Elysium's Multiverse-Chapter 344

Elysium's Multiverse-Chapter 344

Chapter 344
Chapter 344
Luke’s nephew? What was he doing here?
Was Ren a cultist?
Riven’s eyes widened in recognition at the name and a flurry of questions came to the forefront of his mind, but there was a simultaneous flurry of actions he had to respond to before he could voice such questions.
Ren’s lips silently moved, and a strange and alien presence filled the land all around them - bathing Riven’s senses in a power he’d only sensed a handful of times.
The air around him flash-froze in a split second, forming an intricate cage of icy chains that constricted to try and capture Riven in the next moment. The human-sized snowflakes rotating around the high elf glowed a bright white and sent out a beam of ice shards each the size of Riven’s arm, splitting the air with a hiss of sound and leaving trails of snow in their wake.
Riven raised an eyebrow, watching with enhanced E-grade cognition as if the incoming high-speed attacks were only traveling at a snail’s pace.
Hell’s Armor burst across his body in a roar of heat, engulfing him in flames and black obsidian plates. The constricting chains slapped onto him a fraction of a second later and were eradicated, but Riven felt a far denser energy coming from the collective beams of ice shards hurling out from the snowflakes.
Riven was unsure why he had the foreboding and ominous feeling while staring at those beams, but he decided to trust his intuition and didn’t meet it head on. Instead, Riven created a large rift in space.
The black tear forced itself open immediately and opened the other end out behind him, and covered Riven’s entire body from harm as the ice was redirected.
Brilliant concussive flashes of pale light were accompanied by earth-shaking explosions and a deep bone-chilling cold. The breath from Riven’s mouth began to frost as he exhaled, and without looking back - huge chunks of ice shrapnel began raining down around him.
He flippantly smacked one away from hitting him while maintaining eye contact with the high elf, and the glow of his red eyes narrowed from underneath the hell flames coating his body. “That’s not actually mana. Is it?”
CRACK
Ren’s body moved so fast that it would have looked like it was teleporting to anyone else watching on the walls of the city, but to Riven it was merely quick.
Not as quick as him.
Ren’s ice-coated arm blurred forward as he cleared the distance with insane momentum and slammed it into Riven’s body, the high elf’s eyes widening in surprise through the shockwave of hissing steam produced from the collision of fire and ice. His wrist was being held by Riven’s right hand, and Riven hadn’t even moved.
“I don’t usually play up close anymore.” Riven said, smiling through the fire and letting out a low chuckle. “But I’ve been trained in close combat regardless. I think Luke would be rather mad at me if I killed you though. So let’s play your way without my more lethal kit, I’ve been dying to test out my hand to hand combat skills anyways since the Abyssal Descent training.”
Riven’s free hand smashed into Ren’s lower jaw, shattering teeth and sending the elf across the field in a straight line like a comet.
The trees in his way cracked like twigs, only for Ren to come to a complete and abrupt stop when Riven ripped through space to appear behind him with a downwards kick.
BOOM
The earth shattered, sending rubble and dirt skywards to reveal a crater with Ren in the middle of it. Riven took just a half-second to make sure he’d not killed the other young man outright, before grinning like a madman and cackling as a lightning-fast flying kick shattered the air right in front of Riven’s face after he’d leaned back.
“What was the plan?” Riven asked casually, blurring right and blocking Ren’s ice-empowered kicks, punches and strikes in a flurry that defied what a normal human body should be able to do. Each hit that connected caused shockwaves of fire and ice to erupt in the air between them. “You really thought you could kill me? You’re not even on the APEX ranking list, and even many of those I consider weak. Why and how are you even here?”
Ren’s face was stern but he seemed relatively uninjured given the bone-crunching strike Riven had delivered to him only moments ago. “Honor dictates that I destroy the monster that created an abomination out of my loved one. Luke was a good man, he deserved better than to be turned into a thrall!”
“Luke didn’t seem to mind so much when I pitched him the idea.”
“Shut your filthy fanged mouth, blood sucker!” The elf hissed.”
A vicious spinning flip-kick connected with Riven’s crossed arms and sent his body sliding across the ground for fifty yards or more, though he remained upright and on the icy ground.
