Keren cannot believe it, but it’s only been a few minutes since she started fighting her opponent.
She jumped back to dodge another strike and casted [Fueled breath].
Keren ran behind a fallen tree, which was immediately destroyed by the undead, creating more smoke and debris.
‘Damn, I’m running out of energy.’
She casted [Moments before disaster] and dodged several more attacks.
She was getting used to it now, and is able to understand it’s attack patterns.
‘It has intelligence, but it still dumb.’
The behemoth only has two moves. It either swings it arms, or it charges at you. Sometimes, it would also attempt to destroy the ground out of frustration, which is something she always needed to prevent in the case of the forest getting destroyed.
Even so, she was adapting and is able to stall it to a few kilometers from the original battlefield.
Despite that, she is still at a disadvantage. It had no scratches, yet she has her arm broken, her back blown off, and she is exhausted. [Cries of the Fallen] needs a lot of energy, and she used it to save herself many times.
She has to leave now and hope that her companions managed to escape the place entirely.
‘This is not my problem anymore. In fact, this should have never been my problem in the first place!’
She prepared herself, planning to dodge one more attack then running for her dear life.
She waited, and waited.
‘huh?’
The behemoth did not make a move.
It just stood there, as if listening to a sound she can’t hear.
It then turned its back on her and left like nothing happened. The monstrous creatures silhouette faded, and Keren was all alone on a burning forest.
She was flabbergasted and stood in place for a full minute before finally saying something.
“What the fuck?”
----------
‘This girl is ruthless’ Verum thought.
Right now, he is at the sky observing his little apprentice act all innocent towards the guy named Stevan.
“Is it….really true?” he asked.
“Yes” she lied.
A handfull of minutes ago, Verum gave Seraphine a choice on what to do with the slave traders and their merchandise.
It was either to kill them, which would help her live longer, or to let them live.
He was expecting her to hesitate, but she didn’t even flinch!
He saw Seraphine approach the man that crashed into the cage and use his own sword to brutally plunge it to his vulnerable throat. He watched as she struggled to pierce the throat, which eventually gave in after a lot of effort, stopping the mans breathing all at once.
‘merciless.’ was the only thought he could muster.
She then stood there for a few seconds, which Verum assumed was her reaching the 1st realm, and then asked him to help in killing the slaves.
She was too weak to handle them, so he had to help her weaken them while she finishes the job.
After seeing the massacre, she told Verum she felt something change inside her.
“Il be surprised if nothing changed.” He stated.
With his help, she then made a simplified system circuit and it showed why.
Name: Seraphine Species: Beast Subspecies: Human Age: 323 physically 12 Realm: Core Formation(2/10) Lifespan: 278 years(-1/day) Laws: Miracles Sustenance Life Review Abilities: Mark of the Chosen Mark of the Devourer Mark of the Finality Image of Evolution Death Mark Soul Well Soul Surge Soul Parade Pandemonium Type: Title Title Title Innate Chaos Low Mid High Unique Triggered Event: "Will you always be my sister?" "Poor girl, Gone without a chance to bloom." "What is your dream?" "I am now one step closer to perfection." "Death will be your price to live." "If you ever ever meet my daughter, please tell her to be safe." Death Mark Death Mark Death Mark Effect: Grants the dominion over Miracles Grants the dominion over Sustenance Grants the dominion over Life Review. Has a higher chance at evolving abilities You have potential to be the new Herald of death. Kill your foes, absorb their lifespan, absorb their strength and make it your own. Chaos will bless you more powerful abilities for the curse of your rapidly decaying life. Upon dying, a second chance could be regained, as long as you have a body that did not decay and a lifespan that exist within your soul. Store the soul of creatures you have slain and use it to further strengthen yourself temporarily. Souls consumed will vanish and the strength is dependant of the souls rank and realm. Unleash a wave of souls within the Soul Well to overwhelm the world. Unleash the souls through yourself, allowing unlimited quantities to achieve your desired power. Reach towards Chaos, allowing the user to unleash all souls that had been used and recreate them over and over again, creating a place worthy to be called eternal hell. Cost: 10 years/second 100 years/Second 1000 years/Second
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“That’s so broken” Verum exclaimed.
He wasn’t talking about the Soul well, but her Chaos class ability, [Death Mark].
Instead of only having a low class ability. She gets to temporarily enhance it to a higher class just by sacrificing lifespan!
Sure, passively losing one years worth of lifespan a day may sound horrible, but gaining it isn’t much of a big deal if you fight everyday.
