Deus Necros

Chapter 553: The Demon Within

“Foul. That’s a foul. Using black magic in front of clerics and paladins.” The voice went sharp over paladins. He aimed the word at the nailed bodies as if they could agree for him.

“It’s thanks to you that they cannot hear nor speak. Who is it to tell them that I did such things?” Ludwig smiled. He kept the staff in the same hand as the smile. He kept his eyes elsewhere.

The man turned his face toward Misty, who seemed to actively ignore facing the direction of Ludwig. She fought with her shoulders squared to the door and her eyes only for the next wrong limb. Her jaw hurt from the way she held it.

Frustration grew in the heart of the former servant. Immediately he raised his arms. “Come to me.” he called to the chakrams that vibrated their way out of their dug pits. The ceiling shivered like a drumhead. Rings broke free with a gritty snap. Grains of stone rained down like quick gray hail.

Ludwig didn’t hesitate to throw his left hand back, the bracelet on his wrist rattled as it released the Soul Chain, the tip of the chain immediately latched onto the butt of the dug scythe and he wrenched it free, though he released one chakram in doing so, he now had a weapon. The chain line went tight and sang. The scythe came out with a long, pleasing scrape. The freed ring clanged to the floor and cut a straight groove before it stilled.

“What can you even do with just one blade.” the man said as the chakrams were coming his way. He spoke through the returning metal like someone talking with his mouth full.

“This.” Ludwig stomped a foot on the ground, and his amulet flared in a blinding light then soon, revealed a form that Ludwig had been avoiding using for the longest time. Heat rolled out from the Heart of Wrath and met the cold in his pendant. The meeting made a sound only he heard.

Horns of pure red jade or rubies emerged out of his forehead, curling upwards, while his entire body surged in a bright red aura. His muscles began inflating and he further empowered them. “Limit Breaker.” Immediately, the mix of red of his Vengeance, redness of his aura, and the blue of Galvanize mixed with the black surging necrotic energies of Limit Breaker. A baleful violet aura gathered around Ludwig, as his blade now having reached his extended left arm arrived coated him whole. The cave tasted it. The nailed bodies shook in time to the beat it put into the stone.

The chakrams were about to reach the servant’s arm, where Ludwig swung his blade at the man’s arms. He cut for the hinge that made the whole machine turn. The sword bit the air in a curve that promised to keep moving until it was told not to.

However, the blade’s reach was not yet enough to cut them off, and the former servant realized it. As long as his arms are raised to intercept the chakrams, once the miscalculated swing of Ludwig’s sword passes near his arms and fail to cut them, he can take the opportunity to tear him apart. The hood turned a fraction, pleased with the geometry. The hands readied the welcome.

But, something changed, the long sword which was unable to reach seemed to be possessed by something.

[The Sword of Durandal Remembers its past glory!]

The sword which was nothing but a shard had the rest of its body filled with the wanton power of the heart of wrath. The crystallization happened in less than a fraction of a second, further extending the length, grit, and weight of the weapon. The red ran along the missing shape as if poured, then hardened with the certainty of stone that has always been there. His wrists felt the new truth of it before his eyes did.

In one swing, six of the eight arms were immediately torn apart, the chakrams that were supposed to be intercepted by these arms all missed and dug themselves deeply behind Ludwig’s enemy. Arms spun away like thrown branches. The rings wailed against the rear wall and bit deep. The hooded torso lurched in surprise that could not show on a face it didn’t have.

And almost immediately after, the follow up of the sword swing happened. The very air behind the swing seemed to be filling with anger and wrath at the world itself as a manifestation of projected aura swung like an arc of red death. It traveled further than the blade should reach. It carved a clean crescent through dust and old prayers and memory. It wanted more than the room could safely give.

The cave or what felt like it shuddered as the wave slammed against one of its empty walls. And the whole thing threatened to fall on top of Ludwig and everyone else. A long groan ran through the stone from one corner to the other. Sand hissed above them like an ocean deciding if it should visit. With minute pebbles and rocks dropping along with dust that was stuck to the ceiling my mere the mere will of time.

Misty finally having cleared her location of enemies turned to Ludwig, her anchor bloodied and full of guts and viscera was a far more beautiful sight than Ludwig’s demonic horns and what he did next. Her eyes took him in and then set the sight aside. Work first. Everything else after.

With one hand he grabbed at the hooded man’s face and slammed it onto the ground, the other hand rose in a forward grip with the sword pointing down, and tore right into the already opened chest of the former servant. The ribs parted around the edge like stubborn doors forced by a shoulder.

“Now tell me.” Ludwig howled, a voice not his own, and almost sounded like it belonged to a demon or devil. “How does it feel.” Ludwig didn’t even finish his quote as he ripped the weapon upward, tearing through ribcage, chest, neck, and split the hidden skull in two in one upward swing of his blade. The hood peeled. The black beneath it divided cleanly as if the darkness itself had grain.

Blood splattered all over the place as Ludwig’s heart beat harder and harder, strong enough that one couldn’t just hear it, but feel it within their own chests. The beat struck the air like a drum you lean against. It made the chains hum along the walls. It put a ripple through the puddles that had gathered beneath nailed feet.

Everyone around Ludwig could hear the beating of his own heart in theirs, and it was so powerful that it synchronized their own hearts with it. A disturbing, invasive and oppressive feeling. The kind of rhythm that makes hands close and not know they have closed, that makes eyes widen and not know why.

Ludwig took a deep breath, stood up and relaxed his body. He hadn’t went over the time limit of the Heart, and the amulet seemed to still have its shine, it was good. He didn’t want to fully exhaust it. He rolled his shoulders once and made sure his fingers could still find the exact places on the blade they liked.

He turned to Misty, who looked at him like he was some sort of monster. Her mouth opened and closed once. The chain hung slack to the floor and made a small silver puddle of light on stone.

And before he could say anything to explain the situation, he realized something. The system had not offered him what it always offered him at the end. The air did not loosen. The notification did not climb from the bottom of his eye and sit there smug and neat.

Where is the enemy death notification?

Just then, Ludwig’s entire vision changed, he was looking at the ground, and soon a body wearing a full set of regalia of black and silver fell right next to him. The fall was soft and wrong, as if the ground had reached up and placed him rather than taken him.

[You Died]

Ah, that is the wrong death notification. The thought came dry and small, the way thoughts come when the floor has taken your knees and the dark is already at work unthreading your name from your body.