#rulerverse

Every newly created daemon has their initial hesitations when the hunger gets especially bad, that hesitation is worse in those who used to be human. Not for any religious reasons, hunger is a normal part of both life and afterlife no matter who or what you are. It's just the certain taboo that comes with the relief of that hunger coming from that of your own species.

I remember my first experience in the practice fairly fondly, I was still rather young in daemon terms. It was around my 123rd birthday, I had been with an expedition of fellow lag daemons into the celestial wilds. We had been given enough supplies for at least a four month trip, it's just the gods didn't expect that sudden raid on our caravans and subsequent storm that followed. Or if they did then they never told us about it.

Anyways we were all surrounding the fire nine months into our outing and the hunger was starting to get aggressively bad for most of us. Thought it would be the end, no final stand in a battle or in bed surrounded by loved ones. But then one of the more elder daemons brought forth a proposition that made my former human blood run cold and my mortal stomach feel queasy. He had suggested that since I was the one holding the true blessing of the great distorter, that I should be the one to make it out alive no matter the cost. So in order to keep me going, they offered up their bodies to be sacrificially consumed so that I may survive.

Cannibalism didn't come easy to me at first, I had to keep myself from vomiting up what little meat the other daemons still had left on them. Even now, I'd be lying if I stated there wasn't a part of me that still wasn't nauseous if I'm pushed to that extreme hunger again.

But like everything in my new life, I got used to it. Made it to a village without much issue, though not without being the last of said expeditionary party. Over ten good lag daemons went into the celestial wilds that year, including myself.

This is Dr. Khorinth of research site Zeta, current date is ███████ ████ █████. I've been assigned as a member of staff here on the orders of the higher ups to monitor what they call "Extra-Universal Anomalies", unsure what that means but the pamphlet they gave says it has something to do with beings or occurrences that happen outside or in the between of universes.

The Soul Vampire is deemed by some the strongest form of vampiric entity. Capable of feeding off the very soul of its victims in order to satiate its endless hunger. The ways one can become a soul vampire are as uncountable as worlds in creation, yet one method is the most well known to those in the study of vampires.

Soul Burning, a skill that allows individuals to (as the name suggests) burn the energy of the soul directly in order to temporarily gain massive power. With the cost being of course the permanent evolution of ones race into that of a Soul Vampire. Even if one who was previously blessed by a god before their transformation, the blessing will be burned in the process upon the skills activation. The effect is irreversible in its nature and has no known cure at this time.

The only known method to completely kill a Soul Vampire is to starve it to death, though based on the relative strength of the individual prior to their transformation the duration before their soul sputters out may vary. Burned Blessings can also in some cases act as added fuel to keep the subject alive for longer periods past the souls initial burnout.

In terms of the Soul Vampires mental state, while sufficient satiation can lead to the individual regaining their lost sanity and previous mental faculties. This unfortunately does not last long, as the near constant hunger the curse inflicts on the individual will eventually lead to them turning hostile within mere hours after regaining previous mental faculties.

God of Fear

Bestiary Title: Midas Fungi

Guayaquil Name: Rot Gold Fungus

Strength Class: S Grade

Specialization: Infection

Species Rank: Angel

Description: Midas Fungi or as it is commonly known "Rot Gold" is a fungal infection that can be easily spotted by the Gold coloured beads that can either be found on the ground or in the air. These beads are the main vector for the fungus to spread, crushing them will release a gold colored cloud of spores into the air.

Infection rates depend on species, with stronger ones such as daemons having a slower infection rate. However if induced in a high enough dose, the fungus' infection will rapidly advance through the four various stages of infection.

Stage 1 (Dormant): This stage is the first to come, no symptoms are shown besides a slight gold hue around the fingertips.

Stage 2 (Attack on the Body): Infected will begin to slowly lose control of their motor functions, with a gold discolorations signifying the fungi's control over that region of the body. With mutations such as elongation of limbs and fusing of certain body parts being commonly seen when infected area's are examined.

