Metamorphosis (Part Two)

The darkness continued to concentrate until it formed a cocoon around Dante.

Despite the unbearable pain he had been enduring, Dante's mind was as clear as ever. But it was not possible for him to get used to the pain. His clear mind caused him to taste the pain until its very last drops, just like a curse.

Because of he was an amnesiac who had just entered the labyrinth, he was unfamiliar with pain, but even so, Dante was not afraid of death, nor feared from pain... at least, until the fate had brought him to this exact point in his new life.

The current Dante would do anything in order to escape from this pain. He didn't know how many times he begged from the inside, but somehow, no matter how much time passed, he wasn't able to taste the unconscious state he had longed for.

Within a few minutes, Dante was in a condition that he was unable to feel the outside world. Except for the unbearable pain he was experiencing, the only thing he could feel was a coldness that was spreading from his fingertips and toes to his whole body.

Dante had no idea, but a pitch black, sticky liquid that was flowing from his body was slowly accumulating under his feet. In reality, this fluid was nothing but his flesh and blood.

'When... will... my... agony... end.'

This hell has been continuing for exactly ten minutes. His willpower had been utterly defeated.

It took ten minutes for Dante to desire death!

...

Dante couldn't even feel his own heartbeats anymore.

The feeling of coldness had already been spread to his entire body. He wasn't able to hear his own screams. Perhaps, he wasn't even able to scream anymore.

Then, all of a sudden, the pain Dante had been enduring started to decrease. The pain was still unbearable for him, but as time went on, the decrease in the pain was becoming more evident.

A faint spark appeared in his dull eyes. In the end, his suffering would finally come to an end. He just had to withstand the pain a little more!

However, the only thing which was decreasing wasn't the pain. The darkness surrounding Dante was also in decline. More appropriately, a change was taking place in the darkness. Starting from where Dante was, as him being the center point of the alteration, the darkness was slowly fading and leaving its place to a dark blood-red color.

In fact, 'the darkness' was a form of Mana itself. On the other hand, this color change was just a parallel occurrence that took place during the form changing process of Mana.

Dante still wasn't able to see a thing, but he could clearly separate colors from each other, which means his eyes were still working properly.

The pain continued to decline until it disappeared completely.

An hour later, a decrease in the intensity of Mana began to occur, until the dark-blood-red color became a faint and transparent red.

Mana changed form again!

Dante finally started to see properly, and at the same time, he realized that he couldn't turn his eyes.

Somehow Dante had already been taken a fetal position. The metallic skull, the cause of all this, was nowhere to be seen.

'W-W-What happened to me? W-What happened to my body?'

The things he saw was... enough for Dante's mind to immediately fell into chaos. His pupils narrowed until they became a pair of dots, and a panic that he could not resist overshadowed his thoughts.

Dante could see his bones clearly! Moreover, his bones were no longer the bones of a normal person. With their blood-red color, with the vertical black lines on them, they resembled the bones that were situated just beneath the skeletal creature's exoskeleton!

'N-No, no, no, no! Something like this... can't be happening! Impossible... I've.... I've become a skeleton?!'

His bones weren't all he could see. There was more. All his flesh and blood had disappeared, but on a second look, he could see his own heart and blood veins around his skeleton! They were all still in one piece, and they were all where they should be.

However... Dante's heart wasn't beating!

Other than his skeleton and his circulatory system, another thing was also at where it should be. His nervous system…

His brain, his eyes, and even the numerous nerve endings that were at all over his body… They were also not damaged like his blood veins and his heart. Also, the only change Dante saw was in his skeleton. He wasn't an expert in this field but the rest of the things he still had, seemed normal to his eyes.

*Ba…dump…*

At this time, Dante's heart made a slow movement. It was a slow heartbeat!

*Ba-dump…*

*Ba-dump*

His heart started to beat normally again, but somehow, Dante couldn't feel the blood pumped into his brain. That feeling of slight pressure wasn't there.

After a while, the pale, transparent red Mana filling the cocoon, began to intensify around the 'new bones' of Dante.

'W-What now?'

Dante felt an unbearable itch on his body, which now consisted of a skeleton and veins. Such an itch, as if it hasn't been scratched for years and the existence of the itch has never been forgotten all those years.

