“Pat, watch out where you are walking. The floor’s slippery. Very slippery.”

After entering the cave, both Pat and Rick walked inside the cave with heavy steps, supporting each other. When they first entered, they both slipped but somehow could avoid falling down. If not, they both would have become a corpse, waiting for wild animals to come to eat them.

“Yeah, I was just going to slip moments ago again. You too watch your steps.”

Pat said that seriously as he knew that one mistake and their lives are over. They have informed no one that they have come to this cave, so nobody could find their dead bodies.

“On it!... But seriously, I never thought I would step inside this cave again. I was like 15 when I accidentally found this place when I got lost in this mountain.”

It has been five years since he last stepped here. On a rainy day, he got lost in the mountains amid his training for the knight selection. He spent most of his time in the mountain, training rigorously so naturally, everyone knew Rick would be in the mountains.

To get cover from the rain, he searched for shelter and somehow came across the cave.

“SO it was at that time you came here?. But then, how were you lying down at the entrance of the mountain?”

Shockingly, he remembered the time he entered the cave, but never remembered how he got out.

“That... I remember little. After meeting with the ascetic, I remember I lost consciousness. I, too, was shocked when I opened my eyes and found myself at the entrance. Might be the work of the ascetic, I guess.”

“Well, he might have saved you so that he can fool others through you and con the entire village.”

“Stop assuming things. Let’s just get inside the inner part first. If the ascetic would be there, you will understand after you see him.”

And so, after a little chat, they reached the entrance of the inner part of the cave.

“Is this the place?”

“... Yeah.”

The inner part was wider and had more space to move than the path that they covered until now. The inner part was mostly empty and in the middle of it, on a stone, sat an ascetic. He sat in a meditative pose with his back straight and eyes closed, breathing in and out slowly.

“Is that the ascetic you were talking about?”

Pat was stunned by the ascetic’s looks. Although they were far from the ascetic, he could tell that the ascetic was not in good shape. Whispering among each other, both Pat and Rick looked at the ascetic who was lost in deep meditation, one in awe and one with curiosity.

“What are you waiting for? Let’s go near him.”

“Shhh!! Quiet down. Let’s slowly get near him.”

Pat then urged Rick to get near the ascetic, as they were quite far away from him. Walking silently without grabbing the ascetic’s attention, both Pat and Rick then reached near to where the ascetic was sitting.

As they got near him, they got a clear view of the ascetic. The ascetic wore just simple a simple cloth covering the area from the waist to his knee. His body looked like the life was sucked out of it as his bones were clearly visible from his skin. His hair was arranged in a coil of matted locks and he had a big beard grown down to his chest.

“Woaah!! How can a man like this still be alive? Isn’t he malnourished? Look at his thin, weak body that looks like it has got no protein and carbs left. He really is a con artist trying to get some money from you so that he could eat something.”

The ascetic had the appearance that Pat described. For a normal person, he looked like a frail dried tree that would get uprooted by a single touch. But what was different was the surrounding atmosphere.

“Don’t underestimate him. Can’t you feel something is weird around him?”

A weird, calm aura surrounded the ascetic. Even though both of them couldn’t see it, they could feel the aura around the ascetic.

“...Now that you say, I do feel something. But what is-”

Before they both could continue their conversation, the ascetic opened his eyes and gently lowered his head, looking at the two uninvited guests in front of him. More precisely, he looked at someone else other than Pat and Rick who were also watching this scene.

“We meet at last, Mrit.”

***

“..Hahh!!”

Removing his hand from the skull, Mrit, who was drenched in sweat tried to control his breathing and began recalling what he just saw.

‘What...*pant* was that? How can that ascetic...’

What he saw were the memories of Rick, who was now the skeleton who evolved into the skeleton mage, kneeling in front of him. Remembering when his eyes met with that of the ascetic in the memory stunned him.

‘That ascetic... his gaze isn’t directed at them but rather...me?’

The moment was thoroughly inscribed in the mind of Mrit. The eyes of the ascetic looking at him and calling his name, just remembering it sends a shiver down his spine.

