CH 6: Al, The Trafficker Of Siphon PT 2

If all it took was for you to just close your eyes and you know you would wake up somewhere different. 

I would pray to exit life.

[ You have transferred.]

There was this powerful desire for something to quench this thirst and rid of the foul taste behind my teeth.

I had my eyes closed, but I had forgotten how to breath, through my nose, through my throat.

So I forced open my eyes.

It was just difficult to go through breathe when I saw I was being pulled from my collar, by someone—-with a very scared and desperate expression on her face

"…" I noticed the large brown fur coat she wore.

Over my shoulder.

A man was cut in two by a stone statue.

One of the Architects puppets and I saw the Cruel Lord looking at us from behind him, not with an expression I've seen before.

I shook the woman who kept running when I saw a small light appeared in front of his eyes.

[ Your past memory has analyzed an ability: Heat Vision.]

The same light that burned me.

"…" Despite what I had done on train.

I wasn't able to do it right.

The gun shot roared inside my head and I remembered when it crashed in my chest.

I assumed I won't live.

A large part of my mind died motivation I thought of that time I said I would rather die inside of a dungeon than in Siphon.

Only this happened to quickly than what I had expected.

I had epiphany that only death would change things, because that's what I experienced when I stabbed his face and shattered the temple.

[ Your ability Shadow Lord can only be accessed through a Shadow extraction and transfer.] 

It didn't bother me.

You could only die so much to the point you began to not focus so much on it anymore.

Since I would always transfer.

A large part of my thoughts deteriorated after the train.

I did not think of using alter reality, and I never really followed through with commiting to following the story line of Solo leveling.

When everyone just needed to abide by the story.

That option was over now.

I'd end up somewhere else and be transfered.

Whether it was done by the blinding light or my own decision to be killed.

Transfer and be transfered by death.

A useless scum without a brain to gather the motivation to do better.

I know It wouldn't phase me being hit by it, but I didn't like how I was becoming use to it.

I just kept on being killed and waking up alive.

"…" 

I raised my hand.

[ This is your Modification system——-]

The moment the status screen was to appear. 

A strong and familiar sensation trickled through my mind.

Like the first time I felt the statue cut me from behind.

I felt it, the image of a sword with killing intent that would aim for my lower neck and chop off my head.

I wanted to turn to it, but there  was an energy boiling from the Cruel Lord's direction and how long it would take to reach me.

It would be the same moment I'd have my head cut.

"…" I didn't want to know anymore.

I raised my hand out to see it again.

[ This is your——]

" Al! Stop standing there! Run!" 

But someone pulled me.

I wanted to know who dragging me by the collar.

Pulling me as if I weighed nothing in their hands, with her tiny small fingers digging into my collar bone and I felt like admiring her idiotic desire and attempt to out run heat vision.

Only a fool would attempt it while holding onto someone in front of the Cruel Lord.

"…" I admired it, but I couldn't remember a time where someone helped me, but she was a pretty woman with long bright orange hair, blue eyes, and pale skin.

Miss Healer, she looked just her, when I saw her run straight with so much energy.

They were too different.

The bodies of hunters who had been killed during the elimination phase of the double dungeon each one of them laid on the floor and I saw as she rushed over them escaping to an area that was much further away from the statues.

The gate that leads to the exit of the dungeon.

This woman didn't know.

I never told them about the trials.

"…" She pushed herself too hard. 

Unlike me she was someone whose heart could die out and never beat again.

"  Leave me here." 

"…"  She was silent, but she never turned around.

" Be quiet." I felt her fingers grip into a fist.

" Then we'd both die." I reached out to the arm that pulled tightly against my collar.

" I said be quiet. Al." Then I saw it.

A sword hanging against her waist.

I admired her fit body, but I won't believe someone would go to this extent for me.

I was a fiend, it just wouldn't make sense for a hunter to rescue me, but it were someone who knew this body.

I would understand.

" I know how you're feeling." I said.

" But you shouldn't die because of me."

" If you let go… It would be easier for you to live." The wonderful feeling of being a dead-man.

Is being able to speak without a care of the world.

That's when I saw her look at me.

"…" As if she were conflicted by what I had said.

That feeling I had felt from my neck before and the sword resting by her side.

I wanted to push the idea through her mind.

" Give me your sword."

She looked down to it and then her eyes met mine.

" Wouldn't it be far better if I was the person who died?" 

I reached the place I felt the killing intent before.

" I-uh I… sorry I was just thinking— uh…" She knew. 

She knew I had sensed her intention to kill me.

So I just laughed and fixed the front of my shirt.

" You're charming." I felt like I was staring at a comedian who didn't know if they were doing dark humor or telling a children's joke.

Was it that conflicting to be confronted by something as pale as killing someone to survive.

" I forgive you."— but I was interested in what she wanted to do to me, but what laid underneath her clothes flooded my brain with sexual impulses.

  Since she resembled a girl I knew every inch of her body was something to focus on even if she looked out of breath and energy.

It was the allure of an older looking Miss Healer counterpart that got me.

"…" She just stared at me, because of the way I looked over her body and it was the best I had seen, but there was nothing more uncomfortable than strangers and emotionless sexual intentions.

I couldn't help my mind thinking of sex even if it was paying attention to what I had been keeping an eye on away from me.

The cruel lord was still in the back of my mind.

I looked back up to her eyes.

" Sorry…" While my attention was drawn on her body, I was so focused on to the large aura of energy that was being channeled from the direction of the Cruel Lord that I barely heard her what she said.

All my senses and focus was on the blinding light and how it was a lot bigger than the one I remembered.

I felt the energy ignite and explode and saw her eyes move away from me.

Whether it was the small that reflected through her or knowing that in an instant there would be certain death.

I was already accustomed to this feeling of doom.

I knew I was strong after I die.

I had a modification system that allowed me to get anything I wanted if I died for it, but in this moment.

I did not think of being strong or to escape the blast.

I just want to feel alive.

Even if I couldn't feel it.

  To escape death was easy because off the internal spells I briefly remember receiving in the other lives here.

Something that could immediately counter immediate abilities that you can't escape in time.

A spell that could end heat vision in mere seconds without having to resort to alter reality and death.

[ Tragedian.] 

It was the only ability that came to mind.

I knew everything that was involved with it and the cost it took to activate it's power and I knew of it's ability and how well it complimented cruelty.

Cruelty…

Tragedian was a kind of writer.

There are those who write about different world, technology and exploring such creations using people as a medium to bring it to life.

A Tragedian siphoned all forms memories involving cruelties that were created, perpetrated and experienced by every human from the creation of each world and transferred them into a book.

There was something else they did besides archiving gruesome events.

They had the ability to evoke power from words they spoke when reading through the book with an ability to alter reality through the vivid images that happened.

A spell that can be cast without the use off mana, but the sacrifice of a thought instead.

One of the abilities I had created for a monster I had designed a very long time ago, but I didn't need a book to read the words out loud.

I was the creator and all my words was death.

[ You have gained a new title: The Idle Baphoment.]

