Chapter 244 13: The True Form Of The Darkness!?
Raven and Persha crushed the enemies along the twisting path, but the further they travelled, the more infectious and thick the smog from the decaying plants covered in the black ooze.
Even Raven began to feel his chest tighten, and his combat abilities seemed to have dropped by roughly twenty per cent. He wanted to ask Persha what they would find in this dreadful forest of death.
Because that's what he felt coming into contact with these monsters and the flora... They had long died, only forced to keep moving, keep breathing like a sick child in an ICU using an incubator, forced to keep fighting a battle they lost years ago.
'Maybe Nene and Emily, with their powers, could these sad forests ever become lively again? Or would the darkness linger even in the smallest corners if I don't destroy it?'
There were whispers in Raven's mind that caused him to become a little unsettled; the black ooze gave a similar feeling to the new energy he was producing inside his body, although he was a dark shade of purple with silver dots shimmering inside...
'The two energies feel so similar... interchangeable.' It worried him that he would suddenly become like this once he reached the twelfth gate. Or are there some other hidden secrets in this strange black ooze?
"My Lord?" Persha snapped him out of his thoughts, her soft voice a little concerned, even reaching out to touch his arms, something she would never have done in the past, even a few months ago.
Raven felt conflicted when speaking or being close to her after seeing her true identity, but also because he couldn't take any energy from her like normal women...
'Her insides are filled with the same black ooze as these monsters... Is it some kind of punishment, cult... Or is it a sign of failure?'
"Sorry, I was just contemplating something. Let's continue. The centre of the forest doesn't seem that far from here." Raven looked back, noticing that they were both as if watching each other on the opposite side of a two-way mirror.
***
There were few monsters in the inner sanctum seemingly because most of the flora and tree's had now completely withered into ashes in the depths of the forest. In the distance there were sounds of battle, enthusiastic Knights of Dread seeming to want the reward unaware their Lord and Master was already a few steps from the centre.
"They are very lively, I wonder if they realise it was all a sham since they cannot reach here in time to get their rewards...fufu." Persha thought Raven wouldn't reward them, covering her mouth and giggling at his evil actions.
'The ground is hard... there is no water or moisture, and it's crumbling under my steps...'
Raven no longer looked back when Persha made comments or spoke because his neon blue eyes and body could feel something pulling him closer... a feeling of pins and needles.... goosebumps, and his heart palpitating as if someone or something was also watching him.
"Careful, there is something here..." His voice was low, trying to keep his mouth closed to avoid large noises creeping inside the black fauna and brittle trees that dissipated into dust when he touched them...
'It's here...'
For the first time, he felt an emotional response from Persha, one of fear, even terror....
"Master... we should retire.... this isn't where we shout be!" As she spoke, her jaw trembled, rattling so hard that she bit her tongue, but ignoring the blood dribbling down her chin, her fear was strong enough to bypass her current persona and reason.
He turned to her and realised just how much she began to tremble and shudder the moment her eyes fixed on the strange object in the centre of the forest.
A huge black tree... pulsating with life, as if it was draining all the energy and power in the area while in the centre of the trunk there was a beautiful cocoon-like object with a golden colour... throbbing and shifting.
There was something alive in that golden cocoon hanging from the tree.
"P-Please... don't look."
Persha's fear increased her sense of terror, making her almost hysteric... 'I did not intend to make her suffer like this. My goal was to learn more about her.'
"You can return, Persha... I will go ahead."
A sudden silver light flashed past his face, a large blade slicing into his shoulder and neck, creating a deep wound. Blood spurted into the air as he spun around to see the dejected Persha holding a huge curved blade... No, the blade was her arm.
She kept whispering strange words, only small parts of them tangible.... "Why is it here... there is no way that should be here!"
'Persha knows what it is, and it can break or bypass my connection with her as the Dread Lord... what the hell is in that pod!?'
Once again, her blade arm cut through the air like a knife through butter, the silver light howling through the wind as she attacked despite her face and atmosphere showing zero aggression.
'Strange...'
Raven's eyes narrowed; he stepped back, deflecting the blade with the back of his hand and throwing a heavy left hook into her jaw, the dainty Persha stumbling and falling backwards, giving him time to move closer to the strange golden cocoon.
As her blade and his arm continued to collide, he tried desperately to think why she would become so strange, but he did not... These forests were related to the dungeons... lost dungeons, his mind constantly swirling with thoughts and ideas, inching ever closer to the golden cocoon.
