Trope World - Volume 1 Chapter 42 Treason

13

The white door led to a monastery. Cobwebs covered every nook and cranny of the building and lined the pillars holding the ceiling. Faint light trickled in revealing the faces of seven statues. Each face held a different expression. Want, desire, jealousy, anger, content, laziness, and hunger were conveyed by the statues’ use of facial expressions. Each statue had a set of angel wings, sometimes several sets. Their eyes made me feel uneasy. On shelves behind the angels were the skulls of humans. Row after row rack after rack hundreds upon hundreds of skulls covered the shelves.

There was a power in the skulls something substantial and beyond my reach. They were a part of a great power. Them and the angels made up some sort of spell formation or magic. I couldn’t sense what it did. There was a trigger, a mechanism in here.

“These are the dark angels.” I said. Everon snorted. I brushed the cobwebs off the statue of l.u.s.t. Her eyes were certainly different.

“Yes, these are the humans that once ruled this land. Don’t expect us to bow before them. The angels of sin weren’t well liked.” Everon said.

“Now don’t confuse centaur opinion for the elvish stance. We are neutral toward the seven sins. They are the fallen angels.” Farron said. “Remember the angels are always watching.” The centaur said. Was it possible for them to have an ability like my own? I brushed the last of the dust from the angel of l.u.s.t and rubbed its flat stomach. To my hand she felt lifelike. I could almost feel a pulse from the statue.

“Pay homage to the fallen angels. They have a greater hand in the world than you know.” Sirius said. He bowed before each of the statues. I looked up at the face of the angel and saw her wink. Taking a step back, I nearly bumped into Sirius.

“What’s gotten into you Melchior?” Farron asked.

“Let’s get out of here these things don’t feel right.” I said.

“No, I can tell your ready to break through this is the perfect place to reach the foundation level. “Everon said. “What did you think we were blind human?”

Sirius rose up and walked towards a side door. “We’ll search the larders. Maybe there’s some food left behind.” Sirius said.

I crossed my legs and tried to ignore the statue as its head turned slightly to look at me. It wasn’t the angel. I knew that. I didn’t know if it was connected to the angel or not. I really didn’t want to let my guard down with it nearby. If I broke through now, I’d become much stronger. Just breaking through to foundation could make me ten times more powerful. It would also allow me to fly.

Standing up, I glared at the statue. “What are you? I know you aren’t a statue.” I asked.

“Aren’t I, I’m made of stone and I can stay still forever if I want to.” The statue said.

“We can do more than stand around.” Another statue said. All seven began to move. “You should have meditated. Your death would have been swift and painless.” The gluttony statue said. Drool leaked down his mouth.

“What are you creatures?” I demanded. I took a step back. Their BP were each in the 10s of billions. They weren’t core level, but they were close.

“We are the things that lived but do so no longer.” The statues shifted growing tentacles and stretching to grotesque shapes. “We are sin.” Wrath yelled and charged at me. His body was covered in blade like tentacles. He moved with ferocity and speed. Those tentacles spun together into a twisted sword. I quickly drew Lucifer and blocked the incoming attack. My arm was nearly ripped from its socket as I was driven back from the blow.

“Are you spirits that possessed the statues?” I asked and flashed by one of the statues. Its tentacles formed into meat hooks. It was gluttony and it wanted to reel me in to devour. I raised my hand and unleashed a small atomic blast. The statue opened its mouth and absorbed the qi. I let wrath’s next attack launch me off my feet and landed horizontally on a pillar.

“You five can deal with one measly human. I will track down the others and destroy them.” Pride said.

“No, I want them. They belong to me. That one does as well, I can feel his greed. He hungers for all the power, women, and treasure in the world.” Greed said.

“Why do you get to have them? Why am I the one who doesn’t get anything?” Envy asked.

“You can have him if you want. I’m fine staying here.” Sloth said.

“You’re all wrong. He belongs to me. I’m going to use him for all he’s worth.” She said and licked her lips. I rolled my shoulder. A phantasmal hand grabbed gluttony by the neck and tossed him at my waiting hand. Quake resounded through the statue of gluttony several times before the statue exploded.

I could tell the statue had been just that. A collection of rock and flesh. The tentacles were made of flesh, but the rest was rock. Wrath shouted and ran at me.

“No wrath he’s trying to trick you.” Sloth said. I raised my hand and unleashed a controlled atomic blast. A blue beam of light ripped through the statue leaving behind shattered rock and dust. Despite the battle power of these monsters they were frail.

“I don’t believe this is the one. You four retreat. Only I can fight against him with a chance of success.” Pride said. I looked the statue of pride over and realized he was nothing. Black qi coalesced into a bolt of lightning before he threw it at me. I powered up stone scale and took the attack head on. Black bolts of lightning flew across my stony flesh before petering out. I braced myself on my right leg and dashed forward. The next lightning bolt hadn’t fully formed in Pride’s hand before my blade took his head. My hand raised and the blue white qi of atomic blast tore sloth apart.

“Are you the one?” L.u.s.t asked. She and the remaining statues retreated. “You’re a human with black qi, you’re in the qi condensation stage, and you can destroy us. Are you a descendant of one of the angels?” She asked.

“No idea, I could be. What does it matter anyway?” I asked.

