Even Death Grew Tired of Killing Me Chapter 46 - 41

Kyren was fast.

That much was obvious the mont he decided to stop pretending.

Even with my stats no longer stuck at pathetic single digits, even with weeks of surviving Aetherfall grinding new instincts into my bones, I was barely keeping up. My feet hit stone and tal, my balance corrected itself automatically, my body doing things it would have refused to do just a month ago, and still, Kyren stayed just out of reach.

Then he vanished.

Not slowed. Not turned a corner I missed.

Gone.

I skidded to a stop on a rooftop edge, breath steady but sharp, eyes scanning. For a brief mont, panic flickered. Not fear of losing him permanently, but the cold realization that if he wanted to disappear, he absolutely could.

I closed my eyes and focused.

It took a minute or two to feel it. A faint pull, not magical exactly, but familiar. Presence. The sa way I’d learned to feel danger before it arrived in Aetherfall, the sa itch that crawled along my spine when sothing was wrong.

I followed it.

It took another five minutes, maybe seven, weaving through backstreets, cutting across alleys that slled of damp stone and old waste, until the city noise dulled into sothing distant and hollow.

That was when I saw her.

A girl stumbled out of the shadows and nearly collided with . She was young, maybe fourteen or fifteen, eyes red and swollen from crying, her whole body trembling like she hadn’t realized she was safe yet. Her clothes were torn in places, fabric stretched and ripped, one sleeve hanging loose at the shoulder.

I caught her instinctively, hands gripping her arms to keep her from falling.

"Hey," I said quickly, lowering my voice without thinking. "Are you okay?"

She nodded too fast, swallowing hard. "Y-yes. I’m fine. I’m... I’m fine."

Her voice shook badly, but there was sothing else underneath it. Relief. Raw and overwhelming.

"You’re safe?" I pressed.

"Yes," she said again, more firmly this ti. "I’m safe. He... he can’t— I was saved."

Before I could ask anything else, she slipped out of my grip. Her fingers brushed my sleeve once, trembling, then she turned and ran, disappearing toward the brighter street without looking back.

I stood there for half a second, heart pounding, before the sll hit .

Blood.

Fresh. Thick. Copper-heavy.

I moved deeper into the alley, stepping over broken crates, old furniture dumped and forgotten, trash piled in ways that made the narrow passage even harder to notice from the outside. It was the kind of place people avoided without realizing why.

At the far end, I found Kyren.

He had a man pinned against the concrete wall, one hand pressed flat between the man’s shoulders, the other gripping the back of his head. The man’s face was smashed sideways into the stone, cheek split open, blood sared across the wall in dark streaks. His body twitched weakly, breath coming out in wet, panicked sounds.

Kyren wasn’t straining.

He was smiling.

Not wide, not manic, just that sa easy grin he’d worn earlier, like this was nothing more than an inconvenience he’d already solved.

"What the hell are you doing?" I demanded, forcing my voice to stay controlled even as my stomach tightened.

Kyren glanced at over his shoulder. "Saving that girl," he replied lightly. "From this guy."

He gave the man’s head a casual shove. The impact made a dull, sickening sound.

"He’s a rapist," Kyren continued, tone almost conversational. "And a murderer. Wanted for a while now. If the reports were right, he’s done at least fourteen school girls."

My brain stalled for a second.

Fourteen.

I stared at the man, at the blood on the wall, at the way his fingers clawed uselessly at the air.

"Why are we even here?" I asked, my voice tight. "Why are you getting involved with this? The local authorities should be handling it."

Kyren humd. "They’ve been trying."

I took a step closer despite myself. "Okay," I said carefully. "Then let’s turn him in. We bring him to the proper authorities and let him be judged."

Kyren looked at fully this ti.

He nodded once. "Sure."

Relief loosened sothing in my chest as I stepped closer, reaching out instinctively.

That was when it happened.

Kyren moved.

One second my hand was lifting, the next his free hand closed around my wrist. His grip wasn’t painful, but it was absolute. He guided my arm forward while his other hand shifted, pressing mine flat against the man’s chest.

Right over the heart.

I didn’t understand what was happening until I felt it.

Pressure.