Twin flails created from an alloy of ice and steel suddenly appeared in Ren’s hands, and with a blur he spun the two weapons before rocketing back towards Riven with a face rapidly interchanging between stoicism and fury.
Riven traded blows with the other man and his weapons, slapping aside the tornado of spiked balls and kicks with quick strikes to Ren’s gut, chest, and face repeatedly. Just at a guess, Riven placed Ren somewhere around level 190 - so by Panu standards the man certainly was near the top. It just wasn’t enough if he truly intended to kill Riven, the man’s attacks were barely leaving a scratch - and Riven was very much betting that the beams Ren had sent out from those massive snowflakes he’d originally conjured were probably his most powerful attack.
“I have the power of a god residing within me!” Ren snarled, his long blonde hair flowing in the cold winds as a gale of ice began to turn into a full blown tornado. “I will show my uncle and the world that you are not all people think you to be! You will die by my hand, and I will use your blood to reverse my uncle’s state of being!”
SWAT-CLAP-BAM-WHOOSH-CLACK
“Yeah I don’t think it works like that…” Riven muttered, twisting and dodging mid-air, teleporting behind Ren and snap-thrusting his palm into the elf’s back with a savage blow that cracked ribs. “Pretty sure he’s a thrall for good now. But he’s not someone different than who he used to be. I don’t see why you’re so angry.”
Ren spun and snarled, ignoring the obvious pain as best he could - but the wincing gave away just how hard Riven had hit him. He staggered forward, falling to one knee as energy began racing out along his blood vessels in intermittent patches. “YOU DID NOT KNOW HIM LIKE I DID! YOU CHANGED HIM, VAMPIRE SCUM!”
Riven blurred backwards to avoid another sweeping dual-strike from the maces as they sent out a shockwave of raw energy that flash-froze many of the plants that had been thus far spared in their duel. He sighed and scratched his head, still aflame and thinking of how to put into words what he was thinking. “This situation both puzzles me and frustrates me. How did you get into this event? Are you a cultist or not? And if so, for which apocalypse beast?”
Ren’s eyes began to burn with silver-blue light, and he took in a deep breath of air as he rapidly absorbed all the frost from their surroundings. “JUDGEMENT’S OMEN I BESEACH THEE, CALL DOWN THE TUNDRA GOD AND RESTORE FAITH TO THE NON-BELIEVERS!”
“Nonbelievers? What the fuck are you…” Riven paused, eyebrows raising as a massive, no - a gargantuan titanic woman created from ice appeared in the sky above them. She had no arms, only wings, and she had a single large eye across her otherwise pretty face. The enormous ice sculpture turned the entire plains into a tundra within seconds, pouring out ice and snow in massive quantities that berated the shielded city as the onlookers began to scream.
“Your call is heard, and deliverance is nigh.” The gigantic winged woman cyclops thing said in a melodic voice, before its eye began to constrict - and it focused directly on Riven’s position.
Was this a baby god being manifested? Like the one that Prophet had been praying to back when Riven was still having dealings in Greenstalk Village? So that’s what Ren had meant.
Then the sky parted, and down from somewhere far above and deep into space itself - a pillar of frost split the atmosphere to crash into Riven’s body like the spear of a god.
Ren’s eyes began to cry blood as he dropped to one knee and gasped, but he began to cackle amidst the blizzard that was dissipating just as quickly as the woman had done after her attack. It was a crazed, mad laugh, and he began to cough violently as he got to his feet to stare where Riven had been not long ago. “OBLITERATION! The goddess has delivered you with divine justice, and I will KEEP hunting you down here until I find you on Panu itself - where I can-”
CRUNCH
Riven’s fiery hand smashed through Ren’s ribcage, lung, and grasped his heart.
The elf gasped in shock and pain, staring down at his still-beating organ as Riven gripped his heart through the man’s chest to hold it out in front of him.
“Guess Luke’s going to be mad at me. But hey! At least it’s not permanent right?!” Riven leaned forward, grinning through the fire and red eyes glowing brilliantly even through the fire’s glow. In his other hand, he held the cultist hood with the symbol of Neckra, the Skeletal Devourer, emblazoned on the top.
