With Komer's scream that was meant to 'warn' others, now even those that didn't understand what was going on at first got the message loud and clear and began to scramble for the most part, while some tried to run at Eisen to take him out due to fear.
But that wasn't as easy as they'd have hoped for, not in the slightest so. Before the frightened mob could even come close, one of two things happened. Either, Caria controlled the plants in between the bricks of the unkept road and quickly tied them around their feet to make them either trip or simply freak out even more, or Kiron got close to them and attacked them, with the Zweihänder still wrapped up in cloth so that he couldn't actually cause any significant damage to them.
Either of these possibilities worked wonders, and the goons all ended up turning and fleeing for their lives, exactly how Eisen wanted it to happen. But of course, this also drew the attention of the people from inside the base, as a few people came running outside, but due to Eisen's actions, the effects of his transformation had on other people were now perfectly refined to scare the living daylights out of them. Even though quite a few people came rushing out, it seemed like there was still a majority of people left in the hideout at the top of the building, while Eisen needed to get to the basement area.
Sure, there were some 'guards' stationed in front of the door leading downward, but none of them were any major trouble. So far, all of this seemed like it was going quite smoothly as far as Eisen could tell. However, it was just when this thought crossed Eisen's mind that they reached the first basement area. With his 'Truth-Seeing-Eyes', that was continuously active in this form anyway, causing it to be a bit awkward to walk around, but at least he was able to see the location of where the cursed item he needed to retrieve was.
The only thing was just that the black mana given off by the shard looked precisely the same as the black mana given off by all the other cursed items in this room as well as those that seemed to be below him. However, Eisen roughly knew where the shard was from what Xenia told him, and if they were stored like these items here, basically just in the open or in glass containers, it wouldn't be hard to find it.
The whole place was, for some reason, was eerily silent. Not a single sound was emitted out even the from the smallest spot, only the footsteps of Eisen and his group were adding anything to this silence.
From then on, it was a simple trip down through the basement layers, without encountering even a single person, until the group finally reached the lowermost room, which somehow seemed decorated like an Altar. Runes were covering the ground, and steps leading up to a small pedestal with a single item laying there illuminated by nothing but low-burning torches.
It was the last of the three shards that Eisen was looking for. But this was far too easy, wasn't it? With thoughts like that, Eisen didn't want to leave the task of retrieving the shard to Melissa's Bees and chose to go there himself while the scouts would look around the room to make sure they would spot everything and anything that could happen.
Eisen himself took a good look around but didn't seem to find anything hidden amongst the pure black, cursed mana filling out this room. But that was just because it was far too hard to find black in black.
It was only when Eisen's right hand got closer to the shard that Eisen noticed the black mana slowly moving around in the corner of his eye, and the old man immediately turned his head to look at the source of this movement.
With a deep voice made even more in-depth with the earth transformation, Eisen chose to ask. "Who goes there? Show yourself." He said in a commanding tone before someone began to laugh, and the black mana continued to shift around until a figure appeared.
"Heh, as expected of the infamous Golden-Eyed Demon. It seems like your eyes are something special, are they not?" A young man responded as he stepped closer to Eisen. He had long black hair reaching down to his thighs and many different tattoos and piercings covering his face and his exposed upper body, while the only thing he was wearing was a pair of pitch-black pants fitting to his hair.
With a frown, Eisen deactivated his mana-sight so that he could see the man at least a little bit better, before starting to speak again. "Are you the leader of this base?" He asked before the man continued laughing.
"Ah, so you've heard of me, haven't you? Yes, I'm Razer. And what's your name, Demon?" Razer asked as he began stepping closer, but Eisen shook his head and held his hand forward, while Devil's Spawn climbed on it to try and effect this weird person, but for some reason, nothing happened.
"Oh, sorry little guy, but things like that don't work on me. But you're kind of annoying, so please let the adults talk, alright?" With a light smile, Razer tilted his head to the side and made a slashing motion with his arm, and before Eisen could react, the Devil's Spawn was cut in half and slowly dissolved back into letters that quickly seemed to return to Sky's book.
Immediately, Eisen looked away from the disappearing creature and back at Razer, trying to keep up the façade of a cold monster. "What my name is doesn't matter. I am taking this shard." Eisen muttered, extending his hand back toward the item, but before he could, Razer suddenly appeared in front of him.
"Sorry, I don't think that's possible. I desperately need this, or else the boss is going to be suuuper angry, you know? I finally found such an interesting curse to use for our cause, so I can't just let some random dude take it, now can I?" The man said, continuously smiling before he finally laid his eyes on the three monsters standing behind Eisen, trying to follow their Master's command not to do anything. "Hmm, more annoying brats? Sorry 'bout this, bud. Can't let any of you leave here anyway."
Upon saying that Razer held up his hand in the direction of Kiron, Caria, and Melissa, before Eisen activated his mana sight again, noticing that some mana was gathering in the hand that Razer held forward.
"Everyone, leave this room immediately," Eisen commanded his Knight and two tamed Monsters, as he grasped Razer's hand the moment that he seemed to want to shoot out whatever attack he had planned.
"M'Lord, we can't just leave you-" Kiron yelled out but was quickly interrupted by Eisen, whose arm was slowly being enveloped in a black mist.
"I said, Leave. Don't make me say it again. You know that I won't die anyway." Saying these words, Eisen's charisma stats seemed to work together perfectly, and even those three that unconditionally looked up to him up until now felt frightened by his energy, which was enough to show them how dangerous the situation indeed was.
As he tightly pressed his eyes together, Kiron quickly grabbed Caria and Melissa before running away with them, while they both were hitting and even biting him, refusing to leave Eisen. "No! Caria stays here! Caria needs to help Eisen!"