‘Forget it. It must be my illusion.’

“I have lost too much mana, too.”

After fighting and killing everyone to get a new skeleton mage, it depleted his mana at a faster rate. So he thought that what he saw resulted from the lack of mana.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

‘Let’s focus on him now.’

After the evolution, the skeleton that evolved belongs to Rick. Just after getting his soul placed in his now-skeleton body by Mrit and gaining consciousness, Rick first saw Mrit as he gained vision.

“Who are you?”

With a hostile voice, Rick tried to ask Mrit, but-

“Ghuh!!...”

A great pressure fell upon him out of nowhere, making him kneel on the spot.

[How dare a lowly soul question owner!! Do you not recognize your benefactor, your savior?]

The system of death appeared between Mrit and Rick, glaring down at Rick for questioning Mrit. Just negatively thinking of his master led to the power of death exerting enormous pressure on him.

[Can’t you see death itself sitting in front of your lowly soul? How dare you ev-]

“That’s enough!!”

Mrit then interrupted the system of death, as Rick was on the verge of getting turned to dust. Hearing Mrit, the system of death canceled the pressure on Rick.

“Do you want to destroy a minion of mine here in this world? You talk great about me, yet you want no one to protect me? Should I consider this as a betrayal?”

[N-No owner, I don’t wa-]

The system of death stuttered in Mrit’s presence. Mrit looked at him with an annoyed gaze and interrupted before the system could complete.

“Then shut up and go away. Leave him to me. Now go away.”

Mrit glared down at the system of death, making the system disappear from Mrit’s view in an instant. Coming near Rick, Mrit brought his right arm and placed it above Rick’s skull.

“Sun’s Embrace!”

Using the Sun’s Embrace, Mrit healed Rick completely. After that, an awkward silence fell there as both of them didn’t speak. Rick, who got scared because of the system of death, didn’t speak and Mrit, who felt emotions about Rick through their connection, felt weird and guilty.

After a while, Mrit spoke first, trying to ease the strange atmosphere between them.

“So, what happened afterward after you met the ascetic?”

He tried to ask about what happened after the ascetic opened his eyes. Now being low on mana, Mrit tried the long way by asking Rick about the details. Rick, who was kneeling, heard Mrit but didn’t speak as he hesitated to answer.

“I-Is it okay to talk to me? W-Won’t that whatever-thing will get offended if I talk to you?”

Rick, who just felt the wrath of the system of death, hesitated to even speak to Mrit. Fear gripped his very soul. The pressure was something he never felt, not from his father or from the knight. It was the first time he felt a power beyond his comprehension.

“Do not worry. It will not come out again.”

“... But.”

Mrit felt what Rick was feeling, so he tried to calm him down as he assured him that the system of death would not appear.

“I assure you. Speak freely. I know you won’t feel like talking to your murderer, but I hope you will cooperate.”

“Then...”

After a little bit of convincing, Rick then slowly started to talk.

“When we met the ascetic, he acted as if he already knew we were going to be there.”

“That... please continue.”

Mrit tried to speak something but let Rick continue. From the memories of Rick, he could say that the ascetic was not a normal human. The way he looked at Mrit and said the words to him gives him goosebumps till now.

“After that, he told us that both of us will meet someone who will help us in unlocking our true potential. He said that the person will make us more powerful than any of the hero present now. But now... I don’t think that’s even possible.”

Looking down at his body, now a fragile skeleton and the same as that of Pat, but without his soul, Rick felt that the ascetic at that time lied to them.

If not, then how could they even match the divine heroes, the Goddess’s champions, with this calcium-rich body?

Sensing Rick’s emotions, Mrit then stood up and placed his hand on Rick’s skull.

“I don’t know who that man the ascetic was talking about, but now you are my soldier. Now that you have shared your memories with me, it is also my duty as your owner to share some of my memories with you. After that, decide if you want to continue being my soldier or get liberated from this body.”

