Inside the room of frozen time, Lucien was suspended in mid-air. As soon as his body was teleported inside the room, he froze. Not a muscle flexed, not a drop of blood flowed, and no thoughts were formed.
Lucien was simply…there. Unable to do anything. He didn't even know what had happened. Lucien had been sentenced to an eternity of nothing.
How long has it been? No one could tell. It could be hundreds of years. It could be no time at all.
But then, something changed. Somewhere deep within him, something awoke. A core part of him that had been slumbering all his life. Warmth flowed out from his core, filling every extremity.
Unknown to him, his magenta blood gleamed golden, The sheen of divinity. The blood of Storm God began flowing through him once again. The storm inside him surged violently, and an impulse of thought flashed by, then another.
Soon, he could think again.
The first thing he felt was confusion, both with the situation he was in and how familiar the feeling was. The feeling of being suspended in time.
Lucien had to say…he did not like being helpless.
He'd need to change that, of course. So he raged against the world, his rampant will clashing with the laws set upon this place. In that moment, the description of his [Stormborn] attribute flashed in his mind.
[Back before the fall of the gods, there existed a race born of Storm God, a portion of her divine tempest that split off and became its own being. All storms consider you one of their kin, for you are their only remaining successor.]
Lucien was a storm, a living force of nature. And storms were never meant to be tamed, to be shackled down. They were free. Perhaps the freest thing to ever exist. For there were no rules for them to follow, only chaos.
Feeling an indescribable urge to scream, Lucien strained against the frozen world, forcing himself to move. It was his body, gods dammit, there was no way he would be relinquishing it so easily!
Against all odds, his body complied. His fingers twitched, his heart beat wildly. His essence surged through his body, saturating it.
In that one moment stretched across infinity, Lucien did the unthinkable. He broke through the shackles of Time.
There was a sound of breaking glass, and Lucien's body uselessly fell to the cold stone floor.
He was free.
He was also exhausted.
As he lay on the floor to catch his breath, he took a look around the room. He was in a wide circular room fashioned into a somber shrine. It was like a larger version of the shrine in Nethers Citadel.
There wasn't much else in the room, really, and the only way out was a stairway along its wall. Well, that and the fact that the entire place was frozen in time! Who does that?!
Lucien understood wanting to secure your possessions; he really did. But to stop time entirely? What sort of madman would do that?
Well, not a man, a daemon Nether. Just what did he store here that warranted this much security?
…and how had Lucien broken free of that security?
More importantly, why was that feeling so familiar?
Lucien was full of questions, with no answer in sight… or was there?
Something had welled up inside him when he was frozen in time, a warm feeling that slowly thawed him out of it. Could he have gotten a new attribute? Now curious, Lucien summoned his runes.
Name: Lucien
True Name: Hour of Calamity
Rank: Awakened
Class: Demon
Storm Cores: [3/7]
Storm Fragments: [73/3000]
Memories: [Stone Spear],[????? Blade],[????? Armorsuit], [Silk Yarn], [Iron Warbow], [Bone Arrows], [Starlight Pendant], [Nightveil], [Soul Sack]
Echoes: - [Crimson Mantis]
Attributes: [Ember of Divinity], [The Tempest], [Stormborn], [Retainer of Darkness]
Aspect: Storm Herald
Aspect Rank: Divine
Innate Ability: Wild Hunt
Aspect Abilities: [Thunder Manifestation], [Storm Reign]
Lucien felt a pang of disappointment as he stared at his runes. There was nothing there. But then, right in front of him, something happened to them. The spell glitched, and the runes disappeared for a split second. When they returned, a new set of runes flickered into being.
Attributes: [T???l??s], [Ember of Divinity], [The Tempest], [Stormborn], [Retainer of Darkness]
There it was, a new attribute. It was this attribute that had awoken while he was frozen in time, that warmth had originated from this.
But why couldn't he read it?
The runes were so warped, Lucien wasn't even sure he could call them that anymore. The spell was struggling trying to translate it. He couldn't even expand on it, the spell simply refused to acknowledge that request.
Lucien didn't know why, but this specific attribute felt very important, more so than even the likes of [Stormborn] and [The Tempest].
