Chapter 5:
Chapter 5: Rei's Strangeness
The Day I Reincarnated in Another World and Became The Darkness Lord
---
[Scene - Two Nights After the Abyss Transfer - Midnight]
The midnight air inside the forest cave was a living thing—thick with the scent of damp moss, cold stone, and the faint, metallic tang of residual mana. Outside, the Ironwood forest was a silhouette of jagged pines, their needles catching the moonlight like silver daggers against the void of the night sky. Within the cave's mouth, the shadows didn't just exist; they pulsed, reacting to the presence of the two souls resting there.
Kuro lay on the stone floor, his breathing slow and rhythmic. To any observer, he was a defenseless boy, an 'unremarkable' whose sleep was deep and untroubled. But Kuro's mind was never truly quiet. Even in sleep, the conditioning of his terrestrial life—the years spent viewing human interactions as a chessboard—remained active, a subterranean layer of consciousness that processed the shifting air around him.
A few meters away, Rei sat huddled in the gloom. Her silver hair was a tangled mess against her pale face, and her eyes, usually a soft purple, were now trembling voids of uncertainty. She stared at the sleeping boy, her right hand outstretched. Magic, cold and viscous, swirled silently around her fingertips. It was Shujin's magic—ten percent of his own "Shadow Core" that he had transferred to her after rescuing her from the Abyss.
It felt like a parasite tonight, heavy and demanding."I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice barely a breath. "I don't want to do this... I really don't... but they... they won't stop..."
---
[Flashback: Inside the Abyss - Years Ago]
The word they acted as a trigger, dragging her back into the lightless depths of her memory.The Abyss was not a place of fire, but of absolute cold. Time didn't flow there; it stagnated like poisoned water. Rei remembered the weight of the chains—magical restraints of red and purple that felt as though they were fused to her very bones.She was nothing more than a vessel, a project of the Eastern Demon Lord's occultists.In the center of that frozen void stood a man. He was a silhouette that defied the light, his presence radiating a pressure that made the air feel like lead. His most terrifying feature was his face: his lips were crudely stitched shut with silver wire, and his eyes were not eyes at all, but glowing embers of hatred that seemed to see directly into her soul.He didn't speak with his mouth; he spoke with his mind, the words echoing like the scraping of a blade on bone.
"When the boy comes to save you, little bird, you will go with him," the voice hissed. "And when he is most vulnerable, you will kill him. He is your enemy. He is the Darkness Lord who will consume the world you love."Rei had wept then, her voice cracking. "He... isn't he my savior? He reached into the dark for me..."
The man had crouched down, the embers of his eyes flaring. "Savior? He is a predator who sees you as a tool. And do not forget, Rei... your adoptive parents, Theo and Mira... they are still alive. They are in my garden. If you betray me—if you fail to plunge a blade into his heart—I will rip their hearts out and make you watch. I will make their deaths last for centuries."
She had screamed until her throat was raw. The man had only smiled behind his stitched lips—a grotesque, skin-stretching expression."Don't forget, child. You are nothing without me. You are just a shadow waiting to be extinguished."
---
[Present - The Cave]
Rei gasped, her lungs burning as if she were back in the airless Abyss. The memory of her parents' faces—their warmth and their kindness—clashed with the image of Kuro sitting at the cave entrance, watching the sun. He had saved her, yes, but the demon was right about one thing: Kuro looked at the world with a clinical desensitization that was terrifying. He saw 'utility' where others saw 'people'.
Her hand stopped shaking. The survival instinct, tempered by the fear for her parents, took control."Shadow Blade," she muttered.
The dark mana in her veins responded. It coalesced in her palm, hardening into a curved dagger made of solidified obsidian. It didn't reflect the moonlight; it seemed to drink it. This weapon was a literal piece of Shujin's power, capable of bypassing standard magical defenses.
She rose to her feet, her movements fluid and silent. One step... the stone didn't even grit beneath her boots. Two steps... she was now a part of the shadows, her "Soul Veil" masking her intent.
