“Hahahaha!” Jessica laughed uncontrollably. “Finally… I’m going to be free! Finally! Can you just die, Easy? Please die for me. Please die. Die already. I’ve had enough of this. I want to go home now. Yes, home. My beautiful home. Ohohoho... Easy, You see? YOU SEEE!?”

She had already lost her mind.

“Pwuah!” Teacher Easy hugged his chest and vomited blood. The blood he vomited out vaporized a nearby monster in seconds. However, despite of getting this deadly poison inside his system, Easy was still standing...

The black trench coat had been dyed red in demon blood and Easy’s beautiful silver hair was now totally messed up, revealing one of his biggest secrets....

Someone had sewn his left eyelids together.

His sword though, shone brightly with crimson light.

“Shadow Strike…” Easy spoke the words and slashed with his sword. It didn’t hit anything, however...

“...- DEATH!”

Splooosh!

The incoming Wingless Bats exploded into bloody particles! The sword didn’t even touch a single monster, but they still ... exploded like balloons!?

“Im… Impossible!” seeing this, Teacher Jessica’s eyes opened wide. “Ca...calm down…” She hugged her head, trembling. “Not… not yet…” her voice, from being the epitome of happiness, now changed into the saddest thing you’ve ever heard. “Not yet.... No. I have to stay calm. I have to kill him. I still have to kill him. Just one more person… Just one more... But why… why?”

And so, unable to understand what was going on, Jessica shouted many questions in panic: “Why isn’t the poison working!? How can you even stand? Why are my demons dying just like that!?”

“Is this all you’ve got?...” seeing Jessica’s reaction, Easy smiled. “Filthy demons…” he then raised his hand up and wiped the blood off his mouth in the manliest way. Unfortunately, the blood instantly burned the sleeves to crisps.

“Ah… Here goes my favourite coat…”

“TEACHER!!!” watching the scene from afar, all the kids shouted in unison. Although they were being surrounded by huge and dangerous demons, they didn’t even show the slightest fear. They wanted to help, so they screamed at Teacher Jessica and verbally attacked her.

“Stop this already!”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Teacher my ass!”

“Fight him one on one! Coward!”

“Coward!”

“Super coward!”

“Ugly!”

“Tsk!” Jessica clicked her tongue and her hands had already curled to make fists. The kids were such valuable assets to the Boss so she could not harm them in any way. This made her blood boiled, and together with the fact that Easy was refusing to die, Jessica had became impatient. “Please die… Easy, please, pleaseee...” she muttered.

“JUST DIE!!!”

And another wave of Demonic Wingless Bats left the wall and joined the battle.

“Nooooo!” watching hundreds of demons flying out of their nest, the kids cried. This amount of demons were simply too much. Just too much! There’s no way a human could survive this!

But... did they forget something? Their teacher was already inhumane. Their teacher was ... NOT that EASY to be defeated by mere Wingless Bats!

“Ha, foolish children,” seeing his students crying, Easy smiled and looked back at them. “Stay strong. Don’t cry na…”

“Teacher…”

Easy’s sword once again covered in crimson light.

“THIS IS NOTHING!” Easy grabbed his sword tight. Growing together with his determination, the black aura surrounding him got thicker and thicker...

[Shadow Strike - Death] finished its cooldown. Another attack was ready to be unleashed.

“DEATH!”

Ah, let me tell you this now, this skill's targets are not real bodies, but shadows. When hundreds of demons attacked Easy like this, there was not a single one with its shadow not connected to at least one other shadow. So, I think you get the idea. However, the damage from this skill would be greatly reduced compared to normal attacks and would also be shared among all the targets...

But again, there was this madness skill, triggering in secret...

[Soul Assassinate]

Ignore defense. x10 damage. Sure crit. 10 seconds cooldown.

Kaka.

The Prince of Crits was indeed a cheater.

SPLOOOOSH!

Swarms of bloodlusting demons were slain in just seconds! Items dropped like rain!

But why didn’t Easy target Jessica with this skill?

That… you’ll know later.

“What!? ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!” once again, Jessica growled in disbelief. How could he still unleash that move!? Where did he get that insane stamina!? Was his mana pool hundreds millions!?

Those were indeed, Jessica’s thoughts.

However, inside this dungeon, killing one or two hundred demons meant nothing. Jessica still had an army of demons backing her up, so the truth is, it was just a matter of time before she could finally defeat Easy...

But being impatient had made Jessica forgot this fact already!

“Die! Just die! You … You’re a human! A human cannot beat us! There’s no way you can ever beat us! Here in the Labyrinth, we demons are INVINCIBLE! YOU INSECTS ARE NOTHING!”

Slash!

A demon approached Easy and got sliced into bloody halves. Ten more seconds until the next [Shadow Strike - Death] so now he had to kill demons with auto attacks.

“Ha? We … demon?”

Ah, Easy had spotted something unusual in Jessica’s words. But ... why chit chat while fighting though?

Slash!

Another demon’s down.

“I see. So you … have … abandon… your ... humanity?” Easy’s breath was too heavy so he could only speak in separate words.

“No! I --” for some reason, hearing that question, Teacher Jessica startled and took a step back. Her hands started to shake and there was something in her eyes…

“I mean… Human? I… Yes, I’m a human… Oh no! I’m a human! But... Why am I a human!?”

