A Sinner’s Chance

The feeling of the Unworthy Burning Yang curse consuming my body returned as I opened my eyes and found myself in the center of a dimly lit stone room. As I sat up and looked at myself I wondered how I was even alive, the curse had and was still consuming the flesh off my body leaving only bone in its wake.

I focused on the golden flames that were eating away at me and tried to think of a solution. Veldarix had said that the solution should be simple and that something was clouding my judgement but I wasn't sure what I could do against the flames. As I sat and frowned in frustration it dawned on me, a simple solution I should have been able to use once I knew how the curse worked. The cursed golden flames were just like the flames that had made up Arya's flaming sword, and I'd dealt with that by using Flames of Necrosis. 

Despite the fact that the solution hadn't been provided by the Eyes of Seshat it wasn't like I would lose anything by trying it. I took a moment to center myself before engulfing myself in the dark flames. I directed the flame to spread into my body and towards the golden fire that was slowly destroying me. Just as it had with the flaming sword the purple black flames began to attack and extinguish it.

There was a silent yet fierce battle as the two flames raged against each other but ultimately the golden flames were consumed. I was about to breathe a sigh of relief before I suddenly lost control of the flame as it completely immolated me and exploded forth from my body. For the first time in a few years I felt genuine pain that was not inhibited or influenced by my skills causing me to scream as my body began to uncontrollably convulse on the table I was on. Like a fish out of water my body moved in a chaotic fashion until, just as suddenly as it began it ceased.

My breathing was extremely labored as I lay there for a moment while recovering. After my breath calmed down I sat up once more and inspected my body. Like before there were still large wounds all over my body, only now the dark purple-black flames filled them in and I could see them healing before my very eyes. This was a new development as Superhuman Regeneration had lacked the ability to deal with heavy wounds like the ones I had sustained. In addition I could see some of the fire seemed to be seeping into my bones and flesh darkening them to a nearly black purple.

I blinked a few times before checking my Status, there was a surprising amount of changes that I had not been expecting, including that my race had changed.

Beyond my race becoming Ashen there were several other things which peaked my interest and just as the last time I looked Vision of Seshat was showing me descriptions for everything, some were obvious, but there was plenty of new information that I found almost shocking.

'Lust Revenant: A class focused on the inability to feel pain or be killed through the manipulation of sexual arousal in the holder.' I wasn't sure how I felt about my new class, but it at least gave me decent bonuses to my most used combat Skills, though I had hoped for something that would also help with crafting.

'Ashen: One who faced death but rose from the ashes of their old shell. A Phoenix born a mortal.' Unlike when I was Ashborn, it didn't seem that my new race was a mix of any other races, but I supposed the description was rather apt, considering my situation.

'Mynoghra's Shadow: ꁲꈜꑀꊯꁅ꒦* Soulꑀꅐꀷꏳꏳꅐꏳꌅꅐꀷꊯꑀ꒑ꈵꋖꈜꁲꀷꊯ, ꊿꋖꁝ꒑shadowꁝꐔꈜꁲꊯ? Grants Seduction, Essence Drain.' The fact I was able to make out some of this Gift was unexpected, but with only the words Soul and shadow, it didn't really tell me much. Though I did recall Velkis had called out to Mynoghra, so I thought it might have something to do with that.

'Phoenix of Yin: A rare existence born when a Phoenix rises during a total solar eclipse. Represents the inverse of the normally Yang aligned Phoenix. Grants Undying Flame, Necrosis, Yin from Yang.' I had not expected for a Gift to be able to evolve but it seemed that it was not only possible but had greatly increased in strength. 

My other Gifts were the same as when I'd just had Inspect but a few of the Skills had new information in them which was contradictory to what was commonly taught.

'Artifice: A pinnacle Skill that rules over creation and invention.' I had figured it did something along those lines, but its somewhat vague description made me wonder if there were other ways to use it.

'Novice Life Magic: The first steps of controlling the energy of Life and Death with formations.' I had to reread the description a few times, simply because the two new words added to it changed my whole perspective on how one could utilize Life Magic. Life energy was best used to heal or to buff another living being, yet now I learned that the energies of Death were also included. As someone who had died twice now, I had a decent grasp on the concept of death and how I could apply it.

'Primordial $!#@: Magic that influences the &$@%. A taboo form of magic focusing on enslavement of both the living and the dead.' I wasn't one hundred percent sure, but it gave of the feeling of necromancy, not something I wanted to or could practice openly.

'Sadism: Increases arousal when inflicting pain on others. Combos with Essence Drain to absorb vital energy when inflicting wounds.' While I had figured that would be something similar to Masochism the fact that it was essentially a life drain skill thanks to Essence Drain was an unexpected, but welcome surprise.

'Vision of Seshat: A pinnacle Skill that allows one to view something's entry from the Records of Seshat.' This Skill was extremely useful as it was currently proving, though I couldn't completely rely on it since it seemed to either incomplete or perhaps couldn't provide all the information since it's level was too low.

'Undying Blood: A Skill that represents a Phoenix's regenerative ability.' It was likely this Skill was a fusion of Undying Fortitude and whatever Superhuman Regeneration had become when it maxed out. The result was obviously much stronger than either, but even if it turned out I couldn't die, there were plenty of ways to counter such a Skill if the myths of Earth were anything to go by.

'Flames of Yin: A Skill that manifests the negative effects of Yin as a flame.' The description was vague as always but even when it had been Flames of Necrosis it had been my strongest Skill, so I knew this was going to be even stronger.

'Yin from Yang: Allows the user to convert Yang energy to Yin energy. Combos with Flames of Yin to consume Yang energy from outside sources.' With the amount of Yin-Yang that was coming up in my Status I wished I had learned more about it on Earth, alas I'd been caught up in other things so there was no choice but to learn here.

It also just so happened that I knew someone that I could probably easily extort at least the basics from, a certain High Elf responsible for my temporary death.