Card One: Death

An immortal life can bring you to endless places on a road that never stops winding... you would think that most people would be aware of life’s permanence, with not a single person left being mortal, but they often forgot. They would walk their paths, living their lives, never understanding how endless it all was... never understanding how many opportunities an endless life gave them... though he understood better than most. He’d been walking a very long path as well, though unlike the others, his road kept ending. Where everyone else was stuck in permanence, he was stuck in a cycle of death. To him, nothing was permanent, which was why it was easier for him to appreciate the beauty of the endless. 

“Why’d that dragon already come back?! It’s still early spring! It still snows sometimes!”

“Hey, it ain’t no dragon! It’s different, it’s got three heads, I tell ya!”

“Three heads?! What’s that thing doing over here?!”

His steps paused on a whim as he looked to the boys who were chatting amongst themselves in front of a small tavern, too engrossed in their conversation to pay any attention to a stranger. People like this came along his path very often. People in danger, people who were scared. But he only saw them as often as he did because those were the types of people he sought out on this impermanently endless path of his. Besides, they said a three-headed dragon? It made him a little curious, so he backed up his tall, lean frame to rest against an iron lamppost, shiny blue eyes turning to stare at the ground.

“It’s been living here for a while, it just sleeps for a few years between its bursts! That’s what my father told me!”

“Haha, your father? You talk about him like he's this legend all the time. Is your father even real?”

“Shut up! If yer fathers didn’t tell you tales of that beast, I don’t know what t’ tell ya!”

“No, no, you’re right… that thing’s been here for a while…”

Hm. Their voices were annoying. Reaching into the inner pocket of his long white cloak, he dug around for a sweet treat before pulling out some wrapped candy, the best solidified honey if he’d ever tasted it. He’d bought some from another town on a different planet, though it was in the same universe... over there, he'd heard a rumor of a lot of people dying in some backwater village. However, he really just wanted these annoying brats to hurry up and get to the point of their conversation, and popped the honey into his mouth to keep himself occupied.

“Why doesn’t anybody come and take care of it for us?! It’s been decades and we haven’t received any support! Those cocky adventurers just keep getting themselves killed!”

“Haha, that one with the lightning concept made a pretty good show though, I hear, before he got his head bitten off…”

“What? Did you see it? And don’t make fun of stuff like that, you bastard.”

“Ahah, my bad… and no, I just saw it off a memory shard. Someone was showing it off!”

Ahhh, the candy was so sweet and sugary, he loved it... sucking on the honey flavor was absolutely enough to kill his boredom, as he was a simple man, fingers tapping against the metal post while he and his two companions continued to stand there and listen in silence. Neither of them seemed to like the conversation they were listening to, but that didn’t matter.

“Woah, showing off a memory shard?! Are you serious?! Were they a noble?!”

“Looked like it! They were that lightning guy’s companion, and showed us so that we’d leave the dragon alone and not approach it…”

“And let it kill all our livestock?!”

“Well, would you rather die?”

“We’ll starve!”

“Oh shut it, the dragon only shows its face a few times a decade! We’ll be fine if we don’t go near it and wait for it to pass.”

“I heard it killed all of old man Gom’s sheep a few years ago, and that our village really did almost starve, though.”

“What, did your father tell you that again?”

“You were there! Why do you think our mothers stopped cooking for us?!”

“I thought they were all just being lazy…”

Ahah. Well, wasn't that stupid to hear, and he wasn’t able to stop himself from grinning ear to ear before quickly kicking off the lamppost while swallowing the rest of his candy whole, approaching the three dumb boys with a devilish smirk. It really hadn't been necessary to walk up, since he'd heard everything that was important, but he honestly just kinda felt like it. And obviously, if he felt like doing something, he would do it, no matter what it was. So he gracefully stepped up close with his eyes smiling down, his nice, white clothes and platinum blond hair suddenly making the boys feel like they were going blind, as his kinds of features weren't common in this dimension of the Udimeia. But, well, he was in a good mood.

“Oh? You thought your mothers stopped cooking and feeding even themselves because they were lazy?” he provoked with a laugh, the boys freezing at the rudeness in his tone. They stared at him, before looking between each other, as if they didn't know what to make of it.

“Uh, well, they’re supposed to cook for us! It’s like their only job!” one of the boys huffed, standing his ground, and the man hummed at them as he leaned back, snickering a bit at the nonsense.

“Uh huh. Right. So just forget everything else women do to clean up after your smelly bums, hm?” he waved his hand over his nose, the three boys gaping at him before he turned to his companions. “Hey, these little scraps said the dragon had three heads. It looks like we’re dealing with a hydra. Should I lure it here to teach these boys a fun little lesson?”

“That hardly sounds fun, boss,” the shorter man replied, his bright ginger hair soft and fluffy around his neck and against his caramel skin, his fiery orange eyes looking at his master with earnestness. “If your lesson includes killing three kids and a town, I don’t see why not. It won’t be fun for them, but maybe we could make it fun for you.”

