Pandora Unchained - a Cultivation Progression Fantasy

Sorin darted from tree to tree, his carefully honed senses spotting the faint twang of bowstrings and the familiar hiss of an arrow as it barely missed his twisting torso. Even avoiding the projectile resulted in shallow damage. Wind and lightning lacerated his leather armor and dug into his flesh, creating shallow incisions that burned with the might of Punishment and Tribulation.

“You’ve gone too far, Sorin!” shouted Gareth, quick on Sorin’s heels. “It’s time to put an end to this, once and for all.”

“You’re the one that’s out of your mind,” shouted Sorin, dodging another arrow. “Can’t we just talk this over?”

Another arrow crashed into the tree Sorin was hiding behind and dug into Sorin’s thigh. Sorin yanked the arrow out and melted his flesh to stop the bleeding. “What’s there to talk about, Sorin?” asked Gareth. “Don’t you trust my judgment? I’m your watcher. We had an agreement. Though I shouldn’t be surprised that you’re backing out now. Most corrupted individuals do.”

There was still no reaching the man, so Sorin gave up on diplomacy. Whether it was the Agent of Hatred fanning Gareth’s complicated emotions or the Agent of Strife directing said emotions to a specific conclusion, the duo had completely taken control of his party member.

It was the same for Lawrence. The rogue appeared behind Sorin, who’d just finished cauterizing his wound and unleashed a barrage of dagger strikes. Sorin barely managed to block these deadly attacks but found his hands entangled by shadowy threads.

Fortunately, these threads weren’t very durable against manatoxins. Sorin’s wrists past through the restrictions to receive a more forceful dagger strike to the forehead and injected a dose of neurotoxins. A python coiled around Lawrence’s body and reinforced the paralysis.

“Shameless as ever, Sorin!” shouted Lawrence as Sorin rushed away. “You didn’t dare fight Stephan head-on, and you took Daphne and Astley out before they could even cast any spells!”

“It’s not my fault you guys succumbed to those stupid agents,” muttered Sorin. “I swear to Lord Hope, Messa Payne is going to regret assigning me that token.”

Sorin pushed forward through the wilderness, ignoring his wounds and the sneaking suspicion that Daphne had pulled a fast one on him. Given her resources, it was quite possible, assuming they could catch up to him in the first place.

It’s a good thing those two agents can only accomplish their task nearby, thought Sorin. Did they think obscuring karma was going to stop me? In terms of hierarchy relating to Strife, I’m on another level entirely.

But first, the third wave. Sorin threw a spear toward an empty location and was unsurprised when a bear appeared out of nowhere, reeking of ice and wrath and bone-crushing metal spikes that wanted nothing more than to hug him. The bear was naturally Stephan, which meant that tranquilizing him would be extra difficult. Hundreds of needles shot into the beast-shift warrior’s acupoint, only provoking a slight response as Stephan pushed through the effects of the injected poison with sheer willpower and rage.

“Fight me, coward!” shouted Stephan. Natural Selection activated, pulling Sorin towards the large opponent against his will. Sorin skirted the rules by advancing diagonally, all the while continuing his bombardment with poison needles. The tunnel vision was annoying, but Sorin had practiced enough with Stephan to get used to it.

“You may as well show yourselves,” said Sorin, throwing a poisonous spear out at a ‘tree’ not far away as soon as he broke through on Stephan’s provocation. The tree vanished as Astley stepped out, grimoire in hand and creatures of Madness pouring forth.

Tentacles wrapped around Sorin’s arms and legs, restraining his movements, but they disintegrated less than a second later. Unfortunately, this second was more than enough for a volley of fireballs to come crashing down on Sorin’s position, scorching his durable flesh and mangling his leather armor.

“Why are you still holding back?” mocked Daphne as she advanced. “You think there’s any salvaging this situation? I always knew there was something wrong with you, Sorin. I should have guessed that you were a high-level agent all along.”

In her case, the two agents hadn’t needed to do much to turn her against him. Once Gareth had revealed his corruption, she’d been only too eager to join the fact. Only Astley was reluctant, as though she’d discovered something was amiss.

Daphne’s bombardment left Sorin increasingly restricted. Astley’s summons, though lacking, only compounded the effects. It was fortunate that Stephan had ultimately fallen unconscious, largely due to Sorin overestimating his poison resistance. You just can’t take chances with that man. He keeps on going and going like backing off will make him drop dead.

Sorin sighed as he reached out to one of his divine poisons, Achlys’s Tears. The seed had already been recharged and was available for use. Sorin didn’t dare use it directly against his companions, but diluting it in a compatible acitoxin mist melted away Astley’s summons, hitting her with a heavy backlash and temporarily sealing her grimoire’s abilities.

