A Waste of Deaths

> ”When I first touched upon meiyal, I couldn’t explain it. Now it’s like air. It has a smell, a feel, an intensity. The works. It even has thoughts of its own.” ~Frein Nivan, the Visitor

By his calculations, Alphazzel had died about a hundred times in the last five minutes. Not because none of his Meiyal Weaving, Arts, or Armaments worked against the Visitor. It was more of the Contradiction-given mortal not allowing him even a second to move.

Meiyal activity within his physiology was at an all-time high, regenerating his consciousness and life at a pace he had never known was possible.

Yes. Even with his ability to glimpse Destiny, Alphazzel had never seen the extent at which he could revive himself from death. Not that it was impossible, the curiosity had simply never touched him.

Added to that, death, for him, was overselling it. True, his consciousness would disappear. His heart would stop. All bodily functions would cease. Medically speaking, he had died every single time.

But there was no point in death, if he could come back from it. A waste, as far as he was concerned.

Alphazzel was spending meiyal to bring himself back from death. The truth behind a faunel’s immortality was their absurd supply of meiyal, given that they were exclusively made up of it.

In the past, this discovery had led many of his kin to become victims of experimentation. Royal families, rich, influential people, and many others sought to find immortality. The faunels had been the prime lead towards that path from the beginning.

Irony, however, wasn’t content with just watching countless faunels become helpless prisoners due to their nature. It also told these mortals how they could be properly killed. Worst of it all, none of these experiments had yielded any tangible result for the mortal races.

Again, a waste.

Evanclad had gone through great lengths to rectify that mistake. He had been a good leader, truth be told. Alphazzel had witnessed and recorded this fact himself and made sure it was never embellished. Much like how Destiny was used to hide the truth of Brymeia’s nature, Zerax’thum’s Fall, and the Visitor’s purpose, the method of killing faunels was silently erased, and then replaced by blatant lies.

A faunel is meiyal personified, therefore they couldn’t be killed.

When a faunel dies, another replaces them after a few centuries.

Anyone with a lot of time and interest on the topic of faunels could easily pinpoint the contradiction between these two statements. For if even one of these things were true, his kin should’ve been more abundant. Not reduced to such meager numbers that Alphazzel could remember only three others besides himself.

The truth was simple. Faunels could die if meiyal no longer wished to sustain them. This, Alphazzel defined as ‘a faunel’s true death’. And because of Zerax’thum causing the Divine Severing, Brymeia could no longer afford to replace any of them. Logically speaking, these would explain why there were so few of them left in this world. Still, it didn’t make a lot of sense because of one important argument.

Meiyal was abundant and had no thought or mental faculties to decide on its own.

Even after dying a few more times, this source of power kept returning him to life as per the Rule. Unlike the mortal practitioners, including those with a gifted meiyal system like Frill or Katherine, faunels like Alphazzel commanded meiyal as if it was a genuine part of their bodies. Faunel was meiyal and meiyal was faunel, after all. And so, this resource, and through this undeniable Rule, simply ‘killing’ a faunel wouldn’t exactly kill them.

More than two-hundred deaths in under ten minutes, however, was a different story altogether.

For the first time in his ancient life, Alphazzel was pushed to the limit. Every turn, every step, every blink, breath, retaliation, attack… Everything. No matter which action he took, Frein always found the optimal way to end his life multiple times in a second.

He was treated like a fragile web string, snapped and torn without effort or thought. At least, it seemed that way. Alphazzel knew he should never underestimate an opponent. History had told him much. And truthfully, he never did. Especially not Frein.

It’s just…

The Visitor, despite his youthful age, knew exactly how to end a person’s life. This form, a marvel that all advanced races and civilizations of this world had evolved into one way or another, and deemed as the most appropriate and efficient composition, was easily deconstructed by a man who had only entered this world in less than a month. And he did it with such methodology and precision. Like building blocks, or mastering cooking recipes, mindlessly performing the task as if it was an afterthought.

Just the notion of it was absurd. And worse, the reality was far more surreal.

