Vyr’s Journey Through The Multiverse - Chapter 20

After breakfast they made their way to the fog gate once more. Standing before it they did one last check of their weapons before Vyr led the charge into the mist.

On the other side she was standing on a cliff facing into the dark below. As the others appeared after her Vyr pulled out more of the Forbidden slurp she had stored. She along with Artorias and Ciaran started throwing the glass bottles into the dark lighting the way.

If front of them was a drop about 30 ft deep. What she thought was a cliff was really an overhang. After a bit of painting the walls with forbidden slurp. What was once a dark foreboding drop into the unknown. Was now a drop into a blue and black cavern. The floor of which was perfectly smooth. The only thing on it was protruding pillars of rock scarcely doting the surface and a stone tomb which seemed to be made from one of the pillars. Artorias had already told them that was where manus would appear from.

Vyr stood over the pit and said “ok i have a way to get us down there but first i’m gonna start some music.”

Artorias looked at her and asked “what, did you bring a bard with you as well?” Ciaran nodded at this as well and tilted her head a bit in unasked curiosity at Vyr.

Vyr looked at the two and shrugged while making the magic circles she uses as speakers/mp3 players appear, “no but i have a magic that will play music for me. While it is playing we will get different buffs. Now do you two have a preference in song?”

Ciaran comes closer along with Sif and inspect the circles saying “i prefer the songs of orchestral origins. Are these the magic you spoke of?”

Vyr nods at her before looking at artorias, who says “I prefer the songs that are played to boost morale before battle. The drums are always my favorite, the deep thumps to keep the soldiers in line always make my heart beat in time.”

Vyr looks at the two before saying “i see. Well then this will be another shock to you two but we will use my music. Now I only have to choose which one.”

Artorias walks over as well and Asks ” what does it matter, it’s not like you could know many just pick the one that fits most.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. I know a great many songs more than you have heard in your life. Right now I am narrowing it down from a list of 70 most suitable.”

Artorias scoffs and says ” 70 that outrageous. If you are going to lie, make it believable.”

Vyr just shrugs at him and rattles off a few songs while getting her magic to play a sample. Ciaran thinks to herself ‘God, everytime i think I get used to her. She somehow shakes me once more.’ Ciaran looks at the image of artorias crumpling to the floor as Vyr laughs at his defeat before saying “would you mind if i choose?”

“No not really. Be my guest.” Vyr says making a list of some 30 odd songs and handing it to her. As she does so she stops and facepalms before saying “my god how could i have forgotten. Sorry Ciaran maybe later. I just remembered there are actually an entire list of songs that would be perfect for this.”

Ciaran looks slightly disappointed at this but nods. Vyr queues up the aviators, miracle of sound, and divide music dark souls playlist. While she preferred more upbeat and faster paced music during fights. She couldn’t deny there was something special about playing dark souls songs in the world they were made about. Almost like they had a special resonance, like the world itself was supporting the song. Making it more powerful.

As the first few lines of “embers rise” by miracle of sound played they could feel the magic giving her much more buffs that she would have thought. When she looked over to artorias she was surprised to see he was practically glowing. Like he had gained a black sun behind him. Even sif seemed to take on a moonlight aura. Oddly enough though Ciaran while getting more buffs than Vyr she didn’t take on a glow.

Vyr decided she would figure it out later and yelled over the music ” as planned us three go down there and fight manus. Sif stays behind in case manus tries to block the exit. Now grab on and I’ll lower us down there.”

The two nodded while sif readied himself and watched the door warily. Artorias and Ciaran took the chains Vyr handed them, as she lowered them down by using her leg grapples as an anchor and lowering the two down with her arm grapples. Once they were down she recalled all her chains in and jumped off the cliff. She quickly shot a grapple up and stoped herself before hitting the floor.

When she regained her footing she pulled out her paired Greatswords and looked around. Next to her was Artorias with his new black knights sword. He would have taken Sif’s sword since it was a replica of his old sword. But since the one Sif had didn’t have the curse like his old one did so it didn’t make sense to take it over the Black knights sword. Vyr had argued that it would be better to take the replica as he would be more accustomed to it than a new sword, but artorias just refused.

