Even Death Grew Tired of Killing Me-Chapter 72 - 67 - Morveth Kael’Zhyr (3)

[First Person-Theo]

Morveth was an extraordinarily patient monster.

That was what made it worse.

The cathedral cavern was already fractured from our earlier exchange. Broken pillars leaned at unstable angles, water pooled in widening cracks, and tar-like veins crawled along the floor in slow, deliberate pulses.

Morveth hovered above the central depression, bone plates layered wrong, violet veins glowing beneath the gaps. It regarded us with something close to boredom.

"You are all nothing to me," it rasped calmly.

The words did not carry anger.

It carried certainty.

Kyrene stepped forward again without responding. His stance shifted subtly, weight balanced, blade angled low. His breathing was steady, though I could see the tightness in his shoulders.

Astrae stood to my left, her injured arm still hanging imperfectly. Divine light knit through torn muscle, but slowly. Too slowly. Her energy was drained and every time she forced it, the glow flickered thinner than before.

Morveth moved first this time.

Its body split open along the ribs and a wave of blackened bone erupted outward in jagged arcs. The spikes came from every direction, not random, but calculated to cut off movement.

I ran.

My added inhuman speed carried me between two rising spikes. A third one pierced straight through my thigh before I could shift fully.

Pain exploded upward.

Darkness.

—

I returned three steps back, already moving before the sensation of return fully settled.

Total deaths: 401.

The number pressed into my mind like a weight.

This was the most I had died in a single fight.

And still I could not see it.

Still I could not grasp Morveth’s full weakness.

Failure Converter screamed every time I came back, feeding me fragments of pattern and timing, but the core remained obscured. It was like trying to solve a puzzle with half the pieces deliberately hidden.

Kyrene intercepted a descending blade of condensed decay, Aether Edge flaring along his weapon as he met the impact head on. The collision cracked the stone beneath his feet.

Morveth’s strength was immense.

The force of that strike alone would have crushed most Exalted.

Kyrene slid back several meters, boots carving through wet rock, but he did not fall.

He pivoted immediately, Counter Surge triggering as he redirected the force into a slicing arc aimed at Morveth’s exposed side.

Bone shattered.

Tar sprayed.

The wound sealed again.

Astrae launched herself forward despite her condition. She did not hesitate.

Light flared around her as she condensed it into a spear once more. The glow was dimmer than before, but still sharp.

"For someone who hides in a pit," she shouted through clenched teeth, "you think too highly of yourself."

Morveth’s elongated skull turned toward her.

"You are diminished," it replied coldly. "You are an easy kill even for gods."

Something in Astrae snapped at that.

"If I had my wings," she hissed, divine energy surging recklessly around her frame, "you would be nothing."

The declaration echoed across the cavern.

I felt it.

Her pride and fury.

Morveth’s aura spiked violently.

The air warped.

"You mistake circumstance for mercy," it intoned. "Even whole, you would bleed."

It moved faster than before.

A curved blade of decay formed from its arm and swept toward Astrae in a horizontal arc. She barely raised her weakened arm in time to block.

The impact detonated in a flash of white and black.

She screamed.

The blade carved through her defense and tore across her side, ripping flesh open down to bone. She stumbled backward, nearly losing her balance entirely.

Kyrene lunged to intercept, but Morveth was already repositioning.

The ground beneath me shifted.

Before I could react, bone erupted upward around Kyrene and me.

The prison formed in less than a breath.

Jagged ribs of obsidian bone shot up from the floor and curved inward, locking together into a cage that sealed above us. The structure was thick, reinforced with the same void-metal veins I had seen earlier.

I slammed both hands against it.

Nothing.

Morveth’s voice echoed faintly through the gaps.

"You two will wait," it murmured. "Your turn will come soon."

It turned fully toward Astrae.

"I will break you," it continued calmly. "Physically and mentally. Before this is over."

Astrae forced herself upright despite blood soaking her side. Divine light flickered unevenly around her feet.

"You can try," she spat.

They collided.

Astrae moved with precision despite her condition. She did not waste motion. Every strike was calculated, every movement angled to conserve energy.

She darted beneath Morveth’s descending limb and drove her spear upward into the junction between bone plates near its core.

The impact staggered it slightly.

Slightly.

Morveth retaliated instantly.

Its torso split open and dozens of tendrils shot outward like spears. Astrae twisted mid-air, but one tendril wrapped around her injured arm and yanked.

I heard the sickening sound of bone grinding.

She roared in pain as she was slammed into the cavern wall hard enough to crater the stone.

Morveth advanced slowly.

It did not rush to finish her.

It wanted to dismantle her.

Astrae tore the tendril free, leaving more blood behind, and launched herself forward again. She shifted her grip and channeled what little divine energy she had left into a condensed burst that detonated point blank against Morveth’s chest.

The blast forced it back several meters.

