Gray's eyes turned black.
[ERROR! Forbidden Knowledge Detected!]
[ERROR! User CANNOT Know This!]
[ERROR! ERROR! ERROR!]
….
The System was the first thing to fail. He was already scouring memories that shouldn't exist in this timeline. And at that moment Stormveil was long gone.
It gave place to the PIT.
An abyss deeper than the height of human stupidity.
An abyss completely filled with formless darkness.
An abyss completely filled with Agony.
….
An old monster made of shadow tentacles, one that couldn't be bothered with faking humanity anymore. One who had half his body turned into a wriggling abomination. And one who was now extending a barbed tentacle straight into the abyss.
In there were free-range Lost Souls.
Worse than lost. Their existence was being devoured. Turned to power. Turned to madness and Agony. Billions of nightmares were already sinking their fangs into their flesh and soul, reminding them every instant that the suffering would never end— or almost.
[Successfully Fished Out a Lost Soul!]
Gray grabbed a being.
Long ago he had been a wise scholar. Some powerhouse from the Everlasting Faction. How powerful he had been, even Gray wasn't sure. Ranks tended to blur in the face of pure Agony. But now all that remained was a husk.
"P-Please kill me…."
Gray didn't even bother speaking.
He simply grabbed a parchment made of human skin. It was filled with magical diagrams, each worth a small nation. There were countless. And with a grin he pushed it forward.
'Start #19. Ascent of Blood — Incomplete'
Just seeing was enough. A part of the lost soul in his grasp suddenly lit up. T-This…. This kind of madness wasn't something any mortal should ever touch. And yet at that moment, the cursed being didn't care. He could solve this!
'A Lost Soul using his very essence to write.'
'A Lost Soul using all his knowledge.'
'A Lost Soul dooming the world.'
….
And then he finished.
[Obtained Blood Magic Forbidden Knowledge!]
As the magical symbols took shape on the parchment, the world bled. Not metaphorically. Literally. Blood all over the world reacted, droplets unnaturally escaping their owners.
And then it all condensed into blood clouds that fell for weeks, an Augur of the End. The kind that made anyone mad with dread. All except one, a certain scholarly Lost Soul. It grinned like it had just saved the world, even if it had just earned death.
"You did well. That deserves a reward. Your wish, I'll grant it."
Gray gave it a warm smile before slaughtering it.
Millions of Lost Souls had watched in envy…
And now it would become reality…
An entire timeline later…
.
.
.
[Blood Ascent Ritual!]
Gray's eyes powerfully snapped open.
The Stormveil Treasury was filled with Eldritch writing from floor to ceiling, a certain Aura already deathly white as she placed the last touches, just like he had told her.
She already understood instinctively.
'That thing shouldn't exist.'
Yet she still did it.
At that moment, she was waging the entire city's fate on him. Or rather, she was waging the city on her read of him. Something deep inside her heart told her to trust him.
A Monster, absolutely a monster. Yet why did he feel more human than most?! And every time he called her a fool for trying to make the world a better place. She saw the pain.
The pain of someone who had already tried.
The pain of someone who once cared.
The pain of someone worth saving.
….
Gray only saw the magic circle.
That's all he needed to see. And as the Lost Runes finally fell in place, the entire Stormveil Treasury lit up. The walls bled. The ceiling bled. The floor bled. They too bled.
[Temporary Blood Domain Established!]
[Warning Your Blood is Consumed!]
[Warning! You Will Die Shortly!]
…
"G-Gray?!"
"Don't worry. Blood begets blood is all."
The ritual required blood. Enough blood to fill an entire coliseum. Enough blood to drain the entirety of Stormveil. Soon enough the entire City would be gone. But he would go first.
The ultimate sacrificial ritual. One that was only possible because it was already consuming the treasures sprawled all over the treasury as fuel, from Magic Stone to rare alchemical components. All were being consumed so fast one couldn't blink.
And then Gray moved…
He grabbed a certain bone dagger.
[Unranked Artifact! Bones of the Newborn!]
This would be the only time. A power that belonged to Agony. Merely a trick to be honest. One only usable in a moment such as this. One that had taken hundreds and hundreds of young beasts' souls. One that would be amplified 1000 times at this moment.
It had a simple special ability, but one that would work here…
[Special Effect Hemorrhage! Makes Target Bleed Faster!]
And then he decisively opened his own veins.
SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH!
Blood escaped like a torrent, faster than an elder vampire could drink his fill. And in the split second where he should have already been dead, he used it.
[Consumed SSS-Tier Neverdie Elixir!]
[Congratulations! Small Miracle!]
[Now Immune to Death!]
….
SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH!
Endless blood escaped him, replaced by the Neverdie Elixir as soon as it did. The Miracle wouldn't let him die, not yet.
And as life gushed out…
[Blood Ascent Ritual 12%!]
[Blood Ascent Ritual 38%]
[Blood Ascent Ritual 54%!]
….
"Charge Faster!!!!"
As if possessed, he kept self-slashing.
And the scene became terrifyingly crimson. Endless gashes, vomiting endless blood, enough blood to drown the entire city. And seeing this, a certain girl in a corner was petrified.
Even through the blood, he still grinned…
Sacrifice the city instead? He had considered it. But no. He didn't want borrowed power this time around. He wanted his own power, and it was time to fucking get it!
[Blood Ascent Ritual 99%!]
It looked like it was almost done. It wasn't. It was just the start.
The endless blood pooling in the middle? Now glowing with countless Eldritch symbols? The one turning into a nightmarish blood abomination? It locked right on him!
The blood wriggled, and then it all came back!
