Draod the Despicable

"As expected of my Holder."

"Too bad they don't know."

"Kek, I always love watching people react to this."

Brivyc began falling as the group watched. A smiling woman wearing clothes made from vines saw ice rising from the ground. Her smile vanished, replaced by a worried face as she ran, yelling, "SHE'S ALIVE!"

Vines grew from her clothes like a ball but a complex web of ice snatched them all while freezing them.

She tried creating another tower but tendrils of darkness wrapped around her, pulling her in. The Dark Empress wielding her wand was pulling in a god on her own. Dog ran across the black magic and punched Brivyc. She fell down, clenching her fists and inhaling through her teeth. She took a step forward, trying to escape.

Dog pulled back, muttering, "why aren't you in pain? How are you still moving?!"

"You must be Apain's. That's a good hit. But not good enough." ice protruded from the ground into his hands, who pulled on it and titled the entire floor.

"You guys are useless! I'll take care of this!" A grinning, blue-haired man soared in from the sky headfirst like a rocket, slamming into Brivyc with his two fists first. His fists shone blue and sucked in some magic. Black, who was running away, trying to flap the wings and hold them in, saw numbers appear above his fists, each showing "+1" and Brivycs head said, "-1".

"You all saw what happened, right?" he asked, looking around. He put his hands on his hips, tightening his muscles and puffing his chest out, trying to show his body through his shirt and jeans. "Every punch I land weakens her. Understand? Now, swear loyalty to me or I'll start fighting you."

"Are you insane? You need to fight too."

"No, you need to fight or your gods will kill you. I made a deal with my god, I can either kill her or you guys. Your choice. And now, I want 500 styrs from each of you too for talking back."

Far away, Page caressed Skwil. "Her heartbeat is weak and she's barely breathing. Nothing we do helps."

"What now?"

Page looked at the opening in the sky. "The god. The hand that came from the sky, it should be able to save her."

"Let's go! Activate the circle!"

They put the circle on the floor and touched it. Heavy still had his hands stuck in the ice as they steamed and yelled, "I give up! Let me go!"

A purple light glowed from his pants. A paper flew out of, unfolding itself and landing neatly on the ground. The circle completed the action and burst forth all of them. Page hovered into the air while the rest crashed.

Heavy looked them up and down, inquiring, "Why are you here?"

"We need help from the gods. I was wondering if any of them could heal a creature touched by death."

"Ooh, sorry. Don't think gods can help."

"Why not? By the way, do you need help with the… ice thing?"

"Gods don't care for uninteresting mortals. Also, yes please."

Page lifted a hand and pulled back. The ice trapping Heavy glowed blue and shattered, freeing him.

A person nearby launched a trash bag that exploded mid-air and scattered hundreds of debris trailed by a nasty green smoke. The debris hit the ground and exploded. The smoke stank up the area, causing those around him to gag and tear up. But none of it affected Dande, who brushed off the scattering trash and threw an ice bomb that trapped five unfortunate Assistance holders.

Inside the Lexicon, Zeeth held up a paper that read, "Plot Armor" with detailed drawings of a full armor suit and the circles on it.

On the back was a different design, one large complex design making hundreds of patterns. "Hetio, is there any way to bring this stuff into the real world?"

Hetio snapped and a giant, blue door appeared. "This door leads to a physical realm. But beware, it's where you learn the most lessons."

"What's that mean?"

"If you wanna know, walk through the doors."

He put his hand against the door and felt a bumpy, satisfying sensation. He tried to look for books on what the door was but nothing popped up. With one determined push, he flung the doors open.

Black finished eating the rest of the arm, swallowing satisfyingly. But his stomachs grumbled, even more, an annoying, gnawing feeling in his belly. He licked the blood off his lips while scouring his surroundings for more food but everyone around him either ran away or fought back. Annoyingly grunting, he looked around the battlefield for easier prey but everyone he saw was on high alert. He eyed Dande for a while, thinking about how much he could eat but she was fighting vigorously. There was no doubt that he, in his current state, would be slapped silly. He was thin and malnutrition from the growth of the wings and horns that he didn't even ask for.

