Fall of the Black Seraph: The Complete Genesis Game Collection, page 50
“It’s time, Lord Seraph.” The Nightmare stated as soon the preparations finished, and the entire floor was covered in grey blight.
With a quick word, Seraph laid a hand on the Nether creature and cast Heroic Guard over both of them. The ability was the closest to immortal Seraph could make the two of them. While it basically reduced all damage by 99%, it did not render them completely immune to damage. With enough time and consistent attacks, they could still be killed. Seraph was keenly aware of this fact.
“You have served me well these many years,” Seraph said as he looked up at the ceiling towards his escape, seeing that the way back into the school was sealed by fallen rubble, “If you can, dismiss yourself before a final blow is landed, I do not know if even you can survive against them. I will try to summon you when this is over. This dead world is not yours to inherit. You have been instrumental to me, I have not forgotten when I first met the Nightmare Duke Ars Goethe.”
Without another word, Seraph launched himself up into the air with a powerful thrust from his wings as he passed through the rafters and out through a tear in the roof. Once out of the auditorium, Seraph landed and crouched behind a rusted air conditioning unit and tried to get a visual of what he was up against as he waited for the distraction the Nightmare King would provide.
They truly are Legion, Seraph thought as he looked out at an endless sprawl and held his breath in horrible awe. Even with his advanced eyesight, he could not see the end of them. Though he had seen many Infernals, there were many monsters within the green mist he had never seen before that completely eclipsed the power of the Infernals while others he was unable to judge at all as they were completely strange and alien.
Seraph felt his body tip forward and caught himself as the ground began to buckle underneath as Ars Goethe activated the spell that caused the gymnasium to start collapsing and draw the attention of the Legion to him. Seraph jumped to the relative safety of the roof of the school and looked out as a blur of power sped by as the Nether creature dived straight into the horde with a speed that cracked the air in a sonic boom as a mass of shadow following in its wake as battle was met.
Seraph looked away as the first of the Infernals fell to the claws of the Nightmare as it weaved through the mob. With each kill the shadows that followed found a body and joined in as a necrotic minion to aid and to kill. I’ve done all I can here. The rest remained in Ars Goeth's hands. Seraph needed to use the time the little bit of time the Nightmare King could provide to secure the dungeon seed.
After a quick scan around, Seraph found a hole in the ceiling and slipped through it, and found himself at the top of the stairs above the collapsed ruin of the auditorium, looking directly into what had been the safe zone during the tutorial.
The hallway was dim, but not overly dark but even then, Seraph winced each time glass shattered underfoot as he stepped over the broken portraits and shattered glass panes from old trophy cases.
With the extensive damage to the building, dim grey light from the outside managed to seep into the hallway, casting rays of light that shone on the rolling waves of green fog that filled up the space.
Seraph heard movement from overhead, the subtle scrapping of clawed feet against metal and looked up to see three Fetchers heading straight towards him. For a moment Seraph wished he still had Ajana’s Wrath for the distance the weapon provided him, but quickly realized he had other tools at his disposal.
With a quick word and an outstretched hand, Seraph used his “Purge the Weak” ability and the three Fetchers fell to the ground dead. In the presence of the Black Seraph, all were weaker. Within his chest, a pain began to throb where the Black Emblem sat against his heart. Do not waste your power Seraph. What you use will not be restored. Amarath cautioned as the pain waned and Seraph’s head cleared.
Up ahead, Seraph could only see one Infernal, the rest had already moved up ahead, and the rest lingered near the entrance fighting for placement as the excited mass fought each other to get closer to the Nightmare King, their need to consume propelling them forward.
Through the shards of dirty glass, Seraph looked outside and saw a monster larger than any he had ever seen before, wholly alien and terrible wrapped itself around the Ars Goethe and with a scream of rage tore the summoned monster apart, and when the summon did not disperse, Seraph knew for his longest ally there would be no survival.
