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Evbo woke up screaming. Clutching his wooden sword in his hands. He was shaking from the? The what? Adrenaline? Pain? Fear? He could not for the life of him place whatever he was feeling.
“I was supposed to be dead right now..."he thought out loud. “I got killed back on the stone sword level...What.. happened??
Oh god.”
Evbo had the power of infinite respawns, he realised. Immortality, practically. This was supposedly an incredible thing to possess in a world where you die forever when your durability runs out. So why was his stomach filling with dread then? There was no time to think too hard about this though, as he was harshly pulled out of his thoughts and worries by a knock on his unlocked door.
"Wtf?? Evbo. Why are you alive? I thought you ranked up to a stone sword?? why are you back here?!"a guard (his guard? They felt awfully familiar, talking to Evbo almost like you’d imagine a friend would) was standing there confused. "i really dunno man... I gotta go back though please don’t tell anyone i was here lmao", Evbo replied before pushing his guard friend out of the way and making his way towards the stone swords passage way. Somehow, his respawn had kept his wins perfectly intact so he could just rank back up again easily, and without killing another poor weak pathetic wooden sword in the process.
A yellow figure went unnoticed skulking around near Evbo’s wooden sword bedroom.
The stone sword layer treated Evbo terribly, he just kept on dying as the wins required to rank up to iron were far more than he could ever have imagined back at the wooden sword level. Also, he kept spending his durability on maybe not exactly necessary items. “Maybe I shouldn’t have spent so much of my life-force on a Video Journal Machine...”as he died once again. The power of respawning started to almost feel natural to Evbo at this point. It felt right, like he was always supposed to be immortal like this. Still, he tried not to dwell on it too much. His guard friend had also ranked up to the stone level, and got increasingly confused every time Evbo “died” and came back again. He’d decided against trying to figure out what was going on for now though.
Somehow, someone was always following him. Observing his respawns. Trying to understand. Evbo never noticed. He was way too caught up in trying to finally make it down to the iron floor. He’d heard rumours from the other stone swords that down there, nobody ever fought each other and they were just living out their days peacefully. That sounded really nice.
Finally, he made it! The iron sword level! He wasn’t sure if he should trust those rumours quite yet so he was cautious at first. Really, who’d blame him? The past however many days had been filled with non-stop fighting to the death. Of course it would be hard to adjust to peace after all of that. Obviously, the first place Evbo wanted to check out was the marketplace, not knowing who was going to be waiting for him there, the player who’d been stalking him ever since his very first respawn.
“Hi there! You must be Evbo, right? Made it down here pretty quick, didn’t you? :)” The player started.
“Yeah, that’s me. I guess I did! That must mean I’m pretty good at this pvp thing then! What’s your name btw?”
“I’m Princezam. You can call me Zam though, its shorter. Well, if you’re so skilled why don’t we duel and you can show me how awesome your sword skills are fr? Don’t worry I’m not trying to go for the kill here I still got plenty of durability left :).”
Evbo agreed, not knowing he’d soon come to regret this choice quite a lot. So, they duelled. Evbo was losing. Badly.
“I thought you were Good?! Pathetic.”
Evbo was slain by Princezam
Evbo woke up alone. Clutching his wooden sword in his hands. Again. All that work just to get killed in his first 5 minutes on the Iron level. He was honestly pretty embarrassed. Both by his skill(or lack thereof…) and his naiveness. I can’t believe I actually thought the iron swords were going to be peaceful! Damn you Evbo” he muttered under his breath as he quickly made his way back down. “Never again.” He hoped he’d never ever have to go through the respawning process again. He was sorely mistaken.
Princezam was sure now. He’d witnessed Evbo’s respawning several times now. His plan was solid. All of the iron swords were on board. They were ready just waiting for Evbo to get back to the Iron level. “He’s immortal. Might as well get some use out of him, right? All of us will be immortal too if we follow my plan, guys!”
