Looming Darkness

Chaos was an understatement. It was complete mayhem with no regard to personal safety.

Boom!

Kaboom!

""Groooaarr!!""

Explosion and death, blood and agony, everything were mixed into one. The roar of the two opposing sides never ceased even for a second, trying to prove each other's dominance over the other. The only thing that differentiates allies and enemies was the smell of the blood of the opposite sides covering their bodies.

And I myself, was stuck in the middle of these two demonic armies. A blood like-liquid that I didn't know where I got it from, covered my face and the upper half of my body as I dashed from one side to the other.

While trying to eliminate every single NMCs, I had to prevent the Limbo creature from getting out of the damp well, all at the same time. Of course, it was one hell of a work. Hehe... hell... get it?

Ahem, anyway, I had been fending them all by myself for about three hours already. Though the NMCs started decreasing, I hadn't been able to see the end of this entourage yet. Made me wonder, what the hell is happening?

After the first hour, I stopped counting the enemies, only focusing on moving my limbs and body to my utmost limit. The good thing was, I was finally able to improve my fighting style again, something that has been stuck for almost a year already since I hadn't had the chance to face any capable opponents during those periods.

"Wind Wave!"

A crescent wind flew up to the ceiling, cutting a humanoid flying demon in half, on which, two nearby ogre-like NMCs caught and devoured each half. The smell of blood attracted nearby NMCs, who then joined this last supper.

A group of basketball-sized bat NMCs swarmed to me, however, their advance was stopped by the almost invisible spider net which spread behind me. As they tried to free themselves from the bindings, a group of spiderlings swarmed on them instead, all the while the mother of these spiders was impaling the two ogre-like NMCs from before, using her sharp legs.

The best part from all of these slaughters was that for every single NMC that my demon killed, I got a full EXP since they were counted as part of me. And I already leveled up once.

<Level-Up!>

Just as I thought, the second crisp jingle finally came. I leaped away and stabbed my sword knives on the stone wall, making a foothold out of them. While occasionally shooting some NMCs coming to me, and some demon trying to fly or climb out, I opened my character status.

<Edward Kavka>

<Level 46 - Mercenary>

<Mental Power (MP) - 510/510

<Experience Points (EXP) - 3.400/12.050.000>

<Strength (STR) - 51>

<Dexterity (DEX) - 51>

<Constitution (CON) - 51>

<Intelligent (INT) - 51>

<Unused stat points - 35>

Before entering this well, my total EXP was at <6.806.500/9.550.000>. My first level-up came before the first hour, after killing more than 500 medium and large-sized NMCs. That was more than 2,5 million increase, and it was just under one hour.

And now, I leveled up again just when the timer reached the half-point mark.

<3:00:00>

<2:59:59>

<2:59:58>

<2:59:57>

...

...

I still had 3 hours on my hand. I wasn't going to let it wasted away. This might be the only way I could level up so fast.

However, there was still some question that was left unanswered. Why 6 hours? Why there was no end to this?

According to my experience so far, the Admin never gave any leeway to me. Everything happened because there was a reason for it. For example, the first Optional Quest required me to deactivate the bomb installed inside Akropolis Tower.

There's no way this one was because the Admin felt sorry for me and somehow made a special plan to level me up. Something must have happened, or maybe I was just overthinking it.

[Sir,] interrupted Regina.

Thinking that Regina knew what I was lamenting about, I responded to her, "Do you know something about this place?"

[No, Sir. It's something else, but maybe it had some connection to it.] replied Regina.

Bang! Bang!

After shooting down two demons that tried to climb the wall, I asked again, "What is it?"

[Don't you feel something odd from the portal?]

"What portal?"

Suddenly, I felt an ominous feeling. The portal was still there, spawning demonic minions. I muttered to myself, "Why is it still there…?"

======

Limbo, The Bridge Between The Worlds.

While the name of this center had the word bridge on it. There was nothing that resembled it inside this endless land covered by darkness.

Everything was painted black and white, hazy and misty. There was a reason why every creature that passed through the portal Edward made had the shadowy form. It was because they were affected by this place.

After thrown away into this world, any creature would not retain their past form, only silhouette, and shadow of when they were still alive in the human world.

And also, just like Hell, which had a lot of different versions and levels, not all Limbo had the same image. There was a fiery Limbo, where flaming demonic creature walked upon scorched land. Icy Limbo, where everything was frozen inside the endless snowstorm.

And there was a Limbo where the only thing that stood out was the darkness. This place was the latter. Of course, there was still light shining in the sky, but its only purpose was to paint the world, even more, darker than ever.

It was filled with all kinds of creatures, big and small, dangerous and gentle. It was the place that the soul of the living mostly passed on their way to Heaven or Hell. But for some, this is their last destination.

"It seems your hunch was right, Your Highness." said a crooked man covered with a robe. Everything on him was covered in dark, except for his round eyes that were glowing bright white.

"I might be just a fragment, but it doesn't mean I'm not real." said a man, sitting on a towering iron throne.

His body was covered with plate armors. Through the gap of the armor, the light was shining bright, as if telling that the person or the being inside this armor was a pure and righteous being.

