Elysium's Multiverse
Chapter 339

Chapter 339

Chapter 339

The tusked humanoid beast reared up to its full height, spitting out debris from its bloodied mouth where it’d slammed face-first into the stone after lunging through a misdirected rift in space. “I WILL TEAR YOUR BONES FROM YOUR BODY, VAMPIRE CHILD!”

It flipped its hands outwards and formed a steepled cross with its sausage-like fingers, channeling chaos energy into its next attack that crackled along its skin.

Riven raised an eyebrow and put his hands on his hips. “What is that, like, a gang sign or something?”

“CALL OF THE CHAOS RIPPLE!” The tusked humanoid snarled, and the ground shattered in a wave of pulsating chaos directly in line with Riven’s position.

Riven slammed his staff down into the attack’s trajectory and dispersed the shockwave with a radiating boom of flames on contact with Jackal’s skull head, smirking at the beast’s piss poor attempt. “Here, it's my turn! Strangling mouths of a thousand black holes!”

The air around Riven’s enemy became speckled with dozens and then hundreds of tiny rifts and opened and closed down onto the monster, shredding him from all directions and in different trajectories. Sprays of gore were splattered and sent spewing out of the tiny rifts’ other ends, and the beast fell dead to the ground in a heap of splattered body parts.

“Strangling mouths of a thousand black holes?” Athela said, coming over to lean against him with a snort and a laugh. “What are you trying to do? Bore us to death with your poor naming schemes?”

“Cultivation novels always have naming schemes like that. Don’t you know? You read a lot of Earth’s old literature in the nether realms shortly after bonding with me didn’t you?”

“Well yes, but I didn’t ever read any ‘cultivation’ novels. They had those back on Earth?”

“Oh yeah! Lots of talk about young masters killing each other and chi and whatnot.”

“What’s Chi?”

“Basically a type of energy, equivalent to mana. The important part is that they ALWAYS named their attacks things like: ‘Death from a Thousand Viper Strikes’, or ‘Glory of a Billion Blazing Suns’! They’d shout it out while doing the move and maybe do some cool martial arts too.”

Athela did not look impressed. “So, Strangling Mouths of a Thousand Black Holes was your cheap naming imitation of conjuring a bunch of riftwalks - even though you didn’t need to say it out loud?”

“I did it for style points!” Riven said defensively. “You wouldn’t understand, it is above you. Ok? Just let me have my moment now that we’re in a relatively safe area and not surrounded by monsters nearing level 400!”

Relatively safe was the key word there. It was nowhere near safe which was why Genua and Fish were currently on full-time baby duty to make sure that Iris didn’t get hurt.

Athela gasped, and smacked Riven upside the back of his head before pretending to threaten him with one of her katanas. “You take that back RIGHT NOW! I’m the most STYLISH one of this bunch, you hear me!?”

General Caltan’s figure blurred left and smashed another gigantic snapping-turtle with his mace, sending the creature spinning out of the bunker zone like a torpedo from hell. The rest of the battlefield was much the same, though they had changed locations since the first bunker zone they’d acquired.

Riven’s group was maintaining a rhythm, defeating wave after wave of enemies until the abyssal dome had run out of time for utilization. But that same tiefling party of two that his company helped earlier in the night were able to wave Riven down at the very end of the last remaining hour, into another defensive bunker zone that allowed up to 3 teams inside instead of 1 - but otherwise the zone was very similar to the monster level suppression that General Caltan had grabbed.

Aside from the two tieflings and with only fifteen minutes to spare, Riven hadn’t hesitated to claim the third team slot and promptly got to work defending the bunker area along with the two tieflings and the other team he hadn’t met yet.

The tieflings it turned out were both swordsmen and pretty damn good ones, but then again they had to be in order to make it this far in the descent. They didn’t bother introducing themselves after their initial shouts to grab Riven’s attention, but merely went back to work killing the monster swarms that continued barreling into their position with renewed vigor now that the time limit was almost up. The monsters had become crazed, forgoing all strategy or self preservation in favor of ending the remaining delvers now that the end of the event was now approaching. The heat was figuratively turned up, and everyone was absolutely exhausted. Some were even badly injured from time to time and were essentially deadweight that needed to be protected until they got potions or healing down.

But protect them they did.