Shaking the memories away, Vyr looked for Ciaran but couldn’t find her. ‘ i guess she is hiding. Mabey she wants to ȧssassinate manus. Should do a good bit of damage even if it won’t kill him in one shot.’

Since everyone was ready she started walking towards the stone tomb. She purposely dragged her two swords along the ground making a horrible, loud screech. As she got within twenty feet of the tomb, the lid suddenly lifted off as a dark mist seeped out from within.

The lid slid to a rest next to the tomb as a giant hairy hand grabbed the side of the tomb and lifted its body out.

Manus wasn’t a pretty sight to behold. His body was made of dark black fur and gray skin. While the nest/crown of bones and horns protruding from his back and skull were an off shade of ivory. In the horns placed sporadically were bright red eyes. His body was human shaped if you ignored the bones. While his left arm was extremely overgrown, his right arm seemed to fit his body much better. In his right hand was a giant axe like staff. The only reason Vyr ȧssumed it wasn’t a staff was because of Artorias’s warnings of magic.

Manus roared at the two he could see before trying to smash the two with his left arm. As they dodged away from each other Vyr got the unlucky double as Manus chose to leap forward and follow his strike by slamming his staff at Vyr while she was recovering. Vyr grit her before throwing herself to the side.’shit! He is faster than i thought. This might actually be fun!’ she smiles as she rolls across the ground hugging her blades to her ċhėst.

Artorias sees her predicament and rushes manus before slashing him across the back. This gets manus’s attention as he swings his left arm to swat at Artorias. Vyr takes this chance to regain her footing before running closer and returning manus’ favor with a duel slam of her own. When she does the weight of her slam forces the swords to leave deep wound manus. Her right sword embedding itself in his leg while her left hit higher on manus’s body, leaving a long gash from his ribs to his hip.

As she recovers her swords the blood from her attacks seems to clot and stop any bleeding. She cursed and quickly dodged backward as she didnt want to be caught in an attack. Manus feeling the heavy attack quickly focused on vyr. He made a sweeping cut with his staff while also trying to smash Artorias with his left arm. Vyr saw this attack and parried it by planting one of her swords in the ground at an angle so it could deflect the blow. When manus’ attack met her sword his arm was thrown skyward and Vyr dashed in slamming her swords together and delivered a flaming thrust right into the gash she had left earlier.

Manus recoils from the flame and stumbles slightly forcing him to lean heavily on his left side, using his arm to keep himself off the ground. Vyr takes the chance to make an extra attack, pulling her still flaming swords out. Vyr does a full rotation and uses the extra wind up to add centrifugal force making a vicious flaming horizontal slash on manus’s injured side. Artorais at this point wasn’t doing nothing either, as he had dashed in making a great leap before slamming his massive sword on the arm manus was using to hold himself up. The weight behind his attack forced manus onto his back giving Ciaran the opening she was waiting for. She appeared on the massive man thing’s ċhėst before embedding her two swords in his throat. Ciaran then swiftly cut away from where her swords had pierced leaving a cut that almost separated manus’s head from his shoulders.

Sadly the father of the abyss was a hearty SOB and denied death like it was a telemarketer. Ciaran seeing her attack didn’t finish Manus off quickly retreated to beside artorias and Vyr. Manus didn’t seem to notice his almost end as he nimble leaped back to his feet. He reels his staff under his left side like he is going to slash them even though he can’t reach them. Vyr being cautious prepared herself just in case but was stopped as Artorias rushed forward and pulled out his pendant. Manus swung his staff and a wave a black magic projectiles spread forth in front of him.

Artorias lifted his pendant making a bubble of circle of floating lights block manus’ attack. This doesn’t faze manus as he tries the same move twice more. When he is finished with his third attempt Vyr rushes forward before leaping, igniting her swords, and giving manus a full force, over head, down wards strike with the great flaming blades. Because of how she was holding the blades together, the swords acted as one and made one great slice. This slice took manus’s horn right off his head before continuing into his shoulding. Unfortunately because the horn took much of the damage the blade stopped after breaking the shoulder bone, instead of taking off the whole left arm.

