Author's Note

Please read this

Chapter Four: Second Birth And Death(s) [E]

"Am I dead?" I asked out with bewilderment as I gazed upon... Nothing, it was a vast ocean of nothingness, not quite a black void but I doubt it was closer to anything else. I blinked slowly, despite the uncanny display I was awfully calm, not even in the slightest bit plagued by discomfort. I slowly lowered my eyes towards my hooves and beheld the same imagery I've become fond of through the years, before daring to turn around to stare at whatever else may lay hidden.

And I didn't look far before I bore witness to myself.

"You have asked me many times throughout the years what I thought of your old life, how you wanted to know certain things, like how I would've assumed you would live your life now -had you never been absorbed." The Game asked, though, at the same time, he didn't. I saw my human body with the same cheap quarter-store clothes, leaning back while sitting on a black rock. When I looked at myself I felt slightly ill, I didn't quite understand whether it was because of my unhealthy appearance or just the unused sight of seeing a human.

I blinked briefly, before trotting towards The Game and with a hop planted myself next to him, although it was akin to simply laying on air. "Yeah." I said softly but in all honestly my voice and the way I wished to say it was rather lofty. When I first arrived here there was never a real moment where I felt comfortable, irritated at best be it in my sickly flesh or this world, and all I wanted was to be back. Now... Now I could barely tell anyone where I wanted to go, only where I didn't.

"Truth is, I know exactly where you would’ve been." The Game said and turned to me. I saw how an all-colored glimmer shone over his eyes, but his expressions were dull, his movements robotic and forced, as was to be expected with a being not possessing actual limbs.

I snorted and shook my head while turning away, but for all the wrong reasons. Despite not having thought of it for many years, now that it came up, this riddle did intrigue me with a burning passion. However… "You kept it to yourself for twelve years, I doubt it would be a happy end for ol' Johnny boy, like always. Am I right?"

The Game stared at me for a moment and his mouth arches quivered briefly as if he was completely unused to this body, which to be fair he was, working only on my own memories I reckon. He looked away and held his hand before me, whipping the air in front of him like the dust on a screen and an image appeared.

It was a fire, a raging fire inside a metal contraption. A heavy box lay inside behind a glass window, and crisps of cardboard and flocks of ash spread in each corner, in each available space as the box was violently ripped apart by the intense heat.

A shaking smile appeared on my face, and I slowly leaned my head forward. I didn't cradle my head in my limbs, I didn't feel like crying, but laughing, and I chuckled. "I fucking knew it. This piece of shit really can never catch a break, haha..." I chuckled, not a mad chuckle escaped me, but a bitter, low laugh, though I supposed feeling schadenfreude at yourself was not the most common of things.

"So... what actually did it?"

The Game continued staring at the image of the cardboard box crumbling away in the fires. "What didn't?" He spoke so softly and yet with such coldness I wondered who of us shed more emotions, and yet I couldn't help but notice that between the two of us, he was the one being sadder by this oh so happy end of mine. "What didn't lead to this? By thirty you had tendonitis, arthritis, acidic blood, over six diseases of otherworldly origin, your lung’s mucus membrane production was down by sixty percent and your heart was soon to give up. But what specifically killed you? Truth be told, none of them were anywhere near fast enough for your actual demise."

I snorted with a singular dour laugh, before turning my head towards the Game again with a grin. "Let me guess, was it stress?"

"Cancer."

I stared at the scene for a few moments longer, though my expression didn't change after I averted my eyes and pushed my left hoof through my long hair and the other caressed my cheek. "Oh... Oh..." I couldn't say anything, truly it didn't matter in the end, but it most certainly left with me the impression that the world didn't like me. Fuck, I wasn't even feeling any dread right now...

"The product you've been consuming throughout the years on Earth- nutrient sludge, that was what you called it -was an experimental food replacement targeted towards soldiers. It was advertised to be a slowly digested, light and highly nutritious paste that could be eaten once a week and fulfill all the dietary needs."

"That was what the package said." I said slowly, but I didn't look at him, still staring into the voice feeling nothing but a certain itching to show any reaction, but it was almost like it couldn't even push me at this point, which it should, but I wasn't.

"Have you ever wondered how such a wondrous product could be so easily available at such low costs? Truth is, it wasn't. It possesses too many side-effects, the metallic components have been treated to dissolve, break-down completely so as to not leave any remnants in the digestive tract, but the process over a week is still too fast and damages the DNA of vital organs. In short terms its still dangerous, but consuming it over a decade is a death sentence." The Game said slowly, before turning towards me with a dragging frown. "But you weren't surprised when I said you had cancer, were you?"

I stared at my hooves as they tightly pressed against one another before my gaze slowly turned towards the Game as the flames stopped, the ashen remains of a corpse were slowly being vacuumed away.

"I have lived in the cheapest rooms available, all I owned was dragged from the streets and food was a luxury I couldn't really afford, even my clothes were stolen. I've eaten from more trash cans than plates, Game, I knew the risks, but I don't regret it for a moment." I said slowly staring him so deep in the eyes I could see my reflection. "I used most of my money to finance insurance, and do you know why? Because I was not scared of dying, but of being helpless. Just hearing me say this, I’d rather kill myself than be rendered helpless… I would've done anything back then to survive, but my biggest fear, my personal fear, a worry soly regarding my health, was being unable to do anything. Helplessness, for whatever reason, just this roadblock while doom slowly leaned and loomed over this wall, this inability..." I bit my tongue as I felt myself rambling on and on without any end.

"Many people may would've been afraid of these changes, but I was just disheartened, however being able to grow and the chance to one day overcome this always following end, that some being or event could fuck up your life, is something a younger me always aspired. Yes, the main goal was always to go back, but at some point along this fucked up road it became one of the few aspirations I ever had." I whispered, not because I was too shy to speak, but because speaking about my weaknesses was something I never enjoyed, I always hid them, especially from Amber. I hate people worrying about ol' Star.

The Game remained silent, he knew too well at this point to say some empty, reassuring line and compliment, and instead just stood up from the rock and began walking away. "Your body has been built. I apologize in advance, it was quite messy and purging the data bore a few unforeseen problems that have mostly been dealt with. Our original body was dreadful, thus also the data stored, meaning that instead of simply eradicating the information block it demanded precise eradication of singular lines. Regardless, we have spent enough time, the Alf is half-used up." The Game said with breaks between the lines, before turning around and leaving my vision slowly. "I will await you in the waking world."

"Hmpf yeah, time to greet the new... New me." I said with a snort, closing my eyes as I felt the dream simply slip away.

A soft, luminescent shine broke through my eyelids as I stared toward the ceiling. A gentle gust of foggy breath escaped my lips as I took a deep breath, and my lungs expanded and took in more air than was previously possible. The warm water caressed my body tightly, the warmth so alluring, but I couldn't spare the moment. I leaned forward and the act seemed almost suspiciously easy as if my weight didn't burden me anymore.

I felt as the water glided off my almost armor-like fur as strings of thick liquid clung to me for but a moment before each separating with quiet 'tst' sounds. I felt tired, overwhelmingly so, however, it was quickly leaving me as I sensed a state of awareness and energy I have only felt in the most adrenaline packed of fights. I turned around and looked at the pool that previously held pristine water. The first thing I noticed was the blood, the water was tainted by an almost radiant red in which blobs of dead tissue and other forms of biomass swam, floated, and sank, however despite the gory imagery the smell was blank, neither stench nor scent, just neutral.

I smacked my lips against each other and stood up with so great ease that just standing up was akin to a jump for I left the ground a meter below and nearly plummeted into the meaty brew, quickly catching myself with surprising efficiency. I held my forehooves in front of me as I stood upon my hindlegs with uncertainty, taking each step with as faint use of strength as possible as now a regular step upon the rocky ground was like a walk on the beach where each act of movement would make an imprint in the ground.