A stream that defied gravity, one that rushed toward his open arms, squirming its way back. It looked grotesque. Like a baby crawling back in his dead mother's womb. Or a surgeon operating a cadaver. Or—
A shadow of blood rising. A sentient monster of blood. A Gray made entirely of blood rose. One that would devour its owner. Then the world. Then her too.
'Aura Stormveil. It would have her. It would— CHOMP!'
The blood shadow suddenly lost its face.
A Gray of flesh, a Gray now laughing out loud. A Gray that should have long been dead. A Gray that did not give a fuck about facing forbidden magic head-on, even if it instantly started burning him from the inside. He didn't have blood, but lava in his veins!
But so what?! He was the Graybright and he was cheating….
[Immune to Death!]
[Immune to Death!]
[Immune to Death!]
….
But even then he was running out of time. The Neverdie Elixir was about to stop being effective. And the ritual had way too much power! Still, he forced himself to absorb it all.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
'Five'
[Veins Collapsing! You Will Die!]
'Shut up. I know!'
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
'Four.'
[Rebuilding Body! You Will Die!]
'Faster! Not enough!'
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
'Three'
[Attempting Evolution! You Will Die!]
'YES! Just like that'
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
'Two'
[ERROR. EVOLUTION FAILED!]
'?!!?????'
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
'One'
Failed…. It had failed.
He saw his death. But this time it was different. He didn't want it to end. Evolve. C'mon evolve. Evolve already! He struggled with 500 years worth of willpower. It failed.
But so what?! He'd brute force it. He was Gray MF Bright! He went at it again and again and again. Until finally….. Failed. Failed. Failed. Evolution was no longer possible. It broke completely.
And for an instant, he felt a certain Primordial Dragon Laughing.
'Guess you win, you bastard….'
He felt himself slip. Consciousness was already a luxury. A sorrowful cry. A panicked cry. A soft body kneeling by his side. A soft body embracing him. Someone he knew.
"S-Sorry, I fucked up."
He apologized even if he didn't really mean it. And for the first time Gray MF Bright was gone. And so was the old monster. It seemed all were equal in the face of death.
Soft laps under his broken body. Hands ruffling his head, but still gentle. An idiot screaming at him trying to wake him up. An idiot way too hopeful for this world.
And finally…
'Zero.'
.
.
.
The last thing he saw were amethyst eyes.
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A/N. "Thanks for reading everyone. This short story has been a blast! Love you all! ^_^v"
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Amethyst Eyes.
Amethyst Eyes.
Amethyst Eyes.
….
Filled with hope.
Filled with so much hope.
Filled with way too much hope.
…
That's when he realized.
'Start #19. Ascent of Blood. Perfected!'
"That motherfucker!" The scholar who had designed it? No wonder he had been smiling so damn much at the end. That start had been a trap from the beginning.
It could never have worked for the Graybright.
Master of Agony. Puppet of Agony. Crazed monster.
He had been doomed from the start. Not because he was a monster but because he was the wrong kind of monster. It would never work with an unfeeling monster.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
As a dead man laughed, the entire world seemingly stopped spinning for a second. And then he released it all. 500 Years of Anguish. 500 Years of self-control. 500 years of numbness.
I WANT IT ALL. TREASURES. WOMEN.
POWER. EXCITEMENT. PEACE.
LAUGHTER. ANGER.
I WANT TO LIVE! I WANT TO LIVE! I WANT TO LIVE! I WANT TO LIVE! I WANT TO LIVE! I WANT TO LIVE! I WANT TO LIVE! I WANT TO LIVE! I WANT TO LIVE! I WANT TO LIVE! I WANT TO LIVE! I WANT TO LIVE! I WANT TO LIVE! I WANT TO LIVE! I WANT TO LIVE!
It escaped his broken bloody lips…
"I WANT TO LIVE"
And then…
As he looked up, he saw her. She was still here. Amethyst eyes that had no hope in them anymore. Amethyst eyes full of tears. Amethyst eyes that were about to fucking crash. He wanted to live right? He'd start right fucking now.
He lifted himself just enough, kissing lips that were way too soft.
Sweet. Salty from the tears. ALIVE!
[ERROR! ERROR! EVOLUTION?!!!]
[SSS-Rank Blood Slime!]
[Taming Successful!]
….
"Pfft—"
Guess he wouldn't die after all.
He laughed in relief. He laughed knowing he almost died. He laughed seeing a certain Aura Stormveil looking utterly shellshocked, unable to process the situation. Dying?! Kissing?!
She looked so cute that he almost felt like teasing her. But just as he was raising a hand toward her face, his guts twisted so hard he felt like vomiting. Not from the injuries.
It happened all of a sudden…
CRASH!
The ceiling shattered. And then the storm raged. Through losing consciousness, he saw a man of Lightning flying in the sky. One that was about to smite him dead. Was this Karma?
He should have been panicking, yet it all played like a movie for him. A man charging faster than light. A spear of lightning aimed right at his heart. No mercy given.
Maybe it was the blood loss talking, but he didn't feel scared…
This guy was the Stormveil Duke, right? He was screaming about the Neverdie Elixir. Screaming about mistreating his daughter. Screaming way too damn much.
Guess Gray would die after all. Oh right, he still had one move.
And just as the spear was about to impale him…
"What about the baby in Aura's belly?"
Spear and Duke froze…
A soft body finally moved to shield him. As for the rest? Gray had no clue, and neither did he care. After all. For the first time in 500 years he was alive.
He lost consciousness with a smile and a notification.
[Warning! No Longer Human!]
That would be fun…