Three-hundred deaths now. An estimate at this point. Alphazzel’s consciousness had drifted between light and darkness in such rapid successions that counting had become the least of his concerns.

Concerns…

Indeed, there was something to be concerned about.

If the rate at which he kept dying continued, then his true death might not be that out of reach. There was no precedent, after all. Not even Evanclad had ended faunels this way. So brutal, yet so masterful.

After what he thought was his four-hundredth death, Alphazzel tried his best to create distance, if only to keep his consciousness present for more than a split second.

He succeeded, but not because of his skill or his opponent failing to catch up. Alphazzel looked and saw Frein deliberately allowing him to back away. The smile on the Visitor’s face said it all.

He knew.

No matter. Once he had gained distance, the meiyal around Alphazzel would begin to completely regenerate him, pushing the Visitor’s efforts back to square one…

Something was odd. Frein’s smile was far too deliberate and confident. And allowing Alphazzel to back away was a ridiculously stupid move, especially if he knew the limits at which a faunel kept their immortality.

He studied himself closely. There, the absurd truth was laid bare before him. The rate at which he was recovering had stalled to a crawl, if the one who was crawling was a person without limbs, trying to climb a slippery slope. Meiyal had prioritized everything in returning him to life, utterly convinced that he would instantly perish completely if it had laxed even a little.

That was Alphazzel’s evidence. The reason why he hadn’t seen this version of Destiny. Because it didn’t exist. Not without a Contradiction’s intervention.

Destiny was being reshaped in front of his eyes.

It was also the final straw. Her mother had completely abandoned him. He couldn’t blame her. This was his decision after all. But no matter what species, race, or form, and for whatever reason, a mother wishing her child to die would rip anyone’s heart out.

“No retrospections in my presence, Alphazzel,” Frein said. “I need you to die in my place. Nothing you will say can convince me otherwise.”

This guy… It was eerie. Like a smiling face staring at him in the darkness while he tried to sleep. Even without Heart’s Will, Frein could read him like a book. No amount of resistance or meiyal could prevent him from doing so. It was all intuition, observation, and experience. Far more effective than a Blessing when used in such a ridiculously absurd way.

But Alphazzel had his own Blessing. Frein knew this, challenging him by staring directly at his eyes. Even Katherine had avoided eye contact the entire time they had been fighting. Still, the faunel wasn’t one to back down from an obvious challenge.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

He stared Frein in the eye, swimming through the Visitor’s memories. Instantly, he was blocked off.

“How…?”

“Time’s Eye depends on how much time you spent together with your mark,” Frein explained, as if he was talking to someone who didn’t own such a gift. Then, he stared back. “Wordings are subject to interpretation, and these Blessings are uncannily loose in how they operate. Did you ever think we spent time together?”

Alphazzel looked back. The only times he had been in the presence of the Visitor were when he had abducted him and the one time he had checked on him in his prison. The rest was during this fight. There were no idle moments, no bonding, theatrical or otherwise.

But strictly speaking, these were all times they had spent together. So how?

Again, as if using Heart’s Will, Frein smiled. “I’ve always told you people to not depend on their Blessings. They’ll always betray you.”

The Visitor made a step. In response, the faunel took one backwards. A chill ran up his spine, and the gesture solidified his realization.

For the first time in his life, he felt afraid that he might truly die.

“Fine, Alphazzel. Just this once, I’ll help you out.” Her voice was a warm and inviting as a lover. No… a whore, one who couldn’t live without drowning in sexual pleasure all the time. Even without her saying it, her unabashed moans alone told stories of endless passion, and that she would act upon more of it given the chance.

“I don’t need your help, slut.”

“I’ll send you an army to help you out. They’ll do anything to please me. Just let me have fun with you. Be my lover just for a day. I’ll make you feel all sorts of things your little imagination would never think even exist. It’s a win-win for you, dear.”

The entire time, she was moaning in a rhythm, and even some of her words were muffled. She was getting rammed both ways while talking to him.

“You disgust me,” Alphazzel replied. He saw Frein narrow his eyes, and he realized this was something the Visitor had no way of knowing no matter how much he tried to investigate. The faunel had no choice.

