《Desolate Ruler》
The fall that shall cause the rise
The man who desires peace will live in peace.
The man who desires chaos will live in chaos.
Desire is your key and your lock.
- Gray Auroris
Dios was running as fast as he could as he panted while bearing the insufferable pain that his body was constantly reminding him of.
Arriving at a cliff edge he looked down and nearly fainted from the darkness that its depths were reflecting in his eyes. It seemed so black that light seemed to be sucked in.
Taking a look back, he couldn''t help but start laughing at his reality while thinking this is how it ends.
The world was a cruel place to Dios and he never knew why.Almost as if he was born to be bred in its cruel care.
Born in a rural town in a warring country, parents were taken from him and his family was destroyed. He had siblings as well but the darkness of his life had burned them away and he no longer could remember who they even were. He had only wished once that they may live in peace in the afterlife from the cruelness they suffered in his present one.
Torture, corrupt, cruel and wicked. All words he could he use to describe his life from his first waking moments.
Taken away by a group of unscrupulous bandits with their own twisted logic. He was forced to slave away for them as an errand boy who got quite the treatment from their frustrations with their own lives.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Having been a part of this group he had seen horrible things that one should couldn''t even have imagined. His soul itself was damaged from the pure evil they caused in this poor world to those without power.
He finally managed to escape one day when one of the more unsavory bandits started beating Dios with a spiked club due to having killed his last whore. Taking his frustration out on Dios was a regular thing but he always pushed the limit with his methods.
Dios couldn''t take another beating like that so he grabed the ankle knife of the bandit and stabbed him in the eye straight through to his brain.
The feeling satisfied him incredibly. His heartless eyes revealed a pleasure he had never tasted when getting his revenge but his joy was short lived.
"Brat you dare kill Old Grit!? I''ll break your little neck! Come HERE!" Another bandit yelled.
Which led to Dios running for his life leading him to his doom at the cliff edge.
Forward was death by darkness while behind him was death by strangulation and maybe worse. He knew his choice was clear. With a sound mind and no fear for what lay ahead. Dios jumped while giving the middle finger to the bastard bandits that had ruined all joy in his life.
While falling and accelarating towards his imminent death, he couldn''t help but recall the few moments of happiness he ever had in his life before the cruel war broke out in his country. The little joy that was having a nice family dinner with everyone while smiling was the only memory he couldn''t supress but even then. The smile he had on his face that day was the only thing that wasn''t blurry in his memory.
He smiled one more time as he was approaching the ground and his death but the smile this time held such cruelty and sadness because his eyes showed a reluctance that he couldn''t destroy everything that is this world before dying.
However in his final moment before hitting the ground, something occured.
In Dios''s supposed final moments, Death seemed to be unwilling to accept this soul. Dios believed to have died but something mystical and quite impossible had happened. The deep ravine that Dios fell throughhad in that moment exploded into a massive spatial storm annihilating everything within a city size radius.
Having lost counsciousness, Dios fell through a small spatial crack without any harm coming from the spatial crack''s edges.
It may have been Fate, it may have been a sheer accident but for Dios it was just the beginning.
Meeting
Dios looked around after having abruptly awoken from hitting a hard cold stone floor. He was confused and a little lost as he clearly remembered jumping to his death so he wondered if this was the afterlife.
¡°From the way this place is set up, I seem to be in a castle of some sort? Underground? Is Hell really so simplistic? No fire?¡± Dios questioned as he analyzed his surroundings and he, for some reason, believed he would end up in hell.
His life wasn¡¯t the most ¡°positive¡± so he wouldn¡¯t have been surprised if Hell was the next phase of his life.
However, as he slowly stood up and started walking with his mangled and thin body that no 16 year old should have, he started doubting his previous guesses. He was in a stone hallway with no decorations aside from some little gems glowing with a faint red-white light that illuminated his surroundings. He had never seen these types of lighting methods in his life so he curiously touched one of them only to feel scorching heat burn his fingertip.
The pain didn¡¯t do much but surprise Dios as pain was butanaccomplice to his regular day to day life so he was quite used to it.
He threw the fire gems to the back of his mind as he continued his exploration and moved further down the hall. With a slight limp and an exhausted body, he managed to reach the end of the hall where he saw a metal door with odd and slightly mystical looking engravings on each side. Learning from his previous experience he didn¡¯t immediately touch the doors but observed silently before deciding to see if anyone was there.
He did think that this may go wrong but considering he had just accepted his death and plunged into the depths of darkness, he didn¡¯t really care about the consequences.
A weak but determined voice echoed throughout the hall. ¡°Hello! Is there anyone there!?¡±|
On the other side of the metal doors, someone with an expression of pure shock slowly turned around.
Dios did not know whether there was someone but he decided to try again and once again, he tried yelling to the best of his broken body¡¯s abilities. ¡° Hello! Is someone there!? My name is Dios! ¡°
The shock on the other party¡¯s face became even more evident but he calmed down shortly after. He walked towards the metal doors calmly and steadily but with an insanely curious look as he wondered what was creating those weird sounds outside his doors.
Dios heard the footsteps and although he thought them to be oddly loud, he prepared himself to meet whoever it was as his confusion to his current situation needed to be cleared.
He waited patiently and he finally saw one side of the door slowly open outwards towards him. Backing up he raised his head towards whoever was on the other side with slight apprehension as Dios was always weary of things and people he did not understand or know.
Clearly today was the day where things just got weirder for him. He saw in front of him a large bodied person, shrouded in some dark green smoke as though a gentle layer of fog blocked his view from the other. The outline looked like a human but the man seemed to be close to three meters tall.
