The Stonehearted Knight-Chapter 331: Veil of Death

I belong here. After all, I am one of the remnant Wills absorbed by Wrixia. The Will used to balance the Blessing of Life, as I was the Goddess of Death.

The cracks on the body of the cat increased but no more words were exchanged for a few seconds. Hex needed time to digest the immense amount of information he received in this short exchange.

In a sense, despite the shocking words of the cat...or should he say Goddess, he wasn’t shocked. At least, not as shocked as he expected himself to be.

It all started to make sense, in a strange way. According to the Witchkin, the crystal revealed itself when they sacrificed sisters. They believed it to be the Will of the Witch. But it wasn’t.

"The presence of death would surely attract the attention of the Goddess of Death," Hex murmured but the Goddess heard him. It...She looked at him with interest glimmering in her green eyes.

Is that so? Maybe...But what about the part where they claimed I reward based on the strength of the bond between the sisters? They said Medina but it doesn’t matter. The fact is, they received their rewards, didn’t they?

Hex mulled over each word the Witchkin confessed. After multiple trial and errors they discovered the chances of appearance and rewards increased with how closer the sisters were to each other.

"It could be a coincidence. Or, was it..."

A thought struck him.

"Perhaps it had something to do with the amount of grief a person experienced during the sacrifice."

It sounded vague but it was the best he could come up as an explanation. Basically, the death summoned the Goddess of Death and the amount of grief acted as a plea to grant a Blessing to console the survivor.

Do only the living feel grief?

That was a valid point, a point he never considered before. Grief wasn’t limited to the person surviving the sacrifice. The one dying would also experience regret, grief, and whatnot.

"Their last will?"

Hex looked up and looked at the Goddess, who purred satisfied with his reasoning skills. Granted, he wouldn’t have reached such conclusions so quickly but guided by the questions the clues clicked inside his mind.

Crack.

The cracks on the body of the Goddess deepened. She didn’t react to any, which implied she didn’t feel pain because of it. Hex, however, had plenty of stuff to ask Her.

"Are these cracks permanent?"

These? No. They appear when the energy to sustain my shape depletes. Gather enough dark-elements and spirits and I will appear again. As long as the divinity inside the roots of Wrixia holding my imprint isn’t destroyed, I will remain here, bonded till the world exists.

"So, this is it for this time? Wait, but doesn’t it mean I can only have a chance to speak to you inside Wrixia?"

Hex wasn’t going to pull human sacrifices off, especially since he knew it didn’t please the Goddess. He had to find a place filled with darkness elements and spirits to charge the crystal.

Correct.

So, he had to find such a place inside Wrixia. That could be troublesome.

Before we part though...

The Goddess said, stretching her paw toward him. He didn’t retreat because he knew that She didn’t mean him any harm. She had not shown any ill intent so far.

Lift your right hand up.

Hex obliged. The softness of the paw didn’t diminish the wonders it worked on the back of his hand. The Goddess inscribed with smooth scratches a few lines on it. It didn’t hurt. On the contrary, the sensation he experienced was a rare one. It was pure bliss.

Done.

After some time – too soon according to Hex – the Goddess removed her paw, causing the wonderful feeling to lessen. It didn’t disappear though.

Crack. Crack.

The sound of the cracks appearing intensified. Hex looked at the Goddess, noticing the tears along Her entire body. Even the tail had cracks and missing pieces.

His eyes went back to the back of his hand. Whatever the Goddess scratched on, didn’t resemble an elemental circle. He didn’t know if that disappointed him or not. If he was honest, he expected a darkness circle. But he was being too greedy.

"What’s this?"

Hex lifted his hand and pointed at the scratch marks. As he lifted and looked at them from a different angle, he noticed it held an abyss-like darkness. They didn’t seem to be in some sort of familiar form. Just a few scratches. Anyone could mistake them for cat scratches but he doubted the Goddess would do that to him. Not without reason, at the very least.

A Spirit Imprint.

This was one of the most sought after Blessings of mine during the Third Age.

"And...what does it do?"

