Chapter 58: Story Time

(The Day Before The Finals)

In this whole month, Hikaru had unlocked another feature of the Dark Souls System. He can now summon certain NPCs to fight for him while he can talk to them like they were real people.

Of course, it has limits to which how many he can summon and the characters he can summon. He gets a first character and his first slot for summons.

Of course, as a fan of Dark Souls, Hikaru chose Solaire as his first summon. He can gain slots and characters for summoning through the statistics of drop rates in the system. He can also summon Solaire in real life and while battling bosses inside the system but if he dies, it'll take a whole month for him to be restored.

"My dear friend, this is a very tough fight. But as a loyal knight of the sun, I will forever stay loyal to my friends! Take this, foul beast!" Solaire yelled as he slash his sword towards Manus, The Father Of The Abyss.

Yet, he only got swatted away by the beast's gigantic hand.

A few meters away from Manus is Hikaru, who is currently preparing a big pyromancy attack with his chaos flame.

"Chaos Fire Whip! Bind this foul beast to the ground!" Hikaru shouted as countless ropes of chaos flame went directly towards Manus' limbs. The Beast of the abyss tried shooting off the chaos flame whips with its dark magic, yet it failed since there were countless of them continuously coming out of Hikaru's hands.

After a while, Hikaru succeeded in binding Manus to the large stone ground of the arena where they are fighting. But the cost was his Mana almost being depleted but it was easily taken care off when he drank a Hidden Blessing bottle.

"Hah hah hah, as amazing as always, my friend." Solaire laughed as he patted Hikaru's back. His voice sounded smooth yet it was imbued with a warmth that will calm your heart and mind.

"Yeah, anyways, we need to kill this beast now. If we don't, the spreading of the abyss in your world will take countless lives." Hikaru said seriously. Since gaining Solaire as his summoning companion, he was finally able to defeat Manus 2 Times! Of course, it was tough but with Solaire tanking all the damage and Hikaru dealing all the damage, they are almost unstoppable.

Solaire boasts his great defense, even Hikaru admits that his defense surpasses his. He doesn't know why though, he also has the Sun Set inside his storage box with max out upgrades yet it is still less than Solaire's defense.

But the most concerning thing is, there is a world exactly as the world in the game of Dark Souls. That means, there are many parallel dimensions of that world. Whether it be Gwyn choosing to relit the first flame or humanity succeeding in conquering the world.

But Solaire apparently lives in one of those worlds. Specifically where Dark Souls 1 takes place. He said that he had turned himself an undead to seek out the sun. He also said that he feels like he was closer to his sun than before. Hikaru doesn't know but he has a bad feeling about those words.

Killing Manus even though he was binded by his chaos flame whips was harder than he thought. Some of his weapons broke while trying to damage Manus. After a long hard work of slashing him up, Hikaru and Solaire managed, yet again, to kill Manus, Father Of the Abyss.

"And here comes the memories." Hikaru muttered as he was suddenly struck with the memories of the primordial man.

This would happen everytime he defeats Manus. His memories come to whoever defeats him, specifically Hikaru but it would be different every time. But there is one thing that never changes, it will always be a tragic story.

[Memories]

____________________________________________

The primordial man was once a humble powerful sorcerer. He lived most of his time living in the mountains with his beautiful daughter, Marvella, who was 18 Years Old at the time.

He had long black hair, silvery white eyes, and pale skin. He wore formal clothing and wielded a catalyst in the right side of his waist.

They lived peacefully in the mountains inside their wooden house while helping other people once in a while.

Marvella, at that time, was currently the most beautiful woman to live near the Kingdom of Gwyn. Gwyn and his companions were still at war with the dragons and it showed no signs of being stopped.

Manus at that time stayed inside his home, ignoring the calls from the military to help the war with the dragons. He only held a pendant that was filled with his nostalgia and reverence. This was the pendant of his past deceased wife. She was the only person he ever revered for her beauty was unsurpassable and her strength was astonishing yet, it seems like she was not from this world. She longed for her home but met her end in this world half away in their marriage. It was a strange disease that even he, one of the most powerful sorcerers in the world, cannot cure.

The only thing that was left was her pendant, a mystical pendant that was imbued by an unknown magic he doesn't know. He just keeps it by his side, never letting it go for the fear that once he lets it go, it will disappear.

One day, his daughter married a simple man living in a nearby village. He was nothing special but he respected his daughter's wishes.

He gave his daughter the pendant of her mother, for it was a dying wish from his wife that once Marvella marries a man she likes, he will have to give that pendant to their daughter.

They all lived happily after a while, Marvella was pregnant with a child and he was happy to finally have a grandchild.

...Until Gwyn himself arrived at his home. It was obvious that the King of Sunlight was mad because of his constant declination of the lord's request to join the lord's army.

Arriving at his home, Gwyn opened the door yet he hadn't even touched the door.

Behind the lord were dozens of Silver Knights kneeling at his back.

