Bloodstained Blade-Chapter 23 - A New Owner

The Ebon Blade lay there beneath the smoldering rubble long after the embers cooled. It lay there for days and burned another soul when its Life Points approached zero just so it could wait there longer as it strained to find some evidence that there was hope it would be found.

-1 Life Force

-1 Life Force

At first, the answer was that there was none. Other than ashes, burned timbers, and slow tick of indicators, the only evidence of life was the slowly decaying body of its charred former wielder. Sometimes, it could hear horses or wagons go past on the cobblestones, but it could not see them, which was frustrating.

-1 Life Force

-1 Life Force

-1 Life Force

Normally, the blade could see all directions at once, up to several dozen feet, before shapes began to blur and colors started to fade. Even when it was sheathed, it could see several feet quite clearly. Still, for reasons it did not understand, its view was entirely blocked by the stone that buried it. It might have given up then and preserved its remaining souls if the digging hadn’t started then.

-1 Life Force

-1 Life Force

Worse, even though it could hear people nearby, it couldn’t reach out to them and began to drain them with its aura of hunger. That was deeply frustrating since it should have been the perfect solution to its current dilemma.

-1 Life Force

-1 Life Force

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More than a week after it had been buried alive, the survivors of Kalraka started to rebuild or at least bury their dead. It didn’t know which was the case, and it didn’t care. It had long tired of reliving all the little scenes in the hopes of making them fit. It got more information each time it used that terrible power, and each time it did so, it felt more alive and whole.

The Ebon Blade

Life Force: 67/4000 Siphon: 12-22

Path: Death, Level 3

Reserves: 8 - Your gemstone is large and clear.

Siphon: 6 - Your blade is sharp but tarnished.

Connection: 3 - Moderate - Your hilt is tight but tarnished.

Control: 3 - Moderate - Your runes are clear.

Senses: 2 - Dim - Your guard is tarnished.

Soul: 3 - Cracked - You are starting to understand your past.

Powers:

Aura of Hunger: Drain Life Force from nearby victims.

Drain Soul: Harvest the souls of your victims for later use.

Convert Souls: Devour a soul for its constituent essence.

Ineffective Immunity: Natural immunities no longer protect your enemies.

Deathly Touch: All strikes deal +2 cold damage.

The blade would just have to gather the power to do it again and figure out what other secrets were being held back from it. 5000 Life Force to repair my soul again, it sighed. That’s going to take a long time to gather.

Indeed, even if it drained a couple dozen from every human and another hundred or so from their souls, 5,000 Life Force represented dozens of deaths. That was fine, though. It always craved battle, and at this point, it wanted to do literally anything else, even if that something else was to sleep away the years.

But if I do that, I will lose the progress I’ve gained, its mind whispered. That was the dichotomy that held it back and made it listen anxiously to the sounds of digging as the sounds of men got closer and closer.

For days, it was there in limbo, listening to the sounds of scratching shovels, twisting ropes, and shouted orders. Then, one day, when it was close to giving in and fading to slumber, one of the largest stones on top of it rolled free, and a slender crack of daylight reached down through the rubble to it.

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Suddenly, it could see not just the single beam of sunlight, which penetrated through several feet of rubble down to where it lay, and that was enough for it to escape its tomb, at least in part. Its physical form might still be trapped, and the amount of vision that it could extend to the outside world was still hopelessly blurry, but it could see the outside world, and for now, that was enough.

The people working nearest to it were only blurs, and beyond them, the ruined buildings that had once lined this street were nothing but indistinct shapes of black and gray that bled together. Still, that was enough to experience a measure of freedom, and more than that, it was enough to latch on to those who were closest to it and begin to leach their Life Force.

The distance of its Aura of Hunger was diminished, and it could only affect those that were closest to it, but that was still enough to latch onto three targets and begin to drain them. Minute by minute and hour by hour, it drained those who walked by as well as those who labored to fill baskets with rubble before carrying it away in wagons.

