Skull And Bones
Under an ashen sky stained with otherworldly hues, the Doors stood like scars upon the Earth, ominous and silent, save for the crackling of the dark energy that seeped from their frames. The world had grown accustomed to their foreboding presence, as had the Awakened, a rare breed of hunters bestowed with arcane powers. As one of these doors, veined with incandescent magenta, split the air in Central Park, an unflinching band of hunters approached. Clad in a tapestry of armor, inscribed with runes and relics of old, they stepped through the threshold into a realm of shadow and fire. Their leader, a woman with eyes like storm clouds, wielded a sword that hummed with the whispers of the wind.
The demon king awaited, perched upon his throne of twisted bone, a leviathan of malice encased in smoldering armor, his court a legion of grotesque fiends that hungered for carnage. The air was thick with the smell of brimstone and blood as the hunters launched their assault. Bolts of lightning arced from the fingertips of one, carving radiant paths through the swarming masses. Another danced through the horde, a wraith with blades that left only silence in their wake. The earth itself buckled and roared as an Awakened, whose veins pulsed with the power of ancient tectonics, shattered the ground beneath their foes. The fight was an intricate ballet of devastation, each hunter a master of their own deadly art.
"Keep hitting him!"
"There'll be no more hell doors today!"
The demon king roared, a sound that trembled the realms, as he rose to meet them, a colossus of cruelty wielding the fury of the abyss. Yet, the hunters met his charge with unyielding resolve. The storm-eyed woman lunged forward, sword singing its eerie tune, parrying blows that could sunder mountains. With each defiant strike, she chipped away at the demon king's infernal might, while her comrades cut down his monstrous retinue. Magic and steel, power and precision, the battle was a tempest with the hunters at its eye.
"We almost got him!"
After what seemed like an aeon, the demon king fell, his roar fading into a whispered curse as the storm-eyed woman drove her blade deep into his blackened heart. The Door shuddered as the connection to its vile creator was severed. With a cacophonous groan, it began to collapse, the dark energy dissipating like mist in the presence of the morning sun. The once-menacing gateway crumbled to dust, leaving no trace of the nightmare that had once bled through. Exhausted, triumphant, the hunters exited the now serene park. A celebration awaited them; not just of their survival or their victory, but of the unwavering light they had preserved in a world shadowed by unthinkable darkness.
In the sulfurous depths of The Nether, a realm wreathed in ceaseless flame and despair, a great stone platform stood defiant against the chaos. Hewn from the very rock of perdition, it stretched across the barren landscape like the spine of a fallen titan. Here, beneath a sky of oppressive grey, the assembly of the Demonic Order convened, cast in the ghastly light of a blood-red sun that never set. An air of malevolence hung thick, seeping from the very stones that groaned under the weight of such dark power.
The members of the Demonic Order, enshrouded in shadow and menace, gathered like vultures circling their prey. Their forms were a grotesque gallery of the Nether's children—twisted horns, eyes like coals, and mouths brimming with razor-sharp promises. Their murmurs mixed with the crackling of the surrounding fires, a symphony of dread that echoed through the hollow expanse.
Then, silence clawed its way through the crowd, as focus turned to the platform's center. There stood Gunjo, a young Demon King once mighty and revered, now a mere shade of his former grandeur. His immense figure, which had towered over battlefields and cut swaths through the ranks of the Awakened, was bowed, his broad shoulders slumped in disgrace.
Gunjo thought, 'No way. WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE UP HERE?!'
"You have brought shame upon our lineage, Gunjo," hissed a figure cloaked in darkness, its voice the grinding of tectonic plates. "You were the child of one of the first among us, the harbinger of our reign upon the Earth, and yet... you faltered."
Gunjo smirked, "Cool it, lady. I—."
"Silence!" bellowed another from the Order, his stance rigid with disgust. "Your lineage was of the ancient blood, kin to the void itself! We expected dominion, not defeat!"
Whispers like the rustling of dead leaves swept through the Order at the mention of his blood. Gunjo's ancestors had been amongst the architects of nightmares, beings that etched the first fears into the hearts of mortals.
