Salvation and Spite

Reaching the edges of the Shadow Lands after a month of traveling by foot and dealing with cultists. We halted our steps, observing the border between life and the corruption of shadows. The faint traces of Shar's magic mingling with the shadows as a clear warning. Yet, I wouldn't let some Goddess damned by even evil deities stop me from purging a blight onto these lands, even if it means murdering her as well. Touching the surface of the border, I could feel the corruption struggle to find anything of me to corrupt, and the corrupted behind it stir.

Letting my cursed weapons float beside me, I opened up my chest and pulled out several pieces of a magic weapon I liked to call Heaven's Executioner. Extending a compacted Immovable Rod that could float even in the air once activated while being thrown, I had it do just that as I let it hang there in the air. Using the other pieces of the weapon I attached several pieces of a halberd, and an executioners axe to it at one end with a spear at the other end.

Each piece of the weapon was carved with various holy scriptures and the highest enhancement enchantments I could put onto them, making this weapon by a craftsman grade scale a +20, and a Masterwork Holy Weapon. A weapon only someone who's had centuries to learn various craft skills, or raw innate talent, could make. As making a weapon such as this is bordering on making Demi-God and Divine weapons as a deities personal smith.

Yet, as I finished attaching the last weapon head, the weapon in my hands seemingly came to life. A golden aura bursting from the weapon that visibly pushed the shadows back and even killed hidden adversaries behind the border of shadows. My cursed weapons shaking with fright, but calming down once the weapon pulsed again as if speaking to them, with a mirthful chuckle, I opened a Dimension Door that led right into a secret smithy room I had left on the Sword Coast's ocean floor near a Dragon Turtle breeding ground.

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(AN: Normally the Dimension Door spell's range is 500ft around you in every direction, but this is real life, so people like Artificers and high-class spell casters can make essentially doorway markers for the spell using mediums at a location and on their person. So this spell lives up to its name in reality as it is a literal DIMENSION Door, so you'll see it live up to its name with people opening various doorways, like in Baldur's Gate 3 where the Devils essentially use the spell and a nearby Warlock as the exit point to just pop in, or just appearing from thin air from different planes of existence which can count as other dimensions.)

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Stepping through the door, I kept it open while I went around the smithy and body attachments I had worked on a long time ago. Picking up a set of adamantine arms, I handed the set to my cursed weapons, which seemed to get the idea as their chains wrapped around the arms that were longer than my normal pair. The sentient weapons attached the second set of arms to my upper back.

My body reacted as an eager machine wanting an upgrade, with it merging the arms right into my upper back just below my shoulder blades. Flexing the new pair of arms as they came to life, I looked around before marching calmly over to a corner of the smithy and opening a wall storage locker. Pulling out two Radiant Thunder Cannons, I held them up to my new arms and felt as my new hands latched onto the magical heavy weapons.

Humming contently with the now functional shoulder cannons, I exited my smithy and retrieved Heaven's Executioner from the air. Spinning the holy weapon, I looked at Silf and Sif before towards the shadow lands and remembered a song a Human male from another world once taught me in Eberon before I was sent to war. I believe it was called The Monster by some group dubbed Nerd Out? While heading into the shadow lands, the song played from a few combined cantrips without my input. My cursed and holy weapons thrummed with power, as it seemed the shadows despised a powerful holy weapon like Heaven's Executioner.

"We once had hope for a future here

The last of us after all these years

The end came fast with fire and fang

Fight, my hunters, fight

Soon may the monster fall

With blade and bullet and bow and song

One day when the dragons are gone

We'll end our hunt and go"

Swinging my holy weapon, I cleaved through a large corrupted Ogre, Silf and Sif taking on the corrupted remains of Harper's, my cursed weapons finding their marks as the blades released shrill metallic cries and dug themselves in the bodies of the corrupted foes ahead of us. Spinning Heaven's Executioner in an upwards motion, I bisected a corrupt Phase Spider before bringing my weapon down and burying the blade of my halberd into the skull of a corrupt Giant Eagle when it dived towards me.

"We had not been upon these shores

Since 'fore the world was full of claws

Now hunters fight to bring us pause

Keep the wyverns down

Soon may the monster fall

With blade and bullet and bow and song

One day when the dragons are gone

We'll end our hunt and go"

Sidestepping a shadow's extending limb I swung my weapon into another shadow's chest. Yanking it free with a swift motion, the spearhead at the other end found purchase in the eye of an Elven teen wearing militia gear, their body covered in signs of corruption. From the symbol on the armor I realized a whole town may have long fallen to this corruption.

"Before the hunt becomes a slaughter

Load the bullet and shell and mortar

Blades unsheathed, thunder and water

To end this great tirade

Soon may the monster fall

With blade and bullet and bow and song

One day when the dragons are gone

We'll end our hunt and go"

Casting Create Water as a sixth level spell the area around us suddenly flooded. The corrupted beings flinched before I made them wail. My systems, Sifs systems, and Silfs taking a hit but remaining just fine otherwise from my work on our bodies. Lightning crackled my fingers and the weapon I held before I struck the water. Casting Shocking Grasp through my weapon made the lightning more akin to a Thunderous Smite.

