"Nngh… khh…"
Her breathing came in ragged, broken gasps.
"Ghk—GLRK!"
She suddenly doubled over and—PTHOO!—spat a mouthful of blood onto the back of her steed.
Lucia felt like death was a mercy compared to the torment she was going through… but the physical pain paled in comparison to the sheer agony she was feeling mentally, knowing that this pain was merely a fraction of what was being felt by him.
It all started with a cast of Future Echo.
She was granted two skills upon her ascension to Usurer Of Tomorrows. One that simulated the future; that one was snatched away by the Dead Secrets. The other was Future Echo, which allowed her to pull a future version of the target into the shell of the present.
The cost was the target's lifespan, multiplied by a hundred and determined by the temporal gap.
She used it on herself without hesitation.
What did her lifespan amount to compared to his life? She had already proven that there was no comparison before, and now, it was the same.
Her future self stayed for mere moments, but that was enough for her to understand where she was and what her duty was.
Back then, she wrote clearly on the parchment laid before her: the operation would succeed. Ashen would be saved, and the cost would be catastrophic. Many of the soldiers' lives would be lost.
But care for their lives… she did not.
Instead, she used this knowledge to embody her epithet.
The concept of a usurer was someone who lent something now in exchange for repayment later, usually with excessive interest. Applied metaphorically to tomorrows, that suggested someone who extracted a future benefit by imposing a future cost.
The people of Solmara, and its army more specifically, had been living in despair since their lord had used his life to save theirs.
It was a mix of the certainty that they would be devastated sooner or later due to the placement of their territory without the protection of their lord, and a mix of guilt and gratitude toward the man who had saved their lives.
The man who had not forgotten his promise when he stood before them and promised that he would fight to kill the Narkals to the last one, to avenge their sorrow and loss when they were invaded during his absence.
And that gratefulness made them cherish him all the more.
What she had to do was simple.
She would provide the army with hope for tomorrow… the certainty that their lord would be saved…
And collect the payment afterward in the form of the soldiers' lives.
"You will save your lord."
It was easy to say.
What wasn't, and what she wouldn't say, was…
"And many of you will not live to see that tomorrow."
They would get their desired tomorrow: their lord would survive. But they would pay for that tomorrow with their own tomorrows.
When they lined up to see that tomorrow, her epithet was fully embodied. And now, as she advanced amid the army, she was no longer an Usurer Of Tomorrows.
She was the Admired's Custodian.
The new epithet was interesting, to say the least.
Her first observation was that Envy was veering toward Admiration in her concepts to accommodate her new disposition.
The second observation was the guardianship in the epithet. But that was due to her newly chosen Thema after her ascension to the Third Step.
Phylakē.
It meant guarding, protection, and watchfulness. Her choice carried the hope of keeping him safe, even if it was only for a moment.
Lucia was sure that she had never protected anyone in all her life with enough sincerity to justify the manifestation of this Thema aside from herself.
That was, until he came along, and she did everything in her power to keep him alive.
The newly chosen Thema fused with her old Prognōsis, the one symbolizing foresight, to give birth to Prophylaxis.
It represented protection through foreknowledge of danger.
The new Thema narrowed the endless possibilities of Path Skills that could be born from her concepts to only those fitting such a Thema.
The Path Skills born from them were two. Coveted Shelter and Covetous Measure.
Lucia's eyes were blurred by the torturous pain, but she could still see through the haze and read their descriptions.
It was one of the things she did to keep herself conscious amid the carnage going on inside her body and surrounding her.
==============================
Coveted Shelter
Any harm affecting a target of covetousness can be transferred to the host instead, provided the host considers it harmful to the target. This applies not only to physical damage, but also to curses, mental afflictions, negative emotions, and other harmful phenomena.
The definition of harm is subjective. Even something normally beneficial may be absorbed if the user genuinely perceives it as harmful to the target.
Every successful transfer generates Conceptual Envy Essence.
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Covetous Measure
Any non-material effect experienced by the host that originates from the target of covetousness may be amplified or diminished through the expenditure of Conceptual Envy Essence.
This includes physical sensations, pain, pleasure, emotions, mental effects, mana, magical effects, and other phenomena, as long as they can be traced to the target.
The skill cannot alter material objects themselves. Only the effects produced upon the user through the target's influence can be measured.
==============================
Indeed.
The culprit behind her current torment was none other than the harm being cast upon her lover.
She was sharing as much as she could without outright dying, while Seraphine and the group of healers beside her did their best to keep her alive through it.
What they did not know was that the more they healed her, the more she chose to take upon herself the harm being inflicted upon him.
It did not stop at physical harm.
The negative feelings, the misery, the futility of his resistance, and the despair conceived from it…
She shared them all with him.
This may have looked like a desperate, even futile effort, but she had not chosen to do this without assurance.
When she ascended in Step, the System had surprisingly chosen to compensate her for the concepts she had lost when the Secrets stole her Path Skill.
It could not bring back the same skill, since its concepts had been permanently lost from its library, but it could grant her another skill.
And that skill was the other reason spurring her to do this.
==============================
Fateful Crossroads
The host can detect impending crossroads of fate involving a target they covet, as well as individuals strongly connected to that target through fate.
A crossroads of fate is a turning point at which a person must choose among multiple options, each of which could significantly affect their life, for better or worse.
The skill signals when the target is approaching a decisive moment in which multiple possible choices could drastically alter their future.
The closer the crossroads becomes, the clearer the future.
==============================
Fateful Crossroads had guided her to two options at this turning point.
To share his pain, or not to do it.
She did not know for sure the consequences of either choice, but she did not need to overthink it.
Common sense was enough here, no matter how hurtful the choice must have been.
"Cough!"
Seraphine, who was riding in the back lines beside her, cast her a worried look and intensified the healing spell by adding more mana.
But to her senses, it looked like she was pouring water into a splintered jar.
"Lucia…"
The sight before her was reminiscent of her own condition when her link with Ashen tormented her in the same manner.
But it was worlds apart.
Still, it did not make her pity appear any less sincere. And even so, she did not tell her to stop even once.
Lucia was doing this for Ashen. And to her, Ashen was more precious than any pity she could muster for this friend of hers.
"Where to next…?"
Lucia heard the question and did not answer immediately, as a horizontal cut appeared on her stomach, making her pain shoot through her and her vision paint red for an instant.
After the healing numbed the pain, she finally uttered:
"…front. Keep going… he is near…"