by J. Cee
Aeri looked skeptical. “Really?”
“Zealot’s Fury increases your damage. The lower your blood pool, the greater the increase. At half your blood pool, your damage will double. That’s why you didn’t notice any difference after the battle. Was your blood pool recovered when you tested your Soulstrikes?”
“I think so.”
“What if his blood pool was zero?” Aeri said.
Ceph gave her a sharp glance. He’d tell her everything later. It was no use hiding things from her.
Myrtle took off the helmet and handed the band back to Ceph. “Zero? You’d end up with a division by zero. An infinity.” Myrtle traded glances with Aeri. “You’d also be dead, so I don’t see how that would work.”
Ceph heard Aeri murmur to herself. Something about infinite power.
“So the closer I am to death, the stronger my attacks are.” Ceph threw his hands up in frustration. “Isn’t that beefy. You know, I put all my power points into blood for a reason. I like staying alive.”
“Actually, Zealot’s Fury is perfect for your large blood pool. You can afford to lose half and still have plenty left,” Aeri pointed out.
“What about Zeudah’s artifact? What happened to it?” Myrtle asked.
Aeri shook her head. “Jexaka’s body was gone. I suspect she took it away.”
“Didn’t she die?” Ceph asked.
“I don’t think so. Jexaka claimed to steal life from the Everborn to resurrect. I think Zeudah’s mark is her claim on his life. If she had died, Zeudah wouldn’t have survived.”
“But I saw Jexaka die,” Ceph said.
“It could have been a trick. Like Zeudah’s Twin Paradox teleportation. Jexaka could have made a second copy at the last instant.”
“And where is Zeudah now?” Myrtle asked.
Ceph shook his head. “We don’t know.”
Afterwards, Aeri and Ceph headed back to the belltower. They would need to find a safer place to call a long-term home.
“What’s next on our save-the-world checklist?” Ceph asked.
“Believe it or not, we’ve already made great progress. Finding the artifact was a key step. For now, I think we need to focus on gaining ranks and skills.”
“I can’t believe we lost Jexaka’s body. We could have at least gotten your boots back.”
“You had a lot on your mind. We both did. About what happened—”
“I… I don’t want to talk about it now. Another time?”
Aeri gave Ceph a sympathetic look. “Of course.”
“What about Zeudah? Do you think we’ll see him again?” Ceph asked.
“His fate is still tied with ours. I can see his thread in my visions.”
“Should we look for him?”
“He’ll find us when he’s ready. He has his own battles to fight.”
“Speaking of fights.” Corpus. Ceph checked his left forearm. “I got twenty-five power points from beating the challenge and the Word! That puts me at rank 122. Wow, I want to try out this artifact again.”
“We were lucky against the Word. Don’t expect it to be so easy next time,” Aeri warned.
“I know. What about you? What’s your rank?”
“I’m at 102. I lost count of how many locust-men I killed, but I didn’t get much from them.”
“You have some catching up to do.” Ceph looked up at the horizon. “It’s almost night. How about a night of Everborn hunting?”
“Aw, how romantic. Is that a date?”
“I thought you didn’t do romantic.” Ceph tried but failed to meet Aeri’s eyes without blushing. He turned away. So much for not running, he thought.
Epilogue
The Word left the prison cell in disgust, wiping its bloody hands on his robes. It was another useless interrogation of these damned creatures. It had gotten overeager and killed the thing.
Someone had reported spotting the boy and girl entering one of those psychic mind reader’s shops. The city guards had seized the crazy lady and brought her to him. No matter what it did, though, she had refused to talk. What was her name again? Dalia? He hated Dalia.
The Word muttered to itself as it walked up the stone staircase. Ever since its last rebirth, something had changed. Its movements felt swifter. Colors were brighter. Sounds were crisper. It had been years since its last rebirth, but it could tell that this time was different.
It was the blasted boy. He had done this to it. The Word’s eyes burned extra hot with fury from thinking of the boy. As the Word reached the top of the staircase, it noticed someone waiting in the shadows.
“Who is it?” it growled.
Light from the Word’s burning mouth reflected off a pair of black eyes nestled in the darkness.
A woman’s voice responded. “A friend.”
The Word snorted. “I have no friends. Only one master, and many slaves.”
“An ally, then.” Jexaka stepped out of the darkness, smiling to reveal her wicked teeth.
The Word scowled, but Jexaka pressed on.
“How would you feel about killing your master?”
About the author
I’m just a LitRPG fan who decided to try his hand at writing a story. Some of my favorite LitRPG books are Awaken Online, Ascend Online, Threadbare, Sufficiently Advanced Magic, The Ritualist, and Dodge Tank. The usual suspects. You should read them all. My email is [email protected]