'…Shit. They got me there. I guess they expected so much out of me, but..why just me when all the other demon kings and demon lords lost..?'
One amongst the Order, a slender figure with eyes that held the chill of the abyss, spoke coolly, "We have persisted through eons, our essence interwoven with the fabric of dread itself. Our lore is written in the annals of oblivion, our existence the cornerstone of terror. You, Gunjo, were to be our testament."
Gunjo's head, crowned with horns that had seen countless moons of The Nether, now dipped lower. Failure weighed upon him like chains forged from the core of this damned realm.
The whispers of the other demon kings and demon lords around him said to each other:
"He bragged before the invasion, did he not?"
"Yeah he did."
"He deserves this."
"What a shame."
"The youngest demon king, what did you expect?"
'Ah. Yeah. They all depended on me. Before the invasion with the hell doors, I bragged to everyone how I was better than them, or how I was going to be the one to turn the tide of war. Earth had awakened humans from out of nowhere, but we depended on gaining their energy and mana to expand hell outwarss, to fully digest earth within us to withstand anything. I was pretty stupid for that, thinking I was better than them, when I was the first one to get clipped. Shit. All these eyes on me, it's pretty embarrassing.'
"By the decrees of old, by the dark pact we all swore to uphold, you shall be stripped of your infernal might. For this is the wishes of the All Mother," intoned a figure with a voice like the hiss of flame.
"Huh?! Noooo, noo no no. No. Give me one more chance, I'll be good." Gunjo backed away waving his hands.
As the words echoed, tendrils of black energy began to coil around Gunjo. His form writhed as the power that had swelled in his veins for millennia was torn from his being. A chorus of ancestral voices, once a font of strength and malice, was now a cacophony of derision in his skull.
The sky seemed to press in closer, the air thick with anticipation as Gunjo's majestic form began to wither, his sinews betraying the might they once held. The assembly watched as the essence of his magic was siphoned, the very air alive with the scent of his impending doom.
"Once a paragon of destruction, now naught but a wraith," sneered one of the Order, as the ritual hummed its sickly tune.
"AGHHHHHH!" Gunjo screamed, levitating in the air.
As the last vestiges of his power waned, Gunjo was transformed. His skin, that had been like impervious obsidian, peeled away in ashen flakes. Muscle and sinew evaporated into the hungry air until all that remained was a skeleton, a husk standing in muted witness to his fall from grace.
Gunjo held his head, his vision dazed at first. A bone-white hand clenched, the only testament to the fury and humiliation that seared Gunjo's stripped soul. The demonic congregation regarded him, this skeletal remnant, with eyes devoid of compassion.
"You are no longer one of us," droned the Order in unison. "You are unworthy. Leave these hallowed grounds and wander the Nether. Let your existence be a warning to those who dare fail as you have. By Oath, the Order is not deemed to kill those who were or are in the Demonic Order, unless attacked upon. All other beings may be the one to do so."
Gunjo's hollow eye sockets, once filled with a baleful glow, stared blankly at the assembly of his peers, his executioners. With no words left to defend his shattered legacy, he turned slowly, each step a clatter against the lifeless stones.
'No…no…this can't be happening. Me? Out of all beings, me? The one who everyone thought was an asshole, but had the power to make up for it. Okay maybe I deserve this. But they're supposed to be like family, why cast me out and allow others to kill me if they wished? Something's not right. As far as I know, I've never heard of anything like this happening.'
He then noticed the high ranked Demonic Order members were chuckling menacingly towards one another.
'They're LAUGHING?! Okay, they're evil now.'
With his bones making the sound of clattering, he pointed at them, yelling, "You guys are gonna regret this! Laughing at me! Bastards!"
KATHOOM!
A giant wind blasted Gunjo away, sending him flying back downwards from the platform, falling down and crashing, and his bone body falling apart.
[Stand Gunjo]
[Kill The Demonic Order]
[Initiating System]
Level: 1
Experience: 0/100
Next Level: 100 XP
---
Attributes
- Strength: 1/10000 - Capable of lifting approximately a feather.
- Dexterity: 1/10000 - Moves with the speed and grace of continental drift.
