Bloodstained Blade-Chapter 84 - A Dead End

The first thing the blade did was study the man that held it. It was not yet convinced he would ever earn the title of wielder, but even as he struggled to release his own grip the blade’s first order of business was to peer inside his soul.

Name: Anthel Blegg

Occupation: Grave robber and Thief

Toughness: 4+4

Strength: 4+14

Agility: 5+8

Speed: 4+4

Intelligence: 4

Willpower: 3 -1

Morality: Greedy

Bloodlust: Cowardly

Status: Normal

Martial Skill: Average

Armor Proficiency: Below Average

Dodging: Good

Athletics: Average

Goal: To make a big score before his old bones finally give out and retire to the capital.

At a glance, there was nothing about the man that the blade liked. He lived a life of treachery and sought a life of ease, which was diametrically opposed to what the blade wanted. It wanted someone loyal, who wanted to carve their bloody name into history.

That could be resolved later, it decided, as it exercised more force on the man and began to squeeze his soul so that he would stop panicking.

Silence, the blade commanded, enjoying the feeling of fear wash through the man at the single word. You have nothing to fear from anything so long as I am in your hand.

“Well, as comforting as that isn’t, I don’t want you in my hand, so maybe you could let loose!” the man said in a voice that was only as loud as the blade allowed. “Blades ain’t for talkin’. They’re for fighting and selling!”

+4 Life Force.

Normally, I would have no wish to be sold, the blade whispered, but you are clearly insufficient to be my wielder.

“That’s me,” the man grumbled, obviously unhappy at being held in an invisible cage. “Mister insufficiency himself.”

Tell me who you intend to sell me to, the blade commanded. I want to be held by a warrior, not some fop or toadie! Truthfully, what the blade wanted most was to be free of this place before the elven mage or any of her associates returned to this place. It could fight them with this body, but its reserves were low, and its movements would be less effective if it was fighting this coward’s instincts the entire time.

“Well, Sir Gilles is a man that’s fought in more than one battle against the orcs,” Anthel wheedled. The blade didn’t sense a lie, but then it didn’t sense much truth in anything this man said. “I heard that he wanted to be here, only he held back to defend his town.”

That at least spoke to the blade as loyalty and wisdom. While it wasn’t quite the bloodlust it sought, it was more promising than staying in the grip of a blade robber. Very well, the blade told him after only a short delay. I will allow this. You may take me to this, Sir. Gilles, but first, we must prepare for the journey.

“The journey? I mean, I’ve got food for tomorrow on my nag. It’s only a day or two away by horse,” the grave robber explained too eagerly. With this news, he’d stopped trying to remove the sword from his grip, though, and the blade simply appreciated that it was not being peppered with small negative numbers. “If we stick to the main roads, you could be out of my life in—”

I am unconcerned for your needs, the blade reprimanded the man. You are not a wielder. You are merely a messenger that will take me to one.

“Listen, you just tell me what you need, and I’ll—” Anthel started, trying to ingratiate himself to something he simply could not understand.

+3 Life Force.

Blood. The blade Answered, moving the man’s arm to point at the last few scavengers that lingered along the human lines in the morning light. My energies are low, and I require death to replenish them. Once we’ve killed those people, we can be on our way. If there is a village or a town between here and this place where the lord resides, perhaps we can—

“What did they ever do to you?” the grave robber blurted out before the blade strangled him into silence. It exalted in that feeling of control. When Ren had first picked it up so long ago, it lacked the strength to reject him until they were bonded by the blood of their enemies. Even as pathetic as the simpering shepherd boy had been, though, he’d been willing to kill; Anthel was too much of a coward for that.

They existed, it fumed. Worse, they, like you, chose the life of vermin rather than warriors, and there is nothing wrong with slaughtering vermin.

The blade still felt some guilt when its orcs cut down women and children around it. They’d done nothing wrong and hadn’t even grown up to show their true colors. For the men and women picking among the dead for trinkets, though, it had no such misgivings. After losing Var’gar to magic and treachery, it was in no mood for further disobedience, and even as Anthel tried to struggle and regain some control over his body, the blade turned and started making its way through the corpses toward the half a dozen remaining men.

No, stop! The man screamed mentally, but he lacked the will to hold back the blade or even speak now that it had Increase Control 4. The most he could do was make its motions jerky and awkward. I’m not a murderer. I would never do this.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

+4 Life Force.

And that is why you are unfit to wield me, the blade agreed. You are afraid of violence and afraid of death when the purpose of all living things is to die.

The first man it approached in the graverobber's body smiled nervously and said, “Oh, it’s just you, Anthel. I thought it was about to… You find something nice or what? Wow! Look at that bugger! That’s a hell of a ruby on—”

The man didn’t even have time to scream before the blade drove itself through his chest. He might have thought he’d known the timid thief that it had seized control of, but he had no idea who was in charge now.

+4 Life Force.

+1 Human Soul.

The other men nearby cried out in alarm. Some drew swords, and others ran, but in the space of minutes, everyone who hadn’t fled for their lives was dead, and Anthel was splattered in their blood. He was still sobbing softly in his head, but the blade ignored that. The man he possessed had stopped struggling for the most part after his efforts to hold the Ebon blade had led to him taking a sword through the liver. That had been a wound that was both bloody and painful.

