Shameless

"You're losing a lot of mana… Want some of mine?" The Crow God continued to smile.

His eyes were closed in consideration of Isle, Who would die the moment he opened them.

It wasn't the first time he'd done so for someone so it wasn't uncomfortable for him.

"Don't be shy. You won't be able to kill me if you're already dead." Cassius joked after a while of silence.

Isle simply observed Cassius' body instead of replying.

He was willowy. If you were to see him without hearing his voice, You'd probably think he was a girl.

Cassius' bangs were adjusted so his face wasn't covered by them. However his torso and legs were completely obscured.

His arms were chained tightly still but there were sections where his arms were visible, So it was easy to guess his general figure.

His pitch black hair fell long past his feet and traveled down the pocket of the tower and onto the surface of the prison.

That's when Isle realized the silk like material on the surface of the prison from before was Cassius' hair, His eyes widened.

"How long have you been here…?"

The crow tilted his head in confusion, He thought Isle would've been a little smarter than to ask something like that.

"How should I know? The effects a prison like this has on your sense of time aren't exactly helpful." Cassius sighed.

That should've been pretty easy to guess but Isle thought that Cassius would've used magic of some sorts that'd help him keep track of the time.

It's the type of thing that Caeruleus would do right?

"Couldn't you have asked Vermilion? You had so much time to ask him anything about this place..." Cassius sighed.

He really had a point, Vermilion would've answered just about any question that Isle asked, If he wasn't annoyed or if he didn't find it to be prying.

Isle took a rough guess that the crow had been here for atleast a few thousand years, But his mental state didn't seem nearly as bad as it should've been if Isle's guess was right.

Isle knew if he was chained up in the dark like Cassius, He wouldn't even last an hour before starting to go insane, Let alone whatever stretch of time the crow had been here.

"It didn't cross my mind to ask about this place when half of my time here was spent fighting and training… I only spent the last few days resting, I'll spend this last day killing you." Isle frowned slightly as he weakly raised Rene at Cassius.

"This is where you die…" His voice came out faintly.

Isle sluggishly moved towards Cassius before he fell to the ground.

Isle's mana was running out, If he could kill Cassius right now then he'd gain Reverie and finally be warped home, But if he failed then he'd die, Never seeing anyone again.

He wasn't gonna let himself die when he was this close. That was what he thought as he struggled to get back up again.

"How amusing. You and Sandrone are so similar it's adorable, Like two brothers. If only you two had met under different circumstances…" The crow's smile had shrinked as he thought of the two.

Isle didn't give half a fuck about Cassius' comparisons, All he wanted was to drive Rene through his chest and leave this place.

He weakly stood, Leaning on the wall for support as he slowly advanced towards the crow god.

"Hm? What a coincidence…" Cassius' head tilted slightly as he looked at Isle with his closed eyes.

It'd weirdly taken him awhile but he saw the book and the damage to Isle's mana core, The book had a property that made it nearly impossible for anyone apart from the owner to view it.

Sadly it was only a small obstacle for the Deity of Crows.

Cassius' right hand twitched, A chain from behind him shot through the air and impaled Isle, He staggered against the wall.

Although he'd just impaled Isle, There wasn't any actual malicious intent from Cassius. It was like he'd grown used to doing stuff like this with people that could actually handle it.

Weirdly enough he didn't feel much pain at all when the chain initially went in.

The chain then ripped out of his chest, Taking the dark book as it did.

Isle screeched in pain. This was the worst pain he'd ever felt.

His right arm had been hole punched during the puppet fight, His leg was shredded by Vermilion when the initially met, And his eye was gouged by Sandrone yet they didn't even come close to the agony he currently felt.

This wasn't even mentioning the beatings he'd receive from Vermilion while "Training" or the things he'd been through while he was on the streets.

He immediately fell against the wall then slowly came to the ground.

Isle didn't know anything about how the chains of the crow worked, But from the looks of it they were serving as an extension of his body.

Rather than cumbersome restraints that held him still. Isle still wasn't aware of how they worked, Although it didn't really matter all that much currently, Considering the fact he was about to die.

The book had hardly been in his possession for long enough that he'd feel attached to it.

His soul on the other hand was very precious to him.

The soul that was so precious to him had been damaged either when the chain pierced his chest or when the book was stolen.

When it came to soul injuries, There wasn't a whole lot that you can do about it but wait for them to naturally heal.

Most souls heal fairly quickly if potent enough, While weaker ones can take a little longer than usual.

The chain returned to Cassius.

The book dangled on it in front of Cassius. He looked at it for a few moments before the chain swung and lobbed it back at Isle, He was sat against the wall as the book lightly hit his right leg.

"You can have that, It's not what I thought it was. That's kinda disgusting actually… I've no clue where you might've gotten that, But it's more trouble than it's worth."

The chain that had once held the book was now gone, Like it'd never existed.

The book clearly had some form of preventative measure in case it was stolen.

That chain rather than crumbling or even fading away, Was simply wiped from existence.

"Atleast in your hands…" He looked down at Isle expecting an answer.

His hand tightly held onto Rene's handle.

The light left his eyes little by little, Like a spark that refused to go out.

"Oh, Right. You humans are so fragile… I used to play with my friends like this all the time. Here then." He sighed in annoyance.

A gloomy feather fell from the ceiling, Slowly gliding.

The air whistled as it flew down.

The feather slipped into Isle's chest through its bleeding entrance.

It gently wrapped itself around Isle's cracked mana core.

The core was entirely covered by the feather, Stopping anymore mana from leaking.

"That solves one problem…" The crow said.

Chains rattled as they moved Isle in front of Cassius.

Another feather fell from the ceiling but this one cut Cassius' cheek.

Luminous blood lightly coated the feather illuminating the entire cavern.

The feather drifted down to Isle's mouth then remained stagnant in the air above it.

The blood from Cassius dripped down the feather into Isle's mouth.

His lips were hardly parted but the blood still managed to slip inside.

The last spark of life in Isle's eyes bursted into flames, An explosion of dark mana emerged from Isle destroying the anomalous disturbance of mana originally created by Cassius.

"Hm? How interesting… Your mana's being changed by the grimoire. That's the first time I've seen that in awhile…" The crow frowned slightly.

Isle coughed up some more blood then stood up, Some of it landed on Rene it's runes glowed brightly almost hungrily.

His chest had completely healed and so did his soul. Cassius' blood had completely blended with the rest of his blood, Instantly rejuvenating all of Isle's mana.

He felt as if there were some other effects but he couldn't pinpoint what they were.

The feather remained wrapped around his cracked mana core, Condensing the mana in his core.

"…Now you die. Open your eyes if you want, Struggle all you want but I'll still kill you." Isle lifted Rene into the air once again and aimed it towards the deity with no restraint.

"You have no shame do you? Go ahead, I won't have to keep my eyes closed now. So I'll watch you as you do it." Cassius teased.

His smile returned but it was different from before. It was completely pure, His eyes slowly opened.

Isle had never seen Cassius eyes but they were the complete opposite of the dark lifeless ones he had expected to see.

His eyes were the most beautiful shade of lavender Isle had ever seen. The mellowness of the color didn't really match the crows demeanor but Isle got the feeling that it had at some point.

"Say… Would you like to know my old name?" The crow tilted his head slightly.