Author's Note

Decided to screw off with the number reference and try to make a proper chapter.

2.Rise of Corruption (Rewritten)

Male Antagonist: Awaken

Waking up was a bad enough chore, due to how early he was used to rising in the morning for school. School being the last place he remembers being before he realized how cold it was around him. This cold would have been ignored if not for the fact he appears to be lacking proper bedding.

He rose up a little relaxed as he took in his surroundings. Snow. Snow was everywhere and he had no idea why. The wind blustered and billowed. The sound of the winds’ howling muffled any point in yelling, unless one wanted to hurt their throat. The sky itself could not be seen from the dark clouds and flakes of ice. Yet he ignored it as he checked himself over.

The fourteen year olds dark brown hair billowed through the wind as he kept his golden eyes half-lidded, as if in annoyance and bothered than frightened of his current situation. His white, short-sleeved shirt was not accommodated enough for the cold. His light blue pants and black shoes were a maybe in the category, although his crimson blanket, double knotted into a cape, was not.

It was then he noticed his right arm was still with him. Not that it was removed or anything, but it was still comforting to keep it, wherever he was. It was the fact that it was, from just above the elbow bone itself, a skeleton arm.

“Oh, you came with me buddy. And here I thought we might get separated.” the boy said with a fake smile and empty eyes as he analyzed his ‘buddy’ closely.

The forearm, hand, and fingers, or rather claws, were three times the size of his left arm. Upon the palm of the bone hand was a yellow crystal that glowed with a sickly yellow aura, combined with wisps of black energy that wavered like the tendrils of a kraken. From the bottom of the bone wrist were ‘veins’ of yellow that connected all the way down to the elbow.

“Hey, wait a minute.” The boy thought.

He lifted his shirt to look at his chest, and noticed right there. In the center of it. Was a yellow dome with a black slit down the middle. Looking like a sick eye in his chest.

“I kind of remind myself of Utsuho from Touhou. Guess you saved me after I was shot twice, huh buddy?” He said cheerily despite the emotionless smile he retained. “Now that I think about it. Wasn’t I shot in the head right after the shot in my chest?”

The boy checked his forehead and noticed a growth. Feeling it allowed him to come to the conclusion that it was a crystal horn. Feeling his head more revealed he had two more horns that curved up from the temples of his skull. These two felt more like bone than crystal.

Satisfied the boy looked around and noticed the shadow of some structuring in the distance. Obviously a form of possible shelter, so he headed in that direction.

=====***=====

After almost twenty minutes, he finally arrived at the large structures. Turns out, the large structures were massive crooked cliffs of ice. What was even stranger was the fact there appeared to be a wall of ice. It was as if someone or something built the place.

‘Well, they certainly had plenty of building material.’ He thought.

Approaching the largest of the ice revealed it to be an opening. Either it was formed this way, or this was meant to be the main gate area. Either way it didn’t matter for as soon as he entered, the wind appeared to be nonexistent. It was as if the wind was banished from affecting this long corridor of an ice gate.

Not really caring for the pointless details, the boy trudged on, ignoring anything that was deemed unimportant to him.

=====***=====

The amount of time it took for him to reach the ‘exit’ of the long trail only cemented he had even more to go. Not that he minded as walking was an exercise he quite enjoyed. Although it was still annoying for him regardless.

Peering outward from his position was a large, gaping maw of a pit. It appeared to stretch a great distance of miles far and wide. However, he also noticed the path continued to the left towards a fortress of some form. The bastion couldn’t be seen clearly due to the sunlight behind it, but he could get closer by the wide cliff path to the left.

‘Convenient.’

=====***=====

He finally made it to the stairs that led up to the forts open courtyard. Looking up at the old looking fort now, it was a very imposing cliché castle in the snowy north type of place. He has seen many more, and apparently he’ll see more yet.

Climbing up the stairs allowed him to see the almost empty expanse of even more snow. The place has to keep its theme, y’know. It was mostly empty, except for the three tall shadows standing there in the center like idiots.