'Lost dungeons... Lost... people? Failure... the words she was speaking...'
"Don't!!" Persha screamed the moment he was within touching distance of the cocoon, her body deformed beyond any image of her former beauty, as Raven's chest was sliced by one of her two blades... but the other...
Grazed the golden cocoon... which began to slowly slice open thread by thread as Persha collapsed on the ground... her blades returning to her hands as if she lost all power the moment that cocoon opened.
***
Raven observed the strange phenomenon and thought, 'Say you were lost in a dungeon believing yourself dead... Then, after time, you awaken as a monster inside there and fight for as long as you remember... eventually becoming strong enough to have a complete consciousness...'
The golden cocoon's light absorbed what seemed to be the dirty, black ooze from Persha's body. Raven wanted to stop it, but there was a forcefield when the cocoon opened, and a figure began to show from the depths.
"No... I fought so hard... Why must I disappear... why are you here now, and not in the destroyed dungeon where I fell...!?"
Persha's face was a mess, tears and snot as she bawled like a baby, even worse than a child slapped by their mother, with strange and disgusting sounds. Her arms dropped to the ground... wilted like the forest around this place. The more she vanished... the more Raven could sense that disgusting energy from within the cocoon.
It was dense and thick... and made his skin crawl.
So, I began to smash the barrier, trying to stop this. Mor'vaal did her best, each blow causing the air and ground to tremble, but the golden barrier just scoffed at her attempts as Persha's body withered... looking at me with her dull eyes, not even asking for help...
"R....run..... Lord Raven...." Her voice for the first time, carried a respectful tone... Her eyes spilling two streams of tears before her entire body shattered, sucked inside the cocoon that began to glow with a dark gold light... Throbbing and growing as two hands, pristine and white, identical to Persha's, gripped through the sliced hole and began to pull herself through that widening gap.
'Fallen, all the knights beside me are fallen... No in the first place... what is a fallen?' Raven's eyes watched the cocoon as the woman entered his view, pure silken skin, with black hair cascading down to her shapely buttocks, eyes with black sclera and ocean blue pupils... a face ninety-nine per cent identical to Persha...
The moment she stepped out and stretched her naked body, Raven felt a moment of pressure. Her aura was close to mine... equal or higher, but he couldn't tell due to the strange black energy that dulls his senses.
Rather, the energy was no longer black... but a brilliant pink mixed with golden flecks of radiance... as if...
"A fallen orc?" Her voice was ethereal, like when Philis sang for their school choir, gentle but arrogant, lovely but deep.
'Fallen orc? Me? When did I fall?'
She looked at his face, tilted her head and seemed amused when realising that Raven had no idea what she said, her lips curling into a wicked and twisted smile.
"You stand in the presence of an ascended despite being some garbage that fell in the dungeon... Why do you not kneel and show your reverence?"
Raven didn't speak at first, his mind racing repeatedly, trying to change or understand the situation... This woman who was identical to Persha, who the hell was she? Why did something that destroyed dungeons create such a powerful energy that competes with the gates of blissful domination?
'What does she mean I fell in the dungeon? I have never lost!'
"I don't understand your meaning. I have never lost in the dungeon."
Her arrogant eyes seemed to soften. When she looked at him, there was a distinct sorrow as if the Persha who vanished was, in fact, the same person as this woman.
"Why are you so strong... and almost complete even..."
She sighed before swiping her hand across the air, showing a flicker in the atmosphere... a moment later, a magic spell was cast and shot towards Raven. "Do not worry... this spell will protect you from the dungeon's manipulation..."
The moment the spell hit Raven's mind, his body began to convulse; memories and thoughts that seemed like dreams flooded into his consciousness as he fell to his knee, and a pair of soft, fair-skinned arms grasped his body.
"I pray... that you find the answers and a path for those without hope..." A whisper so gentle, he realised she was the same Persha seeing her memories...
The memory of when she originally died in the dungeon thousands of years ago, and he also saw a memory from two months ago... It was the first day Raven entered the dungeon... before he touched the monolith left by Lilith's previous incarnations.
His body trembled as Mor'vaal seemed to whine and wail as she fell from his hand and slammed into the ground as if shedding tears of lament for her master and his breaking heart.
Because of the memories he saw almost shattering his mind... It was the day Alistair Granbell died and was reborn as the Fallen Dungeon Monster named Raven.
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