◈ 208. [Side Story] Darkness
“Damian.”
A voice is heard.
“Damian, wake up!”
A longing voice is heard
Damian slowly opened his eyes. The blurred vision became clearer, and I saw the old ceiling, where the dusty sunlight was dripping.
Fluffy blankets and the smell of boiling milk. The creaky bed and the cold wind coming through the windows that didn’t close tightly.
‘uh?’
This was the orphanage where I grew up as a child.
As Damian slowly raised his upper body, the girl sitting on Damian’s bed put her index finger on her lips and made a low shh sound.
“You were supposed to go up to the top of the back mountain with me today! Didn’t you forget?”
It was a girl with short hair like a boy’s.
Tanned skin and light scratches on both cheeks. Long, thin limbs and a playful mischievous smile.
Rubbing his sleepy eyes, Damian smiled at the girl.
“I’m sorry, Van. I overslept.”
“It’s okay, it’s okay. I came to wake you up knowing this would happen.”
Whoops! The girl-van, who had lifted her ass off the bed with a noise and stood up, held out her hand to Damian.
“Now, let’s sneak out before the director finds out.”
Half smiled broadly.
“This time, we’re going to make it all the way to the top!”
“… … huh!”
Damian smiled shyly and reached out his hand to hold the class’s hand.
But the moment Damian joins Van’s hand.
thud! Kugu Palace… … !
The surrounding landscape has changed completely.
This was a crumbling forward base. It was the battlefield that I was brought to as soon as I was first deployed to the Crossroads.
Soldiers were screaming and collapsing on all sides, and cannons and monsters roared all around.
Damian looked around blankly.
Black spiders with glowing red compound eyes were gathering around him, who was dressed in priestly clothes covered in blood before he knew it.
One of the spiders brandished its claws ferociously. But Damian was tired and couldn’t move.
“Damian, avoid!”
Then someone rushed in and pushed Damian’s body back.
In Damian’s blankly opened eyes, he could see Ban’s face pushing away and grinning.
“As expected, I have to take care of you… … .”
hooked! Fu-wook! Pooh-!
With a terrible sound, Van’s body was hacked to pieces. Damian screamed.
“half! No dear!”
Damian knelt down to Van, who was drowning in a puddle of blood. Ban grinned as she coughed up blood.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. you know me It’s Invincible Van… … About this much, it doesn’t hurt… … .”
The spiders’ claws tore Van’s body apart without mercy.
The leather breastplate and chain mail she wore were smashed to no avail.
“No, no, no… … .”
The bones were clearly visible and the intestines spilled out. Damian managed to hold back his sobs and tried to use healing magic next to such a class.
“I’ll fix it, Van. i can fix it Hold on a little.”
However, the mana did not gather.
He had already used healing magic to the point of exhaustion.
I didn’t have the magic left to heal the most precious person because I was treating others.
“Please, Van. I’ll fix it. So please… … !”
Damian’s hand, which was sobbing and muttering, was slowly grasped by Van’s hand covered in blood.
“Damian.”
With a face crushed by the monster’s claws, half smiled.
“Do you remember the day we climbed to the top of the mountain behind the orphanage?”
“… … huh. remember. Of course I remember. How can I forget?”
“Don’t forget the promise back then.”
“But, Van, if I don’t have you… … .”
Damian tried to answer, but half stopped breathing.
He calmly closed his eyes and lowered his smiling head.
“… … half?”
The warmth in Van’s hands disappeared in an instant. Damian stared blankly down at her dead friend’s face.
And- everything stopped.
The screaming spider monsters, the exploding gunpowder sparks, the blood that flowed from Van’s wounds, the tears that flowed from Damian’s face. Everyone is.
Only then did Damian realize.
this is a nightmare
It is a memory of the past that has already passed, that cannot be changed or touched.
“Olop!”
An angry cry escaped from Damian’s mouth.
“Are you doing it again… … !”
Then, the corpse of Ban, who had closed his eyes peacefully, opened his eyes quickly. An evil voice leaked from her bloodstained mouth.
