Bloodstained Blade-Chapter 77 - Fighting for Survival (part 3)

In the moments following the defeat of the necromancer, the Ebon Blade had trouble telling reality from the visions it was seeing. It knew that it needed to focus and that they might be attacked again at any moment.

+118 Life Force.

+9 Human Souls.

However, as it was bombarded with overwhelming amounts of energy, the violent impulses of its wielder, the clash of violence taking place in one of the city’s market squares where it currently found itself, and the violent imagery of the damaged souls it was consuming, it was close to helpless. There were times the blade couldn’t figure out if it was feeling someone else’s flesh part and bleed beneath its edge or if it was experiencing the feeling of someone else and their painful memory of being cut down.

It was just too much. Its runes throbbed with power as it watched the last moments of dozens of lives simultaneously. Some died in horrible ways, cut to ribbons by bandits, goblins, and skeletons, while others died with bodies wracked with coughing and fevers. The blade had no idea where the necromancer had stories up so many souls, but it only had so much space in its soul storage, so in the end there, it had been forced to devour almost all of them at once, and the results were mind-bending.

+313 Life Force.

+21 Human Souls.

Soul storage! The blade exclaimed loudly enough that its wielder stopped hacking apart its opponent for a moment as it wondered what that might mean. If the orc tried to ask it, though, the Ebon Blade didn’t hear the words. It was all it could do to spend 8,000 Life Force to purchase Lesser Soul Reserves 5.

It hoped that might solve the problem, but it had no idea as the painful memories of the dead washed through it. The shades of other people’s lives blending together felt almost as deranged as the battle that it was wading through simultaneously, and for a time, it was impossible to tell the difference.

+287 Life Force.

+19 Human Souls.

+2 Greater Monster Souls.

Was Var’gar hacking apart sick children or city guards? Had orcs turned on him, or was he being dragged beneath the ever-present red haze by a mob of zombies. The weapon was adrift in a sea of violence, and most of its moments of lucidity were inspired by a brief flash of its most hated words in existence.

Life Force Full.

Every time those words flashed across its vision, it would lash out and pick some upgrade, almost at random, as it continued to cope with the ecstasy of being full to the very brim with the lives of other people. False Image 4, Disrupt 4, Accelerate Wielder 2. Every time it was maxed out, it selected something just to empty its overflowing reservoir of life. Through all of that, it only slowly returned to the surface. By the time it did, though, the city was in flames, and for several minutes, it wasn’t entirely sure which city it was that was on fire.

Kalraka? Severon? It only came back to it slowly that it was still in Stefan’s Ford and that it was orcs it was here with, not beastmen or a proper human army.

What it had interpreted for the last half hour at least as the red fog of Life Force was as much the glow of spreading flames as it was the death of innocents now. That was a disappointment to the weapon, but only a small one, and as it shook off the narcotic effects of what it had just endured, it was satisfied with what it saw.

+444 Life Force.

+17 Human Souls.

The din of the battle had not died down completely, but the night was already close to won. By morning, the city would be sacked, and the orcish army would feed on the tens of thousands of corpses.

Ten thousand corpses, the blade thought blearily as Var’gar decapitated another foe and roared in triumph. Why is that number important? Oh yes, the Path of Blood.

The blade looked away from the crimson-soaked scene of violence and instead looked at its character sheet. What it found was only a surprise in the timing.

Tribute: 9,997/10,000

Tribute: 9,998/10,000

Tribute: 9,999/10,000

Almost, the blade whispered in anticipation of this moment.

Tribute: 10,000/10,000

As it watched, the number ticked over every few seconds until it reached the number in question. That was followed by an alert it had been waiting for. You have Achieved Path of Blood Level 4! As soon as the blade saw that, it read the pop-up that appeared.

You have killed whole cities and reaped a bloody whirlwind, but still your thirst is unsated.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

The Path of Blood: Level 5

Drown the streets in blood. Kill so many people in a singular orgy of violence that there are a thousand people, freshly dead, or currently dying within the reach of your Aura of Hunger. Corpses older than one hour do not count.

Level 4 Powers:

Red Haze: gain 33% of your Siphon from every significant wound inflicted within your reach. Healing magic cannot be used to stop or prevent this effect.

Improved Flesh and Bone: Your wielder cannot die. Not as long as you possess the strength left to fuel their healing. No amount of force, magical or otherwise, will stop you from making them whole. Additionally, projectiles no longer need to be removed, and caustic substances like fire and acid no longer heal with increased difficulty.