In the illumination of the violent orange glow.

I reached out my hand over my chest.

There was a sharp sensations that swept over me and I flicked my fingers.

[ The Idle Baphomet passive has been activated.]

[ Time snap: The ability to trap things within your awareness in an eternal moment. Time continues after you have touched an entity under the curse.]

I extended the range influence to only the things that were in this place, but it didn't stop heat vision.

This ability was never intended to stop myself from being attacked.

  I imagined the heads of captives falling to the ground by orders of an executioner in Siphon and implemented my desire for it to be real.

I didn't need alter reality, but another power I already had available.

To think of the worst ending imaginable.

I took a deep breath and thought of things ending.

It was also first step that made it a terrifying ability.

—-To build a powerful combination of words.

" And the queen of hearts said."

—-Then evoke it through a powerful intent through your words.

" Off with their heads."

—-Then watch it taint and influence reality in front of you.

I had whispered it.

I didn't mistake the boiling energy that warped and exploded in the air.

Boom.

The Cruel Lord lowered its head.

[ The Black Tongue Of The Tragedian has activated.]

There was only one person who I focused on when I said those words.

When I envisioned a head falling off it's shoulders.

I turned my head to the only thing in this dungeon that was alive.

The stone statue of an angel holding onto a tablet.

I saw blood on the tablet and cursed blue like tattoos appear on his body.

My senses were extremely heightened to the point where we were both so far from each-other yet I could see his expression when he saw blood leaking from the wounds on his arms.

The black tongue of the tragedian to manifest anything I envisioned into reality and the things I saw was humans being killed.

Human… The Architect was anything but one of them and yet the Tragedian made him die like one.

[ Who did this!!!!]

[ Who cursed me!——]

[ You— You did——]

Blue curse marks coursed over his arms to the point where even his face underneath the hood was shrouded with it.

His head fell off his shoulders when he stepped forward and in the moment it touched the ground.

[ The doctrine of the Idle Baphomet has activated.]

[ Those marked by the Idle Baphomet will be killed without rest.]

I found another notification one that took over the puppets that lost their control and without my intention.

[ All your monsters will be controlled by ~+~ and orders will be carried out to initiate all out attacks on marked entities.]

[ Monsters will continuously attack until there is no life left in them.]

The system notification sent off an immediate order to kill until they are destroyed.

Stone statues from each part of the dungeon raised their weapons and rushed to the fallen statue on the ground.

" What is that?" 

" Why are they attacking that…"

Monster.

That's what the Architect was called in Solo Leveling.

Monarchs monsters… 

It made no difference what word they called them

Since I too was just like him.

We weren't any different.

I held the absolute control over everything the modification system siphoned from him in my past life.

So I was also an Architect, A monster.

But I felt nothing while I watched his body being attacked by the weapons of his own creation.

I knew he was staring here.

Out of all the hunters.

I was the only one who did not show an expression of terror or fear, ever since the moment I woke up in this place.

Since the beginning.

I raised my hand out.

[ I admire you.]

Under the attacks of his own creation as I manifested system notifications only he could see.

[ Your power.]

  There was only one statue I stopped from attacking him.

Moments I remember in the precious life I lived.

Where he questioned me as the Shadow Monarch and why he was betrayed when I killed him.

In this life.

I wonder what he would have said.

Since.

Ash-born power wasn't apart of his death.

The Cruel Lord.

[ ——Is mine.]

He raised his eyes up to his most perfect creation as it raised it's gigantic leg over him.

[ Most gracious… lord—] I heard his last words and lowered my arm.

[ You have gained experience.]

They continued and attacked his body even after the system showed he died.

I had no control over them.

I felt a single tear fall down my right eye when I saw the statues act like humans by tearing off his arms, or ripping out the wings from his back.

His head was already destroyed.

They went for his body.

If stone statues had feelings they would be hollow.

All the statues stopped attacking the Architect once the blue markings on the Architect evaporated upon the notification.

[ All marked targets have been hunted.]

Throughout everything all I did was observe the inhumane display the modification system showed.

The scene of stone statues hunting their own and relentlessly attacking it even it meant their arms broke because of the Architects strong body.

In the middle of the temple it felt like I was the only monster left within a room full of hunters.

All of them were unaware of what transpired.

They had slowly come to the understanding that they weren't the targets anymore and their expressions showed the emotions on their skin.

Most of them cried and yet.

Only one of them stared straight to me.

The woman by my side who was intent on chopping of my head was just staring straight at me as if she knew.

I was the one responsible for all of this.

It might have been unintentional, but it was because of her that I remembered the executions that were carried out on traffickers.

Before I could even think off Siphon.

I moved the statues near the gate to open them for the ones who survived and those who didn't make it before I transferred.

I tended to them.

While I saw relief and happiness from some of the living hunters.

It was quite normal that such things wasn't for everyone.

They all had a grim expression on their faces as if they had escaped hell.

While many mourned.

I went on with picking up pieces torn from their body and placing them together on the dead limb by limb.

I didn't know why I decided to do it, but I couldn't think of anything better.

I remembered that I had siphoned another ability.

One taken from Miss Healer.

If I had attempted to reach out for her in this place.

I never met her.

I never met Jin-woo or any of the figures I know.

I couldn't care.

They maybe the main characters in the world, but they weren't the focus of my attention now.

[ You have evoked a familiar energy.]

Energy? I guess some people called it mana.

When I saw something crawl through my fingers.

I started to be drawn back to the moment I woke up in this place.

If I had this power on the train… maybe I would have never had tortured that person, but it would be troublesome to deal with the reality that someone could bring back the dead in that place.

There was a reason things happen and healing someone in my eyes was considered the most greatest evil to someone who lived in an ordinary world.

There was a reason witches were killed.

This magic was foreign to everyones understanding, but I liked the way it wrapped around my skin.

A warm energy made from light and all I did was reach out both arms towards the body of someone who was crushed.

I pushed the light over the places that were disfigured the most.

[ You have used heal.]

If anything. The ability appeared almost similar to medical ninjutsu.

The way you draw out both your hands and a light appears of a person.

[ You have used heal.]

Using this was really fucking cool.

Instead of using hand signs I would see notifications that a memory has faded in the corner of my eye.

Although I did not know what memory disappeared.

I knew all any abilities I had always relied on the mechanic that my memories were used as sacrifice to use them.

[ A memory has faded.]

By mending the detach parts of a human body right to where it belongs and altering it to it's previous state before destruction.

Miss Healer ability seemed much closer to time alteration than it was in healing people when the system used it.

I didn't really think of anything else but keeping that glow bright.

Although I did see shadows of silhouettes heading towards the gate.

I never bothered to interact with those who did stay behind and watched me fix a person piece by piece.

Some of them were saying things.

My personality chose to simply ignore it.

All I knew how to do was to just smile and wave.

I disliked social interactions with strangers when they approached, but for some fucked up reason.

I always seem to mind when I was the one invaded their privacy.