All three of them were dark. Shadow dark really. Pitch black with red ovals for eyes. A little too big of a size for eyes actually. All three of them were carrying maces as well. Another notable feature was the fact they had flat stumps instead of feet. Their faces, a strange elongated snout. Their hands were unclear to see from his angle.

Without a care, he walked right up into the yard. This action attracted their attention, prompting them to raise their maces against the boy. He approached without a care with his emotionless gaze. The shadows disregarded it as the one in the center charged at him.

A side-step and a thrust with the claws was all it took to impale the living shadow. A burst of yellow energy with black swirls blasted out, destroying it entirely. His smile remained.

“Oh? You want to kill me? Unless you can hit me, I won’t die.” The boy said, sounding strangely happy.

The two shadows charged at once. One with its mace raised above, the other with the mace drawn behind it. The two swung, but clashed against a transparent yellow barrier. The black swirls over it blocked the inside.

“Killing. The act of ending another’s life with extreme violence. Did you think I would choose the quick route?” He said as his barrier expanded, knocking the two back.

As the two fell on their backs, a yellow ball covered in black swirls hit one of them, destroying the upper half. The other was slashed across the chest twice before it was stabbed in the gut, raised into the air, then blasted by bolts of corrupted lightning.

The three yellow bolts hit a different part of the castle, causing yellow crystals to form. The crystals then began exuding a blackened substance that slowly leaked down the walls. Smaller crystals began growing out of wherever the black substance seeped.

“Oh! Did I forget to tell you guys? My buddy here is very infectious.” The boy said as he walked up the second flight of stairs.

The front door opened with red runes on them. That and the door was more akin to being shards of some sort of blue stone. As he walked in far enough, the ‘door’ closed behind him.

Now within the entrance hall, he walked down it, ignoring the mixture of ice and stone walls. There was one detail he had to note down though. It was the fact the ice almost seemed to glow.

=====***=====

It took a bit of jumping and walking, but he finally reached another opening. the castle appearing to be more open than other castles were, revealing the light blue sky for all to see.

It was then, four figures came out of the ground before him. All of them, shadows with maces.

He blasted the furthest to the right as the other three neared. With a swipe of his claw, they were diverted away, colliding into each other. Striking the ground with his claw, he called forth yellow crystals to impale the three. Two were struck and held in the air before dispersing. The last was about to strike when a voice caused it to pause.

“You’re real annoying. Ya know that?”

It spun its head around only to find a fist smash right through. The boy saw the man who killed it and gave him a neutral expression. Taking in what the man looked like, he was curious. The man clearly looked like someone tried to make Baldur from God of War 4 into a Skyrim character. He even had the Fur Armor, the one that left the upper body bare. He was also wearing Skyrim styled Leather Boots.

“Well you’re new. Now, why don‘t you tell me where you came from just now. For your information, I woke up in the middle of nowhere some time ago today.” The boy spoke to the man, unafraid of what he may do to him.

The man looked at him and sighed.

“Huh. A kid that didn’t notice me nappin in the corner. Well, the name’s Bahadur. Thought it be a fitting name for a Norse giant Nord god empowered guy like me. He said as he opened his arms wide. “Now who are you?”

“My name is Atronach. Atronach of Corruption.” The boy responded.

“By that, I could call you Absalom, y’know. From Darksiders… 2 was it? Ah well it doesn‘t matter. Better to be together then apart, right?”

“And why should I go with you? I’m not some innocent child. I kill, therefore I am.” Atronach smiled, allowing his eyes to glow.

“True, very true. But I’m an immortal that’s just bored with nothing else to do. That and ya need me for world information. Let me help you with this place, and you get information.”

“And what do you want in return?” Suspicion in his voice.

“Company with a fellow human. It’s been hundreds, maybe even over a thousand years since I’ve seen another human.” Bahadur spoke with what may had been volumes of truth.

“You’re bad at lying.”

“Geh!” Bahadur moved into a very awkward position before relaxing with his hand behind his head. “What gave me away?”

“You did just now.” Atronach smiled.

“Heh. Clever kid.”

Atronach thought about it a moment. This man might prove useful to him in attaining information about this world. He may also give him some tidbits on who’s in charge of the different locations of this icy realm.