It made sure not to kill any of the humans, but only because it didn’t want to stop work. If it found a rat, raven, or other vermin, though, it drained it dry for the animal soul. All of this was a trickle of Life Force compared to what it had wielded before in the heat of battle. Still, it was enough not just to stop it from fading out into nothingness but to begin to rebuild its strength as well.

Paradoxically, this had the added effect of slowing the rate at which it was unearthed. Workers that dug within its reach moved slower than their comrades elsewhere because of drain-induced lethargy, but it didn’t care.

Now that it was in no danger of succumbing to oblivion, it didn’t care. It didn’t even stop when they started using orphans to help speed things up. This was fortunate not just because the children gave it more targets to sate its hunger but also because it gave the blade more people to listen to.

One or two workers by themselves rarely did more than labor or grumble about the attack, but when there were a handful, they gossiped, and that let the blade know more than anything about the aftermath of its assault on Kalraka.

“I hear they’s seen another army on the move,” one of the boys said, nearly a month after the building had collapsed. “More beasts are already headed this way!”

“Nuh-uh,” another boy who was both shorter and younger than him. “The Fieldmarshal said they had a thousand men with him and that they wouldn’t let no one, not even the orcs, take advantage of the sit-siation!”

The two argued about it for some time, and the Ebon Blade even stopped draining them to make sure they didn’t become listless and apathetic, but in the end, it found nothing definitive. The idea that there was a large army in the ruined city was exactly the opposite of surprising.

It entirely discounted the idea that a second horde of beastman was moving on this location since it had been the prime mover behind the first one. Its first advance had sucked up every tribe along the way into its hoard, and any stragglers that might be left alive would present no challenge to alert defenders.

That they feared the possibility enough to worry was entirely believable. Aftershocks often followed terrible tragedies, and a second wave of the same monsters that killed their parents must have seemed not just possible but probable.

Still, out of everything the children mentioned within its slowly expanding zone of sight and hearing, the orcs were what interested it the most. Not only were they larger and stronger than the beastmen, but they were more human-like, too, which should make them slightly better at wielding it.

And if they’re common enough to be a problem, then they might represent a vast reservoir of new warriors for me to turn to my advantage, the blade thoughts, as it lay there.

Fortunately, no matter how many days it slowed the workers that sifted through the rubble, eventually, they succeeded in hauling it all away. When it was finally found, it wasn’t one of the children that did so, but by one of the young men working alongside of them to lift the heavier stones. The young man waited only long enough for the nearest other workers to be distracted before he picked up the blade immediately.

Wow, a ruby that big, it has to be magic, the boy thought to himself as he held the blade for the first time.

Ivarr, the blade thought, reading the surface of the boy’s mind, even as he scanned the rest of him. His name is Ivarr. It was impressed that even without it whispering anything to him, the boy seemed to know what it was that he had.

Name: Ivarr Garson

Occupation: Cooper’s Apprentice

Toughness: 5 +1

Strength: 6 +3

Agility: 5 +2

Speed: 5 +1

Intelligence: 5

Willpower: 5 -1

Morality: Good

Bloodlust: Low

Status: Normal

Martial Skill: Medium

Armor Proficiency: Low

Dodging: Low

Athletics: Low

Goal: To be a hero and avenge his family’s death.

He instantly drew the battered old long sword he’d had in his scabbard, tossed it aside, and slid the Ebon Blade there in its place. Then he took a rag and tied it around the pommel to hide the faintly glowing ruby there. That not only cleared up the blade's vision nearly completely, but it also told the blade that the boy was clever. He’d just succeeded in not only gaining himself a magical weapon but also in making it look like he had nothing but a beat-up old blade, just as he’d had before.

It was smart, and more than that, it was quick thinking. He may yet make for a good wielder, the blade thought. As much as it liked the idea of leading an army of orcs against the Three Kingdoms, it would be happy to be held for a time by a young man who was this decisive. He might not be as strong as he’d like, but Gar-lok had been loaded with strength and it hadn’t done the blade much good. So, it would see where cleverness could take it instead.