The world was filled with chaos and screaming; Raven's heart raced as he watched the monsters tear humans and other people apart like toys... Heads half eaten, bodies with their innards leaking out...
'It's hell...'
All the monsters had only expanded a block as his huge axe cleaved across the chests of two demons who tried to attack him from behind.
He swung it again to remove another demon that came at him head-on.
His blade cut through its chest, causing blood to spray everywhere before disappearing into thin air. The monster fell back on the ground dead, but not even a drop of blood touched the floor or anything around them. It just disappeared.
"This is bad," he said while swinging away. "I don't think this can be good."
He heard one of the demons scream, a guttural scream before it began to devour the flesh of a dead child, making the Raven want to vomit.
But there wasn't time for that, because more monsters were approaching him! More than he thought possible... And now what?
What was he supposed to do here?!
His mind went blank as anger, rage and sorrow for the loss of life took over his body—his black mantle of gloom transformed into several spikes while covering his hands in sharp claws, now in his manticore form, he was over 8ft tall with a huge spiked tail like a club swaying behind him as the demons were crushed into paste from his enraged flurry of attacks, but the flow of demons was endless.
The demons poured from the huge gate like a black tide of death and ferocity, their claws, sharp spikes and fierce teeth... Raven was like a mere iceberg fighting against the might of an ocean. He felt so weak compared to this huge horde—although his axe, claws and tail could crush the small demons, for every 1 he killed, 10 would come through the gate...
And these demons were ALL level 29 and above... what could the new warriors or adventurers do... they fled from the area only to be pounced on, and their necks snapped before a group of demons would devour their flesh...
A young boy screamed when a demon clawed open his stomach, spilling guts onto the street.
A woman ran towards her husband, attacked by a giant spider-like creature with six legs. She grabbed the man's arm, trying desperately to stop him from getting torn apart. Her eyes widened in terror as she saw her husband's face change shape.
His skin became greyish-green scales covered in red veins running down his arms. Two fangs protruded from each cheek, and a third jutted between his lips.
Another set appeared under his chin, and the rest followed suit, forming three rows of razor-sharp teeth. Blood oozed from where the mouth opened wider until his entire jaw split in two, revealing a row of four more fanged jaws lined up next to each other.
Her husband shook violently as if something was moving inside his body, ripping off muscle and organs and throwing them about as if they were nothing.
The wife cried out in horror as the demon ripped her husband's skull cleanly in half, exposing his brain.
Another demon tore open an old man's throat, spraying gouts of blood everywhere.
An older lady threw herself before her son, shielding him from the onslaught of demonic beasts. A demon turned the mother's head completely around, snapping her spine instantly. The boy looked up at his parents and screamed.
The screams echoed all around Raven, drowning everything else in noise. People were dying left, right and centre. Children crying, mothers wailing, men shouting, and women praying... They all died in the blink of an eye without any chance of survival.
'I cannot stop them... there is no chance I can stop them all... I have to stop the dungeon.... to close the portal...!' Raven's heart bled with the fact he had to abandon the suffering people; his body dashed forward, swinging his axe in the largest whirlwind possible, tearing, rending and chopping up dozens of the demons in a deadly death spiral as he approached the gate.
Desperate, not caring for the small wounds in his flesh, the bite marks, and claws that slashed his abdomen, he cut, chopped, span and killed demons, ignoring nausea from feeling dizzy...
The moment he reached the portal, the S-Grade Enforcers appeared—over 2,000 adventurers, even 200 that normally lived a quiet life in retirement...
An elderly man with a single sword glowing in golden light looked at the scene; his heart reminded him of the past when he was powerless... "My son.... my students... this old man failed you last time... but I will not fail again!"
<<Thunder gods Asscention>>
*Bang!**Crackle!*
The man now looked no older than 35, with a handsome face and long golden hair, his muscles bulking with a springy powerful look, as his sword and body were bathed in a powerful lightning that evaporated all the demons within 5 metres of his body.
"I must go! and stop the portal!" His voice was distorted, filled with reverb and extra echo.
"No! What is that..."
He suddenly saw a black whirlwind of death, crushing the demons beyond what a normal human could do... but the axe... the form... it was like the past again... instead now rather than being his daughter and her best friend together... It was ONE man doing both this time...
"Boy... Raven, you cannot enter! COME BACK!" The old man's body became like a lightning bolt as he rushed towards the oblivious Raven, as the old man's head was filled with the promises he made back then, the hundreds, maybe thousands of bus rides meeting this boy... from being a young adult to the man he became...
"I cannot fail Mor'Grana and Sylvester... My old body... move!" The man felt himself become younger, faster, and stronger as well.
He moved so fast that Raven couldn't see him anymore; he just heard his loud thunderous steps as he charged straight into the portal, cutting through hundreds of monsters and turning them into dust and rubble.
*Crackle!*
Suddenly, the portal became unstable after the old man entered and started to flicker before it shattered...
Raven didn't understand what had happened as his body was full of tingling electricity.
He stood silently as he recognised the young man... that bus jacket.... the cigarette barely visible in his mouth... and the nostalgic scent and aura.
"Old man..."
***
As the old man stepped out of the portal, he noticed the crowd watching him curiously, all smiling as he dropped his sword... returning to his old figure, as tears streamed from his eyes, he looked at the group of people waiting, their weapons bloody with all the monsters already dead...
"You... You all... After all this time, is this where you were?"
A blurry scene entered Raven's eyes as he saw the portal fading... on the other side, he could see the figures of a tall woman... waving with a stupid smile... a short male with black hair giving a thumbs up...
Then a gentle-looking couple rushed to hug the old man.
"Don't cry, Dad, you're so old now—what if you pass away!? Come... we have lots to talk about."
As the shadows faded, Raven's body was cut, bitten and ravaged by the weak demons, but his eyes could only look at the two figures...
This wasn't a trial.
He wasn't dreaming...
His mother and father...
They were waiting in the dungeon.
Waiting for him to free them, he was sure that was definitely what they were telling him.
To rise to the top and one day meet them again.
Before the image faded completely, he wanted to shout and give them comfort.
"WAIT FOR ME!! I WILL COME... YOU CAN'T VANISH WITHOUT SEEING YOUR GRANDCHILDREN!"
As if time had stopped, their feet halted before looking back at Raven...
"Then hurry up, little Alice~ Mother is waiting."
"Do your best—I'm always watching, " the male said shyly.
*Shatter*
With that, the portal exploded, huge billowing red flames and blue smog covered the area like a broken mirror, and everything vanished...
Only hundreds of demons and thousands of monsters left...
Raven's body returned to his Orc form, filled with blood and wounds... holding his axe and shrouded in a mantle of Dread.
'Stronger... I have to be stronger... Stronger than anyone else... To stand at the top... Then I can see my family once again!'
Holding his axe with a determined face, Raven fought the demons.
Raven's black mantle covered his entire face, hiding the tears that spilt from his eyes—he was always uncertain and worried it was just his convenient fantasy that they were alive, but now he had seen them...
A mixture of sorrow, frustration from letting so many die, and his happiness to have a true goal...
His tears had meaning, and he wasn't embarrassed as the demons recovered and encircled his body under his mantle—he sneered.
A raven knight of Dread, the 12th seat... The only thing they should fear was him.
Because his axe was hungry for demon blood.
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