Sounds of footsteps resounded inside a dark and almost lightless passage. A lonesome figure walks with his entourage behind him. Corpses. A certain dread could be felt by ordinary people, but for the walker, he was smiling mysteriously.
'The Lair of Zachary Drakkar, the Shadow, and the Mystic Dark."
Certain memories were brought back through his inner monologue. A shadow, lonely, afraid, and seeking refuge. The shadow was kind, never wanting anything it couldn't, but would put itself on the line if something it has is being targeted.
'You were a good friend, you even have your own remarkable character development arc early on as well. And, I focused most of my resources early on to you because of that. Such fond memories.'
Now that he's inside his favorite game, he couldn't help but recall so many events that have yet to happen. He has experienced so many contents, meaningful events, and gone through so many characters all with their unique quirks and eccentricities. He wanted to re-experience that once more, and suddenly recall what his character said during the 'ending cutscene'.
'Why did he say that?'
There were so many possibilities on what could've been the ending to the game Divine Ascension. It could just end with his character ruling the entire Infinitum Galactus. Or just time skip to another adventure deep into the future where his character had died, and start from there again. Or a third option, the screen fades to black and the end credits rolled.
But none of those happened, instead, his character merged the artifacts of Time, Space, and Reality into one Divine-like object and then used it.
'Could it be…?'
He developed a theorist-kind of imagination. What if, what his character had done was transport the vast world known as Infinitum Galactus in Divine Ascension to reality. His reality. If what he's thinking is true.
'Then does that mean I'm the main character?'
This thought was just too much for his mind to comprehend right now. He put it off for now as he had arrived in dangerous territory.
[You have been assaulted by a Mind attack]
[Resist it with your Will]
In the game, this was a quicktime event where he must press specific buttons in specific timeframes or else he'll fail. He was successful the first time even though it was quite fast. But this is real-life, and isn't a game.
'It says I can resist it with my Will… and the System never lied or downplayed any details so it must know that I can do it.'
His body began to writhe and he experienced a terrible migraine. It was to the point that it would drive anyone to bang their heads to any solid surface to soothe the pain even if it's just a little, and that was also what Seichi did.
He banged his head against the floor, as he hadn't experienced such powerful psychic power influencing his brain as he was a human and has had no prior experience with the supernatural. He grit his teeth and let out a small sound, showing his suffering.
[An Unknown Entity is trying to take control of your Body]
[Resist harder or die]
A very blunt system prompt was shown in his vision. He was trying his utmost best at resisting, but it seems like he was doing it enough. He then sees, in his peripheral vision, dark tendrils creeping ever so slowly with a voice accompanying it.
'Your flesh is mine for the taking.'
"Not… this time, you rascal."
Seichi tried his best to resist, the dark tendrils that's slowly covering his eyes seem to also stop in their tracks. His willpower, something that he's proud of, was now put on the test. If he couldn't survive at least this, then he would be a failure to his avatar within Divine Ascension.
'If I die, then that means I'm worse than someone whom I have controlled, that would be so embarrassing!'
Seichi uses his rage, something that was suddenly ignited, and roared out with a loud shout. The crawling darkness that was slowly taking over him dispersed and the voice quieted. A wave of dark, almost ethereal energy burst forth from Seichi. This force disturbed the undead he's controlling and they shook in response.
'Damnit… I can't be more incompetent than my own avatar!'
Seichi breaks the forced entry, and breathes roughly. His forehead was dripping with beads of sweat as he tried to regain his composure. But, it was not long after that the same voice appeared inside his head.
'You resisted? Have my powers dwindled that far? No matter, I will just snuff the life out of you and claim your body, as well as your little entourage there. Be grateful, as I, the great Zachary Drakkar, will be taking refuge in your body.'
The voice slowly regained a sense of form, as it was spread out in all angles previously. A strange gathering of darkness was happening in front of him right now, and it formed into a scrawny humanoid shape of unidentifiable gender.
"I am Zachary Drakkar, the Dark Arch-mage. Cooperate, and I'll make the process as painless as I can, disagree and fight, and I'll slowly corrupt your mind until you're nothing but a mindless pig."
"...Kukuku…"
A small laugh escapes Seichi's mouth, as he looks up at the dark figure's head.
"You really think you can beat me? You fucking boomer."
[You have inflicted the Confused state to your target with Cursed Tongue]
"????"
"Try me then, you bloody piece of shit."
