Divine Apostasy Book 11 - Chapter 8

[Author's Note: As I said in this week's update, I should have another chapter released Saturday night. I was a single parent this week which is catastrophic for writing. Thank you for your patience and understanding.]

Chapter 8

To Ruin's relief Vex appeared, but he’d changed. A lot. Even with Ruin's new height, he had to look up at the horse.

Vex lost his demonic appearance and gained another set of wings just like Ruin. They had the luster of metal, but with a dark matte black color. Vex folded them against his body.

The steed now appeared more like a racing horse or some other animal built for speed. Muscles rippled under the black pelt, and a ring of black horns sat like a crown on the horse's head. His tail had become a whip, which ended in a wicked-looking barb.

Ruin reached up and gently stroked Vex’s neck. Vex lowered his head and rubbed it against Ruin, causing Ruin to stumble to the side.

"Easy, I'm only level one,” Ruin said with a laugh.

Vex’s info appeared to Ruin.

Name: Vex the Destroyer

Type: Val’dor Steed of the Apocalypse

Armor Class: 10,000

Damage: 500-1,000 Blunt, 200-500 Piercing

Quality: Divine

Effect (Passive): Realm Prancer – Travel on any medium in any Realm.

Effect (Passive): Realm Breaker – Cross between any two Realms.

Effect (Passive): War Bound– Val’dor Steed of the Apocalypse gains 20% of its rider’s Willpower.

Effect (Passive): Subjugate - Increase all Val’dor rider’s Regeneration by 20% while riding the Steed.

Effect (Triggered): Free Rein – Teleport to any visible point.

Effect (Triggered): Unassailable– Extend wings to create a shield protecting steed and rider.

Effect (Triggered): Homesick– Channel the Destruction Realm into an adjustable sphere with a diameter equal to the rider’s Willpower in feet.

Effect (Triggered): Willful Clear– Stomp the ground releasing a tidal wave of Willpower-enhanced Destruction Essence that dissolves enemies within fifty feet.

Description: A graceful black steed standing fifteen feet high with two sets of metallic wings spanning thirty feet. The air elemental at the Steed’s core successfully assimilated into the Destruction Realm to become one of the legendary Saraph War Mounts. These noble steeds are favored by the Royal houses and are fiercely loyal to their owners.

"Wow, Vex, you changed again."

Curious, Ruin summoned the Scarecrow Aspect, and as he expected, Vex transformed into the emaciated, demonic-looking steed that could have emerged from a nightmare.

The information associated with the steed changed as well, as the new abilities went away and the previous ones returned. This was the fourth version of Vex, the steed upgraded when Ruin transitioned to Divine, and then gained two new abilities when Ruin entered the Destruction Realm. Now the steed bore the form of one of these Saraph War Mounts.

Ruin dismissed the Scarecrow Aspect and Vex returned to his more noble form.

"We’re going to head up and talk to the crew in a bit. Why don't you fly around and get used to your new body? I'm going to check on a few things real quick."

Vex rubbed his large head against Ruin again, and Ruin needed to lean against the steed and use his Archangel strength to keep from falling over. Vex’s new form had become very strong.

In a blink, Vex disappeared, and it took Ruin a few seconds of scanning to locate the steed galloping through the air in the distance.

Once again, Ruin was alone.

The conversation with Varthon had provided a glimpse into the Outerverse, and Ruin looked forward to more discussions. One thing was very obvious: Makers held immense power. The Void Wyrm appeared incredibly powerful to Ruin, but he’d seemed respectful and maybe a little fearful when talking about the Maker who’d created this universe.

The shocking revelation about how commonplace Axioms were in the Outerverse still shook Ruin. He’d known the Outerverse would be strange, but such a fundamental difference between the two locations was almost too incomprehensible.

Ruin wanted to check if he'd actually looted anything earlier. He also wanted to see what his modified Ink Lord armor looked like and peek at the Inheritance display. He most certainly was not delaying facing his friends with his new body.

Taking a deep breath, Ruin prepared himself for the worst. He’d been ecstatic when he learned his Ink Lord armor had survived, but it had also said "modified." This was his favorite armor, and he didn't want it warped into something he couldn't use.

Ruin retrieved the shield which he used as a mirror and summoned the Ink Lord’s Wrap.

Tilting the shield quickly up and down, Ruin confirmed the armor hadn't changed visibly. No, that wasn't true. As he looked closely, a few of the words and runes now appeared smeared, as if touched while the ink remained wet. While small, the effect confirmed Destruction Essence had made its way into the armor.

Ruin summoned the armor’s stats:

Name: Ink Lord’s Wrap of Shadow

AC: 3,500

Quality: Legendary

Durability: 5,000 of 5,000

Effect (Passive): Know It All: +50 Intelligence.

Effect (Passive): First Edition: Reduce all magical damage by 33%.

Effect (Passive): Lost and Found: If the Ink Lord is separated from the armor by more than fifty feet, it will teleport to the Ink Lord’s right wrist.

