Prologue: Crimson
Seth's first thought was that the blood-red moon hanging in the dark sky was beautiful. Eerie, yes, but instinctively, undeniably beautiful.
His second thought was that the colossal, towering tree in the distance must be this world's equivalent of the World Tree from fantasy novels.
His third thought was a moment of pure confusion, wondering what that sudden, explosive heat in his guts could be.
…
…
"What the hell—!" He doubled over, gasping in pain. The brief confusion vanished the instant he felt his stomach clench, then distend, swelling outward against his shirt as if something were being inflated inside him. His skin stretched taut, a grotesque and tight drum.
"Fuck….Fuck…Fuck!" He wanted to panic, but his mind remained eerily calm, forcing him to be more aware of the situation than he ever wanted to be. It felt like a sack of writhing eels was trying to burst free.
However, in the next instant, his body recoiled, as though it had recognised an invading bacterium and rallied to fight it off.
The agonizing swelling faltered, the pressure lessening as if forced down by an invisible hand. The taut skin of his belly softened.
"If this is how it feels for women—cough!" A heavy cough escaped Seth's lips. Feeling something strange, he glanced at the hand he'd held against his mouth. "Blood…?" His pupils constricted. A wave of foreboding instantly washed over him.
SKREEEE!!!
An ear-piercing screech tore through the air. Seth knew, instinctively, that it was the cry of a child seeking its mother. And it was coming from… his own belly.
The swelling returned, faster and more violent than before. A wet, tearing sensation joined it.
"Ahhhg!" He looked down in horror to see a deep, viscous red blooming across his shirt, seeping from his very pores. "Shit! Shit! How the hell can a guy get pregnant?!"
Seth hated that he could think so rationally in a situation where he could do almost nothing to save himself. He remembered that the basic care priorities for a pregnant person were to keep them hydrated, maintain body temperature, reduce infection risk, provide comfort and support—
"Useless!" He wanted the exact opposite!
Kill! He needed to kill it!
His stomach convulsed again, lances of pain shooting continuously through his brain.
Avoid poison, avoid blows to the stomach—
Flesh met flesh. His fist met his stomach.
SKREEEEE!
A pained scream sounded from the young man's abdomen, and yet, he didn't feel any better than 'his' child.
Tears streamed down his face without stop, his complexion ashen as blood continuously poured from all his pores.
"Bastard! Get out!" Seth tried to rise from the ground, only to stumble back down. A violent, convulsive cough racked his frame, his body moving in a desperate bid to expel the wrongness within him, forcing something up his esophagus.
He choked, gagging, as something soft, fleshy, and utterly wrong slid up his throat. He retched, spitting it onto the ground in a spray of blood and bile. It was a small, misshapen lump of bloody flesh, throbbing faintly.
A sense of utter revulsion and disgust shot through his spine as he looked at the thing that was undeniably a—
"Fucking cock! Blargh!" Streams of genitalia, mixed with flesh and blood, escaped Seth's lips. His vision swam; the amount of blood he'd lost had reached a critical point. And as if sensing this weakness, the Thing within his obscenely bulging belly attacked!
SKREEE!
Squelch!
Gore and viscera erupted as a clawed, bird-like talon jutted out from Seth's stomach.
Pain—an immense, obliterating pain—wracked his body so completely that his mortal mind blanked. His eyes rolled back, and his body fell sideways.
…
With no opposition left to its birth, the Thing within Seth tore itself free from his abdomen. Intestines and organs splattered out, hanging loose, and what rolled from between them could absolutely not be called human.
It was an infant-sized creature, drenched in blood. The rest of its features were as inhuman as its feet. Its limbs were thin and twisted, its body underdeveloped and malformed, as if forced into existence too soon. Its skin was a pale, sickly gray, as if Death itself had sucked out its vitality. The most normal part was its face, and yet even that was distorted with an unsettling, alien expression.
Just looking at it, one could sense the strong aura of depravity it emanated.
Having just been born, the Thing's feet were unsteady, but after a few moments of stumbling, it gained its bearings. Clearly, along with its malformed appearance, it possessed a tenacious vitality.
The Thing did not forget the struggle of its birth. Before returning to its Great Mother, it decided to take care of the human.
Yet, as it turned around, a bloody palm landed on its skull, and a shadow loomed over it.
The Thing's unnaturally wide eyes shook as it looked up at the human—no, at the monster now standing before it.
The man—who should have been dead—stood drenched in dark blood. His face was lost in shadow, save for those two crazed, piercing eyes.
"Do you know… people die if they are killed?"
The answer to his question came in the form of a sickening—
Squelch!
….
Thud!
Seth fell once more. Just now, he had forcefully lifted his failing body through sheer willpower and spite.
"Haaah~ Cough!"
More blood, hot and coppery, spilled over his lips. The world was dimming at the edges, the brilliant, eerie crimson of the moon above shrinking to a single, distant point of light.