"Eisen! Eisen!"
They yelled out, but Kiron continued running, knowing well enough that the man inside there was far, far stronger than anything they could ever hope to beat at their current strength. And obviously, Eisen knew this too, otherwise he wouldn't have told them to run away.
But it seemed like Razer didn't want to give up that easily. Behind Kiron, the black mist began to fill out the entire hallway, slowly encroaching on him further and further. And once they reached the first room filled with different cursed items, they were in for another surprise.
All of the items seemed to be… "alive." Controlled by some unnatural force that gave the curses the shape and power to move, albeit while thoughtlessly slaughtering whatever was around them.
But they didn't have time to stop and fight them, so Kiron quickly took off with his wings and chose to glide over them. Meanwhile, Caria restrained the animated cursed items with her vines or Melissa's bees at least held them off for a while, giving them enough time to continue running, soon enough reaching the base's exit, where the Half-Dragon had to explain to the rest of the group that he was ordered to leave Eisen behind.
---
While Kiron, Caria, and Melissa were running away, Eisen and Razer were left standing in the Altar room, where Razer continued smirking.
"Well, what a noble sacrifice. You're not such a bad guy after all, are you?" He asked together with a slight chuckle, looking at Eisen's arm covered in the cursed mist that now slowly began turning into some bizarre kind of chains that wrapped around his skin, squeezing it tighter and tighter until even Eisen's fully Earth-Transformed skin started to form cracks.
"But it's sad, really. I wanted to keep your friends here so that they could see how I slowly killed you… But I guess this is another chance then, isn't it?" Razer asked with a happy smile, clapping his palms together as additional black mana began gathering in his hands before Razer slowly touched Eisen's chain-covered arm.
"I always wanted to try out how much you can layer different curses, and how well you can keep them in a single area!"
Slowly, Eisen tried taking a step back, but for some reason, his arm wouldn't let him. It was slowly grasping the pillar that the shard was on beforehand, without letting Eisen control it any further, slowly cracking the rock he was grabbing.
"Ah, right! How about I use this to ask you why you want this shard! So, why do you want it?"
As Razer asked this, Eisen stayed dead silent, before Razer's smile near-to-instantly disappeared, replaced by a blank expression. "Hm… How annoying seems like those monsters managed to escape. Well, guess I'll need to give all the pain to you instead. Anyway, answer, will you?"
Slowly, Razer pushed his hand into his pocket, grabbing a sharp dagger that he had stored in there, and swiftly stabbed it into Eisen's outstretched hand, but the old man still chose not to tell him, despite actually slowly starting to hurt. "That's none of your business. I will take the shard, and leave. Be happy that you don't have to see me again." He said in a commanding voice, not flinching a slight bit from whatever Razer did to him, merely keeping up a cold stare as the Golden flames of his eyes slowly burrowed themselves deep inside Razer's mind.
No matter what curse he placed on Eisen's arm while keeping the rest of his body unaffected, Eisen's expression didn't change even the slightest bit. And it seemed like Razer was slowly starting to freak out. After all, an average person should have already passed out from pain long ago, or at least dropped such a façade. However, to Eisen, this all only hurt to the extent of a really bad sunburn covering every part of his arm.
Of course, it hurt a bit, but this was nothing to fret about in the end. And instead of Eisen changing his expression, it was Razer that did. For a while, he hasn't smiled at all, simply maniacally trying to bring Eisen to give up, as if that was the reason he was born.
"You fucking know what?! You want this shard so much; then what about I give you its curse? The fear is going to spread through your arm riddled with curses over curses, and then it's going to infect the real you! Then I'll send you out there to kill those monsters, how does that sound?!" Razer yelled out, now starting to laugh again in a loud voice as if this was the threat that would bring Eisen to his knees.
Slowly, he pressed the shard against Eisen's arm, in between the numerous spikes and chains that were now covering it on top of it being bent in unnatural ways, pulsating as if it was alive on its own. For some reason, though, Eisen was only quite slowly losing HP, as his MP stopped being drained by his transformation. It was as if he was supposed to last throughout this whole ordeal.
However, it was then that the curse of Fear was placed on Eisen's arm, combining with all the other afflictions. Slowly, Eisen's bones were being broken one after another as the chains covering it were moving around it like snakes, and all the numerous things sticking out of his arm were twisting and turning around themselves, until the whole surface of Eisen's arm was completely covered. And just as Razer said, these curses began slowly encroaching on the rest of Eisen's body, but for now, it was all still contained on his arm, and Eisen received a notification covering all those other notifications about him being cursed in some way.
[Warning! Your Right Arm has become a unique entity riddled with curses. If these curses are not broken or the arm not removed from the main-body, you will be taken over and turned into a monster that will mindlessly slay those around you. In that case, the player will be seen as dead, and will respawn at last place of sleep after penalties have been applied.]
"Huh, I see how it is. Well, Komer said that the Omegas could regrow lost limbs during sleep, so it shouldn't be a problem for me either." Eisen loudly sighed as he began transforming the claws on his left arm to be sharper and longer than they used to be, slowly burrowing them down directly underneath his shoulder around the joint connecting it to his arm.
Confused, Razer looked at this scene before him, taking a few steps backward, as he could hear the sound of bones cracking and muscles ripping apart slowly through the claws of this Demon.
With every second of this happening, Razer's mind, exhausted from casting so many different curses in direct succession, was taken over by fear, an emotion he thought to have long lost.
"Now then, thanks for the shard, kid. I'm taking my leave." Eisen said in a loud voice, holding not only the shard but also his detached arm in his hand, as he walked through the door to leave this base behind.