He caught glimpses of mystical patterns engraved on the mans robes. Dios was surprised as to what he was seeing but aside from the shock, there wasn''t much else.
He decided to speak up after an eerie amount of silence between the two as the other kept looking at him. He couldn''t see his eyes but the instincts in his body told him that he was beying eyed almost as prey would feel facing a predator.
"Uhm..He..Hello!" Dios managed to get out even with the suffocating presence the other was emitting.
"Hmm." The other being was quite surprised to see a little human in front of him. Especially when he considered where he was.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Taking a moment to adjust something on his fingers. A little golden light flashed as a ring made of jade appeared and he put it on.
"What is a little human like you doing here?" The shrouded man asked.
The confusion in Dios''s eyes vexed the other. However, Dios did manage to utter that he fell.
After a stupid amount of time. Dios finally spilled the story of how he ended up here which caused slight surprise to come from the shrouded man.
"Hehe, so you fell off a cliff and ended up here? Hahaha, wonder if you were lucky or not. Anyways my Name is Gray little one, come follow me." Gray slowly spoke to which Dios simply nodded. Gray laughing left him a little perturbed as the laughwould not sound comforting to anyone.
Gray walked down the through the doors to his alchemical station which had a variety of different items of different colors and origins sprewed about. Gray couldn''t help but murmurr: " Guess the expirement wasn''t a complete failure. There is a new test subject now hehe."
Dios hearing the murmurrs couldn''t help but shiver even though he did not hear the words clearly.
Gray eventually fiddled around with a few items before placing the in a skilled way acrossthe table.
Dios couldn''t help it anymore as his curiosity reached its peak and asked " Gre...Mister Gray. Who are you and where are we? Am I dead?"
Gray didn''t bother turning around but continued on as his voice lazily explained: " No, little one. Very much alive, however, you ended up in my little space after that explosion which was probably what led you to me. As to who I am, you wouldn''t know even if I told you."
Gray then finally turned around holding a black crystal which he pulled out from a sealed case that had a few liquids poured onto it before finally unsealling the case.
Dios was surprised at the sight of such a dark crystal, it almost felt like his soul was going to get sucked into it the moment his eyes landed on it. Gray however brought his attention back with a cough.
"Little one, how would you like to help me out today?" Gray asked while still shrouded in his misty green haze.
"He..Help you with what Mr.Gray?" Dios had a premonition and asked but he knew he wasn''t really in control as he knew this feeling quite well.
"Hehe, don''t worry so much." Gray spoke calmly as he gently sat down on a seat nearby that was adorned with dragons and ghost carvings. He waved over Dios who limped over and gently sat him down with a force of his hand which spooked Dios.
"I just want to see if anyone can learn this scripture I created from my little discovery in the great void." Gray slowly spoke as his misty green cloud thickened for an instant.
"I don''t know but I was never very smart Mr.Gray so I don''t know if I could learn it." Dios honestly replied as he didn''t want to be beat for lying even though his curiosity about everything mentioned was reaching an all time peak.
Gray looked over the boy and couldn''t help but smile which Dios of course did not see. "No worries, this is a special scripture that I had personally transformed from what I had gotten that day even the dumbest of idiots could read it. I will give it to you. In return, if you do manage to succeed in fully learning and using its abilities, I want a favor."
Dios was very lost but he still inquired " What will learning it do for me and what favor do you need?"
Gray smiled again while saying" Your not as dumb as you say you are. Hehe, your soul has a trace of spiritual chaos ingrained in it. It makes you quite compatible with the scripture and if learnt can grant you quite the power in this universe. My favor is but a little one, I only wish for you to help me leave this place." His tone had turned slightly solemn towards the end.
Dios realized that Gray was actually trapped in this castle and he wasn''t really in control either. However, he started thinking about the power Gray had told him he would get. Dios never really craved for power but he knew if he had it, his life wouldn''t have been so brutal in the first place. He didn''t really know what kind of life one would have if they had power but he had yearned for it from time to time as a fantasy to escape from his reality.
Gray once again looked over Dios''s body and with a slight smirk said " It seems your life was a cruel one, little one. The reward aside from the power the scripture can grant you is also quite interestingfor someone like you. I''ll give you the scripture uponsigning a pact and send you out of this place where you will have a chance at a new life."
"A n..new life!?" Dios was shocked as he didn''t understand what that meant. He almost felt like he was dealing with a god.
"Well, in a way. You will have to train the teachings of my scripture and this place is really the last place you can succeed in doing that. I''ll send you somewhere else where you can give it a shot as long as you promise to help me once the time is right."
Dios couldn''t help his face from showing his emotions. He didn''t expect his life, that hell he grew up in to suddenly turn into a new opportunity at a different life. One with... power.
Gray finally asked:"What is your decision?"
Dios didn''t really think about it much as he simply agreed.
Gray finally smiled again and with a speed that Dios couldn''t catch, poked him between his eyebrows with a black crystal.
Traversed
The last words from Gray made him realize a fraction of the true significance of the deal he made. Rather than a second chance he realized he seemed to have sold his soul to the devil himself.
Gray had made him sign a soul pact after having jammed the black crystal into his forehead. The soul pact stated that once he achived the immortilization level of the scripture. He would have to find his way to Grays coordinates that were sealed in a very mysterious formation into his very soul for him to release later.
