Aric stepped out from behind his cover, cracked sword in hand. "Hey, Abomination!" he shouted, taunting the eldritch being. "I'm over here!"
"ABOMINATION?!"the corpse howled, its voice shuddering with centuries of pain. "I am what your gods made me!" It lunged forward, tormented wail splitting the air, dragging its fetid form across the muck with nothing but malice and soul-crushing despair.
"You're angry because I didn't save you right?" Aric's voice rang out across the swamp, steady and commanding. "Tell me... why should I?"
"WHY?!?!"The serpent's wail crescendoed into a shriek, its massive arms crashing down where Aric had stood moments before. He rolled away, exhausted, but his voice unwavering as he maneuvered around the serpent, forcing it to turn to face him.
"You've lost your way." He scolded sternly. "Become like the very evil that imprisoned you here." Aric's gaze was locked on the undead viper's flaring eyes as it lurched backwards unnaturally to face him. "There is nothing human left in you... nothing worth saving."
"GRRRAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" The serpent screamed, hands grabbing its head as if to hold it's mind together. The once harmonious, booming voice began to wobble and tremble. "No! No! NO!" the voice yelled, shaking the bog to its core.
"We ARE human!We are man and woman, boy and girl! We deserved to be saved! Why didn't you save us?!" The possessed corpse ranted, smashing about in a haphazard tantrum as if trying to bat Aric's words from the air, desperate to keep them from reaching its millions of spectral ears. As it did, its voice began to falter, harmony continuing to slip as individual voices began to splinter off, distorting the one voice, and making it many.
Aric retorted harshly, not skipping a beat as he sidestepped a wild crash of translucent limbs. "Want to know why, Wraith?"
"TELLL MMEEEE!" it bellowed, the voices splintering into shards of desperation.
"Yes!"
"Why, why, why?!" they cried out, each voice fracturing into its own plea for truth.
"Because I wasn't here" he said bluntly, voice cold and unyielding. "If I had been, Id've fought for you too." He said earnestly. "But now that I see what you've become... I have to wonder if you're worthy of the salvation I can still offer you."
"Y-your salvation?!"
"Y-you can save us?"
"He lies, he lies!" The wails faltered, voices stuttering, beginning to argue with each other. The harmony of their collective malice began to crack like a stained glass mural pelted by stone after stone, hundreds of other whispers breaking through the dominant scream.
The voices steadied for a moment, rallying behind a common truth most shared. "We were innocent! YOU are the monster! You, CRUSADER! You who condemned us to this pit!" The undead swung its arms at Aric sloppily, a physical exclamation to its retort.
Aric landed from a dodge, standing tall despite the agony radiating from his ribs. His fatigue meter blinked at zero, muscles screaming for rest, but he forced himself upright, not daring to let his posture falter for even a second. If his plan was going to work, it had to work now!
He met their accusation with steady eyes, locking his gaze upon the serpent's burning sockets. "You're right." he said, voice firm. "I did send many of you here."
The serpent howled, its many voices croaking with twisted glee, unifying again at his admission of guilt. "You admit it! You are the monster, not us!"
"I was." Aric replied, voice ironclad. The serpent reared back, translucent fists curling with hate. "but, I want to atone for my past sins," He said, unflinching even as the corpse launched a spectral fist directly at him! "So let me grant you all-" He straightened, glaring into its flickering eyes and approaching blow.
"Freedom."
The words landed like a brawler's counter, slipping past sure victory and landing a knockout blow as the massive specter's fist paused, just inches from his face.
The fist quivered "L-LIAR!"
"Salvation?"
"Could it be?" the voices screeched, dissonant and fractured, some spoke in tones of awe, others of rage, some of hope.
"T-There..." The central voice said slowly. "Is no freedom for the likes of us. The Tribunal has-"
Aric raised his chin defiantly. "The Tribunal?" He sneered.
"Have I not shown you that their decrees mean nothing to me?" Aric's voice cut through the wailing voices. "Did you not witness me slay the master of this pit?" The whispers washed out like a tide on the beach, disunity crawling through their chorus. "Put your faith in me," he said, voice low and sure.
"And I'll break your chains."
