Just as Rocky absorbed the Bracelet from the ground, Minnie felt her connection with him fading. She felt like someone had tugged at sting connected them together, and then snatched it off completely.

The sudden feeling of danger forced her head to look at her side, but then their connection abruptly broke.

Minnie felt a force push her from her position and she was forced out of the inner world. She manifested outside and hurriedly called Rocky, but he didn’t answer back.

“Hey, Rocky are you there?”

“Don’t be like that, talk to me!!”

“Please don’t act like that, you are scaring me!”

“Rocky??”

But no matter how much she cried with her hand on his crystal smooth surface, she didn’t get any reply from him.

She then took the wait and see approach.

‘Maybe because it was his first absorption, he ended up using all his mana and went into a force sleep?!’ She thought.

But she knew in her hear that she was just being optimistic and the reason was something else entirely.

The next day came, but Rocky still didn’t wake up. The tension engulfing her mind had completely transformed into dread by now, as the thoughts of him dying starting surfacing inside Minnie’s pure heart.

“What should I do? What can I do?”

Seeing that how even her mental messages weren’t reaching him, she decided to get help from her teachers.

“Yes if it’s them! They’ll probably have a solution!” she tried to encourage herself, but failed and ended up feeling even sadder.

And she brought out the batch that her teacher had given her on her graduation. She looked at it with watery eyes and then tapped twice on its surface.

Suddenly, a click sound came from inside it and a blue projection shot out. The 3D hologram looked exactly like her teacher, though the image was transparent and greenish in color. The figure yawned and then suddenly spoke,

“Hey Feefee, how are you?”

Though the small somewhat chubby fairy spoke leisurely at first, but when she saw tears sliding down her students’ eyes, her cheery mood changed into complete seriousness.

“Huh, what happened? Why are you crying? Are you all right?”

“*Hick*”

“Now, now, don’t waste your precious tears my dear, and tell me what happened. I will help try to help you the best that I can?”

Minnie nodded her head and recounted the whole story from the start. She even told her about his titles and how her dungeon core was intelligent enough to hold a conversation with her. Then she told her about the bracelet which had led to the current situation, and that he wasn’t waking up any more.

She ended her story and waited for her teacher to comment, which in the end she did, but the content wasn’t what Minnie expecting to hear from her.

“So he can see his own status?!”

“Madam, this is not the time…”

“Little feefee you don’t know shit. Hell wake up in no time, don’t worry about that, but tell me are you sure that he has his own status; One that lets him gain levels and such?”

Minnie didn’t know why but she felt a suffocating feeling, a sudden urge to break the batch and end the connection, but she controlled her emotions and took a deep breath.

“Yes madam. I am sure.”

“Okay, that’s good. That’s good.”

Though the content was all nice and everything, Minnie still saw through the tinge of anger and hate that was behind the voice. It was beyond her why she was being asked such trivial questions, when his dungeon core, her partner might be in some kind of trouble. But instead of being helped she was asked such things.

“Tell me does he have affinity with life attribute?”

Minnie almost slipped and spoke that not only he had affinity with life, but with dark and fire too, but her instincts screamed at her to only tell what was asked from her.

And she hoped that maybe the question was related to his recovery as life attribute was known for healing.

“Yes, he has.”Minnie replied.

“Good, very good.”

But her hope broke when the connection between them crumbled apart as the last message arrived from the other side.

“Sigh! I’m sorry Minnie. I can’t help you. It can’t be helped. Just remember that we all love you. You just had to contact that.”

And the connection batch broke.

Minnie was left there standing dumbfounded looking at the broche crumbling apart in her hand.

“What the hell happened?”

She had called her home to ask about a solution, but ended up feeling even more confused and dull about the whole situation.

“Forget it. I don’t know what teacher meant. And over thinking won’t bring any results either.”

She was left there standing alone in the dark cave with only hope, hope that her partner would come back to her all the same. That his coma would only end up being a case of mana deprivation like her teacher had suggested, but little did she know that her troubles were just starting.