Ars Goethe writhed on the ground for just a moment until a massive bit of light began to shine from within it and Seraph had to duck to shield his eyes as a a massive explosion of light rocked the building and shook the dust from the rafters. Lumiere, I didn’t know he was able to use that ability, maybe because of my blood? The minor connection he had to the summon had been completely destroyed. The summon had drawing the horde away, and the lingering Infernals near the entrance were drawn to it.
With a quick glance around, hoping to avoid drawing attention from outside, Seraph dived forward with impossible speed. A speed provided by the thousands of souls he had consumed and the lives he had destroyed. His eyes burning with the intent to kill and felt the satisfying tear of the Infernals flesh as the Dragon’s Claw tore into it, cleaving the flesh apart as the monster dropped to the floor dead.
A growl sounded as Seraph towards the side hall and realized a few Infernals and some other monsters he did not recognize had remained behind, still trying to get to the rift. Seraph could have easily killed them all with a bit of his power, but he was not ready to try and take on the whole Legion. Their number was as numerous as the stars, and he did not have the time to kill them all, his power would be exhausted long before then.
Dashing forward with his claw in hand, Seraph sliced into the neck of the nearest Infernal while reaching out for the one and grabbing it by its spine before ripping it out. The process repeated over and over as he switched targets, killed, and moved onto the next as green blood and gore dripped onto the floor.
The floor grew thick with dark matter, and Seraph found himself struggling to maneuver through the final stretch of the long corridor after it had become filled with the corpses of the Infernals and other abominations. When Seraph reached the end of the hallway and it opened up into a large room filled with overturned tables and aged cans from broken vending machines.
At the far end of the room, Seraph saw the last of the Infernals. They were circled around the dark entity that was bound to this place and his heart dropped with what he saw.
It was a pitiful sight and one that crushed Seraph to see. He found himself looking straight at the monster that had been Reverend. The Wight had been forcibly moved and forcibly moved and was no longer rooted into the floor. Instead, his torso had been splayed open to widen the rift and each of its eyes that showed the different aspects of its nature had been torn out.
Seraph went to cast “Purge the Weak” on the two remaining Infernals but found the emblem within his chest pulsed with pain, cautioning him not to. Instead, he sped forward and attacked. Each of the Infernals looked to be a unique variant with one possessing long arms and the other a hardened skin that reminded him a bit of his own.
The two variants noticed Seraph, and the one with the long arms sped towards him with an outstretched arm that Seraph met with the Dragon Claw gauntlet as he sliced upwards, tearing the arm in half and moved closer with his free hand and pushed his fist through the monsters skull and let it collapse in a heap at his feet.
A wail of anger went up as the other Infernal made a cry to summon horde to its location. Seraph was quick to react and summoned a wall of stone to separate the hallway from the room and lunged forward at the remaining Infernal and thrust forward with the bladed edge of his black wings and cut through the metalic looking skin of the monster as it glared up in shock as it died. The battle was over in seconds but gauging by the way the building was starting to shake, it would not be over for long.
Seraph ran over to the suffering Wight. "I've come to keep my promise brother," He told the dying monster as he undid the bindings that kept him restrained and strung up, being as gentle as he could, knowing that time was short.
"Lord Seraph," The monster replied, both of its eyes having gone dark, neither personality truly in charge. "Lord Seraph, you have come, to free us."
"Yes, I have not forgotten you, I had a promise to keep, I need the dungeon seed." Seraph replied as he heard the rock wall he had created begin to crumble and movement from overhead as something heavy landed on the ceiling.
“It’s within me. You too can unlock its power. I have secured it to myself, growing and heavy through my body. This is too much power for only one to wield.” The monster explained wearily.
Seraph nodded in agreement and with a trace of mercy put his hand to the Wight’s head and summoned a cleansing fire that ended forever the damned half life the Darkling Caller had been doomed to live. But once the monster was gone, the dark shadows that had been around it retreated, and the green mist flushed forward as something tore through the ceiling and began to merge with Reverends body, animating it, changing it into something new.