Fragments of bone shattered.

Tar poured from the wound.

For a heartbeat, I thought she had done it.

Then the tar thickened.

The bone regrew.

Morveth straightened.

"You persist," it observed. "Admirable."

Astrae’s breathing was ragged now. Her healing had slowed drastically. The wound at her side remained open, only partially sealed.

She forced herself to stand straighter anyway.

"I am Warbound," she declared hoarsely. "I do not kneel, not to the likes of you."

Morveth’s head tilted.

"Then break standing."

It struck her again.

This time with raw force.

The blow hit her midsection and drove her into the ground so hard the stone fractured outward in a circular wave. Blood sprayed across the shattered floor.

She did not rise immediately.

Morveth hovered over her.

"If you were not immortal," it murmured, voice low and layered, "you would have died already. Pity that you must suffer repeatedly because of that same immortality."

It raised its blade again.

I slammed my fists against the bone cage uselessly and shouted, "Astrae!"

Failure Converter flared violently in my skull, feeding me nothing useful.

Nothing decisive.

Just more angles. More failed attempts.

More deaths waiting to be added.

I felt helpless.

Furious.

All I was doing was increasing my death count while Kyrene carried the fight and Astrae bled out on the floor.

The blade descended.

And stopped.

Kyrene was there.

I did not see him move.

One moment he was inside the bone prison with me, the next he was not there at all.

He stood between Morveth and Astrae, weapon raised, intercepting the descending strike.

The impact detonated outward in a violent shockwave that rattled the entire cavern.

Kyrene’s eyes had changed.

They were narrower.

Sharpened.

The pupils slightly slit.

His stance was lower, more grounded, as he absorbed the full force of Morveth’s attack.

Stone beneath his feet cracked.

Blood ran from his lip.

But he did not move.

Morveth’s head tilted slowly.

"You... subtly change into something," it murmured.

Kyrene exhaled once through his nose.

"Yeah," he replied quietly. "I do."

I stared at the shattered remnants of the bone prison around me.

He had broken out.

Without me even seeing how.

Astrae lay behind him, barely conscious, blood pooling beneath her.

And I stood there.

Alive.

Useless.

Total deaths: 401.

I clenched my fists.

How.

