Chapter Six: Moment of Truth (1)

Chapter Six: Moment of Truth (1)

There were many legends about the god's palace, and one of them was that it held the statues of gods.

These statues held the god's legacy that they represented, one had to get the acknowledgement of the god statue to get the god's legacy and fully awaken their talent.

The path to awakening his talent lay before Dusken; all he had to do was traverse the desert at night, reach the god's palace, choose a god statue, get the acknowledgement of the statue, get the god's legacy and fully awaken his talent.

All these processes sounded daunting, and Dusken massaged his eyes from stress just from thinking about them.

'There is a saying, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,' Dusken thought as the biting breeze of the night slapped him hard with cold.

Here, the single step was to reach the palace before dawn; otherwise, he would face the same thing he had faced today: an endless walk.

Another suffering, and more thirst, which Dusken wasn't entirely ready for.

He went back and picked up his bone weapon, slight cracks were visible on its surface, the aftermath of the battle against a level one awakened creature.

Dusken ran his hands down the bone weapon while carefully preventing himself from being hurt by it in any way.

He stretched the tip of the bone weapon and pricked on the unsuspecting Kyle, instantly drawing slight blood from Kyle's jade-like skin.

"Ouch!" Kyle winced as he glared at Dusken with unconcealed malice.

"Haha, the weapon is still sharp, I guess. Sorry for that." Dusken chuckled as he held the bone weapon tightly.

"Can't you test it on yourself? Why use me as your experimental subject?" Kyle's gaze became steely as the atmosphere rose sharply.

Dusken's expression grew cold, as the darkness in the area seemed to slightly grow darker as if echoing Dusken's change of mood.

Kyle noticed the subtle shift in the area and a wary expression appeared on his face as his eyes darted around.

"Let's not fight now; the palace is already in the distance. Don't be mad at such a slight, insignificant wound, OK?" Dusken let out a heavy sigh and patted Kyle's shoulder like a big brother calming his younger one.

Kyle gritted his teeth in boiling rage as he clenched his fists so tightly that veins could be seen pushing against his skin.

Dusken completely ignored Kyle as a slight smile played at the corner of his lips, and satisfaction was visible in his eyes.

'Success'

He broke into a sprint towards the location of the cliff in the distance, because he couldn't afford for dawn to arrive.

For if it did, his hope to salvation would vanish right before his eyes, and he would have to wait till the next night, but what if he didn't survive till then?

He had only faced one creature today, but what if he faced a horde of them tomorrow?

Too many things were at stake here, so Dusken couldn't afford to lose his chance this night, not for anything else.

'It feels weird,' Dusken frowned internally, the darkness expanded his perception, the cold breeze that whistled in the night, was felt not only on his body, but as they flew through the darkness.

He could sense Kyle's movement behind him due to his connection with Kyle's shadow, and the darkness also helped him with sensing what was a few steps ahead of him.

Dusken felt the dark embrace of the darkness, it was a strange and indescribable feeling - not unpleasant though.

He felt like the darkness was part of him, and he was part of them. As he ran, the chilly winds of the night desert caressed his skin, making him subtly shiver from cold.

As the cutting breeze blew through the darkness, he also felt it, and he shivered once more.

Kyle ran behind him with an aggrieved expression on his face, there were some slight falter in his steps that would have been almost unnoticeable, but that was what Dusken was looking for, as he focused on Kyle's shadow.

Although he wasn't perfect at it, he was beginning to get a hang of how to use his side ability.

He smiled internally as a ruthless look flashed across his eyes, when he noticed Kyle's faltering.

Unbeknownst to Dusken, Kyle expression hardened, as he stared at Dusken, a ferocious, and bloodthirsty look flashing through his gaze, but he suppressed it, and was struggling to keep it at bay.

If Dusken had seen this, then he would have sighed in relief.

As they ran, the cliff in the distance drew nearer and nearer, Dusken lost the sense of time as his only aim was the cliff in the distance.

Sometimes, he and Kyle would stop for a short time to rest and quickly get on their way.

The night was so bone-chilling, as Dusken and Kyle ran, the cold made them shiver as they moved.

And this impeded their progress greatly, but soon, a small town could be seen far away. Dusken's eyes blazed as he recognized it.

A person could only go to the god's palace once in their lifetime; after that, no matter how much effort they put into searching, it would be invisible to their eyes, even if they were standing on the cliff.

So, a town was constructed by all those who went to the god's palace previously so that the town could be a resting place for them before they ascended the cliff and reached the palace.

The god's palace was built for only humans, as creatures, demons, or other races couldn't even see its vicinity, even if they were in front of it, so the humans had the guts to construct the town since it wouldn't be attacked by aliens.

Dusken turned around and gazed at Kyle. Kyle had stopped walking earlier, with his face filled with sweat and struggle, his ragged breathing could be heard by Dusken.

"H-how did you know," Kyle spoke, his voice coming out as a ragged whisper, he glared at Dusken with both confusion and rage.

"So, it seems that you have figured it out," Dusken crossed his arms, as he slowly approached the standing Kyle. "You know, I had my suspicions, but I wasn't clear on them. But now, I guess it is confirmed, How do I know that you're a creature, not a human? We'll hear that soon, now sit and enjoy the show."

A cold smile appeared on Dusken's face, but he let out a relieved sigh internally.

"Y-you…"

Kyle said through gritted teeth; the anger on their face was extremely tangible, and the jade-white skin on his neck was slowly showing black veins underneath his skin.

The red-haired boy laughed; his laughter rang in the area; this laughter was not human at all. Then a monstrous, grating voice to the ears resounded in the area.

"Good, good, Dusk! You dare to poison me with the soul-devouring poison, good one. I never expected you to be so smart; I guess I underestimated you; maybe killing you earlier like my usual plan would have been better."

Dusken shook his head slowly.

"You didn't underestimate me, you had only overestimated yourself."

Dusken had indeed poisoned Kyle, his bone weapon had sliced open the poison sac inside the creature, making the bone have the poison on its tip.

Dusken had never cleaned it off, allowing it to dry on it, and then, he had poked the bone weapon on Kyle, so that the poison would gradually spread within him.

This time, it was Dusken who laughed out loud; he had more than twenty years of experience from his past life; he had watched movies and played video games.

Such a scheme was common in them, so how would a creature that didn't have much intelligence pose a threat to him?

'You're a creature, but dare to go against me, I had lived for more twenty years in my previous life, coupled with the ten years I have experienced here, my mentality is like those of 40 years of experience. I only act childish when I want, not because I am a fool.'

A smile appeared on Dusken's face as he thought of this.

'Such fools were everywhere. They thought themselves to be smart, and would never carefully plan things, due to them overestimating their abilities.'

The smile on Dusken's face deepened, as It became…

Cold.

Ruthless.

Callous.