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“It’s always too late to notice. Damien.”
“Don’t talk with your mouth! Get out of my head right now!”
“You are talking strangely.”
Ban’s corpse stood upright in its place, bending its bloodied body grotesquely.
“I’m the class, Damian.”
“Stop talking nonsense! You’re not half, you spider monster!”
Damian covered his tear-stained face with both hands and screamed.
“Leave half alone! I mean, let me rest in peace… … !”
《Whether I am an Orlop or a half, what difference does it make?》
The corpse of Van, who stumbled closer, whispered in Damian’s ear.
《- You killed them both anyway?》
From the face he covered with his hands, Damian’s brown eyes flashed open.
As Damian stretched his hand out to the right, a long horse gun was grabbed and lifted. It was [Black Queen]. Damian thrust the muzzle forward.
Clap!
Damien’s horse gun was aimed at Orlop’s forehead in the shape of a half.
“There’s only one way to stop this nightmare, you know?”
Half, no, Orlop, the Black Spider Queen, was smiling leisurely whether or not.
《Give up fighting me and run away to a peaceful dream.》
Damian tried to ram the magic bullet right into the monster’s forehead, but-
“… … !”
It couldn’t be.
At some point, the surroundings were changed back to the orphanage of childhood. And Damien’s gun was aimed at half of his childhood.
“Give up fighting. Damian. Let’s run away together.”
Smiling sadly, Van whispered.
“Then you can live happily here.”
***
“Damian!”
Hearing the shout in front of his eyes, Damian suddenly opened his eyes.
The scenery of the collapsed outpost, the orphanage of my childhood, the corpses of half the dead, the smiles of the young half, and Orlop’s voice are gone.
A bright sunny morning. It was the temple of the Crossroads.
The white stone walls around were destroyed, and Damian held the black queen in his hand.
Damian looked around, dumbfounded. He didn’t understand why he was standing here.
“Calm down, Damian.”
The gun in Damian’s hand was aimed precisely at the man in front of him – Ash.
However, Ash did not panic at all and calmly raised his voice.
“It’s me, it’s me. ash. Can you find out?”
“Prince… … sir?”
“Yes, it is me. It’s okay, so calm down and put the gun down.”
Damian hesitantly lowered the magic gun in his hand. Then a sigh of relief poured out all around him.
When Damian looked around, the party members were pointing at him with their respective weapons.
“I am… … .”
Not understanding the current situation, Damian stuttered.
“What have you done?”
Ash gave a puzzled smile.
***
I brought Damian to my mansion once.
After wrapping Damien with a blanket in the drawing room and giving him a cup of hot cocoa. I explained to Damian what had happened.
This morning. The black aura emanating from Damian and the magic gun [Black Queen] became so thick that it even leaked out of Damian’s room.
When the priests entered Damian’s room because they were worried, a black aura covered Damian’s sleeping body, and he wielded a horse gun as if he was sleepwalking and went wild.
If I left it alone, it would cause a big accident, so I and the party members who were hastily summoned tried to subdue Damian.
But fortunately, at the last moment, Damian woke up on his own and the situation calmed down.
“… … .”
“Damian.”
I gave a soft voice to Damian, who looked down at the cup of cocoa with a confused expression.
“Are you okay? Aren’t you overworked, tired, or something like that?”
“… … Prince.”
“It’s okay to be honest with me. know?”
Damian, who had been still with his lips bitten and his eyes closed, stammered to open his mouth.
“I have nightmares every night these days.”
“nightmare?”
“I dream of the most painful moment in my life. However, I cannot tell them apart. Is it a dream or reality?”
“… … .”
“The story that I had a friend named Ban, I told you before.”
I nodded.
In the tutorial stage, you said you were a friend who died saving Damian.
“Seeing half die… … keep watching In a dream, half die, die, and die again. Save me, and be torn apart horribly… … .”
“… … .”
“And I just stare helplessly.”
