Losing One's Identity

Ais Wallenstein dazedly stood in her place. Her expression was solemn as she was looking at the tremendous magic power that filled the entire floor—that was visible in her eyes.

"A...monster?"

Ais dazedly muttered. As she was familiar with magic because she has always witnessed Riveria or Lefiya's magic, she was sure that this magic power wasn't from a human or she refused to believe that any adventurer could release this overwhelming, destructive and murderous storm of magical power.

The existence of monsters is a poison. Their very existence is evil. That's what the Sword Princess believed and the reason why she swings her sword.

Days ago, Ais couldn't understand what she was seeing. Watching the spar of Alex and Tiona, she questioned herself at a single moment.

A human was radiating a suppressive aura of the monsters or to be exact, a dragon. It was hard to believe but that's what exactly was happening in the scene unfolding in her eyes.

If she hasn't seen Tiona or anyone in her Familia at that time, she might have attacked Alex already but was able to restrain herself before she acted.

'What's going on? That's impossible.'

Ais was bewildered behind her emotionless expression. Her mind was a mess. Her heart was filled with confusion.

There was no monster in the 18th floor capable of releasing this tremendous amount of magical energy.

Without hesitation, she dashed forward with the intentions of finding the source and the answers she was hoping for.

•~~~•

Alex had successfully controlled the gargantuan amount of magic, making the storm of magical energy to disappear like it had never occured.

He smiled as he closed his eyes, feeling the changes in him. Then, suddenly, Alex halted the smile in his face. It was because of a system messages that stunned him.

[ The Black King has momentarily regained his consciousness from his dream. ]

[ Your presence have been perceived by the Black King. ]

"What?"

He was left puzzled and wasn't sure on how to react about this. The content of the message was just that shocking.

[ The Black King looks at the holder of the Akashic Records. ]

[ The Black King is starting to exhibit a small interest in you. ]

[ The Black King judges you're worthy of his interest. He offers you a present with an exchange that you cannot refuse. ]

[ Your gift from the Black King has arrived and in return, the Black King has taken away your name and identity. ]

Suddenly, a black fog appeared around of him and out of nowhere, a black chain of metals or a black bracelet was suddenly wrapped in his right arm.

The Black Bracelet emenated a black aura and the aura spread into the surrounding as if it were going to cover the world with its darkness.

[ The gods had sensed the presence of the Black King and shudders in fear! ]

*Ratle! *Clank!

Not looking at the notification, he firmly gripped his right arm. The chain wrapped itself tighter around his arm like a snake.

[ Black King is appointing you to be his successor. ]

[ The development ability 'Black King's Successor (S)' has been acquired. ]

While dazedly looking at the system messages, he breathed heavily.

"What is...happening?"

His mind couldn't process what had just took place and was taken aback on the series of events. His eyes then laid on the Black Bracelet in his arms.

As his blood red eyes was fixed at it, a notification appeared.

[Despair of the Black King]

Rating: ???

Durability: ??? Defense: ???

* The skill 'Soul Collector' will be generated.

* The skill 'Spirit Familiar' will be generated.

* The skill 'Black Energy' will be generated.

* Ability locked (Sealed).

* Ability locked (Sealed).

None of the ??? could stand against the power of the Black King, so they had to live in dread for a long time. In the end, the ??? decided to betray the Black King, successfully overthrowing him from his throne and imprisoning him in the abyss.

After an eon spent in confinement, the Black King's resentment had corrupted the three 'frames' that had been binding him in the abyss, turning them into his servants.

The frames tainted with the Black King's resentment vigilantly await the opportunity to ?? its wearer.

** This is a 'Unique' artifact. No same artifact exists, and it will be bound to its owner. It cannot be transferred or traded.

** Some of the abilities are sealed. You must meet the qualifications or conditions in order to lift the seals.

** Some information cannot be accessed. You must meet the qualifications or conditions in order to view the information.]

[Soul Collector]

[Fixed chance of reaping the soul of the killed target, putting it into the 'collection'. The collected souls lose their memory and become corrupted, left with only deep resentment. The capacity of the collection will increase in proportion to the user's proficiency.

Type: Passive

Skill Proficiency: 0%

Skill Cooldown Time: None.]

