World Keeper

Chapter 808: The Harbinger Of Death

“When you are controlling the power of Death, you have to be very careful.” Irena said to Tsubaki, reminding her once again as they began their practice. “Death is more than just the end of life. It is a concept in itself. If you allow your Death to infect yourself, it will ultimately lead to your own self-destruction.”

Irena gave this reminder every time she appeared for personal training, emphasizing its importance. “Yes, Lady Irena.” Tsubaki nodded her head obediently.

“Good.” Irena smiled a bit more softly. “Today, we’re going to go over a more subtle application of Death. As I have repeatedly told you, this is a concept which you need to master, without letting it master you. Wield it, but do not become it.”

“The application of Death we’re going over today will be the ability to sense death, as well as filtering the information. When you master this, not only will you be able to sense the deaths occurring around you, but you will also be able to sense imminent deaths. This is similar to the Fate system that Terra governs. Once the vast majority of possibilities point towards the death of something, it becomes something you can sense as one that holds this domain.”

Tsubaki nodded her head again. “Please instruct me.” She said with a deep bow.

Irena looked off to the side, gathering a wisp of silver mist in her hands. “Gather the power of death, and recognize it as a sensory organ. In truth, you should be able to do something similar for any domain, allowing you to recognize the existence of your concept in your vicinity.”

Tsubaki was already aware of that part, having long since done the same thing with her domain of Light. Thus, she was quick to condense the power of death and turn it into one of her senses. Seeing that she proceeded quickly, Irena didn’t hesitate. “Good. Now, you will need to hone this sense by experiencing death. In doing so, you can choose which deaths to become aware of, and gain the ability to foretell death.”

As if to demonstrate, Irena threw the silver mist in her hand at the ground. Almost immediately, Tsubaki grasped her head, gasping out as she felt the death of every tiny organism on the ground where that mist had landed. Although she had created a similar sensory power with the Light domain, that was merely an extension of her sight. She was wholly unprepared for the sensory overload that would come with this new ability.

Having expected this, Irena fell silent for a few moments, allowing Tsubaki to recover herself. Only when Tsubaki began to stand again, her face somewhat pale, did Irena speak in a gentle tone. “I know how you are with your training. You have always been so extreme, pushing your limits at every opportunity. What backs you into a corner once will never do so a second time.”

This time, she condensed the mist and threw it at a wall. Tsubaki hissed at the sensory overload, but she did not cry out again, nor did she duck her head. However, this caused Irena to shake her head. “You are enduring and ignoring, but that is not the way. Accept the information, and filter it. Establish channels so that the more pressing information is brought forward, while the deaths of these microscopic beings are so small and distant, like so much background noise.”

Tsubaki gave a slow nod of her head, taking a deep breath. First, she shrank the range of her senses, making it more manageable. She knew very well the sort of training that she preferred. In fact, she had already planned to submerge herself in a desolate forest, and train her sense of death in a similar fashion until it was fully under her control. However, it seemed that that was not what Irena wanted for her.

“If you simply endure the sense of Death, it will become static that you only hear when you want to.” Irena said, as if to confirm her thoughts. “You must always be aware of death and recognize its significance. Remember, every being that exists within this world does so under Dale’s rule, and are therefore his subjects. Should not the death of those in his realm be an important subject for you, his chosen Servant?”

At those words, Tsubaki gasped, her eyes going wide. It was as Irena had said. She had nearly drowned out the new sense, blinding herself to the death around her after having just gained the ability to sense it. Her lips were pursed in a straight line, and she nodded her head. “Channels…” This was something that she only truly had experience with when it came to controlling avatars. Otherwise, it was in her nature to tackle everything at once, and take on all problems as they occurred

“That’s right.” Irena nodded, smiling a bit more happily now that it seemed that Tsubaki was truly motivated. “Establish categories within death itself. The death of microscopic organisms would have the tiniest channel, something for you to only perceive if you will it so. Then come gradually larger creatures by the scale of their power and age. If a great defender of a territory perishes, you should be able to sense it from thousands of kilometers away.”

“I will not ask for you to bestow the same range to the people of the various races, as death is all too common. Rather, the longer that something lives in this world, the less likely it is to die of natural causes. Once you have this first filter, it will be easier for you to add another, this one based on the cause of death.” Irena told her with a small nod.

“As your first filter already reduces the amount of natural deaths brought to the forefront of your attention, this next filter will have a far lower strain placed upon it. Deaths by sickness and natural maladies can be made lower in priority, with violent deaths coming in more clearly. In this sense, you will be able to tell when creatures around you are being killed, and you can adjust the range of each channel to suit your needs.”

Tsubaki gave a small nod, doing her best to follow Irena’s advice. As she established the filters, the pain from the previous overloads gradually began to recede, making her only dimly aware of what had transpired. However, a soft ping captured her attention, causing her to glance over at her terminal. Normally, her alerts were muted during these training sessions, with the exception being high priority threat messages. Given that her terminal was alerting her, something must have happened. “Pardon me.” She said, moving over to the terminal.