The other team that Riven hadn’t met yet were a full delving team of 5, though unlike Riven’s team - they didn’t have any minions to bolster their numbers. They were men from a demihuman species with fox ears and fox tails - four of them being spear users while the last was a dark mage, and were incredibly agile while wearing a strange assortment of unholy-attuned plants that they used for armor. The plants were flexible, but sturdy enough to take hits and were quick to repair themselves with infused mana - which Riven saw on multiple occasions. It was quite fascinating, as the plants seemed to be rooted to the demihumans’ bodies after a hard blow from a monster claw exposed the layers underneath. R̃Α𝐍𝐨ꞖË𝙨

That plant armor in particular caught Riven’s attention above all else, and it made him wonder if he’d be able to find plants with similar properties somewhere down the road. Because if he could utilize such specimens in his enchanting and totem making… that led to an entirely new branch of item creation.

[The final 5 minutes are all that remain. 18 of 50 descent teams remain. 5,983 of 10,000 peak E-grade monsters remain.]

Riven went all out with his remaining mana as the monsters continued sweeping in, tidal waves of dark tears through space redirecting or snapping down around enemies to eviscerate them.

[The final 3 minutes are all that remain. 17 of 50 descent teams remain. 5,111 of 10,000 peak E-grade monsters remain.]

A loud BOOM radiated across the city, and a building was toppled under the powerful strike of another delver that Riven didn’t recognize. Shockwaves of hellfire eradicated other buildings and monsters alike as the human torch used an enormous claymore bigger than Riven was tall to rip apart enemies even outside of a bunker zone.

Riven gawked at the sheer power behind those strikes. It appeared that the other delvers had the same idea to let loose now that they didn’t need to retain what power they had to last the night. Even now on the horizon, a red sun began to rise to signal the coming of a new dawn in this strange place - but still his gaze was glued to the rushing madman whose features were unidentifiable due to both shrouding enchantments as well as the flames covering his features. Riven had though his own power something to be proud of, but whatever or whoever was able to go out and slaughter numerous level 350+ monsters outside the bunker zones in the open city like that was simply beyond him.

It made him realize just how big the multiverse really was, and that though he was strong - there were people that still probably outstripped even him at an equivalent level.

[The final 2 minutes are all that remains. 16 of 50 descent teams remain. 4622 of 10,000 peak E-grade monsters remain.]

To the far left and down a straight road within Riven’s line of sight yet another delver had taken up the flaming man’s challenge. This person was a cloaked human woman with auburn hair, who slammed an obsidian staff into the ground and unleashed a devastating tidal wave of shadow attuned energies that shattered an entire city block instantaneously; along with all the other monsters coming for her team. The beasts around her exploded in a blossoming flower of blood and shrapnel that was sent flying for miles in all directions, even over Riven’s own head due to the force of the shadow magic unleashed.

Then an azag hive mantis burst out of a tower to unleash a furious assault on an armored dragon, shattering the level 362 dragon’s skull in a burst of immense killing intent with bladed arms wreathed in…

In something.

Was that some sort of Depraved energy?

That’s what it felt like. But it looked odd, not maintaining any color at all and having properties that warped the air around the mantoid’s blades as it sliced and diced through the dragon with immense amounts of rage. Perhaps the dragon had killed one of the mantoid’s team mates? He couldn’t see any other reason why that dragon had specifically been targeted in the last moments while flying by.

Thus Riven would have stood slack jawed that not one, but three of the other delvers here obviously outclassed even himself - and it made him sad that he’d not met these people.

Yet, at least. Perhaps in the future that may change, but it also gave him an inkling of what the wider multiverse was really like. He may be special in his own ways, but certainly wasn’t alone in that category. There were others just like him, or in some cases even more dangerous. It was something to keep him on his toes at the very least.

[The final 1 minute is all that remains. 16 of 50 descent teams remain.

All abilities have been unlocked. You are now able to damage and kill other teams to loot from. All living monsters have been removed from the floor.

A truly unique D-grade treasure box containing the power of a single wish within reason and grade has been highlighted by a pillar of light in the city’s center. The last person to be touching this treasure box upon the countdown’s end will be allowed to leave with the prize.]

The monsters within sight vanished into clouds of mist, their cries echoing one final time before disappearing altogether. The bunker zone around them shattered, and there was a moment of silence as all eyes turned to a pillar of deep purple light that smashed down into the street a half mile away.

A wish within reason and grade. That could mean a lot of things… and if it was here at the end of Floor 49 of the Abyssal Descent as a prize to be contested by the best of the Unholy Pillar? There was a statistical chance of zero that this ‘wish’ was something that Riven could pass up.

