“There…” “I…” “We…” all three of them started talking back at once. Willbur sighted and pointed at Core to hear them out one after another.

“There has to be another way. How do you know that you have to cut out the eye and why can’t we just wait?” Core asked. Emelie nodded.

“We need more information to make a decision this heavy. You can’t just expect us to accept cutting out an eye of a comrade with no explanation at all.”

“And there is no way I will let you cut out my eye.” Tsuke added.

Willbur nodded sagely to all these useless commentary, but internally he fumed. The shard of desperation was one of the single most dangerous items he had encountered in his many years as an adventurer and while he had been close to death many times, he had only very few times been so close to said desperation and never because of a single artefact. An eye of a comrade was a very small and very reasonable price for such a dangerous item.

“All right you want more information. Ill give you more information, but don’t cry if it’s a little too much for you.” He answered, while his glance lingered a little longer on Emelie than on the others.

“The thing Tsuke implanted in his eye is called a shard of desperation. It’s part of a greater artefact, the lantern of desperation and that’s only because someone had the desperate attempt to stop that thing. I don’t know much about the lantern. Legends say it was some kind of super overpowered necromancer artefact that couldn’t be destroyed no matter what. So some guy shattered it instead and hid the shard in deep necromantic dungeons.” Willbur sighted.

“I don’t know if whoever that guy or girl was, was a hero or a villain, but he obviously didn’t want anybody to ever find or even use them. Unfortunately dungeons fall under the common misconception that at the end of them there has to be some kind of price. So when the necromantic dungeons were found and some years later cleared by groups of adventurers, everyone assumed this thing at the end was some kind of grand price and not the very reason all of the undead abomination had fought so fierce in the first place. “ The three teenagers listened to his story but especially Tsuke still didn’t seem so see why all of this was bad news.

“So just as Tsuke did, some people implanted the shards inside themselves. But you have to see, adventurer parties able to clean out a whole dungeon of undead were ridiculously strong, even at that time. And when they had cleared it, normally the strongest one of them - the leader - did the implanting. For a very long time nobody knew much about these shards. People only knew that there were necromantic dungeons, that could be cleared and for some reason or another the clearing adventurers parties tended to become ridiculously strong, cruel and then disband or completely disappear for some reason.” Tsuke had started to shift uncomfortably from his right to left leg and the other two looked worried.

“The shard of desperation is no simple cursed item. It’s a treacherous backstabbing nasty motherfucker. First of all it doesn’t become active as long as you don’t use it. So nobody had been able to connect the dots right away. As soon as you use it, you get more powerful instantly, with little side-effects, so it indeed feels as if it is a price.” Willbur made a pause and internally disputed if he should tell the whole truth or just the abridged version. He decided to go with a half-truth that sounded plausible enough.

“But the thing is, with time you get more and more mad. And it’s not just madness as in seeing things I was told, but a much more violent madness. You get bloodthirsty and you start killing people. At some point it gets so bad you start to kill just about everyone. And when research was done by the desperate adventures, they always found out that they should have rejected the price in the first place or if they had implanted it, never used it or cut it out. These things just need to be buried as deep as possible; there is no known way to destroy them. And once they have fused with the carrier, there is also no way to extract them anymore. If Id cut out your eye in less than 24 hours after you used it first, it would just wander to your other eye, or your leg and if there is nothing left to your heart or brain.” He sighted. The truth was a little bit trickier, but there was no reason to create doubt in them. What he said basically was the truth, there was just a little silver lining that seemed like hope at first glance, but just made the thing crueller still.

“And this is the truly disastrous thing about the shard of desperation. Once its activated, it will never stop, as long as there is a stronger host in proximity. If the carrier is killed, the shard will not go inert, it will jump to the next strongest person and fuse with that one instantly.” Emelie had paled while he had told the last part, so she likely had understood the implication. Cores face was so strained from thinking it looked like he was about to lay an egg and Tsuke looked solemn. Willbur wondered what their decision would be.

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“So…” Core started to ask.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Is there any way to kill it at all?” he asked.

“Suicide.” Tsuke replied. Got it one. Smart kid. He really started to like the edgy one. Hopefully he would see reason and do without his worthless eye. There were a lot of ways to work around a missing eye and even some to get stronger.

“Then how are you still alive?” asked Core. Emelie had the answer to that one.

“He defeated someone stronger than him.” She guessed. That was also right. The problem with this method was, there really was no cheating. If you had a concealed power or were secretly strong, the shard still identified you as stronger. Only if there really was no one stronger in proximity the shard went to inert mode. So it basically again came down to assisted suicide, even if it sounded a lot more heroic to phrase it the way Emelie had.