I would just wave them off and hope they would return to their normal average life, but there was this uncomfortable sinking feeling I always had ever since I woke up in this place.

If you knew the future and you understood that there will be a time where massacres would happen on every continent on the earth.

Let's just say that you know these things and you save the lives of people who were meant to die before that event.

Would saving them be mercy or would it be just prolonging death, because in the future where monsters crawled on their hind legs and appear to be the size of mammoths or giants and fire breathing lizards that fill out the entire sky.

Would leaving them to die by stone statues be considered a mercy.

I wondered about it, but I could never come up with a good moral decision.

—All things die. 

It was a short answer to a thought that would often come and go.

It was the best answer for someone who thought so much and felt so little.

I severed my control over all the puppets within this place to ensure that the survivors did not have to be afraid of them.

I made them tear of their arms, and I made them all break a part of themselves to make them unable to do anything to them.

I was kind, but I just wanted to be in this place alone.

The more that left.

The less I needed to think of reasons why they decided to stay behind.

I wasn't a fool who did things for the moment.

I over estimated my ability when it came to people who weren't me.

Just something as little as killing the architect wasn't really enough for me to think life would go exactly how I thought in my head.

So I took measures that would make sure things would be stay the way I thought after I made them happen.

People were skeptical by nature and if something terrible that happened to you ended without knowing the reason why.

They would assume something terrible has happened.

Whether they take this as a miracle or not all depends on the human mind hunters share.

Some of them were holding out that there must be another boss monster waiting in the dark.

Maybe the silhouette of the Shadow Monarch that showed after the architect died was that monster, but unfortunately for them.

He was only glaring too me.

[ An entity stares at you with hostility.]

[ After you had destroyed the Architect. You've  defiled the body of The Cruel Lord by pissing on the image of the Absolute Being in the presence of Ashborn the Shadow Monarch.]

All I did was take a dip and murmur about curses about the Absolute Being.

I didn't think that Ashborn would be there listening to me talk on my own.

I felt like taking a piss.

When would I ever get such a luxury.

Ever since the moment I called The Absolute Being a pacifist because of how he died to his own creations and felt the urge to piss on the Cruel Lords heels.

He had been following me like a ghost.

I did not mind since it was something I knew the others wouldn't see, but it annoyed me to see the hunters who kept searching for something.

There was not a single piece of treasure to be found in this place after the boss of a dungeon is killed, besides the inheritance of the Shadow Monarch and——

The system gifted by the Architect.

Something I had taken in my past life.

They won't get anything.

The Architect was a prude and love his statues more than treasures and complexed game systems.

Unless you were a player.

You'd find nothing here.

But I held two system windows opened side by side.

[ This is your Modification System.] —————- [ This is a system siphoned from the Architect.]

As much as people would be happy to see it.

I wasn't.

I know I wouldn't be able to have fun with them in the way others would.

I wish that was the case.

Go out become powerful, Bang a brain dead girl whose body could stand fucking every single day without peeing blood, then make bank by hunting dungeons and all that fun.

Yeah that sounds cool…

For someone who is normal.

I couldn't stop myself from doing stupid things.

So I never considered what I can do in the future if I even had one… I had many, but  relationship with life always expires fast.

Live brief, Die quick.

That's how my life seems to be.

So I just carried on with stitching back the pieces of humans remains together and mending their bodies back to a state where they were once people too.

The things I saw… reminded me of Siphon.

Only that instead of human crimes.

All of this were committed by monsters.

People could do the same thing too.

It was just hard to believe that the people in Siphon were the same as monsters.

As I was immersed in the mending of one of the dead hunters.

It became comfortably abnormal to not notice the woman I saw before trailing me.

When I walked somewhere she would shadow my position.

If I perhaps took a piss near the wall of the dungeon. I believed she would have followed along.

If I were to describe Miss Healer when she was older, she would have looked a lot like her, but less stalking and more... Let's fuck on any surface because she has an addiction to cock—— Well if I played my cards right and simped my whole life away in a transfer this could be possible… for the Miss Healer in my mind.

I killed myself on the train, because I knew I would be here. I wasn't thinking of living.

It was just an idea, not a full fledged out line of the future.

My identity in Siphon was this other person who became something, but it wasn't because of the death of my sister as much as I would have liked that to be the truth.

I consented to the role of a trafficker, from boredom, being a No Life wasn't as glorious. 

It had a lot of shit attached to it.

The living conditions was a mess. 

No comfortable income can only be tolerated by me.

There was just a lot of things that came with living with insanity that a person could take since watching anime and webtoons is something many people just glorify without explaining why.

Your love for fan-fictions and anime doesn't make you live a better life.

It turns you into shit with a beard  and a shrunken dick when you don't take care of yourself.

It happened to me.

So instead of seeing nothing changed.

I went out and made a decision.

I joined Siphon.

I should have become a night market vendor instead.

[ Heal has been applied.] Instead of seeing the same thing over again.

I would alter the words the system used every time I tried to mend someone and some cases.

I'd miss around with the system.

[ The woman behind you farted and it smells like pig blood.]

Or I would just say.

[ The milf behind you thinks you are dumb use heal and turn her blonde so her opinion about you changes.]

Anything to rid my thoughts of that place.

Mending the dead was my only way for bleeding time

Anyone would be excited to be in Solo Leveling, but for me.

This was just another place I would wake too when I'm killed.

So I planned to live it through even if it means I would end in another life again.

Using the system was starting to take an affect on me.

I hadn't realized that I still could not understand the passage of time.

Sometime I'm just so drawn into something that I don't ever remember where I was.

My body worked mindlessly on it's own without me thinking.

I forced myself to smile to the beautiful woman who was by my side watching.

It was the feeling of wanting to have a warm shower that made me stare long at my  blood soaked hands, but the words I wanted ask her.

Why she was still here disappeared when I saw her reach out to her side and offer me a human hand.

" Can I be of any assistance?" She said it in this sweet and soothing tone.

I stared into her eyes aware of the arm and the body it would have belong too.

The photographic memories the puppets had and who they killed entered my mind the moment my connection severed.

So I had an idea of where and who they belonged too.

"… but you are already pleasing to eye." Every thing I could vomit and muster without  feeling anything made me think of the reasons why I had to stay away from people.

"…" She just looked to the side with both her hands holding on to the arm.

[ She wants to be of service…]

Her body was more than enough.

I knew where the bodies remained.

I understand how I could retain the memory of the statues, but how I could clearly find it just by thought that was different.

It had no relationship with any of my abilities that came with alter reality.

I reached out for the arm.

" Thanks…" I said it awkwardly and placed it by my side since I wasn't finished with the person on the floor.

I continued mending him. 

The woman I felt her stare at the light in front of me, at first her eyes were intense when she saw the green glow, I noticed how she  never said anything, but I assume that she did have words to say.

Hunters were people too...?

" You have a lot of experience with this…." 

It was funny when I heard it.

I had no experience, but this pain inside of my head must be showing my experience with dying.

" Does it look cool?"  It was an odd way to say it, but this life means nothing.

