Born in apocalypse

Dhruv quickly realized the changes that had happened to the barrier compared to previous times. Now, there wasn’t anything glitching—he could see everything clearly.

In all its glory he could see a transparent barrier in front of him and the things outside the barrier as well.

Moving closer, he touched the barrier. Focusing his senses a bit more, Dhruv looked around, trying to satisfy his curiosity.

’Why is everything black... what are those!?’

Questions began to pop up in his brain as he found one thing after another. Piecing everything he was sensing together, Dhruv realized what exactly he was seeing.

’Wait... so Aurora’s point about the dungeon being in a totally different dimension seems to be right,’ Dhruv thought, looking at the scenarios in front of him.

From what he could understand, the dungeon was floating within an endless realm of darkness. In this realm, this dungeon wasn’t the only one present either.

Just from a single glance, Dhruv could see countless dungeons floating in the realm in the shape of bubbles. His illusion resistance had evolved to the point where he could even see the interior of some of the dungeons.

He found some of the dungeons entirely drowned in water. There was lava flowing everywhere in some of them. Some looked like they were in the middle of a forest.

Some looked like paradise while others seemed like a part of hell.

As Dhruv randomly scanned through the bubbles, something caught his attention. In one of the dungeons that were pretty close to this, there was a being standing right beside the barrier exactly like him.

That wasn’t all it was looking at him... staring through the barrier.

’What? It can see me?’ Dhruv thought as he looked at a monster that was staring at him through the barrier. Tilting his head he was about to read its focused on its features when something happened.

Blrughh!

Dhruv puked a mouthful of blood... as he felt something heavy hitting his head. He was about to turn away but found his body frozen.

Blood began to pour out from his nose, mouth, and eyes as the vision in front of him got blurry. The pain was excruciating as if his very essence was being crushed.

Before further damage could happen, Dhruv heard the sound of his guardian reaching his ears. Because of the sound, he managed to break eye contact with the monster.

"M-master..."

"Master..."

He heard Aurora and Azarex calling for him. Breaking out of the daze, Dhruv looked around in shock.

’What happened...’

Looking around, he found himself standing in a pool of blood. Somehow, he was transformed into his monster form... because of the mana expansion his core was almost dry.

Dhruv didn’t have time to worry about it as he felt his head aching. Grabbing his head he tried to remember but unfortunately, he had no recollection of anything.

"Master... Are you alright..." Pulling a healing potion from her packet, Aurora gave it to Dhruv.

At first, Dhruv looked at the duo in confusion trying to understand why they were there... he wanted to think further but his head ached once again forcing him to take the potion.

"What happened!?.." Drinking the potion, Dhruv asked the duo with confusion.

"You don’t remember?" Aurora asked, looking at him with surprise.

"No... A-and why are you guys here? Shouldn’t you be hunting on the other side of the dungeon? Ahhh! W-what t-the fuck with this headache!?" holding his head in discomfort Dhruv asked.

"Master... we were calling you for multiple minutes, but you weren’t replying through the connection... so Aurora used the mark and located you. Are you alright?"

Azarex explained how Dhruv had not replied to their question for quite some time.

"What? I was passed out for more than ten minutes?!" Dhruv asked, unable to comprehend what he was hearing.

"Yes, Master..." Both of his guardians nodded in unison.

’Shit... how is that possible? I was just looking at the dungeon... and then... and then what happened?’ Dhruv tried his best to remember what happened after that, but the more he tried to remember, the more he was forgetting.

All his attempts were failing as he couldn’t remember anything.

Not having any choice left, Dhruv turned around and began looking at the bubble. He was going to the root of the problem.

Quickly he found the bubble but the moment he focused something happened. A chill ran down his spine as his instincts began to scream. His eyes widened as he remembered a single thing...

’I was smiling... whatever it was, it had smiled after seeing me...’ Dhruv thought, feeling his neck getting drier with each passing second.

Quickly closing his eyes he turned back not daring to see there. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Gulping a mouthful of saliva, he deactivated his ethereal eyes and turned around. Looking at his guardian, he muttered, "Let’s go..."

"But Master... are you alri—"

Aurora was about to ask when she found Dhruv staring at her. Feeling a weight comparable to a mountain pressing upon herself, she closed her mouth. Bowing her head, she began following him.

Following her master Aurora turned around and observed at the barrier. After a while, she turned back finding nothing wrong with it.

From then on... During the entire journey, no one spoke a word, as Dhruv continued to ponder what he had seen there in the silence.

’What was that... why can’t I remember it?’ Not being able to remember anything he was getting frustrated with each passing moment.

No matter how much he tried, he wasn’t able to get the information about that 10-minute time period. It felt like he lost those ten minutes.

There was simply no recollection of that.

Summoning a healing flame, Dhruv healed himself of any injury that he sustained and soared to the sky.

Soon, the trio reached the portal. Without waiting for anything, Dhruv entered it. He blanked out once again before appearing on the other side of the portal. After much time, he was once again on his home planet.

"Master, do you want to check the content of Dungeon Keeper?"

"Not at the moment... make a report; I will see it later... A-and yes, tell everyone not to disturb me for the time being." Saying these words, Dhruv summoned his wings and soared to the sky once again.

Entering his house, he went to bed and slept without a care in the world.

While Dhruv was asleep, something moved in his head... slowly, it began moving toward his core, but before it could reach it, something noticed its presence.

Something else moved inside his body... something shapeless. Reaching the worm, it looked at it in disgust. The shapeless aura moved as it crushed the worm without batting an eye.

The aura moved to the core once again, ready to defend the body from anything that didn’t have the authority to enter it.