1 The City of Impurities

Doc tossed the last body of the day into his wheelbarrow and began the long trek back to his home. Everyday, he made rounds through a sector of the city, sweeping the streets, scrubbing grime from the bricks, and collecting the plethora of bodies strewn about. Some were human, some were beast, some were a strange mix of both, and some he didn't even recognize. Sometimes, the creatures or humans were even alive, but he cut them down and collected them nonetheless. How long had he spent cleaning this Victorian style city? How did he end up there in the first place? He had long forgotten the answers to those questions. He just knew one thing. He must cleanse the city of its impurities.

Heaving out each and every breath through his plague doctor's mask, Doc tossed the bodies into the pit next to his home. Everyday he sent out and returned to and from this run-down, but cleanly shack on the outskirts of the city. He had dug a large hole next to his home at some point to cleanse the impure disease of whichever creatures he came across. Over time, this hole had grown larger and larger and was now the size of a large swimming pool. Doc stretched his hands out and shot a stream of ice from his palms, freezing over all of the bodies within the hold. Slowly, the bodies began to dissolve into a gold like substance, which slowly seeped into the ice, returning to him. He felt his body grow warm and felt his fatigue fade away. He had always done this process, as it allowed him to grow stronger, and more strength made cleaning much easier.

He walked into his tidy home and carefully removed his cloak and rough cloth clothes, tossing them in a bin full of green liquid. Though he didn't get dirty often, Doc found it best to clean everything anyway. He plopped down onto his small bed and reached under it to grab a strange black rubbery brick. Dinner is served. He had always found those strange bricks when out cleaning the city. He took a large bite of the thick substance and collapsed back onto his bed, his dark green mask still tightly secured on his head. Though Doc did not remember much, two things stuck deeply with him. Cleanse the city and never remove the mask. Even his own face, he did not remember, as all he saw were his own eyes staring back at him in the mirror. They seemed to be made of packed ice and looked exactly like glacial ice. A nice dark blue that faded into a lighter blue in the center. However, this didn't bother Doc. None of it ever did. The insanity, the plague, murder, gore, an impossible task, a lack of memories, crushing loneliness, it never mattered to him. As long as he kept cleaning he'd be okay. At least that's what Doc always believed. As usual that night, his dreams of the horrors around him were flooded away by a pristine looking city. (Maybe switch back to acid boy eventually)

…

In the face of a daunting repetitive task, time can become quite muddled. As for Doc, this was especially the case. Time moved by like a snake. Slow and twisting with the occasional quick strike or two. However, Doc was beyond stunned one day when he finally observed how much progress he had actually made. After making rounds of that days sector, he found himself standing in front of a massive door high above the rest of the city. Looking at the city below, his mind automatically began searching for any signs of impurities. But when he actually took a good look around him, the city seemed spotless. His heart rate shot through the roof for the first time in what felt like an eternity. All that was seemingly left was the massive room in front of him. Ready to finish up his work, he eagerly pushed open the door and made his way inside, Ice at the ready. Before him was a hall littered with corpses. But, unlike the usual corpses he found, these seemed different. They were clean. Pure. Doc slowly made his way towards the nearest corpse, preparing himself to haul all of their bodies back to the pit. When he looked into the first corpse's face, however, he froze. A strange clear liquid that he had never seen before began dripping from his eyes. It slowly worked its way down his cheek and into his mouth. It was…. Salty? As soon as that taste touched his tongue, Doc collapsed to the floor. It was as if his entire world was shattering around him. Memories began flooding in. Memories that he had tried so desperately to forget. Tears streamed from his eyes as he slowly picked up the body in front of him and stared into its lifeless eyes.

"Brother?"

That day finally entered his mind, like a knife piercing his heart. He had tried so hard to forget. He took his brother in his arms, letting out a wail that could pierce the heavens. Rage, despair, cruelty, pain, so much pain. As he sat, suffering, the scene began to replay over and over in his mind. Doc, his brother, and a team of elite Guardians entering a decaying city inside of a rift. A message popping up telling them to cleanse the city in order to increase their chances of victory. Their team confidently fighting their way straight to the center of the city, believing that cleaning it all would be a waste of time and money. Reaching the center room, only to see another message.

Impurities cleansed: 0.05%

Buffing Final Boss

Boss Status Boost: 200X for all stats

The Embodiment of Impurity has awoken.

