Chapter One-Hundred-and-Ninety-Six
“What does it say?” Adam asked.
“It tells me to feed it and makes a comment every time I kill something,” Heiner replied. It was clear from his expression and melody that it made him very uncomfortable. “It’s like a starved beast. But it did teach me that I can manually feed my health to the ring to safely lower it and get more of the effect.”
“That doesn’t sound safe,” Adam remarked. “You can’t heal it back.”
“What does it matter?” Heiner replied as they flew around the northern side of Oath Spire. “I’m going to die after this stage.”
Adam suddenly remembered a thing Emelia had told him. For some reason, the memory was extremely faint, as though it’d been buried beneath layers of dust. “There is a way for you to survive,” he said, while simultaneously realising what plan he must’ve set in motion and what the mysterious note would tell him when he returned to Interim Island.
“How?” Heiner asked, a flicker of hope entering his melody.
“The Godstone, once completed, should allow us to change which Absolute we worship. I was told by a time-looper that it’s possible to do it after stage ten, but if the Godstone itself is the mechanism, then we’ll complete it after the Forlorn Kingdom, which should make it possible to change who you worship and allow you to survive being Godless before using the altar on Interim.”
Surprise and excitement entered Heiner’s melody, but then a sorrowful realisation followed.
“I shouldn’t have taken the ring,” he said.