The rest of the rocks began to crumble and push forward as they were starting to be pushed out of place, and Seraph was left looking at the monster that was merging with Reverend and ran forward and grabbed the dungeon seed, tearing it out of Reverends chest before it could be absorbed by the mist monster.
Once the dungeon seed was in his hands, Seraph could see the rift above Reverends body started to wobble as it grew unstable. Run Seraph, Amarath commanded, that is the left hand of Aeon, you cannot hope to defeat it.
If the dungeon spirit made the claim, Seraph felt it to be true and made the only choice he felt he had, he dived through the rift before it could close and felt a moment of agony as a powerful hand grabbed ahold of his wing, and Seraph turned his head, Dragon Claw at the ready and saw a being his mind could barely contain as he looked at it. With a growl Seraph brought the Dragon claw down in a vicious attack to cut off the hand, but the Dragon’s claw bounded uselessly off of the monster’s skin. Impossible, Seraph muttered as he realized and understood what the dungeon had said was correct.
With a grunt of determination, Seraph turned the blade of the Dragon Claw’s away from the monster that tried to pull him back through the rift on himself, and in a flash of pain, severed his wings forever from his body. Without a way to keep him restrained, Seraph fell forward through the rift and landed just outside of Hometown.
Chapter 72: A Torch Passed
Seraph, you need to wake up, your mission is not yet over. The spirit of the dungeon commanded as Seraph writhed on the ground in a state of unconsciousness after having his wings torn away.
With a groan, Seraph stood up, and felt the immense pressure and drain of the energy he had received. Much of your power was used to transport you back to this timeline, the rift has been sealed, and we possess the dungeon seed, but there is more you must do.
Seraph sat up as the blood dripped down his back, ready to sleep, and ready for rest. “How much more do you want from me Amarath?” He slurred as he struggled to get up and started to walk through the forest towards Hometown.
You must take my place Seraph, at least for a time. I want you to take my place as the spirit of this dungeon and rule over Hometown as one of the Demon Princes. Rebuild, make it better, you’ve seen what they are to face, find a way. Amarath explained as the Black Emblem burned hotter than Seraph had ever remembered.
In the distance, Seraph could see bits of smoke and heard cries for help and screams of terror and realized the Infernals from within the lower floors had managed to reach the Hometown.
Do you accept Seraph? Will you become a thing of my dungeon? Will you take my place? It will take some time to learn, but all you will need to do is think of something, and it shall be.” Amarath asked and Seraph was sure the dungeon already knew the answer.
“I accept, what do I do Amarath?” Asked Seraph unsure of how to proceed.
Thrust the seed into your chest and if you have unfinished business, do it now. The spirit responded and Seraph did as it instructed, feeling an immense relief as soon as the dungeon seed touched the Black Emblem on his chest.
Immediately, Seraph knew whatever time he had left was almost gone and with that certainty came clarity as he started to run towards Hometown towards the sound of the battle. As he came across the front gate rather than struggle with the door, he simply vaulted over it and kept running, and as he could, lashed out at the Infernals who were engaged in mortal combat with the Elves, but it was not the Elves Seraph cared about, at least not all of them, there was one on his mind, that Seraph had been assured was safe. It was his father he was now concerned for.
He kept running towards the sounds of screaming and found bloody catastrophe near the portals of the square, and within that catastrophe, he saw Paul, and for a moment, he saw the man’s eyes flash with anger when he saw him, before another emotion passed through the man’s changed eyes, forgiveness. “Your son is resting. Find him after this,” Seraph called out as he reached into his inventory and pulled out a sword Paul could use.
Seraph looked around and saw that for the most part, the humans and the few elves who had joined them were standing their own. Paul led his guild Prometheus Rising with the knack of a natural born leader. The members he had recruited worked together with ironclad precision to repel the Infernals and push them back. Whenever one member of the guild will start to falter, Paul would pull them back to be replaced by somebody else. In this way, he sought to keep all of his people alive.
