Chapter 75. Darkness
Succubi Chapter 75. Darkness
I lay flat on the antenna platform, panting like I just finished a gym circuit designed by a demon with a caffeine addiction. The city simulation around me glitched once—briefly stuttering like a bad frame drop—then dissolved into golden dust. Streets vanished. Buildings peeled back into nothing. People blinked out of existence mid-step, mid-conversation, mid-cheap illusion hotdog bite.
Even the fake wind stilled.
[Scenario Complete.]
[Objective: Orb Destruction — SUCCESS.]
[Time Remaining: 6:12]
[Style Rating: S]
[Environment Interaction Bonus: +20%]
[New Rank Evaluation Pending...]
I grinned and threw a lazy fist in the air like I was holding a fake Oscar.
“Knew it,” I muttered, smug as hell. “Style points always count.”
I sat up. Somewhere out there, Leon was probably fighting for his life against a swarm of sentient garbage cans or whatever his trial was. Meanwhile, I’d just parkour’d over half a city and shadow-grappled my way into a mid-air assassination on a floating mana orb.
Not bad.
Then it happened.
-Ping!
No applause. No confetti.
Just a single sentence delivered in that cold, all-too-cheerful automated voice that meant one thing: pain.
[Next Scenario Initiated.]
I froze mid-self-congratulation.
“…Next?”
The platform vanished beneath me. Again.
I swear, at this point, I needed emotional compensation for all the teleport whiplash.
I landed.
But this time… nothing.
No sky.
No city.
No dungeon.
No jungle.
Just… darkness.
Real, swallowing, living darkness. The kind that wasn’t just the absence of light—it was presence. Thick and cloying. Like it had weight. Texture. It pressed on my skin like cold fog and slithered around my legs like it was curious about my soul.
I couldn’t see my hands.
I couldn’t even see my blade.
No glowing runes. No tutorial.
Just one cold whisper from the system.
[Objective: Eliminate 10 targets. You will not see them. You may not sense them conventionally. Survive.]
I stared into the void and muttered, “...Yeah okay, this is fine. Totally fine. Just me, my nerves, and a bunch of blind-date monster fights in an abyss.”
The silence stretched.
But not really silent.
No.
Underneath it, there were sounds.
Not loud.
Low.
Too low.
The kind of sound you felt in your teeth before you heard it in your ears.
A growl.
No—multiple growls.
Soft footsteps. Scraping. Claws maybe. Something chittered. Something else breathed—wet and heavy, like lungs full of mucus.
I swallowed. My hand gripped at the air, and I whispered…
“Shadow Blade.”
Nothing flared.
But I felt it.
Cool in my grip. The comforting hum. My fingers closed around the hilt of invisible death, and I exhaled, grounding myself with the only thing I could trust.
“Okay,” I said quietly. “Let’s make this work.”
I couldn’t rely on sight.
So I dropped into a crouch.
Used my ears.
The darkness shifted near my left side—air parting like something brushed past at speed.
I spun, slicing upward.
Nothing connected.
But behind me—another growl.
Then impact.
Something slammed into my back—low and heavy, like a beast shoulder-tackling me.
I rolled with the hit, crashed to the invisible floor, and stabbed backward.
The blade sank in.
It screamed—an unholy shriek like metal tearing underwater—and then vanished. Dust. One down.
“Alright,” I hissed, getting back to my feet. “That’s how we’re doing this.”
I shut my eyes.
Didn’t help much—still couldn’t see. But it let me focus.
I shifted my breathing. Slowed it. Started to track not just sound but air.
Every movement displaced the air. I could feel it. A disturbance, like a ripple in still water.
One step. Behind me.
Another ripple. Ahead.
I spun my blade horizontally—and it clanged off something dense. Bone-like.
Another snarl came from the right. I ducked—barely dodged a slash that whistled over my head. My hand shot up.
[Shadow Blade – Form: Twin Daggers]
Faster. Smaller. More precision.
I carved upward in an X, slicing through one of them.
It yelped and crumbled—shards of mana trailing away.
Two down.
I leapt forward—just as another lunged where I had been. I felt its frustration in the growl that followed.
My breathing was heavy now. Every inhale tinged with tension, every exhale trying to remember I was still alive.
Something circled to my left—fast.
I switched tactics.
“Dark Orbs.”
I whispered the command.
They didn’t glow—but I felt them. Little orbs of gravity now orbiting me like silent sentinels.
When something lunged again, the orb detonated—a sharp pull of air and mana, yanking the monster toward me mid-attack.
My blade met it halfway.
Crack. Three down.
But the others were smarter now.
They stopped charging.
They waited.
I stood in the middle of the pitch-dark battlefield, my senses screaming for input.
Something dripped behind me.
Saliva?
Or blood?
I shifted, turned toward it, but I was too slow.
A sudden slash raked across my shoulder.
It burned.
I cursed, rolled back, and whispered.
“Dark Healing.”
The shadows curled into the wound, sealing it with cold sting and slow adrenaline. My muscles loosened. My focus sharpened.
“Right,” I muttered. “No more playing nice.”
I drew in the darkness. Not sight. Not illusion.
Just feel.
I let my Shadow Blade charge, absorbing what I could from my own shadow—which, yes, I couldn’t see, but I knew it was still there. Bound to me like a loyal pet.
[Shadow Blade – Charged]
The weapon grew heavier. Vibrated in my hand.
A slow exhale. I swung it in a wide arc around me.
Four hits.
Two direct.
One glancing.
One dodge and retaliate.
The energy explosion that followed sent another one crumbling into bits.
Five down.
Halfway.
But now?
They were pissed.
I felt the pressure around me rise.
Low growls surrounded me in a full circle.
One behind.
Two to the left.
One breathing directly near my neck.
I ducked, spun, kicked out—connected. Something snarled.
I spun again and sliced low. My blade caught a leg. Something toppled. I finished it with a downward stab. Six.
But one bit my leg during the follow-up.
I screamed.
Bit down on the pain.
Then stabbed downward in return. Seven.
Dark Healing, again.
Blood rushed back into my thigh. But it still ached. Still burned.
I staggered to my feet.
A shape lunged—no sound this time. Smart.
But I wasn’t just using ears anymore.
I felt the subtle change in temperature.
I ducked.
The thing flew over me.
I stabbed upward into its gut. Eight.
Then two came together.
Opposite sides.
Perfect trap.
But I smiled anyway.
“Checkmate, idiots.”
Dark Orbs…
I set two orbs between me and them. When they leapt—
-BOOM!
The gravity pulse snapped inward, yanking both enemies midair. I dove under their limbs and slashed through both torsos in one brutal sweep.
Nine. Ten.
Almost.
Except the last one didn’t attack.
Didn’t growl.
Didn’t move.
The air went still.
I turned slowly.
My breathing the only thing I could hear now.
“Come on,” I muttered. “Where are you—”
Something cold slithered across my ankle.
I jumped back, too late.
It rose. Huge. Bigger than the others. Maybe a mini-boss.
Fine.
Bring it.
[Shadow Blade – Greatsword Form]
I gripped the massive hilt with both hands, pouring what energy I had left into the weapon. It pulsed. The air bent.
The thing charged.
I roared.
And swung.
The blade met something solid.
Then broke through it.
A burst of static.
A roar of light.
And finally—
Silence.
No more steps.
No more growls.
But I didn’t move.
Not yet.
I stood still.
Panting.
Bleeding.
Alive.
[Targets Remaining: 1]
And I whispered to the darkness…
“Come out, then. Let’s end this.”
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