Life's Gift

She had already seen his body size when she saved him earlier, so she agreed, "You're probably right. I might not even be able to alter my clothes to fit you without making a completely new piece. I think the only thing I can do right now is probably give you a sheet to cover yourself with."

She continued, "If we can get back to my home, I can probably make you some clothes, but it's about half a day's walk from here." She looked at the sun. "If we get going now, we can make it there before dark."

"Half a day? That far?"

She paused for a moment before realizing why he might not have the same sense of scale as most. To most, except those who had never traveled, half a day's walk was close. She asked, "Are you a lord?"

"A lord?"

A half-smile came across her face. "Did you die recently? What's the last thing you remember?"

"I… yeah, I actually did. Is that… How am I alive? The last thing I remember is a fire and then just sinking to the bottom of the lake."

"I get it now," she said as she wiped the last tears off her face from when she was sobbing over the person she thought she couldn't save. "Most people would never go anywhere near that lake because so many people drown there, but you were right in the middle of it. I could only get to you because of something I found a while ago. Even then, you're probably only still alive because of your gift."

"Gift?"

"Everybody who's pulled into the Lord's Competition by Life is given a gift. Some are better than others, but they're all tailor-made for each person. I'm guessing yours is related to water. Were you a swimmer in your past life? Fisherman?"

"No, not really. I fished once or twice but never seriously."

"Well, you probably had something to do with water. Or, I'm wrong about your gift. I don't know, but you can check if you ask Life. You can ask in your mind with any number of activation phrases. Life will know if you want to call on it or not."

"What, do I just pray to it?"

"You can think of it like that. Just ask."

"That's ridiculous."

"Try it anyway."

He stared at her for a moment before acquiescing and closing his eyes and mentally asking, 'Life, what is my gift?'

Contrary to his expectations, a voice that seemed to be on the edge of his consciousness whispered in a chorus of heavenly strings. It sang, "You are immortal. I reformed you once, and you will always be reformed. Death may touch you, but it would take something truly special for him to keep you."

His heart dropped, and cold sweat appeared on his already wet back. It was no wonder he couldn't die. Life wouldn't let him. It was a gift, truly, but he also realized the danger it posed.

What would happen if he were captured? Or trapped? What if another situation like the lake happened and Elise hadn't been there to rescue him? In hindsight, he realized he could have walked along the bottom of the lake, but what if the banks had been blocked somehow? What then? Would he be trapped forever?

For most, this gift would be a pure blessing of untold magnitudes. Men had given their lives for it, but it was a cage to him. He had planned to die early, but his path was cut off. He was trapped. There was no longer a way out. If he encountered any genuinely horrible situation, he could always end his life before, but death was no longer the worst that could happen to him.

Seeing his silence, Elise asked, "Well? What is it?"

"Water. Umm. Water can't harm me. Lack of air can make me pass out, but I can't drown. You were pretty much right," he lied. He was on edge and felt that he had to keep it secret, no matter what. To him, it was a dire weakness.

"That's not too bad, I guess. It's not always useful, but it's not the worst, either. It's definitely far from being the best, though."

"Really? What's the best?"

"I don't know what the best is, but I heard that the Lord of Embers was given the ability to forge weapons and items of almost any level as long as he had the materials for it. I don't know how many people know if it's true, but they say that the Lord of Greed can take the characteristics of anybody he kills. There are some truly terrifying gifts."

"That's interesting and very good to know, but why do we have them? Does Life just put you here and tell you to figure it out?"

"Kind of, but not really. Each Lord faces the Lord's Competition. The Lord's Competition's difficulty is tailored to each batch of lords that arrive here. The higher the average value of the gifts given to the lords, the higher the difficulty. Hopefully, the others in your batch are equally disadvantaged."

"Ok, but what actually is it? What am I going to have to do?"

"Like I said, it depends on the batch, but it's normally organized into events. There are breaks between them, but each event takes place over a period of time, sometimes days, sometimes months, sometimes even years, though the longer ones are normally in the later stages. In each event, there is normally a minimum goal, a ranking, and sometimes a failure condition."

"So, why wouldn't I just fail the competition intentionally? Why would I compete? Is there another way out?"

"Most people compete because success in it is everything in this world. Also, most people don't have a choice. Although there is sometimes a failure condition, there isn't always one. In most events, you either succeed or you can die. Success can grant you everything and anything, but failure always comes with a price. You may be allowed to get out of the competition, but it will always take something from you."

"Like what? I really don't want to take part in this. Can't I just ask Life to take me out of the competition?"

"Everything depends on your batch, but I've never heard of just being able to leave. The price of failing an event could be anything from your best friend to the destruction of a city to being unable to use your gift, and so on. You can see the difficulty of your competition if you ask life for your personal screen, though."

"I still think asking Life for something when it isn't even here is ridiculous."

She teased, "Is it really ridiculous if it works?"

He relented and asked, 'Life, can I see my screen?'

In his mind, a white rectangle appeared. The text on it was in English, so he could understand it easily.

-

Gift: Immortality [You are immortal. I reformed you once, and you will always be reformed. Death may touch you, but it would take something truly special for him to keep you.]

Contest difficulty: Seventh mythical

Event countdown: 89 d : 20 h : 23 m : 41 s : 645 ms

Event rank: N/A (Event not active)

-

Curious and wary of what he saw, Farron asked her, "What are the difficulties?"

"Well, Life likes to rank things with a number and a rarity. It also ranks rewards and some other things this way. The numbers normally go from one to seven. If it's above seven, then whatever it is is more powerful or potent or valuable than anything else in the rarity normally should be, but it isn't truly of the next rarity yet."

"Ok, but what is the order of rarities?"

"I don't know all of them, but the order of the ones I do know are: ordinary, wood, iron, bronze, silver, gold, and platinum, I think. I've only ever personally seen stuff below platinum tier, though. I know there's also a dragon, diamond, demon, and legendary tier, but I don't know anything about them or if there are rarities between them and platinum or anything else like that. Those things are so rare and powerful that I'm not sure if even The Leviathan knows much about them. Actually, I guess he probably knows about diamond-ranked things. But maybe not the rest."

The difficulty of this contest was not something she had ever even heard of. He would have to be extremely careful, especially seeing what his gift was. If something captured him, who knew what it would do. To get off the subject and stop her from wondering about the difficulty and his gift, he asked, "The Leviathan?"

"He rules Babylon. The entire Empire is his and his alone. He terrifies me, honestly. Babylon used to be a human empire, but he's made everybody in it like him. Nobody defies him. Not easily."

"Why not?"

"Mot."

"Mot? What do you mean?"

"Mot is the name of the thing or person or group or whatever it is that makes sure everybody is loyal. Nobody knows anything about it, but whenever something goes against The Leviathan, Mot takes care of it."

"Mot." He made a mental note not to antagonize The Leviathan. "Thank you for the warning. I do still need clothes, though."

"Right, sorry," she apologized, quickly finding her pack and tossing a sheet over his head from behind. The ground here was dry, so the sheet remained relatively clean, with just a few peculiarly shaped leaves stuck to it.

The dry fragments of leaves on the ground all had jagged edges. They were as crunchy as any and posed no threat, but as Farron looked up, he realized that the leaves on the trees nearby were star-shaped. The flat edge was pointed outward, and it was attached to the branch from the underside, like a lily pad's stem.

It truly was another world. The trees looked like Earth's from one perspective but were obviously alien when one looked closely at them.