12 The game: Descending Light

After hearing the word Hel, he was immediately reminded about the game he last played. The game was called Descending Light. It was an appropriate name for the game, just because almost every rare monster, wars, events happened when the sun slept. When the sun descends into the horizon, creatures of the dark, fiends and the likes roamed the fields like mindless zombies.

There was also a reasonable argument to why the game was named as such. The day time was shorter than the night. As simple as that. But as a gamers, Ren and other players wasn't satisfied with such reason. 'The day is shorter, that's why.' Too plain!

Ren had a few theories of his own, those that he came up with during recess time and free time in class. Being one of the early players to access the game, he was exposed to more backstories than others were. He once talked to an old lady by a tavern.

"The world will soon be covered in darkness. The sun will wilt in front of his presence as a new sun takes its place. The new sun will shine with a tinge of blood. The world will turn upside down as shadows would take place of the light. It would rain blood all day...." He said under his breath with his hand on his chin as he pondered.

"What did you just say?!" A shout jolted Ren from his thinking.

He looked at Veco. His face was contorted, it was like he learned that his wife just died.

Immediately he turned hostile on Ren. He stood up and water spikes instantly formed all around Ren.

"Woah woah woah!" Ren threw his hands up in surrender.

"Calm down, okay?" He raised his palm against Veco.

"Tell me what those words mean." He asked.

"...." Veco judged Ren's reaction to his sudden change of attitude. He didn't feel any retaliation nor bad intentions at all so he took his sit once more. He showed an apologetic look to him as he said-

"Those were the words of the Divine Prophet, Ysa. She came to the kingdom where my master, Leum, stayed. She came like a ghost, arriving in front of the King, bypassing every security and guardian beasts along the way."

"She told the king the same exact words, and left just like how she came."

"The only people present at the king's throne room was just the King and his advisor, my master, Leum."

He recounted the story to Ren, as his face displayed the look of melancholy.

"Then it happened. 30 Years later. The war against Hel." His voice turned savage once again as killing intent gushed out like a raging river. His eyes turned red as he gnashed his teeth in fury.

"T-The hell?!" Ren felt it first hand since he was close to Veco.

The killing intent was suffocating him. It felt like he was back in the deep, dark ocean. Only this time, it was colder and he was like being impaled by a million needles.

"I'm sorry." The man noticed Ren's face going pale and he hurriedly retracted the killing intent that leaked out.

"Anyways, my master fought in the war besides the king. He died but left his soulspace inside this valley, hoping for suitable candidate to give his riches to." He sighed once again.

"I see." Ren went on to ponder the information he just received. It was weird. If old woman who was considered 'crazy' for spouting the same line every 3 seconds at the corner be the Divine Prophet, then what was she doing there?

Was she in fact, spreading information at that tavern to the players as some kind of easter egg event for the future?

The game was too vague because it was just a game after all, if an NPC was programmed to do something, that's the only thing they would do.

"Maybe this is the future of the game? As I recall, when I was still playing, the game was still in it's first year, but the war with Hel was over. Humanity won but Hel didn't go down so easily. Their downfall led to the violent nature of beasts which was the main source of experience of the players." He thought. He also considered that the time he was in right now was the same time the game started, but since Veco did not know the current situation of the world, the only way for him to find out was to venture beyond the valley.

"Ahh! You asked how I drowned a while ago, right?" Ren recalled Veco asking.

"I dived in a well to escape from bad people. Then I ended up falling in an ocean. I couldn't swim up so there, I drowned. Did you perhaps saved me?" Ren asked.

"No, why would I? When I saw you, you fell from the sky slowly." Veco answered honestly.

"You say there is an ocean outside? Where is this place?"

"I don't know, you're the powerful man, you should know."

"I can't. Since I was seperated from my master, I lost contact from the outside world. There's no way for me to peer outside."

"Wait, since you got in, maybe you are qualified to inherit his soulspace."

"What's a soulspace anyway?" He asked. He really didn't know what a soulspace is.

"A soulspace is a world residing inside a person's soul. My master cultivated his soul to a high degree and he was known as the strongest summoner during his time. Summoned beasts, if not summoned stays inside the soulspace. I was created to take care of them."

"Back then I took care of 12 legendary summoning beasts, each one were fearsome in their own way. The easiest way to remove a soulspace from one's soul was to die. BUT, there are other ways, although more difficult."

"I know he died, but.. I want to know how." Veco changed from being proud to being depressed. He seemed to love his master a great deal.

"Alright, I'll take you to the place that would enable you to inherit my master's soulspace. It's likely that my master died so I will complete the ultimate task he gave me. To pass down his legacy." Veco said.