My life was fading. I could feel myself dying as the pain slowly melted away. I couldn’t see anything, but I felt the eyes of various entities around me.
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W̸̢̹̜͍͖͉̄̽͒̚͜͠͠ḧ̶̢̯̝̪̦́̏͌̈́͘a̵̝̯̓͐̊̓̍͘͠ͅt̵̩̦̭̣̉͌̄̽̇̕̕ͅ ̸͉̹̗͍͖͂̉̍͊̌̕d̶̡̧̲͉̞͈̰͖̞̅o̶̢̦̦͖̯̭̯̺̝͐͘̕ ̴̢̲̠̭̖̊̈́̿͐͂͘w̸̨̬̱̟͓͚̩͓̺̒̓͌̏͑́̀͘ȅ̷̢̹̩̭͋ ̶̢̭̗̙̩̲̎̽̂́́͌͌͆͑d̵̡̲͇̱̖̘̘̍̈́͒̌͝ở̷̝́̌?̸̡̢̘͎̞̽̎̚͝ͅ
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I̸̢͕̲͗͌̊͋ṱ̴̥̥̯̉̌͘͘'̵̲̘́͠ś̷̛̭̥̮ ̷̙͍̂ñ̴̡̺͈ơ̴̮ ̸̯͇̞̮̂͝f̷̜̎̿͜ú̶̞̤̀n̸̛̦ ̸̧̑̂̀͝i̸̯͔͎͂͑͠f̶̞̟̿̽́ ̸̱͇̪̻̑̈́̚͘t̶̜͗̕̚h̵͙̠̤̒ĕ̸̞ ̷͎͐̈̃ṗ̵̼̺̱l̷̼̎̾̈́͠a̶̻̖͕͛͌̓́ͅy̶̯̤̿̿͜ê̴̱͍͕̈͝r̵̮͓̯͑̇ ̶͖͓͈̄̚͝ẁ̶͕̥͎̉̉͘o̷̝̣̜͗ņ̴̹̯̜͂̀̋'̷͍̿͗̓̿ț̴̥̹͂̀ ̸̧͚͕́̍p̴͕͔͚̈̐̐́ĺ̴̖͎̞͇͘ã̶̘͈͕̲͒y̶̧̢̩̭̔͌́̎
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H̸̦͙̩̬̳́̇̀̉Õ̷͔̓Ẅ̴̰̠̜̰̻͈̮͎͓͓́̅͜͠ ̵̡̛̗͔̯̩͓̼̲̒͘̕Ḉ̴͕̗̠͉͔̩̝̣̄̈́͌̒͒͐̒̅͝O̸̢̡̼̥̳̖͇̼̥̗͉͌̋̅͐͠U̶̩̦͎͋̄͗̀̊̀̚͠L̵̝̳̿̏̅͌͑̿̈̚D̸̡̩͙͉̱͕̜͙̩̘̃́̆̓̏̇͠͝ ̶͓͕̝̩̟͉̭̰̔̊̿̑̒̈́͆̃̈̐͗Y̵̧͓͈͙̬̘̪̪̹̒͌̓̌̚ͅͅƠ̵̟͕͗̓͒͑̓ͅÛ̴̟̱̱̮͐̈́̽̀͠ͅ ̷̢̟̳̰̬̜͕͍̜̝̂͐͊͆́̄̄͘͜͝É̷̛͈͙̪̰̳̣̪͙̠̟̅N̷͈̼̗̫̲̗̺̻̥̋D̵̡̰̘̞̩͖̈ ̶̨̨̢̠̤̫̗̒̈́͒̋͠Y̴̱͕͛̋̽̄̅͘̕͠O̴̧͚̻̊͗Ŭ̵̡͒̔̉̓̔̚R̸̼͚͕̤͚͗͑͌̐́͒̕͘ ̵̤̭͉̰̓̂͊͐̌́͛͝L̴̝̺̱̻͎͖̼̙͚̭̮̈́̉̓́̕͠Ǐ̸̢̛̳̬͓̈́̂͊̾͐̄͘͠F̴̢̧̳̟̲̬̜̗̼͚̥͊͗͆͋̚Ȩ̴̥̺̯͔̥̪̚?̶̧̙̊́͒!̴̛̱̜̠̇̍͗̌͌̆́
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I’m falling into the void and right as I hit some sort of invisible wall, I wake up on the streets.
