Conqueror Of The Dark Soul

Chapter 15 - The Nightmare

Darbend grips Alden's head tightly. His right hand, shrouded in dark shadows, slowly releases alternating black and white energies.

"...How is it?" the man asks.

Darbend furrows his brow, "Nothing." Slightly disappointed with the result, Darbend turns back to the patiently waiting red dragon, behaving like a loyal dog.

"I see no connection between him and this woman, so do as you please with him," Darbend remarks.

The man smiles satisfactorily. Then, he embraces Alden again, "Did you hear that? You're my toy now."

"I'll take this woman to the Dark Lord; let's use her as bait to lure Allen out."

"That person must be eliminated before attempting anything harmful to the Dark Lord," Darbend adds.

The man nods with a smile on his face. His red eyes wrinkle for a moment after Darbend leaves them.

With only the two of them remaining, the man releases Alden and sits on a large rock, looking at Alden with curiosity.

At this point, Alden avoids looking into the man's eyes or even at his face. He turns his face away and doesn't dare to lift his gaze.

"This way, no suspicion will arise against you," the man says.

He then holds his chin, "Hmmm, are you really Allen The Fate? Your appearance tells me it might be true, but the Dark Soul energy around you is too weak..."

"Tell him everything; there's no use hiding something from that man," Black Orb suggests.

"My name is Alden; Allen is my father's name," Alden casually replies.

Immediately, Alden narrates almost the entire story to the man in front of him, including how his father, Allen, used mysterious magic to erase his destiny from the world. Of course, since Alden narrates from his own perspective, some truths are left untold. For example, Alden doesn't mention the existence of Black Orb, which currently houses the soul of Allen The Fate.

The man stares in disbelief, covering his mouth and suppressing laughter. "You must be joking..." he says after adjusting his posture a bit.

Alden, seeing no additional reaction from him, continues to remain silent.

"...?" Seeing Alden not showing any additional reactions, he stands up and looks at Alden incredulously. "Are you serious?"

The man smiles oddly, saying, "Well, people can change sometimes. But Allen The Fate betraying the Dark Lord for his family? Ugh, I think doomsday is imminent." The man gradually changes his expression. Although Alden doesn't see it directly.

"Why are you helping me?" Alden asks.

When the man found him hiding behind the tree, Darbend's ridden dragon also saw him. However, the man came and implanted nightmares in his memory through the power of his gaze. Manipulating his memories to make Darbend unable to read his true memories.

"I mistakenly thought you were Allen..." The man exerts a strong pressure just through his gaze.

"I didn't expect it to be like this..." He folds his hands on his chest.

"Alden, say this to him," Black Orb suggests. At that moment, Black Orb provides a sentence that Alden doesn't understand. It is in the language of the Dark Dimension. Although the tone and pronunciation are a bit strange, it seems that the man understands it well.

It's proven when his eyes widen, a smile appears on his face, and he laughs immediately. "Alright! I'll help you as much as I can to become stronger. In return, you will help me overthrow the Dark Lord, agreed?"

Alden furrows his brow, although he doesn't understand what Black Orb ordered him to say to the man, Alden feels like he just made a deal with a demon. Although this might be a good opportunity considering Alden also has goals that are at least somewhat aligned.

"You don't have a choice," Black Orb informs Alden.

Alden nods to the man. Then, his eyes lift slightly, and he dares to glance at the man in front of him. He takes a deep breath before asking, "What will happen to my mother?"

Actually, he already knows the outline of what will happen to Zenith. Black Orb has informed him long before all of this happened.

"Oh, that woman. I think she'll be confined in the Golden Cage. As long as Allen doesn't show up, she'll be fine. The Dark Lord needs her to lure Allen."

"Oh, now I understand! The Dark Lord must have already known about the changes happening to Allen. That's why he ordered us to find and kill him." The man smiles proudly upon realizing that he knows something.

"Anyway, Allen has the word 'Fate' in his name; he will be a formidable opponent even for the Dark Lord..." Alden only hears the man muttering endlessly. At least, he manages to glean some information from the man's words.

"Alright, what will you do next?" The man asks.

Alden thinks for a moment; his goal is clear—to become stronger. But the methods are not so abundant. At that moment, Black Orb suddenly says to Alden, "You must enter the Dark Dimension."

Alden conveys the same thing to the man in front of him.

The red-eyed man nods slowly, then smiles at Alden. "Good, let me know when you're on the third floor."

Alden just frowns.

"In that case, what will you do next?" The man looks at Alden with a penetrating gaze.

Alden smiles awkwardly, "I've already said-" As Alden speaks, the man interrupts.

"I mean about the current situation." As the man speaks, he stretches both his hands, and a strong wind blows debris from the buildings.

Alden adjusts his posture to withstand the impact of the strong wind.

Alden looks up and immediately understands the source of the strong wind.

"Let me tell you, I won't help you right now," the man says indifferently.

The man steps back a few steps as ear-piercing roars are heard.

A silver dragon is flying above him. Alden grits his teeth; he almost forgot that the city is in chaos.

Alden's initial plan was as follows: observe the figure of Emperor, in this case, Darbend The Eclipse. The primary goal of this action is to increase the Dark Dimension energy limit that he can utilize. Essentially, the pressure given by the Emperor is much greater than sensing Dark Dimension energy from ordinary Dark Souls. He never expected this peculiar person to find him.

He has been using magic to reduce the aura of his presence. He uses this magic almost constantly; it has become his habit to avoid detection by powerful adversaries.

The silver dragon flaps its wings, creating a very strong wind. Alden focuses on the creature, realizing that the man has disappeared.

It's at this moment that Alden begins to notice. Screams, explosions, the sounds of guardians fighting in the distance, at the center of Virshire.

It's the same feeling as he experienced years ago.

"Alden!"

As he sinks into dark memories, a faint voice begins to buzz in his ears.

"Alden! Focus!" Black Orb is giving a warning.

Alden regains his focus. "Damn, just a moment ago, I successfully ignored this..." He clicks his tongue while rapidly reciting a spell.

"Ice Field!"

Using the flexibility of the ice field, Alden manages to reduce the impact of the strong wind on him. However, the blue-eyed giant creature in the air immediately turns and flies towards Alden.

"Alden, don't think about fighting that. You have to get out of here," Black Orb warns.

"I know," Alden replies irritably.

"What about uncle Luth?"

"He's not supposed to die here, don't worry," Said Black Orb.

Alden made up his mind to believe that.