C85: Ending the Clown
Praise the Fool.
no, the clown here is nicolash (spoilers)
Tho, fair warning. It's gonna get messy at the end there
As for why im posting this, I wanted to make up for not posting the weekly updates that I promised regarding my progress and whatnot. so im posting this to make for it. my 'vacation' will still continue until the first sunday of august, 1 and a half weeks from now (aka august 2nd as originally mentioned). gotta start picking up the slack otherwise ill completely fall behind due to my laziness.
Though i do have some banger ideas for followup stories should I ever have time for those with all my previous ones still gathering dust with random story additions to them being added overtime.
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I clench my fist and unclench, I do this a few times to get a feel for what changes are happening with my body. I should have died there in the nightmare due to the multiple instances of frenzy but somehow survived but now I'm missing half my echoes.
I don't have any skill that could help me stay alive at the cost of currency or stamina or anything like that. So how could I survive unless the system interfered and helped me survive that one time.
So, why would it help me survive if it's been telling me to die since I got to the Mensis area…..Could something be interfering with it to the point that it comes off as my enemy?
'Whatever the case. I realize that im still too weak against enemies that I assume to be ng+100 bosses. Just that bitch Nicolash is taking so much effort. Time to go balls to the fucking wall with my skills and physique.' I analyze myself and my continued lack of power.
First order of business is to upgrade my energy flow skill as that is enough to give me free levels into my physique since my physique costs an absurd 800 million skill points to reach level 20 which is the current max. That is only 18 levels and it's crazy expensive.
As such, the third tier skill, Advanced energy Flow was upgraded to the fifth tier which was renamed Internal Energy Control. I could now distinctively control the exact percentage of my stamina to redirect into my physique with greater effect, I could also do the same with my mana, essentially nullifying my mana regen to buff my body. I test it out for a few minutes in the hunters dream and in just those few minutes, I got a free level in my physique.
Im recently far more dependent on my mana so while the effect is great, Ill stick to just stamina. Though I will make it a bit more stamina than before as I was previously stuck to intervals of 10%, then 5% and then finally 2.5% in previous iterations.The difference was slim and I got to essentially keep the same values but at different instances, so it changed nothing as I kept the same amount all the time.
With that taken care of, I put another 100 million into my chaos step. I'm not planning to upgrade its tier again but more so to just level it up as I realize that it's going to be one of my main attributes. It's simply too powerful, especially if leveling it up gives me any information about that mana refinery formation which would essentially give me anti magic properties which fuel me instead of hurting me.
Funneling the large amount brings me up to level 4 of chaos step before the skill itself dissolves.
"Grrrluh" It is soon replaced by just chaos mastery which increased from 28% all the way to 40%. I feel the flow of information as it brands itself onto the nerves of my brain rather than my brain itself. The sensation was aneurysm inducing as my body instinctively jitters about before I recover.
"Ughaaa that sucked. I should have upgraded Chaos Step more." I lament my fate as due to chaos step being properly absorbed into the mastery itself, I could no longer upgrade it as I would a regular skill. It was also possible that just reaching that level would have dissolved it anyways but that doesnt mean I'm not allowed to be sad by my circumstances.
I then look through my skill list, primarily those at tier four or below to see what could grant me the greatest boost in power and I soon focus in on Quicksilver which is at tier 4, just on the edge of my targets. While I primarily use Astral Movement, this is still good for long distance movement.
Upgrading this with a few million, I upgrade it to Zoom. Just Zoom. it directly passes Flash or anything Dc related, straight into Zoom. thats crazy.
Though as I test out the technique, I mix in the chaos barrier around myself which im still able to use stamina for. In fact with the chaos step being absorbed into the mastery. I can substitute my stamina to cast chaos related spells if I'm ever short on mana. That's very useful, Very very useful. On the other hand, the increase in speed means that im directly crashing into space itself, creating miniature spatial booms which is why i equip the chaos barrier around myself which nullifies the spatial booms or rather allows me to slip through space itself to increase my actual movement speed.
I spend a bit more time on this as I achieve another 2 levels in my physique as my Skill refinery subsystem initiates a message which pleases me very much.
[Spend 100 million SP to merge Chaos barrier, Astral movement and ZOOM into a new skill?]
"It do be like that sometimes. yes"
I have the skills merge together as I didn't see much of a reason to have my regular running speed not be originally fused with my dash. Now it is.