The first one to notice was the ants who sprung back into motion from their lifeless state. Next came the ever so dreadful system notice screaming and scaring Minnie awake from her muddy state of mind.

Warning: Intruder Alert

She looked at the hole and saw shadows extending from outside and covering Rocky and her into their grasp. Her heart leaped out of her mouth when the shadows increased in a few seconds. And all she could say before her first meeting with humans was,

“FUCK!!”

*************

Rockies’ inner world:-

He absorbed the bracelet and something unexpected happened.

First, Minnie who was standing behind him broke down into pieces and before he could even comment on it, a black stain appeared in his vast and wide spotless white world.

The spot looked to be too far away, but because he could still see it he understood that it was either not that far away or was simply too big.

Then the spot started growing and in half a minute the small spot grew as large as a mountain that Rocky could see clearly.

The Spot continued to grow and Rocky magically gained a mild headache. At first he didn’t think much of it, but as the spot continued to grow, his mild headache turned serious, and he understood that there probably was some connection between the both of them.

In about an hour the darkness had almost covered everything in front of him. He looked behind him and thought that, Soon, the world will become half dark and he will be representing the white in this space.

And just like his thoughts, after another hour, the sky in front of him had turned all black, and the point finally came when half of the world was black and half was white.

But then the advent of darkness stopped there, and a something came floating from the edges of darkness and stopped right at the line parting the both sides.

“What! How come you look like… me?”

“…”

But the other party just stared at him like a devil.

If there was difference between the current form of Rocky and the other party, then it was that if rocky was colorless and transparent, while his doppelganger was purely black and had red eyes.

It wasn’t just black it looked more like it was a shadow and had translucent black fumes or something rising from its head.

Rocky noticed that the fumes rising from its head wasn’t there just for decoration and that it was what had stained his white world. Moreover the color wasn’t black like he had initially thought, but a purple so dark, it looked like black.

“Hey stop that thing! You are polluting my world.” Rocky spoke pointing at its head.

But the thing just continued to stare at him without as much as blinking its eyes.

“Hey, are you listening.”

But before Rocky could ask him who he was or where he had come from, his impersonator screamed and red lava came gushing out of its eyes.

It screamed with his claws facing towards his face. The lava didn’t stay stagnated, but instead carved vibrant red lines over his face, travelling down his neck and drawing characters on his chest. One line turned left over his shoulder and travelled down to carve a spiral over his heart while the other divided into two.

One came straight down and parted his chest into two equal sections, before stopping at its navel. While the other traveled all the way to his left hand and created a pentagon over the back of his hand.

His screams full of agony and pain sent shivers down Rocky spine and a lump formed in his throat, but before he could help him or himself, the devil reincarnate stood up straight from his crunching position, as a wicked smile formed on his face.

A long serpent like tongue came out of its mouth, and just before Rocky could move, it shouted at the top of his lungs with its claws facing him.

Rocky saw him getting into a running stance and he remembered the wolf and his first attack. Cold sweat drenched his back when he connected the dots. But before Rocky could spring into action, the thing moved leaving behind a vapor cone and appeared right in front of him.

Its speed was so extreme that before Rocky could even move a finger, its claw reached his face and Rockies body flew.

Though the thing had attacked Rockie with a might which could have easily turned him into powder in the real world, but he magically didn’t feel a thing.

Though the claw had sent him flying, but Rocky simply moved his wings and stopped his flight.

But just as he stopped mid flight, he saw a black punch covered in black skulls and similar fumes coming towards his face.

Though he could see it he still couldn’t do anything. The punch soon touched Rockies face, and his body went supersonic from the force.

*BOOM*

Rocky collided with the floor and a huge explosion happened.

“Ahh, this is so frustrating.”

But he wasn’t given a chance to move. He felt an unnatural force pulling his foot and lifting him into the air.

“OH SHIT!” Rocky exclaimed.

It slammed him into the ground once, and as if that wasn’t enough, it lifted him again and smashed him. Lift, smash, lift, smash, smash, smash…..

