Paradise Lost (JSAB)

Snakes. It Just Had to be Snakes.

Tower's summit, 1825 Hours

The Corrupted king only sighed as he leaned back, theorising exactly what to do with the new limits that had been placed upon the power of the Tree of Life. Should he wait for a while until he next tries to take in the power? That sounds like a good idea, but how long was long enough? A month? He settled on a month.

But that'd mean that his goal, which should've taken within an hour to accomplish, would now have to take around half a year. As for what he'll spend that half year doing...

He leapt down from the tower, landing on both his feet despite the bone-breaking fall from half a mile up. Neither of the four brats he just threw off would survive this kind of fall, but he could. In fact, he didn't even suffer bone fracture.

The sheer impact from his fall caused the earth beneath him to split and a crater to form, and he sank half a metre down. He simply just rose up from the crater, barely phased, and looked around. A lot has changed, and a couple of Corrupted stared at him with an admiration of sorts in their eyes. Like they instantly recognised him as their king. The corrupted king smiled, before pointing at one of them.

But to the Corrupted human's surprise, the words that came out of the demon's mouth was complete gibberish, tongue dancing in a language long lost to time.

The corrupted only blinked, completely lost. What?

He repeated himself, but that didn't do anything to further their understanding.

Silence. What the hell was this guy even saying? The Corrupted only looked at each other confused. The demon blinked. Oh yeah. He recalled the guardians he fought earlier speaking in a language completely foreign to him, and although some words sounded familiar, he had no idea what any of them were saying. Which was why he didn't speak a word during that fight. He smiled, muttered an apology in his native tongue before gesturing one of them to come closer. And the Corrupted servant did, marching robotically towards him and didn't even flinch when the man clasped his forehead, trying not to crush the human's head in his fist. He closed his eyes, and he stayed in that position for half a minute before stepping backwards and opening his eyes.

"Uh..." Now his words articulated themselves in that of the common, modern tongue. He spoke with a slight accent, but it wasn't thick enough to make his words incomprehensible, only enough to make a native speaker think twice about his heritage. He spoke the next few words carefully, as if experimenting with his newfound knowledge of another foreign and unfamiliar language. It couldn't be comfortable adjusting to this. "So... As I was saying... What's your name?"

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Post-apocalyptic Plaza, 0940 Hours, the next day

All along the streets, chaos started to die down somewhat. The groups of corrupted that had attacked everyone were now dragging unconscious and half-dead bodies over to the massive tower, where a day later those very pure victims returned with their colourful features dyed a disgusting pink. Slowly and steadily, their ranks grew larger and larger in numbers, where the corrupted would then roam the cities down below and attack any survivors on sight.

Only one population was spared from the attacks of the Corrupted - and those were children. Those who were young and didn't have a pair of headphones. The Corrupted all seemed to completely ignore them, like they couldn't even see the children.

The golden-haired woman named Phoebe didn't stand a chance against the corrupted when they came for her.

Lumina had abandoned her for some unknown cause, and didn't respond when Phoebe cried after her, screaming about her twisted ankle. Needless to say, she couldn't put up much of a fight when the Corrupted came for her. Now, although she walked with a slight limp, her gait was determined and purposeful. Her once-golden hair had now been dyed pink, and her one visible eye was revealed to be pure black and bleeding ink. Hanging around her neck was her beloved snake, Equil, also corrupted.