Threads of the Soul

'That's not good...'

Wincing at the imagined pain of the experience, Seth watched helplessly as he fell closer and closer to that abyssal maw overflowing with razor sharp teeth, and just before the strange Red orc could clamp down it's jaws, Seth quickly disconnected himself from little Geets.

It was unfortunate to lose him, he was a good spy, but Seth really did not need to personally know what it felt like to be eaten alive. Even if this beast swallowed his puppet whole, it wouldn't matter. It's not as if he had a knife with him to cut it open from the inside, that was just wishful thinking.

'Just put it out of your mind, focus on what you can deal with right now.'

Following his own advice, Seth didn't spare much mental energy worrying about his puppet being devoured, and simply looked at the silver lining. At least he had one less task to worry about, and could devote more of his mental energy to the puppets who hadn't been eaten. So, plus side I guess.

One such issue that he could put his new level of mental energy towards, was the issue of the blood ritual and the creatures currently crawling their way out of this apparent portal to hell itself. Of course that's not what it actually was, at least he didn't think it was, but he simply didn't think anything else described it better than that.

Although knowing his seemingly dreadful luck, it would not surprise Seth one bit if he was fighting actual, true demons from the literal bowels of hell. God, he had been eaten and he had failed to stop the ritual, what else could possibly go wrong today?

Shaking his head in annoyance, Seth had Corvus draw a feather from his cloak and dash over to the still active hell portal. As he ran, he let the feather fly as he tossed it with a flick of his wrist, sending it spinning through the air until it embedded itself in the side of one of the creatures necks.

'Damn... I thought I would have more time than this.'

After seeing how useless Fox's mortal blade was against the Nuckelavee, Seth had hoped it would be a singular occurrence and that was simply a bad match up, but it seemed his hopes were set too high.

While his weapon wasn't completely ineffective, it only cut half way into the neck instead of decapitating it fully, like it should have. Regardless, it meant that his cloak was seriously losing its edge. It might do well against the weaker enemies, but against these? He may as well be trying to chop down a tree with a butchers knife.

Switching to the [Requiem of Blood] Seth manifested the crimson blade and bid it to absorb all the blood from nearby to fuel its edge as he swung it. However against his expectations, none of the blood within the pit was absorbed by the weapon, nor was anything of the glowing runes that were scrawled across the ground in the crimson life-wine.

He could feel the weapon tugging at them like a magnet, but they refused to budge from their new purpose. What it did absorb, however, was the few droplets of blood leaking from the neck of the creature he had struck with his feather.

The [Requiem of Blood] shivered in delight at the meal, those few drops making it hungry for more. It practically vibrated in Seth's hand as it channelled those droplets to the blade's edge mid-swing, letting it cleave through the creature's throat with only a hint of resistance.

As the creature's head flew from its shoulders and bounced across the ground, a fountain of blood spurted from the stump it left behind. A spurting fountain that quickly became a churning river as it flowed into the [Requiem of Blood] and fuelled its blade further.

Cleaving through the encroaching invaders, and even giving a few a good hard Sparta kick that sent them tumbling back through the hell gate, Seth wracked his brains for a solution to the crux of his problem, the ritual itself.

His studies with runes were intense and took up a majority of his time, but he was still far from being an expert. It would take him probably a month straight, maybe more, to figure out the meaning of this complex ritual and how to dismantle it properly, and that's if he was undisturbed. The time and luxury for which, he clearly did not have.

Then again, perhaps it was from his ignorance that a simple brute force method sprung to mind. After all, even if his sword couldn't absorb it, at the end of the day it was still blood drawn onto the ground. So why make it more complicated than graffiti?

'It couldn't be that easy... Could it?'

Kicking another hell beast back through the portal, Corvus leapt backwards and stood with his crimson blade held to the side at arms length. He drew all of the tier 1 blood into the crystal gem acting as the swords pommel, leaving only the basic blood from the likes of the rats. Once all the powerful blood was stored he simply... dropped the rest.

The crimson blade lost its solidity, a bucket full of blood splattering to the ground at his feet and covering the runes beneath him. Some of the scarlet letters were completely drowned in fresh blood, while others were merely touching the edge of the fresh pool.

But no matter where they touched, whether it was utterly covered or a straw droplet, the runes spread their glow onto the pool, until the entire thing was glowing like a lake of fire. Unlike the runes, however, which stopped at a certain brightness, the pool simply kept getting brighter and brighter.

The light was uneven, streaking across itself, pulsating wildly and growing blindingly bright. All signs that pointed Seth in the direction of getting the hell out of there. One puppet lost was enough for the time being.

As Seth commanded Corvus to dash away from the ritual site, Scarlet lightning crackled from Seth's little addition to the ritual and arced through the air. The bolt lashed at the ground around it and even struck some of the beasts still emerging from the portal, turning them into nothing more than smouldering charcoal.

The pit full of blood churned and bubbled, like a pot left on the boil for too long it began to froth and overflow. One creature managed to drag itself from the tumultuous portal before the pit erupted like a volcano, however just as it exploded the blood suspended itself in the air before being sucked into a singular point.

The light of the runes fizzled out as they finished short circuiting. The pit, which was once full to the brim of blood, was now utterly empty, except for a tiny, bloody meat ball the size of a marble.

Rising to its feet, the beast that had managed to escape the imploding portal glanced at the meat ball, before raising its arms victoriously and letting out a bellowing roar. What was standing before Seth now, was a 7 foot tall demon. There was no better descriptor for it.

Crimson skin, large bat-like wings and curling horns that erupted from its forehead. Horns that were currently set ablaze, a fact that didn't seem to bother the demon in the slightest. Everything about it screamed demon, it even had a pointed tail flickering behind it as it gazed at Seth hungrily. Clearly eager to release its wrath upon this world.

Staring down the newly birthed demon, Seth sighed at his luck. Of course one had to survive, hopefully this one would die quickly so that he could go help with the rest of the prevalent issues.

Seth raised the [Requiem of Blood] and summoned its blade, a shorter one this time since it was purely made out of his limited supply of transcendent blood. The demon smirked at the challenge, curling its clawed hands into fists and, as its opening move, a fist erupted from its chest.

That was... unexpected. Not very effective as an attack either.

Seth blinked slightly at the baffling sight, as did the demon. It looked down at the arm tearing through the centre of its chest, and the heart that was resting in the grasp of the hand. The demon let out a gargling whimper as it stared at its own heart, which was still beating and pumping out fresh spurts of blood.

The arm retracted just as quickly as it had emerged, leaving the demon with a gaping hole in its chest and no heart to keep it going. Looking at Seth in confusion, it coughed up a lungful of blood, before falling to the side, revealing the crimson skinned Orc that had eaten Geets.

Clutched in the Orcs hand, which was stained with fresh blood but was hard to see from its skin tone, was the demons beating heart. The Orc glanced at Seth, giving him a derisive smirk before it spoke in a deep, grumbling voice.

"I wonder what it tastes like."

Without another word, the Orc unhinged its jaw again and tossed the beating heart into its mouth like a piece of candy, before swallowing it whole.