The poison was especially effective against Daphne’s fireballs. Her tendency to delay their activation and coordinate her attacks now worked against her; the twenty closest fireballs broke apart, filling the area with uncontrolled fire mana, corrosive smoke, and splinters of wood from exploding trees.

A white wind blew through the clearing to chase away the smoke, but Sorin was already moving. He advanced with purpose on a poisonous python, making a beeline for the spell circle that had almost reached completion.

This was supposed to be the quickest fight to get to, thought Sorin. Who would have thought they’d predict our advance, delay us, then turn my companions against me? Dead trees began appearing as the lush jungle met its dead counterpart.

Sorin arrived to see a group of fifty fire elementals collapsing into piles of lava-like blood. The agents of Strife and Hatred looked over to Sorin, looking none too concerned by his appearance as they infused vast quantities of resentment and conflict into a massive spike.

It’s much bigger than the usual set of five, Sorin noted. The runes are also more complex. Is there something different about this location?

“Congratulations on evading your companions,” said the Agent of Strife, a graying humanoid male with eyes as deep as the abyss. “Alas, you’re too late to stop our plan. Everything has gone according to calculation.”

“Everything?” asked Sorin with a smirk. “Are you saying that my arrival here was within your expectations?”

The agent of Strife smiled. “I confess, it was a surprise. A pleasant surprise, in fact. Who would have expected such a dense source of corruption to have been locked inside a mere God Seed of Asclepius. What’s more, you seem to have merged it with your divinity. Strife will be most pleased by my discovery. Requesting demi-immortal status as a reward isn’t out of the question.”

“Assuming you survive,” said Sorin. He summoned a flurry of golden needles around the two agents and sent them flying at random. Unfortunately, the nimble Agent of Strife had predicted the surprise attack and pulled on karmic strings. A wind blew through the area, scattering the needles directly surrounding him.

The Agent of Hatred, on the other hand, took the hit head-on. His muscles bulged as he channeled impressive strength into his lanky body. Needles were forced out from his flesh, and black poison dribbled out from fading wounds, effectively neutralizing Sorin’s attack.

There was no hiding his identity anymore, so Sorin channeled Violence into his body to empower his physical strength. He met the Agent of Hatred’s spiked mace head-on with a poison-infused spear. The force was such that both parties were sent flying backward.

He’s memorizing my attack patterns and adapting thanks to the Agent of Strife, Sorin analyzed as they clashed a second time. It was clear from the first exchange that the Agent of Hatred was a brute. This proved to be an advantage in this situation. The Agent of Hatred gave up full control over his body, leading to a perfect fusion of brawn and brain not otherwise possible.

Hatred is a powerful form of corruption and isolates his body from outside enemies. I’ll need to create a hole in his defenses in order to infect him. Sorin’s spear barely drew blood with every attack, but that was enough for him to deliver his most subtle poison, Madness.

It wasn’t long before the Agent of Hatred’s movements became erratic. The Agent of Strife’s control weakened as irrationality supplanted the Agent of Hatred’s simpler mindset.

An opening presented itself, and Sorin took it. Divine Bone Rot! The vicious poison that Sorin had been nurturing since completing his Bone-Forging entered the agent’s body and began eating him from the inside out.

“Alas, it’s come down to this,” said the Agent of Strife. “Your sacrifice will be remembered, Morbas.”

“Wait, don’t—”

“Explode.”

Sorin backed up but was unable to dodge the Agent of Hatred’s sudden and decisive self-detonation. Masses of Hatred dug into his flesh like parasites, forcing away divinity and corruption alike as they tried to devour him whole.

Worse yet, it wasn’t just the Agent of Hatred attacking him. The Agent of Strife abandoned its mortal shell and directly attacked his spirit. A cage Sorin had long forgotten about rattled as the Agent of Strife attempted to break out the prisoner within.

Poison, divinity, and corruption attacked the rogue spirit body, but not before a crack appeared on the prison, leaking huge amounts of corruption that began filling Sorin’s mindscape.

The Agent of Strife was annihilated, but it was quickly replaced by something worse. “You thought yourself very capable, did you, brat?” spoke Azrakul as his spirit solidified in Sorin’s mindscape. “My victory is inevitable. That remnant of a God was only able to delay me for so long.”

Sorin’s mind reeled as the sudden infusion of Strife broke the balance of corruption in his body. It immediately began to attack Sorin’s accumulated Violence and Madness and even began showing signs of subduing them.