War's, or rather now Dyon's sword shrunk to his liking. It still kept its broad width, but Dyon shortened it to about a foot and a half. As for its length, Dyon settled for about a meter and a half. It was large for a sword, but perfect in the eyes of Dyon.
'It's lost a bit of its strength since War is now dead. But, it's still as powerful as a Pseudo Treasure of the 33 Heavens.'
Though Dyon knew that weapons of such caliber were actually known as Half Immortal treasures on the Immortal Plane, it was hard to drop what had been a habit in his over century of life.
Without surprise, the creaking of the gears echoed once more as War's doors closed and Conquest slowly opened.
This time, before even exiting, a slew of arrows flew from the door's crack.
Dyon couldn't help but laugh internally.
To now, Conquest hadn't managed to launch even a single attack against him. It seemed that this sentient version of himself knew this and began to use the door to its advantage.
Dyon tapped into Ri's comprehension of void will and dodged to an angle Conquest couldn't aim at through the door's small crack and waited patiently as the white armored knight slowly came into view.
"I –"
"Just die." Dyon cut him off.
As Conquest burst into a shower of blood, Dyon finally relaxed. He hardly noticed, but he had already been in this space for over a year. His heart ached when he thought of how much his wives had suffered. If he had known something like this would happen, he wouldn't have brought them along.
But, remembering their stubborn attitudes, Dyon smiled bitterly. If he had tried to keep them away, would it have worked?
Seeing their perseverance, Dyon's heart couldn't help but bloom with pride. This entire time, not a single one of them had so much as moaned in pain. Having such strong women by his side, how could he not feel content?
'I should give them a treat when we get back… I also haven't seen my little girl in too long…' Dyon sighed. He missed his daughter very much.
'… Hold on…'
Dyon frowned. He had been so lost in thought that he didn't notice that this trial didn't seem to have ended. Shouldn't he be sent back by now?
For the second time in this last year… Dyon suddenly felt a terrible premonition coming on…
The etchings beneath his feet began to glow. As though the grooves were a racing track, the lights sped across, quickly filling the silver lines with a faint crimson color.
The eight pillars began to tremble. As though the last closing of Conquest's golden doors was a sign, the beasts drawn across them began to awaken as though coming to life from a painting.
Dyon slowly turned toward the fourth set of doors… The only ones to not have opened this entire time…
'Why can't I have nice things…' He huffed out a sigh.
An eerie sound filled Dyon's ears.
There was the scrapping of old, ragged clothing against rusted armor. There were the soft steps of worn boots lazily scuffing against the ground. There was light rattling of loosely hanging objects knocking against one another in a dreary, repeated rhythm.
As the figure came into sight, Dyon felt his heart freeze over.
It was a looming, lanky figure standing at two and half meters tall. Its body was draped by a dark grey cloak with numerous holes within it. There even seemed to be a brownish-red substance caked to the bottoms of the figure's frayed cloak edges and soft boots.
lightsΝοvεl ƈοm Its head was covered by a grey helmet, matching the armor hiding its ragged cloak, only revealing two pale blue flames in place where its eyes should have been.
Dyon believed for a moment that the horse it should have had would not be appearing, but then he saw the black chain the looming figure held.
Rattling along its links were skulls of all shapes and sizes… They came as small as what could only come from a premature birth, to as large as a giant's. Yet, nothing was as gruesome as what was only the other end of the long chain…
The first thing Dyon saw was a hoof. However, it wasn't firmly planted on the ground as it should have been. Instead, it lied weakly on its side being dragged along the etched floors.
Soon, the horse came into full view. Its eyes weakly flickered as it laid on its side. The chain wrapped around its neck, pulling it across the ground as though it was already dead.
However, what was the most ghastly was the long vertical slit along its rounded belly. Inner organs spilled outward, festering with a disgusting blue, yellow and green color that completely overshadowed what should have been its lush grey coat.
The smell made one sick to their stomach. For the first time, Dyon felt lucky that he hadn't eaten in the last year.
Soon, Dyon realized that he had been so distracted by the disgusting scene being dragged along by one of the looming figure's hands, that he completely missed what was held in its other… However, soon Dyon understood the reason why he missed it wasn't only because of his negligence, but also because it seemed to meld into the shadows as though it didn't exist at all…
It had a long pole standing at just over three meter long. To one end of it, there was a curved blade so large that it dwarfed even the horse being dragged behind it.
Dyon had swung his fair share of scythes in his lifetime. But this one… this time… it felt like the first he had ever truly seen.
'… I want it.'
Dyon's gaze didn't have the fear one should have had when facing Death. He only felt that something within him suddenly clicked, something he had been looking for his whole life.
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