Advent Human Template
Basic Information
Name: Krerablo
Age: 25
True Age: 720
Sex: Male
Personality: Krerablo is a simple man with a simple goal and a heart as cold and lifeless as iron with a blackened, unnatural soul. He knows how to express emotions such as compassion and empathy, but he does not truly believe in them. He is a strong worshipper of a being he calls âThe One Godâ who told him to stay in the World of the Living until She came again for him to guide him further on his journey. He often seems to converse with this One God, though no one can hear anything speaking back to him. When a Spiritual Being tells him his God does not exist, he often asks them how their fabled âSpirit Kingâ is doing, as no one on this side of True Heaven has ever seen him.
Krerablo is currently a wanted man in Soul Society and to the Coalition. To them he steals souls and uses them to do his bidding and to keep his body young and sustained. He seems to never be taken aback by anyoneâs words, attitudes, or talents, for he believes his own to be the ultimate form. He has travelled the world and seen it all. He has found that while many would follow his authority, most individuals find his power grotesque, wrong and unnatural. A question he often asks his opponents is: âWho can stand against an army of faithful dead?â
Despite his supreme confidence and will of steel, he does not hesitate to acknowledge a great individual when he sees it, and he is perfectly willing to follow that individual if they suit his purposes. His mission, after all, is not to assert his power, merely to assert himself and live for his One God.
He is a history enthusiast. Having lived about five hundred years, Krerablo visits monuments and museums often to look at the exhibits and the knowledge they hold, as well as to see how recorded history changes. He has another reason, for this, however. Any exhibits that have bones, actual bodies, or items that have a spirit or multiple spirits anchored to them provide him an easy way to gather souls. His greatest yields thus far occurred when he visited the Terra Cotta Warriors of Xiâan and when he travelled the length of the Great Wall of China. Battlefields in the United States and across Europe also helped him gather many souls.
Likes: Death, Collecting souls, Frightening people
Fears: Losing his soul empire, Holy relics and prayer, Churches
Character Appearance
Height: 6â8â
Weight: 250
Physical Traits: Clothing: Krerablo has dark skin and an athletic, tough build and does not appear to be any older than twenty-five years. He is solidly grounded with the earth, for the earth houses some of his tools, such as bodies and skeletons. His Haitian dialect is thick, but he has great functional knowledge of English, Japanese and German, and so he has no difficulty interacting with others. He is a formidable opponent in combat and quite intimidating with his cool confidence and sheer size, standing at about 6â8â and weighing 250 pounds.
On each ear he has six rings, one ring hangs from the septum of his nose and he has two studs in his left nostril and one in his right. He wears a bone necklace that is segmented by phalangeal bones, feral canines, and a small skull of a stillborn fox. The left side of his bottom lip he has six more rings piercings. His hair is done up in long dreadlocks reaching halfway down his back and each line of hair has dozens of beads woven throughout of varying materials. His wrists and ankles are adorned with twelve thick bracelets that are linked together to keep them from moving too much, enabling them to block things from hitting him, and on each finger and toe are six rings, three on each of the first and second digital phalange and three on each thumb. He also has a sacral piercing as well as clavicle piercings. All over his body is written tribal designs that are bespelled to make his skin tough and anchor the piercings and jewelry to his body so that none of it can be torn away until he is weakened, signified by when the tattoos disappear when he nears total defeat.
He looks like a monster despite walking around in a clean business suit and shoes with black sunglasses. That his open trench coat that is so black it seems to absorb light does not help soften the image, either.
Accessories: [What do they carry with them excluding their zanpakutoh. Jewelry, hats, etc. Some accessories may have to be approved in the equipment bored]
Fighting Style
General Fighting Style: Krerabloâs fighting style is primarily through spellwork and manipulation. He possesses no special talent or skill for weapons other than a few centuries of practice here and there. His repertoire is vast and his experience lengthy, but he is really just a jack of all trades, not excelling in any one weapon style. His physical and spiritual abilities are bolstered when he stands upon areas where death is thick, such as battlefields or building sites with bloody histories. His abilities are handicapped when he stands on ground that has been sanctified by Advent Human priests.