Evbo dropped down into the water at the Iron level. There were about ten or so Iron swords there, surrounding him completely. They knew he’d never win a 10v1.
“WHAT’S GOING ON? WHAT ARE YOU DOING!! LET ME GO!!” Evbo was freaking out. There were way too many hands gripping onto him tightly, trying to drag him somewhere.
Princezam stepped forward to talk to him, stroking his cheek. “It’s going to be ok soon, Evbo. You’ll understand, I’m sure of it. You will be the most perfect sacrificial lamb. Your deaths will save hundreds of lives, Evbo! It would be so very selfish to keep your immortality for yourself, right? We are all so grateful the gods have sent you to save us all.”
“My DEATHS?? What do you mean??” Evbo was fully sobbing at this point, the hands gripping his wrists so tightly it hurt. Then some iron sword decided they were sick of hearing him cry and fight it, so Evbo was quickly and cleanly knocked out.
Evbo woke up in a small, dark, cold concrete room (prison cell?), his head still hurting quite a bit. Some random iron sword opened his door and walked up to Evbo. Evbo flinched and tried to back away further, the tiny space not allowing for much retreating. “Thank you for your sacrifice. I’m sorry this has to hurt you.”The iron sword spoke quietly. Then they swiftly killed Evbo by slitting his throat, blood splattering all over the small cell, and the iron sword’s face. They picked up Evbo’s sword, absorbing its durability and therefore adding a bunch of days to their own life.
Evbo woke up afraid. Clutching his wooden sword in his hands. This time though, he was immediately threatened by several iron swords standing around his bed, making sure he didn’t have a chance to escape. They escorted Evbo back to his little cell that would become his home for the foreseeable future. Evbo had asked them what would happen when he gets back there. “We’re going to keep farming you for your durability. You respawn every time so there’s really no harm done here. You go back in your cell, some iron sword kills you, you respawn up here, we bring you back down, circle repeats.” Evbo was not happy about it but he sort of understood where they were coming from. If he had to kill one single person to make the entire civilisation better, he probably would, right?
Back in the cell, it wasn’t long before the next sword was making contact with his skin. It hurt. A lot. Evbo wanted to scream but no noise left his mouth as he was choking on his own blood. Immortality really wasn’t as much of a blessing as he’d thought originally. He respawned in his bed at the wooden sword level and he could swear he still felt the blood sticking to his hands. He was certain he was still tasting the iron on his tongue.
The next iron sword who got to kill him really took his time with it, cutting Evbo’s stomach, arms, legs, slowly dragging his sword across any exposed skin he could find until Evbo was begging for him to just finish the job already. That respawn, Evbo woke up shaking and had to really be dragged back down. His legs were refusing to cooperate at that point, respawning multiple times a day was really taking its toll on him. This kind of thing kept happening over and over and over again, not much changing each time. Some iron swords were apologetic, some ruthless. Some talked to Evbo about their days. At the end though, they all killed him.
Every respawn, his phantom pain got more and more severe. After the first week he had to be supported walking back to the iron floor. Evbo had stopped fighting it. He’d stopped thinking about freedom at that point. He almost believed it when Zam came to visit and told him this was his destiny. This was all Evbo was ever meant to be, just free durability for anyone to take. After less than two weeks of non-stop getting killed, Evbo had shut off and gone numb so much, he barely even felt the sword stabbing through his chest at all anymore. He’d only notice anything had happened when his hands were sticky from the blood and his vision started to fade. He didn’t even react to the taunts by especially sadistic swords anymore.
He really was the perfect sacrificial lamb now. Evbo was made to be killed. It was right. It was awful but everyone agreed. Immortality was meant to be shared. So Evbo would just keep rotting away in his little chamber having his durability harvested over and over again. Inhumane, yeah, but Evbo wasn’t human. Humans didn’t come back to life like that. He was nothing more than a tool for the rest of the iron swords to thrive. And that’s what he’d always be.