- Constitution: 1/10000 - Fragile as a dried leaf in a tempest.
- Intelligence: 1/10000 - Has trouble outwitting a rock.
- Wisdom: 1/10000 - Lacks the common sense of a newborn imp.
- Charisma: 1/10000 - Only slightly more charming than a decaying carcass.
- Toughness : 1/10000 about as tough as baby ant legs.
---
Vital Statistics
- Hit Points (HP): 1/1 - A gentle breeze could be fatal.
- Mana Points (MP): 1/1 - Casting spells is as likely as the sun rising in the west.
- Stamina Points (SP): 1/1 - Exhausts himself thinking about movement.
- Armor Class (AC): 1 - Attire consists of ragged cloth and brittle bones.
- Magic Resistance (MR): 1% - Prone to catching a cold from a cursed sneeze.
---
Equipment
Weapon: None - Stripped of weapons, dignity, and flesh alike.
Armor: Tattered Robes (AC: +1) - Barely clinging to his skeletal frame.
'What is this…? Some kind of screen?'
Gunjo started smacking it, but it only eased through his bone-structured hands.
"Hmmmmm. I don't know what this is, but if I had to take a guess, I would assume it was some kind of stalking technology used by the Demonic Order. Those bastards, turnring me into some ugly ass skeleton. But this screen thing is displaying what I'm wearing, a tattered black robe. Yeah it's definitely stalking me. I'm just gonna ignore it, maybe it'll go away."
'First things first, I got to head to my wife. At least she'll be by my side.'
Gunjo's skeletal form, fornow a mere echo of his former might, clattered through the ashen plains of The Nether, each step a hollow echo amidst the sinister choir of the damned. The sky above, a maelstrom of dark reds, blacks, and grays, seethed with electric despair. It spread out like a canvas of doom, painted with the colors of an eternal eclipse, leaving the withering landscape beneath starved of any but the most hellish light.
'It's cold. Cold as hell. And I'm devoid of any magic right now. I need to gain power. I had a skill called Gluttonous. Which every kill I perform, I gain power. Will it work this time?'
Gunjo turned towards a small bunny in a large black tree. The bunny was white and red with black horns and glowing red eyes.
[Creature spotted: Hell Bunny. Threat level : Green. Level : 1. These bunnies prey on those who looks at them, annoying runts they are. Current number of them in the world of the Nether : 3 million.]
Gunjo ran towards it, but was out of breathe in mere seconds.
"Agh..agh..wait…wait a second. Let me catch my breathe." Gunjo said, trying to hold himself up.
"Alright—."
THWACK!
The bunny kicked through Gunjo, and his body fell apart in bones again.
"AGH! LITTLE BASTARD!" Gunjo screamed as his bone body shattered on the ground. Then, the bunny hopped towards him, and began to take a dump right on top of him.
"AGH! AGHHH! GET OFFA ME!"
The bunny hopped away, and Gunjo sat there, saying, "Ugh! Fuck! Get me away from this nightmare."
The ground was littered with jagged obsidian rocks, sharp and unforgiving, while rivers of molten lava snaked through the plains like fiery serpents in search of prey. Their lurid glow cast an otherworldly light that threw Gunjo's elongated shadow against the monoliths that dotted the hellscape. These towering structures bore carvings of fallen heroes and demonic conquests; epic tales etched in stone, standing in silent testament to The Nether's brutal history.
His body was now back to pieces, and In the distance, craggy mountains ruptured the skyline, their peaks like the shattered teeth of some colossal beast. From their midst belched plumes of black smoke, clouding the air with the acrid scent of sulfur and carnage. Gunjo could hear the distant roars of creatures that dwelled in those unscalable heights, each cry a sonorous declaration of their untamable ferocity.
As he ventured onward, Gunjo passed through a forest of charred bone-trees, their branches stripped of all life and their trunks screaming agony into the silence. Grotesque forms occasionally flitted between their ranks—an assembly of lesser demons and twisted spirits, each lost to their own vile pursuits. Their eyes, aglow with a fiendish gleam, briefly followed the exiled king before returning to their wicked revelries.
