MAGUS INFINITE

The fox’s voice was a desperate whine in my head, but I could not focus on her. I knew she was not entirely invincible, and what she had eaten last time was the small offshoot of the tribulation lightning I had summoned while inside the pyramid. What was coming for me now was something else.

The last time I faced a Tribulation, I had been an Adept with a body that was still mostly mortal. I had survived by embracing the lightning, by letting it remake me, but this time was different. I was an Arcanist now, and my soul was crystallized. I would have been able to easily face the Tribulation I met when I was an Adept without any problem, but the one coming would be scaled to match my present powers.

I knew that the heavens were not merciful, and here I was wearing a Title that made me easier to kill.

Death Consort.

The Title was a gift from Death herself, and it came with a price. It had brought me back to life, but it also made it easier for me to die, because she was always waiting for me.

If I faced the Tribulation while wearing this Title, there was no way in a thousand years that I would survive. The heavens would not need to strike me down; they would just need to nudge me, and she would take me.

Over and over again... and I remembered how the engine strained to contain my soul in the last Tribulation, and I feared that if I gave Death a chance, then this entity might use the period when I was slowly being resurrected to draw me into her domain.

I had to change Titles.

I reached for the Title, trying to unequip it, but it would not move. I don’t know how it was possible, but the Title was lodged in my soul like a second heart.

I have equipped and unequipped titles many times, and I have never had to think of the mechanics behind it. I knew from the moment I gained Death Consort that this Title was wrong, since it seemed less like a Title and more of a declaration, but I had never thought it would dig into my soul and refuse to let go.

Well, that was not going to be happening... this damned Title needs to come off!

I pushed more mental power into dragging the Title away from my body, and it hurt a lot, but pain was going to be the least of my problems if I didn’t replace this thing.

A cold voice came from the depths of my soul, and I nearly froze in place,

”Where are you going, Beloved?”

Hearing that voice, my panic was replaced with anger, ”Off... Now! A Tribulation is coming for me.”

”I know.” And I hated how the voice sounded warm, patient, but equally terrifying. ”That is why I am staying. You are never so close to me as when the sky wants you dead. Why would I leave you now, of all moments? Now, when you might finally come home?”

”Home? You are not my home. Get off!”

Let me tell you, I know the irony of this moment, where a moment before I had imprisoned a demon inside me and refused to let go, and now that I was being paid in my own coins, I no longer saw the good side of this sort of thing.

Perhaps I treated Sad too harshly. But I am not going down like the demon.

I continued to pull, and it was like trying to take off my own skin, but I was stubborn, and I would not stop, not even if it killed me... haha, you’ve got me there, Death; that is what you want, right? To struggle against you until my head explodes.

The metal above me began to glow dull red, then orange, then a white that hurt to look at, and then it began to drip, thick shining ropes of molten metal, hissing to nothing before they hit the floor.

All around me, it was the same. The platform below me softened. The vats, the ones still standing, slumped and burst. The rubble I had made through the fight began to melt, as the entire facility began to slowly melt away before my eyes.

Shit... shit... shit... shit...

I don’t like to curse, but the situation called for it. The temperature around me was rising to a ridiculous degree, and for a reason I was not yet affected, but this would not last for long... the Tribulation had noticed me, and it was clearing out all the barriers to get to me... And I still had the damned title on.

Out of desperation, I looked for help, and the only one left to call was panting inside of me in expectation of what was to come... by all the light in heaven, I was surrounded by a freaking circus!

”Moon Fox!” I yelled. ”I need you.”

”For the tasty lightning?”

”For getting this thing off me. You want out? Help me pull, and I’ll let you out into the worst weather of your life. You can eat the heavens as you please.”

She did not need to be asked twice. The fox is reckless, and most of the time, this recklessness gave me a headache, but in moments like these, I was glad that she had that nature.

I felt her move inside me, bright and furious, and she did not fight the title the way I had, head-on. She got under it and found the seam where Death Consort had shouldered everything else aside, and she pushed up from beneath, all three tails and all her weight, into the gap the jealous title had made.

”Pull!” she called out in excitement, ”And I will push.”

I set myself to the challenge and began to pull, and it hurt a lot, like I was peeling my skin and pouring hot oil in the exposed flesh underneath, but the Title was shifting, and for ten long seconds I battled with it, and the rain of blood that persisted despite the world melting around me vanished, and my red hair starting from the tip returned to white.

I had never thought I would end up missing this color, and I quickly swapped in my second Mythic Title, Heavenly Beast Tamer, and Legendary Title, Storm Bearer, because it almost felt like Death Consort was about to snap into place.

”Clever,” said Death, and I could not tell if she was angry or delighted. ”You would trade my embrace for a fox and a lightning storm.”

I growled in anger, ”Every single time.”