Pandora unchained 2 a cu.., p.70
Pandora Unchained 2: A Cultivation Progression Fantasy, page 70
“Bone-Forging Divine Mission: Destroy the Kepler Clan and extinguish its divine inheritance. Once upon a time, that was feasible, but then the Kepler Clan moved its core membership to Olympia, where dozens of demigods were stationed. Every decade, I resurrect. Every decade, I’m faced with the same hopeless mission.
“The worst part of all this is that the Pandoran Government had every opportunity to alleviate my situation. All it would have taken was a top-tier offering to Hope to free me from my curse. Instead, they let me loose to keep the Source of Corruption distracted, knowing full well that if I was freed, another more valuable divine inheritance would be infiltrated.”
Sorin could sympathize with Melinoë, but he wasn’t about to let her have her way. Moreover, allowing her to talk allowed Sorin to better analyze the situation. “You’ve tied your life and destiny to both the Source of Corruption and the Core of Civilization, thereby forming a bridge between them. Your weak point is, therefore, clear as day.”
“You’re right,” admitted Melinoë. “If you all manage to miraculously destroy the Source of Corruption, I’ll be directly purged from the cycle of reincarnation.”
“Then let’s give it a shot,” said Sorin, stepping up beside Michael. “Michael? I’m going to need you to snap out of it. Your firepower is needed to keep her busy. Charles, I take it your Divine Mission is related to spite and vengeance against the descendants of Hades. Melinoë is your target, then?”
“And here I was hoping to surprise you after taking this bitch down,” said Charles, summoning forth a spider staff that radiated malevolent energy. “That was naturally before she pulled a fast one on us. I’m no longer confident in being able to do so.”
Sorin turned to his companions. “I hope everyone can buy me the time I need.”
“We’ve got your back,” replied Stephan, adopting Arctic Rune Bear form. “Don’t worry about us. Just do your thing.”
“To clarify, what exactly is this thing you’re going to be doing?” asked Faile.
“It’s simple,” said Sorin, stepping toward the Source of Corruption. “That little ball of darkness is a problem. So, I’m going to eat it.”
103
PULLING THE FANGS FROM TIGER
Sorin’s words about eating the source corruption were naturally exaggerated. For one, the sheer amount of energy inside it would cause him to explode. For another, even if he did survive, he would likely succumb to its superior corruption.
That said, there were ways around this problem. If he couldn’t kill the tiger itself, he could always pull its teeth out. As long as the Core of Corruption lost its means to harm Delphi and the Parnassus Region, other issues like Melinoë could slowly be dealt with.
“You think I’ll let you tamper with my hard work?” said Melinoë. Corruption oozed out of the Source of Corruption and poured into her, birthing an endless stream of nightmares that charged at Sorin and company.
Michael was the first to respond and unleashed a salvo of sun-infused arrows. This was quickly followed up by a volley of Fireballs, explosions of light, arrows, and finally, a bear, a barbarian, and a swordsman who charged toward Melinoë without reservation or fear.
With their help, Sorin and Lorimer were able to approach the Source of Corruption and the Core of Civilization. Thanks to their dual divine and corrupt natures, they were able to quickly form a connection.
The first step is analysis. Sorin reached out with Hand of the Twisted Physician and pulled a chunk of energy from each core. The Core of Civilization is mixed with Hope and divinity, as expected. It’s connected to every living being in the province.
The Source of Corruption was more difficult to analyze, as multiple forms of corruption were clearly mixed in. A minority was Madness, and a corresponding equal part was Violence. There’s a mediating agent that occupies most of this corruption and seems to be able to direct it at will. Its goal is to provoke conflict, so the Evil responsible is easily identified. The bulk of this corruption is none other than Strife!
“If you think I’ll let you tamper with my web without interference, you’re dead wrong,” said Melinoë, appearing before Sorin. She cut down with a nightmarish scythe, forcing the man to summon Nemesis to fight back.
Her attack sent Sorin flying despite his greatly empowered body and dual corrupt and divine nature. “Some might call your merger with this core an unfair advantage,” said Sorin.
