1% Lifesteal

"I… Well… I never actually got it evaluated, so…"

Freddy sighed, pinching his brow. What a shitshow. "I can't believe that actually worked," he said. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that thing is?"

She slowly nodded.

There were two main reasons why Freddy couldn't get his hands on a captured life spark before meeting Sophia. The first was that, under ordinary circumstances, only four-star archhumans could create one. But there was another reason, too.

It was because openly selling these things in a store was absolutely illegal.

A captured life spark was, in essence, a pile of parasitic, flesh-devouring microorganisms that had a powerful symbiotic relationship between them due to the life spark they shared.

Naturally, the life spark still needed to feed so the cells could stay alive. But as it fed, so did it proliferate, creating new batches of cells. However, not all these cells were perfectly integrated into a singular life spark, with a small number becoming more independent and some becoming more similar to cancer or scar tissue.

This was why a captured life spark existed only for around half a year. That was how long it took, on average, for the singular life spark to fall apart into a bunch of smaller ones that devoured one another until there was nothing left.

It didn't take a genius to deduce a rather important detail—eating a captured life spark was really, really dangerous. Upon consuming a life spark, the microorganisms split up and entered the bloodstream. Having a body full of microscopic flesh-devourers was not the best for one's health.

In fact, the survival rate for mortals was less than 1 percent, and for one-stars, it was only around 10 percent without treatment. Granted, with proper treatment, every archhuman could recover from this affliction, but that was only if they knew what was happening to them and sought the appropriate care on time.

To put it simply, life sparks could be a potent bio-weapon that could cause massive damage if deployed by a malicious party looking to infect many people. And the piece of flesh sitting on the ground before their feet…

It was no ordinary captured life spark.

Sophia had successfully fused the spark of undeath into a regular life spark, creating a captured spark of undeath—possibly the first time any human had created one.

Even five-stars couldn't do what Sophia just did since, technically, a spark of undeath belonged to the death affinity and not the life affinity. However, the death affinity simply didn't have the power to manipulate life sparks—even if they were sparks of undeath—causing the feat to fall outside the purview of all known affinities.

The implications of this thing's existence were numerous and highly problematic. First, what would happen if someone consumed such an object? Freddy knew that being undead would make these cells entirely immune to most common forms of treatment used to handle such a situation.

But that wasn't the first thing on his mind. His gaze slowly moved to the spark and then back to Sophia. "When you say you could make us immortal… You aren't suggesting fusing this thing with our life sparks, are you?"

She scratched her head. "I was so excited that I could extract one that I hadn't thought about it… but yes, that's my plan."

"That's fucking insane," he spat.

"I know," she said, but she didn't seem apologetic. In fact, she turned around to face him with a grin. Her hand moved over to the spark of undeath, and almost like she was separating clay, she split the mass of meat into two pieces. "I can make as many as I want, too."

"You do realize that the thing you're holding in your hands," Freddy started, "is basically the equivalent of a super bio-weapon that could possibly be used to kill an unfathomable number of people?"

She nodded.

"And you're okay with playing around with it?"

"Look," she said, turning to face him. "If I merge our life sparks with a spark of undeath, it should do the same thing that the Spark of Undeath tempering technique does."

"It should?" he asked. "Sure then, you go first."

She winced at that.

"What?" he asked again, chuckling. "You aren't scared, are you? Of the possibility that something might go wrong?" he teased, snorting at her.

To his absolute horror, her expression steeled into one of resolve as she pulled one of the sparks out of its ball of flesh and pushed it into her own body.

"Jesus Christ!" he screamed, leaping back, hearing his heart hammering away in his chest. For a long few moments, he simply watched as the woman's body started morphing. It changed bit by bit, her flesh wriggling and squirming as she stood mutely, her mouth too deformed to say anything.

But then, a spark of life lit up within her body as she burned it to heal herself, and then another, and another, until finally—

Her body morphed back into the image of a young woman, no different than it had been before.