Report Sender: Sher Dien

A small insectoid monster has emerged through a scheduled rift exploration experiment, and has managed to escape containment. After the deployment of the Saints Guard, we have reason to believe that the creature managed to evade the purging of the site. The creature has shown capable of burrowing through concrete in a short period that has been reinforced with both enchantments and ki, and has displayed the ability to rapidly lay eggs following its escape. The Saints Guard are waiting near the site, requesting reinforcements to aid against this potential threat.

Irena read through the information over Tsubaki’s shoulder, offering a small nod. “This seems important.”

“I should dispatch Dana.” Tsubaki muttered in agreement. Dana was easily the best at dealing with hordes of smaller monsters, while Tsubaki herself specialized in single, larger targets. As for Lifre, her specialty lay more in reinforcing and leading a group of allies.

“No, you handle this yourself.” Irena said, placing a hand on Tsubaki’s shoulder before she could forward the message to Dana. “Use this situation to hone your sense of death. Your growth is fastest during a crisis, is it not?”

Tsubaki hesitated for a brief moment, before nodding her head. She was not about to disobey the orders of Irena, though she did have her reservations. After all, it was not only her life on the line here, but those of the people who lived one Sher Dien. “I will do as you say, Lady Irena.”

Irena gave a satisfied smile, slowly standing up. “And you are only to use the power of death to find your targets. Use your other powers to kill them.”

This time, Tsubaki was thoroughly confused, not sure why she was being forbidden from using the power of death from destroying the threat. However, she ultimately nodded her head in agreement. “As you wish.” She said, before turning and opening a portal with a wave of her hand.

Once she had left the room, Ryone’s voice spoke up in the air. “Why not let her use your power, there? That seems… odd for you.” Ryone had been paying attention to the alert herself, having been prepared to mobilize Dana to deal with it if Irena had not decided to send Tsubaki.

Irena simply shook her head with a sullen sigh. “She’s lived too long. When she witnessed the death of Fafnir, she thought that it was an affront to the Keeper that someone had slain his dragon, and knew that Dana would be upset. But she was not truly affected by the loss of such a great creature. As one that has tread among death since she could hold a blade, it has lost its significance to her.”

“With the filters I had her set up, she will be acutely aware of everything that dies a violent death around her, and she will feel the weight of that death. This is my trial to her, to understand the significance of death. Given what I had told her before, she won’t let herself drown it out anymore. Instead, she’ll study this feeling to try to truly understand it. Only once she has done that can she wield my Death.”

“It’s unusual for you to talk that much about something.” Ryone said in a faintly teasing tone. “You must really like having a disciple like her.”

“Maybe…” Irena said, her lips curling up slightly. “We’ll have to see if she can overcome this trial, first. I don’t like having to use the lives of others as an incentive, but this is the only way to guide someone like her.”

Tsubaki appeared high above the castle of Sher Dien, her eyes roaming the horizon. Judging by the coordinates attached to the report, the location of the threat was not that far from the royal capital. Her eyes traced across the many land bridges over the horizon, finally setting on a fresh crater far in the distance. With a thought, her body appeared at the edge of the crater, where she was greeted by a unicorn centauress.

“Lady Tsubaki, thank you for responding so quickly.” The centauress said, bending her knees and dipping her head in what the centaurs regarded as a bow.

“I received your report. You said that there is a monster threat in this area?” She asked, looking at the smoking crater. There were no gaps within the crater that implied a tunnel, meaning that it would have likely been covered up in the blast.

“That’s right. Even now, I still feel the blade of death at my heart.” The centauress said in a serious tone, patting her chest with one hand. Tsubaki nodded, able to faintly feel something herself. However, this sensation was too distant for her to get a proper grasp on it.

Recalling Irena’s words, Tsubaki closed her eyes, focusing on the sense of death. “How long ago?” She asked, knowing the other party would understand her intention.

“We performed the purge four hours ago.” Tsubaki’s brow twitched at that, noting that she needed to increase their AI staff if it took so long for the message to be delivered to her terminal. Still, she expanded the scope of her senses, letting out a soft gasp when she felt it. A sense of pain from bodies being torn apart and devoured.

Far below the surface, she could sense subterranean creatures being ripped apart, feeling their deaths as if they were her own now that she had focused her senses so. Her instinct was to turn away from these feelings, but she forced that response down. She needed to feel this to understand the situation, even as her fists trembled. She focused more heavily on this death, and saw vicious monsters tearing apart those creatures beneath the ground. At this point, they could only vaguely be described as insectoid due to their chitinous shell and scythe-like claws. Otherwise, they seemed to be taking on traits similar to those of the creatures being devoured.

More importantly, there was not just a single monster like this, but thousands. However, the bulk of the deaths still occurred at a central area beneath the ground, where one creature with a truly insectoid appearance devoured those brought before it, laying eggs soon afterwards. Even within the eggs, Tsubaki could feel the presence of death, causing her to grit her teeth.

Rationally, she knew that she was more than strong enough to deal with the threat below. Yet for a brief moment, she felt powerless to stop it. She knew that this feeling came from the sense of death washing over her, and quickly focused her control. This death does not control me… She muttered inwardly, repeating Irena’s constant warnings. Only now did she truly understand the significance of those words.

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