"Harry!" A knight yelled before being smashed by a large stone. This all happened in a moment yet, Gwydion could see it in slow mention. It kept getting slower. Until everything stopped.
The cries of people stopped and the only thing he could see was his life.
"Gwydion! What are you doing!?" On the verge of death, it is said that one's life flashes right before their eyes.
Gwydion now knew it was true.
"You can't play with fir-! Ma- Magic!?!' He could still vividly remember the first time his mother discovered him playing with magic. He thought it was normal. The fact that he could never tell it wasn't...
"Wow Gwydion you are such a genius!" He was praised and hailed by all in town when he first showed them at the tender age of six his magical prowess. That must have been why they praised him.
"You pick things up quickly huh" But eventually, this praise turned into jealousy...
It started small, but he did eventually get ostracized.
"Don't compare yourself to him, he is too good" In the end, no one was able to appreciate his efforts. No appreciated the nights spent up cooped up in bed reading a book on magic.
They didn't know what it felt like to stay up for three nights trying to find a solution to a problem. What it felt like to have a passion.
"Gwydion, I heard you've joined a royal company" The faces of everyone he ever met, anyone he ever conversed with. Anyone who ever complimented him, anyone who ever complained.
'I don't want to die!' Those memories, those fleeting images that flashed before him, they were a precious testament to his journey.
This yell resounded and in his mind and his mind only for only a moment.
"Urg- Argh" He was promptly skewered by a spear of wind. His robe, the robe he had worn for the past 5 years, the one he received when he first joined the company, was ruined.
Blood dripped onto its clean silver strings. The bloody red tainted his legacy and the gaping hole that had punctured his heart and robe finished his life.
Or that was what was supposed to happen…
[Do you want a second chance?]
Gwydion was not sent to meet the king of hell, nor the mighty god in heaven. He was met by endless darkness. He was left at the hands of a nameless entity.
'I- Do I get a second chance?' Gwydion was skeptical. What did he do to deserve a second chance?
[Don't you have any regrets?]
But the voiceless entity didn't answer. It only asked.
'I- ' Did he have any regrets? Was it possible to live a life without regrets? Did such a perfect being exist?
Gwydion, in his body-less state, frowned inwardly.
What did he regret? To show his passion at such an early age? Or… to not see it through to the end?
If he had to answer, Gwydion would say the latter.
Why would such a genius be nothing more than a part of a royal company in the backwater bosque kingdom? Well, it was somewhat prestigious but…
He was never able to reach the A-class. The peak of the B-class had become his limit. Yet, no matter how many books he read, how much magic he practiced, how many spells he memorized, he could never achieve enough fatality.
His battle strength forever remained at the B-class.
'I- I want to see what's beyond…' He didn't mind that others couldn't see the passion he put in to get where he was, even if some talent was involved. He didn't mind that becoming a genius ostracized him from other children.
'No, I want to see what's beyond!' Gwydion screamed, this time with conviction.
So what if he never made many friends? So what if he never found true love? What mattered was his passion! What did he want to do!? What would he do to achieve it!?! Was he willing to sell his soul!?!
[Forming a contract with Gwydion Hex..]
The answer was clear. His hand twitched.
"νȝω θerδκλiζł áœñδ ùψθôùłò áƒíẓnõχyṭ łƶôåürαȝ" With muddled senses, he could hear the eerie that resounded in the area.
Gwydion was confused. The crazy gibberish seemed to have a soothing effect but more than anything it cleared his mind of any thoughts.
That was at least until he caught notice of something. It was his fellow knights and mages, the comrades he fought hard alongside for the last five years.
'I- I'm alive!' This thought jumped out at him but was quickly suppressed by something stronger. It was something bound to him at a spiritual level.
Gwydion slowly lifted his body off the ground. It was heavy. Like the dead. More importantly. it was injured.
'They are alive' He was dead. The sentence changed and so did the meaning.
'They are alive!' Bloodlust and animosity instantly replaced any rational thoughts. Gwydion's body stumbled straight before with dead lifeless eyes staring at his comrades and starting a chant.
"Gwydion! You are aliv-" One of the mages inside of the circles who had just cast a shield spell turned and asked after acquiring the leisure to look around.
Gwydion, lifted his left hand while mumbling something.
