The ashen plains of the underworld gave way to a desolate, sprawling expanse christened as the Crucible of Woe; a labyrinth of despair where the scarred terrain bore witness to the infernal influence of the Demonic Order. Here, skeletal trees stretched their gnarled branches towards a blood-red sky in silent, eternal agony, and the air was thick with the oppressive weight of malice.
In this grim tableau, Yopi plodded ahead, his ancient, worn visage a mask of inscrutable contemplation, the soft "Mmmm" that passed his lips occasionally the only indicator of his thoughts. Steam exuded rhythmically from his nostrils, seeping into the heavy air like spectral serpents coiling around his being.
Close behind came Elliu, a picture of incongruent innocence amidst the backdrop of desolation. Her small stature bobbed along, a never-ending rotation of enchanted sweets found their way to her mouth, carried by fingers daubed with an otherworldly residue.
Arrogant and strutting as if the hellscape were his palace, Gyun led a pair of hellhounds by leashes wrought from the weeping of willows damned to eternal sorrow. Their sinewy forms slinked with a hunger that spoke of things best left unvoiced. The reek of brimstone clung to them, a perfume of the dominion they roamed.
"Anyone wanna tell me why the hell I HAVE TO hold these damn dogs?!"
Zan replied, "Because the Monarch's asked you to. Remember why we're doing this."
"Yeah yeah for more power and shit like that even though we're contracted by members of the Order."
"It'll be different once we're fully a part of the Order. We want this to survive. The Hall of the Fallen is somewhere I don't wanna go."
"Tch. I guess."
"Always gotta keep you in check don't I?"
"I told you to stop worrying about me."
Following closely, Zan padded beside Gyun, his bear visage a mix of weariness and resignation. The weight of the bond he shared with Gyun could be sensed in every step, a connection forged in the fires of childhood and tempered in the countless battles they had faced side-by-side.
As they walked, the group traversed a landscape that bore the mark of the Demonic Order's dominion. Where their influence spread, obsidian fortresses spiked the horizons, and rivers ran thick with alchemical potions, the spillage from excessive concoctions created within the walls - sordid gifts that both ravaged and revitalized the land.
"I wonder though," mused Gyun with a smirk to nobody in particular, "if these hellhounds would track Elma better with a whiff of celestial cologne instead of this dull sackcloth from Gunjo's pathetic form."
Elliu, courted by drowsiness, offered a morsel of her enchanted sweets to one of the hounds, "Here….puppy, you look ...like you could use something other than mortal terror….to munch on."
"Hey little brat, don't feed them anything!" Gyun snapped with an exasperated guffaw. "Last thing we need is a demonic hellhound on a sugar high. Can you fathom the indigestion? The nightmares it would birth? Both hilarious and horrifying! The bastard is gonna shit out zombie brains or something."
"Zombie…brains..?" Elliu tilted her head.
The group passed by a field where the Order's magic had coaxed grotesque flora into existence; plants that sang lamentations and bore fruit that whispered secrets best left unlearned. Even here, there was a wicked kind of prosperity - a testimony to the complex machinations at play in the Order's grand design.
"Seriously, these hounds could sniff out a lie in the court of falsehoods," Gyun bragged, tugging at the leashes as the demons snarled at the ethereal mix of scents. "Heard they were the best trackers in all the forsaken realms."
"Perhaps," Zan rumbled with quiet respect for the creatures, "but it's the mission that matters, not just the tools we wield to achieve it."
Elliu tried once more to feed the growling hellhounds, her hand insistently reaching out with a chunk of sugared dough. Gyun intercepted with a swift motion, casting the treat into the air where it was incinerated by a passing ember sprite, "Elliu, you're driving me to consider accidental fratricide. Can you not?"
"But…it won't..hurt them…I had one..before…"
"Think I care if you had a rat puppy when you were tiny? Wait, you still are."
"…That's not nice."
The air crackled with a dark tension as the two stood facing off, Elliu's eyes narrowed in indignance and Gyun's face twisted in a bemused challenge. Elliu's aura swirled with lilac shadows while Gyun's pulsed with an emerald glow that threatened to engulf them both.
