Darkness

Miko "Farvakhin what's going on!" Across the entire bunker, ravenous cries rang out, filling me with a primal sense of dread. Even without seeing them, I knew thousands of corpses were flying through the hallways. All of these people were waking up just to be slaughtered... That's what I could see in Farvakhin's face. The upcoming massacre was clear, my question was beyond stupid. It's obvious that most of his people were going to die. The best I could do was grip my sword and pray that I could kill all of the corpses fast enough to save at least a few of his people. Looking at Farvakhin to ensure he had his own weapon, I said, "Hold on to that. I'm going to do my best to save your people, but I don't want you to die." He waved the circle with a half-baked smile. "I don't want you to die either. You still have to show me the surface, remember?" As he approached me, I nodded my head with a smile, saying, "Yeah." For some reason, he tapped my chest 3 times. Perplexed, I asked, "What's that?" Light beaming from his eyes, he said "It means I wish you good health and fortune. Kill those bastards!" A memory from his past? Or just an instinct that he passed off as a memory. Choosing the former in an optimistic plea, I smiled. Sudden murderous cries hastened our farewells. Readying my sword I checked my system interface one last time to check my mana. I still wasn't used to the speed at which it regenerated. 23/23. I took a reassuring breath. Good. This fight will take everything I've got. Stepping out of the classroom, I was instantly met with 15 of the corpses. Brandishing my sword, I gave them a cold stare of death. They let loose a shrill scream, brandishing their claws, before lunging towards me. With blinding speed and an effortless, fluid motion, I sliced through their ranks. Sidestepping flailing arms shooting through the air like a bullet, it was like walking through your house at night. Even if you couldn't see anything, you knew exactly where to go. 3 dead. 8 dead. 20. 50. 100. As they fell like flies I paid no mind to anything except for the next target. The more I killed, the stronger I felt. But at the same time, the more I killed the more they charged. Droves after droves they attacked, filling the hallway with their corpses. It very quickly got to the point that I was stepping on the dead corpses, stomping their face in, all the while dodging the living corpses' attacks. Still, I kept swinging my sword, barely acknowledging its slight growth in length. As more and more of them died, falling to the ground like ants, my resolve only grew. More! Kill more! I have to save Farvakhin's people! Yelling, I slashed through the torso of another corpse. Before he even fell another took his pace, lunging with nothing but murderous intent, resulting in his swift decapitation. 1,000 more. My eyes grew wide as I saw thousands of them rushing toward me, crawling on the walls and ceiling, jumping over each other, running through each other, paying no mind to their self-inflicted casualties. All they cared about was killing me. It's too bad then. That in their haste they made themselves an easy target. Raising my hand, I could feel the temperature rising as my hair flapped wildly. Energy was quickly building up, shaking the very foundations of the bunker as it threatened to explode. Taking one last look at the corpses, I smirked before declaring, "Dragon's Breath." With one motion, the energy dispersed, shooting out in an inescapable wall of pure annihilation. The fire jutted out in every possible direction, incinerating the entirety of this wave in one fell swoop. As the corpses burned to a crisp, I couldn't help but relish in their screams of agony. I was gonna kill all of these bastards for Farvakhin. Walking through the smoldering embers, I kept a watchful eye not just for new assailants, but also for anything that could have survived my attack. However, I already knew that the second situation was impossible. The hellfire leaves no trace of its victim behind except for a burn mark engraved into the walls of the bunker as if they experienced a nuclear explosion. Besides that, not even their souls remained. One could say their existence was scourged from history. Reaching the end of my fire's depth, I readied my sword again. Looking out at the thousands of corpses that had gathered to meet their doom, I was briefly interrupted by the system. Sword: Level 3! With this first milestone, you can choose any enchantment you have collected and embed it into your sword. Choose an enchantment now! Another pop-up flashed in front of me. I only had 1 enchantment. Orc's fury: Chain kills as fast as possible! Every time you kill an enemy, you get a fury counter. Each fury counter boosts all of your stats by 1 percent. After 30 seconds without an enemy's death, the counters will reset. Current fury counter:1,181. As I embedded the enchantment on my sword, I could instantly feel myself become exponentially stronger. Level up!Annhilation+2One- handed+1Hp+3,Mp+2Sta+2 Skill: Dragon's Breath leveled up to level 2, now able to do 10% more damage! Admiring my boost of strength, I heard the cat coo behind me. I turned to slice him, but as usual, he was too fast. Well, this time he's invisible. As the system closed, I turned back to the horde, knowing that they were all going to die momentarily. With a blinding speed that almost couldn't be defined as