Beyond the forest, the terrain opened onto a vast field of geysers, spewing forth scalding vapors and jets of boiling brine. Gunjo skirted the periphery, his skeletal frame impervious to the heat that would have scorched flesh and scoured bone.
Occasionally, colossal creatures could be seen striding the horizon, their massive silhouettes outlined against the infernal skies. These behemoths trampled the ground beneath colossal feet, their forms composed of searing magma and coiled flame, indifferent to the plight of the lesser beings that scurried from their destructive path.
Gunjo, once a ruler among these hellish ranks, now traversed the land as a specter of defeat, looked down upon by the denizens that had once feared and revered him. With each step, Gunjo moved further from the site of his disgrace, deep into the abyssal heart of The Nether. His path was a lonely journey through a panorama of desolation—a condemned odyssey that would chart the unending bleakness of his fallen realm.
'Each Member of the Demonic Order rules a certain area in hell. The earliest record of the Demonic Order begins with the First Accord – a covenant etched in the fire and blood of innumerable conflicts between the ancient fiends. It was a pact of survival as much as it was of dominion, for the Nether is a realm that ever teems with threats, both internal and external. From their number, a leader emerged to sit upon the Blood Throne, a sovereign whose name has been lost to the mists of time, yet whose will laid the foundation for the infernal society that persists to this fateful day. As ages passed and the mightiest of demons staked their claims over the Nether's diverse and mutable realms, five seats of power came to be recognized – the Five Thrones, each a Pillar of Perdition. These seats were to be occupied by the most powerful of the Order, each representing a fundamental aspect of the Nether's nature and reflecting the ever-changing landscape of power and agony. Those bastards are the most power demons here, and in my current state, I can't get my revenge on them. And the All Mother, rumored to be the one that oversees everything, no one has ever seen here besides the Five Thrones. My situation..I know it's gotta be deeper than what they're humiliating me for.'
Gunjo's relentless march through the desolation of The Nether brought him to a shattered plateau, where the air itself seemed to tremble with latent fury. There, upon the fractured earth stood Sevyn, her back to him, her silhouette fierce against the seething backdrop. Her hair, a cascade of glowing red against the charred landscape, flowed like molten lava, and her antlers, majestic like the branches of a sacred elder tree, pierced the sky with their might. Her ears, sharp and pointed, twitched with the whispers of the malevolent winds, and her skin, the color of storm clouds at nightfall, was the storied canvas of her countless battles. Her eyes, glowing purple with runes carved within them.
"Ha! Sevyn! My love!" Gunjo ran towards her, holding his arms wide open, smiling. "Oh how I missed you! These bastards, they—."
As Gunjo approached, her head snapped around, her eyes, now the crimson of fresh blood, flared with recognition—of a foe, not a spouse. "Who dares?" she snarled, her voice a tempest in this land of endless strife.
"I'm your husband!" Gunjo shouted, but his words echoed back to him, hollow and foreign to her ears. With a snarl of contempt, she lunged forward, her fists ablaze with explosive red fire.
Gunjo screamed, "YOU DON'T RECOGNIZE MY VOICE?!"
The plateau erupted in a chaotic dance of destruction as Sevyn's every punch detonated upon the earth, leaving craters that oozed with fiery ichor. Her kicks, each a meteoric strike, sent shockwaves through the air, carving the sky with incandescent trails.
Gunjo, bereft of his own demonic might, could rely only on the remnants of his reflexes, honed over countless hours of training and experience. He darted and ducked, accelerating with bursts of desperate agility, the sense of her fury propelling him forward.
'She's strong! One punch would ruin me!'
"You are no husband of mine, but an adversary met with death." Sevyn roared, her words enveloped in a tempest of pyroclastic force. Gunjo could see nothing of the love they once shared in those wrathful, glinting eyes.
As Gunjo evaded another barrage of fire-laden attacks, his gaze fell upon a set of chains, glowing with the intensity of the Nether's core. He deftly maneuvered towards the artifact, his movements a shadow's whisper against Sevyn's relentless onslaught.