Oh? This is new. Normally I wake up in my dorm room. I sighed, feeling the cold seep through my body from the ground. Slowly I blink my eyes, quickly adjusting to the darkness of the alley. This is going to be my trickiest life so far. Why? Because I have died twelve times over. Meaning that the life that I’m currently living is number, you guessed it, thirteen.
I’m not normally superstitious, but when you’ve lived thirteen lives, you grasp onto anything you get. Call me a pessimistic realist, but I know I’m never going to get out of this loop.
I start walking, thunder rolling in the distance, rain starting to drip from the clouds, and lightning flashing, illuminating the city for a few seconds. I suppose I’m living out part of ‘my’ past. Or at least, the backstory I was programmed with.
My name is Aeryn, but I use Rin as a codename of sorts. Since you can’t see me, I’ll explain my appearance. My hair is black and fluffy, though I have to dye it to keep it that way. My purple-blue, iridescent eyes don’t have pupils, and my skin is a bit on the pale side. Currently, I’m wearing a black catsuit with a hood and a kitty mask covering my nose and my mouth. My hair covers my eyes.
My backstory is a bit of a mystery, even to me. I know enough, but never really got to explore my own character due to the whole ‘try not to die’ thing. I’m not human, but not Beast either. As far as I know, I’m just me. Then again, I doubt any human, Beast, or even Fae have ever died twelve times in a row for the gods’ entertainment.
The streets were so familiar, I could move through them with my eyes closed. I crept through the shadows. I don’t need any cops catching me. In just an hour, I realized that I was in my seventeen year old body. Six months before the main plot of the wretched book/game I read/played started. I’m starting to forget my human life…but I could change my future!
Twelve lifetimes ago, I was an ordinary person, living a boring life, reading manga and playing otome games. Then my abusive boyfriend drove me over the edge. Of a goddamn cliff! He died alongside me, though not before we hit the ground. No, I stabbed the fucker in the eye before we hit the ground.
Then I woke up in this endless loop. The gods punished me for defending myself. Or perhaps the gods wanted to see me snap again in a sense of twisted amusement.
As I was turning a corner, I ran into a drunk man supported by two women and three more following behind.
“Watch where ya goin’ brat!” The man slurred out.
“Ew, more like rat!” One of the women giggled. She wore large jewels all over her body, probably fake since there’s so many. The man wore gold chains and silver earrings.
I stuttered ‘nervously’ and whimpered a soft p-please d-d-don’t hurt m-me before running away. As soon as I got out of hearing distance, I snickered to myself. My pockets had three wallets, five bracelets, and six rings in them. I rolled a ring across my fingers.
“That was pretty sneaky.”
Shit.
I ran away, jumping and running at the speed of light. I can teleport too, but only in short little ‘hops,’ however, this makes me one of the fastest creatures out there. Up the building, parkour leaps, jumping across the rooftops, and finally hiding in a tree at least half a mile away. As I was softly trying not to gasp for breath, I heard somebody calling below.
“Come out, I won’t hurt you. I only want to talk.”
Says every bad guy ever. I snarkily thought. I observed the man (?) below, but couldn’t get a clear visual due to the leaves and the angle. The man walked off and I almost let out a sigh of relief. But I know better than to make a mistake like that. I waited an hour in that tree, only coming down when I started cramping up and when my clothes were soaked from the drizzle.
I shook my head and jumped down from the branch I was hiding in, shivering slightly. The rain stopped and I kept walking. I’m not sure where, but I don’t stop moving until I find someplace secure enough to sleep. I only had a couple more hours before the sun would rise. And a seen thief is a dead thief.
Soon enough, I found an old apartment that really should have been demolished about ten years ago. Luckily, there was an old mattress without mold. A blanket would have been nice, and a pillow wouldn’t be bad either, but I didn’t have that kind of luxury. I took off my catsuit and wrung the water out, then I dried it using only the most basic fire spell. I dried off my underclothes and my body as well, because I hate being wet.
