Elysium's Multiverse

Chapter 114

Chapter 114

“Fine!” Riven laughed and held up both his hands in surrender when Allie whipped out her wand and started jabbing him in the side. “I’ll stop fucking with your hair, ok! Jesus! OW!”

He snickered at the expression she was wearing, then took a look at the fields of grass and wildflowers immediately adjacent to their position. “This should be a LOT more than 3 square miles. Are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be. We only barely have an idea of what to expect, so let’s get it over with.” Allie snorted and waved over Mara, Vin and Nin - who’d been waiting dozens of yards away to give Riven and Allie some privacy before planting the Elysium Altar’s rod.

The three necromancers walked forward along with a host of undead minions. Riven’s demons were all present too, with Azmoth coming out from the ruined chapel to stand beside his master, and the scarred orc chieftain Gurth’Rok followed behind the undead with a couple of his elites.

Azmoth presented Riven with the red box the system had presented Riven with upon initially receiving the rod, and the vampire warlock pulled out the item a moment later. It was mostly as he remembered it, but the colors had changed since acquiring an unholy orientation. It still had golden trimmings along the shaft, but the shaft had turned from porcelain white to a deep gray color. The previously white jewel fitted into the top had turned from white to black.

[Elysium Altar Planting Rod (Unholy Orientation): Plant this rod into the ground to begin creating an Elysium Altar. An altar requires at least 3 square miles of space in all dimensions in order to place it.]

Riven looked back at the others, then signaled Fay over to him. “Take me over.”

The succubus smiled, spread her wings, and her tail whipped about as she launched herself into the night sky while holding Riven by the waist.

She picked up speed, wind whistling by them as they traversed the grass-laden fields for only a minute before landing about four miles out. Riven intended to place his guild hall near Jose’s grave, and he didn't want the altar immediately on his doorstep - but rather he wanted it just comfortably close by. Putting a mile or two inbetween his to-be home and the altar would mean less foot traffic he had to deal with but also would make it convenient to visit.

The succubus gently brushed Riven’s hair with slender blue fingers after the wind had tossed it about, stepping back with a slight bow and letting Riven find a spot he wanted to plant the rod. He wasn’t too specific on any exact spot, so it only took him a couple of seconds before he slammed the rod like a spear into the earth beneath his feet.

[Do you wish to activate Elysium Altar Planting Rod (Unholy Orientation)? Doing so will lay claim to the Elysium Altar that forms, allowing you to choose a terraforming option from the presented list. You will also be able to select who can and cannot use the altar functions if you wish to exclude others from the opportunity. Killing you will change ownership of this altar to the one who has slain you. This Elysium Altar will take up approximately 3 square miles of land, and is approximately 1200 feet tall at its highest point. After planting the rod, you will have opportunities to buy from the system store, or you may allow foreign entities across the multiverse to set up shop within your altar’s structure if you and the trading partner meet the right requirements. This Unholy Orientation also allows willing participants to change their affinities to those of the Unholy Foundational Pillar. Other Elysium Altar functions are available but locked until bought with the appropriate fee cost.]

1200 feet tall? That was almost the height of the world trade centers before 9/11. This thing must be utterly huge.

Riven scratched the back of his neck with raised eyebrows, but he turned when he heard Fay cough to get his attention. “Yes?”

The succubus met his gaze, then shuffled awkwardly and hummed. Clasping her hands behind her back, her tail went rigid and she set her posture straight with determination. “Uhm, my brother… He was wondering if he could join us after you set up your guild hall tonight?”

There was a long pause.

“Your… brother?” Riven asked curiously, one eyebrow raised in amusement. “Interesting. Why bring this up now?”

“Because you’re probably going to hire a bunch of mercenaries to protect the guild hall and fill up the slots with other contracts soon. I wanted to get ahead and reserve him a spot…” She gave Riven a sheepish but hopeful smile. “He’s honestly not that great at fighting though… Honestly it’s more that I’m asking a favor. In fact the rest of my family thinks he’s something of a failure. He doesn’t like violence at all, not very… demonic. Even less so than me. He likes petting animals and exploring nature… that kind of thing. But I-”

She was cut off with a snorting laugh from Riven, and she immediately frowned. But he waved his hand in apology and bade her continue.