“Like how?” chimed in their third companion, a woman with long, black hair so sleek it could be mistaken for fine silk, the length of it tied behind her at the base of her neck with a pale face and eyes the color of blood. Her arms were crossed, and she was raising a brow at them, both of the men turning to her to listen. “Baseless murder is never fun.”

The three boys almost let out a sound of relief at the words, still not too certain what was going on, before the woman moved her hands to sit on her hips, raising her head high as she instead declared, “We need to give it a base! Let’s make it into a battle royale, boss. We take all these boys who aren’t thankful for their mothers and see how long they can last with a hydra. If any survive, we let their mothers kill them instead.”

“Uh, what mother would want to do that?” the ginger man snorted, and their leader openly laughed as he patted both their backs, his feet already moving again on the dirt road as he led them elsewhere.

“All good ideas, I love them!” he smiled, curly platinum blond hair bouncing around his face and framing his fair cheeks, walking away from the kids with his hands splayed out at his sides. His eyes were a bright blue, the same as the skies, so vibrant that they felt unnatural and misplaced on this dull planet, and they garnered a lot of attention at times for their uniqueness. “I’ll consider your idea, Kya. And Leocadies, you’re right, most mothers wouldn’t want to do that. We should do all the dirty work ourselves!”

The three laughed in unison at his closing remark, their loud laughter catching them weird looks as passerby caught wind of their odd conversation, the three boys looking after them with confusion.

“Are… are they crazy?”

“Well, our town is out in the middle of nowhere, so of course some weirdos would come through… but uh, they weren’t being serious, you think?”

“No way. All kinds of adventurers have tried to kill that monster, and none of them have succeeded.”

“Uh, yeah, but…” one of them paused, eyes wide as they watched the tall blond man confidently walk forward on his aimless path, a path that had many ends and no end, and whose beginning was so far gone it no longer held any importance. “Didn’t that middle guy look kind of weird? I’ve never seen hair that blond before. And his eyes were so vivid.”

“Huh? Really? I guess you have a point… is he a world hopper, then?”

“What would a world hopper be doing out here?!”

“Oh, well, I’m not sure, but my father likes to tell me about them sometimes…”

And that very world hopper’s ears were still honed intently on the boys before Feather finally let go of their conversation, laughing boldly as he strode forward. “Wow! They think I’m a world hopper! That’s cute!”

“Well, you are one,” Kya pointed out cooly, and Feather smiled a bit wider as he reached back into his pocket for more candy, grinning and humming happily all the while as he unwrapped the sweet delicacies.

“Yeah, you’re right, but most people assume I’m pretty weak, so I’m surprised those brats caught it.”

“Don’t worry, boss! There are still a lot of weak world hoppers out there, so they could’ve easily thought you were one of those!” Leocadies announced boldly, Feather giving a loud laugh as he slapped the shorter man’s shoulder.

“In no world is that comforting, Leo, keep up the good insults!”

“Thank you, boss!”

“Haha!” Feather smiled at his companions, ones he’d been traveling with for centuries, before he gathered his concept around himself and took flight, to a place they couldn’t reach. He’d rejoin them soon enough, but he wanted to get a look at that hydra. And his concept allowed himself to blur his face and features to anyone who may be looking, to the point that even if they somehow noticed his presence, they’d soon forget almost immediately after. It gave him a lot of freedom, you could say, so he ran through pools of air without a worry while he used his tracking concept to lead him directly to the beast’s lair.

Ah, his concept really was magnificent. In all of the many universes and dimensions that were all tied together to make the larger plane of existence, which was known all together as the Udimeia, everyone had the ability to develop something special known as concepts that people could hone and develop as they aged. Which, a concept was essentially magic developed through ideals or repetition. For example, if someone had always had an affinity for fire and was around it often, they could work hard to create a fire concept for themselves, which would give them the ability to control and tame those burning flames. It could be as simple as that, though of course, there were also concepts that could get rather convoluted… a good example of that was the concept of divination. If someone often took part in practices of spirituality and the such, they could master anything from tarot cards to palm reading to using a pendulum with pristine accuracy… anything was possible as long as you made it a key essential to your identity. 

Although, not everyone had the strength to make a concept for themselves, and many went their whole lives without ever developing one. It took immense willpower, fixation, and repetition, and not everyone was capable of fusing something so vague into their identity. But those who did were immensely powerful. And if you were especially diligent, you could even use more than one concept. For example, Leocadies had three, and Kya had two. In fact, he was sure Leo would be about to use one of his concepts right now…

BOSS!!! came the loud mental scream into his mind just like clockwork, and Feather didn’t even wince as he kept walking on air.

“Yes, Leo?”