“Very well. I accept your offer.”

“Woohoo! Road trip!”

They continued until they came across a dead end. Well an end as there was a wall. An obviously climbable one, but a wall none the less. Atronach used his claw while Bahadur dug his fingers straight into the stone.

Upon the top of the wall was a large round, and opened area. Nothing appeared to occupy any space nor was there any sign of shadow life. This now brought the question of importance to the boy.

‘Do you choose shadow life, or does it choose you?’ He thought.

The question came up as he has heard a large burly guy say something like that before, but with the word ‘thug’ rather than ‘shadow’. He always thought the question was stupid. Now the question about shadow life. That question was far more important as it seemed more existence committed than life committed.

*BKKKRRRR*

Being distracted by his thoughts, he didn’t notice the large beast of a shadow rise out of the ground. Looking at it, it appeared to be more annoyed than angry. Probably because he was lost in thought, ignoring it. Looking at Bahadur, he seemed more concerned with playing with a few bones littering the ground.

From quick observation, he noticed that unlike the other shadows, this one had a horn on its head and a pair of mock feathered wings. Mock feathered because the wings were just shadows forming wings. Not actual feathers at all.

It roared before swinging its right arm. Atronach jumped back as the shadow swung its left arm down like a fist, smashing the ground as he vanished in a flash of yellow with black swirls.

Atronach reappeared and retaliated with three spheres of his strange power. each struck the right arms elbow, the right shoulder and the right eye. the color of the right eye was twisted into a yellow hue color, showing some form of his corrupted power taking hold.

The giant shadow roared as it swung again. The left arm barely hit him, allowing Atronach to see the shadow had three fingered claws. A detail he kept for any non-shadowed versions he might meet After the shadow missed, it raised both of its arms to smash him. The arms were blocked by Bahadur holding up only his right arm while he carried a giant femur in his left. Atronach then shot corrupted lightning at the claws, fusing them together by the growing crystals.

Unable to separate its appendages, Atronach shot at the right leg a few times. The yellow crystals that grew prevented the lumbering creature from bending its own leg. Bahadur then rushed at the leg, smashing the bone against the knee, causing it to shatter apart. The scream it squealed was both of anger and pain. Sadly it didn’t notice the skeleton claw pointed right at its mouth.

*Pew-KSSSHHHHING*

Multiple shing sounds were heard as crystal grew out from all over the body. Each one growing from the inside out. Each one stabbing to meet the fresh air, the shining sunlight, the screams of agony from their host.

“See that? We make a great pair.” Bahadur said. “With your strange yellow powers, and my immense durability. I’d say we can overcome quite a bit together.”

“Agreed. Now lets go and see who might be in charge here.”

“You’re the boss. Lead on then.” Bahadur gestured his arm to the door.

They walked through the forcefully opened door as the giant body collapsed to the ground. The black ichor like substance spreading onto the walls like veins as crystals grew and formed, blocking the door they went through. To keep others out, or keep his future victims in.

=====***=====

Of all the things one would expect in an ice covered stone based castle, an elevator of stone with gears attached was not one of them. Sadly the elevator became crooked when it crashed into a large chunk of ice sticking out of one of the walls.

Climbing out from one of the massively opened sides, they ascended onto a much thinner cliff side path.

‘Seriously, who has an elevator so opened like that. What if your mail gets blown away or something?’ He thought as he leapt across a gap, using his claw to cleave into the wall.

“Nice parkouring.” Bahadur said as he did the same.

The next challenge was climbing up some broken pillars. A collapse of one of the walls, followed by malevolent chuckling led him to believe there was a more sentient being here. His smile grew.

“Well look at that partner. Somebody… has got some jokes to tell by the chuckling.” Bahadur paced around.

“We have some fun ahead.” Atronach leapt at one of the pillars, climbing it mostly with his claw. Bahadur following soon after.

=====***=====

He finally reached the top, allowing him to look back. It was a great view. Well, other than it looking like a massive light blue sky with a dark blue void below that led to a blackened abyss looking pit, then yeah it was pleasant.

“OOOORAAAAAAAA!” A war cry rang out.