[new skill: Chaos Shift has been learned. Chaos Shift is at Max level. Increase life signal to higher grade to remove level limit on chaos shift and Life Creator.]
I finally learn the reason why I couldn't keep upgrading the two skills. Im very thankful for the subsystem that I envision myself giving them head pats.
[hehe] It seems to enjoy my minor efforts and intent when I see the new message.
I keep envisioning this in my mind as I have no reason not to. It's a lovely and obedient child who has been helpful from the start.
[hmmph] The pet system gives a notice of annoyance and I'm more so unsure of how to respond to it since It hasn't been able to even give me a single pet egg which I got from the very start of my adventure. Though having reached this point, I assume that the main system was forcing the sub system to lie to me about the speed up process negatively affecting the egg for the sole reason that having a dragon in the world of bloodborne would be too crazy.
[Hmmph, correct] The subsystem confirms my theory and I realize that it's dumbass parent purposely suppressed it after giving it life or perhaps unsealing it. Truthfully, there is a lot of potential but I'm just too lazy to think through all the hundreds of combinations I could use to make a monstrous creature. In fact, I already have a few plans for the dragon egg in addition to the multiple heads and elemental affinities that I grinded out last time when I examined the rune of aberration.
With the current set up, of my ever increasing physique and enhanced speed, along with chaos mastery. I just upgrade my cosmology skill to T5. As a result, All of my elemental manipulation skills reach the elemental mastery skills while air manipulation increases by 15% to reach 40%, the same as wind but even with increased control. I still cant choke someone out by creating an airless bubble.
For shame.
Oh well, it's still all very neat. More damage, wider skill use and range all for less cost. My favorite.
Oh right, the cosmology skill also gained a new modifier, aka [Spatial Sync]. While it sounds impressive, it's actually just a heat seeking effect which means I can easier track specific targets such as with using my wind senses or my attacks can mark enemies so that even if the target moves or hides, it will follow.
I don't think there is anything more orgasm inducing for an american than to have a magical bullet that can go around corners at 90* shifts to be able to strike their target, all without actually seeing said target from the start. Granted, I don't actually have american blood, I just lived there all my life. But I can sympathize on how cool that would be.
Of course the new modifier also granted me another big portion to my mind so I now have 1,167 mana in total. Roughly 16% more than I did before at 1,005. This came from the combination of my physique levels and the new prefix but it's still impactful as it lets me play around with a few new spells of chaos typing.
For now though, I have an obstacle to bypass before I can go collect the Living String. With all that I've done, I remember now that there was a way to get down to the very abyss and that is where I kill off the brain of Mensis to obtain the living string. I just need to find the specific location.
Naturally, I don't want anymore obstacles, so there is another target I want to take out first, Nicolash.
I rest up a few minutes and double check my gear to restore it to their optimal state again before I finally return to the nightmare of Mensis.
Naturally it's the lamp near all the shortcuts, I release a sensory bubble of wind to scan around. Nothing at the very bottom, not even a trace of his own eldritch presence, I thus use the first lift to ascend to where I fought Nicolash in the first place before scanning again.
It's another dud. Of course I don't just scan one location. I release bubbles of wind in various directions which feed back to me via a string of magical energy. I'm really just a kind child who wants to play with his balloons. Totally inconspicuous.
After not finding any trace of him again, I ascended one last time to the top-most floor thus named, Mergo's loft. Bubbles released, I found my target, flying around like a blind bat where the brain of Mensis used to hang. Though there is also the fact that my new chaos servants also are retained when the nightmare resets itself, from the initial 2 illuminati servants, it's expanded up to 10 of them. 3 pigs and 7 servants who work together to corrupt more as they go.
I climb up onto the railings as I release my other bubbles to return my mana back to me before using both hands to grasp the last bubble. I'm sure that If I tried to approach in any way, Nicolash would teleport away. But you can't teleport in unstable space, that would be suicide. So I line the entire wind bubble in chaos energy. It's energy draining but I don't want a single hole that he could weasel his way out of.
Once I'm nice and 800 mana shorter. I dismiss my headache as I begin to retract my mana by making the bubble smaller. Of course I make sure to reinforce the current bubble so he can't explode his way out with his own arcane abilities.
I can sense it, his fear, his confusion over why the sky has turned purple, yet it is already too late. I have tendrils shoot out from what remains of the bubble to grab onto him. A method to lock him down early. He teleports around trying to avoid the chaos tendrils which just looks like opaque bubbles of purple film as finally he runs out of space and is caught.
