Reon’s body quivered as he saw the beyond frightening scene before his eyes. The sound of chewing, bones cracking under the mastication of large teeth belonging to the giant of a man before him was something terrifying to experience.

The giant was sitting down with its knees facing up like a child, most of its body hidden by the squirming darkness. Its body was full of taut and well toned muscles, its sandy skin revealing strange red veins that ran amok along its entirety.

What made all of this worse was the fact that this giant’s peculiar red eyes never left him as it slowly devoured the body of the old man who was supposed to be Reon’s first opponent!

That gaze alone told Reon that there was no escape.

Soon, the giant finished its meal and smiled widely at Reon, its hands resting on its knees.

“It’s been a while. You challengers have been especially hard to find all these years. I underestimated how big this place is. Come closer and let me have a good look at you,” the giant said in a boisterous, yet childish voice.

Reon found himself walking over slowly, even as he tried to hold himself back!

The thought of attacking the first thing he saw had already left his mind as all that remained was a deep set fear of what was to happen next.

What was this giant?

Was he meant to fight it?

Ridiculous!

Though he couldn’t ascertain how strong it was, it still gave off a rather chilling air.

A literal chilling air.

As Reon reached within five meters of this giant, it suddenly puffed up its cheeks, taking in some air and blew hard at the surroundings!_.

The unmovable darkness that surrounded them was immediately blown back and erased under the tornado-like force of wind that was released!

Reon was even more shaken!

The unrelenting force brought about by the wind left no traces of the darkness as what remained were the clear walls, floor and ceiling, where a small spot of light illuminated everything!

“There we go,” the giant said. “It’s been a long time since I’ve held a conversation. I’ve forgotten how it goes. Oh! That’s right! It’s common courtesy to introduce oneself first, aha ha! My name is Sause. What’s yours?”

Reon didn’t want to respond, yet…

“Reon…”

“Ah… a lovely name, aha ha! Nice to meet you, Reon. I have proposal for you. Would you like to hear it and agree to whatever it is because you have no choice in the matter whatsoever?”

“Gladly…”

“Brilliant! I like you already! You see, the idiot who created this place locked me up in its bowels right before he died. I managed to escape a few years ago, but this place is just so darn huge that I can’t seem to find an exit! Would you happen to have a way to get out?”

“No, but my friends do…”

“Oh, there’s more of you? Great! Where are they?”

“I don’t know, we were split up when we came in…”

“Oh that’s a shame. But hey, there’s a quick fix aha ha! Come closer…”

Reon walked up to the giant whose name was Sause and the man leaned in to give Reon a big whiff!

A moment later, the giant’s eyes brightened, as it wore a content smile.

“Aha ha! No problem! I’ll find them,” Sause said, his giant right hand snapping its fingers to make three long, ethereal threads that swam in different directions to appear.

One was blue, the second was red and the last… was colourless, barely visible.

“Would you look at that? You have some interesting friends. I can’t wait to meet them. If we end up getting to be such good chums, I wouldn’t mind taking them on for a bite. Aha ha!”

Reon had been answering Sause’s questions nonstop, but his face showed the horror that he felt inside.

‘What is this monster?! This feels so wrong! My body won’t respond! We shouldn’t have come here! I can’t control my body! It knows where the others are?! Can we even survive this?’ Reon’s mind spat out thought after thought as he gazed at the innocently grinning figure before him.

The giant stood, its full height being limited by the ceiling as it couldn’t stand straight. It reached almost four meters in this state and it went on to grab Reon by his torso.

“Let’s go and find your friends. Make sure to tell them that I’m a good acquaintance of yours.”

Sause turned into a blur as in the next moment, the wall exploded as his figure had darted through it before Reon knew what was going on!

***

The double doors screeched open as with their opening, a bursts of chatter and laughter assaulted Skullius’ ears!

A magnificent yet horrifying scene appeared before him beyond the doors.

