I leapt through the air, using my legs to perform a dropkick on a large, corrupted wolf, the force of the blow landing on its head, killing it instantly. I needed to learn some martial arts, but the power of the Star borne primate bloodline not only gave me increased strength and speed, but an instinctually fighting capability. This of course could be greatly improved through training.
"Know of any monsters that know martial arts?" I asked the lord slime.
"That's one of the dumbest questions I've ever heard, but maybe. One of these worlds may be a world of martial combat, and the monsters there would suit your purpose. But it will take a long time before you leave this place. You will need to learn how to fly or walk across space."
"Fly? There are no creatures in that dead sky, how will I grow wings?" I didn't even entertain the idea of walking across space yet.
I could feel the consciousness of this creature rest in mine, like a fish, or slime in this case, swimming in a tank. It would take a while to get used to.
"*sigh* Can't you figure out anything? I'm not going to tell you everything or help you every time you struggle, okay? I'm just here for the ride, kid. I really don't know much."
The slime was apparently going to be useless. I struggled to complain, given the massive leap of strength, I could now fight with ferocity, and coupled with my regeneration it made me a true powerhouse overnight. I had no known reputation, and stayed very quiet and careful to be out of trouble. The groups that run this plane of existence are strong, clearly having some level of cultivation. A concept I had only just recently learned about.
While I was "Killed" a few times, it was not a beheading, and I was able to regenerate each time. Each time making me a little more frightful. Who knew that flower would change my fate so much?
I decided to think a little for myself, something I always hated doing.
Almost all creatures down here were terribly corrupt. Normal animals and beasts became disgusting, massive, disproportionate, ugly, mutated versions of themselves. There must be a beast or two out there that will suit my needs if I search correctly.
The food here is dried of blood, as it is corrupt, only jerky and the very rare loaf of bread or sack of grain were edible. That night, I decided I would need help either way. It was about time I take my revenge on this world, with the three major tribes to be the first of my targets. They are no doubt the holders of the majority of this world's information.
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That night, I dreamt I was a massive creature. An ape made of stars, whose tail contained the power of one exploding. A tail swipe went out, and armies of warriors crumbled like dust. A fist smashed into the ground and the earth split apart.
I was once a great king, who once had a great kingdom. Then I was a mad king, who waged war on his people. In the end, As a flash of gold ended me, I cursed the gods that controlled my entire life. In the next, I swore they would face my fury.
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When I opened my eyes, the sky was completely lacking all life. A simple red gradient. A glow came from behind the red curtain. I could faintly sense the stars, and I could almost sense the worlds above, the worlds across, and the worlds below.
"What is there above me?" I inquired to the resident in my mind.
"A better place than this, hopefully. I wouldn't know until we saw it. If you fly up far enough, you should get there, probably."
"Probably?"
"Yeah, probably. This system is like a tree, with the worlds here going in a hierarchy. They lay upon each other, and some branch off into different paths. I will tell you that there are 81 in total, and we are likely very far from the top. You could maybe dig down if you find a drill." The star lord mocked.
"And any world that isn't directly above or below will require me to pierce the void, I assume." I put my hand on my chin.
"That's right, Little star, Good work! You're a genius!" The mocking was truly incessant.
I needed a pair of wings. Or a drill. I needed beast's blood. With this assumption in mind, I leaped upwards and climbed a mountain in a few minutes that would have taken hours before this transformation. My eyesight was now fantastic in comparison, with a clear view of a few hundred kilo meters.
It was nearly all barren blood. Off in the distance, there was a church of plague.
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"The humans came from below, the depths of darkness. Inside man there was once a flame, it burned and burned, igniting our soul. We were given power, we were given ambition, we quickly spread across the lands of far like a virus. We quickly overwhelmed the beasts that ran native in all lands. We quickly became the dominant and truest lifeforms. Perfect beings of disease!" A preacher with a plague doctor's mask spoke sermon with a religious fervor.
The audience contained acolytes of plague, who wore simple black robes. Their faces all covered with large hoods. The disease in them was evident, from the grotesque limbs and flies buzzing about.
One of the members was a small humanoid figure, with no clear disfigurement.
"Ahhh, the time has come; I need to act now." The humanoid was a male, who named himself "Ordin".
He eyed the vial on the Preaching madman's belt. It was a cure. It was a very strong healing potion, made specially from the corrupted blood of the land. Like taking yin out of yang. He suddenly stood up, gripping a knife tightly in his sweating palm, he suddenly lunged forward.
"Pfhahaha" the preacher laughed and shot out a breath of poison. He may not know it, but he was a beginning Mage, or Qi cultivator. This power contained the natural energy of the world, and poor little Ordin barely dodged before he was surrounded and captured.
The preacher grabbed the vial, "You wanted this, didn't you?" spoken with derision and a cruel smile, "Who? Who was it you wanted to save? family? A lover? Hahahaha, little child, I have always sought to defile that body of yours, that perfectly ordinary body, which should not be."
As the preacher moved towards, Ordin's eyes began to shine with a light flame, and a fairly sinister smile on his lips. His hand regained a knife, a knife of flickering flame. He spun his body, with no effort the flickering flames sliced through the surrounding cultists.
His blade cleanly cut through another breath of poison that the leader had shot out.
The preacher stumbled backwards, stupefied. He was moments upon death. The vial was still intact, having fallen to the ground, completely forgotten by the preacher.
"Such a waste of ability, you Diseased cultist could be such a salvation to this land, yet you keep only inspire terror."
