Lucian waited for the system's reply, but the blue text remained silent. He took another step forward, the darkness pressing in on him.
"Did I hit a nerve?" he asked. "Or are you processing my very 'logical' point? Who is actually behind this? Who chose me?"
[I did not choose you. I am a tool. You are a tool. Neither of us is in charge.]
Lucian stopped walking. The silence in the cave felt suddenly heavier.
"If you're just a tool," he whispered, "then who's holding the handle?"
The system didn't respond. The blue square dissolved into nothing, leaving him alone with the dark.
Lucian let out a short, dry laugh. "I hoped for more if I'm being honest. Well time to end it."
A sound reached him, the scrape of claw against stone. It was close. Too close. Ten meters? Maybe less.
"Time is ticking," he muttered, looking at the darkness ahead. "I can hear them breathing."
He waited, hoping for some new info, a hint, anything. Nothing happened. The system remained dead. If it didn't need to give him advantages, did that mean he was disposable?
Thwip.
Something small and fast cut the air. Lucian flinched instinctively, shifting his weight to the left.
Agony bloomed in his right shoulder. He looked down to see a short wooden shaft buried deep into the meat of his deltoid. Blood darkened the fabric of his shirt immediately. The pain screamed through his nervous system.
"Okay," Lucian gasped, his vision blurring from the sharp, hot sensation. "Okay, that's my cue."
He didn't look back to see what had shot him. He just ran. He sprinted into the depths, his heavy boots pounding against the uneven ground. The tunnel opened up abruptly, the walls vanishing from his sides.
He skidded to a halt on the edge of a precipice. The ground simply ended. Lucian threw his arms out to balance himself, pebbles skittering off the ledge and vanishing into the abyss. Below him was a massive cavern, and in the very center, a perfect circle of blackness. It looked like a throat swallowing the world, a hole that went down forever.
Lucian backed away from the edge, the burning in his shoulder a constant throb. The scuffling sounds multiplied, echoing off the cavern walls. He was surrounded.
"What happens after this?" he asked the empty air. "Do I just blink out? Or do I get shipped back to the void?"
He smirked, though it didn't reach his eyes. The humor felt bitter. "Guess I don't matter either way. This whole situation is a bit of a drag."
He looked down into the abyss. It was the only way out. He took one more step back, his heels hanging over the drop.
"Last chance, System," he said loudly. "Give me something. Anything. Or I'm gone."
Silence answered him.
"So be it. I didn't like the place anyway."
A high-pitched shriek tore through the air behind him. Lucian didn't get the chance to turn. The impact felt like a hot poker slamming between his ribs. Air rushed from his lungs in a wet gasp as the sharp point of a crude spear punched through his chest, shattering his sternum.
The force lifted him off his feet. For a split second, he hung suspended in the air, staring at the dark ceiling of the cave.
The goblin behind him grunted and shoved the spear forward with all its might. Lucian's body was launched into the void. He fell backward, watching the ceiling spin away, his life bleeding out into the cold air.
The wind roared past Lucian's ears, drowning out the high-pitched shrieks of the goblins above. He tumbled end over end, the darkness swallowing him completely. The pain in his chest was excruciating, a burning fire that consumed his ability to draw breath. He couldn't scream even if he wanted to; the spear still lodged in his chest cavity prevented any such luxury.
So this is it, Gyeong In thought, the Korean student surfacing briefly amidst the panic of Lucian's dying mind. Falling into the dark. What a pathetic way to go twice.
He waited for the impact. He wondered if he would feel the crunch of his bones, or if he would simply bleed out in mid-air. The speed increased, the air pressure building around him, whistling through his clothes. The darkness wasn't total; faint, sickly green luminescence began to pulse from the walls of the chasm, revealing jagged rocks waiting below like the teeth of a giant beast. They were getting bigger very, very fast.
He closed his eyes, his thoughts blurring. He hoped that whatever came next, the void, or perhaps another chance, would be better than this. He was tired of failing. He was tired of being weak.
Suddenly, the air in front of his face glowed. A blue box materialized, hovering impossibly against the rushing wind.
[⁜- Death Is A Privilege Reserved For Humans. -⁜]
Lucian's eyes snapped to read it. He didn't have time to process the meaning. He didn't have time to question why his own System would deny him the dignity of dying.
The jagged rocks rushed up to meet him.
CRUNCH.
Silence returned to the abyss. The text box hung in the air for a moment longer, glowing faintly, before it too faded into nothingness, leaving only the dark.
[The prerequisites for the Skill: Rebirth have been met. Estimated time before reconstruction: 2 days.]
Gyeong In blinked, his eyes focusing on a white acoustical tile above him. It was the ceiling of the hospital room he had died in. He sat up, the movement surprisingly fluid, lacking the heaviness of Lucian's obese body. He looked down at his hands. They were pale, thin, and trembling slightly, the hands of a terminal patient, not the clumsy, fleshy paws of the Kraus noble.
He stood up, the cold air of the room biting at his exposed skin. He was wearing a hospital gown, the fabric rough and familiar. The room was silent, save for the rhythmic, mechanical beeping of a heart monitor. It was a slow, monotonous sound that he had listened to for months.
Gyeong turned his head toward the source of the sound. There was only one occupied bed in the room. Lying in it was a boy with sunken cheeks and short black hair, his chest rising and falling in a shallow rhythm. Gyeong walked closer, his bare feet making no sound on the linoleum floor.
He stood over the bed and looked down. It was him. It was Gyeong In, the boy who had failed to fight off the illness, the boy who had died just a short time ago.
"Is this a joke?" Gyeong whispered, his voice cracking with dryness. He reached out a hand, his fingers hovering inches above the sleeping face of his former self.