Raising a hand to the ceiling, after finally laying down, I stared at a plain silver ring on my third finger. In each of my lives, I hadn’t been able to take it off. I even tried to cut my finger off at one point.
Did.
Not.
Budge.
My eyes traveled to the corner of the room where two pairs of eyes looked back at my iridescent ones.
Wait a minute-
I sat up quickly and looked again, but nothing was there. Damn, I must be tired from all that running around. I’m starting to see things now. I turned over and closed my eyes.
.
.
.
Voices…why are there so many voices in my head?
“You can hear us? About time!” A rough voice growled.
“Finally! We can start the fun stuff now!” A high pitched voice chirped happily.
“Not yet, idiots. The child isn’t ready.” Someone said with a sigh.
“Exactly. The child needs to remove the seal, and the poor kid can’t do that on their own.” A fifth voice said sympathetically.
Who are these people? What are they doing in my head? Why can’t I wake up from this dream?
“All will be explained in due time. For now, just relax.”
.
.
.
“Fuuuuuck…” I grumbled. “My head hurts like hell…”
“Have you tried ginger tea?”
“AGSHKHJSJH- WHO?!” I shot up from the mattress and looked around, realizing I wasn’t alone. I was not ready for what I saw though. Thirteen impossibly beautiful beings were in the old apartment. Thirteen mythical creatures that were incredibly strong. Much stronger than me. There was, as far as I could tell, a Kumiho, a Manticore, a Thundercat, a TigerKoi, a Naga, a Hellhound, an Arachiana, a Jeweled Peacock, a Frost Leopard, a Diamond Dragon, a Phoenix, a Demon, and an Archangel. I looked at each of the creatures in turn, studying them.
The Kumiho had short white fluffy hair, similar to my own style except the tips were light green. The same color as its eyes. It had light green markings on its ears and its fluffy white tail. Its skin was also fairly light.
The Manticore had dark skin and a wild ‘mane’ of golden hair. Its hair had multiple shades of gold and bronze, making it look like the sun was always shining off of it, and its eyes were a warm amber.
The Thundercat had jaguar spotted ears and tail, and its chocolate skin was a few shades lighter than the Manticore. It had curly brown hair and vivid purple eyes.
The TigerKoi had short hair that was a mix of blues, oranges, white, and light gold. Just like a koi fish, but it looked striped in its hair. Its eyes were a mix of orange and blue together, looking oddly beautiful. Its tail was long and flowy, as if water was rippling.
The Naga had four arms, dusty brown skin, thick long hair, and a serpent tail from the waist down. It had a mix of copper and dark gold scales with black markings down its back. Its eyes were dark brown with copper flecks, but the area surrounding the iris was black.
The Hellhound had messy black hair with bangs, silver piercings in its ears, and jewel red eyes. Its tail wasn’t fluffy, but it was still large. Its right ear had a ‘V’ shaped chip in its side.
The Arachiana had purple-pink hair with cyan and electric blue mixed in its long bangs, and its eyes matched its hair, the purple, blue, and cyan mixed in its alluring eyes.
The Jeweled Peacock has a similar skintone to the Naga, probably because they were both Indian looking. It had chin length, wavy brown hair and beautiful blue-green eyes as well as blue-green feathered wings and don’t even get me started on the long feathered tail. It was covered in jewels and absolutely stunning.
The Frost Leopard was a stark contrast to the Peacock. It had long silver hair with darker grey and pale blue spots, just like a snow leopard. Its eyes were icy blue and it too had an earring, though instead of a bunch of piercings, it had just one icicle-like earring dangling from its cat ear.
The Diamond Dragon had dark blue, chin length hair, long dark blue horns that pointed to the back of its head, which were lighter at the tips, large scaled wings that really did shine like sapphires and diamonds, a long tail with crystal like spines, and an intimidating aura. Its eyes were blue, but seemed to get lighter or darker, depending on the angle.
The Phoenix had long red-orange hair tied up in a ponytail and yellow eyes. Its scarlet wings were large and radiated heat and its honey colored skin was tanned from the sun.
The Archangel had light brown skin and airy brown hair, short and simple, but elegant. Its eyes were a very light gold, and its three white wings, which was the giveaway on how I knew it was an Archangel, were tipped in gold. Because for some reason, gold was important here.