Rocky forgot the count mid way, but then remembered that the last one he remembered numbered 666.

And as if not satisfied from its performance, his doppelganger got frustrated and threw him away like a rag.

Rockies rolled in the air, smashed face first into the ground and skid a long distance before coming to a stop.

He sighed and used both his hands to get up from before he faced its way. He saw that thing getting frustrated looking at him and smiled. Rocky felt a small sense of accomplishment from that, even after being used as a punching bag by it.

“What? That’s all got Blacky? You know if I had my ants with me, then this fight wouldn’t have been so one-sided…” and then his eyes opened wide.

And as if someone was listening to him, large number of dots started accumulating and turned into something which was rather familiar to Rocky.

The devil reincarnate furrowed his brows when he saw that happening, and tilted his head in confusion.

A completely white worker ant about four feet tall manifested out of nowhere and stood beside Rocky. Even he was left thinking about how that had happened, but he simply smiled and laughed at his luck.

“Now, we’ll see who will trash w…”

*Smack*

But before he could finish his sentence, Blacky moved and smacked the ant with his left hand which made it burst into the same lights from which it was formed.

“Haha…”

And one more slap from it sent Rocky flying again.

Rocky stood up again and started cursing, “Fuck!! If it was a soldier ant then…”

And the same phenomenon happened again. Covered in light particles a soldier ant manifested in front of him out of nowhere.

“Haaha, this is great.”

And before Blacky could move the ant Roared and ran toward him. With its head facing forward and glowing in a faint copper light, a sudden rush of adrenaline made Rocky excited.

Blacky turned his body from the waist up, stood in a modified karate pose with his right hand facing front and his left hand with the pentagon on it folded near his waist, with the palm facing front.

Rocky who knew the power behind that head butt of his ant shouted at the top of his lungs,

“GO, soldier go.”

The ant roared and jumped to become a missile in air, as the copper glow moved from his head and covered his whole body , while Blacky thrust’s his palm directly toward the flying ants head.

*Boom*

A huge shock wave travelled from the point of contact, but unfortunately the ant couldn’t hurt him at all. Instead it turned into a crushed plate as if it was pressed between two mountains.

Rocky didn’t let it get to him. “So what if one couldn’t do it, I’ll summon MORE!!”

And suddenly balls over balls of light covered the whole place, with more emerging with every passing second. One after one ants started manifesting from nowhere.

One, two, ten, twenty soon a hundred ants were summoned and more kept on coming and surrounding Blacky.

Even Blacky looked stunned from the display of such a power, forget about Rocky who was left there with his jaw open, when he saw that happen for real.

And then the mega fight of one against an army started.

The whole army of white ants started running toward Blacky. Roars covered the whole area.

Blacky saw them coming and took a step back. Then he gave a low grunt before his claws elongated and turned into almost deep black sharp swords.

*KEYaaannn*

It roared and moved with a speed even faster than before.

Ants collided with his nails, and their heads got chopped. Punches rained and turned even more ants into paste.

He jumped, he ran, he rotated his body like a typhoon and brought a storm of broken legs and chopped heads everywhere with him, but the ants didn’t stop coming. Blacky’s speed of killing them was ferocious but the speed at which they were getting summoned was even faster.

He killed one and three took their place. He would smash four and twenty more would come out to take their place.

But there was no doubt that it was a slaughter. Soon the number of killed ants numbered in the thousands and a change happened

As if angry at the situation he had placed himself in Blacky roared creating a low shock wave which pushed all the ants near him back.

It then crouched placing its hands on the ground.

The red lines on his body which Rocky thought were just for decoration started emitting red devilish light and soon his body morphed.

It grew and grew till it was 5 meters tall. Scales formed over its body and horns grew from his forehead.

His feet turned into balls and his legs and arms thick like tree logs. A new eye grew on his forehead. His muscles grew and grew until they swallowed him whole. His body which looked as if it was carved from stone turned him into a monster who had taken birth for just one thing; to kill everyone.

Blacky clenched his fists and smiled feeling the power inside him.