Not just physical, but focused. Compressed. Like sothing was squeezing inward from all directions at once. Kyren’s hand covered mine, and for a horrifying instant, it felt like he was guiding my awareness, forcing my body to follow a decision my mind hadn’t made.

The man’s chest caved.

There was a wet, rupturing sound, deep and wrong. Blood burst out of the man’s mouth in a choking spray, his body jerking violently once before going slack.

Kyren released my hand.

The body slid down the wall and collapsed at our feet, leaving a thick sar of blood behind.

I stared at the man’s face as life drained from it, eyes wide and unfocused, mouth hanging open uselessly.

Then the world tilted.

My head spun violently, nausea slamming into all at once. I staggered backward, palms slapping against the concrete wall behind as my legs threatened to give out. My breath hitched, lungs refusing to cooperate, and I bent forward, dry heaving hard enough to make my ribs ache.

Blood dripped from my hands.

Kyren crouched beside , resting his elbows on his knees, studying like I was the strange one.

"You’re being overdramatic," he comnted.

I glared at him, vision swimming. When my voice finally ca back, it tore out of , half-shout, half-snarl. "We just killed soone!"

Kyren shrugged. "So?"

"So?" I echoed incredulously. "He was a criminal, yes, but we don’t get to decide that! We don’t get to put his life in our hands. Literally!"

Kyren tilted his head. "Says who?"

He gestured lazily at the corpse. "He was wanted. Dead or alive. He was even flagged on the Realm Worker list as a target."

I froze.

"The... what?"

Theo from two months ago wouldn’t even know those words existed.

I stared at Kyren, really stared at him. He looked completely calm. No shaking. No hesitation. No trace of fear or disgust. Just that sa relaxed expression, like we’d finished an errand.

A cold thought crept up my spine.

"Have you been killing people," I asked slowly, "that’s why your stats are so insane at your age?"

Kyren blinked, then laughed. "Are you serious?"

He shook his head. "I’ve read about that, sure, but doesn’t that only apply to Crossers whose systems got integrated with Aetherfall’s system?"

"...Right," I muttered.

I didn’t know whether to feel relieved or even more confused.

How did he even know that?

Kyren grinned wider, clearly catching the question on my face. "You’d be surprised what you can learn online," he said casually. "You just have to know which words to search for. Even the really secret stuff isn’t that secret."

I swallowed hard.

He wasn’t wrong.

I’d stayed on the surface. Normal sites. Normal rules. I’d never dug into the darker corners of information networks tied to Crossers, Realm Workers, and off-world incidents.

Yet.

I wiped my hands against my pants, blood saring uselessly, my stomach still churning as I looked down at the dead man again.

This was my first human kill that I rembered clearly. My first human kill in my world.

And it wasn’t even entirely my choice.