How was I supposed to win this.

~~~

... Kyren caught another of Morveth’s descending blades as they clashed, and the entire cavern trembled from the force of their exchange.

The impact cracked stone beneath his boots. I felt the shockwave in my ribs even from several steps away.

Morveth did not look surprised.

It pressed down harder.

"You really persist young one," it rasped calmly.

Kyrene didn’t answer.

Something about him changed, but I couldn’t name it. His stance lowered slightly. His breathing slowed.

Focus. A frightening kind.

Morveth twisted unnaturally and lashed out with a second limb formed from tar and bone. Kyrene shifted at the last possible second, steel grinding against decay as Aether Edge reinforced his weapon.

He struck the same seam again.

The same place near the core.

The Bone split and tar like substance spilled.

And for a fraction of a second, the regeneration lagged.

That was it.

Failure Converter flared inside my skull.

It wasn’t invincible but rather, compensating.

Every time we struck that seam repeatedly, the regeneration slowed slightly.

It needed time to stabilize that channel.

Morveth extended both arms and the ground erupted in a violent ring of bone, separating us again. Jagged ribs of obsidian shot upward around me, forming a cage in seconds.

I didn’t waste time.

Death Link Burst.

Not fully.

Just enough from my current accumulated death, 401.

I didn’t recount them. I didn’t need to. The number existed quietly at the back of my mind.

The accumulated force compressed into my muscles and released in a sharp, violent surge. I slammed both palms into the bone prison, cracking one of the joints and breaking through before it fully locked.

Morveth’s head turned toward me.

"You struggle a lot," it observed flatly.

It didn’t know.

It didn’t know anything about my deaths.

To it, I was just being reckless.

That’s good.

Kyrene moved again.

Arcstep.

Arcstep.

Arcstep.

Three rapid displacements, each strike landing on the same structural seam.

Fourth hit.

Fifth.

The tar like thing pulsed erratically. Morveth responded with overwhelming force. A wave of decay energy exploded outward, shredding what remained of the cathedral pillars.

Kyrene absorbed part of it, boots skidding backward. Blood streaked across his cheek.

And then I felt it.

Not from Morveth.

From him, Kyrene.

The air around Kyrene tightened. Not visibly, not in a way that screamed power, but something pressed outward subtly. The ground beneath him cracked in thin lines radiating from his stance.

My chest tightened unexpectedly.

Pain. So much so.""

Sudden and sharp.

Like something pulling against my ribs from the inside.

I staggered but forced myself upright.

Not now.

I didn’t understand what that was, but I didn’t need Kyrene worrying about me. Astrae was barely breathing behind us.

Kyrene lunged again.

Sixth strike.

Seventh.

Morveth staggered a half step back this time.

It was working.

But it was adapting faster.

Morveth’s torso split and dozens of tendrils erupted outward. I slipped between two and deliberately allowed one to pierce my shoulder so I could pull myself closer.

I drove my blade into the seam.

Eighth hit.

Morveth retaliated instantly.

A beam of condensed decay energy tore through my torso.

Darkness.

—

Return.

Total deaths: 402.

No one reacted.

No one noticed.

To them, I had simply been knocked back.

I ran again.

The pattern sharpened in my mind. It needed consecutive destabilization before regeneration could complete. Five strikes in rapid succession overloaded the channel. Eight made it unstable. Nine...

We hadn’t reached nine cleanly yet.

Kyrene’s movements became even tighter. Cleaner. There was no wasted motion anymore. He moved like he had calculated every possible outcome and discarded all inefficient ones.

Ninth strike.

Morveth convulsed.

Violet light leaked from the crack in its core.

The cavern trembled violently.

Morveth drew energy inward, compressing tar and bone around the damaged seam.

It was trying to stabilize before the tenth.

I felt that sharp pain in my chest again.

Stronger this time.

Like pressure building beneath skin.

I swallowed it down and bit my lower lip hard.

Kyrene didn’t look at me.

Good.

He was focused entirely on Morveth.

I triggered Death Link Burst again.

Total deaths: 406.

The stored trauma detonated into my legs and I launched forward, intercepting a tendril that would have wrapped around Kyrene’s flank. It tore through my abdomen instead.

Darkness.

—

Return.

Total deaths: 407.

I came back already moving.

Morveth’s regeneration was faster now.

We needed to break the rhythm completely.

"Don’t let it reset!" I shouted.

Kyrene didn’t answer.

He already knew.

He Arcstepped above Morveth and drove his blade downward again.

Tenth strike.

The seam split wider.

Tar spilled without immediately sealing.

Morveth released a shockwave so violent it flattened the remaining pillars entirely. The cavern ceiling cracked. Stone rained down in massive chunks.

Kyrene tanked the forward pressure and countered with another strike.

Eleventh.

The violet core flickered.

Morveth moved differently now.

Less composed.

It abandoned measured strikes and unleashed raw destructive force. The floor beneath us liquefied into tar and hardened instantly again in jagged spikes.

One spike pierced through my thigh.

Darkness.

—

Return.

Total deaths: 409. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

I gritted my teeth and kept moving.

This was the most I had ever died in a single fight.

And still I couldn’t see the complete truth.

Failure Converter gave me fragments.

Angles.

Timing.

Compensation delays.

But not the final answer.

Kyrene lunged again.

Twelfth strike.

The seam ruptured further.

Morveth staggered visibly this time.

Astrae forced herself upright behind us, divine light flickering weakly around her injured arm. She hurled what little energy she had left directly into the damaged seam.

Thirteenth.

Morveth’s core fissured wider.

The violet glow pulsed erratically.

The entire cavern shook as if something deeper was reacting.

Morveth extended both arms and unleashed a catastrophic burst of decay energy in all directions.

There was no avoiding that.

Darkness.

—

Return.

Total deaths: 412.

I landed on my knees, lungs burning.

The pain in my chest surged again, sharper than before.

Something felt really wrong.

Like pressure building without release.

But I forced it down.

I could not afford to collapse now.

Kyrene was breathing harder.

Whatever he was doing, it was costing him.

He drove forward again.

Fourteenth strike.

The core cracked loudly.

A jagged fracture split across the violet mass.

Morveth recoiled, tar spilling freely instead of sealing cleanly.

It was close.

Not dead.

Not finished.

But close.

Morveth began compressing inward again, drawing everything toward the core in preparation for something massive.

I stepped forward.

Total deaths: 415.

Failure Converter screamed at full intensity.

There.

There.

There.

A thin secondary channel beneath the primary seam. Hidden beneath the layered plates. The regeneration was routing through it when overloaded.

We had been hitting the visible seam.

We needed to rupture the backup channel simultaneously.

I ran.

"Lower rib intersection!" I shouted.

Kyrene didn’t question it.

He shifted angle mid-charge and drove his blade into the lower junction just beneath the original seam.

I followed immediately.

No blade or any weapon, I’m not prepared nor do I know how to use one.

Just fists.

I launched myself at the primary fracture and drove both hands into the broken seam, ignoring the tearing sensation as tar burned into my skin.

Death Link Burst.

Everything I had stored detonated through my arms.

Both channels ruptured at once.

Morveth let out a deep, resonant sound that vibrated through bone and stone alike.

The violet core split wider.

The cavern trembled violently.

We were there.

Right at the edge.

One more decisive rupture.

One more destabilization.

And either Morveth would collapse.

Or it would unleash something none of us were ready to survive.