S̴̘̥̪̾t̴͚̯̔ä̷̡̗́̆͝ȓ̷̫͕̀͝ͅs̵̡̭͛̾
Basking in the glow of the moonlight a small boy in an orange prison uniform laid spread-eagle upon the roof of an interictally carved stone building. Next to him rested a strange skull whos eye sockets occasionally flickered as they stared into the depths of the stars above.
And the young boy intrigued by anything shiny was completely enraptured by the starry spectacle laid out before him. Comparing the vast starry sky before him to the one from his home planet 15 had no trouble crowning the Astral Realms night sky superior.
Light and atmospheric pollution had completely ruined the view of the vast cosmos from the surface of the Earth. In comparison 15 found himself in an environment completely devoid of air pollution, and as for light only the red florescent jungle under Heins's control was the only source of light for thousands of miles on end. Because he knew the boy would probably love it Heins had made the executive decision to dim the lights to enhance 15's stargazing experience.
In his experience, most creatures non-native to the Astral Realm were usually blown away by the night sky here.
And so, 15 was treated to one of the clearest views of the cosmos that a human had ever witnessed. Arguably something no baseline human should ever witness without protection.
Millions upon millions of stars completely filled up 15's vision and nothing but the sweet sound of the stars filled his ears. For a moment 15 almost learned what felt pure and utter bliss felt like. A feeling most people found incredibly addictive...
Almost learned that is.
Although he found the experience to be slightly pleasing he thought nothing further of it. The symphony of the stars could at most draw some slight curiosity from him along with some slight drowsiness.
Turning to Heins who seemed oblivious to it all 15 felt like doing his new friend a slight favor. After all the strange being took the time to play with him yesterday.
*Yawn
" Hey Heins..... "
" Yes 15 ?"
15 turned to face the floating skull his face filled with a childlike innocence his tone of voice filled with slight drowsiness.
" Have you ever heard the stars sing ?"
Taken aback the skull shook for a moment, its attention was drawn from expanding the blood river and absorbing souls from the local wildlife. Slightly curious Heins drew his full attention to his friend.
" Sing ??? What do you mean sing ?? Are you speaking in the riddles you humans so adore ?"
" No, no, no, silly. Even though you dont have ears you can still listen right ?? The star, the universe, the cosmos, it S̴̮̰̱̽̉̆I̴͔̠̋̾͝N̶̡͖͈̕͝Ģ̵͈͈̈́͘S̶͇͇̘̎͊ if you listen closely. " Turning to face the stars 15 began to gesture wildly, " An old man once showed me. Back on my old planet we had these things called satellites, they were these amazing things we could send into space and they could record and send us videos."
Taken aback by 15s wild fervor Heins's skull floated a bit back a little worried for 15's sanity, almost stepping in to stop the boys montage. But after thinking for a little he had remembered 15 had no sanity to lose, so he let the boy continue his speech, it was a little interesting after all.
15 on the other hand was completely oblivious to his friend's alarm to his sudden outburst, instead, he was drawn deeper and deeper into the stories an old man once told him" One day a certain satellite that went by the codename Cuthulu captured a strange sound, a sound composed of pure S̷͖̲͎͗I̴̩͌N̸̢͓̣̎̂̚C̵̛̯̙͂́O̸͎͈̦͆P̶̥̺̉͑Ẏ̸̥̰... " Calming down 15 turned to face Hein's again this time his face entirely serious.
" Now Heins once you open yourself to the universe, you can never close yourself off, but that never bothered me.... I find the Ń̵̖̒̈́Ő̵̭̾Ḯ̷̲́S̶̳̩̽̚Ė̷̡̈́̕ to really help with sleep , especially on a night like this. So Ill tell you a little secret" After taking a moment to yawn 15 leaned in even closer to Heins's skull, his once-raging crescendo had fallen to barely a whisper "If you concentrate hard enough after knowing what to look for you can eventually hear the stars sing yourself, " After staring at Heins for a little 15 felt satisfied, " We have a temple to explore tomorrow.... Goodnight Heins ."
