Axley heard a voice in his head, but he was in no condition to pay attention to whatever the voice was saying. The black miasma seems to have tripled as it blasts across the place like a raging wind, and Axley's endless miserable cry resounded throughout the mountain areas.
After a while, the black miasma finally dispersed, revealing Axley hanging there without moving. His head was slumped low with blood gushing out from his mouth and nose.
"Hahahaha... finally," the man laughed.
He brought his index finger close to Axley's nose, but there was no sign of breathing at all. The smile on his face vanished, and his face turned ugly.
"What!!" He screamed in shock.
He quickly placed his left palm on his chest, and his palm glowed with a white light.
The Divine Essence traveled through Axley's entire body and dispersed. The man retracted his hand, and his brows furrowed in confusion.
"His heart had stopped beating? How is that possible? I thought..." He gazed at Axley, hanging on the wooden pole with his hair fallen over his face.
The man closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he clenched his fist with anger and disappointment oozing out of him.
"I was close. I could feel it. I was so close this time," the man lamented as his body trembled in rage. He suddenly slammed his palm on the table close to him in frustration.
"Bang!"
The table shattered into pieces; not even a single piece was left standing.
He turned and looked at the soldiers with a grim look on his face.
"Dispose of the bodies," he said and walked a few steps ahead before disappearing into thin air.
"You bastard, why did you die? At least you would have endured to the end," one of the soldiers said and spat on Axley, feeling extremely irritated.
"Tsk…" another clicked his tongue in annoyance. "I can't believe I will be staying in this godforsaken place for the next one year... damnit!" The man stomped his foot in anger. The rest of the soldiers too began to complain.
They released the dead bodies and loaded the corpses in a cart. Axley was brought down, and his body was tossed into the cart as well. The soldiers pushed the rusty cart, and it cracked forward, down the mountain slopes.
After some minutes, the soldiers arrived at the barren land with jagged rocks and boulders jutting out from the ground. There was a dense amount of fog drifting through the air, making it difficult for one to see properly.
The cart finally came to a halt in front of a wildly dug trench, and the vultures feeding on the rotten corpses in the pit flew away.
The soldier's face twisted in disgust as the horrible smell of the place rushed through his nostrils.
They began to throw the corpses into the pit. After they were done, they left the place to get the remaining ones.
Inside Axley's subconscious mind, he saw himself falling into an endless dark abyss. A tear slid down his eye, and his heart was filled with regret.
'Why?... Why should I die because someone wanted me to? Why should there be people who trample on others lives and call themselves gods? Is this what they call fate? No, I refuse to believe in fate.'
Axley lamented in misery. Even though he knew there was nothing he could do at this moment, but the tremor, regret, and resentment in his heart were terrifying.
He closed his eyes as he continued to plummet down the endless void.
"Rumble!"
Axley suddenly heard a rumbling sound. He opened his eyes, but there was still nothing he could see. Everything around him was pitch-black, and he couldn't even see himself.
[ Eternal Darkness Awakening ]
A voice rang out in the void; black runes appeared in front of him and began connecting to each other. Axley narrowed his gaze at the strange runes.
[ Eternal Darkness Awakened ]
[Condition Met] ⊱≽ Heart consumed by vengeance.
[Condition Met] ⊱≽Soul rejected by Death.
[Condition Met] ⊱≽ 18 Years of Agony endured.
[The God of darkness has been reborn]
[Son of darkness, embrace the darkness]
An ancient voice rang in his mind.
"Hun... embrace the darkness?" Axley muttered.
"Even death is making mockery of me. Fine, whatever. Hahhahah..." He let out a silly laughter. Just then, his body suddenly came to a stop, and he stopped falling. His upper body slowly pivoted up, and he felt a strong force pulling him upwards.
"Whoosh!!"
Axley felt the buzzing sound of the wind rush past his ears as he ascended upward, as if something was pulling him out of the abyss.
A blinding white light suddenly shone in the darkness; Axley closed his eyes, and everything around him turned white.
......
In the pit, where the corpses were dumped. A hand suddenly emerged from the pile of corpses. The land trembled, and the corpses burst out with a loud bang, throwing other dead bodies all around the place. Axley's body emerged and floated in the midair, surrounded by a dark aura that was flowing out from the corpses in the pit and rushing into his body with an intense speed.
His left arm twisted and fixed its back into alignment.
"Crack!"
His two legs twisted unnaturally before fixing back into their normal position.
"Crack!"