I carefully walked through the door leading to the hallway of the first level, briefly glancing into the rooms with sharpness and detail I previously could only achieve with the use of [Spirit Senses], now known as [Greater Spirit Senses], before taking my eyes back onto the path and climbed the stairs with mixed results. My first blunder was to hold onto the railings, putting my weight into the fine stonework and breaking it off as if it was made of pretzel sticks, error two through nine were putting a bit too much strength into my treads and cracking, if not outright putting holes into the stair steps.

'I need to replace the whole base with steel, otherwise I’ll be walking on eggshells forever.' I muttered begrudgingly and in embarrassment as I felt my cheeks turn to a tint of red. Finally, at the top of the staircase, I carefully walked towards the throne room and summoned my mirror from the inventory, and beheld what I had become.

Oh my... the changes were obvious even to the most oblivious towards the physique of equines, to which I counted myself I might say, and were it not for the color scheme and glimmer in my eyes I might've wondered if the mirror was playing a trick with me. My old body was flawed; it was a mangled, malnourished piece of work amped up by the Game and my Attributes to reach a somewhat above poor or slightly below average appearance, but with or without them still, to an extent, I resembled a perfectly fine creature you would expect to see in the wild.

This… wasn't.

The most basic features were there, yes. I had a horn, tail, hooves, and a snout, but when it came to ponies it was now visible that someone like me could not be born of purely natural means. My flesh, it looked handcrafted, since it indeed was. I possessed no visible natural flaws caused by a lack of resources or the need to invest them, neither mutations nor evolutionary blunders, I was sculpted with the intent to reach physical perfection.

My limbs were wide and thick, lunging with tightly packed muscles and the fur dearly clung to my hide while still possessing insulating and protective qualities, and my hooves appeared almost metallic in the light of the glow gems in the ceiling and if my eyes weren't deceiving me, then the keratin was not just attacked to my flesh, it looked more as if my bones slowly transitioned towards the keratin, no flesh between the two as far as I could tell.

My torso however was more unique, but the insides were even more surprising. My chest was like that of a hummingbird. It was very pronounced, large even, but not out of proportion, just standing out. My ribs, it was hard to describe but if I focused I could 'feel' my innards, were not just ribs, they were grown together into a sort of plate, not quite a chest plate as the space between the singular bones was just filled with a very spongy and sinewy layer of cartilage, while the sternum became almost akin to another spine in thickness.

I could just feel how much larger my organs have become, the tales of the battlecorns did become somewhat absurd depending on how far away they were created from the actual battles featuring them, but I didn't expect the belief was so intense that it could warrant this extent of evolution. I still had two lungs, but they were proportionally much larger, and in function were closer to gills in the sense that they didn't just catch the oxygen momentarily trapped inside, but filtered it. And my heart... My heart was not much changed directly apart from the proportions, but surrounding it were clusters, in a sense, several smaller hearts assisting in the pumping.

"Fuck, I am not sure if I should be glad that you made this body closer to the fables than the actual ones or not." I mumbled and dragged my hoof across my face and a scratching sound ensued as the sharpness of my hoof's tip fought against the resilience of my hide's hardness.

Well, that was a lie, this was greatly preferable to a more realistic battlecorn body.

Battlecorns were mighty, but flawed creatures, absolute monsters in battle, but they had problems already previously mentioned, (and a lot more not mentioned), but they were such poor fits for society due to size and aggression problems, not even mentioning the budget to keep them alive. Yes, they had huge lungs and hearts, able to run and swim for absurd amounts of time, but the organs that did excel at the living conditions ruined the rest. Yes, they could hold out long underwater, but the lack of regulations could lead to death due to too much oxygen in the blood, or a lack of it in the brain as it all went to the muscles, and the kidneys could not filter the toxins of the huge amount of food they could swallow.

Of course, the public never found out about that, they only knew of the powerful death machines they were. Then again, the fact that King Bullion, the only battlecorn who seemed to have lived a somewhat healthy life, ruled graciously as the last living battlecorn only helped in the idea of a superior pony, one idea that was only further stoked when the sisters came to power. No, this is not common knowledge, and neither do I have access to the books describing it, but Discord loves talking even if I need to take a grain of salt from the shaker before downing the whole thing when I hear him talk.

I could talk for days without end about each detail he would jabber on about battlecorns, like the huge amount of red cells in my blood or the filtration of my kindness or less public parts, but what caught my eyes right now was my face.

Scratch what I previously said about my jawline, right now I looked like I could crack bowling balls like peanuts, it didn't look disgusting or weird, but I think I reached the very top of a defined jaw in pony terms. And my mane looked like a huge bush descending my back while still possessing a sort of fluffiness. Like, the me of eight years ago would probably wonder if I could sleep in now-me's mane. My snout was huge with strong nostrils and the eyes, these eyes were something to melt for, not just the intense gleam and the fire behind it, but the depth and deepness of the colors were something to behold.

"Well look at that, looks like I have started to appreciate some appealing factors of pony physique." I chuckled and turned my head from one side to another, gazing at the new face I bore, particularly noting the strong neck.

The Alf is still pointing to the same location as before the evolution, I also pick up the signature of nightmares slowly approaching our location. If we do not change our location, they will reach our waking world location in roughly 128 days. The Game spoke like he was a cricket in my ear canal, whispering, instead of the usual thoughts.

I hummed, before swiping the air before me, calling the mirror back into my inventory, and smiling to myself. I didn't want to say I was prideful or arrogant at the moment, but there was a lingering and, dare I say, lovely sensation of contentment. Maybe it was the power boost granting me safety, or perhaps the stalking guilt of wearing the skin of a lost foundling slowly dissipated as I inhabited a body that was truly my own. Regardless of what it was, I felt so light and flowery.

I leaned my head back and felt reality roll off my body like a sheet of water as I sensed myself materialize back into the waking world.

Immediately I perceived the world so much more sharply around me, the intense humidity and heat weren’t even present anymore. No, that wasn't quite right. It was still here, but it didn't affect me anymore like I had become too resilient to even be bothered by it anymore.

And such was the case, there was more to the battlecorn race, other than their natural perks, or their literal perk [Battlecorn heritage], but also bore other boons such as a natural resistance to elemental but more importantly, physical damage.

But swooning now was not in the timesheet, and I was actually looking forward to the bog ahead, so I decided not to waste any more time.

With a continuous push of my hoof, I submerged one of my hooves until I felt the ground, before entering the murky water that drenched everything up to my barrel. I shuddered at the almost slimy sensation, the plants, living and dead alike, tried to cling upon my fur, and some animals swooped toward me in an attempt to nourish themselves. Though the last point was luckily not of importance, as the leeches, and for some reason, aquatic beasts that seemed similar to Garra Rufa, could not get past my natural resistances. It was stroking my ego to unhealthy degrees being constantly attacked and not receiving a single point of damage.

Smiling to myself, and throwing out a single, triumphant 'ha' at the beasts, I trudged through the water with a whistle, as although there most certainly could lurk danger, [Greater Spirit Senses] kept me updated and Wadjeta could help me hugely were it to come to problems. I felt confident enough to not fear the assassin set, instead moving nude... or normally, if you're a pony. Which I am.

As I traversed the bog, I could see the changes grow with every step, the lands deeper in were darker. The trees morphed from drowned, weeping willows to dis-morphed, mangled masses of roots with seaweed-like leaves, and whatever stuck out of the mushy brew was suffocating in sheets of moss and mushrooms that gorged themselves in the humid, but also fertile, land. A normal pony would likely feel creeped out, scared, or at the very least heavily humbled by even the slightest sound, but for me, it was like a mismatched paradise.