Hex never even heard of such a Blessing. He did hear that Blessings were granted by Gods and other high-level beings during the Second to the Fourth Age. Heaven only became the main source of Blessings during the Fifth Age, which was the current Age.

This allows you to learn one of my abilities. In this case, I allowed you access to my Veil of Death ability. It allows the user to conceal their presence. The degree to which success is achieved depends on the user’s mastery of it.

With your abilities and affinity to darkness, you will master it quickly. At the height of my power it could be trained to an even higher degree, granting you the skill to even hide from the eyes of Death itself.

Of course, very few have reached the mastery realm. And even less have gone higher. In this Age, there was but one who achieved the peak.

"Mother," Hex whispered even before he could help himself. The Goddess heard him loud and clear as he could see from Her cracking eyes. But She only nodded in the end as Her body broke into pieces. The shards turned into memories again, filling the inside of the crystal.

Hex watched the mountain of visuals, knowing he wouldn’t be able to access anything meaningful. If he could, the Goddess wouldn’t have appeared in person.

It was time to exit the crystal.

...

"Who are you"

As soon as his consciousness fused back with his physical body, he groaned as a stinging pain assaulted his senses. His attacker, stunned by his sudden awareness, paused her action of pushing the dagger in his back.

Hex didn’t turn before he got away from the attacker, using the momentarily stop to push the person back and get on his feet. He ignored the dagger in his back for a moment.

The push away seemed to have jolted the opponent to their senses.

Hex barely turned when he sensed an attack coming straight at him. It was filled with darkness. He lifted his hand and used the crystal of darkness as a shield.

"Argh."

The attack hit his hand, causing burns that charred his skin and revealed the bloodied layer beneath the skin. It hurt. More than the dagger lodged in his back.

Despite the pain, Hex focused on his opponent, laying eyes on her only now. It was a woman. A woman he recognized, having seen her amidst the group of captured Witchkin.

’What are those Guardians doing? Weren’t they supposed to keep an eye on them?’ He cursed the Guardians for their sloppiness.

The woman growled and shot another attack at him. This time, he saw it coming. It looked something like black vapor that coalesced into a dagger. It was fast. But Hex was faster. He dodged it. The dagger hit the wall behind him and burst into a black flame. The flame doused itself quickly, yet left a hole in the stone wall.

Hex closed in on her.

She growled and raised her hand to unleash another attack.

’She wasn’t strong before. Certainly not enough to injure me.’

Hex wasn’t conceited. Thanks to his senses, he knew how strong the captives were. Aside from the two women leading the group, none were strong enough to even attack him, not to say anything about hurting him.

There was also something peculiar about the darkness she used. It wasn’t the same. The darkness granted from the crystal felt close, like part of him. This one felt...vile.

All these thoughts flashed through his mind within the second he used to reach the woman. Up close, he noticed her skin, no, her body, shriveling. Her eyes were filled with blood. And she had no teeth. She was about to shriek again.

Hex grasped her hand and punched her in the abdomen. She spat out blood. Only it wasn’t red, it was black.

He expected her to double down on the floor. After all, he hadn’t held back. But she didn’t. She lifted her arms in his face. Another attack was coming. Hex grabbed the arm and twisted it. In his speed to stop the attack, he didn’t hold back. With a snap, her arm broke into two.

The woman, now shriveled to the state she could be described as skin over bone, looked at him with her hollowed out eyes and smiled toothless. She tried to push herself onto him, aiming to chomp onto his neck.

Hex grabbed her neck and twisted it. With a snap, her head turned to the back. Even then, she didn’t die immediately. She struggled, swaying her arms and legs around. Her skin blackened. Sensing something foul, Hex jumped back.

Bang.

Just as he reached the wall, her corpse exploded. A dark vapor filled the room.

Frost Dragon – Frost Armor

A layer of ice draped around his body, covering him from head to toe. Wherever the vapor touched his armor, the air sizzled.

Assured of his safety, Hex stepped toward the corpse. It was dissolving into a puddle of black liquid. In the middle of the puddle, still in a state of melting, he noticed a small creature. It was one he was familiar with. The shadow serpent.