Gwyn looked like around the age of 26. He had long blonde hair, a well cut beard, black eyes looking at them with his cold gaze, and his presence were enough for everyone around him to kneel. It was as if he was born a king.

"Manus! I've had enough of your insolence, join my army now or let your family die." Gwyn threatened as his hands crackled with yellow lightning.

Manus, his daughter, and his son-in-law were currently eating on the table when Gwyn arrived.

Manus, knowing that he had angered the Lord himself, stood up and kneeled apologetically.

"Lord Gwyn, I know that my insolence has deeply angered you but please understand that I have a family. If I were to die, who would support them? And my grandchild would be born in three months. My daughter doesn't even know how to use sorcery like I do. I beg of you my lord, let us go." Manus begged.

Looking at them in disdain, Gwyn said as his robes crackled with yellow lightning, "You think stupid excuses like that will help you!? A mere human like you shouldn't think too highly of himself, join my army and your family will be given royal privilege for the rest of their lives."

Manus was a very strong sorcerer, in fact, he's one of the few who knows the secret to the immortality of the eternal dragons. He didn't learn it from anyone, he researched it deeply. He has many researches that could help his kingdom advance even further but his constant decline of his invitation angered him.

"I will still decline, my lord." Manus said as his head was bowed to show respect.

This time, the outside of his house was destroyed by the lightning coming from above.

"Insolence, to even decline my invitation even when I am in front of you?!" Gwyn was truly enraged by this human in front of him. He wants to kill him but he cannot for he's too important of a researcher.

Manus knows that the eternal dragons are not the only ones they are killing, they are also slaughtering new-born dragons. Eternal Dragons are just like all beings, they have their own mind and soul. Killing newborn dragons is like killing human children. In the first place, the Eternal Dragons were never a threat to their race. They just lived their immortal lives peacefully until they die. But Gwyn wanted to "Retake their lands" since the first flame arrived.

Knowing his death was inevitable, he prepared himself to cast a spell to at least battle them to buy time for Marvella to escape.

But as he was about to do that, Gwyn said something.

"Oh, I didn't know your daughter was a beauty. Why don't I take her as my wife who will carry my children? Huh, Manus?"

It was sudden, it was unexpected but he knew his daughter was in danger.

"No, my lord. I beg of you, my daughter is pregnant and already has a husband. If so, please…"

"So what? If I say something is mine, it's mine." Gwyn said arrogantly.

Without wasting a single second, Manus created a huge ice wall in front of him to block out Gwyn. He then carried his daughter and both of him and son-in-law ran away after breaking a wall in the back of their house.

Gwyn, meanwhile, just smiled.

One of his knights went up to him and asked, "My Lord, what should we do?"

"Follow him. Kill the husband but take Manus and his daughter to me alive." Gwyn ordered and his knights followed the three. "His daughter should be worthy of bearing my children. I can already see the depths of her magic powers. If she gives birth to my children, they will be more powerful than I, the Lord of Sunlight." Gwyn finished.

Meanwhile, back with Manus and his family.

They ran and ran but his son-in-law couldn't keep up since he was a human without any kind of abilities. Manus boosted his speed with magic and they could now run quite faster than before.

But when his son-in-law looked back, he saw a Silver Knight pointing a bow at Manus, who was unaware. The bow was large along with its arrow.

'If I'm not mistaken, that's the great bow!' He thought.

"Father!"

As soon as the Silver Knight shoots the gigantic arrow at Manus, his son-in-law jumps in and blocks it with his body, knowing full well he would die.

"Elvin! No!!" Manus shouted with tears as he continued to run away from the Silver Knights while carrying his daughter. He turned his head one last time to look at Elvin and only saw his back being pierced by a huge arrow.

He continued running and running while carrying Marvella, who's crying in her father's arms, knowing that her husband had just died. He couldn't stop, the Knights were still behind him.

The woods were hard to search in but these inhumane knights seem to know how to jump from trees to trees, making them even faster.

Manus couldn't do that since it could damage the child inside his daughter's womb if he does that. Even now, while he's running, he is protecting her with a magic shield in case someone shoots her.

He focused all his magic to his body boosting and protecting his daughter but he still managed to deliver magic attacks from time to time.

Manus knew that if this goes on forever, he will be caught eventually. So as he risked it all, he took out his catalyst and turned around before he shouted, " Great Soul Dregs!"

Dozens of shadowy balls floated near his catalyst before they all shot forward to all Silver Knights. There were 8 of them, it seems like he killed some when he was attacking randomly while running before.

Dark Attributes were one of their weaknesses, so the damage was double than before. He killed almost all of them, except for one.

"You...heathen! You...dare...to betray-" The Knight was cut off by another soul dreg.

As he was about to heave a sigh of relief and rest, a man's voice sounded behind him.

"Good job on killing my knights, this just proves your strength. They were the best of the best but of course, I still have a lot of them back in my kingdom."

Manus knew full well who was behind him.

[To Be Continued...]