Otto stood at the door where it lay as a benchmark down towards the basement level of the seamstress's stores, and where the real threat lay.
A single flame lit on his fingertips as he slowly made his way down the stairs. His nose twitched in disgust at the scent of blood and iron, which kept getting stronger.
The walls seemed to beat with vivid life as Otto took each step, his ears picking up a constant heartbeat that roared into his ears.
The next step onward his feet landed onto a solid level of the basement instead of the descending stairs. A soft, ear-curling melody started to play. It was a piano mixing its tempo with an elegant violin.
Blood seemed to seep into the ground and was painted all over the walls. It glowed bright crimson as the Magician stepped forward.
His ears picked up erratic footsteps surged forward as several figures started to emerge from the incoming section, leading to a corridor. What came into his sight were reanimated corpses drenched in blood. Beyond the crowd of undead was a double door locked up with an elegant sanguine chain.
In front of him were once former humans turned into puppets of blood. Their entire figure was composed of roses and red veins. Their face were devoid of humanity and shaped like a budding rose stabbed between thorns.
The melody ringing in the hall picked up its beat as a fight was about to begin.
The Magician sent out the first move as the flame on his finger surged forward like a flaming arrow onto a horde of budding monsters.
They rushed forward at the first sight of light, but they screamed as they were set ablaze. Some had their senses burn white, and those who survived the first attack moved with savagery. Their thorny claws moved with disregard and aimed at the Magician.
Otto moved quickly and reached into his inner coat.
A gladius cut down the fiend's arms into two. The wound started to burn as if the sun was directing its gaze at the monster. A golden light seemed to expand from the wound and burn them into a cinder of golden ash.
All the budding monsters had a single look at the weapon that took down their kin. A gladius that seemed to emit light came from the sun, and what was wrapped around its pommel was a golden charm bathed in sunlight.
It was their instincts that made them fear the Magician was bathing in Purification, the antithesis of Darkness, Evil, Degenration, and Undead.
In his other hand, Otto pulled out his trusty staff wrapped in crimson binds. He slammed it down as beams of Holy Light seemed to shower the path.
"I declare, let there be light!"
Sunlight streaming from a Solar High Priest (Sequence 7) surged forward and devoured every undead in its path. Those budding rose monsters were the corpses of former humans and thus shall be purified into heaven.
The flames surround the area, turning it into a golden hue as they start to emit the light of the sun.
The beat of the sun and flames grew louder with each monster they slayed until there was nothing but ash.
The path forward was filled with purified ashes. Otto kept on moving forward as the piano and violin took on a violent tempo, a message that the Crimson Conductor was coming for the Magician.
"Praise the glorious sun!"
More and more budding rose monsters started to appear in response to the Magician's words, but he didn't feel an ounce of fear, as even if he were in the depths of the abyss, the Sun would burn everything to ash!
After all, Purification is a form of Destruction!
The Magician moved his hands quickly as he started throwing golden charms at the mob of monsters, and in Ancient Hermes, he screamed out,
"Sun!"
Numerous explosions of sunlight boomed onto the basement floor as a blinding light engulfed the vicinity.
Otto made his move and dashed forward through the burning corpses. Clawed thorny hands appeared on his path forward, but with the twist of his body, he dodged out of the way with a clownish smile.
'DODGE!' His Spiritual Intuition screamed.
His expression shifted as a barbed lance pierced his skull and stabbed his body into the nearby wall.
The one who threw it was a figure that was a knight covered in barbed thorns, and his head was a budding rose. There was an air of elitism surrounding the Knight that made him more imposing than the others. His movement stopped as he turned to where his spear was thrown.
He was expecting a splatter of blood on the wall, but all that was left in the Knight's sight was a paper figurine of his target.
His hand clenched as his barbed spear flew into his hand and in time to block a strike from above.
The ground shook and cracked from the impact, but the Knight held on. He felt his hands burn from the light emitted by the gladius. One of his legs kicked forward at the Magician, but the sight of his leg cleaved off to the side made him retreat one-legged.
He let out a war cry at the sudden pain of sunlight devouring his stub. His hand slammed onto the ground as the once-budding corpses started to liquify into a substance of blood. The liquid started to surge and churn towards the knight.
The Knight's form started to spasm and twitch from the sudden influx of blood, but he regained his posture with a valiant glint.
A mist of blood exploded outwardly as the blood formed underneath him took the shape of a barbed thorn horse. He rode on its back as he twirled around a spiked whip in his hands.
The lasso lashed out at the Magician as it left deep gashes on the wall. The Knight dragged his rope against the wall and threw the force of his movement towards his target. Bundles of rocks started to launch forward in a disarray.
The Magician, in response, had five rings of warm light emerge onto his right hand. He applied an Assassin's Mighty Blow to that same hand and fired a Magician's Air Bullet with a single snap of his fingers.
*BANG*
An ear-bursting pop exploded as a trail of air burst through the sound barrier and shot at The Knight. The hall leading towards the end of the basement cracked at the sudden attack.
The Rose Knight whipped with all his might to block the upcoming devastation, but it was all in vain as a massive gaping hole pierced through his chest, and the stones he launched were reduced to pebbles.