Looking towards the upper left of where he was looking in the sky, he saw what was clearly an undead warrior. The living corpse was brown all over, indicating he rotten all over. His forearms and forelegs were oversized and he was more shriveled up like a skeleton than a zombie.

He also wore large black shoulder pauldrons with three large spikes each, armored gauntlets with six smaller spikes, and black hide boots with nine spikes on the bottoms.

What was surprising was the fact he was coming in on a hang glider. Sadly the wind blew at the last minute, blowing him away into a cliffside where the hang glider exploded into a fiery haze, somehow. The undead warrior fell out of the fire, screaming with a high-pitched voice that would make angels singing jealous as he fell all the way down into the bottomless pit below.

“Must be Tuesday.” Bahadur said before they walked into the cave behind him.

Once inside the cave, Atronach ducked from a red energy attack that hit Talos in the face. Looking ahead, he saw more shadows. These ones were either winged or horned. None of them without either nor both. The winged ones wielded spears while the horned ones were carrying curved swords.

“At least there’s variety.” Atronach shrugged as they charged at him. A blur shot past him and grabbed the shadow that fired by the neck.

“That. that wasn’t nice. It didn’t hurt, but it wasn’t nice.” Bahadur said as he crushed the throat, effectively beheading the unicorn shadow.

As the fight actually started, Atronach was more focused on how they fought over actually fighting them. The horned ones either attacked by melee, or used energy projectiles at long range. The winged ones attacked from medium range with their pole arms. Even worse was their flying capabilities. He was just thankful they were fighting in a cave rather than outside.

While he deflected a blow from a spear, another swung its sword. This forced him to create a wall of crystals. While effective for defensive purposes, he blasted it point blank to fire the shards like a shotgun. Most of the shadows were cut while others lost a limb, forcing them to rely on their other arm or their weapon as a crutch.

“Well this isn’t too bad.” He said as they approached even closer.

“It’s even better when they don’t move around so much.” Bahadur rushed ahead in the group.

The one thing he noticed was Bahadur wasn’t kidding when he said he had immortal power. Seeing the spears impale him looked lethal, yet Bahadur ignored it as he swung the bone he kept and smashed one of the shadows apart with it. The others had their weapons shattered and/or themselves with each swing of the bone club he held.

“I love this thing!” Bahadur yelled out as he swung it again to meet the horn of another shadow.

As the fighting came to a close, Atronach patted Bahadur on the shoulder.

“That’ll do fighter, that’ll do.” Atronach said as they went onward into the castle.

=====***=====

Finally reaching the top, Atronach took a breath from the giant wall climb as Bahadur did some jumping jacks. Looking ahead, they saw a large empty rounded floor with a throne in the back, facing away from the view beyond.

Upon it was a black horse creature. Mostly masculine looking. His eyes were red, sclera was green, and there were purple wisps of energy from the outer parts of his eyes. Covered entirely in steel armor with a red cape with white fur outlining it. A mass of shadow hair and a curved, red horn on his head.

“Greetings mortals. I am King Sombra. Previous ruler of the Crystal Empire. Current ruler of my mothers sealed castle.” He boasted.

“Hey chuckle-duck. What’s your joke?” Bahadur asked. While Sombra held a confused expression at the question, Atronach took the moment to address him.

“Greetings your majesty.” He bowed before continuing. “I am the Atronach of Corruption.”

“Interesting.” Sombra raised a brow. “Atronach, your power is impressive for such a youth. Your friend has quite the brawn on him too. Would you not join me?”

“Unfortunately no. I have my own agenda from here. You’re merely in my way.” Atronach explained while still smiling.

“Like the kid said. Move along.” Bahadur added.

“I see.” Sombra stood while summoning a massive greatsword. “How wasteful.”

In a flash of red, Sombra disappeared, reappearing behind Atronach. Both jumped back from the wide swing, but Atronach ducked under the next before he blasted his own power at Sombra, knocking the dark unicorn back.

Sombra retaliated by striking his sword into the ground, summoning crystals through the stone and shot forward. Atronach was cut on his right side by one, blood dripping onto the ground. Sombra was about to speak until a bone was thrusted into his face.

