Prologue L
CONCLUDING THE PROLOGUE
Standing in front of them was something that was not a legendary beast, but also not something common. In fact, Dionysus had never seen a thing like it before.
'Still, I guess it's possible with all the wacky abilities in the world . . .'
Standing in front of Silhouette was someone that Dionysus could only assume was once human, but was no longer one. Half their body was bones, while the other half was human. The face was also a victim of this pattern.
This person had clearly been in such a state for a long time. Even though Dionysus had never actually gotten quite a good look at bones before, he could tell that those bones had been standing for a while thanks to the color and wearing it was going through. Along with that, the person wasn't wearing any type of shirt, so he could see all the scars on his body.
"Give up now, for your own safety."
The half dead person said these words, which Dionysus took as him saying he was powerful. Dionysus continued to stare at him within the comfort of his ability, Behind the Curtain. However, he for some reason just couldn't find it easy to get comfortable.
"I'm going to say this now. This is not the result of my ability, and I have no abilities. I fought to the death with a mysterious man that entered this dungeon and caused havoc. In the end, he must've got bored and left."
"However, he didn't leave before making me into this abnormal thing. I quickly went from the powerful son of a noble to a damned lich, and I can't control it. I'm also cursed to not be able to kill myself or allow anyone to kill me."
"I'll be fighting for eternity, sadly."
After finally saying everything that he wanted, he stared sharply at Silhouette. If the man truly didn't have an ability, then it only made the fact that Silhouette was actually struggling to stand thanks to the pressure that he was releasing even more chilling.
Dionysus narrowed his eyes while staring at the man, and realized that the half that was missing was the side with the heart.
'How. . . do we kill him?'
Dionysus was genuinely lost. The man had no heart, so it was most probable that was head would be what they had to go for. However, if he truly was an undead, then a missing head might not stop him.
"Ladies and gentleman, it is as the man has said! From being the son of one of the esteemed nobles of the empire to being a slave of this little dungeon, this man has seen everything!"
After looking at the two intently, the referee ushered for the battle to start. The half dead man continued to stand there with his arms at his side.
'No, I can't think like that. As of right now, the only target that's left is the head, if he is still standing after losing it then we'll find another way.'
Dionysus quickly realized that wasting time thinking about what to do would only realize in their demise. As of right now, he had instructed Silhouette to keep its guard up so that he would gain an opportunity to analyze him.
"You sure you don't want to be the aggressive one in this situation?"
The half dead man looked down on Silhouette with a scorning look, as if it really was a fool. To be quite honest, Dionysus couldn't really say otherwise, as he and the Silhouette really didn't know much about him.
"Fine, I'll start it."
BAM
He stomped on the arena, which caused rubble to go flying in many directions. It would usually be a very good tool to obscure the view of a person, but Dionysus' ability allowed him to get a better vantage point than most can, so it didn't hinder him as much.
BAM
BAM
BAM
However, the man continued to stomp. At some point, it looked like there was a stone tornado flying around. Along with that, Silhouette was actually buried under a bunch of rubble, and the half dead man was still stomping.
'This isn't good, to lose Silhouette's mobility wouldn't do us any good.'
Dionysus instructed Silhouette to get out by lifting all the rubble off it, which it quickly began to do. Yet . . .
BANG
. . . it would seem that its guard was let down while doing so, as a small pebble came flying directly at Silhouette's head and emerged from the other side. Silhouette looked to its right, which was where the pebble had come flying from.
"Oh? I suppose you really can't be treated as a human, just like me."
After saying this, the half dead man had a bit of a sadistic smile on his face. Dionysus quickly realized the mentality of the person that he was going against.
'He'll try to stay as calm as possible, but he can't resist a good fight. He's going to most likely be more aggressive.'
Dionysus looked at Silhouette, which had lifted enough rubble off it that it was finally able to stand. Dionysus immediately ordered it to stop doing what it was doing and immediately guard. It immediately followed orders.
DANG
However, instead of the flurry of attacks that Dionysus was expecting, dust emerged from the ground and it seemed to begin collapsing.
'. . . huh?'
RUMBLE
After rumbling for a bit, the ground seemed to finally give away. Of course, something unexpected occurred, just like always. It was like Dionysus was staring at the abyss that he first looked at when Silhouette first began to follow him.
"What . . . the fuck is that?"
Dionysus couldn't believe what he was seeing. Under this arena, no, mountain range seemed to be an abyss that looked like it could quite literally descend to hell. In fact, that was probably an underestimation.
"Sorry boss, I'm going to borrow your home for a bit."
After saying that, the half dead man appeared above Silhouette while falling into the abyss. He quickly held its arms, and they began to descend into the abyss. Well, descend may not be an adequate word, as they were plummeting at quite the speed.
Dionysus began looking around in the glass box he was in for the goblet.
HAH
After finding it, he took a deep breath and made a curtain appear right above the abyss. Following that, he also took the plunge into the abyss.
