Zen prepared himself to use the reunion skill. He'd be lying if he said there was no trauma from back when Azrael was around but right now he has no inhibitions as Zen, Azrael or anybody else , they had lost all those a long time ago.
Bringing the two swords together he lightly muttered
"Reunion" and just like before when the flat sides of the swords had reached a few inches of each other they stopped moving and Zen was powerless to move them closer together, however he wasn't too worried and the next second Freya could see the reason why
[Host has not reached requirements for skill]
[System tutorial still active]
[The system will aid in activation of skill]
[Skill reunion activated]
The swords suddenly moved towards each other almost like a pair of magnets and slammed against one another and releasing a blinding light followed by a massive shockwave all around.
[-20HP]
Zen opened his eyes which he had covered due to the light.
He looked around and was surprised to find himself in a completely different place
He looked to be in some sort of temple, the walls seemed to made of gold and on them were some strange engravings, there were dozens and dozens of what looked to be offerings all around the temple
[Sand elemental(scorpion) defeated ×20]
[Unable to claim exp]
"Looks like the illusion is gone"
Zen looked around and suddenly realized that there were only two scorpions in the temple with him, it looked like the rest had been destroyed by the force from that shockwave and even the remaining two looked like they could fall apart at any time.
Zen gripped the single sword's hilt as the middle crackled with electricity and was about to charge towards them when the worst possible thing happened, he couldn't move it
Truth is he wasn't even holding the sword up, its electromagnetic properties allowed it to float on its own and due to those electromagnetic properties not to mention using it to attack, he couldn't even lift it.
Normally it would be very demoralizing to see a beast that was about to fall and unable to move lined up directly in front of you and be unable to do anything but zen didn't stop pulling, mostly because he knew that if he could move it just an inch he'd be able to deal a killing blow
Zen couldn't control it, and in this case it was a good and a bad thing although mostly bad. He had already seen Freya do it before so he simply kept trying to move the sword and didn't bother looking at the skills.
Realizing the couldn't even move it the way he was, Zen lightly said
"Shock". the next second he felt a stinging pain that made him feel like he was being roasted from the inside out
[Shock -5HP]
[HP 15/100]
[STRENGTH +10]
[AGILITY +15]
Although the pain made him wince he didn't hesitate to use it two more times
This time he could feel it was a bit easier and after a deal of struggling he finally got it to budge just a little.
The next second the sword released a crackling sound and with a boom it was off pulling Zen who was holding the hilt like he was a ragdoll.
Zen hurriedly tried to stabilize the hilt because he knew if he didn't it could quite literally take him to space.
The two swords that had been joined together were just like two magnets of the same type that had been forced together and were trying to repel each other, that force of repulsion was what had himflying around in random directions.
Zen suddenly crashed against a wall and luckily the sword had stopped moving.
He got up, his legs a bit wobbly, luckily he hadn't lost any HP, if he had he'd be done for or at least that's what he thought,he didn't know what happened at Zero HP and he wasn't the least bit interested in finding out
[Sand elemental(scorpion) defeated]
[Unable to claim exp]
"Huff, only one left to go"
Zen looked uprealized he was no longer in the temple,it seemed while he was flying around the sword had managed to fly him through a door somewhere and directly in front of him was the passage into the temple.
He looked inside and saw the last scorpion left standing was only a few meters in front of him inside the temple.
He wasn't interested in going through that ride again so he took a look at his remaining SP and AE which Zen was pretty sure stood for aether
[AE: 90/120]
[SP: 4/10]
Seeing as there was only one scorpion Zen didn't think there was much point in saving energy and aimed his palm at the scorpion
"Lightning bolt"
A bright bolt of blue lightning was released from his palm and towards the scorpion.
The lightning bolt was only a few feet away from the scorpion when its body suddenly lost form and it turned into a pile of sand, perhaps it had already been finished but was just hanging on until it no longer could.
Although the elemental had fallen, the bolt of lightning passed over the heap of sand and kept going until it struck something on the wall.
A bright light suddenly appeared where the bolt of lightning had struck.
Zen looked closely and saw what looked to be a large golden orb a little bit bigger than a basketball. This orb had been struck by his bolt of lightning by mistake and suddenly began glowing intensely.
