14 He who rises; The one who summons

Helkep had tried quite a few things to summon the hidden boss again.

Yet nothing seem to work, he wanted to try a few more things tonight.

He brought out a book and a pen, he was nothing down the methods he had tried, so he could...somehow get some use for them later.

'Today...Let's try to experiment with my shadow. When he appeared and disappeared, my shadow had started moving and stretching, so somehow I might have gained the ability to...control my shadow.' Helkep started to experiment with his shadow.

First he tried to get himself in something like a sync with his shadow.

He tried calming his breathe, his heart and to get them all to slow down...he tried. Not did it.

Slowly he started feeling as if he was somewhat more in sync with something that wasn't there before.

He saw darkness, pitch-black, horror inducing darkness. He started feeling a deep connection with the darkness.

He felt as if the darkness surrounded him and he surrounded the darkness.

He felt as if he was getting closer and closer to it. The horrifying aura the darkness was giving before was...gone, replaced by a sense of...belonging.

He felt as if the darkness was his home.

And as if the darkness was welcoming him, back home.

He slowly started losing himself in this feeling, suddenly he felt a barrier of some sort in front of him.

It was like you were going in full speed on the road, the road was clean but somehow a wall just comes out of nowhere to block your path. and you crash with it, while it wasn't even your fault

Helkep tried to make the darkness do his bidding, he tried to grab hold of the darkness.

"Uhh!" Helkep let out a soft suppressed-muffled groan.

He grabbed his forehead, and started squeezing it tightly, he was currently feeling immense pain.

He felt as if someone was punching holes in his head, as if someone was continuously hammering on his head, as if thousands of needles were being pierced in his head, as if his head was being squeezed into the sizes of a grain.

The pain felt like hell itself and he couldn't even knock himself unconscious, for the pain was so severe that he would be woken-up straight away.

After resting his head for two hours, the pain finally subsided.

His eyes were blood-red, There was a handprint on his forehead, for he had squeezed it tightly in his pain, his mouth was dry and tightly clenched together.

After another half an hour, he got up and went to the kitchen and gulped down a glass of water, also letting his head cool-off in the running tap water.

He was beginning to feel a bit better. Before he was feeling as if he was going to vomit, but he had managed to hold it in.

'What the heck just happened? What was that darkness, it was by no means my shadow. Or more certainly I can guarantee that I can't control my shadow in any way. That darkness was something else. It was horrifyingly bewitching. I almost felt as if that darkness was my home.' Helkep had a shiver realising that he had tried to grab hold of that darkness.

He was thinking what that darkness could be, being able to come up with nothing, after a moment of hesitation he decided to try visiting it again.

He once again got into that same state, this time he achieved calmness. Something which wasn't very rare for him.

Yet this time he couldn't feel the presence of that darkness, entering it was a whole other thing.

It must be known that if someone else was in his situation, after finally getting them self out of that pain, they would be unconscious for more than one week.

Not like Helkep thinking what they had just experienced and try to visit it again.

'Sigh! Well, my shadow gave me no clue, instead giving me another mystery. Anyways how did the hidden boss appear in the volcanic cage. Is there some condition which must be fulfilled?' Helkep begun thinking of such a condition. And the only one he thought that might be it...life or death situation.

'That might be it, maybe he can only be summoned if I am in danger and my life is own the line.' Helkep grabbed a...knife, very hesitantly from the kitchen and proceeded in his room to try another experiment.

He sat on his bed, a knife in hand, gulping nervously, he grabbed the knife tightly and... threw it up.

The knife spun in the air and Helkep counted the seconds.

'It should hit me in no more than 23 seconds. He better appear or he would be the one to take the blame.' Helkep closed his eyes, waiting impatiently for either the hidden boss to appear or either the knife to fall.

Helkep gulped nervously as 20 seconds had already passed.

