*Note: Did you guys forget his passive? Bet you did, here's a hint, he was unconscious for three days. Also abusing the line command this chapter, sorry. Also I can't think of a title for this chapter aside from that X.X sorry.
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"Then we'll have to split up, we can't leave Ben here alone and if what he said was true Mina shouldn't come with us." I looked at Carey, "Since you and Liliana are the only two who are capable of using healing magic you should stay here with Ben and Mina."
"What! No, I'm going with you and I'm-"
"No," Brandon interjected, "Shin's right and plus if the opponents are chosen we can't handle this rashly, the three of us have our gifted abilities while you haven't discovered yours yet. We'll go, its the best choice."
"But"
"Carey, you're mad right now and will make mistakes. That is really dangerous for a magician, don't worry we'll make them pay." Jane was shaking and the red glint in her eyes haven't subsided.
Carey closed her eyes and breathed deeply, "Yeah you're right." she gave a small smile, "To think I would be told that by you two, please be careful."
Mary walked up to me and gave me a dark look, "Don't you dare die." Carey, Jane and Brandon looked over in surprise at Mary's sudden behavior. They probably think Mary loves me or something close to that. If they knew the truth of our relationship though things might go bad really fast.
Chuckling Brandon pounded me on the back, "Don't worry, he'll be fine. We'll bring him back to you in one piece." Then he hefted his sword and walked towards the forest Jane following behind, "Come on, let's go before Jane loses control."
Walking past the corpses an idea came to me, I wonder if it will work on non-humanoids, Summon Shambler the bodies gave twitches, Stop Moving. Immediately the minute movements stopped, I glanced around to see if anyone saw, Mary was staring at me but otherwise the rest did not notice. I gave her a small smile then headed into the underbrush storing the souls in soul stones as I did so.
If the forest looked dark from the outside, it was worse on the inside. I could barely see my hand in front of me then in front of me a small light came to life. It was a small enclosed lamp, the tiny flame shedding light around us. Brandon passed the lamp to Jane who was sniffing the air, "Jane'll lead the way, just follow the light."
"What's she smelling for?" I have a feeling I know but...
Brandon looked back momentarily, "Blood, there would be plenty of it if what Ben said was true and unless he was affected by magic he wouldn't have lied. Just stay away from Jane when the fight starts, two of her passives are Blood Fury and Blood Thirst. She won't be able to tell friend from foe when she's surrounded by blood."
"Roger, I'm not a melee fighter so hopefully I won't be near her." That would explain the shaking and the reddish glow around her eyes.
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We continued in silence for a while, Jane's breathing becoming heavier with every step, so much so that I feel like she's going to hyperventilate. Then she suddenly dropped the lamp and sprinted forward, swearing Brandon dove to catch the lamp. Getting up he ran in the direction she disappeared in shouting for me to follow. There were sounds of howling and screaming up ahead and then we were no longer in the trees. The sight we beheld was as Ben said one of utter chaos.
"What in the world." Brandon breathed out. And I would agree, in front and slightly below us was a clearing about the size of a football field where brown and black wolves were killing each other. That wasn't the crazy part, what was insane were the amount of corpses that littered the ground, they piled over a meter high with branches sticking out of them here and there; this was clearly not a clearing before. The corpses were rotting with flies and maggots crawling all over them, the ones at the bottom had their cracked bones showing, crushed beneath the weight of the others. I started retching from the smell and view, Brandon fighting that impulse and winning barely.
Jane was dashing across on top of the corpses weapons drawn and a savage smile on her face, heading towards the center of the fighting. "Shit, Let's get going Jane can't fight them all on her own." Brandon ran after her as I unsteadily tried to keep up. Stumbling forward with a dull headache and blurry vision, I noticed souls everywhere. Consume Soul, I almost immediately keeled over after consuming the soul thinking it would help. Up ahead Jane was noticed and attacked by several black wolves that were instantly killed with brutal efficiency. Laughing maniacally she danced among them blades flashing and blood spraying in the air as an accompaniment to her dance of death. Brandon was still a bit behind her but with he giant blade cleaving wolves in two. Strangely the brown wolves ignored them and even protected them seemingly, but they gave Jane a wide berth once she killed a couple of them.
Shin... You... Need... To... Co-
"I need to what, Karen?" Ugh the headache was getting worse fast. "Karen... You there?" She wasn't responding... Crap this isn't good, I fell forward barely catching myself with my hands on the bloody rotting 'ground'. It felt like I was drying up rapidly and the headache grew worse, it almost seemed like something was trying to break out of my head. The of the dead seemed to snarl at me as I started to black out.
*Ding
Emergency Mode Activated, Seeking out Sentient Soul.
