The air in the Crescent Gardens was usually filled with the serene scent of mana lilies and the soft chirping of spirit birds. Tonight, it smelled like a slaughterhouse.
David Silver stumbled through the waist high silver grass. His charcoal grey servant livery was torn at the collar. It was stained with the dark and thick bile he kept coughing up from his lungs.
Every step he took felt like he was wading through a lake of freezing needles. His heart was not so much beating as it was shivering in terror!
David reached a clearing shadowed by a massive and weeping Elder Oak. He felt his strength leaving him. "Relatable humor, David," he wheezed. His knees finally gave out and he hit the dirt with a thud.
"You spent all that time learning how to pick locks and read forbidden books. Now you are going to be taken out by a single look. This has to be the most embarrassing way to go. Even that Duke who choked on a grape had a better death than this."
[Warning! Vital Signs Critical.]
[Necrotic Saturation: 92%.]
[Liora’s Death-Gaze is currently rewriting your genetic code into a ’Void-Anchor’. Your heart is 40% necrotic tissue.]
"I can feel it, System! I do not need a status report for my own funeral!" David said in a weak voice. He leaned his back against the twisted roots of the tree.
The curse was a masterpiece of Tier 7 cruelty. It was not a sudden explosion of damage. It was a slow and agonizing rot. Liora Greyjoy was a monster. Her gaze had planted a seed of Anti-Life in his core.
It was currently using David’s own mana to grow larger. The black veins coiling up his neck were now throbbing with a sickly purple light. His vision was starting to fracture into grey and colorless shards. He felt like he was becoming a Radiant.
He was just a Tier 1 Novice. She was a Tier 7 Lich-Queen. Under any other set of laws, David Silver would already be a pile of ash on the ground.
David turned his mind back to his survival. "System," David thought. His fingers clawed into the damp earth. "We cannot use Divine Restoration again.
The Chronal Debt is already screaming in my head. I do not have enough mana to fuel a Tier 10 healing pulse twice in one night. Give me something else."
[Analyzing Alternative...]
[Skill Selection: Metabolic Regulation (Tier 1).]
[Description: A basic meditation used by monks to slow their heart rate and survive in high-altitude environments.]
"Metabolic Regulation? Are you kidding me? My heart is turning into a piece of charcoal and you want me to do breathing exercises?" David screamed in his mind.
[Multiplier Status: 100,000x.]
[Logic: By overclocking your metabolism, we can force your cells to out-evolve the rot. We do not just heal the damage. We teach your body to treat the rot as fuel. It will become your food.]
David let out a bloody cough. A dark smile touched his lips. "So we are not just fighting the poison. We are eating it. Fine. Do it! Do it before I lose the ability to care about anything!"
[Passive Multiplier Activated: 100,000x!]
David closed his eyes. The Static Core in his chest flared with a cold and blinding intensity. Because the multiplier was applied to his internal regulation, the world did not just slow down.
It stopped. The wind in the gardens froze. The falling petals of the mana lilies hung suspended in the air like they were stuck in ice.
David entered a state of existence that was beyond time.
Microsecond 1: David’s consciousness descended into his own cells. He saw the necrotic energy of Liora’s curse. It looked like a swarm of black and crystalline insects.
They were devouring his cells like demons from the fiery pit of hell. With the 100,000x multiplier, his Metabolic Regulation began to cycle his blood at impossible speeds.
Microsecond 10: This felt like a whole year had passed for David. His body began to break under the strain. The heat generated by the overclocked metabolism was so intense that his blood began to boil inside his veins.
His skin cracked. Steam rose from his pores as his body struggled to vent the energy of ten thousand heartbeats occurring in a single second.
"STAY STEADY!" David’s mental voice roared against the agony.
Microsecond 100: This felt like ten years of time. The evolution began. His Toxin Sovereign blood was already adapted to the Void-Rot. It started to recognize the Death-Gaze as a similar sequence.
His white blood cells did not just die. They mutated into predators. They grew jaws of golden mana. They began to bite back at the necrotic insects and eat them!
Microsecond 500: This felt like fifty years of constant war. The battle within his marrow reached a fever pitch. David’s bones were vibrating so hard they were turning into a liquid state of pure mana.
He was no longer just a boy. He was a biological furnace. He felt his necrotic heart being torn apart. It was rebuilt fiber by fiber. This happened millions of times per second.
[Proficiency: Metabolic Regulation ➔ 100.00% (MAX)]
[Skill Evolution: Metabolic Regulation ➔ Undying Vitality: Phoenix Pulse]
The change was absolute. David’s body did not just stop the curse. It converted the Tier 7 necrotic energy into raw potential. A shockwave of golden red light erupted from David’s chest. BAM! The light blasted the silver grass back for twenty feet.