“It’s not funny!” Fay stated, angrily puffing her cheeks and stamping her foot with clenched fists. “He’s a terrible incubus and he gets bullied all the time! Can we at least talk about it later!? Before you decide!? I think this would be a good opportunity to get him out of a bad situation. Please?”

"You do realize I live a very violent life right?"

"Yes but binding to the guild hall isn't the same as binding to you with a minion contract!"

Riven’s grin didn’t fade, but his eyes softened slightly and he nodded. “Yeah, that’s a conversation for later though. We’ll need to talk first at length before I choose who or what can bind to the guild hall, it’s also been a while so I’ll have to review the rules on binding. Anyways…”

He put his hand back on the planting rod, and selected the option for claiming it as his own.

Overhead a clap of thunder roared, electrified clouds rapidly gathered in the sky, and a beam of sickly green light tore through the heavens to blast the rod and the entire area around it. Riven was shocked and fell backwards, but it didn’t hurt - and the magic merely swirled around him and his succubus like a gentle ocean wave.

And before his very eyes, the structure began to take form out of thin air.

Smooth beams of black metal rapidly rushed out of the ground, coated in jagged spikes that lifted skywards to form a circle around the perimeter of the altar. Obsidian plates covered the ground - while some of them lifted into the air and condensed to interlock with one another, creating four enormous and separated platforms that hovered above the earth and encircled a huge tower-like spire that soared towards the heavens. The central black spire held no entrance in or out, it had no windows, and it was completely smooth - but a myriad of neon-green runes adorned its surface in a multitude of layers. At the very top of the spire a huge halo of green flames encircled the top - casting the surrounding landscape in a dull green light until the flaring fires dimmed to a more reasonable level.

After that, veiled walls of semi-translucent glass light started dropping down from the peripheries of the four platforms. They each flashed briefly when the walls touched down onto the dark plates along the ground spreading out from the base of the pillar to the periphery where the pillars of black spikes stood, and more of the green multi-layered runes appeared on the veils of the four platforms too.

Each of the four platforms and their shrouding walls of glass was easily the size of a stadium - huge structures in their own right. The central spire was half the size of them in width, but in height it absolutely dwarfed all of them and could no doubt be seen for miles out. Given that it had a glowing halo of green fire, Riven didn’t doubt at all that it would draw a lot of attention from other people in the surrounding lands.

Which could be very good or very bad.

[Your Elysium Altar has been created. Do you wish to name your Elysium Altar at this time?]

Name it? No. He’d talk to Allie about that first, if it was going to show up in any kind of display for himself or others he’d want it to reflect the city they were in. And ‘Brightsville’ was certainly not a name they were going to keep for this city after cleaning the rest of the scum out of that prison or subduing the gang wars in the suburbs.

[You have declined to name your Elysium Altar, you can change this at any time through your status page. Options for terraforming have been randomly selected from potentials. Please select the kind of terraforming you’d like to see with this Elysium Altar’s Unholy orientation:

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• Haunted Forest
• Hellscape
• Shadowlands
• Other options are available, to see this list in further detail and to expand your options please pay 300 million coins to the Elysium Altar.]

Riven nearly gagged at the ‘300 million’ price tag for other options. There was no way that was going to happen, last he checked after all the killing and looting they’d done - he and Allie had a combined total around 976,000. She’d entrusted him with the choice of terraforming based on traits they’d give, and had even refused to come check with him - stating it was his prize and no matter what it’d help their sect. So, he was on his own to choose. Selecting each one for further details, they expanded and gave him an idea of what each terraforming option did:

[Haunted Forest: This terraforming option slowly turns surrounding terrain into a thriving and heavy mix of unholy-attuned life and undeath. Local animals and plantlife will evolve and multiply accordingly, with a vast boost to unholy-related alchemy ingredients being made available. System randomized monster spawns related to the Unholy Foundational Pillar and Death Subpillar will increase by significant amounts. These pillars will also have increased bonuses to cultivation and more frequent dao insights. Creatures associated with these pillars will experience a 4% buff to all stats while remaining in these lands, a 2% XP increase, as well as experience minor amounts of passive regeneration.]