Ordin sighed and walked forward, just as he swung the flaming knife downwards, a glowing ape-like man fell through the roof, smashing the vial.
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I landed right on the roof, perfectly. Or so I'd like to say, but the wood broke immediately, and I fell straight through, landing hard on some glass vial. Some melted corpses made the place smell terrible, and a very ordinary-looking boy with a flaming blade had stabbed a plague doctor through, it appears.
It seems a lot was going on.
I got up and looked at the boy, he looked straight at me. Clearly responsible for the murder of these cultists.
"What's going o- "
"AHHHHHHHHHHH" the boy screamed madly, "You broke the fucking vial! Do you have any idea how hard that is to come by, how much time I spent in this creepy cult, months of effort and- " The boy suddenly stopped and sighed deeply.
Moments passed in silence.
He took a look at me and seemed to deduce I was no member of the diseased. "Why have you done this, ape-man." He spoke coldly and gave quite a murderous glare.
"First off," I spoke hesitantly, looking at the still flaming blade in his hands, "I'm sorry, brother." I scraped the broken glass off of my back, "You needed this?"
"Yes, I needed that." He responded angrily.
"Was it important?"
"Very." He was getting angrier.
"What did you need it for?"
"I needed it to save my wife, she's been injured, and only these diseased have healing methods in this gods-forsaken place."
"Your wife? Take me to her, I am a known doctor, I can save her." I spoke righteously. Patting my chest my iron-like resolve.
His eyes flashed with suspicion, but even more clear was hope. It seemed this boy was desperate at this point.
"You are no doctor."
I thought for a moment, looking around. I grabbed a knife on the ground and stabbed it through my hand. It dented. The boy's eyes shot up in surprise. I decided to use my fangs to bite my hand. It caused bite marks, which healed instantly.
I have always had this ability. Even cutting off a finger, it would grow back in a few days. My only fear was decapitation. Luckily this had not occurred. My healing ability, according to the star man in my mind, was the power of "Asuric blood". When asked, he continues to feign ignorance, or merely deflects the question. He was incredibly useless.
This regenerative ability had increased too when I was transformed.
Eyes shining like bonfires, he quickly urged, "Incredible, can you heal others like that?"
I never have before, but I wasn't going to tell him that. "Of course, I can, but tell me of that flaming magic you used earlier."
"Oh that's…. a little difficult to explain." He muttered, "I was born in a special place. A place with many people like me. We call ourselves Cultivators…" he said with a low voice and eyed me curiously.
I nodded slowly, "I understand. We beasts carry some memories in our blood. I have heard of them before, but I am surprised to see some here."
A smile appeared on Ordin's face, and all suspicion was dropped. "Right, we have a few beasts down there as well. In fact, my wife is one herself. She often has memories of the past in the form of dreams. If you can really heal my wife, I will do whatever I can to help you. I would be indebted to you for life."
"Hahaha, that all sounds nice. Now lead the way, I'll do what I can." I laughed jovially, pushing the situation along.
"Thank you. Uhhh, what may I call you?"
"Little Star is fine."
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Ordin quickly led the way, almost running. Through a hidden path in some mountains, deeper down underground, he led me to his village. It appeared to be an excavated area of space.
Massive bones lay on display, in the grounds, and the walls. Skulls decorate lamp posts and in the center of the village lay a series of tombs on display.
A lot of bones. A lot of death.
A question couldn't help but escape my throat, "Are you guys Necr…. Worshippers of the dead?"
"Oh, yeah, I thought it might scare you away," Ordin revealed a bashful expression, "But don't worry, we are friendly beings, much different from that despicable Diseased cult or maddened Blood Horde."
"My power of flames comes from our ancestor of fire, over there," Ordin pointed to one of the tombs in the middle of the village, "it is nothing to be afraid of, it is what they want. To give us strength, so we may one day retake the sky."
I silently nodded, not judging openly. Inwardly though, I was already quite eager to leave the village. This was my first encounter with the Necrolites. They were notoriously hard to find, and I now knew why. As I walked through the village, I noted the residents. Mostly humans, wearing dark clothing. Many wore skulls as helmets and carried weapons made of bone. The beasts all appeared to be overwhelmingly calm, some rotting, some completely skeletal.
Most were staring at me like a piece of gold to take.
Finally, we entered the house. It contained similar bonelike decorum and fit the theme well. Laying on a large bed in the back, was a putrid rotting being. A corpse, by all means.
Yet it breathed. It heaved painfully, it struggled to move at all. Skin flaying and bones poking out at some places. Ordin rushes up to the creature and gives it comfort.
"I went a little bit overboard; my darling is far too ill now. She was not fully taken by my death spell, and now lives in this sorry in-between state," the boy spoke gently, and his eyes were full of innocence.
"Please, heal her. Whatever you can do, I will be grateful."
I looked at the boy. His innocence in my mind squandered immensely. I moved toward the corpse, which looked me in the eyes. I could understand well what it was asking me to do.
I bit open my vein and dropped the blood on the half-living creature. It was an experiment of sorts. I had no clue what would happen. As I dropped some blood on its mouth, a change occurred.
Half-Dead became living again, and the corpse first repaired its skin. This took a minute or so, in which Ordin continued expressing shock and joy. Next came the hair, the fine details and features of the body came last. A nude woman with red hair appeared before us, tall and slender, powerful aura emanating.
Her legs were bird-like from the knee down with a pair of sharp talons, and a massive pair of wings sprouted from her back.
A Harpy.