Elysium's Multiverse

Chapter 302

Chapter 302

[Insights have been obtained into your Path of Red and Black, and into the inner workings of your class. Blood and Shadow have been incorporated. Death, Infernal, and Unholy have yet to fully incorporate. Sin is now the primary backbone for your soul pillar connections. Sufficient connections between the Shadow and Blood pillars have been established. Soul Lattice is ready to solidify. Do you wish to proceed, or continue expansion?]

Continue expansion.

[Option to delay passage into E-grade has been confirmed. Based on your construction so far, it appears that you are wanting to continue into one of two directions. Please pick so that Elysium may assist you:

• The beginnings of a Secondary Demonic Form and Class, with modification of your current class.

• Dual Souls, allowing you to split yourself into two bodies at once]

This had already been discussed with Gluttony at length. Riven would continue down the warlock’s path and specialize in long ranged casting combat, while Gluttony wanted to pursue a more hands on approach. The current training he’d been given by Lillith and the other demonic instructors back on the 1st floor of the descent were completely based in magical casting, as it’d suited Riven’s style more. He was very gifted with controlling mana and magic, even a prodigy, but his hand to hand combat was thoroughly lacking despite what little training he had gotten. So it made sense that he’d continue down a caster’s path, while his counterpart who had eons of experience in fighting hand to hand would get to take over the other half of things. Neither he nor Gluttony wanted to divide their souls into two separate bodies quite yet, but it may be an option further down the road when they became more powerful. Right now, that could end in tragedy should one of them die without the other present - as it would result in both of them being ended right there and then. Or so Gluttony said.

[You have selected the first option. Secondary Demonic Form and Class are now under construction. To finish these items, please continue to pursue insights within the Abyssal Descent and expand your soul lattice further before going on to E-grade. You will now be given an option for upgrading your Warlock Devastator class.

Please note that E-grade class selection is much different and more impactful than your F-grade class upgrades may have been. Just like how your soul lattice will be the foundation for your future growth in cultivation and expansion of your soul realm, your E-grade class selection will be the foundation of your future specializations - and coming off this path will be far harder to do than it was in the F-grade. Your base class after Level 200 will not be able to be changed without significant setbacks to your cultivation, with most advancements only offering additional titles and divergence paths instead of entire class replacements. Choose wisely.]

• Warlock Soul Singer: The Warlock Soul Singer is a divergence from the path of the class Warlock Devastator. You will lose your on hit bonus damage equal to 1% of your full mana capacity, but instead you will gain the ability to possess enemies. You will also unlock a new skill tree of mental capabilities based on the Unholy Sub-Pillar. You will gain +1 additional demonic minion slot with this class. This class comes with two class traits. Class Trait 1 (Unholy Possession): You may turn into a wraith at will, without mana cost. Possession of enemies can occur, while overpowering them to successfully possess your target depends primarily upon the Willpower stat. Class Trait 2 (Ghost Flight): While in wraith form, you are unable to be targeted by physical attacks and gain a 130% speed boost with the ability to fly, and pass through non-enchanted solid objects, but magic and miracles do additional 25% damage to you.

• Warlock Blood Warrior: The Warlock Blood Warrior is a direct upgrade from the class Warlock Devastator. This class is for those who wish to continue down the path of close combat as a warlock, choosing to center yourself and focus your power inwards instead of outwards. You will acquire a 100% bonus for heavy armor and melee weapons with this class, and it comes with two class traits. Class Trait 1 (Devastator’s Reaping): All physical strikes are naturally imbued with bonus unholy damage equal to 19% of your current total mana pool, not costing any actual mana, with the most passive damage being done at full mana capacity. Killing enemies absorbs their blood and adds a protective layer of blood barrier around your skin that slowly fades over time. Class Trait 2 (Empower Thyself): All body enhancement buffs see a 400% increased effect and cost very little to maintain, but at the cost of halved power output for long ranged offensive spells.