The scariness of it all was really the soul pact as it stated that betraying Gray would lead to a very dead Dios. The pain from the pact was even more unbearable as he had never felt such a chilling pain.
Finally, he was thrown into a formation that Gray had created in his castle which literally blasted him into space. The one glimpse he caught before losing consciousness was a frightening thing.
He saw the entirety of the castle which was actually on a piece of land that looked as if it was literally ripped off from the rest of the world it once belonged to. The scarier part was there were numerous black dragons made of dark chains that were covering the entire place almost as if a ball of chains had been created with Gray as its center.
Who would create such a frightening place just to seal one person. He didn''t want to know but he knew he would eventually either face it or come to know of it. Those were the last thoughts before he left Gray.
Back in the castle Gray was sitting on his chair while looking into the direction he sent Dios off to.
"Sigh. My poor little one, we have made a deal but where I am sending you will maybe make you hate me but it must be done. I will not stay here forever! Rise my little one, rise and save your good master. Hehe."
Gray removed the misty fog around himself and all you could see was a very old and dying looking man. The only thing that didn''t fit his old and dying image was his eyes, pitch black as though black holes were used to create his eyes. They solemnly looked at Dios shooting away before returning to his surroundings.
5 years had passed since that fateful meeting.
In one of the myriad worlds of the universe. A black glow manifested inside a small forest. The surrounding animals immediately ran as the eerie energy manifested brought a natural fear to them.
The surroundings sparked with black bolts of lightning coming off the black glow in the center.
Without even an ounce of life remaining a gigantic crater a thousand meters long was created. However, the strangest part was that this crater was created in complete silence. Not a single fluctuation could be heard nor the roaring of the black lightning.
Wtihin the center of this crater was a black and almost sinister looking cocoon of darkness.
As there was no commotion aside from the scared animals, no one knew of what had landed in their world.
With a small flash. The cocoon dissipated into nothingness, only to leave a completely intact body of a boy. A black pair of pants and shirt that looked to be made of cotton left from the cocoon of darkness.
Waking up again, Dios felt a little dizzy as he felt as though he slepted through his entire life. The memories slowly coming back to him. His eyes immediately awakened.
Looking at his body, he was surprised as it no longer hurt nor did he see any of the injuries he had sustained from years of torturous slavery.Stolen story; please report.
He was amazed, Gray had certainly given him a perk before shooting him off. He was thankful, as he didn''t imagine even being given new clothes. One would think these were meaningless compared to the situation but to Dios, these were his first new clothes in a long, long time and the scars of his youth were removed which left him feeling as though this, indeed, was a new life.
Looking around, he realized that this crater may have been his fault so he immediately went out after gathering his bearings.
The new world around him felt different yet similar. The forest was lively with natural fauna and flora. They even seemed to be brighter and more verdant than any green he had ever seen. The air felt so invigorating as though it had more in it which gave him energy.
Slowly walking to a tree stump beyond the sight of the crater, he sat down and realized he was slightly hungry.
He didn''t expect to be sent into a forest with nothing but a shirt and pants so he decided to plan ahead.
"The only thing I have is the scripture and my pact." Mumbling to himself, he closed his eyes to try and read the scripture.
Within his mind, a dark crystal was revolving slowly while wisps of darkness emanated from its edges. Focusing a little, he tried to access the scripture within the crystal.
A flash came from the crystal before a series of information came into his mind, the only thing however was that it felt as if it was being, literally, burned into his skull. The pain lasted only a few moments, but Dios opened his eyes with beads of sweat dropping off his forehead.
He realized another thing from the information that he had just gotten.
"Gray, who are you and what did you do?...sigh" Dios was alarmed and his heart was unsure.
Dios had learned the name of the scripture Gray created. It was called ''The Death Scripture'' , Dios didn''t know how to feel as Gray gave a little introduction to it in the beginning and the consequences of this scripture led him to truly wonder if this was alright.
''The Scripture of Death'' created from the soul stone of darkness from the great void. The one true method to achieve the power of death. The only true god which mortals and immortals fear is not the Heavens nor the Earth but the existence that comes for them at their end.
Death. True Death.
Dios knew one thing, he may have had a short life but he knew that something like this isn''t a fantasy book power. It was becoming a grim reaper for power.
He could already imagine the world he would leave behind in his rise if he were to practice this method. Mountains of bones and oceans of blood. A world left without any other but the lone existence that is Death.
The moment however he started to question his decisions, the crystal within his mind shook. It felt as if it was releasing something again.
Dios suddenly felt a tremor going through his mind and body, a wisp of black crawled out of the stone and into his body. It started circulating all over it, every inch was covered and none was left without its passage.
Dios felt a chilling feeling all over his body and mind and it led him to remember a piece of information from the scripture about the initiation. Once the crystal was accessed, it would release the first strand of immortal darkness energy within his body. He realized Gray was not giving him a choice.
He put aside the matters of his mind, and focused on refining the energy as per the instructions in the Scripture. He had to control this strand otherwise, it would do more harm than benefits. He felt so ridiculous, he was already facing a life or death situation.
He had to instill a strand of his will into the dark energy as per the Scripture and that strand would become the controller for his will to dominate the energy so that it did not run rampant.
Dios eventually managed to form a strand of will as the instructions guided him, which could also be credited to the five years his body was being rejuvanated by Gray''s methods. The will pierced into the wild dark energy strand as though trying to tame a wild stallion.
He, however, did not expect that he would revisit every single memory since his first at the very moment he pierced the darkness.