The Demon was the exact opposite of the Archangel. It had pitch black hair, and like the snake, had black surrounding the iris of its eyes. The Demon's eyes were silver. Its hair was in that refined cut, with the bangs parted and smooth and the back of its hair was running down its neck, and going just past the base of its neck. Its horns, unlike the Dragon, went more up, and started from right above the forehead. Its horns had black jewels running up, and it had a tail with silver accessories.
What the hell? I blinked slowly. This has to be a dream. No way in hell are there thirteen King Ranked Spirits in my room. I don't believe it.
“You better believe it,” The Hellhound growled lightly.
CAN HE READ MY MIND?! Okay, now I'm panicking!
“Your face is so expressive, haha!” The Kumiho giggled.
“This is the weirdest dream ever…or maybe there’s a weird gas leak in this apartment. Yup, that’s it.” I got up, feeling oddly lightheaded, and made my way to the door. Before I could walk out, someone pulled me back by my collar.
“Ack-! Hey! What gives?!” I shouted and squirmed, trying to pull away from the grip of the Manticore who was dragging me back to the mattress. He plopped me down on it and walked back to his position on the floor.
“This isn’t a dream. And you know it too, you’re just refusing to acknowledge it.” The Demon grinned a knowing smile.
I gulped. Something tells me that I need to tread carefully here. I glanced at the window. If I can get to the window, I’m as good as gone. I masked my face and got up from the mattress, slowly and carefully approaching the Demon, which happened to be close to the window. “What’s going on here?” I asked, glaring through my thick bangs.
“You mean you don’t know?” The Naga asked, crossing two of its arms while placing the others on its hips.
“I wouldn’t be asking if I did!” I snapped.
“No need to be hostile.” The Thundercat smiled reassuringly. It only put me on edge.
“Hmp!” I huffed, looking at the Demon. “So are you going to explain, or are you going to attack me or do whatever you came here for?”
“Straight to the point, huh? Alright, let me explain it this way. You’ve died twelve times now, right?” The Demon asked as if it already knew that.
I teleported right next to the window and got one foot, both my arms, and my head out before I felt something wrap around my ankle and pull me back. I held onto the edge of the window for as long as I could, but when I felt my ankle get crushed, my hands weakened and I let go. I screamed in pain, tears blurring my vision as I hung upside down. I was forced onto the mattress once more, this time staying put and cradling my hurt leg.
“My, my~ Have we learned a lesson here?” The Archangel walked to my trembling form, leaning over my tear streaked face. He wiped my cheeks, even as I flinched the second he touched my skin.
The Kumiho walked over to me as well. “Let me see.” He softly demanded, rather than asked.
“No…” I whimpered, curling in on myself. The Archangel backed away for the Kumiho to deal with my situation.
“If I’m going to heal you, I would like to see.” The Kumiho raised his voice slightly. Instead of answering, I closed my eyes and prayed that this was a nightmare, knowing that the gods would ignore me. I heard the Kumiho sigh and felt the weight of the mattress dip.
It wasn’t until the damned fox spirit grabbed my broken ankle and dragged me closer, that I realized he was laying over me. I screamed again and lashed out, trying to claw the Kumiho’s eyes out. He flipped me onto my stomach and pushed my face into the mattress. I struggled, even as he was healing my leg. The process was painful since my ankle didn’t snap, it was crushed; meaning that there were small bone shards in my leg.
I sobbed into the mattress, cursing the creatures around me, the gods, and my ex, for putting me in this situation. Finally, after I was starting to run out of air, the Kumiho let me up. I gasped and curled back into a ball. Well, I tried to curl up again. The Archangel picked me up by the waist and folded his wings over me, pressing my back against his chest.
“Hush, you’re fine now. And I’m sure this isn’t even close to what you’ve been through in your past lives, is it?” I felt the vibrations of his voice in his chest and hiccuped. No one should know about my past lives. No one and nothing.
“Let go of me. LET GO OF-mmf!” The Archangel put his hand over my mouth, shushing me.
“You have a bad habit of disobedience.” The Archangel said in a stern voice, as if reprimanding a child.
