LENIN

  It was 40. Hang on a minute, was it 40? Or was it 52?

  Damn it.

  I looked at the dungeon's floor and saw only a massacre there.

  Don't worry; it wasn't a massacre of people, but it was a massacre of Plantea Beasts that I had just killed scattered all over the ground.

  Peculiarly, it was sort of like they were set up as an art canvas with the way that they were dead on the ground.

  But never that now, I emitted Purpura Solum in my hand as I began to absorb all the Solum that these Plantea Beasts had in them.

  The Solum that they had was nothing out of the ordinary, but it would keep me active and fresh.

  After all, I wouldn't want to drain out of Solum.

  The human body could only produce so much Solum within them.

  A struggle of a Solum user, huh?

  From what it looked like, all of the Plantea Beasts from as far as this place had been ultimately killed, gone by me.

  It wouldn't be until another day that the core of this dungeon would replenish and create new Plantea Beasts for these people to fight.

  As long as the core was alive, these Plantea Beasts would continue to form and terrorise the innocent people present.

  I ventured deeper into the dungeon, and all I was comforted by was the eerie silence, which wrapped me up in a blanket, practically enveloping me.

  Could I get this over and done with?

  WHOOSH!

  I could feel a sinister laughter at the back of my head, and as I turned around, I saw nothing there.

  I instantly checked my surroundings. Massive traces of Solum were flowing in this part of the place, but no one was there.

  "Dae's huh?" I muttered to myself.

  It was the only explanation I could have given myself for this occurrence.

  I never thought it would happen to me, so I was excited to experience something like this.

  It was almost humourous that they chose to pick someone like me.

  If it were anyone else, they would have been able to feed off their fears, and in turn, they would transfer into your body and take your life with you.

  In this stage, there were only a few things you could do.

  Please close your eyes throughout this journey and be sure not to open your eyes to the voices that may lure you in with their false promises.

  Or. . .

  Turn around and never come back here because who in their right mind would want to continue exploring this place and seeing what it offers?

  I wasn't in the right kind because I would do that; in fact, I wouldn't do either.

  After all. . .

  I'm the exception.

  I continued to move forward, and the voices got louder and louder, with each other's voices being more unique than the others.

  A distraught symphony, until all of their voices, old and young, had merged into something more, something stranger.

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  All of these voices had been combined.

  "We see you."

  Their voices had become entirely old, ancient even.

  "Of course you do." I chuckled as I continued to walk without a care in the world. "You can try your best to gain control of me." I stopped in my tracks, pausing momentarily, as an idea popped into my head.

  It was a dumb idea, but I wondered what would happen.

  I deactivated the Solum that was running through my body as I stared at the ceiling,

  Come on now, do your work-"'

  WHOOSH!

  A shockwave had entered through my body, a searing pain that coursed throughout me.

  I knelt to the ground, letting the Daes attempt to get me.

  But as the seconds passed, I knew they were getting more reckless by the second.

  They knew that they were useless in my wake as I stood up from the ground, regaining my composure as what was a disease invading my body had been vanquishing out of it.

  "Your mind. . ." they whispered into my ear, a chill trickling onto my skin. "It's blocked. What are you hiding?"

  I shrugged, "It's none of your business, and besides, I think it's time for you to stop trying to play mind games with me. You won't get what you want, so scram."

  "As you wish."

  With that, the voices disappeared within seconds, and a sense of bliss filled the air—exactly how I liked it these days.

  What was funny was that I had lost track of time within the dungeon, but I knew I had been here for a few days.

  I wondered what the outside world was like and how Zac was doing now.

  Hopefully, he wasn't as reckless as I think he is; that would be a nightmare for anyone to deal with all the time.

  That was something I did not miss at all.

  Before I knew it, I had arrived at the dungeon's core, and the mist had engulfed me there.

  "Great, this again," I muttered lowly.

  I stood there, waiting for the mist to evaporate until another person was finally here with me.

  Funnily enough, it was me.

  His eyes sparkled with ruby red, and it was as if I would be the next prey he would feed upon.

  "Do I need to introduce myself?" He grinned, opening his arms.

  I chuckled lightly, shaking my head, "No, but I would like you to introduce yourself."

  "I'm the one and only Lenin." He pointed at himself proudly. "I'm amazing at everything I do, and I dominate every field that I'm on. . . How did I do it?"

  If I could give someone all of the Solum in the world, I would give it all to him.

  "You're the spitting of everything great about me." I grinned.

  "Great minds think alike." He winked playfully.

  I chuckled as I raised my hand to his fist, "As much as I would love to talk to myself, I already have a mirror for that."

  He raised his hand in surrender, "That's true, but wouldn't you want to know what you think about everything?"

  I looked at him as he began circling me, his hands behind his back.

  "I mean, what do you think." He examined me from head to toe, "About the Village of Facia."

  I shrugged with a simple smirk worn on his face, "I think that the Village is pretty lovely."

  He nodded, "We all do. . . But aren't you worried about the danger you're putting them all in?"

  He stopped right in front of me, and now he, too, had a great smirk.

  "Certainly, we all know who you are."

  "What would that be?"

  "Easy, a fraud." He declared.

  I don't know what he was expecting from me.

  Was he expecting my world, as I know it, to shatter all around me, leaving nothing in my wake?

  Or perhaps he was expecting me to crumble on my knees, expecting me to go on my knees and ask him for forgiveness.

  But there was only one thing I could give him now.

  "You are right; I am a fraud. As long as I'm breathing, I'll remain one." I eyed him, "But now I will deal with whatever problem that comes my way without a second thought, and that's final."

  All he could do was look at me, gauging the words I had echoed throughout the dungeon.

  He smiled, "That's why we're the strongest, huh?"

  I shook my head, "We're not the strongest, and that's why I know you're not me."

  "Well played." He muttered as I walked past him, and he vanished away.

  I looked at the glowing core, calling my name, but the core would only witness my Purpura Solum.

  I absorbed the core, and there I saw everything that I needed to see: the suffering, the pain, everything that not only this dungeon had done to these people who were killed here.

  But mainly the bandits who had sent these innocent souls here only for their souls to be gone forever.

  The question was, what was I going to do now?

  ———

  I quickly made my way to where I was with Pam, retracing the steps I had taken until I arrived.

  There, I saw a room full of people to see what seemed like they were getting ready for a bloodbath.

  Pam was instructing them. His words were gold to those listening intently to every word.

  I made my way through the crowds of people as I caught up with Pam, "What's going on?"

  "The people here are getting ready to fight. It's time." He declared.

  Those last words I wanted to hear came out of his mouth as I waved my hand, "Seriously? You know what'll happen, right? It'll be a bloodbath."

  Pam nodded, "I know that, but these people here are willing to fight for their lives for a cause they know is true."

  I sighed, trying to think of a way to make this fight a bit tamer because I knew whatever this battle wanted would be violent in all ways known to man.

  "Look, give me some time. I'll talk to the bandits and see if we can work something out with them."

  As he took a deep breath, Pam considered my argument for a second, "Fine, I'll give you time to talk to them." He looked me in the eyes, "But if I feel like something is off, then you'll know what'll happy."

  A slight smile appeared as I nodded, "That's all the time needed."

  I left the meeting room as I knew what I had to do now.