Chapter 4
I left early the next morning, getting abnormally restless In 'The Rabid Llama.' As I headed out I bade farewell to the snake, and wished her a full safe brood.
As I started heading out I tried to veer away from the crashing yesterday, the wind started whipping small detritus into my face, making me turn away.
"You want me to go this way?" I asked, although I got no obvious answer, I figured that it was safe enough, it was a day ago, anything bad would have moved on right?
'Ding' *Why do you take unnecessary risks?*
I didn't have a good argument so I declined to answer, I didn't want to start a discussion about my antics just before I headed somewhere potentially dangerous.
As I climbed over a small pile up if cars I paused to get a good look at my path, other than a few more overgrown cars, and a upturned buss there wasn't anything interesting, continuing on I was just passing the end of the bus when there was a large crack that shattered the silence, looking down I saw I was standing in a humanoid ribcage, my foot breaking one of the ribs.
"Gnarly, sorry for disturbing your rest dude," As I tried to extract my foot from the man-made trap Apprasial chimed in.
'Ding' *Drop, now, don't move a muscle.* I did so, with only a moments hesitation, by weight crushing the rest of the skeletons upper body, my face dropping right next to its pelvis.
"Correction, Dudette," I muttered, I heard a bird fly over, with nothing else to do I examined the bones beneath me, they seemed to be an adult women's, easily discerned by the wide pelvis, and they seemed to be in good shape, just old, although there were countless scratches and nicks on the bones.
'Ding' *it's safe now, I would recommend going into a building until night.*
I got up, cringing at every crack of the bones beneath me, "Sorry, sorry, sorry," I whispered for each thunderous crack of the poor woman's skeleton. As I stood, there weren't many places that were immediately accessible, but just up the road to the left was some kind of office area. "What was that?" I stayed to the edge of the path and crouch ran, which was surprisingly tiring.
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Reaper Bird
HP- 100%
MP- 0/0
SP- 9/10
Will- 10/10
disposition- Voracious
Reaper birds are the piranhas of the sky, but with a much larger appetite, and much much more aggressive. Where there is one, you will most likely find dozens more.
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"Ah, well then, thanks,"
'Ding' *Just looking out for myself, if you die I disappear.*
"Aww he's shy," I said in a baby voice, not even trying to resist the urge to tease Apprasial.
'Ding' *You done making a fool of yourself?*
"Yup!" I said cheerfully, and headed into the building.
As I walked in a low growl sounded, I froze in the doorway, trying to blink away the bright daylight to peer into the gloom, when my eyes finally got accustomed to the dark I saw a large wolf, laying on its side, with peircing blue eyes, glaring at me, It looks like that it's coat is snow white but it was difficult to dicern with the crimson blood matting nearly everything that I could see, I felt myself tense, a wounded animal is very much more dangerous. "Apprasial,"
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White Fenrir
Gender-Female
HP-0.5%
MP-0%
SP- 0/10
Will- 7/10
Disposition- Honorable
Current Statuses-
*Exhaustion- Extreme {White Fenrir is extremely exhausted}
*Blood loss- Extreme {White Fenrir is losing a lot of blood}
*Poisoned- Greater {White Fenrir is affected by human synthesized poison}
*Broken rib- 4
*Starving- Medium {White Fenrir hasn't eaten in a while}
*Damage to lower Abdomen- Major {White Fenrir's lower intestines are ruptured}
*Deaths Touch- {White Fenrir is only alive through sheer force of will, although that can only go so far}
*Regeneration- Disabled {White Fenrir can expend MP to heal}
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Wow, I was completely stunned, "What's a White Fenrir?" I thought I have heard it somewhere before, but as it is when information is needed, it escaped me.
'Ding' *A stronger variant of a Wolf.*
"Ah like a direwolf?" The wolf growled and I realized I took a step closer. "Anything I could do to help her?"
'Ding' *Unless you can get rid of its lack of mana then no.*
With a whistling wheeze the Wolf hacked up a glob of blood at me feet, and I realized that I was right in front of her, I kneeled down ignoring the blood, and I started gently petting her, she growled and tried to snap at me but couldn't move, why am I not scared? Isn't it some kind of Primal instinct? While my mind was wandering off the Wolfs HP went down to 0.4% I felt the rage of it, was my skill Activating? No, wait. An idea started to form in my head. "Apprasial, what exactly can Vamperic Empath drain?"