His main tactic is softening the enemy up and then moving in to steal the soul. He rarely lets a victim die before it is time to take the soul, but it doesnât matter if he or she happens to do so. Krerablo will just need to track the soul down â in the case of the death of spiritual beings he must act quickly before they dematerialize or he loses the integrity of their soul and cannot give them a binding force within his tattoos to enable him to control them when he summons them at a later date.
Krerablo moves and dodges well and can maneuver himself in a way to buy himself a moment to summon his swarms. The matter of strengths and weaknesses becomes less important in Hyper Mode when he combines with the souls he summons. Strengths and weaknesses can be further strengthened, neutralized, or further weakened based on the attributes of the soul he captured.
Strengths: 1) Empty hand combat
2) Disease/poison type abilities help heal/energize him due to his affinity for death and disease as a witch doctor.
3) Speed
4) Stamina
5) Reiatsu sensation - Precision allows him to pinpoint even remote presences such as Plusses from as far away as ten miles in the Living World and twenty in the Spirit realms.
Weaknesses: 1) Strength â Krerablo has a lot of natural strength, but none of his abilities augment it until Hyper Mode.
2) Healing â This is not a problem so long as he has souls imprisoned within him to feed upon. When his soul-count runs low, healing comes less easily. When he has no souls left, he can die. His body is not capable of healing without the energy from the souls he has stolen.
3) Kidou/Incantation - If a Kidou is fired upon him it will weaken slightly by the time it impacts him because, but saying the incantation will shield it from having its energy dispersed.
4) Prayer/Holy Power - Holy power as in power inspired by God or powerful angels, not simply spirit power. Prayers can be formed like energy within the Aura of Spirits and fired upon him like an attack. Kidou that call upon God or powerful angels deal double damage. However, Kidou calling upon the Devil or demons for their power cause less than 1/2 damage and weaken from that maximum on their way to him. Items blessed by spiritually empowered bishops or high priests in a church or temple also deal extra damage â non-Advent clergy, however, do not have the level of power to bestow on items to harm him, and their non-Advent prayers can discourage his presence, at best.
Abilities & Weapons
Foreword for any summoning ability listed below. Krerablo has a vast number of souls he can summon. When they are defeated in battle, he loses them permanently and must replace them if he wants to restore the old numbers.
Primary StageName: Dark Energy
Effect: This ability is one that he can use at any time with a black substance that seems to absorb all light and even the dark itself. He can contrive weapons made of dark matter that will harm someone simply by being close to their skin, absorbing their naturally released spiritual energy (Unless they are supressing it which isn't really doable in combat anyways) His dark energy weapons last for three posts with a one post cooldown, and he can someone any weapon once at a time. He can convert spirits and spirit energy he claims to dark energy and throw them at his targets to cause damage.
Energy blasts last for the post they are utilized, but the effects when they strike home last for two posts. Severity depends on where the target is struck and how powerful the blast is. Krerablo requires one post of preparation before launch to cause damage equal to that of a Gran rey Cero. If fired during the initial post, its power equals a Cero. Direct hits can cause major damage, but if the target dodges a direct hit and instead gets tagged on their leg or arm or somewhere, they lose feeling in that place and everywhere proximal (i.e. elbow hit, target loses feeling in elbow, forearm, hand, and fingers). This influence lasts solidly for one post and gradually fades during the second post. At the start of the third post feeling returns.
This ability has a one post cooldown. This is a dark and purely evil form of energy that can be used to counteract the effect of an incoming spell or item or harm a target by physical harm and also by warping their flow of energy around the body for a short time.
Name: Aura of Spirits
Effect:When Krerablo does not have this power turned all the way up, his body merely seems to have a slight amount of smoke, but upon ramping up the energy committed to it a cloud surrounds him wherever he goes. Throughout the surrounding mist shadows of skeletons and body parts and unreal creatures seem to dance around him. If someone steps inside the cloud they can be hurt, but the damage is minor for anyone stronger than 3 tiers below Krerablo. Mostly they are slowed down or tripped up and the aura tries to instill a gripping fear to attempt to claim the targetâs mind to put them on edge or even cause them to run away or panic.
Aura of Spirits has three levels and each level requires a one post cool down when complete. He CAN push the parameters, but the recovery time will be longer and he hits Fatigue State after the second post.