I tried to fight again, or at least get them mad enough to either slip up or kill me. Push come to shove, if the opportunity shows itself, I’ll kill myself and restart this lousy life once again. Most people would fear taking their own life, but when you’ve lived and died twelve times in a row, never living even a full year, you stop fearing death. For me, suicide is like a reset, not a game over.
“Tch, I think we should just knock the kid out and deal with the situation like that. Otherwise, Aeryn, was it? Otherwise Aeryn is just going to fight us.” The Phoenix looked at my struggling smaller form, wrapped tightly by the Archangel, who seemed to be enjoying my one-sided fight.
“Or you could just give him to me.” The Arachiana extended his hands and the Archangel handed me over to the spider spirit. The first thing I went for were the six eyes. The Arachiana pulled my arm forward as I tried to punch him and extended two spider-like legs out of his back. At first, I thought that I was going to be killed again, so I braced myself for the pain. Instead, the Arachiana started spinning me with webs, wrapping my body up tightly. Rather than putting me down somewhere, he held my immobile body and crossed the two smooth spider limbs over me. I could see the dark blues and purples with little veins of dark teal mixed beautifully in the legs.
“I could have done the same thing with my tail.” The Naga lazily stated.
“You probably would have crushed the kid.” The Frost Leopard snorted.
I’m right here! I would have yelled at the creatures if the Arachiana didn’t cover my mouth with the sticky silk. However, I found I could still growl.
“Pff- Feisty little thing.” The Peacock laughed, holding a fan to his face.
Argh! Why are they all so belittling? I couldn’t even wiggle around because of how much silk was on me.
The Demon coughed to get everyone’s attention and started talking again. “Anyway, back to my fascinating explanation. You’ve had thirteen lives. And, through some sort of miracle, now you hold fourteen life-forces. Which is odd, because this is only your thirteenth life.” He raised an eyebrow in my direction.
This is only my thirteenth life? Hmp, he talks as if it wasn’t a feat to behold. I guess they don’t know about my original life on Earth. I smiled to myself, happy to keep at least one secret. Who knew I would collect life-forces like pokemon cards?
“Hey, are you paying attention?” The TigerKoi asked, flowy tiger tail lashing behind him.
“The brat can’t answer you, dumbass.” The Diamond Dragon scoffed.
I watched the interaction with mild interest.
“Y’know, it would be nice to see what kind of expression the kid is making.” The Jeweled Peacock frowned playfully. He sauntered over to me and reached his hand out, likely to move my bangs. I flinched and turned my head, closing my eyes a split second before he moved my black hair out of the way.
“Aw, there’s nothing to be scared of, little one.” The Peacock giggled lightly, and the Kumiho joined in.
“Yes, as long as you stay here, you’ll be fine. And as soon as the boring stuff gets explained, we can play some games!” The Kumiho grabbed my face, squeezing my cheeks.
Nothing to be scared of, my ass! You fuckers crushed my ankle! I could barely turn my head, tightly closing my eyes and growling.
“Keep going.” The Arachiana spoke in the direction of what I assumed to be the Demon.
My guess was correct since the Demon continued his boring and lengthy, run around explanation.
“You two, step away from the child. If the kid doesn’t want to look at your faces, don’t bother them.” I’m pretty sure the Demon rolled his eyes, judging from the mildly offended scoffs from the Kumiho and the Peacock. The Demon finally started talking about the relevant information needed. “The fact is, you have fourteen life-forces. There are thirteen of us. You have enough energy to feed us and sustain yourself. So, like it or not, we’re sticking to you. At least, for a while.” The Demon finished his half-assed explanation. Then he smiled at me. He fucking smiled, that goddamn asshole.
What. The. Actual. Fuck.
“Oh, you can let the kid go now. I don’t think that they’ll try to run again.” I recognized the voice of the Archangel.
The silk holding me back was snapped as if it wasn’t as strong as steel. I quickly fixed my hair and opened my eyes. The silk covering my mouth was removed as well, so I could finally talk, but how could I? But I was rendered speechless at the Demon’s words. My pupil-less eyes locked onto silver and black ones. When I could talk again, I barely whispered.
“What’s going to happen to me?
ns 15.158.61.54da2
