The Pure meets the Corrupt. (For BubbleLord)

[Veratia]

Mareth. A world where one does not need to eat or drink. A world where the Corrupt rule. Yet, a new Champion comes into play...a Champion to help get rid of the Corruption. Yet, when the Champion comes across an old Champion...that is when the true challenge begins. That challenge...that Champion will play an important role in either getting rid of the Corruption...or spreading it to yet another.
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Driders. Tentacle monsters. Even the occasional bee woman. That was what awaited in the Swamps of Mareth...that is what awaited anyone who entered. If they could survive, they might not be raped, or enslaved. However, sometimes, they might be able to get away without having to fight, and be able to talk to others easily. Something new was in the Swamp, however...something that, when the Driders actually talk, warn about...a dangerous woman built on nothing but Corruption, so they say.
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[BubbleLord]

Cason was quiet as he moved through the Swamp's harder paths, a steel mace slung on his waist. Back home, he'd been just another farmer trying to make a living. Becoming Champion, however, had changed things greatly. His comfortable clothes were a simple black shirt and brown trousers worn beneath a steel breastplate with a skirt-like waist guard. The five feet and nine inch-tall man slowed as he spotted new tracks within the swamp, his shaggy purple-dyed hair and dark brown eyes studying them. He'd lower to one knee, moving his tanned-skinned hand to gently feel it. Being a tracker wasn't something he'd naturally been nor become, but the trail certainly wasn't the normal beasty. The average-bodied man looked around with worry as he whispered in a baritone pitched voice.


"Whoever or whatever made these can't be far. I should try to find shelter before it finds me..."

 

[Veratia]

"If you're talking about me, you should know that I've been stalking you for the last minute." A voice says behind him, the voice muffled. Behind him, a 5 foot 10 inch woman stood, her Katana on her waist. Her tail, furry and purple, flicked gently as she stood there, leaning against a tree. Four horns sprout from the sides of her head, sweeping backwards much like a Dragon's. Instead of the normal eye slots on the Platemail helmet, there were two pairs of eye-holes, one above the other. Two sets of breasts on her platemail armor also stood out. On her back, small wings stood, much like a bat's, other than the scales. Her feet had three toes in the front, and a smaller hind-claw on the back of her feet. Other then that, not much was visible on her, other than the bony fins on her head, thanks to her full platemail armor.

 

[BubbleLord]

Cason froze up for all but a moment, quickly stepping away and turning to face the casual chimera of what could hopefully only be a woman. While he'd been almost ready to leap to grasp his weapon, his hand didn't quite draw it. The main reason being that the very nature of this person's looks and manner of speech was far from the traditional monster or corrupted being.


"Why are you stalking me," he said, unsure of whether it was time to try and flee yet or not, "And what exactly are you? You're not remotely as strange as even the demons."


Something felt off to the Champion, his leather boots crunching on the swampy ground as he took one more step back. There wasn't any possible way he could outrun her if she could fly. It was steadily becoming more impossible to get away just by the thoughts alone. If she knew magic, which he lacked any sort of training or knowledge of, then it was even more of a problem for him. The only option was to try and talk his way out of this or hope something big and nasty came by to distract the much better-armed and visibly mixed-up individual.

 

[Veratia]

"I'm stalking you, because you were stalking a day-old path of mine." She says, nodding to the path they were on. "I never take the same path twice." She says, the smirk on her face. "As for what I am...Valeria, at your service." She says, the shit-eating grin on her face. Valeria...a name that was well remembered in the village. She had been last year's champion, assumed dead.


"If I wanted to kill ya, by the way, I would have shoved my Katana through the back of your head to do it." She says, stretching as she stretches, before taking off her hair. Instead of the bright red that was once her hair, she had transparent, purple hair, flowing down her head. Her face was still normal, other than the white scales. She grins, her tongue coming out of her mouth. She had always been able to stretch her tongue out of her mouth, to the tip of her nose at least...but the way she stretched it out showed that it could go longer.


Just like her helmet suggested, there was a pair of smaller eyes above her normal ones, which had a somewhat amused look in them. However...it was obvious that this was not the same Valeria he once knew, the look in her normal eyes being obvious. "So, this year's Champion's you?" She asks, tilting her head. "Huh...I'm not surprised. Though being an Alchemist's apprentice did help me out a lot in this place..." She says, before shrugging.

 

[BubbleLord]

It was almost impossible for him to believe Valeria had survived all this time, even more so to simply imagine she had given in and abandoned humanity so utterly and definitively. The alchemist casually even mentioned how she'd have killed him, as if it was some casual joke. The sight of her utterly morphed face caused a moment of pure shock to show on his face, quickly buried beneath a bit of fear as he took hold of his mace firmly but still chose to not draw it.


"How the hell could you have shirked your duties so utterly, Valeria!? I... this shouldn't have... I wasn't stalking your path, I was trying to make my way through the swamp. I've not been able to get settled in the short time I've been in this corrupt place... and now I wish I had. Wards to keep out demons... isn't that what you've become now? So little of you is human..."


He could feel his chest locking up slightly, unsure of how to handle the red-head's changes. Someone who had been so loved and known in the village had degraded herself to something this monster-like? He took yet another step, but this time he turned his gaze down and cursed his misfortune. His boot had sank into the softer ground and stuck him properly, his gaze shifting immediately to her like a cornered animal.


"I don't want to fight you... I... if you would let me help you, maybe we could restore you and remove all that corruption. Surely you can't be happy looking... so... so..."

