Rise of the Devourer

Book 2: Chapter 52 — A Castle Tour

Noah looked around the castle, finding it covered in slimy black overgrowth that gave the place a horrifying alien look straight out of a lovecraftian book. Bulbous masses moved, and throbbed, tendrils covering the area as void mana overflowed through the surface. Voidlings jumped through the shadows, scuttering about within the darkness.

“Jeez, this place looks awful,” Noah said, watching Zax’s expression darken.

“The vermin have taken far too many liberties, tainting our home as they please,” he said, lightning crackling around him as he talked, eradicating groups of voidlings and the pulsating growths covering the castle as he walked.

The dragon scanned his surroundings, taking in the now burning tendril masses where he stood, before he looked at Noah. “The Shard you seek is likely within the central halls. We could take you there right now, but your friends have some time yet before they arrive. What do you intend to do?”

Noah thought over the question. “Ordinarily I’d love to go in by myself and see what happens, but I think this time, I’d like to wait till everyone is here.”

Zax gave him a nod. “In that case, we would like to clean this place. The overgrowth is repulsive and taints the legacy Ryugan has left behind for us to protect. If you’d like, there are three grafted horrors in the next chamber, which may keep you and your familiar entertained.”

Bun Bun’s ears perked up at Zax’s words, and Noah glanced at the flying dragonspawn. Silent words were exchanged between the two of them, before Noah nodded to Zax. “Leave it to us.”

The dragon walked ahead, magic swirling around him in an impressive display as he systematically began to eradicate the overgrowth. Noah walked across the division in the hallway, making his way to the chamber he’d been pointed at. After a little bit of walking, he found what he was looking for.

[Blood Grafted Horror - level 131]

[Abyssal Grafted Horror - lvl ??]

[Soul Grafted Horror - lvl ??]

Noah saw the creatures, sitting across the arena. The blood horror was similar to the first one he’d fought, with limbs upon limbs stitched together in a coalesced mass of bodies that made a deep revulsion rise from within him.

The Abyssal horror was similar, but instead of limbs, dark tendrils and void ooze covered the creature, binding itself in a ball of tendrils and limbs that moved around blindly through the chamber, looking for anything to eat.

Yet, it was the last horror that really made Noah’s skin crawl. The ghastly spectre danced around the chamber, shrieking with faces of screaming people moving in and out of reality as they phased through its body. The creature tore through anything it found reaching out with its spectral limbs to crush any voidlings and other abyssal monsters before consuming them.

Nothing moved close to the soul grafted horror, keeping a good distance away from it. He glanced at Bun Bun, the dragonspawn ready to test out his new abilities on some proper targets.

“Wanna make it a competition?” Noah asked, glancing at Bun Bun.

The dragonspawn looked up at him in confusion. “How?”

“The blood one is 5 points, abyssal one 10, and soul one 20. All the other little ones are 1 point each. Whoever has the most points wins.”

Bun Bun looked at the chamber, before giving a nod.

Noah grinned alongside the dragonspawn, summoning his spear in his hands. “On three then.”

Taking a stance, he began the count. “Three, two, one, start.”

Noah blinked inside the chamber, skewering a voidling on his spear as he cut through another with claws that forms on his palms. Bun Bun moved through the area like lightning half a dozen voidlings exploded in crackles.

The larger creatures looked at the two, shrieking and howling as every monster in the chamber turned towards them and began to attack.

“Slow,” Bun Bun sent to Noah, who saw the dragonspawn grin back at him.

“You little- you’re not winning this easily,” Noah said, as Tony flowed throughout his body, transforming him.

Abyssal Symbiote has used Metamorphosis!

All attributes increased by 25%!

Noah threw his spear, piercing through a line of voidlings in a go before harvesting them with Celestial Harvest. One of the larger horrors turned towards Noah, and he moved, facing the creature. The blood horror shrieked, lunging at Noah with its body twisting as it formed blades of bones. Noah teleported, moving above the creature as the spear appeared in his hand. With a rapid plunge, he sunk the weapon into the monster, before activated Netherflame Burst.

Black fire burst inside the monster’s body as the horror let out a howl. Noah let Bloodfly swarm burst out, cutting and slashing through the monster’s body and applying bleed upon it. It’s natural healing abilities struggled to bear through the various attacks, and Noah activated Blood Debt.

Giant swords of blood mana formed above the creature, stabbing it multiple times, piercing through its body and leaving it a hollowed husk.