Strictly speaking, the only aspect he had 'received' was the [Retainer of Darkness]. The rest was already something he had, even before entering his first nightmare. He suspected he got [Ember of Divinity] due to his nature as a [Stormborn]. It made sense for a portion of a divine storm to have divinity in him. [The Tempest] was the lineage of Storm God that flowed through him, also derived from [Stormborn].
But this new attribute wasn't connected to any of those, It was more…personal. It was his and his alone. Lucien had often heard the other hunters speaking of core attributes and how your core attribute defined who you were.
Compared to the rest of his attributes, this one felt…foreign. Like it did not belong there. If Lucien were a puzzle, it was the one piece that didn't fit anywhere. Or was it the only piece that truly fit him?
If that was his core attribute…what did that say about him?
"Forget about it." Lucien sighed and pushed himself off the floor. The familiar black armor encased his body and began emanating black smoke. At the same time, the Storm Blade manifested itself out of tiny sparks. Some exploring should take his mind off things.
Out of habit, Lucien spread his storm sense outward and immediately reeled back at the sheer wrongness of it all. Normally, when he did that, he could sense the bioelectricity of any and all organisms around him. That included the microscopic life forms. He would usually tune them out, but their presence was still there at the edge of his thoughts.
Now, there was nothing. There was no life around him, not a single organism. Or was there?
Lucien frowned, this whole place was frozen in time. Even if there were any living beings in here, all of their biological functions would be frozen, too. Lucien couldn't sense anyone if their thoughts were frozen in time. His storm sense was useless here.
With that, he confined the ability within a radius around him. While it was useless to keep it active, Lucien just didn't feel right without it. It had become a constant part of him that never went away.
Shaking his head, he made his way downwards first. Stopping at the foot of the stairs, Lucien frowned and stared into the room.
"What the hell?" He muttered, staring at the porcelain arms floating in the air. The room was a bit bigger than the one he had just come from, but not by much. Mostly because it was split into multiple chambers.
This particular chamber was filled with floating porcelain arms, each one in a different state of disassembly. Lucien's eyes glinted in recognition; he had seen these hands before. Of course he had; he'd killed enough stone children to know what their skin looked like.
Walking towards them, Lucien marvelled at them. He had never really seen the inner workings of a stone child before, to think they were that complicated.
In their disassembled state, the limbs showed how intricate the design was, and how many moving parts went into making each one as functional and articulated as that of a human. The joints, in particular, seemed like a marvel of engineering… not to mention the incredibly delicate weave of the diamond string beneath.
Reaching out, Lucien grabbed one of the arms and brought it closer. Nightveil manifested on his face as he stared into the arm. It was fascinating to see how they worked. And the weave…
That was sorcery, it had to be. The mask had already begun providing him with information about it. Nether had used strings made of tiny diamonds to weave a pattern into the arms. Come to think of it, he had seen those strings on the workstation inside Nether's citadel. He hadn't really understood their purpose before; now he did. This woven pattern was the sorcery Nether practiced.
Staring at the weave, Lucien drank in the pattern, studying each twist, knot, and path in great detail. He was still very far from learning how to replicate even a rudimentary version of it, but he had taken his first step.
Storing the arm inside his bag, Lucien left the room and headed downward.
'...'
Lucien headed downwards.
'...'
"Why…won't…you…move?!" He strained against an invisible force. His legs refused to move forward, no matter how much he tried.
Just then, a feeling of immense dread suddenly filled his being, and he froze.
'What…'
The feeling of deep, subtle, primordial terror he suddenly experienced was unlike anything he had known before.
Was…that why his body refused to cooperate? He wasn't fighting against an invisible force; he was just terrified. Terrified of whatever was down there.
Taking a deep breath in, Lucien forced himself to calm down. Time was frozen here; nothing else could move. He tried to reassure himself that he was safe. Then, he stepped forward.
The feeling of terror intensified as he got closer to the room, until finally, he laid his eyes on the source.
Unlike the previous room, this one was just one vast hall. The black walls rose high into the darkness, creating a magnificent and solemn atmosphere. At the center of it, cut into the obsidian floor, was a massive silver brazier. And in it…
A shiver went down Lucien's spine as he bent forward to get a better look at it.