"What…a shitty…Isekai…experience…"
The words were a wet, slow rasp, dragged from a ruined throat. Darkness rushed in, a welcome tide to drown the pain. But just as his eyes almost fully closed, surrendering to the void, he felt it. A faint, rhythmic tremor through the earth. It traveled up through the cold stone and into his broken body.
Thud… Thud… Thud…
From the tempo, it seemed like… footsteps? Impossibly heavy, world-shaking footsteps.
In his final sliver of sight, a shadow blotted out a portion of that hateful bloody moon.
A giant. And from its shoulders, three distinct heads twisted against the dark sky.
CRACK!
The earth beneath him, as if unable to bear the giant's approach, gave way. Stone and soil tore apart with a sound like the world breaking its spine.
The last thought Seth had was not of who the giant was but rather—
I never got the name of this shitty world.
….
[ YOU HAVE DIED! ]
"Huh—Urrk—ugh!" A violent, wrenching heave seized Seth, one hand went to his throat and the other holding up on his knees.
Nothing came up but a thin, acidic string of bile and the phantom taste of copper and dirt. His body remembered the blood, the viscera, the tearing. It shook with the memory, muscles seizing and shuddering.
"Gh… gah…" He wiped the stray saliva from the corner of his mouth. After one last full-body shudder and a deep breath, he forced himself up.
Dark eyes instantly scanned his surroundings. It was all the same wherever he looked: a backdrop of endless night sky.
So, Seth looked at the only thing different, the thing he had glimpsed moments before.
[ YOU HAVE DIED! ]
"Understandably," Seth's murmured, his mind flashing back to the two deaths he'd experienced: first, a non-consensual suicide with a yandere student, and the second, just minutes ago, in a far more grotesque manner. "People die when they are killed. Including me."
[ DUE TO YOUR DEATH, THE REQUIREMENTS HAVE BEEN MET! ]
[ RANDOMLY COPY SKILLS OF KING OF ANGEL 'LUMIAN LEE'. ]
[ PLEASE CHOOSE A SKILL CARD. ]
Before his eyes, dozens of cards in various colors materialized, floating in the air.
Yet he paid the cards little mind. His gaze was fixed on the screen, specifically on the words King of Angel Lumian Lee.
It all made sense now. The crimson moon, the enormous tree, the giant at the end—
"A shitty world indeed." Seth didn't bother listing out every reason the world was awful. He'd rather analyze what had just happened.
With Lumian being a King of Angels, it was obvious: this was the end of Book 2: Circle of Inevitability. The crimson moon, the tree, his…pregnancy…
"Tch!" Just thinking of it made him want to gag—
"Fucking Mother Goddess of Depravity." Even the thought of gagging brought back the memory of cock slipping up his throat as his body tried to expel it.
Shaking his head, he focused on the more important part. He'd been corrupted without even knowing he was in the world of Lord of the Mysteries, meaning the environment itself had done it, not his knowledge.
With all the clues—King of Angel Lumian, the tree, the corruption, the darkness under that crimson moon—it wasn't hard to guess his spawn point.
"World of Ruins." The outside world after the Mother Goddess of Depravity descended onto Earth. Her arrival corrupted the entire planet, twisting all life to her nature.
If it weren't for The Fool and Adam creating Protective Zones, humanity would have been wiped out or twisted into abominations.
Like him. No, perhaps even worse than him, considering his own body had managed to fight back, however briefly, and even prevent the very worst.
"A shitty world and a shitty isekai experience." Seth tried to recall how he'd gotten here and who was responsible, but just as fragments of memory began to surface—
"Drink." The word slammed into his head like a hammer striking a bell, reverberating throughout his being. The voice alternated between deep and resonant, high-pitched and melodic, old and cracked, young and innocent.
"Ugh!" Seth gripped his head as pain spiked through his temples. With the eldritch voice came a sliver of awareness about his isekai.
A bar. Patrons. A mug of… coffee?
And then a multitude of colors, and his consciousness blanking out.
Exhaling slowly, Seth massaged his temples for a moment before looking at the new window that had popped up.
[ Name: Seth Ambrose
Powers: Isekai Survivor (+) | Suicidal Hunter (+)
Symbolisms: N/A
Authorities: N/A
Abilities: N/A
Skills: N/A ]
Everything was self-explanatory. Seth's eyes drifted back to the powers, and he mentally selected the plus button.
