Terminus: Champion Ascension II

[17:29] As the mage stands in front of the pit while holding a letter she stares at the content inside, she doesn't know what the entity living there really is but the woman knows that she needs it. The spirit or ''god'' is the only one that can give her what she wants, it's the same as with her previous boss except that this one seems to be able to give her more.

Her ''ghosts'' stand behind her watching the pit and singing the damn cursed tune, the one that the wolf cursed him to always hear even if it keeps changing. This time the music and the singers tell a story of hatred and loneliness, there is so much that she needs and so little time.

Her brother's suicide is note proof of it, Akaza is always late and out of time. It doesn't matter how much she tries or how much she offers it's never enough, while she was raised to be a samurai she ended up being useless and good only one with a pen and paper but even if her words were lethal this land was a land of swords.

"Meranthe doesn't need diplomacy or spies, yet this is the only thing I can do right." She'd comment while holding the letter in anger and staring at the pit, while her expression was still stoic the woman was furious. The news had finally arrived to her, the same person responsible for Toki's stress was going to offer herself to the people responsible for his death.

"Useless bastards, once again taking defeat from the jaws of victory."

The woman couldn't help but whisper to herself while staring at the pit, she was still pale due to offering a lot of blood and mana. She had offered more than most would offer, maybe more than any sane person would give but she wasn't insane...not yet.

"Balar, I have to come to bargain. I need a favor."

(Akaza)
[18:00] During the day, most of the cultists were sleeping...
There was no summoning ritual to take place. However, with the number of tributes offered thus far, the pungency of mana amassed allowed for a nigh constant presence to be felt.

Not once did it ever seem to prove as faint as it did prior to the rituals... As though, not only was it always watching... always listening...
It was always waiting…
For what? Was anyone's guess.

'Balar, I have come to bargain. I need a favor.'
The air stirred...
"Speak of your bargain, Famulus."
(Etheric Presence)
[18:15] "You have seen my dedication and how I always get the job done, that said one active mage agent won't make too much of a difference. You need more and I can get you more, but the current me lacks the tools to do it.

Now imagine what I could get you if I had the needed tools, more followers, or even better magi. If you can read my mind, you should know already that I won't hesitate until YOU get what you want so you can give me what I need." She'd say while still staring at the pit in anger.

"But enough talking, I'm sure you probably want me to be clear about what I need even if you already know. I need knowledge so it can be easier to recruit people or get them to your pit, while I'm good with words it won't be enough.

I need the power of occult magic to do what is necessary, and knowledge that can be used to make people need me like what a medic knows. But don't get me wrong, I know that you probably will need more sacrifices or offerings so..."

There was a pause as the woman kept staring at the pit thinking, what could she offer to get what she wanted?

"What can you give me now? And what do you need to give me those two ''tools'' that I require to be more usefull to your cult?"
(Akaza)
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[18:32] The pact thus far was still being acted upon...
Akaza was doing their best to uphold their end of the bargain...
To evangelize...
To gather followers...
Though, they found themselves bound to an issue at-hand.
"Famulus… Your Will has pushed you... And it will continue to push you to completion."
So declareth the patron...
"You require the gift of the eternal shadows... An understanding of absolute Hatred, to invoke the powers beyond the veil intended for humanity... Your desperation... Your anguish... Your suffering... Let it bubble to the surface and fuel you...

It is then, that I can awaken such a power from within... Make it known to you."

A moment's pause... Likely consideration before...
"Behold... For this hollowed basin has been filled with my blessed blood..."

A silent incantation sought to draw forth a blanketing weight unto one's shoulders...
To strain at the knees...
Intent on drawing one close to the ground, to the edge of the pool... Much like a nudge, albeit mildly forced.

"Descend into its depths... And be baptized in my name. There, you shall receive all that one requires..."
Was... That it? The 'gentle nudge' being provided suggested that one allow themselves to fall into the crystal-infested 'tar' pit...
Now, that the 'tar' was revealed to be that of the Patron's blood -- shed in amalgam to that of numerous blood sacrifices...

The occasional deteriorating corpse, and... something else.
Was it worth it? What could possibly be gained by diving into a decrepit pit of... Blood.

