Amber stared into the palm of her right hand for a long time as she was unable to understand how she could lose to him. Sure, she held back against him in the fight but the guy was a normal human for god's sake. Even the mere heat enveloping her makeshift flaming greatsword should have been enough to take care of him.
He was even able to dodge her attack aiming for his heart. But the most irritating of today's ordeal was how she hesitated before plunging her sword into his heart. She could not understand why she did that but she did hesitate and with all the raging emotions- a result of the opening of past wounds- all she could do was sigh wearily.
Suddenly a blazing mana coated her as she left a fiery streak in the forest, sprinting toward her previous location, precisely toward Knox's makeshift shack.
Once he sensed her presence, Knox came out of his room with a worried expression plastered over his face. He was deliberating on whether he had done the right thing by letting those two meet.
After being one of only two people spared under Magnus' assault on their organization's headquarters base- for reasons unknown to him- he took it upon himself to raise and protect the little girl he had grown to love as his daughter as a repayment to the previous leader.
But after coming across the young kid with surprising strength for an ''Unfated'' and considering his relationship with that man, he had a feeling that they would meet sooner or later.
So once the opportunity presented itself he decided to take a chance and see how his young miss would feel once meeting the boy.
And then well... the outcome was a brawl between the two and the lesser opponent escaping. With his level of strength, he could spy on their fight and protect his young miss from far away.
During the fight, he made some shocking discoveries which he decided to keep to himself for the time being. For now, all he worried about was how Amber would react once she confronted him.
''Uncle Knox, I think I am ready to go. Can I please have the token?'' Amber asked with her hand stretched as she ignored the elephant in the room.
Knox scanned her facial features as he reached into his pocket revealing a golden coiling dragon token.
''Are you sure about this, Amber?'' Knox asked handing it to her.
''Mmh.'' Amber nodded lightly as she tucked the token into her pockets.
''You know what this means, right?'' Knox asked her
''Yes. Don't worry I'll protect them'' Amber responded affirmatively as she stared at the twins training in the distance.
Knox stared at her hoping that he had taken the right decision of allowing that kid this early in their lives. He sighed wearily, massaging his brows as he went back inside his shack.
*******************
Dante walked cautiously through the dimly lit and forebodingly narrow-tunneled hallway rife with vermin surrounded by shadowy presence scurrying on the cold concrete floor, with five doors leading to a room on each side of the hallway. Dante opened a door to a room to inspect its contents.
Dante stepped into the first room and collided with an object that seemed vaguely like a giant greatsword. With his eyes trained on it, he tried to reach out in hopes of acquiring a new weapon to be prepared for whatever this mysterious place threw at him. But sadly, even the mere presence of such a weapon deterred him, just as his hands reached a bit closer to the hilt.
This was an inviolable weapon the likes of him could not hope to stain with his mere presence. This reminded him of the katana Magnus wielded, even after months of repeated association, he was never able to touch the hilt of that katana. With this development registered in his mind, he retreated his vision and fully focused on the room he found himself in.
In his line of sight, he registered that the room was bleak, cold, and completely dark. It was quiet and somber as a bone-piercing chill as eery as darkness suddenly engulfed him. It was the most eery feeling ever -it was not merely the darkness that persisted based on the absence of light, it was much more sinister.
The pitch-black atmosphere was impenetrable and there he stood rooted to the spot, trying to stretch his eyes as wide as possible but he could barely make out an outline of some distant objects. There was nothing warm and cozy about this room. It smelled of something evil and the darkness was bizarre and surrounded by infinite mystery.
The darkness and quiet pressed into his senses as he drew in and out, repeated breaths that resounded throughout the silence-filled room. These breaths seemed to fill his lungs with warmth in the overwhelming darkness.
Suddenly, the luxury of equanimity afforded by his repeated breaths ceased. His body shivered as his bright red eyes made out a large bed with a body on it. Well, it used to be a body since, in place of a body made of flesh, all that remained was a nine-meter-tall humanoid skeleton.
This was not the cause of Dante's sudden panic but rather the eery and heavy presence that remained of such an unbelievably large being exuded, left him in awe of how truly insignificant he was. In a dark and mysterious room was an evil and heavy presence of a being -that might have lived about a century ago- which human could truly remain calm.
The nauseating feeling, the constant ring in one's spirit about their insignificance, the inability to defend the authenticity of that constant ring... With all these varying emotions, Dante suddenly slammed the door behind him as he stepped into the hallway to catch some air.
After a few seconds of hyperventilating, he gathered his courage to inspect the room opposite the room he just left. Met with a similar experience but from an exoskeleton with much more different racial features compared to the humanoid giant.
He burst out to catch some air to reduce the hyperventilating.
Checking out the room adjacent, he did the same and came out in a much worse condition. This kept going on until he left the ninth room with a very tired expression plastered on his face.
Thinking that the more he experienced the pressure, the more adjusted he will become only to feel otherwise. The pressure just kept doubling up after encountering various forms of exoskeleton with different evolutionary features.
With dread creeping up his face, he braced himself for the worst as he entered the tenth and final room.
