It"s dark. I have been in this place for quite some time now and I have yet to move a muscle. Not that I"m bound or anything unlike when I was bound by Imhoteph, no, I refuse to move; not my mind nor my body. I refuse to move at all. I realized this place was some kind of limbo or a s.p.a.ce that is exclusive to me. I can"t see anything and no matter how long I"ve waited my eyes have not adjusted. However, I like it more this way. I wonder why. It feels more comfortable just being wrapped around by this darkness. It"s not like darkness equals evil, but it"s probably how most people would see it. Maybe that"s why I like the color black and that it relaxes me.

Being in this place for who knows how long already, I have begun thinking about things that I think mattered when I was still on earth. You see, on earth morals and justice were the big guns that people waved around to be called human. However in this world it"s not as developed as I thought.

I have realized this in my time here: Morals were only tools and words that people in power use for the sake of controlling the vast populous. In truth it does not exist at all. We see evil as evil only because we put words as labels to actions that would only const.i.tute to the survival of life.

Humans valued life greatly. It was something to keep. This again is but a lie fed by the society which brought us up and gave us goals so that we can be useful for their purposes like making the economy grow and fund their expansion goals. No, what humans really valued was their possessions, because they knew that their hard work would be for naught once they die, hence the desperate struggles to keep life.

These realizations have become my comforters in this s.p.a.ce. I know I"m running away from where I should be but this place is much better wherein I do not need to pretend to get along others just to stay alive or ahead; a place where I do not need to be enslaved by money to do anything.

Such is the life that I wanted isn"t it, so I will stay. I have already taught the whole camp how to live a better life with better abilities, so even if they scatter once day, they will be able to make a name for themselves without doubt in ability. Plus, if Isaac that Insane-guy can manage the affairs of that place properly then not only a camp, they will become a nation that would not just rival the empire but even surpa.s.s it. Those three will also become great warriors and they will be champions of the people all over the world, saving people in distress and damsels as well. They will be celebrated as heroes who have toiled day and night for the peace of the realms. However, my teachings should tell them otherwise to be used by such people foolishly.

I have taught them not to become tools that are easily used and discarded by anyone ever again after I took them in. If they do still, I will personally have to bring them back to the right track.

It seems to me that this place really enjoys my presence too. As I have been here awhile, it once tried to devour me whole but could not and it made me laugh because it was ticklish when it tried to swallow me up. I like the darkness but I don"t like it when something would try to force me into something. So this place trying to devour me is a minus for it.

I also realized that my powers really are overpowered even here when it seems to be limited. Fact is, my abilities actually have no counter-stop. Alchemy Master is already at the peak, however, the recipes and the potions and pills that I could concoct and make have no limits as long as I know what I want to mix and match and its effects. Regeneration means I"m un-killable and whenever there"s a fight my Kryptonian Gene is also there to provide me with skin that is for now, impenetrable by steel, which hopefully would be impenetrable to magic and other forces as well as time would pa.s.s and I grow older. Just like the different continuity that Superman had, as long as there is a sun, I will continue to grow.

I have been quite reserved in using my knowledge and powers in this world because of this sense of morals and whatever; however, I think I will abandon that now. It"s no use trying to be human when clearly, I cannot be considered human anymore. With power like this, and with regeneration like this, people who are with me would slowly wither and die and live me behind. Unless I create a concoction or decoction that can also mutate their bodies and at least last for thousands of years with me, but even then, they"d still die.

The safest bet would be to be with an undead or spirits that are immortal as well.

Thing is, I just don"t want to move from here. I want to sleep. I"m quite safe here. I won"t be hurt and I won"t be able to hurt others. It"s a win-win for both worlds right?

*chuckle*

Who am I fooling? I"m running away from what I did. I killed people; not just 1 or 2 but millions. Is my life equivalent to them all? Millions of innocents died by accident, yes, by accident but that doesn"t mean I am blameless and so guiltless.

That"s all the more reason for me not to appear in the world anymore. My presence there, while to some a blessing, to those families would be a bane, a curse. Do I really have the right to be alive while they died unjustified deaths? Am I so thick-faced that I would also ignore their deaths and continue living and moving on as if ignoring jeers from bullies in school? It just cannot be compared like that.