My worries were drowned out as I thoughtlessly walked, I smiled to myself as I enjoyed the peace, no politics, no society nor mental anguish, just peace. Yes, I knew it looked horrifying as the sparse trees huddled closer and the deeper inside I trudged, blocking the little light that seeped through pea-soup-like clouds even further in combination with the cloying smell of plant decay, the buzzing of insects, and the ever-present 'schloopping' of the cold oatmeal I pushed through. But compared to the hostile warfields the nightmares resided, the stressful life in the castle and pushy thoughts, and at times suffocating emotions of ponies, this was heavenly. But those factors truly were minor modifiers of my current mood. [Greater Spirit Senses] was not just a straight-up update to the normal variant, but revealed so much more. Before I could feel what happened in my surroundings, but now I felt the world around me.

Every plant, every animal, life, and all the elements brimming with life. I smiled goofily, showing teeth and tongue alike as I hummed, and how couldn't I? Yes, disease and decay surrounded me, but so was so much life swarming me, partaking in my presence as I did with theirs, for I realized very quickly that while this place was not a sentient creature, the place as a whole almost seemed to possess a character.

I could feel everything around me like I was connected to them like I had known my surroundings for many lifetimes. Their life force brimmed around their forms both mushy and soft, the magic that perfused the world, and their veins, one of which was just below this biome beat and thrummed in a rhythmic, harmonic gleam. Even with eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and even body encased and closed, I could still sense it all. I wasn’t distracted, overwhelmed or some things were overshadowed, it wasn't like I gained a new set of eyes, but another vision was added to it all.

I took a deep breath, and with my tastebuds, felt spores and pollen enter my mouth, before hopping onto my hindlegs and walking upon two legs as the water rose or the ground lowered.

Soon the bog became a drowned woodland, and the thick sheet of algae became a sort of forest carpet that broke in my way, but lighter things floated and grew upon it. Great flower, blooms with petals as long as an oar and wide as a sail, with colors most plentiful letting out pollen smoke that exhumed a spicy smell. Somewhere else long tubes releasing an intense, cinnamony smell flavored the air so intensely, it became pungent. Sprouts of incredibly durable woods, moss as reliant as leather, and mushrooms of every kind from glowing to pulsating crossed me too, and as much as I needed went to my inventory. The inventory was tied to my levels, and although it felt like a sack filled with stones, there was so much more space than before. And now I have possibly absorbed over thirty new kinds of seeds for further use.

"Nyehahah..!"

A piercing and echoing laughter sounded throughout the land. I raised an eyebrow, though I didn't stop my march or even turned my head, for the whole world lay open to me. Tilting my head, my ears flickered at the mosquitos, still not convinced that I could not be partaken of, hoped to gain a drop or two from me.

'What is that lovely smell?' I wondered as I smelled the most wonderful scent I had ever been allowed to take in, and this came from someone who generally hated sweets.

"The fruits!" The same, scratchy and yet wild voice called out without origin, and it finally brought me to a halt as I felt the intruder close in slowly. Great, another voice that knew everything I thought of... As if I looked at a radar, I could make out the small, petite silhouette of my pursuer. "Does it wish to eat? Does it wish to rest? Does it wish a moment of peace?"

I raised the other eyebrow, before turning around quickly and facing the creature that lazily hung from a tree. A small being it was, bi-pedal with even smaller, thinner appendages. If I could best describe it, it looked like an anthropomorphic, furred frog in form with clawed hooves and great, pillowy ears, though its face was hidden behind a plain, wooden mask.

"Oh-hohoho, It has has found he, the pony has found he, sharp eyes it has, indeed it has!" The creature called out joyfully, clapping its hands wildly while swimming around on the starving branch as the released polled almost made the creature appear invisible with its toxic, green tuft.

"Not that hard if you're shouting." I said dryly, the smile of moments ago parched up quickly.

"Oh-ahahaha, not that to be sure he says, not to be sure." The creature said while twirling its head around, before suddenly leaning forward, staring directly at me with mischief gleaming through the holes of the mask. "It is wondering, it makes he wonder, not many come and walk through here so well. What it’s name, he asks?"

"Star-"

"Wrong!"

I retreated, jumping back as the creature disappeared in a cloud of fungus spores, and reappeared right in front of me. Wait, that sensation... were those?

The creature chucked harshly, and the line between joy and annoyance mixed like dirt and salt.

"No, not it, not the corpse, not the puppet, not it." It chanted while throwing its hands around, and their presence grew, though not in a threatening manner, it was actually like lighting candles in a dark room to make the closest comparison. "And neither the souls in the stomach! What is IT’S name?"

I tightened my face, and leaned forward, narrowing my eyes at the fey-like creature and snorting. "John." I spoke out sharply, and it did the trick as the thing laughed wildly, hopping from place to place.

"John, it John, come John it."

That is not advisable. The Game called out with precaution.

'Oh please, I went through with poorer deals. Besides, I would like to see where the being wants to push this meeting.' I thought, deep within the Mind where The Game and I were as close as possible. With a snark and smug smile while swaying my hips widely while following the hyperactive creature. No, I was not trying to seduce it, but I could feel that there were a lot of small holes where I walked, almost like footprints. The thought of using [Observe] on it struck me from time to time, but I could feel that it laid below me, but still way above a pony. And perhaps it could feel that as well.

'Wait, what did it mean with "Souls"?' A sudden thought struck me.

This world does not possess an afterlife, any realm or creature that absorbs the aether cores and leaves them intact, they either are absorbed back into the world as a resource or by happenstance are absorbed by a yet-to-be-born foundling. The latter is incredibly rare.

I opened my mouth, gulping once, before shaking my head with a grim look and grumbling. 'Don't think about it, they pushed matters this far. The same result, at least they can prevent harm now in some morphed, poetic way.'

"It thinks, It grumbles, it looks so gloomy, but fruit is floomy!" The creature called out from behind a wall of trees, all the while ignoring the concept of words as a whole.

"Floomy." I chuckled, before pushing my... ahem, widened form through the bars of a log and witnessed the most disgusting thing I have ever seen, and I've practically become the protagonist of every zombie movie in the last few years.

"Eat up, It eat up and rest!" The strange creature called out as it pulled out, oh goodness I wanted to vomit right here and now. It pulled from a hole below a dreadful tree, stones, bones, dirt, and insects, before piling them up on a rusted shield and presenting them before me like it was a treasure trove of gold.

"Ehm..." I prolonged this one 'ehm' for what felt like twenty seconds until I noticed one of the bones was a lumpia bone, a tiny, button-like mass of calcium that connected the skull of a unicorn with the horn. Well, it was still firmly connected to either, it wasn't like a spine but appeared like a sort of curvature that further protected nerves between the brain and the base of the horn.

'Deactivate [Greater Spirit Senses]' I thought grimly, and my suspicions were justified as the surroundings changed as if a curtain had been closed. The dirt and gnarly tree became a great, huge, golden Oak at whose base was a door that led to a comfy cottage, and the fey creature appeared much friendlier, holding a plate of the finest vegetables, fruits, and even some cooked meats.

three things happened.

One, I reactivated [Greater Spirit Senses].

Two, I grabbed the poisonous gnome and brought both of us to the mirror realm.

Three, I punched said gnome with enough force to not just shatter the shield it hastily brought between my and Its punch, but also to almost launch the fey into the hole under the tree. I huffed with a grim, spiteful puff, and walked with heavy steps towards the dazed fey, before jumping onto my hindlegs and charging up my horn.

The fey shook its head, and the pupils swirled around while dizziness was weakening its grip. With a sudden jerk, it jumped up, and without missing a beat lifted its hand up. Vicious roots burst from the dirt, splattering mud and shrapnel-like pebbles in all directions as the plant spears charged toward me.

I narrowed my eyes and kept my pace the same, before nodding upwards in defiance without fear or concern painting my face, as the summoned roots creaked as a gleaming shine overtook the bark vines, stiffening them in place.

