Hero Regresses with Villain System-Chapter 34: Escaping the Gentle Dark

"What the fuck is this?" Adam muttered as he trudged through chest high goo.

"It is disgusting." Set replied matter of factly, as he enjoyed flying next to him well above the goo.

Sighing, Adam muttered "No shit." before he continued walking.

Outside of his prison, the world of the Gentle Dark was beyond foul. Ignoring the chest high goo, there was also a ridiculously pungent odor attacking his nose. It smelled like a million corpses rotting at once.

’How long has she been feeding?’ Adam wondered before another sickening thought entered his mind.

What was this goo? Was it... those she killed? Were their bodies turned into a mushy goo and cast aside to be forgotten forever?

Was he literally walking through an entire civilizations corpse?

Swallowing heavily, Adam shook his head. Thinking about that stuff would only turn a bad situation worse. Right now, he had to find some way out of here. Then he would find the others, and lead those who survived the trial to safety.

Worrying about the dead wouldn’t help with that at all.

...

He killed them!

He killed them!

Your new home...

it is not a home, is it?

He killed them!

You must kill them all!!!

Varek’s world crashed around him as he forcefully remembered his traumatic past. The day was always fresh in his mind, and there was never a moment where his losses and goals fled his mind.

However, replaying that memory in his mind was nothing close to experiencing it all over again. No amount of recollection could actually replicate the amount of fear and desperation present that day.

As Varek watched his home erupt in flame, each light cast by fire burned at his heart. This was only amplified by his parent’s screams, before they were silenced.

That quiet echo, the soft sizzling of fire across their body, and an air filled with the smell of a charred corpse all coalesced into a single emption: fury.

The man who did this, the man who killed his entire family and kidnapped him... he was going to kill him. Worse than that, he was going to tear him apart limb by limb, but only after that man watched his entire family be burned alive.

Everything he had done to Varek would be dealt back 100 fold. There wasn’t a day this need escaped his mind, but seeing his parent’s death all over again was like adding gas to a raging fire.

’I’m going to kill them all...’ Varek promised, shuddering from the weight of his heavy words and the screams of his dying family.

Yes, kill them all... the Mother of the Gentle Dark confirmed before resetting the vision.

Once again, Varek’s anger only rose. An uncontrollable, chaotic, destructive and immense fury. A delicious anger.

These humans who wandered into her grave... they were far better than the dead ’###.’ Unlike the species whose anger was about as dead as itself, the humans seemed to be almost defined by their wrath.

It was quite the tasty, perfect happenstance. She did not know why they would come to a place like this, but she knew it allowed her to feed.

And right now, this delicious meal in front of her was only growing more and more furious every second. Very soon, he would be the best she’s eaten in millenia. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

...

From the outside, those prisons looked completely different. Inside, they were a simple pitch black, an endless void. However, from out here they were a bright red glow, almost like a guiding light to your death.

This made it very easy for Adam to find 3 opened prisons.

’Did they already escape?’ Adam wondered.

Set instantly corrected him, thinking, ’No. It was already impossible that you killed her. There is no way they killed her as well?’

’Why not? You’re sounding like you don’t want to admit your cowardice.’ Adam asked, mentally noting that there were apparently multiple versions of this creature.

’That’s not it, subject. Anything you guys achieve would only boost my credibility anyway. I’m saying that they didn’t kill her because her corpse isn’t in any of those prisons.’ Set responded, seemingly doing his best to annoy Adam.

If it wasn’t for this overall dangerous situation and new bombshell of information, he definitely would’ve smacked the football by now.

He literally left Adam to fend for himself, and yet he thought Adam was the subject? What kind of mecha would that make him then, to so desperately follow his subject?

’I don’t sense them either. It’s likely they’re already dead.’ Set continued, his voice containing not a single trace of cunning. He was speaking what he thought to be the truth.

...

For a short while, the 2 continued walking forward. Wherever the last prison was, it was quite a large distance from the rest of the prisons.

During this entire time, neither of them saw any evidence of survivors or evil eldritch horrors looking to feed off of wrath. However, it was evident to Set that Adam didn’t believe they were dead.

’You know, your puny human conviction is really dumb!’ Set mocked Adam. He had said this quite a few times already, quickly following with a ’let’s just leave.’

To Adam, it was clear he was still a coward. Even if he came back, the stupid Football was still too worried about his own safety to do anything useful. At best, he was an annoying voice that kept Adam from talking to himself.

Eh, so maybe he wasn’t entirely bad.

Still, he was extremely annoying even before his incessant whining. Now, he was outright agonizing to deal with.

But finally, they found the final red glow they were looking for. Unlike the others, this one was a much dimmer glow, like a veil was cast over it. This meant someone was still inside.

Taking a deep breath, Adam changed his arm into a hammer as he stood next to the edge. If it had the same defenses outside as inside, then he would be able to break through rather easily.

However, an agitated Set behind him grabbed his arm.

’Uh, maybe let’s think this over? Her main body is behind here!’

’Main body?’ Adam thought for a second before shrugging it off. As far as he knew, the others didn’t have a way to break out of the prisons. If they managed to overcome their rage and defeat her, they still wouldn’t be able to exit without him.

Therefore, he had to do this.

...

I feel their gentle feet pad along eternity.

I feel him coming for me yet again.

I feel it all, and yet I feel nothing.

No fear, no pain, no hatred.

That man killed me, his Mother...

And I don’t care.

Because this being...

His anger...

Is too enticing...

Too ever-growing...

...

’What the fuck is that?’

The only thing Adam could think of when he saw the hideous being in front of him was what the fuck.

It wasn’t the formless entity he knew, or the replica of his loved ones it became.

It was a giant amalgamation of horror. A collection of churning bones and skins and heads leading into a smooth, black head. 8 ready eyes stared out of that head, focused solely on Varek.

Multiple tendrils held him tight as the Mother’s many eyes stared into him. An open jaw awaited Red-Hair, a jaw filled an endless array of teeth.

Teeth that looked like jagged rocks at the bottom of a mountain, filled with corpses that were unlucky enough to fall into it.

As Adam watched it prepare to devour Varek, he wondered what he could even do to such a creature. The one he had faced had turned into a simple human, an easily killable thing.

This...

"He’s going to die..."

A fearful murmured pulled Adam away from the abomination. Turning to it, he saw Natalie shaking as sweat profusely fell from her brow. Henry tried to hold her and console her, but she was clearly beyond scared.

Evan sat beside them, emotionless.

Adam didn’t know whether they had faced the beast themselves or if Varek had taken the brunt of this damage, but what he needed to do was clear. They couldn’t fight that horror... not its real body.

Walking over to them, he whispered, "We have to get the fuck out of here right now!"

Evan nodded, completely emotionless still but rising all the same. Ignoring the fact the other 2 remained sitting, Evan asked, "Where do we go?"

Adam was going to turn around and show the hole he had made when he found it had closed.

’What the fuck...’

Then the entire prison shook as the Mother of the Gentle Dark laughed.

Looking over, he saw that Varek was growing weaker and weaker. He was now enveloped in a red glow, like the other prisons.

At the same time, he felt an insane rise in Qi. It felt like it could match, if not completely surpass, his Quantum Energy. The Mother was extracting all of his potential in life...

And it was eating it.

It was consuming Varek and his endless rage.