The raging pulse of the mysterious heart beat stops at the drop of the hat, disappearing so randomly and quickly it was as if it truly didn't exist. There was no indication of the phenomenon happening like it was a mass hallucination they all experienced together.
And let's be honest, as strange as it is for such things to just happen randomly, in this world it isnt all that weird in the grand scheme of things is it?
Now what filled the chamber was the same as before the new group entered it. Large spillages of whale oil from leaking pipes, a bunch of feeces and other patches of unknown bodily fluids. The only new addition/change in the environment being that the hostile residents now lay on the floor, wether dead or merely unconscious currently unknown.
The assassins all stand around corvos limp body all looking a bit awkward and put of at him suddenly committing suicide. Unsure of why he would even do such a thing after an extensive study of the man's life profile. But what they truly didn't know what to do was report this incident to their superiors.
Their supposed prisoner not only escaped his cell but made it all the way here and killed a bunch of fellow assassins.
"This is ridiculous…" one of the assassins muttered under their breath silently, but is heard by the rest of the trio bringing the moral down lower than when they came in.
"Well…" another one of the assassins spoke up, stepping forward to look closer at corvo with a concealed grin under his mask, a grin that could be heard through his voice while chuckling darkly all the while "Looks like a job done right to me! We even made the bitch so scared he bloody killed himself.. haha"
""….""
Though his attempt at dark humour dosent recieve any of his good will back at him. Only exceedingly dry stares, even without looking back at his companions.
A sense he could detect easily after knowing these people for that long.
"What? I'm just trying to lighten the mood." He says defensively , defending against the judging silence that lasts just that long.
"Haaaaah… let's go. We have to report all this fuck up to daud eventually, so we might as well go and get it over and done with."
Another assassin, this one with some sort of marking that perhaps indicates a higher rank than the others on his shoulder, and the one who appears to be the one in charge of their misfit squad issues an order to the other two while bringing his hand up to slap his forehead, hard and dramatically. Though only after he and the other were done giving their colleague the silent treatment.
They all turned as one and headed for the stairs, ready to leave all of this sudden madness behind and exit from where they came through.
*GRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNN*
Another phenomenon occurred, once more originating from corvo. This one manifests quietly as a pulse that explodes out of corvo, halting whatever it touches in time. Though a deafening noise echos out through the void, like the grinding of a slowing sundial.
One such noise that signals the ascent of something unknown, a being following a path humans can't comprehend.
And it was not just them that were frozen in place, but the world itself.
The assassins forced into standing straight up with their legs stretched out mid walk. The occurrence not even allowing them to move an inch from their place, or react to their surroundings. As if medusa herself looked into their eyes and turned them to stone in less than an instant.
Behind them though corvo twitched and kept twitching until he was able to manoeuvre himself to his hands and knees.
Then he slowly, painfully slow, pulled himself to his feet where he stood so shakily that it looked like he was going to collapse once again at any moment.
He shook and shook with unstable knees and weakened legs, but eventually finds stability on a large steel pipe just ahead of him to find his balance.
He took one deep breath after an other, repeating it until he breath finds stability as well, letting a cloud of an unidentified substance cover him and heal his wound. Healing them so fast that each injury closed in real time.
Dripping blood seemed to flow in reverse, healing the wound on its way back in. All broken fingers and other broken bones snapping back into place, appearing like there wasnt an injury there to begin with. Crossbow Bolt and bullet casing ejected from his body, hitting the floor with a quiet…
*TING! TING! TING!*
And just like, that corvo stood back at his full height. No more injuries marring him at all. A body so free of any lingering wounds that it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he was born again.
The only indication of any change to him would be the finely shredded clothing that left him just sort of his birthday suite, the lack of all his iconic equipment…. And The pair of animalistic amber eyes, eyes that seem to grow with ferality and pure killing intent made manifest.
Corvo begin a slow stroll over to his frozen enemies at a leisurely pace. Getting into a range so close that if they could perceive him, they would feel his ragged breath on the back of their neck.