‘Actually, I changed my mind’, he thought ‘Any normal person would hate having to constantly fight just to live a little longer. In fact, she would need to essentially keep watch of her lifespan every time or she could die in the middle of battle.’
Anyways, they then proceeded to snuck up on the smoke and kill the other slave traders that were flung by his undead.
When she ended the life of another one, a man with curly hair emerged out of nowhere, almost cutting Seraphines neck clean.
Verum noticed that he was breathing erratically, probably form the lack of oxygen and insanely high temperatures. The only reason that Seraphine wasn’t affected was his occasional [heal] that helped her.
The man continued to swing his sword, cutting her over and over again, to which Verum responds with using [heal]. It’s not as effective from a distance, but it was more than enough to recover all wounds for a low realm human. What’s more intriguing was how Seraphine was not flinching at the pain and is actually starting to learn how her [Soul Well] worked.
Occasionally, he could see a sudden rush of speed or some feats of strength that pushed back the man.
Verum could only comment on her talent as remarkable.
‘I wonder how she is dodging though? Was it perhaps her dominion over Miracles? Or maybe it’s his life review that let her see things in slow motion when she is near death?’
Verum found it odd that such laws are already occurring to her when she is so young. Those things shouldn’t happen unless she is perfectly compatible with the law itself.
Maybe that’s why the devourer chose him to help her?
‘Whatever, looks like the guy gave up hurting her and is coughing violently now.’
Unexpectedly, when she is about to finish up killing the him, Verum saw a girl with a stolen sword and sneak up on Seraphine from behind.
He didn’t warn her or anything, he wants to teach his student a lesson not to put her guard down.
As soon as she got close enough, she stabbed her straight in the chest, causing Seraphine to fall over sideways and drop her own weapon.
After a few moments of confirmation that she is dead, the girl then sat with her heels touching the ground, covered her face, and broke down crying.
Now that he thinks about it, she looked like one of the slaves they killed.
‘Maybe they were related and saw them getting murdered, so she came for revenge? But where did she come from? Was she following the group on her own and free them when she has a chance?’
Verum, who was already in mid air at the time, saw the guy console the girl.
‘Not much of a slave trader it seems.’ He thought ‘Maybe they became one by force.’
He didn’t get to find out if his assumptions were true, he doesn’t care for it much either. Verum would rather help his careless apprentice.
She required two things for her revival ability to trigger. First is enough lifespan, which is much more rapidly decreasing now that she is dead, but she still has a lot, then she needs a healthy body.
Verum dived to the ground plunging himself into darkness, as a soul he could go through any physical objects without obstruction. He occasionally needed to pop his head out to see, but it’s easy enough to find her. He then touched her corpse and used [Heal].
The sword lodged on her chest disintegrated, her wound closed, and she was revived. He was grateful that the sword was considered as ‘something to be cleansed’ by his skill, like poison, or dirt. Verum doesn’t want to see a living person with a metal rod for a heart, that would be an ugly sight.
Seraphine, who was behind the man, grabbed her sword that fell, used soul well to strengthen herself and sliced his back cleanly from the neck to the stomach area.
It was only supposed to be a shallow cut, but Verums fog weakens the body, thus helping Seraphine the entire time.
The man fell to two pieces and touched the burning portion of the floor.
‘Im sure stabbing him would have been less messy. Perhaps he misunderstood my first lesson to be cold blooded brutality?’ He deeply thought and assessed her actions until now.
Meanwhile, both girls, who were showered with blood, stared at each other.
The first one to act was the crying girl who tried to back off but tripped and fell on her butt. She sat there with a waterfall of tears and eyes full of prayers.
Seraphine didn’t react, she just stood there for a full minute staring at her.
She then spoke.
“Your dead to me.”
“Hey!” A voice on the distance shouted.
It was a man with dark hair and brown eyes. He looked like at his early thirties and has cleanly shaven his face. His clothes were composed of a leather tunic that is black from smoke. Metal pads that protect the thigh, red leggings that is already half burnt, and a leather boots that looked extremely basic. He held no weapon on his hands, a sign of someone that primarily uses offensive abilities or hand to hand combat.
“What is going on?!” He exclaimed.
While they had an awkward standoff, Verum considered Seraphines performance and decided that she did not truly understand the first lesson the way he intended to.
He looked at the girl, at Seraphine, and their new guest.
He formulated a plan.
He revealed himself looking as imposing as he could. The others all turned their heads at him with surprise written on the two enemies while Seraphine simply stared.