“I ...see… Siding with demons ... kidnapping human kids… Losing to yourself…. Do you see who you really are now?”

“I… I … JUST SHUT UP AND DIE ALREADY!”

And now there were even vines covering in scary thorns shooting at Easy!

Slash!

Nevermind.

“DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!”

“Ha… I thought you’re just a victim of the Labyrith’s mind control. But now I know…”

“Wha… WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW!? WHAT ARE YOU SAYING!? JUST DI …

And again, Teacher Easy twisted his wrist. But this time, it was just to get the blood out of his blade…

“Jessica, you can no longer be saved.”

...Kah!?”

...

Suddenly, everything stopped. The demons stopped moving, and so did Teacher Jessica.

What the hell happened!?

“Invincible? Ha! What a joke…” Easy spoke out loud and wiped his sword clean. He stood up straight, did some stretches like he just finished a morning exercise. With all the surrounding demons immobilized, Easy slowly walked towards Jessica. “I was just acting for you to reveal your true nature. But man, that poison.... Making me a lil bit itchy you know?”

“Wha...wha... di... y... do!?” Jessica couldn’t even move a finger now. Seeing Easy approaching her, Jessica’s thoughts trembled. Her eyes displayed the true nature of Fear.

“Oh Jessie, you think that I didn’t know?” Easy said while moving, “You used the Labyrinth's power to absorb fallen demons and make new ones, didn’t you? Quite smart, I’m impressed. As demons are spiritual beings, their souls just go back to you as long as you’re still inside your territory…”

“Y...You… kno…”

“Endless bodies, and endless souls. Scary, huh? But do you know what you have absorbed along with the demons’ bodies? The thing that is now circulating inside all the dungeon vines and roots.”

“Wh..w...ha…t”

“Do you know what was that thing I put on my blade all this time?”

Hearing that, Jessica used all her strength to move her eyeballs trying to find Easy’s sword. But even the eyeballs were immobilized...

“Here here, don’t worry, I’m going to show it to you now.” And Easy raised his sword up. “This beautiful color, how could you not notice, huh?”

Drip … drop…

A drop of this dark, red, glittering substance fell from the sword onto the dungeon floor.

“P...poi...s…”

“Neurotic poison. Good job!” Easy said cheerfully and looked at Jessica directly in the eyes. “Now... knock knock, I know you’re in there. Come out and tell me what are you insects truly after.”

“W...wa...wai...WAI..T!”

Suddenly, the ground shook. Although being affected by the neurotic poison and couldn’t move, Jessica was still able to raise her hands up and hugged her head. She screamed madly, and then fell onto the dungeon floor before going into extreme epileptic episodes…

“Arhh...AA… aa.a…” Jessica screamed in pain. “I… I.. Soo.. oryy… Ple...plea..se… A… anothe… chance!!!”

Easy took a step back and tightened his grip around the hilt of the crimson sword while watching the whole scene with expressionless face. His heart, however, started beating uncontrollably.

“And here it comes.”

“Urwahhhhhhh!!!!” Jessica’s body on the ground twisted and bent into unreal poses! Oh hell she screamed, in such a terrifying pain! “You! Youuuuu! My dungeon! What have you done to my dungeon!?”

For some reason, Jessica’s speech slowly restored and the whole dungeon vibrated along with every word she said. And then, she stood up, facing Easy.

“Humannnn…” Jessica growled angrily. “You…”

“Hello. Labyrinth.” Ah, Easy knew, that was not Jessica anymore.

“Who the hell ... are you!?” asked Jessica, no, asked the Labyrinth.

“Me? Come on! How long has it been?” Easy suddenly asked this question. “Five years? Ten years? Seriously, you don’t remember me!?”

“What ... are you talking about!?”

“Stop playing dumb and let the Minotaur out already!”

“Diaminos!? How do you...”

“Ah, Diaminos. So that was his real name...

... Eli"

Flashback.

“And... and you said you don’t have a name?”

“No, I do. But... I’ve forgotten it already.”

“I see. So… so... how about me giving you a name? What do you think?”

“You… my name?”

“Hmmm… let me see… your left eye … no! Don’t cover it! Let me see more! I’m thinking of something!”

“O… okay...”

“Woah… Beautiful!”

“You’re joking…”

“No I’m not! I’m telling you, it’s really beautiful!”

“There’s nothing there…”

“What? Of course there is! Let me tell you, I see… darkness… but… beautiful... darkness…”

“So only darkness, huh?”

“No! … Darkness but it… warm... Darkness… Heart?”

“Darkness … Heart?”

“Hmmm, DarknessHeart is not a cool name. So how about… Aha! ShadowHeart!”

“Shadow…”

“Yes, ShadowHeart!”

“Pffft!”

“Wha … What!? You don’t like the name a Bery Fairy gave you!?”

“No. ShadowHeart, I like it.”

“Yes! Kekeke, so nice to meet you, mister ShadowHeart!”

“Ah, nice to meet you too.”

“Oh! Wait! Wait a minute! You… you smiled! You really smiled!”

“Y-ye… hehe”

“Y-you know, I really… I mean... I like your smile... a lot!”

Ah, and I love you too…

Eli.