It was then that Zan stepped forward, his massive form a solid barrier between them. He shook his massive head, sending vibrations through the earth, "We have a mission to complete, and it's neither the time nor the place for this folly."
Their auras simmered down, obedience to the mission their threadbare common ground. The hounds, sensing the dissipation of aggression, returned to sniffing the ground and the sackcloth—a reminder of the quarry they were bound to chase.
As they traversed deeper into the evolving horrors forged by the Demonic Order's touch, Zan's stern words lingered - a mantra to drive them onward through an underworld that could both nurture and lay waste to all that dared to tread upon its cursed soil.
Gyun rolled his eyes exaggeratedly and huffed, "Alright alright, whatever you say," his words dripping with a blend of sarcasm and feigned deference.
Without another warning, Gyun's demeanor shifted from irritation to aggression as he conjured a large, demonic wrecking ball, affixed to the end of an otherworldly chain. With a grunt of effort tinged with dark delight, he swung the weapon in an expansive arc aimed directly at Elliu.
Zan, having anticipated such a juvenile outburst, merely shook his head, his silence speaking volumes about his assessment of Gyun's antics.
Elliu reacted with a nonchalance that belied the gravity of the situation, a conversation burgeoning within her between her and her inner contracted demon. "Looks like we're up then," she murmured, eyes narrowing as her tail bristled with preternatural energy, sharp barbs ready to lash out in kind.
Gyun smirked, "Oh now you speak normal? The kid gloves are coming off then."
The tension was split by the sudden appearance of a Raven perched within the nearby skeletal canopy. Its obsidian gaze held an intelligence that was offsetting, a silent observer biding its time among the twisted boughs of the demon woods.
"Mmmm…" Yopi hummed, emitting a grunt as he took off in pursuit. With his bone weapon in hand, his figure blurred through the twisted grove, every step deliberate, a silent hunter amidst the chaos.
As Yopi dashed through the woods, his path was arrayed with the menacing beauty of the underworld's botanical life. Dark vines writhed like serpents around petrified branches, while carnivorous blooms exhaled seductive perfumes, designed to lure the unwary into their lethal clutches.
Gyun, momentarily distracted by Yopi's charge, laughed, "The hell is his issue?"
Elliu, still focused on the inner demon with whom she shared a pact, let her connection deepen, a surge of eldritch energy coiled within her petite frame. "Don't….underestimate me…or my partner," she warned Gyun, her voice a hissing undertone.
"Stop telling me what to do!"
The wrecking ball swung back, tracing deadly patterns in the sulfurous air, but Elliu was ready.
The Raven, now the object of Yopi's relentless chase, took wing with a scornful caw. It weaved between malformed trunks and thorny thickets, a cryptic meaning in its path that only the wisest or most cursed could decipher.
Gyun's eyes remained locked on Elliu, who stood defiant, her spiky tail a pendulum of impending violence.
"Focus, Gyun!" chided Zan, the words rumbling from his throat. "Your quarrel can wait. The Raven might be the key!"
'Our mission is to capture Elma and Gunjo. And those ravens are lurking. It's been following us for the past few minutes, looking at all of us. I studied it for awhile now, and it's best to take action now.'
Yopi's pursuit was relentless. He would break through thickets, his ancient strength unfaltering, every explosive motion driving him closer to the elusive Raven whose very presence seemed a taunt to their mission.
As the chase deepened into the heart of the demon woods, twisted roots clawed at Yopi's feet, but he parried each with a warrior's precision, his weapon cleaving through both wood and air alike.
Elliu's tail uncoiled swiftly, a blur of motion that intercepted the wrecking ball's descent, the clashing forces erupting with a burst of dark magic that scattered the nearby smaller demons that had gathered to witness the conflict.
With a final, lunging effort, Yopi hurled his bone weapon like a javelin, the deadly implement spinning through the air, a beacon of his singular intent.
The Raven, sensing its peril, tried to evade, its flight a dance of life and death. But it was no match for Yopi's determination. The bone weapon pierced the bird in a fleeting, visceral spectacle, its faded squawk a mere echo in the pulse of the underworld.