• Warlock of the Malevolent Storm: The Warlock of the Malevolent Storm is a divergence from the path of the class Warlock Devastator. You will lose your on hit bonus damage equal to 1% of your full mana capacity, and will expand upon your most common fighting style of utilizing mana storms. This class further improves your Path of Red and Black, increasing your damage with Blood and Shadow by 20% and reducing casting time dramatically. This class also comes with 1 trait and 2 spell upgrades. Class Trait (Malevolent Storm): When you manipulate your aura to create mana storms while intending to do true harm at high power output, the mana storm expands into a true force of nature without additional input from you. Thunderclouds affiliated with the path of Red and Black will form, creating spontaneous black lightning strikes that tend to target enemies within your domain. Rain will fall from the darkened skies as droplets of needle-sharp blood on your enemies, but will heal your minions. Twisters may form protective bastions around minions and empower them, while cutting through enemy defenses. Lastly, blood frost will take hold on your environment and freeze your surroundings at a far faster pace than it has previously. Spell Upgrade 1 (Bloody Razors → Storm Razors → Gluttonous Storm Razors): All of your Storm Razors will acquire stacking gluttonous afflictions upon impact. This affliction slowly eats away and corrodes your enemy over time as Sin damage unless dispelled, and the affliction can stack. Should you decide to detonate a selected razor, that detonation will burn through the nearby afflictions as fuel for an additional burst of Sin damage. Spell Upgrade 2 (Blood Lance → Sniping Profane Blood Lance → Critical Storm Lance): Your third evolution of blood lances are now wreathed in double the amount of black lightning as they previously were, have twice the flight speed, travel 50% farther when imbued with Snipe, and leave trails of lingering Black and Red storm energy in their flight paths that can strike out at enemies for a short time should they get too close. Chance for armor piercing strikes and critical strike damage are both drastically increased with this evolution.]

Riven gawked. “Are all the E-grade classes this much better!?”

“Of course.” Gluttony said matter of factly with an internal nod, as the two of them went over the text three times in a row. Just to make sure they didn’t miss anything. “Every grade up has a significant power advantage over the previous grade. For F-grade to E-grade, it manifests in the class. That won’t always be the case in the future, but as the notifications tell you - this is setting the base layer for all future class expansions. Once you choose, it will be far harder to walk a different kind of path.”

“And I’m the sole one picking, yeah?”

“That was the agreement. You choose for this class, and I choose once we finish the soul lattice and acquire our second class.”

Riven paused, though he was very excited about the prospects. All of them were amazing, frankly. The soul singer class and possession relied on Willpower, which he had a ton of - and it would give him the ability to fly without using Messenger. Then again he didn’t see himself getting rid of the armor anytime soon so it probably didn’t matter that much, but the 130% speed boost while flying would help tremendously. It also gave him +1 additional demonic minion slot, but he was fine with the current makeup as it was. Narg the beholder was still in a trial run, but it’d taken Riven months to even get that far after the serpent Yattazi had ditched him when she thought he’d been indefinitely incapacitated. That still left a sour taste in Riven’s mouth even to this day, and though he felt no ill will towards the demonic basilisk - he had closed off his walls to an extent. Especially now that everyone knew what and who he was.

The second class was nothing to scoff at either, but had a catch. The Warlock Blood Warrior was 19 times more powerful as a passive when it came to on-contact close quarters combat, and it would have been a great choice if he’d been wanting to stay as a solo-class hybrid. That being said - he was going dual class soon due to Gluttony, and Gluttony preferred close quarters combat himself. So it was kind of redundant, even despite the tremendous boost to power it had at face value.

Meanwhile, the third option was what called to Riven the most. Warlock of the Malevolent Storm was essentially an upgrade to the way he’d been fighting the most in all aspects. His aura creating mana storms, his storm razors he used in swarms to home in on targets, and his high-powered kicker - the sniping blood lance. All three were buffed with this pick, all three were already used nearly every fight. Not only that, but his mana storms when using his aura and raw power would have the ability to heal minions with blood rain and even buff them with twisters - which he was pretty excited to try out. “Minions” even included Genua, which meant that she’d finally be able to participate in battles with some layer of protection outside of her own skillset - which was a worry he’d had for quite some time now as she didn’t respawn like the demons did.

