Bloodstained Blade (Gamelit, Sword MC)

+8,956 Life Force.

The Ebon Blade was completely overwhelmed in that moment. Paralyzed by sorrow, it was flooded with power. Indeed, it was far more energy than it had ever expected from a single soul.

The fiery blood of a demonic dragon roared through it in that moment, filling its reserves to overflowing in an instant, and then beyond. That heat was a painful contrast to what it had experienced previously.

+10,479 Life Force. Energy Reservoir Full.

Life Force reserve limits exceeded!

In fact, only its brief experience with the Golden Throne was in any way similar. That had been millions of Life Force, which was enough to turn its wielder to ashes. The dragon soul was only tens of thousands by comparison, but even so, as it dissolved, its rage rebounded inside the weapon, looking for release.

+6,331 Life Force. Energy Reservoir Full.

Soul Stone cracking! Runes overloading!

It tried the Warbringer first. Enough power flowed into it that its eyes glowed red, and its engine revved dangerously close to its limits. That still wasn't enough to make it rise under the terrible burdens of its guilt, but it was enough to make it grip the blade's hilt once more.

+3,983 Life Force. Energy Reservoir Full.

Runes overloading!

The weapon wasn't so lucky. Its blade began to burn red hot. Even chilled by the water around it, the liquid began to bubble and boil. Through all of that, though, the demon prince didn't so much as blink. He just lay there, languid and sobbing as the weight of the world crushed his victims.

+2,154 Life Force. Energy Reservoir Full.

Soul Rupturing.

The blade could no longer abide by that stalemate, though. More power than it was capable of containing was radiating through it, and it was painfully hot. Hotter than dragon's blood, the blade thought, remembering how little it had felt when it had been embedded in a dragon for weeks.

+1,984 Life Force. Energy Reservoir Full.

Soul Stone failure imminent.

That made sense with the hellish nature of the soul it had devoured, but even so, it couldn't find a way to expel that power. Every time it tried to use an attack, the guilt of its deeds and the sorrow of the slain prevented it.

Vorpal Strike only brought forth a wave of carnage-fueled memories. Bolt rebounded as well, filling it with pain instead of electricity, and all the time, the terrible pressure grew. For a moment, the blade was certain that its ruby was going to shatter under the immense pressure that filled it, then, at random, it triggered Position of Privilege.

-100 Life Force.

A mere hundred Life Force wasn't enough to ease the pressure, but since it wasn't an attack, the souls of the damned that assailed it made no move to stop it. So the blade responded by doing it over and over again. Ten times, then twenty, it activated the power. It tried Shifting blade as well, along with Amplify Wielder and anything else that it could spend its energy on.

-2,085 Life Force.

It used Position of Privilege more than anything else, though, and it could feel the world distorting around it as it tried to abide by the blade's twisted magic. And I haven't even tried to use it, the weapon noted as the skein of the world twisted and fluctuated.

On whim, not really believing it would work, the blade tried to expand the distance between it and the demon prince, subjectively. While only feet separated them. It should be able to push itself hundreds of feet away and get clear of the thing's monstrous influence. For a moment, the voices in its soul screamed in protest, but grudgingly, the world shifted.

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For a few seconds, the Ebon blade and its wielder were hundreds of feet away from the thing. That was enough to flex its metal wielder's fingers and try to rise, but even so, they were both still overwhelmed by the sorrow of this place.

-642 Life Force.

While the Ebon Blade's wielder tried and failed to stand, the demon prince did something unexpected and stood in his place. "Even now, you try to run from me?" it sobbed. "Even under the weight of so many grievous sins, you still have the strength to move?"

The man was obviously in disbelief, but still showed no fear. He stepped lightly toward the blade, and as he did so, the weight of his gaze increased.

"You are here for the same reasons as the rest of us," he whispered. "And you will stay until your armor and your blade rust so that your soul can finally drift free."