“I’m sure we’ll meet again after you respawn!” Riven chuckled, ripping his arm out of Ren’s back with a violent twist and kicking the man forward onto his front. “Don’t keep me waiting too long! It’d be somewhat disappointing…”
Ren was beginning to convulse, dying quickly as he glared up at Riven through bloody and gritted teeth. His words were raspy and came out as gasps. “C-curse your bloodline and kin, m-monster!”
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Riven snorted, took a bite out of Ren’s heart, and tossed it to slap-bounce across Ren’s head before it rested in the dirt beside him. “Well if you ever feel like just talking instead of, you know, trying to unleash a world-ending beast on the planet - then I’m always open to it out of respect for Luke. Otherwise… I’ll see you in hell.”
Riven smiled, and with that - he lifted his foot and stomped down onto Ren’s skull - splattering the man’s brains and killing the cultist in an instant. Overall, Riven wasn’t very impressed with the young man. To come at Riven like that from a place of hiding and to go all out only to barely scratch Riven’s robes was all around pathetic, but then again he’d also come out of the descent far more powerful than he’d been back on Panu before. If Ren HAD been given information about Riven’s strength before attacking, then the information was certainly outdated. But even with that said, Riven was sure he’d have been able to defeat Ren before the delve into the abyss too. Riven hadn’t even had weapons or armor aside from the cloak Athela had made him for his last birthday, and he’d not called on any of his minions - or even his magic outside of riftwalk and hell’s armor. He could have snapped Ren in half with mere thought if he’d wanted to, but the hand to hand combat was kind of fun.
Maybe he should have been a pugilist?
Riven thought about it for a moment, then shook his head.
Nah. No chance.
Still, the fight had been interesting in another way too. Those energies that Ren had been producing weren’t stamina based or mana based, bu they were based in Faith energy; otherwise known as divinity. Riven had only ever seen Luke and Genua use divinity as forms of attacking, and though he often thought of Genua’s attacks as ‘mana’ - truth be told she was using not spells - but miracles.
Why did this matter?
In some ways it didn’t, but in other ways… Well, one of the things Riven noticed was that he couldn’t cleanse his body of the ice divinity nearly as quickly as he could mana. Nor could he contest Ren’s control on his ice divinity, whereas he’d probably have been able to influence the man’s ice attacks to some extent if they’d been mana-based. Something to make note of for future reference if he ever encountered an enemy truly powerful who practiced in the arts of divinity… though they were rare, miracle casters were a different breed entirely that Riven wasn’t too familiar with. They were also unpredictable from what Athela said, as they could sometimes punch above their weight class by calling on gods or goddesses they served in exchange for life force or longevity.
Truly he’d come so far, but still had so much more to learn about this ‘system’.
Grimacing at the frost-covered forest, and the dome, and the livestock far out in the fields that’d been frozen solid in their scuffle - Riven felt a little bit bad for the people of this city. He’d unintentionally brought them misfortune when attempting only to help.
Perhaps the soldiers and civilians here would see it differently though? Perhaps they’d see that he’d fought off another cultist that was bothering them in the vicinity of their lands, and maybe they’d even help him without any more fuss!
Yeah. They’d definitely be grateful for his show and the asskicking he’d delivered to yet another cultist bastard! There was no way they wouldn’t be happy about the outcome. Definitely. He hoped.
***
Sunlight filtered through multi-colored glass windows in the middle of the citadel’s assembly and meeting hall. It appeared that although these people had identifiers that could label him as MYTHIC and see his combat level, none of them seemed to be able to pierce the veil of his class title - or his Gluttonous incarnation title. He wondered if this was because he’d now gone into the E-grade and they were all F-grades, if it was because he had simply developed some sort of resistance to being identified during his recent ascension, or if they were simply weak. He hoped it was the second option, but regardless these people didn’t know who or what he truly was.
It was kind of nice.
“ALL of the livestock!? ALL OF THE CROPS!?” The rather obese governor gasped, severe distress painting itself across his face as one of the assistants began to outwardly cry. “WE’LL STARVE! WE’RE GOING TO FUCKING STARVE!”