Zen looked strangely as whatever was happening to the orb seemed to spread like a virus as the engravings on the golden wall that somewhat resembled hieroglyphs began to glow as well.
Zen suddenly felt a chill down his spine and was suddenly overcome with the urge to destroy that orb
[Congratulations,host has found a dungeon core]
[New quest received]
[Obtain the dungeon core]
[Reward: epic soul, epic grade dungeon core, 10,000 exp,???]
"Dungeon core?" Zen had never heard of anything called a dungeon core and decided to ask Freya
"Freya, do you know what's a dungeon core?"
"Beats me, but I don't think we can stay here for much longer to get your quest done"
"What do you mean?,there's no.....we have to go"
Zen watched on in as the light in the room spread. Shockingly enough wherever the light spread to sand elementals would Pop out of the ground fully reformed and more violent than ever .
At this point Freya was more than a little ticked off
"Do these bastards just never stop coming?, you can't win this Zen,we need to go "
"...."
"Zen?, Zen are you listening to me?"
Although Zen could hear her he didn't respond, he felt like he couldn't take his eyes off it, something was drawing him towards it, and something else inside him was telling him to destroy it, but looking at the army of elementals that was growing bigger by the second he knew he couldn't stay, he had to leave but then there was a new problem, he couldn't move the sword and he wasn't sure what would happen if he left it here but even worse than that was that even if he chose to abandon the sword which he would choose without a second thought to save his life he knew he couldn't escape if these things decided to chase him and with 1HP his chances of survival weren't exactly any higher .
Of course he could simply stab the sword into the ground at the entrance to slow them down but he'd have to actually be able to move the sword .
Zen looked at his SP and he had about two minutes left and just as he couldn't think of anything else Freya spoke up
"I can help but you can't resist"
At this point Zen would take nearly any chance to get out of here so he nodded affirmingly.
A faint glowing silhouette appeared behind Zen although he was unable to see it.
The silhouette stood the same way Zen did, mimicking his position. It then began to move and almost immediately so did Zen
Zen watched in confusion as he easily moved his hand with the sword in it and threw it on the ground after which it stayed there slightly hovering above the ground.
The silhouette once again moved and zen who was mimicking those actions perfectly felt like he was sleepwalking as he kicked off the ground and landed on the sword with his right leg on the blade and his left leg on the ricasso near the hilt.
"Well this is a surprise"
"Would you focus" said Freya as the Zen pressed his heel against the hilt and in the next second the sword suddenly took off with an insane amount of speed.
Zen wobbled struggling to keep his balance and decided to tell Freya something
"I feel like we're gonna end up coming back here sooner or later " and Freya who at this point was anything but happy replied sarcastically
"Wow, really?, if I knew your sensing was so good i would have named you peter, like hell I'm ever coming back to this damned place , now keep your eyes or eye or whatever on the road "
Zen honestly didn't see any point in watching where he was going as he wasn't even steering this thing it was just going on its own. Zen suddenly looked at his hands and remembered he didn't have his gloves on and reaching into his pocket he took them out and put them back on.
Zen was about to say something when he suddenly saw something worrying, he looked around and noticed that these walls and even the ceiling had strange hieroglyphs on them as well and they were all slowly beginning to glow as well as the light seemed to spread from one area to another like a virus and behind him he could see more and more of the sand elementals popping out from the ground dozens at a time. It seemed whatever he had done accidentally was having a bigger effect than he initially thought however at his current speed it didn't look like they would catch up soon, that being said Zen wasn't sure how much time he still had and honestly didn't feel like finding out.
"Okay Zen, Don't you think it's about time you explained to me what's going on here?, where even are we?"
"I'm not exactly sure but I think we're in a dungeon"
Freya was about to say something else when Zen beat her to it
"Freya?"
"What is it?"
"How do I steer this thing?"
"Why do you ask that?"
Zen replied by pointing at the sudden bend in the road and Freya who had just noticed answered nervously
"You can't"
".... what do you mean?"
"Well you're not strong enough to move it with both hands, so I doubt you could do it with just your heel"
"Okay then how do I stop?"