“Fine. Send me your lovers. I’d rather be your bitch for a day than die here.”

She giggled. That alone sent tingles down his spine, and inappropriate thoughts assaulted him, distracting him from the fight. Alphazzel internally shook his head, dispersing the depraved acts he wanted to do to her.

“They’re ready for you anytime, sweetie,” she said. This time, she let out a scream of pleasure. Her voice, excited and ragged as her lovers intensified their pace now that the conversation was almost over. “Don’t forget. You owe me a good time. So don’t go dying on me, yet. You there, my armpit! Use both of them! Ahh!”

Alphazzel ripped away their connection as soon as he felt the ‘lovers’ arrive within his Worldspace. A few hundred of them. There would be more on the way, but as he was, he couldn’t afford transferring all of them at once. Despite the reinforcements, however, the confidence didn’t find him.

“Shit…”

----------------------------------------

Frein understood it as simple logic.

Faunels wouldn’t die, therefore, the fear of death wouldn’t work on them. But this contradicted everything else he had observed from them. From the way they hurt, the way some of them protected themselves, and the scarce number of them roaming around the world.

These were light arguments at best, something that special rules or logical absurdities could justify one way or another. But in a sense, they gave Frein some reason to theorize their fallacy and prove it in his own way.

And when Alphazzel stepped back out of fear, he knew he was on point.

A faunel’s immortality had limitations.

Frein becoming a Contradiction had helped him stave off Alphazzel’s ability to fully recover, but aside from helping him contradict Destiny, that was all it had done as far as the fight itself was concerned. It allowed the Visitor to take a breath without losing any of his progress.

The limit was a weird variable at best. It all depended on how Brymeia’s meiyal interacted with the faunel and how fast he could intercept that connection before a full recovery was achieved.

But now, with Destiny bending the Rules because of the Contradiction, he had convinced the meiyal to only pay attention to the faunel’s deaths.

First step was achieved. It took him ten minutes, however. Far longer than he had anticipated. And the change in the faunel’s demeanor was surely not good news.

Alphazzel reached out, attempting to Weave the meiyal to freeze Frein in place. One swing from his arm disrupted it.

“I’m sick of that trick,” said the Visitor, starting his approach with calm and calculated steps.

The principle behind it was simple. Meiyal Weaving influenced meiyal itself, rather than the concept behind Meiyal Arts, which was reforming and manifesting a patterned will into reality. This meant that the origin of Alphazzel’s Weaves was set on a determined range so long as meiyal existed there, instead of originating from the practitioner like with Meiyal Arts.

Then the answer was simple. Just Gather all the meiyal before the faunel could Weave it.

Even in disbelief, Alphazzel tried once again. Frein spent a quick breath, making sure there were no gimmicks behind this attempt before fully disrupting it again. At the same time, he fully closed in.

A clean roundhouse kick flipped the faunel straight to the ground, instantly killing him. Frein grabbed the lifeless body and delivered a flurry of punches.

Whatever fortification Alphazzel used took Frein no effort to destroy. He knew that each of his attacks were lethal, and that each blow would essentially put the faunel in a ‘death-state’ where consciousness drifted away.

The Rule for the faunels would instantly perform its working, and in that millisecond where Alphazzel would be brought back from the dead, Frein’s next strike would instantly kill him again.

Without losing a beat, the Visitor perfectly executed the faunel another hundred times. He was quicker this time, simply because Alphazzel had almost no effective way of shielding himself and all of his tricks were completely nullified.

If there was one gift Frein could truly claim was his, it was his quick familiarity and adaptability during a fight. With Alphazzel having almost no time to fully utilize his cognition, the faunel could only resort to defenses from his muscle memory. Actions that the Visitor had seen numerous times already.

Still, something felt wrong. No. Different. Frein had implanted fear in Alphazzel’s heart, but there was still hope in his eyes. Even after five-hundred deaths.

“Frein, what’s happening inside your meiyal system?” Elizzel asked. “You’re in full Art fatigue, but you’re functioning just fine.”

