13 A Way Out
Calaminus observed the pillars and noticed that there were very small cracks appearing. He sighed in relief.
"Good. It looks like we are causing this contraption to go beyond its limits!"
Calaminus waited for a day and began to call Kyros again. But this time, it took a few minutes before Kyros was roused awake.
The attacks continued, and soon, the reddish charge struck Kyros again and knocked him and Calaminus out again.
This cycle continued again and again, and nearly a week later, Kyros was not knocked out from the first red bolt! It took another charge to knock Kyros out.
Calaminus had already been decreasing his support, but the attack was so strong that it still struck Calaminus with such great pain that he, too, fell asleep.
Another week passed, and finally, the pillars broke.
BOOM!
The red glass that surrounded Kyros fell apart.
Kyros fell on the floor as the chains that held him also gave in from the destruction of the pillars.
The attack was so strong that it was four times stronger than the last bolt!
Kyros fell and felt great pain all over his body, although there were no wounds. His soul kept trembling.
Despite the powerful attack, Kyros mysteriously remained conscious but greatly exhausted.
"Calaminus?" Kyros called out.
There was no answer.
"Calaminus fainted..." Kyros growled.
Kyros was resting, but he could feel a great upheaval occurring outside of the temple where he was in.
Strange howls and growls could be heard at the exit of the temple.
He saw strange creatures slowly moving in. They were blackish creatures that had shapes that were like men and crawled like shadows on the ground. Others were standing and looked like thin papers moving.
There were so many that it looked like their darkness was moving within the temple.
The creatures bore strange teeth on their mouth and had sharp claw-like fangs.
It moved over the weakened body of Kyros.
These strange creatures laughed at Kyros and watched their meal remain unmoved.
"Shadow Ghouls. So this is what Calaminus meant by the darkness outside the temple..." Kyros looked as one of the creatures moved closer.
It used its strange claws to pull Kyros up by slicing through the gray robes that Kyros was wearing.
Kyros was pulled up as the two-dimensional creature stood up and showed its sharp teeth to Kyros.
"How did I survive?" Kyros asked himself. But his question did not pertain to how he survived the monsters before him. He was extremely hungry.
"I woke up. And despite this hunger... how did I survive? Could this be the answer?" Kyros wondered. He knew for some strange reason that he could do 'that.'
It was then he saw a strange notification appear on his vision.
[Dark Consumer passive skill acquired.]
"Ah. Just in time." Kyros smiled.
The Shadow Ghoul moved its mouth closer to bite Kyros, but Kyro opened his jaw as wide as he could and bit back.
Since the monster was as thin as paper, Kyros managed to bite the head and tear out a large piece of the monster.
The Shadow Ghoul lost more than a quarter of its head, and it began to scream as it drew back.
The others howled angrily as it saw its companion retreat.
Kyros swallowed the darkness which made up the monster.
[Health Increasing]
Kyros smiled as he saw it.
"So this is what Calaminus meant that my soul would receive alerts and notification on its own. Thank Fate the Time God's Soul is in me. I wonder how I should bring up the details of my status?" Kyros mused.
The Shadow Ghouls didn't attack as it wondered how Kyros managed to eat darkness. They couldn't even eat each other. But when Kyros bit the Shadow Ghoul, the darkness didn't reform.
"Now the mystery is how I managed to kill all of you in a berserked and weakened state..."
[Dark Maddening status successfully repelled.]
"Dark Maddening? Was this the cause of me going berserk? It's a good thing I programmed my soul thanks to Calaminus's lessons of Java and C#...."
"Celestial Guard!" Kyros shouted.
[Activation failed.]
"Tsk. It looks like I can't use those skills until I receive the Celestial Code from Greater God Daradiel."
Kyros then tried to harness Force energy.
[Force Lock prohibits wielding of Force Energy]
"What?!" Kyros cursed.
The Shadow Ghouls began to jump and attack.
The movement of the Shadow Ghouls suddenly became slower.
Kyros could perceive things six times faster than normal humans thanks to living a life suffering from De-Spacito. The sudden jumps were slow, and Kyros moved his body faster.
His entire body was suddenly in pain as his movements exceeded the limit of how he could move. But Kyros bore the pain and positioned himself under one of the leaping Shadow Ghouls and bit the arms.
