章 2: Loitering

With nothing better to do, Aiden spent his days loitering about the island, sitting on its edge, and staring off into the seemingly endless abyss they were listing through. In the past, after a particularly torturous experience, one of their group had tried throwing themselves off the island, but there was an invisible umbilical running from their navels to Yggdrasil, thwarting any attempts to escape. Suicide was similarly impossible, so after the first ten or so years, everyone had largely given up attempting to escape.

"Forty-four years..." muttered Aiden, referring to the amount of time he had personally lived after his initial death. Some of their group had lived longer than that in their second incarnation, back before they drafted the thirty-year agreement. Still, perhaps as a result of continuously dying at a relatively young age, Aiden felt like it was only a short while ago that he was back on Earth, living a mundane, soul-crushing experience. Now, he was over seventy and had lived an additional five, albeit short, lives.

'I wonder what my next incarnation will be like...?' Aiden contemplated, lying back on the cool, emerald-green grass that covered the island with his eyes closed and feet dangling off the edge.

For one reason or another, Aiden always ended up being born into destitution, forcing him to fight tooth and nail to survive childhood. In his previous incarnation, Eskhaar, he had initially tried keeping his head down to survive to adulthood, but he barely made it to ten before he got fed up. Not because he was incapable of enduring pain and hardship but because he hated watching others suffer and lament needlessly...

"Yo. That you, Aiden...?" asked a deep, baritone voice with a barely veiled hint of ferocity contained within.

"Z...?" asked Aiden, rising to a seated position and staring wide-eyed at the lion-like man approaching him from behind. It had barely been three days since he kicked the bucket, so he expected to be waiting at least an additional week or two before the others started waking.

"That's right," replied the lion-like man. Then, though there was markedly more confidence behind it, Z, full name Xander Scott Miller, adopted the same kind smile he wore in his first incarnation, remarking, "I heard about an upstart Demon King appearing in the South and decided to go check it for myself. I was sure that was you, so when I learned that the so-called Holy Kingdom had sent a force to subjugate you, I visited their capital and ran wild."

"You didn't have to do that..." said Aiden, but the smile on his face made it clear he was glad at least one of his friends had fought to avenge him. He and Z had been best friends during their first incarnation, and though they had yet to meet up in any of their successive lives, they still regarded one another as brothers.

Snorting through his nose, Z sat beside Aiden and said, "As if you wouldn't do even more if our positions were reversed."

"Mmm...you're not wrong..." Aiden conceded. It was difficult to imagine a situation where he would be in a position to avenge Z, especially with the growing disparity in their stats. Still, if he learned that a group had hunted one of his friends, he would spare no effort to eradicate them.

"By the way, did you get a look at Dave?" asked Z, grinning wolfishly as he mused, "I would never lay a hand on one of our own, but damn..."

"Changing topics...did you have any kids this time?" asked Aiden. Z was one of the people who had 'settled down' during his second incarnation, so not only was he pushing two hundred cumulatively, but he had no less than seventeen kids, earning him quite a bit of bonus Karma.

Shrugging, Z responded, "If my fuzzy ears and tail didn't make it obvious, I was born as a demihuman this time around. If you were surrounded by a bunch of scantily clad women with athletic bodies, fat asses, and massive tits, not even you would be celibate."

"Fair enough..."

Though he was in the camp that believed they shouldn't have kids, Aiden couldn't deny the other worlds were filled with temptations. As Eskaar, he had even been approached by a representative of the Succubus Tribe. He ultimately resisted her charms, but if he had been a little older and hadn't been in the middle of attempting to unify various tribes, his curiosity likely would have gotten the better of him.

"Anyway, how'd things go on your end?" asked Z. "You know, other than the whole being subjugated part."

"I managed to get my Mage and Swordsman Skills to B-Rank," answered Aiden, lying back on the grass as he grumbled, "But war is bullshit. There are too many things to factor in, and the moment morale drops, your own allies begin eyeing your back like it's a target..."

Meeting Z's gaze, Aiden asked, "You visited the Darklands after I died, right? Did anyone step up to try and fill my shoes, or did those bastards from the Holy Kingdom burn everything to the ground...?"

"I didn't stick around too long, but yeah, everything was burned..." replied Z, smiling apologetically and scratching his head as he asked, "Was there anyone there you cared about?"

"Not really..." replied Aiden, closing his eyes. In truth, there were several people he had grown to cherish quite a bit. However, as they had no way to return to worlds they had visited, at least at the present, he pretended not to care. It was easier that way.

Seeing through Aiden's facade, Z's expression softened as he, too, lay down. A lengthy silence followed, but it didn't become uncomfortable as, despite its many peculiarities, the 'ambiance' of the island was extremely serene, almost pacifying.

Ten minutes later, Z asked, "How are you doing on Karma? I can give you half of mine if you need it."

"How much did you earn...?" asked Aiden, opening his eyes and staring at the endless darkness above.

