"...That took a lot out of me."
Aurelious muttered it, unhealthily pale and drenched in sweat, as he stared at both girls lying on his bed. They were both unconscious, but unlike when he had started the ritual, they were no longer in pain.
"I... I should rest," he said, reaching for something to support himself.
He collapsed against the floor instead.
"I can't do it..." he muttered, eyes wide open as the realization finally settled over him.
He had tried to use his bloodline seal on more than just these two girls.
He was going to die. No questions asked.
"I'm too weak," he fumbled out, his vision turning hazy.
He turned his gaze to his wrist to find the white fabric he had torn from one of the excess of the maid's dress, used to bind the wound, now drenched entirely through with his blood.
"Huh?"
He blurted it in genuine confusion. He had been certain the bleeding had been stemmed with how tightly he had tied the fabric. He would have used a healing potion to fix it immediately, but sadly there was none in the room at the moment. And given the magic circle he had activated beforehand, which was designed to keep the room sealed for an hour, his estimated time for completing the ritual uninterrupted, he couldn't leave even if he wanted to. No one would hear him if he tried screaming for help either.
"This is ridiculous!"
He seethed, frustrated beyond measure at his own pathetic state. At this point he had to seriously question how he had even managed to survive all the way to the moment of his betrayal if he had always been this weak.
Ugh.
He grunted, fiddling with the knot until the fabric came loose and more blood spilled out freely.
"It's not clotting," he whispered, exhausted.
The cut remained as fresh as the moment he had made it.
"What's happening? I... I couldn't have made a mistake. Could I?"
He gasped, trying to stand, and collapsed again instead.
'I'm losing too much blood. I have to stop it.'
A strange lethargic sensation crept over him, the kind a person only feels at the point where sleep calls almost too desperately to refuse. His vision kept blurring in and out of focus. The idea of simply closing his eyes grew more and more enticing by the second.
"Did I feed them too much blood?" he muttered. "Am I really dying because I miscalculated?"
He huffed, then began crawling for the door.
"Sarah. SARAH!"
He called out, but his voice left his lips as nothing more than a breathless rasp, barely echoing around the room let alone reaching beyond it.
"I'm royally finished, aren't I?"
He managed a short laugh, but what followed was a fit of coughing, and what followed that was blood gushing from his mouth.
"...This is not good," he gasped, staring at his completely bloodied hands.
At this point every last ounce of strength within his body was gone. He couldn't even think properly anymore.
So he fell onto his back.
Facing the ceiling. Arms spread apart. Legs the same. His own blood pooling slowly beneath him.
"I'm dying."
No one could hear him.
No one would save him.
"Do I really have no fighting chance at all?" he couldn't help but ask as the ceiling grew bleary by the second. "Am I just meant to die no matter... what I do?"
He asked it even when the answer was obvious.
This death was as stupid as they came. It was never even supposed to be a possibility. The bloodline seal was something the Aurelius of the future had used once, only just before he was finally killed. It was a skill that was never supposed to physically harm him, since all it required as payment was his soul. A piece of his soul for every soul he took custody of. That missing piece would then be replaced by a fragment of the bound person's soul in return.
That was the bloodline seal in its entirety.
And since the bound individual's soul became his, their life became tied to him as well, which meant his death would equal theirs. So yes, if he died here, these two girls would die alongside him.
The ritual was already complete.
He should have been satisfied having completed even a small step in his plan toward revenge against the protagonist, his harem, his lackeys, the family that had disowned him, and everyone else he held a grudge against.
But that wasn't the case.
Instead he was bleeding to death in the most ridiculously avoidable scenario imaginable.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"...That's right."
He remembered.
It was only now that he recalled the Aurelius of the future had used this bloodline seal on someone. Someone whose face he couldn't quite bring to mind anymore, but that wasn't what troubled him. What troubled him was the nature of the soul bind itself.
A soul bind was an eternal bind.
Even death could not break it.
That was also why he was now considering another possibility. The possibility that what he knew of the future wasn't the future at all, but perhaps a reality that had already fully unfolded. It was a thought that had crossed his mind once before, which he had dismissed at the time, but now lying here in a pool of his own blood with a multitude of scenarios running through his head, he couldn't help but turn it over again.
What if that future was an alternate reality that had already played out? If that was the case, could a soul bind made there still carry over here?
'No. That's stupid. It isn't a possibility. Not logically.'
He shook the thought off.
Slowly, however, his eyes drooped closed.
And he surrendered to the sweet temptation of sleep.
[ ]
Name : Aurelius Morningstar
Age : —
Level : —
[ ]