'Ding' *Vamperic Empath can Drain Emotions, Energy, Etcetera.*
"What about the lack of mana?" It was a long shot but I felt I needed to take it.
'Ding' *... I don't see any rules against it, it just hasn't been done before.*
"Aha! Activate Vamperic Empath, drain lack of mana!" There was a pause, and a pickaxe slammed into my head, making me fall to my hands.
'Ding' *'Lack of mana' Drained.*
I reached up and felt no wound, it was just a migraine, I wonder why- it hit again, this time I had to prop myself up by my elbows.
'Ding' *'Lack of mana' drained.*
"Why does it hurt so much?" I rasped as another hit made my breakfast evacuate my body.
'Ding' *It could be because when you have no mana you get bad headaches, it could be that this isn't something that was meant to be, so your body is having to compensate, or it could just be that you are being punished because you are not using the skill right.*
"Why would-" Yet another wave of pain clawed through my brain, making everything go dark.
===
That morning
Having survived the Reaper Birds I was too worn out to even lift my head, as death tried to claim me, I fought, as to honor my heritage, I fought with all of my being. Refusing to let death claim me as one of their own I remained awake, even though I knew the relief of what all of the pain I felt was so easy to get, the relief of never having to worry about hunting again, but no, I fought. I am a stubborn Fenrir, and the only thing that can kill me are the gods themselves, if they wanted me dead they will have to get their hands dirty. The wind howled it's grief, I always had an affinity for wind, I think it enjoyed running alongside me during a hunt. There was a loud crack that jarred me back to reality, I thought I was running on top of the clouds with a Fenrir made of wind by my side, but no, I was laying in my own blood escaping the pain with hallucinations, No I am a Fenrir, Fenrir never Flee, they fight with honor! A shadow moved to block the doorway, I growled at the intruder. As the fool just stood there, probably frozen in fear, all Fenrir give off an aura of predatory dominance, the weakest of our prey just die from their hearts giving out.
"Apprasial," the human said, why did it have to be human, even if it was one of the ones chasing me, I couldn't have fought back.
"What's a White Fenrir?" What kind of idiotic question is that? I am a White Fenrir! Decendants of the wolf God Fenrir, us White Fenrir have the purest blood of our species.
"Ah like a direwolf?" My mind filled with rage, that is like calling a human an ape! How dare this human insult me when I couldn't retaliate.
"Anything I could do to help her?" Just who is this human talking to? There is no other human nearby, and I couldn't feel the fluctuation of any mana. As I sniffed to get a better sense of the human In front of my my breath caught, and I coughed some blood at his feet, the human smelled of worry and rage, but not fear, and of Nothingness, like they were absorbing scent around them, that made me growl uneasily, even the most oblivious of humans would feel fear in the presence of a Fenrir, especially if they are being threatening, and the nothingness was strange to say the least. A soft hand on my head gave me pause, was this human Petting me!? Rage flowed through me, giving me more energy, but quickly dwindling away like rain on dry soil.
"Apprasial, what exactly can Vamperic Empath drain?" My vision started to grow dark and hazy. The humans voice becoming muffled.
