The travels were mostly uneventful. He asked how long it would take, and he learned that to travel between the villages took at least a month by foot. A few times each day, Relictus would have to fend off a few dozen monsters. The villagers asked how a normal Spirit like him could possibly do that, and decided to attribute it to the pure black armor he wore. They say he looked like a shadow as he flew from monster to monster, breaking entire groups of enemies with levels he never knew. Little did he know, their levels were all above 15,000, and multiple times that in their Stats. In fact, Relictus hadn’t checked his own Character Sheet in over a week. They weren’t even halfway to their destination, though. With his rapid improvement, he refined each movement as he went through with it, he learned at the rate of the monster the game was intent on calling him.

If only he could have improved fast enough.

Relictus woke to the sound of explosions, or so he thought. He stood and jumped outside of the carriage he was sleeping in. Surrounding the carriage were hundreds, no, thousands of monsters, all closing in on the carriage. If they were all small fry like the enemy army he had faced back in his own dimension, then he wouldn’t sweat it, but he examined the enemies around him, and saw virtually nothing.

There was a humanoid warrior, or some existence like it, wearing shiny armor that didn’t lose its hue even after dirt was kicked into its direction by the others around it.

Silver MarauderLevel: ???

A simple hooded character that wielded a wicked scythe, its blade’s swing cutting even the air. It was either the weakest, or the easiest to discern, among them.

HarbingerLevel: 50281

He didn’t even know how to describe one of them. It looked exactly like what the Spirits described him as – a shadow with a humanoid shape, a blur as it moved.

???Level: ???

There was a titanic character that looked as if it was prepared to destroy him in an instant if he got too close. Its scales were dark green, and its mandibles shone red in the constantly crimson ambient light, if it wasn’t the permanent stain of blood.

Eater of WorldsLevel: ???

A simple foot soldier sat upon a horse that looked as if it were a skeleton.

PestilenceLevel: ???

There was a giant humanoid body, comparable in size to the Eater of Worlds, wielding a massive two-handed hammer.

Corrupt GodLevel: ???

Legions of others that could be confused with the Harbingers stood near the back, but they all held staffs as black as night, the red light giving them an ominous hue, as if they were formed of embers. The shadows beneath them were dark.

ShadowmancerLevel: ???

Those were just a few of the high-ranked enemies among them. He felt emotion for the first time since Emperor of Fury was locked – it was fear. Pure, unadulterated fear for his own life. He knew he couldn’t escape here. This would mean making this whole scary world his enemy.

He ran straight into the enemy forces. He had confidence in his stamina. If nothing else, he could delay the enemies so that the convoy could get through. He didn’t care what they thought. After making sure he had their attention, he motioned towards the road and dashed into the hordes of enemies surrounding them. He found the place with the most familiar enemies – largely the Shadow Panthers he had defeated so many of. He immediately activated Darkness Pulse, an ability he rarely used, and hadn’t even tried since before reaching the city he had stayed in. The monsters were already staying a fair distance from him, but once he activated it, they… inched backwards a little? It was incredibly weak, and didn’t affect his enemies in the slightest. Despite his power, it was too weak, somehow.

He dismissed it rather quickly – in battle, there is no time for this. He hacked and slashed and stabbed at his enemies, crushing them completely, their blood decorating his armor spectacularly. He made it through hundreds until he realized it wouldn’t work. Gathering around him now were Silver Marauders. He could hardly even defeat one of them with his level now, and they made him feel incredibly weak. They overpowered him easily. He did the only thing he had left.

He sheathed his sabre and pulled at the ring. It would not come off. It caused excruciating pain, trying to pull it with all his might. It wasn’t caught on his finger. It hurt his chest to pull at it. It was a burning sensation, one he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

While trying to avoid the barrage of the attacks, suddenly, something clicked. Immediately, as it did, the ring slid off of his finger as if there had been no struggle whatsoever, and he felt as if every inch of his body was being incinerated in the concentrated core of a star. He felt as though his blood boiled, then… nothing. The last thing he saw was his fury meter. It read, [100000/???]. All he heard as everything around him disappeared, shrouded in perfect black, was his own voice.

Must… kill…

Blood…

WILL BE SPILLED

KILL

DESTROY

LEAVE NOTHING

ANNIHILATE ALL

REVENGE IS THE ONLY PURPOSE

BEYOND THAT…

IS ONLY…

DEATH

Even his own voice faded from his mind, the growling tone fading with the rest of the world.