The fey looked in absolute horror at the transformation the plants went through, all their life force vanished in an instant and what remained was an unnatural material. With a hasty decision, it decided to turn tail, falling onto all fours and trying to run away and gathered its power to warp away in a puff of spores as it had done so before.

I bared my teeth and snarled, before sending forth my magic and encasing the fey with enough mana to cram a bull into a bucket. Whatever strength it had, it didn't matter, and its magic was suffocated before even the barest resemblance of a spell could be woven. It wasn't just me pushing in the opposite direction, I actively disrupted its magic, denying its use similar to that of the wrath metal, a most vicious teacher. It squirmed with desperation, though it didn't last long, for I grasped it by the chest, and pushed its body two meters above ground into the same tree it attempted to feed me to. The tree let out a hollow groan as my fist advanced toward it even with roughly 20 kilograms of meat in between.

"You..." I growled, leaning forward with fury and hate sparking within my eyes, though I hesitated for a moment to close my eyes and smother this intense anger that I never felt before in such quantity. Opening them again, still searing with my anger, I spoke clearly. "Made yourself an enemy." The creature groaned and moaned, still trying to push my hoof off, though to no avail. "You cannot even imagine how tired and irritated I've become of furred fiends trying to play me like a chess figure. I guess you chose the wrong idiot to play this game, an idiot who really hates manipulation, I might add."

"Argh, He... he-he can't breathe." The fey choked out in between gasps before I ever so slightly inched my hoof back, still feeling the ribs pressing against my limb.

"I don't know what made you think you could just sacrifice me to the bark mass behind you." I spoke lowly, glancing at the tall, thin, pale, and sickly-appearing tree from which oily spines and sweet, pale yellow fruits grew. "But you can't fool me like the pony before me. And as for breathing, you might need to stop puffing if you don't want to lose more air."

The fey gagged and gasped with a low whine as my grip didn't ease any further and the sharp spikes waved ever closer toward us from my constant pushing. "Miss...under-standing."

"Bullshit!" I roared, punching my left hoof a meter into the wood, missing the fey's head by a hair's width, and surprising even myself. "You don't kill someone like that by accident."

"No... accident... Trees... dead." A few more words came from the mask and the pupils that glowed ever-dimly slowly rolled behind its face.

I frowned deeply, before pulling myself back in an instant, letting the small spirit tumble onto the shredded grass. "Speak. Explain yourself now. Give me your reasons." I barked demandingly, staring down at the fey as the inclination to step upon it became stronger. Perhaps it was just the attitude that came with the profession, but any attempt on my life was, by the routine, returned with a successful attempt by me.

The fey gasped ever dearly for fresh air, though there wasn't much in this bog, and tightened its hands around the strands of grass, though it didn't pluck a single one. "Dark ones up the stream. He can't banish them. Always return. Kill the animals that come for rest. Corpses Block the water. Wood dies." It spoke in pieces, before looking towards the damaged tree through which a pale, almost golden sap seeped and dried in the wound. "Tree dies, He dies."

"You think killing others so you can prolong your life is an excuse?" I asked tilting my head while crossing my hooves while a dark shadow clouded my face. I lowered my form and put the tip of my hoof under its chin, lifting it so that our eyes meet. "You are so damn lucky I'm no hypocrite, fey, but don't think that just because both of us are at fault of going down this path, that it absolves us of the means."

I stood up and looked in the direction I felt the nightmares in the real world, but my concentration broke when I felt a familiar shade lurk dangerously close. The same perpetrator that kept me from the lower levels of Canterlot was close and closing in fast. With a grunt, I slammed my hoof to my side, bringing both of us back to Equus with a deafening shattering in which a few added splinters of the mirrored reality following us.

The fey gasped wildly, shivering violently as the energy of the tree connected once more with that of the creature, or perhaps it was the thin threats that seemingly connected this creature to this space, weaving a rope only seen with the most precise of magically gifted eyes.

"I'll deal with the nightmares, they're my domain, but don't think we are done." I said stoically, as the assassin's armor was donned upon me, and my arms were fitted to my sides. "Any possession you have taken, any item of value or bit you possess, you will pile them here, next to a stack of every seed, fruit and vegetable, and a mountain of anything else that you honestly, and don't you dare to stifle me, think could be of use in any way."

"Pillager." The fey choked out, stumbling towards its trees, and hugging the plant that I later would find out to be a Corpse Root Tree.

I sneered at the little creature. "I don't owe you or any other grass munch-hngh-ponies on this world shit. I don't get paid, nor receive any thanks or respect for keeping this planet clean from the nightmares, fey, nor do I expect any. But I won't be disrespected for keeping you all alive, even if it means amassing any advantage I can." Maybe it was the now greater quantity of testosterone or the new body that I still needed to get used to, but my response broke like a crumbling dam.

I turned around swiftly, and trotted towards the source of corruption, a spared but fickle glance at the reflection in my halberd's blade, seeing the frozen form of the fay.

Your usage of chaos magic has improved greatly since your first attempts at creating health potions. The Game noted vividly while swaying his gaze away from the roots that had turned to plastic.

'I guess.' I huffed.

Is there something you wish to talk about? The Game asked politely, at least as calm and monotonous, lacking any accent or flavor.

'I've killed thousands of nightmares at this point, Game. I lead the hunt every night, just to scrape the accursed residue from the mirrored air. I've improved the lives of countless as the negative energies swoop in to fill the great hole in Canterlot that I keep on making, and yet not a single word of thanks.' I thought with a sigh, and yet I kept my eyes on the path ahead as I saw bubbles forming from the deep water just a bit further ahead.

Our path is one of solitude, I doubt the ponies could even grasp our methods or goals, less so the deeper knowledge of our craft, when they still put our nature to the lines of superstition, heresy, half-fletched theories and randomness, if not outright, luck based happenstances. The Game spoke, and I couldn't help but nod meagerly, before swiping my halbert through the air and bisected a fanged and winged insect that flew towards me. And while knowledge or any degree of adoration of your person or action would most certainly aid us, it is not exactly what you desire, unless there have been some changes in your character recently.

I let out a dry chuckle, before shaking my head slowly. 'It's just... Urgh, how do I put it? Emotions, how do they work!' I grumbled in my head, before coming to a halt and narrowing my eyes at the creature lurking before me.

My suspicion proved to have been correct, as from the water burst forth a great maw with sickled teeth that launched themselves at my throat.

I lifted my halberd above my head with all my strength, including [Heavy Impact], and slammed the polearm down with the strength of a herd. The water rippled in waves as the metal was obliterated, and the wood shattered, but also the stone armor of the rock-like crocodile crumbled with bravado.

The beast let out a pained roar, shooting upwards and roaring while hurling its bleeding head around with surprise as my form; comparatively unimpressive to its natural predators, managed to not just break the armor, but break bones under the armor. Blood clouded the murky water, and with the thrashing of the creature, hurling the polluted water into the air. The beast snapped forward angrily, barely missing me as I jumped backwards through the water, surprised, that the water glided off me as if it were air.

I moved away repeatedly, it was like I was watching a bruce-lee fighting scene at a quarter speed.

I launched my hooves forward in a moment of reprieve, grappling its maw tightly before the creature started to roll around in response like it would've had it caught me, though I didn't let go and let myself be flung. The world spun around me like the inside of a washing machine, though I was calm and at peace, I knew that I was in no life-threatening danger, as crazy as it sounded, it was to me like a hyper-aggressive, small dog trying to show dominance. Akin to a spring, I rammed my hooves into the mud and tugged in the opposite direction. The stone and bone cracked loudly as it, for a moment, reached an impossible angle, before the beast lay limp in the water.

