A roughly eight-foot, bat-like creature lay before Halo. Its brown, decaying wings curled around its body. Halo didn't have time to examine it closely, but he knew it was asleep.
His clone was beyond exhaustion, beyond saving, and the Sinners on patrol would return any moment. No one was coming to help. This fight was his alone.
He approached as if fear didn't exist. Without hesitation, his blade sliced through its neck. Warm blood sprayed across the ground. Halo's face remained emotionless.
***
[Congratulations! You've slain a Toddler Sinner!]
[You've received a Sin Fragment: Drowsiness. 5/10]
[Your agility has increased.]
***
Halo dismissed the system without a second thought and turned toward the giant stone wall ahead.
"Please… don't make me lose myself," he muttered.
He didn't want to enter that castle, it could be his end. Yet now, there was no blade around, save for a brownish liquid slowly seeping from the stone. Nothing extraordinary… at first glance.
Halo's emotions slowly crept back, and with them, his hopes sank. Their efforts seemed wasted.
Then his eyes caught the liquid again, and his chest tightened. His body shivered.
Dark Saint had mentioned mucus. Mucus from a Forgotten Sinner.
She hadn't been certain, and neither was Halo. But curiosity sparked anyway. He found himself standing over the substance.
"Oobleck… could it be Oobleck?" he whispered.
He pressed the tip of his dagger against it. The moment it touched the brown liquid, his skin crawled, a shiver racing through him. Time seemed to freeze, yet it wasn't. Everything moved, but he couldn't move, helplessly tracking every shift.
The liquid oozed from the wall's cracks, portions withdrawing and merging into an orb before shattering into droplets that coated his wrists and dagger tips.
Then it vanished, as if it had never existed.
Halo forced down his confusion. His hands and daggers were wrapped in tan-brown bandages, rugged and battle-worn, fused to him.
"What the… glue?" His expression finally mirrored his genuine shock.
Then, the bronze screen appeared.
***
[Congratulations! You've fulfilled your first purpose. You've retrieved the Magnus Blade: wielded by many, yet by none. The blade of survival.]
[This gift comes from the God of Death to the Shadow of Death.]
[The Magnus Blade embodies survival itself. Its power grows with the will to endure, the hunger to exist when all else fades. The stronger your understanding of life's struggle, the sharper it becomes until it can cleave even the universe.]
***
Halo stared, his mouth open, torn between relief and frustration. Why would Death give him a gift? It was… Death.
A sneer formed, but the Sinners' cries above drew his attention. They had returned to patrol.
He'd completed his first purpose. A few days' respite awaited before the next, but lingering could be fatal.
Without hesitation, he skidded down the hill, careful and steady. The screen flickered briefly—a Wish—but he ignored it. Now wasn't the time for choices. Survival came first.
This wasn't the reward he had imagined. Not a mysterious mucus turned bandages. Not a gift from Death. And certainly not a life still at risk despite success.
Perhaps he barely knew himself. Or maybe the world had already begun reshaping him.
By the time he reached the relative safety of the building he and his clone had used earlier, the Sinners had resumed patrol. He had no intention of lingering until midnight, but a decision waited. The Wish.
Wishes were dangerous. More than mere desires, each carried consequences. Refusing meant game over. Saint had made that clear.
Halo exhaled.
'Wish?'
***
[Wish: Option 1/2]
I wish to learn a vital secret about this world.
| Yes | No |
Warning: 18 minutes to accept.
***
He hesitated, watching the seconds tick by. Another Wish might appear, but this one demanded a choice. Declining could force acceptance of whatever came next.
A secret about the Lost World. It could be his downfall… or salvation. Risk outweighed uncertainty. He chose yes. The screen disappeared.
No answers came immediately. But survival demanded action first. He had to leave this abyss and reach Dark Saint, dodging Sinners along the way.
Eagerness surged. Clutching his sack, he wove past shadows, careful, deliberate. One misstep could draw the attention of a higher-ranked Sinner and death would follow.
At the square where he and his clone had fought a Perverted Sinner, two of the fallen lay sprawled. Halo expected corpses, but one bore deep wounds unlikely to heal.
He finally understood the strength gap between Perverted and Beast Sinners. Even this wasn't as weak as the Toddler Sinners he had faced.
If the Sinners yielded a Sin Fragment, he was bound to grow stronger.
He had slain the octopus-like Sinner.