Jack strained as he pushed himself to his feet. Waves of pain washed over his body as he stood and turned to face the old man. His left arm held his side where the man had broken his ribs. For a brief moment, Jack was worried about his safety, and then he remembered he couldn’t die. The pain was overbearing, but adrenaline mixed with the knowledge of his own immortality kept him going. Jack raised his head, looked the man in the eyes, and smiled. Blood painted his teeth red and ran down the corner of his lips as his grin widened.

“You fucked up now, old man,” Jack said.

The man laughed in response. “I can’t believe you’re who they picked. You’re nothing but a kid with a stupid dream. You have no idea the implications of what you’ve done by reading that book, and you'll never have a chance to find out because I'm going to end you here and now!”

The man lunged forward toward Jack as he yelled, his hands clenched tight into fists. Jack pulled the knife from under his hoodie. He had no intention of letting this supposed god get the drop on him a second time. Jack ducked to the left as the punch passed harmlessly over his head. Acting more on instinct than skill, Jack thrust the blade up towards the man’s abdomen.

The knife struck its mark and dug deep into the man’s stomach, just below the ribs. Jack had never been in a fight in his life before, let alone stabbed another person. Hearing the flesh rip as the blade pierced the skin made Jack instantly gag, and the hot, sticky blood that poured down the blade and over his hand made him empty the contents of his stomach on the sidewalk.

Profugo took immediate advantage of Jack’s weak stomach and grabbed Jack’s left arm. With inhuman strength, he pushed against Jacks’s elbow until a loud snap pierced the air. Jack screamed in pain as his elbow shattered and his left arm flopped useless to his side. Darkness was starting to cloud his vision but he had to remind himself he couldn’t die. All this pain was temporary; all he had to do was kill this god, and he would get stronger.

An unsettling thought crossed Jack’s mind. He knew, or at least was pretty sure he was immortal, but what did that mean about injuries? Would his body regenerate after he slew his foe, or would he be stuck, beaten, and bloodied until his body recovered on its own? There wasn’t really time to ponder these questions right now, but it was something he definitely planned to ask the voice in his head when he didn’t have a knife hilt deep in another man.

With his right hand still wrapped tightly around the handle of the knife and the blade still firmly inside Profugo’s stomach, Jack pulled his arm up with all his strength. The sound of tearing flesh and cracking bone assaulted Jack’s ear, and he worked the blade further up the man's torso. As the wound grew, the amount of blood increased, and the sidewalk was soon covered in a thick red puddle.

Profugo was howling in pain and released his grip on Jack’s arm. This kid was stronger than he had anticipated, and for the first time he could remember, Profugo felt scared. He was a god, and there was no way this pathetic kid would be able to kill him. Even if they had chosen him and even if he did have the ebony blade, he was still some loser kid.

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His thoughts were cut short as Jack yanked the blade hard down and to the left. Profugo’s intestines spilled from the gaping wound in his stomach to join his blood on the sidewalk beneath his feet. A gurgling cough escaped his lungs as his blood also found its way out of his mouth. With one final grunt, Profugo lurched and fell forward into the pile of his own innards.

Jack pulled the knife from the dead man’s stomach, dropped to his knees, and breathed deeply. It was then that he realized what he had done. He had just had a massive anime-style fight with a homeless man in the middle of the day that ended with him killing another person. There was no way someone hadn’t seen what had happened. This fear was confirmed by the sound of police sirens in the distance. 100% flashed in Jack’s mind as the robotic female voice began to speak.

“Vita max increased by 3%. Panhandling skill acquired. 10% chance for random strangers to give you money when you ask for it. Congratulations on completing your quest.”

“I have bigger problems than quests! The cops are coming, and I just disemboweled someone after an epic fight! I’m going to jail for sure.” Jack said.

“Oh, don’t be a bitch. Mortals can’t see what you just did. How the hell would you expect gods and other immortals to survive if normal people could see everything they did?” The less friendly of the two voices in his head said.

“Here, I’ll show you what everyone else saw.”

A flash of pain shot through Jack’s mind as the vision appeared. He was looking down at himself and the homeless man like a flashback from a movie. Past Jack advanced towards Profugo, but instead of Profugo throwing his jacket off and attacking Jack, he raised his hands. Jack watched the vision in horror as his past self revealed the knife from his hoodie and began stabbing the man over and over. The vision ended with Jack standing over the body of Profugo, his clothes covered in blood.

“So, to the mortal world, I walked out of a convenience store and just stabbed a random homeless guy to death! How in the actual fuck is that better!?” Jack yelled at himself.

“I didn’t say it was better, just different. I can see how it would look bad to you, but it does make sure the mortal world still has no idea there are gods walking among them.”

“By making me look like a Goddamn murderer!”

“Well, I mean, technically, you are.”

Tires screeched as the police car rounded the corner, coming straight for Jack. He didn’t have time to keep fighting with himself. He had to find a way out of here. Turning away from the cop car, he started to run, and that’s when he remembered his ribs were broken. Jack didn’t make it more than a few feet from the corpse before the pain of breathing became too much to bear. He could hear the cops screaming commands from behind him as he turned around. There was no way he could outrun them in his current condition, which left him with only one option. It was time to find out how true this immortal thing was.

Jack narrowed his eyes and raised his knife as the lead cop shouted at him to put down his weapon. Jack slowly shook his head back and forth and started to walk towards the police officer. The cop yelled at Jack again, pointing the barrel of his pistol towards Jack. The second officer appeared from behind the first. Cop number two was not nearly as lenient as cop number one. The moment the second cop had the opportunity to shoot Jack, he took it.

The gunshots rang out one after another. More than half of the bullets missed Jack but the ones that didn’t burned hot in his chest as they found their mark. The world spun and turned black as the bullets ripped through Jack’s chest and arms.

“Fuck my life,” Jack said as he fell backward, and the world dimmed away around him.