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Chapter 245 14: Half-Orcs Lament - Part 3

Like in the past...

Raven stepped cautiously into the dimly lit dungeon room, the torches casting flickering shadows across the rough stone walls.

The air was thick with a musty scent, and a chill ran down his spine as he gazed around the eerie chamber.

He took a deep breath, the air strangely dense and heavy on his lungs, feeling the tense atmosphere building as he moved forward... the taste of the murky air like a musty book left in a damp storage room for decades.

\'This is... the first day...\'

Filled with the fear that maybe his strength was lower than the enemy, although he assumed his strength likely had the advantage against these creatures, he was big and bulky while they looked swift and sneaky.

\'I can\'t move my body?\'

The room was around three metres by six metres, with a low ceiling that seemed to press down on him. A powerful foreboding aura lurked in the depths of shadow around him, causing his heart to accelerate.

In the corners, dark shadows lurked, seemingly alive with some unknown presence.

Raven could barely see what lay in the depths of those shadows, but his imagination conjured up various images of sinister creatures lurking there.

He looked deeper into the room, his eyes falling upon a stone pedestal to the north, around 4 metres away at most, inching forward to get a clearer grasp of the pedestal as the shadows flickered around him.

\'It\'s just like I remember so dark and horrible... but those creatures, why are they far more imposing than the past? Weren\'t they just goblin-sized?\'

Grasping the nostalgic axe of his mother with a tight grip, the smooth feeling of the old leather and cold metal through the gaps, while his black shield glinted and reflected light from the ceiling onto the western wall.

There was the same huge wooden door he remembered with black steel reinforcement, like a castle gate and a massive padlock thicker than his skull.

Unable to carry his experiences of the several months, Raven\'s breathing increased, his eyes focused on that object that began everything... the black chest that all adventurers seek on their first visit to the dungeon.

Atop a huge pedestal was the black chest, its surface adorned with strange and arcane symbols that glinted in the torchlight. However, those huge, brutal creatures with sharp spines skittering around the chest, their movements quick and slippery as they seemed to guard their prize.

\'They are daemons...\' Somehow, he knew, these creatures were the same as those black, ooze-like monsters in the forest he had just fought. With a calm mind, Raven became less useless and irritated than before.

Larger than he remembered them, reaching his waist, not his knee. Their long, spindly limbs were bent and twisted unnaturally due to being made of part tree and root, allowing more flexible attacking patterns.

Their skin was a sickly green and black hue that almost looked like it was dripping and leaking off their bodies, with red eyes glowing with an eerie light that could likely pierce the darkness and easily see their prey.

\'So big, how can they move so fast and hide so easily!?\'

His heart began to pound just looking at them as thoughts and fears began to build... A key fact was something he always looked away from. All his dread knights were dead... They died in the dungeon.

With these memories... his heart sank.

The images superimposed with the past, he could no longer stop it... 

\'This is where I became more composed... I should have relaxed and thought logically here.\'

His mind began to repeat the words of his mother; she would train him endlessly when younger, how to deal with fear, what to do when your body tenses up out of terror; as Raven\'s nails began to sink into his palms, a thick red blood oozing slowly, as he let out a quiet moan of pain.

\'Ok... I can win...\'

He watched as the creatures darted around the chest, their movements almost too quick for his eyes to follow. Raven knew that whatever lay within that black chest must be of great value, for the creatures were fiercely guarding it.

He knew that not everyone\'s first chest was equal as some would get horrible talents or start classes from slaves to prostitutes who would only be able to change it once reaching level 5 and needed to perform the class actions to increase it; some professions were unable to level with combat experience.

Raven stepped forward, holding his mother\'s training axe tightly, and lunged at the creatures, but the moment the blade hit their hard carapace, it flickered with sparks and bounced off them before he could react, a sharp spine pierced his abdomen.

Suddenly, The creatures screeched in unison, their voices high-pitched and grating, and Raven knew he was in for a fight.

\'Why are they so strong and excited!?\'

Determined to improve his mind, Raven continued to brace himself, tightly clenching his axe, attacking the monsters several times as their flesh finally started to tear apart, but only their necks and joints were soft.... while the axe was taking major damage from their armoured bodies.

"Fuck it! Let\'s fight like men!"

Raven\'s left arm thrust forward, like jutting his elbow to smash into the creatures to knock them prone, before slamming them with the dented shield, causing their screams to increase.

