Ancient Battlefield (Part One)

"I have many more things that I want to tell you, but it looks like we need to end this conversation soon, Dante."

Dante didn't want to steal the limited time of his old friend -whose last remnants were about to disappear- with unnecessary words. For the last time, he looked into Mr. Skull's peerless eyes with a serious expression.

"In fact, my inheritance only required the alteration of your bones and blood vessels. So there was no need to evaporate your flesh. I did it to save you from something else."

Mr. Skull had saved Dante from what? Dante had no idea.

"The System can be considered as a part of this world. The moment participants enter the Labyrinth of the First, System spreads to all of their bodies at the cellular level. It and the participants, in a sense, merge as a whole... until the day that they will leave the labyrinth.

"As you know, the basic and most effective way to gain strength in the labyrinth is to make use of the System. So much so that In the history of the Labyrinth of the First, you won't find a single participant who doesn't rely on the System.

"But in fact, the System itself is nothing more than a shackle for the participants. One of its purposes is to keep everything in the labyrinth under control.

"To save you from the hands of the System, as far as I can kill, I killed your cells that infected by the System.

"That was the only option in our current situation.

"Before my inheritance passed to you, all of your cells, except the ones that build your bones, blood vessels and nervous system, were completely destroyed. After the metamorphosis, your bones and blood vessels were literally reborn. This means that, Dante, over ninety percent of your body has been cleared from the disease that called System.

"It only exists in your nervous system now, and that is not something that can be destroyed without killing you. However, this much must be enough for saving you from being a part of the System.

"Right now, in a sense, you're out of the System, Dante. You'll understand what I mean when you wake up."

If the other participants were to hear the words of Mr. Skull about the System, they would have great difficulty believing his words. However, Dante was different from the other participants.

His identity, which even he had not known himself yet, should not have been known to anyone, and the thing that called as the System, actually belonged to the Lord of the Labyrinth.

In short, if Dante really wanted to stay out of everyone's sight, the first step that must be taken, would be to ensure that the System could not find Dante, and that its potential influence over him must be completely eliminated.

Dante didn't ask anything, but he had question marks on his mind.

If he would not gain strength through the System, then how would he gain strength? To the best of his knowledge, the only power system in the Labyrinth of the First was the System itself.

And then, Mr. Skull's eyes got a degree colder. His gaze on Dante and the tone that he had used were full of implication. "No one... should know what you are, Dante. All possible threats must be eliminated. I believe that you understand what I'm trying to say."

Here, in the Lower Catacombs, many extraordinary happenings took place today, and there were only three witnesses of these happenings that survived until now. Mr. Skull was clearly saying to Dante that he should get rid of the witnesses.

Ulfred and Nathaniel had not seen the most critical event of today. So they were not a serious threat to Dante. However, Iona had seen everything.

The Labyrinth of the First was a place where participants could not even protect their own memories. It would be foolish for Dante to try to disappear from the eyes of the labyrinth while leaving behind witnesses. Even if these witnesses were friends who would never betray him...

'So that's why you went so far in order to kill everyone.' thought Dante from the inside.

Naturally, Dante understood the secret implication in the words of Mr. Skull. He frowned but still nodded for now.

Mr. Skull continued. "I want you to know that I also left a piece from my memories in my flail. If you didn't know how to use the powers you had inherited from me, it would be such a shame, wouldn't it?"

Mr. Skull neither looked disappointed because of Dante's response, nor he looked satisfied. Instead, he had a mysterious smile on his face.

Mr. Skull's body was gradually disappearing. His hands and feet had completely disappeared, and the rest of his body was becoming more transparent with each passing second.

"One last advice, Dante. As long as you live in the labyrinth, sooner or later, you will hear something about 'Envoys'. Don't ever go near them. Always stay as far away from them as possible. It doesn't matter how you're trying to hide, even if a passing Envoy's attention happens to accidentally fall on you, all of them will know that you're different."

At this time, the disappearance of Mr. Skull suddenly accelerated. His body abruptly disappeared, and there was nothing more than a semi-transparent head that left of him.

On the face of the head, there was an affectionate expression as when they first met in this illusion. Mr. Skull had put aside his solemnity.

"After sixty thousand years, I'm so glad that I could talk to you, even if you weren't the Dante that I know. Farewell... Dante..." While these words drifted throughout the illusion, Mr. Skull disappeared just like that.

Dante had mixed feelings. An old ghost from the past, and an old friend at the same time, went into his dream and said some incredible things. When the ghost was finished his words, it just vanished with a simple farewell, left behind a dumbstruck Dante.

"Farewell... old friend." Said Dante, after looking ahead blankly for a while. He had a sad look on his face. Although this separation did not affect him very profoundly, it had deeply engraved itself in his memory.

One day he would find his memories that contain Mr. Skull, and he would remember this day again and again with each new piece of memory. The sorrow he was feeling at the moment would never diminish and be forgotten. On the contrary, he would surely feel much more sorrow in the future.

