Path of the Slayer B3 28. Sacrifices & Soul Crafts

“Slaughter, let’s go,” I ordered

Path Magic activated: Slaughterhouse Avatar (Version [1])!

Other powers activated along with Slaughter, but she was the pivotal piece for the last stretch of my crafting excursion.

Appearing next to me and Sabretooth, Slaughter hovered into existence as a bloody, chain-covered wraith. Her first utterance was an ear-piercing scream that reverberated like being in a long metal hallway.

Together, we waited in the middle of my cursed crafting station, the veil between this Realm and the nearest Hell Realm thinning as far as it could go. The spirits raged evermore, clawing longer and thicker rents into reality, their madness exploding into a new gear that was even more insane for them.

That was okay. I urged Slaughter to keep going with my Slayer Intent. The demented avatar let out a rattling cackle, happy to serve, as she stroked the wrath and madness of the hell specters further.

They tried to attack my gear, leftover materials, and crafting equipment – but the hell runes I’d inscribed over every workbench and specific area denied them their vengeful satisfaction.

They tried to break through the delineating zone containing the infernal chaos of my cursed artificing den. But each attempt ended with them rebuffed back toward the source of their woes.

Me.

With no other choice, the spirits became like a savage mob that congealed together into an overly long and bulbous thing. The more standout ones stuck out of the herd like a multitude of twisted limbs, thrashing, screaming, making every attempt to use their powers to make me go mad.

None of their cursing worked, so I remained undisturbed as I examined their changes like watching a mixture form.

Even if they didn’t all clump together into one screaming mass, none of them were recognizably human or like any sort of folk. Many were stretched out of proportion and completely hideous in various ways because they were more-like monstrous constructs.

They were spiritual while soulless, akin to a twisted and malformed echo staining the gap between existence and non-existence.

One spirit had intestines flicking out of its toothless circle of a mouth. Another spirit had gnashing teeth where there should be eyes. Plenty more had strange and grotesque anatomies, and as they converged on me, I had a better sense of their power being in the upper Rank 4.

That wasn’t suitable for the end results, but it was suitable for the transition.

Reaching out with my Hellion Boss Shredder, I ensured all the powers I’d activated were reinforced and at peak effect. Sabretooth growled from beside me as she supercharged herself with Slaughter’s power and pumped me with extra energy.

Slayer Intent became an even bigger lynchpin as I entered a feedback loop to empower Slaughter, which empowered Sabretooth, which empowered me, which empowered Slaughter again.

As that happened, my hellish artificing zone became more chaotic, which enraged the spirits further, making them thrash about from the sheer lunacy.

They couldn’t handle the madness any further.

I was too hellish for them.

Only then did I strike, lunging forth with my metal claws outstretched. I grabbed the center of the huge, congealed mass, dug my heels into the hardened floor covered in countless fine runes, and twisted around.

Sabretooth rolled along with me to keep her tail wrapped around my waist as I slammed the entire mob of hell spirits into a thirty-by-thirty-foot pool. It was filled with my blood, V’s blood, and Sabretooth’s fluids.

More importantly, it had specific runes carved into the perimeter.

With a poke of my boot injecting Path Energy, the dark red blood came alive with a hellish red flash. The spirits screamed their last as I sacrificed them to do something so unholy I would probably scare most of my squad halfway to death if they were here to see this.

I ripped reality in twain and conjured an actual Hell Portal.

The manuals made for half-devils truly were accursed things. The knowledge they contained shouldn’t have left their specific circles. Usually, there was no threat of that since most folks would’ve fallen to madness by now, even half-devils.

My immunity, however, allowed me to break boundaries and stand tall in front of a malevolent dark red portal that was twelve feet high and encircled by roaring skulls with burning lights in their empty eye sockets. An urgent notification popped up in my System Logs, but I didn’t bother checking, because I knew what it would be.

I even said it aloud based on the warnings from the half-devil manuals. “A Hell Portal has been summoned. A Portal Invader will enter your World. Defeat the Portal Invader.”