I already killed everything here permanently so there is nothing left as nicolash is surrounded by the chaos bubble which sticks to him like a giant plastic bag. I grant him the affordance to breathe as I begin to pull at the bubble.
SWIwoohoohoo. I begin to whistle to myself as I drag the bastardly fish in.
A few minutes later, I have the pathetic scholar before me, held like luggage in my hand as I go over to a more comfortable spot as I set him down against the wall.
His mouth moves but I ignore it. As I pull out a metallic chair from my inventory, one of my many trophies from back when I was house hunting in Old Yharnam.
I scooch my ass onto it as I get comfortable. Crossed legs as I lean forward, my chin on my right hand palm. "Now Nicolash. This has been a long time coming. You might not clearly understand this, but everyone hates you. Now I'm not talking about this world, people here couldn't give a rat's ass about you. No, no, I'm talking about a whole other world, I believe relatively untouched by the old ones but then again. I'm here, so who is to say?"
"So the fact of the matter here is this Nicolash."
"You're a faggot. An unwanted unchristened whore who is unworthy of the effort used to kill you. But I digress, I have put in a lot of effort to catch you now, so rejoice in the sensations that are soon to follow. Cause i've had plenty of time to ponder how I want you to die."
"I know that you are under the belief that dying here would simply wake you up and you and your pathetic brethren would continue to act like sniveling bugs. But I refuse that for you. I want you to disappear. But before that, I want you to suffer. OOOOH" I throw my hands up into the air as I lean back into my chair, "It will be painful. That. Is a certified hunter guarantee."
Nicolash tries to speak again but I don't hear him, I could but the chaos film on him has been blocking his words from the very beginning.
"Ah yes, your mouth, one of your foremost least attractive aspects. Less gets rid of that shall we?" I reach forward, wiggling both the fingers of both my hands as they reach for him and the film on him.
I touch…
His chest, the film forms around my hands, branding temporary runes onto them as I dig into his flesh. His morbid, clumsy flesh, unworthy of the power it contains and slide right in.
His chest itself is fine, my hands phase right through as I grab the thing that im searching for. No, it is not his heart as he lacks even that in his search for power. I can see that said heart is no more than a pustulating being of veins similar to the head of an Amygdala. Regardless, his heart was not my target.
Soon enough I grab it and I can see Nicolash squirm in pain with his mouth open as his eyes soon go vacant and he starts hyperventilating. Yet it's a mystery of how he is doing that as in my very hands, are his lungs.
Chalk it up to chaos intricacies helping him survive for now as I crush his lungs right before him. It seems the chaos powers that be have ensured that he felt every tug and crack of my multiple, well controlled, bones as they compressed against said lungs. I can see tears running down his face.
I smile at him, the cheeriest, kindest smile I could ever give. Before I let it drop and remind him of the monster who faces him. Of the creature, he was warned about. Of the monster that stands before him, cruelly punishing him for his hubris in facing said monster.
"Now, what is going to happen next is that you're going to feel yourself suffocate, your mind growing woozy as your limbs feel as if lead fills your bloodstream. That is called Oxygen Deprivation. You can't breathe, unless my magic allows it."
"Now, back to the previous mention of your death, normally, once this would be all over, you would just wake up. But if you had bothered to look outside your little nightmare, you would have realized that very few creatures have returned to their bodies in the waking world. All dead. Final."
"Isn't that so sweet, an eternal dream that nobody has to wake up from. No one has to suffer anymore. No one has to fight and struggle for their lives for any number of reasons with being human being the number one spot for the reason of your collective misery. It'll just be me, here, in the dream world, by myself. Hmm, no, I should have a companion. Probably Doll, maybe Mar too if I can find them from whatever well they fell into"
[Knowledge has leveled up: level 1->level 2]
The notification appears and disappears on it's own as if an illusion. 'Hmm, strange, whatever' I think to myself as I refocus on Nicolash who has been feeling the symptoms thus far, his body curling up a bit but I catch him and hold him up against the wall again.
"Ah yes, back to you. You're going to die. In fact, im not just going to kill you, your going to be my personal training Doll. You see, I have lots of ideas on magic. So I need a 'willing' test subject for some of the mental based ones. Do enjoy what I have planned for you. Okay Pookie-bear?" I caress Nicolash on the cheek as I'm sure he can barely even see me with how dim his eyes are.
"Oyasumi" (good night)
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Word Count = 2980
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