What, what does that mean.... then I remembered one of my skills or rather curse, Rejected from Life. A pulse of pain went through my body as something in my head felt like it broke, then... nothing but darkness surrounded me.
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Clara Smith breathed heavily as she wiped blood away from her eyes, in front of her lay several dead black wolves that added to the floor of corpses, she winced as she heard the death cries of many of her own wolves. Her orange t-shirt was in tatters and her jeans full of holes, her entire body covered in blood and gore from days of brutal fighting. She had been sent here as the chosen of Lupa and was trying to create a sanctuary within the forest when she and her summoned wolves were attacked by the black ones. Lead by a boy in faded jeans and a leather jacket they were brutal forcing Clara to respond in kind and over the long fight where neither could kill the other it turned into this.
The only things she got from that boy was that his god was Fenrir and he wanted her dead to take her symbol and get stronger, strong enough to defeat the reaper's chosen. Lupa had warned her of people like this but she did not expect to have to fight so soon, it was heartbreaking when she killed and her own was killed, for someone who loved nature it was absolutely horrifying. But she could not concede, to lose was to let Lupa die and she will not do that. As wolves once again attacked her she jumped back in surprise as a snarling form collided with the nearest black wolf. Daggers flashing the girl that came flying out of nowhere smiled in absolute ecstasy as the warm blood poured from the wolf onto her, before cutting onward bathing in the blood of the wolves around her.
"Wha-" a giant form collided with her knocking the breathe out of her as the daggers flashed towards her.
"Shit, are you alright?" She looked up into the concerned face of a young black man, "You need to pull back or else Jane is going to tear them apart along with you."
"Eh? Wait what, who are you?" People were here? Did the fighting spread that far out? Clara felt tears coming to her eyes, she did not want to drag other people into this.
"Brandon Chosen of Atlas, now we need to get out of here," He winced as he threw Clara over his shoulders and started trotting away from the front lines, "From the way your wolves are behaving I assume you aren't the aggressor in this fight. So we'll help you, but it'll be easier on Jane if she doesn't have her attention split between two targets."
Help, that was something Clara gave up on very early on, "But, she can't fight them all on her own."
Brandon gave a dry smile, "She isn't, we have another chosen with us and he'll be more help than me. Hopefully he'll be able to catch up, think I left him quite far back in my rush to follow Jane."
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Blood, lovely delicious blood, "GIVE ME MORE!!!" Jane's mind was filled with one thing and one thing only, the need to kill for blood. Her right hand went up dagger cutting through the throat of a wolf that leapt at her left hand sending a blade into the flank of another. In front of her was wave after wave of enemies, but that still wasn't enough, she wanted blood; the blood of the one controlling these.
"Out of my way!!" growling she dove into the thick of them cutting through faster than they could react, faster, she must kill them faster. Blood Thirst and Blood Fury were double edged, on one hand it made her a lot stronger and faster, but on the other hand she loses the ability to think. In the depths of her mind she recalled attacking a girl, stopped by Brandon who took two cuts to his back, she felt guilty and sorry but that only lasted a second as blood lust overwhelmed that feeling.
There, a boy with short hair in a black leather jacket, wolves were coming to life around him out of nowhere, he was the one she wanted. She wanted his face twisted in terror and pain as his life bled from him, killing a human is different from that of a beast; she will enjoy every second of it when she gets to him. She let out a terrorizing roar as she headed straight for him killing all those that were in her way without slowing down. Almost, almost there, her bloody dagger flashed as she thrust forward towards his heart, then... PAIN, she tripped and rolled with the momentum of her run as her right leg buckled underneath the pain. Snarling she crouched on her good limbs, weapons lost in the fall as she readied to pounce. Then she looked at the boy in confusion, he was staring at his own chest in shock, a giant spear of ice was sticking through his chest. Looking down she saw a smaller icicle stabbed through her right thigh.
Ice? Magic? She searched for a certain someone she knew used magic... Her vision was red, where was he! where was he! She will kill him for hurting her. Then she spotted him, a boy walking towards her with a black aura all around him as anything that got close to him was speared to death with ice. Every instinct in her says to run but her fury and thirst overwhelmed them. Her previous prey forgotten she leaped towards Shin with claws outstretched at her fastest speed yet; fangs ready to tear him apart.
