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Synchronisation rate: 100%!!!!>
<…. YOU HAVE SURVIVED!!!>
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{Narrator POV- 15 minutes later}
Using the key he collected after Daud's death, Corvo made his journey all the way down to the bottom of the broken building, and then through to the sewer door which he unlocked before making passage through.
There was not much of interest in said sewer.
Though the majority of it was modified to allow for the whalers to travel more conspicuously to their missions, at the end of the day it doesn't differ from all the other sewers he has visited before.
And even if he has only travelled on two other sewers, it's weird it has happened multiple times.
So yes, it was more of a straight passage, kind of like a long alleyway. Just one more obstacle on his way towards the Houndpitts pub.
CREEEEAAAAKKKKK
Opening the rusted metal door, Corvo exited the sewer, soon finding himself on a near-dry river. Mud squelched under his feet, bypassing his almost supernaturally silent footsteps and sticking to his shoes all the while.
This little bank also had this distinctive smell that pierced all who walked here's nose, vaguely a rotted fishy smell like the distant kiss of the ocean or an abandoned fish monger.
The remains of a gigantic ship also lay here in pieces. The corpse of divinr beast, one created by man itself- just disgraced and forgotten in time.
A fate that plagues all, whether living or otherwise shared.
Muscle memory carried forward Corvos's steps. Though technically he has never been to this part of Dunwall before, he knows his way around with the intimacy of a local.
Breaking off into a sprint, Corvo launches himself high up into the air, jumping high enough to reach a relatively less decayed metal pillar sticking out from the mud and landing on it with the grace of a feline.
He places all his weight on one foot. The other serves as the anchor, balancing Corvo's body and saving him from falling.
He jumps in quick succession, only pausing briefly to leisurely calculate the distance. This time chaining a blink in between his jump, just as he was starting to exhaust all momentum, and allowing him to land softly on the abandoned street.
"Hm?"
His ears twitched as they picked up various amounts of sound in the surroundings. The silent sobbing of women and loud crying of children, the scurrying of plague-ridden rats as well as the groaning of weepers.
All desperately wishing for survival in one form or another.
This would usually bring a hint of emotion to Corvo's mind, whether it be pity at their situation or an altruistic desire to help and soothe his own ego. But this time he can't seem to bring himself to feel anything.
Like all this is the new normal in his mind.
'What is happening to me? Has becoming Corvo really changed me that much, or is there something more going on?'
His usually steadfast mind too is plagued. This time only with doubt, suspicion and fear. He knows something is changing him, in fact, he has known from the start since he started merging with Corvo through all those weird dreams.
But something has changed. Something bigger has happened and it has reached a zenith of progression, going as far as to rip memories from his mind bit by bit. Taking away one of the bigger advantages in the fucked Empire. But more importantly, taking his identity.
And how, pray tell has he suddenly come to such a conclusion after such a long period of ignorance and delaying the inevitable you may be asking?
The answer to that would be the death of Daud. The death of the knife of Dunwall, a notorious assassin who has been a decay in Dunwall's side for years.
His death woke up something in Corvo, woke up the man, parasite or whatever you want to call him possessing Corvo… Luke.
The intense emotions of hatred and rage are something shared by the man, both men. Only… It's just that once Luke has a grudge against someone of that magnitude, he will spite them eternally. Whereas Corvo himself is a kind man at heart, even if that kindness was wrapped inside a hardened shell of violence. But a kind man at heart.
The type of man that would spare even someone who destroyed his world, his everything if they showed the hint of a desire to change and become better.
'A truly stupid man.'
Some would consider him brave, a virtuous man who has a heart of gold. Others… would consider him brain dead, the opinion is a subjective one.
As Corvo thinks all this he continues his journey.
Breaking into abandoned buildings and using them to scale further up to the rooftops. Occasionally he comes across a room not entirely abandoned, housing a family of residents that all flinch back fearfully at his entrance. In response, he would just awkwardly nod in apology and find another way up.
Eventually, he got fed up with making his way through the maze of buildings and just decided that it would be in the interest of time to speed this up.
