AThousandCurses

Iris Ascendis

The growing tree seeked more nutrients and stretched its roots to dig around for anything. Chunji didn't bother to control its ravenous appetite and opted to follow with the newly arrived Undermage. "Understood, I will take my leave," And help Ciara and Davil went left unsaid as his eyes was drawn towards the homing sphere. The Undermage had slowed down the attack with a spell of her own, but it did not remedy the problem.

Chunji drew a deep breath and closed his eyes. The blood receeded from them though left reddened veins. His hand rested on the hilt of the sword. He did not want to take more than he needed, but unfamiliar emotions rushed through his mind. Essence condensed itself in his blade as he prepared to eradicate the disturbance. "斩!" Ethos bared, sword drawn, and essence flaring, Chunji's sword flew. His eyes had identified the weak point of the attack and now it was up to Chunji to meet the vision.

As if extending the blade itself, a tail of essence was slashed across the crushing orb. Whether it had any effect Chunji wasn't going to stay around and find. Chunji turned and ran out of the cathedral. A familiar miasma of darkness met him as he left the cathedral. "Ciara!" The essence of the Lotus Serpent faded away from his body as he released it. "Stay near me. We'll go down to the second floor and I can provide basic first aid to Davil." Chunji's eyes flitted back at the Cathedral. "And we need to be on the look out if the Umbralist had any more tricks up his sleeves."

With that Chunji would follow Ciara and though he moved sluggishly. While the adrenalin was still active, his body was still drained from everything. He didn't know how much time left before he fainted from excessive activity.

Iris Ascendis

"Tch." The student found himself in a troublesome position as soon as the Umbralist snapped his head back at Chunji. The shadowy reptile had swarmed to devour his left arm while a bolt was aimed to pierce his right. A sudden concentration of essence gathered below him, and Chunji reacted quickly. Essence gathered inside his legs, strengthening the tendons, and with a spring, Chunji jumped back into the air to dodge. The space he had occupied was taken up by an emerging summon. Barely avoiding the beast's maw, Chunji barely had time to raise his arms as the creature slammed its head against him after it failed to hit.

The doctor was sent flying across the room and slammed against the wall. Whatever was left of his Personal Barrier was shattered once he fell onto the ground. Chunji hissed and began fueling his legs once more with essence to get up and roll out of the next beast's attacks. His body was starting to feel sluggish. It would not take long before he would collapse from hypoxia, but he still needed to get Davil out of there. Ciara had managed to get Davil; now all they needed to do was-

Blinding light shined into the room. Iraleth. Chunji covered his eyes as the shadow creature that pursued him dissipated into nothing. He could hear the light aspirant and the follower of the dark scream stuff at each other before another light eclipsed the room. It was a much-needed disturbance that allowed Chunji to grab his breath. He called his classmate, "Ciara, get out of here. Davil needs medical attention immediately and tells the doctor that he's consumed several potions today. I will stay behind." To help Iraleth, it didn't need to be said as he looked back at the fight.

Retreat was an option that needed to be taken. Chunji could feel himself nearing his limit, and if he was, then Iraleth would be doubly so. The Umbralist was too strong of an opponent in their current condition, but Iraleth's zeal would kill her if she kept this up. There was little point in trying to convince Iraleth of this course of action; he could only plan on their retreat.

Chunji scowled at Iraleth's command but decided to help. Even if it came at his future expense, he had hoped that his essence devoured by the reptiles would circulate a bit more, but it seemed they had little time. Guilt soon swelled into Chunji's mind as he closed his eyes. "Damn you, Iraleth," Chunji muttered under his name as he cursed the woman out.

"原谅这个罪人吧，大八瓣蛇." (Forgive this sinner, Great Lotus Serpent)

At that moment, Chunji tapped into his contract. An innocent promise and a sentence of sin that was born millennia ago. His skin hardened, his flesh underneath turning frigid by the second. The hunger he once cursed upon the cultist manifested in itself. However, this hunger was real. The vagrant smell of his own Chunji incited his brain to consume his own body to satiate this hunger. If he were to eat himself, maybe this hunger would be sated, his sin forgiven.

Chunji opened his eyes again. He looked over towards the reptiles that began to reform in front of him. Essence from a foreign being swelled into him and replenished his reserves. A prayer.

"让我成长." (Let me grow)

Chunji pointed at the mound of darkness in front of him. Those who have ignorantly consumed the descendant of the Great Lotus Serpent would be punished for their transgression. Words spoken came out as unintelligible yet understandable at the same time, and a look foreign to humans grew on Chunji's face.

"Grow, propagate, and return to the earth."

In that moment, that shadowy mass that once consumed essence gluttonously would soon begin to contort. Out of their bodies, what looked to be roots would sprout out from them. Looking for nutrients, the roots would continuously extract the essence from the body of shadows at a terrifying rate. As the second went by, a tree would start growing at a proportional rate.

There was more Chunji could do, but he didn't. He had already taken enough from his ancestral spirit.

"Iraleth, the location we found ourselves in is akin to a leyline, although weaker. It is a physical construct that has melded into the Iris Record's third floor. Continued combat is ill-advised, and I would suggest retreating." This man wasn't Alto; he wouldn't hold himself back from exploiting an available power source. "From this point onward, I have no intentions of helping in your foolish battle." The words were dripped in venom as Chunji emphasized his displeasure. "And you will pay for this."