Just as he finished his sentence, the dark aura came out of Mrit’s hand and covered Rick’s skull, and eventually showed him some memories of Mrit.

“Ughh!!”

The soul of Rick then experienced and saw the memories of Mrit. From the time when he looked at his friends die at the devil to becoming the death himself.

From the memories of him massacring humanity to him getting summoned to this world to eventually betraying the Goddess, Rick thoroughly saw it and experienced it all. Mrit showed him his journey from how he was a low life to how he became the bane of humans to how he is here now, standing in front of him.

After a while, Mrit retracted his hand, turned around, and moved towards Pat’s skeleton, leaving Rick standing in a daze, stabilizing on his own.

“...H-How?”

Soon, Rick spoke with pain in his voice as he looked at Mrit’s back.

“H-How did you endure that much pain?”

As he saw Mrit’s memories, he also felt the emotions. After his death, there was not a single moment when Mrit felt happy for a moment. Not when he got the wish to get back his body of life. He became lifeless, even though he was alive and different from the undead, he lost his emotions slowly.

It was only filled with one thing, pain. No moment went by when Mrit cried in agony inside himself while butchering the humans. Just for the sake of getting the apocalypse to end somehow, he killed, killed, and killed till the end.

“No human could stand that much pain!! Why...no, how did you endure that?”

Various questions arose in Rick’s brainless mind, but he could only spell out one question. He felt Mrit’s pain and agony over killing humans to eventually be left with no emotion at the end.

What was only left was deep darkness and loneliness within him as he eventually crossed over to this world.

Turning back, Mrit looked at Rick, and with a still look, he answered back.

“Just to know the truth.”

With a heavy sound, Mrit then explained as to how he endured the pain to Rick.

“I wanted to know the truth. I wanted to know who caused the apocalypse, who gave us that power.... who threw us into that pit of hell.”

Slowly, anger filled Mrit’s voice as he slowly stated his goals to Rick.

“I wanted to know as to why I had to become a monster, as to why I have to kill every damn human. After dying, I get to know that the apocalypse isn’t something natural. It wasn’t the judgment day or day of the dissolution of the universe.”

“I knew that this apocalypse that brought humanity to the verge of extinction isn’t a natural cause. Someone caused it and I wanted to know why?”

His voice grew louder and his face slowly turned red and crunched up as veins slowly popped on his forehead.

Rick, who felt Mrit’s rage, gulped. He couldn’t get any reason to refute his words, as he knew what Mrit felt and went through.

“I have to kill even a newborn with these two hands of mine. A soul of a baby who did nothing wrong after getting born got absorbed in me. Do you know how that felt to me?”

To that question, Rick got nothing to say. He remained silent, just silent. Seeing Rick silent, Mrit then continued.

“I wanted to cut off my hands at that moment. The cry of the baby stabbed me through my soul.”

“I begged the system to at least spare the baby, but it never listened. It ordered me to kill everyone so I could escape the hell I was going through. The rage I felt boiling inside the dead, cold body of mine at that moment because of what I did became uncontrollable beyond anything.”

Suddenly, the aura of death and the sun erupted from Mrit’s chest, violently going berserk in the room.

“And now, coming here, I realized that the heroes who could have saved me and billions of humans are here, saving you all goddamn people of another world because of that damn Goddess and enjoying their life.”

The two powers this time never collided against each other, but rather acted together as the room started to get torn apart from the two powers.

“A-Ahhh...”

Rick, who saw the destruction happening in front of him, became speechless. His whole body and soul trembled as the two powers in Rick’s eyes represented the rage locked inside Mrit, which has just got unleashed.

But even this was not on a par with what he felt when he saw Mrit’s memories. This was nothing to what he felt in the memories.

Looking at Mrit, he realized that the man in front of him has the power to decide the fate of this world anytime, anywhere, at any moment.

“After knowing all this, I decided. I will take revenge against those heroes and that bitch Goddess of yours. I will make all the people who were behind the destruction of the earth pay with their very souls, even if it takes me destroying this entire world.”

“I will make everyone pay!”

***