The SSS Beast King: Rebirth of the Legendary Predator
Chapter 62: Hollow Senses

Chapter 62: Hollow Senses

I stood inside an empty castle, but can you really call it a castle, isn’t it just another ruin like any other? One that has long lost its meaning. Without a king, does a castle even have a meaning?

It doesn’t matter how lonely a king sits on his thorn inside his small castle, it is still one, no doubt about it. But without one, are the mightiest of them really considered one? After when looking at a beautiful castle, you think of a powerful king.

The stone walls prevented the sun’s warm rays from entering and enveloping the ruin. Needless to say, it was cold, as cold as I felt ice growing on my bones.

My steps echoed through the empty rooms. I tried finding someone, something, but I couldn’t. I felt the hairs on my hand rise, as I made my way through the darkness that corrupted this ancient place.

I could hardly keep my balance, as the effects of overusing my skill were still present. I could hardly control my body and mind. I was beyond exhausted, barely wobbling rather than walking.

As the darkness enveloped everything around me, I saw something inside it. A lonely child, his tears flowed down his face as he gazed at me. His hair was like the sun, battling against the endless darkness around us. Blue eyes are known to hold hope, yet when I looked at his, I could only feel the despair that had been bottled up inside for ages now. How long has he been living in this castle?

I extended my hand, trying to help him crawl out of the hole he was inside, but the tips of my fingers met. He disappeared, vanishing into the air. I titled my head in confusion, that was the only thing I had enough power to do.

But as I looked over at my fingertips, they had been destroyed to the bone. And yet, there was no pain, truly I couldn’t even feel my own body, not even my own touch. Had I lost the ability to feel? Or was I supposed to not feel in the first place?

This... had to be a dream. Then how would there be any explanation? But yet, it felt real. All of my other senses were working.

As I continued inside the darkness, my ears started to ring, and as I was wobbling around, I tripped over something. I fell to the ground, dust going inside my mouth causing little coughs. As I looked over to see what had tripped over, I saw the same boy from before. When our eyes met, I heard him murmur something, but I just couldn’t hear him. And after some seconds he disappeared again. Before I realized it, I had lost my ability to hear, and one of my ears had fallen completely.

But, if I just stayed in one place, I would never end this nightmare.

I wandered around the rooms of the ruin, trying to find the lonely child again, but to no avail. That was until, in the corner of a room, I noticed him, smelling a dead flower. But would I still have a scent not that it had lost its life? I tried walking over to it, but his body scattered into the air as my hand was centimeters away from touching his shoulder. And as he disappeared, I was met by the dead rose. Intrigued by it, I tried smelling it, but there wasn’t any smell to it.

But as I was staring at it, I noticed the red color of blood flowing down on one of its petals, I later identified this blood to be mine, coming straight from my nose. It wasn’t that the rose had no aroma, I just couldn’t smell it.

And it wasn’t long until I had also lost my ability to taste, so now, I only had my sight to guide me. But is there anything more you need? Sight is humanity’s greatest ally... or was it an enemy?

As I followed my eyes through the dark, I waited, waiting for him to arrive again. And it wasn’t a while before it happened. A lonely boy, whose hair had had lost some of its color, and whose eyes were dimming. But... why was he smiling? At the start, he had been crying, and now, he had a calm smile on his face, it doesn’t quite make sense to me. But as I was staring at that cursed smile, my vision darkened, until the abyss consumed me completely.

...

"One of us." Those words whispered in my ears, had I regained the ability to hear. No, that wasn’t the case. This voice... was inside my mind, that was why I could hear it, it had no connection to me regaining my hearing. "One of us." They continued, getting louder and louder until they completely stopped.

[The next will be more gruesome]

...

Whenever my eyelids opened again, I found myself lying in my bed. I looked around, but there was no one, and the room looked as if it had been cleaned up.

I tried getting up from my bed, forgetting that in the real world, my spine was not doing so well. I took off my blanket, noticing that I wasn’t wearing the same thing as before. But I didn’t remember changing in any way...

I slowly stepped on the wooden floor with my bare feet. Using my surroundings to help me move around, and before I knew it, I had arrived at the door. I raised my hand, and put my hand on the doorknob, which was surprisingly... warm.

But as I was about to open the door, I felt my heart stop for a second, seeing the knob of the door fly open, and out of it, the sun himself fell over me. I accepted my faith while falling... this was the end. I felt tears swirl down my face as I made contact with the ground. Needless to say, I wasn’t helping my spine get better in any way.

"Oh? Hello Moon, didn’t see you there. I see you have finally awoken, I’m glad you are okay, you really seemed to have died in the game from yesterday. I was really worried you kno-" I shut my mind off, by whose mouth these words were coming out, I knew they were never going to stop, and I would be stuck here, with my back aching like crazy.

’Y-Yeah I’m fine Eclipse, I would be better if you got off of me.’ I mumbled, trying not to scream from the pain flowing inside my body as if was the blood moving around my bloodstream. But at least, it didn’t take him long enough to understand that he was hurting me. Hey, at least I could feel again.

I struggled, but I made my way back up and gazed at Eclipse who had curled up in a ball from the embarrassment. I sighed, looking at how fast his mood changed, going from hyperactive to whatever you call this...

’Hey, it’s fine don’t worry about it. But I have to ask, who changed my clothes.’ Not even a second after those words came out, did he burst up back into his normal self. "Oh, I did!"

’Ah, I see... wai-’

[...]

"Well, this is unexpected." I looked over at the screen, and then over at Eclipse, which had completely frozen, his face completely hidden by darkness. Well, after all, no one expected this reunion. Meanwhile, his powers were different, and he had dyed his hair, there was no way I had recognized him, and Eclipse didn’t.

This guy, was his childhood friend, the one who was the victim of his skill’s backlash.

So it seems he wasn’t powerless, strange, I had thought he had lost his powers to Eclipse skill. Looking at him, however, it only seems that they are stronger than before. But not only were they stronger, they were the complete opposite. These monsters were once a bright light. Ashen beast runs down the Boyle family, so it’s the same as the Thirds, which would be tragic if such a powerful beast with the powers that conquered the first King of Beast in The Core’s history would turn into whatever this monstrosity was. It would be... disappointing to say the least, and a waste.

We continued to watch the battle. And to my surprise, Moon was still alive, well only because Ashen didn’t want to kill him, but it’s still a feat. But I couldn’t help but be jealous, I wanted to be the one to kill him.

...

As the fourth team’s elimination was announced, I just stared at the blank screen completely flabbergasted. I was... not expecting Moon to have such power, and neither did I expect him to win. Well, it was more of a tie, but it was still astonishing. Ashen way before this new power was a formidable opponent even for me, I still beat him every time, but he was very skilled. So Moon lasted a battle against him, and even more almost winning was not on my bucket list.

A beast I tell you, he is a true beast.