Rocky on the other side clenched his fists too, but from fear.

And the fight started again, and then it ended. Blacky just lifted his arm, punched in the direction where the most ants were concentrated and the shock wave alone cleared the whole area.

Rocky’s mouth opened wide from the fright.

“Y-you piece of shit! You think only you can grow… the fight isn’t over yet!!”

And as if that was the command the ants started jumping onto other ants backs and vanishing without a trace. At first Rocky wanted to stop the madness, but when he saw the left over ants growing bigger and bigger, a smile formed on his face.

“Haaha, now we’ll see who wins this fight.”

But Blacky just snorted and moved his foot.

The space warped, time stopped and before the first ants could even evolve completely his fist crumbled them into pieces.

But that didn’t mean the ant just died. There were countless of them everywhere and though Blacky moved at inhuman speeds to kill some the rest perfectly converged together to create mind boggling 50 meter tall ants.

Rocky had thought that the result would be good enough for ants, but it was just too much. Every step that the new ants took created tremors and fortunately or unfortunately there were hundreds of them by the time Blacky scored his ten thousandth kill.

A tinge of anger passed by his face looking at the spectacle.

He ran in anger and obliterated one of the legs of the ant near him, but that did nothing to the ant. He gritted his teeth in rage and started climbing the ant by running over its other leg, before he reached its face in three seconds. A truly humongous eye greeted him and he drilled inside it roaring in anger.

*Roar*

The ant roared in pain, but unfortunately it couldn’t do anything to stop the little insect from rampaging inside its brain.

While killing the ants individually was simply and easy enough, this big brother of theirs took him five full minutes to deal with.

He then jumped from one head to another killing them softly.

Rocky saw that the big ant was useless and started punching the floor in anger.

“Damn this shit, damn, damn, damn cant these ants even deal with one little devil.”

*Ding*

And everything stopped. Even time stopped. And a notification appeared in front of Rocky. But the language was unknown to him and he couldn’t understand it.

It was followed by a ball of golden light coming from the ground and then time started moving again.

The ants as if attracted by this golden light, started moving toward it.

Blacky hurriedly moved to kill as many of the ants as possible, but one minute was all it took for the ants to reach the ball and swirl inside it.

Soon silence took over everything. After ten minutes there were no more ants to be seen. The only things left in the half black and half white world was Rocky, Blacky and a golden ball seemingly floating in the air.

Blacky wanted to smash the ball, but the ancient aura coming from it made him stop.

*Crack*

Then the ball cracked and soon it broke like an egg and a golden Ant head came out from the top.

It looked at Rocky and then stared at Blacky. Then the ant literally stood up on its two legs and walked out of the ball.

Its body was completely golden, even its eyes and wings were as if they were made out of gold. It was just a head taller than Blacky, but looked like a skinny teenager in comparison to the buff Devil.

Blacky smiled when he saw it, thinking he was being wary of that little thing.

Then the ant moved and somehow Rocky saw everything happen after that in slow motion.

The ant ran on two legs and while Blacky was still in the motion of blinking his eyes, it reached him. It used two of its arms to hold Blacky from his neck and the other two arms did a winding motion before striking him directly on the chest.

Rocky heard no sound, no explosion occurred. Just that Blacky’s body got liffted into the air, but because the golden ant was holding him, it didn’t flew away.

Two holes appeared on his chest, but the ant didn’t stop. It then released its bind on Blacky, and did a drop kick on his back.

But before the sound from the explosion could reach Rocky, the ant jumped 10 meters into the air and then dropped down covered in a golden glow.

It came down with his palm facing the ground and threw a palm strike onto the face of Blacky.

*BooOOOmm*

Time returned to normal again and a huge explosion happened. Rocky was thrown into the air from the blast wave, before the golden light from the explosion covered him and his world.

When Rocky came back to himself once again, he saw that there was nothing there. No Blacky, no golden ant and even his world was back to being white and spotless again.

Seeing that there were signs of anything having happened there, he couldn’t help but think inwardly, ‘Was that a dream?’