Chapter 11 – A True Monster
She stepped through the door of the guild, searching for the fated one.
Since that day, she has lost interest in everything; life and death did not have a meaning for her.
A field of flowers
"A colorless flower rotting away from the inside, as it gets overlooked by the colors.”
But she was finally able to find interest in something.
That something wasn´t a bright light but a shadow darker than anyone’s, even darker than her own.
…
A cold night fell upon us.
She started looking for a place to sleep, but the thriving town had no place anymore.
The whole town was full of people due to the appearance of a new dungeon.
* Over the millenniums, it sometimes comes to cases where a Dungeon is naturally formed. The energy accumulates itself in certain places; these places can be graves of one’s important people or historical places that carry a deep meaning.
People proficient in Dungeon Expeditions and researching these claimed this to be a Dungeon with the attribute Shadow of an Expert level.
The only ones that could take part in this raid were of C rank at least.
She wasn't interested in the Dungeon, so she only searched for a place to sleep.
As she walked through the town, a group of people noticed her as she went out of town.
“Come on, let´s have some fun.”
They laughed as they looked into each other’s eyes.
Outside the tower on a hill nearby.
One could see the lights of the tower lighting the sky.
As she sat down next to a tree, she investigated the far where she came from.
“That group from town followed me.”
After a breath’s worth of time, she heard loud cries from where she came from.
“It must be that group of people.”
Jumping from tree to tree, she reached the place of the cries.
A place that could only be described by these words—the place where Satan himself descended upon.
Bloody red grass, arms and heads cut off; the bodies of five dead people lay there.
Something stood above them, a dark figure covered in blood from head to toe.
Black Tear.
…
She jumped down from the tree.
She only looked at Black Tears. She wasn´t fazed by the dead people and only looked at the darkness in front of her.
It´s back was facing towards her, so she couldn´t see its face.
She was close to it, but it didn´t move.
After a breath’s worth of time, it slowly turned its face towards the girl.
Before it could say anything, she bows down.
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It became confused at the situation.
She looked into its eyes and replied in her quiet voice, „Thank you.
For dealing with these people, she continued shortly afterwards.”
The monster stared at her after she said those words.
It was able to make out one thing: This person is like me.
Having experienced pain throughout our whole lives, we were like empty shells.
…
As she stops her bowing and straightens back up, she asks, Isn´t the world too silent for us?
It looks at her with a slightly surprised face and replies in a deep voice, where his every pain could be felt—We are not the ones to decide our fate in this world.
She finally confirmed that this so-called monster is a human being.
He stepped away.
“Where are you going to?” She eagerly asks him.
…
“Shadow Dungeon." As those words left his lips, she noticed his committed face, and her eyes widened.
Eyes thirsting for blood, colorless, fallen into the depth.
Only a moment after he takes another step and loses itself in the shadow, disappearing into nothingness.
…
She silently looked at the place he stood just to look up at the bright full moon.
“Looks like I have my new destination, Shadow Dungeon.”
…
The next day.
At the center of the town.
“Hey, would you like to form a party with me?”
The town square was filled, many looking for a party to raid the Shadow Dungeon.
There are different kinds of Dungeons all over the world, with different attributes: fire, water, earth, wind, shadow, and light. These are considered the main Dungeons elements, but sometimes unique ones appear.
Everyone was forming parties of 4-5 people; that just says how difficult it is to raid a middle-class Dungeon. Despite this fact, there was someone going in alone.
“Is she serious?”
“She is planning to go in alone.”
“Who does she think she is? Does she have a death wish?”
A knight in marvelously shining armor walked up. He seemed to be a middle-aged man, but.
“Who is that?”
“He has so much aura around him!”
“That´s the 12th rank of the holy knight order!”
“Seriously? What is one of the 12 heavenly guardians here?”
He had short blonde hair and a well-maintained beard; his fierce yellow eyes looked you deep into the soul, and that holy energy he is emitting makes my body shiver.
The whole area became silent after he released a small portion of his power, his holy powers covering the hole square.
"Recently, there have been multiple appearances of new Dungeons.”
* Dungeons naturally appear over time. Many prominent people researched these Dungeons over decades, and they found out that monsters are naturally born in these Dungeons; there is no end to them. If these places are not cleared regularly, overtime they overflow and break, releasing these monsters throughout the world. Adventures are tasked with clearing them for money.
“And the appearance frequency of these dungeons only increases.”
“We from the Holy Knight order are tasked to deal with these Dungeons to save the inhabitants of this world from doom.”
