Dark Divinity

Omen rushed to her side as he felt her heart beating slower. Panic seized him, tightening his chest, as the ground quaked around him from the beast's mad dash of pain. He barely registered the violent tremors beneath his feet, his entire focus consumed by the fragile life slipping away before him.

Isolde's breath came out in pained gasps, each one a jagged rasp that sent shivers down his spine. Her body trembled violently, her eyes fixed on the bright sky above, their once-vibrant sparkle now dull and lifeless. Her hand flailed weakly, searching for something…anything, until it finally touched him. She held on, her grip frail but desperate.

"I'm here, I'm here Isolde, I'm not going anywhere," Omen begged through pleading eyes, noticing her nodding through his foggy vision. "No, no, no! Stay with me, Isolde, hang on. Please."

His words fell on deaf ears. Her eyes, once so full of life and tenderness despite being blind, stared blankly at the sky. The warmth of her hand in his began to fade, her grip loosening. Omen felt the terrible finality of it as her body grew cold and limp.

He cradled her tighter, sobbing as he held her limp body. Her final breath was a delicate exhale, almost like a sigh, and then she was still. The silence that followed was deafening, and the world around him was a whirl of turmoil and ruin that he had lost interest in.

He had barely known her…this unassuming blind healer in a forsaken realm, yet her loss felt monumental. If someone as talented and full of potential as Isolde could die so easily, what hope did any of them have? The fragility of life in this brutal world seemed more apparent than ever, making everything feel bleak and meaningless.

He felt so much agony that he had never thought he was capable of feeling. Why did it hurt so much? It wasn't supposed to hurt this much, he cared about his younger sister and seeing someone similar to her die was agonizing but in the end, Isolde was still a stranger to him. Regardless of his reasoning, tears streamed down his cheeks till he grew silent.

His tear-filled gaze shifted to the giant river bird, its frantic movements a stark contrast to Isolde's stillness. The creature was in agony as well, trampling around wildly as it tried to remove the blade embedded in its flesh. Each frantic tug and twist only drove the weapon deeper, causing more blood to pour from the wound. The bird's pained screeches echoed through the air, a haunting symphony of suffering.

The chaos around him—the trembling ground, the bird's agonised writhing, and the lifeless body in his arms—merged. He wanted to scream and lash out at the world for causing him so much pain, but his voice was lost in the crushing silence of his misery.

Clutching Isolde's limp fingers, he finally spoke the words he had been dreading: "I am so sorry, Isolde; I should have protected you."

Omen felt a strange and yet familiar sensation invading his body, an energy similar but yet different to the one he absorbed from the mutated squirrels seeping into his veins. But he didn't care.

His heart was a storm of grief and rage, fueling his actions as he suddenly dashed towards the pained beast. He forced his exhausted limbs to move beyond their limits, his joints cracking under the strain. His speed became a blur, so intense that even the massive creature couldn't track his movements as it sensed its prey approaching.

Omen leapt more than a dozen feet into the air, his thoughts completely focused. He implemented his momentum to propel himself higher, defying gravity in one last desperate act of defiance. He had a definite target in mind: the blade protruding from the creature's eye. As he soared through the air, time seemed slow, and his field of vision became narrowed.

He landed like a warhead, his foot striking the knife's hilt. The power of his hit sent the blade deep into the beast's head. The earth underneath them shuddered tremendously as the beast let out a howl of anguish. Omen's feet did not stop on the surface; his momentum drove him ahead with irresistible force, tearing through the river beast's skull.

A sickening crack echoed as bone shattered and gave way. Omen passed through the creature's massive head, his body emerging on the other side. His black clothes were drenched completely in the vibrant red liquid of the river beast's blood.

Omen fell with a thunderous bang, leaving a tiny crater beneath him. One last earth-shaking tremor reverberated through the forest as the colossal behind him fell unconscious to the earth.

The creature's death throes were thunderous, but Omen hardly noticed them, his thoughts occupied with the emptiness created by Isolde's passing.

Panting, he attempted to stand, screaming in grief. As the adrenaline faded, the full weight of his grief descended on him. For a few heartbeats, Omen stood alone in the wake of the conflict. However, the consequences of his conduct immediately became obvious. Suddenly, he collapsed on his back, his body finally giving in to the tremendous pressure it had been enduring. He had pushed his instant dash ability to its absolute limit, forcing his knee joints to snap under the pressure, he also didn't have the healing ability like Isolde to heal himself.

Omen dared not move while lying there, fearful that the damage would be more severe than he had anticipated. Each breath was laboured, his chest heaving as he gazed up at the darkening sky, adrenaline fading and leaving behind a raw, throbbing pain.

He was alone now, surrounded by the silence of the aftermath. The world around him seemed to hold its breath as if mourning the loss of Isolde alongside him. He could feel the severity of his injuries, the sharp, unforgiving pain in his legs, the ache in his muscles, and the overwhelming exhaustion that threatened to pull him unconscious.

"What the fuck!", he squealed in surprise as he suddenly felt a massive flow of energy invading his body once more, this time completely unfamiliar. He could feel minute living energy particle cells glueing to his tissues and reforming him from within. The muscles he feared not moving soon began twitching violently as they tried to absorb the new energy.

It was painfully terrifying; he wasn't expecting the absorption of the river bird to be this painful or massive. With a sad smile, he observed himself trying to discover his new abilities, the energy inflow from the beast was massive so he was bound to get multiple good things, or so he thought. There was only one passive skill [Relentless!]

With all that energy inflow just for a random passive skill, he was expecting flight, or the river beast's keen vision, its insane durability, speed and strength were the most important attributes of the beast. So many abilities to have been stolen and yet, he'd received something unprecedented. 'Curse my luck'.

Wait! I felt absorption while Isolde died in my arms. He immediately observed his body to confirm his theory, and he was right; he had absorbed the blind girl's abilities even though he didn't kill her himself. Then he halted, surprised by how quickly he abolished Isolde's death from his consciousness. 'That's weird' Every time he thought of her, his mind refused to correlate her with his grief; it was as if she were still alive to him, even though her corpse was still lying a few feet away...but then, like a switch, his mind went blank.

Omen had no notion that something unseen and horrifying had just happened to him; instead, he grinned gleefully as he discovered three new skills in his soul. At least he was luckier with Isolde than with the river beast, though it felt weird seeing her abilities laid bare to him for his usage.

He had absorbed two passive skills and one active one. [Vibration sense] was the ability to detect life signatures in proximity through the vibrations of the earth. The ability had not evolved into her exogene sense which he knew Isolde used occasionally as she bypassed all obstacles at a limited range to view life and exogene signature. This confused Omen because if this information was right, it meant he couldn't absorb the full potential of all abilities simply because he was still too weak to steal them. They could evolve as well as he grew stronger.

He mused as he observed the second passive skill [enhanced senses], it was almost similar to [vibration sense] except it affected all his senses, he could hear and see further if he concentrated though it was limited as he could only see twice as well as his normal vision. He knew this was not the abilities' full potential, 'well I'll know more later'.

The last skill was active and to him the most important [healing], he could heal both himself and others of minor injuries, without wasting time he infused the last few bits of exogene to test this ability as he healed himself and felt his ligament and cracked joints healing extremely slowly. It lasted about five minutes but compared to waiting for a week it was still a massive boon.

When he felt entirely recuperated, he finally rose up, but his vitality was depleted as he swayed on his feet. However after a few minutes, he gathered himself together and gazed back at the now-completely black sky. There was no moonlight tonight, but Omen had no trouble seeing in the dark, so he dusted himself up and attempted to wipe the dried beast's blood from his garments; without water, it was futile, so he stopped and proceeded to Isolde's body.

'It's strange, even right now, why don't I feel anything?' he reflected calmly, but his cognitive process halted and was entirely obliterated. With a blank smile, he snatched her blade and started digging a hole.

Normally, a shovel would have been ideal, but he had no clue how to make one, and he still didn't know what he was doing. His body simply moved on its own as he continued to dig out the outline of a grave. He took Isolde's body and gently placed it inside. When he was finished, he stood in front of her tranquil body and gazed blankly at her face for a few seconds before shedding a single tear.

'That was unusual. Why am I still crying? he wondered to himself, ultimately sighing as he drew back the earth over her and closed the hole with her buried within.

When he was finished, he brushed himself off and walked away, making his way back to the Rivershore in the darkness and pausing before jumping into the water. Previously, he would have been afraid of the resilient waters, but with his improved strength, they seemed as typical surges. He cleansed himself and gathered some leaves to place on the floor. He wanted to sleep alongside the river tonight, so he set up his improvised bed and lay down on his bare back. He was extremely weary and craved sleep more than ever. He softly closed his eyes and let his consciousness slip away.

A little distance away, the corpse of the river bird remained dead, with completely fragmented skulls, alongside small rodents that were already jostling for the bigger portion of the carcass. Much closer within the waters, a creature raised its head and momentarily gazed at the sleeping boy before silently sinking back into the water, wisely choosing not to rile up the new apex predator of the groves.

Far away a distant voice of pure tranquility escaped a sealed chamber. [status: Active]. [Emotion: grief] [Emotions stolen until tranquillity: 1/100].