He observed her, worried that the process might have destroyed her mind or driven her insane.

A few seconds later, she opened her mouth and laughed. "It worked!" she screamed. "I'm undead!" She cackled, ignoring that a pack of gorels might hear her.

Freddy dropped his guard, but his apprehension didn't vanish.

"Well?" she said, smiling cheekily at him. "What are you waiting for? Are you too proud to admit that you were wrong?"

"What are you suggesting?" he asked cautiously.

She rolled her eyes. "Come over here! I'm gonna do the same thing to you!"

He scowled at that. "Will the same thing that happened to you happen to me?"

Cocking her head to the side, she frowned. "I… What do you mean?"

"Will I also start morphing like that?"

"Oh!" she exclaimed, realizing what he was getting at. "Don't worry, boss!" She saluted him. "I'll be on standby to heal you."

"I don't think that will be necessary," he said.

"Don't tell me you're chickening out?" she asked incredulously. "Come on! There is being a coward, then there's being a fool."

"That's not what I meant." He approached her and pulled the machete out of his storage ring. With a deft swing fueled by a flowing strike, he cleaved half his arm off and swung the blade at the nearby grass to stop the bleeding. "Make my arm undead first, then stabilize it, and then fuse it with my body."

She clicked her tongue. "I could have done the same thing! Why didn't you suggest that earlier?"

He scoffed, "You began the fusion before I could even start thinking about safer ways to do it, you idiot. It's not my fault you have no instinct for self-preservation."

After a few more moments of frowning at him, she looked away in shame, realizing he was right.

Over the next few minutes, she repeated the same process on his arm. It went the same way with her body, first morphing into an ungodly mass of wriggling flesh, then recovering as she used several life sparks to stabilize it. Once it did, she put his severed arm back in place and, with his consent, fused it back to his body.

It was a sensation unlike anything he had ever felt. First, his arm felt utterly foreign, as if she were trying to fuse the limb of an entirely different species to his body. Then a cold feeling invaded his body as warmth swelled in his arm. He felt a distinct firmness embed itself deep in his core. One would think that having their life force firmly attached to their body would give a sense of security and comfort. It didn't. It instead almost made him feel trapped within his own body.

It was scary—terrifying, even.

But as the feeling faded, all that remained was a clear, distinct sensation that he felt with his entire being. "I'm undead," he realized, suddenly aware of how Sophia was so certain that her experiment had succeeded. He could feel it, but it didn't feel how he thought it would.

He had expected undeath to feel… cold… ghoulish…, and sickly, perhaps, like when she first initiated the fusing. But it felt secure. It was almost as if his life force was glued to his body, whereas it used to feel like water in a fragile container. "Whoa."

Then he lifted the machete and stabbed it right through his heart. It took a lot of force to push it through the layers of armor, but with his immense strength and Hydraulic Flex, he could just barely manage it.

It startled Sophia slightly, but when she realized what he was doing, she calmed down and simply watched.

Blood poured out of the massive wound like water out of a faucet, draining his entire body of nearly all the blood it had. But as the pressure dropped, he felt no urge to pass out. There was dizziness and an intense headache, sure, and the wound on his chest hurt like hell, but he didn't panic. The instinct that would be screaming at him just a few minutes prior was deathly silent as he stood with absolute certainty that the hole in his torso wouldn't kill him.

And he was right.

He pulled the machete out. The blood loss still made him feel a bit weak. Not that weak, but the feeling was still there. There was very little blood left in his body, but that wasn't a major concern as he could still move. For a mortal body, the lack of oxygen meant death. To an undead body, it just meant a moderate lack of energy.

"First self-recovery and unaging, then undying… How much longer until I become completely invincible?" he jokingly asked, chuckling a bit. Then he looked over at Sophia.

She stared at him with disgust. "Ew, that's so cringy."

Throughout the next half-hour, the two of them discussed a few things. The most important thing they agreed upon was keeping their immortality an absolute secret. Neither of them had a death affinity, so walking around with undead bodies would be mighty suspicious.