"Slow, careless, messy...mortal." I mumbled with pity, before pulling the one-ton heavy beast into my inventory, filling it up only slightly as if it was just an animal, nothing special so young even that it couldn't have been a juvenile I reckoned, just a young blood. Perhaps I was a bit too harsh, I was just too used to the nightmares, uncaring and willing to go any length, and dying by as simple as a broken neck was reserved for only the weakest of them.

A ping echoed out in my skull, as the quest advanced.

'At home, all is fine, but in the castle? It's never enough, regardless of what I do. The shoes don't just grow with me, they outgrow me and I've become tired of hearing the word 'adequate'. Bunch of pencil pushing politicians pulling me around. '

I grumbled angrily, before picking up the stump of the weapon that aided me for over a decade now with sadness. I had outgrown it, and I can't risk my weapon breaking with every strike. I sighed and pulled out the short, curved sword from the assassins, seeing as it was the closest thing I was used to. Of course, there was also the club but... well, it was a huge chunk of wood, so it wouldn't fare much better, in the worst case I'd trigger the special effect on myself.

Then why just no longer go there?

I jerked violently, straightening my back before a somber frown painted my face. 'You’re acting as if I could just say "thanks for the tea, now fuck off". No, that's not how it works, they invested too much, and their prying eyes are finally letting go of me more often now. Well, doubtfully after I get back from this escapade. There's not a single place I could ever be independent without being watched, at least not without "reinforcing my stance..." And, well, I don't want to cause trouble for mom.'

And? His 'And' wasn't a 'So what?' kind of 'and', it was him questioning whether there were more motives behind my words. There were... I just hated myself for having them.

"Celestia... she is just so sad to look at. She is... I don't think I've ever seen a more miserable person in this life, and she'd definitely be in the top 100 I knew on earth. Sure, there is this whole facade, but I can feel just how she's this huge clump of wretched distress, even the nightmares wouldn't sample any of that, I'm sure... But in the rare times it's just us she seems so genuinely happy when she gives those endless tirades about lessons, but even more when just straight up talking casually, not even venting about all the shit, just a chat. I feel sorry for the old mare, even if she can be a huge capital C." I thought, before lifting my head, seeing the ethereal form of the game floating within my vision.

And his presence, as stale and sterile as it was, spoke more than a million words with the way he pulsated.

"Oh fuck off, you're the one who gave me that bleeding heart. Besides, her just radiating that-all of that shitty desperation through the world, hell, worlds if you count the mirror realm is paining me, (literally, it's making me feel pain) more than having my spine shattered by a undead-fuck off, don't go at me with those arrogant pulses you oversized disco ball." I cut myself off, and before grumbling loudly with quick, short steps past the Game.

What is there to say? I'm just amused by your attempts to quell the nightmares at their source by being drenched in ponies' tears in so many different ways, even if it hurts you more than the endless hordes ever could.

"Fuck off ya wanker, don't go spouting 'bout me becoming the next mother teresa like I've become the immortal form slash-concept given form of mercy, forgiveness, the color pink and rainbows-you shut it, I've run out of insults." I spoke hastily and in rapid succession, ignoring even breathing as a whole.

The Game chose to chuckle at my response, I chose to walk louder to drown his laughter out and not to listen.

Kuvo had known fear, he lived in a bog after all and having lived through so many ages, there was one thing for certain. It... John, Johnit, was only comparable to those that came from the sky hole all those years ago when this bog was still but a little forest to be cut down by winged, horned horses, long, long before the spirit of chaos came and made this home... hom-ier...

If seeing those dark ones again made him any less confident, then seeing this display made him reach new lows.

Jon-Star, Star. Yes, Star stood on the verge to dry land, staring at the wet-dry land, a small island in the bog on which a crooked tower stood. There, Star eyed the dark ones closely, and the shine that gleamed behind the metal glared with such hate, that Kuvo had felt like standing even a hundred yards in front of this corpse-walker, he'd be impaled.

The dark ones, these ones, walked in the form of armored ponies, though they appeared almost rotten, not quite like zombies with missing chunks of meat and exposed bones, but rather a well-preserved, recently deceased soldier. Kuvo knew that was false, they have been here long, very long, so long in fact that several times the sun darkened after they first appeared, the forest always mixed and matched, but they didn't leave.

And Kuvo wasn't weak... just bad with trouble makers who were bigger, or stronger, or resistant to poison... or awake... or not nice...

But they just melted into a big puddle that couldn't be wiped away, and then they'd just regrow bigger and meaner than before.

So seeing this...

Star rushed forward with demonic speed, so fast Kuvo could swear he saw the water part before him like a crowd of mice, and grasped the dark one by the shoulder pads, lifting it into the air with little care. And then the dark one started to scream, thrashing widely like it was in pain, before phasing away like it never existed just to leave behind a clear shard the size of a mango.

"Don't you have better things to do?!" Star turned around to face the hidden Kuvo, disguised by magic aplenty, thick layers of moss, in a tree that in essence was just a huge collection of fluffy mold.

"I can see you clear as day! Next time don't use magic around me, you might as well point a flashlight in the dark at yourself." Star shouted with a huff, before turning to the shambling crowd of dark ones that had taken notice of their eviscerator.

Kuvo may have had a playful nature, even when he was more than ready to lead lost souls to the tree's belly. Those foreigners always die, in all the years of the forest, not one soul ever made it out, they only were killed later in a more brutal fashion. At least they died with the illusion of a full stomach and a feeling of safety in their sleep. But also the forest needed Kuvo, it would die without him, and when the forest needed something, the fey wouldn't feel ashamed regardless of the means.

Kuvo jumped from his place of hiding, to return and bring the requested items for the pillager, only to be grabbed by a pale, partially armored hoof.

Kuvo let out a shriek as he was made to face into the face half hidden by a shattered helmet through which armors peeked through. The dark one opened its mouth and bared their yellow teeth, but then, just as the jaws were about to bisect Kuvo, everything went white in a thunderous boom. The fey breathed heavily while staring at the tree, seeing that the crown was gone entirely, with brown fibers of the bark, singed and burning remaining. Looking down, he saw that the water had risen, catching him and slowly bringing him downwards.

And when Kuvo looked at the stranger who walked towards a dark one that very recently had two of its forehooves ripped off, he saw that next to the hooves of Star, which were holding a hoof each, two spirits floated.

'A spirit caller, he thought the great beast killed them all...' Kuvo starred in absolute shock, having only roused as the murky water reached his fur. Although still in shock, Kuvo jumped off a newly called root and jumped on each that sprung out further, building him a path back, but the thought didn't perish. How could it, perhaps there was still hope...

A new spirit caller was born, who could've ever foreseen something like that?

As the flakes and crisps levitated through the air as the remains of the next nightmare vanished, I couldn't help but wonder if I should perhaps collect some corpses. Of course, there wasn't an imminent use yet, but the last batch was now over a decade old, almost entirely used up, but perhaps there was something to be gained from bothering these here... Although, for nightmares, they still seemed pretty fleshy.

"Little shit made me waste mana." I spoke with annoyance, before swiping my right side while looking left, only to turn around to a decapitated nightmare.

It was your choice to engage with him, though I am always thrilled with how the branch of your choice, this detour; seemed somewhat distracting. The Game spoke musingly, though I could feel his gaze looking towards the crooked tower. Something was there, and not just because it was the heart of this collection of misfits.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry I got tired spending time with ponies that I wanted to-" I spoke, but while I leaned down to inspect the ivory of the nightmares, wondering if it was comparable to a unicorn horn in hopes of possibly creating a catalyst which was neutral in magic so that it could be used as a staff. The crafter class was a weird thing, it truly was, it didn't just download blueprints in my skull, but I somewhat knew if I combined certain things in specific ways that particular items could be made.

