Coming to my senses, pain as if my heart was pulled out and ground to dust invades my mind. I collapse kneeling onto the floor. Vomit surges forth and pours out endlessly. Looking around with tears in my eyes, I spot the black armoured figure with his hand raised, ready to throw the spear. Without having even a second to think, the spear flies through the air and crushes my head. I have died again.
* * *
[ User [REDACTED] has died]
[ Source of death: Tenebris’ 9th Knight of the Round Table ]
[ Connected to The Loom ]
[ System Setting: Combat Mode ]
[ Calculating appropriate time in combat ]
[ Energy Sufficient ]
[ Beginning Transfer ]
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
* * *
Coming to my senses, a headache like no other assaults me. I kneel and hold onto my aching head. Looking up, I can see the 9th Knight with his raised hand holding a massive spear. I jump out of the way, but the spear takes off my entire lower body. Blood gushes forth, and the pain– I have died again.
* * *
[ User [REDACTED] has died]
[ Connected to The Loom ]
[ Energy Insufficient ]
[ Sacrificing branch [REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED] ]
[ Energy Sufficient ]
[ Beginning Transfer ]
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
* * *
Coming to my senses. I roll to the side. The pain is still unbearable. Pain that makes tears well up in my eyes floods my mind. Vomit threatens to rise, but I suppress it. I look through my watered up eyes and through the blur I can see the figure preparing their spear yet again. Without even a moment tho think past the pain, the spear obliterates me.
* * *
In the dark empty space. I try to voice my thoughts to command the system.
“Change back to preservation mode”
[ Combat must conclude to enter preservation mode ]
“FUCK”
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
* * *
Coming to my senses. I cannot get accustomed to the pain. I try to calculate magic that would displace my body out of the trajectory of the spear. Vomit leaving my mouth, the gargantuan spear travels through the air and I activate my spatial magic.
The spear completely misses. “HAHAHA I DODGED IT YO–” Before I can even finish my sentence another spear speeds through the air and collides with my body. I have died again.”
* * *
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
A pain as if my blood vessels were pulled out of my body.
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
A pain like my skull was crushed.
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
A pain as if my hands were crushed to smithereens.
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
A pain that overwhelms my senses.
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
A pain that gnaws at my very soul.
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
A pain that drowns my thoughts in writhing agony.
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
Blood filling my lungs.
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
Hands being torn off.
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
My ankles crushed.
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
My thoughts free-falling in agony.
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
A sensation as if a thousand needles pierce my skin.
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
My eyeballs brutally forced through my skull.
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
My head decapitated.
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
A sensation as if I was floating in nothingness.
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
An overwhelming anger clouding my split brain.
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
A pain overwhelming my personality and memories.
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
* * *
Staring at the obnoxious text in the dark place. I swipe my hand across it in delirium and annoyance. My hand is caught in the strings that make up the text. I untangle my hand and pull it back.
“How many times has it been, how many times have I died?” Voicing out my thoughts to nobody in anger, suddenly a text appears in front of me.
[ Death Count since entering Combat Mode ]
[ 4,361 ]
“ha– ahha- hahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha”
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
* * *
Coming to my senses, the pain from my previous death no longer phases me. Even the bullet wound on my shoulder feels like an itch at this point. Laughter escapes my mouth without stopping. I roll on the floor, and I don’t even glance at the armoured figure holding a spear. I have been through this four thousand times! I have tried to claw onto the faint hope of survival, but with my meagre skills I can’t do anything but meet my end. Laughter continues to ring out in the square.
I am lying on the floor on my back, staring at the sky. My laughter comes to a stop and I close my eyes. I await my 4362nd death in combat… If you can even call it combat. But no matter how much I wait, my death does not come. The sound of chains and greaves scraping against the floor echo in Ains Square. The armoured figure stops above me, with a spear pointed towards my abdomen. The low disgruntled voice behind the mask rings out.
“What is so funny?”
Suppressing my laughter, I look up at the Knight.
