It was time to kill the dungeon boss. Without doing that, escape would be impossible.
Dante began walking to the corridor, which according to Arron should lead to the dungeon boss but stopped mid-step.
Now that he had Blade Manipulation, there was actually a benefit to coming to a fight prepared.
He began creating swords for a full 75 mana each, waiting until his mana to regenerate and forming one after the other, not stopping until he reached eleven swords.
One sword would actually be used in the fight, but the other ten could be left in reserve. As long as he kept them within Blade Manipulation’s range, they could be called forward at a moment’s notice.
Once done, Dante picked up the swords and began walking toward the final cavern.
Chapter 53
Dante’s Immortality - Chapter 53
Lugging the swords, Dante walked through the last corridor with a now dark blue mana manipulated light source following by his side. It seemed that the glove didn’t just affect world essence.
The corridor to the final cavern seemed to be far longer than all the others, but he wasn’t complaining. He would have preferred not fighting the dungeon boss of a ‘predatory dungeon’ at all.
There wasn’t much time to consider the origins of a predatory dungeon while he was preoccupied with Jared and Arron, but the more he thought about it, the more frightening the implications became.
If regular dungeons were just areas of dense world essence that were found by creatures, what did that mean for predatory dungeons? He was holding on to the hope that it was just discovered by a more aggressive creature, but it seemed unlikely.
After walking almost twenty minutes down the corridor, he came upon the entrance to what was hopefully the last cavern. His mana manipulation light source could just barely penetrate into the darkness, showing the outline of a solitary figure in a large and empty chamber.
Hesitant, but more than ready for the upcoming fight, Dante took a deep breath then stepped forward.
As soon as the light crossed the threshold of the cavern and illuminated the chamber within he paused. It was a girl. The shoulder length black hair was a dead giveaway. He couldn’t see her age, but she looked completely human.
Still, he kept his guard up. He was in a dungeon, and a predatory one at that. No girl would just be wandering around in the last cavern. Throwing down his bundle of swords, Dante picked one up and began pumping it with world essence.
The girl seemed to finally notice him when the swords clattered to the ground, and she turned.
Mia…
It was Mia… or looked exactly like her. The sight of her was so unexpected that his concentration faltered and he had to Blink his sword away before it exploded in his hand.
Her same raven black hair, the same beautiful features, and the same mature charm. Seeing her, alive, made all of the emotions that he had struggled to repress when he took off the wraith collar resurface.
He had buried them so deeply. Any time he had even thought of Mia, he would distract himself with… anything. But that wasn’t a possibility anymore, it was like he was confronting his inner demon.
He knew it wasn’t Mia. It couldn’t be, she was dead… Something was toying with him.
Mia glanced up and smiled at him. “Hello, Dante.”
It was almost a perfect copy… almost. She had the same demeanor, the same look, the same voice, but something was missing. Her reaction wasn’t quite right, and for some reason, that made it even worse. It was like his memory of her was being corrupted.
Dante reached down and picked up a new sword, his fist subconsciously tightening until his knuckles were white. His breathing had become uneven, and he was having a hard time focusing. Taking a few deep breaths, he tried to regain composure.
Whoever, or whatever was responsible for this would pay. Dearly.
Instead of attacking blindly, he decided to test the waters with his new Manipulate Blade skill. Stepping forward until he was within range, he lifted a sword out of the pile with his mind.
Mia looked at the floating sword with genuine confusion. “What are you doing?”
Even if it wasn’t really Mia, looking at her confused expression while he was about to attack her was heart-wrenching.
I’m sorry.
He forced the sword forward. Hurling it at Mia with maximum speed and corrupting it just as it impaled the center of her chest.
The scream that rang out was sickening. It was exactly how Mia had screamed when she was being leashed by Sir Andres.
The sound of it, and the memories it brought up seemed to tear apart his soul. Penetrating through him and making him want to vomit. Just the thought that he had been the one to cause the scream was mentally incapacitating.
Mia made no move to attack him, she just fell to her knees and clutched the handle of the sword that was buried in the center of her chest as she screamed. Blood seemed to gush out of the wound, but the screaming wasn’t slowed in the slightest.
Closing his eyes, and trying to block out the horrific scene in front of him, he mentally lifted two more swords from the pile and sent them speeding towards Mia.
He had aimed one of the swords directly at her neck, trying to cut off the screams. But when they impacted, her screaming only grew louder and even more guttural.
He couldn’t take any more. The screaming had to stop. He could feel the emotions that he had been holding back start to tear out from deep inside of himself despite his efforts to suppress them. The screaming had to stop.
Dante ran forward, charging across the cavern with a sword in hand. As soon as he got to her, he cut Mia’s head from her defenseless body like he was some savage executioner.
The act of actually slicing off Mia’s head, even if it wasn’t really her, seemed to hurt physically. He immediately turned to the side and retched up the bile that was in his stomach. There was no way that he would ever forget the scene in front of him, the way it felt to actually kill Mia with his own hands. But it was finally over.
Dante glanced down at her body, which caused him to retch even harder.