 

[Veratia]

She raises an eyebrow. "Actually, my appearance isn't what caused my Corruption. I had the help of someone from here, a mouse-boy, but he's gone by now." She says, shrugging. "Besides...most of me is still Human, and for your information, I'm pretty sure one of my Lovers would have ripped you apart for hearing what you said..." Though her voice cracked at the end, she shakes her head, clearing her thoughts.


"Besides, even before I had even a little Corruption in me, I was perfectly happy the way I looked." She says, shrugging. "Besides...if it wasn't for Mareth, then I wouldn't have been able to get where I am." She says, seriously. "Though I wouldn't mind your help." She says, sighing gently. "Changing myself back into a normal person...I knew that was impossible the day I set foot in here." She says, shrugging gently.


"For now, you can try to help me, though I'm not sure how much good it will do for either of us." She says, winking, before she looks up at the sky. "...I wonder if she would have tried to cheer me up, or beat the Hell out of me..." She mutters gently, her tail flicking gently, before she pushes those thoughts out of her head and looks to him, grinning again. "Though it's good to see your lazy ass once more." She says, a teasing tone in her voice.


Lazy ass...her nickname from when she had found him sleeping once instead of working. From that day, she had called him 'lazy ass' whenever she got the chance...and it seems like that nick name would stick. "Though I'd rather not fight you either...using White Magic is a bitch, but it's extremely useful for me." She says, chuckling a little, amused. "Oh, and you should probably get a sword instead of a Mace...much better to use."

 

[BubbleLord]

Getting his choice of weapon insulted and the nickname brought up was certainly telling of something just short of entire corruption. Maybe the old Valeria was still in there after all. Taking a short moment to calm himself, he'd pull himself free from the swamp to watch her closely.


"I... I'm sorry. I chose this weapon because I won't have to kill. But why are you so interested in me? Just... Old memories? There has to be some way to help you, if you wanted to you could've killed me but didn't. Valeria... is being like that really what you planned on being? You don't even have that hair that made you get so many hoots and hollars..."

 

[Veratia]

She rolls her eyes. "It's just dye...but the transparency is permanent." She says, before sighing. "Besides. Even if I wanted to go back to being Human, I would never be able to." She says, shrugging. "Whatever happened to me is permanent, though I can continue to change my appearance within this place...not that I want to." She says, grinning at him.


"Besides...I'll probably ignore anymore people who come looking to marry me. I had love once, and that was stripped from me one by one." She says, sighing. She shrugs again, looking to him. "Besides...it's hard to kill in here when you're here long enough." She says, grinning gently. "Having your sex drive get higher and higher is part of the reason why I have to get it off back at home before and after going out."


She then glances to his mace, before back to him. "Oh...and I know a Sword you can use. It doesn't like me much, I don't know why." She says, grinning at him gently. "Want to come to my current residence to see?" She offered, showing she was still Human on the inside. Well...for now. More than likely, she'd end up changing even more. Before she could get too far, she looks over to an Imp...before promptly picking it up by the head, and drop kicking him out of sight.


"Annoying fucks..." She mutters gently. "Always looking to fuck..." She pauses, looking down, before leaning down and picking up an Incubi Draft. "Mmm...gotta get this purified. When I do, you want it?" She asks, looking over to him curiously, tilting her head. "Met an alchemist here, and he taught me how to purify things like this so I didn't get Corrupted from them."

 

[Veratia]

(( *Slowly pokes BubbleLord* ))

 

[BubbleLord]

Permanent? His eyes showed just how much this new Valeria didn't seem right. She acted so casually as she removed some randomly appearing imp and then tried to offer him one of the demon's transformatives. She even ignored his statement about disliking the idea of wielding a blade. Cason finally freed his leg, starting backward along his path as he finally pulled free his weapon.


"Enough. I... I can't go with you, Valeria. I'm not going to change like you did. I swore to carry out your job... everyone thought you were dead!"


Though he was the same age as Valeria had been, he felt the most choking thinking this sex obsessed person was still the old one he knew. Even if she truly was Valeria, she casually talked about what she'd become and how powerful her libido was that he didn't dare think of insulting her memory by believing this. There was supposedly an item to help remove transformations and cure corruption... if he found it, he could have her help him!


"I'm going to a small lake near here... if you... when you want to change back... I'd be willing to talk. But I refuse to believe that you've seemingly given up on everyone back home!"

 

[Veratia]

She rolls her eyes. "Oi. This'll just make your dick get bigger." She says, chuckling. "I can purify this thing so you don't get Corrupted." She says, slipping it into her pocket. "Also, another thing." She says, turning serious. "What the fuck do you think I've been doing here, all this time? 'Given up on everyone back home'?" She asks, glaring a little. "I've been trying to do my damn job, but with what's been going on here, and what's happened, don't you dare say I've given up!" She says, anger and, if he listened closely, sadness echoing in her voice.


"You say you came here to carry out my job?" She asks, glaring. "You say you're here to get everything back to normal? Then fine. Go ahead and try." She says, before turning. "When you find, and then lose love, come and find me." She says, before starting down the path, putting her helmet on. Her tail was swishing angrily, due to whatever memories he had somehow insulted.


"She had a Lover here before..." A Drider says, from nearby. One of the ones that didn't want to fuck or fight. "A Dragon woman...no Corruption within her." The Drider goes over, looking to him. "Some of her changes are from her Lover...if she changes back, then she'll be breaking a promise." The Drider says this hesitantly. "I only know this because I overheard it..." The Drider says, softly. "However...she does need the Corruption from her removed. Help her with that, but let her keep her appearance, and she'll be happy..." With that, the Drider hurries off, worried that Valeria would see or hear them.