Chapter 404 The Horrors That Lurk In Darkness

'...Go!' He thought.

Vrrrrrrrrrrrr

Beyond the flash of the volatile release, there was no explosive reaction; as he looked forward, he instead found the sphere to be caught within a boundless darkness–the very essence of the being he fought. It seemed as though the entity could not be touched; an intangible void that siphoned the erupting heat before his eyes.

'It's...absorbing the explosion? That much power?' He thought.

A darkness too transcendent, too deep, and too dense to be sucked in by the miniature black hole's pull; it was a black hole itself that was the very essence of the entity's being, tearing away the all-out attack that Emilio tried to bring it down with.

'...This is...' He thought.

As his hand touched the true body of Darkness, it slipped right through as if he was reaching through a boundary of shadows, finding no visible depths to it. It wasn't that he intended to touch it, but he was being pulled in, overcome with a weightlessness as he found himself slipping into the entity's own void body.

"Nnngh...!"

Realizing he was about to slip into an unknown abyss of horrors he didn't dare to confront, he tried resisting, but the scales that armored his body were torn from his skin, siphoned into the shadows. Any manifestation of mana or magic was made futile, as that mystical force itself was eaten away by the darkness as he found half of his body engulfed into its boundless interior.

'I have to get out...! How?!' He thought.

As a last ditch effort, finding no obvious solution to this unwinnable situation, he activated the dormant aspect within his right eye, forsaking a small portion of his life as he peered into the complete truth before him–

Nothing.

The vision that usually showed him endless paths, boundless information that was invisible to the naked eye, was unable to find any solution in the dreadful abyss.

'There's...no way out? This is it...?' He questioned.

As a primal fear swirled in the pits of his stomach, feeling himself slip more and more in, he suddenly found himself stopped.

"Huh?"

He wasn't falling any deeper, instead feeling something gripping onto his ankles just before his feet would've been absorbed into the entity's abyssal body.

As he looked back, he could only faintly see the figure that had stopped his dreaded fate through the veil of abundant darkness; the bloodied, bruised-and-battered woman with silver-hair was gripping his ankles, straining herself as she fought against the pull of Darkness.

"Excelsior...?!" He realized.

"I've...gotcha!"

The silver-haired woman seemed to be too exhausted to invoke the amber-armored stage she was in before, only summoning the third stage as the pearly-white covering manifested over her body. It was enough, though, as the boost in strength gave her the edge needed to pull Emilio out from the pull of the void.

It was a jarring feeling to be yanked from the abyssal depths, falling back onto the shallow water and coughing out. There was a chill that ran over his body like a sheet of ice, having experienced the cold embrace of darkness unlike any other. Still, there was no time to ponder what he had just experienced as the enemy was still before him.

"Thought so. You're just like Ash-boy, in that regard," Excelsior chuckled.

"I'm not letting you die, not until I have the answers I need...And, well, it's nice having somebody I can talk to about Earth," Emilio admitted.

"Getting soft on me in the heat of battle?"

"No."

The two were forced to jump to the side as a shattering wind pierced through the shadows, rippling like a silent, sonic boom. It was the most troublesome part about facing "Darkness" for Emilio, finding himself constantly on edge as he kept all his senses fired up at one-hundred-and-twenty percent at all times.

'None of its attacks have any sort of "giveaway"--I can't see or hear it, it only comes through the darkness out of nowhere!' He thought.

An ominous rumbling stretched through the darkened domain; the low, depthless sea rippled and swished about at the unseen, unknown force. Though both of the Reincarnators were aware it meant nothing good was coming.

The two had the same idea in that moment, left ignorant of what was coming as total darkness shrouded their vision: light!

"Claidheamh Soluis!" Excelsior invoked.

Standing tall despite her body being covered in bruises and lacerations, the silver-haired, stalwart woman raised her right hand, allowing a mythical sword to emerge from nothingness that birthed itself with a supreme light.

'Nice!' Emilio realized.

As he stood close to Excelsior as she held the glowing sword upward, producing a vast glow that was overpowering the shadows, yet not intrusive on one's eyes, the rumbling suddenly stopped. With the emergence of light into the abyssal, underground seal, what inhabited the darkness was now seen; an overwhelming sight that made the blood of the two, experienced combatants run cold in that moment.

All around them, lurking in the shadows, were monstrosities of all shapes and sizes; some smiling with human teeth, and some bearing saliva-slick, razor sharp teeth. Many of these unknown creatures of the shadows were colossal, looming over the two, yet keeping some distance from the direct range of the light.

'What...is this? Where did all of them come from?' He thought.

"...This is bad..." Excelsior quietly whispered to him.

He stepped behind the woman, keeping his back to hers as he watched behind her, looking up at squid-like monsters that towered over him, amidst slug entities that produced foul odors.

"Going to cut loose again?" Excelsior asked.

"As best as I can," he answered.

BA-DUMP. BA-DUMP...BA-DUMP.

Drawing in a breath and stoking that flame within him wasn't enough; the exhausted state of his body didn't allow the scaled armor to protect him, only allowing him to reach a minimal stage:

[Dragonheart System Activated]

[Current Stage: 2/10 | Dragon Son]

As he gripped his sword tightly in the metallic fingers of his right hand, he slapped his left hand against his chest, using a quick burst of healing magic in an unorthodox way. The pulsation of life energy provided him with an effect similar to adrenaline.

'There's no question that these things came from Darkness. Horrific as they may be, I doubt they're anywhere near as tough as the one who brought them in. I'll test that theory–now,' he decided.