Edric had lived a peaceful two cycles of existence in Orion. Quiet. Rich with the noise of lessers, and a diet of whatever he found edible. This tunnel was new. Exciting. He hobbled, leg a weight. Hi nose quivered as he followed a scent. An off scent. One that spoke something was not quite right. It was new. This whole tunnel was new, so different from the structures and star studded roof of orion. And the piglet wanted to know more. To discover the source.

The further he went into the tunnel, the darker it got. The thick mist oppressive, almost hiding the strange scent beneath the musty layer of cave water. His ears felt full of flies. A low drone, constantly at the back of his mind. Edrick paused. Snuffled the ground. Scents of animals mixed with that strange smell he followed. Edric was getting close. Hooves clacked on stone and pebbles, wet with condensation. This way.

Edric continued trotting deeper. The buzzing got louder. More distinct. Slowing into patterns. Patterns that he was so close to understanding. If only his ears were better. Edric pawsed, pawing at an ear. Snuffled the air, then a hole in the wall. Like a tear in the fabric of the tunnel. Here. It came from here. The piglet's sniffs grew more excited. He pawsed, pawing at an ear. And down he went, descending. The static of the buzz began to fade. Just enough that he could make out a word.

"Ed...," it whispered. Edric paused. That sounded like his name. The buzz knew him. "Who are you?" The piglet said. There was no reply. Perhaps he would have to see himself. The further he got down the cave, the more he heard it. Somewhere within the tangled, overlapping buzz of noise, the whispers called to him. They whispers wanted him. Knew him in particular. And then, he was there. The altar, strangely blinding. Black and grey spots formed in the corners of the piglet's vision. The droning noise reached its zenith as he stared at the altar.

"Is this you?" Edric said. Edric approached slowly. His ears primed for the whispers.

"What are you saying?" He said. Edric nestled himself beneath the altar. Hooves tucked beneath him. He managed to interpret another word. 'here'. That settled it. "Tell me what you want." He said. And there he sat. Waiting desperately for the drone to make sense.

Dawn of the First Day
Corruption: +3

Edric hadn't moved since the first day. They sat in the same position, in the room with inverted colors. Their hair a pastel pink. The occasional rise and fall of its chest was the only sign the boar lived. It hadn't slept. It hadn't eaten. It hadn't drunk. It was only Edric and the whispers. They had continued unabated. Every minute, the buzzing seemed to get louder. Every hour, it could discern another word. Closer to understanding the whispers, and what they wanted so desperately to tell Edric.

When not swarmed by the thousands of whispers, Edric was subject to visions. Violence and death to gembound he never meet, is meeting, and would meet. Decomposition in rapid form. Lessers and greaters deflating, their eyes gone glassy. Torn apart, half eaten, the rest melting into oil and then into the earth. The adolescent(turned adolescent the EXACT day i posted him) had to wonder, was this the natural state of gembound?

Creatures of oil. Creatures of the Altar. Creatures built to melt and reform. These were visions of the way things should rightfully be. Gems returned to oil. The primordial state of being. Edric knew then, he had a purpose. He was to force the will of the Altar upon the caves. To continue the cycle. To spread the corruption. To consume the tar substance. It would all serve further its own being. Combine it with the will and power of greaters and lessers.

Dawn of the Second Day
Corruption: 3 +3

Edric stood for the first time in two days. His limbs ached. The whispers--no, the altar. It demanded death. The visions were focused. Visions of rapid death. Greaters hunting lessers. The spread of the oil. The whispers egged the visions on with hushed excitement. Suggestions of death. Suggestions of violence. He limped off, before he began to execute their will on himself. The stone limb weighed him down. Each step slow, an audible hobble. When he left the hole, he shook himself. Paused, sniffing the air. It was nothing. Just him, and the odd, powerful scent of the altar and its goop.

"Where are they." He mumbled, glimpses of yellowed fangs within his mouth. "There are lessers somewhere in here. There are lessers everywhere. I will find you." They could not all hide from him. Edric hobbled further from the hole, wheezing breaths escaping him.

Eric paused, regaining his breath, near the entrance to Orion. The light tinted the tunnel blue, and his fur glinted. Edric was weak after the two days of sitting, and it showed. But Edric was not mentally weak. Edric was determined.The Altar had given him purpose, and Edric would execute it. Edric's wheezing came to an end. His strenth returned. Yet he did not move after he regained his breath. He stood, still as the stones beneath him. Waiting for something, anything to pass by.