The Magician let out a whistle, seeing the amount of destruction he caused with just a snap of his fingers.
"Wow! Who knew the combo of Honkai Energy and Beyonder abilities could be so devastating?"
Otto had to reduce some of his attacks involving explosions underwise he could collapse the entire shop and the city block.
He had also restricted himself from the use of copied Divine Keys ever since becoming Merlin, since he was only a Wandering Magician and not a Schicksal Overseer. There should be no connection between the two lest someone figure it out.
After clearing out the waves of the undead, the Magician stepped towards the double doors that those budding roses were protecting.
His Spiritual Intuition was warning him about the danger beyond the doors. His body shivered and tensed from the sudden chill engulfing his spine.
The feeling of fear could have been from what lay beyond or the unknown of his enemy, but if he were to turn back now, he wouldn't live up to the act of becoming a Magician or grow.
To challenge the impossible and unknown was the principle of a Magician, so he pushed the doors to reveal a vast, grand hall that had a pungent smell of blood and iron engulf the room. His skin stung from the purple hue enveloping the place...It was Honkai Energy!
High up in the middle of the room was a massive blob of flesh that seemed to beat like a heart. Its flesh was covered in crimson and purple warts. Thousands of crimson threads were spread chaotically and connected to cocoons that glowed a blood-red hue.
Otto now understood why his previous Divinations called the basement a dangerous venture.
Within that blob of flesh was an Honkai Energy Generator! That insane lunatic of a woman was cultivating Honkai Energy to ascend her physical form and be reborn into some makeshift Herrscher Level Honkai Beast.
Those undead that Otto faced were Honkai Zombies modified by the Crimson Conductor. She was trying to buy time ever since he broke into the store and hastened her ascension.
Otto made up his mind that the Shepherd had to die and be erased, even if he caused collateral damage. He slammed his staff down and chose 3 Beyonder Abilities to replicate...It would be total and complete absolute extermination.
The previously picked melody was brought into its Finality as the hue of the piano turned into a feast for blood. The music that played throughout since the Magician's arrival played from that lump.
It started beating rapidly as the threads and cocoon converged onto the blob. Cocoons popped open as figures started to liquefy into a pus of blood and flow into the growing mass of flesh. Barbed thorns started to grow, twisting and churning into a stampede.
The music went into its highest point as the blob of flesh burst open, and a wave of blood started to churn like an ocean around the dirtied floor.
What came out was a giant rose. Numerous beady red eyes were the crevices between the large, dark petals of the flower, crowned with wilted, thorny sepals. Its mouth rested in the center of the flower, lined with sharp teeth.
The mouth screamed in an ear-piercing manner as blood started pouring into the flower's mouth and its barbed, thorny arms unfolded to the shape of vampiric wings. The blood pooling around the Rose's body seemed to move with life and brought a violent storm.
But before it could make a move, an unending surge of darkness started to wrap around its limbs. Its body, limbs, thorns, petals, and flowers soon began to turn paler and paler until it started to decay into death. Next, an orange-red glow poured down onto the rose's body like a hurricane. It wasn't in the domain of the Sun, but instead was Twilight.
The Darkness of a Horror Bishop, the Hand of Death from a Ferryman, and the Sword of Dawn from a Silver Knight started to wreak havoc on the rose's body.
Transparent spiritual worms started to crawl out of the Magician's orifices, and his skin seemed to crawl with those same worms. The cost to replicate those three Beyonder Abilities was costly, and so it seems he was losing control.
The Magician let out a maniacal laugh at the horrid screeches of the Rose. It was filled with hatred and pain toward the Magician. In its last efforts, the surrounding flowing blood twisted into a massive sphere of crimson.
Before it could launch, the Magician's once maniacal tone turned deathly silent as he said one farewell.
"MAY DEATH PROTECT US!"
When adjacent High Level Beyonder Abilities were to be combined, they could replicate a small drop of Symbolism stemming from a Great Old One momentarily. Even if the attack could bring out 0.01% of the Symbolism of Eternal Darkness (Darkness, Twilight, and Death), it would still be total annihilation.
The surrounding darkness, pale death, and decaying dawn seemed to transform into a deep black point, absorbing all light, sound, and matter. Under the giant's rose figure, a powerful suction force was dragging the gigantic monster into a black point where Space and Time converged into one.
The rose's mouth started to open widely as it loudly screamed its final mourn. The ground started to hollow out from below the monster, causing a gaping hole to appear.
That singular point of pitch black lasted for a second, but it was enough to completely devour the rose into shreds, as if nothing was left. The blood that seemed to seep into the walls was drained dry, and that pounding melody went silent
Even as the ground and room shook from the aftermath of the attack, Otto reigned in his thoughts and entered a state of Cogination to calm his mind. The transparent worms that moved through his body seemed to relax and slowly turn back to human skin.
Otto's body collapsed onto the ground, and his eyes looked up at the gaping hole in the ceiling. He didn't even have enough energy to wonder how he caused that...He aimed from below, not above!
'Getting out here is the most rational choice...But 5 more minutes, what's the worst that can happen?'
Soon, darkness took his sight, and he sank into a slumber of Nihilism.