Over and over again, Gunjo's skeleton body shattered over and over, then regained its form again and again.
'I still have the ability to dodge, but I'm getting tired fast. But Sevyn won't let me have a breather! Those chains, a gift from a demon fire giant, who can forge weapons and artifacts. This place used to be a place where me and Sevyn tested such artifacts or just came here to be alone when the burdens of being a demon king was heavy on me..'
With chains in hand, Gunjo called out, "Sevyn! Cease this madness!" But his pleas were swallowed by the inferno of her rage. He could see the merciless intent in every arc of her arm, in the unwavering focus that had once been reserved for their enemies.
The chase ensued, Gunjo weaving through the fury of Sevyn's magic. The lands they crossed were blitzed by their combat, the very air crackling with the energy of their deadly ballet.
Gunjo's leg fell off, and he quickly went to grab it, nearly dodging a punch of Sevyn.
Gunjo moved as though he were the Nether winds incarnate, the chains trailing behind him like the tail of a comet. "Remember who I am!" he implored, even as he nimbly enveloped her wrist in a glowing loop. "I'm YOUR HUSBAND."
Unyielding, Sevyn's other hand morphed into a fiery maw, ready to devour him whole. "I know no husband that's a fucking skeleton," she spat, the magic radiating from her in waves of oppressive heat.
"YEAH! ME! NOW I AM!"
With the grace of a creature born of smoke and shadow, Gunjo continued to bind her, each loop an electrifying contest against Sevyn's frenetic magic. "I'M Gunjo!" Gunjo insisted, the fervor of his own desperation feeding his movements' precision.
'With the amount of dark magic here, it's not a suprise she would be weary of if I'm some enemy trying to be someone she loves.'
The red chains seemed to resonate with the rhythm of their clash, binding not only flesh but history, moments of love thought lost in the relentless stream of her attacks.
Again, Gunjo's skeleton body shattered over and over, then regained its form again and again.
Finally, as the chains coiled around Sevyn, her movements began to slow, each fiery outburst diminishing as the enchantment of the bindings took hold. Her body, once an avatar of sheer destruction, struggled against the sudden weight that anchored her to the scorched earth.
'Got her!'
Gunjo was wheezing, breathing heavily as his body shook with weakness.
And then, with one final, deft maneuver, Gunjo enveloped her entirely, the chains locking into place with a sound that struck the plateau like a somber gong. Sevyn, her form encased in the luminescent restraints, ceased her cataclysmic assault, her fiery eyes now gazing upon Gunjo's skeletal frame with a flicker of confusion.
Gunjo, his muscles straining against the surge of Sevyn's chaotic power, sought to maintain control over the ensnaring chains. The Vale of Despair, host to their staggering struggle, quaked beneath them as Sevyn's unrestrained rage tore at the binding links. Their forms contorted and flipped through the sulfurous air, a whirlwind of destruction.
The chains around Sevyn glowed ever brighter, red as the blood moon itself, a stark contrast to the somber grays and muted ash of the desolate landscape. Shattered monuments of despair careened past them as the pair danced a cataclysmic ballet, entwined by fate and glowing restraints.
With each twist and flip, Sevyn unleashed waves of volatile energy that burst forth, eating away at the surroundings with voracious flames. Gunjo gritted his fists, summoning every ounce of endurance within him to withstand the barrage.
The clash propelled them across the skies of the Vale, their chaotic path etched into the crimson firmament. The ground below was a canvas of mayhem, scarred with the evidence of their violent passage.
Explosions bloomed like perverse flowers in their wake, the land left fractured in their relentless tug-of-war. Gunjo found his resolve wavering as the destruction grew too great, the chains sapping his strength with their scorching touch.
Over and over again, Gunjo's skeleton body shattered over and over, then regained its form again and again.
With a guttural cry from Sevyn, a crescendo of dark magic sent them hurtling towards a towering peak within the Vale — Mount Extirpation. Gunjo felt the pull of the chains overwhelm him as he was cast aside, his grip finally sundering from the red-hot bindings.