Manus roared before lifting his staff high and calling a rain of black magic spells down from above. Vyr quickly retreated from the magic as it tracked her all the way back to Artorias. Manus quickly leaped forward under his hail of spells and smashed at the trio. Vyr dodged to the left once more getting on Manus’s injured side as Ciaran distracted him but throwing daggers and creating openings for Artorias to do flips and slides taking great chunks out of the enemies flesh. Vyr was not one to let opportunities pass her by, so she rushed forward to manuses injured side and managed to perform a full basic move set of the sword. It consisted of using both swords to first lunge forward and stab, followed by a spinning slash, then another spinning uppercut slash that left her in the air, only to finish with a slam of both her swords.

This had left her wide open for counter attacks though as manus used his left arm to punch Vyr head on. Seeing that she couldn’t pull her swords up in time to block vyr grit her teeth, cast a weak quen, and jumped backward in hopes of lessening the damage a bit as she though ‘Fuck! I got greedy!’

The upside was her jump did help! The down side was it didn’t matter much. Turns out getting hit full force by what could be called a dark god hurt. A lot! Vyr was launched by the punch across the room. The materials that made up her armor were cracked horribly, even her mask had a crack running from the top to the bottom on one side. Of her two crystal horns one had shattered, and the other had spider webbing cracks running down it from the top to the bottom.

As she was regaining her senses manus took the chance to throw another punch at her. This time Vyr was able to get her guard up before the fist connected with her. Even though the force was the same the guard made all the difference. Compared to last time Vyr didn’t take much damage even though she still slid back by more than a few feet.

Manus prepared another of his wave magic as he positioned his staff under his left arm once more. Ciaran came to Vyr rescue as she kicked manus’s staff from below as the man swung. This caused him to catch his own left arm in the space under the blade on the staff. As he did, Artorias did another spinning leap before slamming his sword down on the space Vyr had left earlier, cutting Manus’s left arm clean off.

This was the strike that sealed the Fight. It didn’t take long after for them to whittle the boss down before Ciaran managed to finish the rest of her cut off. As manus began fading Vyr ran forward and absorbed him, much to the shock and worry of her companions.

As the dark tendrils of Vyr’s prototype abilities faded, all that was left of Manus was his complete soul. Which rested in Vyr’s hand.

Yes, Vyr had the complete soul. As her prototype powers did not let the fragments that were originally making a break for freedom escape. This meant Vyr had changed the timeline for this Version of the world horribly. No longer would the fragments of manus’s soul go on to corrupt the land and torment its people.

Vyr looked to her companions, who were staring at her like she was about to turn into a second manus and asked “what? I already told you about my race.”

Ciaran stepped forward slightly and said “Are you sure you’re ok? That was the father of the abyss himself. And you just absorbed(?) Ate(?) him.” Artorias nodded in agreement to Ciaran’s question.

Vyr looked at them and said ” i just call it absorbing. And yeah i’m fine. He cant really do much to me now. I have certain magics in place to prevent it. Now let’s get back to camp and take a break, After a fight like that I need to go over what I can do better next time.”

They nodded but were still wary of her and decided to keep an eye on her. As they were making their way back with sif. Vyr had to once again ȧssure them as they got scared watching her armor regenerate.

When they made it back to the bonfire Vyr asked the two of them to keep watch. When they asked why she explained she was tired and going to probably take a nap. They eventually nodded before Vyr Yawned and went to get some rest.

Vyr layed down, spread eagle on the ground. Before getting comfortable and closing her eyes. As she laid there she meditated, but unlike her usual meditation this time she was not trying to rest, manipulate energy, or anything along those lines. This time she went deeper, past just seeing and observing her soul, she went into its depths. Past the bonds connecting her to others, she went to what connected her and herself. What made her who she was, the very things that made Vyr well Vyr.

She followed the connection to the deepest darkest parts of her soul. As she did the scenery around her changed. No longer was it ever moving and changing, displaying scenes of her memories and adventures. Now it was forming a room, a hallway to be exact. The walls around her were made of stones. Carved and decorated in her favorite colors. A weird mix of dark and light hues. The carvings told her favorite tales, and the decorations seemed to highlight certain parts. Some were of great battles and others were of seemingly ordinary moments.

