The Darkness That Lies Within

“I’m so sorry.”

David kept repeating himself even though the adventurers were already dead.

David had been near the Shadow Tombs the moment the battle started. He wanted to see how it’d play out, see how strong the Holy Legion were, and how powerful the adventurers were.

In his previous world, adventurers in games and stories could kill monsters, men and, in some cases, even Gods.

What David didn’t expect to see, however, was their frantic fight with the liches.

He didn’t expect them to be capable of destroying a lich in a single blow or see the liches kill them with a single spell.

Once David learnt of how there were only a few, exhausted survivors, he decided to finally do something he’d been putting off for months: killing a human being.

I know I’d have to eventually kill someone or else I might hesitate if someone tried to kill me. If I didn’t do it now, I wouldn’t be able to do it later when I need to.

No matter how David rationalised it, he couldn’t stop the tears beneath his helm.

“Your majesty.” The masked adventurers knelt behind him. “We have dispatched the other adventurers; what would you have us do?”

Focus, David…Focus.

He took a deep breath, then spoke softly. “Burn your cloaks and masks, then head back to the Dread Keep through my portal.

“Jessica, Lucy, Cain; you performed excellently.”

“Thank you very much, your majesty!”

They did as instructed, leaving David alone in the tombs.

He dropped his sword and collapsed onto his hands and knees, weeping uncontrollably. David dismissed his armour just before he vomited, spewing up his guts to the sides.

As he sobbed, he vomited again as his screams echoed through the empty halls.

“Why…do I have to…do this?” David hit his head against the ground. “No more. I don’t want to-!”

A gentle, familiar giggle from behind him quickly made him shut up.

“Honestly, what would your generals think if the cruel tyrant who had ordered the deaths of tens of thousands of people would cry just because they personally killed a few people?” Eris gleefully asked. “Actually, isn’t it quite pathetic that you didn’t weep for the people of Black Port, but you did for these adventurers instead?” Eris laughed and sat beside David, smiling. “What a pathetic Demon Emperor you are.”

David glowered as his hand instinctively reached for his sword, but he stopped himself; he knew it would be of no use.

Eris’s smile grew a little at his reaction.

“I’ve always heard mortals describe killing in such poetic ways.” She lightly wrapped her arms around David’s neck from behind, placing her lips beside his ear. “Tell me, David Athelward, how did it feel? Did it make your heart race? Did you feel proud when you finally mustered the courage to kill someone with your own two hands? It’s a completely different feeling from killing goblins, right?”

David dug his hands into the rocks and ground his teeth together.

Keep it in! Don’t give her the reaction she wants.

“Tell me, David, how do you really feel right now? Didn’t it feel great having the lives of these people and the people of Black Port in your hands? Didn’t it give you a thrill like no other, knowing that you had thousands of people’s fates in your hands? Tell me, David Athelward.”

“…Shut…up.”

He cursed himself for not being able to endure her taunts.

“Ah, I seem to have struck a nerve. A shame, really.” She released David and skipped away from him. “I thought that the gift I gave you would’ve made this easier for you.”

David froze. “Gift? What gift?”

Eris smirked. “If you want to know, then I suggest you start being a bit more honest with yourself.”

“Tell me.”

“Why should I?”

“Tell me!”

Eris laughed once more, her wings flapping happily behind her.

“What’s so funny?” David stood up. “Tell me, Eris! What’s so funny about this?!”

“Everything,” Eris said gently. “Everything is, David Athelward. The way you quickly raise your voice in anger at me even though you know I could kill your family with a snap of my fingers. The way you deny your true feelings about everything you’ve done. The way you refuse to listen to that little voice inside your head that tells you how proud you should feel for gathering up the courage to kill humans with your own hands. And, more than that, the way that my gift has changed you.”

“…What gift?”

“Your blood and biology. When I was reconstructing you, I changed your body into a half-human, half-demon hybrid of sorts and the blood flowing through your veins is that of a demon’s, changing the way you think and act. It makes you capable of killing things without hesitating. It makes you quicker to anger. It makes you just how I love to see you.

“Desperate, angry, and trying your best to deny your true nature.”

“How the hell is that my true nature if that’s something you gave me as a gift, Eris?!” David roared, wiping his dried tears. “If what you’re telling me is true, then-!”

“Then it makes it all the easier for you to accept your feelings, doesn’t it?” Eris purred, laughing a little. “It makes it easier for you to stand up to me and convince yourself that this isn’t the real you.”

“Y-yeah. So then why-?”

“David Athelward, do you really believe everything that I tell you? I believe that you’ve said that you don’t before, so then, pray tell, why were you so quick at accepting my answer this time as if it was the truth?”

David’s eyes widened and he took a step back, shivering from the chill left behind by Eris’s words.

S-she has to be telling the truth this time, right? She has to be!

“I-If you were telling the truth, then this would-!”

“What? Magically make everything fall into place?” Eris asked. She took a step forward. “Make you feel a lot better?” She stepped forward again. “Make it so that you could convince yourself that you’re not a monster, even after everything you’ve done and are going to do?”

Eris’s smile was the largest David had ever seen it.

With one final step, Eris pushed her face just a few inches in front of his.

“I’m the last person you should ever trust, David Athelward.” David shrieked and Eris giggled softly again. “As a last gift for today, I’ll clean up the mess that you’ve left behind. Aren’t I such a generous Goddess? Always offering gifts to people I favour?”

David slithered away from her, grabbed his sword, opened a portal and ran back to his bedroom at the castle.

Once he was gone, Eris hummed gleefully as she erased David’s vomit, leaving the bodies of the adventurers untouched.

“I said that I’d help you clean up your mess, but didn’t say I’d help you cover it up.”

Eris’s body turned into countless feathers and she disappeared into the darkness.

***

Following the victory at Black Port, news quickly spread throughout the empire of their victory and of the deaths of the brave adventurers at the Shadow Tombs.