[ Isekai Survivor: ]
[ First, any and all physical issues you have are erased. Whether congenital, genetic, acquired, whether from injury, environment, or exposure... however they happened, they're wiped away. ]
[ This can include ones with mental consequences - depression, and schizophrenia will be fixed. They will also continue to be wiped away - any curse that would ruin you, parasites that corrupt you, or just mundane injury or similar, will be opposed and will face a steady force trying to return you to a pristine state. This will not stop a transformation you seek, though it will oppose the parts you dislike. This isn't omnipotent, or even hugely strong - no guarantees are being offered for bathing in phyrexian oil. ]
[ Your mind and will become an unassailable fortress. A natural, impervious shield surrounds your consciousness, protecting you from all outside influence. No telepathy, empathy, supernatural persuasion, memetic hazard, or eldritch whispering can affect your thoughts or emotions against your will. Your personality and sense of self are inviolate; you are utterly immune to ego death, personality overwrites, possession, or any form of spiritual or mental dissolution, whether from apotheosis, infinite memories, or cosmic horrors. Your willpower is infinite and unbreakable; despair, boredom, and doubt find no purchase within you. ]
[ Second, you find yourself needing less. You can divide your requirements by a third - no just food and water, but also things like rest or light.
Third, the quality of what you need - and tolerate - goes down. If you have to drink from mud puddles or eat spoiled or poisoned food... you might not enjoy it, but your tolerance is extended. ]
[ Fourth, your physical development is enhanced three times over. You're more likely to build up callouses than blisters. You'll lose unneeded weight, or put on muscle. This even helps with skills, so long as they're physical skills. You'll pick up three days of
practice with the sword in one. ]
[ Fifth, you are granted a degree of clarity. It helps you deal with any mental issues you may have, keep calm under stress, and not freeze in front of danger. ]
[ Finally, knowledge and skills. You find yourself able to speak and read all tongues, and will spontaneously 'remember' basic survival skills for any environment you find yourself in. ]
[ Suicidal Hunter: ]
[ You have the power to Return By Death! Whenever you die, you are shunted 24 hours back in time with all your memories intact. You bring any powers back with you to the past, even to before you originally gained them. That includes this power too. One downside is that cooldowns are carried with your mind instead of resetting with your body when you go back in time. ]
[ When you are killed by someone, you may copy a single one of their powers or supernatural-level skills. You will see all their abilities as floating cards with their descriptions facing away from you. All you see is their backs, colour coded with bronze/silver/gold/crystal for their power level. Unless you have some other power to cheat this, you have to choose randomly. You can only gain one ability from each person, no matter how many times they kill you. ]
[ Every time you are killed you will see some trauma from your killer's past, viewing it as an undetectable ghostly third party. ]
[ You gain a startling and disconcerting apathy in response to your own death. You do not like dying despite your power, nor do you like pain any more than you already did. Despite this, the sting of death and whatever arduous journey got you there is severely blunted. If properly motivated, you could kill yourself over 4000 times in one sitting to go back more than a decade, all without any psychological damage. You could also repeatedly starve yourself to the brink of death countless times to master a demonic martial art based on slaying those who have not suffered the same hardships as you. ]
Seth's eyebrows twitched at the word randomly in the description.
"Of course. Even eldritch beings haven't escaped the gacha plague." He muttered. "In essence, a superior gacha version of Return By Death."
As he spoke, his eyes drifted back to the floating cards.
Bronze. Silver. Gold. No Crystal.
"The current Lumian is a Dual Pathway King of Angels, so True God and above should be Crystal," Seth guessed from the obvious clue. "Sequence 9 and 8 are bronze? 7, 6, 5 silver? 4, 3, 2, 1 gold?" He frowned at his own conclusion.
Could the gold rank really contain four whole Sequence levels just because it marked the beginning of divinity…?
"Wait…" An idea popped into his head to test his theory, but he squashed it after a moment. Yes, he could try to recall each ability in the Sequences and see if they matched the number of cards in a certain rarity. It was just that his memory wasn't that sharp.
So, there was only one thing to do in this scenario.
"Fuck it, we ball."
He reached out without hesitation and snatched one of the many gold cards.
….
….
…
[Conquest (Sequence 1)]
[Type: Authority]
[Pathway: Red Priest (Hunter)]
[Effect: User can make the target's body, mind and spirit want to submit, and choose to submit. Once the target is completely Conquered, they will be loyal to you forever. It can also be used to make the target lose consciousness and control the bodies of the affected creatures to act according to your will regardless of whether the creature is conscious or not. There is no limit for the number of targets you are able to Conquer.]
…
[ SELECTION COMPLETE. AUTHORITY WILL BE COPIED. ]
[ RETURNING TO 24 HOURS PRIOR. ]
+++
A/N: The muse once again made me delay the Great Susie's appearance, and brought me a new idea. An idea that's gonna be having Seth getting pregnant again and again, dying again and again if it wasn't obvious enough. Basically, what should actually be happening if a 'meta aware' person ends up in Lord of Mysteries. Also I did actually roll a wheel and Conquest was completely random, and I will continue to roll for this snippet. And the 24 Hours Prior notification won't actually send him back to his previous world, just his previous situation cause he hasn't been in the world for more than 24 hours yet.
Also, should I have put warning tags (Body Horror, Forced Pregnancy)? I felt like it might have spoiled what to expect so I decided to not put it on.