-Vol 6: Dusk Of An Era-

-Outbreak(1)-

“Hmm! This beast didn’t give us any ranked items, after all.” After looting the corpse, Joy mumbled in disappointment. They had to fight with everything they have go, especially Chiba, but all it dropped was a few thousands of gold coins, a few health potion bottles, and something covered in red cloth.

“Hmm! What is this?” Joy mumbled as he saw the red cloth neatly folded around something spherical.

“What is it Joy?” Chiba, who heard Joy’s mumblings asked.

“I don’t know, it’s a thing wrapped in red cloth.” Joy said, but he didn’t dare touch it. It's just his instinct, but he felt something bad will happen if he directly touches it. With his eyes narrowed, he inspected the item as far from it as possible. He didn’t even touch the other drops that appeared from the monster's death.

“Mr. Joy, please don’t touch that thing!” suddenly, Ena came running while shouting such a phrase. She circled around the object before using her hammer to pull away from the drops other than that away. After that, she collected them and handed it to Joy, who accepted them with his brows furrowed. Then she grabbed her hammer tightly before throwing a glare at the object, “I feel bountiful of repulsive will from that object. It's as if a huge amount of repulsive wishes and memories were bundled together to make it even more repulsive… it's very dangerous.”

“How did you know it, Ena?” Chiba asked while tentatively looking at the object in red-colored cloth. They were yet to see what inside the thing, in what shape it was.

“We are made form our master's skill, with abilities half of his usual stats. But we are not alive, we are beings of death. We are as much sensitive to these negative energy as we are to the life energy that living beings like you emit every day.”

“I see, that’s a pretty convenient ability. Anyway, what do you think that thing is?” Chiba asked, pointing her finger towards the red-clothed object.

Ena shook her negatively, “I don’t know. I only feel a lot of negative will from that thing. Master warned me to steer clear away from such things.” Then she used her hammer to slam against the floor of the dungeon, denting the ground. She continued the same for quite a while before a hole was dug in the shape of her hammer by compressing the floor.

“What are you doing, Ena?” Joy asked standing away from the unknown object, now that he heard what that thing was, he had no intention of going near that thing. He had already first hand witnessed how dangerous the energy called WIL can be, they had their asses handed to them by a being who only used WIL and even weakened by a lot.

“I will bury this thing here, least someone touches it. I don’t know what would happen if they did so, but I am sure it would be anything pretty. Besides, we can’t touch it, so we can’t also take it with us.” Answered Ena while pushing the red-clothed object into the pit.

Chi!! Chi!!

As soon as her hammer touched the red cloth, a sound akin to cracker burning came with sparks accompanying them from the point where the hammer touched the cloth.

“What the hell is that?” Joy shouted in astonishment. His bald head started to perspire furiously.

“That’s the evil will clashing with my own negative energy and the energy fo the hammer. It was the effect of, well you know, how like poles deflect each other… Science 101 and all that.” Ena explained before pushing the thing into the pit before heaving a sigh. She was a zombie and couldn’t get tired, but to fight against such a huge amount of negative energy drained something else from her body.

Despite being a zombie that couldn’t ever get tired, she still sighed after dealing with such a small thing.

After pushing it into the pit, she covered it carefully so that no one ever gets the hold of this thing.

“Let’s go home. I think we had enough of today’s hunting.” Chiba said, feeling a sense of dread after witnessing that red-clothed thing doing a number on Ena’s strong and powerful hammer. Although brave and powerful, she still was an 18 years old girl. It was normal for her to lose her cool when witnessing such things.

“Say, guys, I am just wondering this…” Joy started with an ominous tone.

“What is it, Mr. Joy?” Ena asked, looking at him with dead-fish like eyes. Well, it can’t be heled as she was a zombie.

“What if others got such a thing as well… what if they touched it as well…”

“D, don’t joke around Joy… that can’t be possible.” although Chiba denied instantly, she still held a doubt in her heart. In fact, she also thought of the same possibility, but she just didn’t want to believe her own dread.

“That might be possible!” Ena agreed instantly, she didn’t have such fears as Chiba, in fact, except certain emotions, she wasn’t capable of others. Fear was one of the emotions she wasn’t capable of feeling. She was a product of death, what she could be afraid of anyway?

“I don’t think so…” despite Chiba’s denial, Joy and Ena had a tacit understanding through their eyes. After nodding to each other, “Chiba, let's go.” Joy said hurriedly and started to jog towards the dungeon exit.

…

“H, hey! Where are you going?” the bone fairy asked as she followed after Kenshin. With his contract complete, and his skills unlocked, he had no reason to loiter around this dungeon anymore. He was in a hurry to return back to Mito, this place was just too gloomy.

“I am going back to my home. Since I have formed the contract successfully. I have to work hard to reach my next awakening so that you can be freed from here.” Even while talking leisurely, Kenshin was running with his max speed, but the bone fairy could easily keep up with him. As expected of a monster that lived even before humans came to be- thought Kenshin with a frown.

‘It was a good thing my will is too strong, or else these things would be a critical hit to my confidence.’ Though Kenshin, since the moment he awakened, the people he was meeting with were so strong that it wasn’t even funny, and none of them were particularly his ally.

Soon the dungeon entrance came, and when Kenshin stepped out of it, a thin barrier formed obstructing the bone fairy from coming out.

“W, what the hell is this?” shaking her head, the bone fairy asked in a shaky voice. It seems the impact was too hard for the current her.

“It’s the barrier of the dungeon. Didn’t you read the contract, unless I summon a part of the dungeon, you can’t come out of your free will.” Kenshin stopped to explain to her about everything. She was cooperative during the most part and didn’t particularly raise any fuss about the contract, he felt he should stop and explain everything to her.

“Then summon and let me out of here, I haven’t seen outside and the natural night for a long while…”

“That would be impossible. Not to mention, it would be draining to keep summoning a part of the dungeon, the buff that would come with it would be annoying to deal with also. So, No!” a flat out rejection, but what she was saying was really beyond his capability currently. Besides, he didn’t need a floating undead fairy beside him 24/7.

“That isn’t fair at all. Sigh!” the bone fairy seemed to struggle with something before she staired right into Kenshin’s eyes, “Give me that sword of yours.”

“What for?” Kenshin became a little defensive. No matter how tight the contract was, he was dealing with a near cosmic entirely with god-like strength. Not to mention strength, he couldn’t even compare to their wisdom.

“Sigh! Why are you so afraid? Isn't that contract absolute? I couldn’t do anything even if I want to. Have faith in a faceless’s giant's handiwork, although they weren’t that much reliable in other matters.” The bone fairy sighed and explained.

“Then what do you need my sword for?” Kenshin asked.

“You will see it, just hand me your sword.” Under the fairy’s urging, Kenshin handed her his sword with sheath. She grabbed it with her small hands before a bright yellow light shined, enveloping both the sword and herself in it.