My hands were still shaking.

~~~

I wiped my hands again even though I already knew it wouldn’t help. The blood was still there, sticky and dark under my nails, clinging like it had decided I was its new ho.

I looked at Kyren.

"Why did we even have to do that?" I asked, my voice rougher than I wanted it to be. "Do you have so kind of hero complex or sothing? Is this about growing up without a family or - "

Kyren stared at for half a second.

Then he laughed.

Not a nervous laugh. Not a defensive one. He bent slightly at the waist, one hand on his knee, shoulders shaking as if I’d just told the funniest joke he’d heard all day.

"Hero?" he repeated, wiping at the corner of his eye. "You think I did that because I wanted to play hero?"

He straightened and looked at , still grinning. "Not really. I only did it to help you."

I frowned hard enough that my temples started to ache. "Help ? How could that possibly help , other than maybe knocking one na off a wanted list from the Realm Crosser community?"

Kyren’s grin didn’t fade. Instead, it sharpened.

"Didn’t your stats just go up?" he asked casually.

The question hit like a slap.

I froze, then instinctively opened my system panel.

The numbers blinked into place, clean and rciless.

They had changed.

I scanned them again, slower this ti, my pulse picking up.

Strength: 14 6

Vitality: 16 6

Agility: 14 6

Dexterity: 22 6

Intelligence: 76

Luck: Negative Infinity

Everything physical had jumped. Not by one or two points like before, but by six across the board. Everything now hovered in the twenties or just above, except for Intelligence, which stayed put, and Luck, which remained stubbornly, mockingly broken.

My mouth went dry.

"...It increased," I muttered. "Six points."

Kyren nodded, unsurprised. "Makes sense."

I swallowed. "I thought pri soul kills gave bigger returns."

"They do," he replied easily. "When the target is a Crosser integrated with Aetherfall’s system. This guy wasn’t. Sa category, different weight."

That explanation slid into place a little too neatly.

While I was still staring at the numbers, Kyren leaned closer. "Hey. Look at the upper corner of your system panel."

I blinked and followed his gaze.

There it was.

One of the ten small star icon I hadn’t paid attention to before. Five arms, faintly outlined, mostly empty. One of those arms now glowed a soft yellow, not bright, but distinct enough to notice once you knew it existed.

"...Have you noticed that before?" Kyren asked.

I shook my head slowly. "I’m pretty sure it wasn’t there the last ti I checked."

"Of course it wasn’t," he replied with a shrug. "It only shows up once it starts counting your moral obligation."

My stomach dropped.

"Moral... what?"

Kyren tilted his head, amused. "That’s the closest translation I can give you. Kill count isn’t just about numbers. The system tracks weight. Intent. Responsibility."

I stared at him.

Then sothing clicked, sharp and unpleasant.

"You know too much," I said quietly. "You’re talking like you can see my system."

Kyren t my gaze, sapphire-blue eyes catching the dim alley light. For just a second, sothing shimred around his irises, subtle but unmistakable, like heat distortion over glass.

"You’re an observer," I murmured. "A high-tier one."

He shrugged like I’d just comnted on the weather. "Born like this."

Then, without warning, he squinted at my face. "By the way, what happened to your eyes?"

I stiffened and straightened instinctively. Kyren mirrored , standing as well, hands tucked casually into his pockets.

"My eyes?" I asked carefully. "What do you an?"

"You had golden eyes," Kyren replied. "Mom and Dad said so."

The words hit harder than I expected.

I exhaled slowly. "They changed because I intend it to. It’s... sothing I have to keep hidden. Less questions that way."

Kyren nodded once. "Good call."

The silence that followed was heavy but not hostile. I closed my system panel, then opened it again out of habit, as if the numbers might rearrange themselves into sothing less absurd.

"I wonder," I muttered, mostly to myself, "if there’s an assessor in our world. Soone who could fully adjust all of this without dragging into another ss."

"I could help," Kyren said imdiately.

I turned to him, incredulous. "What do you an you could help?"

"Observers can adjust attributes once they hit a certain tier," he replied. "You didn’t know that?"

"No," I said honestly. "I only know observers can see other people’s systems if they’re below their own. I’m still new to all this Realm Worker stuff. I only know what most people know, and I don’t usually stick my nose into things that don’t concern ."

Kyren smiled, but there was sothing sharper behind it this ti. "Well, you have to be one now."

I frowned. "Be what?"

"Inford. ddler," he replied. "The world of Crossers runs deep. Dark, too. It’s better to know what’s down there than pretend it doesn’t exist and get surprised later. Don’t you think, big brother?"

I looked at him properly then.

Kyren was still smiling, still relaxed, still carrying himself like a kid who didn’t have a care in the world, but there was an awareness behind his eyes that didn’t belong to soone his age. Not book-smart. Not academic. This was the kind of sharpness that ca from understanding how people worked, how systems bent, and how easily rules broke when pressure was applied.

He was right.

I didn’t like that he was right, but there was no denying it.

There was no doubt in my mind anymore. Kyren couldn’t stay here. Not because he was weak, but because he was too strong in the wrong place. Too visible to the wrong people. Even if he knew how to protect himself, he was still a child, and children were easy to bait, easy to manipulate, easy to use.

In Aetherfall, at least, I could keep him close.

And there was another thought I didn’t voice. If observers were accepted as assessors there, then Kyren could beco the only one who ever saw my full system without restriction.

I t his gaze and nodded once.

Kyren’s grin widened, satisfied.

My hands were still shaking slightly, and the sll of blood hadn’t left my nose, but beneath the shock, beneath the nausea, sothing else had settled in.

The realization that my life had just beco far more complicated.

And far more dangerous.