Mia’s face had the exact same slack look on her face when she truly had died.
Thank the Goddess it’s over…
Her corpse began to liquify, completely falling apart before seeping back into the ground.
Dante fell to his knees, uncontrollable tears welling up in his eyes as he stared at the spot that she disappeared from. The regret that he felt was overwhelming. It felt he had just lost a part of himself, a part of his humanity.
Killing Mia, even if it was just a copy, was by far the hardest thing he had ever done in his life.
“Why are you crying?”
Dante spun around, the voice he heard thoroughly shaking him to his core. Standing there, with a smile on her face, was Mia. There wasn’t a single scratch on her body.
Chapter 54
Dante’s Immortality – Chapter 54
Mia continued to stare at him with a smile on her face.
He couldn’t handle it; the entire situation was going to make him lose his mind. “What are you?”
Mia’s head tilted to the side slightly in confusion. Then she pointed at herself. “What are you talking about? It’s me.” Then her smile widened as if the entire thing were some joke.
She wasn’t even trying to act like the real Mia anymore.
Instead of answering her, he reached forward with his sword and cut off her head. He didn’t even know what he was feeling anymore, the bombarding emotions were completely numbing. Instead of forcing his emotions back down, he was trying to shut himself off from them altogether, shut himself off from everything.
Mia liquified again, but instead of melding into the ground, she merely reformed again. She was completely unfazed by his attack and rolled her eyes. “For an archaic, you’re somewhat emotional…” Mia gestured towards his bile, which was splattered on the floor. “And here I thought that this would actually be difficul
t.”
An archaic…?
Mia snorted. “You are actually far more emotionally unstable than most of my prey… I almost wonder what you did to this poor girl that would make you so fragile.” She looked down at herself then shrugged. “Bad luck always seems to follow your kind, but I suppose that it’s for the best in this situation.” Mia smiled again, but it looked inhuman. “You will be a spectacular treat actually, it has been quite some time since I’ve had anything but regular humans.”
He didn’t know what it was talking about, but the way it was using Mia’s appearance as a puppet was nightmarish. Any control he had over himself or his frame of mind was slipping. He felt a need to escape, escape from reality itself.
“Hmm, rather unstable, even without my influence you likely would have lost your mind eventually.” Mia stepped closer to him, and the mere act of her approach applied pressure to his mind until it felt like it was going to crack.
“Just relax. Let everything go and this will all be over.” She took another step, and they were now standing face to face, the pressure was so unbearable that he could feel his mind begin to splinter. It was like his mind was being strangled with so much force that it was going to shatter.
“I’m not sure why you are still fighting the inevitable, just let it happen.” Mia whispered the last words to him as she reached up and touched his face.
The world shattered.
Nothing after that made sense. Thoughts became incoherent, they were something he grasped at, but ultimately slipped away. He could feel his body collapse against the ground as he lost control of it, but only moments later he didn’t even know what the ground was.
He laid there, somewhere, but he didn’t know where.
He didn’t know what was happening, or even who he was.
It was eerie, things were recalled, then vanished. Nothing was permanent… and nothing mattered. Why would it?
Even time seemed to stop altogether. Every passing thought was gone entirely, destroying any anchor he had in reality.
Everything was meaningless. It only existed for a brief moment in his head, then was completely gone.
Thoughts, feelings, emotions, even pain. It was all fleeting.
But he was getting… weaker. It was the only thing that was constant aside from the emptiness. He could feel the energy draining out of him. Every breath he took was becoming weaker, like his life itself was being sucked out.
That was when the attack came.
Not from the outside, but from within. Something vicious was seizing everything as it slipped away. All of his fleeting thoughts, feelings, and emotions were being captured by it, then forcibly shot back into his mind and stuck together.
The pain was maddening. It was like those returning thoughts were being shot into his mind like nails, then hammered down so they couldn’t escape again.
But with the abhorrent pain, came coherent thought.
It was slow, and at first subtle. The thoughts stayed, but there was no connection between them. He could feel, but had no idea what it was he was feeling. He saw, but had no idea what he was seeing. The pain was no longer fleeting, but he didn’t know why he was in pain, he had no understanding of it.
Then the alien presence surrounded him. Wrapping his mind and compressing it, utterly unyielding as it retied the bonds between his thoughts. He began to resist subconsciously, unwilling to continue to experience the pain or the suffering that his emotions brought him. But no matter how hard he struggled, the indomitable will that radiated off of the presence was unyielding, it began to put him back together, piece by piece until he regained control over his mind and body again. Slowly, he regained himself.
Dante’s eyes snapped open, only to see Mia standing over him, mouth gaping as she inhaled a strange white mist from his body.
His body itself was incredibly weak, and growing weaker each passing second. Every breath becoming more shallow, as if he was at death’s door.
He acted on impulse. Throwing his gloved hand into Mia’s face, causing her to elicit a raspy scream that was completely unlike the one earlier. Then, he Blinked across the chamber to where his swords were ready to be used and hurled three of them toward her with Manipulate Blade.
