Am I in a children's horror film?
God, I despise horror films. I live my life surrounded by blood and killing — cheap tricks like these have never once stirred fear in me. A pale woman with wild white hair materializing suddenly before the hero? If anyone dared pull that stunt on me, I'd separate her foolish head from her shoulders before she could blink.
Why do the audiences always scream? It's obviously just a mentally disturbed woman. They shouldn't fear her — they should make her the one trembling.
But...
What was the deal with those corpses? Why did they stand there without moving — not a single twitch, not a single breath? I moved between them, brushing past still limbs and rotting shoulders, and not one of them shifted an inch.
A single word crossed my mind.
"Inspect."
┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│ DARK CORPSE — STATUS │
├─────────────────────────────────┤
│ Level : 40 │
│ Job : Soldier of the │
│ Dark Army │
├─────────────────────────────────┤
│ Note : Level can be raised │
└─────────────────────────────────┘
I noticed it then — their hollow eyes weren't fixed on me. They were locked onto the jewel in my hand, drawn to it like moths to a dying flame.
The conclusion came quickly: this was the Fate Jewel they followed. Their master. Their anchor.
So before anything else, I slipped it into my Inner Domain.
The moment I did, my chest lurched — a violent shudder of pain, then a flood of energy washing through every vein in my body. It wasn't pleasant. It felt like something ancient had just taken notice of me.
A notification appeared. Its color was a faded, washed-out red — but the energy radiating from its border was anything but faint.
▶ You now possess a Sacred Tool of the King of Kings ◀ 「 Pearl of Fate 」 ▶ Dark Army — Learned ◀ 「 Using this ability, you may command the Dark Army and store them within yourself. 」
A condition. Of course there's a condition.
"Would you like to know the condition?"
I thought the word: Yes.
"You require another Sacred Tool of the King of Kings to store the army within yourself."
"A scan will be conducted to determine whether you already possess one. Do you consent?"
Yes.
A pause — brief, but heavy with the sensation that something was reading me from the inside out. Then:
"You already possess the required tool.
You may now store the Dark Army within your Inner Domain and summon them at will."
The notification dissolved.
I thought: Dark Army.
┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ DARK ARMY │
├──────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Capacity : 60,000 │
│ Possessed : 0 │
│ Controlled: 35 Dark Corpses │
├──────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Every level gained increases │
│ capacity by 2,000 soldiers │
│ │
│ Soldiers can be leveled up │
│ using your own experience │
│ │
│ Absorb army into Inner Domain │
│ using the word: "Absorb" │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘
Sixty thousand.
I let that number sit for a moment. Sixty thousand soldiers — hollow-eyed, unfeeling, unafraid of death because death was already what they were.
I looked at the corpses standing before me and whispered, "Absorb."
The graveyard answered.
The ground lurched beneath my feet with a violence I hadn't expected — not a tremor, not a rumble, but a full convulsion, as if the earth itself was heaving something out of its chest. Dirt rained from the ceiling. Stone cracked along the walls. The staircase above me groaned.
The whole place is coming down.
I didn't think. I ran — taking the stairs two at a time, boots slamming against crumbling stone, one hand braced against the wall as chunks of rock split loose around me. There was no room for strategy. No room for thought. Just the door above me and the collapsing darkness below.
When I reached the top, the door was already buckling — water pressing hard against it from the other side, the wood warping, the frame splitting at its hinges.
"Energy Shield."
The door exploded inward.
The water hit the shield like a wall of solid force — and held. I felt it immediately: the shield was stronger than before. Whatever the Pearl of Fate had done when it entered my Inner Domain, it had left something behind.
I pushed through and stepped out into open air.
Land. Finally.
I sat on solid ground, back to the ruined entrance, and let the silence settle. The weight of the last few minutes pressed down slowly — the graveyard, the corpses, the shaking earth.
I thought: Dark Army.
┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ DARK ARMY │
├──────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Capacity : 60,000 │
│ Possessed : 35 │
│ Controlled: 35 Dark Corpses │
├──────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Summon army using the word: │
│ "Summon" │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘
I scanned the area. Nothing. No creatures, no movement — just open ground and the faint sound of wind through distant trees.
"Summon."
They appeared all at once — thirty-five figures materializing from nothing, standing in motionless rows. But something was different. The rotting rags were gone. Each now wore a uniform of deep blue, a long sword hanging at their hip, their posture rigid and military.
I stared at them, then tried speaking. No response. I touched one — nothing. I struck one across the face. Nothing. I cut off fingers. Severed a hand.
Not one of them reacted. Not a flinch. Not a sound.
What kind of useless—
A sound.
Something large moved at the edge of my vision. I turned just in time to see a massive white tiger step out of thin air, its paws striking the ground with a weight that made the earth shudder.
My hand found Athena's Blade. I raised it, eyes fixed on the creature, already calculating the angle — one clean strike, end it before it could react.
But my hand stilled.
A thought, half-formed, pulled at the edge of my mind.
And I waited.