The Strength To Face Death

At the deepest part of the Catacomb under the ruins of the once high and mighty Holy Kingdom, a hideous experiment aiming to replicate the Sacred Hero Summoning Ritual was being performed by a group of an unnamed organization.

...UWARGHHH!!!...

The only thing that can be heard from afar are the dying screams of all the humans who are being sacrificed as part of the hideous experiment.

...Six humans sacrifice...

...Five to create a new body...

...One to summon and attach a soul...

After one of the replicated rituals is done, the man leading the hideous experiment walks in front of the newly created body and looks into its eyes.

"Tsk!!!... Another lifeless eyes... I didn't think it would be this difficult to summon and attach a soul in a fake body!"

The man thought that the last ritual was another failure, when in fact it is actually a successful one.

A body, yet fake but enough to bear a new soul has been luckily created and a soul from the first Hero's origin world has been summoned.

However, the attachment of the soul to the new fake body has been delayed due to the Goddess Visare interface.

"Throw this failure and all these useless human sacrifices into the ditch!... Then gather more sacrifices within three days. We will start another ritual by then."

"Yes, Lord Admel!!!..."

And he was deemed as a failed product and is about to be thrown like trash.

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As his soul start to attach to his new body, the memories that his lifeless eyes saw earlier start to flow into his mind.

The flickering lantern lights and the dark shadows cast from it, the voice of the people who keep saying those weird words as part of the ritual, the dying screams of the people around him, and the man who looked at him straight in the eyes and deemed him as a failure.

Yet those memories still don't include the worst of all.

As those dying screams echoed inside the Catacomb, what he saw in front of him was a little girl with her hands and feet bound by rope.

She was a sacrifice like the others and she understood the fate that was waiting for her.

She was trembling because of her fear of death. Her eyes let out a gush of tears yet her voice never came out because of fear.

But at the brief moment that his eyes looked into her, he saw something unbelievable in the eyes of that hopeless little girl.

She was scared, trembling, and afraid of death yet behind her eyes filled with tears, he saw her resolve to face what she can't escape, the will to never lose and stay true to herself, the strength to face death.

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That lifeless little girl is now being loaded in a cart together with him and the other five sacrifices. All of them are about to be thrown into the ditch where other failed products and useless human sacrifices are being dumped.

"Damn it! You useless fake body... If I didn't bet that you would be alive this time, then I wouldn't have to take out all the trash by myself!"

A lone middle-aged man complains as he pulls the cart carrying the last batch of human sacrifices and the failed product in which he lost his bet.

The lantern he has attached to the cart lights the unkept walls and ceiling of the old passageway inside the ruined Catacomb along with the black rode that the man is wearing, indicating that he was one of the people reciting those weird words to invoke the replicated ritual of the Sacred Hero's Summoning.

Based on how wide the man's back is, and the fact that he was pulling a cart carrying seven persons' bodies so easily, he has probably enough strength to be a soldier or some kind of a fighter.

That is all the information he can get from observing his surroundings while still pretending to be a dead failed product.

His soul has been attached to his new body after he was declared as a failed product, the memories seen by his lifeless eyes flow through his mind as his body is being loaded into the cart, and while being brought towards the ditch to where they were all about to be thrown, his soul and body finally became one.

When he finally became aware of what is happening in his surroundings, what he saw are the dead bodies of the humans who were sacrificed for his body and the lifeless body of the little girl who was sacrificed to attach his soul, lying beside him inside the cart.

The memories of his conversation with the Goddess Visare also came through his mind. However, the things they talk about and the mission of gathering all the Hero's Sword fragments didn't matter right now. What he needs to do is find a way to escape this place and survive.

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After arriving at the end of the passageway, a large trench can be seen as the man looks below at the edge of the cliff. It is the place they call the ditch, where all their supposed trash is thrown and left to rot on their own.

...THUD!!!...

He started throwing all the dead bodies inside the cart one by one, and as the bodies fell deep down into the trench, a loud breaking sound could be heard echoing from below.

"Fall and die again, you useless trash!"

Hearing the loud breaking sound and what the man said just now made him understand that if he indeed fell from that height, he was probably going to die.

One by one, the other lifeless human sacrifices were thrown.

One by one, the dead bodies inside the cart have been reduced.

With only him and the lifeless body of the little girl left in the cart, the man throwing those dead bodies and laughing like a madman grabs his hand and pulls his still weak body out of the cart.

His new body still hasn't gathered enough strength to escape or much less, try to run away.

It is already been half an hour since he was aware of his surroundings completely, yet he still can't move his new body properly.

He felt weak and his instinct and consciousness was telling him that he felt small, much smaller than what his origin body felt like before.

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After dragging the fake body of this failed product that looks like a 14-year-old boy, the man who lost his bet because of the trash his holding in his hand takes another look at its eyes.

"It is all your fault that I have to smell this disgusting ditch on my own, you useless piece of trash!"

He is looking at the eyes of the supposed to be a failed product and making his complaint about the thing that is obviously his fault.

"What?!..."

It was supposed to be a dead body with a lifeless eye yet at that sudden moment, those eyes looked at him with a resolve to survive.

"You!... How come you are alive!"

He had no other choice left.

He can't escape with his body's current strength. If this man decides to throw him down the trench, he will probably die. If he got captured here and brought back to the one leading the hideous experiment, he would probably die at the end.

...All that is waiting for him is death...

At that moment he remembers what he saw in the eyes of that hopeless little at the moment before her death.

The resolve to face what she can't escape, the will to never lose and stay true to herself, the strength to face death.

...If death is what is waiting for me, then I would face death as myself...

"I need to bring you back to Lord Admel..."

"Uwarghhh!!!..."

Before the man can finish his remark, he gathers all of his strength on his legs, kicking the floor of the cart to push the man to the edge of the cliff.

It was a suicide plan. After all, the man doesn't let go and is still holding his right hand.

The man lost his balance and his feet landed at the edge of the cliff making both of them fall, yet the man managed to grab the handle of the cart and save both of their lives.

"You, useless bastard!... If you are planning to die, do it on your own!"

The man thought that they are safe, considering that all he needed to do was pull both of them up with his hand grabbing the handle of the cart.

...CRACK!!!...

However, that loud shattering sound changed that.

The edge of the cliff collapsed, making the cart and both of them fall deep down the trench.