Bump! Ethan, lost in his pragmatic thoughts, collided with something immovable. Was it a boulder in the middle of the path? The boulder responded to him by grunting like a beast.
A series of torches came alive nearby, lighting up the area. A large, disgusting face with skewed eyes and rotten teeth greeted him. It was a seven-foot-tall Orc!
Not only that, dozens of drooling Orcs surrounded the boy! Ethan panicked, thinking he could scamper around and escape from their clutches. Was his agility attribute high enough?
As the crowd of Orcs glared down at him, the boy realized he had to make his last stand. Without a second thought, Ethan summoned ghost hands. His instinct was right because only a split second later, a heavy blunt ax crashed down on him.
Bop! His phantom arms stopped the destructive attack easily. Momentarily confused about why his weapon was arrested in mid-air, the Orc let it go and stepped back.
Ethan quickly caught the ax's handle and swung its blade into the monster's foot. Roar! The Orc let out a scream of agony as three of his toes were dismembered. He stumbled into the neighboring monsters, breaking the line.
The Cromwell heir was struck with encouragement suddenly. Could he really beat back the Orcs and escape all by himself? He had enough MP to summon ghost hands four times. Yes! Hope erupted in his heart.
'Where there is a will, there is a way!'
Smash! Ethan's ghost hands disintegrated as a couple of blunt weapons whacked him from behind. The Orcs had moved fast, surrounding him! They were lynching him to death!
Bam! Smash! Ethan regenerated the phantom arms instantly, which protected him from direct damage. However, they were quickly shattered by heavy, unrelenting attacks.
More Orcs joined in the fun, raining down their axes at the interesting little human. They grinned, giggled, and laughed as if it were a rodent-killing game.
Smash! Ethan's last ghost hands disappeared, and a couple of blades slipped in. As expected, they couldn't puncture his body because of the jelly skin skill.
Aargh! The boy hollered in pain as the weapons broke his arms. Jelly skin protected his skin from the ax's edges but not from its crushing weight.
Ethan dodged a couple more attacks until one of them sliced his ear off. "Aaaa!" he squealed, drawing raucous laughter from the Orcs. Blood spewed onto his shoulder, making him panic even faster.
As another wave of ax blades descended on him, Ethan dove between an Orc's legs, escaping the way he came. Perhaps the monsters would be afraid to follow him to the precipice?
However, the boy didn't realize how weak he already was. With a blinking MP bar, crushed arms, excruciating pain, and a panicking mind, his body refused to follow orders.
The Orc turned around surprisingly fast. The butt of his ax found Ethan's face, shattering his teeth and nose. He was thrown into the air like a ragdoll.
"I want to eat this little one," one of the monsters groaned.
"No, he's mine…!"
"Let me fuck his tiny mouth!"
"The boy's heart is my dinner!"
The Orcs fought among themselves, scrounging around, reaching with their massive fingers to catch the airborne human meal. 'Please don't let anybody get me,' Ethan prayed with his eyes closed.
The boy's prayers were answered immediately as a heavy gust of wind hit his back. The last ax-butt smash had thrown him over the precipice's edge. He was falling.
Ethan opened his eyes to see the disappointed looks on the Orcs' faces. They didn't linger and turned away from the edge.
The boy was going to die but was relieved somehow. At the least, the monsters didn't get to eat him alive.
Ethan plummeted down for so long that he lost track of time. Was it seconds? Minutes? An hour? A soul-rending sensation abruptly broke the fall. His back crashed into something hard and unyielding, probably a rock jutting from the hillside.
As the boy hurtled down again, his body continued suffering damage. Everything tried to kill him—the hillside, tree branches, shrub tops, and so on. Ethan's back, ribs, limbs, and face broke at endless places until he finally stopped.
How was he still conscious? The Cromwell heir groaned and tried to get up but failed. His eyes lowered to his gut and widened in horror. A thick splinter of wood stuck out of his gut, spewing blood and viscera. The boy was impaled on a tree's branch.
Blood pooled out of Ethan's wound and mouth. He was dying! The pain intensity reached extreme levels. Suddenly, his system came alive.
[Requesting autonomy and free access for the following time period—forever]
'Fuck you!! Where were you all this time?!
[Requesting autonomy and free access for the following time period—forever]
[Take whatever access you want, you useless system! Just save me!']
[System: Autonomous mode] [Access: Free without restrictions]
[Hacking into Grimorium Lustra…]
'Are you still after that goddamned book when I am dying here?! Do something to help me, you stupid system!'
[Failed!]
[Exploring Inventory…]
[Catalyst found: Poison—Relapse x3]
[Used: Poison—Relapse x3, Releasing into user's bloodstream]
'What the hell are you doing?' Ethan thought in exasperation. 'Goldie gave those poison vials to me! They will probably trigger the Chaste Devil's Curse! Why would you release them into my bloodstream!'
Ethan began to feel weird almost instantly, that is, weirder than the gut-tearing pain he was already experiencing. His groin burned as it was on fire.
'System, are you torturing me to death?? Fuck you!!'
[Chaste Devil's Curse is active]
Ethan realized that Goldie's poison made him skip the three-hour waiting period. How convenient! What was the damn system up to?
[Hacking into Grimorium Lustra…]
[Failed!]
[Warning! Grimorium Lustra is hacking into system]
[Resisting… Failed!]
[Warning! Grimorium Lustra has successfully hacked into system]
[Handing over user's body to Grimorium Lustra…]
[10%…]
[30%…]
[50%…]
At this point, Ethan's stopped caring. His eyes drooped as blood loss and organ damage pushed him off the edge of consciousness. Images of Velma, Gwen, Ivy, and the others flashed across his mind. Even bitter memories from Earth returned.
'Fuck everything!' Ethan thought his last thoughts. 'I hate Promiscua and my shitty reincarnation! I don't fucking care who owns my corpse in the end, be it the system or the grimoire! I am fucking done!'
"So this is called dying," Ethan's lips formed the words, as his consciousness descended into a dark, bottomless void. "God, I hope you're watching this."
[80%…]
[99%…]
[100%…]