"...."
Judging from her silence Zen could guess the answer and said slightly disappointed
"Fine, I'll deal with it"
Zen kept watch, waiting, and when he deemed the time to be right he jumped off the runaway sword seconds before it stabbed into the wall.
Landing on the ground Zen contemplated going back for the sword but the sudden intense rumbling and shaking of the dungeon coupled with the fact that he was being chased by dozens of sand elementals convinced him otherwise .
As he was about to keep running he suddenly felt weak his eyes reverted back to normal and the sword all on its own separated back into the original two which turned into spheres of light and flew towards Zen entering his body
[SP: 0/0]
[Soul equip forcefully cancelled]
[Soul weapon retrieved]
Zen moved his body slightly, overcome by a strange feeling of exhaustion
"I'm guess I was right, this is what happens at zero SP, it seems i can no longer use your ability Freya"
Zen waited a few seconds for a reply but he didn't hear anything
"Freya?, are you there?" He asked but there was no reply
"Freya's...gone?" . Zen was confused, it seemed like there was more than one consequence of running out of SP.
Zen didn't have time to sit and think , he tried to keep running but as he took a step he felt pain in every corner of his body. Zen realized that he was just as weak as before , infact although he couldn't explain it he felt even weaker than that.
He suddenly heard what sounded like a roar from directly above him
"GRRRRRRROOOOAAARRRR!"
Zen looked up and saw another scorpion but this one was definitely not the same as the rest, It was at least Ten times his size and each of it's four pincers alone were larger than his body .
Zen was confused as to where the beasts had come from but didn't have time to think about it. He knew he only had the strength to do one thing and although it would have sickened the other fragments to a degree, Zen had absolutely no problem with it,as long as there was no mirror he was fine
Zen looked deep into the scorpion's eyes and a sharp light suddenly flashed in his visible eye for a moment before Zen's visible eye suddenly became sharp and bestial, becoming a vertical slit as he stared into the eyes of the scorpion
The scorpion that was approaching Zen ferociously suddenly took a step back, it could feel the aura of what was in front of it didn't feel like a normal human, it was somewhat similar to 'that' human only much more bloody.
It suddenly began to take a few steps back, it felt like it was back in the land of its birth, fear suddenly began to enter its mind as it couldn't bring itself to look away from Zen's cold and soulless yet predatorial eye, although it couldn't see Zen's right eye it felt a strange force drawing it towards that place and it couldn't look away
As it began to show signs of fear it suddenly began contemplating that it was in the presence of a predatorial divine or perhaps even a transcendant and the more it thought thought that, the more it seemed to be true to it but as it was stepping back another thought suddenly entered its mind, isn't this divine injured?, it didn't seem to be able to move,perhaps it just fell from its realm, maybe it ran here after nearly being killed,If that was true then what would happen if it killed and devoured it, wouldn't it become a divine itself?
The scorpion's mind was suddenly filled with greed that completely eliminated its fear and it began to move towards Zen with an expression that implied that if it could it would be drooling by now. Unlike the basic tier scorpions Zen killed, this one had intelligence that rivalled that of a humans, not to mention it had awakened its beast soul after hundreds of years and had evolved a fair number of times,it was the guardian that the primordial of its realm had assigned to guard this realm,or as all those it had slaughtered called it, the dungeon boss
As it approached Zen with greed it couldn't help but be confused, it had never seen or heard of a human divine from this realm and the pharaoh had never mentioned one but it didn't think too much about it as there were multiple races that resembled humans, plus,who was to say it was even from this realm,it was too focused on getting Zen that it could barely think straight,all it could think of was how powerful it would be and how it would finally escape the control of that dumb dog.
Zen looked at the scorpion surprised at how it survived but simply sighed quietly and in a strangely indifferent tone said
"Hmmmm, well I guess my time's up"
The scorpion was about to strike at him when he suddenly heard a voice from behind the beast
"I finally found you, whoa, well isn't this a fine mess you've gotten yourself into?"
Zen looked and behind the scorpion was Maximilian who still seemed to be as full of energy as before and without a single scratch on him at that.
