Sunny was going to go nuclear on this world.
Ever since he started the nightmare, there had not been one, one singular day where he didn't have to fight for his life against nightmarish abominations
And if that wasn't enough, his control over shadows—What was honestly his biggest trump card— was weakening.
'Damnation'
Moreover, as if the world was throughly enjoying his suffering, his [Fated] attribute seemed to be working overtime.
Sunny was currently resting in a cave he found in the wilderness, escaping the notice of predators.
'That attribute, its just like me…A hater, to its very core!!'
Sunny gritted his teeth, munching on a disgusting piece of roasted abomination.
It was night, and sadly, he didn't have anyone to keep guard on him. So, he put a few booby traps near the entrance of the Cave and rested stuck to the ceiling.
Then, he closed his eyes, trying desesperatly to fall asleep.
After a full half an hour, the midget managed to falk into slumber.
What he didn't know, however, was that an entity, far, far stronger than him was covetously eyeing him in the shadows…
———————————————
(Zero POV)
Zero had already dissapeared from the City's plazza, and he was currently sitting in a dark alleyway, listeing to everything his servernt said palpable curiosity.
'Hmh… So they're closely guarding every piece of information on this trial. Its value to the kingdoms must be way, way higher than what I originally gave it credit for.'
Zero pondered softly, then, a resolute gaze appearign on his mask.
"Grimm, let's go!"
Zero stood up and prepared to sign up for the trials, while Grimm was confused.
"Great master, we currently don't have any intel on the it, it is unknown to us. Will we really take a risk so great needlessly."
Zero stopped, and looked at Grimm for a moment, then said:
"Grimm, you must remember, for a tree to grow to the Heaven, it must have its roots go through hell first. If we don't take risks, nothing in this world will come. Its the law of equivalent exchange…"
Then, he paused, before resuming quickly.
"Besides, I got a good feeling on this."
The servant, not daring to refute his master, stood up and immediatly starte
walking behind him.
Right at this moment, however, Pigly (Yes I know you forgot about him)—Who was still hanging by Zero's "hand", Woke up.
He shook off Zero's hand holding him and dropped to the ground , then said:
"So, ya wanna enter the trials?"
Zero simply nodded.
Pilgy paused shortly, seemingly pondering over something. A few moments later, he seemed to have an epiphany, and said:
"Well, Let's go together then!! I always dreamed to be a Knight, successfuly clearing the Trial, becoming a knight revered and look up to by millions, and attaining the summit of this world!! Zero, let's clear the Trials together!"
Pilgy smiled, and reached out his hand to Zero.
Zero also smiled back, took a step, seemingly reaching out for the handshake…
Before he drew his sword and chopped Pilgy's arm clean off.
Zero dashed backwards, while "Pilgy" also did so.
Pilgy looked at Zero, his face full of curiosity, and said:
"How did you know?"
Zero replied without further addo:
"I never told Pilgy my name. That was the thing that got you, kid."
"Pilgy" 's eyes lit up, and said:
"Let's get this over with, little vessel; LET'S MANGLE EACHER OTHEEEERRR!!!!"
Pilgy said with a fanatical look in his eyes, and launched several needles—probably coated in poison— toward Zero.
'This is also good. Didn't I want something to help me test quick focus and Sharp Shadow?'
Zero quickly focused, and indeed, it was much faster than gathering soul normally.
He wasn't sitting idly during all his time sealed.
Zero had discovered that, by focusing first, one can gain an about 3 second window, in which any spell can be cast instantly. And, if one is wiling to spend more Soul, even stronger than a normal one.
The best of opening attacks.
Zero had already decided which spell would be the best in this alleyway.
*VENGEFUL SPIRIT.*
A Vengeful mass of swirling souls bolted through the air and headed straight for the little bug.
"Oh, you're stronger than I thought"
"Pilgy" smiled, then, he did something Zero couldn't have possibly expected.
He dug straight down.
(A/N: This, is minecraft.)
Zero, however, had a trick up his sleeve.
Soul Sense.
He extended a layer of Soul Essence into the nearby space, therefore sensing every bit of information about them.
'Got you.'
Soon enough, Zero had been able to pinpoint "Pilgy"'s location.
And it was right under his feet.
*RUMBLE*
With a resounding crack, the earth beneat Zero 's feet shattered and from it emerged the Assasin.
Normally, the logical decision in that situation is to sidestep and counterattack.
But was Zero ever Logical?
*CLIIINK*
He clashed head on with the Assasin's dagger…
Using his feet.
'WHAT?'
"Pilgy" 's eyes widened as he saw Zero take on his attack with his bare flesh.
Well, that was if you ignored the massive amount of Soul pumped in there.
"Pilgy" tried to fight back, and sidestep, aiming for his "neck" (which was more of the very, very small space between his mask and body."
