[Skill Leveled Up: Pandora’s Box (Sealed) (338) -> (346)]

  [Skill Leveled Up: Good Samaritan (143) -> (157)]

  [Skill Leveled Up: Meaningful (83) -> (91)]

  [Skill Leveled Up: Growing Rage (248) -> (275)]

  [Total Stats Gained: +3 Physical]

  [Skill Leveled Up: Connection (10) -> (11)]

  [Skill Leveled Up: Solidity (140) -> (156)]

  [Skill Leveled Up: Homeostasis (200) -> (231)]

  [Skill Leveled Up: Meditation (200) -> (228)]

  [Skill Leveled Up: Identify of the Stout Protector (120) -> (129)]

  [Skill Leveled Up: In Tune (87) -> (100)]

  [Skill: In Tune (100) has reached an evolution threshold]

  As he walked among the melted rocks, Dei checked the neglected updates to his status. Again, he was awed with the speed he’d gained levels. Danger was a really important aspect of leveling.

  That was potentially another weakness to Endurance-based builds. If they were guaranteed eventual success, their enemy would be in immense danger over a prolonged period of time. Paradoxically, that immense danger would lead to them advancing rapidly- potentially out of reach of the Endurance-based build. How much would he have leveled his Skills if he’d truly let himself be pushed to the limit by Edward? He’d never gotten to that point, always finding tricks to throw Edward off his tail, but Dei guessed that as time went on, his Skills would level up faster and faster. As his death approached, it would continue to push itself further away.

  His musings were cut off as he became aware of a subtle wiggling beneath his feet, and immediately raised his guard, releasing a pulse from Sou Echo.

  Weirdly enough, he couldn’t sense anything wrong with the stone. To his soul senses, it was truly just regular stone, but when he stood still he could absolutely feel it… roiling very slowly.

  Bending down, he placed one hand on the stone and looked closely. When he studied it, he could see the cracks forming between the blackened stone, revealing fresh, undamaged gray rock beneath.

  ‘Its… growing? The stone is growing. This must be why I never saw the results of Alorans previous battle that scarred the cave systems, because apparently The Mother acts quickly. I can’t think of anything else responsible for this, she must be manipulating the stone somehow to repair the cave system, restoring it to its previous state. She supposedly only exists within the minds of monsters, but this is within her purview? That doesn’t make sense… I can see now why Primordial Children cannot be encapsulated by a single affinity. If she only had control of monsters, it would be a simple Monster affinity, but the supposed Mother affinity must encapsulate Earth, Monster, Mind, and a bunch of others in its domain, if The Mother even has her own affinity.’

  He paid it no more attention, continuing to search for Edward. Aloran said the man was alive, but he wasn’t exactly making noise, so he must be unconscious.

  Dei would have to search quickly if he wanted to find him before the earth around Edward repaired. He imagined it would be a bit more difficult after that happened.

  * * *

  Only twenty minutes of dodging pitfalls and searching with Soul Echo around yielded results. Edward was almost dead-center of the blast site, unconscious as Dei expected.

  He was completely defenseless, in more ways than one. Dei didn’t even have to use Identify to look into the mans soul anymore, as the natural defenses were completely gone. A simple Soul Echo was enough to fully pierce through, showing Dei everything he wanted to see.

  Edward was beat, completely crippled beyond anything Dei could’ve done. By Dei’s estimation, Edward would never recover, but Aloran said it would be a few short months. From what he knew about Skills though, he trusted Alorans estimate over his own. Edward was nothing if not determined, and a simple intent was enough to form Skills. Edward would just form more Skills based around healing his soul, and be up to form shortly, even harder to put down next time.

  It would be easy to kill Edward now, in his helpless state with no Skills, but he didn’t want to do that just yet. Even if Edward could recover, it would take months at the minimum. Dei was in no danger here, so he opted for a conversation with Edward when he woke up instead.

  He didn’t know what he wanted from the man. He just wanted to talk. Edward had lost his entire family, and Dei didn’t blame him for trying to kill Fendrascora.

