( Third Person POV )
Being beheaded was less painful than Arius would've expected. If there was even pain for a skeleton. Though there was definitely something... A small irritation like an uncomfortable smothering cloud around his lungs- or rather the small dark fire inside his ribcage.
Incidentally, his senses were now being perceived by the flame, though he had no idea what was happening. He could still feel his limbs and everything else, but the connection to his head had been completely severed and all its functions were restructured to work without it.
'I'm still... Alive?' Arius thought, lying in a daze. His status was vaguely visible in the back of his head.
Beep. [ Soul Health: 7% ]
'Soul... Health?' He wondered. 'Looks like losing my body is fine... But will I die if that reaches zero?'
He could still sense the black flame, but it was a lot smaller than before and flickering weakly. Was that perhaps his soul? It seemed quite likely.
The unknown assailant stepped over him without a second glance or checking if he was dead. One of the biggest mistakes when facing monsters, especially against undead or dread-spawns. The attacker was probably unskilled or overconfident.
Arius wondered if he was a survivor, but he guessed the person was a bandit rather than a civilian. The bandit had the usual look of a brigand, with dark rough clothing, a worn rucksack on his back, and several pouches on straps. A large cutlass, presumably the one that had lopped off my head, hung from his belt along with a shorter hunting dagger.
"Huh, didn't expect there to be monsters around already." The person muttered, poking at the corpses with his blade as he walked along over the bodies. "Well dressed too. How strange... Well, maybe it's normal after such carnage. Them Lwich really butchered the place."
He kicked aside charred remains and bones, looking around intently until he spotted the only bodies that were untouched by the fire. Baron Scerriton and his wife- Arius's parents. His eyes lit up with greed as he hopped toward them.
"Aha! What do we have here?" He rifled through the Baron's coat pockets and pulled out various belongings, inspecting them with excitement before stuffing them into his bag. "To think I would find such a good haul! My luck must be in the skies today!"
"Man, Tonnie was right!" The robber laughed, playing with his treasures. "I never knew there was a town so small but so prosperous! This whole field of ashes is ripe with treasures, just lying around for me to pick up! And no one to stop me!"
However, the skeleton behind him disagreed with that. Arius was already ticked off from being attacked. Though he didn't die, this was his second life in this world and the robber had almost ruined it all. He wasn't sure if he was going to get a third life. As if that wasn't enough, the bandit had decided to plunder his parent's corpses. And in their town, no less.
Beep. [ Soul sanity levels deteriorating ]
Arius's soul flickered furiously as he strained all his bones to move. But his body refused. His senses had been thrown into disarray after suddenly losing a vital body part and the death mana flowing in his dead body was trying to connect his senses back around the body. But he didn't know this.
The bandit had moved on from looting the baron's corpse and was now rummaging through the baroness's belongings. Once more, he fished out every potential item with value (mostly jewelry) admiring them for a few seconds before they disappeared into his bag of stolen goods.
One of Arius's joints cracked as he tried to push himself up. The bandit looked around but seeing the skeleton being still again, he shrugged the sound away and turned back to his spoils. Arius on the other hand had lapsed into a dead calm. The black flame of his soul was still and unwavering like a painting.
In his very first lives, he had never been good with his anger. Now, even after losing his emotions, the feeling of vengeance was still engraved in him. He had already firmly decided that this "lucky" thief was not going to leave his field of vision alive.
He had not been close with his parents while he was alive- No, he probably didn't even consider them his parents. But they were his sister's parents and honest people, and he respected them. No one was going to sully the respect of the dead.
The dark magic found its way to the tips of his fingers and elicited an immediate response. While the robber was too absorbed in his pillaging to notice, Arius slowly moved towards his beheaded skull. As soon as he touched it, an invisible tendril of his soul fastened around the skull, reattaching back in place.
Beep. [ Body part has been attached. Reforming host's soul to fit new form ]
His vision reverted back to its original position in a few seconds, and all of his senses rearranged back into its familiar pattern. And this time, his eyes were fixated on the weapons on the thief's belt.
Beep. [ Soul sanity levels deteriorating ]
* * *
The bandit had never laid his hands on so much treasure before. If he sold all of his findings, he could probably live swimming in gold for a lifetime. Well perhaps not literally, but the amount of valuables in these ruins were unbelievable.