A waver. A pale shape, shaking in the tunnel with no wind. A rabbit, yet unaware of his presence. A bush rabbit, wandered from Orion to search for food. How ironic then, that it would become food. The boar licked tusks. It had found its prey.

Edric approached silently. Staying low, pausing when the rabbit's eyes drifted towards his location. The whispers urged him on. The buzz full of voices encouraging him to crush the rabbit. Slay it. Maim it. Edric bared his tusks in excitement. And then, when the moment was right, he struck. Had the rabbit been a moment sooner, a moment luckier, it would've escaped. It was just unlucky enough to have its back paw stuck within Edric's grasp. And the thing--it screamed. It screamed and kicked at him, and Edric bit down on the creatures limb. Uncaring of the damage that the lesser took.

"Is this what you wanted?" He said, voice muffled beneath the rabbit's foot.

The whispers responded enthusiastically. Some laughed. Others urged him to the altar. Even fewer encouraged him to destroy it there. All enjoyed the minor chaos he had brought. Edric would return the creature to its true form. The oil that lay within them all. You will be better soon.He thought. He hobbled back to the hole. Silent, robotic, despite the screams and scratches of the rabbit beneath.

WARNING:EDRIC STRAIGHT UP MURDERS A LESSER AZTEC STYLE FAIR WARNING

The rabbit became tired, eventually. Mild mannered through sheer exhaustion. Chest rising and falling rapidly. Edric did not change. He was still stoic. Still quiet. Thoughts consumed by images of death, whispers of madness. Promises of rewards. Drool leaked from his mouth and matted the rabbit's fur. He did not notice. He would never notice. Edric walked the slope into hole. The rabbit's fight started once again. Edric ignored it. It had no idea, the greater purpose it would serve. The purpose its oil would serve unto the world. The power it would bring unto the altar. Edric paused at the entrance to the inverted room. Could it tell that he had brought an offering?

When the boar arrived at the altar, it dropped the lesser. The creature scrambled for its feet, but Edric was faster. Pinned with a hoof. And then, with grinding teeth, it tore through the lessers chest. A beating organ caught between incisors, pulled, and dropped from the altar. It bounced once, then rolled, and Edric watched as it went.

"Are you satisfied with my offer, whispers?" He said, and licked bloody incisors.

As blood spilled, the whispers roared into a chorus of mindless screaming and cheering; and almost as quickly as the heart had bounced, a thick arm of smoke and shadow rushed from the altar, a clawed hand grasping the heart as it rolled away but gentle enough not to squeeze the blood out of it. Not yet. And nearly in the same breath, another arm slammed down onto the altar with a hulking, large body wrenching itself free from its stone prison. Shadow erupted from the altar, swallowing the hole in darkness.

Bright green eyes peeled open to look upon the boar... oh, not too unlike itself at times. A neon green grin split the shadow's face. Its body seemed to continuously grow in size as the entire hole filled with the thick, suffocating shadow.

And if one might have been watching, the last glimpse they would have caught would have been the marble growing furiously around the body of the boar, a thick arm raised over the growing chrysalis and squeezing the heart until it was mush. Streaked with the blood of its sacrifice, the marble split, growing dark veins throughout it as it anchored to the side of the altar.

As if all the whispers had obtained a single voice, an echoing rumbled through the hole like thunder, before the shadows dissipated almost as quickly as they had come:



Ý̷̫̭̺̻̠̈́́͂̒̌̊͜ͅË̷̢̨̧͉̹̥̱̍̆̉͊̒͂͊̏̈̆̒Ė̶͙̜̤̞̪̘͍̥͎͓͈̖̘̇̾̉͛̊͐̉̉̂͌̕͝͝ͅS̵̡̢̳̼̩͖̓̔̕S̷͙͔̈S̷̙̉̿́͐͑̇̕S̷̛̭̣̰̗̣͎̱̬͕̻̽́̆͋̀̉̓̑̕͠S̷̢̩̩͖̥͈̃́̓͊̑̽Ś̸̭̩͚͚̫̠̏̈́̐́̋͗̿͒͘͘̕S̴̻̻̦̱̞̰̼̦̉̾̋̆̾̈́̅̃̌Ś̶̜̬̗͋̿̔̓̊̇́́̕͝

@Edric has been consumed by chaos magic and reverted to their chrysalis. They will emerge in 2 weeks time halfway through the Corrupted stage, and their stone will be split with dark, oily veins. To advance to Converted, they will only need 15 more points after awakening.