Chapter 3- Into The Gate

The gate was like any other, a swirling blue portal, causing dust, and rock to get sucked in by the force. Everyone handed me their bags. In our party, there were three others: Ha-Eun, Haneul, and Na-Eul. Ha Eun was a B-Rank Aeon, Haneul was an A-Rank Aeon, and Na-Eul was a C-rank Aeon.

Haneul was much taller than me, and he was a swordsman. He had long, ginger hair, caramel eyes, and a glare that could crack glass. He was 30 years old, with a wife and 3 children.

Ha-Eun was Haneul's wife. She was 29, a mage. B-Rank. I don't know why she was there, on that raid, especially when she had kids.

Na-Eul was 20, not much taller than me. She had long black hair, and was an archer.

Just like always, I heard the whispering.

'Isn't he an unawakened?'

'Why is he coming with us?'

'H̷͙̖̓͝ͅe̶̮͉̅̃'̸̛̠͂l̵̦͉̾l̸̲̽̒́ ̴̫̺̇̋͘ͅö̶̢͕̮́̈́n̶̩̪͛l̵̮͍̗͑́y̴̢̤̠̓͒ ̶̡̽s̶̙̆͋l̵̺͚̂̀ò̵͙̦͠w̶̤͝ ̵͉̒̾ǔ̵͇̪͍͌s̵̱̼̽̏̏ ̶̺̽͗d̵̗͠ò̶̡̲̦͐̀w̷̲͑̌͂ň̵̲̈́' (He'll only slow us down)

As the voices begam to get louder, I breathed a sigh. I was a former god. I couldn't let them get to me.

Venturing further in, there was an abundance of Mana Crystals, which illuminated the cave. At the end of the tunnel, there were two torches beside double doors. The doors were made gold, with a black outline of steel. A message was carved into the wall beside.

'𝓑𝓮𝔀𝓪𝓻𝓮 𝓗𝓲𝓼 𝓼𝓵𝓾𝓶𝓫𝓮𝓻; 𝓣𝓱𝓸𝓼𝓮 𝔀𝓱𝓸 𝓭𝓸 𝓷𝓸𝓽 𝓻𝓮𝓼𝓹𝓮𝓬𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓭𝓮𝓪𝓭 𝓼𝓱𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓯𝓪𝓬𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓻𝓪𝓽𝓱 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓚𝓲𝓷𝓰.'

Like idiots, we pushed the doors open without any kind of second thought. This had to be the boss room. Yet, there was nothing there, except graves. We walked in between the rows, until....

𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐥 stepped on one. We hadn't noticed, but there was a large figure in the shadows. One that struck fear into my heart. The 'King'. It began to rise, an eerie smile on it's face, something inhumane. Those eyes, those glowing red eyes...they were lifeless. And they held no regret. And it was then I realised my grave mistake. I had thought this would be a weak dungeon, from the fact there were no monsters there. This couldn't even be compared to a 'S' rank gate. This was an SSS+ rank gate!

"RUN!" The words escaped my mouth, and I ran as fast as I could away, from all this. I wasn't even an awakened yet. I was a god, but my power had been stripped from me.

Haneul was the first to face death. In trying to get out the way we came in, he trapped himself into a corner, and the King took his head off his shoulders in a single strike.

"Ahhhhhkk!" Screamed both Ha- Eun and Na-Eul. Of course, they hadn't seen many things like this before, but it was still horrific.

I didn't want to die. Not after I've just begun. But there was a glimmer of hope. A light in the sea of darkness. Crawling toward the center, there was a flag. If the King was who I thought it was, raising the white flag would make it stop.

I didn't notice it approaching behind me. And when I did, it swung the blade down.

There was excruciating pain emanating from my legs. And I didn't want to look back.

Finally. The flag. Raising it up like a sail by pulling the rope, the King stopped in his path of death, destruction, and ruin. The doors on the other side of the hall opened.

I wasn't going to escape this place, and I knew it.

Ha-Eun had kids to take care of, so she had to escape. Once both of them were out, I let go of it.

Holding my broken sword in two hands, my legs out in front of me, I pointed it at the King. Tears dripped down my face as I sobbed my heart out.

𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘦.

Composing myself for the last time, I spoke in as much confidence and strength as I could muster at a time like this.

"If I'm going to meet my end, I might as well have an honourable one. Come and fight me, 𝘠𝘖𝘜 𝘚𝘛𝘈𝘛𝘜𝘌 𝘉𝘈𝘚𝘛𝘈𝘙𝘋!"