1) It can run indefinitely when the smoke is close enough around him to be mistaken for cigarette smoke (1â depth).
2) At a depth of ten feet, the ability lasts for seven posts no matter the amount of energy he exerts.
3) At a depth of thirty feet he can hold this ability for four posts.
Name: Soul Cleansing
Effect: This will primarily be an event ability and will follow event rules, but permission will be obtained from other RPers to use in open or side threads that are not events or mini-events except when used on NPCs. Itâs important to note that the character being stolen is not killed or absorbed. Their life force sustains his own and stops the aging process and help his wounds heal, but their powers and heights of power are not absorbed or used by him. Any character in Fatigue State is at risk of being caught by this ability, and any character tier 2-1 and lower is vulnerable when beaten.
This ability draws the essence and soul out of enemiesâ bodies. Spiritual beings are more vulnerable to this than Living humans because Living souls are anchored to bodies. When the souls are torn away, they are sucked into Krerabloâs body and destroyed. This is a battle of will, and the winner is the individual with the strongest will. If a target character tries to attack, they risk losing due to distraction. Krerablo must be focused and undistracted for this ability to work.
He currently has enough souls locked within his jewelry to populate a city nearly equal in size to Chicago (9 million), though he does not necessarily need to call on them. Each soul he collects slows his aging process and restores his strength when he is hurt.
The souls that feel like they are missing something are the easiest to claim and yield the greatest concentration of Dark Energy. The result of this is that he often tracks down Hollow and Arrancar or souls that are anchored to one location or obsessed with one thing before they can transform. He has been known to kill and steal Shinigami, Vizard, and Sinners.
Krerablo can absorb one soul per piece of jewelry at a time, some steals being more demanding than others. The secret is that the souls are stored in his jewelry and tattoos, and when they are placed there, it is like they are filed in a bank system to minimize their space occupancy and maximize overall storage.
260 Tier 5
25 Tier 4,
10 Tier 3,
4 Tier 2,
1 Tier-1
The above numbers are the maximum he can fight for control over without being too distracted from any one target. He can distribute his will evenly or vary the amount of will he imposes on others so that he can keep others occupied while targeting specific souls to take the brunt of his force of will.
Name: Summon Advent Human
Effect: With mindless, unmovable devotion these creatures are summoned from his jewelry and they fight for three posts. Each human is five tiers stronger to a maximum level of 3 tiers below Krerablo. Assuming, as an example, Krerablo is 2-1, a 4-1 Human will be made into a 3-1, but a 2-4 will gain no tiers. At the start of the fourth post they become feeble. This ability has a one post cooldown.
Final StageName: Summon Spiritual Power
Effect: A maximum of four of these captured, tormented souls can be summoned. He can summon one of each race or omit one race to summon a second or third in another race. His array of Shinigami, Bount, Modified Souls, Quincy, Advent Humans, Vizards, and Arrancar is extensive. When summoned, the spirits appear as they were in their prime, not their age when they were captured. They are each 3 tiers below Krerablo's level despite their power level when they were captured.
These spirits cannot gain any powers while trapped under Krerabloâs will, but, depending on their tier level, they will rise or fall to 3 tiers below Krerablo. Itâs almost like fighting the real thing. Their time while captured will reveal they are brainwashed and indoctrinated with a strong sense of loyalty to Krerablo, and so only their most beloved relationships before capture stand any chance of breaking this compulsion. The summons last for four posts or until they are beaten and retained by Krerablo with a cooldown based on how many are risen each time Krerablo uses this ability. The summons lasts four posts and the cooldown is four posts.
Name: Astral Pathways
Effect: Krerablo is able to open gateways leading to each realm. This spell takes one post of preparation and stays open for three posts before it closes. Travel from realm to realm takes one post, but a new RP thread must be opened in the appropriate section of the website.
Only spell specialists or those who have keys to open such pathways who are Tier 2-2 or higher can close these pathways. The advantage to this is that he does not need to worry about hostile forces within the Parsing World unless he actually goes there through a Pathway. Anyone who is not Krerablo must gain permission from him or they will have to deal with creatures trapped in the Pathway. The barriers of Dangai are well-defined walls while the pathways Krerablo makes are not so defined, so arms and claws and teeth can reach out and try to catch unsuspecting trespassers.