It wouldn't hurt to have some fun even if it mean spilling bullshit out of my ass.

"…" She was silent.

" You don't feel tired?" She spoke as if she were more concerned that I would exhaust myself if I keep using it.

It had been sometime in a sense, but it was just fading memories.

It almost seemed as if I had a lot of memories even if I don't remember living for so long.

[ A memory has faded.]

" There's a psychological tumor inside my head." 

"…"

I was going to say that because of a beautiful woman like you is here I'm always active, but yeah that died down fast.

" If I were tired or it becomes too much for me, It only takes a moment to not notice."

Memories were a cheap price to pay if all of the good ones weren't there for you to remember..

  If that means it would erase all the horrors I know.

Then I would gladly mend humans together.

I didn't show it. I kept those emotions inside and stared straight forward when I saw the light fading.

[ A memory has faded.]

This woman and I had barely interacted since that one time I saw her staring at me after the death of a Monarch and yet here we were having a conversation.

Mending the dead back to how they were before they were killed was just my way of ignoring the silence.

Like how I killed the Architect.

I didn't have a good reason for it, but they way she looked at me each time I released mend.

I wasn't smart, but I knew there were many reasons for a person to watch you use mend and stay by your side through the entire process.

They could be someone who had seen things in their life and for her to make such a happy expression and the way tears fell from  here eyes when mend was over.

She didn't cry for most, but ever since the beginning I could tell that there were people she knew, but I felt nothing, because what I saw when I looked at their faces was a blur.

From where I was.

It wasn't a person I was looking at, but a disfigured corpse of someone who had their facial features removed.

I know it was a just a hallucination blurring it, but it was my memory that made them look that way.

I know they were normal, but I saw something different.

I felt repulsed when that twisted feeling I had on the train came to mind when I saw it. 

Mending became slow when moving to a different person and then retracing the steps of where a limb was or watching the memories of the statues as they killed the hunters and being in a place.

That was only a stream of blood leaking to many places.

Each time I was unsure where a part was.

I revisit the moment they were killed and I'd watch it over and over until they looked like someone again.

Mend felt like I reliving the deaths of a person, and recreating them before the moment they were killed.

"…" 

I stood over the person who would always die each time I woke up here.

This large man who wore a large green jacket and couldn't get a better hair cut.

Like Mr Panda. He was also one of the main cast who was shown in the webtoon.

" Is this someone you know?" I asked the woman.

It had been so long, but my question alerted her immediately.

She stood by my side this whole time and with a finger underneath her chin.

I watched her take a very long time in her thoughts.

I moved a bit closer and waited.

I would see her eyes slowly look at me and then away.

" Maybe… Maybe not."

The moment I heard it.

I raised my hand.

" I—"

I began to mend his body together again.

"…"  I looked over my shoulder at her.

The conversation about her knowing him wasn't important to me.

" Have you ever thought of learning this?" I watched the green energy glow from my hands and after the time I spent on using it.

I measured the amount of time to mend a human body together if it was completely destroyed it would be about 30 minutes and for those that weren't as destroyed.

Lower than 10 depending on the condition they experienced before death.

I believed that it could be improved the more time you spent.

The woman looked at stomach that was stitching itself together piece by piece.

The same stare she showed for all of them.

I watch her smile as she said. " I don't deserve it."

I reached out for her arm and she stared as I touched her brow.

There was something about the way she looked at me that reminded me so much of Miss Healer.

There was this tension I felt when we were close and I saw her stare in my eyes.

Whether it was because of those blue eyes or my infidelity with moral sense and invading others boundaries.

I moved with my feelings.

Regrets and mistakes are for those who can't face consequences.

Things I don't fear as a dead man.

I pulled in and kissed her.

It was a place on the edge of her lips.

Why I didn't kiss her all the way— because kissing isn't attractive unless the other person was interested in you.

" You remind me off a slave."

" Terribly obedient." 

" Follows behind me like I'm your owner."

The moment I said those words.

Her expression morphed from shock, but she didn't respond and stood there listening to words I remembered saying to Miss Healer in multiple points of the lives I lived here.

I was probing something from her.

A reaction.  Evidence.

They looked too simillar.

" When a person is this close, is it an immediate instinct to not move away?" I was close to her lips, but the feeling of lust was evident, because I was interested in the things she had said.

" If you don't anything. I might move too close."

The more she was silent. 

The more I lost interest in her identity.

I wanted her to tell me, but I was comfortable not knowing.

So when I reached out my hand and a mist from the energy moved in front of her.

I caught the moment it seemed as if she were drawn into another memory.

To see that expression every time it showed.

I whispered beside her ear.

" I believe you…  You would be an expectational healer." It was eyes that always glowed when she saw it.

That made me interested in her.

Not everyone has that seduction to something like she had shown.

So after knowing she can tolerate being kissed by someone who smelled strongly off blood.

I pulled her head close and moved her eyes away from that glow.

I combed a strand of her hair behind her ears.

"…" I reached in for the side of her body as I felt myself almost about to be drowned by a strong sexual desire to pleasure her.

She didn't turn away.

" It would be wonderful to have a slave who can heal me."

" You have an awful personality." 

" It's quite terrible…" 

I held on both side of her cheeks so she wouldn't get away from me.

" Terrible things need to be said…"

I pulled her in slow my complete attention only focused on her lips, her teeth behind them and that long red tongue I wanted to feel.

" I need to know the tolerance of the one I'm conversing with…"

I drew closer…

" What they can take…"

Like a vampire…

" What they can feel…"

I desired only the finest pleasure…

" And show them something…"

" They would rarely ever see…" 

I took her arms and assembled them over my shoulders and watch her looking down at the hands wrapped over waist.

" I'm in love…" There's a chill when I said those words.

The kind I felt before.

Like something just might end my life if I went a bit closer.

I saw the empty expression wash over her the moment I touched the sword she was wearing.

" Al." 

If I were scared. I'd have stopped, but I moved my hand away and reached up for the side of her ribs and admired her body.

" Just when life gets messed up…" I pulled away from her and stepped in closer where I could bite onto her ear.

" Sorry darling… I wanted to control myself."

I pulled out her sword from her side and moved back from the arm that reached out too me.

" That is very unsettling dear." 

" Give it back." Underneath her cold undertones of violence and murder.

I pulled the sword much closer.

It was just a simple dull sword, but it was appeared to be the same sword I called Little Rod.

Although it was long and a bit crude in it's appearance with it's jet black body and silver edges.

I did not pull out the weapon to anger her.

It was just a sign of interest since this was something that could have been used to end my life.

I was quite interested.

So I pulled it against my throat, right at the corner I remembered.

" Mend, requires a sacrifice to be used." 

I pulled down onto the handle and felt it reach far across my throat to the point where even I could feel the layer of skin being pulled apart.

I needed my voice to convey my desire to her that I was borrowing her precious sword to teach her, but from where she stood.

I wouldn't be surprised if she wanted me to be over with it.

The air around her was quite dark.

So I stopped with the seduction play.