But as he watched Dande, he noticed something else. Something even better. A massive beast trapped under weaves of ice. Without a moment to waste, he ran off towards the Belluma. He tried to get Meda the dragon slime to fly him there but it didn't respond, not accepting him as his master.

Black tripped and stumbled but his leathery wings flapped and balanced him again. As he ran, he continued flapping them, trying to rise above the people in his way. As he flapped, liquids flew off and the wings dried bit by bit but he could never rise above others. He could jump further and higher but nothing resembling flying, and he frustratingly flapped in differing ways to see if he could fly higher but nothing. People clambered away from him, creating a pathway that attracted the glossy orbs floating in the air capturing everything alive. The goddess with the mirrors waved her hand and removed the floating orbs as they watched him run.

Black ran and gasped, painfully swallowing every few seconds, until he reached the ice holding the Belluma down and clawing at it, noticing his sharpened, red nails.

He dug the ice aside and climbed over the Belluma but the moment he pierced its skin, blue blood exploded from the wound and became a mountain of ice that freed it. It began rampaging again yet black held on and began furiously eating the blood. His sharp teeth easily tore away its defenses and quickly began eating it. The pain caused it to thrash around, breaking the ice off and rampage. Ice shot out the ground like waves, launching people aside.

The orbs in the sky flew just out of reach and continued broadcasting. It bellowed a breath of frost that froze everything in its way as it tried to reach Black. It stomped around, leaving icy craters in its wake as it rampaged and Black ate it.

Without even realizing it, The pink threads he saw gradually moved around him. They wrapped around him like an aura and weaved into his body, vanishing each time it entered. Unbeknownst to him, Draconis Enferme activated and began taking the life of the Bolluma.

Skwil blinked her eyes open and sat up from Pages hat and saw Zeeth eating the Bolluma. In the reflection of her eyes, she saw yellow threads moving from the beast into Zeeth and as the threads moved out, the Bolluma showed down.

"What is that…?"

"Skwil! You're up! How are you?" Nadaho asked.

"I'm. I'm good. But what's that yellow thread around the beast and… Zeeth?"

"Yellow thread? Can you see that closely? I can't see what he's wearing but he's taking care of that monster, huh."

Skwil looked at the others and back at the two. 'He can't see it? Can no one else see it?'

Gazing at the rest of the battlefield, she saw hundreds of people, each with a yellow thread surrounding them, surrounding a giant blue woman with long, black hair and ice ruining the land. Her thread was green and the thickest one by far.

"What are those?"

She felt a sharp pain in her head and then saw a black, smoky girl sitting beside her. She was so confused she forgot to speak and forgot the words to even ask so the girl said, "Everyone has a thread of life. They contain everything you could possibly know about them. Their skills, memories, talents, body, thoughts, and how to recreate them at any point in their life, altering them as you please. They are the very embodiment of their life. Once you pull it all out, the person will die no matter what. It is literally the string that binds their entire existence to a body. However, in order to pull it, you would need some powerful eyes. The eyes that I have just granted you. Do you like 'em?"

Skwil paused for a moment then croaked, "Who are you?"

"Oh, right," she chuckled, "sorry about that. I'm Death. Nice to meet you." She extended a hand for her to shake.

Skwil reached in and shook it, feeling her hand pass through the dark haze and touch the hard, cold bones underneath it. "Death? What kinda-"

The memories of her being captured and speaking to a woman came back to her. "Were you the one who captured me?"

"Yeah, my bad. Sorry if it scared you, I thought you were one of the Self Proclaimed Escapees. To apologize and reward you for escaping death without pissing me off, I offer you a job. A Reaper."

"I-I don't- okay, back up. Explain what this 'job' entails, and why you're offering it."

"Hey, Skwil. Who're you talking to?" Nadaho asked.

"Uh, Death."

"Haha, what? Wait, is Death personified as a real being in this world? Oh, my god, that is so cool!"