Passive afflictions using the gluttonous razors could stack on high powered opponents over time, slowly eating away at enemies with a slow burn, while the critical storm lances were a needed answer to a two-fold problem. One, he was trying to get to a fighting style that kept him at range per Lillith’s advice - and although his sniping blood lances were great, he wanted something farther if possible. But he hadn’t had anything that could reach beyond that kind of strike’s distance up until now. He also tended to wear down opponents with barrages of attacks rather than clean kills, basically beating them to death by sheer volume of attacks, but critical strikes had the potential to solve that. If he got a critical modifier in the ballpark of 7x the hit of what a blood lance could do, that’d be absolutely crazy powerful. Critical Storm Lances would travel faster, farther when he utilized Snipe by a good margin, and hit far harder - even having trails of energy left over that’d leave obstacles and potential remnant damage to be taken after the fact. If he sent off five, eight, twelve, twenty, fifty, or even a hundred of those lances? That’d be that many more trails of energy that would remain in the path of each snipe that had potential to lash out any passing enemies.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Lots of questions rang through his head as he considered just what the aura storms would look like, but he had to pick it first in order to see.

Which he did.

And he was about to damn well use it as soon as possible too!

[You have selected Warlock of the Malevolent Storm as your new primary class. Congratulations! You have not gained any additional demonic minion slots. 4 of 4 demonic minion slots are in use.

Warlock Devastator’s stat applications have been changed from +3 Strength, +2 Sturdiness, +2 Willpower, +4 Intelligence, +2 Free Stat Points, -5 base Charisma, -1 Charisma per level.

Warlock of the Malevolent Storm now applies +3 Strength, +2 Sturdiness, +2 Willpower, +14 Intelligence, +7 Free Stat Points, -200 base Charisma, -2 Charisma per level.

The Malevolent Storm Class Trait has been acquired, your mana storms and passive aura now conjure true forces of nature to heed your beck and call; buffing any minions within the storm while simultaneously dealing severe damage to opponents. Spell upgrade acquired: Storm Razors have become Gluttonous Storm Razors, adding stacking damage debuffs that can be used for additional burst damage when nearby razors are detonated. Spell upgrade acquired: Sniping Profane Blood Lance has become Critical Storm Lance, adding speed, power, reach, trails of reactive blood and shadow mana, as well as drastically increased chances for piercing and critical hits.

There are no additional item bonuses to be applied for this class.]

***

“Thank god for mana potions!” Riven said, sweating with heavy breaths as he continued to experiment with his critical storm lances one by one - sending them at blinding speed to crash into the far wall ahead of them. Fay would create an illusory target, and he’d nail it a split second later with pinpoint accuracy given how the zoom function on his snipe ability had become better. He downed another blue-colored bottle of liquid, wiped his mouth, and went on for the 8th hour that day as his other minions and friends stared curiously while he worked.

Unfortunately he hadn’t been able to summon his aura’s mana storm quite yet, as that’d probably count as an attack on everyone else in the room - and would doubtless result in his banishment from the descent. Or worse.

Prince Narzkal Rantali waited on the sidelines with his small group of vampires in turn. They were to proceed with Riven as a partner group for the upcoming floor, as told by the previous notification upon entering this particular area:

[Floor 21, The Unholy Throne, is now open to you. As promised, by passing Floor 20, you are now permitted insight into one of your paths. You may mentally connect with The Unholy Throne whenever you deem yourself ready, choosing any single sun of those available here for a free insight; and when all of your party members are done - you may pick another team for a joint operation for Floor 22: Ocean of Wrath. Merely notify Elysium when you are ready to proceed to Floor 22. Elysium will protect you while on this floor, and no harm may come to you or your possessions while here - so as to not disturb your meditation. The majority of identification information will continue to be unavailable until Floor 40.]

“How’d it go, big guy? Get anything cool?” Riven asked when he saw Azmoth get up and lumber their way.

Though it would have been hard to miss. The gigantic armored demon was the size of a god's damned building now, a large one, and the four enormous shengari shields reflected the light of the suns as the brutalisk held them in each of his clawed hands.

If one were to cut a kite shield in half, and put razor-sharp blades on the outer edge of each shield, that’s what you’d get in terms of what a shengari shield was. Riven didn’t know how or why it became a cultural weapon of the brutalisk species, but it was apparently a favorite and he didn’t press the situation despite thinking a warhammer or something like that would be more beneficial.

