Shed My Blood.

Sinus died.

Aldric's face was covered in sweat, and his eyes were blood red. The pain, although lessened from when it first began, was still completely unbearable. He found each breath he took laboring, and every attempt at movement was punished with a prickly sensation of being pierced with a million needles.

"I... Drank... Too... Much."

Aldric's lips quivered as he spoke, his hands still trembling and covered in bulging veins. He reached for the cabinet Sinus brought out the bottle, and he took a similar flask of the same color, and hopefully content.

He pulled off the cork, but he didn't drink it. Struggling to stabilize his shaking arm so he does not spill it, he placed the bottle to his side. Then he gripped the knife from the floor, slick with the blood of the arcane on its blade. Aldric leaned his back against the desk and raised his trembling left arm before him.

He took a deep breath, and another, then he slit his wrist with the knife.

He didn't even react to the cut; it was nothing compared to what he was already feeling. With eyes red and hopeless, he watched as the blood dripped down from his wrist onto the floor.

With his right hand, he reached for the potion he had kept by his side, continuing to watch the blood drip down from his hand. Aldric had seen blood enough times to know the color of his was off. The serum seemed to have spread and really mixed in his body, and this was the only way of getting some out, however, just a bit. He needed to still have enough of it in his veins.

Seconds later, when Aldric felt enough has been removed, he drank the potion. Then he felt a cool wave, like cold water on a hot day, wash through his entire body. Following it, the cut on his wrist began to swiftly heal.

'Yes, it's a healing potion.'

Aldric wondered on which death he figured that out.

The cooling sensation of the potion, however, lasted only mere moments. Although far less unbearable after leaking the serum from his blood, regardless, the pain came back. The potion can heal wounds, but it can't take the serum out of the blood.

Aldric didn't drink enough of the Agraedian reaper serum for it to kill him. If he did, nothing would have stopped it, as the necessary dose would have reached his brain, ending his life. But he did, however, drink enough to make the pain much more unbearable than it should have been, although this was done in necessity, to be certain he took enough.

'Status'

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[Aldric Voss]

[Savior of Nothing]

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Markings: [The Remainder] [A False Existence]

Affinity: [Null]

Rank: [Warrior(0)]

Xai Energy (XE) Reserve: 10/10

Returns: (6/7)

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'I have to get it right this time.'

Every action Aldric has taken, from drinking the serum to drinking the potion, all were him blindly following core and faint memories. He didn't know what they led up to, or why he had to do it, but each memory carried a sensation of necessity and demanded precision.

He had died five times more, and based on the memory he currently had, two of those times were because he had drunk too much of the serum, and two other times? Simply because he hadn't drunk enough.

'Show memories.'

[Core Memories: 15/15]

[Faint Memories: 39/45]

As expected, Aldric had saved quite the number of memories from the previous respawns. The core memory, however, was already full, and Aldric only hoped it possessed information up until how he finishes this trial alive.

As for where he is to go next, that would probably be stored in faint memories. As he walks, he'd get feelings of the right turns to make and the direction to go.

'But first, let me at least rest a bit.'

The metallic stench of blood and burnt flesh permeated the entire room, and the pain Aldric felt was still far more than most would ever know, but he simply gritted his teeth in ample determination, laid back his head, and closed his eyes for a while.

* * *

Aldric, as quiet as he could, walked through a darkened alleyway—the sun shone bright in the sky, but its light dared not reach this parts. He had woken from where he lay a while ago, and following the guide of his memories, he had escaped the building where he was. Luckily for him, all of the guards present at it were nothing but corpses who most likely made the mistake of trying to stop the other candidates.

Aldric was relieved blindfold and the lot took care of them, as although he had a Divine marking, against mere guards, his only option still remained to die, but in that reality lay his power.

Swift as can be, Aldric navigated the cobblestone streets, each direction he went, each step he took, guided by his faint memories. Then, as he looked up and contemplated how he'd been moving, he finally realized—his destination was the black castle.