I stared at the young Victor as he committed the murders. No matter how many times I relived this moment, I never found any guilt in my actions.
It was necessary.
It was survival.
Then, without warning, the ground beneath me dissolved Into Liqiud.
The wooden floor of my parents home melted away, replaced by something cold, wet alive.
A thick, black liquid swallowed my feet, its surface still and glass-like, reflecting a warped version of myself.
The world around me bled of color, fading into a stifling, grey void. The air thickened, pressing against my chest, suffocating to Breath In.
And then came the stench.
The reek of decay, heavy and cloying, saturated the air. A thick fog slithered in, curling around my limbs, stealing the warmth from my skin.
Then a hand burst from the liquid below From Me.
Dead, Bloated, Cold.
It clamped onto my ankle, its grip ironclad.
I jerked back, but another surfaced, then another.
Fingers rotting, peeling, bone white clawed at my legs, While They head Have Hole Bleeding Black Blood, dragging me deeper into the abyss.
And then I saw them, The faces.
Half eaten by rot, stripped of flesh, eyeless sockets stared at me with silent accusations.
My past , My sins, They were all The ones I had killed.
Among them I Saw Those Monster, my mother and father.
Their necks sagged where the wounds had festered, the flesh barely clinging to their broken bodies.
They did not speak, but their mouths moved, forming words I could not hear.
More and more corpses surfaced, hundreds of them, their lifeless eyes fixed on me.
And then they whispered.
"Why did you do it?"
"Was it worth it?"
"Do you feel nothing?"
Their voices layered over one after another, rising, screeching, a deafening sound of guilt and regret.
And behind them, something else moved.
It Was a monstrosity towered over the sea of the dead.
Ten eyes bulging, bloodshot blinked independently, their crimson irises glowing like dying embers.
A Crown of dark flames curled around its grotesque form.
Its five spindly legs, each ending in curved claws, twitched with restless hunger.
Twelve arms, grotesque and mismatched some human, some ending in jagged pincers, rusted hooks and Dark Chain stretched toward Him with sickening eagerness.
Shackles bound its grotesque form to the rotting sea, rusted chains rattling with every movement.
I recognize who he was , It Was "Mephistopheles, The Architect of Temptation."
A Demon King.
A character from the light first being.
In the game, he had been a minor villain, a creature of illusions, preying on the weak, Then The player Defeat Him And Seal Him In old grimoire.
But here, in this nightmare of corruption and decay, he was so much more after all It Kinda is His land .
I clenched my fists.
I knew what this was.
This was an illusion, a manifestation of the corruption trying to sink its claws into me, With The slight bit of fear Will fuel Him.
I should have been dead stabbed, left for dead.
But I wasn't, after all the corruption was still taking root.
That Mean 'I'm still alive' I thought To Myself.
I had seen this happen before, countless times In The Game.
Desperate souls, lured by power, grasping at cursed artifacts whispers creeping into their thoughts, feeding on their fears, breaking them piece by piece.
And Then Take Them Over.
The Game Was using Him as a stepping stone.
As The Demon Faction Is One Of The Many Faction Of The Chaos Faction.
In The Game The Demon faction Rank are:
[Demon God
Demon emperor
Demon seer
Demon King
Demon Duke
Demon count
Demon viscount
Demon Baron]
Despite Him being a Demon King, He actually can't Even Defeat a Demon Baron in a direct Fight.
But Illusion demons like Mephistopheles are particularly dangerous not because of their physical might, but because of their ability to twist reality and prey on the mind.
They slowly weaken slowly Untill You started losing Your life force Then They will devour You.
I knew these visions, these grotesque Are manifestations of What The demon Think is my deepest fears, were intricately connected to the corruption seeping into my soul.
But I was not like them, I had no regrets, No fear.
To defeat an illusion demon, the key is simple in theory but excruciating in practice: resist. Resist the nightmares they conjure. Resist the fear they feed on.
I took a step forward. The hands of the dead trembled.
"If you think these memories, these echoes of my past, will break me," I said, voice low, cold, "you are deeply mistaken."
My eyes burned into the demon's, unwavering.
"Every decision I made, every life I took , I do not regret them, I Never Will, As Every decision I Made In my Life ,They were for my own satisfaction, my own benefit, And I would do It All again." Victor Said coldly.
Mephistopheles' many eyes narrowed. His form shifted, his spindly limbs tensing.
"Ah, but you lie," he purred, his voice slithering over me like oil. "You wish for a different past. A better family. You wish you hadn't been forced to such extremes."
His lips curled into a knowing grin.
"I see the regret festering inside you, the longing for a life unburdened by darkness."
I met his gaze without hesitation.
"You may be right, I Want a better Family, I want Warmth." I admitted, voice sharp as a blade.
"But I do not regret ending my tormenter."
"If I could go back, knowing what I know now ,I would do it again, And AGAIN." I stepped closer, my voice a growl. "I would kill them a thousand times over If I CAN."
The demon flinched, His illusion started To slowly cracked.
He had expected fear, Remorse Or Even Regret Like The Human He Trick before Him.
But all he found was a man hollowed out by his own resolve.
I took another step, The dead let go, Their whispers died in the suffocating silence.
"How did you think an empty husk like me would react to this?" I sneered, my words slicing through the illusion like steel.
With each Of My Word, The illusion began to Creak, As small shard Of This World Started breaking Off.
Victor Stand Before The Chain Demon King, His Head raise High Looking at The Demon King Like He Is some sort Pest.
"Do better, you mere demon." Victor said Looking Down on Mephistopheles.
The world around them shattered, shards of reality coalescing into blinding fragments of light, forming back reality.
The fog. The abyss. The grasping hands. Gone.
Mephistopheles' form dissolved, his many eyes burning with fury.
"We will meet again, Victor," he hissed, his voice a venomous whisper curling around my mind.
"And next time I will break YOU!!."
I smirked, watching as his form crumbled.
"Sure you will."
Those were the last words I spoke before the world around me
The corruption still lingered, its tendrils coiling within me, whispering. Waiting For It Time.
But for now
I felt relive That I wasn't Taking over by Mephistopheles.
I had actually won My First Battle In This World.
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