The Fallen

The threat of his mental corruption growing was not anything that Malik wanted. He could feel the stabbing pain in his head like something was trying to work its way through his mind.

The resistance seemed to be failing even faster with the addition of these fallen believers. Just their presence was radiating some odd energy that pierced through him.

There was only one way to handle this. Defeat them as soon as possible. Remove the problem without letting it grow.

Moving swiftly using the tiger tribe steps and the shadow wrapping skills, Malik made his way behind the three fallen believers. Their awkward mumbled speech did not make any sense whatsoever. It wasn't even a proper spoken language. More like a child's attempts to speak words.

Not that he cared how they spoke, he knew they were monsters and that they were going to make everything about his situation worse if he didn't handle them. That was why he removed the staff from his second stomach and used elemental weapon creation to coat it in earth making it a sharp spear.

Thrusting the staff made spear forward, he felt that the resistance in the first body of the fallen believer was much weaker than what he expected. As he pulled the spear back, he noticed that very little blood poured out. Like the fallen believer had been slowly drying out. Rooting inside and out.

The fabric that made up the black and gray cloak was also very brittle. It fell apart at the slightest touch. But he had achieved his first kill on a fallen believer. It fell forward and began to turn to dust while the other two spun around and brandishing their claws. Darkness mana gathering on them so that they could attack with more strength.

Not that there was any chance for them to beat Malik. He trained and ingrained the moves of the staff and dagger arts in to his muscles. He easily ducked under the first attack while stabbing forward again toward the second fallen believer. The length of the staff was an advantage he had learned to use whenever he could.

While the second fallen believer collapsed to the ground, the third was still swiping at him furiously. From Malik's point of view, the fallen believer was just throwing a tantrum. Attacking wildly due to surprise. It's mumbling just showing off how wild it was. How far from human that it was.

As he used the staff again to his advantage, he easily pierced forward for the third time and stabbed the monster through its heart. This caused it to immediately slump, a peace coming over it that had not been there before. While it might have been Malik's imagination, he felt that this monster was happy about being stabbed to death.

Before he could take another step, the mumbling of prayer came to Malik's ears again. The pathways around here were full of similar groups of three. All wandering here and there while trying to get wherever they needed. It gave up their location for a perfect sneak attack every single time. It also allowed Malik to train his sneak attacks with both the staff in altered forms and the daggers.

This was a good bonus for the risk he was gaining from the growth of mental corruption. A reason to drive him to fight faster. To use the skills he had more efficiently. The more mana he could use to keep himself focused the better.

Only a few of his opponents could make a sound before they were stabbed in a single strike. The weakness of their bodies after an unknown time of sitting in this dungeon caused too much damage. The darkness mana within them was not their natural affinity it seemed. Causing them to dry rot in an odd way.

Still, over the course of an hour, twenty five of the first fallen believers had been taken out. Malik had easily traveled the winding pathways using the shadow wrapping skill.

"Glance in to the endless abyss. Show us what we do not know."

A single chant rang through the air.

"The corruption grows.'

The guide warned Malik of the growing mental corruption as he felt his entire body shiver. The prayer was clear and not at all broken attempts at language.

As he drew closer to it, he saw a larger figure holding a dead black wood stave. Darkness mana gathered around it and spread to the fallen believers kneeling around it.

'Fallen priest

While capable of only speaking in prayer, the fallen priest is still significantly dangerous. The ability to buff the fallen believers with more potent darkness mana causes this. Align with having sharper mana sense to detect those hiding nearby.

The priest was once a normal living being who had received the blessing of their god. However, as they were forsaken, the faith they held also corrupted them.

The weakening body can still utilize the darkness mana left behind to fill the place of their gods' grace. Since they can do so, they also spread larger debuffs and mental corruption through mysterious measures at a greater rate. Especially through their prayers.

They have lost the ability to move much over the years. Therefore, they are an easy target once the fallen believers defending them have been defeated.

It is recommended that they are dealt with swiftly or else they will pray to the fallen angel for assistance.'

The danger was much more simply because of the buffing and debuffing skills that the fallen priest had. Besides just the mental corruption that would increase with every prayer.

When the prayer was finished, the darkness enveloped all of the fallen believers around the fallen priest. Then, they all turned toward Malik and dashed towards him.

Their speed had doubled which threw Malik off. But he was still faster. That was how he dodged the attacks which left darkness mana in their wake. The darkness mana had condensed significantly on their clawed hands.

One attack missed Malik and hit a dead gray branch causing it to start rotting in to dust right then and there. It wasn't just the monsters here that were turning to dust. It was the dungeon itself rotting in to dust.

"And so shall we be guided in to the darkness with awe and wonder."

Another prayer rang out and the fallen believers sprinted toward Malik with more ferocity. Two swung their claws throwing out blades of darkness mana at him.

The sudden change In attacks forced Malik to slide under the attacks to dodge. Luckily, it brought him in front of two fallen believers.

Earthen ice daggers appeared in his hands as he stabbed in to them. They were not safe from his attacks even though he didn't actively wield a weapon. Mana itself could become his weapon.

As the two fell, Malik leaped over the next trying to attack him. He could feel the chance he had. The fallen priest was arrogant. It did not believe it could be touched right now with the fallen believers in front of it.

That's why he jumped over the next attacker. To put him face to face with the taller, but weaker fallen priest.

Two daggers appeared in his hands, both radiating earth and light manas. Regardless of buffs or debuffs, the light started to interfere with the dark mana skills. The fallen priest could only flinch away as they slashed in a cross motion to carve out its neck.

Without the chance to cry out for the fallen angel, Malik knew he had figured out the major weakness of the fallen priests. They were arrogant. They received that they would not be touched as long as the fallen believers were buffed and defending them.

On the counter to this, the fallen believers were stronger when the fallen priest was using its skills. Now, they had lost that buff and were standing weakened. Perfect easy targets to attack and take down.

Another prayer rang out nearby. The pain in Malik's head increased, but so did his desire to hunt these monsters down. To put them to rest so that they would no longer roam around for the remainder of their existence.

The further that Malik traveled within the fallen feather dungeon, the denser the dead trees became. The pathways also were more well traveled. There were clear marks where fallen believers and fallen priests had been moving in larger groups.

It put Malik on edge since he knew that the fallen priests could detect him. Their mana sense for dark mana was enough to see through the shadow wrapping skill even though he had raised his understanding significantly since he had first learned it.

When he felt another danger, Malik realized he had begun to come up on a large open space. A worn stone platform with broken stone pillars. There was a single broken stone altar at one end.

It was surrounded by three fallen priests in silent prayer, behind them another ten fallen believers with their heads pressed to the stone ground.

Standing in the broken stone altar was one black and gray stained monster. The fallen angel.