"I... accept..."
My voice softly echoed in the empty void, making the shadow's lips stretch apart, turning into an eerie smile that spoke of nothing but joy that hid behind the walls of schemes.
"Very well." The shadow then raised his hand further, slowly bringing it closer to my side before clicking his fingers.
As soon as he did so, a similar dark energy began to slowly crawl onto my body.
"Go, tread the path that they falsely accused you of. Accept the pride you so ignored for countless lifetimes. Become the demon they so feared. Let them face death in their lives."
With that said, the dark energy itself began to dissipate along with me. Within a matter of seconds, I was gone, and the world around me had returned to normal.
With a space-like realm where countless stars resided, the shadow silently gazed below at the countless worlds that sprouted and ended at the same time.
Soon, his body—made up of the dark energy—began to emanate fumes as the energy itself began to dissipate.
Moments before he was about to completely disappear, the last words of the shadow resonated throughout the entirety of the space.
They caused the stars to seal their shine for a brief moment, pausing the flow of time and space itself.
"Let your rage be the fuel to your growth."
***
On the other hand, my vision blurred all of a sudden.
It seemed as though all 5 of my senses had been sealed for a brief amount of time.
Gradually, as time passed, I felt something solid beneath me. As if I were lying on a rock. My neck hung mid-air, causing the muscles to strain and making it harder for me to move.
However, this feeling seemed somewhat familiar.
Lying on a rock, helplessly, while a soft downpour slowly enticed my body into numbness, trying to ease my pain by numbing all his senses.
"Am... I... Back?" I muttered under my breath, my voice barely audible.
With all the remnants of strength left scattered in my body, I forced myself to move. First, I placed my palms onto the wet, slippery rock and tightened my grip on its edges.
Then, I proceeded to raise my body upwards. My whole body shook uncontrollably; however, I succeeded on the very first try.
Although the price I had to pay for exerting such strength was too much for my body to handle.
*Cough!*
After a series of guttural and wet coughs accompanied by blood, I hoarsely gasped for air as a sharp, hot sensation surged through my throat, making it harder for me to breathe.
My eyes—blurred—slowly started to regain their vision, and I saw a color that seemed quite out of place.
Within the darkened image of the greenery of a dense forest, a pitch-black-colored, rectangular shape hovered in the air right before my eyes. On its surface, something was inscribed.
At first, it looked as though I was hallucinating.
However, as my vision slowly returned, the picture only seemed to grow more and more clear.
---
[#~Demon System~#]
└ [Condition - Booting...]
[• Connecting to the host...]
---
"Demon... System?" I mumbled as I glanced at its glass-like surface with my weakened, trembling eyes.
It was only normal for me to be confused, as not once in either of his two lives had he ever seen such a thing before.
Suddenly, the things written on the glass changed.
---
[The Demon System has been booted successfully.]
[Please provide a sample of your blood to initiate the soul-binding process.]
---
"Bl...ood...?" My condition grew worse and worse with every passing second, making it harder for me to breathe.
However, seeing the strange instructions after a dreamlike sequence I had faced while retrieving memories of my past life, I decided to follow them without hesitation.
After all, my one and only goal was to survive.
With trembling hands, I smudged my thumb over the crevice of my mouth, collecting the continuously dripping blood over its tip.
Then, I extended the hand forward, as though trying to touch the glass itself, and pressed my finger against it. Slowly letting it trace down the glass, creating a smudged line of crimson that was barely visible over the black color.
All of a sudden, the screen began to emanate a bright white glow, pulsing through the very center. While bright particles of white light emerged over the traces of my smeared blood.
Fumes rose from the edges of the glass, and all of it began to disintegrate into particles, dissipating altogether into bright white threads, slowly flying towards me.
The threads quickly closed their distance with me and approached my head. Then, as if entering into my very existence, the threads touched the center of my forehead and phased through.
Within the blink of an eye, all such threads were gone, and my body felt unusually warmer. My pain had subsided under its influence.
I could move again.
At the same time, the atmosphere around me began to change dramatically.
Clouds that once bore a soft touch of downpour shifted, colliding into one another as they soon inhabited the mighty wrath of the thunder.
The animals that called the surrounding forest their home suddenly became restless.
Yearning howls, thunderous roars, concerned shrieks—in a matter of seconds, the entire forest felt a wave of unforeseen danger concentrate into a single entity.
The nature, the Earth, and the heavens—the commotion piqued the attention of all, making them look down upon me with concerned looks as they foresaw the seeds of danger sprouting deep within my very existence.
They all concentrated their energies to discard such threats before things could get worse; however, they feared the intervention of a deity that even they together could not outmatch.
A shadow that seemed to be protecting me from somewhere far from their reach.