He backs up to a wall in one of the abandoned buildings for a running start, then starts actually running before just jumping out of the window.
…
…
His momentum carries him forward, but he pushes against it and forcefully pulls his body sideways to face the building he just jumped out of.
And with a spark of will his Void-bitten flesh-marked hand glows with his mark and activates his desired ability.
Alongside the activation, the world comes to a complete halt, draining all colour and sound to the point of an uncanny feeling. But unlike the usual use of bend time, Corvo too is affected and is frozen in the air as a result.
…and that is because this isn't Bend Time.
{Flashback- 45 minutes ago}
"Huff huff-."
Corvo breathes heavily as a mixture of conflicting emotions rages across his mind, becoming strong enough to affect him physically.
He starts hyperventilating, clawing at his face with one malformed hand while the other uselessly scratches at his mask.
With a final annoyed huff, he angrily pulls off his mask and throws it to the ground.
CLANK
CLAK
"FUCK! What in the hell is happening to my brain.. Aughhhhhh!"
His hands dig into the skin of his face, sinking deep enough to draw blood, bringing enough stinging pain to bring him back into clarity
"Haaaaaa hoooo…. Fucking hell. Well, would you look at that. That useless prick Daud did something positive with his miserable existence."
Corvo half laughs as he slows his breathing, bringing his heart rate down steadily along with it as he mocks the man whose life's work he just wiped out not even five minutes ago.
He sits there, just resting and clearing his mind of all thought, immersing himself in the moment.
And after all that… the anxiety remains present, lingering in the forefront of his mind like a parasite. But now it is distant enough to ignore and concentrate on more pressing matters.
Shifting a bit to the left, Corvo picks up a severed gloved hand on the ground next to him and places it on his lap. He leans back, getting comfortable in his spot, though briefly wincing at the pain of the still-healing wound stitching itself back together.
'Need to get this coat back in one piece again, don't really feel like going walking about half naked all the time, not something to my tastes.'
He puts that out of his mind though and uses his one normal hand to peel the glove off and finally look upon the runic marking almost identical to his own.
'Hmm, it's definitely an exact copy of my old mark, before the changes brought by my new power slightly modified and added to it. So it can't be something the outsider awakens in humans of his choice, it must mean something. Something that he owns, something the void recognises.'
He contemplates while prodding and touching the severed limb all Willy nilly, admiring his artwork.
Though the second he brings his semi-transparent hand closer to the dismembered one, something strange starts to happen. His mark starts to glow in its multi-coloured light, but this time it spreads to the rest of the deformed hand. And for a brief moment, the hand moves on its own, pulling up in a grasping motion as if it were pulling on something Corvo himself couldn't see.
'What is going on?'
He questions internally as the light gets brighter and brighter, draining more of his hair's exhausted mana by the second.
And eventually, the mysterious phenomenon reaches its conclusion. The bright light touches upon the severd hands mark and starts… absorbing it?
The mark on the hand starts glowing from the right side down, but every time the light touches the runic marking, it disappears and a buzz starts forming in the back of Corvos's mind, shutting down his confusion.
The whole process takes about 10 minutes before the marked severed hand is just an ordinary severed hand and the lights start to die down.
It's as if his own mark and hand stop glowing does something new starts to happen. The buzzing of the consuming process starts to turn into something new, like a blind person finally putting on their glasses and being able to read the language in front of them clearly.
Its the same in this case too. The buzzing transformed into an instinct, or instincts to be more precise, ingraining themself into Corvo in the same way as when he first got his own mark, or unlocked the marks abilities.
Though it would be wrong to say that they were new instincts, but old replacing the new.
And with a flicker of his intent, he actives tbe new one.
A pulse shoots through both his physical and his new ethereal veins, travelling alongside his blood with every heartbeat and easily reaching his mark in mere seconds, allowing for the mark to light up in a spectrum of lights.
He closes the semi-physical hand into a fist and brings it close to his chest like you would in a chest salute. But it's when he does it that something starts to change.
His once hazel coloured iris' start to disappear, his pupils expanding even past their positions until it takes up his whole eye, even covering his sclera. Painting the whole of both eyes a pitch-black colour, similar to a certain god-like being.