The captain of the guard who’d first talked to Riven before the fight ensued deeply frowned, but remained in her kneeling position and nodded along. “Yes, governor. I’m afraid that unless we triple the hunting and foraging parties, it’s very likely many of us will die within the coming month now that the cultists have seen fit to freeze everything in the outer city’s perimeter.”
The obese man sitting on a very large cushy chair squealed his rage and shook his fists to the sky, before taking a large wine bottle in what was essentially a cup holder built into the chair - and he downed the entire bottle in five solid swigs.
Riven stood two parts amused and one part uncomfortable for his part to play in all this, waiting in the middle of the greeting hall as people along either side of the hall murmured and groaned to one another about their serious case of bad luck. Many even gave him hostile glares despite the captain’s , and in some ways Riven couldn’t really blame them.
Riven cleared his throat and raised a hand in the middle of the assembly, where dozens of other city leaders were bickering with one another on what to do. They all glared at him venomously when he did it again, and the governor in particular let out a wheeze that Riven couldn't really place between rage or if the man was having a panic attack.
“Speak, vampire.” The governor said with a visibly twitching left eyebrow, and he leaned over so that the rolls of belly fat pushed outwards to make him look like an inflated balloon. “I pray that you have some better news outside of delivering this catastrophe to our doorstep. You may be fighting against those blasphemous cultist pricks, but you are surely no friend of ours. Speak, and be quick about it!”
Some of the soldiers outfitted in feathered plate armor tensed along the outer walls of the room, but when they saw Riven didn’t take offense to the governor’s words they quickly relaxed again.
“My name is Riven, first of all.” Riven corrected, scratching his head. “No need to be so angry about things.”
“NO NEED TO BE SO ANGRY HE SAYS!” Another man from the sidelines scream-laughed with absolute incredulity. He threw out his hands to the side as other nobles and city staff jeered Riven’s way. “You and that blasted elf just sentenced us all TO DEATH!”
“HANG HIM!” Another woman screamed.
“KILL THE VAMPIRE!”
“PUT A SILVER STAKE THROUGH HIS HEART!”
“BURN HIM NOW, GOVERNOR! BURN HIM AT THE PYRE!”
Riven shook his head and pushed on his temple with his forefinger and thumb until the governor held up a hand for silence.
“The vampire, though a monster and an outsider, is still a guest that we brought in.” The governor said when the enraged voices calmed down. He grumbled something under his breath and shifted in his large chair. “We will hear what he has to say. We have remained on the sidelines of this conflict too long, and until we either return to our old world or we are delivered into the new one - we must make our stance clear. It is time for us to pick a side, ladies and gentlemen. And given how long those damnable cultists have been a blight upon our grand city, it is time to finally come to terms with it. The only options are to either support the non-cultists, or support the cultists. There is no inbetween, and I think we all have a deep set hatred for those cultists by now.”
The murmurs around the room ground to an absolute halt.
The governor snorted. “Am I right?”
He got a bunch of nods and grumbling acknowledgements, along with a couple more snarky remarks about vampires being monsters.
Riven watched from underneath his flickering, shadowy hood with a slight grin - panning the room until he had all of their unspoken attention. “Very good. Now as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I actually have a way to help you get out of this starvation situation you have going on. For the information I seek, and a few favors of course.”
That got everyone’s attention, and the governor’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “You can help us procure food for the next year until we replant crops?”
Riven nodded. “How many people live here?”
“Nearly 400,000 citizens remain here after our recent hardships that have claimed the lives of so many young soldiers. May Elysium burn for what it has done to us.”
Riven snorted his amusement at the last statement, which he quickly covered up as a cough when he realized they thought he was laughing at the deaths of their young men and women. “Ahem. Yes, well I can definitely help you out then. How much does it cost to feed someone for a year?”
“Cost?” Repeated the governor, confused.
“From the Elysium Altar in the center of your city. That big marble tower IS an elysium altar, is it not?”
