Chapter 32: Death’s Bane
[Level Up!]
[You are now Level 5]
[Hit Point Maximum increased to 50]
[Mana Point Maximum increased to 60]
[You have received 6 Stat Points to allocate]
[You now have 12 unallocated Stat Points]
'Hold on,' Henry thought, 'That's it, you just cut me off?'
Leveling up was nice and all —especially since that was what he wanted— but what was that message about no longer receiving an Exp bonus from future resurrections?
He looked from the screens in front of him to Yelena who was eyeing him and waiting patiently for his face to go through various emotions.
"Again?" Yelena asked when she locked eyes with Henry and he nodded with his lips pursed solemnly.
And so, once again, the Witch conjured Arcane Tendrils, congealed them all into a singular blast, and fired.
[You have lost 50 Hit Points]
[Hit Points: 0/50]
[You have died.]
Henry sunk back into the darkness and with his brows furrowed and his breath held —since breathing did not exist in the limbo he was stuck in—, he waited for Yelena's <Circle of Healing> to take effect.
It was then, while he waited, that Henry felt a set of eyes on him. He turned his immaterial body slowly and there, in front of him were the largest eyes he had ever seen. They were also the scariest, the most tragic, and strangely, the most beautiful eyes Henry had ever had the privilege of looking into.
The eyes were deep and he wasn't even sure what color they were. They seemed to be made up of many dark colors all merging in some strange convergence that spoke of richness that just surpassed all human reasoning.
At first, Henry began to admire the eyes but then, all that left his mind as he was gripped by a powerful force he was powerless to resist against. He couldn't even struggle. He just stared on and into those large pair of eyes.
The eyes did nothing but stare. They didn't even blink and from them, Henry felt a whiff of disdain and condescension. Like they were questioning his existence and were contemplating just eliminating him.
'Wh-what is this?' Henry asked himself. This had never happened the three times he had visited this darkness and if this were a physical body, he did not doubt that he would be sweating bullets right now.
[Death is paying attention to you.]
'Huh?'
[The eyes of Death are on you…]
'Ho-Hold on! Those eyes belong to Death?'
The first clue to what those eyes were and it was a clue that could not even help him.
'Shit!'
[The effects of Yelena's <Circle of Healing> have been suspended…]
[If the effects of <Circle of Healing> remain suspended for Five more minutes, you WILL die.]
[4:59]
[4:58]
[4:57]
A large timer appeared just close to Henry's head with the large timer counting down. He tried to speak but he couldn't. He stared at those horrible eyes and tried to ask what it wanted but his voice didn't work. And yelling his question over and over in his head was not having any effect because the eyes were still just staring and doing nothing.
And then, suddenly, an intense pain pierced through Henry's immaterial body. He tried to squirm but, powerless against the force holding him, he was unable to do anything except silently endure his pain.
Henry had been beaten, burned, branded, stabbed, shot, and most recently, shot repeatedly with Arcane tendrils crackling with dark magical energy and none of them could compare to what he was currently experiencing.
Instinctively, Henry knew that no physical pain he had ever experienced and would ever experience would be comparable to this because this pain was not physical. It was beyond that. This pain felt like his soul was being broken apart piece by piece.
The five times he had died so far, Henry knew the one thing that always remained intact was his soul and now, because of these horrible pair of eyes —That apparently belonged to Death—, his soul was in danger.
Henry knew, that if his soul was ripped apart, he would be dead. Truly dead with no more chances of resurrection.
[1:00]
[0:59]
[0:58]
[0:57]
It was the ticking timer that told Henry he had been suffering for less than five minutes because he could have sworn he had been enduring that pain for hours instead.
Henry had called out over and over to the eyes torturing him and to the System in his head as well as to whatever and whoever had even put him in this world and set him on this path in the first place and when none answered and his torturer did not relent, he just waited for the end.
With a wry smile, Henry remembered Yelena saying life is sacred and should not be toyed with.
'Maybe she was right and I shouldn't have experimented.'
[0:30]
[0:29]
When the final thirty seconds began to tick down, something finally changed in Henry's torturous experience. He saw a relay of his life. But it happened in two different views… Like on two different screens.
One screen showed his life in his old world as the Feared Gunslinger Henry Morgan and the other showed his life in this world as the orphan Henry who was kicked out of the orphanage he grew up in and had to fend for himself with small acts of thievery before eventually meeting Angus and joining the Dionisio Gang.
Henry understood why he was being shown both of his lives simultaneously;
Death was telling him it knew who he was. Old and New.
The two simultaneously playing screens suddenly cut to black and again, Henry knew what it meant;
Death was calling him a fool for not respecting life even though he had lived it twice already.
Henry felt it as the pieces of his soul that had been broken away by what felt like hours of torture pulled together and congealed to make him whole again but the eyes of Death did not stop staring at him. Emotionless and horribly devastating as they were.
[0:05]
[0:04]
[0:03]
The eyes flared once as though in a final warning and then they closed and vanished into the darkness.
[Yelena's <Circle Of Healing> is back in effect…]
[All injuries have been healed and all Status Abnormalities including Death have been reversed.]
[You have recovered 50 Hit Points]
[Hit Points: 50/50]
As he returned to his body and his eyes snapped open, Henry felt like his body was soaked with sweat but it wasn't. He was as dry now as he had been when he 'died'.
The memory of what he had experienced under the gaze of those horrible eyes remained burned into his mind. The mere thought of it caused him to shiver.
It was as his body shook that Henry realized his head was not resting on the cold floor of the medical bay. His head was instead resting on something soft that seemed to cradle him so nicely and had him feeling warm and safe. His head was on Yelena's lap and he was looking up at the relieved look on her beautiful face.
"Oh," he said mostly because he wasn't sure what to say.
Still with a look of relief, Yelena said,
"You were 'dead' for even longer this time."
"Yes," Henry said as he took his head off her lap while trying not to let his face get too red, "Something happened."
Yelena searched his eyes for a minute or so and then said softly,
"I won't do it again. I can't keep killing you."
Henry smiled lightly,
"And I won't ask it of you again," he said earnestly, "Thank you."
Henry was not in any hurry to experience what he just suffered again. He had a feeling that the next time he was in the presence of those eyes, he would not be coming back.
[You have defied Death Four times. You did it willfully Thrice.
Death has taken note of your existence.
Death is now paying attention to you…]
[You have acquired the Title 'Death's Bane']
[You have received 500 Exp]
[Title: Death's Bane
Description: A reward/curse for willfully defying Death. For as long as you have this title, you will be marked and the eyes of Death will always follow you.
It is currently unclear how this attention will affect your journey.
It is unknown how or if you can lose this Title.]
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone