Monster’s Reprieve - Live Another Day

I opened my eyes. The sky above me was beautiful. Blue and filled with pretty white clouds. The sun shone with a brightness that would've irritated me if not for the oddest feeling of completion I had.

Surrounding me was a forest of beautiful emerald green trees and thick foliage. The sweet sound of birds chirping, a pleasant scent of flowers, and warm feel of the sun drenched my senses.

I felt unbelievably quaint.

Sitting up, his body felt incredibly mangled.

Licking his lips, he placed his hand to his face, feeling the new touch of his material form. He was… alive? He coulda sworn he'd died. His skin felt softer than before. Looking down at a hand, he realized his calluses were gone. Closing and opening them, they felt looser in a way. Plus there weren't any scars on the back or front.

In fact, his forearms didn't have any scars either. It was odd to see one's body lack its proof of prior experiences. He took a breath and exhaled.

Alive. He felt the most alive he ever had. Arising, he stood, his stare directed towards the sky. His body felt torn up, but oddly, painless. Stumbling forwards, he slowly steadied his strides, slowly stablizing himself.

Falling over and collapsing, he dropped to his knees, and stopped. Ahead of him was a crystal clear lake. Moving towards the water, he hazed into his own reflection.

What he saw- was pleasant, but it disgusted him. He was close to a kid again. A child in his teens. Somewhere from sixteen to seventeen. His features were very appealing to the eyes. He had a somewhat soft looking face, looking very androgynous in nature. Though, he was still definitely handsome. His skin was a bit paler and not as tan as it was before. Smoother too.

He looked very similar to how he did when he was younger. In fact, it almost exact in terms of shape and form. There were however a few very noticable differences, such as that being of his paler skin, but the others were a bit more of a surprise.

For one, he had a massive diagonal scar starting at the top of his collar to below his ribs. As if someone had nearly cut him in half, but stopped halfway through. He found it impressive.

The second thing he noted, was his hair. It was still white. In fact, unlike his past life, it was even less grey in comparison. But his hair hadn't gone silverish until he was well into his adult years. When he was in his teens, his hair was still black. Now though, his younger form seemed to have kept the white appearance. It didn't bother him much.

Last of all- was his eye. His eyes were mostly normal. Albeit, instead of being amber, they were mainly black now. However, in the middle of his left iris, was a blood red pupil. It gave him this sickly familiar feeling. It was irrational. Unnerving. It made his skin crawl. And he pondered for a second, if he should just, stab it out.

He splashed his face with water. Taking a deep soothing breath, he calmed down. Now what? He thought to himself.

Right. Those kids. The kids. His disciples. Were they alright? Of course, they were. They had to be. They neared the strongest after all. He'd taught em nearly everything.

Clawing at his face, the red of his pupil seemed to leak and flow into his iris. He halted all movement and breathed. He had to calm down. He had never thought of himself as anyone great, but he began focusing on the assortment of irrelevant titles and names he'd been called, in a weak attempt to compose himself.

Jester Slayer, King Hunter, Dragon Killer, General of the Yellow Army, each frivolous name only served to irritate him more and more. He smirked. How pathetic.

Looking down at his hand, a drop of blood suddenly fell and hit his palm, creating a splotch of red.

Huh?

Blood began to flow like tears. Catching a couple more drops in his hands, he took another breath.

This was harder than it was earlier. His emotions felt out of control. His body felt like it would burst at any moment.

He crawled a bit further and fully dunked his head into the water. 

Calm.

Blood dispersed, making the water murky a little murky as he calmed down. Taking his head out, he reopened his eyes, and his body felt a bit more relaxed. It seemed as if everything was back to normal.

Right. He allowed himself to die. A really bad moment of weakness. Irrationality. And now he was… somewhere.

He sat and closed his eyes. Information. He had undoubtedly died. He had seen something like an afterlife. And now, he was alive.

His body was refreshed and somewhat broken. His senses were as sharp as before. His mind was all over the place. And the sun… was bigger?

No. No. No. Perhaps it was simply closer?

… Whatever, either way he wouldn't be able to tell.

He got up and tipped over, falling into the grass. As he did so, while annoyed, he also found it almost amusing to a degree. With this, he noted a difference in his… personality, self, and ego. He was different. He felt cheerier in a way. Like it was easier to just be alright.

Standing back up, he focused further on his breathing, managing to stabalize himself. It was the freakiest feeling to have his body feel wrecked and yet, not even the slightest bit of pain. Something akin to the feeling of suddenly having a thousand new joints and breaking points spawned all over your body. And yet, not quite?

Collapsing once more, he felt… exhausted? It was almost like the feeling of exhaustion, but he wasn't really tired. Still, he was out of breath.

Was he calibrating or something? What was going on? Whatever. All these thoughts ran through his head.

If his suicidal plan went to plan(it mostly did), then the war should be over. He had killed… a truly staggering amount of soldiers. It was a loss so great that the other side wouldn't have been able to recover from whatsoever. As for the aftermath… he didn't know. It would've surely ended in their victory… but either than that… he simply didn't care anymore.

He closed his eyes and laughed.

Slowly~ but steadily, he could feel himself drifting~ drifting off to sleep.

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