Mending was a game mechanic from mine-craft that required the experience of a player to fix an equipment by diminishing a level by the amount of experience orbs used as a sacrifice.

" I can't use mend if I'm dead." 

I took the sword down and stared at the blood that I can't feel coursing out of a slight cut I made below my chin.

" I don't feel like using it when I'm hurt." 

I walked forward and handed back her sword.

" Life would be easy—— " 

" —— If there had been strong people who were instead." 

I saw her take a hold of the handle and didn't say a word, but the moment she placed it back in the scabbard that dark atmosphere around her slowly went away.

Just like her blade.

I replicated the light in my hand to copy it's form and held the light underneath her chin.

" The ability to reverse harm—-"

Then I pulled the sword of light against my thumb and instead of blood being spilled after I cut it.

It vanished away.

[ Mend: The ability to reverse.] 

[ Fade: The ability to end.]

I was longer without thumb.

So blood just spilled over the rest my arm.

Instead of carrying on. 

I turned away from her and sat down to mend the incomplete healing of a body while receiving the memory of the stone statue who cut him open in two.

I responded by increasing the strength of the light to it's maximum range.

[ A memory has faded]

  And I fed memories into the light to increase the time of healing.

" Don't think of me as a good person for doing this—-" 

" I hate hunters."

" I hate people."

[ A memory has faded.] 

" I believe life would be more interesting if no-one had to die."

" But I feel that it wouldn't feel normal if it was taken away."

" No-one should be allowed to be left behind." 

" This isn't the human world."

What was it like to die in a place that is not your home.

Loneliness.

When you know no-one would come and bring your body home and you are left to rot somewhere far away.

If there was one wish I believe all dead share.

It's the desire to be received and be buried in place they wish to belong.

The ability to heal someone was a disturbing evil, but dieing anywhere that wasn't earth would be the last thing a  hunter would ever think about.

On earth they go out and bring the bodies of the dead, but some would spend their whole lives trying to find a person they love.

Why do I hope some people die?

Because they are stupid enough to be involved with something that could affect others.

I don't care if their families are wiped out or aren't able to survive on their own.

[ A memory has faded.]

I don't care if they are brutally tortured and unable to return.

[ A memory has faded.]

" Only those who have nothing deserve to die here." 

" You fucking idiot." I pulled onto the collar of the man.

The moments of his life and how his wife waited for him at home with their unborn children.

" In another life, I hope you buy me coffee. The most delicious local burger and a gun…"

I pulled onto his jacket that was split in two and placed it over his body.

" In this life she would see you as the man she loves and would never know what happened here." 

[ A memory has faded.]

" May you perish wretchedly." 

I dropped my hands as the sinking feeling came in when I could no longer see anyone to mend.

[ You have received the gratitude of dead and shed sympathy on those who were brutally killed by The Architect.]

[ Your actions have changed this reality forever.]

[ She won't forget.]

[ All family's related to those who died in the double dungeon arc will remember you for as long as they live.]

[ You won't ever be forgotten.]

I didn't care if anyone remembered, but I felt some tears fall from my eyes.

I know…

I would always be dead.

I turned around when the notification of the system faded away.

I didn't know what to call her.

Miss healer only belonged to one person I know.

I wanted to ignore how she saw me talking to them.

I remembered her interest in healing was beyond simple fascination, from her gaze it seemed more like worship.

Once the light died from my hands.

  I saw her smile.

The man was still a dead man, but his form wasn't as before.

All of them were like that.

They looked as if they were just sleeping with their eyes close.

" Thank you."

Those words was something I didn't want to hear.

She didn't know that in the others times I was here.

All I did was watch them die.

I could have saved them, but I didn't.

The  death of the Architect was nothing more than just a means to past time.

I would return here until the day I could no longer be able to transfer again.

Thank you?

For what? 

Nothing has changed.

Things were silent now.

It would be loud again the next time I go.

I watched the decorations in the temple that the Architect created for them.

None of the hunters were here, but the dead who were neatly aligned together and ready to be received by the Korean Hunter Association because I'm such a nice person.

I had no idea what had happened to them in the original story.

Never bothered to read the novel, but I hoped something similar had happened and if not then I'm should be blessed with 7 wives who are eternally submissive to my small cock and terrible personality.

  While the world moves on and only focuses on the aftermath of the survivors.

I will care for the dead, in hopes that in my next transfer something good happens for for doing good things.

I wish to be blessed by a miracle and stop praying on a bullet.

I lifted the man and pulled his body next to another and formed a long line.

" Execuse me…" 

It was as if centipedes were dancing over my back and crawling along my throat.

When I had just noticed the person who was speaking and how the two of them wore the black tuxedos.

I felt like someone wanted me to go.

One of them had a face that I remembered seeing quite often in the webtoon.

A person who could stand between two S Rank Guild Masters and future chair man of The Korean Hunter Association, but for the life of me I could not remember his name.

I just stared to him and his friend.

From the moment I had finished mending the final hunter.

Notifications for the modifications system began roaring in the corner of my vision, but instead of a good rest and relaxation.

All my intentions I was going to use on sleep was now focused on all the methods I would use to avoid interacting with—

Bothersome human beings.

That was all it took for me to go back beside the woman who had grown ill from me and I showed her how I ignore physical barriers when it came to the skin by conversation.

No matter what happened after I touched her sword.

I would apologize by not doing it in another life, but this life here.

Rather to be assaulted by questions.

I believed in one sided negotiations and dead-man learning communicate with the living.

One step forward they came.

" We were told there were signs of battle and many were——."

" Look." I saw his partner say as he pointed at me.

In that short moment I had crossed over near the woman and I stared at them while attaching my arms around her waist.

Although they tried to hide it,  all those they presumed to have dead and or deformed were all laid out neatly in a row ready to be received.

But fucking hunters had to pay attention to every detail that goes on.

The suspicion that crossed one of their faces was enough for me to assume someone had given them some sort of information about the conditions of the hunters.

That was my observation from what I what assumed from his silence.

" Al… You're latching on to me." 

" I'm forging a desperate escape plan." 

"… You.."  If it meant that my last attempts on feeling the sexy body of a woman would result in death.

So be… it….

" Al…" 

I fiddled around the side of her stomach and pulled gently.

" It tickles…" I had both of my hands caught by hers.

[ Shit. I got fucked.] After learning the language of the captives I started to curse in their tongue.

I never enjoyed silent interrogations and prefer to be the only one that should keep his silence and receive answers without saying a word.

Being direct and honest would have saved a lot of people from being killed in Siphon.

A common trait I considered to be valuable in social interaction was the ability to forge your own understanding of what ever event happens around you.

Although I tossed that thought away and spoke in pure and brutal honesty as one of them.

I considered sharing valuable information in exchange for something I desired.

" Not a single heart beat left in them." I said it enough for the hunters to hear me.

My nonchalance was met with a certain look I felt from my left side.

That woman did not seem to like what I was saying or maybe it was the way I pulled her closer and she felt it press into her back.