With cruel slowness as he were mocking the opponent in front, corvo pulls a sword from the assassins own sheath and runs it through said assassins torso.
The moment tbe blade penertraged the his stomach the man came alive with activity for a short moment, seeming to temporarily borrow corvos own power to separate himself from the harsh time stream.
Only to find himself in an agony, a pain twisting at his stomach; visible only from what you could see from his face into a grimace before he freezes up once more as corvo let's go.
The skull faced man then turns heading for the next target, his skin expelling clouds of mana like a human exhaust pipe, fueling an unknown power.
He makes it to the next one In a quick dash, slicing out with his stolen blade. He ecapitates the man In one swing and with a flick his stumped wrist, sends a cross bow bolt out at the next one in the same motion.
The bolt obviously freezes in the air a second after separating from corvos weird time resistant aura, getting stuck in the air while aiming at the last assassin.
Though not for long. Time soon starts resumes its normal flow, letting natural forces of nature take hold as normal and send the bolt into the enemy's leg.
"AGHH!"
A surprised piercing yelp escapes the man's throat.
In but a moment he was walking away from this disgusting place to report a complete mission, he was shot straght in the leg.
An injury mirroring the one he sent at corvo.
"What the?!"
He's sent collapsing to the floor by an indoor wind? But quickly scrambles to turn and look at his companions, searching for their support. Though he is only to be met with another Gruesome sight of a massacre that day.
A severed head splatters heavily to the ground next to him with a disgusting thud, rolling disturbingly to point its unblinking eyes at him. Then the squads joker dropping to his knees heavily, puking up as much blood as he was loosing from his wound.
"N-NO! Nonono! For fuck sake, again?!?!"
The squad leader rapidly crawl over to his one and only still alive fallen subordinate. Scanning over his body frantically to search for other wounds, all the while trying to stuff the fatal wound up with sterile bandages. But even that is not enough to stop the blood from flowing out of the fatal injury… only halt it slightly.
"*COUGH!* *COUGH!* pffttt…puhaha! What in the void man! Getting killed on a payday of all days, just my fucking luck!"
The bleeding man laughs hysterically at the irony that befalls him, unbelieving at the scenario that suddenly manifests around his reality like a scene from his nightmares.
"Capta-*COUGH!* -captain. Please, please tell me I'm going to be okay?!"
He grabs hold of the leaders coller, pulling him in close that his breathless voice whispers in the man's ear.
"Oh.. fuck. Seems it's my time to go *COUGH! COUGH!*…. I'm seeing the bastard getting ready to take me to the void. I knew my misdeeds would catch up me eventually, this soon thoug-..."
The light leaves the jokers eyes mid sentence, letting his body fall limp in tbe final assassins grip.
"…"
His final words though cause the leader to freeze up completely, as if he was once again trapped inside the cruel clutches of frozen time.
He turns his head with mechanics stiffness, soon coming face to face with the man they all though they truely triumphed over.
"Hey, please…. Spa-"
*SPLAT*
*THUD*
———
——
—-
-
(An hour or so later)
Eventually corvo state of being returned back to his default state of living. No glowing eyes, no smoke billowing of his body and no injuries. And hey, he even managed to find all his gear scattered around that room, though it was dirtied quite a bit.
What is still unusually about him though… is that his hand has grown back.
Well… grown back would be an exaggeration.
Turning his head downwards to look at his left hand, he releases a big sigh as the hand phases through the wall he was leaning against as if it were an illusion.
And that wouldn't be entirely wrong.
His new hand is some sort of ethereal semi-physical condensed mana construct that grew back from his stump to replace his previous limb. The hand state shifts from one form to another in a chaotic display, as if it were mimicking the void itself. The majority of the time it says mostly a transparent version of his old hand, sometimes it's weirdly glitchy, occasionally it seems to either loose its form all together or just become inhuman.
It can't seem to hold anything physical either, only being able to interact with objects that either share a deep bond or is entirely of the void. A bone charm would be one example, an object containing a lot of mana would be another.