The serpent's form trembled, limbs shaking as whispers grew louder, some agreeing, others wailing for his death. The husk staggered, cohesion fracturing.
"H-he lies!"
"How do you know?!"
"It's true! He killed the serpent!"
"Deceiver!"
"He saved the others, why not us too?!"
"The dastard is stalling! Kill him while he's tired-
"SILENCE!" Aric roared, voice slicing through the discordant phantom congress. "My patience wears." The spirits recoiled, their whispers faltering. "Surrender to me now. Accept defeat, and I will grant you salvation from this wretched pit." He promised sincerely.
"Or lash out at me again..." His eyes narrowed, gaze hardening. "And I swear by every god you ever prayed to, every deity that abandoned you to rot in this cursed swamp..." Aric thumbed the hilt of his broken blade, a single intent thought away from summoning Paradise Lost.
"...I'll condemn you to something far worse than this."
The bog fell silent. Not even the fetid muck dared to bubble, as if Aric's verbal threat were a blade to even its throat. The stillness hung heavy, suffocating... and then, like glass shattering beneath too much weight, the voices broke.
They screamed, others sobbed, some praised Aric, singing his name on high as if partaking in a parade. Phantom forms of blue and white erupted from the serpent's corpse, fleeing, scattering in terror or awe. Finally, depleted of spiritual fuel, the serpent husk collapsed, massive limbs evaporating, dead weight slamming into the mud with a decisive wet THUD. From within the fractured harmony came a thunderous mob of whispers, the spectral parade manifesting before him and falling to the floor, each spirit bowing before him:
"We surrender!"
"Save us, Save us!"
"Hail the false crusader!"
"Spare us, please!!"
"Free us from this torment!"
Aric stood motionless, wordless, as millions of ghosts appeared before him, a sea of the macabre stretching far into the fog drowned horizon. Phantoms of every form, hollow-eyed and shimmering with pale light, bowed low before him.
Their bodies flickered like candle flames in the wind, but their heads remained bowed, spectral hands outstretched in pleading silence. Not a whisper stirred. Not a murmur broke the heavy stillness. For the first time in centuries, the jealous damned were silent.
Aric's eyes swept over the sea of bowed spirits, his grip loosening around the broken sword. His breathing slow, deliberate, measured, savoring the stillness.
A flicker of something sharp crossed his face. His lips curled, slow and deliberate, into a smirk that spread with the weight of absolute victory. He had faced a threat of immortal proportions, and brought it to its knees with nothing but his words. Before him, the spells screen shimmered to life, [Devour Divine] illuminating with a golden glow, its requirement fulfilled.
"Very well," he said, his voice steady and resolute. He raised his hand, palm igniting with a warm, golden light, as if a lantern had been lit beneath his skin. The light flickered across the bowed spirits, casting long shadows that danced across the swamp. "Find peace in whatever world awaits you next." he murmured, his tone gentle, somber, comforting the damned. His gaze hardened, eyes darkening with purpose. "For I swear..." His voice dropped, carrying a weight of grim finality. "I will see justice done for you in this one."
"Divine Devour."
His arm flared with light, pulling the bowing souls towards his palm, shining brighter and brighter as millions of pale blue souls streamed into his grasp, devoured in washing waves of ethereal light.
A screen shimmered before him as the last of the souls dissipated:
[+5 Million Forlorn Souls Acquired!]
Then, like a feral beast dragged from its den, clawing and thrashing against the pull, the massive, umbral soul of Níðhöggr wrenched free from it's carcass. While the 5 million seemed to flock towards Aric's palm, the formerly immortal serpent shrieked with raw, primordial agony as it was pulled inch by hard fought inch into Aric's outstretched hand. Its ethereal form flickered and writhed as it was devoured whole, until Aric found himself again, surrounded by stillness. Then, another screen flickered to life:
[1 Immortal Soul Collected!]
Aric watched as the light faded, his breath heavy with the weight of it. Before him, the bog lay silent, the serpent's husk crumbling into grey, divine devoid dust. A screen flickered into view:
[Congratulations Aric Duskborne!]
[You have gained enough essence to Level Up.]
[ALLOCATE POINTS]