  Dei was painfully familiar with the state of disconnect after taking major soul damage, and was banking on that now. When Iora had shattered his soul, he couldn’t be bothered to care about anything, only occasionally pushing himself free from the emotionless state to help his mother escape. Though Edward wasn’t lethally damaged, his soul damage was almost worse than Dei’s had been. He wasn’t falling apart, but he was damaged in a much different way.

  All things considered, Edward wouldn’t be as angry. He couldn’t be as angry. Perhaps soul damage also limited ones connection to affinities and thus emotions, but all that mattered right now was the results.

  Dei would try to reason with him when he wasn’t insane. If he couldn’t convince Edward to stop, to turn around and live a normal life away from Dei permanently, Dei would kill him here. If Dei could somehow remove Edward as a threat, for good, he’d be more than happy to let the man walk away.

  Explaining his plan to the rest of the team and asking their permission to go through with it, he got the go ahead as they didn’t seem to mind either. Clever and Perumah were curious about the result, but Fendrascora just didn’t want to kill him, probably from guilt.

  He turned away from Edward. Now that he knew where the man was and checked on his condition, Dei knew he had some time before he woke up. Perhaps waking up to a meal would go over better?

  * * *

  Several hours later, the fire was simmering down and Clever comfortably sat in the heart of it. After a long wait, Edward finally began to stir.

  Dei watched him carefully, but all the man did was open his eyes and turn his head, making no attempts to move his body.

  Edward looked around, face completely slack and eyes glazed over.

  ‘Yea, he’s definitely out of it from soul damage.’

  When Edward found Dei, his eyes stopped roving the terrain, staring at him for a long while. Dei had the distinct feeling that Edwards Rage was trying to scrounge up some emotions, but failed.

  Edwards eyes slowly began to close once more, but Dei wasn’t in the mood for waiting. “Edward,” he said, and he was again brought to half attention. “Edward, why are you here?”

  “To kill you” Edward said, matter of factly.

  “Why? I’ve never seen you.”

  “Tir’s tracker says you helped the monster escape. I need to kill you.”

  “What about the monster?”

  “If you die, the monster will too. Don’t know where it is, but if you have a deal, it’s probably close.”

  “What if the monster escaped from me too? What if it’s not here anymore, far from what either of us will find?”

  “Doesn’t matter. Not my job.”

  “No? So why do you want to kill me?”

  “You helped the monster escape.”

  “Do you hate me for that?”

  “I should.”

  “Do you hate the monster?”

  For once, Edward paused, and Dei knew some emotion had broken through the fog. “Yes.”

  “So you hate me because I’m associated with the monster, but don’t care if it escapes?”

  “I want the monster dead. Killing you is my best chance to complete my mission.”

  “What is your mission?”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “Kill the monster if it escapes.”

  “But it’s gone. The monster is nowhere to be found,” he lied. It didn’t seem like Edward recognized Fendrascora, and that made sense. From Fendrascora’s memories, Dei knew she’d never seen Edward.

  Fendrascora was little more than a boogeyman in Edwards mind. He didn’t know what she looked like, he didn’t know what she was. He simply knew he had to kill the idea of her, and it was this idea that Dei was trying to shake. When Dei helped Fendrascora, he inherited the idea of the boogeyman in Edwards mind.

  “Doesn’t matter. Killing you is my best chance at killing the monster, so I’ll have to kill you.” The problem with trying to shake the idea, was that Edward didn’t actually care if Dei was in the wrong or not. He wanted someone to blame, and Dei was convenient to a man who’d lost everything.

  It didn’t help that Edward was correct either.

  During his ponderings though, Dei saw that Edwards soul defenses were coming back up. The gears in his Skills began to turn once more, and the lengthy process of healing his soul damage through sheer hatred of Dei.

  For the first time since he woke up, Edwards face twitched, and Dei sighed as Edwards vision came into focus, pupils narrowing as they locked on to Dei.

  Edward spoke before Dei could. “I thought I’d either be dead or successful when I woke up again. I’d either be standing over a monster's corpse or guided into the afterlife by Grim. Either would’ve been fine, but you deny me even that.”