Noah jumped off the corpse, taking a second to remember just how differently this fight had gone when he had first arrived in this world. A smile came upon his face as he looked back around himself and saw Bun Bun taking care of the Abyssal grafted horror at rapid speeds.

Feeling metamorphosis ticking, Noah turned towards the final foe. The soul grafted monster swirled through the area, picking up pieces of every soul of the now dead monsters. Noah jumped as the elongated amalgamation leapt towards him, before gulping down the soul of the recently killed blood grafted horror.

Noah watched the soul amalgamation changing shape, growing in size as limbs burst forth from it, giving it a red sheen. With a blink, he moved towards the creature, stabbing his spear into it, but found the weapon simple passing through. The soul horror turned to Noah, grabbing him in his hands as its many faces began to dig in. Noah felt their attacks phase through his body, and go directly towards his soul.

A terrifying feeling shook him to the core, as he felt his soul being bitten into by the creature, but the panic subsided as his training kicked in. Noah burst a pulse of mana into the monster, as the creature’s faces bloated before popping like fleshy balloons. He layered his spear in Obliterate, letting the mana coat every inch before he struck the monster with the weapon.

The physical form went through the creature as it reeled, but the mana broke apart chunks of its soul as Noah began to dig into the creature. The soul grafted horror shrieked, reeling back, as it pulled back the hand it had sent inside Noah’s chest. In it, he saw a doll that looked just like him formed in the monster’s hands. With a slash, the monster cut the doll, and Noah found himself on the ground. A giant gash covered his chest, bleeding all over, almost like his body had somehow been convinced that he had been injured and changed its shape to mimic the injury.

Noah looked at the creature grabbing at the doll’s head and he felt his body freeze under the magic.

Lightning shot through the creature, tearing it apart as Bun Bun went through the creature’s body, as the doll in its hand broke apart into misty pieces. Noah leapt up, ignoring the gash in his chest as he struck. Obliterate cut dark pieces out of the monster, as netherflames tore through its soul body, eating at them. Shrieks and howls came from the amalgamations of many faces as Noah’s flames continued to burn it alive with each strike he delivered.

Bun Bun moved around zapping like bolts of lightning at speeds Noah struggled to follow, tearing chunks of the beast out. Piece by piece the amalgamation was whittled down, and Noah grabbed at a pulsing ghastly heart.

Tony slowly retreated from Noah’s body as he returned to his human form.

Looking at the organ, Noah began to press his fingers in to crush the thing when Tony shivered, sending him an idea.

Noah paused, considering the thought. A moment later, he activated his new perk, as chains formed around his forearms. Slowly, they moved out, binding around the heart. Noah felt his mana flow into the heart, changing it. A symbol formed upon the still beating heart, as the color within it changed.

A new notification appeared.

[Spectral Heart (Rare)]

A heart made of souls, capable of binding spirits upon itself, it is now bound to your command. The spectral heart can be used in necromancy to create a bound Revenant soldier, to imprison the soul of whoever you may wish to capture.

Noah looked at the heart in disgust, throwing it inside of his Dimensional Pocket. He inspected his chest, noticing the injuries mostly gone, but his health was still not back to full. His Lifeblood did not seem to be working on the injury, almost as if his body had not quite registered that he was injured yet.

Bun Bun walked up to him, glancing up and putting a paw at his leg.

“Hurt?”

“Not much, I’ll heal soon,” Noah said, smiling at the concern shown by Bun Bun. “Guess you won this round.”

The dragonspawn flapped his ears around, looking pleased. A moment later, his eyes went back to Noah. “Draw. We both got same.”

“Draw then,” Noah said, laughing. Picking up Bun Bun, he continued through the chamber, trying to see if there was anything else around. Walking through the corridors, the two of them continued to pulverise any other voidlings that appeared through the area.

While passing by what looked like a life engraved with a giant magical circle, Noah heard a whimper.

“The girl is nearby,” Bun Bun informed him a moment later, and Noah began to listen carefully.

Moving in the direction of the sound, Noah walked towards the elevator, before noticing the wall behind the giant circular contraption to not be as rigid as he’d been led to believe. With an obliterate coated punch, Noah broke through the wall, to find a corridor filled with a disgusting stench.

A creature shrieked at him, lunging and Noah shot his spear through the monster before he could even see what it was. After stepping back, Noah noticed the monster to be a filthy giant rat, with its body rotting away in pieces.

