**Get used to your life. It won't change for you. The past won't return. Your life will continue, it won't suddenly become paradise.**
[System Notification: Level Up!]
I ripped open the corpse's chest before me and found a transparent stone. It was colorless, shapeless, and perfectly round.
The moment I touched it, something strange happened.
My body convulsed, and a foreign sensation washed over me. Numbness spread through my limbs, and I felt my strength draining away. It was as if my body had become an empty vessel, devoid of everything.
Suddenly, energy surged through me, threatening to tear me apart. The intensity was overwhelming, and I lost consciousness.
[System Notification: Level Up!]
[System Notification: Level Up!]
[System Notification: Level Up!]
[System Notification: Level Up!]
[System Notification: Level Up!]
Darkness enveloped me. There was nothing else, just an endless abyss of shadows.
Where am I? Why this suffocating darkness?
Am I dead again?
Why does darkness always mark my end?
I'm not afraid of the dark. My life has been one long night, and darkness is my only companion.
But this darkness...
It's terrifying.
Terrifying.
Suddenly, a vast green field materialized before me. Giant trees descended from the sky, and the darkness transformed into a breathtaking landscape.
Then, blood appeared. So much blood. And with it, people. Wherever blood flowed, there were people.
Soldiers with swords.
A fierce battle raged, with monstrous creatures, demons, and humans locked in a chaotic struggle. It was a war of all against all, a bloody spectacle of death and destruction. I watched, a smile spreading across my face. The sight of carnage filled me with euphoria.
I tried to summon my sword, eager to join the fray. Power... I didn't know who would fall by my hand, or why this battle was being fought. But I wanted to be a part of it.
I wanted their blood to mingle because of me, their souls to be intertwined in hell.
But the sword wouldn't come. Nothing happened.
I reached out to touch one of the combatants, but my hand passed through him as if he were a ghost.
I sat down, watching the slaughter with growing boredom. People died left and right, but it no longer thrilled me.
Then, everything changed. A new force entered the battleground.
A dragon soared through the air, carrying a young man with pale skin and long hair. He was strikingly handsome, radiating an aura of power. But he was a hybrid, with the ears of a demon and the body of a human.
In his hand, he held a round jewel, colorless and shapeless.
He smiled, and behind him marched 200,000 warriors, clad in black robes and wielding massive swords. Their aura was strange, yet distinct and powerful.
As they approached the battlefield, the warriors suddenly dropped their weapons. The war, on the verge of exploding, came to a standstill. But strangest of all, the soldiers fell to their knees, weeping.
I walked over to one of them and looked into his eyes. I recognized that look—the look of death.
Suddenly, the soldier grabbed his sword and plunged it into his heart.
Why would he kill himself? Many others followed suit, too many to count.
Yet, the expression on the king's face remained unchanged.
I spotted a young man who hadn't taken his own life yet. His face was contorted in shock and confusion.
A voice whispered beside him, "Kill yourself quickly."
"Why?"
"It's... it's Darius. Do you want to be impaled and die a dishonorable death?"
After speaking, the old man stabbed himself and died peacefully.
The young man hesitated, sword in hand. But when he saw the impalement stakes and the bodies hanging from them, he dropped his weapon and ran.
A grotesque figure, as if it had been there all along, appeared before him. It struck the young man on the head, dragged him to a stake, and impaled him.
The impalement was slow and agonizing.
I looked at Darius, into his eyes. Where did he get such arrogance and evil?
As I focused on him, everything around me vanished.
And there he was, standing before me.
Darius, the one who made powerful armies surrender with a single glance, who made soldiers kill themselves out of fear.
The one whose expression remained unchanged after slaughtering countless humans and monsters.
He was right in front of me.
I smiled.
A wide, wicked smile.
I love facing the strong, I love bringing them to their knees. No one deserves to be above me.
He looked at my hand and said, "Your hand is very dirty."
I met his gaze with the intensity of a predator eyeing its prey.
"Not dirtier than your soul, or mine."
He laughed, and I laughed with him. It was one of the rare moments when I laughed from the heart.
"You are truly worthy of becoming the Chosen One. We shall meet again."
With that, he vanished, along with everything else. It was as if he had never existed.
I opened my eyes.
And saw something strange...
The corpses on the stakes were waking up, their eyesopening.
They were right in front of me.