His neck cracked left, right, back and forth before finally merging properly.
Within some minutes, the corpses in the pit turned to skeletons with no single flesh left on them as his body finally absorbed their essence.
His body slowly descended, and he landed on his feet like someone who is possessed. The dark aura latched from his legs, connecting to the ground and holding him in place. The dark thread seeped into the wound on his chest, repairing his flesh and healed his wounds.
Axley stood there with his hands loosely hanging on his shoulders. His legs buckled with no strength in them, and his head slumped low with his hair fallen over his face.
Two soldiers arrived to dump the remaining corpse. They saw a figure standing beside the pit in the midst of the fog without moving.
"What is that?" One asked as he stopped the cart.
The second soldier narrowed his gaze at the silhouette in the distance.
"Did one of them wake up?" he asked and looked at his colleague.
"Bullshit!" His colleague shouted. "How is that even possible?"
"Hey...who are you!?" The second soldier said out loud. But there was no response from the figure. Axley's back was facing them, and coupled with the thick fog drifting all over the place. It was really difficult to see properly.
When the figure didn't reply, the second soldier clicked his tongue in irritation.
"Let's go and see who's that son of a bitch!" He said to his colleague and began to walk towards the figure.
His colleague pushed the cart forward again, and they moved towards the pit.
"How dare you ignore me, you filthy slave?" The second soldier said as he approached Axley from behind. He drew out his sword and stabbed it right through Axley from behind.
"Shank!"
The blade of the sword pierced through his back and emerged out of his chest. Right then, the dark aura oozed out from his body and consumed the sword to nothingness. The soldier quickly let go of the sword and backed away from him. The wound inflicted by the sword slowly healed up immediately.
"You coward, you can't even finish off a corpse." The first soldier pushing the cart mocked.
"Gho...gho...ghost..." The second soldier trembled in fear and quickly ran back to his colleague.
"Ghost, you said? They is nothing like ghosts. "Fine, just watch, let me show you how to kill a ghost," the first soldier said and began to walk towards Axley with his sword drawn out.
The runs appeared in front of Axley again.
[ Life force: 0.10 ]
[You're in a terrible condition－Eternal Darkness autonomy awakened ]
Axley's head suddenly jacked up, and his eyes flashed with a strange light. His body turned with a cracking sound as the dark aura took control of his body. Axley took a step forward; his body suddenly vanished and appeared right before the first soldier.
Axley's hand, made of dark aura, extended unnaturally and shot towards the man. Before the man could even react, his fingers pierced through his chest, ripped off his heart from his body, and emerged from behind.
He tightly clenched his fingers and crushed the man's heart in his hand.
"Splash!"
Blood bursted out and spread all around.
The dark aura retracted from the man's body, leaving a hole in his chest. Blood pumped out, and the man trembled before his body collapsed on the ground.
The second soldier had his eyes popping out from their sockets in shock and his body trembling in terror. Just as he turned to make a run for his life. Axley appeared before him like a ghost and grabbed his head with his two hands.
"Ahhhhh!!"
The man screamed in horror as he felt his skull crushing under the pressure, and blood began to rush out from his eyes and nose.
"Gruuuaah!"
Axley growled like a monster and squashed his head.
"Splash!"
The man's body collapsed on the ground with blood spraying out like a shower.
The dark aura around him slowly dissipated, and Axley seemed to have come back to his senses.
"I'm alive?" he muttered. Axley narrowed his gaze at the dark aura enveloping his right hand.
"What is this?"
Right then, black runes appeared in front of him.
Name: [ Axley ]
True Name: [ Prince of the Abyssal Void ]
Race: Human (Corrupt Soul)
Rank: Hollow
Soul Core: －
Manifestation: －
Attributes: [Son of Darkness] [Resentment]
Life Force: 1
Soul Vessel: 0
[ You have killed low-rank imperial soldiers and gained 1 life force. Take their souls to gain a Soul vessel ]
Axley furrowed his brows; he didn't understand what was happening to him. He instinctively reached out his hand, and a transparent image of those soldiers rose from their bodies and disappeared into his own body.
[ Soul vessel: 2 ]
"What is this, and who are you?" Axley asked.
[ I'm the Eternal Darkness, from the last soul fragment of the god of darkness, and you have been found worthy to carry on my legacy ]
Axley stared at the runs in front of him with an uncertain expression on his face.
[Beware!: Your physical body is 90% damaged. In order to survive, you're required to kill and gain a life force or die ] the ancient voice rang in his mind.