Seichi made a running stance and ran with his entourage behind him. The dark figure then showed a red bar above him, yet he didn't move.
[200/200]
He looked stunned, even though he didn't have a face, just a mouth and a pair of white eyes.
Seichi used his fists, as he wasn't really equipped with anything in hand at the moment. But, that in itself was enough coupled with the facts that it's a 7v1.
Seichi begins to punch while the six do their own things, holding and restraining, while some accompany Seichi with punching the dark figure.
But, the Confuse soon wore off and Zachary was enraged.
"You… whatever you just insulted me with, I'll punish you for laying your hands on my pure flesh!"
A dark ethereal energy bursts forth and knocks his aggressors back. Seichi clicked his tongue. He was hoping that the Confuse would stay longer, but it seems like it wasn't a more complicated enough word to do the job.
"My legion, charge forth with bravery and gain glory!"
[You have invigorated your undead servants]
[HP and Strength has been increased]
[Their Spirit has been lifted to a new level]
Seichi's undead servants charged and began hitting Zachary, who was charging up some sort of an attack with his dark ethereal energy. Even with the undead's disturbance, their attacks were blocked from reaching him by a dark force field that was shrinking with every fist that made contact.
Seichi was standing on the sideline, watching and circling. Zachary was also rotating, trying to keep Seichi in his view. His charged attack was one that Seichi had seen before, but it never happened so quickly. It's a one-shot beam attack that lasts for 5 whole seconds.
He would only deploy this attack when he deem that the situation he's in is dangerous. Which means, it's a forced attack when his health has fallen below 20%.
"Turn to ashes!"
His attack was released, and that's when Seichi made a run for it. He circles Zachary who pursues with his beam. His undead move out of the way of the beam and continue their onslaught to widdle the force field around Zachary.
His eyes squinted. He's noticing his force field being shrunk as he fires off his beam attack. He clicked his tongue and relented his current attack to strengthen his force field, as he couldn't afford to take in more damage.
'He seems to be familiar with how I fight? But how?'
Zachary was skeptical when he saw Seichi circling him when he was charging his Abyssal Beam, as none does so when he was practically exposed to damage. They would fall for the trap, and suffer a massive amount of damage since it was in close range. Seichi on the other hand, stood at the minimum distance and managed to dodge his beam because of it.
'Maybe he's just smart? Some have dodged it, so I shouldn't rush to nonsensical conclusions.'
Zachary began casting Spells, a form of mystical attack that utilizes a force and law known as Mana. He changes the Mana that's inside him into the fire element and fires off balls of flame from his palms. The orange fire engulfs one of the undead's chest and a sizzling noise could be heard.
However, the corpse didn't flinch nor utter a sound. It just stood there unfazed for a second before resuming. This was the Spirit effect.
Seichi was keeping his distance, counting the numbers of Fireballs being shot. When the number reached sixteen, he lunged toward Zachary in a straight line. When Zachary saw the human that's finally running at him after keeping his distance for so long, he focused his firepower onto him as he is the head.
Seichi, however, dodges the incoming death sentence with flawless skill and agility, something that he himself was surprised at. He slid under the orange flame of death and one of his undead came to him and took the second one. Seichi uses it as a meat shield and order it to suicide itself by tanking.
He was getting closer and closer by the second, and when he reached it, the barrier was broken into fragments like glass. Zachary's face hardened and hurriedly use a disengage Spell of the wind element, but was unsuccessful because of Seichi's usage of Cursed Tongue.
"You will falter like the failure you are."
[You have disrupted the target's Spell Casting]
[Zachary is Stunned]
His five other undeads and him gang up on Zahary once more and lower his health while he was Stunned. Seichi was weaker, and so he tapped out just after five and a half swings.
The other undeads began pounding at Zachary until he snapped out of his daze, an expression of wrath manifested as a red pair of eyes and sharper teeth outlines.
"You piece of shit! How dare you insult this great one!"
Zachary was consumed with rage and consumed a part of his dark ethereal energy to make a Quick Summoning.
"I command thee, darkness, to manifest and bow to my will!"
A burst erupted and pushed away Seichi and his undeads. The source, a rising giant black hand.
'The second phase…'
The monster fully manifests itself from the ground, a giant behemoth with thick arms, body, and legs. But surprisingly, no face.
'Now that I think of it, the thing looks like that giant one from DMC5.'
Seichi was nervous, as he'd never been in this sort of situation ever in his whole life.
'But I have the knowledge, and so I'll be fine.'
The fight recommence.