The fun part was that the Hell Realm probably wasn’t touching the Crossroads Citadel World Realm. But certain Realms played by different rules, and Hell Realms only needed an invitation to cross the gap.

The Portal Invader lunged out of the doorway between Realms.

Its pale and purple muscular body reached fifteen feet in height. Its Rank 5 power extended a crushing field of Suppression.

The ram horns on its massive head glowed with reddish runes carved into the ebony bone. In its huge fists were two war hammers that were also covered in chaotic hell runes that promised pain and suffering.

It was clear the demonic creature was eager to get a crack at spreading chaos and dominion into this World Realm.

Two things stopped it from achieving that – the runic circle I’d already carved into place around the summoning and my Hellion Boss Shredder already activated after the third pull of the chord. The moment the invader hit the summoning circle and ended up forced into a back step, I made it rain autosaw bolts.

Sabretooth bellowed throughout, her tail wrapping me tighter. Slaughter cackled and cried like a steel-voiced wraith, empowering my attacks.

My two-foot-long and oval-shaped green bolts tore through the air while covered in spiraling teeth that moved at blurring speeds. They struck the Portal Invader square in the chest, digging as deep as they could go on contact before bursting with a flesh-peeling blast.

At first, the damage only seemed surface-level. Only mere rips, tears, and flesh wounds.

But as I launched more bolts, the damage grew deeper, bloodier, and gorier. The bolts chewed the Portal Invader’s chest up as it thrashed and tried to escape the capturing circle.

Then, out of desperation to survive, the Portal Invader raised its arms and hammers to block. The runes on the hammers and the horns flashed from hellish red to bright purple.

The Portal Invader seemed to grow hardier and heavier, with a recognizable strength that would threaten the integrity of the capturing circle. I couldn’t allow that, or everything I’d worked setting up might get ruined.

Sabretooth applied pressure next.

Torrents and javelins of tundra struck so hard they nearly knocked the invader off its base. All the time she’d spent playing around with her tundra magic had fine-tuned it. To where, she could throw out spiraling crescents of ice, explosive frost bolts, and crushing glacial boulders amid her usual tundra attacks.

While she did that, I kept blasting away at the Portal Invader with flesh-chewing, bone-cutting autosaw bolts.

Even then, the creature still tried to empower itself further and break through.

Truly, Rank 5 monsters were a different breed, and I was certain this was a low Rank 5. Something that should be fought by Pathwalkers between Level 101 and 111, probably.

I didn’t care as the Portal Invader roared with all its wrath, ignoring the damage and the ice coating its body. Raising its two hammers, it charged up to attack with all of its death-defying might.

Sabretooth released her tail from around me, and I bolted right into the Rank 5’s face with a magnetic lightning jump.

Hellion stopped being a bolt-shooter and extended a mighty green autosaw blade that punched into the Portal Invader’s surprised face. The initial resistance of its skull sent jarring vibrations down into Hellion and me.

Then we cut all the way through and out of the back of its head.

Using its own Suppression against it, me and Hellion ran down the length of its tall body until I slammed back onto my boots, the autosaw blade exiting between the invader’s legs.

Without even having to check, I urged the System to close the invasive Hell Portal, which was an option that came with defeating a Portal Invader. The Hell Realm wasn’t my old Raining Ruins, and I wanted that specific one when it came down to it.

The hell runes around the summoning flashed. The defeated monster’s spirit took shape as a raging thing with massive spiraling horns before getting engulfed in the turbulent blood pool.

Then, with electromagnetism, I pulled over everything I’d already crafted and assembled one by one. I started with the smallest rounds for my new pair of small-arms guns. I dunked them into the pool and used the tip of my metal claw to etch the last few necessary runes to finish their unholy design.

Each round went through, thousands of them, though of only two types, unfortunately. I didn’t have the time to be creative, so I focused on penetrating slugs and scattershot.

After that, I’d dunk the new small-arms guns themselves along with the specific accessory that went with them. I etched the last finishing touches with my metal claw on those as well.

Next, the massive twelve-foot railcannon ended up dunked into the pool. I took my time with this since I needed to etch the final runes at different segments because of how large it was. Following that, I dunked the rail bolt projectiles, each as long as my leg.

