Abyssal Shard

Classification

Eta, Mu, Nu, Rho, Omega

The artifact known as Abyssal Shard is a long sword of ancient power. Legend has it that the sword was forged in the depths of hell itself, made from the bones of a mighty demon, and then used to challenge the Angel of Death to secure the freedom of a tortured soul. The sword's power comes in that it is supposed to have the ability to rip a persons soul free from their body and consume it augmenting the swords power for a time.

The exact properties of the sword are unknown, but it is possible that it has elements that use psionic or magical energy with a possible strong connection to elemental magic.

History

As the legend goes, a blacksmith of renown through the known world coveted his neighbors wife. She was beautiful and her smooth skin and soft eyes called to him every night in his dreams. One day, he had to have her and he was killed himself after murdering his neighbor meaning to take the man's wife for his own. The wife murdered him to escape and send him to hell to be punished for his sins. Once in hell he endured unimaginable torture as punishment, until one day, he escaped from the demon that was punishing him. Frantically searching for a way to escape his torment, he came across some very strange things... Rocks made of solid steel surrounded by pools of molten rock. He could find no refuge, and when his tormentor caught up with him, he refused to go back.

The demon taunted him telling him that he could not die, only suffer. The demon had time to wait, an eternity to sit and wait for the man to give up. This went on for days, days turned into weeks, and as the weeks turned into months the man finally broke and approached the demon. As he neared, he reached his hand into the searing molten rock and pulled out a chunk of white hot metal, in one last attempt to escape, he stabbed it into the side of the head of the demon with all his might. Even as his hand burned and the flesh melted away, his bones would not let go. For, if there was no death here, then his hand would not die in the molten rock. The pain of it was intense and debilitating, or for most would have been. The torture he had endured these long years had prepared him to accept such pain.

He killed the demon. Knowing that it would not be long before another was after him, he knew he needed a weapon to fight with. Looking at the body of the demon, already turning into ash before him, he knew what he had to do. See, this man was a blacksmith in life, and knew everything about the forging of tools, weapons, and armor. He would need no bellows, as the molten rock would keep the metal stones hot enough... He needed a hammer though, and he made one from the head of the demon filled with rock from the pool, and the spine of the demon attached to the head and secured with molten rock into a solid and hideous tool, Wicked Nethersbane.

So the man took the sharp claws of the demon and the demons ribs, heating them up in the molten rock and using his hands, now devoid of flesh and only bones animated by vile anger and hatred, he made a sword. Wrapping the hilt in tightly rolled skin of his former tormentor, he finally uses the fangs from the demon to etch in the blade symbols of power that he had seen there in hell. Once the symbols were finished, the blade soaked up the remaining demon flesh and turned the molten rock around it cold and dark. The man knew he had created a sword that would kill any man, demon, or angel that came after him.

Searching for a way back home, he finally found the guardian to one of the gates which lead back to the world of the living. The demon is ugly and made of disgust and venom for the living. The man challenged him and in the demons arrogance, laughing, he let the man strike first. So the man wielded his sword and while the demon expected the blade to bounce off of his scaled flesh, it did not, but rather, it seared through the scales and soon the demons head landed on the barren and rocky ground. The sword glowed deep blood red and grew in strength and power from the essence of the slain foe. It now had the power to cut through the locks that separated the realms.

Upon returning home, to find his stolen wife still alive, he found her married to someone else. In a rage he sliced his stolen bride's new husband through the middle and the body burst into flames, the screams were heard for miles. Entering his former home, the stolen bride looked at him and screamed. For now, the man was not a man. His hands were bones, worn to sharp claws by the work at the forge. His face was charred and blackened, cracked, from being so close to the molten rock. His arms were thick muscle with no skin, for it had long enough been burned and pealed off. His eyes burned with his hatred and betrayals, like hot coals. Perhaps it was fate, but her new husband was a holy man for he had fought demons both inside and out for many years, as had his father before him. Their children knew much of the trade of fighting evil, and when they saw this mutilated creature going after their mother, they took their great maul hammers and called upon the gods to help them. The hammers crushed the bones of the former man, the taker of his neighbors wife. For in hell, there is no true death, even the demons the man had slain would rise again soon. In the mortal world, everything can die. Thus the burned and broken body of hate and anger was killed, and its soul returned to hell where it would torment others.

The sword, fell to the ground though, and the family kept it hidden, wrapped in cloth soaked in holy water, away from the hands of mortal man.