speed, I sliced through all of them at once. Continuing my assault, I never once paused my endless killing. Not for any of the claws flying past my face, barely missing, not for any screams of the dead corpses, not for any of the bodies littering the ground. At that moment, I was the perfect killing machine. Corpse after corpse after corpse fell, and it wasn't long until I found myself alone in the bunker. The bleak, stark realization hit me. There was no one from Farvakhin's people to save. They had all become corpses. My adrenaline was gone, and I could feel my entire being shake from the weight of that sorrow. Then I heard Farvakhin's scream. Dashing with all the speed I could muster, it took me mere zeptoseconds to find and reach him, but I still feared I would be too slow. Thankfully, this time I was strong enough to stop the corpse trying to dismember him. In a murderous dash of light, I cut the corpse apart with 5 different slashes, completely dismembering him. Shaking, he looked at me with a fearful but gracious look. "M-Miko?" I guess all the blood would make me hard to recognize. Smiling, I said "Yeah." He started to return the smile before he noted the sudden change in emotion on my face. This can't be real! Dashing out of the bunker, I made haste to the princess. This feeling, it... it has to be wrong. Wasting no time on the corpses, I didn't even register their deaths. I was focused on her corpse lying on the ground, covered in blood. A few corpses lay near her, their throats ripped out by what appeared to be teeth. She died fighting... No!!! SHE'S NOT DEAD! Dropping to her body, I screamed with all the strength I could muster "HEALING TOUCH!!!" Attempt failed. 12 mana remaining. No! "HEALING TOUCH!!! HEALING TOUCH!!!" Attempt failed. 9 mana remaining. Attempt failed. 6 mana remaining. No... no no. You can't fail here! You damned system! You can't say that! My healing magic... it can't fail! It can't! Through my blurry vision, I could barely see the princess even though I shed no tears. I was far too terrified to. "What do you mean failed!!! I GOT STRONGER YOU DAMN SYSTEM!!! WHAT DO YOU MEAN FAILED!!!" Throwing my hands onto the princess again, I focused all the magic I had into healing her. "H-healing to-ouch..." Attempt failed. 3 mana left. I stared at the blurry world of life and death in disbelief. Answering my desperation, I heard some dark voice in my subconscious whisper "Release." My eye started heating the same way it had against the orc. I was suddenly brimming with even more power. The power to make the world crumble. I paid no mind to the screen that flashed in front of me, instead focusing all of my attention on the princess. She was being consumed by darkness. All across the battlefield, I saw it in every corpse, in the plants, in the very air. Darkness. All of the darkness coalesced into the princess, eating at her. The first step to countering any magic is to understand it. I had one shot to save the princess, so I couldn't use my last healing touch on a tandem. Bracing myself, I reached into the darkness, into the depths of despair. The deeper I went, the more I felt all of my past sadness, fear, desperation, anger, hate, and love collapse into a single aspect. Darkness. Each of my struggles compounded on me, forcing all of the hardships of my life on me the more I challenged the darkness. But still, it wasn't going to win. There was nothing that would stop me now. It's not the princess's time to die!!!! As I let loose a silent scream, my mom's face flashed into my mind. Then the princess's. Suddenly, dazzling light formed in the darkness, creating a path. At the bottom of it, I saw the princess. Reaching for her, I instantly realized the path wasn't big enough. In fact, the path was closing just as quickly as it formed. No!!! Out of the infinite amount of Miko's, I was the one I felt the most sorry for. The others never felt the pain of losing the princess. Or their... Closing my eyes, I screamed "THIS IS BULLSHIT!!! WHO TOLD YOU YOU CAN DIE!!! YOU CAN'T! IF YOU DIE WHO IS GOING TO KICK ME AWAKE!!! I DON'T EVEN KNOW YOUR NAME TO SAY GOODBYE TO YOU!!!" With a final, primal scream I forced the light to reappear, igniting an even brighter and bigger path than before. A path big enough to free the princess from the clutches of darkness. "HEALING TOUCH!!!" I returned to the world of the living with a smile. Looking at the princess's still face, I was impatient for her to wake up. Disbelief broke my face as years passed. Princess? Finally broken, I fell to the ground, slamming my arm into the earth next to her. Smothering my arms in her blood. Tears fell from my face onto her body. "WAAAAAAAKKKKKEEEE UP!!!! Please..." "Shut up..." Princess!!!! "Princess?" "Yeah, I'm fine now. So shut up please." As relief flooded me, I began to laugh as tears of joy fell down my face. I watched attentively for any sign of hurt as her breath returned to her. Eventually, she opened her eyes. Before I had the time to tell her to stop, she forced herself into a sitting position. Looking into her eyes, I whispered "Hey, take it easy-" She threw her arms around me. Even though she had just woken up, her clasp was strong. "Miko, thank you." "And in case I die again, m-my name's Aruna. " Aruna. I looked at her, my mouth open like an idiot. Her gaze showed true terror. As I felt the earth itself tremble, I knew why.The Leviathan woke up.