Crown Of Blasphemy: Rise Of The Legendary Villain

The green moon-eye thing that had previously been watching them had disappeared, both it and its light swallowed by the endless existence of pitch black clouds that tinted not just the sky, but the world beneath.

Mr. Valen, weakened by hunger lingered behind the crew of three, his breath laborious, his gaze dull.

His hunger had grown.

Since the time he had been instructed to follow them, Mr. Valen had not been spoken to, and despite his many, many piteous attempts to try, he had been swiftly silenced with a sharp hush.

It would appear that silence was of the essence when traveling across lands like this, and in an attempt to occupy himself, Mr. Valen had sought to keep time by counting the number of steps he had taken.

What he had counted so far, was 518,400 steps.

They moved at a slow pace, taking at most two steps in a second, meaning if one calculated the number of steps they had taken at two steps per second, they would have walked for three days without rest.

For three days the terrain had remained unchanging—a rainy world of muddy, black sand obscured by mist.

At times they would cross paths with a creature which the party spent most of their efforts avoiding, or they would be chased for miles by another.

They even met a few Skilion's traveling in groups, but not once was their panic to be seen, only a reaction to an event, a sign of an experienced group.

The terrain soon began to change, in fact, it had begun to change a few miles back but said change was too subtle to be immediately noticeable.

It began with less and less black smoke, then less sand and more rock, until finally the ground beneath them was completely rocky.

As they exited the zone of black sand, it would appear that the team had been unbounded by whatever was preventing them from speaking before, as the woman of the group asked a question.

"Why are you so strong?" Her voice sounded out in that unknown language, but by some mystical force, Mr. Valen could understand.

The other men in the group also turned to Mr. Valen as though waiting for an answer, their gazes deep.

Feeling slightly intimidated, Mr. Valen tried to gather his thoughts but was graced with the threat of a headache that immediately stopped him.

So without thinking, he faked a smile and responded, "What do you mean?"

Immediately he spoke, his jaws began to ache as though his mouth was so unfamiliar with the words he had spoken that it rebelled in pain.

Meanwhile, at Mr. Valen's response to the inquiry, there was a looming silence as the woman peered at him, her eyes sharp as blades.

"You should not scare the alien, Sky Wind," the large man cut in before the situation got any worse and Sky Wind scoffed.

Sky Wind might sound odd to someone hearing it for the first time, but that was precisely its meaning: Sky and Wind.

Of course, it was not pronounced that way but the way it was pronounced was difficult to be portrayed in English.

That being said, Mr. Valen was not satisfied with the bland way in which the name was called, so he decided to isolate one part of her name, "sky," and replace it with the Greek word Ouranos, which also meant Sky.

He chose the Greek language because of its deep mythical heritage and the fact that he was in a world of myth himself.

Watching Mr. Valen zone out, Ouranos turned to the large man with furrowed brows, "Don't stop me like I'm gonna kill him, Thirio," she growled then turned to him.

"First you were able to endure the pain from the world's resistance which I've never seen before," she counted her fingers.

"Secondly, you didn't seem hurt by the acid tree." She took a step closer.

"And third you have been able to keep up with us quite easily, why is that?"

She questioned him directly, airing out any doubts she had at the moment.

Normally, a question like this would be easy for Mr. Valen to talk his way out of; unfortunately, he was now crippled by his inability to think clearly.

"I've always been tolerant of pain," Mr. Valen began, half-sweating as he spat out the first thing that came to mind, "As for why I'm strong enough to keep up with you all and why I didn't die in the acid tree, I don't know."

The group didn't respond immediately; instead, they paused, weighing the truth of his words."

"I've heard green-eyed Wizards are impervious to heat, maybe that's why the acid didn't work," the slender man who hadn't spoken since he had appeared suddenly spoke, a mist seeping through the gaps of his bone mask.

Shaking his head Thirio who was the large one, turned to the slender man, "You're right Agrios. Besides, he agreed to a world deal so it shouldn't be a problem."

"Let's go then," Ouranos spoke as she forged ahead, breaking into a sprint through the rocky terrain, her loss of interest in the subject was evident.

Quickly the men followed, keeping up with her pace quite easily as they made their way through.

Mid-sprint, as they ran through rocky and uneven terrain, Thirio turned to him, his expression gentle as he said, "Don't let Ouranos fool you, she just doesn't like them strong, don't worry, you'll get used to our clan soon enough."

"But you gotta admit, seeing the alien keep up with us is very strange," Agrios, who was running up from the side, intoned, a strange look in his eyes that Mr. Valen knew all too well but still couldn't place his finger on.

Ouranos soon slowed down upon reaching a large boulder and in turn, the three men behind her also did the same.

Mr. Valen watched them sit down, indifferent to the dirt beneath them—or beneath him, he noted grimly, acutely aware of his own nakedness.

And yet his exposed form did not seem to be a problem for the group, who were occupied by an activity that puzzled Mr. Valen.

"Feeding time," Thirio, who noticed his confusion, clarified, handing him a handful of seeds he had retrieved from his inner garb.

The others also seemed to be consuming these rations, which led him to believe that it was safe.

His hunger by this point was almost unbearable, and so he lunged at the seeds snatching them out of Thirio palm and stuffing them into his mouth with a reflex as beastial as half the blood that flowed through his veins.

The seeds tasted bland. Some were soft while others were hard and as unpalatable as shattered glass.

And yet he chewed, forcing himself to swallow, but the hunger was not quelled. No, It dulled as one would expect after eating—but that release, that relief—did not come.

Rather, his hunger grew, and when he raised his head, he saw the white lines that flowed through the bodies of the three people before him, and he forced himself, begged himself not to lunge.

And his body listened.

"Haha, someone's hungry," Agrios commented before being cut off by a glare from Thirio.

The crew was quiet as they ate, but in this silence, Ouranos had made sure to keep an eye on him and when she saw him tremble her eyes narrowed as she—

"Why did you save me?" Mr. Valen raised his head and observed the crew, who glanced at each other.

"Haha," Agrios chucked while Ouranos merely rolled her eyes.

Thirio, on the other hand, seemed to take him more seriously, his eyes narrowing. "Well, you needed help," he began before finishing with a slight chuckle, "So we helped you, plus you're a fit man."

"Fit man?" Mr. Valen echoed tilting his head, not in suspicion but in curiosity.

"He means you'll make a good addition to the clan, alien," Ouranos cut in getting to her feet as she stretched, "Don't make too much noise here; it could attract evolved Skilion's."

"Skilion's huh? What are Skilion's?" Mr. Valen used this opportunity to inquire, he knew that Skilion's was the official name of beasts that sometimes slip onto earth through passageways but other than that, he knew nothing.

Agrios seemed amused by his question, but his interest in the subject showed in his eyes, "No one knows where Skilion's come from, they just appear. Manifest. Call it what you will. But no one is sure, no one has ever seen one being born."

"Appear?" Mr. Valen asked skeptically, leaning slightly to hear better. "You don't know where they come from?"

"No one knows where they come from," Ouranos confirmed, her tone bland as she muttered, "all we know is that they eat humans to evolve, and they need to eat many to do it."

"Some evolved Skilion's are stronger than most," Thirio cut in, "but any evolved Skilion is at least on par with a high-level Infernal Enforcer, that's why we have to run, we're low-level Infernal Enforcer's."

"What is—"

"Just shut up," Ouranos cut in, her gaze snapping from Thirio to Mr. Valen. "you ask too many questions, it's all irrelevant to you anyway, it's time we move."

And with her words, the group broke into yet another sprint.