He saw himself growing up, having a family, learning, eventually it all burning, the pain, the torture, the different sights of cruelty, the emotional pain, the chaos that reigned his life.
Afterwards, he saw different things from the darkness itself, his memories were nothing to the darkness of the universe. Slaughter, murder, injustice, hell, he saw it all for a brief flashing moment from the core of this dark essence.
A long while passed and Dios eventually opened his eyes. Darkness flashed and a certain devilish calmness pervaded his face.
"Sigh, it seems I will accept the chaos within me. Life did not want my presence so it cursed me. I will then also not accept your presence and reject you! Gray... it seems we have a deal."
The heavens themselves seem to have slightly shook from those small murmurrs. Dark clouds gathered and started a viscious downpour as Dios slowly got up and started a lonely march.
Step Forward
Having walked to a nearby forest stump in the wilderness. Dios sat down to contemplate what he should be doing.
Yes, he had a shot at another life but this life was essentially one that is fabricated for him. He has a specific path and no choice in the matter.
Happiness isn''t something he feels he would be seeing quite a bit of considering carnage will be what he leaves behind for every achievement he makes. Every move of his will, basically, be labeled "Evil Demon Of Darkness" or "Shepherd of the dead". Hmm maybe, I might even get something cool like "Sovereign of Death" ?
"Wait, what am I thinking... sigh." He denied the thought of being satisfied from the title even though deep down he still marked it as a ''super cool'' name to have.
He wasn''t sure of what to think of his future but how he felt about it all was really what was bothering him. He decided to accept the deal and try and free Gray but he didn''t know if venting his hatred and evil on another planet rather than his own, was the sane thing to do.
"Wait... why am I even worried. I don''t know anyone, no one''s ever shown kindness aside from my family. Why need a twisted logic? Why need reason? Can''t I just be fucked up from life and saunter on without guilt considering I''m basically forced to practice this death magic and run a rampant life of trying to free a fucked up old man from some absurd prison??"
Raising his head his thoughts flew at a frightening speed.
"What the hell does anybody else have to do with my life? They never helped, I won''t offend anyone obviously but still I''m sure I''ll find more than enough prey to rise up in the world. Hell, a good enough reason is to free Gray and have my own life then, no? I can be a saint later, though i''ll probably be a messed up twisted saint but still better than some arrogantly prideful and sadistic twat from the netherworld right?"
With a firm nod and determination filling his eyes, Dios got up and walked forward. However, he really didn''t realize the incredibleness of the stupidity he has shown from creating such an absurd and shaky reason to not care anymore with a promise of some evil saint appearing later as his "solution" to his future murder.
Nearly a dimension away, Gray sneezes and couldn''t help but frown considering he hasn''t sneezed in a couple tens of thousands of years...
Dios ended up realizing a key factor he hadn''t thought about as he encountered a boar a few miles ahead and ended up climbing a nearby tree to avoid the brute.
"I have no clue how to fight..." He, now, truly understood what kind of dung poo level scenario Gray threw him into.
Without much else to do aside from waiting for the boar to leave on its own. Dios found a thick branch to sit on and started meditating. Hoping no snake appears in his reverie. Delving deep into his mind, he returns to the family image of the dark crystal, blacker than any black he had seen. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Taking a moment to appreciate its beauty, he gets sucked in once again, to access its knowledge. He had refined the first strand of darkness and knew he should have some sort of follow up.
Slowly combing through the limited information available to him at the initial stages, he finally finds something similar to what he was looking for.
[Steps of Darkness]
"Haha! Yes. Gray, you didn''t let me down!" He almost shouted out loud in joy as he knew there had to be something extra considering he didn''t have Gray teach anything to him. Dios was ecstatic and the more he read through the few pages on the [Steps of Darkness], the faster his heart pounded.
He realized how truly extraordinary this technique was. It was a divine movement technique to Dios who never trained but who could understand the technique''s real life application.
"Wonder if my brain got smarter with the full body healing...?" He considered as he never remembered anything this well but the techniques every word and meaning got clearly absorbed into his mind which gave him a slight surprise but he let it go as he couldn''t be sure.
The [Steps of Darkness] was essentially one that allowed his body break the conventions of movement through the energy hidden within him that was refined and with every increase in the strand of immortal darkness energy, his speed would increase. The only understanding he got from how it worked was that it seemed to somehow allow him to assimilate the properties of the immortal darkness energy such as its extreme swiftness.
This also gave him a slight worry as he was meant to be ingesting this energy but if its so quick he can''t even absorb it, this was all pointless but he figured there should be a way around it. "Can''t worry about every little thing" suddenly became his new life''s maxim.
He immediately lost himself in his training of the movement technique, considering he was hiding from a simple boar and was starting to get hungry. The technique was broken down into three parts. First of which was to divide the darkness energy within his body towards every part of his body so that his body acts as a container for evenly distributed energy. This leads the allowance for the body to somewhat grasp a part of the energies properties to allow the body to move in sync with the energy.
Finally, he had to execute the movements but with the fine tuned control of his mind, will and energy being synchronized with his real body.
All this was easier said than done. Dios had a headache from the simple act of dividing the foreign energy into his body even though he was able to refined it through his will.
The training took hours before, Dios had given up and simple allowed the energy to spread a bit more towards his legs and feet. " The bastard should of taught me AT LEAST something, or give me a freaking sword Gray, you stingy bastard!"
After the cursing of his ''unwillingly forced upon'' Master. Dios managed to fuse the energy with his legs and feet, albeit barely, which allowed him to perform something he never thought possible. A long jump from one tree to another.
