Chapter 5: Cursed Blood

Frenzied cheers and bloodthirsty roars continued to ring out while Jack breathed heavily, still standing over the corpse of his adversary.

He hadn't died, and with his victory, an immediate sense of relief washed over him. He had won this time; things had changed, and narrowly escaping the clutches of the reaper, he got to live.

While overwhelmed with the rush of his victory, around Jack time stopped; a sudden pause on the ongoing flow of events. The beast's blood no longer soaked through the sand, the roars above no longer sounded, and the audience was... motionless.

Coinciding, Boethiah's voice permeated his consciousness once more, "Humph, you have won and no matter how 'lucky' that victory was, you have earned your reward." She then apparated in front of Jack, in an appearance similar to that of her statue, and leaned in close "But answer me this mortal. What is your reason for being; what drives one so newly born to fight for their survival?"

After a brief moment of thought, Jack let out a wry smile, "To live, and to live a life truly worth living."

A small smile spread out on Boethiah's corporeal face, "Hoh, and what if someone stand's in your way and seeks to destroy that life."

Jack gazes over the fallen corpse of the minotaur as he remembers something from the games, a passage from Boethiah's proving, 'I am alive because that one is dead. I exist because I have the will to do so. And I shall remain as long as there are signs of my handwork, such as the blood dripping from this blade.'

Jack's gaze returned to Boethiah, "Then I suppose I will have to kill them."

"And if you are incapable of doing so?" She retorted.

"Then I will plot, scheme and grow stronger until I can do so."

Boethiah's smile spread further, exposing a mouth full of needle-like fangs, "So, would you let yourself be bound; your actions dictated by notions of honour, creed or mercy?"

Jack spent some time contemplating the question. He wanted to live a new life, free, unfettered by the illness of his last, but he wasn't going to go around slaughtering the innocent for mere whimsy or profit; it just wasn't in his nature, and it wouldn't lead to the type of life he wanted to live.

Jack was careful in the phrasing of his response, speaking only the truth whilst catering to the particularities of Boethiah's personality, "Only in so that it aligns with my will and my purpose, and not directed by the wills of others."

Boethiah laughed manically in response.

"Hah, it seems both our will and fate align mortal, both in present and future. Very well, I shall grant you the boon your father asked for, along with the right to be my champion and..." Boethiah stated, "One more 'gift!',"

Jack felt a slight shiver in his spine, he could feel a palpable fury emanating from the god-like being.

"Though cleansed with the purest love, suppressing it; I can still smell the vile stench of Molag Bal's blood curse entwined with your being, " The fury remained, but a playful smirk spread upon the demonesses lips, "To remove it would kill you, but if I were to add my own..."

Jack felt an intense fear well up, the evil deity was eyeing him like prey, and what was this talk of Molag Bal and blood curses? Was he a vampire?

Boethiah replied to the question that had bubbled up from Jack's subconscious, "You know not even your own lineage, no matter, it benefits me not to tell you the machinations of your father; if it did he would have told you himself."

A few moments passed before, a look of triumphant ecstasy etched out upon Boethiah's face, "Oh, it's almost poetic," she muttered aloud, before thrusting her hand between his ribs, snapping them outwards, and grabbing at his heart.

The pain nearly knocked Jack out, but through sheer willpower, he managed to remain conscious. "Wh... Wha... What are y... ou doing?"

Boethiah stared past his eyes and into his soul. "Cursing you," she declared forthrightly.