A surge of tasteless mana surged through me, bringing me back to consciousnes, I felt my wounds mend. What type of mana is this? All mana has taste, mana from the earth had an earthy taste, fire mana tastes like very hot air, hell even healing mana tastes like a warm sunny day, it doesn't matter what you use it for it always has a flavor. With another surge I looked to the human vomiting beside me, where it landed the world grayed, not turning gray as much as losing its vibrancy, and the sent of the vomit was the same as the mana, nothing, no it didn't smell like nothing, it took the scent from me, and seemingly the land around it. Another surge brought me to my feet, I retched, the mana felt ominous, all mana should come from somewhere, and have a specific flavor, but this mana doesn't, as the human passed out I relaxed, it's impossible to manipulate mana while unconscious, but another wave pinned my ears, I carefully inspected the human, It was alive but unconscious, it was then I realized that the majority of the shadow was the odd weapon I saw it play, this was the loud human. Trying to ignore the sickening mana that was fueling the repair of my body I tried to clean myself. I focused and sought any water mana I had left, it wasn't my element, but was damn useful, there was only a speck but as I watched, the Null mana assimilated the water mana into more of itself, that I have never heard of, mana could only be one type. In my old realm there have been humans that have tried to do something similar, but those civilizations have ended up in thousand mile wide craters, although I only know of the stories. But with no water mana I couldn't clean myself, for a second I thought about trying the Null mana, but I was loathe to willingly use the vile stuff, it goes against everything I have ever learned. Carefully I stood and shook, the only times that I have healed this fast is when my Mana reserve was completely full, and I had a long nights rest, the surges of the Null mana was gradually eased into a full feeling, like my mana reservoir was being filled with the hollow stuff, It felt worse than when I swallowed a bunch of air and couldn't belch it up. I left the human lying in my blood and went and found one of the human contraptions, an odd stump that was hard and bright yellow, while I was fighting a Titan Boa It threw me against one of these, and broke it, spraying water at the boa chilling it and giving me the chance to finish it off, there was no mana being used so it was baffling how the humans managed to harness geysers, but I don't turn my nose up at useful things. I slashed the stump away with an easy swipe, there was a pause and the water shot upwards easily eclipsing even my battle form, but knowing that it wouldn't last I jumped in and washed my body off, after a while the water settled into a constant well that was twice as tall as I was. Drinking my fill I dried myself and went to wait for the human to awaken. Now that I got a good look at them; they were small for a human, they looked like an adolescent human pup, I never bothered to learn the term humans used. Carefully I picked up the human and followed their anti-scent to another human den, this one smelling of alcohol. The Reaper birds tried to harry me, but I quickly exterminated the rest of the flock. The entrance of the den was made for the smaller humans, but my being small for a Fenrir made it possible to squeeze through. The place still had a scent, so I presume that the human hadn't spent long here, although If they did for too long the lack of scent would have caught my attention.
===
I was back in the void, floating among nothingness, and everything that ever has and will exist.
"You survived longer than I expected! Congrats my dude, although the way you died is hilarious, your heart giving out from the sheer pain you felt, well the shock of it ultimately is what killed you but potato potahto."
As I absorbed the information flowing into me I felt my heart drop. I really died? If I knew I would die from using my skill like that... well I would probably make the same decision, I was an Intruder, the Fenrir was there first, as well as being honorable. She probably would survive much better than I could there.
I could almost hear a sigh "You need to be more selfish, humans are selfish, try being like one of them, I'll give you a second chance, but in exchange you have to do a little favor for me,"
I tried to keep my thoughts blank, I wanted to hear what the deal was before I agreed.
"Dude, you are so boring, all I want you to do is travel the fractured lands, like you were doing, and every place you rest, just leave a small shrine for me, nothing big,"
The first thing that came to mind was doubt, I was going to get revived and all I needed to do in payment was make shrines to this God? How can that be balanced, shouldn't they ask me to try to convert others at least?
"That is all I want you to do, sure other gods might need additional followers to recover quickly from reviving someone, but I don't, because I exist outside reality, so I ask for smaller things, beside I don't need followers from an unstable fractured realm,"
If that was all then sure, I could agree to that, but-
"Awesome, also do you want some powers from me that could be used for battle? It would really up your chances of survival,"
The quick change of topic threw me off balance, a power for battle? Of course I was curious what a god thought an adequate ability to fight was.
"If you want to know then I will just give it to you, and its up to you to use it."
Isn't this god favouring me too much? It gave me a second chance at life, then gave me abilities to help me survive, then is giving me another chance at life, even though it was completely my fault I died, for very little as payment and now is giving me yet another ability, Shouldn't there be consequences for such actions?
There was humor in the voice, "Usually there would be, but one, I am exempt from such rules because no one can hold me accountable, and two, everything I am doing has little to no ripples in the grand scheme of things, think of it as getting to throw an absolute banger of a party before a building is torn down and recycled, it's like that but the building is a fractured realm,"
I didn't really understand, but something stood out to me, was the Realm I was in getting destroyed? I mean it was kinda thoroughly fucked, but it was also beautiful in its own right.