Riven put the target practice to rest for just a second and looked up with a friendly smile. “Athela won’t tell me why she got the body fusion technique, while Genua and Fay are tight lipped because they want it to be a ‘surprise’ - whatever that means. Kara is embarrassed to show me for some reason, but at least Retesh was forthright. Our lich friend got a trait that allows him to create bones to use for minions out of dirt or rock - pretty nifty in my opinion. He’ll never lack minions, that’s for sure. Narg over there is passed out from exhaustion but he managed to expand his soul lattice twofold. How about you? Don’t tell me you’re going to stiff arm me as well. That wouldn’t be fair if I’m the only one that’s going to show off what I achieved.”

Azmoth knelt, and with a surge of hellfire that erupted like pressurized gas - he and the shields he carried shrank down to normal size. Or more normal size, anyways. He was still far taller than Riven was but at least he wasn’t an absolute behemoth.

“I increase soul lattice like Narg, not get ability like your hoes one and two.” Azmoth said slyly, shooting Athela and Fay a sharp obsidian grin.

Athela took in a sharp gasp and pointed a finger at the brute. “YOU DARE! I am no hoe! Don’t lump me in with Fay! And which one is one, which one is two?”

“You are one. Fay is two. Double breast size means double hoe.”n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

“Shut up, you ugly-looking gorillas!” Fay quipped with a flip of her hair and a humph - clicking her feathered boots together in the act. “Azmoth, the only reason you’re still a virgin is because you can’t get any.”

“I am NOT a gorilla!” Athela declared, aghast yet again and putting a hand up against her chest. Then she winked. “Though I can be for you, babe.”

Azmoth’s two serpentine, eyeless jaws clicked and hissed from where they extended over his wings and back on either side of his spiked obsidian head. “I only a few years old. I not need women for five hundred years. Five hundred years of peace and quiet is what Retesh say! I not mature until then, no offspring until then.”

The lich casually got up, pretending not to have heard, and left before getting dragged into this.

Fay meanwhile glared after the undead caster. “Makes sense considering you have a peanut brain. It correlates.”

“Fay. You say more words, I throw you across room like I did in dragon’s dungeon - punt you like football into one of suns! Riven not protect you! I may not succeed in protecting poor innocent Riven from your groping finger claws, he never wore chastity belt I gave him, but I can always throw again and correct his bad decisions!”

Athela raised an amused eyebrow. Fay grumbled something under her breath, but didn’t retort this time upon the memory of being flung like a tossed ham sandwich across the dungeon chasm.

Riven merely grinned good naturedly, but otherwise didn’t intervene. Even if Azmoth did end up throwing Fay into one of the suns, that was between them. She’d certainly survive a quick dash through as the suns weren’t meant to harm the participants here, she’d just get a little singed is all - or maybe a shock to her system. Despite Fay being one of the two women he loved and one of his three original demons, his minions were close enough that their little jabs and insults with one another were usually friendly and in good fun. And it’d be sort of funny to see Fay get launched again anyways, as long as those suns didn’t burn up all her belongings.

On second thought, he may have to intervene to make sure her grimoire and boots survived should Azmoth actually go ahead and do it.

“Are you guys sure you don’t want to share? Kara? Genua? Fay?” Riven asked for the ump-teenth time.

Kara clutched the bow he’d made for her to her chest and hastily shook her head, avoiding eye contact and even lowering her hood in what he could only assume was embarrassment. Why that was, he had no idea.

Fay giggled. “Nope! Sorry, it’s a surprise for later!”

“Just like what Athela said…” Riven muttered.

Genua on the other hand, reconsidered. She was sitting next to Retesh in a meditative position, hands clasped ahead of her as the headdress of her form-fitting priestess outfit clung to her protruding belly. Red eyes flitted open, and she bobbed her head from side to side before eventually giving way.

“Before this floor and the insights it gave me, my priestess class had a slew of different abilities.” She began, thoughtfully letting the words drift out of her lips at a monotonous pace. “It is a ritualist class and allows me to interface with the blood god’s clergy. There’s even a ranking ladder. Do you remember?”