When this passage is closed, any body inside except Krerablo is violently expelled with intense force and acceleration. They creatures within are capable of cutting and tearing at their bodies and clothes with claws and teeth on their way out, leaving them a bloody mess, but these cuts are not fatal. Any items inside when it closes may be trapped until Krerablo opens the Pathway again, requiring the owner to stalk him and wait for an opportunity. Lost items will be coordinated with RP partners or done at the discretion of the character's owner.
Access:
Seireitei - All places
Earth - All places on the Earth except Nibelheim
Hueco Mundo - All places
Other - Parsing World
Hell - Outside the First Gate, but not inside
Name: Infernal Bulls
Effect: Krerablo uses this ability when many enemies bear down on him at once intending to kill or restrain. A fiery image of bulls appears and it projects solidly in every direction, knocking the enemies back several meters. They do little other than small second degree burns that blister where contact was made with skin and cloth. These burns behave as normal, so an individual wearing clothing or jewelry may find these items effecting their burn.
This is difficult to dodge because most enemies who are so close are usually focusing on restraining killing him through sheer force of numbers. This intense concentration and forward force leaves them vulnerable with little chance to dodge â but speed specialists and players who are 3 tiers above Krerablo stand a chance of dodging (at their owner's discretion).
Name: Summon Hellwolf Pack
Effect: Krerablo can summon a pack of twelve hellwolves. They seem to be bodies dripping in lava and fire from the deepest pits of hell. Krerablo claimed this pack in one of the darkest pits of Hueco Mundo. They tracked him down, ran him to a corner, and then attacked â and lost.
Their bite leaves teeth marks, burns, and lava and they swarm over their prey. When Krerablo unleashes these beasts, they act independently of his direction until their time elapses or Krerablo calls them back. They can track, attack, defend, restrain, or occupy opponents and they are fast enough to keep up with speed specialists 3 tiers higher in power to Krerablo and any character that lists speed as a weakness. They last for 3 of Krerabloâs posts and elapse at the start of his fourth and then require a 3 post cooldown. Each wolf's power level is 3 tiers below that of Krerablo.
boosts:Fullbring (Optional)
Weapon / Item(s) / Whatever it is on you
Appearance
Powers: An Array of spells are granted him through this Fullbring, a gift from his Deity.
Name: Will-o-Wisp Pursuit
Effect: This spell enables Krerablo to produce three Will-o-Wisps that have matching hair, coats, height, and build. When they leave a thirty foot radius from his body, become very reflective to light to draw the attention of pursuers or prey. These creatures are demonic manifestations. When the pursuing enemy gets close enough to one of them, it turns to reveal a demonically twisted and deformed face parted by a wide mouth with long serrated teeth, and a diseased tongue. Their facial skin is clammy and streaked with dirt and their eyes are wide, slanted, and serpentine.
These creatures fight with great ferocity and their touch leaves a spiritual infection in the victimâs wound. Without medical treatment the wound will not heal on its own and it will sit and fester, possibly hampering the victimâs capabilities (discretion of the role-player) for the rest of the thread after the fight is complete.
The Will-o-wisp manifestation runs for three total posts, including attack time, and their power level is three tiers below Krerablo. They do not attack until they are approached and remain motionless and unresponsive to direction until they are touched. Upon defeat, they explode in a burst of blinding light and energy equal to that of a Gran Rey Cero.
Name: Crepitus
Effect: This spell attacks the joints of its target, causing the cartilage to wear thin and result in heavy grinding between bones and intense pain and reduced range of motion. Speed is also reduced. This spell manifests itself when he blows a cloud of green mist that smells like sulfur, generally effecting 10x10x12 area, though getting within 3 feet of that range can still make a character noticeably ache. When the target breathes in even a little of the gas within that 10x10x12 area, the effects are felt by the end of that post and last for two posts.
Name: Wave of Minions
Effect: This spell requires Krerablo to take one post to concentrate. At the beginning of the next post, he performs a large bodily gesture sweeping his hands down and up from the ground. As his hands rise, the ground disintegrate and breaks to reveal an immense surge of hundredsof hungry, mindless souls and minions ready for any morsel they can grab. Their touch leaves putrefied stains and residue and the smell of rotting corpses in its wake. He unleashed this spell once in Soul Society long ago and a portion of the city looked like a crypt that came to life.