Altogether this would bring a great strain to the eyes of anyone but Vyr. to her though this was a calming yet blood boiling place. Just being here seemed to bring her great motivation and inspiration. Normally she would go into one of the rooms that dotted the hallway seemingly at random and just sit. But today she was going past this area, to a place she seldom visited.

Now instead of the hallway, there was a door. It was near 20ft tall and about 10 ft wide made of a dull metal. On the door was an engraving, of a man and a wolf. They stood on some kind of edge that she couldn’t make out as whatever was past it was never engraved. The man was facing away from Vyr but the wolf seemed to follow wherever she went. Around the two was a multitude of different depictions. But they all shared the same thing. The man and the wolf walked through each scene, they never changed or separated. In each scene they were the only constant. Wherever the man was the wolf was as well. It did not matter if it was a battlefield or a city. They walked side by side.

The connection she wanted was on the other side of the door. It made sense as that was where she thought it would be. Walking up to the door she placed her hand on a small section that was surrounded by carved chains.

After she withdrew her hand the door shook before sliding into the floor. The hallway behind it was different to the one she stood on now. It was no longer bright and had a feeling of change, on the other side it was dark and held a feeling that no matter what she tried, she would never be able to change anything here.

The walls of the hallway had the same kind of decorations as the hallway on her side of the door, but everything seemed muted. Some of the depictions were scratched out or marked over. leaving clear signs that they were not wanted. Some of the changes seemed to be done by fingernails and had clear signs of blood in the scratch marks. There were other sections of the walls where pieces or just the whole area where something could have/ should have been, was just blank. As if they had been erased.

The only areas that were spared were the scenes close to the door. In the closest was a blurry but short figure talking with a misty black mark. They stood in a gymnasium on a basketball court. The short figure snapped her fingers and something went into the black mark. The scene ended there but continued on the other side of the door. Now the short figure was no longer talking with a black mark but with Vyr, who was standing where the mark once was.

As Vyr continued through the door the soul of manus was no longer resisting her. It seemed to want to blend into the walls here. But as she walked closer to her target, Manus’s soul started to fight and struggle against her in an almost panic. Sadly it could not escape as Vyr held it tightly and brought it along with her. When she stopped in front of her destination it stilled as if not wanting to be noticed.

The door in front of her was not really decorated. It wasn’t even at the end of the hallway. The only thing that told it apart from the others was the depiction of a wolf on the front.

Vyr ignored the soul as it could no longer escape and walked through the door in front of her with familiar ease. On the other side she yelled into the air “Dormammu! I’ve come to bargain!”

From the other side of the large room a laugh resounded before saying ” while i appreciate the reference and the visit. I still refuse to come outside.”

Vyr smiled and said “you’re smaller than last time.” as she went up and laid next to it, wrapping it in a hug at the same time.

The wolf didn’t seem fazed at this invasion of space and sighed while saying “and you’re still just as clingy and a girl. You do know that you can change your form even without using my powers right?”

Vyr nodded while still burying her head in the wolf’s soft fur and replied ” i know. But it’s not like it would change much anyways. Plus I like it this way. It’s not like I suffer the downsides.”

The wolf sighed a bit before changing forms. Now instead of a wolf Vyr was laying on a copy of herself’s ŀȧp. The wolf had changed into her! The only differences were the wolf her, had wild spiky hair down to her hɨps, wolf-like ears on her head, a tail sprouting out from her backside, and VERY sharp teeth.

Vyr didn’t seem fazed by this and asked “Have you thought of a new name for yourself yet? Because if not imma just start calling you Eve till it sticks.”

This earned her a head chop from the wolf girl before she said “I have, in fact, already decided. I would like the name Asha or Ash for short.”

Vyr rolled it around in her mouth before smiling as she felt Ash run her hands through her hair. She looked up and asked “Does that mean you’re going to come with me now?”

Ash shook her head and said “no not yet. Maybe one day but for now I still do not wish to leave this place.”

Vyr sighed before sitting up and facing Ash

“Fine if that is what you want, i won’t force you. But I did bring something for you to play with.”