The governor frowned and steepled his fingers, looking to some of his advisors that came over to whisper in his ear. His eyes shifted back to Riven. “Elysium’s prices are steep. I am told it would cost somewhere around 30,000 Elysium Coins for a single adult over the course of a year, if we were frugal in our spending and bought only basic foodstuffs. Are you saying you can supply enough money for everyone to eat for a year at that cost?”
Riven did some quick math. “Yes.”
The people around him began to shout in outrage. “HE’S LYING!”
“THERE’S NO WAY HE HAS THAT KIND OF GOLD! THIS IS A TRICK!”
“HE’S MOCKING OUR MISFORTUNE! BURN HIM AT THE PYRE!”
The governor raised his hands. “ENOUGH!”
The shout brought everyone back down again, and the fat middle aged man stroked the feathers protruding out and around his ears with a deep set frown. “You’d provide us with 12 billion Elysium Coins. Just like that, only for the information on where this cultist ‘Altar of Despair’ resides?”
Riven let out a predatory chuckle and rubbed his hands together just thinking about the spawn-killing he’d be able to do when he got that location. That chuckle turned into full blown manic laughter as he thought about the look on those cultist faces when they’d get repeatedly blasted into oblivion if he set up a perimeter with his own forces to make sure they couldn’t ever get out. Torturing the cultists his demons had captured in the past hadn’t worked per what Athela said, so getting this kind of information would be incredibly helpful.
The sight of him laughing like that unsettled many of the people in the room, who were already on edge due to Riven’s absurdly potent negative charisma.
“Oh, certainly!” Riven said, his laughing calming down into occasional evil and low pitched giggles. “But there’s also the favors part too.”
“How do we even know you’re telling us the truth, and can provide that amount of money?”
Truthfully Riven was about to clean himself out doing this. As Kara had even said, her own clan would have been bankrupted just by the couple billion he’d thrown at Elysium to save her life back in the descent. But 12 billion was almost everything he had left after raiding the coffers from the Abyssal Descent’s branch of the Church of Gluttony. He’d have a couple million left over, and was cutting it pretty close.
But what was he even using the money for nowadays anyways?
Not a whole lot. And he kind of owed these people as it was his fight that’d landed them in incredibly dire situations.
Riven pulled out his bag of holding, the one he’d gotten from Negrada’s trading commune so long ago, and held it upside down. Willing the coins to come out, he watched as the trickle of bronze, silver, gold, and platinum coins started streaming out. That stream became a downpour, and soon began to flood out around him as the coins splashed out onto the citadel’s floor.
The governor gawked, as did many of the others, until Riven was standing on top of a pile of money twelve feet high and twice as far across. It sparkled in the sunlight, and the captain of the guard came over to inspect one of the platinum coins with wide eyes before looking up at Riven in wonder.
“Consider it both an apology and an investment in our budding partnership.” Riven said casually, sitting on his mountain of money and kicking his feet out to look down at the city leader. He put on a fanged smile. “And it’s all yours as long as you side with me, give me the information I want, help me when I need it, and show me to the place mentioned on page four of the cultist’s journal concerning the spirit of blood in your dungeon. I’d very much like to meet that spirit.”
An elderly man with a long mustache harrumphed from the sidelines and drew his sword. He flourished it and threw back his cape with a defiant stance. “What is to stop us from just taking this money over your corpse? You are surrounded.”
The startled governor shook himself out of his stupor at the comment, rolled his eyes, picked up a crossbow from somewhere to the side of his chair. He fired it directly at the old man’s head who’d stepped to challenge Riven, killing him on the spot to the gasps of many onlookers.
“I never liked that bastard much anyways.” The governor said with a snort, staring at the room to see if anyone would challenge his action. No one did. “Glad I was given the opportunity. Now, Mr. Riven Thane…”
He steepled his fingers once more with a somewhat hesitant grin. “I hate your kind. You’re a monster through and through. But… In light of your incredible generosity… I believe we can come to some sort of arrangement. The altar’s location is yours. As for the spirit of blood… that’ll take a bit of a hike through our dungeon, but give us a day and we can get you there. Any hostility or killing of our people though… and the deal’s off.”
Riven happily smiled and bounced on the balls of his feet. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Chapter 344