The distance was only six or seven feet, but it made him almost feel like he was flying and the excitement turned into a desire after having jumped far, far away from the boar. He knew if he could master this technique not just his leg movement but his hands and coordination with his body could practically make him an untouchable target.
However, he suddenly fell ill, as he hadn''t eaten anything in what feels like an extremely long time, the energy supporting him was squandered on his childish joy of learning the basic of the [Steps of Darkness].
As the distant sun was setting, Dios finally managed to catch a small lizard, which realistically was pathetic to him, he stayed steadfast and devoured it after creating a small and cooking it.
The young man continued his journey through the unknown wilderness as uterly lost as a newborn baby was.
Finding a job
It wasn''t until he met someone that he finally calmed his extremely strained nerves.
It took him a solid month before finding someone to talk to. At first, expecting all sorts of fantasy creatures as he came to the fact this wasn''t his Earth anymore.
Disappointingly, it was an old farmer looking man, little short but nonetheless an old man by the definition.
He then came to the conundrum of how to speak to the old man before realizing he wasn''t completely given up on by his chance upon master. It felt all too convenient how fast Gray had shipped him off on some journey because of chaos strand in soul this and you look beaten up, go have a new life of obligations to me.
"Young man! Are you lost...?" Said the old farmer while looking Dios up and down. He knew for a fact that his clothes were in tatters due to how... RIDICULOUSLY long he was lost in the forest of death as he eventually started calling it. However, he realized he understood the speech and language as though it was second nature. He got the impression it came as a feature of the odd crystal or something Gray had put in it as that''s where the information came from. At least, that''s the deduction Dios told himself.
"Haha... Yeah, got lost for about a month while traveling. The first person I meet since actually." Dios replied wearily as he might have been training some fantasy magic but he was exhausted from eating the equivalent of charcoal in the form of creature meat.
"Wow, didn''t expect you to be so resilient, young man. Good for you. Take care." The old farmer said as his back was already facing Dios and a gentle yet cold wind blew by.
''Was this...wait. This isn''t at all this! What the hell, this old man is just leaving!?'' Dios realized he ended up meeting the second shittiest old man since his fall of flying death off a cliff.
He also realized he wasn''t as depressed as he usually was in his old life but he quickly came to the realization that it was all behind him. The body he had almost didn''t resemble his old self in the slightest and the mystical power he was bestowed sure as hell wasn''t helping his ego remain clear of "impurities" from such flexing.
"WAIT!" Chasing after the old man, while muttering curses led to the eventual, negotiations, yes. Negotiations, the old man was as sly as a raccoon in your backyard twice your size. Without care for your situation or any pity whatsoever.
He had asked Dios to help his farm out by clearing some of the back gardens critters. Upon which he would receive a meal and or some favor that he still had to ask for and which will be under severe consideration.
''Guy reminds me of a city lawyer.'' He thought but soon fell silent, as memories of the life he lived resurfaced. The Earth really did suffer. Hit by several flares, they came to suffer a complete governmental collapse leading to a new political, environmental and radical reshuffling of everything. Nature was truly a bastard sometimes.
Shaking his head out of the relapse of memories, he trudged forward.
He found out the old farmer was called Ol'' Coors.'' Weird man.Kept drinking from a flask for what seemed like the entire time. Aside from that, it was regular farmer Joe... Well Coors.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
He gave up on trying to figure the old man out and instead focused on getting some information on what was around these parts.
"Where are we anyways? I am pretty bad at geography. Mind telling me Ol''Coors?" Dios asked as nicely as he could.
"Oh my. Didn''t think you were dumb too. Well, were in the outskirts of the country of Lu. Big place with seven cities and the largest being the capital at the center. Right now we''re at the border of the tranquil forest and Serpant river. A little further and you would get to the city of cloud. 2nd biggest place to the capital itself."
Dios was surprised as it seems the world wasn''t a completely medieval one but he still knew too little.
After what was a few miles of walking. A little farm house with some barns and a few unique cattle like animals showed in the distant.
Dios saw a few workers and a surprisingly gorgeous girl tending to the chin of a fairly big cat. The cat was twice the size of a mountain wolf. It was unnerving to Dios but he just staid close to Ol''Coors yet he couldn''t stop staring at the girl.
She had mesmerizingly black hair streaking down her shoulders. Skin as fair as jade and a smile with cherry lips that could bring down a kingdom from its beauty.
Noticing the lost little eyes of Dios, Ol''Coors coughed and smacked the back of his head.
"What the hell old man!?"
"That''s my granddaughter. Better watch yourself. She''s all the family left and you better make sure you don''t make her upset. Actually. Don''t even go near her. Don''t need a dumbass in law."
Shocked at his words Dios couldn''t help mumble " Who the hell would believe a goddess was born from such a stingy old man..." Before he realized he got repeatedly insulted.
"Wait! What the hell you mean dumbass!? I was just lost old stooge! What the hell would make you think id be a stupid in law!? Huh? Im a great guy." He retorted with passion but Ol''Coors wasn''t a believer.
"Oh yeah? Well Mr. Great guy. Do you have a job? Any property to settle down? You a mighty warrior? Big name mage? A S rank hunter? You know what, let me ask you at least this. Any money at all? Even one silver and I''ll take back what I said." Ol''Coors had the smugest look one could ever witness.
"..."
"Didn''t think so. Anyways this is the barn. You could rest here. Don''t wander and over there is the crotters you need to get rid of. Chop chop. Meal time is in an hour."
