The Crimson Choir
Kael stood in the center of the ruined cathedral soaked in the steaming blood of thirty Mangrel priests His blackened hands pulsed with residual demonic energy veins glowing faintly violet beneath pale scarred skin The final corpse a bloated archbishop impaled on his own scepter twitched in the dying light that filtered through shattered stainedglass windows
He wasnt breathing hard
He wasnt shaking
He only listened to the stillness that followed slaughter
Kaels voice cold and dry
This wasnt vengeance This was cleansing
Behind him Nevira appeared from the dark corridor her boots splashing in puddles of blood
Nevira halfgrinning
You desecrated a cathedral and called it cleansing Youre worse than I thought
Kael without turning
They desecrated my soul Im just giving them back their rot
Her crimson eyes flickered impressed She tossed him a soul shard flickering with trapped energy
Soul Absorbed Archbishop Remis Tier Elite Human
New Magic Gained Hollow Benediction Blessings Corrupted into Curses
Kael crushed the shard between his teeth The moment it dissolved warmth crawled up his throat then burned like acid through his skull He blinked and the world became sharper more cruel
Moments Later Outside the Cathedral
A low vibration rolled across the hills Kael stepped outside just in time to see the horizon split not metaphorically but literally The Black Gate of the North once a sealed monolith of cursed obsidian was yawning open
And out of it came them
Dozens of them
The SkorRath ancient warriors from the first demonic uprising Armored like insects bones welded with black steel eyes white and glowing They moved with synchronized hatred dragging corrupted blades that sang when they sliced air
Neviras smirk vanished
Nevira low
You killed too many The Gate reacts to excess
Kael stepping forward
Then let it react Let it scream
He walked toward them Alone No hesitation
The Battle of the Bleeding Field
The first SkorRath lunged Its blade blurred jagged unnatural Kael twisted beneath it and drove his hand into the creatures throat Flesh sizzled bone cracked and a stream of black blood sprayed across the grass
Another came Kael shouted activating one of his newer abilities
Hollow Benediction Inverse Blessing
A radiant white aura burst from his hands touching three of the advancing demons Their armor peeled away in flakes their muscles turned inward and their bones exploded out of their skin like knives The field became a concert of shrieks
One SkorRath clearly a captain leapt from above landing behind Kael Too late
Kael raised both palms and summoned Void Serpents twin tendrils of cursed ether that hissed and snapped around his arms
Kael whispers
Swallow
The tendrils struck ripping through the demons torso pulling out organs like ropes before shattering its spine with a cracking twist
The body fell in pieces
Nevira watching softly
Youre not Kael anymore Youre something older
Kael didnt respond His eyes were glowing now not with rage but with the cold calculated hunger of something evolving
Aftermath 30 Minutes Later
A hundred bodies lay broken The Bleeding Field lived up to its name the earth was now so soaked in blackred gore that flowers melted beneath it
Kael stood in the center a spiral of crimson light circling him
Level Up 34 to 36
New Trait Gained Bloodborne Echoes Strength increases with nearby death
Nevira approached her tone quieter
Nevira
They werent supposed to come through The Gates been sealed for five hundred years
Kael looked toward the Gate It wasnt closing
Kael
Then its time someone walked through
Inside the Gate The Blightlands
The Blightlands were worse than legend The air was sulfur The wind whispered with screams Every tree looked like a corpse with claws Kael stepped through and the moment his foot touched that dead soil the brand on his chest burned
A voice familiar yet twisted echoed inside his mind
Return little revenant Youve come far but not deep
Kael clutched his chest gritting his teeth The demon who had started it all Azural the Crimson Maw was in here
And Kael would gut him
Flashback
Kaels family hung like puppets
His soul torn and fed to the pit
His eyes gouged out in ritual
His scream echoing into death
Then rebirth
Then vengeance
Now justice of the blackest kind
Encounter The BlightTyrant
Hours into the Blightlands Kael was ambushed by a BlightTyrant a towering monster of bloated flesh covered in mouths with skulls for eyes and hundreds of hands forming wings
Kael didnt flinch
It roared the sound melted the trees nearby
He responded by channeling a new spell
Starbrand Collapse
The rune burned across his spine His body arched Light bled from his fingertips
A crimson meteor formed from pure soul energy descended
It struck the Tyrant The explosion flattened the forest for half a mile
When the dust cleared the BlightTyrants top half was gone Its lower half spasmed then collapsed The grass grew backward curling in terror
Kael approached the corpse kneeled and whispered
You die like they did Empty and slow
Hours Later Deeper in the Blightlands
Kaels skin had begun changing Veins pulsed black His eyes stayed aglow His oncehuman form now carried the corruption of everything hed killed
And he embraced it
He came upon a valley of weeping statues humans turned to stone midscream
A demoness floated above them Serilith The Choir of Woe Her voice could shatter minds
She turned as he approached smiling with no joy
Serilith
You should not have come Revenant You are broken Unwhole
Kael quietly
Then what are you waiting for Break me
She opened her mouth
The scream came
Reality rippled
Kael dropped to one knee blood pouring from his ears
But instead of fleeing he smiled
He raised both hands screamed in return not in pain but in magic
Crimson Seal Godmouth
A seal of light spun above his head Then it closed her voice Her scream choked midair
Kael sprinted forward leapt drove his blade through her chest and grabbed her heart with his bare hand
She gurgled
Kael snarling
You cant sing without a heart
He ripped it out
She fell The statues cried blood
Boss Slain Serilith Choir of Woe
Skill Gained Soul Rend Aria Weapon strikes release shockwaves of screams
Closing Scene
Kael stood atop her corpse His back faced the yawning gate ahead the one that led to Azurals fortress
Nevira appeared beside him
Nevira
You keep losing pieces of yourself
Kael quiet
They werent pieces worth keeping
Nevira seriously
What if theres nothing left but vengeance
Kael looked down at his bloodcovered hands Then up at the stormblack sky
Kael
Then vengeance will be enough