filled up once again.
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CLEARING BACKLOG...
WARNING: EXCESSIVE AMOUNT OF ACHIEVEMENTS DETECTED.
TEMPORARILY HALTING THE PROCESSION OF ACHIEVEMENTS.
TEMPORARILY RESUMING DEFAULT FUNCTION
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Before I could question everything the normal screen of the system and the message shown before me made me do something inconceivable even in this situation. Something I hadn't been able to do in a long long time.
"Ha, ha."
.
.
.
"Hahahahah."
.
.
.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHHA!"
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Tutorial Complete!
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But before my hysteria could ensue the message was interrupted.
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ERROR: CAN'T COMPLETE TUTORIAL
CRITICAL CONDITION DETECTED.
SEARCHING FOR SOLUTION...
FIX: TEMPORARILY SEALING ************
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Suddenly I felt like my entire soul was sucked out of me. All of my senses started to shut down. Yet my sheer indignation allowed me to see the last message before passing out.
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INITIATING EMERGENCY WORLD TRAVEL
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"You motherfu-"
Before I could get the words out of my mouth.
Everything went black.
⁓⁓⁓⁓⁓⁓Volume 1 - Darksouls: End⁓⁓⁓⁓⁓
Volume 2 - Bloodborne is available on my P*treon.
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❕The first 5 chapters of Fate/beyond are out on my p*treon.
You can go 10 chapters ahead on this story and others on my p*treon at: p*treon.com/BronzDeck
Replace the * with an a
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