Truth of the Murder Crow

Eidiri's vision started to fade to black, or was it just the wings beating against his body?

At this point, Eidiri couldn't differentiate the difference, only knowing that he has to keep swinging the sword.

Bird after bird, they fell motionlessly to the floor.

The crow, recognizing his intentions, issued a mental command, ordering the crows of the murder it had gathered to attack the arm Eidiri was using.

The crows flew up through the hole before diving downwards, using the extra height to gather momentum so as to make their body that much deadlier.

Now while this decision alone wouldn't be too bad of an idea for the crow, it deciding to lead the charge, most certainly was.

Eidiri was still weakly swinging his dagger, hitting nothing but air.

When the crows dived down to finally finish off Eidiri from thinning out the murder any further, Eidiri opened his blood-caked eyes with great effort, weakly swiping Steel Song through the air, landing a blow on the crow.

With the crow slapped out of the air, like the wind had been taken out of their sails, the spirit crows were dazed, falling to the floor as well now that the control the original crow had over them was now disrupted.

Eidiri, with his 1 good arm now proceeded to slowly drag himself across the room, towards the inert body of what was clearly the original crow.

The wood floor was coarse against his skin, but nevertheless, Eidiri continued to persist.

Eidiri had lost Steel Song when he had slapped the original crow out of the air, his grip being too weak and the dagger flying from his grip.

But thankfully, he still had the weapon that Master Jarid had forged for him, Saxum Gladius.

Painfully, he twisted his arm despite the protests of his body, unsheathing the sword, continuing to pull himself towards the crow as he did so.

But when he had finally made his way to the motionless body of the crow and stabbed it, the blade bounced off, much like the previous strikes he had made with Steel Song.

But Eidiri continued forward, dead-set on finishing off this horrid crow.

But no matter what he did, Eidiri couldn't harm the crow, his persistent actions only serving to tire himself out.

No matter how much he continued to batter and hack the accursed bird, no visible damage was dealt to it.

Then, 1 of the spirit crows that were lying on the ground began to spasm, and shake, its image distorting into that of the spectral human from before.

Fearing that the spirit crows were awakening from their daze, Eidiri feared the worst, entirely prepared to have to launch the post he had prepared beforehand to ask the other players for aid.

However, no such attack occurred, leaving Eidiri dumbfounded.

Rather only 1 of the spirit crows had morphed back into their human form.

From what it looked like, the ghost was undergoing great pain during this process, its face twisting and warping.

Then after what appeared to be a moment of mental struggle on part of the ghost, it composed its features, addressing Eidiri.

"Adventurer, quick, you must kill it before it consumes us all. I don't have much time. End it already!" the spirit urged.

"What?" Eidiri stuttered out, clearly confused about the series of events that had just occurred. "Ignoring everything that's just happened... how would I go about killing it? Surely," Eidiri took a raspy breath, gulping down air, "you've seen my previous attempts."

"To kill the Murder Crow you must understand it," the spirit informed him.

'Huh, so the thing was called the Murder Crow. That's not ominous at all. Not the slightest bit,' Eidiri thought.

The spirit continued on, "The Murder Crow is an entity of the Death Realm, its mere presence brings the wave of death from its homeland into this realm. Through slaughter, it adds the victim's souls to itself, forming the Murder of Crows. Ironic isn't it?" the spirit truly chuckled.

"Through murder, it adds to the murder..." the spirit trailed off before regaining focus.

"But anyway, the process of bringing the Death Realm into this plane requires a tremendous amount of energy, as such, it murders and uses its victim's souls to fuel to process. The Murder Crow can also use the victim's soul for many other uses. At this point, all of the corpses that were in this attic have become one with it."

"Normally, the Crow wouldn't do such an absorption that quickly, but under the treat of your attack, it underwent the process."

"But here is where we'll attack it. But conducting the process so hastily, there were flaws. Normally, the process would integrate our souls to be completely subservient to the Crow. But now, we sort of co-exist in a sense, not in any friendly manner though."

"With a portion of our conscious selves intact, we were able to retrieve the knowledge on the Crow that I'm telling you right now."

Eidiri took in all this information, taking note of what the spirit had said, trying to find ways he could use the knowledge against the Murder Crow.

The spirit continued on, "So us spirits we revolt from the inside, all you have to do is attack it as you were doing before. But be careful, while the crow is dormant right now, that's only because the rest of us spirits are restraining it."

"Hurry the process must be carried out quickly," the spirit said, urging Eidiri to take action.

Eidiri, recognizing the aid of the spirits and the urgency of the situation staggered onto his feet, dragging Saxum Gladius on the floor behind him with his god arm.

With a mighty heave, Eidiri hefted the sword into the air before plunging it into the chest of the crow.

This didn't quite finish it off though, the spirits were still furiously attacking the crow from the inside, working to lower its defenses.

Eidiri continuously continued to batter at the Crow, knowing it was only a matter of time before its energy ran out, after all, it was fighting a battle on 2 fronts, in the realm of the soul as well as the physical plane, sure its energy would be sapped quickly.

Eidiri's patience and persistence would be rewarded, the feathers of the Crow losing their glossy shine, Sazum Gladius plunging past the crow's plumage and into its breast, quickly cutting of its connection to the Mortal Plane, sending it back to the depths of the Death Realm, permanently.