But he hesitated. Despite the other teams immediately carving their way through the city towards the beacon of light like mad hounds on the scent of blood, Riven had also registered the other words of warning Elysium had let off. They were now able to kill and loot other teams, teams that’d bought from the same prize shops of Floor 49 that Riven had. They were all essentially loaded with goodies ripe for the taking, and even in his peripheral vision he saw another team down a ruined back alley get assassinated by two rogues in quick succession. Shadows burst from the walls, and they were dead within seconds while only one of them had the time to let out a horrified scream.

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All his teammates had similar thoughts, and the air was tense around them as Riven’s group, the two tiefling swordsmen, and the five demihumans stood at an awkward distance away from one another amidst piles of monster bodies.

Riven checked his skills, and grinned as a sparking shaft of solid blood encompassed by black lightning and sin formed in the air above him. He then turned around with another mana pulse and launched the critical storm lance behind them.

The two-story building there was blown apart with a scream as one of the flanking assassins had his brain plastered along the flying rubble - his body torn apart instantly as his team mate quickly fled in a blur of darkness.

One of the tiefling swordsmen sheathed his weapon and held up his hands, taking a step away from the narrow-eyed demihumans and in the direction of Riven’s team. “My brother and I want no part of violence, you already helped us once. Let us help each other again and avoid violence while making it to the next floor.”

The sounds of battle erupted further into the city as two of the more powerful delving teams clashed. In particular, Riven saw the mantoid and the fire-bathed man go at it with immense amounts of energy radiating off their bodies in a flurry of blade strikes between claymore and mantis blades.

Athela shifted into her drider form in the next second, becoming large and bright white as icy flowers bloomed across her skin and a crystalline maw ripped open where her humanoid body and arachnid body connected at the front. She glowered at the demihumans threateningly, and crackled with both fae magic and sin - her huge sharp legs slamming into the stone road as dozens and then hundreds of crystalline spiders began crawling out of her maw as she prepared to fight.

The tieflings were no threat. Riven could feel it in the way their hearts thudded in their chests, and the genuine looks of appreciation they’d given his team earlier when they’d been helped out of a tight situation before. But these demihumans…

Riven wasn’t so sure.

Lizard and Fay had been mostly healed of their injuries but were still not in great condition, with Fay in particular looking rather worse for wear with a large gash across one wing where the membrane hung limp and loose. Retesh had damaged his mana channels and was having a hard time casting, and the teal glow in his eye sockets flitted from Riven to the demihumans with an audible gritting of his teeth. Nor had any of his zombie minions survived the floor debut. Caltan, Brute, and Athela seemed ready to go though - while Fish, Genua and Sanguine stood protectively over Iris clutched in Genua’s arms.

Riven felt mana pull on his identity with some sort of skill, and felt the ability fail as the men opposite him tried to get a read on what his class was. One of the demihumans shot his companions an obvious and questioning glance, silently asking whether or not they should attack - but the entire group of fox-men took a rapid set of steps back as Riven’s aura skyrocketed to the heavens. Red ice immediately coated their surroundings and a storm rumbled above them as Gluttony’s maw flashed behind Riven’s head.

Riven raised an eyebrow as he summoned the power to his call, mentally poking the great sin who’d remained dormant the entire time during this trial until now. Riven’s third and purple eye across his forehead also ripped open, giving his aura an additional boost that caused the windows that were still intact on nearby buildings to shattered simultaneously.

“I was locked down by Elysium.” Was Gluttony’s audible response to Riven’s internal question, and so Riven turned back around to stare at the five potential enemies dressed in plant-based armors not far off.

The demihumans were now wide-eyed and shocked, almost as shocked as the two tieflings who’d dropped down in prostrated positions of worship - and they immediately summoned a series of boosting skills that snapped around their bodies like blankets of Unholy stamina and mana. Their muscles pulsed and their own auras beat back at Riven’s attempt to suppress them with small amounts of success. They were obviously reassessing their odds now that Gluttony had shown himself and they now felt Riven’s aura to its fullest, and despite not being anywhere close to pushovers - they lost the metaphorical dick measuring contest and decided to back out.

“We will leave. Do not pursue us.” The lone mage of the demihuman group called out, slowly backing away as his fox ears twitched from side to side - and a semi-translucent wall of shadow began to separate the two groups. “Let us part ways amicably.”

Forty seconds were left on the floor. The treasure box was being fought over this very moment, and was currently in the hands of the flaming claymore-wielding man as he was chased throughout the city by both the mantis, the shadow sorceress, and numerous others that fought and killed one another to get ahold of the ‘wish’ given out by Elysium.

“Why let them go?” Brute asked with a snarl, spitting in the direction the demihumans ran as the wall of shadow evaporated behind them. “We should have gutted them and be done with it to take their bags of holding. They likely have very profitable goodies to plunder!”

