Chapter 3: Not Going Down Without a Fight

'Am I gonna die here?'

....

Insig has always been called a genius when young as he always understands things easily. But this also made him understand the fear of death earlier.

'At the end of the path... is a dead end... Even those renowned geniuses weren't even able to put up a fight against death...'

Since then, It made him despair at the fact that whatever he does, in the end, when you look at the whole universe, you are just a speck of dust.

He's always been scared of the feeling of helplessness. The fact that you can't put up a fight. To just lay down and let yourself be swept by the tide... Unable to even steer your own boat...

The fact that you'll die because... it is what it is. You just have to accept those... Right?

Ha! Isn't that hilarious?!

Hahaha!!! Isn't that cute? Isn't that hilarious? Isn't that funny? Isn't that f*cking messed up?

The air that you breathe, the creases and lines on the ground, all the happiness and sadness, all the games you win at and lose at, can you still remember all of them? If I was ever to die, will I be forgotten like that? Like I was just a random pebble on the road?

Insig has always wanted to retain every memory. He has always felt sad about the fact that you have to 'move on'. Why can't they live forever?

That's why, even though he has always lazed about and always did not do his best, he was actually also the one who's the most desperate to live in the end.

People tend to enjoy the most out of their life because they already gave up on life. They had already accepted it.

But Insig did not. He still persevered through it. He wanted to live. He wanted to face the truth. He doesn't want it to end.

F*ck the end! F*ck those bull sh*ts! Who cares about all the people who look at you despicably when you try to reject nature? They are the ones who are locked in the palm of nature the whole time!

Live! Live and chase your dreams!

Now that he was about to die, he just poured everything out. All of his pent up emotions, thoughts, and sanity was thrown away.

'I don't wanna die yet!!! I won't go down without a fight!'

Seiki removed any thought out of his head and blindly dashed forward. His eyes were bloodshot and he removed all the fear in his heart.

The scythe sliced his back, but not deep enough to endanger him. A scarlet vertical line was formed on his back, surrounded by the dark miasma, decaying his skin. However, he didn't care about any of that. Not anymore.

*Thud*

The scythe was swung so hard that it was embedded on the ground. Mysteriously, Insig felt a deep pain from this, but that was not what was on his mind right now.

Insig kept on dashing forward and empowered his fist with the weird power he has. He was about to punch the enemy when the enemy reached out his hands to strangle his neck, lifting him up from the ground.

Insig desperately punches the hand that's holding him but was blocked by the miasma in the end.

*Crack*³

The black fog cracked as Seiki kept on punching it.

"That's right, despair, and try as hard as you can. But it will be useless in the end! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

The Grim Reaper laughs maniacally. The Grim Reaper's clone has always felt bored from doing nothing but upholding the law of death all the time.

There are thousands of living things dying everyday, and it was not easy for him. Now that he met someone, he poured out all the accumulated stress inside him. After all, he had an intelligent life too, he was just bound by his own power.

As Insig was about to pass out, he poured all of his energy to his teeth and somehow managed to bite the hand that was holding him.

*Crack!*

The black fog cracked under his teeth and entered his oral cavity, but Insig didn't care about it. He just kept on biting and biting till he cracked the bones underneath.

"Aargh!! Damn you!!"

The Grim Reaper's clone was taken aback, he didn't know that the cute-looking animal in front of him was so brutal. As a Grim Reaper, he had seen millions of beings resist death, but all of them lost, which eventually led to his lax in guard.

He takes back his hands that were strangling Seiki and punches him.

Insig poured energy on his forehead and headbutted the punch coming for him.

*Crack!*

The cracked miasma broke further and dispersed in the air. Meanwhile, the skeletal hands under it received damage as well.

Insig was damaged too but was healed under the energy, he only felt a slight dizziness from the punch.

"Aargh!!"

The Grim Reaper was hurt from consecutive damage at his hands. The cracks on his hands spread even further and took much of his energy.

Still, Insig paid no mind to it. He kept on pouncing and punched the Grim Reaper. He was like a hungry beast. With bloodshot eyes, he just kept on fighting.

Using his weight, he pushed the Grim Reaper to the ground to have a barbaric fight. No techniques were used. Only sheer savagery.

He kept on attacking without paying any mind to his body as he used his magic power to heal his wounds. He just kept using anything to his arsenal, his fist, elbow, feet, knees, teeth, and forehead.

*Crack!* *Crack!*

'Die! Die! Die! Die!'

He just kept on biting and biting the Grim Reaper and gulping anything in his mouth.

"Aargh!! Damn you!!!!"

The Grim Reaper also fought back. He used the miasma to decay Insig's body, but it was of no use, for Insig's wounds just kept healing themselves.