"Ah! I almost forgot. I want you to know that I've packed my piece of memory in a way that would benefit you the most." At this time, the voice of Mr. Skull was heard from the void. His body was completely gone, but he still seemed to have the energy to say one last thing.

"As a matter of fact, I don't know whether it is going to be a gift or another painful experience for you, but... the old Dante... who I knew... would have... enjoyed... it..."

The last words of Mr. Skull unexpectedly became these lines. He was determined to remain as an unpredictable old friend until the end.

Dante's brows became wrinkled as soon as he heard these words. Gift? Painful experience? Enjoy? These words had passed in the same sentence, and this sentence had come from Mr. Skull. This caused Dante to feel a cold shiver in his new bones.

Before Dante could even think of anything, his vision quickly darkened. He felt as if he was falling headfirst into a deep dark pit.

...

After a while, the feeling of this fall came to an end, and Dante's sight returned. However, there was a red curtain in front of his eyes.

Dante became stupefied and could not comprehend what was happening. Naturally, it was the red curtain that first attracted his attention, but then he realized that this curtain did not affect his vision in the slightest way. On the contrary, his visual perception was better than ever.

When his attention fell beyond the red curtain, time stopped for Dante. His eyes widened. All that he saw in just a mere moment was enough to freeze his thoughts. He couldn't even react.

The sky was completely red. The ground was a black piece of flat land that lacks even a single blade of grass.

However, what made Dante swallow his uvula was what he saw between these two. Miles away from where he was, there was a huge army.

A gigantic army that can barely be expressed even with millions, stretching to the horizon!

Most of this army consisted of humanoid beings. Some forces were deployed on the ground, and the rest of the army was deployed on the air.

As his gaze wandered over the horizon, Dante saw some groupings between the army. Dwarves, Elves, Giants, Humans, and a lot of other races resembling human beings that Dante didn't even know what they called... There were even armies that consisted of dragons and giant, luminescent trees. This huge force consisted of many races.

Then, though Dante wasn't the one who directed his gaze, his frontal vision moved to the right, then to the left. In the same way as the army on the other side, the army, where Dante was situated, was stretching in three directions until to the horizon.

However, there was a horrifying difference on the side of Dante. This army consisted entirely of monsters!

This monsters had infinite numbers, varieties, and sizes. Many of them were in unimaginable shapes that would not even come to one's mind. This was a sea of monsters as wide as the eye can see!

This army had been divided into countless sub armies, such as the army on the other side. Likewise, the race was the determinative factor here.

The sub army, where Dante was located, consisted entirely of skeletons and was too small to be called an army.

There were about thirty skeletons in this group. Yes, only thirty skeletons!

There were other skeletons in the ranks of monsters. However, Dante's group was unusual in a few ways.

The first thing that stood out was that each individual forming the group had different forms. None of them were from the same race. But, despite that, the bones of these skeletons were identical to the bones that Dante obtained after his metamorphosis!

'W-where am I? What's going on? D-don't tell me... This place is...' Dante felt the fear rise in his heart. It didn't take him long to understand where he was. After all, he had just listened to the absurd story of Mr. Skull.

Mr. Skull mentioned that he had left a memory fragment of his own in his flail. Lastly, he had even made strange comments about it.

This place was probably… no, definitely, was a battlefield that belonged to sixty thousand years ago!

The reason why Dante was in the body of a skeleton was that this memory actually belonged to Mr. Skull.

If his horns, and limbs that were almost two times longer than normal would be ignored, Dante's new body was resembling a three-meters-tall skeleton dog.

With the words he had used, Mr. Skull had implied that he was not a human being at the beginning of his speech. So this skeletal body that he was in must have been actually Mr. Skull. Right now, Dante was looking at this battlefield from his old friend's eyes.

Frankly, Dante had never imagined his old friend in a form like this.

Then Dante realized a strange detail that was hidden here.

Mr. Skull was undoubtedly a being that was far from human, and Dante was undoubtedly a human. On top of these, Mr. Skull was clearly not on the side of humans. He was one of the enemies of mankind in this war where defeat meant extinction.

So how the hell did Dante and Mr. Skull come together, and they became such close friends?

No matter how he thought about it, Dante couldn't imagine himself being intimate friends with a skeleton dog. Especially when this skeleton dog was the enemy of mankind in such a high level of war...

Until now, he hadn't thought about it because of his vague but nostalgic feelings, but… Was Mr. Skull really an old friend of Dante as he mentioned? How reliable were his words?

The words of Mr. Skull, that sense of closeness toward him, and what Dante sees right now...

No matter how much he thought, based solely on these, it was impossible for Dante to make a sense from the big picture. He was just confusing his own mind further.

The mind of Dante had moved away from the battlefield. However, at this time, a deafeningly high sound that was similar to a bugle call spread over to the entire battlefield and pulled back Dante into this false reality again.

Then he heard animalistic screams from his right, his left, and his behind.

These voices were the sign of the beginning of the war. It was time for these two huge armies to clash.

Dante's body began to move quietly but swiftly. This skeleton body wasn't in his control. Mr. Skull's skeleton was moving by itself.

After all, Dante was nothing but an observer here.