Riven gestured for the tiefling men to stand, not looking their way and instead focusing on the fighting further into the city. “Because fighting would have taken more time than what its worth. Let the tieflings live and form a defensive ring. Sanguine, to me.”

The drake immediately scooped Riven up onto its back with a swift, fluid motion as the blood layer around its outer body swam up Riven’s clothes to lock him down in place.

“I’ll go with you-” Athela began, but she was cut off with a quick snap of Riven’s fingers.

“No, you’re the most powerful one here aside from me. You stay here and watch Iris.” Riven pointed to his daughter. “And protect the others. I’ll only be taking a chance at the treasure chest if I get a clean swipe, otherwise I won’t risk it. Wish me luck.”

Athela was about to protest, but Riven was already launching into the air with a swift and powerful flap of Sanguine’s wings. The drake let out a roar, and in a burst of power they were skybound with the buildings of the cityscape blurring beneath their intense acceleration. Although he wouldn’t say it out loud, Riven wanted to test his metal against the other three delvers who’d stood out above all the others in the last minutes of this trial. And above everything else… There was one very particular wish he wanted from Elysium. One that he wasn’t sure Elysium would be able to grant, and in fact it probably wouldn’t be able to bring Jose back from the dead, but he had to at least try.

If there was even a small chance, he’d take it.

The treasure box was easy to follow, and interestingly enough it exchanged hands more than once even in the five seconds it took for Sanguine at max speed to get within Riven’s projectile range. Towering auras of truly grandiose proportions rocked the city in their clash as the three outliers Riven had noticed earlier went to town in an attempt to claim the treasure box for themselves. They were all so fast that each action was interpreted in milliseconds, but each time a skill of any kind made contact with the treasure box illuminated by purple light - it’d be transported into the hands of whoever it was that’d landed the hit; regardless of whether or not that ability was offensive in nature or not.

An enormous explosion blasted the mantis backwards first, flinging the creature through three buildings and covering the delver in magma from what had once been rock. That explosion in turn smashed into the box the azag hive cluster representative was holding, and the inflicted damage to the box transported it into the flaming man with the claymore. He turned to run in the opposite direction, only for the flying shadow witch with auburn hair to send a pillar of darkness crashing into him from the sky above with pinpoint accuracy - obliterating the street around them. He let out an angry scream as he was buried a hundred feet deep into the ground, where the shadow witch obtained the box a second later after striking it before being smashed aside by a whip-like tongue when the azag mantis tried to get the box back. The mantis delivered energy blades swiping out through the air, wings buzzing and mandibles clicking viciously while engaging the flaming man as fire incarnate burst from the ground like a volcano to smash aside the mantis while simultaneously locking down the witch’s flying with a cage of fire in the sky. The mantis doubled back and deflected two swings of the sword with its own blades before spewing acid at the treasure chest in the flaming man’s off-hand, obtaining the box yet again only for the shadow witch to rip herself out of the mantis’s shadow to blasted both of the other competitors in the face with a reverse flashbang of black light that sent them reeling in pain.

Dodging, strikes, projectiles and movement abilities were utilized a dozen times per second between all of them - all the while they were unable to penetrate each other’s defenses all the way while simultaneously trying to get ahold of the box and break away. Those other participants that were foolhardy enough to try and interpose themselves were quickly mutilated and butchered, but these three were at a hard stalemate as the seconds ticked down.

That was, until a fourth massive aura entered the fray.

CRASH

The three original combatants were entombed in a cataclysmic swath of crimson ice as a large red blur shot through the air like a bullet. The ice was dissipated immediately along three different locations, but by then the box was already in Riven’s hands.

Thankfully he was also riding an absolute unit of a race horse, so to speak. To quote Elysium’s description of Sanguine:

[Currently clocking rates at over 4,000 miles per hour, or nearly 6,000 feet per second, this monster is far faster than the speed of sound at max flight and has incredible acceleration - making it one of the fastest monsters to ever exist within the Abyssal Descent.]

The air felt like hot knives tearing into Riven’s body as the acceleration increased, even through his armor and the blood layer of Sanguine’s body encompassing Riven to reduce friction. They shot out into the sky, the large drake pulling up to avoid a lance of darkness that nearly ripped Sanguine in two.

Riven countered the flying shadow witch pursuing them with a roaring storm of black lightning and red frost that shattered the otherwise silent abyss above them, but the witch traveled up through the storm’s black lightning with her shadow affinities and she landed on Sanguine’s back with a snarl.

“THE WISH IS MINE!”