The emotions roared on it's own.

The cock had it's own mind.

What ever happened down there could only be felt up here.

I didn't initiate anything further, but we were fucking too close.

Although the two hunters were just looking at us.

I knew they were paying attention to everything.

" Is this all of them?" 

" I checked them all myself."

" I understand." I could feel his eyes and how they shrunk to the blood in my hands.

It wasn't only my hands each part of body had some form of blood.

  Drenched in their scent whether it be man, woman or the insides of a monster.

Everything that didn't survive was on my skin and their bodies tainted my clothes and light armor.

It didn't have to take a dog to know… I wasn't apart of the killing, but It can only take a vulture to poke their beak into my arm to find out whether I was really part of it or not.

I noticed how I showed no fear or was submitted by any forms of physical and mental pressure the others would have shown in front of them.

Korean Hunters Association wasn't as intimidating at the woman who looked at me with wide eyes over her shoulder.

That sunken expression as she looked down.

I turned away.

" You can't be serious."

" I might be a little comfortable, but I'm a dead person alright…" 

As much as that feeling euphoria mixed with pleasure filled me.

My mind, like my cock was beginning to tire down because I remembered I was a dead-man.

And it killed all my feelings, because of  the organization they made me remember.

No matter what it was like to have a beauty in your arms.

I felt dead inside.

"…" 

The only organization I knew was one that killed their own.

A member of the Hunter Association did not have anything to do with Siphon, but I know men who were defined by loyalty and carried out their organizations will and for people to be like that within Siphon.

They were the worst of humans.

Strong. Intelligent and considered highly dangerous among their peers.

I had no energy to go on to speak to the future chair man of the Korean Hunters Association.

If I knew how to lie through my teeth. I would've preached a bible about the end of the world, about Monarchs— about the ability to see a step into the future— about how I came back through time, but it was so hard to breathe when all I could feel was this immense pressure evoking from inside.

As I continued to plotted to talk about nothing but sweet things.

I had the mind to create the biggest cult in the world.

My social interaction with reality was rock bottom 25%

If there was something I dislike more than life.

It could be interrogations.

So I believed that the woman who I thought was much better than me with her pretty hair and blue eyes and cold lips deserved to take my role as a sacrifice in all my future conversations, because I have no interest in speaking to them or repeating myself in future transfers to come.

Maybe I was blessed to have someone who could take everything I don't want to deal with this time.

My perfect sacrificial pawn.

The woman who looks like Miss Healer.

I hugged her gently enough where I could bury her.

" Al…. Why are you looking at me like that?" 

The closer I reached for her ears, the darker my expression got as I thought about it.

" You're a hunter right?" I blew behind her ear and aimed her body towards the other two.

" Walk forward and talk to your friends. I'm very stress and tired from using my abilities." As I faked a cough.

I continued to express the opposite of what I  was feeling, but she just looked at me over her shoulder and gawked as I tipped her all of the best ways and things to say to the hunters.

" So you tell them you did it." 

Blah— Blah—— Every stupid thing I could think from my ass.

Although there was so many things I whispered passionately through her ears they all said one thing.

Lie through your teeth and cover for me.

" Do you understand?" Was the last thing I told her as she just stood there silently.

With her slumped down shoulders and her extinguish desire she was haunted by expression as I noticed her desire to not go through it.

" Is it that hard to tell the truth yourself?" 

I reached out and placed my hand over her shoulder.

" Yes comrade, it seems exhausting." I answered.

" Then how do I explain what happened to the others? What if they ask about the thing with their bodies?" 

" God showed them a miracle." 

" Bullshit…!"

I glared at her playfully.

" Al just tell them yourself."

I glared at her with a lot of spite.

I pointed a finger behind her spine and circled over her fit and soft curves rather delicately.

" He appeared in a moment when all hope was lost and said I will save your life and——"

" All bullshit!" She spurted out in response to another bull shit I was carving up.

  I grew impatient with her antagonistic views on my ideas of escaping interrogation.

So I shoved her into position.

"—— And now from the graces of god." 

" You ass——lying—"

"You are now his loyal slave who would do anything to carry out his will in this life until death." I didn't want to say so much, because there was a dark prompting I was beginning to feel as I spoke about death and curses and rainbows and how butterflies stopped time.

It was too much for my mouth to keep up with.

The same feeling I had briefly felt when I spoke with the Black Tongue Of The Tragedian.

There were many reasons why I couldn't say anything and most of it had to do with the way I spoke.

I had no control over what would happen because of my voice all I knew was.

Something else needed to take the hit for me and then I caressed the side of her stomach and whispered beside her ear.

" If you can do this for me… that power… will be yours."  There was odd sense of silence after I said those words.

It didn't work.

So I reached under her armor and she glared from over her shoulder.

" Al…" And started to tug on the hands reaching up her stomach.

" Wouldn't you like a submissive body that would follow each and everyone of your orders."

" Anything you desire… and I'll be what ever you want." 

" A slave. An object…" 

" I'll be yours…." 

There was this cold look she gave after she snatched my arms tight.

It was like I had to communicate with this vixen and give her something better.

I thought about it.

What would be something that could make her my pawn and the only answer I could think off was not how she stared at mend, but the emotions behind her gaze.

The memories that made her look at me that way.

I could be wrong, but I could at least make a simple failure in this assumption.

The worst that outcome was finding the quickest way to die.

" If you do this for me."

" I can give you at shot at the miracle you've always wanted." 

" What?" 

I pulled her closer as if she were a fish on my line.

" Your sword… The way you watched me help them…" 

" You remember don't you?"

There was this uncomfortable feeling as If I was invading some sort of territory without knowing what I was talking about.

" Do this for me."

" And I swear on my heart thats you feel beating in this chest."

" I will show you a miracle." 

My expressions was on point with the savy devil charming handsome man I had in my head.

My voice was deep enough to sound like a jazz singer with an affectionate amount of authenticity, but it was my eyes that I felt were wrong.

It wasn't as able to change and be perfect as everything else.

There was this silent smile she showed when I saw her eyes turn away.

A soft voice that would say anything would help, but I saw her laugh softly with her eyes closed.

" You poor thing…" I felt her fingers reach my face.

" Are you… in love with me?" 

My response was quick that I couldn't plot something else to say her.

" No."

" I want you to take the hit for me." 

" Take the hit?" 

" You know I'm not good with people."

There was this sad eyes she showed me.

" Yeah… you're very terrible at this." 

I only stared straight into her eyes.

" I mean every word I said." 

I lied my heart out and would never remember anything I said.

"  What did you say when we first me?" 

" I don't know." 

She frowned.

" Al." 

" Yes?" 

" What's my name?"

It took awhile… It took a long while…

I had no words to say, but to not hide it.

I kept my silence and just kept looking to her eyes that sharpened.

I felt something sharp poke into my shoulders.

" When…?" 

" I don't know." 

" So this entire time——"

" I was being honest." 

"… Honest… he says…"

To save myself from losing her.

" Think of this as a favor." 

" A favor?" 