  “I don’t want to kill you Edward. You’re young. I can tell from your soul that you’re hardly twenty five. You have a life ahead of you. I know what it’s like to lose everything, to be forced to start over and build yourself up again as someone else, but it’s possible”

  As he said this, Dei let parts of his Presence out, speaking of loss and rage. Dei’s Wrath was never quelled after the betrayal. He still hated, but the second part of his Presence spoke of rebirth- metaphorical of course. His Kindness showed how he didn’t let the experiences limit him. The pain of losing everything was his foundation for a better life.

  Edward took his time sorting through the feelings, understanding that Dei had lost everything before as well. “I don’t want to. I don’t want to rebuild. I had everything, but what’s left of me now? I don’t care if I will live for another two or three hundreds years, or if I can eventually build myself back up. The pain will never go away, even you know that. You still hate. You still hold that fury in your heart. I don’t want to. I want the hate gone. I want it resolved.”

  “What will you do? If you kill me? If you get your revenge? Will that resolve the hate?”

  Edward let out a humorless laugh. “We’re from the same stock, I can see that. You know the answer.”

  It was true, Edward didn’t need to say it. ‘Yes.’ It would resolve the hate to get revenge. Some spoke of being hollowed out on their journey for revenge, not people like Dei and Edward. They lived for revenge. It gave them purpose.

  If Edward killed Dei, he might actually move on. He would feel accomplished in his task. That was the only way Edward would ever regain his will to live, but it would be at the cost of Dei, a price he wasn’t going to pay.

  “You lost, are you so willing to die? I would let you go if you took a vow to never pursue me again, directly or indirectly calling harm to me.”

  “Not happening. I’d wish for the sweet release of death before a life without revenge.”

  “But do you want to die?”

  “No… but I want to live even less.”

  Dei sighed inwardly. If Edward had asked for death, he could justify the mercy kill, but now he wanted the man to live. The issue was giving the man his own desire to live. Edward needed a fire under him that would push him away from the icy grip of nothingness. Somehow, Dei needed to instill a fear of death again. If he could do that, he could get a vow from the man to never try and kill Dei or any of his allies.

  What could he do though? Edward had nothing to live for, and would it even be a mercy to force his continued existence? All Dei was doing was putting a balm on his conscience. It might very well be better to put Edward out of his misery, but he had to at least try.

  His mind came back to death, real death. The Grim Reaper was real in this world, and it seemed he governed the Conceptual Plane of Death, similar to how Void Beasts governed the Void.

  “What happens after you meet with Grim, Edward?”

  There was a flicker of confusion from Edward but he answered. “He guides you into the afterlife.”

  “Which afterlife. Paradise? Reincarnation? What happens next?”

  “Depends on who you follow, but most Gods bring you into their divine realm to serve as building blocks for the hearts of angels. Your mind becomes a piece of the angel, along with many other faithful.”

  “Is that what will happen to you? Is that why you want to die? You’d like to serve your God?” the question was genuine, and if Edward said yes, this was over. Dei would put him down, as there was life guaranteed after death.

  Edward dispelled his hope. “...No. I… after I lost them… I lost my faith as well. My wife was a Gem Dweller like you, and I know most of you don’t trust the Gods, but I’d kept my faith even after moving down below. When the attack happened, I begged for divine protection, but my God was silent. It never responded to any of my pleas until it was too late, and it only told me that life would move on.” Edward scoffed, and more life returned to his eyes. “Same as you, it told me I could rebuild. While I held my dead child, it told me there would always be another. No, took up my late wife's stance after that. I would rather return to nothing.”

  Again, Dei sighed in his mind as he forced his hand to relax. No killing Edward yet.

  He’d have to take a risk, and if it didn’t work out… he could at least say he’d tried everything.

  “Is that what you think? That there’s nothing after death if one of the Gods don’t pull you into their realms?”

  Edward’s face scrunched. “Of course. Your soul disintegrates and you become nothing, final peace.”