"I had one million, but I spent 700k upgrading my Devour Skill to C-Rank and increasing my Agility to 100," explained Z. "Now, I'm down to around 240k."

"One hundred..." muttered Aiden, feeling slightly envious as his Agility was only 56 after the boost from his Pathwalker Title. In other words, Z was nearly three times as fast as him by default. And that was before factoring in the boosts he received from Skills...

"Here, take this," said Z, surprising Aiden as he tapped the air and sent a trade request, offering 200,000 Karma in exchange for nothing. Aiden felt like shit when he saw it, but instead of refusing, he reached out to tap the confirm button.

Rising to a seated position, Z abruptly changed topics, asking, "So, what's new with the island? Any interesting changes...?"

Going with the flow, Aiden responded, "Not really. Everything got bigger, and some new rocks and mushrooms appeared. I tried repelling down to see if the bottom of the island changed any, but I didn't find anything but a few crystalline roots."

"Then, wanna join me for training...?" asked Z, a glimmer of excitement appearing in his eyes.

"..."

Though his initial instinct was to refuse, Aiden deliberated briefly before answering, "Sure..." as he pulled his feet back from the ledge. Z was much stronger, faster, and more experienced than him, but that actually favored him as it was much easier to grow against more powerful opponents than the opposite.

"Great...!" responded Z, smiling from ear to ear as he bounced to his feet. Then, without affording Aiden a chance to respond or ask what he had in mind for training, he struck forward with his left fist, impacting the latter's chest and sending him rolling backward.

Materializing a shortsword out of thin air, Aiden stabbed it into the ground to arrest his momentum before shouting, "Stop...!" in a booming voice that reverberated unnaturally. Z hadn't remained idle after his initial attack, but when he heard Aiden's voice, every muscle in his body tensed as he froze in place, veins bulging from his neck.

Taking advantage of the gap he had created, Aiden ignored the pain in his chest and lunged forward, thrusting his sword at Z's heart. His diaphragm had been fractured to pieces, but thanks to the peculiarities of the island, he was fully mended by the time the tip of his sword pierced Z's muscular chest.

*THUK*

Similar to stabbing a tree, Aiden's sword barely pierced deeper than three centimeters into Z's chest. At the same time, the latter broke free from the influence of Aiden's Innate, rewarding him with a heavy punch to the face.

"You're wide open...!" roared Z, sporting a battle-hungry grin as he moved like a blur, flickering past Aiden to grab him from behind before his visibly caved-in face could recover.

"Urk-!"

Feeling the air squeezed from his lungs, Aiden barely had time to process what was happening before a sensation of whiplash and a head-splitting pain permeated his skull, courtesy of Z bending back and supplexing his head into the ground. For a brief moment, everything went dark for Aiden. Unfortunately, it didn't last. Even worse, the moment he recuperated, his ankle was being crushed by vice-like pressure as Z swung him overhead with a single hand, slamming him into the ground.

Not letting up, Z yanked on Aiden's leg with enough force to dislocate it, subsequently sending him flying nearly ten meters. Aiden recovered even before he hit the ground, but he almost wished he hadn't as Z leaped into the air, grasping him with his arms and legs while he was upside down. In the moments that followed, Aiden was once again welcomed by darkness, but before his head impacted the ground and his spine compressed like a spring, he managed to expel several red crystals from his Inventory, each carved with a magic circle.

Seeing the stones spinning through the air, Z's pupils contracted to the size of pinholes, but the smile on his face grew larger.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

As the crystals, which were condensed fire-elemental Mana, exploded, a powerful shockwave and sizeable plume of flame were produced. Aiden's body was largely shielded by Z's, but the parts that weren't were charred black. As for Z, his golden blonde hair and eyebrows had curled slightly, filling the air with the aroma of burnt hair. Unfortunately for Aiden, one of the many Skills he had acquired with his Innate, Devour, was B-Rank Fire Resistance. He also had C-Rank Magic Resistance, so besides sustaining first-degree burns, his only real injury was temporary deafness due to his perforated eardrums.

Releasing Aiden and rising to his feet, Z casually plucked the former like a beet, stating, "Attacks like that are useful if you want to take the enemy out with you, but you shouldn't depend on them."

With even his clothes, consisting of a white, gold-threaded tunic and a pair of matching trousers regenerating to their previous state, Aiden, with a stonefaced expression, responded, "Your Innate is bullshit..."

Shrugging, Z responded, "Says the guy who can force someone far more powerful to literally freeze in place. If you had a proper weapon or caught me off guard, I'd have been fucked."

Instead of waiting for Aiden to respond, Z casually flung him. The former righted himself mid-flight and pulled out a black spear, so without the need for a starting bell, the duo promptly continued their brutal sparring session. There wasn't much else to do on the island besides training and meditating, so after loitering about for two days, Aiden was happy to have a distraction. And, who knew? With how thoroughly Z was kicking his ass, there was a possibility he could raise his Pain Tolerance to B-Rank before his next incarnation...

...