The filfth shall be scrubbed away.

The ensuing scene was a slaughter. Upon entry, a beast the size of a house, covered in glowing poisonous moss charged them down. Upon entering, their party totalled 30. 5 tanks, 5 healers, 15 damage dealers and 5 porters. The beast cleaved three of the tanks in half and bit the heads off of the two others in one fell swoop. The healers and damage dealers didn't even have a chance to react before the beast flung its way over to them. Screams were cut short as the beast wrapped up three of the healers in moss, slowly dissolving them on contact. 5 of the damage dealers, two mages and three warriors finally managed to react, while the rest stood in shock. A stream of fire mixed with bolts of lightning roared towards the beast and the remaining three healers. The three warriors charged, using the stream of spells as cover, and tried to protect the healers. Unfortunately, the spells did anything but help. They simply splashed off of the protective moss mantle and sailed straight into the healers, who were quickly fatally injured by the torrent of magic. In response to the charge of the warriors, the beast flicked its long barbed tail, piercing the three like some sort of surreal shishkebab. By now, the rest of the part was either coming to their senses, or frozen in permanent shock. This was when Doc's brother made a crucial decision. He grabbed doc by the shoulders and began running towards the exit. The door still remained wide open, just as it had been when they barged inside. Before Doc could process what was happening, his brother tossed him outside of the door.

"Cleanse the city." He said, tears welling up in his eyes. The beast finally took notice of the situation and began charging towards the open door. "Cleanse this place, get revenge on this bastard, and go home a rich man for our sister." Before he could even scream out in protest, his brother slammed the door and he heard the sound of flesh being pierced, followed by a small pool of blood that slowly seeped out under the door. As Doc viciously struggled to cope with the pain and horror of what had happened, his mind slowly began to block it out. It had been five years since that incident, but now that he had witnessed it all again, those five years came flooding back.

But over those years, Doc had lost parts of himself along the way. His wailing slowly faded away. The tears that streamed down his face quickly dried up. The more he tried to process and grieve, the more stress accumulated in his mind. Until finally, something snapped inside of him. Like a frayed piece of yarn holding two semi-trucks together. All that was left inside of Doc was a seething sense of rage. Fury like he had never felt before. It was as if his entire being desired one thing. Revenge. Suddenly, a familiar sound grabbed his attention. The roar of a beast echoed around him.

Impurities cleansed: 99.95%

Goal Achieved: Cleanse 99% of impurities

Reverting Boss to basic status

Doc stood perfectly still as a new emotion formed around him. Since he had awoken to his powers when he had turned fifteen, he had always felt cold. But it had been a comfortable type of cold. The type of cold that reminded him of playing in the snow with his brother and sister when they were young. This was different. He felt as if he had been dropped into an endless blizzard. It was painful to touch within himself, but Doc didn't care. He had long gone past the point of feeling pain. He stood, his entire soul focused on revenge for his brother. As he embraced the cold, the temperature of the room plummeted. Frost began to form across the ground around him. He stared into the acid green eyes across form him, whipping out as much of his aura as he could muster.

The creature stared back, wary of the scene unfolding before it. But what could a puny, impure human do in the first place. It charged Doc, head on, whipping its tail out to pierce him just as it had pierced his brother. Just as it reached him, however, the creature was blasted backwards. When it looked up at what had happened, it froze in fear.

Seeing the beast charge him, memories of his brother flashed into his mind. He plunged deep into the icy core within himself, prepared for the consequences. He felt his body growing colder by the second, but he would do anything to gain the power to get revenge. As he plunged into his core, he felt the ice crawl across his skin. Before he realized what was going on, he found himself covered in freezing cold clothes. His mask long shattered, he was adorned with a long, billowing cloak of frost. Beneath it, he found himself wearing tight but flexible ice armor, akin to that of an assassin. He held razor thin swords of ice in both hands. In the reflection of his sword, he saw that his eyes were aglow, and his long black hair was now stark white. However, he only acknowledged this change for a few moments, as his rage quickly returned upon seeing the creature in front of him. He flared his aura out once again and quickly summoned 10 long spikes of ice in the air around himself. Despite this, the creature brazenly charged Doc, yet again aiming its tail directly at his heart. Before it even got a chance, the spikes around Doc quickly shot forward.