[Health Increasing]
Another alert appeared, and Kyros felt the pain in his body lessen by a small degree. With his previous experience sensing the smallest changes in his body, it was crucial to fight against various enemies of different races who had various curses, poisons, spells, and abilities.
Kyros tore the arm out as he pushed the leaping Shadow Ghoul upwards.
His arms pushed in the body of the creature as if Kyros were pushing against a watery substance.
As Kyros felt his hands sink, it was as if his soul reacted. Almost instinctively, like a creature born of the dark, Kyros knew just what to do.
[Dark Wielder passive skill acquired.]
The once intangible nature of the shadow suddenly hardened at Kyros's touch. The Shadow Ghoul was thrown back, and it flew and hit the roof.
Kyros also evaded and was in the middle of several confused Shadow Ghoul. In their vision, It was as if Kyros suddenly blurred and moved with great speed that the leaping ten ghouls all missed.
"ROAR!" One of the Shadow Ghouls roared as Kyros bit it.
Kyros then slapped the creature and sent it flying.
Kyros grabbed on another and bit its face while flinging his arms and kicking around. The creatures that were struck would fly at the slightest touch.
The Shadow Ghouls realized what was happening and began to retreat out of the temple.
Kyros was gripping one Shadow Ghoul and had bitten off its head. He would take other parts of the creature and bite it more parts and saw his health increasing.
[Health Increasing]
The notification appeared, and Kyros observed his surrounding. His previous memories and his newly gained knowledge continued to assess the creatures.
"Shadow Ghouls is a terrifying creature for most beings. Warriors can't strike its intangible form, and the darkness devours most elemental attacks. Only Holy Fire, Light, and Brimstone could harm these creatures. But luckily, my soul was strong enough to tap and utilize my Devil Source." Kyros assessed.
The Shadow Ghouls were all roaring at Kyros, who stood inside the temple. Suddenly, another set of creatures appeared.
It had the same appearance as the shadow ghouls, but it held what looked like a two-dimensional, paper-thin staff. It pointed towards Kyros, and various black spears were forming above them. It shot towards Kyros.
Kyros focused as the speed of the attack was faster than what most humans can see.
[Pronto skill acquired.]
[Pronto activated.]
As Kyros's perception of time moved faster, he quickly moved and evaded the many incoming black spears. He grabbed on one and caught it.
Some of the spears struck the walls of the temple, which suddenly activated a holy spell.
DING! DING! DING!
The sounds of metal striking metal could be heard as the black spears met an unbreakable light shield.
"So this is why it fled the temple. It thought the temple itself was weakening them." Kyros bit on the solidified darkness spear and ate it.
[Health Increasing]
[Dark Maddening status acquired.]
Kyros felt a strange sense of hunger, sadness, and anger engulfing him.
"If I recall, Dark Maddening is a curse that causes the inflicted to fall into a debase manner of thinking. At full effect, the afflicted would be like a wild beast driven by urges of hunger and killing... So this was the curse that was afflicting me in the past. Something or someone must have managed to find this place and undid my seal. Could whoever found this place fought these creatures?" Kyros glanced at the angry and howling monsters outside the temple.
[Dark Maddening Status dispelled.]
"Good. My soul is naturally able to dispel this status." Kryos smiled and continued eating the spear. His previous states where his soul was traveling and constantly attacked by the four-pillar seal improved his concentration and focused to an extreme level. Weaker attacks that disrupt the mind or emotions would be easy to quell for Kyros.
"Now how could I have survived this before? Did I kill all of these creatures and ate them? Impossible. The me right now is a special case. But normal humans would find it almost impossible to kill Shadow Ghouls. Unless they have warriors or mages with skills leaning on the Element of Light and Brimstone, or if they can produce Holy Fire, fighting this many would kill them..." Kyros wondered.
He finally took the last bite of the Dark spear and went back to eating the squirming and headless body of the two Shadow Ghouls that he fought with earlier.
"Regardless of how I did it, I must have consumed a lot of these creatures to have ended up in a maddened state. Oh well... For now... I eat!" Kyros rushed out of the temple gates and attacked the unending horde of darkness.