(Etheric Presence)
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[19:07] There was no reaction as the voice talked to the woman, she was just staring at the pit with an empty gaze that had replaced the anger from before. But she was still angry, no the woman was furious even if the clear anger had been replaced by something more cold and calculated that only showed up at her worse.

For a moment the woman just stood there after the entity told her to descend into the pit, she knew that it was a mistake but she needed more. Just like Balar she needed a lot more than they had right now, it was some strange toxic symbiosis not different from the one that priests and gods had.

"Do not betray me and I won't betray you, Balar. Know that I only care about two people in this world, do whatever you want with the rest but they are mine.

Stay true to your word and you shall have a useful agent, even if my worship is not pure like your cultist you can always trust my greed. I make now a vow that I will get you what you want, Akaza Shigenobu now abandons his previous name and accursed face that was altered through potions to help him hide after his dishonor." She'd say before flapping her wings and jumping into the pit, once again the wings that she always hated were being used. The irony of a faeborne ending up in that pit would never be lost, a faeborne that had always hated and hid her wings.

"If I will be baptized in your name, I ask for you to give me a new name and face. Reshape my body, mind, and soul into what we both need now, but the names and faces in my mind can not be touched...Shirin and Levi are mine."

As the request was made the Faeborne just stopped flapping her wings and let her body descend into the pit and the darkness below, while she knew that her circuits couldn't be fixed yet it wouldn't be necessary. Akaza/Kishi was at her most dangerous when considered to be harmless, that's why...she had been called the devil of the pen.

Closing hereyes she once again embraced the darkness that others had always told her to stay away from, in that moment she could remember how Meri abandoned her, Toki's suicide, Shiri's failures, how her best friend had been the only one to not abandon her and how the only person that she loved kept hurting herself.

"Shirin..." She whispered one last time before letting the content of the pit not only surround her body but also enter her lungs.

(Akaza)
[19:54] They spoke -- likely in concern.
Concern for what ulterior motives that Patron may've had...
However, with enough desperation to forgo such distrust -- perhaps, some decisions were meant to be made.

The faeborne was... Quite the unique turn-of-events for the Patron. Consideration was mulled over, for an agent of Nemea was to be plucked from their heritage... For a new one.
A Fall From Grace...
… To protect the ones they loved...

Into the abyssal substance they'd fall...
The splash, being the last sound they'd hear before all of the realm above was snuffed out by aquatic suppression. Buoyancy sought to gently clutch their body, as though preventing them from sinking too quickly... But a foreign, faceless weight sought to continue dragging them further down into the depths.

The substance sought to enter their mouth... Nose... Lungs...
Perhaps, they had accepted the sensation and fallen limp.
Theprowess of their Patron, culling at the mind -- to lull them into a stupor. The thoughts of their failures...
The experience of their losses...
Abandonment.
Death...
And their own sickness...

Now, here they were... Amongst a void beneath the depth...
Drowning...
In desperation...
In anguish...
"You have my word..."
The word of a Helborne entity, likely growing apparent now? Was questionable at-best.
"The names... and faces within your mind will remain...
untouched."
It was as though... In these opaque depths? Eyes of crimson shined through them, as though to gaze upon prey ensnared in their trap.
The body of Akaze Shigenobu would be enraptured by telekinetic prowess, seeking to contort their physicality out in stretched fashion -- as though to examine an experimental subject.

Their vascularity singed...
Burning... Blackening, as the taint of the Demon Patron sought to permeate beyond the flesh, binding with their anatomy. Their body was already poisoned...
Alas, it would be poisoned further, transmogrified in such a fashion that it would betray its former nature.

Fae-wings mutated upon, introduced with raw occult-tainted mana that not only swathed it, but invaded the very nexuses of one's circuitry. Was was left felt as though it was waning... Yet... Small pulsations ruminated from within. Their body was being skewered on a minute domain. Needles crafted of mana were forged, melding through flesh to stab at pressure points, blasting miniature cavities before immediately reforming what was briefly disturbed.