Mia reacted to his attack instantaneously, turning toward where he Blinked, but otherwise unmoving as she took the three swords in stride. After liquifying, she reformed and frowned. “What did you do?”
Mia began to walk toward him, and he could feel the pressure squeeze down on the new barrier that surrounded his mind, but it was unyielding.
Somehow his glove had saved him. Instead of consuming his thoughts and emotions like it usually did, it surrounded and reinforced them. Protecting him from whatever mental attack the dungeon boss was inflicting on him. It continuously sent more of its essence to strengthen and repair his mind.
Dante took the brief respite of Mia slowly walking toward him to try and recover as best he could. His entire body felt like an enormous weight, just standing up after he Blinked across the room had him heaving shallow breaths. It didn’t seem like he could take in enough air to sustain himself.
“That is a first, and somewhat interesting, but I would very much appreciate it if you didn’t interrupt such a delicious meal.” Mia licked her lips in an overly exaggerated gesture.
In answer, he threw yet another sword at her, catching Mia in the chest and causing her to reform. Her steps didn’t even falter as she moved toward him.
Surprisingly, he felt nothing from attacking the copy of Mia this time. All of his emotions were stabilized, causing him to think rationally.
No, he was no longer unwilling to kill it, he was happy to do it. Happy to completely destroy someone who would tarnish the memory of someone who did so much to help him, who gave up so much for him… even if it was his fault that they did so.
The problem was the dungeon boss itself, it didn’t seem killable. It may have been possible if he completely destroyed it, maybe with some sort fire attack so that the dungeon boss could no longer reform. But every slice or cut seemed easily mendable.
The only thing that seemed to have any real effect on it was his glove…
Throwing sword after sword at dungeon boss, he began to concentrate on the glove’s presence, not allowing any of the new essence access to his mind and pushing it outward instead.
The red mist began to coalesce around him, drifting slowly back down to reenter his glove, but he didn’t allow it. He began throwing loose mana out around his glove, manipulating it gently to stop the gloves essence from seeping back in. By the time he was done, his hand was shrouded in blood red mist.
Mia was only a few feet away, every step she took forced more pressure down onto his mind’s weakening barrier, and instead of waiting for her, he made his move.
He threw yet another sword at her, causing her to reform. Then, just as she appeared, he Blinked in front of her, not giving the dungeon boss any time to react and shoving his glove with the red essence into her face.
The two of them screamed together. Mia from the power of his gloves essence, and him from the pressure she exuded. As soon as he Blinked to her, the barrier that had been protecting him began to crack, sending stabs of pressure inside to his barely mended mind.
The pain made him want to shut down, but he resisted. Using what was left of his willpower he pulled all of the swords in the room toward Mia, corrupting them just as they impaled her.
As soon as the swords slammed into the dungeon bosses body, the screaming stopped, and the pressure in his mind abated.
No longer able to function, Dante fell unconscious.
Chapter 55
Dante’s Immortality – Chapter 55
When he woke back up, the massive migraine made him want to knock himself back out. But he didn’t know how to do it without touching his sensitive head, so he laid down for a few hours, eyes closed while trying to endure his throbbing headache.
The gloves essence was still wrapped around h
is mind, not invading it, but reinforcing and repairing it. He wasn’t sure how he felt about something so potentially dangerous being inside his mind, but the mere thought of tearing it out sent a shiver down his spine. He was completely unwilling to make his headache any worse.
After several hours, the throbbing pain started to lessen, allowing him to focus his attention outward, if only slightly.
The first thing he heard was the raspy breathing. Initially, he thought that it was his own, but the breaths were far too deep. His were still shallow, whatever energy that thing had sucked out of his body hadn’t seemed to return.
Now fully alert with the knowledge that he wasn’t the only one still alive, he tried to sit up.
Fighting through the horrendous pain that seemed to stab into his head, Dante slowly forced himself off the ground until he was sitting up.
Laying down on the floor across from him was a something that looked almost human, but was fiendish. Like the monsters that Arron and Jared were fighting it had pale skin and no hair, but based on the raspy wheezing sound it was making, he never would have thought it to be human.
The thing was conscious, and glaring at him with hate-filled eyes. Still, it couldn’t do anything. It seemed to barely be alive with seven of his swords sticking out of its body at jagged angles. The sight made him happy. Thrilled even. He had said that he would make whatever this thing was pay dearly, and it was time to collect.
He struggled to do it, but after a few seconds, he was able to use his Create Blade skill to make a new dagger. Then he slowly dragged himself across the floor, eliminating any distance that was between him and the dungeon boss.
The thing began to struggle on the ground, trying to get away from him, but it was utterly defenseless. “Stop…” Its voice was so weak and raspy that it came out in a harsh whisper. It seemed that whatever power that allowed it to break down and reform was now gone.
He paid the monster no attention, and finally making it over to its entrapped body, he corrupted the dagger and began slicing into the dungeon boss carefully. Killing it, but slowly.
Dante's Immortality: Beginnings Page 44