“Define unfair,” said Melinoë, pulling her scythe back to attack again.
“Unfair is anything that prevents me from winning,” said Sorin with a grin.
Tarnished gold light emerged from Sorin and Lorimer as they activated their corrupt divinity without reservation. The extra boost in power somewhat closed the gap between them and Melinoë and enabled Sorin and Lorimer to land a few direct hits on her body and inject her with poison.
In exchange, they each suffered a painful cut that didn’t so much affect their flesh as their souls. Madness bubbled up inside Sorin and Lorimer but was quickly eaten up by Toxic Metabolism.
“I knew it,” said Melinoë, stepping back warily. “You’re not just a God Seed. You’re actually corrupted. Otherwise, there’s no way you could have withstood all my machinations.
“Why do you side with these inferior individuals? If you left human lands and mingled with intelligent Myths and demons, they’d welcome you with open arms. I should know, because I spent a full lifetime interacting with them.”
“Which is probably how you came up with this plan,” said Sorin, holding out his hand to send out a spray of golden needles. They cut through her field of distortion but, unfortunately, failed to sink into her skin. “I knew you were lying when you said your misfortune couldn’t affect God Seeds.”
“It seems my abilities have hardly any effect on you, but fortunately, I only need to waste your time,” said Melinoë. “Once my nightmares overwhelm your friends, I’ll naturally hold the advantage.”
Sorin nodded. “That’s a good point. I should take more risks.” He hefted Nemesis in spear form and tossed it toward the core and the source, willing it to split apart just before making contact so that it pierced into both objects.
A connection instantly formed between Sorin and the twin cores. Madness and divinity flooded his body. “You really are tainted by Madness,” said Melinoë. “It took me centuries to risk it all with this gambit, but you’ve only been here a few minutes, and you’re already going down the same path as I did.”
“The same path?” said Sorin, launching a fist at the opponent. She dodged but failed to account for Lorimer, who bit into her leg. “My path is one of a kind, Melinoë. Asclepius himself said so, and he doesn’t strike me as a liar.”
Unable to overcome them physically, the woman jumped back and began attacking them with bolts of distortion from a distance. Sorin took the opportunity to take out a glob of Python’s venom and drink it down. Simultaneously, he fed Python’s broken core to Lorimer.
“Trying to break through while fighting me?” said Melinoë. “Naïve. Nightmarish invasion!”
Sorin was immediately pulled into a dreamscape, where he could only feel the faintest connection to his body. Fortunately, it didn’t appear that Lorimer was affected. On that note, did demons even dream?
“Fighting me within my own dreamscape is foolish, Melinoë,” said Sorin. “You’re at a huge disadvantage.”
“But you are distracted. All I have to do is prevent you from successfully assimilating that poison, and victory will be mine.”
Sorin was only loosely aware of what was going on in his body. As predicted, Python’s hundred-poisons and the other poisons in his body were fighting it out. But thanks to the mixed divinity and Hope he’d ingested, his body was receiving steady replenishment. This was fortunate because it was simultaneously being invaded by Madness, Violence, and Strife.
There wasn’t much time for tweaking; he was already drifting off, so Sorin dealt with urgent matters. He rejected Strife and doubled down on absorbing Violence and Madness. Specifically, he targeted the two sub-cores he identified floating within the Source of Corruption. Unlike the Strife-based core, these sub-cores had yet to reach the demigod level.
The sudden influx of Violence and Madness brought Sorin’s mind to the edge, which was made much more difficult by Melinoë’s tampering.
The scene of his parents’ death appeared, and he saw them die before his eyes. They died again and again, every time in a more gruesome and more twisted way. Every time, Sorin was made to relieve the aftermath of their death and treachery from within his family.
I need… I need to focus, thought Sorin, painfully prying himself away from Melinoë’s nightmares. These Cores of Corruption are far too much for me, so I need to split the energy with Lorimer. He redirected two rivers of corruption over to Lorimer, who was already having a difficult time with Python’s core. Scales appeared on his body, then feathers. He grew additional limbs and eyes that rotted away almost instantly.