Several hooded figures from the crowd stepped forward, with one motion ripping of their hoods. Several Holy Knights were mixed under the adventures.
“We shall carry out the will of God!”
Every knight screamed aloud and began going into the dungeon with the captain in the front.
The Adventures were stunned by the sudden appearance of the holy knights, nonetheless a captain.
They were always neutral and didn´t bother much about the world, but now they are suddenly claiming to deal with these dungeons. Something was off, and the only one to notice was a white-haired girl in the crowd.
“Hey, they are going to take all the credits; let´s go!”
“Come on, we should hurry too!”
Everyone rushed into the Dungeon without thinking or having any concerns except one person.
A white-haired person standing in the middle of the town.
The wind blew as she stood there in silence.
“I should get going.”
As she took the next step, many layers of wind overlapped before here, but with only one step she broke through them, creating a blast of wind pressure around here, and she disappeared.
“Huh, what´s that sound? There was someone like that here. I wasn´t expecting a master to be here; this dungeon raid may be getting a little interesting.”
The 12 heavenly holy knights said with a smirk on his face.
“How far is the Dungeon away, second in Command Julius?
“It should be close by!”
A young man said, with yellow hair parted in the middle.
His blue is perceiving the map in his hands.
“Then we should hurry, before we get left behind!”
“Left behind? Is someone that strong here?”
“Yes, I felt their energy a moment ago for a second in the town, but after less than a second she already overtook us and is at the entrance of the Dungeon.” – the captain said.
“What? Why would such a skilled person bother coming to this Dungeon?”
“Maybe there is more to this Shadow Dungeon that meets the Eyes; we should be careful. We must do everything to fulfill our mission sent by God!”
…
A short while later at the Dungeon
“So, this is it? The Shadow Dungeon.”
The Holy Knight and Adventures had reached their destination.
* The Shadow Dungeon
“It feels really intimidating!”
An Unknow metal raging outside the earth, with a carved-out path into its depth.
“It is really hard to imagine that these dungeons just form naturally.”
“What kind of being must have died all those years ago to be able to create a Dungeon like this.”
“Be cautious, don´t let your guard down! March forward!”
The Holy Knights Captain commanded.
Around 150 Soldiers were gathered, around 20 were part of the Holy Knights order, ten mages supporting the Knights, there are also about 20 high ranking Adventures and the rest 100 Adventures are low – middle ranking ones hoping to get a piece of the cake.
“So dark!”
“Shadow dungeon really is a fitting name for this, I can´t even see my hands.”
“I have a bad feeling, tell the mages to cast their magic!”
“Mages cast, Fire Torch spell, the second in command yelled out!”
The mages wearing long white coats, with a holy golden cross on their back, casted their spells and the cave lightened up.
Just as the room lightened up, they discovered it.
There was a small caved out rail in the bottom of the rail, carrying a neon green liquid.
“What my magic is being absorbed?”
“What is happening”
The spells of the mages dissipated and the magic of that was attracted to this green liquid. It absorbed the mana of the spells, and it began glowing.
Everyone´s faces were covered in disbelief and confusion, but one person quickly came to him and commanded everyone.
“Be careful this is no normal dungeon”, the captain informed everyone.
“Yes, Sir!”
So, they continued their expedition.
“What is this?”
An Adventurer was kneeling down and observed the liquid close up.
He slowly led his hands to the liquid to feel it with his hands.
“HEY! What are you doing? You are going to be left behind of you don´t get moving!”
“Arghh right, I am coming!”
He quickly catches up with the rest of the party following the green stream of liquid, but his hands seemed to be covered in that liquid.”
…
Deeper in the Dungeon
A flash of wind rushed through the Dungeon.
“Where is he? He must me at the deepest parts of the Dungeon, from where I feel that dark energy!”
It was the white-haired girl searching for Black Tear.
“I can feel something far ahead of me.”
“Let´s speed up!”
…
At a certain place in the Dungeon.
A large room, with a big gate at the end.
The gate was around 15 meters tall. On each side there stood a big stone statue as if they were guarding it from anyone wanting to cross it. There were 3 Greenish crystals floating before it. One in the middle and one on each side, left and right.
Stone pillars raging form upside down and from downwards up. The entire floor was covered with hard granite stone and there stood one being before them.
A person that is called a Monster by everyone, a being transcending common knowledge, the only one of his kind - A True Monster.
End of the 11 Chapter---------------------------------------------------------------To be continued