The black veins on his neck did not fade away. They turned into a brilliant and shimmering color. Then they sank beneath his skin. They became part of his new biological armor.
David snapped his eyes open. His pupils were no longer human. They were two burning rings of solar fire! He felt a surge of vitality so powerful it was almost painful. He stood up and looked at his hand. The skin was smooth and tanned. It was glowing with a faint and healthy luster.
To test his new power, David picked up a sharp shard of obsidian from the ground. He sliced a deep gash into his forearm.
The wound did not even have time to bleed!
The Phoenix Pulse roared through his veins. The muscle fibers knitted together instantly. The skin closed over the cut in less than a second. It left no scar and no mark. There was nothing but the memory of the pain. He was now a monster of regeneration.
— [Infinite Regeneration System] —
[Host Information]
↳ Name: David Silver
↳ Life-form: Human / Engine-Bearer / Phoenix Hybrid
↳ Disability: Pain Nullification
[System Ability]
↳: Infinite Regeneration
↳: Reality Resonance (Sync: 1.52%)
↳: Phoenix Pulse (Passive)
[Biological State]
↳ Cell Activation : 22 / 100 %
↳ Lunar Talent: Nill
[System Resources]
↳ Pain Points: 450
[Ability Mastery: Undying Vitality.]
[Status: Passive Regeneration is now active. You can regrow lost limbs in minutes. You can purge Tier 8 toxins automatically. You are very hard to kill.]
[Note: You are now biologically closer to a Phoenix or a Fire-Drake than a human. To be that much of a monster towards yourself is quite impressive.]
David stood up with fluid movements. He felt perfectly balanced. He felt like he could run for a week without stopping for water. The Death-Gaze was gone. The power Liora had used to try and kill him was now a permanent part of his strength.
"Relatable humor, David," he whispered. He looked at his new and glowing hands. "You have officially become the world’s most difficult person to kill. I hope Liora has a Plan B. Plan A just gave me a massive power up. She is going to be very surprised when she sees me again."
[Seal Progress: 12.5% Cracked.]
"Twelve percent," David murmured. "I am barely an eighth of the way to my true self. I am already regrowing limbs. what the hell happens at a hundred percent? Do I become the universe?"
[System Note: At 100%, dying becomes a conceptual impossibility. You become a fixed point in the reality of the Engine. Also, you should probably find some new clothes. This livery is a total loss. You look like a hobo.]
David looked down at his ruined servant clothes. He was covered in soot and dried blood. He looked more like a war survivor than a banquet waiter. He took a long and deep breath. He felt the Phoenix Pulse settling into a steady and warm hum in his chest. It felt good.
He looked toward the Imperial Wing. The banquet was likely ending now. Liora Greyjoy would be retiring to her chambers. She was probably waiting for the news that the Static servant had been found dead in an alleyway.
"She marked me for harvest," David said. His eyes flashed with a cold and predatory light. "But she forgot one thing. You cannot harvest something that eats the harvester. I am going to eat her entire family."
He heard a soft rustle in the trees. Grim stepped out from the shadows. The Void-Stalker’s obsidian fur was shimmering in the moonlight. He let out a low and approving purr. He sensed the new and fierce vitality in his Master. Grim walked over and rubbed his head against David’s leg.
"We are going to the Shattered Spire, Grim," David said. He petted the beast’s head. "Barnaby says it is where the gravity is inverted. If I am going to face a Tier 7 Lich-Queen, I need to learn how to stand on the ceiling. I need to be ready for anything she throws at me."
Master, Grim’s consciousness rumbled through the soul-link. The air is changing. The Engine’s gears are screaming in the void. The hunt is no longer a secret. They are coming for us.
"I know," David said.
He looked at the high towers of Aethelgard. He had survived the banquet. He had out-evolved a death curse. He had turned his executioner’s own power against her. He was no longer just a Vessel. He was the Phoenix rising from the ashes of his own failure.
He disappeared into the dark forest with Grim at his side. David Silver realized that the Imperial Games were no longer just a tournament. They were a war. Liora Greyjoy had no idea that the boy she had marked for death was now the one who held the timer.
"Six hours, she thought," David whispered. He ran toward the Shattered Spire. His movements were a blur of superhuman speed. "I did not even need six seconds to win."
The Static was gone. The pulse was here. Aethelgard was about to find out that when you try to kill a god, you had better make sure he stays dead. Because if he comes back, he is coming back with a hunger that can eat the whole sky.