6 Chapter 6: The Black Emblem

Hey Guys,

I don't try to promote my patron or anything like that, and I don't lock chapters behind a paywall. When I finish a Volume, I put it on Amazon. I feel like this is fair for everyone. I'd rather a $3 charge for a whole book, then a $5 charge for extra chapters written over the course of a couple of months.

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Once again, I am asking for reviews on other stories. If you want a copy, please DM me and I'll send you the ebook file for review on Amazon.

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The shadow that was the immortal Amarath materialized something resembling a hand as an incorporeal arm reached forward and tore the jagged rock out of Luca's leg. It would not suit its designs for a permanent physical flaw to develop in the one it had chosen to be its vassal. A vassal to use as it manipulated the outcome of the Genesis Game. With no further need for a body, Amarath dematerialized into black mists.

In the trance-like state, the boy had fallen into Luca noticed nothing. A moan of brief agony escaped his lips as the stone spike was removed from where it had been embedded in his leg. But even this pain was not enough to awaken him from his deep slumber. The sound of ripping and tearing of Luca's flesh was replaced by the sound of kneading skin and muscle fiber as the wound rapidly healed, completely unhindered by the presence of the foreign object. In this, Luca had been lucky. The healing magic of the World Dungeon was not absolute. Permanent flaws could occur if the healing was interfered with. When the restoration was complete, the boy collapsed on the ground asleep.

Luca slept a deep and dark sleep. The sleep that comes to those who have teetered on the very edge of death. The sleep for those who have stood on the precipice between life and abyss that follows and somehow survived. A sleep that creeps like a thief in the night, visiting the sickly and infirm, the young and the old. The sleep of the lost, broken things set loose to wander in the world in suffering. The sleep of the damned.

Amarath's presence was thick around the boy examining him. The immortal could tell Luca's psyche had been heavily damaged. Probing through the boy's chaotic memories, Amarath could see Luca's mind had begun to warp. Traumatized from the ordeal of losing his father. Tormented from being trapped with the rotting body in his helpless, crippled state for days and nights. The very edges of Luca's mind had begun to fray, partially shattered by being cast by those who had saved him into the endless void that was the entrance of the World Dungeon.

"No young one, this will not do." Whispered Amarth, seeing the one who was to be his thrall was already nearly a breaking point. Swirling and condensing around Luca's ear, the otherworldly shadow whispered dark desires directly into the heart and soul of the boy. Manipulating and twisting the lines between good and evil. Replacing the very core of the boy's being until all that remained was the drive for survival at any cost and an insatiable need for power. With that drive, the survival of the boy's mind was assured. If Amarath could smile, he would have. The shadow stopped and resumed observing content with his meddling, the visions of Luca's dreams readily revealed to him.

A low thrum of energy began to reverberate throughout the ground as the very essence of the otherworldly being that was Amarath was set into the core of the boy and began corrupting him. A glow of a profane crimson circle appearing under Luca, channeling him with the energy of the dark shadow.

"And now for my blessing, young one." Whispered Amarath as all but one of the shadows that comprised his current form retreating rapidly from the boy, removing themselves from Luca's unconscious body and the places within his consciousness they had embedded themselves. The sole remaining shadow drew the energy of the cave into itself, amplified through the power of the crimson circle as the dark shadow began to slowly solidify. The sole remaining portion of Amarath shifting, changing, taking on the hue of glossed black obsidian, and formed into a black emblem with Angel Wings.

As it laid across Luca's chest, the obsidian emblem of Angel wings began oscillating with dark energy as the boy's skin surrounding the emblem started to burn, the skin smoldering clear to the bone. His blood boiling in his veins. The black obsidian carving its way through the hole it had created in Luca's skin and embedded itself deep in the boy's chest, partially merging with his heart. The horrible wound started to rapidly heal as the skin grew back, obscuring what had transpassed and what the boy had been through.

As for Luca, all of the dark dreams Amarath had set into motion came to a halt. In pure agony, he woke up screaming. Unknowing what was going on, all Luca could do was beg for mercy, not for the first time that day, and though he asked, none came. For him, there would be no relief or respite. Only the corrupted whispers of the tainted dark offered any comfort, though Luca did not recognize it.

Anger coursed through his veins as Luca screamed in accusation, an accusation against everyone who had left him behind, and everyone who had failed him. "Why me!? What did I do to deserve this?" Answer me. Oh my god. Please somebody help me? What did I do to deserve this?" Though Luca screamed, he would never get an answer, an answer he had no expectation of receiving. Realizing as he did that he was truly alone. Help would never come for him. As Luca's screaming echoed throughout the cave system, he found it did nothing to quell his anger. Slumping over, Luca slammed his fists into the ground. Luca didn't consciously notice in his flirtation with insanity that the rocks cracked beneath the force of the blow.

