Threads of the Soul

Two hearts would usually signify a medical wonder, or perhaps a serious debilitating medical condition. It was either that or he was a time travelling alien, but that would be simply ridiculous.

No, Seth gained his second heart from a shape-shifting, demon who could steal the magical powers of others by eating their heart. Something that was much more logical and realistic than some silly alien.

Indeed, the origin of the second heart, which was currently beating fervently within Seth's chest as if it was trying to leap out, was the Requital he had gained from killing the Heart-Eater. Ironically, by crushing his own heart. Life really was a cruel mistress.

The Requital in question had been named the [Telltale Heart], and was a Requital that Seth had no idea whatsoever about. He had tried it out multiple times, in a multitude of situations, but he could never figure out its function.

Whenever he would summon it, he would simply have a heart form on the other side of his chest. However for the last four months, the heart had never beat a single time. No matter what he did, how much he exerted himself, the heart never did anything.

It had gotten to the point that Seth considered it a dud, and that perhaps it was simply supposed to replace his own heart should he face any issues, such as encountering another heart eating monster. But since that time had yet to come, the useless Requital had been placed to the side and unceremoniously forgotten about.

In fact, Seth didn't even have it summoned when he had been talking with the dragon. It had simply manifested itself within his chest the moment he laid eyes on that vial of blood and began to beat like a monkey playing a bongo drum.

Seth couldn't explain how it had done that, or why it had such an immediate connection with the blood within the vial. He was in a trance, slowly moving towards the dragon lady as he gently lifted his hand to touch the vial she was holding out towards him.

The liquid itself seemed to... bubble, almost. Moving ever so slightly within its container, completely by its own free will and without the vial being moved. But that had to be impossible, right?

"This is the blood of your progenitor. It was a very precious relic to me, so don't you dare lose it. You have no idea what I had to do to get this, but it should be able to help you locate him. All you have to do is-"

KRRTTSHHH

The glass vial, filled with the precious blood of the progenitor, shattered into tiny pieces without warning. There were no previous cracks on the glass, no weaknesses or imperfections. The dragon had taken meticulous care of this item, even going so far as to procure special glass so that it didn't stain the inside.

All of that effort had gone into preserving and protecting this item, yet the moment it came into contact with Seth's fingers, it shattered like all of her hopes and dreams.

It wasn't even as if Seth had simply squeezed the glass too hard and accidentally shattered it. In fact, although he didn't know this, he could have beat that glass with a sledgehammer and it would be the sledgehammer that broke first.

Yet, at the smallest, most tender brush of his fingers it was reduced to sparkly, expensive dust.

However, despite the glass container shattering, the blood did not fall to the floor. Instead, it seemed to fall in a most peculiar way. It stayed suspended in the air for the briefest moment, until all the glass debris had been cleared from its path, before launching towards Seth's palm like a striking viper.

The blood splattered against his palm, before his skin began to quickly drink up the liquid. The blood dug its way into his hand, tunnelling through his skin and plunging into his veins.

Despite it being blood in his vein, mixing with the rest of his blood, Seth could feel the foreign entity worming its way inside of him. Even when it was just a drop in the ocean of blood, he could feel the difference in that single spot within his palm. Although that wasn't for long.

As soon as it was in his vein, it was like a fish in water, and immediately began to move throughout his body. For Seth, it was like a worm had burrowed its way into his body and was eagerly crawling through him. He could feel its path as it swam through the maze of blood vessels, before charging towards his hearts, which were thundering louder than ever.

His muscles tensed as it slithered its way through his body, invading every inch of him, before finally reaching its prime location. The worm of blood paused at the entrance to his heart, clogging the artery like a lifetime of heavy cheese consumption.

It almost seemed apprehensive, but the feeling didn't last long before it dove head first into his [Telltale Heart]. Everything seemed fine at first, until the Requital heart beat once more.

His blood erupted into flames from that single heart beat, his blood feeling like it had turned into jet-fuel as every beating of the [Telltale Heart] pushed it further and further throughout his body, until every single inch of his body. Thousands of miles of blood vessels existed within the human body, and every single millimetre was burning like Napalm.

Seth hunched over, coughing up a lungful of blood onto the ground as his body consumed itself. The blood sizzled audibly as it hit the floor, and actually had a slightly luminous glow as it sat in a puddle.

Collapsing to the floor, Seth was once more reduced to a writhing mess on the floor as his body underwent yet another torturous transformation that made him seriously consider that Hell might be better.

The dragon lady looked on in a mix of frustration and morbid curiosity. How could she not be angry when her most precious possession had been destroyed, yet even she had yet to witness something such as this.

Part of her wanted to just cut him open and drain the progenitors blood from his worthless veins, but she abstained. There had to be a reason for such a thing. At the very least, she had a perfect view of the punishment he was undergoing for his heinous transgression, although that might have just been how she was rationalising it to herself.

As Seth's blood boiled and seemingly turned itself into molten lava, it became too much for his lowly veins to handle. Even with his transcendent body, strengthened by evolution and mana, he simply wasn't equipped to deal with such a thing.

His muscles tensed and spasmed as he writhed on the floor and, starting with his fingers, the veins within his body started to be charred black.

The blood colouration crawled up his arm, hit his hearts and pulsated throughout the rest of his body. His hearts glowed like stars within his chest, growing brighter and brighter with every pulsation, as the lights slowly merged together until in the centre of his chest, projecting through his shirt and even the harness he wore, was a singular black star. The only thing separating it from a lightless void was the subtle white ring around this black star as it projected impossible light.

The black veins bulged in his neck and crawled up his throat like a disease, his pale face becoming a spider web of sickly black veins that pulsated angrily. Seth's eyes were permanently open, staring ahead of him in confusion and panic. But it was not just from the pain of his transformation, but from what he was seeing before him.

For the longest time, his elemental score had been stagnant. Even after all these months, it had barely moved from its initial total, only ever getting boosts from his other evolutions. He knew that the likes of Astra and other elemental users that they could increase it by consuming special organs from elemental creatures, like the flame sac of a fire breathing bird for example.

But for non-elementals like Seth, drinking that would be like drinking fire. A sensation he had hated the thought of before, but would happily do a dozen times instead of having his blood boiling like this.

It was because of that issue that he had simply given up on his elemental score, he had become content that it would be his lowest for the rest of his life. Yet, before his very eyes that was rapidly starting to change.

[Your Elemental Score has increased.]

[Your Elemental Score has increased.]

[Your Elemental Score has...]

Over and over, Angel repeated those same lines in his head. The words spewed from their non-existent mouth so fast that the sentences were constantly overlapping and echoing within his mind like a thousand broken records playing simultaneously.

He had summoned his stats, the numbers constantly changing. 110, 112, 116, 120, 140, 200. The numbers spun and spun in front of his eyes like the wheels of a slot machine. The higher they went, the more Seth boiled from the inside until they were spinning so fast he couldn't read a single digit.