When my eyes reached the head, I noticed something that caused all my neck hairs to rise. There was something where the wound was, not just black mist and sludge, but the insides of that of a pony. The veins, the voice box, the gullet, it was all there in a sickly pale, preserved state. I quickly put the corpse into my inventory and summoned the crossbow that I grasped with my hooves after switching to a bipedal stance, and fired a far-off unicorn nightmare right between its eyes. It died in an instant, falling down and it’s magic, black and accursed in nature, fizzled away to further poison this swamp.

I frowned deeply before taking a deep breath and turning towards the tower. ’This shouldn’t have killed a normal nightmare…’

"Hey, I am here, come and get me you corpse walkers! Dinner. Is. Served!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, birds far off in the distance fled their trees and whatever critters were near quickly evacuated. Through the nightmares, I felt them inch closer.

You are coming closer to earning a taunt or battle cry skill by the day. The Game noted, but I couldn't tell whether it was sarcasm or just an educated statement.

"If it's a disease or plague, I want those meat munchers as thinned out as possible, and if its a mastermind behind this, then it can't control them well enough. So second verse same as the first, no shut up 'cause I'm putting them in a hearse."

Of course you do, and... company has arrived.

"Mhm, a mean, lean horde that is, just wondering what all that equipment is doing in the literal buttcrack of the world." I hummed musingly, before putting the crossbow away and pulling out a rather exotic combination of a curved short sword and a stiletto. Well, they weren't that short anymore since I equipped them, thus were fitted to my size, but still small for what they are to me.

I looked over the horde, I evaluated that there must've been well over fifty shamblers, not particularly many, given that at times I fought over two hundred zombies in the mirrored Canterlot in the second layer, well the upper streets of the second layer at least… also, by the way, fuck the second layer, but right now there was a bit of a mix-

I mechanically sidestepped a black bolt that soared past my helmet and embedded itself into a tree, causing a great volume of wood to rot and crumble away.

Fifty-Fifty?

"Sounds reasonable." I said, before stomping onto the ground hard and embedding silver thorn spores into the ground, before [Charge]-ing forward on two legs with weapons drawn, and while sprinting glided them against another as I infused them with the water element.

In barely a second I reached a big, burly minotaur outfitted by heavy armor that may have, at its prime, been a fine piece of protection, but now it couldn't even stop a single strike. I jumped over the horizontal swing of its hammer, and onto its shoulders, before cutting through his armored collar with little resistance. Our eyes met in a fraction of a moment as its head flew and tumbled through the air.

Hah, that was the biggest one, looks like I won't need the elementals this time. I thought cockily, before using [Transit] to escape another black bolt targeted at my chest, but instead, just hit the air. 'It was funny the first time, now it’s just annoying.'

I grumbled and punched a pony-shaped nightmare in the chest, ripping it into bits and two others standing behind it with the use of [Heavy Impact]. I swear, it cannot hold a candle to Brawly's punches but this attack should be more than capable of collapsing an old building.

And as I stood there, two nightmares tried to pile on top of me, both griffons armed with long swords, but before their blades and their bodies as a whole stopped dead when metallic vines thick as tree roots burst from the ground and entangled them. Their attempts were cute, but I had already spiked the entire battlefield with cluster vines below the dirt. My smile lasted even though I felt the same unicorn mare charge up another black bolt, but before it could fire, it was hit by an electrified beam of water and hurled against the side of a rock.

"Appreciate that." I said kindly to my spirited companions, before ten more silver thornes burst from the ground, entangling roughly half of the remaining nightmares, however, I decided against it. Not, because it was boring, but because it was draining having so many limbs separate from your main body acting at once. Also, the dirt was starting to turn grey, those plants were extraordinarily resource-heavy.

I ducked under a metal bolt that missed my horn by a hair's width and sidestepped a griffon clawing at my face, but these fledglings were nothing compared to me. I punched the griff' in the face, and the rotted skull exploded, blinding a wildly swinging, minotaur foe wielding a dagger with brain bits stuck to it. I jumped to the side, grabbed him, and bodily lifted him, before running toward a group of shield-wielding ponies. If I doubted my previous experiences, then perhaps I would've said they looked scared when they were run over like a bunch of roman soldiers in the black forest by a germanic warrior. The runt I held groaned pathetically as the nightmares tried to take a swipe at me, only to hit the minotaur and hack bits off. At the end of my charge, I made a sharp turn, grinding mud in all directions, and a moment later said mutilated minotaur was hurdled toward a pair of crossbow-wielding pegasi.

I quickly armed an ice spear that impaled the trio, the frost grew over them like mold over yogurt, and then snapped my head back to the shield bearers and shot a [Fireball] at the bunch of ‘em. The explosion, mixed with the wet ground and escaping gases, ripped through the air like an all-breaking crack. I flinched slightly as shards of metal embedded themselves in my armor, though I received no actual damage.

Looking closer, I had a doubletake to see that one of them survived, even when it’s shield was melting over its broken body and setting it ablaze. I armed a weak [Mana Bolt], but a quick flash of light stole my attention away. My immediate response to use [Transit] was for the better as the air where my neck previously was had been cut by a fine, golden blade.

I flipped a couple of times through the air, mostly because I needed to get used to not launching myself into the air with the slightest use of strength, before landing on my hooves.

Staring at the trio that lead the remaining graveyard, I not only noticed that all three were fully armored unicorns, at least I guessed so with the third one, but wore the equestrian crest on their armor and armaments. Not the modern version, the simplified and older version of it dating back at least several centuries. The leader of the trio, a pony who lacked a skull but still stood taller than the other two, clearly was the leader. I also came to the realization that they came pretty close to my height, which was not small I might add. I might be the tallest living stallion at this point, only about a head or a head and a half below Celestia who seemingly looked giraffes in the eyes.

'Did ponies shrink over the years?' I wondered with intrigue, but I'd get my answer from the autopsy, not staring at things. Gosh, how haven't I earned the butcher proficiency yet...

Sir Polar Might
Level - 52
Class - Accursed Herald- level 52
Race - Pony/Nightmare Hybrid
HP (Health Points) - 4000[20 per minute]
MP (Mana Points) - 2500 [450 per minute]
SP (Stamina Points) - unlimited [--- per minute]
STR (Strength) - 211
END (Endurance) - 168
DEX (Dexterity) - 146
INT (Intelligence) - 181
WIS (Wisdom) - 157
CHA (Charisma) -2
LCK (Luck) - 0

Return to grave-er (Epic)
Return the lost skull of Sir Polar Might.
* This rare nightmare will get stronger
* Experience and proficiency gain will be drastically increased
* Quest Reward(s) depending on battle evaluation.
*This quest will be failed if the enemy is killed before the skull is returned.

I squinted my eyes at the quest, before cracking my neck from left to right, and extending my hooves outwards. "Summon Lower Lightning Elemental. Summon Lesser Water Elemental." My voice came out amplified like it was an attack from an overexaggerated anime, or rather, much louder than I intended as if I had released a call throughout the entire world.

The water from the muddy ground was sapped as a colossal silhouette formed, growing larger and larger, darker and darker, until reaching a height that dwarfed most minotaurs. A colossal beast, water that flowed in constant motion to resemble a wave-made humanoid with a crooked, forward-curved head and two great arms, nearly the width of oars.

On the left, the air cracked furiously as if the very air was cracking apart, as a terrifying form materialized. Lightning made physical, shining blindingly, the form of the lower lightning Elemental appeared like that of purest energy, unstable taking on the form that resembled a tall skeleton with jagged limbs and a spiky head.

"Kill them all, their rejuvenative tendencies won't save them while you're employed by me. The leader? That one is mine, don't interfere." I spoke slowly while pulling the skull of Sir Polar Might from my inventory. A deep, almost rumbling bubbling escaped the water elemental, while a piercing, static sound was the answer to the lightning elemental.