“I do.” Riven replied. “Though you haven't talked much about it. Honestly all that Blood God stuff I’m not too familiar with, I just know that he gave us both that ability to call on Blood Legionnaires - which are pretty handy; but I don’t know his agenda at all.”

Genua grunted her acknowledgement. “Yes. Aside from Legionaries of the Blood God, I can use Body Fusion to merge myself into other minions or people, Sanguine Smite as an offensive miracle, Blood Oath - which is the brief invincibility I gain by shifting damage to you, Transfusion Zone that heals allies and damages enemies, and Sanguine Possession - which requires ritualistic sacrifice to employ. However, I recently learned that Body Fusion can more or less control a person too… but only in very brief intervals.”

“Seems redundant to have them both.”

“Yes, I’d agree. Which is something that I actually talked to some of the other clergy about over our shared interface. Apparently, the other priests and priestesses were saying that Body Fusion could potentially be used as a poor man’s version of a possession, but it would only work on weak-willed people and comes with a risk of backlash should the soul strike back during the fusion attempt.” Genua shot Athela a stern look, but the demoness merely whistled and ignored the thrall. “While the Sanguine Possession can be used to control stronger opponents for far longer. Still… I’ve never used Sanguine Possession before and as you said - it is still somewhat redundant to have. What I ended up doing with my insight under the Blood sun, was I used the soul fractals for Sanguine Possession and Transfusion Zone - destroying both abilities. I used their energy and remnant patterns to create something else. Something similar but far better, as a passive trait linked to my aura. I no longer have Transfusion Zone or Sanguine Possession fractals, but whenever I flex my aura - it doesn’t require any activation and passively heals anyone I deem as friendly; while passively causing enemies to bleed. I merely need to stand to let them be within my vicinity. My aura trait also grows more powerful the more I sacrifice souls to it, up to once per day.”

Riven paused what he was doing, and lifted his eyes in surprised approval. “Wow. That’s really good! Why didn’t you want to tell me about it?”

“Because I wanted to be what Athela called a ‘Groupie’, by joining in with the not-telling-Riven clause.” Genua replied smugly.

Riven’s eyelids lowered and he gave Athela a shake of the head. “That demon is rubbing off on you Genua. In more ways than one. She’s a terrible influence.”

“Am not a TERRIBLE influence! I am a PRINCESS!” Athela stomped her foot down and harrumphed, before hoisting herself up on all six arachnid limbs that protruded from her back with a flash - letting her hover over him in the air. “And I do what I want.”

“Oh yes, we’re very aware of that.” Riven chuckled, sending a blast of crimson ice her way as she shrieked and - an instant later - was frozen solid. She probably could have dodged if she’d really wanted to, and probably could even break out now, but instead she resorted to muffled screeching from within the ice as Fay dramatically rolled her eyes.

“We probably shouldn’t keep Prince Rantali waiting too much longer, Riven. You’ve been at it with your new spell all day, and he’s been very patient!” Fay sat down in Riven’s lap with a thud, facing him nose to nose, and wrapped her long toned legs around his waist. “Plus I’m very much wanting to finish this descent and get back home. I’m very much missing a cozy bed and the manor right about now!”

Riven grinned, seeing her tail sway back and forth behind her, and put his hands on her hips to draw her just slightly closer. “For reasons?”

“Definitely. For reasons! And you owe Athela and I another date - one for all three of us! Remember!? I hope you’ve been planning something big, because we’re not letting you off the hook that easily. Even if you are ridiculously cute!"

Upon this proclamation, Athela took no time in breaking out of the ice coating she'd been encased in.

"He owes me a solo date as well!" Athela called out, scowling back over her shoulder and prying off more red frost. "And you never came to see my clan in the nether realms! Don't make me remind you again, twirp, but you're having dinner with my mother soon whether you like it or not! You wouldn't BELIEVE the amount of HARRASSMENT the clan gives me over not having had Gluttony's Reincarnation back home to meet the fam already! The Sojavi succubi-incubi clan had their turn, and now it's mine. OK Mr. Big shot!? Plus my brothers are all really excited to meet you after all the stories I've told them, and as a princess - I have a reputation to maintain!