This spell lasts for the duration of one of Krerabloâs posts. Anyone equal in tier strength to Krerablo will get no more than bruises from where they are held, but they pose a serious danger to any individuals who are 3 tiers or more below Krerablo. The wave is thick and durable, though not impenetrable. The width is about fifty feet and the height reaches about three times the height of an average man (17'). This spell requires a two post cooldown.
Name: Mass Confusion
Effect: Mass confusion targets any enemy within a fifty foot radius, and even some friends Krerablo feels he does not need. The spell taps into the primal fight or flight panic response, causing enemies to lose track of who is friend and who is foe. The result may be cowering fear, panicked fleeing, or berserk rage â however the more primal thought processes of a character vary based upon their personalities and their fears and weaknesses, both the ACTUAL weaknesses and perceived weaknesses by the character.
The effects here last for two of each effected characterâs posts. Manifestation is a creeping mist that instills a feeling of pending doom. Krerablo can set the mist at a site and let it settle and sit for two posts before it dissipates.
Boosts:Hyper ModeKrerablo is capable of binding with the souls he summons to produce a powerful hybrid being that can use the trapped spirits abilities but at a level of combined power between the spirit and Krerablo, heightening the effects dramatically and increasing his tier strength by 4. In this state, his strengths and weaknesses are augmented, balanced, or weakened by the strengths and weaknesses of the being he has under his control â but overall every attribute is higher regarding strength, stamina, etc. as an addition. The only being he cannot combine with is a Priest-like being who was absorbed as an Advent Human. He can only combine with one spirit at a time, so he usually reserves the strongest of his prisoners for these combinations. Combination lasts for four posts. This ability leaves him completely exhausted, unable to continue a fight or summon spirits, though he can still travel.
Arrancar Combination ProductShinigami CombinationVizard Combination[/url]
Name: Desecrate
Effect: In Hyper Mode, the power Krerablo wields is enough to desecrate any consecrated ground he walks on and any blessed item he touches. The main goal of this passive ability is that he can now enter holy areas without a penalty to his unholy capabilities. He needs to be in Hyper Mode if he wishes to enter a place such as The Court of Pure Souls. The effect of Holy-inspired Kidou is cut by more than half to match that of all other kidou because the energy behind the spell is corrupted, whether or not there is an incantation.
Name: Summon Elemental Swarm
Effect: This spell takes one post to prepare and then one to wait while the giants form and arrive, and then they wreak havoc, mayhem, and destruction for 3 posts. This ability requires a four post cooldown. Krerablo can summon one giant from each of the following elements to pack some heavy artillery in a fight. Each giant is a master of its element to bankai level, and so they are hardly a simple matter, especially for users of elemental powers. Total: 5 Giants. They are three tiers below Krerablo's level and range in height from nine to fifteen feet.
Stone (Earth): Solid. 15 feet. Can take the greatest damage and strongest in melee with minimal, but solid, movement and effort to deliver very strong blows and handle heavy attacks.
Fire: Melee and mismatched combat specialist. 9-12 feet. Combat is quick, high-energy, and devastating, like Jeet Kune Do. During the last post this giant experiences an energy spike of 1 tier before going away.
Wind: Speed Specialist. 9 feet. Very agile and able to dodge while inflicting damage during counterattacks, kind of like Aikido. Capable of fazing with same pros and cons of the Coalition Faze ability. Abilities are extensive in wind element.
Frost (Water): Kidou Specialist. 12 feet. Capable of absorbing and bouncing back energy-enhanced and energy-type attacks at an opponent at equal strength. In melee, attacks are often quick attacks and followed by stronger counterattacks.
Undead: Melee Specialist. 15 feet. Doesn't die because it is already dead and fights with relentless attacks with no regard to defense. Incredible speed and strength, very little intelligence. Weak against Holy Kidou.
Note: I want the other roleplayers to play these out after Krerablo sends the elementals forward. These CANNOT be easy, quick fights. This power is meant to pack a hell of a punch and keep people occupied.