She stood over Kuro. He looked so young, so frail in the moonlight. For a second, her resolve wavered. But then she saw her mother's smile in her mind, and the threat of the stitched-mouth man returned.She raised the dagger high, the tip pointed directly at Kuro's heart. With a final, agonizing sob that she couldn't suppress, she thrust downward.
CLANG.
The sound was like a hammer striking an anvil. Rei's arm jolted with a bone-shaking vibration. The Shadow Blade, a weapon she thought was absolute, didn't pierce his skin. It didn't even touch him. It had shattered against an invisible, shimmering barrier that had manifested an inch above Kuro's chest.
"What is this...?" she whispered, her eyes wide with horror. "An absolute barrier? Even in your sleep? Even against your own magic...?"
Kuro's eyes opened. They weren't the groggy eyes of a boy waking up; they were deep purple voids, cold and analytical.He didn't flinch. He didn't look surprised.
"I was wondering when you would try, Rei," he said, his voice flat and devoid of emotion.
"You've been leaking killing intent for forty-eight minutes. Your pulse reached 140 beats per minute the moment you summoned the blade. Statistically, the probability of you failing to act was only 4%."
Rei fell to her knees, the remains of the Shadow Blade dissolving into smoke. She felt small, exposed to the clinical gaze of a master of 'Dark Psychology'.
"You knew?" she gasped. "You gave me your power... knowing I would use it to kill you?"
Kuro stood up slowly. As he rose, the shadows in the cave seemed to obey him, expanding and swallowing the moonlight until the only light left was the glow of his own eyes. The Darkness Lord persona, Shujin, was no longer hidden behind the mask of a boy Kuro.
"Why did you try to kill me?" he asked. It wasn't a question of hurt or betrayal; it was a request for data.
Rei broke. The weight of the secret, the pressure of the Abyss, and the fear for her family came pouring out in a torrent of sobs. "Because he has them! The man in the Abyss... he has my parents! He said if I didn't kill you, he would torture them forever! I didn't want to... Kuro, please... I had no choice!"
Silence returned to the cave, heavier than before. Kuro looked at her, his expression unreadable. To him, this was a classic psychological maneuver—coercion through emotional anchors. He had studied this in his terrestrial life; he knew how the strong used the attachments of the weak to create puppets.
"Fine," he said finally.
Rei blinked, wiping tears from her cheeks.
"Fine? You're... you're not going to kill me? I tried to murder you! That was your only chance to be rid of a traitor!"
"Killing you would be a waste of resources," Kuro replied, stepping past her toward the cave entrance. His voice was like ice. "You are still useful. But understand this, Rei: I won't forgive you. Loyalty is a binary state. You chose to break it. From this moment on, your status is strictly utilitarian."
He didn't wait for her to respond. He walked out into the cold night air, his black robes whipping in the wind.
The forest was silent as they moved. Rei followed a few paces behind, her heart heavy with a different kind of pain. She had saved her parents, perhaps, but she had lost the only person who had ever truly reached into the dark for her.
"I... I want to fix this," she said, her voice trembling. "Let me prove I can be what you need. Let me show you my value."
Kuro didn't turn around. He continued walking toward the ruined tower on the horizon—the place where the mana density was highest.
"How?"
"Let me take you to him," she said. She hesitated for a fraction of a second. "I want to stop him. If he's dead, they'll be safe. I'll lead you to the heart of the trap."
Kuro closed his eyes, his mind calculating the risks. He knew it was a trap. He knew the demon-human in the tower was likely an agent of the "First Hero," the secret villain who manipulated this world's history.
"You want me to walk into a slaughterhouse?"
"No," she lied, her voice gaining a desperate strength. "I want to end the puppetry."
Kuro stopped and looked at her over his shoulder. A faint, chilling smile touched his lips—the smile of Shujin, the Darkness Lord who saw the world as a chessboard.
"Fine. Lead the way, Rei. Let's see who is really hunting whom tonight."
As they disappeared into the thicket, a pair of red eyes watched from the top of the ruined tower. The demon-human with the stitched-shut lips watched the spirit of the girl approach, and his embers flared with anticipation.
"Come, little master of shadows," he thought, his malice rippling through the mana of the forest. "I've been waiting a long time to claim your soul and finish what was started in the Abyss."