Sorin was dragged into another memory, one he’d pushed to the back of his mind so that it wouldn’t distract him during his stay in Delphi.
Gabriella was there, as was Marcus. He was placing needles in her bones, one after another. Sorin could have tried stopping him, but his rationality got the better of him. In the end, she’d awakened as a God Seed, but given the situation with Melinoë, he couldn’t help but wonder if she was still herself.
Sorin bit down on his right-hand fingers and used the pain as a guide to escape the nightmare. Focus. Corruption is running rampant inside my body and Lorimer’s, and this problem needs to be taken care of. Madness and Violence are conflicting intensely with my divinity and with themselves. Normally, this would be a good thing, but my vitality isn’t sufficient to sustain this.
Throwing the Divine Bone Rot into the mix was too dangerous, so Sorin drew on the next best thing—a third form of corruption, Strife! If his body could accommodate two forms of corruption, it could accommodate three. Moreover, Strife seemed to have a regulating effect on conflicting forces. As long as he limited the amount, he would be able to use it as a balancing agent.
A larger amount of divinity was required, however, so Sorin simultaneously drew on the Source of Corruption and the Core of Civilization. Strife instantly brought Madness and Violence under control and had them wage war against the perceived enemy, which, fortunately, was still an outside source of energy and caused Sorin much less damage than the conflict between Violence and Madness.
He was about to adjust the ratios when, suddenly, he found himself in a room. Dead bodies littered the floor, and fresh blood pooled on the floor.
He recognized these bodies. They were none other than Astley, Daphne, Gareth, Lawrence, and Stephan. Blade and bite marks covered their bodies, and judging by the damage to the room they were in, they’d confronted him. The result was that everyone except him and Lorimer had perished.
The past isn’t enough, so you’re drawing on my fear of the future, thought Sorin as he regained control once more. The balance between corruption and divinity in his body was gone, forcing Sorin to bring in more foreign energy to counterbalance it.
Surprisingly, the intense conflict had the effect of suppressing Python’s hundred-poison. It seemed almost sentient and aware that standing out right now was a good way to get yourself eliminated. As a result, it was almost completely integrated into Sorin’s poisons.
Several consecutive visions appeared, almost desperate in nature. He saw Elder Calvin, Elder Marik, and the Grand Elder. Each of them was keeping a great secret from him. The only way to discover the truth was to kill them and have Astley channel their souls.
As his dagger fell, blood splashed. He found himself submerged in water. He was no longer human, but a poisonous serpent living in the sea. Not much longer, he thought. Not much longer until I regain enough strength to recast my human shell.
No. Sorin’s vision sharpened. He felt something cracking inside himself. Eater of All had successfully evolved, producing his body’s first hundred-poison. It immediately overwhelmed the two other sources of corruption in his body and their general, Strife, and was about to consume them.
Sorin commanded the poison to halt and conveyed an ultimatum—if it didn’t cooperate, he would destroy it. This new form of corruption was intelligent, and immediately, it set about harvesting large quantities of energy from the Source of Corruption. It would play nicely—for now.
With a breakthrough imminent, Sorin attempted to analyze his body, only to find himself being dragged into another nightmare. “Screw off!” he said, blasting Melinoë back with thousands of golden needles, each laced with his new hundred-poison.
Melinoë let out an ear-piercing shriek and attempted to retreat. Unfortunately, a cage had long been prepared for her, one of sunlight and terrible poison.
“Don’t worry about Melinoë!” shouted Michael. “Me and Charles will take care of her. You take care of the core. It’s getting out of control!”
Sorin looked down and saw that Michael was correct. He quickly identified the cause as Sorin and his company overdrawing on the Core of Civilization. As they were the core’s only Hope, he had been assisting all of them this entire time.
The Core of Civilization is much larger. The best way to treat this imbalance is to withdraw a larger quantity of corruption. That’s perfect because Lorimer still requires a large amount of Strife to balance out his energies.