Their magus anatomy was being deconstructed…
Perhaps, betrayal was inevitable?
Something was being interjected...
The curse of Varrach's Death Magic wrought degeneration upon the entity reforging the faeborne once-known-as Akaza… But with their regenerative factors overcompensating? It sought to become cancerous in nature, allowing spare matter to be supplied in the reassembly of their being.

Would their wings manage to persist throughout the endeavor? Likely addled and chipped away -- withering at the necrotic embrace of depraved magics. The regeneration of one's physique brought forth... A slightly heartier stature... As though their circuitry sought to manifest a translucent aegis of mana passively in one's wake.

A throbbing at the forehead persisted as mana concentrated there. It could be resisted by the former Nemean-bound ilk, likely to prevent one of several mutations... But one couldn't resist them all. Their skin sought to transcend for something much more gray -- dim, as to resemble the onyx flesh of Patron's true form beyond the veil.

Throughout it all, constant incursions upon the mind sought to invoke further suffering... As though to force one to revisit moments of their life...
To re-experience their blunders...
To fall into self-loathing...
To realize... Understand... And succumb to Hatred.
In doing so, the evocation of the transmundane would come...

But to master it? That... Would take time...
Possession of their figure through the Occult magics incurred upon them, would finally lead to the forced warping upon their body via telekinesis... Driving them up for the blood pit's surface... Their diaphragm compressed upon, forcing blood to spill from their lungs...
Emptying them... And allowing the sunlight of the realm above to meet their transformed eyes once more.

This...
Was a new entity...

To their ears? They would hear them…
The cultists were in position, as if, they always were there.
Their mouths moved, but the words... Untied to Meranthean tongue.
It... Was Felspeak…
Chanting... For a ritual was being performed while the magi formerly known as Akaza had descended into the depths...

Yet another wholly baptized...
"Arise...
Aldorin of Terminus"
(Etheric Presence)
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[20:37] As the mage was dragged to the depths of the pit by someone faceless power his senses shut down, his last thoughts were a certain prayer that his previous boss had forced him to remember. It was a prayer about discipline, yet she had failed to follow it.

Meanwhile, the runt had followed it to the letter, he had sacrificed everything and did what was asked of him even when they had zero expectations. No one truly believed him, they Always saw him as weak and useless ending up surprised every time the dishonored managed to do tasks that were simple to him.

If only they could see him now if only they would have realized their mistake before. While Akaza's body was weak his mind and will was some of the strongest among his peers, while they noticed it his family never asked more of him...a big mistake.

But this faceless patron wasn't that simple-minded, it was willing to use his pawns to their fullest and that's all Akaza wanted. There was no resistance as the the darkness of the pit entered the faeborne's body and mind, there were no thoughts as he passed out and embraced the darkness drowning.

There was no despair and anguish as the mage had already accepted his fate, if he was to die there so would be it. But if he were to live, then Terminute would get a truly terrifying pawn if his mind remained as sharp as it was before the ritual.

As the being's body was being remade and mutating there was one thought, the faces that it had to find. It knew his mission, it knew that it had to be a dagger more sharp than the one that Akaza Shigenobu once worshiped.

"So be it." It thought before roaring as his body was being altered, before there was Akaza and now there was someone else. There was no resistance from the one that had been a Faeborne to the mutations, it fully embraced it with the pain like Kishi had done before but this time MORE.

As the man who he had been before was being rewritten through the many incursions upon his mind to invoke suffering, the man could still hear the voices singing due to his curse. He could remember how much he hated himself and the world for failing Toki and Shirin, how much he had wanted to be there for Shiri but now...only wanted her head.

This being was something else, it remembered his ''father'''s pain and feelings but with a lot more hatred. If Akaza couldn't hate them all this being could, it was a strange warped love that was mixed with hatred.

As the being finally felt the blood leaving his lungs and saw the sunlight above them it roared but also smiled, someone had died that day but another was born. Once stuck like two sides of a coin, now with only one face.

There was no response to the cultists, Aldorin just stared at them before starting to crawl out of the pit. Just like a newborn after he was out of it the being would stay on his knees and stare at the sun, no words came from him.

(Akaza)