He pointed at a distant fence where you saw dog size birds that looked like a ugly mix between a vulture and a mole rat. They had a starfish mouth with bald head. Bony wings with black feathers and they had four paws which just fresked me out.
'' Can''t help it. He has a beautiful granddaughter but he was right after all. I had no money, prospects, or any sign of a stable life.''
On the other hand Dios was freaked out by how bad he had it. 5 years since meeting Gray which he was completely unaware of had passed. Lost for a month in a forest full of shit beasts. Now finally a chance at a proper meal but he had to deal with a pack of ugly mole vultures.
"Sigh"
Dios without a choice, moved ahead and in almost no time at all appeared silently near the mole vultures as they were rampaging aroumd the fences. Swooping in and out of the garden of what seemed to be corn which they swallowed in one mouthful.
The speed at which he disappeared and appeared near the mole vultures was caught by no one but Ol''Coors was quite perceptive and caught a glimpse which led him to narrow his eyes as he didn''t exprct such a young man to have such ridiculous speed. He was wary but from the interactioms with Dios. He knew the kid wasn''t up to anything with his farm or his family. Just a lost kid.
He mumbled:"Guess he wouldn''t be that bad of a in law with some work. Hmm."
Dios shivered for a second and started freaking out that one of the mole vultures was going to attack him but looked around he was too well hidden in the corn crops.
Putting aside the little episode. He started hunting the mole vultures with his bare hands.
Caterpillars
The hunt for mole vultures was rather uneventful as the speed of his immortal darkness energy synchronization with his body was already at 13% which led him to be a lot faster than all the vultures combined. Dios Simply snapped their necks, and within an hour cleared almost all of the vultures with the rest being frightened away.
Ol''Coors kept his word and got him a nice bowl of some meat stew with a freshly baked bread his granddaughter had made for everyone.
After having finished his meal right in front of the barn, the day was still long so Dios decided to adventure out in the farms while thinking of his next steps. Ol''Coors told him for now, there wasn''t much else to do as everyone else had finished their tasks or were completing them but told Dios to stay nearby in case something came up.
Dios fine with the arrangements simply wandered off. The walk was rather nice and peaceful especially with a nice view of the large farm and he always thought how nice it must be to grow up somewhere like here.
On the walk, he couldn''t help but consider how free he really aside from the few goals he had to accomplish as a promise to Gray.
He was always an upbeat boy when he was growing up until the loss of his family and the torturous work he did as an errand boy for the bandits. The new reality in front of him gave hope to his true inner self and he didn''t wish to waste it even if he were to be a practitioner of the "Death Scripture".
"Oh, might as well check up on the void crystal," Dios said to himself. He started calling the black crystal the void crystal as that was where it came from and every time he made progress something new would usually show up.
Usually, the next step to his current techniques or a new support technique would appear. He loved the crystal once he got past the eerieness of the "intended purposes" of said scripture.
Sitting down and meditating a little, he managed to enter the crystal and started reviewing what he had learned so far.
[Steps of Darkness]-19%
[Immortal darkness energy synchronization] 13%
[Demon Mount] 0%
Looking through the list, he was happily surprised to find a new technique.
The list was a convenient feature he created within his mind after surprising himself with the level of concentration he had in meditation and some immortal dark energy which gave way to a rather accurate description of his progress which was rather mystifying to him but the crystal held more secrets than he was aware of.
Reading the technique, Dios was mesmerized by the creativeness of Gray for the way he built such techniques that could turn a beggar into an emperor.
The technique described a way for one to pick any living creature and train it to turn into his everlasting [Demon Mount]. The purpose was really simple as any practitioner of the myriad of worlds would need to attain the higher tier of the rankings in order to cross space and travel through the worlds unhindered.
However, the [Demon Mount] was a method to simplify this process as the mount would be trained to assist its owner with some of the burdens of traveling through the myriad worlds as well as make traveling in the world itself much more convenient. It even had capacities for being a battle mount depending on the training given so that you would never truly be alone in any fights.
The only issue Dios realized was that it would take a long while before the mount could start crossing space but Dios wasn''t perturbed as he knew from some deductions that he made that he had quite a bit of time. Gray never requested a specific time to free him. Just to do it, once he reached a certain level in the [Death Scripture]. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Happy at the new technique and Dios immediately started pondering what would be a good mount to train into a Demon Mount.
Back at the farm, Ol''Coors was talking to his granddaughter about how he found a young man lost in the forest and was happily chatting away with his beloved granddaughter.
She couldn''t help but laugh as he recounted the whole event to really make himself look better while unceremoniously using Dios as the butt of the joke. She grew more curious about the young man but as a proper granddaughter, she couldn''t try to pry too much information from her grandfather as he was rather overprotective and wouldn''t let her get near boys he didn''t consider okay.
Her beautiful eyes that looked like limpid azure ponds, and a smile that could capture you in a trance, she giggled at her grandfather as her curiosity for the boy grew. Which just happened to capture a few of the working men around the farm who caught a peek before a small "Hmph" echoed in their ears as Ol''Coors warned with his eyes.
"Elia, go play now. Got some work left to do before the evening arrives." Ol''Coors gently said.
"Okay, grandpa!" She yelled as she ran away to talk with the farmer''s wives on the other side.
As the hours went by, Elia just finished some of her daily chores around the farm as she spotted a young man covered in all black yet completely tattered clothes staring intently at a makeshift crate of some sort. As she got a little closer, her curiosity grew as he didn''t leave his eyes for a moment from the crate.