The voice turned serious "Every realm gets scrapped eventually, then is recycled into another realm so more life can flourish, its like the circle of life in your old realm, but with reality itself,"
That did make sense, but when was the realm I was in right now getting scrapped?
There was an uncertain tone in their voice, "Not anytime soon I think, I mean It was supposed to be scrapped a while ago, but It is entertaining at the moment, so I am putting it on hold, well that's enough of that, worry not," And with that I was laying on something kinda soft and squishy, which I realized was a bed, I was also absolutely caked in dried blood, it itched like crazy.
"Well that was a whole park," I muttered to myself, then I started laughing uncontrollably, everything that has happened to me so far becoming extremely humorous for a short time.
'Ding' *It finally happened, you went insane.*
It took a while to get enough air to reply, still wheezing I managed, "Always have been, insanity; being seriously mentally ill, or as the great Albert Einstein once said 'Doing something over and over again expecting a different result',"
'Ding' *Who is this 'Albert Einstein? Did you know them?*
That triggered my mad cackling once again, "I wish! That would have been so interesting, I could have picked his brain a out quite a few things, no he was a very smart dude who did some things and uhh, yeah I just know he did great things for humans as a whole," As the cackling died down I realized that I was in the bedroom of 'The Rabid Llama' "How did I get back here?"
'Ding' *The Fenrir took you back.*
"Really? How did- wait animals have a great sense of smell don't they, It must've followed my scent trail, wait I haven't been able to bathe in forever, I hope I don't Stink too bad," saying that I sniffed myself, smelling only old blood. "Well no time like the present," I started to sit up to stand, a protesting hiss stopped me, as I looked, the Bismuth snake was curled up on my lap, with that I realized that my legs were numb, since I couldn't feel it at all.
'Ding' *A Bismuth Striker weighs 50 lbs on average*
"Thats a quite a bit for such a small snake, It looks like a ball python that someone decided to tape on another of the same size,"
'Ding' *It IS made of metal*
"True, but I need to shower, so how can I get it off? Without harming it," I added quickly. There was a pause as if Apprasial was rethinking its answer.
'Ding' *You could drain its Lethargy, so it has more energy, and therefore has to move.*
"That could work, activate Empathetic drain Lethargy," After a short pause a wave of weariness washed over me, testing my determination to wash myself, another wave made the tip of the Snakes tail start twitching, after about a minute the snake resettled itself in a more comfortable fashion.
'Ding' *Did you not wish to bath?*
That woke me up, I just wanted to lay and let the day crawl on by, It reminded me of when my depression got bad and I just couldn't get the gumption to do anything productive. But after a couple seconds I groaned and got up, "Come on you useless piece of shit, pitter patter, let's get at 'er," and I headed to the bathroom and turned on the shower, I waited for it to heat up for a while, but after I thought about it I almost facepalmed at my stupidity, why would the water heat up, I was lucky that there was still enough pressure to make a shower, albeit a cold one. Bracing myself I jumped into the freezing water, still making me let out a small squeak which would completely humiliate me if there were any other people present to witness it.
'Ding' *Congratulations on making a previously unknown sound, but worry not I have recorded it for future reference.*
"I swear that I will find what passes for your balls and twist them so hard that there will be a new record on the highest sound ever made," I threatened, only half serious. Thankfully Apprasial took the hint to shut up, and left me in peace for the rest of my shower.
When I was done I just threw away the blood soaked mess that was my outfit, and took out some clean clothes, "Wait what's my status?"
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Alex
race- Error
age- 19
level- 11
HP- 100%
MP- Error/-0
SP- 10/10
Will- 8/Error
Disposition- Kind {Really Too kind for your own good, it baffles me how you are still alive}
Skills-
>Vamperic Empath >Wrath >:ŒĮĐ ÞÆĮŅÞ< {just nonsense, even I can't read it}
>Child of the Storm< {Nature rages at her children's pain}
>'Apprasial' >Call of the Void< {When you gaze into the Abyss, it's residents gaze into you}
*Depression[Chronic] {if I wasn't omnipotent I would seriously doubt this}
*Voids Blessing {The god of the void gave you their blessing so you wouldn't die immediately, so you would be more entertaining to them}
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Before I could give any sass to Apprasial there was a small rasp of fur against wood, Turning I saw the Fenrir standing there watching me.