+117 Life Force.

+2 Human Soul.

The sword felt embarrassed that anyone had landed a strike on it when it was in direct control, but it found itself to be more hampered by an unwilling human than it had expected, and it only regained some sense of fluidity after Anthel decided he did not wish to be carved up a second time.

I’m not doing this, he told himself pathetically while the Ebon Blade hacked the other grave robbers to a bloody ruin. It’s not me. I’m not the one killing these people.

The blade let him babble in the corner of his mind like a child. Then, when everyone was dead or fled, it walked to the closest corpse with the right-sized scabbard and sheathed itself before hanging the thing on Anthel’s belt.

+96 Life Force.

+2 Human Soul.

As soon as the weapon released the man, he sank to his knees, which annoyed it. Go! It commanded. The sooner you bring me to the warrior in question, the sooner you will be rid of me!

That got the grave robber moving as much as anything, and he scampered across the field to where he’d tied his old horse near the treeline. Once he was mounted, he rode as fast as the horse would allow. The animal was nearly as useless as the man who owned it, but the blade ignored both of them and focused on its own issue.

It had won a battle and captured several important souls but lost its army in the process. That was frustrating, and it had no idea how it would bring down the castle now, but a competent wielder was still the first priority. Once it was in the hands of someone who wanted the same things that it did, they could regroup. Perhaps this nobleman has designs on the throne, the blade reflected. Ambition was something that it hoped to find in the days ahead. Truthfully, it was probably more important than bloodlust.

For now, though, it had souls to interrogate. The first thing it did was devour the souls of the nameless grave robbers, bringing it back up to nearly a thousand life force. Once that was done, it briefly checked its abilities to understand where it was at; in the midst of battle, it had purchased many things, but after the fact, it was hard to remember what.

Primary Powers:

Inferno 2: 1200 Life Force.

Increase Connection 5: 2500 Life Force

Accelerate Wielder 4: 3000 Life Force

Amplify Wielder 4: 3000 Life Force

Amplify Blade 4: 4000 Life Force

Disrupt 5: 5000 Life Force

Repair Soul 5: 5000 Life Force

Increase Control 5: 6000 Life Force

Empower Blade 4: 7500 Life Force

Bolt 5: 15000 Life Force

Secondary Powers:

False Image 5: 4000 Life Force

Giant’s Strength 3: 800 Life Force

Speed of the Shadows 3: 1000 Life Force

The blade looked through its abilities and liked what it saw. Many of the abilities were nearly to five, which probably meant they would be completed soon. One more city, even a battle of any size, and it could start completing any number of these.

The biggest mystery, though, was that Bolt 5 was more than the total value of Life Force it was capable of holding. Does that mean that I can bring that number up further? It wondered, Or can I bridge that gap by holding onto enough souls when I make the purchase? The blade had no idea, but it was eager to find out.

Anthel rode until almost noon before the weapon allowed him to stop. Even then, they only took a break because the horse needed it, not because he was growing tired. The blade didn’t care that he’d stayed up all night stealing from the dead.

Along the way, they passed through one village, but the blade opted not to start another bloodbath. As much as it wanted more souls, secrecy was more important for the moment. Right now, it could be anywhere, and those who pursued it had no clues as to its whereabouts, but as soon as it started massacring people, they would have somewhere to focus their search. Instead, it only nibbled at a villager and a few of the animals and merchants that stayed close to it long enough for it to taste their Life Force.

+42 Life Force.

That wasn’t enough, though. Not after it had gotten used to feasting. During those five hours, it burned two mage souls with questions about what they knew and their plans. The first one, the necromancer, was very informative in that regard. Through his eyes, the blade was able to see meetings where they’d planned this attack. It listened to its former wielder laid out all of its capabilities, and told the assembled mages what he thought it was capable of.

“You don’t understand,” Ivarr insisted when some of them blew him off. “It’s not just a sword. It’s a hunger, and it wants revenge. Even if we ambush it with everything we have… even if you bathe it in dragon fire, it might not be enough.”

Some, like the elven witch that led him astray, believed him, but others doubted his words. “If it takes minutes to heal organs and bones, then we need only batter its wielder with primal forces until it is naught but ash.”

The blade was infuriated by the boy’s betrayal. At times, it was so angry that the wisps of story from the mage it was interrogating threatened to come unraveled. Still, despite all of that rage, it was grateful for how wrong the boy was about its current level of power. Its enemies understood very little of what it could really do, and they would live to regret their arrogance.

When the blade interrogated the second soul, though, something interesting happened. This one it asked a more theoretical question. How can I hide from those who hunt me? The weapon asked.

While the mage gave it complicated instructions on the nature of the aether and how mages gauged the power of things, something else happened when that conversation was done. While it was all very interesting to learn how the mages cast shrouding spells to hide the light of their power, when that interrogation finally ended, it found a new prompt.

Upgrading Improved Senses with new information:

Aethershroud 1: Reduce the visibility of your magical power by 20% at the cost of five Life Force a day.

Aethersight 1: For the cost of one Life Force you may view the world for a moment through the eyes of a mage instead of the eyes of a tactician.

Despite it’s low levels of Life Force the blade did just that while Anthel watered his horse. It didn’t know what it had expected to see, but it certainly wasn’t what it found.

Aether-sight activated.

-1 Life Force.