" That's right." 

" You saved them all." 

The woman who I had been talking to this whole time.

Something in her expression changed as I shifted my idea of luring her to be a sacrifical pawn.

Now I had no options left but to make her wear a suicidal vest and walk straight to them for me.

Anything to avoid conversation with those hunters.

I was willing to go as far as I could.

" I know you could've killed me." 

" But I didn't do it." 

" Right… but if you had." 

" You would have used your powers——"

I brought my head closer to hers just so she could know.

" Do you really believe that?" 

"…"

I saw her close her eyes and pulled my face close and I felt the dryness of her lips press gently against mine.

She let go of my shoulder.

" I was going to speak to them, Al."

"…"

" You were being funny and all desperate with not wanting to talk with them." 

" I was curious to see how far you would go."

I felt insulted.

" You see I thought back then if we both were going to die. It'd be better if I was the one who did it, instead of that thing…" 

There was not a single ounce of remorse in her tone.

Just a simple smile that did not compliment a single word she said.

" You would have done the same for me right?" 

" No…You've insulted me and my feelings." 

" Hm…" 

If it were an act. 

I wasn't sure how to rate her.

" Is it so bad?" 

She looked determined, but extremely nervous.

" Maybe… It depends on perspective."

" Okay… I'm ready." I don't know if she was fucking with me, but her immediate burst of enthusiasm was enough to make me forget that she wasn't actually a submissive slave, but someone who can think and feel on her own and enjoyed fucking with you.

Although she showed enthusiasm for something as simple as this.

Just that was enough to make me feel this way.

I extended my hand on the right side of her shoulder.

" Then may your perish wretchedly" 

" What…?" 

A black notification screen appeared in front of her.

[ You have been tasked with an important mission: Decieve the vultures of The Korean Hunters Association to become a player.]

[ Rewards for completely this mission: Mend: An ability to reverse time.]

" Mend…" 

[ Failure for fulfilling this task: Unknown.]

[ Do you wish to continue?]

[ Yes] or [ No]

Without hesitation in heart I felt her made her decision.

There was this strange gleam she showed me.

I dished out the worst insults I could through the system, but it never turned up.

[ You've accepted this mission.]

[ Show them your lords regards.]

[ Oh pitiful… believer of the Sacrificial Devil.]

Although I wanted to have fun.

I thought it would be better to pretend as if I was a different than Al.

Like some machine god.

I think I understood why the Architect was the best character within in Solo Leveling…

There was no doubt in my heart that the moderator was always the most closest thing you can call to God.

The ability to captivate the hearts of man.

No wonder people loved to have a system, by instinct they would do anything to be a slave for something.

Lie and worship the system.

If she can find a way to do it.

The maybe I wouldn't have to leave this all behind.

I stared at the large open gate and laughed when I saw her move towards them that dark and twisted laughter could be heard through all the halls of the dungeon at least it happened in my mind.

—— but I didn't care.

This was all apart of my design and if anything goes wrong there is always a next time to get it right.

The glory of being a dead-man is to always wake up in another life after death and failure can be revised in the next life.

I wanted to know how far I could go.

Whether it would change through bullshit delusions or to conjure and inject a system into a hunter and groom them into an ideal vessel.

Although The Architect built the system to create a vessel for The Shadow Monarch.

It doesn't mean I need to be loyal to such a system, like a Mod.

I could just reach out and let my system devour everything within the originally designed system of the Architects and alter the contents into my dark image.

While I waited to see what decision she would make.

I extended my hand behind my back.

" Merge the two systems and create a disposable system that will be inherited by a player who've completed their mission in this life."

" Durability: Until the end of the players life."

" System accessibility: No restrictions." 

" System perks: Growth type." 

" Alter everything and create a stream line that connects to the modification system for user maintenance."

So one day if I were to die.

I would know whether transfers were really just time reversal or I was being sent to another life.

[ ~+~  has created the E Rank Support system.]

[ Waiting for results of the current mission.]

[ If entity succeeds. System interaction of the disposable system will be permitted to be used in past live transfers.]

[ If entity fails all suspicions of the great evil that will plagued the world will be permanently link to your personality construct in this reality and every transfers you will be hunted by those who seek to prevent the emergence of the Shadow Monarch and be allied by those who wish for him to appear in the world of the living.]

[ If entity fails. You will be marked by Ashborn, The right hand of the Absolute being and become his new vessel.]

[ Hostile relationship between you and The Shadow Monarch of this reality.]

[-9000%]

I looked over to the body of the Architect and there a ghastly aura of light emerged as I saw a separate dimension open up.

In between the darkness. I saw the eyes of A large knight adorned by Shadows and the elements of death staring down at me.

The pressure was like a cold embrace grazing against my neck.

Like when a person who wants to kill you finds you and looks you dead in the eyes with a gun aimed at your face.

A consequence? It only felt like something annoying would be attached on me for the rest of my life.

Like a curse I would be haunted by the Architect.

I reached out my hand and extended a notification prompt towards the Shadow Monarch since I knew they still had access to the Architects system.

It would be easier for someone to completely rid of his access before he would come to remove your administrative rights, but it didn't phase me if I lost it.

[ Think of this as a love letter from a disposable vessel.]

[ Do you want it?]

I showed Ashborn the event contract the modification system set up between me and the woman it called entity and the reward and failure that would be carried out after the mission.

[ Why don't we play a game?]

[ Not only will I become your vessel you will consume my conscious immediately unlike the other humans this body is quite special.]

[ Ashborn: …]

[ If the woman fails her mission I will advanced the role the Architect made with you and you will emerge in this reality.]

[ Ashborn:…]

[If she succeeds——]

[Ashborn: What do you desire human.]

[ Consent.]

In one moment.

The Seal Of Orichalcos emerged in between my fingers.

[ I desire the consent of Ashborn The Right Hand Of The Absolute Being to sacrifice his soul willingly to the seal.]

[Ashborns Ruler Authority has activated.]

In single moment the headless body of the Architect gripped my throat and if it were to squeeze just a little more.

My head would pop open.

Despite the terrifying pressure of suffocation.

I forced myself to laugh in the pain as the air built into my lungs and I turned my eyes to the sillohuette of Ashborn.

With the only energy I could must from my body I lifted only a finger to open the system.

[ You can take my body…]

[…or destroy it.]

In the corner of my mind all I could a voice, it laughed on it's own, because it was the only thing that could help me twitch the end of my thumb.

I focused on it sing.

[—-but I'm taking your soul for in exchange for it.]

After multiple moments where I can't remember if I was living, breathing or dead.

I was stuck in the hand of the Architect that was being moved by him.

Even if he were just a shadow.

He was still without his head.

[Ashborn: Then let us gamble human.]

[Ashborn: Whether your body will be destroyed by my form.]

[Ashborn: Show me that power that you are confident in taking me soul.]

[ Perfect…]

I felt my mind cut off from the system. 

I was suffocating and saw the woman who was interacting with the others.

