…
'Eugh… So annoying, why do I always have to get killed?" Dante slowly opened his eyes.
"He's waking up; call a medic." An old man's voice rang in Dante's ears.
'What? Why are there people in my room? Wait, this doesn't look like my ceiling.
"Eugh!" He tried to stand up but was quickly pushed back down by someone.
"Lay down, little one." The man's voice resounded again in his ears, and his eyes were slowly readjusting to the light. His body felt extremely weak.
After a while, he looked to the side, saw a man with white hair, and asked in a frail voice.
"What's happening to me?"
"You've been in a coma for almost two weeks."
'What?!'
"We, however, can't find the cause. Have you done something in the past few days before going to sleep?"
"Nothing out of the ordinary."
"Well, we can't find any problems with your body either. Healing spells don't have any effects on you, so the only thing we could do was free you."
As if trying to show him his condition, the doctor took off the blanket.
His body was a total mess; he looked extremely malnourished; tubes were going in and out of his belly; and syringes were piercing his skin at multiple places.
'It's because of those dreams..."
'System.'
…
'System…?'
…
'What the…' He tried to speak to the system but was met with silence.
"Doctor, how long until I can get up?" Dante inquired.
"I don't really know if your condition will deteriorate any further, but—"
Just as he was about to finish his sentence, he saw the kid's body start to be covered in a deep green aura. His body, which looked extremely weak and frail, slowly started recovering to its former self.
"An inherent skill?"
"Yes. Thank you, doctor, for taking care of me." With that, he bowed his head toward him.
"Hoho, but it's my duty, young one!" With that, he patted his head.
"However, we will have to make further observations for today; you're going to have to stay here for a bit longer."
"Alright, thank you."
After that, he stayed in the healing facility for an hour.
…
Dante was pressed and had to quickly go to the forest.
His latest experiment was supposed to take a few more days to bloom, but now it had been almost two weeks.
On his way, Dante bumped into Sylph.
"Oh Sylphie! Come with me." Before she could mutter a single word, he grabbed her hand and made his way toward the academy entrance.
After a while, they were in the magic train, and Dante was humming a melody he had heard from his past life while Sylph just looked outside.
"How are you?" The silence was broken by Sylph, whose tone was as monotonous as always. It almost seemed that she was obligated to ask such a question.
"Hmm, for now I'm feeling alright, albeit extremely weak. When I woke up, I was as skinny as a "shy man."
"Who is that?"
"A-ah haha, nothing. Just a reference from a book I read in the library." He almost made a mistake.
"So what happened to you?"
"I don't know, I just slept and woke up like this."
At this statement, her face slightly frowned and she had an expression of looking for an hypothesis.
"You remember that horse from before? Well, the 'processus' should have ended by now."
"Ah." Even exclamations, which should convey emotion, were monotonous and emotionless when said by her.
"We're going to need to find it fast, or there will be a massacre, or maybe it will just be a failed experiment."
The way to the dark woods was almost the same as the one to the old forest. It was just that they had to take an extra turn.
"Why bring me with you? You can't control it?"
"A-ah, well, erh. Let's say that it's not really painless, yeah." He responded with an awkward chuckle.
"Can't you take him out with Skull? I mean, it's just a hor—"
"No, you don't understand. What has been happening to that horse—that thing—is not just a transformation; it's a weaponization. It's not a living being anymore but a killing machine."
With that, they both entered the forest. A black bird was flying above their heads.
Skull had joined them on the way, but they didn't have any interactions so as not to alert other enemies.
"Luckily, the materials are of low quality, so it shouldn't be impossible to stop it. Let's hope its former consciousness has not totally disappeared.
At the bird's signal, Dante was quickly grabbed and pushed by Sylph. He fell a few meters away, confused. He tried to look up and saw what had made her take action.
In a defensive stance, Sylph was blocking the attack of a white monster. It had white fur, and its snout was extremely long and covered in a long row of teeth. It had dark red eyes and stood on its hooves in a bipedal position with long arms that almost touched the ground.
It was towering over her; she barely reached half its height.
*Kakcle!*
It made a weird clicking sound when it tried to roar. Just as Sylph was about to back away, she got attacked by its long clawed fingers. When they were about to make contact with her forearm, it screamed in pain.
Like before, her limbs had become blood red as if they were melting metal rods. She was, however, still violently pushed back against a tree.
"Keuhk!"
Having already recovered from its burnt fingers, it took the opportunity to try and end the already down-and-out white-haired girl. Only to be blocked by yellow, illusory scales.
As if knowing what was happening, it stopped attacking and just waited for the caster to waste their mana. Just as the skill disappeared, it was violently hit by an ice spear in its chest area and thrown away.
It skillfully landed on its hooves and put its guard up, looking for any danger. The hooves, the long snout full of sharp teeth, and its human-like fingers made them realize who it was.
"For fuck's sake, why do they always become so strong?"
Luckily, it looks like a semi-failed experiment." Dante complained.
"How does that look to you?" Sylph grumbled at him.
*Kakcle!*
When it saw Dante, its eyes started glowing red, as if consumed by hatred. Even though it looked skinny, when it started running and clawing at the ground for more speed, it looked as if a tank was trying to ram into you.
Knowing full well that the shield wouldn't hold, both of them separated, allowing the monster to ram the extremely thick tree.
The tree held, but a lot of its bark was gone. The monster, on the other hand, looked confused, as if it had damaged its head with a concussion.
Just when Sylph was about to take advantage of this moment of weakness, the stunned monster, as if sensing grave danger, turned around and clawed with its long arms.
They however met the beating red melt of her sword, which made its hands pass through the molten matter, smearing it all on its hands and arms.
*Kackle!!*
It started screaming in pain, trying to get rid of it but only managing to scatter it even more. In its struggle, it felt a sharp pain at the back of its knees and then suddenly fell to the ground.
Circling around it was Skull, who attacked whenever the monster tried to attack or was distracted.
With that, the monster was slowly incapacitated as it just laid bare there, free to attack at will.
After cutting through most of its tendons and muscles, only the last few finally relaxed.
"Fweeh… Note to myself: be prepared, or the hand you feed will always bite it. Or something like that, don't you?" After he said that, he slowly approached the incapacitated monster, and it looked at him in rage.
"Hmm, you asked for it, but you're biting back, huh? I warned you before, you piece of crap. *thud*" He kicked its belly.
"I knew the saying, "No deed goes unpunished," was true'. Hm, what to do with you? You tried to kill us even though we saved you before; isn't this betrayal? Betrayed by a horse, bahaha!"
Then, Dante started laughing hysterically, as if the nonexistent joke in his sentence was the most funny thing he had ever heard.
"What are you going to do with that thing?"
"Make it submit." His speech sounded weird.
Like before, she tried to look into his eyes and saw the dark, hazy, and clouded ones. She instantly knew that something strange was going to occur yet again.
Just as she expected, Dante crouched in front of the crippled monster. His hand started to morph into flesh tendrils, and on their ends were other smaller tendrils. A morbid sight to behold for any normal person.
"Submit to. Your, Liege." Was the only thing that the monster heard before he entered a world of agony as the tendrils pierced what was supposed to be its ears.
The side spectators just looked at this creepy scene with silence and no emotions.
…