To survive

The ghastly wail of the shadow grounded Hector and Nora to reality once more. A tone of triumph that aroused Vergil to murderous heights.

The sword would fall once more, for he shall taste it once more. Vergil adorned a stretching smile that made Hector stop in his tracks with concern.

Vergil was of no care to his dear friend's concern. All that remained on his rationale was to feel the exhilaration of that one cut. He didn't know why...but ignored it in the heat of the moment.

"Hey!!...look at that!!" Nora pointed out the visage of human silhouettes pulling themselves apart from the profane art that stood towering.

"Did they get freed due to the wound that shadow suffered" Hector guessed " Or are they being controlled"

" I'll lean on the latter" Nora grimaced " Do we kill them? they are...humans after all..."

Vergil answered her not in words but action. He jumped down to the crater that was created for the dark pillars to stand high. And with deadly precision, he culled the naked figures that happened to obstruct his path to the retreating shadow.

With each swing of his blade, the ground was painted a vibrant red.

For the moment, Vergil was lost,

Lost in his sinister desire that sprouted from deep within. He hacked and hacked till he reached the shadow to confront it once more.

A terrible surge of power made his charge stop, the shadow now directly in front of him. It loomed over him like death, but he smiled and widely so.

" Vergil!!!" Hector's desperate voice pulled him out of his possessed state.

Nora slid to the shadow's flank and swept her metal rod in a horizontal strike. But it passed through it like hitting air.

Now in his proper senses, Vergil backed off to recollect himself. Whatever happened the moment before, it was not his emotions that drove him, yet in some sense his. That was the sense he got.

He looked back and saw severed bodies of both men and women alike. Their complexions pale and peaceful like it was when they were attached to the dark pillars. Though he was not the only one that killed them, his score was the highest.

His face took on a complicated expression, filled with guilt and regret.

" Hey! can you stop jumping off from one state of mind to another" Hector stood beside him, though he said that, his gaze was of concern.

"Sorry..." Vergil muttered between his rough breaths.

For now, he had to leave the thinking for later.

...

Huffing and panting Nora glanced at the shadow from a distance. They had been trying their best to land a blow on that thing. But no attacks seemed to affect it. And it cautiously avoided Vergil's blade.

She glanced sideways, Vergil was wiping off his sweat that obstructed his vision. If she had to say, a sense of fear rose when she looked at him now.

His blade diving into the flesh of those controlled. She shivered at that time but had followed nonetheless. He looked as if possessed. Her nor Hector's voice reached him till he was near the abominal shadow.

Vergil looked at her as if sensing her gaze and whirled his head to face the shadow. The action looked normal but she saw guilt in his eyes...

"It's useless as if now" Hector broke her chain of thoughts "beside Vergil's our attack doesn't affect it"

Indeed, they were going to die here if they didn't do anything about the situation. unconsciously she looked to Vergil for answers.

"It's a guess...but" Vergil spoke while raising his sword high " Why do the shadow hordes live humans and why not release it all to deal with us"

" Better question, why it didn't attack by itself," she asked expectantly. Vergil just brought his raised sword and beheaded a man stuck in those walls.

The dead didn't even utter a sound. But the shadow moved swiftly, calling upon more of its minions.

" looks like we found out why" Vergil spat Vehemently " They are its food, its source of energy. Probably its main powers are only illusion and dreams"

A terrible thought surfaced in Nora's mind. and it was nailed by Hector's grim words.

" So...we have to kill them!!?"

Vergil sprang forward to deal with the hordes of mindless humans, he did what he did before, only this time she felt he was in control.

"Damn" Cursing, Hector dashed to the nearby dark pillar and mercilessly drove his knife in fluid motion, reaping the lives of harmless humans.

The whistling sound of Vergil's blade harvesting the expressionless heads. The heavy sound of the said mindless beings approaching may very well rip her if given a chance.

It unsettled her deeply, she now regretted coming here. Her conscience screamed hysterically in her head while being buried by fear and survival instincts.

' I won't die here ' remembering her sweet dream, she clutched to it as an anchor. She too went on to kill the people on the pillars.

Cursing every second of her decision of ever coming down, she killed grotesquely. Since her weapon was a metal rod, she had to smack it harder. sometimes she needed to hit twice and the head burst like watermelon.

It scared her, but adrenaline and fear kept her going.

She didn't give a glance at the other two, lost in her conflicting thoughts. Her metal rod rose and fell...repeatedly. And as it went on she would close her eyes. Hoping not to see the morbid scene. But her mind pictured it for her even more vividly.

Perhaps it was her state of mind, that she unconsciously fell into a dream. This one was unlike the other. it was not a sweet dream but a nightmare.

But luckily a short one.

The next thing she knew was being woken up by a voice resounding in her mind. Like a melodic chime of a bell.

[You are worthy to be a Champion.

You have Gained the ability- ...]