C100: Arrival at the Abandoned World, Vision
Overall Word count = 2144 on 6/18/2024.
(Wahoo, chapter 100 folks. Thanks to everyone for sticking with this story for so long and this includes to anyone who reaches this point in the future)
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After setting down both Han and Serenity, he returned back to the very spot where he had met the child assassin/Little Hassan. The caravan cart and corpses had already been cleaned up in the past 3 days. Axel once again took off running into the distance. He resumed his travels to the South East but this time around he actually kept to his word and during both lunch and dinner, he would return home to eat with them.
Near the end of the day, Axel began to see some sort of building in the distance. It appears to be some sort of properly structured wall, Granted, based on the appearance of it, It had long been run down with various holes throughout this wall. Axel understands that this was the border to the 'Abandoned World'. A land of a formerly unknown kingdom that had mysteriously been destroyed within a single day.
The sense of anticipation palpitates within Axel but the sun has fallen down and he must fulfill his marital duties to the various ladies begging for his affection. As such, he captures the current environment around him into his heart so that he can travel back here later when he resumes his journey.
(omitting 1369 words with Raikou and both oni twins barging in)
In the morning, Axel proceeded to have breakfast with his familia before returning to where he left off. It only takes him about an hour before he arrives at the ruined ancient walls he saw last night. The walls are far more decrepit than he even thought. Granted Axel can see some sort of runes embedded into the stones. That is what allowed it to remain standing as otherwise it should have collapsed from the massive earthquake a few days ago.
After a bit of study, he was able to determine that the runes here function like reinforcement magic except fully focused on defense. There is also a smaller secondary rune for energy gathering which is how it remained working. Yet the widespread ruin of the wall still paints a story. Granted it's a strange story as only up to a mile past the wall is where the desert ends.
Axel falls under the assumption that the ruined parts of the wall were spots that didn't hold the defense rune but instead were holding off the desert. Something or someone must have broken them to allow the desert to spread. Of course this should have happened a long time ago, long before Axel arrived at Orario based on how far the desert has spread.
After studying the wall some more to support his potential hypothesis, he had lunch and then finally went past the wall to soon exit the desert. He was officially in EtiaKith (OC name for abandoned World).
The land is a bit more tropical than he expected, the area is still as hot as the desert but he can at least tell that it has rained recently. The land first starts out as grasslands but quickly develops into a forest with a variety of trees. Though later it transforms into purely palm trees that are scattered around.
With no human interaction, the palm trees are primarily looping around themselves or bent over weirdly due to not having any sort of brace against strong winds and storms during their early development time (2-3 months). Overall, the land appears to be completely natural with no signs of civilization. From what Axel had read or heard, the country 'disappeared' roughly a decade ago.
EtiaKith was more of a recluse country and rarely did trade with others, as such, when it was destroyed, it was a while before anyone noticed. EtiaKith never bothered to show hostility to others unless they tried to invade their home. According to known geography, Much more further south is a lake called the Great Gulf. It's a massive freshwater lake that stretches into multiple rivers to supply water to other cities and even their neighboring country. Granted this country was Lakrios, an ancient existence and the primary trade partner with EtiaKith.
Axel continues much further and soon encounters what looks like a hole where a river was. He can see the arrangement of natural pebbles which is the primary indicator that there was a river here. His only confusion is why did it just…stop here. He investigated the region and found traces of a city. He makes the rational thought that the city had created a barrier to contain the water here for their usage before it was all destroyed. Yet this is where his confusion arises.
If everything about this city or village was destroyed, then the water would have been freed to flow however it wanted. The only plausible option would have been if the water itself was drained. To figure this out, he begins to trail alongside the former river's path.
His quick walk is interrupted when he finds an anomaly. The situation at hand is that there is another 'path' that connects to the river. If this was the dungeon then he would have assumed that the dungeon worm had been here due to the long tunneling style. This separate path appears as if something came by and was crushing everything in it's way before it arrived at the river. Looking around this separate path, he eventually tosses aside a thick rock to find some sort of jelly under it. This jelly looks rubbery and reddish pink in color which was how he noticed it. He summons a nen stick and pokes the jelly to find that it is very soft due to how easily the stick poked into it when Axel was barely using any force.
Axel believes that some sort of monster had dragged itself here and potentially was shedding. While shedding, it would have consumed the water and maybe that is why the village was destroyed. For research purposes, he collects a bit of the jelly into a thick jar that would prevent it from escaping. Naturally this jar was made out of nen. The jelly shows no reaction to his nen and thus he considers it harmless.