Sorin pulled once more on the Source of Corruption; this time, he ripped the two sub-cores of Madness and Violence directly out of it, effectively pulling the teeth out of the menacing tiger tampering with Delphi and the Kepler Clan through Melinoë!
Since Melinoë was no longer a threat, Sorin was finally able to use Hand of the Twisted Physician to regulate Lorimer’s body and adjust the ratio of corruption inside it. He then summoned a large number of medicinal seeds and used both corruption and divinity to catalyze them, then used them to increase the quality of his four remaining ten-poisons up to S-Tier.
These two things, in combination, brought his energies to a critical point. Both his divine mana and corruption had reached the peak of what a Bone-Forging cultivator was capable of.
Sorin proceeded to gather both his corruption and his poisons and accumulate them at a single point at the base of his spine, where a hidden space was located. “Gate of Initiation—Open!” All the strength in his body poured into the tiny opening and opened a pocket dimension, pushing his cultivation past the Bone-Forging Realm and into the Flesh-Sanctification Realm.
Relieved that everything had gone according to plan, Sorin prepared to properly open the Gate of Initiation, as this would establish a foundation for the entire Flesh-Sanctification Realm. Though he was ignorant of how to open subsequent gates, it was recorded in the Ten Thousand Poison Canon that only one thing mattered when it came to the Gate of Initiation—Strength.
Yet just as he moved to begin the process, he noticed an unusual fluctuation in the Source of Corruption. The web of corruption enveloping Delphi suddenly retracted into the small core, which then shot into Sorin’s chest.
104
INITIATION
Sorin’s vision darkened. His soul separated from his body and appeared in a desolate hellscape. Everywhere he looked, there was fire, ash, and corpses. Weapons, both old and new, were strewn about an endless battlefield belonging to a war that had been raging since before the Divine Era.
“How interesting.” A pitch-black humanoid in blood-stained armor appeared before Sorin. “Far more interesting than that boring city they assigned me to. Since remaining there won’t do much good any longer, I’ll take this body as a consolation prize.”
Tens of thousands of threads appeared around Sorin. These were karmic threads that tied him to everyone he knew, including his enemies. The pitch-black humanoid plucked a minor thread off of him and placed it on himself. Sorin was immediately faced with the dreadful knowledge that he’d forgotten someone. Likewise, that person had also forgotten him.
“Resisting will only lead to pain,” said the creature. “But I am pressed for time, so I shall offer you a bargain. Should you wield to me, Azrakul, Herald of Strife, I will do my utmost to preserve what positive relationships you have and even nurture them. Conversely, I will crush these individuals should you continue this futile resistance.”
The humanoid didn’t wait for Sorin’s answer and made to pluck another thread, only to pause halfway through, ripping it free. “The remnant of a dead god has no power here. Begone, Asclepius. I have no quarrel with you. Go find another inheritor.”
The landscape shifted as a black-robed man with serpentine eyes and a coiled snake staff appeared. Poison infected the land he stood on, chasing away all negative elements, including the Herald of Strife’s corruption.
“Perhaps if it was someone else, Azrakul, I would do as you say,” said Asclepius. “But this man passed my trial with flying colors and even managed to use my testing poison to break the Divine Bone Seal.”
Azrakul’s head snapped toward Asclepius. “So what if you like him? Every second you manifest is a second lost. Would you forsake your entire lineage for a single individual?”
Azrakul vanished, and so did Asclepius. They reappeared a short distance away from Sorin and clashed multiple times in the blink of an eye. Though the humanoid was on the losing end of each exchange, Asclepius grew a shade paler as a result.
“Sorin, I regret to inform you that I will no longer be able to assist you in inheriting my power,” said Asclepius calmly. “The original plan was to challenge you with multiple puzzles and invest you with increasing amounts of my power, but this creature has disrupted those plans.”
“There you have it, boy,” said Azrakul. “These are the limits of the so-called ancient gods. Once upon a time, they were unrivaled, but now, even a crippled demigod like me has an absolute advantage.”
