Solitary Sword Sovereign 62 Bastian Smith

Humans have a habit of burying their worst memories, and Will was no exception to this rule. The moment the Nether Door Pulse was activated, the scenery in front of Will changed. His perspective lowered because he was a bit shorter, and his surroundings were green.

Grass and stone monuments stretched as far as the eye could see. Will was first unfamiliar with this environment, but soon his sixty-four mind clicked into gear and he regained full consciousness. His mind went into the depths of its subconscious and instantly told Will where he was.

With a foreboding feeling, Will turned his head sideways, only to see what he had been dreading in his heart. A simple gray tombstone stood erect. Indeed, this was a graveyard.

'Here lies Bastian Smith'

Nothing else was written on the tombstone, no age, no date of birth or date of death; nothing. As if the inscribers had no idea what to put. The tombstone itself was extremely plain. A simple erect rectangular slab. The desolate feeling the grave gave one was intense, especially to someone like Will who knew why this was so.

The emotions Will felt when he first saw this grave overwhelmed him like a tidal wave. Sadness, guilt, desolation, loneliness.

It was only for a split second, but Will's entire consciousness echoed one phrase.

'I was too late.'

The name Bastian Smith was important to Will, so important one might even say Will was willing to kill anyone who slandered it. It was then that Will finally came to and realized something.

'This is an illusion.'

Will immediately activated Aqua Sense and regained his bearings. The illusion affected his five senses but not his intent.

Will was never the type to explode in anger. He was the type who compressed his anger within. It is actually when Will is at his angriest that he is at his most calm. Thus Will completely shifted his mind from the sour state it was to rage.

The concept of holding back completely left Will's mind as he started releasing blood mist from his ring. Will quickly thought of the quickest way to end the battle before he was out of energy.

Bloodlust starting oozing from Will's soul as he tightened the grip he had on his sword. As he gazed at the tombstone and at the puppy through intent, a desire to slaughter unlike any other Will had ever felt before started welling up inside him. Because to him, this puppy had dirtied something sacred to him.

But the angrier he got, the calmer Will became, or rather to be more precise the colder. Before Will turned his head and threatened his foe, he opened his eyes to the maximum. Because he knew that once the puppy was dead he would not see this, so he wanted to burn the image of this tombstone into his mind.

The puppy was spooked by Will's sudden action but it managed to regain its calm after a while.

'A threat is merely a threat! This King does not know how you can see through my Nether Door Pulse, but your end is still nigh.'

The puppy was about to act when it realized something. The red it saw was not just an illusion, the environment was becoming red! A red mist was permeating from Will's body and filled the puppy's line of sight bit by bit. Due to the baleful aura coming from the mist, the puppy could not help but be cautious and wait. As the mist spread the puppy noticed something else.

'It…it is getting colder!'

The puppy quickly felt the temperature around it drop, the surface of the debris around the duo was slowly beginning to frost over as the temperature got lower and lower.

The puppy was no fool and quickly realized that this was Will's doing. It decided to bite the bullet and attack Will before he did something else dangerous. But unfortunately, it was a step too late.

Like a specter, the wide-eyed Will appeared in front of the puppy and slashed down vertically.

So fast!

Will shocked the puppy with his speed and completely caught it by surprise. It couldn't even expand its paws to block properly as a red slash hit its guarding paw.

Like a comet, the puppy flew back and landed into a broken down apartment building. Will did not chase, he simply stood where he was and waited for his prey to come out. Within seconds, the puppy had indeed come out, but there was a change.

A gash had appeared on the paw that Will had attacked and it was bleeding black blood profusely. Before Will could make his move, a prompt arrived in front of him.

Netherian Dreadhound: A God beast who's lineage stretches from Gods themselves. Its body is as strong as divine treasures and only grows stronger with age. It also has power over illusions and can even mask its own presence from the system. Highly intelligent and with the capability to evolve, these kings of the underworld are sure to cause doom on any mortal world they are on.

Rating C+

Class: Dungeon Boss

There were plenty of words in the information that was given that would send a normal user into a frenzy. God Beast? Divine treasures? Trick the system? Doom on a world?

The puppy had lost its full control to mask its presence from Will, thus it knew that its identity would be exposed. It believed that the moment Will saw what it was he would realize the peril he was in. It was feeling a lot of pain, but it was too prideful to allow Will to see this so it tried to appear calm.

Yet Will didn't care. He only had one goal. Annihilate. Nothing in the information he was given was going to change that. Seeing that Will remained unfazed the puppy finally got angered to its limits.

It didn't even waste time thinking and revealed its true form. It became the size of an elephant and its fur became black with some brown on its paws an face. Its large, sharp teeth had drool running down them and its eyes shined an eerie red color. It was growling and its massive body emanated a regal presence that would make most want to bow.

As far as Will was concerned this dog was now two things: prey, and a pit-bull terrier.

Chapter end