Where am I?

He tried to move. It was surprisingly easy. He didn’t walk, he didn’t touch anything, he just… moved. It could be called floating, if there was anything to float on. He didn’t even breathe. He just was. As he moved, his vision changed. He could see more around him. He saw himself. He saw himself, and around him were countless bodies. Beyond that, and encroaching on him were hundreds. There were pure shadows, spells of darkness cast towards him, but they had no effect. He himself was a being of shadow; a monster against many more. As Harbingers closed in, Relictus saw himself crushing their scythes and slashing their cloaks into strips of cloth. They were nothing before him when he was enraged.

Relictus tried to warn himself, but whatever was controlling his body couldn’t hear him. A blade pierced his back. Behind him was a humanoid being Relictus hadn’t noticed – he couldn’t examine it either.

All too suddenly, he was in his own body. His HP had gone down seriously far. He only had 300 left, and it was draining incredibly quickly. He had just one chance to do whatever he could. It couldn’t get any worse, but he had exactly 6000 energy.

He went all-out, and activated God Slayer, squandering the rest of his energy. He kicked off of the ground, and arrived in front of the Corrupt God in a split-second. A single slash broke through its body like it was going through air, and in just one strike, it was dead. He kept going. Whatever hit him in the back was diced into hundreds of pieces. Pestilence was bifurcated vertically. Hundreds fell under his final strikes. After ten attacks, he fell to his knees, depleted of everything. The caravan, completely stunned by his actions, had sat still. Relictus felt his third emotion since that time.

Relictus despaired as his head hit the ground, he despaired as his health fell to zero, he despaired as he watched his companions stand unmoving. A single tear fell from his eye, onto the grass below. He lay in the single clean patch of grass in the bloody warzone, his hand gripping tightly to one thing – a ring. In his final moments, he held it to his chest.

~–•–~

“This isn’t happening, right?” Jujue spoke first.

“Of course. We’re… just dreaming! That’s it! It’s just a… a dream.” Verweigerung spoke back, shaking. “There’s no way this is real.”

The others were either unconscious or mumbling to themselves, cold sweat and tears falling. They were practically broken, scared. They shook; they wanted to deny what was going on. That was all they could do. They were only there to deny.

~–•–~

He closed his eyes, waiting for the message that would convey to him the dreaded message. He was dead, wasn’t he?

It never came. He forced his eyes to open; it burned to even move those muscles. He looked down at his chest, using all of his remaining strength to look down. Why, you ask? There was a suspicious light. His chest, right above his sternum, glowed. Right in the center of his chest was a circle. He could still see, he could still move. The pain faded, and he stood up. He was numb.

Congratulations! Through use of an artifact, you have gained the Power to Deny Death. With this, you can live after death for up to 1 hour. This will not be added to the Death Penalty. If you die while this is active, however, penalty is doubled. You will respawn where you originally died.

He sighed in relief. He felt numb, but he was now able to stand. With this, he stood up and prepared once again to fight. He didn’t feel tired. He had been hot-headed earlier, and it gave him great relief, but he was still cold now.

He didn’t run quickly, delivering thousands of slashes to end twice as many victims. He just stood there. His ODRV stat was rising just from standing. He unsheathed his blade. A single swing decimated everything in front of him. He kept walking, swinging. Hundreds died in each strike. The army of beasts had very little left, all due to the drowsy Relictus. He kept swinging, and more died. They were slow slashes, and had no form, but from them extended a massive wave of energy with enough concussive force to easily end the lives of those that he fought.

Within just minutes the army was almost entirely gone. Relictus finally discovered his power – he was able to destroy those far above his own power.

Then, he discovered its weakness. He half-ran, half-hobbled over to the caravan, or what was left of it. The remains of those he traveled with were completely gone. He went through a range of emotions, including anger at himself for being the one to do this, sadness because it was his fault, hatred of the monsters who had him do this, the system for giving him that cheat-like power and letting this happen.

As he fell to the ground in the scraps of wood, all he felt was that he knew he had only one person to blame – himself.

Author's Note

Spoiler : 2 chapters in one day! It's like a holiday or something. I guess I'm in a good mood after seeing the Deadpool trailer. Definitely gonna go see that with my friends when it comes out. Anyway, it's a battle chapter. How did I do?