A massive space that was littered with luxurious tables and chairs appeared.

Multiple chandeliers made of precious gems lit up the space, giving it a jovial look.

The setup of this entire room, if it could even be called one, was incredibly beautiful, an exquisite red and gold tapestry laying on the floor with glorious paintings and sculptures on or near the walls.

Hundreds of men and women who were sharply dressed were conversing with each other while sipping on expensive looking drinks and eating premium quality food.

Their laughter from time to time would have made for one to feel like they were back in the normalcy of society but Skullius, who had opened the door felt otherwise.

His affinity to [Evil Darkness] and [Just Light] made him to feel and see things that most wouldn’t be able to.

For starters, spots of light flew around like little lanterns in this hall, unhindered by any physical construct as they simply passed through.

Soft wisps of dark mist rolled around this grand hall-looking place, which was rather… unnerving.

The icing on the cake was the fact that all the people in this place emitted these wisps of darkness too from their bodies while above their heads, a small golden white halo could be found!

“Dear me! We have a guest!” a burly man rushed towards Skullius with a big smile intending to give Skullius a big bear hug.

He had combed back brown hair and blue eyes that depicted a rare vivacity as he showed some love.

Skullius dodged his advance warily.

“What’s going on here?” Skullius asked with a confused look on his face.

“Oh dear friend. We’re celebrating Fulgardt’s death. Always and forever. It feels like yesterday when he passed but it’s probably been thousands of years now,” the man answered.

“You’re celebrating?”

“Why, of course!” A cheerful smile bloomed on the man’s face as he explained. “Each and every one of us is someone who has aided Fulgardt in some way. Giving potions, lessons, doing him favours among many other things. Fulgardt sought us all out and gathered us all for one last banquet before his death. He said that it was the duty of a man’s acquaintances to celebrate his death… eternally. So that’s what we do. We celebrate… for eternity.”

“…?” Skullius stared blankly at the man who looked like he was struggling to keep his smile up. His eyes were squinted, depicting the sheer effort he was putting in to keep this forced facade afloat.

Skullius saw the same thing etched upon the faces of everyone he saw. Some of the men and women in this place were actually leaking tiers from their eyes as this torture wasn’t something they could do anything against.

The man before Skullius oozed of the darkness that resonated with his keen affinity which made Skullius confirm that it indeed was [Evil Darkness]. The halo above him also resonated with [Just Light].

Did Fulgardt combine these two elements to somehow keep everyone here alive?!

Skullius couldn’t fully wrap his mind around it.

This was bizarre as flesh!

“What am I supposed to do here?” Skullius thought out loud.

“How about you join us? We haven’t had another guest in years! Surely you’d want to celebrate Fulgardt’s demise with us!”

The enthusiasm packed within the sentence made Skullius grimace as he thought carefully.

GRRRRR!

GWAGWGWAGWA!

“….”

The sound came from Skullius belly! A ravenous growl unbefitting of any human stomach!

“You must be hungry. Please, come and eat!” the burly man said.

Skullius was lead to one of the tables after he reluctantly gave in to this discount version of his hunger.

He sat on one of the tables, finding bountiful foods that did nothing to catch his eye as he couldn’t smell.

All he wanted to do was eat and get rid of the literal gnawing sensation coming from his belly.

As such, among the crisply roasted, majestically baked and masterfully refined foods, Skullius picked one of each and placed them in his pristine white plate.

‘Hmmm. What on earth am I doing? This actually feels…. vaguely familiar,’ Skullius thought as the scene and his movements made him reminisce of a time he didn’t remember.

Skullius grabbed some meat first.

The moment he did, a grand silence appeared as everyone in the room suddenly turned to him, paying extreme attention to his movements.

Even the burly man who had invited him merely looked at him with a daring gaze.

“Dear guest. Please eat. This celebration is in honour of a great man after all. So please…” he said.

Skullius was freaked out by the sudden change.

Why were they behaving so strangely suddenly?