But it still functions as a relatively normal hand to the rest of his body. Blood runs through its mana condensed veins and still he could still interact with the rest of his body.
A plus to all this though is the fact he can scratch any itch freely on his body as the hand passes through his clothing and mask like air.
The new hand also posses the runic marking of the outsider, though this one being slightly different with added markings that extend around his fingers and wrist.
Another notable change to the mark would be its constant luminescence. Yes, it now constantly glows due to mana constantly cycling through the hand alongside his blood. Basically having the mark perpetually powered up at all times, allowing for quicker activation of powers.
But despit all this, you still might be wondering, how the hell did he suddenly get his powers back and why does he have a left hand.
Well, the first part is obvious right?
He regained his key to his front door connection to the void. Just reuniting with the severed limb was enough to gain access to the powers, though that is not all he did.
The second… well that requires a little more detail I would think.
"Flesh of the void, huh?"
Another sigh, this time weary and more tired, escapes corvos lips at the mention of the new power he gained access to.
Or it would be more accurate to say that he created it.
Gaining another system of void power that corvo himself was never ment to gain.
The only explaination was that something didn't come from corvo at all, besides the circumstances of course.
It came from a different person, one that is also the same one simultaneously. A man who has lived two very different lives.
It came from Luke.
Creating a entirely different system than corvos arsenal of powers. This one only holding a single ability, modelled after him instead.
—-
-Classified as a self-sustaining Void construct rather than a permanent alteration. The severed hand bearing the Outsider's Mark functions solely as a catalyst: when consumed, its physical matter was discarded, leaving only the imprint—the residual authority of the Mark—translated into raw mana and internalized. The power that answers this pattern does not originate from the Mark, nor from the Outsider. It is drawn from a deeper stratum of the Void, one unaligned with this world's metaphysical framework and accessible only due to the bearer's foreign incarnation
When activated, mana is expended to temporarily manifest the missing limb. The hand forms as Void-wrought flesh; a construct bound by the users will, merging with rest of the body perfectly and leaving no chance of rejection.
In early iterations, the manifested hand cannot interact reliably with physical matter, phasing through solid objects until repeated use anchors the construct to local reality. While active, it functions without pain or fatigue and restores access to Marks (Corvo Attanos) derived abilities despite the runic markings physical absence; when inactive,
The mana condensed hand vanishes leaving the user handless once, mark-less and inert.
During manifestation, the bearer's connection to the Void restructures itself. Control no longer routes through the Outsider's mediation; instead, a direct conduit stabilizes between bearer and the natural Void, reducing the Outsider's influence to a distant, diminishing echo.
The body enters a partial Void phase under the influence of this power: regeneration accelerates, amplifies existing void related ability's, accumulates and regenerates mana more swiftly and in larger thresholds.
This power has growth potential
The construct persists only while mana is supplied; upon depletion or dismissal, the Void flesh dissolves and access is revoked.
System Warning: Continued reliance results in progressive ontological drift. No correction protocol detected. Humanity degradation is cumulative.
——
Corvo clenches his new hand, testing how it feels with the rest of his body. He stares at it before focusing inwards and willing the ability to be dismissed, similar to how he uses his other powers, though this one seems to come from somewhere deeper making access harder to aquire .
The void hand melts like a bit of cotton candie being dipped in water.
….alowing the blood that was flowing through it to hit the floor, almost knocking corvo out with anemia.
It seems that tbe ability merged with actual flesh and in the process re opens the stump ever time upon dismissal and re activation. Though the enhanced healing of the power allows it to be ignored when activated, when dismissed though.. it becomes a problem.
Along with the fact that without it, he is just a ordinary human.
"Well then, I suppose it's not really a problem if I keep it activated then. Will just had to find a way to supply myself with mana whenever I get low…"
——
Word count: 2,585
A/N; this is the turning point in the story, where it either becomes good and becomes shit!
I hope I'm doing right by my decision to branch out a bit away from the original storyline, wish me luck👍.