At last, it was my turn to enter the portal. I was used to the feeling by now. A purple light enveloped gently, and when I opened my eyes again, I found myself in a sowhat...unusual environnt. The sky was purple, and it was raining. Lightning struck down from above, with loud thunders to accompany them.
But perhaps most bizarre of all was the structure in front of - a massive, dieval-style castle, which I could only make out the silhouette of within this howling thunderstorm. Occasionally, I would get a clear look at the castle's true form - whenever the lightning bolts struck down, that is. Nevertheless, seeing as how there was nothing but water behind with no visible land in sight for a good kiloters at the very least, I had no choice but to head inside this grand yet horrifying architecture.
My footsteps were drowned out by the splashing of raindrops hitting hard gravel all around as I walked on the narrow pathway towards the only entrance of the castle - the front. I could deal with the rain and lightning, but these loud ass thunders were starting to irritate .
When I reached the front door, it swung open of its own accord, as if welcoming inside. I smirked. This was clearly no ordinary Gatekeeper, just as I had expected. If I had to guess, I would say this would be another one of the sixteen founders who wanted to et . Though...this is quite the welco, if I do say so myself.
The others who had gone inside before and ca back all claid the Gatekeeper was a werewolf. They never ntioned a dark castle or anything like that. That's how I was so sure this wasn't just a normal Gatekeeper. But...wasn't all this a bit excessive? I an, if they just wanted to talk to , why bother setting up such a huge castle, with such gloomy weather to accompany it?
Well...to each their own, I suppose.
I entered through the now-open entrance, and the mont I did, the doors slamd shut behind . I sighed, having expected this.
Y'know...I liked Aluna and Sigil a lot more. Still, perhaps I can get so information off this guy, whoever he or she is. I hope so, anyway.
Inside the castle, it was dark. So dark, in fact, that I couldn't even see my own two hands if I held them out in front of .
Hm...perhaps, he wanted to test first before talking, to gauge whether or not I was worthy, or if I really did indeed possess special power?
Well, no point hiding anything then, I suppose. Aluna and Sigil already know, anyway, despite denying everything. I was certain of that.
And...maybe it's not a bad thing to show these founders just what I could do. That will make them believe and value more, which I can then in turn take advantage of.
Level One Light Magic - Illumination.
With that, I created an orb of shining white light. It was dazzling. I could see a lot better now, thanks to that. Controlling it so that it hovered above my head, I saw a hallway that led deeper inside the castle. There was no other way to go, so I headed inside without a second thought. It's not like I was escaping this place, anyway.
That being said, I wasn't too scared. I doubted Sigil and Aluna would be very happy if this founder killed here. I definitely wouldn't die, but perhaps I may suffer so injuries, depending on the difficulty of this 'test' he had set down for .
I ventured deeper and deeper.
*****
- A Short While Later -
After a little bit of wandering that seed to bear no fruit whatsoever, I gradually began to get tired.
"Damn it, this place is like a maze..." I muttered.
So far, I have been t with 58 dead ends, 62 death traps, and over a hundred twists and turns in total. Yes, I've been keeping track. If I didn't keep my mind focused on doing sothing simple, I would've lost it by now. The hallways were tight and suffocating, leaving no space to dodge if sothing ca flying at you like a poisoned arrow or sothing.
Yes, I was talking from experience. I can't count the number of tis I nearly got hit. I would've died a long ti ago if it wasn't for my reaction speeds. Rember what I said earlier about this damned founder not killing ? I take that back. He was definitely out to kill , even if not intentionally.
Hm? I hear sothing...
Suddenly stopping my movents, I discretely activated my Third Eye. Directly ahead of , there seed to be a horde of living beings - more specifically, hostile living beings. They didn't seem human, either. I counted.
1...2...10 of them in total. Not too bad. From the size of these dots, I would say they aren't too powerful enemies either.
If this founder thought mobs of this level were going to kill , then he had severely underestimated my power.
Holding my hand out in front of , facing outwards, I cast a spell in my mind.
Level Two Fire Magic - Abomination Flare.
A massive sphere of condensed energy shot out of my palm, blazing with black and red fire. A loud explosion ensued, followed by various high-pitched screams that didn't sound human whatsoever.
I smiled thinly as I watched the red dots via my Third Eye disappear, one by one. Unfortunately, I didn't have a suitable Level Three spell to use in this situation, so I had to use a Level Two one. Rune-type spells had virtually no range and could not be shot from a distance. Prison of Lightning was used to single out one individual tough target, and Electric Lash was out of the question. I couldn't use that thing properly without entering the actual room, after all.
Torrential Downpour could've worked, but I wanted sothing that could just destroy all of them in a single go instead of doing it overti. Flood would end up hitting myself as well given this tight space with even ground, and Gravity Elent spells just weren't suitable for this situation.
Moonlight Beam and Holy Ray had a relatively narrow firing angle, so it wouldn't have been able to wipe out all of them. Similarly, tal Surge couldn't have hit them all, and Reprisal of Sound was similar to the two Light Elent spells in the sense that they all had a narrow firing angle.
Once every one of them had been killed, and the fires extinguished on their own, I walked into the room...and was t with a barrage of poisoned arrows.
Snapping my fingers, I instantly cast a spell.
Level One Ti Magic - Tempus Decel.
The arrows flying toward seed to slow, and I imdiately ducked down to narrowly avoid them. If I didn't have my insta-casting ability there, I would've died.
"Tch...even after the monsters, there's more traps in the sa damned room? What a guy," I muttered in irritation, then walked over to inspect one of the dead monsters' corpses.
That body shape...an ogre of so sort?
But before I could confirm, the bodies dematerialized, turning into shards of light and disappearing. It was like a video ga, almost.
Sighing, I continued onwards. Luckily, there was only one way to go this ti, so no more trial and error.
After that, I had to fight several more groups of mobs, before finally arriving at a large, open chamber.
"Bravo," a man's deep voice said, clapping slowly several tis. "You actually managed to make it here. I suppose that deserves due praise."
"You're...one of the sixteen Founders, I assu?"
"Indeed I am," he replied. "Count Draculus, at your service."
"Count...? A high-ranking Vampire noble?" I murmured.
"Hmph. You are more knowledgeable about the outside world than I expected, human boy."
"Uh...do you hate humans or sothing? What's with the tone?"
"That...is not important. Now, tell about this...power of yours," he said, brushing past my question with ease.
"What power?" I asked, still feigning ignorance.
"Don't play dumb with , kid. I've been living for millennia. I'm not stupid."
He stared straight into my eyes. His irises were a bloody red, much like my own. He also had black hair, just like . The only differences between us were the two fangs jutting out of his mouth.
"Tell - or you won't be leaving here today."
I scoffed. "Empty threats, empty threats. What are you going to do?"
"Kill you."
The man responded with zero hesitation. It was clear he had murdered plenty of people before. That number was sowhere within the thousands, if not millions.
"Sure...you can try," I responded wryly. "But...don't you think the other Founders would be a bit upset if you did?"
The man suddenly beca a swarm of bats before rapidly converging again right in front of . The man glared at dangerously, but I wasn't intimidated in the least. The emotion known as fear had been driven out of my body a long ti ago.
"I'd advise against threatening , boy. If I wanted to kill you now, even if God himself descended upon the mortal realm, he would still not be able to save you."
Despite his tone and gaze filled with killing intent, I smiled. It felt like I was staring at Death itself straight in the face, but perhaps there was just one thing this man misunderstood:
I wasn't afraid of death. Death was afraid of .
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