[Spirit Familiar]

[Consumes a certain amount of mental strength to convert a soul in the collection into a Spirit Familiar. But in order to proceed with the conversion, the user's willpower must overwhelm the target soul's hatred. Once the soul is converted into a Spirit Familiar, it will become a faithful servant of the wearer and gladly carry out any given orders.

Type: Passive

Skill Duration: None.

Skill Cooldown Time: None.]

[Black Energy]

[Consumes the souls in the collection and converts them into dark property energy. The power increases in proportion to the number of consumed souls. Once created, the user can wield the energy at will.

Type: Passive

Skill Duration: None.

Skill Cooldown Time: None.]

Alex absentmindedly watched the black chains in his arm. He was beyond speechless and was lost in words. Before he could regain his composure, a pitch black aura rose from the chain and began to seep into his right arm. He was startled by the sudden effect.

He felt the black aura flowing through his veins, permeating into him and spreading across his entire body. At the same time, a black substance slowly smeared the white of his eyes. Then suddenly, previously unseen things began to appear in his sight.

[ Under the influence of 'Despair of the Black King', you have gained an ability to observe the world of the dead. ]

He saw hazy figures floating in the air. The appearance of a rag doll with three holes cut out in place of their eyes and mouth. There were thousands of such things swirling around him.

Then suddenly, they stopped moving and turned their heads towards him. It seemed that they noticed that he was 'seeing' them . They started to growl and glare at him. It was an obvious display of hostility.

He felt their deep resentment lying beneath the belching aura, though it didn't pose much of a threat.

'Have they been wandering around me all this time? I was lucky I didn't get cursed.'

He thought even his mind was in mess but that didn't make him flinch even a bit. Taking a deep breathe to calm himself...Rather, he thought of it as a good opportunity. He obtained a new piece of equipment, and conveniently enough there were targets everywhere to test out his newly acquired ability.

He grabbed his dagger backward and fiercely swung at one of the souls. Feeling some sort of danger, it tried to move away from the dagger's trajectory. But it wasn't fast enough to avoid his slash, and ended up being cut down.

The white soul soon scattered into a murky haze and got sucked into the black chains.

[ Number of bound souls: 1 ]

Then a small message window popped up on one side of his retina.

'Then.'

He pumped Mind into the Despair of the Black King. And this time, he held Splitting Edge pointing forward.

It was to use Black Energy.

[ Number of the bound souls: 0 ]

The count went back down.

*Whoosh*

Dark energy rimmed along the blade.

'Dark element mana.'

His eyes gleamed at the sight. Although magic from grimoire is rare, along with the light element, the dark element was one of the rarest. Moreover, it was also a kind of buff that many were looking for.

Dark element could be used both as a buff to increase one's attack power or as a debuff to curse one's enemies. It was the element most specialized in offensive uses.

To test its power, he poured a lot more mental strength into the sword and made a full swing to his right. As soon as the sword made a scratch on the rock,

*Kwakwa*

Not only did it split the rock in half, but the tree that was far behind the rock also blew up.

'This is more than I imagined . '

He felt delighted.

It seemed that the black energy was much stronger than he originally thought. To top it off, the rock and the tree started to decay from where the blade cut through. That was the curse followed by the attack.

While he caressed the black bracelet, his eyes sparkled with a sudden idea.

What would happen if he mixed the black energy with other skills?

'Maybe.'

To try out his idea, he captured five more souls, and this time, he drew the dark energy to his hand instead of his weapon. The black haze converged and formed an orb.

Then, he added another skill to the collected energy.

[Fiery Vermilion Phoenix]

The moment the dark energy was combined with Fiery Vermilion Phoenix,

*Kwang*

A wild explosion occurred right in front of his eyes. An explosion that would easily blow up the head of an Orc or even a Minotaur. When the explosion ended, a big scorch mark of 50 meters in radius was left on the ground, and a burnt smell tainted the air around it .

The second he saw this, the corners of his mouth started to roll up. If only five souls could create an explosion this big,

'What if I turn all the souls into black energy at once?'

As he was amusedly thinking, a sudden thought came into his mind.

'Why does I felt like I was missing something or I had lost something from me.'

Looking at the crystals above, he absentmidly murmured to himself.

"Who am I again?"