"No beast too strong to bring to heel

A hunter's mind is forged of steel

To fight this hard with courage and zeal

Against our deadly foe

Soon may the monster fall

With blade and bullet and bow and song

One day when the dragons are gone

We'll end our hunt and go"

The impromptu Thunderous Smite caused an explosive force of blinding light that burnt away the shadows. The water around the area turned into scalding steam that cooked the more solid corrupted beings. Us Warforged being just fine as we don't need to breathe or feel hot from this amount of heat. Flinching as a dark wooden spear with a wisp of dark blue light struck me in the chest. Following this I was toppled by roots of corruption yanking my feet from under me.

"A thousand hunts or even more

A glimpse of hope, a future we saw

Though many are lost, we fight on for

The glory they leave to us

Soon may the monster fall

With blade and bullet and bow and song

One day when the dragons are gone

We'll end our hunt and go"

Aiming my cannons I began firing off sporadic shots at what was trying to pin me. Pained cry's of a corrupted beast covered in roots being apparent as the creature was once an Owlbear. The glimpses through the steam clearing was enough to confirm this, however it was the Owlbear itself that made my rage bubble. I RAISED HER AND THESE CRETINS TOOK HER FROM ME?! I SHALL FREE MY MISBEHAVED CHILD, CONSEQUENCES BE DAMNED.

"As long as we live, the hunt's still on

The future young and the beasts not gone

Still we rise to heed their call

To fight the monsters one and all

Soon may the monster fall

With blade and bullet and bow and song

One day when the dragons are gone

We'll end our hunt and go"

With strength the creature didn't expect I bellowed violently, Heaven's Executioner responding to my outrage. The weapon's golden glow flashing a bloody golden color, my body changing into an incomplete form of an Angelic Avenger. Rustic and blood speckled metallic wings sprouting from my back as Heaven's Executioner seemed to become sentient, a metaphysical eye of crimson and golden light looking at the corrupted Owlbear. A voice of scathing fury echoing from the weapon as it snarled at the corruption around us.

"You slight the Sun, the Hearth, and Death?! Pay for your crimes for we shall TAKE BACK what was stolen!"

"Soon may the monster fall

With blade and bullet and bow and song

One day when the dragons are gone

We'll end our hunt and go"

Wasn't the first time this has happened as Heaven's Executioner is exclusively my Avenger Weapon. An Avengers weapon after a few centuries, three going on four, and soaked in blood countless times eventually will gain a type of ego depending on who you've slain. Focusing its anger and mine as one the weapon snarled like a rabid animal, the cursed weapons following its example.

Zazeal and Nutonic feeling even more slighted. The two cursed weapons housing Devil souls have felt protective of the Owlbear since she was a cub. Circumstances being what they are so I let the weapons rage, the Hellion Gun Blades dancing through the air with rattling chains as they hacked at the corrupted roots. Sif and Silf can be seen in the corner of my vision destroying those who would dare try and stop us.

I could feel Shar's eyes on me suddenly as I prepared to defy her and undue what she DARED do. Sensing its impending demise the corruption tried fleeing with my child but I could faintly see the lucid look of life return to her glowing eyes as they dimmed. The creature's stolen body resisted its commands and I wouldn't let it slip by. Bellowing a rageful cry as if challenging at Shar to stop me, I swung Heaven's Executioner.

The blade as it sunk its blade into the roots exploded with light, I called out an ancient and forgotten necromancy spell. A spell once used by Paladin's of Vengeance of old used for unfortunate souls turned into undead soldiers by any manner of means. From what scripture I could read of an order called Hourglass of Souls. The order thought what better method of fighting undead led by liches or controlled by curses, than to simply use their vengeful nature to spite them by granting their pawns a second chance at life.

The spell was their research over TWO HUNDRED years to be realized and used against a Demi-God Lich called Asilin. They won but only the order head survived out of an entire kingdom. Yet he preserved the spell for future Paladin's of Vengeance and for that I shall use it even if it kills me currently.

"I judge you in the name of the Gods! I judge you foul creature of shadows, I judge and scorn you! You take what isn't yours and twist its flesh unabated by fear for revenge! Return what you've claimed, begone foul creature! Avenger's Salvation!"

I couldn't feel my body, I felt my systems take a hit from the spell's backlash as I wasn't a true Avenger yet. Yet I didn't dare look away as before my eyes the shadows of corruption burnt away, the disfigured and decaying figure of the Owlbear I raised glowing with golden flames. Her body repairing itself, REVIVING, as I saw the price for using the spell as I was.

A life for a life. Such a fitting backlash to such a powerful spell of ancient times. Seeing my vision flicker I couldn't help chuckling as I witnessed something unheard of. A beasts becoming blessed with the powers of a Paladin by a God, the God in question being a surprise as they rarely showed themselves. Goddess of Owlbear, Felsic, a God known for being reclusive and depressed.

Then I felt Shar's spiteful attack, a corrupted but sentient Gloom Stalker wearing her insignia, notching another arrow into his bow. A cruel smile on his face before an arrow stuck me through my eye, the world going black at that moment. My body falling sideways as sound faded from my senses, death greeting me once again in this life.