BOOM

The sound echoed across the chamber as blood splattered everywhere. Doc quickly summoned 10 more spikes.

BOOM

Blood continued to pool at the feet of the mangle beast in front of him.

BOOM

BOOM

BOOM

With each new volley, cries of pain echoed from the Embodiment of Impurity. Doc had done enough cleansing of creatures to know where each vital point was and how to avoid it.

BOOM

BOOM

Boom

B…

…

After hours passed, or was it days? Perhaps even minutes. Doc's assault finally slowed to a halt. Before him stood a beautiful statue. A frozen corpse, pierced by hundreds of thing spikes of ice. Truly a beautiful piece of art. Without him realizing it, the corpses around him had frozen over during the battle (if you could even call it that) and he had absorbed their essence. Doc sat, completely still, by the side of the frozen statue of his brother. He tried again and again to feel the despair he had just felt, to get the tears to flow again, but no matter how hard he tried, all he felt was an all encompassing numbness. He had gained power, but for what? The beast was dead, but that didn't make him feel any better. As the crushing numbness began to flood his mind, Doc felt a familiar tugging sensation that he hadn't felt in years. He shut his eyes, ready for whatever fate awaited him.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in a strangely familiar room. He looked around with glazed over eyes at the shocked faces surrounding him. Five years ago, after he and his brother had awakened as guardians, they had triumphantly entered their first rift, an f ranked rift posing little danger. Neither of them were powerful enough to join the six great guilds, so they had settled on being porters for a small local guild. Riches and fame tempted the brothers, who needed money to support their sister, since their parents passed away when they were young. Now, Doc stood, brotherless and penniless, the only surviving member of a simple f-ranked rift expedition. But alas, his precious contemplation was cut short by the screams of a nearby attendant. Doc looked down and found himself covered in blood and frostbitten across the majority of his body. He walked over to the attendant. The pain was immense, but he didn't really care. Anything to keep him conscious.

"Reporting. F-rank expedition of the City of Impurities has been cleared. I am the sole survivor. Save my compensation to my joint acc-" Suddenly, a ray of hope shone through his heart.

'How could I have forgotten?'

A crazed look came over him. "My sister! Where is my sister?!" The attendant was horrified. A hunter had emerged from the rift, frozen half to death and covered in blood, and now he was yelling about his sister?

"I'm sorry sir, we'll need a second to confirm your report." She looked down at the computer in front of her and began typing in a report. "City of Impurities, you said?" But when she looked back up, he was gone and a trail of blood led out the door. She picked up her phone.

"Assistant Guildmaster? I know I know don't call unless it's important. Listen there was this crazy man who was covered in blood and frostbite saying something about the City of Impurities rift?" After a few seconds, her eyes opened wide in shock. "W- w- where is he now? Uhhhhh. There's a trail of blood out the door that's all I know." She flinched at the screaming from the other line. "You'll handle it yourself? I can always h-"

CLICK

"He hung up on me?"

…

Doc was exhausted. Every muscle in his body was screaming at him to slow down and every wound was nodding in agreement, but he had to find his sister. She was only a few years younger than he and his brother, but she had always been sickly. How stupid they had been to leave their sickly sister at home while they had delved into a rift. Down the street and make a right. Left here then head to the convenience store. Even after all these years, Doc knew the city like the back of his hand. However, that did not stop him from getting constant weird stares and probably more than a few emergency medical calls. But he didn't care. As long as his sister was alive and well, he could finally rest. Up this street. Up the driveway. Doc had used the last of his ice mana to craft a cane that he desperately clung to. He limped his way up the front steps. He had already lost feeling in his left leg and arm from the frostbite. He slammed up against the door and knocked, holding his breath in anticipation.

'Would she even recognize me?' Doc had completely forgotten that, not only had five years passed, but even his hairs and eyes had changed over the years. His heart jumped into his throat as he heard the lock turn on the door.

"Who is it?" The sweet voice of his sister echoed out to him as the door swung open. There she stood, almost the same as five years ago. Her golden hair tied up in a messy bun. Her warm blue eyes and gentle smile. Doc's heart melted as he looked up at her.

"I'm back…." he said as he fell to the floor. The exhaustion of the past five years quickly caught up to him and his consciousness quickly gave out.