Gunjo's form careened into the dark recesses of Mount Extirpation, his body crashing against jagged rocks that had been the lament of many before him. The mountain itself was a pitiless behemoth, black as the deepest sins and harboring legions of hellish secrets within its core.
His body scattered in bones again, slowly forming itself back together.
Looming from the heart of Mount Extirpation, a vast shadow stirred — the serpent known as Malicor, the Brood of Bane. With scales as dark as the abyss and eyes like molten brimstone, it had slinked through the hollows of hell since time immemorial.
Known to feed on the wretched demon souls snared in the rock, Malicor had harbored its presence, growing fat on the despair that the mountain exuded. Its habitat, a lair of obsidian bone deep within the crags, was littered with the debris of its victims: weapon scraps, bone fragments, and tarnished relics.
"Shit! Not good!" Gunjo exclaimed, standing up with his legs shaking, blood coming from his empty eye sockets.
A hiss slithered through the dense air, a low, ominous rumble that spoke of eons spent in the dark. "Hmmm. The Demonic Order decreed you are free game…since you are not honored anymore," Malicor whispered, its voice a venomous caress. "I've been waiting for this for a long time. Killing you, I might be able to slither alongside the highest Order members…making me more powerful…"
"They're obviously tricking you! All of you! Don't be an asshole!"
"Hoh? Like you? Everyone says you are, it issss too late for redemption. Look at you, weakened…battered….you made of otherssss…lime you were the greatest…brought down to a mere skeleton…"
"Oh yeah…? I know my flaws. And I also know someday I'll overcome them. But for now, let's get this shit over with." Gunjo's bone legs shook as they were too weak to even stand, and blood continued to leak from his hollow eyes.
The leviathan unfurled its colossal frame, towering above the battered Gunjo. Its fangs dripped with a venom that caused the air itself to warp and decay, its sheer size a testament to the countless lives devoured.
As Malicor's serpentine jaws opened wide to administer the final bite, the mountain all but disintegrated in a cataclysmic display. Sevyn, as if driven by a deeper, primal urge beyond her recognition, blasted through Mount Extirpation with a single, cataclysmic punch that sent shockwaves through the Vale.
She descended upon Malicor fiercely, her fist igniting with an inferno that redefined the fabric of destruction. With a devastating spin, she delivered a punch so powerful, so absolute, that the serpent's head erupted in a tide of blood and bone.
The mighty leviathan, once a terror whispered in the echoing chambers of the damned, was undone in an instant. Its headless form collapsed against the fractured remains of Mount Extirpation, an end befitting one consumed by aspirations of power.
Sevyn stood amidst the ruined peak, her chest heaving with the exertion of her blow, her eyes still aflame with battle-lust, yet no longer blind to the demon she fought to save.
Sevyn's steps were measured, the ground beneath her surrendering to her every footfall. Gunjo, his skeletal form a harrowing testament to his ordeal, scrambled backwards, his eyes reflecting both fear and confusion. What remained of him was an enigma, a former demon king reduced to bones.
Gunjo sighed, saying, "I know the smallest of flutter in your heart when you dream, the silent prayers you whisper to the stars. I remember the promises we carved into the Sanguine Obelisk, with blood and bond," Gunjo revealed, each word a drop of truth designed to quell the chaos within her. The obelisk, a jagged spire looming ominously in the distance, glistened like a sanguine beacon amidst the gloom. "We rode the Jaws of Abaddon together, challenged the very maw of hell, and emerged as one? I remember the Eonflower we found in the Ashen Gardens Its petals open only once under a blood moon, and we watched it bloom together," Gunjo softly said, invoking the memory of a moment when the hellish landscape had, for a single breath, been kindled with beauty. "I know I fucked up, half of this is kinda my fault, but at the same time, I know it's deeper than that. I look like demon horse shit right now, tattered in blood and dirt and sackcloth, but it is what it is."
Sevyn continued forward, Her hand shot forward, seizing Gunjo with an ironclad grip. "What the hell happened to you? Why are you a skeleton? That snake wasn't supposed to try and eat you since you're a demon king, why did he? What happened on earth? What about the Demonic Order—?" Her tone was sharp, her face the very picture of intensity.