He then spoke out loud that the everybody could hear him clearly and without error.
“Finish him off then spare the girl.”
It wont derail his plan, but considering her bloodlust, Verum expected Seraphine to argue.
Instead, she simply nodded, used all of her accumulated souls at once, and quickly took care of the new guy with one clean stroke.
After all this time, he still doesn’t understand her behavior.
----------
Fate is having a very long week.
3 days ago, her village was raided.
They live on the outskirts of the beast kingdom and has a hidden life within the forest, blended in with the mountain walls. It was created by cracking the hard stone, hollowing it out by the adults, and strengthening the inside through basic alchemy, creating a large ecosystem within the mountain.
Her mother said that the outside may look like a natural cave, but the inside of their home is not any different from any human settlement. Like them, humans also build houses made of wood, grow crops like wheat or grains, and even hunt for fruits.
The only difference was their diet, heat source, and appearance. Beast folk are herbivores by default, and the light from the common yellowmist mushroom that grows on their cave was enough to cover the entire community like it was a spring day no matter the time.
Fate doesn’t understand how her mother could compare themselves to the vile scum of this world.
She hated them all. Maybe the man who let her escape and their leader was a little better, but that doesn’t change the fact that their intentions was to turn them into a slave.
Now……..maybe it wasn’t such a bad deal.
She looked into the empty eyes of the girl approaching her after killing the slave trader that just appeared.
She wanted to scream and run for her life, but Fates lungs won’t operate as she holds her breath, and her legs were too weak without any explanation. All she could do is let out tears she can’t control.
The ephemeral ghost that appeared earlier that is now approaching her is not helping.
“○£\♤♧♧~♤◇” the ghost declares, hovering just above Fate.
She has never heard of such language. Almost as if it was from a different world.
He held his hand, gasping on the direction of the corpse, it emitted black smoke that left his hand and onto the body.
“[Deaths Desire]”
Somehow, she understood those words.
The man who fell just a few seconds ago rose once again. The large scar on its chest still dripping with fresh blood.
He looked around, ever so confused with the ordeal. She only recognized him now as Stevan.
He was the one she expected to initially confront in case she fails.
Before she was released, her mother simply told her to abandon them.
“Don’t come back Destenie.” She said, her hot breath penetrating her left ear. It was the last time she heard her real name.
“Please, leave. On behalf of my husband and me, you are now independent and no longer have the right for your name. We are now strangers, so please, forget me, find your father, and live a happy life.” She whispered in one go, her chest heaving so intensely that Fate could feel her sadness while her whole body was embraced on her arms.
She wanted to say no, but she stayed silent.
When she is finally able to free them will she say it.
Fate may encounter some setbacks, but she knows that Stevan wouldn’t suspect her coming back to take the risk.
But when she saw the scene of the girl around her age cut her folks and her mom closing her eyes before dying. She no longer cared for her life and just wants to end it with revenge.
And now it seems the world has other plans, as she faints from stress and fear, collapsing on the ground in front of the girl she wanted to kill.
-----------
“Carry her” Seraphine commanded the new undead.
She was waiting for a few moments, until she saw a fist flying towards her at the speed of sound.
Seraphine heard her skull crack and her existence fade for the second time today.
----------
“Stop” Verum commanded, freezing the undead on the spot.
‘Careless once again’ he sighed.
“[Heal]”
Seraphine woke up, stood straight, and looked at Verum for a long hard minute.
"It probably has a lingering thought to hit you.” He simply explained and ignored her to interrogate their new undead.
“You may speak, tell me your name.”
If the undead has an intact brain, Verum could restore all of their memories through the use of a passive skill. He liked to combine it with [Heal] and [Deaths desire] to achieve this feat to all his subordinates, but since this one’s brain isn’t damage, he had no need to use [Heal], saving him more limited energy. Too bad [Unworthy] made them lose their memories regardless of state or Verum would have had intelligent, super-powered undead.
As he was remembering a bitter fact, the new undead spoke.
“I am Stevan, where am I? Why is my head blurry? Why do I feel so much anger? My king, what happened?” he asked in a flurry of words.
Verum knew that his [Deaths desire] would make them believe every words he say, but since keeping memories intact was the work of a different skill, there had been many cases where they could turn insane or betray him entirely due to conflicting pasts and ideals.
‘Time to do some world class acting It seems.’ he said and took a deep breath that refreshed his nonexistent lungs.
“They” he paused, pointing at the two girls, “Are your long lost daughters, and I happen to find them while you were asleep.”