The Smiling Death-Chapter 286: What was happening?

The substance crawled across his flesh and invaded his bloodstream. His veins, once faintly visible beneath his skin, began turning pitch black one by one, spreading rapidly like ink dropped into clear water.

His skin darkened. Black spread across his arms, his chest, his neck. It was consuming him.

’No!...I don’t want to get devoured like this! I don’t want to die like this!’ This was much more harsher than he thought. He was feeling as if getting consume with someone. Becoming part of something else entirely. And he can’t allow that.

Amon’s body convulsed violently as he sank deeper into the lake. His limbs flailed for only a few seconds before the resistance became unbearable. Every movement felt like pushing against solidified darkness.

His strength faded fast. His thoughts blurred. The thing was too powerful. It was taking over his mind. It was drowning Amon. It was devouring him.

"Hah... hah..." No sound escaped his mouth, only bubbles of black liquid.

His heartbeat slowed.

The pressure around him increased. Crushing, overwhelming. His mind screamed warnings, but his body refused to respond.

His muscles went limp. And at that moment, he felt more... better. He was becoming calmer. The unknown, ancient thing felt more familiar, like it was part of him.

He was slowly losing consciousness.

The last thing he felt was a deep, ancient presence. Cold, vast, and watching from all sides. But it felt closer to him. It was not an enemy.

Then silence. Amon’s body stopped moving. He sank down into the lake. He went deeper. And deeper.

The black lake swallowed him completely. No ripples remained on the surface. No sound echoed. Everything became still. And in the heart of the abyss, the darkness accepted him. And he accepted the darkness.

But just then, in the very silent space, something made a sound. No, it didn’t echo through the space. The sound resounded solely in Amon’s brain.

[Ding~]

---

The bottom of the Celestial Tree, from the inside.

It had a dark lake. Dark, smoky clouds above it. They were silent, still, unknown, and ancient.

But suddenly, the surface of the black lake rippled.

It was just a small ripple, which slowly turned into a bigger one and then a violent one.

"Gah—"

Splash!

Amon’s body shot up to the surface of the lake, thrashing. His whole body was dark black. His mouth opened as a shrill scream left his throat.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

His loud scream literally resounded throughout the hollow of the ancient tree.

The black liquid started to move violently all over. The cloudy smoke flowed wildly, like a storm.

Then something unbelievable happened. The entire liquid moved over the circular wooden walls of the tree.

Trying to climb upward, taking the walls as support to get out of this place. The thick liquid took the form of a shapeless being. It was so huge as it started to climb in the upward direction.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Each movement made a heavy impact on the surroundings.

The thing was trying to run away from the bottom. Not because it was bored of this place, it was fear. That pure dark substance felt fear of the human boy. The clouds above was reacting same. The darkness present there was trembling.

Amon, whose mouth and eyes were wide open, was sucking the whole darkness inside him, as if trying to devour everything.

---

Far above the bottom, where Vaelrix and Renard were, they were walking slowly along the edge.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

They suddenly heard sounds coming from the abyss below. Both looked down, their weapons already in hand.

They could tell. The sound of heavy impact was getting closer. Slowly, the entire inside of the tree started to shudder.

"What’s happening!?" Renard asked in fear.

BOOM!

Another violent impact shook the inside of the Celestial Tree.

The narrow path beneath Vaelrix and Renard’s feet trembled, the wood groaning like a wounded beast. Dust and splinters rained down from above, drifting into the abyss below.

Renard staggered, quickly stabilizing himself. His eyes widened as he looked downward into the darkness.

"...That sound," he muttered. "It’s coming from below."

BOOM!

The tree shuddered again. Harder this time. Vaelrix’s expression finally changed.

In fear and unease.

His dark blue eyes narrowed, mana instinctively circulating through his body as he stared into the abyss they had just dismissed.

"That presence..." he said slowly. "It’s wrong. It’s too powerful."

The faint heartbeat they had heard earlier was gone. Something else had replaced it. Something far heavier.

Renard swallowed. "Don’t tell me–" Before he could finish.

CRACK!

The abyss below erupted.

A massive surge of pitch-black substance exploded upward from the hole where Amon had fallen. It was neither liquid nor smoke, neither solid nor mist. It twisted violently as it rose, forming shapeless tendrils that slammed against the inner walls of the tree.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Each impact shook the ancient trunk violently, as if the Celestial Tree itself was screaming.

"What the hell is that!?" Renard shouted, fire mana flaring instinctively around his body.

The thing had no defined shape. It also had no face or limbs. Just endless darkness. It was writhing, expanding, alive.

Vaelrix drew his sword in a single smooth motion, demonic aura surging outward.

"That’s not mana," he said sharply. "It’s something else."

The black mass surged upward faster. Too fast.

Before either of them could move, the darkness engulfed them.

It wrapped around their bodies like living chains, swallowing their legs, their arms, their torsos. Renard roared as fire erupted outward, flames exploding in all directions, but the darkness did not burn.

It absorbed. Consumed.

Vaelrix slammed his sword downward, crimson energy tearing through the black mass. Yet it closed instantly, regenerating as if nothing had happened.

Something entered their bodies, just like what had happened to Amon.

"Tch—!" Vaelrix growled, straining as the darkness climbed higher, creeping toward his neck.

For the first time, fear flickered openly in Renard’s eyes.

"This thing—!" he shouted. "It’s not attacking us!"

Vaelrix realized it at the same moment. The darkness wasn’t hostile. It wasn’t trying to kill them.

It was devouring them. At the same time, it used the walls. Using the tree itself to climb. To escape from someone.

The entire Celestial Tree shook violently as the black mass surged higher, roaring soundlessly as it climbed toward the upper reaches. The narrow path cracked and splintered beneath the pressure.

Then suddenly, the darkness froze.

Mid-motion. As if an invisible hand had seized it.

The shapeless mass trembled violently, its surface rippling in chaos. Tendrils flailed wildly, slamming against the walls as if trying to resist something far stronger.

Renard gasped as the pressure around his body abruptly shifted.

"What—what’s happening now!?"

Vaelrix’s eyes widened.

"...It’s being pulled."

The darkness screamed. Not with sound, but with presence.

And then it was dragged downward. Instantly. Violently.

The entire mass reversed direction, ripping itself away from the walls, tearing downward into the abyss below as if something at the bottom had seized it and was reeling it back in.

BOOOOM!

The hole swallowed it whole. And with the darkness, both Vaelrix and Renard were also pulled down into the hole Without them screaming.