Name: Gorgon Seal Release
Effect: Krerablo's dreadlocks begin to behave like snakes and can bite targets, causing searing pain and heavy damage. The wounds they inflict do not stop bleeding until medical attention is provided. They can cause direct damage and pain to a Zanpakutoh Spirit if their fangs catch hold of the blade. Some of the snakes can reach out to wrap around targets in order to throw them off balance or block attacks. In order to cut the snakes, the opponent must obtain a tier placement higher than Krerablo and they must dedicate focus to cutting at the snakes.
This ability lasts for two posts with a two post cooldown.
Name: Finger sharpening and extension
Effect: Krerablo is able to change the nature of his fingers to sharpen and harden them enough to do combat. During the first ten yards his fingers are strong enough to withstand attacks from a zanpakutoh, but beyond the first ten he cannot take anything more than a glancing blow. A direct hit at 10+ yards will severely damage his fingers. The range is at a maximum of fifteen yards. Every five yards is a tier handicap to his fingers ability to withstand attack:
10-15 yards: Opponent 1 to 2 tiers below him in power can damage
5-10 yards: Opponents of equal tier can damage
Less than 5 yards: Opponents must be 2 tiers higher to cause significant damage.
His fingers can only extend straight out on the line they are pointed in, but he can move them like normal fingers to change the direction of that line. They cannot curve unnaturally.
This ability only lasts for its current post and then he must retract them during the second post, otherwise he risks his fingers going numb until the end of the battle. There is a one post cooldown.
Boosts:Back Drop:
Side Notes: If you need me to draw up lists of the souls he has within the jewelry and tattoos, I can start working on that upon request. The effect I want to go for in this character is that anyone who fights him is dramatically affected, even horrified, by his abilities if they survive.
Background:Krerablo was born in Haiti a long, long time ago. Centuries, he assumes, but his mother was a sorceress with a terrible talent for the undead and disease. Upon his birth, she offered him to her One God at the height of the power obtainable during childbirth and the One God accepted him in a cloud of disease, insects, fire, and blood, imbuing him with terrifying abilities that he came to realize upon his twenty-first birthday. His strength was in harvesting souls and using them to his own benefit.
Lifestyle choices were limited on the island not yet named Haiti. It was impossible to build lasting structures because earthquakes kept knocking them down. There was never a time when there werenât souls to steal, but Haiti was a small island and visitors were few.
And then came along the Westerners during the early 1500s, the men who would open an entire world for Krerablo to swallow by way of ships capable of crossing vast spans of water. It was the perfect solution to an insolvable dilemma, and Krerablo was thankful. He left Haiti and never looked back, but his One God was still with him.
Krerablo lived through the ages and served many lifestyles across continents and he partook in capturing many souls. He sometimes played a doctor after unleashing plagues so he would have sick to treat while he sinisterly stole souls. He would become the trusted advisor, official or otherwise, to generals and kings and lead them to bloody conflicts or blunders, only to escape unscathed but all the richer in his soul collection. He lived a life as Napoleonâs servant and a subtle influencer that led the man to raise armies in the hundreds of thousands. He travelled the world to collect souls from sites, cities, and graveyards.
Every soul he collected was in the name of his One God, and she was so pleased with him that she would speak with him often with praise and love and fondness. He could fear nothing while she was with him, and she was always with him to his very core. His will was already strong, but he trained his ability, and when he attained hyper mode he began to split his will upon multiple beings, Advent and non-Advent, Spiritual and Living. His will became strong enough to split between five individuals equally or to keep four occupied while concentrating the brunt of his will on one target.
He was never far from death wherever he went, and where there was no death, he would create situations that would change that.
Krerablo is currently hunted by the Coalition, all Quincy and all of Seireitei for his very nature of capturing souls for no other reason than for his and his One Godâs gain. The years leading up to the decades of World War I and World War II were especially bountiful and rewarding, but over seven hundred years he had taken control of many individuals who were much more spiritually gifted among all the spiritual races, especially when he learned how to travel from plane to plane in Hyper Mode.
All of the nine million souls he has taken were stolen from the care of the Shinigami and mouths of the hollows. Some were stolen from Quincy just as they were about to make their kill, and then Krerablo would take Quincy souls, as well. He has been branded a dangerous human by the Coalition. He currently has a hidden island in the Bermuda Triangle where that serves as his den and home, but he freely travels the world and other worlds via the Astral Pathway ability, able to appear anywhere with little notice.