Though there is no way Corvo will know of this, at least for a long time.
But the physical changes don't even end there. The blackness of his pupil eye seemed to extend into his veins, darkening them into crack-like scars, intensifying the horror factor overall.
But the physical changes are only minor compared to the enhancement to Corvo's own vision.
His field of view expanded drastically, covering even the sides of his head. And the familiar orange glow that paints his vision is now replaced by an indescribable colour, the only colour to compare it to would be a bluish grey. Even with the change, his ability to detect life, predict paths and othered field of vision remains the same, but even more added on top of it.
Now with a new instinct for sensing the presence of supernatural objects and beings heightened to the point it contends with the heart of broken things itself.
Even other parts of the original ability are further enhanced, providing a better view of areas of darkness clearer X-ray vision that also allows its user to see the walls themselves simultaneously.
And now being able to see further and clearer on its own as well is also a plus.
The only con…. Well, it now consumes almost twice as much mana!
'Well, I suppose this gives me the excuse to refine my efficiency further. But first, I guess these two merged abilities deserve a new name. I'll dub thee…. Void vision. Yeah, I know very creative Corv- Luke.'
He stands up finally after almost half an hour, grabbing his mask on the way up and also lobbing the severed limb away like rubbish. Before bringing the mask to his face he chugs down a few mana potions to top up his mana to near full, bringing it to a higher point than before he absorbed dauds mark.
Then finally he brings his mask back to his pale tired-looking face, now sporting eyes that belong in a horror movie, the metal of the mask sliding and clicking back into place as it fits itself seamlessly onto him like it was truely apart of his body.
'Now, for the second power….'
{End of flashback- Present}
Corvo's body stays completely still alongside the rest of the world, still and silent to a doll-like degree. But he isnt truely stuck like the rest.
And as if to prove this he twitches a finger lightly. But as he moves, the world moves along with him and his body starts plummeting again, stopping once more when he stops all intentional movement.
'Yeah, I think I can get used to this. It functions almost exactly like my previous blink, though it seems even more like teleporting unlike the previous instant dash of my old one. Haaaa… there goes the new move I created, rendered invalid the moment I use it.
Though this one is definitely superior. Better movement, better stealth. All the while giving me the space to think. Giving me all the time in the world.'
But he dosent has all the time in the world, and Corvo knows it. A small, almost imperceptible trickle of mana beings drained every second to keep up the time stop effect of this blink. Though he is partially right, the drain is almost non-existent, his mana regeneration making up for some of the loss.
Finally having decided to finish his lengthy train of thought, and finally mapping out his destination, he sets his coordinates and lets himself be dragged in between space- appearing in another place entirely.
He takes a step forward, planning on walking over this dirty mattress strangely placed on this roof, by the ivory white of bone maamaged to catch his attention.
'Hmm?'
He bends down curiously, getting down on one knee to pick up the circular bone piece. Running his hand over the runic marking smack dab in the middle, a symbol identical to the previous appearance of his mark.
'I thought the outsider was going to take away all these gifts?'
He thought looking curiously at the rune in his hand.
Almost instinctively he reaches out with a bit of mana and attempts to absorb the power within it before he catches himself.
Then growing bored with it, he just throws it in his pocket and forgets.
'No use for it now, anyway. Almost all of my powers have surpassed the Corvo from the game anyway.'
Interrupting his thoughts is a train-like vehicle without any human operators on board. It screeches loudly upon its stop, sending a plethora of sparks flying as well as sending up bursts of static electricity.
Though it's what the train is doing that retains his focus.
The train tilts almost till it's completely sideways and looking like it's about to fall, dumping tons of completely charred human corpses.
Sighh
A sigh briefly escapes Corvos's lips as he looks upon the sight of hundreds of corpses being desecrated and then just dumped with a heavy heart, but just as always it pushes back into his tight little bottle.
The train keeps up its programmed movements systematically, pushing itself upright again and closing its lid.
'Guess this is my ride.'
And this Corvo jumps, landing lightly on a death train to who knows where….
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Word count: 2,750