Should I go and live a life abandoning my humanity and instead live as the real me, a monster?

I have killed what we called monsters and beasts in my brief stay here but really, were those creatures, monsters, because they were hideous and mutated life forms, or are they monsters because of what they did? Instead, I would be the real description of monster.

I am the real monster.

No matter what I spit out as excuses, I would never be able to escape the truth that I am a monster. To the families of those I killed I am a monster. To those of the royal Acadria family as well, I would be a monster.

So really, is it just a matter of perspective, being a monster or is there really a monster out there that can be called just that without looking at its morals and values? I want to leave all these reasoning behind. I want to turn away from anything that would bind me to the narrow thinking of humans. I will abandon and turn away from humanity. I will embrace my monstrosity and live as I want the way I want.

If people want to stand in my way, I will give them fair warning, however I will kill them if they insist, that kind of principle in living this new life. I will not be bound by human values but instead use it to my benefit and those around me.

I am the real monster.

I shall not forget those who have died because of me. I will remember you and honor your deaths by living and purging monsters like me, not exclusive to race.

So I will close my eyes and when I open it again, I will be in the real world. You can"t stop me from leaving my friend the darkness; you will be with me wherever I am anyway. Let"s go.

***

-CLAY-

*Yawn*

Opening my eyes, finally I am back to reality, "An unknown ceiling." Yes! I finally was able to use that line. "d.a.m.n, I have been sleeping well haven"t I?" I looked around as I sat up and noticing that the ceiling was actually an earthen tiled plate, a big one, to make the roof. The walls were also made of the same materials. "This is an Elementalist"s doing I"m sure. Now, where am I?"

Muttering to myself, I check my body as well and then turned to look for people to ask.

"I can"t sense other people"s presence here, what"s going on?" I asked myself and just stood up from my bed by pushing myself up. "Wha?!"

*BOOM* *Crumble*

It seems that my strength has grown yet again and I am unable to control its growth. I pushed myself lightly to prop up, but I ended up propelling myself too much with just the slight exertion of force and resulted in crashing with the ceiling.

Now that I look closely, I am not wearing anything but a piece of cloth.

"Dammit, what"re those guys doing with me? They even stripped my rings off of me." I found the reason why I crashed just now, they actually took my rings off of me and that resulted in me being unable to control my strength.

"Let"s see my status shall we?" I summoned my status window and looked at my stats after mumbling those lines. What I found was not something I liked. And I don"t know how far this valuation is from mythical or is it even the same ranking system. What I saw for my STR, INT, MGC, DEX stats was a word I would have never a.s.sociated with ranking systems; Demonic «Unique».

Questions abound in my mind as I kept looking at it. Dammit, I don"t understand the ranking system of my own abilities anymore. First it became words instead of numbers then now it includes "Demonic" as a ranking?

"Bah, whatever, I should wear my rings first. A good thing my storage has a lot of these things." So I took twenty rings that fit my hands by the twos. One-by-one I slipped it in, I felt heavier. After a minute I finished wearing all 20 rings and activated its maximum settings. In the process of doing so, I monitored my stats and when I finally inserted the 10th ring, I found out that after Mythical was Demonic as the stats changed from Demonic to Mythical. And when I finally inserted the 20th ring in hopes that it would change, it actually did not and stayed at Mythical. So it seems that my strength only gains one rank up when I take off the rings.

With that done, and with the desire now to actually experiment with this again later, I left the place and noticed that it actually was the peak of the Moribor mountains.

"So they actually brought me here, alone. I wonder why they did not relocate." I mumbled yet again and moved to climb down the mountain. At the edge of a cliff in the mountain, I saw a bustling city; that most probably is a city isn"t it? When did a city, actually get established here? With that said, how long was I asleep for anyway, to be able to establish a city here of all places, and what happened to my subordinates, those guys?

No use asking myself. First thing"s first, I should go and survey that city, look for things that I am familiar with and I should get down and explore this seemingly new world after waking up. Maybe I"ll find something that is surprising.

"You guys better be alive or I will hunt you down in h.e.l.l and bring you back to life. You have a lot of explaining to do!"