The sharp claws and teeth slammed into his shield with bright silver sparks, denting the metal even more as he lost momentum, the second blow scraping across his axe\'s blade, leaving Raven stuck in retreat.

His first attack failed as he lowered his body, watching the two monsters that darted around, trying to flank him.

\'No way! You bastards aren\'t going to flank this orc!\'

He grasped his axe with both arms, twisting his body to the left, tightening his powerful abs, and waiting for his eyes to dart to both sides as the creatures slowly approached, prowling as if toying with their prey.

\'Come on! Come on!\'

Suddenly, the torches became dim, their light blown to the other side of the huge stones lying around the room as if a signal; he heard the skittering of their feet before two gentle sounds.

Pah! Pah!

\'They\'re coming!\'

His body suddenly unleashed all the power he had been building, the tight muscles in his legs suddenly expanding as he flung himself in a circle, feeling a tearing pain and strange burn in his abdomen as he tore through the first monster with a powerful swipe of his axe, the sensation addictive as he rotated on the spot.

He felt the impact with the first creature, the blade embedding itself deep into its abdomen, before sending it flying into the distance, seeming to smash into the wall as it crashed and let out a pained screech.

But Raven\'s power didn\'t stop; his motivation and force began to increase, putting more and more power into his legs; the slight burning sensation didn\'t matter; his face was filled with a smile, fully immersed in the nostalgia of his mother\'s image.

The cut along his forearm, blood spurting, didn\'t matter!

He felt invincible!

\'It\'s here... that wound, I can see it now... isn\'t this deep a gash fatal?\'

"Get fucked!" A rare vulgar word came from Raven\'s mouth as he stomped on the crushed rocks, the black blood shooting out like a man\'s pissed when he urinated, while the black chest rolled onto the ground and landed at his feet with a tap.

lightsΝοvel Clink!

\'So I managed to get the chest.... then what? My body is ruined... the blood loss alone is enough to kill me... I remember losing consciousness when finding the mark...\'

Raven whispered, his body still sore and tired, the axe in his hand trembling from hitting the rocks so recklessly, but his face was beaming. He felt over the world, and the sound that made him feel joy sounded.

Then the image showed him looking for the mark, panicking because there was no class...

At that moment, the last creature\'s sharp leg penetrated his back. While holding the strange item, he began to bleed from his mouth... vomiting blood as the leg tore half of his heart from his chest... a mortal wound.

Then, a voice whispered in the darkness.

"Replace your heart with that crystal, and you might still live..." 

It was the original Eve... her eyes looked at him. She also opened her eyes wide before looking away and stepping forward. Her body was a mere phantom, likely coming from the other monolith at the end of the dungeon.

"You will soon die... Place the crystal into your chest and abandon your former self."

\'This...? Is why I always felt an aversion to calling myself Alistair from now on?\'

The scene after was similar to what he imagined; the crystal transformed him into the manticore he is today... but the image of Eve didn\'t watch the body... but the Raven watching like a spectator, his body torn away now hovering like a ghost.

Eve\'s phantom moved closer to the stunned Raven... his mind in chaos discovering that he was just like those creatures formed of rot and decay... Her hands pressed against his cheeks as her eyes closed and began to read through his memories.

"It seems that in the future, you will save me... how strange to see memories of myself and the reincarnation of the man I am sworn to hate making a child together..."

After speaking, she stepped back, smiling at Raven, who felt his existence was a lie.

"Rest easy, darling. You are dead but not dead, alive but not living. The moment you pushed the gem into your chest, you became half of both sides. Do not torture yourself or let that stupid woman hurt you with her half-educated words."

\'Really? I don\'t feel like this is true... those wounds would kill anyone...\'

Evenlyn\'s phantom giggled before wrapping around his body the two spirits slowly dissipating as she whispered into his ear.

"From the start, you were already a manticore, and you just needed a push to awaken your bloodline... that regeneration isn\'t what the crystal gave you. Your body desires to live and activates it. Worry not; you are no imposter nor fake."

"You are what the fakes and real things desire most."

Eve\'s eyes curled into crescent moons, her lips wide open as she smiled brightly, "You can take both paths, the first perfect and natural daemon."

Before he could ask what she meant.... the world began to spiral as his mind was brought back to the dead forest... but it had already started blooming once again with Persha in her living form standing watching him...

It seemed she had observed him closely while he was in a daze, and now she was shocked.

"How can this be? Why are you... What are you!?"

Raven just looked at her and felt his next action would work... somehow it just felt it would.

"I am your Lord. Now Kneel and repent."

Thud!