Axel begins to walk along the path of whatever monster this was as it might be a clue to whatever caused the earthquake. His walk on the path appears to be fruitless for the next few hours until the ground under him begins to crack and break apart into a sort of tunnel collapse. He assumes that he must have been walking over a basement entrance or some sort of well. It would have been no problem for him but when he stepped forward, his foot got stuck within the slightly collapsing rock and right under it was a deluge of jelly.
His foot, which was coated with the single layer of gluttony, comes in contact with the jelly.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
Axel quickly throws his head back in agony as thick purple veins sprout on his leg. He quickly channels wrath energy to blast the rocks around his feet away and boost away. Flying away for over 20 ft, he enters the fetal position as he grips his knee. Starting from his foot, all the way to just below the knee have the thick purple veins extended. They got this far in less than a second. Spreading much further if he was exposed to it longer.
His body thrashes around as it tries to expel the filth he accidentally absorbed. As a response to the viscous sludge entering his body, he falls temporarily unconscious. A blessing and nightmare in disguise.
Within his nap, he bears two dreams. The first of which showcases the life of a young boy who grows into a man as he bears a fearsome power. The ability to control vectors. Raised within a profound technological city known as Academy City. He had all his life been hounded by others for his unique esper ability that lists him as the number 1 esper. He had lived a strange life, growing more twisted as he went before he was invited to join an experiment that would possibly allow him to reach a new height with his power. This required him to kill clones of the number 2 esper. This continued until he was beaten by some random unpowered guy who kept punching him in the face with his left hand as if he was a common person. His defeat signaled a turn in his fate as well as the end of the experiment. Though the clones remained and he would become their guardian even if he found it annoying.
He would get injured to protect the 'leader' of the clones, this would forever limit his ability power. Yet this very limit was the key to his growth. With a timer upon his powers, he was forced to use it more sparingly and efficiently, until he went mad and awakened a new power. The hypothesized Level 6. His limits once more removed and enhanced beyond all reason. Vector wings that take the appearance of dust clouds circling his back.
At first he had lost his mind when he used his powers but the clone leader helped him recover, he would later grow further and further, continuing his current lifestyle as a ruinous guardian. .
Yes, Axel had awakened the memories and abilities of his Ninth soul fragment, that of Accelerator [1].
After Axel awakened his latest fragment and power, he fell under the effect of the second dream. This one is far more terrifying, he takes on the form of a strange creature as it fights and devours countless creatures. As this vision is purely in first person, he has no understanding of his own appearance. Yet what remains obvious to him is that throughout all the various visions of this creature, he remains invincible. The endless hunger torments Axel's mind. The entire environment is always blurry to him, so Axel is never sure if he is actually moving except with the scents he picks up. This constantly leads him to the next fight and the one after that.
Hunger, Growth, Hunger, Growth. An endless fighting cycle until he seems to escape whatever prison had been holding him until now. His path from then was much easier as he fought against hordes of weaker creatures, though the hunger lessened greatly as a result.
The nightmare seemed to only lessen when Axel witnessed the fight against a blurry figure that wielded a sword alongside a rapidly moving cloudy figure. Axel recognized that both of these beings are threats to him and thus he had lashed out with his full force. Yet Axel soon learned that whatever being Axel possessed had truly met its match. The fight lasted a long time before the creature finally devoured the cloud figure that had been manipulating the very wind to create cuts on it's body. He also tore off the arm of the swordsman that pierced it's body multiple times that inflicted pain upon Axel . As if to announce its victory, he had roared in triumph, but that instead gave his enemy the single moment the swordsman needed to channel his full power before it swung once.
In the next moment Axel was blinded in one eye and its triumph turned into pain and agony, in his reckless charge, he had gotten injured a few more times but they were minor injuries before Axel finally finished off the swordsman.
After the seemingly world ending battle, Axel retreated to a far away place to rest and recover. Who knows how long later, It returned to the place of battle and it found countless creatures that resembled the swordsman in shape and technique. His rage was reignited and he ran and rampaged, his breathe annihilating all life it could find until the land known as EtiaKith was no more. Simply becoming it's nest.
What Axel heard and saw next was the source of true despair.
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[1] I have personally watched the entire first season of a Certain Magical Index/Scientific Railgun/Accelerator. Though I attempted to watch the second season of Index, I stopped halfway due to the boredom of watching Touma. This means I have slightly limited info on how Accelerator's powers work due to even the fandom wiki not properly explaining his power or how it evolves at the end of accelerator. I could probably find more info on reddit or something but ill just homebrew it instead.
Tell me what you think of this chapter or guess what is the 'Jelly' and the source of the nightmares that Axel is roleplaying through.