Breathless with exertion, Yopi reclaimed his weapon, the Raven lifeless and defeated. The chase was over, the fluttering of dark wings silenced under the weight of Yopi's victory.
Gyun ceased his attack, the wrecking ball dissipating into the miasma of the underworld, amusement rippling across his features.
"Alright, I'm done. I'm ready to kill Elma and That brat Gunjo. I can't wait to see him in his skeleton form when he was just a brutish demon lord."
Zan responded, "No killing. We continue to track the scent, we find them and capture them alive. Gunjo will be easy for the taking. If the demons were using Elma to create elixirs for them, she'll probably have traps set, just like that Raven, some kind of spy."
Elliu asked, "How do you know….it's hers..?"
"The ravens here look different than the ones on earth I've heard. Ours are more drastic looking, while—."
Gyun interrupted, "—While theirs look all dark and neat and pretty. Lucky."
"I say all of this to say watch your surroundings and be cautious. If that Raven was listening in, then she knows we're coming. But since we have contracts with demons from the Order, we can use that small fraction of power they gave us to walk through the witches' schemes. She still won't stand a chance, but that doesn't mean she won't be prepared."
Zan looked at Yopi, saying, "Use one of the hellhounds to sniff the feathers of the Raven to see if there are any others around. And Gyun will use the other hellhound to continue tracking down Elma and Gunjo using the sackcloth."
Gyun pouted, "Ughh. Why do you keep giving me orders like you're the leader or something?"
"I'm much more capable of running this Band of Hellsong to victory."
Elliu chomped on a piece of food she was eating, and asked, "What…can I do..?"
Zan answered, "Just stick with me, watch our backs."
"Okay.."
The group, mission still at the forefront, regrouped after the brief but intense diversion. They wordlessly acknowledged Yopi's triumph, the atmosphere lighter, the Raven's demise an ominous sign they were on the correct path. Each member felt a renewed sense of focus, their collective sights set once again on the elusive Elma.
…
Back at Elma's cave, Sevyn was holding Kahlel by the throat, choking her, "Don't be in love with Gunjo. He hates you. I hate you. He's my husband already. Why let you in to ruin things?"
"He doesn't! Let me go!"
"He told me he hates you."
"ACK! Y-You're just lying now!"
"Guess it's not working."
"Let me be a concubine! The only way for me to be his wife like you is to be accepted by you, right?! Let me prove it—! AGHH!"
"You are a succubus. You make things fall for you. By force and nasty magic."
"N-Not true! Sometimes! But it depends on the will of someone! And Gunjo has a perfect…perfect strong will—…"
Sevyn choked her more.
Kahlel continued, "AGH! OKAY! I'M SORRY!"
'I'll prove it to her! She'll accept me! Damn feen. She's been like this ever since we were little. Always possessive and following Gunjo around.'
In the back, Elma's chamber was a shadowed nexus, bathed in stygian hues and the whispers of dark enchantments. Here, the witch communed with her corvid familiars, their collective consciousness meshing with her own through an arcane ritual known only to her.
Her palms began to sweat, saying, "No…they found it…I was sure it was hidden…how were they able to see it? Unless…something else saw it for them…"
The walls themselves seemed to pulsate with an inky energy, a constant thrum that resonated with the beating of a thousand wings. A single flame alit upon her table, its red and black flickers casting grotesque shadows that danced upon the dark tapestries adorning her gloom-laden lair.
Around Elma, her ravens soared in a maddened caliber of formation, their caws melding into a cacophonous tempest, their bodies a whirlwind of feathers and fervor.
The rushing wind of wings filled the room, a relentless gale that set the various occult trinkets and jars of indistinct, writhing specimens aflutter.
In the midst of this orchestrated chaos, the shape of a spirit coalesced within the flames she had conjured. A spectrum of red and black fire framed it, the manifestation of a Raven's spirit - a specter of her bidding.