After a few rounds of fighting, the Grim Reaper got dizzy from too much lost energy and too much brawl. However, Insig was still so lost in his outburst that he kept on looking crazily at the Grim Reaper and biting him.

The Grim Reaper lost to him in terms of stamina as Insig can heal himself.

-----Hours later------

"I think I just had the most badass dream."

Insig laughingly thought to himself. He woke up in a daze, but he can still vividly feel the exhilaration of the 'fight', even though it was just a dream.

"Ouch!"

After he had regained his senses, he suddenly felt a deep pang all over his body. His muscles ached, his stomach was pulsing with pain, and his head was groggy, as if there was water in his brain.

*Huff*³

Insig inhaled deep breaths to calm his nerves and adapt to the pain. After clearing his thoughts, he finally had the time to look around.

"H— Huh!? This... Where is this?"

After a while, he finally regained his senses and removed the dizziness. He looked around and saw that he was in an unfamiliar room.

The old woody scent of logs entered his nostril and the dust flying around was visible because of the scorching clear sunlight. He looked around and the words 'old' and 'cabin' entered his mind.

"Insig!! You're awake!"

Insig suddenly hears a high-pitched feminine voice beside him. The language and the accent was different from what he has studied, but he can still completely understand it unconsciously.

"This.... Where am I?"

Insig voiced out his question in the same unknown language habitually.

Insig looks sideways just to see an enthusiastic beauty sitting beside his bed. She had blonde hair that was cascading down to her shoulder like a waterfall, it was beautiful and left a deep impression on others.

She has thin eyebrows, thin seductive red lips, clean sharp nose, and teary golden eyes that makes people feel pity about her, making them want to protect her.

"I was so worried about you! The seniors said you were about to die and they can't help you anymore. I thought you're gonna leave us alone. Phew, thankfully, you survived"

"Hahaha, I'm sorry, did I scare you?"

Insig tries to laugh it off as he can't make out who this girl is. 

"Of course! Jeez! It's no laughing matter!"

"Hahaha, sorry."

*Cough* *Cough*

"Are you okay? I'm gonna bring some water. The seniors said you should take care of your body. We are severely understaffed so there aren't any healers left to help you.

The girl rushes out of the door like her life depends on it.

'This.... Where am I? And who was that girl? Damn, she was such a beauty...'

Insig looked as if in a trance as he shook the thought out of his mind. He took a deep breath to calm himself down and inspect his surroundings.

'What's important is... I should know my situation. Oh, that's right, where am I? And what was that dream about? I remember meeting a Grim Reaper and whatnot... and there was a weird thing inside my body.... What was it?'

Insig tried to feel inside his body and there, he saw a sun-like ball of energy, it was smaller than the previous time he saw it though, like the size of an adult's fist.

But that was not what caught Seiki's attention. Beside the sun-like energy, was a mass of darkness, it was like a black hole, swallowing all light near it. As he looked at the dark mass, a message suddenly entered his mind. 

"You damn bastard, congratulations. You just bested me. Next time, when you're near death again, I won't give you any mercy"

What Insig didn't know was that the Grim Reaper's strength was proportionate to the quantity of death aura inside his body. So while Insig was still a fresh corpse, the death aura hasn't spread far enough to make the Grim Reaper unbeatable.

The Grim Reaper waited for his next near-death experience instead, as killing indiscriminately will cause bad karma on him.

Still, Insig didn't have any time to think of that. What attracted his attention the most was the message at the bottom.

"PS : Because you ingested some of my body parts, the death aura from me and the life aura has fought inside your body. Miraculously enough, your body was able to house and adapt to the death aura inside your body even though you're not dead. Amazing. It's like you're dead, but not dead."

'This...'

Insig doesn't know how miraculous what just happened to him. It was like battling cancer at stage 4, but your body can't hold it so your cells mutated to control cancer.

'What aura is he talking about?'

As Insig looks at the weird power inside his body, he suddenly remembers his past memories.

He was Insig, 16 years old. He lives in the Kingdom of Ershnire. They were in a war with the neighboring kingdom when they were sent to heal people at the frontlines.

They were healing wounded soldiers when they were suddenly surprise attacked. It was suppressed quickly as a person at the Integrated State was dispatched quickly. Still, Insig was wounded from the attack and died. And now, Insig from another world was miraculously reincarnated in his body.

'Whaaaaat!? So it was not a dream?'

Just thinking about the near-death experience made Insig's hair stand on ends. Insig took a deep breath to calm down.

'Still, the past is the past. I should focus on what's important... right? So… Should I go back to my world?... Whatever... all I have in my past world is grievances and regret… And it's not like I can even go back to begin with...'

Insig made an excuse for himself.

'Anyways, I should study this world for now.'

Insig said to himself and tries to burrow his memories.