“These things are responsible for more than one suddenly risen demon lord.” Willbur emphasized.

“The moment it becomes active, you either sacrifice part of your body, the carrier as a whole, or you start a circle of never-ending despair.” And that again was the tricky thing with theses shard. Because the only realistic way to get rid of them was to suicide after you had obtained it, it meant that they were mostly found in desolated places. Right at the middle of the dead bodys of obviously strong adventures, often with insane equipment and even in death the body of half-gods. So every looter was strongly tempted to activate the shard again or at least bring that thing with him and then it was just a matter of time till everything started again. With his trick he had found a workaround to be one of the people who knew how that thing worked and still be alive, so he had hidden it really good when he finally had deactivated it. But he really didn’t want to do this again and even if he would want, there were not many people honestly stronger than him and none of them who were willing to sacrifice themself. So the moment that activated shard fused, he had to bail out and let Core and Tsuke to their own devices and get as far away from them as possible. Surley they would work it out somehow. Or not.

In a way it was some godlike luck that he had found out about it before it had fused irreparable with Tsukes body. Cutting it out or killing the host like that was such a specific case, that someone needed to first activate it and be found out by someone who knew what he was doing in 24 hours that Willbur thought it almost unreal. If not for Cores fate-bending presence he would suspect some kind of trickery.

“You have the choice Tsuke.” Willbur ended his monologue when the three teenagers knew all they needed to know.

“Either I cut out your eye right now, or you become a murder hobo in the next weeks and likely Core and Emilie and me have to die for it too.” The last part was nonsense of course, as if he would die for these three midgets. He just had to bail and let them work it out by themselves. Maybe they’d even find a solution, fate-power and all, but Willbur was very sure he wouldn’t survive to tell the tale. And also it would fuck up his plan to retire once again and he couldn’t have that.

Tsuke seemed conflicted.

“How do I know I can trust you?” he asked. Ah someone who knew how to ask the right questions. A pity he still had to lie to him.

“Well you don’t. But I swear to everything that is holy to me that I told you the truth and that there really is no other way.” Willbur thought it kind of ironic, that this wasn’t really a lie, since nothing really was holy to him. Not anymore.

Core also seemed very conflicted.

“You decide whatever you want Tsuke. We will find a solution even if you keep the eye. But if you really think there is a tiny possibility that Willbur is telling the true you should go along with it. That thing really looks ominous and if it’s even half as bad as Willbur just told us you’re better off without it.”

Tsuke seemed almost convinced.

“But the power…” he hesitated.

“ I will personally assist you in whatever revenge quest you have and kill whoever stands in the way.” Willbur said. And to his own surprise he meant it. It almost was the first sentence without any hidden meaning he spoke to the trio. But then again it was a risk, as he saw Emelies shocked face and Cores confused look. Didn’t really fit well with his played persona, but if he could not convince Tsuke he had to force him or give up on this whole thing entirely, so it was a well calculated risk.

Tsuke seemed surprised too, but after a short while he nodded.

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They lay him down on a little stone and Willbur instructed Core to hold Tsukes arms up and Emelie to prepare healing spells.

Tsuke got a leather strap to bite on and Willbur started. With a swift stab and a loud scream Willbur hat inserted the knife in Tsukes eye-socket. The Shard was much sturdier implanted than Willbur had anticipated. Troublesome. He had to be a little rougher and do a lot more cutting than he had intended to. Gouging out eyeballs normally was easy when you had done the first bit, but the shard seemed to have fused with Tsukes skulls orbita. Luckily Willbur knew how to sharp a knife, so after some more screaming and cutting the thing finally only had the central nerve left. It glowed ominous, but Willbur cut out the nerve nevertheless.

A deafening scream escaped Tsukes mouth, so inhumanly loud that Core and Emelie slumped together and Willbur felt his eardrums burst. Tsuke lost consciousness and Willbur had the shard in hand. Finally. He didn’t really mind the blood trickling out of his ears, but something was not right. The shard still glowed. It didn’t infect him, thank god, but it also had not deactivated as it should have by now. Instead it started glowing brighter and brighter and…

“Oh shit!” Willbur exclaimed and threw the thing as far as he could in the sky while it continued to glow even more bright, almost blindingly. It hadn’t even flown 50 meters, when the brightness reached its maximum point. Willbur could feel the tremendous shockwave of the explosion that almost swiped him from his feet. That kind of shockwave meant, when the inevitable heat of the explosion would reach them, they would not be able to survive it.

“SHIIIIIIT!” Willbur hoarse voice, unheard and unanswered screamed in defiance at the explosion. He activated his ability.