Elma, her gaze piercing through the stark darkness like shards of obsidian, was undisturbed by the crescendo of noise. She stood statuesque—a paragon of focus and indomitable will.
Suddenly, the flock swirled faster, their forms blurring into a vortex of avian fury. The air itself felt electrified, charged with the potential of impending doom.
The flame guttered, and from it emerged a large Raven, its form massive and spectral, protruding from the incendiary gateway. "You did this to me…" it intoned, its voice a guttural echo of betrayal and rage.
The room shook, the cacophony intensified, as every Raven in the flock mirrored the spirit's animosity, their eyes glowing with baleful light.
The spirit Raven charged, a shadowy juggernaut intent on vengeance, born from the very magic that once gave it purpose under Elma's command.
But Elma, walking forward calmly, her silhouette cutting through the pandemonium unfazed, extended her finger towards the tumultuous bird.
With a softly uttered, "I'm sorry," the air stilled around her digit, a poetic pause in the midst of chaos.
And then... the Raven exploded in a silent implosion of black shadow, a mess dispersed by an unseen force, the echoes of its anguish dissipating with it.
The flock of real Ravens ceased their cyclone at once, and the spirit apparitions within the flame extinguished spontaneously, leaving a quiet so stark it throbbed in Elma's ears.
In the sudden silence, Elma stood alone, her chamber cleansed of kinetic fury - only the single, serene, and solitary figure remained, the absolute power of her will imprinted in the once turmoil-filled room.
Her eyes closed momentarily as she inhaled the purified quietude, letting the weight of her actions and the necessary cruelty of her dominion sink into the recesses of her being.
As she exhaled, the vibrant glow returned to the room, signifying her control was absolute, her magic bound to the dark will that commanded both raven and spirit to bow to her designs.
With a flick of her hand, the blackened remnants of the spirit Raven coalesced back into the flame, no longer an entity of vengeance but a wisp of power returning to its mistress.
'The repercussions of dark magic..similar to the visions I was getting on earth…they're more vivid in hell.'
Elma walked out, and she was where Sevyn and Kahlel were, and Sevyn asked, "What was all of that noise? Where is Gunjo?"
Kahlel asked, "Elma! Tell this brute to let me go!"
Sevyn let her go immediately, saying, "I wasn't even choking you."
Elma took a deep breath, the scenes that unfolded before her with the ravens took a huge toll on her mentally.
"The Demonic Order," she whispered, as if invoking the words alone could conjure their oppressive specter, "is not one to be trifled with. And yet, here we are, meddling in affairs that twist the very fabrics of our souls." She gestured to the extinguished spot where the Raven's shadow had been obliterated. "That creature, a mere shadow of its former self, met its fate by my hand... but it is a fate I've narrowly avoided time and again." "The Demonic Order... they have eyes and ears in realms beyond our own, overseeing hell with an iron grip that suffocates as much as it sustains," she continued, her voice carrying the weight of years of oppression. She cast a glance at Sevyn and Kahlel as she delved deeper into her explanation. "The dark magic that flows through these veins," Elma marked a hand over her heart, "is a deviant force, one cultivated from hell's own ichor... and it demands a heavy toll. You see," Elma spoke slowly, deliberately, "when a human consorts with forces of hell, as I have, the very essence of foreign power within this plane becomes a beacon... a beacon to those who would seek to snuff it out. To command dark magic in hell, you must forge a pact with the darkness itself - acceptance of their supremacy, an acknowledgment of their... jurisdiction over the fabric of your spirit, in which witches have to sacrifice for that power" she elucidated, her hands weaving through the air, as if to draw the very concept for her audience to see. The Order allows us to practice this magic, feeding from it like parasites to a host... but the moment you falter," Elma paused, a shudder momentarily overtaking her, "they are ready to claim what's theirs. The Raven's case..it was an overreach, a culmination of hunger for power and an underestimation of the Order's reach. As a conjurer of shadow, I've been watched, always... and sometimes, punished due to the consequences of using such magic. Being her amplified the consequences by ten, but the rules were set back when I was in earth about how the repercussions would be shown by dabbling into such sorcery. The infernal magic, the rituals, the Ravens... all come with repercussions that are swift and merciless. Practice the dark arts, and you weave a web, one where every strand vibrates with the promise of peril." Elma's hands clutched in the air, her knuckles turning white. "Every incantation, every creature summoned from the abyss, and every specter eradicated," she said, "becomes a stitch in the fabric of a cloak that cloaks me... a cloak made of both power and danger." With a slow, deliberate pace, she traced the outline of an illusory tapestry in the air – her intricate web of machinations. "The Raven's return to the flame, the explosive undoing of the spirit... it's but the symphony of hell's inviolable laws." "The Demonic Order, in their almighty arrogance, dictates the sway of power. A sway I'm forced to dance with," she confessed, the hint of scorn barely concealed. "They assert themselves not through direct force... No, they enact subtlety, a nudge here, a whisper there... an explosive end for an errant familiar," Elma indicated the now-clear room.