The man in the armor then added, "Be careful of your own mouth, Griffon. I didn't resurrect you just so that you could run your mouth off."

Griffon, the man with the robe felt unknown pressure crushing him, revealing the real body under the robe. It was some kind of bird, shrouded with darkness. And upon looking closer, his body size was actually bigger than the armored man, almost surpassing the tall throne itself.

"My apologies... You Highness... I couldn't thank you enough... for this humble servant's second chance." said Griffon, trying to be as audible as he could while trying to withstand the pressure emitted by the armored man.

Once the pressure was released, Griffon could finally catch his breath. He bowed down and didn't dare to raise his head anymore.

After feeling that the wrath from the armored man disappeared, Griffon carefully asked, "Do you want me to fly past the portal as well, Your Highness?"

"No." said the armored man. "It's not time yet. I need to complete myself, first. Or at least, gain another fragment or a few more."

"I'll work as hard as I can to satisfy your expectation on this lowly servant, Your Highness," said Griffon, bowing even lower.

"Leave." said the armored man, ushering Griffon away.

Once he was all alone, the armored man started to peer into the portal that was high up in the sky, on the opposite side of his iron castle. The only way to reach it was to climb the tree closest to it, or flying.

Using whatever power he had left, he maintained the portal so that it wouldn't close yet. He needed to study it as much as he could to form one of his own.

However, in doing so, he couldn't prevent the odd nature of this world's dweller that was enticed by the portal. They kept going and going, never stopping. Thankfully, every single one of them would return once they were defeated on the other side of the portal.

But it didn't mean that they were unharmed either. In order to recover what they lost, they need to hibernate as much as they could. If they were fatally wounded, they would stay asleep for weeks, or maybe months.

"Did I made a mistake?" wondered the armored man.

To form the portal, the armored man every ounce of his power to connect himself with the world of the living. He used the last demonic artifact, the one that somehow survived the battle with Argosax thousands of years ago.

Through it, he forced the owner of the portal to fight an endless battle in an enclosed space. The space itself would make endless copies of mindless creatures in certain ranges which were deemed life-threatening.

"If only I still had the other half of it." muttered the armored man, recalling the painful memory he had from years ago, when a certain woman invades his small kingdom, causing irreparable damage to his castle and power.

She was also somehow able to steal the main part of the last artifact. Without it... Without the bead, he would never be able to restore it, 'The Twelve Labours of Hercules'.

He was very drained by it. He could only hold it for only six hours. More than that, then he would have to risk his own safety.

"Before I have my revenge, I will not fall down easily!" yelled the armored man, slamming his fist on the throne's armrest.

The loud banging caused a ruckus among the castle's dweller. They felt their ruler's wrath and anger. For fear of retaliation, they all kneeled while hoping that he didn't take it too far like last time.

"Wait for me! Dante!" yelled the armored man.

He has many titles, many names. He is the embodiment of chaos and evil. Anyone who heard his title, or his name, would cower in fear while hoping that his eyes never turned on them.

Although only a fragment, he was still known as King of Hell, Emperor of the Dark, Prince of Darkness, God of Darkness, and many more. Some devout follower would call him Pluto, the one who shall come on the promised date and separate heaven and earth.

However, not many knew his original name. His name is...

...Mundus.

======

The curtain of the night fell on top of the lifeless town. Yet, no matter if it was day or night, it was of no importance to the former citizen of this small town. Why would they?

A lonely creature, resembling a human walked into a dilapidated house. Its neck was elongated, It was very skinny and its arms were long and scrawny. The face had also been severely mutated and resembled a skull, with very sharp and wide mouths

.

However, it halted its advance in the middle of the room. There was a huge hole on the wall, but it seemed to be uninterested, even when it saw a woman lying unconscious on the floor. It turned around, and then...

Bang!

Its head was blown away by a single bullet, killing it instantly. The killer was a man in his twenties, holding a Magnum Colt Python in his hands. He wore a light green bulletproof vest on top of a dark green shirt and cargo pants with a pair of brown boots. On the back of the vest, there were four alphabets written big enough for everyone to see.

B.S.A.A.

It stands for, Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance.

Turning the radio which was attached to his vest on, the man spoke, "This is Chris, I found a civilian."

After hearing the operator's answer on the other side of the radio, he then said, "Negative, it's a woman. I'll take a closer look."

Chris then carefully move toward the woman lying on the floor. He heightened his senses in order to pick up any ambush from the fellow of the NMCs that he just killed earlier.

He felt a bit of tugging after passing the broken wall. It felt odd, but he just dismissed it since there was no sign of any living creature nearby.

However, just when he was crouching to look at the woman, a voice spoke near his ears while an invisible hand grabbed his wrist, "If I was you, I would stop right then and there."

A puff of smoke suddenly appeared as I emerged from it. Chris's face stiffened due to the sudden entrance. To lessen his tension, I immediately greet him, "Glad you're here, Uncle Chris."

As I expected, Uncle Chris's tensed face immediately turned into a soft and warm smile. He then said, "Sorry, I'm late."

======

[Author note: Mundus is the name of the antagonist of Devil May Cry, and Argosax is one of the antagonists in Devil May Cry 2. You can look at it on google for further explanation.]