“YOU ARE!” I say with a voice filled with ridicule. The Knight clearly did not find that as amusing as I, they lunge a now normal-sized spear into my bowels. I know talking will not work on this Knight, believe me I have tried.
Blood rushes forth, and my guts spill out. I keep looking at the figure above me, but this time I cannot suppress my laughter. “hahaha– ha stop that it tickles!”
The knight clearly caught off guard voices their thoughts. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
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He is right… what is wrong with me? I feel like my personality has twisted beyond repair… Am I really myself? How is it that I can remain coherent after all of that?
Grabbing onto the spear, I try to pull myself up. The insides of my body sliding up the shaft of the spear, I come to a stop when I am almost at my standing height. I stare directly at the Knight in front of me. From this distance, I can actually make out the golden eyes behind the eyes that tremble with incredible intensity. Blood slowly trickles out of my mouth and foam bubbles at the side of my lips. I lean in closer to the figure, and calculate the spatial magic needed to remove their helmet. I must see who is responsible for killing me so many times. Maybe there might be some salvation in that.
I have had a lot of practice over my many deaths to calculate spatial mana allocation instantaneously so I can use it before anyone can even react to my mana. Well that's given if they are right next to me. It has saved me from many gruesome deaths, but ultimately I always ran out. The mana capacity difference between me and the Knight is like the difference between fire and water. In a battle of attrition, I lose 10 out of 10 times. At most, I could hold out for a minute.
With a loud thud, the black helmet falls to the floor. Golden eyes and golden blonde hair flow out. The Knight in front of me looks confused and locks eyes with me. The face of an important figure in the empire reveals itself in front of me. One of the Chancellors of the Empire’s High Chamber that is constantly blasted on every piece of media stands before me.
“Chancellor Interitus?”
“Osiris Arkenia– It is nice to officially meet you” As he says this, the helmet that fell to the floor floats up and firmly places itself back onto his head. “Now goodbye.”
Suddenly, my insides were the spear impaled my gut begin to itch. It used to be agonizing pain, but after experiencing pain that could kill over four thousand times, I have become numb to the pain. Looking down, I can see my guts and body turning grey as if it were decaying and rotting from the inside out.
[ May the Threads of Fate Guide You ]
Coming to my senses, I formulate a plan. Over the four thousand deaths, I have never got the Knight to talk, but now I know who he is. I must stall for time. Looking at the 9th Knight, I raise both of my hands.
“Chancellor, must we really resort to violence?”
Interitus looks disturbed. He lowers his hand and looks towards me.
“How did you know?”
“Would you believe me if I said it was a lucky guess?”
Anger seeping into his voice, he speaks from past the helmet.
“No, I would not. Now tell me, how did you know?”
“I will tell you if you tell me a little something else first~” A playful tone entering my speech… Shit I’ve really gone insane. “Why do you want me dead?”
“I have already said that: My goddess, Tenebris, has decreed that you must perish for you are too weak.”
Oh yeah, I do have a very faint memory of that. That was before I entered Combat Mode, guess it slipped my mind dying so many times. Hmm… He is a servant of Tenebris? She wants to kill me because I am too weak? Then why did she imprint me with this taboo? I look down at my chest and then to the Chancellor. Without hesitation, I rip open the chest area of my clothes and point at the scars upon my chest.
“If she wants me dead, then why would she do this to me?”
“I do not know that Osiris Arkenia, however– I have my orders and I do not intend to betray them. Now answer my question. How do you know my identity?”
We were about 5 minutes away from the fortifications, if I want to wait for reinforcements I need to hold on for at least that long, I need to stall for time.
“Like how you received your order from Tenebris, I got my orders from Tenebris.” A bold lie. “She has told me to tell you that your mission has been cancelled.”
Snorting in disbelief, Interitus responds with a voice steeped in malice and anger.
“You lie, child. There is no way for you to contact her, you have been under the Empire’s eyes since the cathedral incident.”
Hmmmm… The only way to cover up my lie is to lie some more.