'21,22,23...Hmm! No knife, but my calculations can be wrong as well, let's wait a few seconds more...Already 40 seconds, now I am certain...he appeared.' Helkep gulped and opened his eyes.

He slowly opened his eyes and looked around him. Finding no one he looked up, then at the his back...There was nobody.

He decided to look down thinking the monster might be playing a joke on him by decreasing his size.

He looked down and...the knife was imbedded in the bed, on the side of his thigh, through his pants.

He gulped, no monster had appeared to save him. The knife had barely missed his thigh by an inch. '...I salute my guts.'

Helkep didn't fear being stabbed, instead...if you could avoid something than why not.

After staying quite for some time. Helkep sighed and thought, 'How nice it would be, if all I had to do was think about him and he would appear...Even his characteristic are hard to forget.'

His image came to Helkep's mind. 'Snow-white hair, blood-red eyes. Gray skin. Horns, claws both black...Truth be told I think he is very pretty. Even human women would fall in love with him.' Helkep wondered if the monster was a human, how many girls would want him.

"Sigh! When am I gonna solve this riddle?" Helkep questioned himself.

"Fiopir tuyqwer voplirer."

"Huh!? Is that an answer? Besides what the heck does that even mean?" Helkep questioned.

'...Wait one second...was there someone in the room? Besides me?' Helkep's heart started pounding fiercely as he looked back.

Slowly the figure of a well-toned body behind Helkep was unveiled.

He had...white hair, red eyes and grey skin. With two horns decorating his head.

It was the hidden boss, no doubt about it. Helkep gulped looking at him.

He had indeed thought that the monster lived inside his shadow, somehow but...he never really believed it to would come out to be true.

Helkep was simply doing things to prove that it wasn't true, to himself, that no monster lived with him or inside of him.

He never even in his wildest dreams would have thought that he would see the hidden boss, appearing own his wish.

"...Yo! How have you been?" Helkep asked, cold sweat trickling down the side of his cheek.

"..."

'Ok, this big fellow is dangerous but....Can we take a moment to curse the fact that he appeared on the stupidest experiment. He didn't appear when my brain got recked, he didn't appear when I gambled my life, technically. Yet he appeared when i only thought about him with a little bit of description, wow, either i should kill myself or either I should kill this guy.' Helkep gave the monster a piece of his mind...inside his mind.

'Wow! Now he just ignores me. A round of applause for this...brilliantly unique...monster.' Helkep gave the monster a negative review inside his head.

"Amm! So, have you kinda...gone deaf?" Helkep asked very politely.

"...Pincuoil asalal binwas." The monster finally spoke...his words still in his language.

Well you can't expect someone to learn a new language in two days now can you? Besides the monster had no obligation to learn the human language either, neither would he want to waste his time on learning a petty language.

'Now...how do we communicate? Well...I don't think we can communicate with signs, drawing...I can draw but I don't know about him.' Helkep could only shake his head at the new problem.

"Hey big fella, do you... know how to draw?... Wait let's assume he does know how to draw but can he use something made by humans to draw? Or more appropriately what could he even draw with in that dungeon? Yep my mistake, he doesn't know how to draw." Helkep just realised he was talking out-loud.

"...Gouil couul viopier." The monster spoke with utter contempt in its voice.

It seemed that both of them were quite keen to negative emotions.

"Cough, Cough! Well anyways, the only thing I want to say is...Sigh! I wonder where this path is going to lead me." Helkep shook his head with a weary smile.

Helkep had a light smile, he was amused at the suddem turn his life had taken, he wondered whether this time would he be disappointed or was this time... something appealing in store for him.

The monster straightened its back and raised its chest in pride before he spoke, "Nariza, tul fe koissala." This time he didn't speak with contempt or anything of the sort. He just spoke in his mesmerising voice.

The two started at each other.

In the black of the night, under a roof, two people stood in front of each other. On the base of their past, it won't be wrong to call them,

He who rises; The one who summons.