(Sorry for disappearing again.)
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By the time Audun reached the summit of the spire was about the same time he realized something had gone horribly wrong.
The Crimson Terror looked to be on the brink of death, with its large body sprawled out on the cracked floor.
The Terror's arms and legs were cleanly split from its body, and hundreds of faces contorted in the same expression of agonizing suffering littered the ground like trash.
A sheen of thick, sticky liquid stained the entire room with a sickening shade of crimson, and the stench of death wafted in the air.
It was utterly disgusting.
But more than that, the detail that put Audun the most on edge was the person standing on top of the Terror with a foolish grin.
Summoning the [Midnight Shard]— having received the memory back from Sunny recently— Audun's expression turned cold as he called out to the humanoid figure.
"... Caster, I thought you were with the others."
The Scion of the Han Li clan turned to him with a bright smile, tearing at the corners of his lips.
"Ah, Sir Audun! To what do I owe the pleasure?"
There was something very wrong with the sleeper.
Caster waved his arms around the room, a blood-soaked Jian in his hands.
"Do you like what I've done with the room? This disgusting creature was quite the poor decorator."
Audun's grip on the [Midnight Shard] tightened.
"What are you doing here, Caster?"
With a small chuckle, the sleeper shut his eyes, shaking his head lightly.
"Oh, you know... Just killing some time while I waited for you to get here."
He continued.
"And you certainly took your time, might I add. This one almost finished transforming into a titan, you know~?"
Caster kicked the Terror with his foot, eliciting what seemed to be a groan from the creature.
Stepping down from his eerie perch, Caster gave Audun an even brighter smile than the one he had on earlier.
For some reason, Audun felt goosebumps shoot up his arms.
The legacy was emitting a familiar Aura, one that Audun was sure that he'd never feel again in this new world.
With a snort, Caster continued his tirade.
"You know, I never understood why you all treated me with such disdain. I played within the lines, and I never did anything that held the cohort back— Yet, as a reward for my devotion, I was met with cold looks and frigid smiles."
He shook his head with a look of hurt.
"It truly wounded me, you know? I was stuck in this god-forsaken place like the rest of you, and I was being treated worse than a pathological liar with an affinity for shadows."
Then he paused.
"Well, I guess I can't really say much considering how strong he's become. Truly, I don't know how you did it, Sir Audun, but Sunny's transformation was miraculous."
Caster laughed a bit to himself, his green eyes flickering eerily.
Usually, Audun's flaw would've caused him some sense of unease before the legacy, with the familiar yet unfamiliar youth sitting in an awkward spot in his heart— yet for some reason, he felt nothing except a sense of foreboding.
"Caster—"
He tried to say something, but the legacy cut him off.
"Seriously, I find it unbelievable that a sleeper like you even exists, and even more unbelievable that you willingly chose to ally with the fallen Immortal Flame clan— but my father was right— It is hard to follow the logic of a lesser."
Audun didn't bother listening any longer, acting on the uneasy feeling building in his chest.
Gripping his blade, he tried to lunge forward.
Unfortunately for him, the moment he committed to the movement, something strange happened.
Thud
Audun skidded to a halt as his left arm fell from his shoulder, leaving behind a bloodless stump.
Despite being disconnected from it, Audun could still feel his arm, and when he willed it to move, sure enough, the severed appendage wriggled on the floor.
"Aw, now why'd you have to go and do that? We were having such a nice chat."
Caster let out a dramatic sigh as Audun's gaze slowly turned frigid.
He recognized this disgusting power.
A quartet of platinum pearls rose from behind Audun as he picked up his fallen arm.
"How long?"
Caster gave him a curious look.
Audun inhaled deeply.
"How long have you been contracted to that Demon."
A grotesque smile bloomed on Caster's face.
"Ah, you knew? Well, I supposed it's only natural."
The sclera of his eyes turned black as his emerald eyes bled into a sickening shade of yellowish green.
Caster didn't bother hiding it anymore.
"I and the esteemed one have been in contact for quite a while, though until recently I had been unable to bear the burden of calling upon their power."
Platinum light shone as Audun brought his arm to his shoulder— his starlight purging the authority that had been invoked.
"Why though? Have you not read enough fairy tales? Did it not get through to you that making a deal with a demon was perhaps, I don't know, a bad idea?"
Caster chuckled.
"I'm not stupid, Audun. I was just..."
The smile marring his features slowly faded as a more serious, dangerous look took it's place.
"Desperate."
Caster spread his arms wide.
"I was truly and utterly desperate."
The legacy pointed his Jian at the swordsman.