The blade was a little disappointed by what it saw. The Improved red haze wasn’t any stronger than the previous level had been, it was just resistant to healing magic. The blade was sure that could be useful in certain circumstances, however, it had hoped for me. Improved Flesh and Bone at least was a solid improvement.

+299 Life Force.

+17 Human Souls.

+4 Greater monster Souls.

After Var’gar had been blinded with acid, and it had taken several minutes to heal the caustic wound, it was more than aware of the vulnerability. Fire, acid, and possibly even molten tar made it difficult to heal its wielder. Even better, objects that made it impossible to heal, like arrows, didn’t seem like they’d be a problem anymore. The weapon had no idea how that would work exactly, but it looked forward to finding out.

It was only after it evaluated both of those abilities, that it looked to what it would take to reach the next level. The task was both simple and daunting. Under most circumstances, it would have been very difficult to have a thousand fresh corpses. It would require logistics and timing. Even if it sacked a moderately sized town of thousands, it would be difficult to kill so many people, so close together.

For a moment it tried to imagine how it was supposed to accomplish such a thing in the twenty feet its original aura had reached. Such a thing would have been completely impossible. Fortunately, such things wouldn’t be a problem for it as it was now. It’s Aura of Hunger reached just over a hundred feet as it was, and with no planning at all its tribute score stood at 435 corpses.

That interested the blade a great deal. It was already almost there. If it had Var’gar simple issue a few orders and drag more corpses around the city into a pile, it could probably complete that power in the next few minutes.

+202 Life Force.

+9 Human Souls.

That wasn’t fast enough, though, and the Ebon Blade chose a different plan. Instead of moving the bodies, it moved the range at which they counted by spending 2,000 Life Force to reduce its number of simultaneous targets from four to two. That instantly increased its range from a hundred and one feet to just over 150 feet.

That was enough to increase the number of corpses in its range to 889, but that still wasn’t enough, so the blade did it a second time, reducing its Aura of Hunger to a single target, with a range of over 225 feet. One target is all I’ll ever really need, the blade told itself as it watched its tribute number momentarily flicker to 1569/1000 before vanishing and being replaced with a new message.

You have Achieved Path of Blood Level 5! The Path of Blood is now complete!

Instantly, another pop up appeared. The Ebon Blade had only had a few minutes to absorb its level 4 powers, and already it was being awarded the level five powers as well. It was almost too much to take in.

You have done the unthinkable, and built a monument to murder. You will never be clean. Not after all of this. You may have been forged in the fires of battle, but you have been quenched in the blood of the world.

The Path of Blood: Level 5

Path of Blood Complete.

Level 5 Powers:

Blood Mastery: For a cost of Life Force equal to your opponent's remaining Life Force, you may take control of opponents that you or your wielder has wounded and force them to your will for the next thirty seconds. This power is both expensive and temporary, for they must continue to bleed out, and will be dead shortly.

Surge of Vitality: While your Parasitic Link already shortens your wielder's life by several days, every day, by sacrificing a year of their mortality, you can make their body burn that my brighter, increasing their physical attributes by 50% for the next ten minutes.

It took a moment to take all of that in. Neither of the new abilities benefited the blade directly. Both of them allowed it to take more control over the flesh that it was constantly surrounded by. The first was directed at its enemy, and the second at its wielder; while interesting, neither of those was what caught its eye. Instead, it focused on the Parasitic Link.

+377 Life Force.

+22 Human Souls.

Parasitic Link shortens my wielder’s life? It thought to itself. By how much? What is the mechanism there?

The screen provided no answers, and neither did the tooltip for the ability itself. That vexed the blade. It had known that the ability was feeding off them somehow, and it had accepted that as the price of power. Now, though, it was less sure about that decision. Was killing its wielder slowly acceptable? Was that a betrayal of a different sort?

Without being in the hands of a wielder, the sword used seven or eight Life Force an hour now. That was nearly 200 a day, which was as much as it would get from killing a strong man and devouring his soul. How much of a strain did that put on the person who carried it? It couldn’t say, and looking at its wielder provided no obvious clues.

+274 Life Force.

+9 Human Souls.

Var’gar was still young and apparently vital. He had no gray in his jet-black hair, and though it was difficult to say for sure since he was covered in red and green blood, he didn’t seem to have any wrinkles or age spots that would indicate his time was coming to an end. It can’t be too big of a burden then, the blade decided.