“It matters to us. Most of the angels’ treasures were stolen but we were able to preserve one of their techniques. Take it and let us live.” She said and presented an ancient scroll. I raised a hand and it floated to me on wisps of black qi. I’ve grown more accustomed to the power of an immortal over time.

“You may live, be gone from my sight.” I said.

The left quickly and the last of the magic’s protecting this place began to fade. I wouldn’t have much time maybe half a day before the undead became aware of this place. It was time enough to breakthrough to the foundation level put not the pillar level.

I opened the scroll and quickly learned the Black March.

Dao Skill Discovered: Black March lv1; Active 100,000SP; +20STR/END

Unlike my milestone skills Black March was direct. It was a training skill that manipulated gravity. It was a sub skill in the Dao of Gravity. Its function was to make a user significantly stronger and to force black qi to condense to higher levels. There were more levels to black qi than 9. With this I could obtain the 9 invisible levels the -1 to -9. Such levels would create the deepest of foundations.

Ok, how did my squad not hear the battle or feel the qi fluctuations. I placed eyes on my phantasmal limbs and sent them out through the monastery. They turned circles and bended around corners until, they reached the exit. Dust covered the area where the door was recently moved. They had left him. In the dust, I saw hoof prints and the footprints of an elf.

I knew I wasn’t exactly pleasant to be around. I was selfish and a bit cruel. Then there were my tendencies to kill brutally. I was also a 7ft 5in tall human covered in armor and weapons. I was odd and stronger than someone of my cultivation base should be. Then again this gave me opportunities.

I took out some spirit paper, my quill, and my ink well. Heretical images came to mind as I began to carefully suffuse my deep talismans with dark qi. Alone, I couldn’t conceal the monastery. With deep talismans, it was possible. I aligned the walls of the monastery with deep talismans after each one the room shook, and lightning erupted up above. The world held its breath as I made one after another deep talisman. At any of their creation a cosmic horror could crawl through the cracks to our world. I covered myself with the deepest darkness as I created the talismans.

Blue fungus slipped through worlds and covered the walls. Generous use of dragon fire quickly burned away the fungus before it could become a problem. Sometimes tiny squids would appear, but they didn’t do much. I took them and tossed them in the monastery koi pond. It didn’t take much effort to get the well outback to generate some water.

A rose dripping with blood and covered in eyes appeared next. I planted the flower next to the koi pond and went back to work. The monastery was quickly becoming filled with other worldly objects. Soon the pond was filled with blood from the rose which pleased the squids to no end. They swam about and I took time out of my deep talisman work to extend the pond further through the courtyard. More plants appeared; one was a peach tree that grew v.a.g.i.n.a shaped peaches. Though their clefts looked inviting the tiny razor-sharp teeth within weren’t. I planted them just beside the koi pound but far from the roses.

Deep Talisman lv50; +5000INT

Lone Star lv10; +100END

I moved the shelves of skulls outside with the roses to give the vines something to climb up. From there fishmen started appearing and started yelling in odd blasphemous tongues. What I mean by that is they spoke to me in French. I chucked them in the pound with the squids. They were far stronger than mortal humans, but they were just fish men at the end of the day. When they saw the squids, they started freaking out. The squids quickly began eating them.

Three days had passed since I’d started. The spell formation had long since fallen. I’d stopped making the talismans for concealment and started making them for defense. When I’d finished making posts and extended my area, I’d started making them for increasing the growth rate of plants and animals. That led to some troubles.

A giant weed covered in eyeballs and bloated boils filled with boiling blood slammed down raising it razor like leaves to chop me to bits. It appeared in the rose garden and was quickly outed. None of the eldritch plants liked weeds. It seemed they were rather puritan in nature.

I weaved between the giant weed’s attacks and drove Lucifer through it. The weed exploded in a fountain of blood. I grabbed what parts seemed most spiritual and left the rest for the garden to dispose of. Roses dripping blood covered the monastery now. In less than a week, I’d expanded the pound and added a multitude of creature to the growing ecosystem. I’d let Zarina out and the golden calf happily ate at one of the rose bushes. The roses didn’t seem to mind as much as the blue grass that covered the edges of the pond. I’d continued to use my deep talismans and added whatever cosmic being could fit in my pond. Spirit energy flowed from the garden at a constant rate. While contained by my defensive talismans, it left me plenty to cultivate. I planned to fully utilize this place after the siege. Once I was in the inner sect, I was going to request the deed to this monastery. It was a large place atop a plateau. Out of respect for the angels this place had been left alone.

There was little left of the angels in this place. The stained-glass windows had been destroyed in favor of twisted living paintings that made their selves home in the windows. Ghosts made of metallic essence roamed the halls bent under my control by holy talisman’s. This place had the makings of a new sect.

Deep Talisman lv500; +50,000INT

Lone Star lv100; +1000END

Endurance surpassed the 1000 milestone

Next milestone 100,000

Dao Skill Discovered: Civilization lv1; passive; +100END

I hadn’t thought about it before. I was rubbing Zarina’s budding horns when I realized, I wanted to build a sect of my own. As the blood drenched monastery glowed in the evening light surrounded by mountains, I knew it was what I wanted. Plans began to form in my head. The first thing I needed was peace. To be precise, I needed to win peace for the Black Moon sect but let them fight enough to become war weary. My plan was abstract, but it was forming quickly.

It was time to begin a plot of treason against the black moon sect.