-Player-

When he watched Hex wake up inside the Chaos Engine he'd expected the boy to throw himself around wildly, but Pixie had tagged along with him during the sacrifice somehow. The actions he'd taken during this 'run' had been purposefully blunt to avoid any personal connections, and yet the faerie had joined with Hex before the sacrifice had been completed. He heard Pixie complain about the stupidity behind his first wish, but Hex wasn't paying her any attention as his eyes locked onto Player when he finally found him in the dark mist. Player smiled in his usually twisted way, the kid wasn't too bad all things considered, but his softer side would kill him if it wasn't corrected quickly. He navigated through the mist surrounding them, and Hex's eyes followed his every movement; Pixie didn't notice him until Player forced the mist away from himself.

While he hadn't expected the boy to be ecstatic to see him, the vengeful glare on Hex's face told him clearly that Hex didn't see him as an ally. 'Perhaps he never will, it's a shame I've never tried this route before.' The barley audible question of what Player wanted had the promise of violence behind it if it wasn't answered, and while Hex had an impressive strength it was a strength Player had mastered ages ago.

"You're not strong enough to challenge me Hex, especially not here, so please try to point that rage towards something more productive." As if to punctuate his sentence the mist ahead of them faded away to reveal a valley full of humanoid forms wreathed in a familiar mist. "You must master the Chaos Engine before we reach that bastard Below he'll just send you back to a 'checkpoint'. Regardless of that, there's only one way to master Chaos—"

Hex interrupted him with a raised hand, and the young godling stood and walked towards Player before he placed Pixie on his shoulder. Hex didn't waste time after that, and he took a running leap into the shadow filled valley below. Pixie had a concerned look on her face as she watched the young godling become swarmed by a large group of shadow people. Player sighed in frustration, and snapped his fingers together bringing the young godling back up to where his stood wrapped in a shroud of mist. When the mist faded away Hex cried out before standing as if he were prepared to fight off more assailants. The eyeless man clicked his tongue in disappointment as he examined Hex. "You won't die here, or at least you will but every time you die you'll come back up here; the bright side though is that the shadows won't come back if you've already killed them."

Player didn't bother warning him about the mental toll each death would have, and maybe he should have because the godling didn't bother acknowledging he'd even heard what Player had said as he leapt back into the valley. Pixie, in her usual fashion hadn't looked directly at Player once yet despite standing on his shoulder: Only after Hex had returned, and left for the third time did she bother looking at Player's scarred face. "Will his soul be...scarred by this?" He knew she wanted to ask if Hex would end up like him, a soul so broken they were unfit to even be considered trash among the spirits. "The boy won't become a fragment because of this faerie, he'll only grow a bit more mature through this." If his words reassured her the emotionless mask she wore hid that from him, so Player turned his attention back to Hex.

The boy was taking longer to come back this time, and he faced three shadows that had long blades attached to their wrists. Hex managed to kill one of them, but the other two tore him to shreds once his back was turned to them. During his fourth return Hex didn't immediately jump back into the valley instead he too a deep breath, turned around, and headed into the mist behind them. After a moment of silence a loud cracking sound resounded through the mist, and Hex returned holding a bone club in each of his hands. Pixie frowned when he didn't look at them before jumping back into the valley to continue his fight.

Hex hit the ground running, and Player smiled while he watched the godling charge at the two from before as they stood next to their fallen companion. Once Hex reached them Player knew they didn't have any real chance against him. Pixie fidgeted from where she stood on his shoulder as she watched Hex face off against a beast cloaked in shadows. It stood two feet taller than Hex, and it had three heads with the silhouettes of a dog; Player held fond memories of that beast, but now it would be used for training purposes. "Why does he have to do this?" Pixie's question should've been expected, but he'd been lost in thought so his answer came slowly to him. "The boy is tied to strings woven by malevolent beings who absolutely hate him, and they would like nothing better than to see his soul burn away quickly." Player gestured to the valley as Hex used the beast's corpse for cover while his shoulder slowly healed from its attacks.

