After scouting for half an hour I faced the first enemy. It stood about 100 meters away from me. It seemed it hadn't noticed me yet, especially since I was wearing my armor and cloak.
"Hmm? This monster is a bit strange."
I enhanced my vision as I looked at it.
It looked like a naked human with no facial features or external organs, walking slowly with its back hunched. Its skin was completely gray like the surrounding world. Its hands were scythes resembling a mantis. It trembled from time to time as if it were a broken robot. The strange thing about it was the white flowers growing from its body — they glowed beautifully and enchantingly.
I felt an urge to pluck those flowers, smell their perfume, and keep them like a kind of treasure.
"Fu*k — these flowers are affecting my mind. Does it have mind-control ability?!"
I spoke in terror upon realizing the nature of the flowers. The realization made me shiver with fear; after all, they affected me even though I was wearing level-8 armor resistant to mental attacks.
While I was thinking about the flowers' nature, the monster stopped moving and then bent its head backwards at an impossible angle.
Yes — that bastard didn't turn around. It bent backward and stared at me. It didn't even have a face, but I felt its gaze pierce my soul.
After staring at me for seconds it straightened up, then turned and started running toward me at insane speed.
"It's coming."
I entered ready stance and materialized a sword in my hand from nothing. The Crimson Requiem blade shone as if it craved blood — for the first time in countless years.
When the monster reached ten meters it lunged at me with an explosive force, swinging its right scythe with all its might.
Clang!
I blocked the strike with my sword but was pushed back by its massive strength. I felt like I'd hit a truck driving at full speed.
The monster raised its left scythe to attack me again, but its hand stopped midway.
Chains of darkness wrapped around its arm, stopping the attack. Before it could react, more chains appeared and bound all its limbs.
The monster trembled as it tried to break the chains, but I wouldn't give it a chance.
"Die, you ugly abomination!"
I shouted, swinging to cut his neck, but before my blade reached the target the white flowers moved
My instinct screamed to flee. I leapt back as fast as I could — in the next moment the monster's belly exploded and thorny vines shot out, aimed at my previous spot.
"Damn, you only get uglier."
I said in cold sweat, feeling death close. Well, I wouldn't die, but that didn't mean I wanted my body pierced by cursed plants.
The many vines struck the dark chains and destroyed them.
The monster freed itself and attacked immediately, throwing everything it had.
'Fu*k, I can't block its attack — or the strange vines will attack me. My only hope is to kill it from a distance.'
I thought and summoned three dark spears aimed at its feet, heart, and brain.
But the vines moved like whips and destroy all the spears while the monster did not stop.
'Looks like I have to engage it in close combat. Oh? This might work.'
I summoned my darkness and covered the ground beneath me until a three-meter-diameter circle formed.
The monster reached me — it tried to cut me with both arms but stopped because probes emerged from the darkness.
The vines moved trying to hit me and free the monster at the same time, but I made a wall of darkness in front of me that blocked the vines.
Before the monster could react dozens of dark probes appeared and restrained it in place.
I jumped back and stepped out of the dark circle whose edges rose until it resembled a dome.
'Darkness doesn't devour living things, but I'm not planning to feed it a living target.'
I thought as I ordered the dome to emit thorny spears from its walls to stab the monster inside.
The dome trembled a little, then after seconds I canceled the summon and waited for the results of my attack.
As I expected, the monster was pierced in many places, but no blood came out of its body. Its muscles twitched a little, then it fell to the ground.
I approached cautiously to make sure it was dead. I looked at the white flowers that had withered and died as well.
"It seems it's actually dead."
I manifested hands of darkness and lifted the creature's body to inspect it.
"It's disgusting very disgusting. But this is weird — the vines fill its body. Are the vines its ability or some kind of parasite?"
I thought disgustedly while trying to gather information about it.
"They told us to eat monsters to survive, but I'd rather die than eat this thing."
I ordered the darkness to devour the creature's body and felt my energy recover.