---
✦ To be continued...
[Scene - Two Nights After the Abyss Transfer - Midnight]
The midnight air inside the forest cave was a living thing—thick with the scent of damp moss, cold stone, and the faint, metallic tang of residual mana. Outside, the Ironwood forest was a silhouette of jagged pines, their needles catching the moonlight like silver daggers against the void of the night sky. Within the cave's mouth, the shadows didn't just exist; they pulsed, reacting to the presence of the two souls resting there.
Kuro lay on the stone floor, his breathing slow and rhythmic. To any observer, he was a defenseless boy, an 'unremarkable' whose sleep was deep and untroubled. But Kuro's mind was never truly quiet. Even in sleep, the conditioning of his terrestrial life—the years spent viewing human interactions as a chessboard—remained active, a subterranean layer of consciousness that processed the shifting air around him.
A few meters away, Rei sat huddled in the gloom. Her silver hair was a tangled mess against her pale face, and her eyes, usually a soft purple, were now trembling voids of uncertainty. She stared at the sleeping boy, her right hand outstretched. Magic, cold and viscous, swirled silently around her fingertips. It was Shujin's magic—ten percent of his own "Shadow Core" that he had transferred to her after rescuing her from the Abyss.
It felt like a parasite tonight, heavy and demanding."I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice barely a breath. "I don't want to do this... I really don't... but they... they won't stop..."
---
[Flashback: Inside the Abyss - Years Ago]
The word they acted as a trigger, dragging her back into the lightless depths of her memory.The Abyss was not a place of fire, but of absolute cold. Time didn't flow there; it stagnated like poisoned water. Rei remembered the weight of the chains—magical restraints of red and purple that felt as though they were fused to her very bones.She was nothing more than a vessel, a project of the Eastern Demon Lord's occultists.In the center of that frozen void stood a man. He was a silhouette that defied the light, his presence radiating a pressure that made the air feel like lead. His most terrifying feature was his face: his lips were crudely stitched shut with silver wire, and his eyes were not eyes at all, but glowing embers of hatred that seemed to see directly into her soul.He didn't speak with his mouth; he spoke with his mind, the words echoing like the scraping of a blade on bone.
"When the boy comes to save you, little bird, you will go with him," the voice hissed. "And when he is most vulnerable, you will kill him. He is your enemy. He is the Darkness Lord who will consume the world you love."Rei had wept then, her voice cracking. "He... isn't he my savior? He reached into the dark for me..."
The man had crouched down, the embers of his eyes flaring. "Savior? He is a predator who sees you as a tool. And do not forget, Rei... your adoptive parents, Theo and Mira... they are still alive. They are in my garden. If you betray me—if you fail to plunge a blade into his heart—I will rip their hearts out and make you watch. I will make their deaths last for centuries."
She had screamed until her throat was raw. The man had only smiled behind his stitched lips—a grotesque, skin-stretching expression."Don't forget, child. You are nothing without me. You are just a shadow waiting to be extinguished."
---
[Present - The Cave]
Rei gasped, her lungs burning as if she were back in the airless Abyss. The memory of her parents' faces—their warmth and their kindness—clashed with the image of Kuro sitting at the cave entrance, watching the sun. He had saved her, yes, but the demon was right about one thing: Kuro looked at the world with a clinical desensitization that was terrifying. He saw 'utility' where others saw 'people'.
Her hand stopped shaking. The survival instinct, tempered by the fear for her parents, took control."Shadow Blade," she muttered.
The dark mana in her veins responded. It coalesced in her palm, hardening into a curved dagger made of solidified obsidian. It didn't reflect the moonlight; it seemed to drink it. This weapon was a literal piece of Shujin's power, capable of bypassing standard magical defenses.
She rose to her feet, her movements fluid and silent. One step... the stone didn't even grit beneath her boots. Two steps... she was now a part of the shadows, her "Soul Veil" masking her intent.
She stood over Kuro. He looked so young, so frail in the moonlight. For a second, her resolve wavered. But then she saw her mother's smile in her mind, and the threat of the stitched-mouth man returned.She raised the dagger high, the tip pointed directly at Kuro's heart. With a final, agonizing sob that she couldn't suppress, she thrust downward.
