The fall into darkness... the sound of that engine... picking the path of pain, fear and loss, over and over again... again... again... again...
I woke with the spike halfway out of my skull and the blade of an undead knight heading for my neck, and for a moment, I wondered what would happen if I let the blade reach me.
The undead knights were not physically powerful, and although the Inscriptions on the armor were enough for them to punch through stone walls, my body was significantly more durable than stone, I think, when I considered every bit of power I was packing under my skin. If I were not extremely durable, I would be ash in a fraction of a second if I tried to contain the power under my skin.
It was weird that for something that was so weak, Death Touched registered the danger clearly. Why was that?
Well, the best way to know the answer to a problem is to ask the right question and follow the appropriate steps.
There were many appropriate steps I know I could use here, but why bother to dance around the problem when I could directly go for the source?
With this in mind, I did not move, even as the chill from Death Touched almost began to hurt.
"CLANG!"
The blade hit my neck with a resounding sound, as if a large hammer had just struck an anvil, and the blade snapped in two. My eyes widened, not in shock that the blade barely left a scratch on me, but because at the moment of contact, I realized that I had overlooked one thing... the blade itself.
Freezing the knight with a dozen threads from my Loom, I took the broken sword from his hand and picked the other half, and as I looked through the flats of the broken sword, I saw the straight line of Inscription that ran from the hilt of the sword to the tip.
This blade had been inscribed with the Inscription for sharpness and weight, and if the materials were durable enough, and the knight strong and fast enough, there was no reason that this blade would not have been able to slice clean through my neck.
However, this was not the problem, and I could begin to understand why Death Touched had screamed of danger when there were none... the blade had another Inscription that, if I was reading it correctly, was an advanced form of link, and the moment it broke or touched blood or flesh, every blade within an unspecified radius would be alerted.
The danger of the blade did not come from its sharpness; it was a damned alarm.
It barely took a few seconds after I finished reading the Inscription before I began to hear the heavy thumping of boots on the ground, and the cold wave of the Sovereign falling upon my head.
"No, too quick, I need more time to plan." Saying this, I detonated the charge I placed behind my Anima Depth and fell to my knees.
Life was leaving me, and I could feel my body trying to heal itself. Endurance, Mortal Shell, my Anima Depth itself was trying to stitch itself together, but I held it back.
In this state, I realized I could feel the Death Touched inside me, but it was hard for me at first to realize what I was sensing, and the reason was that its touch was warm, instead of cold.
It would seem that when I killed myself, and forced my body not to fight against death, this Title blessed my effort with warmth that made the act of dying painless; it was almost comforting, in a manner, to die this way.
I felt my mouth move, and I knew I was smiling... I wanted to stop smiling, but I could not... death had never felt so good.
[Evolution requirement met: Death Touched → Death Consort (Mythic)]
"Oh, what is this?"
Then death took me, and something strange happened as I died... I thought I heard the sound of a woman’s voice, but she was so far away, I think she was saying... My beloved.
∞
I woke up with the spike halfway out of my skull, and this time I did not experiment with the knight; I just froze him in place with my threads, as I called up my status screen... My last death was not normal, and the notification that had arrived before my death was extremely interesting, because as far as I knew, Titles did not evolve.
Still, I opened the status screen, and it was there, glowing with a color that was blacker than night, and I read every word with fascination, dimly aware that the focus of Hollow and the Moon Fox was beside me, as they read along with me... what I saw made me speechless for a while.
[Evolution requirement met: Death Touched → Death Consort (Mythic)]
Death Consort — Mythic
"My Beloved, you have died more times than you can count, and as if that is not enough, you have learned to kill yourself and enjoy the embrace of death, more than you would like to admit.
Every life that has ever lived ran from my touch, and yet, you are still here, refusing to stay dead and returning to me again and again. Life wants to keep us apart, and you struggle against its chains, Beloved.
In your quest for death, you have brought great bounty into my domain. I have heard the cries of those who have fallen to your might, and they lull me to sleep in the moments where you are not in my arms... I love your gifts, Beloved.
For your devotion, Beloved, you have earned the right to call me by name. When the time comes when you can find your way beyond the shores of life, I shall await your return in my bosom, Beloved."
"I... I..." I wanted to speak, but I did not know what to say... I had never seen anything like this. What I had just read did not seem to have come from the system, as the words that it was written in were a strange language that I did not recognize, and yet I could still read.
This was not a system notification; it was a letter from Death itself, and she called me her beloved.
"Fuck, what have I gotten myself into now?"