The beast suddenly turned around enraged that someone had had disturbed its meal and angrily ran towards Maximilian planning to kill him
Maximilian looked at the beast
"How annoying" he thought and as the beast pounced on him he sidestepped with unnatural agility and expert precision completely avoiding the beast and making a dash at full speed towards Zen.
Maximilian looked at Zen and couldn't help saying
"Damn,man, you're pretty banged up, what happened? You look like you got hit by a truck on the driver's payday "
Maximilian bent down and put Zen's arm around over his shoulders as he helped him stand properly
"You're making a mistake it's at the–"
"Excellent tier?,yep I know "
Zen kept quiet confused at how he was so precise and why he was here if he knew
Maximilian looked at Zen not sure why he had suddenly got quiet
"Wait! You didn't seriously think i was gonna fight that thing did you?,i don't have a death wish, and I definitely don't want to be in the state you're in, we've got to go NOW "
After saying that Maximilian put his hand around Zen in order to support him better and began to sprint as they passed the beast which had gotten stuck in a whole in the wall.
Using its immense strength it escaped completely destroying the wall and saw Maximilian taking Zen away.
It was about to give chase when it suddenly remembered how effortlessly he had dodged its attack, infact it was almost like he had dodged before it had pounced, the truth was even Zen was confused about this but if he got to know Maximilian's last name, he would easily understand .
The scorpion suddenly started thinking again,it wondered if the 'high being '(what it thinks Zen is) is really injured and weak and had called one of its human servants to come and rescue it,to it that would be the only explanation as to why such a seemingly weak human could evade it , it wasn't weak at all,or human
The greed in its mind lessened a bit as it suspected that this was a trap but the thought of eating both of them and the power it would instantly gain eliminated all of its reasoning as it made a mad dash towards Zen and Maximilian trying to catch up with them
"Well this plan is going to shit very quickly"
"You never had a plan"said Zen as he looked back to see the scorpion and said
"Whatever you do, keep running and don't look back or at me"
Although Maximilian was a bit confused he still listened
"Okay, do what you're gonna do"
The next second Zen's eye once again turned into a vertical slit as he looked at the scorpion.
Maximilian almost tripped and fell as even without looking, the amount of bloodlust he felt was obscene,he actually had to fight himself to ensure he didn't attack Zen on reflex as he silently thought
"Whoa...intense
The scorpion suddenly stopped running as it locked eyes with Zen, however the next second it was once again on its feet and on their tail
"Hmmm?" Thought Zen, although it wasn't confusing that it didn't work on an excellent grade beast it should have lasted longer.
"Seems I'll have to use that as well" thought Zen as an air of blood so dense it was almost palpable suddenly started coming off of Zen.
"Maximilian felt like he could almost perceive the smell of blood from Zen and although he said he wouldn't,he caught a glimpse of Zen's face and although he wasn't sure if he imagined it,he felt like he could see a purple glow from behind Zen's hair where his right eye should be
"Is that....his mutation?" He thought but didn't have time to contemplate
The scorpion stopped as it could quite literally see an aura of blood surrounding Zen. The bloody aura had condensed and formed the image of a terrifying beast that opened its fangs and roared violently,although exactly which beast was unknown.
The scorpion looked at the image and although it could feel every single bit of his body screaming at it to run however it was certain that Zen was unable to defend himself and was trying to scare it away so it firmly dug its feet in the ground and wanted to continue the chase it suddenly stopped moving, its eyes filled with disappointment as an ethereal voice spoke directly into his mind commandingly
"Return" it said and unwillingly it obeyed unable to defy the presence keeping it here.
The scorpion's eyes went blank as its body moved against its will towards the temple Zen had been in.
The moment it reached there it saw the glowing golden orb and the voice in It's mind told it to guard the orb with its life and with a heart filled with resentment the scorpion complied
Anubis who was still invisible payed no mind to the scorpion, it was much more interested in Zen, it hadn't been frozen in time when all the scorpions had been and it saw everything that happened minus the system screen.
Anubis thought about how Zen had passed his trial but hadn't gotten his reward however Anubis wasn't worried, he was sure Zen would come back here after all he now knew what Zen had in common with that other human.