[Zombie Rat - lvl 68]

“Zombies?” Noah said, glancing further in, before he walked through the corridor. More rats swarmed him as Noah continued to dispatch them one by one, finding the stench growing stronger the further he moved.

Reaching in through an entrance into a chamber, he found the source of the sound.

Opening a beautifully carved wardrobe, Noah found Snow inside, bundled around herself and hugging her legs, with scars marking her body.

“No! Get out!” Snow screamed, jumping back at the light.

“Snow, it’s me. Noah. Calm down,” Noah said, holding her shoulders.

It took her a few seconds before her eyes settled to the brightness, finally noticing who she’d been found by.

“N-Noah?” she whimpered, looking at him in disbelief.

“Yeah, it’s me. What happened?” Noah asked.

Snow stared at him, before down at herself. A moment later, tears broke from her eyes, as she collapsed into his arms.

Noah caught her, noticing the wounds on her back, now festering with a green color, similar to what he’d seen on the zombie rats.

“Shit,” Noah cursed, glancing back before he poured all his mana into Blink.

The world around him changed, as he appeared behind the dragon with a pop.

“Zax, this is one of my friends but she’s hurt. Zombie rats. Can you help her?” Noah asked, holding out Snow to her.

The dragon turned, looking at him in surprise. “Zombies?” he said, his voice ice cold.

“Yeah, rats. A lot of them,” Noah replied.

Zax cursed to himself as lightning burst all around the dragon, before his eyes went to the girl.

“Come with me,” he said, and turned, walking down the hallway.

Noah followed the dragon, walking through a series of illusionary walls, and gates that broke under the dragon’s touch.

“Stand here and keep your hand on me through the spell,” Zax instructed, standing on a giant magical circle.

Noah nodded, putting one hand on Zax’s shoulder.

The dragon’s eyes turned blue, a vast amount of mana pouring out of him, and a moment later, the world twisted around Noah.

With a startle, Noah looked at the chamber he now stood in, a giant dome like arena filled with items that oozed mana and energy. Entire piles of gold, jewels and other objects remained here, and the location made a single thing come to his mind. A dragon’s hoarde.

“Bring the girl here,” Zax said, walking them through the chamber, before he showed Noah a small pool of green water. “Put her in there.”

“Will she be fine? Won’t she drown?” he asked, worried.

“This is life-essence. She can’t drown in this even if she tried,” Zax replied.

Accepting the dragon’s words he slowly lowered Snow in the water, submerging her under it. Immediately, he began to see the girl’s wounds starting to heal.

“Maybe add a handful to yourself, that soul injury does not look pleasant,” Zax added, pointing at Noah’s chest.

“Ah, sure,” Noah said, taking a small amount of the green water before he put it upon his chest. Within a moment, he felt a rapid surge go through his body, as his injuries began to knit themselves closed within a second.

Noah shook with the energy pulsing through his body, the strong release of euphoria making him nearly collapse and run mindlessly into the pool. It took him a few moments of breathing to shake the feeling off, yet the memory of the sensation still made him shiver.

“This is why we did not plan to bring you here. Indebted as we are, this place turns even the most good natured people greedy. We’ve seen it far too often,” Zax said, looking down at the still shivering Noah.

“Y-yeah… I can feel that,” Noah said, slowly pushing the idea of killing Zax and stealing the entire pool and everything else in here out of his mind, one breath at a time.

“I’m shocked that Bun Bun hasn’t jumped in yet, or Tony,” Noah said, feeling both his familiars sitting calmly. Almost too calmly.

“We put a mind blank spell on them. Apologies for not telling you, but your familiars going rogue would not have been conductive,” Zax said.

“I see. That’s fine,” Noah replied, before his eyes scanned the chamber.

“So, what is this place?” he asked the dragon.

“This is mine and Ryugan’s vault. We have stored many of the things we collected over the centuries in this place,” Zax replied, his expression turning soft at the memory.

“That’s a lot of artifacts. Can I look through them? I saw the guild’s legendary artifact vault and this thing makes that place look like a toy store,” Noah replied.

Zax looked at Noah, assessing him for a moment. “You seem to be in control of yourself. Feel free, but do not try to take anything without telling us. It is both for your benefit and ours. Some things remain here simply because leaving them out in the world would do too much harm.”

“Got it. Don’t take anything,” Noah said, before looking at the giant pile of artifacts waiting in front of him.

That was going to be a difficult promise to keep.

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