I discovered this ability after training with darkness — apparently devouring things restores part of my endurance and serves as an alternative to thirst and hunger. It's a amazing ability.
I summoned my sheath and strapped it to the left of my waist. The sheath was black too with an engraving of a crimson crescent the color of blood.
"Better to have the sword at hand — it takes time to appear if I summon it."
I said calmly as I continued walking.
"Since I encountered a monster on this path, it means I'm on the right track, hmm? Wait — shouldn't the status say I killed the monster? But I devoured its corpse entirely and nothing happened."
I said confused, trying to understand the strange situation.
"Does this mean the monster was dead from the start? Is it possible the flower is some parasite controlling the corpse? But that doesn't explain why no kill notification appeared for the flower at least."
I couldn't figure out what happened, so I decided to postpone the matter until I gather more information.
.....
After three hours
'This is strange. I've been here for over three hours but I only encountered monsters with the same terrifying white flowers. I killed them all, of course, but no status screen announced their deaths — which means they were dead from the start.'
I thought worriedly as I failed to learn anything useful about the nature of this gray world.
'They're supposed to be dead, but I couldn't devour them directly with my darkness. Does that mean they're not dead? But that's impossible because they're not alive unless...'
My body trembled with fear and cold sweat slid down my face.
'Unless the bodies are dead but the flowers are alive. Maybe the flowers belong to one monster's ability, so no kill notification appears because I can't kill an enemy's ability in the first place. But this idea is terrifying — what's the core monster's power that can control all these monsters, especially from a distance?'
I placed my hand on my chin and thought deeply about the nature of this monster.
"Hah, there's no use figuring out something this difficult. I'll just hope we don't meet that monster."
I sighed in disappointment and decided to continue my path. I saw a small mountain, so I would climb it and get a better view of the area.
"I wonder if any of the others died. It's unlikely that Elena died, but I don't know the others' abilities precisely."
I reached the base of the mountain thinking about different things.
"It seems the height is a bit over 700 meters. Okay, I don't like heights much. I'm not afraid, I just don't like them."
I talked to myself like an idiot and started climbing the mountain slowly.
Climbing was easy — all I needed was to form chains around my body and turn their edges into small blades that pierced the ground; that way I ascended the mountain quickly.
When I reached the summit my jaw dropped in astonishment.
"You must be kidding."
I muttered as I tried to deny the scene before me.
Far away there was an island floating in the air a thousand meters above the ground. What was astonishing was a giant silver castle on the island that made you feel it belonged to gods themselves.
At the far right there were ruins of damaged buildings — maybe once a small town where people lived happily.
But what made Nox feel terror was the number of monsters that came into view.
"Hundreds, thousands of monsters, and my vision didn't fail me — all those monsters have white flowers. Does this mean the world is under the mercy of a single monster?"
I felt dread thinking about it, but reality was harsh: we are in a world ruled by a single monster with absolute power.
"I don't want to think pessimistically, but this monster is at least level seven, maybe six. How are we supposed to kill it? True, I'm immortal, but this is worse. What if this monster controls me?? That means it would have an immortal puppet that doesn't die. If it escapes into the world it would cause an unprecedented catastrophe."
I took a deep breath and forced myself to control my emotions.
'Now what should I do? Obviously the silver palace is the way out, but even an idiot knows it's impossible to reach easily. I also need to find Elena as fast as possible.'
I thought of my next plan, worried about Elena's fate — she wouldn't survive if she found herself among those monsters.
"Ah, for now let's stay here and see if there are signs of others?!"
Before I finished, I noticed a light shooting from the direction of the buildings. I didn't need to think about its source — no one else could have that power except Elena.
I boosted my legs and dashed with all my strength toward Elena. The cloak helped hide me from the monsters' detection so reaching was relatively easier.
'Don't you dare die, girl.'
I thought as I increased my speed. I need at least half an hour to get there.
Let's hope the situation isn't bad.
.....