Something was… growing from the brazier, spreading outward like a vile kind of rot. It had infected the very stone of the ancient tower, turning it into a semblance of repulsive, black, pulsating flesh. The silver brazier was infected by the terrifying growth, too, its metal somehow becoming a part of it.
It seemed as if everything would become absorbed and transformed by the spreading corruption as long as it was touched by the harrowing growth… entire worlds would be devoured by it, perhaps, if given the chance.
The thing slowly spreading from the ancient brazier felt like pure evil.
Naturally, the first thought Lucien had after seeing it was how he could weaponize it.
If it could corrupt anything it touched, he couldn't really store it… Unless it was given an infinite amount of space to corrupt.
A part of him wanted to summon the Soul Sack and store the corruption in it. Perhaps in the future he'd be able to use it…
'What the hell am I thinking?'
Lucien blinked in surprise. What had gotten into him? Capture and weaponize the rot? He'd die before he even got the chance to store it in the memory!
Shivering, he stepped away from the rot, slowly backing away from the room. Something was terribly wrong about it, and Lucien wanted no part in it.
'I'll never doubt you again, legs!'
Lucien let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. The feeling of dread and terror had finally left him. He shivered as the image of the rot flashed by his mind once again.
To be completely honest, Lucien wasn't sure if he wanted to explore the upper floors of the building he was in. After seeing that, he didn't know what other horrors Nether had kept here.
Back in the shrine, he considered leaving the place right there. But how? He had only been brought here after touching the statue of Storm God in Nethers Citadel.
'...'
Lucien stared at the onyx statue in the center of the room. Would touching this statue take him back?
His eyes drifted to the stairway leading higher into the tower. Should he leave without even seeing what was up there?
"Screw it, you only live once."
Saying that, he walked up to the next floor.
It was completely empty, its black walls drowning in darkness and unadorned. There was no dust, no ruined pieces of furniture, tools, or strange metal devices. Not even lanterns.
Lucien could see nothing in this dark room. Raising his sword, he poured his storm into the blade, bathing the room in its ethereal light.
He nearly died because of that.
Countless runes were carved into the walls. And almost all of those runes radiated a sickening, dire sensation that made one feel as though their mind was breaking apart.
The worst part? With the mask still on his face, Lucien understood these runes, albeit very vaguely. He could make out bits and pieces of some of those runes, and every time he did, a pang of pain hit his mind like a hammer. The more he read, the worse it got.
His knees buckled under him, and he grabbed the wall. His mind felt raw; the information he had just gotten from reading the runes dissipated into nothingness. Perhaps that was for the best. Whoever had written those runes, Nether probably, had not intended for mortals like him to read them.
As if that had ever stopped Lucien!
Still, he had to admit, reading these runes had put a heavy toll on his mind. And for nothing! He didn't even remember anything he had read! He'd have to come back after he filled the counter for the mask and bound it to his soul. Until then, the secrets of this room would have to wait.
Averting his gaze, Lucien walked up to the next level of the tower. As soon as he left the room, the pain stopped assaulting his mind. Lucien sighed in relief as he could finally relax.
The stairway ended in this room, signalling the end of the structure. This last room, however, was almost completely empty. The only thing in it was a giant arch.
It was tall and composed of the same material as the rest of the Ebony Tower. In fact, the arch didn't seem to have been built. Instead, it was almost as if it had simply grown out of the floor, without any seam separating it from the black stone. It looked like a doorway that someone had put in the middle of the chamber, for some reason, and then forgot to attach a door to it.
The arch itself was surrounded by a circle of runes, similar to the gateway in Nether's citadel. Only, the runes were different. Lucien recognized some of them, one of them being the rune for travel. It was lacking some of the runes the gateway used, while also having some that the gate didn't. Lucien did not know where it led, but it was certainly not the waking world.
He stayed there for a few more minutes, memorizing the shape of the new runes. He was suddenly regretting not bringing his notebook and quill with him.
After burning them to memory, Lucien returned to the shrine, careful not to look at the runes on the way back. It was time to leave this place….for now.
Walking up to the statue of Storm, he dismissed his memories. He had been transported to this shrine after touching the statue inside Nether's citadel. It only stood to reason that touching this statue would take him back.
At least that's what Lucien thought. Nether wouldn't make a one-way teleporter…would he?
Ignoring those thoughts, Lucien reached out and touched the statue.