[Hellscape: This terraforming option slowly turns surrounding terrain into a barren wasteland of fire and pain. Local animals and plantlife will quickly wither away into extinction, but in their place - minor demonspawn will begin to emerge. This terraforming option also changes mineral composition, allowing one to find highly sought after ores of varying types that are usually only found in the lower tiers of Hell. This terraforming option focuses on the Unholy Foundational Pillar and Infernal Subpillar. These pillars will also have increased bonuses to cultivation and more frequent dao insights. Creatures associated with these pillars will experience a 7% buff to all stats while remaining in these lands. All demons gain an additional 10% buff to all stats while remaining in these lands, regardless of pillar orientation. Creatures associated with the Holy Foundational Pillar will experience passive amounts of damage and pain while remaining here.]

[Shadowlands: This terraforming option slowly turns surrounding terrain into cold, darkened badlands that normal light cannot penetrate. Species of plants and animals native to the shadow realms will slowly begin to seep in from the outer shadow realms and the void, either devouring or possessing local species to create new ones. Liquid Shadow will be found in minor amounts here as a natural resource, which is a very expensive material often used in stealth-related enchantments or Shadow-related dao rituals. This terraforming option focuses on the Unholy Foundational Pillar and Shadow Subpillar. These pillars will also have increased bonuses to cultivation and more frequent dao insights. Creatures associated with these pillars will experience a 20% buff to attempts at stealth or possession while remaining in these lands, and will be able to draw in passive Shadow Energy for quicker resource pool regeneration.]

Well. To Riven there wasn’t much of a choice here. Sure, Hellscape would increase the power of his demons but he was really the only one living here that’d benefit. He was thinking of the society here, rather than just himself, and most of Allie’s people were undead. Only one of the options had ‘Death’ attuned bonuses, and besides that he really didn’t like the idea of barren landscapes that Hellscape or Shadowlands seemed to provide. Would orcs and goblins be able to flourish in a haunted forest? Probably, the abundance of unholy life and undeath - - plants and animals alike - would mean more opportunities for food and they’d been starving until now. Would the greenskins be able to flourish in a hellscape devoid of anything to hunt or scavenge for food or in a realm where they couldn’t see anything? Absolutely not. Haunted Forest would also supply their faction with Alchemy related resources, which he wasn’t necessarily interested in but could see a use for from crafters in their new faction, and more monster spawns meant more monster drops when they were killed. This in turn meant more levels and more money, and the small XP boost wasn’t anything to scoff at either.

On top of that, there wasn’t a landscape for the ‘Blood’ pillar specifically. It was a shame, but he wasn’t sure he’d have chosen it even if he could due to the lack of other Blood-oriented creatures containing his populace.

Maybe ‘Blood Elves’ he’d heard about were blood oriented? He could only assume so, and that made him want to meet them even more. Perhaps they had insights that he’d not grasped yet, it’d be pretty damn cool to see in the future should he ever find them.

“I select Haunted Forest.”

[Haunted Forest has been selected. Immediate landscape affected: a radius of 50 miles from this position. All plant and animal life within this radius that are not considered intelligent enough to be ‘participants’ by Elysium will be forcibly evolved immediately. Terraforming rate has been set to: Minimal. Upgrade this altar’s functions by paying the appropriate price of Elysium coins in order to increase terraforming rate. Unholy Foundational Pillar and Death Subpillar associated creates will experience 4% buffs to all stats, 2% XP increases, minor amounts of passive regeneration, increased bonuses to related cultivation, and higher chances for related dao visions while remaining within these terraformed lands.]

*WWHHHOOOOOMMMMMMMMM*

The spire at the altar’s center radiated with unholy, green and black light before radiating out in all directions when the halo surrounding the top of the structure blew apart. A shockwave rippled through Riven’s body, not affecting him much at all but giving him a little bit of a tingling sensation. However when he turned around, his eyes widened - as he saw the landscape the shockwave passed over abruptly change.