  Dei shook his head slowly. “No… I’m afraid not. I’ve faced death, and the nothing that comes after. I know what happens when you pass, and it is not peace.” As he spoke, he readied a charge from [Meaningful]. For once, the Skill fought back against what he wanted to say. Only when it realized he was trying to do something helpful did it calm down.

  With good intentions, he would show Edward what happened after a Godless death.

  “You know what comes after nothing? Are you serious?” Edward started getting more animated, his healing accelerated. “How could you ever? You don’t return from death. Once Grim guides you past that final veil, you’re gone. Grim would never let you back through, do you mean to tell me that you somehow overpowered him? That you forced your way past grim and into your own body?”

  Hundreds of Kindness mana flowed into this charge of the spell, and Kindness produced more to match. What he wished to convey was heavy, and it took more than a few simple points. “No, I truly died, and what I saw was not peace. You say that you wish for death? Know what that means. Understand, truly, what it means to die. Understand Death.”

  Rather than speak, he imbued the final word with his experiences, with his time in the Void.

  When he died, there was only more pain afterwards. He felt the Void Beasts rip him apart, taking his memories to add to their collections, their infinite, discordant minds. They wanted to take chunks out of everything that composed him, fragmenting his mind into pieces that would serve to complete their own.

  It was a cold, horrible, painful death. They would strip Dei of everything that made him who he was, then spit out the pure soul like the seeds of a tasty fruit. The seed would grow into another life, another fruit, then die to feed the endless swarms once more.

  Death did not mean peace, it simply meant joining the cycle of being farmed again and again by entities not meant to be processed by the mortal mind.

  Dei failed to understand just how much his blessing from Void protected him from the psychological toll of having seen a Void Beast, and he’d just imbued that idea into a message, forcing it into Edwards mind.

  Edward shot to his feet, covering his eyes and letting out a scream of agony. His head felt like it was tearing itself apart as the concepts burned away at his mind in a way he could feel. It squirmed in a physical, personal way, burrowing deeper into his being.

  Instinctual, ancient defenses activated, reaching out and erasing the memory from his system, but the damage was done, marking him as one who’d glimpsed beyond the veil and been changed for it.

  Surprised by his reaction, Dei stood up as well and reached out to Edward, right as the man collapsed to his knees, head hung low. Tears slipped through the man's fingers as he silently cried.

  “Is that… what happened to my family?”

  ‘Oh… Oh no.’

  Dei failed to consider that train of thought. He wanted Edward to fear death, but what about those that were already gone? There was no way to bring them back, and they’d already suffered the fate Dei beat into Edwards mind.

  Edward didn’t wait for a response, already knowing the answer to his question. “I swear on the System that I will not hurt or otherwise act against your interest knowingly, directly or indirectly, so long as… so long as you don’t kill me.”

  He spoke with a tremble in his voice, and as his head rose to look Dei in the eye, he flinched backwards. Dei could see it, the spark of Rage was gone.

  Edward was defeated- No, he was beaten down.

  Edward held his arms close and shivered, turning around and stumbling away.

  Dei was stunned. Perumah aggressively tried opening a line of communication, screaming things at him he couldn’t understand, so he Identified her to hear what she was trying to tell him.

  “What did you do?!” she demanded.

  “I don’t know! I just… didn’t want to kill him. I thought it would be a mercy, that he could go on living.”

  “Dei, you don’t have the emotional sight to see it, but what you did was no mercy. You completely rearranged his mind. His affinity of Rage was snuffed out, replaced with the affinity of Grief. And whatever you told him, it scarred him beyond recognition. He gained the affinity of Madness. Is this the mercy you dole out?”

  Dei panicked, studying the receding form of Edward. Should he let the man go?

  “I’ll make the decision easy” Perumah said, then launched the most powerful soul attack he’d seen thus far at the man's back.

  Edward’s quivering soul, still weak from their battle, stood no chance. He was more than killed, Edward’s soul completely shattered, and perhaps that was for the best.

  Perhaps that spared him the pain.

  Despite Dei’s misguided attempts at mercy, Edward dropped to the ground, dead.