But their moment was short-lived, as the cavern walls groaned and gave way to more serpents, siblings to the one she had just vanquished. Their hisses were scornful, dripping with derision.
"T-Those bastards killed the boss!"
"Free game, they are! The Demonic Order says anyone can kill Gunjo and they'll have power!"
"Gunjo is weakened now! Once a shitty brat always a shitty brat! The youngest demon king is serving the worst fate right now."
"Get them both! Him and his wife!"
Their mockery echoed through the cavern, a twisted chorus reveling in Gunjo's fall from grace. But Sevyn's resolve did not waver; her face was a mask of stoic resolve, untouched by their words.
"None of you are touching him," she declared, the venom in her voice promising swift retribution. She clenched her fist, and at the same time, her hair went up into red and black flames along with her fist. In one fluid motion, she grabbed Gunjo, and launched him forward like a projectile. His form blazed with a crimson aura, slicing through the air and the snakes with unerring precision.
"AGGH! WHY DID YOU THROW ME AT THEM?!"
Gunjo's eyes widened as he witnessed a translucent window materializing before him:
[Snake beast killed. 1 skill point earned]
"Huh?! You again?! Stop following me!"
Mountain stone and serpent flesh blurred into one as Gunjo hurtled through, the sequence of system notifications trailing him like the tail of a comet.
[Snake beast killed. 1 skill point earned]
[Snake beast killed. 1 skill point earned]
The notifications cluttered his vision, dozens upon dozens of them signaling the demise of the serpents that dared stand in their way. The carnage was relentless, a symphony of death orchestrated by Sevyn's unfathomable throw.
"WHAT IS THIS DAMN THING?!"
'It's like it's describing what's happening, and it looks like I'm getting something from it.'
Then, in the midst of this aerial onslaught, another system window flashed abruptly before him:
[Hellsong Blood Scythe unlocked. Equip? Y/N]
'The Hellsong Blood Scythe?! That's a weapon of one of the old Five Throne demons! I can have it?! I mean, I don't wanna be rude, I'll take it since it's being handed to me. Seems like this stalker window is helping me!'
Without hesitation, Gunjo focused his thoughts and willed the 'Y' with all his might. The scythe materialized in his grasp, its blade a gleaming scarlet colored crescent of sanguine wrath.
The cavern gave way to a clearing, its towering walls dissolving into the smoldering ruins of the mountain. Before Gunjo loomed a massive serpent, its eyes aflame with a berserk lust for blood. Lesser snakes swarmed around it, a writhing mass of fangs and malice, but they were mere shadows to the monster at their core.
The berserker serpent roared, its voice a thunderous declaration of war, yet it was the last sound it would utter. Gunjo and the blood scythe were now one, an unstoppable force borne on Sevyn's torrential momentum.
The scythe arced through the air, its crimson glow manifesting as deadly, ethereal waves. Each swing was swift and true, carving through scales and sinew as if they were the very fabric of despair.
[Snake beast killed. 1 skill point earned]
[Snake beast killed. 1 skill point earned]
The notifications that accompanied each fatal blow were a grim counter, each one piling upon the last, an inescapable reminder of the power seeping into Gunjo's very bones.
As he collided with the berserk serpent, time seemed to slow. His arms heaved, bringing the scythe to bear with all the force his body could muster. The blade met resistance for a mere heartbeat before cleaving through, silencing the giant beast forever.
SHIIIIING!
The sycthe cut the snake In half, splattering brutality all around him. The aftermath was a tempest of blood and victory, the lesser snakes caught in the fateful dance of the scythe's wrath. As Gunjo finally came to a violent halt outside the remains of Mount Extirpation, their path was marked by the destruction left in the wake of Sevyn's fury and his newfound weapon. And at the same time, Gunjo's body was in piles of bones again.
"Haha..haha…okay.
[Snake beast killed. 1 skill point earned]
[Multi-Kill Bonus Achieved. Additional Skill Points Awarded.]
KATHOOM!
Sevyn came punching a hole from the mountain to escalate, her hair still lit up in catastrophic red and black flames, her figure covered in blood.
She said, "Tell me everything."