First was the grass. Swaths of it across the fields, along with wildflowers, all abruptly mutated from vibrant green and spotted flecks of yellow. The grass turned a silver-gray, though it didn’t look unhealthy. It just looked… different. As for the flowers, the majority of them turned into plants with silver stalks, black petals, and neon-teal bulbs that literally radiated death mana in small amounts. Scattered amongst them were other wildflowers that’d become a bright neon green, with unholy power that looked ominous, but also beautiful.

The forest beyond was similar in its change. The bark of trees went from brown to shades of gray or black. About a third of the trees even withered and appeared to die, though many of these actually grew in size which made Riven question whether or not they’d actually become some kind of death-oriented plant species? The ones who didn’t lose their leaves varied in color between black, silver, and neon-teal - with rare smatterings of neon green.

And just every once in a while, unique-looking vines colored a bright red could be seen growing up the black bark of what had once been oaks.

Fay gasped aloud and covered her hands, jumping up and down on the balls of her feet. “It’s so pretty!”

Riven tried to ignore the bouncing succubus for two obvious reasons and stared out at the scenery, quite flabbergasted himself. “This… this is not what I expected. You’re right, I didn’t expect it to be so nice to look at. It’s like… an evil paradise, of sorts? It’s like the forest became sinister, but with an artistic stroke of genius to it.”

Fay snickered and glanced his way, nudging him with a hand. “Come on! You can’t keep correlating the Unholy with Evil. That isn’t how it works.”

“That’s not what Athela told me. She said that in order to get the Unholy affiliation without being born into it, evil acts helped quite a bit.”

“That’s because Athela only has a basic understanding of the pillars.” Fay crossed her arms and confidently smirked. “I’ll have to re-educate her.”

“Her and me both then.”

Now that the altar had completely organized itself and the ring of green fire reformed, Riven’s group of allies had started making their way over to the huge structure he stood in. Technically he was standing ‘in’ the altar, even though it was open to the air, because the dark stones underneath his feet were all part of it.

But as Allie, her undead, his other two demons and the orcs neared the newly founded Elysium Altar - another notification sprung into space.

[You have gained access to the Elysium General Store. You may restrict who can and who cannot use this altar by thought, be it generalized or specific, and Elysium will comply. You may sell wares to the general store at any time for Elysium coins at a marked down price. The most basic forms of amenities of many categories can usually be found here in abundance at marked up prices. These prices are always compared to average prices across your sector of the multiverse and may be prone to fluctuations. Elysium buys low and sells high, which in turn gives you incentive to trade with others.

The platforms arrayed around your Elysium Altar are called trading ports. Each port may be given to another faction, as long as they have their own port to sync with at another Elysium Altar. Factions that have chosen to sync with your own will be able to send representative merchants to this altar for trading purposes, with all interactions being taxed by the Elysium Administrator at a 1% fee. If trading partners are off-world, their merchants will not be allowed to leave the vicinity of the altar’s boundaries unless they travel back through their link to the homeworld they came from. If your trading partners are on-world, they may leave at any time but will be warped back to the altar after 24 hours of absence. Destruction of any altar or transfer of ownership will disband all merchants and send them back to their original home-bound location.

Due to your world being in an integration phase, all off-world trading partners have a maximum merchant level set to level 90.

You currently have 0 requests for trading partners.]

[Update available. Update available. You currently have 2 requesting trading partners. These factions each wish to set up a trading commune designated in the space enclosed by one of your altar’s platform barriers. Please decline or accept the following faction offers:

• Negrada, Minor Hellscape Dungeon
• The Blood Moon Requiem]

Riven nearly laughed out loud. “Negrada wants to say hello!? Wow. Didn’t see that one coming… but who the hell or what the hell is this ‘Blood Moon Requiem’? Any ideas Fay?”

He turned to the succubus, who was staring at his notification with a paling face.

She looked up at him with genuine concern, then back to Allie, and then back to him. If she’d had cat ears, he was sure they’d be laid back against her head by the stare she was giving him. “Oh fucking roach tits… Uhm… That may be an iffy subject for me? I’m not entirely sure it’s my place to say. Perhaps you should ask Athela… she’d be able to explain things in more detail.”