Blood pooled in my mouth as the spear lodged itself deeper in me, watching me from above the commander of the enemy army sneered
The cold iron of the spear head twisted viscously as it churned my innards, struggling was meaningless my hands and feet had long since been cut off
Augustus II
He who was infinitely inferior to me in every sense gloated on with a victory born from betrayal, but perhaps that is why he had won
To I who had been so blind to the envy and jealousy of those I had considered my closest of allies, knowing well they could never beat me even in ambush they had poisoned me
With my strength inhibited I was defeated and turned into this wretched state
Now all that was left was a broken image of the man once called the greatest of men
" Sptoo "
I spat out the blood in my mouth right at Augustus's feet spattering his uniform red
Perhaps that action upset him as the very next second he pulled the spear keen in slicing right through me
But it did not matter
I had already finished condensing the mana I had left wrung out from my broken core
and so the final moments of my life blazed with an explosion that rocked the heaven alongside the ugliest of faces that Augustus could muster
With the feeling of my own body bursting that was the end of I
Marcus Alder
The greatest of men
' That was my first death '
-----
" !!! "
I bashed my head atop my desk as a blood curling scream wrung out of me
The pain of the event that surfaced writhed in me as I slowly remembered each detail
I tried my best to forget the pain yet all I could was bash my head again
Hoping that it would pull my attention away
But I stopped once again as new information poured into my head
It was the start of my second death
------
My second death was that of a young orphan beggar, 7 perhaps 8 years old, I didn't know
I had only wished to eat so I had scoured for food in the trash, sadly it was a noble's trash, what came next was a brutal beating that ended with the guards breaking his legs at the noble's behest
left to die on unknown alley, a long time passed as he dead to starvation and fatigue
.
.
.
My fifth death was rather long
Having become a prisoner of war after years of war, I was tortured for months, yet even then I hadn't spoken a single word
perhaps because of that they grew tired and finally cut me down after five more months
.
.
.
conversely my eighth death was rather quick
In less than a day a revolution broke out as I was holed up to the execution platform as a noble who had helped in corruption and brought suffering to the people
The guillotine fell and my neck was severed cleanly
.
.
.
My thirteenth death was in the sea
Having lived my life by the sea I had become enamoured by it, leaving the opportunity to go to central city behind, I instead took arms as a marine serving the country for three years
Yet the sea was as brutal as it was beautiful for with only a single storm it had made sure that we all knew our place
for it was that very same sea that I grew to admire that proceeded to swallow me whole as it drowned me in its embrace
.
.
.
My twentieth death was one born from the greatest of betrayals
As the wife that I had loved slowly and painfully gutted me like a fish at the dead of night, all simply to keep my wealth for herself
Watching it all I could only wonder one thing
How come she hadn't simply asked for it?
For if it was her, I would have given everything
.
.
.
My twenty-fourth death came at the hands of a tyrant
having only been appointed a week ago as a new servant in the castle I had committed the mistake of coughing as the king was speaking
as such I was taken the courtyard to be eaten alive by the emperors' hounds as today's entertainment
.
.
.
My thirtieth death was caused by a psychopathic killer
As a mere child of the age of six I couldn't do anything as he slowly tore me open stuffing me with cotton and thread making me into his version of a perfect doll
As he plucked my eyes and replaced them with buttons
As he sewed my mouth shut
and as he changed my insides with cotton
he made sure I stayed alive for as much as possible to experience it all
.
.
.
-----
ironically the rest of my deaths weren't quite as memorable, perhaps it was due to having already experienced something similar multiple times
of course, that had at no way lessened any of the pain and trauma I had felt as for all I could do in those 15 seconds was continuing to bash my head against the desk in front of my office door
And as for the second after, when it had all finally stopped, all I could was fall limply as I watched the blood pooled on the desk fall dripping down like the summer rain
Somehow as I watched that a feeling of immense clarity seemed to dawn on me
Was it perhaps a symptom of psychopathy I wondered, however that didn't seem quite right to me
Slowly rising from the floor that I had collapsed onto I checked my body which seemed to be in too good a condition for a man who was bashing his head just a moment ago
which made me open the status window once again just to check
-----------------------------
status
Name: Nicholos Arcane
Gender: Male
Titles: Head of The Arcane / scoundrel of the noble circles / The Greatest lord of Arcane
Stamina: C-
Strength: C
Intelligence: A
Willpower: S
Mana: D+
Mana sensitivity: C
Charm: B
Mana Reserves: 550/550
Overall Rank: C
Elemental affinity: Darkness
skills:
Darkness coating
The ability to coat yourselves in darkness to increase power, speed, durability and stamina
short term shadow teleportation
The ability to teleport 5m from where you are standing at any direction
Shadow Manifestation
The ability to manifest the shadows in a physical form you see fit
Library pass
The ability to enter the library of babel once a day for 15 seconds while retaining the information (warning: user may experience certain events from the information relayed)
------------------------------
Reading the text in front of me a small laugh escaped me
" Pfffftttttt.... hahaahhahaha "
No, it would be better to say I laughed hysterically
' Intelligence and will '
Both of them seemed to have risen by an entire grade having been influenced by the deaths that I experienced
It was what had anchored me after what had occurred
however that wasn't all, I could clearly feel it, how much smoother my control of my inner mana had become controlling even the faintest of traces just like Marcus had
Or how my feet stood firmly on the ground as if to never fall from the waves of the rocky sea
Take away that and I still had the hundreds of tactics and survival experience of a soldier
By that point I had already sat down once again on my chair as I moved my mana to help stop the bleeding from my head
I was right
The knowledge gained will eventually be of use to me
It would help me grow even stronger
In order to survive, this hell was the answer
Thinking so I moved to clean away the blood on my face only to find my hand still shaking
It was a habit I could not control and one that has been resurging for a while now, thankfully there was a cure
I had sent albert to check the elixirs he should have long since brought them to me
In fact he was standing right in front of me watching with a grave face
To that I could only smile bitterly to him once again just as I did when I was young
" Sorry for the mess had an episode again "
" ... "
" My hands shaking and I can't seem to work "
To those words albert simply moved forward as he placed a bottle of wine in front of me, the cure that stopped my hand from shaking
Opening it and taking a large gulp, I could feel my hand stop shaking
Just in order to be able to continue working after all I can't have my hands shaking all the time
' Indeed, just a little bit every once in a while isn't that bad '