"I am back…?
His face was full of confusion, and that was expected.
"But how…? Just a moment ago I was… Urk!"
A strong pain pulled the reins of his mind and he quickly put his hand on his head, pressing it hard to suppress the splitting pain.
"Fuck! What the hell is this?!"
The anger was fully justified. Even I, a God, would scream my bawls out in that pain. Really, the 'rules' I created are ruthless, all because I wanted something to keep me in control. Shit. Now I can't even touch the 'rules'.
"Huh?"
It seems like the 'rules' did their job.
"Why can't I remember anything?"
He closed his eyes tightly and tried his best to remember the events in the Abyss. But of course, the 'rules' cannot be written over this easily.
(Why can't I remember anything?! I am sure I died and was transported somewhere but I can't remember a damn thing?!)
That pain must be killing him or else he won't be shouting in his head like that.
Soon, he withdrew his hand and panted heavily.
He finally stopped thinking about it.
"Fuu…"
He closed his eyes and started to breathe in a particularly unique method. It was something he did a lot in his adventuring days to calm himself.
"Haa…"
His breathing stabilized and he opened his eyes. A calm radiance seeped through his eyes as he assessed the current situation. Damn, I really can't help but be impressed. Just tell me who is out there who can keep their cool in the face of everything that happened with Sou?! Answer honestly. Moving on…
He quietly looked over his surroundings. Clear signs of a raging battle- unusually large craters, extremely burned ground, huge chunks of several boulders, claw marks everywhere- could be seen sprawled if one sweeps a glance at the place Sou was. But all those things became air to him when his eyes caught something particularly eye-catching.
"..."
Traces of a red-silver liquid were all over the dungeon floor and this was something that Sou has seen maybe a thousand times in his adventuring days.
"Is that… blood?" Devastated, he asked himself apathetically.
The blood of his summons made his blood boil. Like I said before, even though he doesn't show it, he cares for his loved ones- which included his summons too- more than you can imagine, and any harm on his loved one can trigger the rampage switch. Though I don't think that is going to happen now…
"..."
His face grew more apathetic the more he stared at the sprawled blood, which also drew many mana beasts (which were supposed to be rare. I wonder why there are so many in this dungeon… must be my fault, teehe), and leered at Sou's mana-filled body with greedy eyes, their mouth drooling disgustingly.
Soon, killing intent began to leak out of his body and the enormous mana inside his body started to burst out of his body. Sou was yet to take any notice of the mana beasts, but he didn't need to. Before they could surround him and make him yield to become their meal, Sou's choking killing intent, which was not in the stage of human realm at the moment, drove many away, choked some, and paralyzed some completely.
"Grr…"
A beast, mistakenly, let out a small growl, of course, in fear. But Sou couldn't make out what was fear and what was arrogance at the moment.
He cracked his head towards the growling mana beast frighteningly, which made the mana beast let out his piss and growled even more like a scared puppy.
Tring!
{Using 'Nightmare'}
Yep, what a good system I created. Following the wishes of the user without needing the user to open his mouth. Of course, it is not always valid. Specifically, in situations where the user's emotions scream.
A black aura rose from Sou's behind, engulfing everyone living being present near Sou.
"Grr… Uu…"
And like that everyone was sucked in the abyss inside Sou, the most fearful abyss (after mine of course).
"Uu…"
A small sound came from Sou's lap. And yes, you guessed it right. The child makes her entry!
Sou's fiercely frightening eyes suddenly shot towards the child who was rubbing her eyes after her long sleep, and when I say long, I mean really~ long.
Both of their eyes met, Sou's rage filled eyes glaring at the child's heart wrenchingly innocent and pure eyes, which were now glistening with tears.
"Haa…"
(What was I trying to do when there was a child down in my lap…)
Ahem! Don't look at me! Not like you are looking… but still! I wanted something to stop me from going berserk with my powers, but I didn't know that because of the 'rules' Sou would make her cry.
Sou slowly put his hand on the girl's silky black hair and stoked it gently.
"Mnn~"
And she liked it enough to make our hearts stop by her cuteness.
But there was no reaction on Sou's face except for a stiffened expression.
"..."
Drip…
Tears rolled down Sou's cheeks. This damn bastard… you really had to think of them again…
Sou jerked the girl on his lap and pulled her into his embrace.
I really want to tell him that everyone that acts like his sisters is not his sister… but…
"Hik… uu… ahh… ah…"
His crying resounded silently in the middle of suffering mana beasts…
***
On the other side of the dungeon, the summons were still engaged in a clash against the rampaging Drago, who has grown exponentially in terms of power after Sou's heart stopped beating. It was like he had gone through a breakthrough.
"Urk!"
"May! Are you alright?!"
May nodded in response to her sister's question and continued to strengthen the fire arrows which were hovering around her back.
Meanwhile, Junko was constantly trying to pin the rampaging Dragon.
"Hup!"
A wall of erupted fire gushed out of the dungeon floor and burned off the overgrown claws to vapours.
"How'd you like that?!" Junko shouted from the wall's cover, but her joyful expression sooned turned into a horrified one as soon as she saw another claw passing through the fire wall.
"Tch!"
She clicked her turn hard and quickly used the Lightning element on her legs to speed up her escape. But of course, they would not be on the losing side if things were this easy.
The claw was quicker than the gathering mana at her legs and was about to dig a hole on Junko's chest, but she barely managed to escape that vital injury. But that came with a cost too.
"Argh!"
The claw just grazed her arm, but that graze left her arm almost unusable.
She quickly made her escape to May and Mary began her assault.
"Hah!"
She threw her fist at Drago, which was easily blocked. But that was just a feint, made for the actual .
She quickly withdrew her hand and flipped to Drago's back and Drago turned towards Mary with extreme reflexes and threw his deadly claws at Mary
"May! Now!"
Mary shouted without flinching at the incoming claw.
Mary nodded reluctantly and released the arrows that she had been preparing for this moment.
Fwoosh!
The burning arrows flew towards Drago's broad back beautifully. Their extreme speed made them seem like a shooting star in a dungeon. That was how beautiful the arrows and their movement was.
Boom!
The arrows struck Drago without losing the firepower they were created with.
"..."
"..."
Drago's roar quietened down. But this was a moment they faced numerous times during their seemingly-endless fight with Drago, so everyone kept their guards up, waiting for the disgustingly powerful Dragon to pounce on them, and it happened.
Within a second, Drago was in front of May's face, with his claws even more sharper than before.
May could only watch in daze.
Time seemed to have stopped in May's eyes. She glanced to her side where the fallen Kakund, the only one who could deal with Drago, was lying, barely breathing.
Then, her eyes moved to Junko, who was preparing some sort of Lightning spell in a rush.
And then, to her sister. She was rushing over to her, screaming something which could not pass through May's numb ears, but still, she knew what she was saying.
And finally, the face of a man, no, a kid who just reached puberty popped up in her mind and only one word flew out of her mouth.
"Master…"
Boom!
***