Chapter 21. The Price of Power
Hel's point of view
I had died, there was no doubt about that, but I was not with the goddess Alabaster, I have to say that having the chance to see her and losing her, hurt me deep inside, she was really beautiful.
But now I was in another place, a dark place, darker than the black of space, a darkness that seemed to engulf you if you got lost in it and I was lost.
Soon after floating I felt the cold in my heart again, the chain had followed me to the kingdom of the dead or to be more exact it had taken me. With a tinkling sound, the chain dragged me through the dark space, not being able to do anything I gave up trying to resist, I just let myself go, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
At a given moment the chain stopped, but a strong and overwhelming pain took over my body, my hands, elbows and tentacles, all of them were pierced by two chains that snaked in and out of my flesh and bone.
In the end I ended up as if I was crucified, but somewhat more painful, besides the chains were extending out into the darkness without stopping, making me notice them passing continuously through my flesh and skin, making the wounds bigger and bleeding. The worst was not being able to faint, I suffered the pain without being able to stop my suffering in any way, another terrifying mishap was when I could not hear my screams, I moaned and screamed, but it was like being in space, no noise, only pain.
The torment lasted for an indeterminate time, but suddenly the chains stopped moving, as if in the darkness they found a stopper and stuck there.
[Faction mission detected: The Abyss. The destruction of your soul has stopped]
Hahahahaha, I couldn't stop laughing at the message, if anyone ever found all this and didn't get to have the mission they would be destroyed forever, what a damned mess I had ended up in.
The system seemed to have known of my laughter and must have taken it badly, because hundreds of chains began to pierce my body or in this case, I would say my soul, like worms in the ground.
The pain had multiplied by 1000, if not, more.
[Modifying host to transform his faction to the: ???, guardians of the abyss]
[A change of species has been forced upon him]
[Curses have been imposed on him]
[Skills have been imposed]
[Masteries have been imposed]
[All progress in experience has been lost]
[All knowledge gained by wisdom has been removed]
[Wisdom knowledge destined for the abyss has been imposed]
[The stone of life has been taken away from him]
[The abyss has detected the divine interference of the deity of eternal rest.]
[All methods of contact with the deity of eternal rest have been closed off]
[Your faction has been granted the lowest job of the guardians of the abyss: Gatekeepers]
[Showing new host data]
Name: Hel Race: ??? Gatekeeper (leader)
HP: 200 MP: 1500 EXP.Faction: 0/1000
Population requirements: 10/40
Physi/attack: 600 Physi/defense: 800
Magi/attack: 600 Magi/defense: 850
Sab: 2 Int: 600 Agi: 800 Vit: 335
Active skills:
[Gateway to the abyss]
Passive skills:
[All Terrain] / [Safe Zone] / [Loyalty] / [Curiosity] / [Ethereal Symbiosis] / [Hunter's Mark (lower)] / [Bioarmor] / [Abyss Sterility] / [Abyss Restriction] / [Abyss Experience Restriction] / [Chain Mastery (divine) 0:500000] / [Space Mastery (extreme) 0:100000] / [Seal Mastery (divine) 0:500000]]
Souls awarded for promotion requirements: 0/10000
At the time, I was happy, the statistics were absurd to say the least, but as before the system seemed to understand my happiness and be willing to go against me.
[The curse of Abyss Restraint will be executed every time you move away from the abyss or the original gate, in the case of the gate with a margin of a dozen kilometers around].
I was curious about this curse and could only shit all over it when I finished reading it, well I think I even started shitting all over it halfway through reading it.
[Curse of Restraint of the Abyss
The Abyss recognizes the dangerousness of your species and restricts all your stats except for vitality, wisdom and intelligence by 75%].
I was crying, my stats reduced by 75%, that was a real nerf, at that moment I could only ask.
- System, show me my status with the curse on -
Name: Hel Race: ??? Gatekeeper (leader)
HP: 500 MP: 375 EXP.Faction: 0/1000
Population requirements: 10/40
Physi/attack: 150 Physi/defense: 200
Magi/attack: 150 Magi/defense: 212
Sab: 2 Int: 600 Agi: 200 Vit: 335
Active skills:
[Gateway to the abyss]
Passive skills:
[All Terrain] / [Safe Zone] / [Loyalty] / [Curiosity] / [Ethereal Symbiosis] / [Hunter's Mark (lower)] / [Bioarmor] / [Abyss Sterility] / [Abyss Restriction] / [Abyss Experience Restriction] / [Chain Mastery (divine) 0:500000] / [Space Mastery (extreme) 0:100000] / [Seal Mastery (divine) 0:500000]]
Souls awarded for promotion requirements: 0/10000
The difference was obvious, but still abysmal, life was the most damaged, but the other stats were monstrous, obviously if the abyss had not sealed us, with the old stats we could go against the nations of players and reincarnated and raze them, but always carefully, although strong, we are only 10 units against thousands, no matter how strong we are, are too many units against and our life is limited.
[Your snatched life stone has merged with the abyss, you will need to sacrifice souls to the abyss as payment to resurrect the other guardians of the abyss once they die].
This is what scares me the most, now I can say without a doubt that we are trapped, chained to the abyss, all power has a price and this one demands your freedom, without the life stone we are forced to return impassively to the abyss, unable to give opposition.
I could only sigh, because for now I had no method to solve it.
I decided to look at the other skills, since I already knew the curses, the 50% experience reduced of everything, the sterility and the restriction.
The active one allowed me to open a door so I could enter or take creatures out of the abyss.
The passive is where the real kicker was.
[All Terrain (Racial)]
All Terrain allows the bearer to change his body form to the best for the 3 primary terrains: Earth, air and water.
In addition to any magic or attack, will not be restricted by terrain.
[Ethereal Symbiosis (Racial)]
Ethereal Symbiosis combines physical and magical damage in the same attack, also allows diluting physical enemy attacks by 50%.
[Hunter's Mark (Lower)]
You place a mark with the power of the abyss. This mark is impossible to remove without divine help, the mark will allow guardians and trackers to find their victim wherever he is, the mark has no distance limit to be noticed nor time of duration, the mark will grant nightmares to the victim while he sleeps and the panic effect while he is awake, these effects are activated whenever a guardian or tracker is 10 kilometers away or less from the target.
No one escapes the hunters of the abyss, no matter how much you run, how much you hide or to whom you pray, those marked will be pursued until the end of time and not even dreams will bring them comfort, they will only see the chains tormenting them in their nightmares, I fear that not even death will be able to free their souls from the marks, I am only grateful not to be their target.
[Bioarmor (Racial)]
Natural armor, this armor defends against both magic and physical attacks, it also regenerates with your vitality, the defense status of this armor is increasing with your pure stats.
The masteries were explicit, but I was surprised by the chain mastery.
[Chain Mastery (Divine) / (Racial)]
The mastery of chains (divine), allows to reach the apex the use of the chains in combat, coming to seem that these are alive helping their master.
The ??? were illustrious in using their chains, imposed by the gods to seal them, their weakness became their strength and with them they marched against all in order to complete their goal, with the birth of the abyss, they were sealed and granted a half freedom as their guardians and hunters. History of forgotten times.
After that I reappeared back above the door of the abyss, in the great submerged cavern, in front of me I could see 10 beings in a row and Demora.