V – 00003.0 – Hunger.

The shades carried me down the steps of the office building that led down the rooftop, and as they did, I began noticing a few oddities; any time they seemed to struggle particularly, I could feel them losing their substance, then the shifting mists of energy that composed them suddenly deepened, and they regained their strength.

Continuing to observe them, I noticed that each time they attempted to overexert themselves, energy was drawn from my core to temporarily give them greater strength and renew their forms.

I focused on the sensation of my mana shifting out of my core and into them; I felt how much control I had over the mana flow, and as it turned out, I had absolute control.

Focusing on the shades, I found that they either weren’t using my energy or they used so little I could not feel the drain from them just by being out and exerting minimal effort.

However, their hands were constantly wearing out; the energy that composed their digits grew thinner and weaker constantly, as if remaining in contact with me was somehow burning through their bodies, forcing me to infuse them with death constantly to keep them in one piece.

Furthermore, anytime they had to do anything more taxing than barely keeping me above ground level and shambling, they needed my energy to do it.

Lifting me over a railing, taking a step up or down stairs, it was all too much for them without my strength to aid them; fortunately, at least for now, my regeneration was outpacing their consumption, although there was still one clock I was worried about.

I’m supposed to be dead; I mean, fuck me, my body is so beyond fucked. I’m practically a paraplegic, yet something is keeping me alive… Technically, somehow my soul or spirit or whatever the fuck isn’t being torn out again… I’m a dumbass. I thought finally deciding to do what you’re supposed to do when weird new magical shit happens to you. Open your status.

[Your legacy has reached beyond the veil through your shared attribute.]

[You have been stricken with the 11th curse of Ygdragthul the cursed: Voracity of the dead.]

[Resurrection initiated.]

[Voracity of the dead: You will eternally hunger like the dead in the hells do; you will yearn for that which you were most desperate for in life until your cravings leave you a hollow, hedonistic wretch. May you never know peace for defying the laws of nature.]

[Unbound: has failed to break your curse.]

[Unbound: has reduced the effects of your curse.]

[Voracity of the dead: You will eternally hunger like the dead in the hells do; you will yearn for that which you were most desperate for in life.]

[You have been awarded a rare title: No Rest For The Wicked.]

[Title: No Rest For The Wicked: You have revived yourself from the dead using a power most decidedly wicked, and death has left its mark on you in the process.]

[+ 2 Death, + 1 General Perk, Undying]

[Ability: Undying – Resilient – 1/6

I have tasted death’s bitter kiss, but I have not been undone. My legacy is written in the silence between heartbeats.

Rank: Resilient: Death may not claim you while your main vital organs are mostly functional: Heart, Brain, Lungs.]

“Ok? That’s fucking disturbing, and also fucking amazing. I can’t die so long as I’m mostly intact”

“Do we need to remind you that, while yes, you’re not dead, you’re basically a paraplegic? Plus you aren’t thinking about another crucial fact: your organs can degrade through things such as dehydration or thirst. We didn’t become immortal; we got overtime.” I said to myself, giving substance to one of the voices in my mind.

Well, he’s a depressing one, isn’t he… But he’s right; I need these shades to get me out of the city faster.

I directed my intentions towards the dark planet within me, pushing a wave of death mana into the connection the shades shared with me. Their forms thickened and morphed, growing to almost giant proportions as I filled them with energy before they shrank back down to regular human sizes; however, the smoke that made them up was so thick and had such volume that they appeared absolutely solid.

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Their bodies shifted more like a liquid than a vapor, and I could feel their restrained strength through the grip they had on me, yet they didn’t move any faster or with any urgency at all; they kept to their lethargic pace.

I waited and waited for them to do anything, to hurry, and eventually, in frustration, I screamed. “Hurry up, you fucks!” And suddenly they leapt into motion, starting to sprint while carrying me; they moved far slower and with less grace than I did. But they could give a human a serious run for their money, at least one without any levels.

These things have literally zero free will. Fuck me, my father was right; I really am going to peak at middle management. Well, I suppose they did show initiative once, when they rescued me; maybe they’re able to understand that they have to keep me alive?

Or it’s equally possible you accidentally conjured them and made them help you while you were dying. Came another cold voice in my mind.

“All very possible.” I mumbled as I watched my system screen flash up, telling me that Selfish Gene just reactivated.

I looked towards the shades, allowing myself a moment of excitement and hope. “alright you two put me down against a tree, and go catch something and bring it to me alive.”

The shades faceless heads stared at me for a long moment after putting me down, possibly in contemplation, then they turned in unison like robots and looked at each other before walking into the woods almost in perfect lockstep.

“Holy shit, they are creepy. I mean I get it ripped out spirits but what the fuck” I said, as I waited for my shades to hopefully bring me something that would heal me.