(っ◔◡◔)っ💓
And with a final yawn 15 turned back onto his side and immediately fell asleep on the cold stone roof.
Shocked by the intense monologue that came from 15 out of nowhere Heins was a little shocked, his floating skull bobbing up and down for a bit soaking up all the information 15 had just delivered to him.
Suddenly a shudder ran through his soul and his skull began to vibrate, the blood river began to boil and every single corrupted animal within the range of the blood curse began to grasp their heads and writhe in pain. Somewhere within a dark and horrible ream things began to shake and hundreds of thousands of souls began to cry out in pain. A certain annoyed being grumbled from a certain abyss. Suddenly everything stopped, and everything became quiet.
All things were blocked out by a single system notification
-- You have learned of the universe's song... the universe has become aware of you. Emotional stability negatively impacted by 300 %. Magical prowess slightly enhanced. New soul magics available --
-- Racial talent activate --
-- Item activate --
-- Deducting 300,000 souls --
-- No impact on emotional stability has been caused --
-- Enhancement to magical prowess deducted --
-- No corruption has occurred --
And of course after the system notification disappeared a shocked Heins spent the rest of the night staring at the sleeping 15 that he had befriended. Completly unaware of the strange changes that were occurring to the corpses of the zombies that 15 had completely destroyed the day before as he played archeologist.
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Somewhere within the Astral realms JEU training branch a strange and deformed old man was currently trudging through an empty cave. The mans three mouths continued to mumble gibberish as he navigated through a complex series of twists and turns. A labyrinth that could keep even the most experienced spelunker lost for life.
" The stars̴͔̊.. The Stars̵̥̤̒̚... THE S̶̘̲̰͉͎̝̔͊̐T̸̨̘͕͗̏̾̓̈̒̈́̑̚Ä̶̧̧̬͔̯͔̳̱́̈́͗͆͐͠R̴̡̼̪̖̱̔͛̐͝S̷̨̨̻͙͈̣̖̗͌̌ .... I CAN HEAR THEM... THEY CALL TO ME... THEY S̷̢̤͓̦͈͚̑̓͜͝͠Ȋ̴̡̘̠̠́ͅŅ̷̱̯̣̟̔̈̇G̴̣̬̯̜̫͉̬͌̊̋̈͊̆͘ ̸̢̧͙́ͅ. "
The man dragged himself through the labyrinth navigating its tunnels desperately dragging his mutated self in a certain direction, occasionally crushing a variety of monsters that got in his way and occasionally letting out incomprehensible screams.
Suddenly the man paused. A few pairs of eyes rolled to face a certain direction. Pausing for a moment the man screamed gibberish for a few minutes before turning back to the original way he was walking. His orange prison uniform was illuminated by the light from a few strange mushrooms. The number 16 shinned in the strange blue light.
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15 was awoken in the morning to some strange moaning and the morning sun. Shaking off momentary grogginess 15 turned to say good morning to Heins only to find the floating skull missing. Unbothered 15 took a few moments to bask in the morning sun before he was rudely interrupted by some more intense moaning.
Annoyed 15 equipped with his blood knife 15 peered over the side of the roof he was sleeping on only to find the blobs of flesh he had chopped up the day before had come back to life. This time with a few more tentacles and some extra cosmic horror.
-- Corrupted Zombie Temple Aberration --
- Lvl 46 Unranked
-- A remnant of the past, raised twice through cosmic horror. Once from the remnants of an ancient evil, and once from listing in to a conversation that should have been ignored.
--System Note-- Because apparently once wasn't enough. This time bigger faster and with more tentacles. Not safe for consumption or other unique recreational activities.
Cracking his neck 15 stretched a little before diving off the roof. A little morning exercise never hurt anyone before, did it ???