"I was given a mission from one of the supreme beings representing humanity. A mission that I absolutely could—
Audun cut the legacy off.
"Yeah nevermind, let's just get this over with. I don't think I can stand breathing the same air as someone who's been sodomized by a demon anymore."
A small tired sigh escaped the legacy's lips.
"I was trying to have a civilized conversation, you know?"
The swordsman spat on the floor at Caster's feet, his lilac eyes gleaming with contempt.
"Civilized conversation my ass. The moment you betrayed humanity you lost that right."
The Land of Stars and Earth were similar in quite a few ways, but the closest parallel that Audun could draw between the two was the rather precarious position humanity seemed to be in.
While there were probably a plethora of causes unknown to the swordsman, the root of most of this world's issues stemmed from the nightmare realm slowly seeping into the waking world.
In the Land of Stars, however— the source of humanity's struggle was tied to the abyss and the beings dwelling within it.
During Audun's time of residence, nine-tenths of the world had been conquered by the abyss, and if it weren't for the first wielder of Excalibur, the Sword of Selection: Arthur Pendragon, sealing the entrance to the abyss and the baleful star, humanity might not have even had that meager ten percent.
Demons were born from the abyss and it's chaos— with their mere existence sowing discord among the land.
With the sole exceptions of Arthur Pendragon and his successor Najin, nobody— transcendent or not— was capable of granting true death upon a demon— no matter how strong or weak that demon was.
They were unkillable, possessed troubling authorities, and were beings that were also capable of possessing stars.
"It looks like words won't get through to you. A shame."
Caster leveled his gaze with the swordsman.
Audun glared back as he assessed the condition of his arm.
'Feels fine now— But I still need to be careful of that fuckers authority. If I get hit by it again I doubt I'd be able to get him to yap long enough to let me recover.'
'Hah, shit. This is gonna be a pain in the ass.'
While he had no idea how a demon had even managed to forge a contract with a being of this world, the swordsman didn't dwell on it for long.
Well, more like he couldn't.
On top of inheriting some of the powers of their patron, if a demon contractor wasn't killed in time, the demon they were contracted to would eventually descend.
Possessing no countermeasures for an immortal transcendent, Audun had to kill the sleeper before that grim outcome became a reality.
Summoning his sword aura, Audun immediately lunged toward Caster, partially manifesting his imagery by using the Star of Separation as a medium.
He held nothing back.
The lonely black waters and serene night sky contained within his soul bled into reality as the swordsman's blade streaked towards Caster's neck.
In response, the sleeper merely raised a hand.
The severed appendages and faces of the Crimson Terror flew forward at breakneck speeds, intercepting Audun's strike and forming a barrier between the two.
Audun hacked the wall apart and burst through it, but upon doing so, the fleshy barrier shattered back into a mess of body parts.
Now split back into fragments, the pieces of the Crimson Terror rushed towards the swordsman, forcing him into defense.
In the split second that retreat had cost him, Audun's eyes caught the blurring figure of the Scion of the Han Li clan.
Activating his aspect, Caster shot forward at a speed far beyond the limits of a sleeper and thrust his Jian toward Audun's flank.
Audun narrowed his eyes
'Way faster than before.'
Parrying the blade, Audun invoked the Star of Vocalization.
A haunting lullaby escaped his lips as power filled his body.
Audun threaded the [Midnight Shard] through the opening he had created with his parry, thrusting the blade straight towards Caster's brow.
In most scenario's the fight would've been over— with the outcome being Caster's head being skewered by Audun's blade.
The swordsman, however— knew from experience that that probably wouldn't be the case.
Caster smirked.
Just as the blade was about to make contact with his skin, the legacy's head seperated from his shoulders and flew a few meters from his body.
"It'll take more than that to reap my life now that I've recieved the esteemed one's blessing."
Audun couldn't help but let out a bitter sigh as he avoided the Jian swung by Caster's headless body.
The "Esteemed One", the demon Caster had contracted with possessed another name— Rather, another title.
The Mutilator.
That foul being was an 8 star demon that had lived for over a thousand years, having been born around the time of the Round Table's collapse.
It possessed the very simple, yet troubling, power to control body parts.
Not to mention—
The Mutilator happened to be a demon that Audun was quite familiar with.
Afterall, it had been one of the 33 demons that the Star of Solitude had sealed within his realm.
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(A/N: It's been a while guys!
trying to get back into the swing of things, and I might have made a few mistakes with spelling or grammer here or there.
My grammerly has kind of been on the fritz.
If y'all spot any errors just comment and let me know ykyk.)