I saw the illusion that showed a person who looked like me standing watching them and here I was suffocating by the hands of the Architect.

It didn't seem like I would make it.

Ashborn was waiting and his shadow was suffocating me slowly.

I raised my fingers and thought of the only thing that will seal our fate completely.

A shadow game.

A separate dimension where one person places their own soul on the line in battle.

[ Under the effects of Alter Reality.]

[ You have manifested the ability to create Shadow games.]

[ Alter Reality consequences will be initiated after the victor is determined from the shadow game.]

To not feel.

I took the gamble from the start even if it came from a cheap notion or a thought I had.

To show my intentions of seeing this through all the way.

I pointed to The Shadow Monarch and flicked the middle finger.

[ Dumb ass.]

Send this fucker to the Shadow Realm.

I felt something got a hold of me.

A sudden sense of warmth.

I saw from where I was. 

The Shadow Monarch just looking at me and glyphs fading his form away.

The Seal Of Orichalcos showed over my neck.

A necklace that appeared like the millineal item I had received.

It glowed in a bright cyan light over my shirt.

[ You have been forcefully transfered to the Shadow Realm.]

The Shadow Realm or The Realm Of Dead looked just like something I recalled.

A separate dimension isolated from everything.

A place where those who lose their souls are sent too forever that was the brief description I remembered.

Ash-born stood a distance away his large form blending with its purple fog.

We did not communicate through the system.

At least he didn't reply.

[ Dumb looking… edgy… purple… knight——loooking… What ever the fuck you are—]

[ You almost broke my neck you know—=]

[ You are lucky I didn't piss on the real thing—]

[ YOOOOOOOOOOOO_—]

I collapsed the window.

I waited and ran through the memories of the stone statues and their time within that place.

The Architect formed them into being and everything it had remembered seeing after it's creation.

It was interesting to see how the Architect created the dungeon and how he created the system to suit the potential vessel of Ash-born.

The extreme steps used within to groom a person into a player was inhumane.

To me it was as if I watching a video, but through their memories.

It felt like I was the one who had done those things.

I did not fear the possibility Ashborn would learn that in order to win before the contract finishes.

[ I don't think I'm going to win.]

[ That girl is strange.]

[ I don't want you to be in this body eithe—]

[ Look you're just too fat to fit in me——]

[ I mean you are too fat I mean big to fit this body.]

All he needed was to kill.

But he just stood there.

Just waiting.

[ Why are they even so interested in you?]

The perfect wall I could speak my mind out was him.

The monster the world considered evil.

Ash-born, The silent wall.

I had hoped he figured it out, because I was losing interest in watching a stone statue stand motionless for so long.

[ Did you know the Architect wanted to use him as a statue?]

[ Why'd you allow him to do that?]

All he needed was to wish it and I'd become a vessel, because this was a duel that involved souls.

[ I hate monsters.]

[ You won't even talk to me.]

Any involvement with the modification meant nothing here.

This was a different dimension separated from it's influences.

  The Seal Of Orichalcos was god here something had to be sacrificed to appease it.

The insatiable monster that lurked in the darkness here all it wanted was to feed on souls.

Maybe Ashbon felt it down there.

Looking at us from that wretched place below.

In the depths of the Altered Seal Of Orichalcos there exists a monster.

A calamity whose insatiable hunger was drawn to a place souls would go when they their body dies.

It had addiction in absorbing souls.

Only one place could lure a monster like it and that place—

—— was once called Heaven.

[ You have discovered a modified history of the Shadow Realm.]

A place so empty that the dead fall straight down into the belly of a soul absorbing beast.

The perfect place to make contracts when dealing with monsters you can't touch or destroy, but I had no soul which is why I asked for consent.

There was no other way to get here other than to force alter reality.

I did it to escape pain and I didn't want remember my final moments to be like a watermelon bursting open with blood.

"…" I needed to do more

Instead of always dieing without reason. I need to do it smart.

It had to be a good reason or it would mean nothing.

I know there is something I get when I pass away, but probing possibilities was more ideal than attaining power.

What's the point of being strong if everything you feel and know just leads to the moment where maybe I need to die.

So even with this power that can bend the world.

All I was using it for was to see a different picture by living through insanity.

So I waited.

——

[ An entity has failed their mission.]

[ Actions will be taken place immediately.]

[ You have lost the Shadow Game.]

[ You have no soul.]

I stood up and the first thing I had done was show Ashborn the system notification I received.

I didn't want to look at it.

I wondered how could she have failed?

It was so easy to a lie.

I told her the truth after all.

All she needed to tell them was.

A calamity will end the world.

"…"

[ Give me a moment.]

[ I need to laugh.]

I didn't know why I stared at the notification I sent.

This dark emotion in me wanted to find a way to express itself, but I knew I was already fucked from ground one.

The moment I even initiated the contracted I concealed my fate, but I wanted to laugh.

It forced you find something worth laughing for, but I couldn't.

I wasn't able to think of something to laugh too.

Then I received a notification from my modification system.

[ Contracts are very sacred.]

[ Your existence will be erased and be replaced with The Monarch Ashborn.]

[ Do you wish to continue.]

  [ Yes.]

There was no other options but yes.

Laugh.

— I couldn't do it.

As if the system waited for me to be the one to make a decision time.

I reached out to read the consequences of the mission that I would receive.

My foolish greed paid the price for gambling it to chance.

[ Results of the current mission.]

[ Failed.]

[ If entity succeeds. System interaction of the disposable system will be permitted to be used in past live transfers.]

[ If entity fails all suspicions of the great evil that will plagued the world will be permanently link to your personality construct in this reality and every transfers you will be hunted by those who seek to prevent the emergence of the Shadow Monarch.]

[ If entity fails. You will be marked by Ashborn, The right hand of the Absolute being and become his new vessel.]

I stood on the edge.

Looking out through the mist of darkness in the Shadow Realm.

I didn't want to be his vessel.

I didn't want to be a player.

I didn't want to be involved with such a troublesome life.

[ Kill and be killed.] 

[The two absolute laws in Siphon.]

I took my hands and covered my face and took a deep breathe in.

I forced my to laugh.

I wanted to feel my body shaking as I did it, but I couldn't feel a thing.

So It came out distorted and sad.

[ Ashborn—— ] —— has decided to end my life.

I could feel the blade that was concealed the whole time, hidden behind the air, that energy that had slain millions of powerful life.

How could I not know—-

[ 0 life points remaining.]

What it's like to lose in a Shadow Game.

[…]

My mind was submerged by a foreign aura of darkness and death.

A place so cold that I was disintegrating and mending, and the process repeated itself as he stood over me.

Watching— as pieces of me broke apart.

The less I felt.

The more I saw his form change and how it begun to look like the person I was inside off.

A young man with dark hair and wearing light body armor and violet colored eyes showed an apathetic expression and how watched me disappear by the curse of a contract.

Since the start.

I heard him say nothing.

I laughed.

If I were to start over again.

Maybe this time.

—— I'll get it right.

—— You have died.——

[ You have gained a Black Soul.]