Chapter 56 - A Shadow (1/2)
Although he was expressively neutral, Luke was almost going crazy inside his head, because he had never even heard of a monster that could talk.
Not to mention the strong presence that strange creature had, much more significant than the scary Knight the man had defeated.
”You're an A or S level monster, aren't you?”
”A monster?! Oh! No, no... I'm not a monster. I mean... not like you're thinking.”
”What do you mean?” Luke questioned confused, after all, they were inside the Dungeon and an ordinary person would not look so funereal.
”I'm more like an angel than a monster. I help people, people like you.”
The half-wolf arched his eyebrows. ”My instincts tell me that— No, even without my instincts I would realize that is an absolute lie.”
The wide-smiling shadow closed his mouth and his white eyes had their sharp edges, expressing his anger. After that, he crossed his small arms behind his head and turned on his back, looking at the lava tubes above.
”Luke, Luke... you really think all this is a coincidence, don't you?” He said, with a pensive tone. ”I'll be honest with you, you're not here because you had bad luck. You're here because we want you here.”
Taking advantage of the shadow on his back, Luke began to slowly backtrack to the Egg.
”We?”
”You never wondered how easy things have been for you so far, did you? Your real problem is your selfishness.”
As soon as he heard that, the half-beast braked his way over to Egg, realizing the hint.
”You have a good job, a beautiful woman who is genuinely interested in you, and yet you haven't totally ruled out the possibility of destroying all that for mere childhood chums.”
”H-how do you know all this?”
”Come on, why wouldn't we know? We're the ones who gave all this to you. Come on Luke, you weren't thinking that an illiterate man would get a good job in a big family without some underhand influence, were you?”
Luke knew they were just empty, unfounded words from someone who somehow knew too much. Still, he could bear to hear all that quietly, because he is human.
”Tsk... Liar, the selection process was fair and I got it on my own merit.”
”We don't say it wasn't on your merit, not least because if you couldn't get over something so silly, you would disappoint us. Hihihi!”
”You're with him, aren't you? With Chaos?” The only being who demonstrated that he knew that much about Luke, was the Entity worshipped by the fanatical followers who had caused such a ruckus in Vasconcelos in recent weeks.
The shadow turned to Luke again and replied, ”Who knows? We can be allies or enemi—” At that moment, the half-wolf split the shadow's face in half with a swift wind caused by the use of the <Vind> ability.
”You know what the downside of chatty things like you is? It's that you guys are too boring.” So said Luke, who then ran toward the Egg.
The half-beast knew that his problem was selfishness, yet he would risk any job or woman in the world, to make his friends have a happy ending, even if it meant fighting against his own desires. At that time, Luke did not know that this was not selfishness, but altruism.
Within moments, the shadow's face parts began to come together again, however, this time there was something different. Before, its interior looked like a dense, black mist, made of nothing. Now, the parts that came together and braided themselves, resembled an abuzz goo.