Once he entered he was met with a rushing feeling of indifference and emptiness. The room was literally empty and dimly lit per the brightness of the hallway but with a watered-down version of the foreboding presence. He stared across the room with no signs of any objects registered in his vision.
Dante unconsciously heaved a sigh of relief as his previously haggard appearance brightened up a bit. He exited the room, walking across the extra stretch of the concrete floor as he arrived, spotting a light at the end of the tunnel.
Once he crossed through the light, he arrived in a huge throne room with ornamented pillars propping up a ceiling made of similar materials. On the wooden decorated floor laid a carpet leading from the entrance to the stage which served as a platform for an eery throne surrounded by dancing shadows.
The most peculiar sight was an eery-looking spirit-like being hovering above the already out-of-place throne.
The spirit-like being appeared lean-built, and stoic twenty years old young adult man. He had pale skin, high cheekbones, and spiky pitch-black hair with two strands falling on both sides of his face. His attire consisted of a tattered white jacket shirt with a high collar and black cuffs, black pants, low-heeled boots, and a long pitch-black overcoat with ragged ends.
The most disturbing thing apart from its mere presence was the acute resemblance to Dante. Or to be more precise, an adult Dante. Apart from the obvious choice in hairstyle and nearly matching outfit in comparison to Dante's, the facial features of this being was eerily similar to Dante's. The only difference might be the color schemes these similarities represented and the psychotic smile plastered on his face.
Open registering the authenticity of the view he currently witnessed, Dante decided to quickly retreat to the entrance. This was much more than he could take. Even a seasoned mage will freak out in the face of such an occurrence.
He turned back towards the entrance of the hallway only to find a large gate blocking the path. With all his strength he tried to push it but to no avail.
Gathering his courage he decided to reason with the being to allow his safe passage, only to find the spirit-like being standing right in front of him. Caught in his momentary fright, he hurriedly jumped backward. This motion just further widened the eery smile plastered on the being's face.
'' Oh. Quite interesting. My next host is a ''Forsaken'' with two cursed brands. Hmm, that sneaky bastard fiddled with my host's body and implanted that. Haha, it seems this time I might get rid of that annoying race'' The spirit-like being maniacally laughed, ignoring Dante's presence.
He waved his hand as he arrived inside Dante's consciousness. Externally, Dante remained stationary unaware of his current predicament. The consciousness was an embodiment of one's very soul. Any harm done to the consciousness is also incurred on the soul and vice versa. For a person to have total control of one's soul meant a life of subservience.
The spirit-like being hovered around his consciousness. Dante's consciousness is a nonphysical realm created due to the individuality of his soul surrounded by bright purple fog.
Amid the purple fog hovered three different circular balls of energy. Two of the balls were inscribed with the tattoo designs of his Cursed Brands. The other had an inscription of an unknown but faintly familiar design.
In the center of the purple fog hovered a white ball of energy that burned brighter than anything in this mystical realm. This white ball of energy served as the main core of the consciousness realm. The ball of energy was surrounded by a golden light that seemed to instinctively protect it.
Upon identifying the core, the spirit hovered towards it, stretching his arm and hoping to corrupt it. Upon succeeding, Dante's body will be his vessel and his soul will be his.
But once he came into contact with the golden light, it unraveled as a majestic presence burst forth and showed forth its dominance.
The spirit quickly retreated as he wiped the imaginary sweat off his brows. He stared at the light as he cursed his luck for just meeting the person he had least expected. A projection of a human male quickly formed as the golden light gathered at one point.
The projection was a tall, tanned, broad-chested, muscular middle-aged man with stubble facial hair with bright red eyes. He had slightly long wavy golden hair, slicked back with a few strands falling down the sides of his face. His aura of oppression could be felt even from the projection.
''A mere Abyssal Spirit dares to enslave the soul of my son? Even gods wouldn't dare commit such a blunder'' A booming voice resounded throughout Dante's consciousness.
The spirit-like being stood stiff as he coughed out a mouthful of blood. His expression turned into one of fear as he recognized the appearance of the image of the man that was projected. His ghastly expression on his already pale complexion provided a comical sight.
'' Conrad, force it to sign a slave contract with my dear son.'' A sweet and melodious voice resounded through the projection. But the contents that came out of her mouth were of very harsh consequence.
''Yes, my lady'' Conrad teased his wife as he heard her voice. He knew how much she willed to hold their son in her arms but with their current circumstances.....
The expression of the spirit further worsened, reckoning his decision of hastily bounding to the kid's soul. With no further persuasion, he completed the process without a nudge from the golden-haired man called Conrad. He knew what the lady meant by ''force'' and he didn't want to be at the receiving end of such torment.
''Nice work. Don't tell my son about this meeting, when the time is right, we will reveal ourselves'' Conrad gave his final warning as the projection disintegrated.
The spirit-like being seemed to have aged as a result of this short but terrifying interaction- or more like intimidation.
''It is over. To think that the final step before I could truly become an ultimate life form has been thwarted once again by the whims of fate. The Abyssal Path is not mine to walk. I hope I might at least get to see what is at the end of this path.'' The spirit-like sighed wearily as he stared at the patterns appearing on the body of his new master.