“It’s the Fragment of Zerax’thum’s core,” he replied, still focused on finding the limits on Alphazzel’s resurrections. He ignored the desire to study the faunel, to find out what exactly allowed him to be capable of such a feat. He was on a time limit after all.

“I’m still integrating with it,” he continued to explain. “Part of how the Contradiction works.”

“So you’re not actually fatigued?”

“I am, but I’m using the Fragment to help me Draw Meiyal Arts, instead of using Brymeia’s meiyal, even though I’m not integrated with it yet.”

“What…?”

“I’ll explain some other time. We’re on a time limit here. And your big brother needs to die.”

“He’s not my big brother!” Elizzel’s disgust and anger traveled violently through the Tether. “Kill him. I don’t care.”

“Hold on,” Frein said, abandoning his assault after Alphazzel’s six-hundredth death. “We’re getting carried away.”

“What do you mean?”

Almost instantly, Alphazzel returned to life and tried to freeze Frein once more. As always, he easily disrupted the Weave.

“Tired already?” taunted the faunel.

“I’m giving you a chance to execute your plan.”

“What?” Alphazzel and Elizzel said simultaneously.

Frein crossed his arms. “I’m not an idiot, Alphazzel. I swear your name isn’t fitting at all. Anyway, you’re trying to buy time. You changed your tactics from fighting back into stalling. You’re betting on the Nightmare Signs up there to eventually amass enough monsters to overwhelm me before you take action, but that’s not going to happen. So, instead, I’m letting you take your breath and do whatever it is you’re planning to do.”

“I’m not the one who’s on a timer here,” Alphazzel retorted.

Frein scoffed and tapped his knuckles together. “If you’re that confident, then I’m sorry I wasted your time. Let’s resume, then.”

At his first step, Alphazzel jerked away. Frein simply smiled, opening his hands once more to give the faunel another chance.

“Fine, fine.” Alphazzel sighed, putting his hands on his knees. Sweat had accumulated on his forehead. “You know, for a final fight, you sure are taking this easy.”

“We might not agree on some things,” Frein said, crossing his arms once again. “But I want you to try everything you can before I end all of this and return you to your mother. I don’t actually hate you, or anything like that. And the best way I can honor fighting someone so below my capabilities is to let them give it their best shot.”

“You’re a nasty little prick with words, aren’t you?” Alphazzel smiled. “Can’t say you’re wrong after all this. But you’re just really trying to rub it on me by giving me one last shot.”

Frein shrugged. The faunel was half right, but he was telling the truth as well.

“Fine,” Alphazzel said, standing tall. “Backing me into a corner like this is already an achievement no one has done before, Visitor. You’re the first to ever have killed me so many times that I don’t even remember half of them. So it disheartens me to say, that allowing me this chance is a huge blunder on your part. A shame that I will grab victory this way.”

Frein’s eyes widened at the number of portals appearing behind Alphazzel. From within emerged countless undead. No. Nightmarish undead. Immediately, it clicked. Even Elizzel realized just as quickly what they were looking at.

Befall, Scar of this World, according to Elizzel’s memories, was filled with undead heroes from the past. Those that had helped in Zerax’thum’s Fall. When Katherine and the rest had first arrived in this place, it was completely deserted…

“So that’s where they are…” Elizzel said, exhausted. “I’m not sure how we’re going to deal with this, Frein. Nightmarish undead, even for me, this is a first.”

“This is my ace in the hole, Visitor,” Alphazzel said, raising his head high. He slowly ascended to the air, allowing for the undead a clear path to take formation.

At the very least, Frein was sure that the damage Alphazzel had sustained would remain until his time as a Contradiction was over. A few more deaths and Destiny would be convinced to truly kill the faunel.

This horde of undead heroes however…

“Everyone has a trick up their sleeve.” Frein sighed and started walking to meet the heroes of the past while looking at the Faunel of History and Disasters. He emphasized his clarification slowly as the meiyal in his hands ignited with sparks.

“Everyone.”