Be prepared, while my systems won't grant you a quest beyond your abilities, this does not mean it will be easy. The Game spoke, as I walked towards the stunned, headless horse-man.

'When has anything ever been easy? Wasn't that the whole appeal.' I said with a smirk, take any of this easy. I may be prone to trash-talking, but I didn't leave my guard down, even when dealing with comparatively weak nightmares.

I took a deep breath, and lifted the head high above the neck, as the nightmare waited patiently, knowing full well what I was about to do. I hesitated, not because of him, but because the water elemental ripped off a tree and swiped five zombies in one strike, one of which flew over my head. I blinked hard once, before descending the skull-like crown. The moment the skull and neck connected, blue fire spread from the dark depths of the corpse to overtake the forgotten calcium as spikes grew from its sides like pins, and violet flames ignited in the eye sockets. The flaming eyes slowly rolled down until our eyes met, and in a single, short, fraction of a second, both of us knew one thing was certain: Only one of us would see the sunset.

I jumped to the side, practically hurling myself away as a black crystal bolt shot past my face and a chunk of my mask was ripped away, leaving my right eye exposed. I grunted angrily, ignited two [Mana Blades], and struck both of them toward the lich. I attacked, but it didn't go far, my hoof collided with a barrier in which a few cracks appeared, and most certainly my magic was not the cause. I grunted angrily, and in anticipation jumped back as a wave of violet flames burst in all directions and the fire expanded even further, forcing me to use [Transit] twice in a single breath to spare my almost singed hide. Though I wasn't done just yet with my turn, and as I landed on the ground ripped a boulder with my newfound strength out of the slightly muddy ground and hurled it with well over 100 kph towards the undead mage.

The boulder shattered apart into thousands of little shrapnel pieces that shot in all directions, and a web of cracks spread across a slope that bent around the lich like a mana shield of a grander scale than mine. And although the spectacle of seeing stone pound apart like dust was gratifying, a lightning-fast spear of violet fire rippled through the air, and through my extended hoof that burst apart like a rotten melon.

I gritted my teeth with a grunt, although the pain was nothing more than a phantom sensation, the sight of losing a limb was no enjoyable thing. I grabbed the burning stump and ripped it off my shoulder, before hurling it at the lich, who didn't react to it as the meaty clump bounced off his barrier like a tennis ball. He stepped on the limb with a heavy stomp and walked towards me as flames were conjured into a wave surrounding him.

I spat on the ground and grew silver thorns from my exposed flesh. The plants tangled and intertwined countless times in a spiral and violent fashion until a great limb was formed, an arm bearing spikes and a three-clawed paw. I clenched the fresh limb tightly, feeling its strength with a grin as the fondness of having fingers returned to me. I turned my face back to the lich and the wave of fire grew into a great storm from which even the elementals began to back away.

I could only grin, and I did so while running toward it with [Charge] and [Sprint].

The tower of violent, violet flame grew into a fortress that consumed all plants and trees nearby, scorching the earth and even killing the very air, but I didn't stop, not even as the fire began to expand toward me like a glacier crushing the land. And then as the fire reached its apex, silver thorns grew from discarded flesh and willfully grasped towards the fire.

I closed my eyes as the fire collapsed, releasing a wave of heat in all directions through which I jumped as the flames rushed past me, some clinging to my armor, I stared with hate in my exposed eyes, I looked down onto Sir Polar Might, missing his forehooves and part of his horn.

As I descended, his horn crackled with energy still, though untamed and without control, his magic burst forth in a wave of destruction. I held my artificial claw in front of my face, and the silver thorns broke apart, the limb mutilated and I almost was thrown back, but I rammed my hindlegs into the ground and stabbed the sharp, plant mass through his chest. A breathless gasp escaped the herald as he was held half a meter above the ground.

I have killed countless nightmares: Impaled, bisected, burned, frozen, ripped apart and crushed and so many more ways - and yet, I couldn't help, while staring into the smoldering eyes soon to be extinguished, a hint of pity, sadness, and empathy as a stallion once greatly renowned to have fallen so low. Perhaps, death was a solution to some things.

"My princess... I failed you most dearly."

I tried to narrow my eyes, my heart pounded and I panted fiercely at even the slightest movement, but my brows quivered and my eyes ultimately softened, as I lowered my form and put the good knight onto the ground, holding the back of his head and pulling back my arm.

"To fail a task you could never complete is no shame, good knight." I whispered as I felt something mirror behind the meatless, burning skull, something alive, something pony. I flinched when his head slowly turned towards me and the fire slowly subsided into a weak blue that would soon fade away.

"Silver hair, the sun's mark... How it doth warmth mine heart to know that the crown's prince doesth know to wield blade and heart, soul and spell aliketh." His voice began to fade as did the fire and the purple stain seemed to subside as I used [Gentle Touch] to instill comfort, not the otherwise radiant feelings in the purest form to burn away.

"You fought valiantly, my knight, through many hardships did you sail, but your odyssey now comes to an end. Sleep well, you served your country well, but now time for rest has arrived. Know, the nightmares will not fester while I keep them from manifesting." I whispered soothingly and traced the back of my hoof across his exposed and unlit skull. And as my lips closed, his head leaned back and I felt his presence leave this place.

That was... beautiful.

"There is nothing beautiful about any of this." I said slowly and traced my hoof over the old crest adorning his chest. I held no love for patriotism, love for country and culture, but I knew well the desire to safeguard your family and loved ones. I just hoped that whoever my family is in this life, is scattered, if they are dead or safe, I'd never have to do the honor for them, for then I would falter certainly.

How much I despised lying to those poor bastards, those fabricated sentences that held as much weight as the loftiest of breaths. Lies, nothing more than that, and yet I couldn’t help myself. Walking away was too straining on my heart, staring at the fading souls, too cold.

I sighed, shaking my head and spitting on the ground as if there was a slight hope to remove the horrid taste from my mouth. I put his body into my inventory, and walked toward the captured corpses, glancing toward my elementals and raising an eyebrow. The water elemental was holding down the neck and jaw of a fully grown craggadile, while the lightning elemental held out his hands from which a hailstorm of thunder escaped and spread across the stony body. The beast struggled greatly as its armor broke apart and a chunk of flesh exploded.

I sighed with a shaking head, before using [Rapid Recover] to regenerate my hoof, summoned an [Ice Spear], and hurled it through the skull of the craggadile. The reptile's body spasms for a moment, before too succumbing to its wounds. The thick and searing blood froze only moments after trickling the beast’s long snout.

"You can go all out on the nightmares, but don't go around torturing the animals." I huffed as the pair looked at me with confusion before they let go of the beast and started to pile up the corpses.

However I must ask one question that does reoccur within me. The Game asked softly, almost with avoidance.

I walked towards the entangled nightmares, and it seemed as if my vines had a preference for griffons for they were the majority of the prey, the other three were earth ponies. Proteins, the plants did love that stuff. I extended my hoof and began to infuse the nightmare with emotions, but when no familiar sizzling came, I took a deeper look and saw that shrapnel burrowed itself through the skull hidden behind a vine, and another was decapitated by a stay thunderbolt, only held together by plant bandages. I grumbled, before taking them into my inventory and purifying the remaining eight.

You can go years on end purging nightmares, but at times you can become... The Game halted its sentence for a moment, inquiring me to raise an eyebrow. Soft. I pulled my hoof back as the third nightmare crumbled away, leaving the fourth crystal behind. It's confusing me why you're expending energy in reassuring your fallen foes with kind words, often lies, and then acting as if nothing happened. It makes me question the sincerity.

I huffed and leaned my head back. "Fifty-Fifty." I spoke, at first, without explanation. "I pull out a lot of stuff from somewhere down south, and I do not owe anyone kind words, less so those that try to send me to an early, permanent, retirement, but... It just feels... right, to let someone down gently, even with just a scrap of sentiment down slowly and softly, give them a warm farewell into the next chapter of life, instead of with fear, screaming and clinging to it all while the blackness drags you down. It's nothing nice… I still have nightmares of that day, drowning in that tar."