From deeper inside the cavern, the dark entity Amarath lurked. Away from the ability of the boy to notice its presence. Watching and waiting to see what the boy's reaction would be to his new reality. The Shadow's attention was drawn by the boy's presumptuous posturing. Let me introduce myself then. Amarath appeared as swirling shadows collapsing in on each other, building bonds of sinew and muscle from the bonded void. Forming a gigantic arm that reached out at an incredible speed and clutched the boy by the neck, lifting the boy off the ground. The pressure threatening to burst Luca's organs and grind his bones to dust, but even then, Luca did not respond with tears. Instead, the boy starred back in a furious rage. The shadow knew the change had been successful. The child bore his mark and was already beginning to change.

The shadow spoke in a domineering voice that demanded silence and instant attention, lest further interruption invite annihilation. "Hush child, for I am Calamity and the Ruin. I am the immortal Amarath. I am the judgment of all men. Both trial and tribulation. I have chosen you to be an instrument by which I test them. On my behalf, you will be their ordeal. A disaster to break upon them, yours is a dark destiny. It is you who will be the iron they sharpen themselves against so that there may finally be an end to this."

In confusion, Luca did not know how to respond, and for a moment, he thought he was going to be overwhelmed by fear but somehow was able to maintain his composure and asked of the entity that held him as calmly as he could. "Am I going to die?"

"No, child." Answered Amarath. "You are to live. You are to survive. The Genesis Game has already started, and the many players line the board. It is time for you to join it if you but say yes and accept the power that has already been granted you."

"What do I have to do?" Asked Luca, his fear abating as he considered the offer extended by Amarath, the offer tempted him.

"Accept what your eyes see, and choose what is in front of you." Replied the Darkness as it set the boy down on the ground, knowing that things were fundamentally about to change for the boy forever.

Blinking in recovery, Luca saw the visage of a screen over his eyes, obscuring his vision as words and numbers appeared. Is this screen what the shadow meant by accepting and saying yes?

Notification: Quest Unlocked – The Chosen of Amarath

Details: The Dark Deity known as Amarath has chosen you to be his vassal, a type of pledged servant during The Genesis Game.

Conditions: Willingly Select Yes

Reward: Legendary Class - Unlocked

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Reward: Racial Change

Notification: Acceptance Status

Do you accept? Yes/No

Luca did as he had been instructed and led to do by Amarath. He didn't question the reality of the prompt he saw before his eyes, choosing to accept what he saw as real. It hardly would make sense for me to draw the line here at what I can believe in, not after everything I've seen and been through. Reading over the text, Luca frowned at the wording. On an instinctual level, Luca knew that whether he liked the terms or not, whether he really understood the implications or not, saying no was not an option. Luca knew if he said no, the immortal monster in the dark would kill him without hestitation, if not thrust upon him some ghastlier fate. In his heart, something else had appeared. It was not quite courage, but something else altogether. Luca possessed an overwhelming desire to live and a desire to accept the power this deal would bring him. He mentally selected yes, and the screens quickly disappeared, replaced by another.

Notification: Affirmation of Choice

Details: Have you been coerced into acceptance?

Yes/No

The way this screen was worded made Luca second guess his choice a bit, but he had already made up his mind and quickly selected No to the question of coercion. The answer was clearly yes, but the semantics didn't matter. He wanted this deal to happen.

Notification: Quest Updated – The Chosen of Amarath

Reward: Legendary Class Granted: Angel of Death

Racial Change: Nephilim

The last notification lingered for just a few moments. As soon as it vanished, Luca doubled over in pain as more energy pulsed from within the obsidian colored emblem that was embedded beneath his flesh. The force exerted by the emblem tore the skin from Luca's body as Luca clenched his fists in refusal to acknowledge the pain. Luca's limbs stretching as his body was remade into something else altogether.

All around Luca, the darkness and its shadows began to disappear as Luca felt the sensation of being transported to somewhere else, though still within the same plane of existence, the inner realm of the World Dungeon. Yet, before Amarath faded completely, it spoke one last thing. "Upon thee child, I give a new name. You are to be Seraph, and I charge you to complete this dungeon and seize for yourself the Altar of the End. Then and only then will you find the insatiable hunger that for the power that gnaws at you even now satisfied. Survive, you are to become the sum of all men."

Even as his body was wracked with pain, he still understood the words more as a mental instruction than as a sound. With nothing further said, Luca, collapsed on the ground as his body changed. Writhing around on his belly, unable to respond. He passed out as the tip of black wings erupted through the skin near his shoulder blades and began to grow.