MMORPG: Surviving a Death Game with a Glitched System

A spirit’s desire, bestowed upon it by the world, was to destroy those who threatened that world.

Humans were the worst offenders of all.

They harmed the world without regard.

Winter had not abandoned that calamitous goal... She had merely surrendered her place as the one who would achieve it.

One way or another, she intended to have the world’s desire fulfilled.

So, she let the diabolical seed she’d planted a decade ago finally sprout.

The light pouring from Winter’s frozen corpse abruptly erupted. As it did, the tattoo on Ash’s shoulder vanished.

The light converged into a strange, translucent orb as her icy shell imploded, scattering shards across the ground like hail.

Cross tried to move for it, but Idolan held him back.

’The spirit stays around for ten minutes or so, huh...’

The orb hurtled toward Vera’s corpse.

A moment later, the princess’s eyes shot open.

Cross’s eyes widened with sudden realization. Tears clawed their way down his face as he shouted at Idolan:

"No— you bastard! Look at what you’ve done!"

But the king didn’t even acknowledge Cross.

Instead, he stared directly at Vera’s corpse as it rose from the ground.

"Ah, what a terrible gift you’ve left behind for us, Winter... exactly as we agreed. Come... Let our wills decide which of us has the right to shape this doomed fate."

Ash glanced at the two Hounds, who looked just as lost as he.

’Seriously... what’s going on?’

[You have equipped [Snow Crawler’s Pelt]]

The corpse of Vera stood, the gaping hole in her back frozen over but unmistakably present.

She was still dead.

Cross tried to move, but Idolan released his sword, lashed out, and clasped a hand around Cross’s throat, holding the crying boy still.

Lifting him off the ground, Idolan addressed his son with a warm smile and a gentle voice.

"Cross... your foolish father made quite the horrid gambit to spare your life."

Still crying, Cross weakly hammered his fists against his father’s head.

Meanwhile, Vera’s corpse creaked as its limbs contorted at unnatural angles. Then it twisted toward the father and son, its silver eyes snapping open.

Slowly, it shuffled toward Idolan until it stood directly behind him.

Idolan laughed haughtily.

"Do your best not to squander the life you still possess, son. And try to forgive this old soul. Love is a beautiful thing... but it is also quite the curse."

Cross tried to bite Idolan’s hand but never got the chance.

Vera’s corpse suddenly thrust a hand through Idolan’s chest. Her fingers emerged from the other side, clutching his impaled heart.

Moments later, the king’s body burst into flames. Rather than spreading, every flame converged and plunged into Vera’s body.

As she absorbed them, Idolan’s body disintegrated, leaving behind only ash while Cross fell to the floor.

Ash gulped.

’Seriously...’

Vera’s corpse seized.

Like a machine suddenly stripped of power, her shoulders slumped and her head hung.

Ash could only guess at what had happened...

’Demitra fused her dying spirit with Vera’s... and Idolan did the same.’

Judging by Idolan’s final words, the remnants of all three spirits now occupied Vera’s ruined body, their wills competing to determine which would take root.

The corpse itself appeared to possess no conscious will beyond the primal purpose the world had imprinted upon every spirit.

Still...

’Won’t the spirits simply disappear?’

Yet...

Ash doubted Winter and Idolan would have sacrificed themselves this way if their spirits were merely destined to fade.

Suddenly, Vera’s corpse began to cry.

Still on his knees, Cross looked up at the abomination before him — a true spirit chimera.

"Why... why does nothing ever go my way?"

As an eerie stillness settled over the battlefield, Ash called out to Cross while shuffling toward him.

"Because you’re feckless."

Ash was still piecing everything together through conjecture, but it was clear that Cross’s will to fight had vanished.

The girl Hound suddenly raised her dagger, pointing it at Ash.

"Stop. I cannot let you approach Master—"

Cross shook his head.

"It doesn’t matter. Rachel, Hans... stand down."

Tentatively, the two Hounds obeyed, allowing Ash to pass between them.

The seal continued to rumble, and the crystal sky fractured further.

Finally, Ash stopped a short distance from the fallen Cross and Vera’s standing corpse.

Tactless as ever, Ash asked:

"What happened?"

Cross raised his head until his vacant stare settled on Ash.

"When a spirit dies... its essence shatters and returns to the ether. At least, it should..."

With his arm hanging limply at his side, Cross paused before continuing.

"But if the dying spirit possesses a vast impregnanble will — an unshakable conviction that guides its very existence — shards if its existence can remain and act on instinct left behind by its owner. It seeks a new host, usually a weaker spirit, in which to implant its will. That fragment then takes root like an embryo, eventually giving birth to a new spirit driven by the same purpose."

Cross spoke slowly.

"Those two... both chose her spirit."

Ash looked at Vera’s corpse as it twitched again.

Despite its vacant, tearful gaze remaining fixed on the ground, something terrifying seemed to be happening within her body.

"In essence, the remnants of Winter, the intertwined souls of father and Fire, and Vera... All three spirits are competing for the right to be born through her body — and whichever will proves strongest will decide what the new spirit becomes."

Her body rattled again.

Ash looked down at Cross and asked:

"What’s the point of trying to take over her body if it’s already dead...?"

For reasons Ash couldn’t fathom, the silver prince continued to answer him.

"No. You misunderstand. Her body is only an incubator. Their spirits are forcing the remnants of Vera’s spirit to form into a true independent one, but both are also trying to overwrite it with their own. Vera’s spirit is resisting them in turn. Whichever of the three wills prevails will determine the spirit born from that vessel. But whatever emerges... it won’t truly be any of them."

’Just a pathetic copy, huh. I see.’

Though Ash still didn’t fully understand what was going on.

Like Idolan’s body had, a sudden crack appeared on the weeping princess’s cheek.

Then another. And another.

A series of cracks spread across her form before her body simply crumbled away like a peeling eggshell.

What was revealed underneath was a woman bearing Vera’s form.

She was naked. Long silver hair lay over her chest, hiding her breasts. Slender with long legs.

’A newborn spirit.’

One that must have been strong, even at conception, considering it was born of a Great Spirit, an echo of a Great Spirit posessing the resolve of a king, and the child of a Great Spirit.

But...

’Whose will does it hold?’

The sky cracked further, the magma raged, and the island they were on began to sink into the molten sea.

The spirit’s eyes snapped open.

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