It was a bracer made of something resembling human skin — its colour close enough to natural flesh that it was barely noticeable on the wrist. On the inner side were five dull, scar-like marks.
The Shepherd's characteristic had been a severed arm; the Creeping Hunger was a glove. This item had taken the form of a bracer — almost certainly shaped by the nature of the characteristic itself.
As a Beyonder item, it functioned like a diminished version of a Shepherd, capable of grazing up to six souls. When a soul was first grazed, the type of ability drawn from it could either be specified or left to chance — with a random draw giving an unpredictable number of abilities depending purely on luck. This was broadly similar in principle to how Klein's Creeping Hunger operated.
The key difference: this bracer, when grazing, gave the user a choice. Specify what you want, and you might get it; leave it to chance, and you might get more — or less.
Mr. A had originally grazed seven souls — a Desire Apostle, a Demoness of Affliction, a Baron of Corruption, a Scribe, a Wind-Blessed, a Soul Assurer, and a Doctor — drawing over a dozen abilities in total. After being crafted into a Beyonder item, only a subset had been retained: the Demoness of Affliction's Spider Threads, the Scribe's Door Opening, the Baron of Corruption's Distortion, Weaken, and Bribery, the Wind-Blessed's (short-range) Flight, and the Desire Apostle's Lava Greatsword. The Soul Assurer's abilities had not survived the process.
Compared to the original Mr. A, this was a significant reduction. But acquiring this many additional abilities at once was still, for Vincent, a very real boost.
That said, several of the retained abilities had limited practical use, and they would likely be swapped out over time — the Scribe's Door Opening and the Wind-Blessed's Flight, for instance.
Of course, being crafted from a Shepherd's thoroughly corrupted characteristic, the negative side effects were also genuinely dangerous. First: each use might come with the risk of hearing terrible ravings. Second: the bracer drew on the user's own blood for fuel.
The first side effect was hard to say much about for now. Given his current... relationship with the True Creator, hearing the occasional raving probably wouldn't be a disaster — but then again, the True Creator was a madman without rational thought at the best of times, and there was no guarantee He wouldn't turn on them at a moment's notice.
The second side effect, if used briefly, was manageable. But the longer it was sustained, the more blood it required — potentially enough to drain an ordinary person entirely. Whether Bernadette's Sequence 3 demigod constitution could hold out long enough was a real question.
When he raised the concern, Bernadette said: "Under normal circumstances, against an enemy you can actually defeat, my body should last the full fight without issue. Against an enemy you can't defeat — even bleeding yourself dry probably won't change the outcome."
Vincent inwardly rolled his eyes. "Thank you for that thoroughly unhelpful clarification."
"I was simply stating facts."
Bernadette slipped the paper-thin bracer over her wrist. The moment it made contact with her skin, it seemed to come to life — it gave a faint, crawling movement and then moulded itself seamlessly to her wrist, the skin tone shifting slightly in that area.
She snapped her fingers. Instantly, countless threads appeared from nowhere, filling the room in a web that stretched from wall to wall. These threads could serve as a sensor network — anyone who stepped into them would be felt immediately — and could also become razor-sharp on demand, slicing targets to pieces.
"A pity the threads' primary use is against weaker opponents. If it were the Affliction ability, it would be far more significant."
She tested each of the other abilities in turn. When she had finished, she frowned, slightly: as she had expected, the blood consumption was manageable. But there was one thing she hadn't anticipated — the bracer extracted blood through direct draw, which inevitably produced some pain.
She was a Sequence 3 Sage, but being a Sage didn't mean she couldn't feel pain. She asked: "I can bear the pain. Can you?"
Vincent said: "I'll bear it. A little pain in exchange for something this powerful is more than fair."
"That said — once we swap tomorrow, I'd strongly suggest you test it yourself first. Pain you manage fine under normal circumstances doesn't necessarily mean you'll stay focused when it happens in the heat of a fight."
"Understood."
He changed the subject. "What about the ravings? Any sign yet?"
Bernadette shook her head. "Not so far. There's only a chance of triggering them, after all, and... if what we're calling 'terrible ravings' really does mean the True Creator's voice, I don't find that particularly frightening."
She gestured at the cross on her other wrist. "Whatever this bracer might do, it surely can't be worse than that."
"Fair point. By the way, should we name this thing? We can't just call it 'the bracer' forever. Or just — the Shepherd's Bracer?"
Bernadette tapped her chin. "Hmm. It can graze six souls. Without specifying an ability, the draw is completely random — pure luck. So let's call it... Mark Six."
"???"
I'm not the one with the problem right now. You clearly are.
What kind of name is that?!
"Mark Six is from your world, isn't it?"
Bernadette smiled. "Father once thought about introducing something similar here. He eventually gave up — too many Beyonders could predict the winning numbers through divination. No profit to be had."
Vincent laughed inwardly. Ha. You could let the Lord of the Mysteries himself buy a lottery ticket and he still wouldn't win the jackpot. The whole system is quantum mechanics — the winning number only "collapses" into existence at the moment of the draw, after all possible purchased numbers have been seen, and then perfectly avoids every single one. You couldn't beat it with divination even if you tried.
After some reflection, he said: "Let's call it the Bloodsucking Bracer. You and I will both understand what it refers to, and it won't give anything away to anyone else."
Now that is a proper name for a Beyonder item!
"Now then — let's fill the last grazing slot."
Bernadette stepped into the Spirit World and crossed back to the Dawn, which was still sailing somewhere on the Boundless Sea. After exchanging greetings with the crew, she looked toward Kreuch, who was approaching. "What about the people we brought in a few days ago?"
"Locked in the lower hold. Given minimal food and water — enough to survive, nothing more."
"Good."
Bernadette dissolved into a bubble and reappeared in the dim lower hold. The three Mystic Order members were pale and listless, slumped against the hull in attitudes of resigned defeat. When Bernadette appeared, they snapped alert — and immediately began to plead.
"Your Majesty, please — let us go. We've told you everything we know."
Bernadette looked at them, her expression unmoved. Pitiful as they seemed, the Prosecutor's sight showed their labels clearly: murder, among other crimes, glowed on all three.
"Don't worry. A single night's sleep will set everything right."
"???"
Before the words had even fully left her mouth, the peach-tree vines erupted, wrapping each of the three tightly. Then they tightened precisely around each throat — and snapped their necks.
She walked to one of them, extended her palm, and channelled spirituality into the Bloodsucking Bracer. It swelled and expanded, flowing rapidly up her entire forearm.
At the tip of it, a seam split open without a sound. A pale, impossibly beautiful face peered out from within — unmistakably Mr. A.
To be continued…
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