Ash’s tail wagged before she asked ” Oh? And what have you brought me?”

Vyr showed her Manus’s soul but stopped her from taking it as she said ” no touching. I said I came to bargain and since you don’t want to come play. I want something else.”

Asha laughed while asking “Oh then what do you want. I should remind you that you still owe me for those Vials I gave you.”

Vyr deflated a bit before saying “yeah that’s true. Thank you again. I don’t know if I could take seeing Josh or Trey die.”

This thought seemed to weigh on vyr, so she slumped over and hugged Ash’s waist.

Ash’s tail waged happily at this, but she put up a front and said *sigh*”What am i going to do with you?” hearing Vyr mumble a response into her stomach Ash continued “fine, fine. Just don’t say I never give you anything.”

Vyr hugged her tighter and mumbled “thanks” in response. Ash reached over and picked up manus’s soul before letting it absorb into her skin. As it did so she stilled for a second or two before moving once again.

She looked down at Vyr and said “I see now why you gave this to me. This would have made you speed up quite a bit. Haha it seems that, while the gods know of me and you. They don’t ‘KNOW US’. it’s quite the fun situation we have isn’t it?” Seeing Vyr did not respond, Ash continued “fine i will give you two choices. You can get either knowledge of low level medical knowledge, equipment, procedures, and theory. Or I will unrestrict the knowledge, purchase, and use of low level firearms.”

(A/N let me give a little knowledge here for those that don’t understand. Vyr gave Ash control over the System as she just wants to enjoy things without being OP. She can still use the system and can even take back control from Ash, she is just doing it to give herself more fun. She is also hoping to get Ash more involved in her life, so that she will come and join her on adventures.)

Vyr once again didn’t respond. Seeing this Ash thought ‘she didn’t!” before rolling Vyr over in her ŀȧp. When she did it was easy to tell Vyr had fallen asleep. Ash sighed to herself and thought ‘some things never change huh?’ before chopping Vyr’s head with her hand once again this time with a bit of force.

This woke Vyr up with apparent effectiveness, as she jumped up and rolled across the floor holding her head. She looked over at Ash with eyes that screamed injustice. Ash looked at her and laughed before saying “don’t look at me like that. What have I told you about falling asleep while we talk? And stop acting like a child it’s unfitting of our age.”

Vyr looked at her with a smug smile and said “We’re ageless now, so it doesn’t matter! Plus we have always been a child at heart.”

Ash just sighed and repeated the options she gave Vyr as she avoided responding to the overly childish Vyr.

Vyr looked at her and asked “low-level? How low level?”

Ash nodded and said “for the medical knowledge we will stick to 2000ish era modern medicine. This is considered low level because there are no magical or spiritual medicines in this. For the firearms ill just give you access to one world’s weaponry. These will be dated western style weaponry. So just a fair warning. You won’t have tanks or armored cars to use or any mounted style guns for that matter but it will unlock you being able to craft them yourself. Each have their own benefits.”

Vyr thought about it for a while before eventually saying “since the knowledge on medicine isnt restricted i choose guns.”(since guns are simple to make and use, Ash locked everything about them besides the basic concept.)

*chuckle*”It’s just like you to realize you can learn medicine later but not guns. The world is called Hunt: showdown. I’ll even give you this revolver for free.” Ash says making an ornate revolver and handing it to Vyr before continuing “it is called a caldwell conversion uppercut, It is single action and holds six rounds.”

Vyr takes it from her and begins examining it before asking “what about the knowledge of guns. It will be pretty hard to maintain this without it. Also how much is ammo?”

“You don’t have to worry about ammo too much. I made some purchases after you gave me control of the system. Now we have basically a shop points generator. And the knowledge will come later. It will probably give you a headache so before that i want to talk about this Ruby Rose? That i’ve been seeing show up, so much.” Ash says with a dark smile.

Vyr starts to sweat and thinks ‘please don’t take it too far this time’

Ash smiles even more and says “don’t worry only a little bit. You didn’t think acting childish and some hugging would get you out of this would you?”

Vyr flinched before bracing herself for what was to come.