Effect (Passive): Dust Jacket - The armor emits an aura of distortion, providing a 10% chance for any incoming ranged attacks to miss.

Effect (Triggered): Top Shelf: Once per hour, create a staircase made from air with a max height of 200 feet and max weight of 500 lbs.

Effect (Triggered): Librarian’s Hush: Once per day, restore silence to your library by suppressing all sound in a 1,000-foot sphere for five seconds.

Effect (Triggered): Book Burning: Once per month, grant elemental immunity to all inanimate objects in a 1,000-foot sphere for thirty minutes.

Effect (Triggered): Ink Lord’s Paper Knife: Create a small temporary blade suitable for slicing open pages or unruly patrons. Blade’s composition dependent on focus. Inflicts 12 to 24 Piercing damage.

Effect (Triggered): Bookmark: Set location and, once per day, instantly return there.

Effect (Triggered): Debinder - Once per day, transform into a wraith for 10 seconds. While in wraith form, all damage is funneled harmlessly into the Destruction Realm. User cannot attack or cast spells.

Restriction: Black Pyramid Ink Lord.

Description: Small off-white scroll made from Dragon Spider Webbing and traces of Destruction Essence. The librarian can wrap and unwrap themselves with a thought, offering protection while carrying out the duties of the Black Pyramid Ink Lord. Stain-resistant inside and out for the Ink Lord’s inevitable bloody demise.

The Armor Class had increased by one thousand two hundred and fifty while the durability climbed by two thousand. The additional passive had some value, as ranged attacks were sometimes difficult to sense in time. The wraith spell sounded fantastic, providing a ten-second immunity to damage.

Ruin dismissed the Ink Lord’s Wrap, returning to his naked state.

When Ruin had first returned, just before Rami had appeared, he’d fetched the shield he now used as a mirror. Taking the shield had triggered a loot prompt, resulting in all the bodies of those he’d killed earlier with Prelude of Stillness losing their glow and then slowly disappearing.

A portion of the light the bodies emitted had come from black shards the length of Ruin’s finger, and he recalled the popup that had appeared.

Name: Common Destruction Needle (DeN)

Description: Currency of the Destruction Realm. Can be exchanged for experience, Class-tree node progression, skill advancements, core expansion, common goods, etc.

These DeNs appeared to act as a universal currency for everything. It seemed that he could decide if he wanted to level, invest in his core, buy things, or improve his Class.

The hundreds of creatures had also possessed gear like the shield he’d picked up, and that had all disappeared. Since he didn't have any inventory other than the five slots in his Shadow Core, he guessed all those items were lost.

Ruin focused on the small person in the lower right corner of his vision and opened his Inventory.

Instead of a human cutout to display the gear he wore, his new Saraph form was represented. All the slots except his right arm remained empty, which made sense since he stood here naked.

Under the cutout, five slots represented the storage in his Shadow Core. Below that sat a greyed out grid.

In Ruin's old display, his currency displayed last and spanned from copper to terium. All of that had disappeared, replaced by a single entry: DeN.

Ruin stared at the value listed. He’d expected DeNs to be plentiful since they were used for everything, but he had misjudged.

DeN: 112,399,455

That seemed like a lot.

He noticed an exclamation point inside his greyed-out Inventory and mentally touched it, causing a Notification to appear.

You have exceeded your storage allotment. Items held in dimensional stasis will be discarded in 955 minutes. Choose an option below or dismiss Notification to do nothing.

Purchase sufficient storage. Cost: 10,000,000 DeN

Vend items at or below chosen quality level and recalculate storage needs.

Display items and manually vendor.

Discard all.

The choice to sell included a list of quality values that ended with “all.”

Ruin chose "Uncommon" and let the automated vendor system do its magic.

Ruin didn't know if this mobile vendor was available all over the Destruction Realm, but it was insanely convenient. His access to plentiful storage had spoiled him these last few years, but before that, Inventory limitations had caused a lot of irritation.

The Notification box went blank for five seconds and then reappeared with the same information, only now the cost for storage had dropped to under 100,000 DeN.

Normally, Ruin would spend more time considering if the added storage justified the cost. He had over one hundred million DeN, but for all he knew, that was nothing, and spending a hundred thousand DeN on storage was irresponsible.

On the other hand, whatever loot remained had a quality of Fine and above. He wanted to look at all those items and didn't want to worry about the impending time limit.

Ruin paid the money, and his Inventory populated.

Ruin fell to his knees and then crashed face-first into the ground as the massive number of items in his storage overcame his Archangel strength.

A couple years with a Void Band and its one hundred percent weight reduction allowed Ruin to forget the first rule of storage: Don’t store more than you can carry.

Two more sayings immediately came to mind, both from Lylan as she teased Hamma.

Sometimes, Lylan used a saying from her youth: “Heavy loads sink the boat.”

Lylan had also needled Hamma with Shade advice: “Shade’s first rule, light feet cross deep water.”

Ruin had never been more thankful to be alone.