“I do not know how you get into contact with her, but I hear her voice in my head” Another bold lie, but he can't prove it without a member of the Department of Truth, and with his current guise there is no way that he can get their help. It has been around one minute. If I can stall for just four more.
“An infuriating lie again. There is no way for you to contact her in the Abyss without an Oracle. I have tried, believe me.” With a pause as if he is deciding something, he says the exact words I did not want to hear. “I grow tired of your stalling, die now.”
A spear suddenly materializes behind him, and I quickly use my spatial magic to envelop myself in mana and teleport away. The spear flies by where I was, and with an incredulous tilting of the head, he summons 20 more spears.
I have seen this many times before. He can materialize up to a max of 50 spears at a time, and I have not seen him reach his limit in terms of mana capacity. Every fight ends the same. Numerous spears impaling me and me losing my life meaninglessly. This time I won’t let that happen. I have seen their trajectories and can somewhat predict where they will land. I will try to preserve my mana for his ultimate attack, that ginormous, terrifying spear. The twenty spears fly towards me at the speed of bullets, and I manage to sidestep most of them. Some leave scrapes behind on my skin, and one manages to impale itself into my left shoulder. I quickly envelop the spear in my mana and make it fall to the ground. Blood rushes forth, and I hold onto my wound to keep the blood in as thirty more spears appear. Another barrage of spears flies towards me, but this time I manage to run and dodge all of them with the help of spatial magic. They were about to hit me, but I moved my body 10cm forward to narrowly make it miss. As I was proud of myself, I momentarily let my guard down, and in that very moment. A spear lodges itself into my abdomen.
As if the Chancellor is running out of patience, a sigh escapes him. He raises his hand, and a gigantic spear appears. He wants to finish this all in one go. This is what I was waiting for. I channel what meagre ki I have to slightly strengthen my arms and I pull out the spear from my abdomen. With a spear in hand, I rush towards the 9th Knight. As the big ass spear leaves his hand and flies towards me. I envelop my body in my mana and use the rest of it to dodge to the side. My emerald green mana makes me disappear in a flash. I am now completely out of mana, but I am also completely out of the way of the spear. I rush towards the Knight with the spear I pulled from my abdomen and thrust with all the ki in my body. As soon as the tip of the spear is about to reach him, it– alongside all other spears, dissolve into black liquid. As the spear flows out of my hand, I am caught off guard yet again. I have never seen him do that. Was he saving it as a trump card against me? Was he baiting me to get close so that he could finish me off? Is this the difference in age and experience? He raises his hand and a spear appears. He is about to strike me down. I am about to die again.
As I am thinking such thoughts, a luminous light akin to the sun strikes down between us. A woman clad in a helmetless, pristine armour stands between us, holding a magnificent battleaxe. She looks towards me, and then towards the Chancellor. Disgust clearly showing on her face. It seems I did not have to wait for a full five minutes with her speed, around two minutes was enough. Blood flows out endlessly from my abdomen and shoulder. I collapse and look at the back of Clarice. With the last bit of my consciousness, I can’t help but think that back looks reliable. My eyes slowly close and my last thought enters my head.
I will die again.
* * *
Clarice is running through the vast streets of Lux towards the fortifications with Helix slung around her shoulder.
“Let go of me this instant Clarice!” She kicks and punches, but she was not really trying to escape. She knew that if she used too much strength she could actually hurt Clarice, and she would not want that. “We have to save Osiris! He saved me, it's only right!”
“Even if he is a servant of Tenebris?”
“Even if he is a servant of Tenebris. He has done no wrong, he is just an unfortunate boy who got caught up in something bigger than himself!”
Clarice running speed increases.
“You may be right, Lady Helix, but first and foremost I must get you to the fortification. If you still feel the same way by the time we get there I will go back to Ains Square and do what I can… but at this point he is most likely dead. I made the executive decision to run because that is the level of the opponent.”
With a sunken expression Helix manages to eke out a couple more words.
“I pray to Veritas that it is not so.”
“We shall see. I have called ahead to the fortification, once we get there I will hand you over to Commander Dux, and I will leave this with you. Try to contact Bert, we need to know his status” Clarice hands over her comm link to Helix.