I closed my eyes and when I opened them a moment later, the silver vines began to decay with quick speed, leaving behind nothing but ashes and dust, and of course, nine shards to collect. And a few corpses, sadly it was far off from the desired amount, but oh well, unfortunate collateral.

Greater Dexterity shard
Level 100 item
rare
A shard containing part of a creature's power.
Gain five permanent dexterity points.
You cannot gain more points using this item once the three-hundred-point level has been reached.
Harvested from: Consumed Griffon

Greater Luck shard
Level 100 item
rare
A shard containing part of a creature's power.
Gain five permanent Luck points.
You cannot gain more points using this item once the three-hundred-point level has been reached.
Harvested from: Consumed Earth Pony

"Luck?!" I shouted out in confusion while holding my forehead. "Why the hell did I get a Luck Shard from an earth pony carcass? What the hell is-?" I ranted while scratching the side of my head as I looked at the shard until a frozen shiver spiraled down my spine.

.
..
...

The Elementals have returned to the spirit realm. The Game said slowly, while I turned around and inspected the great pile of corpses, and the two sets of footprints- well, burn marks and a mud trace -leading towards the tower.

"And not on their terms." I said slowly, but I couldn't feel anything strong enough to have taken them on, and we weren't in the mirror realm...

"I am considering retreating here, Game." I said finally after a phase of silence, while slowly walking right to mayhaps catch a lofty glimpse at the one responsible.

Scared, or?

"I may have lost the majority of feelings, but not my sense of self-preservation despite my track record, thank you very much, Game. Now if you would excuse me for a moment, I am going to strategically move further to the right until I can evaluate just how fucked everything in a 100 kilometer radius is."

I slowly walked to the right, just as the prophecy I was foretold, until the trees, rocks, and holy fuck the imp wasn't kidding, there has to be hundreds of carcasses of varrying sizes and stages of decay, possibly enough to feed a murder of griffons their entire lives. Ehem, until I could see in a clean line past all the obstacles. But past the bodies, there stood, surrounded by countless, armored bodies of knights and bandits, a single individual that bore a great stature and although his back was turned to me, a silver mane flowed through the wind graciously.

"I thought only mares could get a silver mane..." I murmured and stared closer with [Greater Spirit Senses] and when I tried to use [Observe] the Skill didn't trigger, no, it didn't fail, it didn't trigger. And as I tried to use it a second time, the ear of the knight in solitude twitched ever so slightly. I leaned a bit further and saw a great scorch mark next to an even greater puddle of water.

'This is fucked up, I can't even tell if he is a nightmare, all my senses would've already exploded if I looked this closely with Hauhuthos Hilihuth in the same room as me.' I grumbled while slowly inching closer step by step and my mind already hovered over my shield just in case.

I crossed the path of corpses, each step creating loud crack, smack, schlep, and tak sounds. And as I reached the clearing in which he stood, I could witness just how many corpses he had made. There were hundreds of bodies, not all of them were sentient creatures, but at the very least ten dozen belonged to intelligent beings. I swapped side to side at which I looked, periodically turning back to the frozen figure.

A quarter second passed.

I breathed heavily, I felt how my heart pressed against my ribs, and my eyes dilated to ripping degrees as I heard my [Mana Construct] and [Mana Shield] collapse. Suddenly, a strong ray of light entered my eyes, as my mask split in half, and my shield broke into countless metal splinters. A burning blade inched at my throat.

The creature before me looked exactly how a pony should have, and a normal pony would've been fooled, writing their slightly pale body, thin mane, and almost starved appearance off as health issues. What no one could ignore, however, was the radiant, purple gleam, the likes he had seen before only with those dreadful beasts in the Game's chamber and perhaps of the clouded creature I hazily remember that bore the shield before me.

He breathed heavily and staggered even as he lowered his sword slowly, the gleaming, blackened gold blade until it fell to the ground. His grey hoof slowly extended toward me, caressing my cheek so gently and yet I felt agonizing pain, but it was so close I couldn't tell if it was my own, or I felt his. Him, he truly looked like an older, mortal version of what I was now.

Sir Silver Blade is allowing his kin to view his stats.

Sir Silver Blade
Level - 102
Class - Solar Knight Captain- level 85
Race - Pony/Nightmare Hybrid
HP (Health Points) - 15000[250 per minute]
MP (Mana Points) - 8500 [570 per minute]
SP (Stamina Points) - 20000[--- per minute]
STR (Strength) - 320
END (Endurance) - 421
DEX (Dexterity) - 489
INT (Intelligence) - 380
WIS (Wisdom) - 297
CHA (Charisma) -120
LCK (Luck) - 80
Thought about you: Familiarity

Observe --> Inspect

My jaw slowly lowered itself as Silver Blade inched closer, staring deeply into my eyes, and while I could only fathom what he saw in me, I could see an entire lifetime behind the corruptive powers. I flinched when his hoof's tip touched my throat and pulled his hoof covered in my blood back, inspecting it thoroughly.

"How cometh a descendant mine bearing her highness' scent and mark?"He spoke slowly, his voice so smooth and welcoming, despite the harsh nature of his speech, it confused me greatly. "What is your name, colt?"

I stared at his patient visage for a few moments, expecting just about anything from his coming reaction, but I was split between it being a trap or genuine curiosity. "Star Touch. And, well, I suppose my mother's 'fragrance' just rubbed off me with time?"

A deep humming escaped his throat, and his hoof traced my jawline, before finally pulling back all of his limbs from me. "Your claim is one many made through the years, many a fool the lot, but... Immortal blood flows in your veins, my lineage in your flesh, her scent marks you, and I can feel..." He leaned his head back, closed his eyes, and for just a second he seemed peaceful, in a sense. "Domain over a realm, but one I cannot begin to fathom."

"It invokes within me... mixed emotions to knoweth my lineage to still to have survived and ultimately cross even closer to royalty." His voice drifted away slowly before he cleared his throat and bobbed his head slightly, the smallest of bows I supposed. "Your presence honors me, royal descendant mine, but why hath thee come?" He asked, one more revealing his accursed eyes. "I made my intentions clear, were I not to return, none may be sent."

"It wasn't my choice. Members of the Proud Lion Guild have stole me away in the dead of night and brought me here." I spoke without reaction or emotion, though it did irk my listener most dearly, though the silence of the Game spoke more bounds than any warnings of the system demanding me to cease my interactions. "They tried to assassinate me, but failed and paid the price, they won't harm anyone anymore as seen with their equipment on a unicorn and not a-"

"beaked cat." He finished with disdain, reminding me once again how xenophobic ponies of old (or currently) can be. "My most gracious apologies for damaging your equipment, I'd offer you armor or compensation, but I am afraid that there's nothing worth your size and status."

My mouth hung open for a moment before I took a deep breath. "No need." Leaning down, I focused my magic on the broken pieces and repaired the items, before putting them back into my inventory so as to not cause another PTSD-driven strike. "I've been battling the nightmares for some time, I am used to picking items from the battlefield." I leaned my face away.

"Pickings from the Battlefield... I am sure you have many stories to tell, none the least in how you managed to purify our accursed souls, I may presume?" He spoke in a slow tone, before walking in the direction I looked at. "Come, let us speak inside. It may not be the most comforting of places, but better than to wake in the rain."

I was about to open my mouth in protest when a single droplet of water fell onto my nose's tip. "Yes, I also have some questions." I spoke slowly, eyeing the knight who showed his back to me without any precaution, making me wonder about whatever situation I had found myself in. With a shake of my head, I decided to follow my predecessor's supposed ancestor.