Everyone would want to know how they achieved this, and if a powerful faction caught wind of Sophia's talent, well… anyone could guess how that would turn out.

Freddy also asked her to give him one of the captured sparks of undeath. For pretty obvious reasons, he wanted to carry one in his storage ring. These things were far superior to ordinary life sparks; to him, they were a way to utilize his talent pretty much anywhere.

A tiny, unhinged part of him wondered what would happen if he took a bite from one of these things. The fact that the answer was almost definitely "a fate worse than death" meant he would refrain from trying it out.

Taking a deep breath, Freddy got up as he prepared to leave. Just as he was about to wave Sophia goodbye, he smiled at her instead. "Hey…" he called, smiling a bit. "Would you be interested in going out with me tonight?"

"Oooh, the hunk is shooting his shot, I see?" she proposed teasingly, but he waved her off.

"Don't flatter yourself, you maniac," he said. "I just thought it would be appropriate to celebrate a bit."

She raised an eyebrow. "I'm surprised. I thought you didn't want anything to do with me."

"You aren't wrong." He turned to face her. "But we share a pretty big mutual secret," he pointed out. "I'm gonna be honest—I don't like you. You are immature, impulsive, and honestly, you're batshit insane. I have no intent to ever again put my life in danger by trusting you with our combined safety."

"I don't get it." She glared at him with slight hostility. "So why even pretend this is anything but a mutually beneficial business relationship?"

"There is no pretending," he declared. "That's exactly what it is."

"So what's with the invitation then?" she asked him. Before he could answer, she continued, "Let me make something clear—I don't really like you, either; what gives you the impression that I want to hang out?"

"Well, there you go," he said, shifting his posture. "If we can't tolerate one another, how long do you think our partnership will last?"

For a long moment, she seemed to be contemplating. Then she sighed and raised her head. "Sure. Whatever," she said. "As long as you're treating, I guess I could make time for it."

He snorted. "I wouldn't have invited you if I expected you to pay, Miss Homeless."

She promptly threw a small chunk of flesh right at his face. He dodged.

The two of them agreed to meet at 11 p.m. that night in front of the club he had gone to the last time.

Freddy decided to head out immediately, while Sophia wanted to go try her new body out in action, so he left her to her crazy antics while he jumped over the boulder and made his way over to the paved road.

Although he had the time and energy to go for a hunt, there were several things he wanted to do now that he had an undead body. For starters, the risk of dying from experimenting with his powers was almost entirely eliminated. Thousand Wet Hells and the scary bag of beast steroids in his storage ring immediately came to mind.

But there was something he needed to remember—he wasn't immortal. Not truly. Severe damage to his brain would still kill him or perhaps leave permanent consequences, and he didn't know how much his talent could help him deal with that. Besides, if he was ever left in a mangled state where he couldn't move or get help, bacteria, bugs, and fungi would slowly devour his body, killing him eventually anyway.

Honestly, he had been seduced by the power of an undead body and hadn't taken the time to properly consider his decision. But now that he was thinking straight, he knew that he would have decided to take it anyway.

Undeath was the single most significant advantage of the death affinity, and it had just been served to him on a silver platter. Not to mention that his talent was a direct counter to the most prominent downside undeath had.

He was all smiles and cheer as he practically skipped out of the realm. On his way back, he was assaulted by a group of three gorel workers, but dispatching them took almost no effort. He took a moment to hook the corpses to a rack, not bothering to put them in the plastic bags as he continued his journey.

Within less than fifteen minutes, he returned to the passage and walked back into the lobby.

As soon as he did, a muscular, tall man with long, blond hair approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey there," the man greeted him. "You're Liam Cuttingsworth, right?"

"Yeah, that's—" Freddy started but paused as he realized the man was referring to him by the name on his ID… and not the pseudonym he'd been using.

"My name is Jacob Santorio. I'd like to talk to you for a minute."