I jumped back. A skeleton knight is a higher-grade C-rank monster, it was much stronger than most other knight-class monsters. I had no chance of defeating it now that the torch was out. I didn't know where the torch was so I ran around aimlessly searching for it. The monsters were swarming around me and I could hear the heavy footsteps of the skeleton knight and the quick footsteps of the ghoul. The rattling of the skeletons and groans of the zombies.
'Walpurgis Flame!' By pure luck, I had shot the flame into the torch and lit it up. The creatures backed off. But the skeleton knight did not. Its appearance was unnerving, it looked down on me with its white eyes almost as if I was beneath it. I could see the glowing eyes in the darkness, they were observing my fight with the knight as if they were judging the right time to come in and strike.
It held its black and gold shield up and charged in without fear. It slammed the sword down onto the ground kicking up dust. I dodged to the side but in reaction to it, the knight swept and slammed me against the wall.
Without a doubt I had broken some bones, it was the one major drawback of glass cannon. I got hurt so easily that it was almost comical.
The knight was smart, it knew what it was doing. After the knight had slammed me into the wall the other creatures started converging on my position, they probably thought I was weak after I got hit. I saw a sight holding a bone sword, he was charging at me. They weren't wrong, I was on the ground breathing heavily in pain. I wouldn't last much longer like this, Cleansing Light had also worn off.
Thramp.
I heard the sound of metal being slammed. I turned and saw that the knight had walked the sight away. It wanted to kill me itself. In response to this, the other monsters started attacking the knight, but the skeletons started supporting the knight. All of the monsters retreated into the darkness. Just what was happening?
The skeletons were quick, but not as quick as the ghouls. They were strong but also fragile. One by one I saw the glowing dots in the darkness get extinguished. But to my surprise, the white ones were not going out at all, but the yellow, green and blue ones were. I thought that the undead couldn't die unless they were killed by holy power, but it seems that my theory was disproven.
After some time the skeletons had killed the last of the opposing force and started to enclose me. They started rushing me and attacking without avail, there was nothing I could do because the holy power had worn off. There was only one option in this situation.
Seething in pain I stood up and held Clarent high, I coughed up blood and yelled.
'Just one more time, just this once!'
'Vastitas ex Arthur!' As if I was chosen by God the sword had heeded my call once again*. I saw the majestic yellow flames light up the darkness and decimate all the foes in front of me, absolutely everything was incinerated, and there was nothing left. Though it didn't come free, it came at a grave cost. 'My hands.' I dropped Clarent. 'My hands!' My hands had turned into a mixture of solid and liquid, I could smell the thick scent of blood and flesh.
I fell back onto the floor, I didn't see it before during the fight against Leon, but my hands had melted. Cleansing Light must've been the only reason why I could still hold my sword back then, but that didn't apply in this situation, its duration had already ceased.
'What is this? What happened to my hands? This is a joke right?' I looked upon my hands in horror, then as if feeding fuel to the fire, the goo that oozed out of my hands fell to the ground and made a puddle of melted human flesh. 'No come back, come back!' in a desperate and irrational attempt of trying to fix the situation I tried scooping up the melted flesh. I shoved what remained of my hands into them. It didn't help that I had many broken bones and had probably ruptured some of my internal organs.
'Hah, hah. Gahhhh.' I screamed in agony, I couldn't take it anymore, the sight was too much to bear, but just before I passed out I heard voices and saw a light on the opposite side of the room.
'Riley heal him! Run! Heal him now!' I blacked out.
I had a dream.
In my dream I saw a figure standing in front of me, breathing in and out slowly. He was crouching down looking away from me. The figure was completely black and had horns reaching out from the back of its head. It had pointy ears but they were also black. It had a long tail. We were in a classroom, it looked like a classroom of this world.
I breathed out. The figure's ears shot straight up upon hearing me. It stood up and turned towards me, it was slightly shorter than I was. I stepped back in shock. It had no face, and then without warning, it smiled. Its teeth were sharp and pointy, and its hands, no claws were bent and curved. Its feet looked normal for the most part. It only had 4 toes on its left foot contrary to the 5 on its right.
Instead of invoking fear in me, it invoked curiosity. What was this creature?
'Hello there.' It spoke, its voice was like that of a small boy. The voice was pure and innocent, it was a voice that I didn't expect to come out of such a creature.
'Who are you?' It sat down on a nearby chair and put his hand forward, indicating for me to sit. I sat down on the chair perpendicular to it. Outside the window there was a village, children were running around playing with each other and housewives washing their laundry. 'What is this place?'
'I don't blame you for being curious, as for who I am… I go by many names. But you might know me as Vitori.' My heart stopped. The one standing before me was Vitori, someone who massacred thousands of people and was one of the hardest bosses in King's Fall.
I shuffled back and fell on the ground, how could I not be scared? He stood up and walked over to me, he grinned with all of his spiky teeth and raised his hand. What was he going to do to me? Was he going to kill me?
I closed my eyes… but nothing happened. I opened them and saw Vitori holding his hand out towards me. I grabbed it and got back up.
'I'm not going to harm you, even if I wanted to I can't. The ring you have on your finger right now only harbours my consciousness and memories, not my power or strength.' I nodded and fixed the chair upright and sat on it.
'What is outside the window?' He grimaced, or at least I think he did. I couldn't really tell what expression he was making but it felt like one of sorrow.
'It is my village. Or what I remember of it, I was only a small child when the village was raided and my people massacred. Do not pay it any mind, do you have anything you would like to ask of me boy?', it felt strange when he called me boy. Even though he was hundreds of years older than me it still felt weird because of his young voice.
'Vitori why did you corrupt Leon with this ring? Why did you supply evil power to him?'
'Leon? Was that the previous owner of this ring? Well if it was then I had nothing to do with that, this ring simply conducts dark magic, it doesn't supply it. And he was already a corrupt individual, I had no part in it.'
'Then why did you murder thousands?'
'Boy, ask me these kinds of questions another time, we do not have much time left together. Ask me something meaningful.'
'Then…' I paused for a second. 'How can I get stronger?' He smiled.
'That was the kind of question I was looking for boy! But I cannot answer that, the only one who can is you!' he flicked my forehead with his fingers. 'But in the meantime, I bestow a gift upon you. Use it well.'
Notification: Item has been added to your inventory.
'We'll that's all the time we have for now. Until we meet again boy!' The classroom started collapsing. The ceiling started crumbling and debris started falling.
'Wait I still have more I want to ask you!' But he was already gone. I didn't know how to get out so I just closed my eyes.
I blacked out once again.