Damian’s head bowed deeper.
“When you’ve been so afflicted all night and your heart is in tatters, Orlop appears.”
“If it’s an Orlop… … .”
“It’s the monster queen in this horse gun.”
The Black Spider Queen we killed in the tutorial stage. Her name was Orlop.
“Olop suggests. If you give up fighting yourself, I promise to send you back as the most beautiful memory… … .”
Damien’s hands shaking the cup of cocoa.
“Then I show you the happiest memories of my childhood, my life. In that dream, everything was peaceful and warm… … And half of them are alive… … I am at a loss.”
“… … .”
“But if I don’t surrender, that dream will end soon, and I’ll go back to that day at the outpost. And half die right in front of your eyes. Continue… … .”
You were going through this kind of mental torture.
I looked at Damian with a pitiful gaze.
‘As expected, the cause… … .’
[Black Queen].
I glanced at the magic gun placed at Damian’s feet.
It must be because of the option opened this time for this Nightmare Slayer.
– Orlop’s Hunger: The user is consumed by nightmares, revealing their inner darkness. The darkness dissipates when the user wins the battle for supremacy with the nightmare. If defeated, you will be completely consumed by darkness.
It seems to be in the middle of that ‘battle for initiative’.
I thought I would just radiate a dark aura, show some symptoms of secondary illness, and solve it on my own, but I never thought I would have gone through such a difficult situation.
“Damian, why don’t we just dispose of that horse gun?”
No matter how good the equipment is, Damian with [Clairsight] is much more precious.
When I spoke carefully, Damian waved his hand in amazement.
“Oh, don’t do that! I am… … . I must! I will overcome it, Prince.”
“but… … .”
“Really. I’m confident. I am not weak enough to give in to these nightmares!”
No, I was weak.
Didn’t I almost get eaten by that nightmare halfway today? That’s why he lost control of his body and went on a rampage.
“to me… … Give me a chance.”
Damian begged earnestly.
“This is my nightmare, my darkness. therefore… … I will be able to solve it.”
“… … .”
“A chance to sort out the memories with my class… … Give it to me, Prince.”
It was the first time I had seen Damian speak so earnestly, so I nodded my head involuntarily and gave my permission.
“okay. But, Damian, keep in mind. If something like today happens one more time, I’ll confiscate your gun immediately. got it?”
Damian’s face brightened.
“Yes, Prince! Please trust me. Kkeuk… … .”
You seem to have found some composure. Seeing that the middle school 2nd bottle smile that I couldn’t adapt to was shed again.
Damian hurriedly swallowed the remaining cocoa and quickly picked up the [Black Queen] and stood up.
“I-I’m going to go! Sorry for bothering you today!”
Then, he runs out of the mansion in a hurry. Holding the horse gun in my arms.
“… … .”
I clicked my tongue as I watched the black aura slowly spread out after Damian.
If Damian can overcome that ‘darkness’, it will be an opportunity for Damian to grow, but if he can’t, the risk is too great.
If you’re thinking about attacking, it’s only right to discard the [Black Queen].
but… … .
– Give me half back. my friend… … I want it back… … .
When I first met Damian during the tutorial stage, I remembered what Damian had said to me while crying.
Also, when I was going through the dungeon ‘Road of the Losers’, I remembered what Damian muttered after receiving a cursed mental attack in the underground passage.
– I’m sorry, Van. I’m sorry. sorry for being alive I was wrong. therefore… … .
“… … .”
Damian is a cheat character.
It is the strongest trump card I have that will carry this game to the end.
But at the same time, he is also a fragile and ordinary boy.
I want Damian to be happy. I hope you can let go of past regrets and guilt, and be able to forgive yourself.
And to do that, you have to learn to face the past.
‘Cheer up, Damian.’
I decided to trust Damian’s own judgment. Damian decided to believe in himself that he could overcome the darkness.
And I hoped that this process would help Damien’s mental growth.
… … And it didn’t take long before I realized that this judgment was a mistake.