"This is all necessary training, after all this boy will challenge the gods Above, and Below alone." He'd never looked at Pixie when he spoke, but Player could feel her eyes on him as she built up the courage to speak. "He won't be alone." Player couldn't feel it before, but once he'd thought of the beast a frown had formed on his face. After hearing Pixie talk as if she'd be there with Hex only caused it deepen as he stared down at Hex. "I hope you're right fae, for his sake at the very least."

-Hex-

I couldn't look at them not until I'd gone through all of the 'enemies' in valley, Pixie would've tried to make me rest and the shadow bastard wouldn't give me back my body if I couldn't do this. He hadn't needed to say it, but whatever a checkpoint was if I was forced to go to one he'd probably take control of me again. I was on death number eight when the shadow people began to slowly lose their shrouds before my eyes. With their shrouds gone the shadow people's forms slowly changed in front of my eyes, and some of them lost their humanoid shapes opting for more grotesque figures. A seven eyed creature with insect like mandibles that dripped with black ichor lunged at me first, and the only reason my head stayed on was because of the broken dragon bone in my left hand I used to bat the attack away. I stabbed the other jagged piece of dragon bone through the bug creature's chest killing it, but before I had time to move away I was forced to use their corpse as a shield from the sharp quills that came flying in towards me.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

I couldn't exactly tell why, but after each death I became more aware of my surroundings to the point I'd started to feel attacks starting to pass through the air around me. After taking care of the quill thrower I had a small, rare, but beautiful moment of respite from attacks as the shadows still cloaked in heavy shrouds stood on one end of the valley while the ones I'd managed to get through lay on the ground. Most of them were already dead, but a few had only been mortally wounded and hadn't yet died: The quill thrower was part of the latter group.

They'd tried to avoid the thrust I'd made so the cut to their throat had been too shallow, though it had put them down which was most important. Each time I died my wounds were healed, and when I fought even mortal wounds would only stop me for a few moments after the seventh death. My enemies in the shadows had begun to notice my pattern of wounding as many of them as I could before I was overwhelmed by their numbers. I'd managed to clear half of the valley through this brunt force method, but now their groups were smaller in number. These small parties never attacked me without having at least one of them to support the attacker. Their methods had slowed me down, but for the three lives they'd taken I'd gotten through six of these parties. The dragon bone clubs had broken a while ago, and I'd taken to using their jagged edges to stab my enemies up close.

For a while it worked, but as the mist parted I knew that with the broken bones I'd die more times than before. The party size hadn't changed, but the members had so drastically that I had to look up to completely see some of them. The first group was a pair of three ten meter tall giants with six arms each, and their lower bodies were four legged. If their hooves weren't digging into the ground while they stared at me with colorless eyes somehow still completely filled with hate for me. With their size I'd expected some sort of advantage when it came to speed but I'd barley raised my arms before three fists the size of stones hit me. The blow sent me flying backwards, and I'd barley had time to feel the pain of having both my forearms broken before the world suddenly stopped spinning as my back hit a boulder next to the quill thrower. I felt the pain everywhere for a moment, but once I heard something else snap I lost feeling in my limbs. I fell down next to the quill thrower, and was somewhat surprised at how their face still held a hateful sneer on it. One mercy was that I couldn't feel what the three giants had in store for me, that was until I saw what the one who reached me first had in store. For a while I'd only heard heavy thuds followed by the sound of bones breaking through skin, and I couldn't turn my head away from that glare until a black hoof dripping in crimson gore blocked my view.

I guess it crushed my head next because moments later I was back at the top of the canyon with the eyeless shadow bastard. Pixie wasn't on his shoulder and when I turned my head I saw the small faerie flying in the air next to me holding her hand out to my left arm. I didn't know what she was doing, and though she might've been trying to help the longer she held her hand out I found it harder to look through the dark mist below. "Pixie, I'm fine I promise." A lie so obvious that I had to force it to be true, so I gave her my best smile as I stood to go back down. When the phantom held his arm out to stop me I was curious enough to stop this once, and when I saw what he held in his hands my curiosity turned to shock.