CLANG.
The sound was like a hammer striking an anvil. Rei's arm jolted with a bone-shaking vibration. The Shadow Blade, a weapon she thought was absolute, didn't pierce his skin. It didn't even touch him. It had shattered against an invisible, shimmering barrier that had manifested an inch above Kuro's chest.
"What is this...?" she whispered, her eyes wide with horror. "An absolute barrier? Even in your sleep? Even against your own magic...?"
Kuro's eyes opened. They weren't the groggy eyes of a boy waking up; they were deep purple voids, cold and analytical.He didn't flinch. He didn't look surprised.
"I was wondering when you would try, Rei," he said, his voice flat and devoid of emotion.
"You've been leaking killing intent for forty-eight minutes. Your pulse reached 140 beats per minute the moment you summoned the blade. Statistically, the probability of you failing to act was only 4%."
Rei fell to her knees, the remains of the Shadow Blade dissolving into smoke. She felt small, exposed to the clinical gaze of a master of 'Dark Psychology'.
"You knew?" she gasped. "You gave me your power... knowing I would use it to kill you?"
Kuro stood up slowly. As he rose, the shadows in the cave seemed to obey him, expanding and swallowing the moonlight until the only light left was the glow of his own eyes. The Darkness Lord persona, Shujin, was no longer hidden behind the mask of a boy Kuro.
"Why did you try to kill me?" he asked. It wasn't a question of hurt or betrayal; it was a request for data.
Rei broke. The weight of the secret, the pressure of the Abyss, and the fear for her family came pouring out in a torrent of sobs. "Because he has them! The man in the Abyss... he has my parents! He said if I didn't kill you, he would torture them forever! I didn't want to... Kuro, please... I had no choice!"
Silence returned to the cave, heavier than before. Kuro looked at her, his expression unreadable. To him, this was a classic psychological maneuver—coercion through emotional anchors. He had studied this in his terrestrial life; he knew how the strong used the attachments of the weak to create puppets.
"Fine," he said finally.
Rei blinked, wiping tears from her cheeks.
"Fine? You're... you're not going to kill me? I tried to murder you! That was your only chance to be rid of a traitor!"
"Killing you would be a waste of resources," Kuro replied, stepping past her toward the cave entrance. His voice was like ice. "You are still useful. But understand this, Rei: I won't forgive you. Loyalty is a binary state. You chose to break it. From this moment on, your status is strictly utilitarian."
He didn't wait for her to respond. He walked out into the cold night air, his black robes whipping in the wind.
The forest was silent as they moved. Rei followed a few paces behind, her heart heavy with a different kind of pain. She had saved her parents, perhaps, but she had lost the only person who had ever truly reached into the dark for her.
"I... I want to fix this," she said, her voice trembling. "Let me prove I can be what you need. Let me show you my value."
Kuro didn't turn around. He continued walking toward the ruined tower on the horizon—the place where the mana density was highest.
"How?"
"Let me take you to him," she said. She hesitated for a fraction of a second. "I want to stop him. If he's dead, they'll be safe. I'll lead you to the heart of the trap."
Kuro closed his eyes, his mind calculating the risks. He knew it was a trap. He knew the demon-human in the tower was likely an agent of the "First Hero," the secret villain who manipulated this world's history.
"You want me to walk into a slaughterhouse?"
"No," she lied, her voice gaining a desperate strength. "I want to end the puppetry."
Kuro stopped and looked at her over his shoulder. A faint, chilling smile touched his lips—the smile of Shujin, the Darkness Lord who saw the world as a chessboard.
"Fine. Lead the way, Rei. Let's see who is really hunting whom tonight."
As they disappeared into the thicket, a pair of red eyes watched from the top of the ruined tower. The demon-human with the stitched-shut lips watched the spirit of the girl approach, and his embers flared with anticipation.
"Come, little master of shadows," he thought, his malice rippling through the mana of the forest. "I've been waiting a long time to claim your soul and finish what was started in the Abyss."
---
✦ To be continued...
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