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Jared was on the ground bleeding out, by some miracle the ice lodged in his chest had missed his heart but he was dying and he knew it. All the power he had felt when he was chosen by Fenrir, when he was attacking that earth lover girl was lost when he faced death in the eyes of that bestial girl. But that was just fear of death, he was in utter terror right now, his bladder control lost as he watched an approaching figure. "Mommy..." he cried out barely a whisper, his lungs were destroyed in the attack. He had attacked the nature girl to get her symbol, to devour it and get stronger, she was to be the first sacrifice so he could get stronger, so he could hunt death. But what was approaching him right now was undeniably death itself.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
That beast girl is a fool for trying to attack the figure and it was proven soon as a giant sword of ice pierced through her abdomen. There was no sense of victory as he saw her get cut through, his mind was focused on one thing; he wanted to die, die before that figure reached him for he was sure that whatever that figure does, it would be worse than death.
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The face she was looking into was not Shin's, the effects of her passive having been chased away by the pain. It was twisted and evil, she pulled at the sword trying to dislodge it as her life was bleeding away. "Pull- cough - pull it out Shin, please, it hurts." There were no recognition in his eyes as he pushed the blade even deeper making Jane cry out in pain. A voice was whimpering in her head, Sekhmet, goddess of war with a blood thirst that surpassed even her fears of death was crying, fearful of the person standing in front of Jane. She had a sudden realization as she felt her life end, Shin never said Karen was his patron, they just assumed it... In reality his patron was... a horrified look was on her face as her mouth moved to whisper, "The Reaper."
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Soul Consumed, status returning to normal
Kage stared at the window in front of him then at Jane's lifeless body on the sword he held. An automatic system had kicked in to prevent Shin from dying to his passive which led to the current predicament.
"JANE!!!" A booming voice cried out from across the battlefield. FUCK, I told Shin to get stronger but I forgot about the passive as well. His body hurt and ached, Shin's body had just recovered from Kage taking over, he has to make this as quick as possible. Sucking Jane's surprised soul into a soul stone he let go of the sword and dashed towards Brandon, he feels sorry for them but there's nothing he can do now, it'll be a problem if Carey knows what happened, she was strong and extremely dangerous.
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Clara did not know what do to, what she saw had made her instincts sound alarms for her to run. Even if it was only for a short amount of time the aura that figure let out had sent irrational fear into everything in the forest. Brandon's friend, Jane was killed by whom she assumed to be the other Chosen that was with them except from Brandon's rage they did not know that the one they were travelling with was none other than the one they fear. The Reaper's chosen, the one they all intended to take down or at least run away from.
"You know the forest right? Run to the Eastern entrance, you'll find a wagon there." Brandon's voice was tense, rage barely held in through sheer will, "There's a girl there with blonde hair, she's one of this world's Chosen, tell her what Shin is and get her to run."
Eh? "But, what about you?" Clara's voice shook, the only thing keeping her here was the wish to repay the debt of Brandon and Jane showing up.
"I'll hold him back, Jane was the one with the offensive power, for me it's more defensive than offensive." He looked back and gave her an empty smile, "Don't worry I won't die, I have to settle something with that lying bastard." Clara stood there rooted, while his words held conviction his eyes clearly told her that he knew he wasn't going to live through this.
"GO! You have the best chance of making it out of here, I'm too slow... I'm counting on you." With that Brandon ran towards Shin, who was heading towards them now. Tears streaming down her face Clara ran, ran as fast as her legs can carry her without turning back, she was afraid of what she would see if she turned back or stopped. The thing that weighed the most heavily on her heart though was that she's glad Brandon was slowing Shin down, glad that she wasn't the one facing death.
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As Kage got close to them the girl suddenly turned around and ran while Brandon charged at him sword held high with a pack of wolves with him, the girl had left them to help. Shit, he can't let the girl get back, but Brandon isn't going to let him chase her. It's going to be a gamble but he has an idea, he concentrated on a command as he started consuming souls en masse.
"You lying little bastard, DIE!!!" Brandon swung his greatsword down powerfully in an arc. Kage jumped to the left and over a wolf, grabbing onto and ripping off the wolves upper jaw as he went. Ice Spear, he sent a rain of ice down as he cleared the area. Brandon used his sword to block as he ran towards Kage, the wolves however were stabbed through easily eliminating the small danger they posed. Kage kept a spear of ice as a weapon and thrust it towards Brandon but it was shattered against his sword. Shit, guess ice even magically created is still weaker than steel, Kage jumped back as Brandon slashed again his sword taking apart the bodies of multiple corpses. Summon Shamblers, with no shortage of bodies the entire section of floor beneath them came to life as they rose as zombies.
"Do you only have little tricks?" Brandon slammed his left fist down creating a dent around him as the zombies in that area was crushed to death. Physically they are the same in terms of strength due to Kage's buffed stats and he's faster but he has no weapon. Magic isn't Kage's strong point at all and system is notifying him that he cannot enslave Brandon. Soul Chains, black chains held onto Brandon slowing him down, but only slightly. While he doesn't seem able to break them they barely hindered his movements, well Atlas did hold up the world so that wasn't too much of a surprise. Slowing him is all Kage needed anyways, Devour Souls, a pang of guilt hits him as he casts his next spell while the numerous souls around sustain his mana, Summon Soul. Pouring every bit of Mana he has into the spell, willing it to go faster as Brandon was approaching sword held high.