RP Sample:Clack... clack... clack...The sound of hard-soled shoes echoed down the dark, empty street and through the alleyways with unnatural clarity. A tall man, heavily muscled, made his way down the street as a soft, odious mist appeared where he stepped to linger while he moved on. His long black hair was pushed to the side by a soft breeze, and his body seemed to glitter as scores of pieces of jewelry reflected the light that bled from the broken windows of each apartment complex lining the road. This was not a particularly nice part of town, completely run down and left to its own devices for years. Anyone who lived here now knew it would be their grave because they could not afford to live anywhere else.
Well, not precisely...
Krerablo stopped walking and the clacking ceased, creating an atmosphere of eerie stillness. He lowered his head so that he looked at the ground and he began to concentrate on his breathing. His focus was fixated down to the last cell in his body and to every single particle that made up his spirit. He concentrated on the pulse of the World of the Living and allowed his will to follow along like a boat on water. This place would become a grave, but it would have no souls to call it home.
Krerablo immediately looked up and opened his eyes that were now blazing red with hellish intensity! Almost immediately one could hear garbled and muffled cries of alarm and then screams of pure agony from men, women, children, and infants that gave Krerablo such bliss! Slowly the souls were torn from their bodies and quickly they flowed to him like a vacuum. His jewelry shined sadistically in its splendor. Krerablo had a matching grin that widened when he heard someone speak from behind him.
âStop! Surrender yourself!âKrerablo finished soaking up the souls that were his nourishment and put his hands up to show he was unarmed. A floodlight was turned on and he was momentarily blinded, but he soon recovered because he was turned away from the light.
âWhat the hell is he? Did you see how those souls went to him? Heâs not a hollow.ââHollow? Have you seen any around? Iâd very much like to meet them.â Krerablo put in with amusement.
âWe arenât friends with Hollows! Silence!âPretending to comply, Krerablo hummed a tune and kept his hands where they were. His hand gauntlet gleamed in the light, but he waited. He was very good at waiting. And smiling.
His smile widened as the two individuals came nearer to him. One was dressed in white robes and carried a bow. The other wore an army uniform, probably a member of some militant group â probably the Coalition. Excellent! A Quincy and an Advent Human. This would be a treat.
He felt a hand on his shoulder and felt a tug, allowing himself to be turned. He made eye contact, and soon a look of recognition bloomed across the manâs face. In fear, he shoved Krerablo and stumbled back shouting,
âOpen fire! Itâs him! Itâs him!âImmediately the witch doctor began to work and he called up his Wave of Minions with a huge sweep of his body and hands upward from Hell to Heaven. Hundreds of bodies surged up from the ground just after the first bullets arrived, but Krerablo dodged those easily. The rest were swallowed up by his protectors, a wall of undead, and Krerablo crafted his next spell. There were more than two patrollers, that was for sure.
When the wall came down, the squadron of Advent Humans and Quincy saw four Krerabloâs running in various directions, each one laughing with impossible sinister. Deftly they wove through the alleys and out of sight, forcing the leader to make a quick, ill-fated decision. The squadron split into four groups and went in pursuit and it wasnât long before they caught three of their four criminals.
The real Krerablo was within earshot of the others when he heard each scream accompanied closely by an explosion and more lingering, agonizing cries of anguish and pain. He quickly turned a corner and then whirled around, blowing a green mist from his palm into the mouth of the alley he entered. He took a step back and watched as four men and a woman ran right through it, deeply inhaling the cloud as they breathed hard from the exertion of the chase. Almost immediately they fell to the ground with searing pain as their joints, once smooth with cartilage, suddenly began to grind against each other, bone to bone. Krerablo laughed with delight. Could it be that there were twenty new, strong souls for him to take?
Krerablo took one of the knives from a Coalition Advent Human, neatly slitting each of their throats and then claiming their souls for his own uses. He repeated this process three more times for fifteen more humans and Quincy. Some were dead, but their souls were near enough that he didnât have much difficulty tracking them down. Several individuals who were so scared they thought of nothing but guns. Well, their loss, his gain.
Krerablo stole a pair of keys from one of the men and took one of their jeeps. If he could get the right people interested, the vehicles would get him a good amount of cash.