"No, Death isn't- I don't, I'm not entirely sure."

Page looked up and said, "yeah, she is. I almost couldn't believe it either.

"Oh, I'm real. I don't remember ever meeting this boy. I guess he read one of the Escapists writings. Well, as you know, I'm Death. The second half of Life, the trapper of souls, and my job is just to take every bad soul to the Underworld. But I'm not allowed to kill, I can only lead, so I want to assign you a job. I give you powers and you help people prosper."

"Prosper? Don't you mean die?"

"No, no. Death is the last thing I want," death replied. "I want powerful and populous people to come to the underworld and amass a large, useful civilization. Do you agree?"

When Zeeth pushed open the doors, he found himself in the center of a freezing blizzard. Rough winds and icy snow whistled around him, coating all the books and shelves with freezing snow. "What happened?!"

"This is what it feels like to pursue further knowledge. You see, exploring knowledge is like exploring an endless blizzard. You have to tread through endless, painful snow and not get lost, in hopes of finding gold through all the mess. But the result, if successful, is bliss.

The way I see it, humanity started off in a single point in the vast blizzard of knowledge, knowing nothing but that small patch of land in which they were born, like the desire to eat and procreate. As time went on, people began leaving the safe circle, entering the blizzard, learning more about the world, and leaving their footprints for others to follow. Like the distinction between edible foods and deadly ones. Things like the discovery of flames and agriculture were a huge leap forward, clearing out massive amounts of snow.

Others may have already trudged through some snow and with their assistance, you can easily remove the snow. But that simply means it wasn't new or exciting. For that, you have to jump into undisturbed snow and fight through it. Leap into an area never before explored and swim around blindly. I want others to understand this fact, especially anyone I allow into my Lexicon, so I've recreated the exact feeling I felt anytime I sought to make an intellectual achievement through this.

Knowledge is power and power has to be earned.

But here, everything you do actually matters. New things you make and learn are recorded, the changes to your body stay, any tolerances or anything that happens really affect you."

"Do you mean to say that everything I did back there didn't matter?"

"No, all of that stays. But that was your one-hour trial, basically learning how to navigate this place. Now, this is the real challenge."

Black pulled out Mag, twirled it into a black tornado, and plunged it into the Belluma, cooking and eating its insides. He didn't realize it but his face was becoming more dragon-like, growing a larger mouth that bit more off.

Skwil watched in horror at the gory scene, watching the Belluma wail and its pink threads intertwining into Black.

"What is going on there?"

"Oh, you mean the threads moving from one to another? Well, from what I can tell, the human has developed a body that can absorb Life Threads and it's activating. And it also seems that he only has the ability to absorb Belluma? No, he can absorb anything even remotely related to a dragon. Quite a surprising one, but he has somehow developed into a literal Dragon Slaying Machine. Quite the ability for a human. He has an infinite source of energy and power for himself now, all flying around and full of life.

Black ate so ferociously he didn't feel himself getting full but at some point, his entire body felt rejuvenated and his limbs had grown back even sturdier than before.

He took one last bite and saw words pop up, "Energy requirement satisfied. All Demon Abilities have been unlocked."

"Huh?"

Skwil watched the Assistance battle with Dande in the center and the blonde man in front of her. He said to the hundreds of people looking at him, "come on! Fight me or pay me! Nothing will happen unless you guys let it."

"Shut up, moron," a girl said. They glared at each other for a moment and then jumped into battle. She grabbed his throat as he punched her repeatedly. Skwil saw her thread wiggle and break off a bit each time she was punched and fly into the thread of the man.

"Who is that? Why is he taking her thread?"

"Today's your lucky day, Skwil. You get to see two separate people directly attacking Life Threads. That man over there is Draod."

"Isn't that an elven word?"

"Yep, it's derived from dragon and it's their word for the most despicable, disgusting, horrible, rancid, evil, and hated person to ever exist. And the elves are incredibly gentle yet powerful and hardly ever use the word, even jokingly, so for someone to be branded with that as their name proves how bad he is. And he carries that name with pride."