Especially the bodies of the two lavishly dressed nobles which yielded a lot more riches than he could've imagined. How luckly it was that they hadn't been burnt by the fire. The looked like somewhat important nobles, perhaps even the baron of the town!
Which was even better for him. The town must've had several dozens of rich snobby folks, and he was going to relieve them of all their belongings. They wouldn't be needing them anymore anyway.
The bandit chuckled at the thought and kicked the baron's face. "Not so high and might now, eh, Mr Noble? Rich folks like you deserve it."
At that exact moment, there was a loud crash behind him and he looked around wildly. A charred skeleton rose from among the piles of bodies and other burnt corpses, clutching its skull. Its eyes were aflame with a pitch black fire and unusual mana coursed through its body. The robber backed away in fear, realizing that the monster was walking toward him!
"Whuhhaht?! A dread-spawn using... Mana?!"
The bandit stumbled a few steps back, pulling a small flat amulet from his pocket. It was a casting amulet, and one of the stronger ones at that. Mana or not, no monster could withstand against finely prepared magic.
The magic circles engraved on the surface of the amulet activated immediately as the robber channeled his mana into it. It shimmered in his hands, emitting intricately woven mana that had passed through the pattern. Several sharp fragments of the ground dislodged and rose into the air, before shooting toward the skeleton like deadly stone bullets.
Unfortunately, an attack that would've been lethal to normal humans was not really effective against one that was already dead. The rocks punched a hole through the skeleton's tattered clothes, but passed harmlessly through the gaps between his ribcage. One or two connected and cracked bones, but it kept advancing unflinching.
Panicking as the monster got closer, the bandit pulled his sword on the skeleton and swung with a yell. It was then he realized the skeleton was short. Extremely short in fact, only a few inches taller than his waist. His slash went way overhead as the skeleton ducked nimbly.
The bandit slashed downward but a cold skeletal hand caught the blade and stopped it. A large crack grew down the skeleton's arm but it wasn't enough to deter it. With its other hand, it drew the dagger from the bandit's belt and stabbed his neck with it.
Through the blood splattering across his face, the bandit saw the jaw of the skeleton move as his vision turned blurry. "I've had enough of dying so... You shall take my place today." A cold sinister voice whispered in his ear. There was a sharp pain in his neck from the dagger being pulled free and the rest of his blood and life drained from him.
Arius kicked the dead bandit away, dropping the dagger beside him without another look. This was his first time killing anyone in all his hundred lives. Yet he felt nothing. No remorse. No guilt. Even his anger subsided as he brushed down his bloodied clothes and stepped toward the bodies of his parents. He regarded them in silence, ignoring the sentences that appeared in the back of his mind- or rather his soul.
Beep. [ Soul sanity levels stabilizing ]
There were several more beeps, but Arius didn't bother reading them.
"Father... Mother..." He muttered and examined their bodies, not knowing what to say net. What even was there to say? His feelings were just as indifferent as when he was alive, or perhaps he didn't know what he was feeling.
He directed his attention to the blood-smeared tracks extending from the bodies. They had probably been dragged all the way here. Did the Lwich soldiers make them watch their people get slaughtered before killing them? 'How barbaric.' Thought Arius.
A glint of sunlight on a shiny object caught his attention. A tiny gold locket that his mother was clutching tightly, even in death. It was quite plain and didn't have much embellishing, though it was shaped like a diamond.
Arius picked it up out of curiosity but it came open almost instantly and a small picture fell out. From the looks of it, Arius assumed it was a family picture of their family. The picture was half-burnt and there was only one person that was still entirely clear and in the picture.
"Big sister..." Arius breathed quietly. A flicker of emotion passed through his soul, but only for a brief moment when he remembered that she was gone too. The cold stillness of the black flame returned as he took a breath and blocked out every feeling and thoughts in his mind. This was a way to forget his attachments and lessen the emotional repercussions. He did it after every death, and it was perhaps the sole reason why he still had his sanity.
He stuffed the picture back into the locket and snapped it shut, hesitating for a while before sliding it into one of his pockets.
There were some things even a dead person didn't want to forget. But even though he had already accepted his new existence as a dread-spawn undead, he didn't want to forget that he was once a human too.