Crown Of Blasphemy: Rise Of The Legendary Villain

The world was dark, and yet it was infinitely bright; whose eyes were these?

Within the volcanic cave was a ball-like thing that consisted of just two beady eyes, its fluffy black fur coating it entirely.

It was the same thing that had bitten Mr. Valen's finger off.

Like some kind of ball, it bounced, moving as it looked around, through the passageway, a world of fumes and heat, but it could not smell.

"Puff!"

A blast of hot steam suddenly exploded beneath it, the temperature, impossibly hot, and yet, the heat did nothing to harm the creature, in fact, its fur was unchanging.

The world from its eyes was just shades of infrared, and as it gazed at the wall of the cave, it saw not just a wall but different layers of heat, constantly moving, constantly changing. It was incredible how the thing managed to keep a sense of direction.

Without a word, the little beast bounced, hopping deeper into the cave, and after a few seconds, it came upon a few blobs of infrared light shaped like human silhouettes.

They appeared to be chained to the wall, slaves. Fortunately they had not noticed it, it's fur doing much to keep it camouflaged in the dark.

As though interested in the topic of conversation, the little ball stayed, and listed, its beady eyes staring blankly.

"I don't believe this. Why won't they feed us?" one of these blobs of light exclaimed with an aged voice.

"It's strange, our bowls are full, but nobody has come to retrieve the minerals, it's been a week," another blob, this one more slender, groaned heavily.

"C-could we have been abandoned?" Another one chimed in, his voice weak as he clenched his fist. "If I knew, I'd have been nicer to that strange green-eyed wizard, maybe I'd have been out of here by now, like Dynatós."

"Ha," the first blob chuckled bitterly, ignoring his roaring stomach.

Losing interest in the slaves, the ball thing flashed, moving with incredible speed, and moment later it appeared again, this time on the ceiling of the volcanic cave as though unbound by the laws of gravity, and so it bounced soundlessly this time.

The ceiling was even rougher than the ground, stalactites, but it kept moving, not out of the cave but deeper, as though it was seeking something.

It bounced along passageways, smoothened by flowing lava, some bursting with high-pressure steam (dry or wet).

Occasionally, it even came in contact with streams of lava coating the cave, but nothing affected it; it was as though this unbearable environment was a picnic to it.

Soon, after the ball thing had reached depths Mr. Valen could only dream of exploring, it stopped, observing with its cute beady eyes.

By now, its infrared vision could only be termed 'red vision', for there were no distinctions; everything was hot, everything was red.

Before it was a vast, churning sea of magma, a surreal, glowing lake of molten rock under immense pressure.

Looking closely, one would notice, floating lava balloons and blobs of semi-solidified rock bobbing in the melt.

The lava swirled and flowed as hotter and cooler magma mixed, creating a mesmerizing sight. It would seem that the creature had only intended to sightsee, having no intention of going further. How could it? No being could survive molten lava.

It then jumped in—wait, IT JUMPED IN?

With a sickening sludge, the creature indeed jumped in, disappearing into the lava's depths; somehow, it had not burned at contact.

Within the lava itself was a strange experience: it felt warm to the creature rather than agonizingly hot.

Propelled by some unknown force, the creature moved, swimming with and sometimes against the currents like a fish in water, going deeper into the volcanic cave.

After a few hours of swimming, it emerged, its fur steaming slightly, but overall it was unharmed.

In the next moment, it shook itself vigorously, getting rid of all the excess lava on its being. This part of the cave was infinitely large, but the creature cared not for the sight.

Blinking its cute beady eyes, it passed through a small crack in this cave, forcing its form through the complex network and disappearing from sight.

----------

Outside, the sky remained as dark as ever, rain drizzling down into the wet volcanic soil.

Despite the rain, the terrain was filled with geysers that erupted periodically, shooting streams of hot steam into the air. Yet in all this one's attention would be drawn to a single patch of volcanic dirt, bulging unnaturally in the gloom.

"Puff!"

A fury ball-like creature jumped out with a pop, shaking itself slightly so as to rid itself of the dirt.

Looking around at the world, its beady eyes narrowed slightly, it appeared confused, maybe it too was wondering why it had not died in the lava.

Fortunately, it had survived, and the next thing it did was jump into one of the geysers before, its form disappearing into the depths.

The volcanic terrain hissed and roared, its cracked soil dotted with geysers that blasted scalding towers of water skyward.

But one of these geysers (the one the creature had jumped into) did not erupt for a long while.

In the next moment, the ground suddenly began to tremble, harder than usual until, "BOOM!"

A large stream of condensed steam and water shot out of the hole, carrying with it a black furball.

The thing was shot into the sky, disappearing from sight completely.

--------------

Meanwhile at a distant place, if you breathed in, you would notice that the air was thick with the scent of wet rot and something darker.

Monsters roamed this world, not beasts as they had once been, but things warped by lore and belief.

They were nightmares given flesh—many-limbed horrors with too many eyes, or gaping maws lined with rows of needle-like teeth.