Helix turns it on, and a link is established to Bert.
“Bert! Are you there? Are you okay??”
–Silence–
No noise comes from the other side when suddenly, she can hear a faint voice as if from far away. She puts the comm link as close to her ear as possible, and she hears Osiris’ voice?
“Chancellor, khzzz ssshhh to violence?”
A chancellor of the High Chamber is there? What are they doing? Helix tries to mess with the frequency to try to make anything out over the noise. She can make out a voice, but the static only gets worse.
“Bert!”
* * *
At Ains Square, Bert slowly regains consciousness. A flaming whip wrapped around his arm, with scorch marks covering the surface of his skin. He managed to defeat the last of the assailants and survive, but the rest of the guards and Servus have all but perished. From his belt, he can hear a voice screaming his name. He tries to reach for it, but his strength fails him, it seems he used up all of his ki and that overloaded his muscles. Looking around the sea of corpses, he spots a figure clad in pitch-black armour standing before the boy Osiris. They seem to be having a conversation. Bert cannot move, but he still has mana to use magic. He casts the magic upon his eye to record the interaction between the two of them, and uses his mana to bring his comm link to his ear. Static crackles intensely, but he can hear a voice from the other side. His eyes do not leave the two figures in the square, but he speaks into the comm link.
* * *
[This is Bert– *cough* reporting]
“Bert! Are you alright?”
As Helix is asking this, Clarice drops her off at the front of the fortifications where the Commander was waiting, and then rushes off into the distance.
[Yes, I am, although I am in pretty bad shape.]
“I am glad to hear you are alive. Clarice is on her way. I have also dispatched medics. How about Osiris?”
[He is…] Bert takes a long pause. [Conversing with the spear thrower.]
“What? Can you hear what they are saying?”
For a bit, no response comes, and Helix begins to grow worried, but after a loud thud, she can hear the sound of people conversing.
[“I will tell you if you tell me a little something else first~] A playful tone not befitting the situation [Why do you want me dead?]
[I have already said that: My goddess, Tenebris, has decreed that you must perish, for you are too weak.]
Is that the same Osiris from that she was talking to? How come he can be so relaxed, isn’t he facing a deadly opponent? Helix’s suspicions grow. After a short pause, the conversation through the crackling comm link continues.
[If she wants me dead, then why would she do this to me?]
[I do not know that Osiris Arkenia, however– I have my orders and I do not intend to betray them. Now answer my question. How do you know my identity?]
Is this the Chancellor she heard? One of the High Chamber is the assailant? How could that be? The Department of Truth is all over the Imperial Palace.
[Like how you received your order from Tenebris, I got my orders from Tenebris.] Osiris reveals a shocking truth. [She has told me to tell you that your mission has been cancelled.]
She hears a short snort. Has she completely underestimated Osiris? Was she dancing around on his palms? Is he fully under the control of Tenebris now? That would explain how he knew of the spear attack beforehand, if they were both agents of Tenebris. Then saving her was clearly an act to get into her good graces.
[You lie, child of Tenebris. There is no way for you to contact her, you have been under the Empire’s eyes since the cathedral incident.]
Helix does not know what to believe any more. She sits alone in a room provided to her by the Commander. She cannot detect lies through a comm link. After all, there is no way to send and receive divinity through a communications channel.
[I do not know how you get into contact with her, but I hear her voice in my head]
[An infuriating lie again. There is no way for you to contact her in the abyss without an Oracle. I have tried, believe me… I grow tired of your stalling, die now.]
Following that statement, loud crashing sounds can be heard. The impact sounds resonate within the comm link and Helix can tell that the unknown voice was an incredibly strong warrior. More sounds of an intense battle ring out and suddenly the comm link is cut. It probably got caught in the attack.
Helix grows worried about Osiris’s safety. She doubts his intentions and wants to find the truth out herself. An unsettling feeling that she has never felt grows in her heart. There are so many questions she needs to be answered.
