Chapter 5: A Poetic Death

I felt like something had suddenly snapped. As if a dam that was holding back till now had suddenly burst forth. Maybe the sky fell apart or maybe the eath shattered open or so I thought.

But deep down I knew that I shouldn't be so worked up over it. But since when wasn't I not a hypocrite? It was just that today my hippcisy had exceeded its very limits.

"Eri, Eri, come on wake up."

How could Eternal die? Seriously this is all messed up. Its probably a joke and she would be waking up any moment.

I shook her frantically as I tried to deny reality. Perhaps it was just my escape from reality that didn't wanted to accept this death just like any other one. But I was being too unresonable.

And as one would call for it a reaction came soon enough but sadly not from Eternal. The nurse who was left in a daze made a move.

"Sir, this is dangerous. You are too close to the hero's body. At this rate..." the nurse cried. But her voice never reached me.

"Sir, your body doesn't even have any mana. At this rate the dead body's remnant mana will start to affect you."

She tried to pull be by my arm. But I was not open to reason.

"Shut up! I don't care. Just leave me alone."

I glared at the nurse with blood shot eyes. It seemed that the doctor soon noticed something about my glare and nodded in self affirmation.

She wasn't wrong. Heroes like Eternal have a hell lot of mana in their body strenthening it and granting them abilities. Even after their death this mana does not leave their bodies...

It is extremely dangerous for a normal person like me to be in the vicinity of any of these heroes.

Although the concept is different but it is synonymous to when someone is too close to radioactivity. It leads to extremely fast mutation turning humans into mindless monsters.

This was the very reason why segregating a hero's dead body from the normal masses was considered an important medical procedure and this was the very reason why Eternal was given a different room.

In the end what the nurse was doing was for my own good. But I didn't care any more. I was too tired.

"But sir..."

"Leave it, Nurse," the doctor whispered. "He is beyond saving. He won't listen to you no matter what you try."

"But doctor..."

"I said just leave it to the security and stop bugging my head. You gave the warning. That was enough wasn't it? Honestly I ain't paid enough to deal with stuff like these. If he chooses to die why should I bother?"

The security in the hospital was enough to kill me once I turned into a monster. The doctor couldn't be less bothered. There was also the fact that he was a doctor working for the government. People like these just had to fill the minimum criteria of their job.

The nurse though a bit reluctant left me and went along with the doctor. It seems someone was left to die huh?

BUt I can't help it. After all, this is something I brough upon myself.

"Eri, quit it now. They are gone. Now wake up!"

I shook her like crazy.

Maybe it was because of the physical contact... but I could feel the mana gushing in inside my body even faster than before. It looked like I was doomed to death. Now that I look back at it, the doctor was right. There was no way I could have brought back to reason at this point.

But dying like this wasn't too bad I guess?

I would have probably died alone living my old age when I would have been unable to even move by butt of weakness. But if I die here it wouldn't be too bad. What can I say? It had kind of a poetic edge to it?

All of my close ones had already died. Every time the news of their death was passed onto me, I felt like as if a piece of me had broken apart.

Eternal was the last one. At least I had faith in her that she wouldn't die. I had denying it till now, but her existence was what was keeping my soul in place though the inside of me was already broken apart.

But in the end even she died?

*Sigh*

At least I got to die with this last friend of mine. Poetic wasn't it? But the me of that time was hardly sane enough to percieve this twist of faith.

"Ugh!"

Mana was gushing to my brain. The concentration had grown too high. My whole body was roaring in pain so much so that my mind had gone numb to its screams.

I felt like I would vomit any moment. I held onto my screaming head.

Was I done for after all?

Well that sure was fast. Didn't thought my body would give out so soon though.

'Just a bit'... 'Just a bit', that's what I had been chanting but in the end it got me to this. I just hoped that the security controls the monster that was about to born lest I should do something that I would never forgive myself for.

But it was needless to say that I would be dying soon.

Did I have any regrets before my death?

Probably not.

I have been living my life pretty selfishly after all. Locking myself in my room. Drowning in delicacies and all forms of luxuries, there was no way I would have any regrets wouldn't it? That's what I told myself at that time but I was probably being a hypocrite again.

*Crack*

"Ack!"

I could have bet that my bones were breaking apart. I could have bet that I could feel my mouth foaming up. But my eyes burned like crazy and I couldn't see a thing.

Everything was dizzy. The world was spinning. But my hands wanted to reach out to something. I didn't knew what it was. I was just moving subconsciously. Or could it be that I had already transformed into a monster and lost control?

Who could say? Turning into a monster was a new experience for anyone no matter how you see it. No one was alive to tell their tale of what happened after they turned into one. The only thing I knew was that once it happened the person would be beyong saving.

I finally grabbed onto it. Oddly, it was soft. Even though my flesh was burning in pain it somehow made me feel warm. Really odd wasn't it? But my vision was too muddy to figure out what I had grabbed onto.

For some odd reason, I felt a surplus of mana rushing into my body yet again increasing my pain. What really happened? I didn't knew.

"AAAHHHHHH!"

Probably unable to bear the pain anymore or probably already having turned into a bona fide monster, my consciousness faded away letting out that last scream.

It was then... that the nurse rushed in reacting my roaring scream. I hadn't known it back then but the nurse hadn't completely abandoned me after all. Rather she came back determined to kill me with some of her security personnel to do the dirty task.

But what she saw made her eyes pop out wide!

"What how can that..."

She was surprised to find my body falling limp against the hospital bed on the floor. Somehow my body hadn't transformed into a griotique monster? She couldn't help but be surprised. Considering the duration that I had been in contact with Eternal it was certainly something worth to be surprised of. An average person would have probably been unnoticeable at this point.

She walked up to me while continuing to be on her guard.

Her fingers brushed against my nose while another one brushed against my neck.

"Ah, he's dead."

She came to the conclusion that I hadn't turned into a monster because I had a premature death for some reason.

'Probably a heart disease?' was the conclusion she had reached. But I could have swore with my medical history in hand that I had no such ailments.

Turning into a monster due to mana absorption doesn't really kill someone per se. Rather it mutates them. If I had died before such a mutation could even begin then that would explain why I hadn't undergone such a mutation.

In the end, the means could have been different but the result was the same.

I was dead.

Or at least that was what everyone had thought.

In fact it was one more headache they would have to deal with. I wasn't really a monster so they would have to deal with my corpse that was rich with mana. I would have to go through the same medical procedures as a hero would.

Ironic, isn't it? I who had lived his whole life locked up in his room was being given hero treatment after my death. Had I been alive I could have laughed at that joke.

"Phew!"

As the nurse got up finishing the last bit of her inspection, she couldn't help but have her eyes locked as she noticed something unusual.

The unknown guy whose death had granted him hero treatment and the former hero, Eternal, had their hands locked with each other.

Poetic deaths are just so poetic, aren't they?