Kahlel said, "Elma…"
"In the pursuit of supremacy, in the seduction of power, we must maneuver within their game – a game as old as the inferno itself. We are but pieces upon this demonic chessboard," she said, the ambience of the room seeming to cling to her every word.
Sevyn asked, "Where's Gunjo?"
Kahlel screeched at Sevyn, "WERE YOU NOT LISTENING?!!!"
Sevyn tilted her head, "Oh. She's the human that was cast down here to repay her debts. The Demon's Elixir, they call you."
Elma replied, "Yes that's right."
Sevyn walked up to Elma, put her hand on her shoulder, saying, "If Gunjo trusts you, I trust you. You help him, I help you."
"He's the key to my freedom. Yes he's not as strong as before, but he's growing with an unknown power. Back on earth, the young kids would call it some sort of leveling. That's all I would hear from the gamers, I wasn't too indulged in it, feels like it was a reason why I kept hearing it, I don't know. But Gunjo is…in danger. But he has Yamato and Yaien with him. The band of Hellsong, beings who are hunting me and Gunjo, they're tracking him."
Sevyn and Elma gasped, "Send us."
"It's dangerous. The Hellsong are pretty strong, and it's just you two. And you can't sneak up on them or use an elixir of invisibility, because they'll see it somehow."
Sevyn clenched her fists, "I wanna be there for Gunjo. Like I always have. Send us."
Kahlel grinned, thinking, 'Yes! Send us! Send us so I can show how strong I am in front of Gunjo! Guess I'll save that mean guy Yamato and that loud rabbit Yaien.'
Elma said, "Hunting the hunters is your main objective, I advise you two set up a direct plan, because they aren't what they seem. Gunjo and the others went to grab ingredients for an elixir I have."
Sevyn replied, "Okay."
Kahlel asked Elma, "Where do we start?"
…..
On the shore of the Blood Ocean, Gunjo's bones were slowly compiling together.
'I'm alive….? I was out..out cold..like It's been years, but I can tell…it has only been around an hour or so based on the patterns of the sky….Is the Umibozu that beat me still around..? To r Five Thrones…? I bet they laughed when I lost…fucking bastards. Usually my skeleton would regroup back together again after a few seconds, but this time it was longer.'
[System notification: 2 Side quests available. Main Quest now active again: Kill the Umibozu]
[Lives Remaining : 3]
Gunjo stood up, his white hair on his Skeleton head waving in the breeze of the Ocean, he saw the Umibozu sitting back in the water with its large shadow black form and hollow eyes, looking right at Gunjo.
'So that's what it is…huh? It's like this system stalker thing wants me to beat this bastard..3 lives..and then that's it? Crazy. But at this rate, I can't fight the Umibozu, it's too strong. How can I level up from here? What about Yamato and Yaien? Why do I have to listen to this system thing? Can't I just go around..?'
[Getting through the Umibozu is the shortest way to your destination. The long way takes approximately four to five days to reach.]
'FOUR DAYS?! Dude. That's too long. I have to get this done as quickly as possible.'
[System notification: 2 side quests available. Rewards : XP and skill points.]
Gunjo looked at the system window, saying, "Okay..let's run it back then."