Stage 3 (Attack on the Mind): This stage is seen as the most taxing on the infected. As their minds are consumed by the Rot Gold in what can only be described as a "full frontal assault on the senses." Infected individuals at this stage appear to mindlessly lash out at anyone and anything in their vicinity, only to then become lucid once again once said object or person is no longer functioning. Individuals report seeing that whatever they saw was not in reality what was happening, leading research to conclude that the fungus hijacks the infected sense of danger.

Stage 4 (Attack on the Soul): Once this final stage occurs, majority of infected are no longer able to be saved. With their bodies contorting into shapes that barely resemble their old forms. Though that isn't the worst of it, as utilizing occult magic to scry into an infected soul revealed that the Rot Gold had relentlessly attacked the soul of the victim. Until eventually either the persons soul gave out and shattered under the Rot Gold, or succumbed and let the fungus inside their soul.

He grabbed at the helmet of the macabre monstrosity that was piloting his best friends body, a sickening puppeteer with it's little marionette that made the former Arch Devil turned Angel nearly want to puke. But he held his composure until he was sure Cybers drones were now far gone from sight and earshot, allowing him to slam the beast into the ground with a massive impact crater forming below.

Now with the Rotting Dread in his grasp, Ruler moved his hand to pin the beast down by the throat. Utilizing aura suppression technique that felt easier now more than ever in his newly evolved body, locking the Champion of Fear from using any of his powers that could be used for escape. Now with his hand on the creatures throat, Ruler lowered himself to where if it were another humanoid an ear would be and began to vent out all his anger.

"I am so lonely."

"No one ever talks to me. No one wants to be my friend, they think I am unstable."

"For the past five hundred years since I defeated Gabriel, the gods use me as their personal weapon. Sending me from dimension to dimension, reality to reality committing atrocities in their name for the sake of keeping myself alive."

"Because if I didn't, they'd revoke their blessings and rend me apart. And I don't know about you, but I don't think my soul before now could've taken dying again."

"The other divine champions didn't even want to look me in my own fucking eyes."

The Rotting Dread squirmed slightly under the suppression as Ruler continued to vent his frustrations in but a calm whispering tone.

"Do you have the slightest idea what it feels like to be considered a weapon?"

"To be so Uncontrollably strong that you have little to no competition against you? Not even from other versions of yourself?"

"My life was HELL, it got so bad at some points that if I still had eyeballs I might've even cried."

"Yet just as I left myself on a frozen rock to rot for the rest of time and memorial, that was when my millennium of existence FINALLY had something new happen."

Ruler raised his head from the side of the helmet to look the beast who was puppeting his brothers body in the eyes as he said the next few words.

"I met someone, just like me."

"A fragment of a broken memory that once was whole, wrapped in an armor that was native to his homeworld. Who may have not faced the horrors I had to endure, but who's struggles were all still just as valid."

"Afterwards, I met someone who actually came back stronger each time we fought. It wasn't just a one and done kind of fight with him, but a genuine growing experience for both of us."

Ruler chuckled a little bit to himself, reminiscing on various fights with Cyber before Cyber stopped trying to kill Ruler.

"In my one thousand and fourteen years of life, I was finally able to have people close to me. To have a brother to call my own and a family that was worth fighting for back."

Rulers smile then dropped as his eyes blackened to face the Rotting Dread face to face. Cold contempt clear in his voice as he states, "And here you are, piloting my brothers body like it's always been your own."

Mortal made Leviathan, he constructed a multiverse of his own for which to fully explore his powers further. Using it as a means to explore concepts that he cannot within his mainline reality, instead using a multiverse one narrative layer below him as a playground.

Ruler: "Idk, I think I'm some kind of a revenant?"

Random Paladin: "You think?"

Ruler: "Look, in the celestial realm we just call eachother daemons. I wouldn't know what yall mortals call-"

gestures at body