In each hand he held a golden short sword with a curved cross guard, and the pommel was a dragon's claw holding onto a crimson eye. "Take it, you've gone through enough dungeon bosses without a proper weapon." He didn't leave with a real option as he tossed the weapons to me though I would've been a fool not to take them, and once my palms closed around the swords grips I heard a heavy roar in my mind. The roar had such bloodlust that had it been directed at me I don't think I'd have any will to fight, thankfully though the swords wanted to test their edge on the three giants so I obliged them.

'I'll finish this before I die again.' It was a pointless promise to myself that I shouldn't have had the confidence to even think, but I had it thanks to the seemingly living weapons I held. The first giant I attacked was the one that used a large poleaxe to pick at the gore underneath its hoof. It hadn't been paying any attention until I carved through its back legs before I ran forward while the giant began to fall. Once they only had one good leg to stand on I used the swords to climb up the giant. It had to use the poleaxe to keep from completely toppling over, but as it roared out for help while swinging its free arms at me I saw something in the giant's eyes. I saw a new fear in the beast that filled me with excitement, and I roared in unison with the swords as we challenged the giants last attack.

As I swung them I noticed how the swords carved through the giant's flesh and bone like they were passing through water. 'Amazing.' It should've been strange to be only thinking that as I pivoted off of the giant's hip while using the sword in my off hand to swing up into the air until I could see the panicked fear in their eyes. I shouldn't have been able to do any of this, but the swords seemed to guide my body almost. It should've been a frightening experience similar to what the shadow had done, but this felt right as if I'd found a piece of myself that I'd lost a while ago. The giant lost his head shortly after that revelation, and their companions stopped their charge towards me as I sat breathless on top of the giant's head. The two seemed to be thinking about what to do, I guess that meant the dead giant had been their party leader so to speak. Once I stood they moved to run but they'd only started to turn around when their heads suddenly fell, and their bodies fell over soon after. Behind the two a familiar face walked out of the shadows, though he face held an excited smile instead of his usual frown I recognized the Exile. "I couldn't wait my turn so I hope you don't mind that I cut in boy."

-Exile-

It was strangely feeling this...gleeful, it was the only way to truly describe it, now that he finally had his chance to prove himself inside the Engine. 'Player' had offered him a chance at being the one in control of his body again, and all he'd have to do was kill Xerilla's whelp. What should've been a boring task was made that much better when Player had told him that he's also give him full control of the Engine. Kill a child, and ascend through the ranks of the most powerful gods it seemed too simple to the Exile. Once he'd seen Hex kill the giant leader though the Exile had gotten excited and now he was more than ready to kill the boy. The initial shock in Hex's eyes had left almost as soon as it appeared, and the boy raised his swords up without saying a word. The Exile didn't know if the boy didn't talk because of his own self assurance, or because he was afraid; all he knew was that Hex would bleed out on the canyon floor, and fade into oblivion.

"I'll be sure to send that bitch Xerilla to you soon enou—" The Exile's mocking statement never finished once the boy suddenly vanished from his vision, and he felt the cool edge of a blade at his throat. "If I had time for you I'd ask to talk, but you're just in my way Exile." The boy's voice sounded eerily familiar to the Exile, and it brought back memories of the voice he spoke to himself in during his imprisonment. Hearing it come from Hex drained him of all his previous confidence, and only one thought went through his mind. 'Player lied, he said I was strong enough.'

It was a pitiful thing to think he'd accepted the challenge Player offered, and he'd never actually said anything about the boy's strength. The blade had passed through his neck by the time his thought had ended, and the world spun wildly until his head had hit the ground. The Exile heard his body fall, and he saw the boy walk past him without looking back while the mist ahead of him faded away to reveal a tall cloaked figure with tentacles wreathed in the mist watching them. "Well done Hex, I'm so pleased we'll finally get to speak freely." That was the last thing he'd ever hear, some dark god praising his replacement. He struggled to grasp how his purpose led to this, dying to another's destiny while all he wanted was thrown to the side. 'It's not fair at all.'