Then he noticed something hanging down inside of his rib cage, although he could not see it clearly. It was a stick-like thing. After it extended until a little below of his heart, it forked to both sides, and this bifurcation process continued rapidly.

'What's... this? Huh?'

Dante realized what was actually happening as the unbearable itching sensation became more and more intense.

Mana was re-forming his organs!

That stick-like thing hanging in his rib cage was his own windpipe!

Soon, his lungs and other organs began to regenerate.

Parallel to the regeneration of his organs, his muscles and the rest were also regenerating. The only thing that Dante had to do was to endure the unbearable feeling of itching that this process brought about.

'I don't... know anything anymore.'

The trembling in his mind, no matter how hard he resisted, did not go away. He would never be able to forget this experience.

What kind of experience was this? At first, he couldn't see anything because of the darkness. As soon as Dante could see again, he discovered that his body had already melted without he realized it. His skeleton became similar to the inner skeleton of the creature they had just killed. He did not even want to remember the pain that this process brought with itself.

Now, in place of his flesh and organs that had melted like butter, new ones were growing, and all of these were happening in front of his eyes!

What was going on?

Why did he have to experience all this? It would have been much better if he had been unconscious! Then he wouldn't feel like a pathetic victim of a sick joke... and he wouldn't have to endure this unbearable itch.

...

The regeneration of his organs and muscles took around an hour of time. However, he still could not breathe and could not move... but still was able to continue living.

After one and a half hours, his body was completely regenerated. From the outside, he had no difference that could distinguish him from a normal person.

Then the color of Mana filling the cocoon began to change again. This time, the color was sky blue.

Dante, "…"

An hour had passed since the last form change of Mana. Its color changed again. This time, it had a dark yellow color.

After another hour, the color turned into a pure white.

Dante no longer thought about these changes, only watched in silence. However, after his body had been reconstructed, Dante could still not see a change in his body, although the form of Mana in the cocoon changed several times.

After another hour, the white color disappeared. This time, however, there was no change in Mana. Instead, the white color was replaced by colorlessness.

Mana, which filled the cocoon, was still there. Dante could somehow still feel it around him, although it was formless.

After this last form change, Dante reacted to his surroundings for the first time in a long time. There was nothing obstructing his vision anymore, and somehow he could see Iona, who had collapsed on her knees at a far distance from Dante!

About seven hours have passed since the time Dante touched the metallic skull. As for Iona; she was sitting in the same position all this time, hugging herself with tearful eyes and a sad, tired expression on her face, still looking toward where Dante was.

At the moment, the outside of the cocoon was visible from the inside of the cocoon, but all Iona could see was still dense darkness. It was still spinning around Dante, blocking Iona's vision.

There was no doubt that she was deeply shocked. Especially when Dante stopped screaming, she was terrified, and thought he was dead.

However, this clumsy girl was still refusing to leave the party, even now.

Dante wanted to call Iona, wanted to tell her he was fine, but his body wasn't moving. With the full sense of the word, his body had been rebuilt, but he did not have the control of it yet.

Then Dante's vision began to blur. As his consciousness drifted away, two words, 'finally ended' crossed his mind, and he surrendered himself to the hands of nothingness without putting any resistance.

…

…

…

Dante woke up with a strong tremor as if his body was being electrified, and he got up on his feet at the speed of light. He looked around quickly in a hectic and defensive way.

He was still in the crater, but Ulfred, Nathaniel and Iona were not in sight. The corpses of newcomers that were scattered around and the traces of the earlier fight were also gone.

Dante found this quite strange, but then, he remembered what had taken place after he had touched the metallic skull. As soon as he did so, his body shuddered fiercely, and he almost lost his balance. He also hugged himself in fear like Iona usually did.

After regaining his composure a bit, with a strange expression on his face, Dante swiftly groped everywhere on his own body.

Thank God everything was in place...

He closed his eyes and took a deep sigh of relief.

Then, just as Dante opened his eyes, he heard a young, but at the same time, very ancient voice. The sound came right from behind him, its source was obviously very close to him, but at the same time, it seemed to come from ages away.

"Hello, Dante. It's been a while since we last met."