Inching closer and closer, she eventually managed to get a few meters from the young man.
"EEEEEEYAAAAHHHH!" She screamed at the top of her lungs before gunning it for the house.
Dios startled silly by the scream jumped up almost knocking over his crate before turning to see a beautiful back figure running away. Before he realized it, Ol''Coors and several sturdy farmers had already appeared in the vicinity staring at him with a gaze that looked like he had insulted their mothers.
"What. Did. You. Do. BOY!?" Ol''Coors said through gritted teeth and squinted eyes. Dios was beyond confused and a little scared at the dangerous vibe the old man was giving off.
After a few seconds of gathering his thoughts, he couldn''t help but retort in anger: " The HELL you mean WHAT DID I DO!? It''s your family coming near me and running off screaming while I was minding my god damn business!" Dios retorted. He had enough of getting beat while being misunderstood on purpose by others. He wasn''t the same little twig from before nor was he anywhere near as weak.
Ol''Coors was surprised at the tone. He got closer and saw something quite grotesque. A giant caterpillar the size of a small bird crawling in the crate. Several body parts from different insects and some reptiles were strewn about as the caterpillar slowly munched on the carcasses.
"What are you doing?" Ol''Coors said with a mildly disturbed tone.
"King of the crate," Dios replied while smiling evilly at the dark blue caterpillar which had several, ice cold looking, spikes sticking out of it.
He was at a loss of which creature to take to try his new technique on especially consideringit would be a rather long relationship due to the benefits outweighing redoing the technique on better subjects along the way. With that, he had simply decided to find all the different creatures from the area that looked a little special and threw them in a crate.
The spectacle involved two snakes one black and one silver, four praying mantes all of which were different colors, a rat he found with weird stripes on its fur and a few other insects that looked peculiar. This caterpillar was originally a small blue caterpillar that fell on him by accident near a burnt tree.
He was surprised most by the caterpillar as it grew from the size of a finger into a small bird and it did nothing but walk around piercing its skin''s spikes and they all died from a weird frenzy after having killed each other. The thing started eating them as the ones with larger vitality took longer to die off. The shock wasn''t the only thing that happened, a small piece of information about caterpillars, in general, came through his mind and it excited him to no end. They metamorphose!
"I''ll call you ''Little Death'' hehe," Dios muttered while smiling.
Ol''Coors got a general idea of what happened from the name of the crate Dios gave but he felt a little perturbed from the name and decided maybe, it was better for the kid to be on his way and especially far from his precious Elia.
Demon mount pact
Dios had spent a good few days at the farm with Ol''Coors, he had gained quite a good grasp of a few things within these days which made him quite excited for the days to come.
Ol''Coors originally didn''t want Dios around but the young man did help out a lot. The creatures near the fences that usually came to bother them have long been killed and fed to the little pet that he was nurturing which still creeped the old man and everyone else out. He helped with some heavy lifting and was quite good with the animals especially the bulls as they became docile near him whenever he was around for some odd reason.
"I gained a good 50 coppers from Ol''Coors, it seems I should be on my way to the big city now" Dios muttered to himself as he wanted to explore more the of world.
He also gained the knowledge that magic was quite common around here, especially in the country of Lu as they trained many different types of powers such as hunters, adventurers, mages and warriors/knights.
This relieved him greatly as his powers didn''t need to be hidden and he really wasn''t one to want to play the pig to eat the tiger. He really couldn''t care for such methods as it annoyed him in every fantasy book he read in the past and he really had a short temper since his rebirth into this world. It was almost as if his grievances from his past life wouldn''t allow him to be low key but he had made a promise he wouldn''t be stupid just because he didn''t want to play meek.
With the few days of proper meals and peace, he had gotten a better feel for his techniques and even improved his [Steps of Darkness] to the small success realm at 25% progress. He had become almost a good 4 times faster than an average grown man. His strength was similarly a lot stronger but he knew that [Death Scripture] focused more on the integration and accumulation of immortal darkness energy to increase his speed, reflexes, and magic.
Dios surprisingly never tried getting close to Elia after the little incident, he told himself that making love and what not happen was too soon for his young self and he was sure to meet beauties in the future and he didn''t like that she didn''t like Little Death so she became excluded from his mind. Petty? Yes, but Little Death had much more value to him than anybody on the farm could ever.
"Little Death, come here," Dios called out.
A foot and a half long caterpillar with spikes and a blue sheen was seen crawling out of a crate filled with small reptiles, or whatever remained of them and crawled up Dios'' shoulder while playfully wiggling.
"Hehe, aren''t you the best, who''s a good little mount. You are! hehe." He picked up the habit of giving Little Death puppy love, he never had a pet before and always wanted a dog and figured since little death was still a baby, he might as well spoil the little guy.
"Come on, let''s go hunt something bigger today, maybe we can make a few coins of Ol''Coors before we head out." Dios declared as he shot out from his barn and headed towards the tranquil forest.
Little Death simply gripped tight with its many legs and made a small "wuuu" sound as to show his agreement on the matter.
A few miles into the forest, a boar was grinding its tusks against stone as to sharpen them and was making sounds of snorting echo throughout its surroundings. The boar itself was quite big and didn''t seem afraid of predators in the area as the forest was called tranquil for a reason, no scary beast appeared in its area as it wasn''t very rich in resources for those apex predators.
Standing on a branch from a tree a few hundred meters away, Dios was crouching with Little Death on his shoulders while gazing intently at the boar. He almost let a drop of saliva fall from staring at the boar as the Dios of today, the boar was nothing but meat ready for roasting.