"We trusted you," Brandon was three steps away, "We never did anything to you," two, " Yet you killed Jane, you're heartless," one, "Now die so no one else has to suffer!". Brandon stopped right in front of Kage and swung his giant sword down at Kage's head.
Just before the sword hit Brandon pulled back on the sword and swerved it to the right, the momentum taking the sword out of his grasp and slamming it through several trees before it embedded itself deeply inside an ancient oak. He was staring at his chest and the small figure in front of him, mixed emotions showing on his face. "Ja-Jane.." He fell over heart impaled by two elegant black daggers, their owners staring indifferently.
Kage crouched and closed Brandon's eyes before sealing his soul in a soul stone, "Sorry, but I can't die here." He looked at the silent figure next to him, it was definitely Jane garbed in black leather but without her personality. She was there, he could feel her anger towards him, towards herself and her sadness but her soul had no power, it was just a spectator. He consumed the souls Shin previously stored, Summon Demon, using the bodies of the fallen chosen he summoned demons of wrath, lust and pride, putting the symbols of their various gods into his inventory.
Brandon's body was covered in red scales doubling in size with a single horn protruding from his forehead and in place of eyes flames took their place. Cruel black claws took the place of nails and a long muscular tail trailed behind him, "Who do you want killed Master?" it's voice sounded like Brandon's but also sounded like crackling fire.
Jared's body was covered in black full plate armor with longsword and a plate shield in his hands. His black hair was shoulder length and leathery black wings protruded from his back. He looked at Kage with entirely bottomless black eyes, "What do you want?".
Jane's body gained red wings, long sharp nails and a thin elegant red tail her eyes were red with a slight purple glow. Other than that her body remained relatively unchanged, "Master, what do you wish of me?" she said in a lusty version of Jane's voice a seductive smile on her lips.
"Stay out of trouble and out of sight, see if you can find where other chosen's are and their information." Jane really did not like what he did with her body.
"No smashing? Alright."
"Understood, just make sure your weak body doesn't expire while I'm away."
"Aww and I wanted to do something nice with the master, but it's master's orders. Can I have a reward if I do well?"
Saying a variety of things they left, Wrath through the trees, Lust and Pride by air, Kage turned towards Jane's soul form. "Stay in this forest and keep out of sight until called upon, also sorry." Nodding Jane disappeared into the forest. Now, to finish cleaning up this mess.
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They had made camp a bit away from the forest, Ben was still unconscious wrapped up in a blanket propped up against a small tree with Carey next to him. Liliana and Mary were chatting idly by the wagon where Mina was soundly sleeping. A figure bursting suddenly from the trees made them lift their weapons up, a girl with messy shoulder length brown hair was running towards them. Carey stood up staff outstretched, "Who are you? Stop right there!"
The girl never got to answer as the corpses of the dead rose up and grabbed her, screaming in surprise she went down among the arms and mouths. Carey shocked stared, Liliana started walking forward only to be subtly stopped by Mary who had seen such corpses before. Swearing Mary quickly cast a sleep spell on Mina and Ben, "You take care of the girl" she said to Liliana in a whisper. Confused but complying Liliana sprinted towards the girl while Mary headed for Carey who was over her shock and quickly killed the shamblers with earth spikes.
Scratched but relatively uninjured the girl got up and started blabbing a stream of panicked incoherent nonsense to them as Liliana approached. "Calm down first then spea-" Carey never got to finish as Mary slammed a fist into her gut, kneeling over Carey looked up at Mary in bewilderment.
"Sorry Honey, sleep for now." Mary grabbed Carey's head forcing her to look into her eyes. Carey collapsed unconscious as the girl screamed and looked from Mary to Liliana, before she could do anything else Liliana got behind her and knocked her out with a quick strike to the back of the neck.
"Mind telling me what's going on Mary?" Liliana picked up the girl and carried her back to the wagon, giving the corpses a kick to make sure they've stopped moving.
Mary looked at the corpses, then Liliana, "I think... Our master did something," she sighed, then sneaked a glance at Carey's unconscious form, a smile twitching at her lips, "Maybe if I ask nicely I'll get to keep her."
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*Note: Kind of a darker chapter, sorry I suck at combat. I also kind of feel like this is turning a bit into attack on titan where most the characters you meet disappear mostly due to death within an episode X.X I'll try to not do that from now on... as much.