“For the record, I’ve immortal power chuckle-duck.”

“What does that even mean!?” Sombra roared at him after he halted his skidding.

Atronach was suddenly above him with his claw raised. Sombra swung his great sword downwardly backhanded to counter, then spun the sword to position it above his head before striking down with it. The attack was countered as Bahadur swung his bone club at the blade, deflecting it, but shattering the bone in the process. The next thing Sombra knew Bahadur kicked him in the chest, surprisingly knocking the wind out of him.

‘How strong is that creature? Just a simple kick dents my armor!‘ Sombra panicked in his head.

A spike of pain erupted as Sombra felt like he was stabbed from behind before being lifted and blasted into the air. While in the air, he saw Bahadur jump up at him, legs igniting in fire.

“What!?” Sombra yelled as he was sent even higher up, burned by the explosive blast of a kick in the process.

After almost a minute, Sombra fell to the ground. Blood splattered from the in-between the plates in his armor. He coughed up blood before forcing himself to rise from the crater. As he tried to stand, he realized his legs were of little use. He then realized his lower spine was numb. Feeling back there revealed it was severed. Most likely from being stabbed from behind.

“Ya getting up or what? We don’t have all day ya old geezer!” He heard Bahadur speak, disrespect for others in his voice.

Finally he picked himself up and grabbed his greatsword, swirling darkness around his legs to position himself up. He then teleported between the two and struck his sword into the ground, causing bladed crystals to erupt.

Atronach countered by firing corrupted bolts at him, but it only damaged the crystals he spawned. Bahadur rammed right through them, only to be impaled on them. Smiling in victory, Sombra turned towards the other one. Only to find him teleported right in front of him.

Sombra had found himself blasted through the crystals that held up the other creature. As he recovered from the attack, he was surprised that the other creature rose back up, taking the crystals out of him. He felt he was being mocked by the creature not only healing, but stretching from the damage as if he just woke up.

Bahadur noticed sire chuckle-duck was about to fire another dark energy thingy. Instantly he rushed far faster than normal, allowing him to be right in front of Sombra. He sent a punch to his side, then dodged the energy attack, and sent another punch to his collarbone. he leapt over Sombra when the sword came around. Sombra spun himself and swung his sword only to find Atronach teleported again to grab it with his skeleton arm.

“Never let your guard down.” Atronach said as he let his corrupted energy flow along the large sword.

Sombra used his magic to repel the yellowed power off of his blade and backed off. He took this opening to take a better look at his opponents. Atronach was dangerous enough with his power, now added the effect of attacking directly with his claw would be far too effective. The other one seemed to not even be interested at all which angered the shadowed king.

‘Who and what are they? They both appear to counter my every move in an almost synchronized way. Not even the Sun and Moon Princess gave me this much trouble. Then again, they his behind their Elements of Harmony.’ He thought. ‘Wait, where is-?’

His thoughts were interrupted as Atronach charged at him. He charged in return with his sword like a lance. In the corner to his right, he saw the other. he threw one of the shattered remains of the bone he used at Atronach. Upon catching it, he saw the bone alight with the same power.

*WHHIIRRLLSHIIINK*

Atronach used his power on the bone and grew a crystal within the bone itself, firing a long javelin of corrupted crystal at the king. Impaled through the chest, he let go of the bone and waved to Bahadur, him waving back as Sombra let his sword drop to the ground. Sombra himself soon following.

“Welp. Now we finish him.” Bahadur walked on over casually.

“I have an idea for him and this castle.” Atronach approached the king, charging his claw.

“What? You gonna turn him into something?”

“Yes, a minion.” Atronach said as Bahadur turned Sombra over.

“Well. He should be awake for this then. Or at least see what happens next.” Sombra coughed up blood from mouth onto his neck.

“Like I said. You’re in my way. At least part of you will be useful. For now at just this very moment.” Atronach struck down into the hole with his claw.

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!” Sombra screamed into the sky as loud as he could. His last moments were regret he would not be able to release his imprisoned mother.

Queen Umbra.