With that, Chunji would begin backing away from the fight.

Iris Ascendis

The Umbralist really did pull out a magical cylinder back at Iralreth. I think I’ll wait for Psyker’s post to better assess what Chunji would do.

Iris Ascendis

Got it. I'm going to write up current post as, "Chunji is too busy to collect more information." At the moment. On my next post, I think I'll have Chunji pick that up.

Hopefully this guy isn't magically resistant to curses~

Iris Ascendis

Chunji didn't flinch as the crossbow bolt introduced itself to the wall beside him. His snakes were viciously consumed by the reptiles that were made into the man's coat. The magical darkness didn't serve to obscure but to transport instead. The leylines within the Iris Record must have been utilized for such a process. This was the first time he had seen such a wide-scale teleportation, making him question its type. Was it fueled by Ethos or crafted by magic? Chunji had assumed the latter due to the wide-scale use of Leylines, but he would need more information to confirm.

He shot Davil a glare at his witty response before looking back at the Umbralist. "I am afraid that is not possible," Was all Chunji got out before immediately rolling out of the attack. His eyes darted towards the second crossbow that was aimed towards Davil. He needed to protect Davil before he got skewered by that bolt. Chunji couldn't close the distance in time nor cast a spell to protect it to block it from this range.

However, the Chunji had already made the first move in the battle. One should never commit a primordial sin against a follower of the Lotus Serpent.

Thinking quickly, Chunji chanted a spell to rectify the situation. If he couldn't protect Davil in time, Chunji would have to make due eliminating the need to protect him. "那双贪婪的眼睛过度沉溺于欲望" (Those greedy eyes are overindulging in desire). Chunji's eyes snapped back open, revealing bloodied eyes and surging with essence. One of many curses of the Great Lotus Serpents was bestowed upon its followers. The conditions were simple. Chunji and his target must be aware of other's presence. As long as Chunji's eyes were 'perceived,' the effect would occur. Chunji must sacrifice 10% of his blood to cast this curse.

What did the curse do? It was simple, really.

The man cloaked in reptiles would feel the overwhelming urge to attack Chunji, to consume the student's flesh. Any thought of attacking Davil was secondary, as the Umbralist's eyes were flooded with stimuli to attack Chunji instead. That meant Chunji faced the problem of taking on the full brunt of an Umbralist assault.

Chunji's Personal Barrier went up as he narrowly dodged another bolt aimed at his head. After that, Chunji found it hard to dodge the next bolts. Drawing out his sword, he'd try his best to minimize the damage inflicted upon him. Deflecting bolts with his sword, maneuvering himself out of harm's way, and taking hits to his Personal Barrier was the best he could do at the moment.

Now, all he needed was for Ciara to come in quickly while the man was under his curse and rescue Davil.

Iris Ascendis

Woah! Boss fight! Let's see how hard we get our asses kicked in.

Edit: Time to dip into some blood bank savings :pensive:

Can Chunji detect anything of notice? If there's some sort of ritual going on in the room? It is time to draw aggro away from Davil.

Iris Ascendis

The darkness is getting thicker. It was a thought Chunji had as he waded through the darkness that became like the sea. He had the benefit of peering through the darkness, which was not the same for Ciara. If he had to imagine, it would be like holding onto a plank of wood in the middle of the vast sea. A horizon of darkness with no land in sight. Though Chunji could see it, they were nearing the destination.

Off to the distance, he could hear the distant sound of similar to a drill driving itself through a wall. Chunji didn't want to turn his head around. It was only an eventuality that the arresting force would come for the both of them. The mental pings of his Adapa, from Otis was assumed, were echoed in his head. Whatever the case, all of it did matter. He shared the same goal as Ciara. They must rescue Davil no matter what.

"Ciara. We are nearing the source of the darkness." Chunji notified the student-criminal. "I will say this once: the enemy may be unlike any we have fought before. If there is a scenario where I can rescue Davil, I will take him and abandon you at that moment." Then, without a pause, he continued. "You should do the same. As long as one of us rescues Davil, I would count that as a success."

The circumstances and logic were quite simple. Chunji was low on essence, and Ciara had expended a lot of energy during her fight with Alto and Iraleth and her getaway. The chances of them taking down the potential Umbralist were, to begin with, and the limitation of facing the faculty of the Iris Record was bad enough as is. Some mental calculations were made as they made it near the center.

"The root of this corruption is now straight ahead. I will go in first to survey the situation." Withdrawing his hand from Ciara, Chunji produced a scalpel from his pocket. A straight red line was cut from his arm as he ran the scalpel down his dominant arm. "I assume you know what to do, Ventura." The blood began to coagulate and harden.

"来自花的深谷..." (From The Deep Valley of Flowers) Chunji began saying foreign language. He breached the center and assessed the situation quickly. The moment he identified a threat, Chunji thrust his hand out. Seemingly, hundreds of snakes burst out of his arm, blood splattering around his surroundings. They all hissed and darted towards Chunji's potential target.

Iris Ascendis

It's all good Sifr. From the whirlwind of events you often tell us, I think you desperately need it.

Iris Ascendis

@Nanaya

Within the next 24 Hours, I will post, if that is alright.

EDIT: I will wait until tomorrow in case Sifr is working on their post now.

Iris Ascendis

@Sifr Rain check?