--- SEQUENCE 2 ---
GASP
Dionysus woke up with a start, and then looked around himself. He remembered that he had fallen into the thing that was similar to an eternal abyss, and this seems to be the result.
QUAKE
Everything was constantly shaking. Dionysus had absolutely no idea where this place was, or if he was even in the same universe. Everything seemed so . . . different. Nothing was the same as it was before he dropped.
If Dionysus had to describe the scenery using any words he had, he would say alien-like and futuristic. He was in something similar to a humongous ball, and it seemed to be in the middle of space. The ball was made out of glass, so he could see everything out of it.
'Where . . .'
After continuing to remember the events that led up to this, Dionysus realized that Silhouette was nowhere to be seen, along with the third member of the dungeon. He stood up, and began running around in the hallways.
"Hah, hah . . . where are you?!"
Dionysus ran around while screaming, as he was in too much of a frenzy to remember that he could speak telepathically with Silhouette. However, no matter how much he ran around, it seemed as if this small mini-planet like thing had no end.
That was until this happened . . .
"Boss, they're here."
"Oh, I know."
WHOOP
Right after hearing these words, Dionysus got seemingly teleported to somewhere.
"Wha-!"
Before he could even finish the first word of his sentence, the scenery shocked him into silence. Sitting in front of him was someone who had many chains tying him down to his seat. Behind him was a humongous, pulsating heart. It was extremely bloody, and the blood was dripping down onto the back of the man.
'What the hell . . .'
"This is the person that you were asking for, correct?"
To Dionysus' right, the person who was supposed to be the third member of the dungeon was speaking to the chained man. The chained man had extremely long grey hair, so much scars that Dionysus genuinely could not identify any skin, and was missing his left arm and right eye.
Bow
This was all that the man had to say before Dionysus immediately had a knee on the ground and stared at it as well. The man in front of him surpassed everything he had ever seen. Cerberus, the zombie, and everything else.
Now that Dionysus began to think about it, the aura that this man radiated was similar to that of the orb within his dungeon.
'Does he somehow have a connection to the orb?'
Ignorance, Anger, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, Rage, Annoyance.
These six are just some of the many negative things about humanity as a whole.
As he somehow spoke without opening his mouth, the man began to lift his head that was originally staring at the ground, similar to Dionysus now.
In your whole life, you have experienced only but three of them. Yet, I have experienced the whole spectrum and surpassed reality as a whole . . .
Now, the man's head was fully lifted and his single eye was staring at Dionysus through the grey hair that was covering his face. The purple eye behind the grey hair pierced through Dionysus' very soul, and Dionysus quickly reminded himself to look at the ground once again.
However, he was now shivering when he looked at the ground.
SHHHIIIING
A chain, a single one, took a hold of Dionysus by the arm and wrapped itself very lightly around him. One would think that it wouldn't cause anything serious, that it was simply a binding tool, and so on. Natheless . . .
BLEH
The pain was absolutely searing. Dionysus would have rather died a million times over rather than experience it. It was so much so that he couldn't even make a sound or movement, as it would worsen it so much more. Dionysus was currently on both of his knees and had his hands by his side, with his face looking up and his mouth wide open. It was simply too much, so much so that he would have actually rather faced Cerberus for the rest of his life and never again do anything else.
After a while, blood began to appear from Dionysus' mouth, but the chain was removed at this point.
That is pain without death. That is the cycle that you might one day have to go through.
Dionysus looked around, as if it had all never happened. The pain came and went like a sword piercing through the body and then getting pulled out. He couldn't both the pain and the words of the man in front of him. However, after seeing all the chains wrapped tightly around him, Dionysus finally understood what was going on and stared in fear of the situation in front of him.
"A-All tho-those chains . . . are t-they . . .?"
The chained man nodded his head, and Dionysus wanted to vomit.
Each and every single chain is wrapped tightly to some part of my body, and then there are many chains within my body wrapped around my bones and organs.
Each and every single chain is much, much more powerful than the weak one you experienced.
Dionysus finally grasped the reality of the situation. However, the more shocking part was that the man wasn't in that much pain. It could be seen that he was in pain, but it was nowhere close to the level that Dionysus was experiencing.
After billions of years, how could I constantly feel such a pain? I was bound to get used to it at some point.
"Anyhow."
For the first time since he had arrived at this location, the chained man actually physically spoke. It was a dry, hoarse voice that resembled the voice of an elderly man. He was staring at Dionysus while sitting on his chained throne.
"That chain contained some very, very slightly negative emotions. A seed has taken root deep within you, and it is unable to be removed. At least, not with the limits of a mortal."
"Slowly but surely, your good side will be lost. The emotions will consume you, and by the end of it all . . ."
The man put a mad smile on his face as he looked at Dionysus. While his face curled to reveal the true madness that personified him, Dionysus' curled to reveal the hidden fear and confusion that he didn't know was possible to experience.
"You'll go mad, and experience the sick, sick reality that my existence is."