That was the last thing that the weapon wanted, but its invisible shackles seemed to be inescapable. In a moment of clarity, it took in that terrible, hopeless scene. It watched its steel giant on its knees as the fire in its eyes was already starting to extinguish again, and the frail young man advancing on it. He looked like a prince on his deathbed, and yet he was indomitable. The sea shifted with him, and his gaze held the weight of ages.

-488 Life Force.

Running away isn't the answer, it decided suddenly. Running away is never the answer.

The blade couldn't run, but for the moment, it had boundless energy and dangerous levels of control over the world around it. So, instead of trying to push the demon prince away as hard as it could, it pulled him as close as the magic would allow. It shrank the three feet between them from the hundreds of feet it had been for a moment to its natural amount, then it began to compress space.

The demon prince's power assaulted the weapon with renewed force, but even as its mind was swept away by a thousand screams of pain, it continued to squeeze. Squeezing was the easiest thing in the world. It was the death grip it exerted on its wielders in their final moments, not to release it. It was its final act of defiance, and as it did so, the world shifted again.

-2,200 Life Force.

Visibly, everything stayed in the same place. The temple still stood, and the souls still coursed overhead, but the feet that separated the blade from its enemy became inches, and then fractions of an inch. If it had been able to move, it would have been the easiest thing in the world for the blade to lash out and lop off the man's head.

While it couldn't do that, though, it could draw him ever closer to where the heat of its efforts boiled the water around it and its wielder. For a moment, nothing happened, and the weapon thought that its gambit had failed. There was every reason it should have, of course. Blue-skinned or not, it was a demon, so fire probably wasn't something that it would be too afraid of.

-4350 Life Force.

At least, that's what the blade thought, until the frail demon prince began to scream. That ragged sound wasn't completely discernible from his sobbing before now, but it shook his grip on his strange powers enough that for a moment the blade was free.

It used that second wisely, and even before it took in the extent of its opponents' burns, it rose and struck. At least, it tried to. An instant before it reached the demon's slender throat to slice his head from his shoulders, the pitiful man froze the world again, breaking the whole weight of the ocean down on the blade. Now that it had hope and a plan, though, not even that was enough to force it to the ground a second time.

-6,530 Life Force.

The two were locked there, frozen in a contest of wills. The blade was burning through serious amounts of Life Force, and the souls of its victims pleaded with it to stop, but the demon prince was in far worse shape.

"No one may touch me," the man spat as the water around him boiled fiercely enough for the skin to blister and blotch before it started to slough off his bones entirely.

The blade couldn't keep this up forever, but it didn't need to. It just kept amplifying Position of Privilege, bringing the two of them ever closer together.

-8,325 Life Force.

While it could never quite touch the man, it could decrease the distance between them so that it was smaller and smaller. It could make it so that less than a hair's breadth separated them. Then, it waited, boiling the demon alive while it tried to torment it to death with an infinite ocean of suffering.

Even after all of that, neither of them had the advantage until the Demon Prince writhed in pain just a little more than usual and nicked himself against the blade's edge. That was all it took. After that, the weapon pulled on the slender streamer of blood, unraveling him like a tapestry. This time it was the demon prince's turn to suffer and wail, but truthfully, it didn't sound much different from the whining he'd exhibited up until now.

-4,200 Life Force.

+43 Life Force.

He was cooked from without and drained from within, and a minute later, he'd fallen to the ground as a desiccated husk of the already frail man that he'd been when this fight had started months before. The blade took no small amount of pleasure in that as it stole the demon's soul, but it took more pleasure in the silence that was its mind. It had dealt with the screaming and suffering of others for a small eternity, and now that it was once again surrounded by true peace, it took a moment to bask in it.

-1,875 Life Force.

+221 Life Force.

+1 Demon Prince Soul.

In fact, it enjoyed that feeling so much that it took it several seconds longer than it should have to realize what its battle had done to the city around them. It was with some surprise that the blade looked around and saw what it had done, even as its magic started to fade.