"Elder, even sacks of bones are allowed to participate in the test?"
Flickering her eyes towards Zuxe, she let out a chuckle, soon followed by others.
Zuxe paid no heed to them and totally ignored them, shaking his hand as if shooing a dog away.
"I don't understand what you intend to say by that. Regardless... it is necessary for every clan heir to take the test."
According to the rules of the Demon Hunter Association, as far as he remembered from the game, in a clan, every heir had to take the test, and their report had to be submitted to the association.
Zuxe had to take the test even if he or the clan didn't want to.
After confirming that there were no more questions, the elder dismissed them and vanished from sight, as if he had never been there in the first place.
Everyone began training, which initially surprised Zuxe as he thought they might come to bother him.
After observing them for a while, he headed towards his room.
As soon as he entered the room, he threw himself on the bed, feeling the weight of today's hustle pressing down on him, pulling him into a deep slumber as exhaustion settled in his bones.
•••
Lying on the ground, a boy no more than eight years old slowly became aware of the world around him.
The cold, uneven surface pressed against his back, sending a faint chill through his body.
As consciousness crept in, his chest tightened with the effort of drawing in air, each breath shallow and labored.
His head throbbed in pain, and he felt as if he was still trapped between sleep and wakefulness.
Slowly, his fingers twitched, then his arms pushed against the ground. His head spun, but he gritted his teeth and forced himself to sit up.
'Where am I?!'
'What is this place?'
'If I remember correctly, I went to sleep last time.'
Thoughts raced through his mind as, with a groan, he planted his hand on the ground and pushed himself onto his legs.
His eyes scanned the unfamiliar, creepy surroundings.
The land stretched endlessly, flat and barren, with cracked, lifeless earth as far as his eyes could see.
The sky was a dull, gray void, casting a pale, eerie light over the desolate expanse.
No wind—no sound—only an oppressive silence and a sense of creeping dread hung in the air.
It was an empty, forsaken place, devoid of life, where the stillness felt unsettling.
'Is this... perhaps a lucid dream?'
Then, suddenly, out of the stillness, a strange distortion formed right in front of him, a few meters away.
The ground trembled, and without warning, a figure with no clear geometry materialized, as if pulled from the very fabric of empty space.
It stood motionless, its form dark and alien.
Its body was smooth and sleek, almost like metal, with spirals twisting across its surface.
Hollow and featureless, the spirals pulsed faintly.
As it stood there, a strange sensation washed over him.
Panic surged, and his knees buckled.
He staggered back and fell hard onto his butt.
Stunned and wide-eyed, he stared at the figure, struggling to believe what he was seeing, and pursed his lips.
"Y-you... Why are you here? Who are you?"
He screamed, but no reply came.
After a moment, the figure raised its unevenly shaped hand—if it could be called a hand—and hovered it in the air as if writing something.
The movement of its hand was followed by a trail of purplish light, which shifted continuously as if trying to make sense.
The boy watched in awe as the light finally began to take shape and form words.
YOU. ME. ME. YOU.
As those words registered in his mind, they were followed by more.
I NO HARM. DON'T AFRAID.
Another.
I TELL YOU SOMETHING. READ CARE.
The boy felt a bit reassured, somewhat convinced that the creature wouldn't harm him, so he simply nodded and waited.
I CORRUPT. YOU SOUL ESSENCE.
BOTH ENEMY.
TWO ENEMY. SINGLE BODY.
CAN'T USE. BOTH STUBBORN.
Zuxe read the words carefully, which remained there for a few seconds, trying to make sense of them.
Reading the last sentence, as no other words were being written, a question lingered in the boy's mind, which he didn't hesitate to ask.
"Weren't you the one who killed me?" He pursed his lips, a tinge of fear still visible on his face as he stared at the creature.
The spiral began writing again.
DON'T KNOW. NO TIME. HEAD THERE. BYE...
The unusual figure, pulsing with dark energy, lifted one of its many limbs and pointed in a direction.
Following the direction of its hand, he turned and saw the silhouette of another person standing hundreds of meters away.
The silhouette seemed to slowly cover the distance between them, growing larger and larger, his eyes widening with every passing second.
He hastily snapped his head back to where the spiral had stood.
But there was no one standing there now.
No, there wasn't anyone from the beginning.
It was just a thing made up by his mind during the dream—or at least that's what he thought.
He was absolutely right.
How could that thing appear in his mind and talk to him?
He laughed as the distance between the silhouette and him shortened more and more.
He was sure...
Imagining things.
'I know... if something dangerous is about to happen, I won't die because my brain will trigger another action or change the dream, as according to science, we can't die... hahaha.'
Just as the face of that silhouette was about to become clear and come into view, a faint chill ran down his spine, and the ground beneath him was no more.
His arms flailed as they grasped at the air, his heart pounding.
Then, in an instant, he was pulled downward into a yawning void. Gravity gripped him tightly, and his stomach twisted into knots as the sensation of weightlessness struck him.
He kept falling, tumbling deeper...
Falling...
And falling...
There was no end.
•••
'SNAP.'
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Thanks for reading,and guys send some power stones here...