Some slithered, some crawled, and some walked on limbs that bent the wrong way.

And among them, in the shadow of a jagged mountain not too far from the volcanic region where the earth still belched hot steam and choking fumes into the downpour, there was a nest.

The nest was not made of stone or sticks, but of chitin, bones, and flesh-a grotesque, living hive that would make one retch.

The creature lying on it was an insect, a thing of glistening carapace and twitching, segmented limbs.

From its back sprang four translucent wings flapping softly in the dim.

Its body was a grotesque fusion of spider and centipede, each leg ending in a hooked claw that could rend flesh from bone with ease.

Its abdomen throbbed with a sickly bioluminescence, casting a pallid glow over the writhing mass of its offspring (smaller), but no less monstrous.

All the other beasts avoided this creature, for on this mountain it was king. No one-

"Swoosh!"

A certain sound could be heard drawing the insect's attention to the sky, which it gazed upon with its strange, beady eyes.

"Puff!"

At high speeds, something landed in its nest, the force creating a slight tremor, inviting its ire.

Raising its head slightly, it screeched, a deafening sound to anything but the creature in front of it.

It was a ball of black fur that stared at the insect blankly, not a thought behind those eyes.

"Swoosh!"

The insect suddenly spat out a handful of green fluid at the ball, but it just bounced, dodging quickly and effortlessly.

It then flashed, and the insect could feel the thing perched on its back. It screamed, and rolled, but the thing remained.

After trashing for a while, the creature took to the sky, its wings fluttering as it reached supersonic speed in an instant.

"Whoosh!" It cut through the sky, the mountain range falling behind as it performed swift motions designed to throw off the ball thing.

This went on for hours and just when the insect was about to give up, it felt the creature leap off.

Meanwhile, the black fur ball tore through the air before hitting the ground with a bang. The ground beneath it cracking slightly as it bounced.

It was now in a field of large rocks, and so it hopped across this field, stopping at a certain rock covered in vines.

Mr. Valen would recognize this clearing as the entrance to the Cannibal Clan's home.

---------

Inside the large cave that served as the cannibal clan's home, the foul stench of death ran strong.

Decomposing bodies, (rotting, and crawling with maggots), were littered everywhere. There were severed limbs, blood smeared on tattered tents, and evidence of a desperate battle.

But the ball thing, cared not for all this and bounced to the middle of the camp, where the chief's tent stood.

Inside, one could find the obese man's decomposing body, but the ball cared not for this as well; rather, it turned its attention to the foul-smelling pit.

Within lay a monstrosity, the same one Mr. Valen had peered into (an amalgamation of severed limbs, foul slimy substance, blood, and human waste) and yet, in this state, it was still alive.

A single eye staring at the world above.

Suddenly the ball thing began trembling, its form splitting open to reveal a maw that was the stuff of nightmares, a maw filled with jagged teeth so sharp that they gleamed in the dark.

From this maw it extended its tongue, revealing a severed pinky finger that it dropped into the pit. Its maw then closed, allowing it to regain its usual innocent appearance.

"Badump!"

Something akin to a heartbeat pulsed and an aura of death burst out from the pit—an aura of desolation, an aura from hell itself.

This aura pushed everything back even the ball creatures, tearing the tent that covered it to shreds, gastly screams echoing everywhere.

This aura pushed everything back, even the ball creature, tearing the tent that covered it to shreds, ghastly screams echoing throughout the cave, (screams from the depths of samsara).

When the aura cleared, there stood a being wrapped completely in black clothes like some kind of mummy, glowing white runes pulsing on its form.

Even its face was concealed by the cloth making it hard to discern how it truly looked.

Though it looked humanoid, this thing clearly was not human as it was partly shrouded in some sort of dark mist, further obscuring its gender if it even had one.

But what really marked it as an inhuman being was the extra set of arms it had, yes this being had for slender arms all wrapped in bandages.

Upon seeing this being, the ball creature bounced towards it and quivered slightly. "I bow to The Unmaker!" it declared, its maw opening slightly, its voice deep and guttural, heavily unfit for its form.

For a moment, two moments there was silence, one which was spent by The Unmaker, observing its form.

And then it spoke, its voice like an echo of countless souls. "The garden was pure before their first cry. Silence will bloom again!"

"Indeed it will, oh great one," the ball creature responded, its breath gruff. "I have cursed Subject 01, the last of his ten spawns; they must now hunt each other, or they will all die," it added.

"You have done well, King of Curses. Since I cannot harm them myself, let them harm-" The Unmaker suddenly paused, one hand resting on its cheek, another on its jaw, while the remaining two held its waist. 'Were you followed?'"

"No, I was not!" The King of Curses responded immediately as it turned, its infrared gaze catching sight of three distinct body heat signatures in the distance.

"I will take care of this immediately-"

"Worry not," the Unmaker interrupted, before vanishing into a puff of mist, its voice lingering: "It is time I feed."