I etched the needed runes and smiled when I saw the flash of something extra that Thumper had helped me with by returning to the Inverted Battalion Barracks Section and finding an actual gravity manual. If I only had time for one type of railcannon round, why wouldn’t I give it the added gravity treatment?

After I dunked and finished etching the last runes on the railcannon ammunition, my newest greatsword received the same treatment. Then, finally, last but not least, my bonded armor. This one took the longest because it was a part of me, and it needed special care.

So I didn’t even bother raising it out of the supercharged blood pool to etch the runes. I held my breath and went down with it, carving the finishing touches on the outside and inside, plate by plate, capacitor by capacitor, while paying close attention to my profile and my soul.

The bonded armor was a part of me in a deep sense, and upgrading it meant I was upgrading a piece of me.

When I’d done this with Hellion, it was easier because the boss shredder was responsive and alive. The bonded treasure wasn’t as responsive, so I had to read its mood intuitively or risk breaking the bond.

Things were going accordingly, but then Doomie became even more active than usual. She forced her arm out to touch my armor, and I nearly panicked until I noticed nothing bad was happening to the armor.

While staying wary, I worked around Doomie’s extended arm as her fear-inducing power transmitted into the armor and seemed to add more … weight to it.

I had no idea how long it took, but by the time I resurfaced with Doomie back inside of me, my Path Energy was down to 6%. My bonded treasure didn’t break. It didn’t fade away.

My newly improved armor rose out of the pool by itself while jetting an electromagnetic lift. It emitted an otherworldly power that caused the dull blood pool to ripple with each wave.

I stumbled back, feeling a deep exhaustion inside my soul, but one that made me feel satisfied.

Across from me, my bonded armor tilted itself upward until it was hovering straight above the blood pool, as if to offer itself to me.

The armor was nowhere near as aware or sentient as Slaughter or Sabretooth. Yet, it seemed to respond more personally to me than before, like our bond was even stronger.

“I have to admit … I’ve seen a lot of hellish crap, but I’d never seen a Slayer do what you just did,” V grumbled, his head lowered to the floor to peek at my unholy site of cursed artificing.

“Hey, look on the bright side. I’d only dunk the weapons that I’m more able to control.” I pointed a shaky finger to a section on the edge of the cursed artificing. “I didn’t do that with my new supply of bombs.”

V’s rictus frown only deepened. “Oh, wow, how impressively thoughtful of you. As long as you don’t make it a habit to use my blood for all of your sinful rituals, I guess everything will be okay.”

I couldn’t help but laugh as I made my way out of the ritual pool. My bonded armor followed behind me at a hover as I reached Sabretooth and collapsed against her seat.

Finally, my work here was done, and I could head to the Central Diamond Castle. I wouldn’t get there in time for the end of the tournament, but I would be there in time for the big after-tournament celebration.

I waited until Sabretooth recharged my Path Energy. Then I cleaned up by flushing as much excess cursed energy as I could. Not all of it would go away, but a few casts of the mass cleansing spell scrolls might help well enough.

Once all of my equipment was safely stored in the pouches on my belt, I finally sat down and ate some delicious Rank 5 food to help me regain my spiritual well-being.

For this occasion, I had some piping hot ribs covered in a delicious sauce that was succulent, tasty. The meat slid off the bone like it wanted to be eaten and make love with my insides.

I was starting to really, really love food.

Maybe I should pick up cooking. I could defeat Melody Eclipse with food if her man-eating appetite was that big.

For some reason, I imagined she would be immune or highly resistant to hellish curses as well. Maybe some demonic ribs would make her settle down.

“I don’t know how to cook,” I said to myself.

“Learn,” V grumbled.

Nodding, I found that wise. He was right. I could learn. Not even for the Dragon Princess, but just because I wanted to do something new for myself.

Defeating the Dragon Princess with the power of tasty and slightly cursed hell food would be a bonus.

After I finished eating, I finally turned my attention to the bonded armor. “Alright, let’s see what you bring to the table.”

I checked my System Logs. A big grin grew across my face.