Dungeon Shade 5

"So, can this blackening phase of mine even be cured?"

Hearing my question, our surroundings became silent once again before I suddenly heard the sword letting out a long sigh.

[𝘜𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺, 𝘯𝘰...] He spoke. [𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘴...]

When I heard him say his next word, I unconsciously swallowed my saliva as I suddenly felt cold chills running down my spine.

[...Is for you to be killed.]

Taken aback from his answer, I repeated what he said, turning it into a question. "For me to be killed?..." I asked.

Then, with a short pause, the sword answered, [Yes. Slowly, your mind will be corrupted by this 'blackening' until you turned into a psychopathic person who kills however he wants to... or explode.]

When I heard this... Welp, I'm screwed.

𝘚𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘐 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦, 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥... 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘤. I chuckled. Raising my head upward towards the rocky surface, I moved my fingers to take a piece of rock and threw them hard, with my whole arms being fully covered in mana.

"Fucking world this is!" As the rock managed to hit the ceiling and created a huge crack, I roared out as my voice echoed through the whole room. Raising my middle finger up in the air, I spoke, "Fuck you too, Author!! I hope you trip and fall down the street as well as some random truck run over your head and get reincarnated here too so that I can slap your face and beat you up, you son of a bitch!"

It took me a couple of minutes to calm myself down and when I do, I slammed the ground using my fist before asking the sword once again a question.

"When will the awakening phase be complete?" I asked. "If I'm supposed to be 'fated' to die, I just want to know when."

Although frustrated from what I've heard, not gonna lie though, I'm still curious about what he said just now.

[If my calculations is correct, it'll be completed by the time you turned 22 years-old,] Or so, the sword's reply. [Right now, you won't be experiencing; except for the sudden urge to kill and the whispers you'll be hearing later on. This'll then increase into something worse when you reached it's 'second phase', which is you'll start hallucinating about one of your past lives' greatest nightmare, or something like that.]

It continued. [For now, the sudden urge to kill and whispers is the most easiest to suppress.] The sword flew towards me as I managed caught it's grip. [To suppress those two, you'll have to satisfy your other self by killing somebody.]

...𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵? I raised the sword and looked at it's blade with a doubting expression. Then, as if noticing the doubt I've been feeling through his words, it just gave me a straight answer to my question.

[What I said is true.] The sword flew from my hands and went back to it's scabbard to rest. [If you're having thoughts about this, there's no need to worry. I'll help you deal with it by borrowing your body once it's gets worse.]

I was about to say something else when it continued. [I promise you that I won't take away your body. And, every time I take control of your body, I'll make sure that I will not mess with the heroines in the novel... That includes your sister-in-law.]

I just let out an exasperated sigh at the words of 'this' horny sword at my side... It was only until the realization finally hit me.

"By the way, when you say Sister-in-law... you don't mean by--!?" I was about to ask him my final question when I suddenly felt dizzy as well as my breathing distorted.

[Seems like the pain from your body I've been restraining since earlier finally got out.]

As I heard this, my whole body went numb making I fell on my knees while holding onto the grip of the sword for support.

[Don't worry, I'll make sure that every people in this dungeon survive... All you have to do right now is rest.] The sword haughtily chuckled.

Next, I felt a warm sensation coming from the sword to my body. Closing my eyes, I let my consciousness fade as I let the sword handle the rest of my body.

"I'll leave the rest to you, dumb ass... Make sure none of them die or else, I'll kill you after I woke up..." I said, forcing my remaining strength to say my last sentence. "Also, make sure that you don't destroy 'that' monster... since I'm sure that she'll be useful in the upcoming future." Right after I said this words, I finally fell unconscious on the ground while holding the sword by my side, not letting it go.

...

....

.....

Few minutes later, Athan suddenly got up holding the sword.

Opening his eyes, the normal prismarine-colored eyes was now replaced into crimson-red. "Yeah... I'll totally enjoy this body while it last." Saying this, the sword he was holding onto began to light up in a bluish-hue, and swayed through similar to a flame.

With a smirk, he turned his head to look at the door behind him and then raised the sword up.

[Devourer • Space Scrape]

Suddenly, the space surrounding him distorted after he slashed the sword down in the air.

If the others were to see what was currently happening, they would probably panic since what was in front of him now was a scraped-open space. It looked like a black hole that had been cut by an unknown force, as it was revealing an empty black space inside the huge cut.

"Let the party begin."

***

Few hours earlier...

After every group had disbanded, the protagonist, Arthur and his group including Athena decided to survey around the dungeon to check out the place.

When he was about to walk forward, at his sight, he unconsciously saw a familiar figure of a boy so he decided to stop.

"Hey, Arthur!" Athena raises her voice in order for her to get his attention. But, to her surprise, she found him secretly gazing his eyes towards the boy who had semi-long brown hair that was tied neatly on the back reaching at halfway of his spine, while the upper part was only gelled upward.

"Arthur..." After a while of being ignored, Athena decided to poke his cheeks to get his attention, which unsurprisingly worked, as he began to turn his head to face her.

"Is there something wrong?" Arthur asked, blinking his eyes innocently. She somehow find his expression funny as she let out a chuckle.

"Fufufu... Arthur, are you gay?" She asked, teasingly. "You've been staring at Athan's back for awhile now. I'm sure he'll notice this if you stare too long." She slyly smiled while staring at him straight.

Arthur just shook his head in reply to her first question, then turned his head back towards the boy from earlier who had finally started walking with his group behind.

While he was staring at Athan in silent, Athena pouted her lips and also decided to turn her attention to Athan.

Seeing him crack the back of his neck whenever he turned his head around while expressing his annoyance to the three, who kept talking to each other behind him, Athena felt that this usual actions of Athan was a bit familiar to her. She didn't know how or why but the only thing she was sure about was that this boy had a slight resemblance to the person she had been long taking care of.

𝘕𝘰𝘱𝘦, 𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘮. She tried her best to deny her thoughts, but... 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘩𝘪𝘮?! She felt that her expression stiffened the longer she stared at the annoyed expression of the boy.

Not long after, the figure of Athan including his group was now nowhere to be seen. Because of this, Arthur finally decided to head out and continue surveying the dungeon.

With his face facing the opposite direction of the boy he was staring at earlier, Arthur gestured his hands as if to order Athena and the others behind her to move out.

"Leo!" Athena raised her voice and called out to the person sitting behind the boulder. "Can you call Lumine and Sophia for me? She said pointing her fingers towards the boulder not far away from were he was staying.

"Sure," Leo answered with a smile.

Soon enough, two hidden figure got out behind the huge boulder. One of the girl, Lumine, had stretched her arm to the side while she was holding onto a wand. The other girl who just got behind her, Sophia, wore a smile on her face as they walked towards Athena.

"Let's go!" Athena cheerfully raised her sword and pointed it on the direction where Arthur went to.

""Right!"" The other three who had just reached her answered.