Boss, don’t forget to kill yourself! It’s already been five months since you died last, so you won’t be at full power, and that hydra sounds strong!

“Right, right… I don’t need that reminder,” Feather dismissed with a laugh, his feet coming to a halt when he sensed the hydra’s presence in a cave down below him, his sky blue eyes glowing like little lights. “Heh, I guess it is a shame that I can’t have Kya kill me right now. She’s good at making it painless.”

Well, sorry to say it boss, but that’s your own fault! You should’ve brought us with you, maybe we could’ve been of service!

“My apologies… I guess I’ll just have to kill myself the old fashioned way.”

Are you referring to the first time you died? Wasn’t that from fall damage? Oh jeez, boss, that’s gonna hurt…

“I’m actually talking about enhanced knife to throat.”

Oh! That’s much better! Good luck out there boss, I hope the fight is fun for ya.

“Mmhm, thanks,” Feather grinned, already pulling out his knife, ready to charge it with immense power to give him an instant death. Because of course, he could do anything. His concept let him do whatever he wanted so long as he believed in his power. He could fly, he could heal, he could attack with any element, he could track, he could read minds, he could always have perfect accuracy, he could excel in hand-to-hand combat, he could even sing a beautiful song. But… how could one concept allow a single person to do so much? Most would call that cheating.  And, well, it was. This certain concept usually killed anyone who tried to use it, as well, which was why it was considered taboo.

The concept of anything. The concept of anything gave you the power to do anything. No matter what it was, if it fit under the category of anything, it could be done, and that was the concept Feather had chosen for himself. Because of it, he had died countless times, more than he could ever hope of counting. Sometimes it hurt like hell, sometimes he couldn’t control when he died, but there were other times, like this very moment now, where he could make it quick and painless for himself, and it ceased to bother him or feel like a genuine death at all. He’d probably wake up in about an hour, he thought lazily, right as he slit his throat with a mana-infused dagger. Hopefully… Leocadies and Kya had some fun shopping around while… he was gone…

. . .

Oh! Had it been a few hours already? Feather found himself lying on the ground with sticks and leaves in his hair, the sun already starting to set as it lingered just above the horizon, but luckily, his throat showed no sign of having ever been injured. Ah, well, that’s good. Sometimes it left scars, but it looked like he’d accomplished a clean kill this time. Though, even if it had scarred, he could’ve just gotten rid of it.

Though, it really was… dying really was amazing. Whenever he came back from death, he always felt so much better… so much stronger. Like he could do anything. And he could do anything, because that was the concept he’d mastered, even if it meant he had to die more than any other person had before. And it wasn’t like anyone else had ever been able to revive themselves in the past. He was the only one capable of this. And it was absolutely liberating.

“Hahaha, as always, dying is absolutely brilliant!!” Feather jumped to his feet, skipping happily to the dragon’s lair as he laughed all the while, his giggling echoing throughout the large cave as he hopped on in. “Wowee! What a nice cave! I sure hope a big scary hydra isn’t in here, haha!” he laughed giddily, already feeling a bit drunk off the power rushing through his veins.

And when he saw the three headed hydra slowly lift itself at his provoking, his sights seemed to blur. The only thing that mattered to him, and the only thing that was on his mind in this very moment, was defeating the threat in front of him. Feather liked to say he’d let those boys get killed and eaten, and he joked around a lot about annoying people dying, but… he didn’t actually wish death on anyone. Perhaps he’d died so much himself it left him a little blind to the notion, and when he was at his lowest, he didn’t know how to cherish the immortal life he’d been given that couldn’t even be stopped by death itself. But when it comes to the lives of other people… every single one was precious.

“You’ve killed a lot, haven’t you, heheh… I can see your kill count, you know,” he hummed as a slim, elegant hydra with scales a dark midnight blue slithered to its feet, three heads snapping towards him with skinny, sharp fangs. It was fast, which was probably how it’d managed to kill so many. But him? Well, he could do anything. He lifted his pointer finger to the hydra flying closer to him with open jaws, not worried in the slightest, as this was no threat to him. “A kill count of over two thousand isn’t good, you know, and I don’t like to see it… so let’s just get rid of you right now, mmkay?”

And at that, an explosion shook this part of the world. The village and the three village boys could hear it from where they were a few miles off, and talented people in the towns close by felt the mana suddenly have an influx as it increased tenfold, before it gradually cooling back down. And Feather? Well, he could do anything. He could even come back from the dead unlimited amounts of times, so long as he wasn’t killed by someone with the intention of actually killing him for good. If that happened, he would die, but it hadn’t happened yet. So what could go wrong? Well, lots of things, actually.

“Ah… I went overboard…” Feather suddenly blanched as rocks came falling on top of him, the cave collapsing as he got knocked unconscious, his body dying for the second time that day as he became covered in rubble. Oh, but, don’t worry… he’d come back. And in the future, he’d probably make the same mistake again.