"Little Death, how does boar meet sound for today?" Dios asked while gently rubbing the chin of the caterpillar whose eyes seemed to close into slits while softly going "wuuuu".
"Hehe, thought so, you little glutton." Dios chuckled before silently dashing from branch to branch as he neared the boar who still had its guard down.
Dios was rushing quite fast yet only the sounds of wind rustling the leaves were heard as his control over his body had grown enough to almost muffle the sound of his movement entirely. His progress had scared quite a few farm hands when he had showed up behind them or next to them without a sound.
As he was rushing forward, he turned his right hand into a claw shape and started gathering some of the accumulated energy he had towards it. A thin film, of purple and black, appeared and slowly took on the shape of pointed claws on the tips of his fingertip as he was doing so. Dios had learned to manipulate a bit of the energy he accumulated from all the beasts and meditation he was doing and was finally able to make a small protective layer with claws on his hands. It wasn''t really a technique but it allowed him to pierce through trees and fragment stones without pain or resistance which became really useful when killing. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
He progressively slowed as he closed in on the boar and just when he entered the ten-meter range of the boar, its ears twitched. The boar had felt something nearby and was turning its large body around but before it could even focus its eyes on the disturbance, a claw of purple and black stabbed right through its neck.
The boar squealed in pain and saw with its final breath a crouched young man wearing coarse farmers garments smiling devilishly at it.
Dios jumped back the moment he crushed the windpipe and the arteries in the boar and watched as it took its final stand and its eyes finally dimmed.
Dios stuck out a hand and whispered a few ritualistic words from the [Death Scripture] and a small black glow came out of the boar and entered his hands. The energy from common animals was minimal to his cultivation but Dios wasn''t at the stage where he, even if he could, would kill wantonly just for a power increase.
Strapping the 50 kilos bleeding boar to his back, he made his return to the farm to try and sell off the animal to Ol''Coors which he knew loved boar meat.
Back on the farm, Ol''Coors was shoveling some manure from a cart onto a fresh plot when he noticed Dios running back with a giant boar strapped to his back. The smile on his face couldn''t help but show how much the old farmer loved boar meat. He didn''t even wait until the work was done before yelling at everyone to take a break.
"Dios, Oh Dios! Such a great kid, helping this old man out and even bringing us all some food in return for our hospitality!" Ol''Coors brimming with smiles said as he approached him.
"Cut the crap old man, you know damn well that I helped you out more than enough! Huh, trying to get me all compassionate now? Cough up the coins or I''s keeping the whole thing to myself and Little Death!" Dios retorted while Little Death was excitedly yelling "Wuuu, Wuuuu!" with its upper body raise and its little chubby legs clapping together.
"Che! Stingy brat. Fine, I want at least half the meat and I''ll buy the fur and tusk for a silver."
"Hehe, that''s more like it Old man!" He swung the boar over in front of Ol''Coors who started ordering some farm hands to help him cut up the boar.
''Wouldn''t have been so stingy if you hadn''t started charging me rent after the second day, you shameless coot.'' Dios thought before going near a rivulet to wash his hands and face.
The evening passed in peace, with everyone enjoying a nice portion of roasted boar meat glazed with almond honey that Elia had prepared earlier. Little Death was just as happy as well since it got a nice piece of thigh meat for itself.
Back in the barn that Dios was "renting", he sat down with his legs crossed in the lotus position while facing directly in front of him was Little Death.
"Buddy, we''re leaving tomorrow and you got plenty fat and spoiled during these days. We''re going to have to sign a [Demon Mount] pact if you are to continue with me, you know that right?" Dios said to Little Death as he took out a knife and cut his finger.
Little Death became very attached to Dios since it spent the last few days with Dios and he kept feeding him much more than its kind ever gets during their childhood. It didn''t really know what Dios was saying but it got a general feel for his intentions as all animals do towards people. "Wuu" was all Little Death managed to say.
"Hehe, good, this may hurt a little but don''t worry. We will be back to eating and playing like usual soon enough" Dios comforted Little Death as the scripture mentioned this technique was quite invasive on the chosen mount.
With the bleeding finger, Dios drew some strange symbols on his forearm and then drew some similar symbols onto Little Deaths body wherever there were no spikes.
"Here goes nothing" Dios muttered before starting to chant the words from the scripture. As he kept repeating the chant, a glow started to appear on the symbols on both his arms and the caterpillars and with the sound of the chant, they started to glow in a rhythmic beat that went along with the words.
Three blood strings appeared on the three symbols from Dios'' forearm and connected themselves to Little Death who seemed a little freaked out but remained as it had trust in Dios.
The immortal darkness energy also flew along with the blood strings that came out of Dios'' arm and looked like two different colored strings were twisted as they dug into the symbols on Little Death.
As the ceremony went on, both Dios and the caterpillar felt an intense ache traveling through the symbols and attacking their heads. The pain was incredibly deep as they fainted immediately while convulsing.
The caterpillar wriggled and a blueish liquid was dripping from its mouth and Dios was bleeding from his mouth as well.
The blood strings furiously entered Little Death as the intensity grew and only stopped once Dios'' face became pale as snow from the blood loss. Little Death, on the other hand, had grown another foot long and the symbols on its body turned into blood red tribal-like tattoos than ran across its body.
No one noticed what had happened as everyone had retired for the day but the animals all shivered as the blood red and purple-black glow was emitted from the barn Dios was staying in bringing with it a dangerous feeling towards these sensitive animals.