Battle of The Past Souls (1)

Just as this panel appeared before me, and before I could even have the chance to comprehend it, my skull from where I was seeing everything was thrown into the wall of darkness, making my mind go completely blank.

I just floated in there.

The thing that I thought was most familiar to me had been trapped inside of its prison of darkness, seemingly leaving me to rot as my mind dwindled away.

Until a golden orb floated out of the middle of my skeletal body and rapidly absorbed the darkness around me.

A strange power flowed through my bones, darkening them into a shade of gray whilst simultaneously filling me with a newfound strength.

It was similar to the smoke I used to control, but… this was different. Something almost opposite to the smoke I was so proficient in wielding.

My skeletal body dropped to the ground, the darkness and absorbing golden orb disappearing from plain sight, leaving me on the cold stone floor.

The wall that was just pure and utter darkness had also disappeared, leaving a small indent in the tomb I had awoken in.

Seeing how my body was still that of a skeleton, I knew that my previous experiences weren't a dream, meaning I had to truly snap awake now and really get a grip on reality.

"Okay… seems the skeletons haven't left yet and seeing how the numbers have only exponentially grown… the numbers won't dwindle in the slightest,"

Quickly, I activated [Haste] again, but upon reopening my status, I found something new presented itself to me.

[Skills: [Empower] [Haste] [Eagle Eye] [Darkness Manipulation]

My eyes shifted from my status to the dim light that encapsulated the entire tomb buried deep inside the ground.

There was absolutely no sunlight, or any light at all, meaning I had some kind of night vision whilst being a monster.

On the other side of the tomb, parallel to where the wall of darkness used to be, was a plain gray wall with nothing else attached to it.

I was trapped. Completely trapped inside this coffin.

"Okay… I see what you want me to do… and seeing how the main quest hasn't been completed yet, I visited the wall of darkness. It must mean you all are part of the solution," I muttered while crouching down against the ground.

Both of my boney hands pressed against the stone, unleashing a connection to every single ounce of darkness within this room.

I could feel, taste, see, smell, and hear everything that happened within this darkness, as if it was a second mind that fed my main brain more information.

But, seeing as how I had essentially no mortal body, I could comprehend so much information without me having a migraine.

"What a cheat," I muttered before all of the skeletons in front of me stopped in place, causing a string of pain to cut through my bones.

It seems my proficiency with the skill was way too low for me to use it on such a wide range of mobs, so I'll concentrate it on a single point.

In front of me, just as a skeleton reached for my skull, a pure ball of darkness appeared, absorbing the skeleton's hand in an instant.

"Huff… huff… huff… huff…."

[HP: 10/10 MP: 1/10 SP: --/--]

But, just that tiny attack nearly took all of my mana, so I was completely stuck in place, unable to do anything as I accepted my fate of being torn apart back into a pile of bones.

Each limb that came from my skeleton was carried across the tomb yet again, but this time to the stone wall parallel to the previous wall of darkness.

"What now," My skeleton almost sighed as they placed me right in front of the stone wall, allowing me to build myself back up again.

Nothing happened as I fully rebuilt myself, but a wall of skeletons formed in front of me, preventing me from going back into the center of the coffin.

"Ah… Are you guiding me?" I asked, yet there was no response.

So, just as they seemingly willed, I turned around and felt the presence of a thousand soldiers guarding my back.

I felt and heard their emotions, their dying pride, their dying screams, their pain… everything down to the last drop of agony.

I quickly snapped my skeletal head around to try and see them, but all I saw were the skeletons who had lined up behind me in rows of exactly one hundred… as if I was their leading commander.

Slowly, I turned back around to the stone wall, feeling their presence- no, their souls following me as I stretched my boney right hand out.

It scratched the stone wall, but all of a sudden, it jolted and then began to rise up into the ceiling, revealing a massive room that was dimly lit by blue flames.

They stretched across the ceiling like a constellation of stars, dimly lighting up the earth for a path of war to begin.

"I feel you… your anger," I muttered as a massive minotaur about fifteen feet in height, built like a brick shit house, turned around, feasting on the corpse of a human.

Its blood spilled onto the dark floor while its blood-stained axe swung up and landed on its shoulder.

[HP: 10/10 MP: 4/10 SP: --/--]

I glanced over at my status and nodded upon confirming that I had enough to make at least one final move.

The entire room might've been dimly lit, but parts of it, like the very edges, were trapped in absolute shadow.

Also, there were the shadows that I created, the skeletons behind me created, and most importantly, the shadow that the minotaur created.

So, I wasn't completely useless… but at least I got to lead these men behind me.

Despite them having no blood, I could physically feel their blood boil, raising the temperature of the air around us.

Their hollow eyes were lit by a dim blue flame, and as they took a step forward in unison, a surge of adrenaline rushed through my bones.

"Charge!"