The stone floor beneath my feet felt increasingly cold and damp as we descended the spiral staircase into the palace's subterranean depths. The magic torches mounted on the walls flickered violently every time I passed, as if the flames themselves were trying to recoil from the aura of darkness I radiated.
Behind me, Elena's breathing sounded heavy. The black chain wrapped around her neck occasionally clinked softly as it struck the narrow stone walls. I could sense her deepening despair, but I felt something else through the [Eye of Abyss] mark on her hand: a cocktail of terror laced with a growing, morbid curiosity.
"You know, Elena," I said without turning back, my voice echoing through the cramped corridor. "In my world, places like this usually house a secret boss guarding legendary treasures. But here, I only smell dust and the raw fear of your people."
"This vault... has been sealed for three hundred years," she replied quietly, her voice hoarse from the humiliation she endured in the dining hall. "Only the pure bloodline of Solstheim can open it. My father gave you the key because he knew... you aren't something that can be stopped by iron doors."
We arrived before a massive gate forged from black metal, engraved with an image of an angel clutching a human heart. So ironic. So... satirical.
I extended my hand. Not to insert the physical key King Alaric had provided, but to feel the flow of mana across its surface.
Thump.
My heart seemed to stop for a fraction of a second.
This vibration. This frequency. I recognized it. This wasn't the natural mana of this world—which felt raw and wild. This was Source Code. It was structured, orderly, and cold energy—exactly like the energy that flowed through the digital veins of my game character.
"Open," I commanded.
Elena stepped forward with trembling hands. She let her blood drip into a basin at the center of the gate. A dim blue light began to crawl through the engravings, and with a heavy, rumbling groan, the massive gate slowly ground open.
Cold vapor spilled out of the room, blanketing the floor. As the mist thinned, my eyes immediately locked onto an altar in the center of the room. There, inside a glass tube protected by dozens of layered magic barriers, sat a very familiar object.
A pitch-black cloak with silver thread accents that seemed to move like smoke.
"That... The Shroud of Eternal Night?" I whispered.
"You know it?" Elena stared at me, eyes wide. "That is a relic of the 'Calamity Sorcerer' who nearly annihilated this continent a thousand years ago, according to our legends. No one can touch it without rotting instantly."
I laughed. This time, the laughter sounded more sincere, fueled by an overflowing sense of joy.
I walked straight through the protective magic circles. As my foot stepped across the boundary of the ward, the ancient security system reacted. Bolts of white holy lightning struck my body, attempting to reject my very existence.
[Notification: 'Holy Smite' attack detected.]
[Status: Immune.]
[Reason: Credit Score -9,999,999,999 exceeds the system's 'Evil Tolerance' threshold.]
I only had to wave my hand, and the magic circles—considered sacred by this kingdom—shattered into pieces like glass struck by a hammer. I reached the glass tube and smashed it with a single, light blow.
The moment my hand touched the fabric of the cloak, a system window I had sorely missed appeared in a blinding gold color.
[Item Identified: 'The Tyrant's Regalia - Part 1']
[Original Owner: Mikhael (Server: World Disaster)]
[Status: Locked (Requires Soul Synchronization).]
"So it's true..." I murmured, stroking the cold fabric. "This world isn't just some foreign land. It's a place where my game data has become a distorted reality."
The cloak slowly drifted up and wrapped itself around my body, merging with the white robes I wore. My holy white color was slowly overtaken by a terrifying gradient of smoky black. I could feel my Defense and Magic Power stats skyrocketing.
"What are you doing?!" Elena screamed, backing away until her back hit the gate wall. "You... you're merging with that cursed thing?"
"Cursed?" I turned to look at her. Now, my aura wasn't just terrifying; it was suffocating. "To you, this might be a curse. But to me, this is a missing piece of myself. This is proof that I won't just rule this world—I will reclaim everything that was meant to be mine."
I scanned the vault. Besides the cloak, there were many other weapons and artifacts. But my eyes landed on a short sword lying in the corner, rusted and seemingly useless.
However, in my vision, that sword radiated a sharp, piercing purple light.
[Item Identified: 'Fragment of Harpe - The Lesser Key']
I picked up the rusted sword. The moment my fingers brushed it, the rust flaked away, revealing a cylindrical blade that spun slowly, engraved with ancient symbols glowing purple.
This wasn't the original Harpe—the sword that severs space—but it was one of its fragments. A "Lesser" version I had once bought at a secret auction for millions of gold in the game.
"This world..." I stared at the blade in my hand with a bloodthirsty smile. "It turns out to be much more fun than I thought. If one tiny kingdom like this keeps two parts of my World Ender set, imagine what lies in the great empires out there."
I walked over to Elena, who had slumped weakly to the floor. I gripped her chin, forcing her to look at the new sword in my hand.
"You summoned a hero to stop a disaster, Elena. But you've been keeping the ingredients to create an apocalypse right beneath your bedrooms."
I yanked her chain, forcing her to her feet. "We're done here. Tell your father: tomorrow morning we depart for the Holy Kingdom of Lumina. I hear they possess the 'Crown of Life.' I want to see if that crown looks good while I'm crushing it."
"You're insane..." Elena whispered, tears beginning to flow. "Lumina has an army of angels... you will die there."
"An army of angels?" I brought my face close to hers, the scent of death from my new cloak enveloping her. "I am Mikhael, the very 'Angel' you summoned yourselves. Let's see if their 'angels' can hold out when I rain down weapons from the hell of my world upon them."
I dragged her out of the basement vault. Tonight, Solstheim had fallen. Tomorrow, the entire world would begin to feel the tremors of my footsteps.