Zero used the charm he had longed to use.
Sharp Shadow.
Shade dash was already a very convenient spell in his old world, a modification he had personally executed on the normal Spell, "Blink".
Immediatly, Zero's existence started to blur, as if he had half a step into the world of shadows, and dashed at incredible speed toward the attacker.
Contrary to "Pilgy" 's expections, he did no crash into him. Instead, Zero's body dashed through "Pilgy", as tough he was incorporeal and was simply an hallucination his mind had conjured up.
Suddenly, however, Pilgy felt a stinging pain in his inside.
As a trained assasin of the highest order, he immediatly felt what had happened.
His Shadow was hurt.
As one increases through the ranks, the fabric of reality becomes easier and easier to see through.
A human, or any living beign for that matter, was essentially composed of three bodies.
The Body, the Soul, and the Shadow.
To not get into a whole essay about the fabric of existence, we'll just talk about the Shadow.
The Shadow is a construct made from seemingly nothing, and is the most mysteries of the three Essences.
However, we do know that the shadow is inexplicably connected to both the body and the Soul.
If you destroy the Body, the shadow stays, tough it immediatly phases through the fabric of Space and head to somewhere unknown to even the best philosophers of the Kingdom. If you destroy The Soul, the shadow stays, almost unharmed.
But if you destroy the Shadow, both the body and the Soul Shatter.
And in that moment, Zero's "Shadow" didn't attack "Pilgy" 's physical body, as that would hurt the original Pilgy. Instead, it directly phased through both Pilgy's body and Shadow, and hit straight to the imposter's.
The split second it took for the Imposter to realize that his shadow was the one hit by that attack, already ended the fight.
Zero did a U-Turn, and immediatly used a normal dash in the Imposter's direction.
Immediatly, little particles of unknown energy began gathering in the Air, gathering in Zero's blade.
The assasin desesperatly tried to block with his dagger, but it was too late.
*DASH SLASH*
A Devastating slash, seemingly capable of cutting through everything, crashed straight into his feeble weapons.
But the neither the Assassin's strenght nor the sturdiness of his weapons were able to cope with the overwheilming strenght behind Zero's slash.
The Assassin's dagger shattered as the slash then proceded to mangle the soft flesh under the bug's exoskelteon.
The impostor tried to back off and run away, but he immediatly noticed that all strenght seemed to be sapped from his limbs.
'WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING' The impostor thought.
"Pilgy" 's thought slowly turned chaotic and his vision increasingly blurry.
He felt his soul reserves drastically drop as tough they had never existed.
Indeed, with a Zero's nail deep into him, his soul essence reserves were being absorbed at an astonishing speed.
Then, to wrap up the fight, Zero used whatever palm he had to use a technique he hadn't used since he was the Abyss Cult leader.
*THUMP*
Immediatly, he forcefully pumped the bug's body with HIS soul essence, and indeed, he found that the body wasn't connected to only one soul.
Instead, it was connected…To three.
'Three? What?!"
However,He didn't have any time left to ponder on this, so Zero simply pushed out the most bloodthirsty one.
And indeed, the bloodthristy look in Pilgy's eyes dissapeared, replaced by the innocent look of the original pilgy.
*Ba-Thump*
Pilgy's body fell to the ground as he immediatly lost consciousness after gaining back control, mainly due to shock and loss of blood.
Zero breathed a sigh of relief at his decision, he had destroyed the right Soul.
"Grimm" He said in a heavy tone.
After a moment, Grimm appeared from nowhere with a puff of Red smoke.
He kneeled in front of Zero, awaiting Command.
"Get us the fuck out of here, and heal the brat."
Grimm blushed, as if his entire existence rejoice in helping his lord.
"Your commands are my desires, master. I shall accomplish this order at once!!"
Immediatly, the group's bodies vanished as reddish smoke envelopped them. When the smoke cleared out, no one remained at the scene.
Blue bloods and cracks on the ground were the only scars remaining upon the alleyway, telling of the tale that transpired there.
In the shadows of the city, two pitch blac eyes opened simultaneously.
"Indeed, "He" has come."
An ancient voice, full of wisdom and power, filled the entire palace.
The Entity chuckled, as if everything was going according to his expectation.
In the tapestry of fate, it seemed as if an unseen hand was controlling everything from the shadows…
————————
Hellowwww, sorry for late chapter, I kinda had 3 near death experience in the last week lmao.
was really close to killing myself once, yeah its gotten really bad. But nah, I'm not such a loser as to give up on life.
I'll win.
Anyway, hope you liked the chapter. Is the fight scene better? tell me.
I've lowered the treshold for bonus chaps.
30 ps= 1 bonus chapter.
byeeeee, and please comment, it makes me know someone is reading mah shit