The necrotic touch all guild members possessed helped to stem the tide of the battle as many of the wounds they inflicted would not heal. This allowed them to wear down little by little the force that had come against them while the other guilds struggled, having been more reliant on raw power than training and expertise. I was much the same though, Seraph admitted critically of himself. This experience has been humbling.
It was still with a measure of satisfaction that Seraph saw the wounded being carried back and forth on stretches towards the Halls of Rot by members of Prometheus Rising. When this battle is over, Paul will be in a position to assume the mantle of leadership here, they will remember what he did. I will make sure of it, Seraph silently promised.
“You!! Monster? How did you escape. You unleashed these monsters on us!” Shouted a loud accusation from atop one of the makeshift battlements that was an overturned cart. Seraph looked to see the guild leader of the Inquisition of the Blind Eye staring at him. Immediately a cage appeared around Seraph and a smirk crossed the guild leaders face as the men under his command encircled Seraph, a look of killing intent in all of their eyes.
Perfect, thought Seraph as he noticed it was getting harder to breathe and his skin began to sag, I was unsure I’d be able to handle this loose end before this body is finished.
With a laugh, Seraph reached out and tore the bindings apart.
This would not in the same way it had last time. His was not the body of a teenage man on the cusp of adulthood. This was his original body or close to it. The body that showed a jagged scar above his abdomen, a red gash near a kidney from a failed attack of an assassin, near fatal wounds that had healed but the body had not forgotten. The torn stubs were his wings had been, this was familiar.
He was unleashed.
Seraph smiled at the realization that he didn’t need to worry about the impact of his actions, the dead had no such worries, and no need to keep enemies alive. He titled his head back and laughed, a deep and dark maniacal laugh of the damned as the Black Emblem responded with warm agreement.
His smile froze and turned into a grin as Seraph finally noticed the group of men that had surrounded him and that he held gripped in his hand a blade that had left a trail of blood on his best or the blows from the others that had rained down upon him, leaving him with minor nicks and cuts everywhere. Pathetic, Seraph thought, compared to what’s coming, they are nothing.
An inconvenience and nothing more.
That these men had tried to kill him when he was still been human and just a boy at that? For that offense, there would only be death.
He waved both hands in a grand gesture as he bowed at the guildmembers before him in a mock gesture of civility, making sure they saw as he dipped how the wounds on his body had already closed up and the bleeding stopped, no new scarification, no signs of harm, completely healed as if their efforts and expenditure of power amounted to nothing.
The surviving members of the guild instantly knew despair. The being that stood before them was not the man they had initially tried to kill and subdue, he was not even the man they had just tried to kill. He had become something else, something beyond them. Everything about him reeked of raw power, the air cracking with his dark energy and the ground beneath him froze in black ice as dark shadows moved in the places where he walked.
Like riding a bicycle, Thought Seraph as he counted his enemies. His only regret was that so few remained after their fighting with the Infernals. It’s still a good number, he thought, this would allow him plenty of opportunity to stretch his legs and work out some of the rust he had accumulated while in his lesser body. Legendary and Epic classes all of them. I’ll give away their Emblem’s as boons when this is over.
This is what they had feared, the return of the Black Seraph. A short-lived return, Seraph thought. Or just a threat to their power. I shouldn’t be surprised. Power always fills a void.
Seraph turned and muttered "One" as he pointed at the man who had mocked him before his imprisonment in Perdition, the man furthest away from him and closest to one of the portals. Seraph did not want any of them to escaped and called out in a spell he knew, "Formication Swarm" as dark energy was expelled from his body towards the elf. A spider dropped from the man’s nose followed by another and then another and another. Frantically the man slapped at his face to get the spiders off as pressure built up beneath his eyes and flesh crawled and squired as things moved beneath his skin.