"Gwydion…?" The mage asked before a spell collided with his barrier.
Then, out of Gwydion's hand, a torrent of flames shot straight forward. The mage that was defending against the spells raining from the top was unable to defend himself.
"AAAAAAAH!" He screamed loudly. His face becoming melted and charred. His pained screams were herd by all but answered by none. In the end, he turned to look at his aggressor in the eyes. Their cold lifeless eyes...
Slowly, the mage's body turned to ash as Gwydion's flames began to increase in quantity and heat. The fire grew large enough to envelop his own body and robe.
Yet the flames continued to burn hotter and brighter. Gwydion's body became a resplendent torch. His flesh started to melt and pristine white bone started to reveal itself.
A skeletal figure wearing a silver and green robe was the only thing left inside of the hellfire. It was a lich.
[Gwydion Hex (Lesser Lich)]
{ Boss monster of the unnamed dungeon's third floor. Gwydion used to be a member of the third royal company. }
Ed, whose chanting had stopped, was left agape. The commotion made by the mage he raised up could hardly be missed.
[Requiem has leveled up]
'Wh- There's no way I summoned that thing!?' Ed's requiem skill somehow leveled up and he was simply left dumbfounded. The assessment said that the creature his skill created was a lesser lich and the third-floor boss.
'Maybe…' Usually, the souls would fly towards Ed to be absorbed but the requiem skill would place the soul of the deceased back into their body. Ed wasn't sure how far the dungeon's clutches reached but it seemed anything not claimed by him was fair game.
The soul wasn't taken by Ed and could therefore be used by the dungeon. It was similar to how Ed couldn't command skeletons without inserting their consciousnesses at least once into the system. The souls used by the requiem likely didn't belong to him.
'But this is the chance I've been looking for!' Ed had basically only called dibs and the soul was then snatched from him. Yet, the perpetrator had snatched it to improve and then return it. How could he disparage the dungeon for that? Such a timely assist!
Then, to douse all of Ed's good thoughts. The fire spread by the Gwydion that enveloped his entire body was put out by a flood of water.
Balin stepped down from his stalk and took action alongside other mages and people capable of using the water element to create a large wave attack.
"Is that really Gwydion?" Balin asked himself in disbelief. How was it possible for a dungeon to turn people into boss monsters!?
Balin could only find one answer for this, that anomaly! It all happened after the special skeleton's chant!
He shot the pile of bones a look before suddenly finding himself shaking vigorously.
"An earthquake!" A knight yelled.
Balin was thus able to quickly realize that he wasn't shaking vigorously, it was in fact the ground.
'What the hell is going on here!?!' "What the hell is going on here" Balin and Ed yelled both feeling completely lost.
***
Eon's figure reappeared from a portal. Standing next to him was a man.
"Where should we go now then Brennan…" Eon mumbled before looking at the scenery in front of him. The man was the Bosque Kingdom's king, Brennan Bosque.
In truth, he wasn't actually standing. Eon locked him inside a box made of invisible spatial barriers. That also meant that Eon was talking to himself.
The scenery in front of him was that of a forest. There was also a seemingly normal cave. It was the nameless dungeon.
"They ought to name it death trap…" Eon muttered as he approached the cave alongside Brennan.
He was however stopped by two freedom union members.
"You shouldn't enter. Bosque's king has temporarily claimed the dungeon." That sounded rather tyrannical and indeed it was. Nevertheless, the freedom union was forced to comply with this forceful takeover by Balin and his company.
"Hahahaha" Hearing this, Eon broke out into a burst of jovial laughter.
The two freedom union members were left entirely puzzled.
Suddenly, the space in front of them shifted and the figure of Bosque's king appeared.
"Wh- What!?!" "Space magician!" The two had different reactions.
"This is the king" Eon said solemnly. He also showed them the royal insignia which was plastered all over Brennan's attire.
Both of them peeled their eyes and took in every single symbol. It was the king!
"W- Wait!!!" The union member shouted and unsheathed his weapon. He had been temporarily out of his wits but why would a space magician be carrying a knocked-out cold king into a dungeon?
"Tsk, you young fellas really need to cough get your-" Eon's words then paused. He looked into the dungeon with curiosity. There was a disturbance in the force! ....Of space.