I sat limply against the uncomfortable trees; slowly I could feel some sensation coming back to my body, but movement was still out of the question and likely would be for a long time; too much of my body was no longer in my body.

Hours passed, and night slowly turned to day as I waited, and waited. occasionally I would look inwards and observe my connection to the shades, each time it seemed perfectly fine however, so I resigned myself to just waiting and fantasizing about murdering every single person behind those walls.

By the time my shades came back, the sun was high in the air, and my pale white skin was turning a bright red, but thankfully and mercifully each of the shades held two small, squirming animals in their hands, with the one on the left that had a more feminine frame holding a rabbit and a possum and the other holding two rabbits. They held the small creatures by their necks as the animals thrashed and struggled in their grips.

“Alright, shove one of the rabbits into my mouth,” I said, and my shade eagerly obeyed, crouching down and shoving the white furry beast against my teeth. I opened my mouth inhumanly wide allowing the defenseless creature’s skull to be shoved between my fangs as it tried to futilely kick against my shades hand.

Snapping my teeth down a bit through it with ease, granting it an instantaneous death as my massive canines punctured its skull and lanced its brain in four places, sucking on the ambrosia of healing that lay beyond its flesh I could feel the numbness spreading over my form as its life began pulling my body back together.

Tendons were stretched taut and stitched closed; shattered bones fused together, and ribs that had snapped were pulled back into place by my tensing musculature as cartilage attached them and bone regenerated.

Soon, however, my rejuvenation was halted; I unconsciously swallowed before coming to realize the shade had been shoving the rabbit into my mouth the entire time, and I had been eating it.

“Fuck me, I’m hungrier… and more messed up than I thought,” I said as I tried to raise an arm; my shoulder ratcheted and clicked in its joint as I weakly raised my left arm. “Hmm, progress. Alright, give me the next one,” I said to my shades, who began feeding living animals into my gullet like a conveyor belt.

I did not take long to finish my meals; even the possum, which fought on its way down, eventually yielded to my teeth and stomach acid.

I read over my status again and accepted the kills from my prey along with a bonus strength point from parasite, which filled my body with a momentary burn when I acknowledged it; my muscles softened, expanded, and then tightened up, building back larger and bigger.

Dragging myself to my feet brought frostbite-like pain searing into my damaged body. I was far from in my prime, but I was functional; the majority of the crippling wounds were gone, and a couple of crushed bullets lay at my feet after they were expelled by my regeneration process.

Staring towards the city, a deep murderous hate crawled up my spine, twisting my thoughts to a dark direction; fantasies of fire, beating, and ripping apart every paltry attempt at holding onto Anchorage humanity made flashed into my mind with a carnal hunger for blood. “I’m… We are going to rout them from our home like the fucking vermin they are, I said to myself as I dragged my battered body towards my home.

With a simple verbal command, my shades fell in line beside me, propping up my shoulders and taking most of my weight, until walking was made easy again.

Trekking through the woods I was allowed substantial time to think, especially since the shades seemed to just know where to go; I barely even had to pay attention as they walked me deeper into the woods.

It was with that substantial time I decided to rearrange my priorities somewhat.

We’re going to build a fucking cabin while slaughtering as much shit as we can, and we’ll keep doing that until we have every mutation on our shortlist. And you’re getting us more shades.

Then we’ll eat the reapers… and the military.

“Lay me down against the trees, the ones facing the lake.” I commanded the shades; sure, I could move on my own, but at least for now they could drag me significantly faster than I could walk on my own.

“Alright, I think it’s about time to have a look into this soul and core business.”

Pulling my senses within, I observed my core, feeling the intricate web of chains that surrounded it, barely obscured by the black fog that covered my core like a necrotic industrial revolution was taking place on the planet below the black mists.

Spreading my awareness through my infernal attribute, I could feel how they shifted and maneuvered themselves; occasional jolts of energy filled those, causing random runes to flash. What the hell am I meant to do with these? I wondered to myself

I gripped the chains mentally and tried to make them move to pull and twist them the way I did with death, and once again they resisted. I tried to feel for anything in them for a trick, a sense of what to do, and eventually an idea occurred to me.

These aren’t actual chains; it’s just the form that the mana takes. It’s a representation of it. After all, when I up my infernal attribute chains don’t appear on my skin… Runes do fuck me; that’s probably it. The chains are just a temporary form a conduit for the mana; the runes are the real deal.

I flexed my will hard, focusing on the runes that kept occasionally flashing, and as I did, I felt the links rattle with vibrations running up the web of chains like prey flying headfirst into a spider’s lair.

Runes began to glow brighter, and the chains contorted as they did. Links disintegrated and reappeared, forming new chains as the glowing rune I envisioned separated from its link and started connecting to other runes, forming some kind of demonic soliloquy within my soul.