She lunged with a wand slamming into Riven’s back, but Riven turned to deflect the wand, then her primary staff, and barely avoided another burst of deep-black imbued with some kind of sharpness-related dao that he didn’t quite grasp. The darkness did split Sanguine’s shoulder though, and the drake let off an enraged scream as Riven smashed his staff into the witch’s face with an explosion of flame.

She deflected with a quickly formed barrier and went in for another burst of darkness only to meet a swath of sin-afflicted beetles that poured from Riven’s mouth like a tidal wave. The witch screamed in anger and rift-walked out of the way while swatting at the beetled with darkness-infused jabs, cursing loudly at Riven from her position in the back.

It was just in time for the abyssal sky to light up with what seemed to be a literal sun of flames that exploded overhead, only for its full weight to come bearing down on Riven’s position like a magnet. The attack was simply too large to avoid, taking up a bigger surface area than the city itself did, and Riven’s eyes widened in shock as the gears in his head rotated on overdrive to figure out what to do. He couldn’t let that attack hit, his teammates were still in the city and the entire area would be eradicated if he didn’t meet the attack head on.

Growling and gritting his teeth, Riven’s body burst with a storm of black and red that roared to life behind him. Blood and shadow met fire in a monumental clash of titans, and the shockwave blew Sanguine off course to careen into a building. Riven and Sanguine tumbled through the top two floors and through an outer wall before the drake regained flight, but by that time Riven realized he’d lost the treasure box to the flaming man.

Only seven seconds were left.

“SHIT!”

He urged Sanguine back into the sky, and the drake quickly ducked and weaved around energy blades the mantis through their way while pursuing the flaming, claymore-wielding thief. Curling his fingers and utilizing the ‘snipe’ function of his critical storm lance, the world seemed to slow as his vision vastly improved.

WHOOMPH

A streak of blood, sin, and shadow tore space itself apart as Riven infused all he had into the attack. Streaming ribbons left crackling lightning in their wake as the projectile literally knocked the box out of the flaming man’s hand right before the mantis got to him, and Riven found himself holding the box yet again as he cackled triumphantly and flipped off the other treasure hunters.

“CATCH ME IF YOU CAN MOTHERFUCKER-UMPH!”

The shadow witch literally slapped him out of his seat with a strike of dark lightning, sending him like a smoldering comet into yet another building as he skidded across the fifth floor and out the side wall in a shower of stone.

“COCKSUCKERS!”

Three seconds to go.

He shifted his position mid air, feeling the beginnings of a rift-walk forming through the shadow witch’s mana patterns - and grinned. He reoriented her own spell, adjusting the magic to change the output location to end directly in front of him - and his grinned turned devilish as she appeared in front of him with a look of absolute shock at not having come out of her rift in the correct direction.

BAM

Riven’s spiked knuckles took the pretty woman right in the nose, breaking it with a crunch and causing her to fumble the treasure chest and drop it.

Riven summoned a large platform of blood underneath his feet at an angle to push off of and launched himself downwards towards the falling chest, catching the box in the next instant with an expanded wretched snare as the blades of a mantis shimmered in the light of a fiery being only ten feet behind.

Riven’s three glowing eyes widened in horror as the mantis blades searched out his neck, beginning to pierce into a weak spot in Messenger’s armor and into Riven’s skin.

But then the end of the floor came to be as the red sun fully made light of the dawn, and Riven was only left with a shallow stab wound in his left carotid artery that quickly began to seal up after an initial burst of bleeding. All of his friends were with him on a lonely platform floating through the abyss, with large crystals of various Unholy colors shifting in the darkness to give slight illumination. And in the middle of them was a crystal with Lillith inside, where the famous demoness was held in stasis…

Only now, the crystal holding her was beginning to melt.

[Floor 49’s hidden trial has come to a close. 11 of 50 descent teams survived.

You, Riven Thane, have been the last person to hold the D-grade treasure box containing the power of a single wish. This wish will be within the realms of D-grade only, and may be accessed only while holding the orb contained within this treasure box.

Congratulations on making it to Floor 50: The Seat of Abyssal Power. Here you will find an ultimate source of abyssal energy, and will be granted a single opportunity to build your soul lattice under some of the most potent dark energies available to any F-grade. These energies are specifically cultivated to help F-grades ascend into the E-grade while building soul lattices. How you perform while finishing your soul lattice on the last floor, paired with how you performed on the way down, will determine your overall score and any additional prizes that the Abyssal Descent provides before ascending to E-grade.

Lillith of the Black Skies will be freed from imprisonment now that you have arrived.

Calculating your overall score now…

Calculating additional prizes…]