Transcending Realms With My Leveling System As A Demon-Chapter 122: The Mark Presented By The Orthus

The yells continued for a while, and then Zylus came to a sudden halt. His breath felt heavy. Zylus didn’t know what to do other than squish his chest.

’Damn it,’ he squished it even tighter as the pain started to go away gradually. ’Never signed up for this shit.’

Once Zylus’s [Orthus Mark] was activated, he started feeling this continuous pain and frustration. Zylus started breathing normally again, fixing his downright horrible posture while doing so.

For a brief moment, he looked around, same terrain, same ground, same air, same sunlight, same heat, same everything. Zylus, even after finishing the quest, remained on the land.

Usually, he would get a notification sent by his system, letting Zylus know that he’ll be teleporting out of here and back into his current position.

When Zylus takes on quests, or rather, when any other demons take on their own quests, time stops for them in the real world, allowing Zylus to access as many quests as he wants without missing anything vital.

Zylus plucked his right foot into the sand below. It had the same feeling; the heat didn’t change at all, yet he wasn’t getting sent back, which felt like an error.

[Orthus’s Mark Retracting...]

[Materializing...]

"Ehhhhh!" The pain suddenly came back, and Zylus couldn’t do anything but scream; his body felt as though it was being clawed from the inside out. "Ahhhhh!"

It felt as though someone was spreading, a virus maybe, across his torso, almost reaching the glenohumeral joint, or rather, that’s what Zylus was feeling, if it were real or not wasn’t the question, but the sensation overwhelmed his thoughts.

Then...

Zylus, looking down at his skin, confirmed any of his former thoughts. He was now tatted. Tatted in black stuff, black painted things, objects, no, things he couldn’t explain began forming across his body.

’What is this...?’

It continued spreading as the pain turned even more severe; his yells continued with no sign of stopping. It went on and on for quite a while.

Zylus fell to his knees, his heavy breathing audible, his eyes widened. Zylus felt as though he had been thrust into a new reality, a new era, a new world.

’Stop, please, stop, I can’t handle this-’

While the pain continued, Zylus couldn’t accumulate enough force to speak out loud; all he could do was simmer in his own thoughts and wait until this endless sorrow washes away just like the Orthus he defeated earlier.

[The Orthus’s Mark Spreading...]

[Connecting...]

[Tainted With The Orthus’s Mark!]

[Congratulations!]

[Description: Orthus was primarily known as a fierce guard dog]

As the sun above began to set, Zylus still felt the pain, even though the propagation stopped, the nociception didn’t.

[Protects During The Sunset]

[A Slave To A Master]

Zylus’s vision slowly began to blur; his body started giving up. He took one more look around, then Zylus started to wobble.

’Damn it all.’

[Teleporting Back To Original Reality...]

[33%]

Zylus started to fall headfirst into the sand, his hands lying on either side of his torso. Zylus, who was originally on his knees, started to fall; he felt as though this might truly be the end for him, that he was about to perish.

[57%]

[78%]

[89%]

[99%]

[100%]

[...]

Zylus then closed his eyes completely; his body gave up on him.

[...]

In that exact moment, he opened them once more. And just like every other quest he has ever been on, he was back in the original place where Zylus depicted, on which mission he chose to go on.

Time didn’t change, the moonlight above stayed as it was earlier, before him being sent to that other realm, or reality, whatever it may be, a phenomenon nobody can explain, one thing was real...

He changed. Or, his body did, in someway, somehow, that mark had to have been the cause.

Zylus decided to check on it later, when he gets the time to take off his suit and dress pants, not in public, of course, to check on that ’Orthus Mark.’

Zylus didn’t hesitate; he moved forward with utmost precision in his vision, ready to do whatever was left he had to do to finally claim revenge.

The thing about ’revenge’ is that once you feel it, you have to see it through. A lot of individuals would like to think there’s an escape from ’hating your enemies’ or ’wanting payback,’ but in truth, there isn’t.

Have you ever felt your heart skip a beat whenever you tried to escape it? That slight feeling is what changes someone’s perception. No matter how much Zylus wanted to escape it, he already made a vow that would last him until his final moments.

Because of this, because of this selfishness, Zylus lost a potential partner, and a close friend, both of whom he can’t explain his pain towards, or the reason he doesn’t feel any remorse towards his own actions that went against Frey or Emilia.

Zylus simply didn’t feel like going back into his dorm, rotting in that same hell by himself, alone. Though this was a feeling he would need to get used to now.

"Might as well go check up on him," Zylus whispered, beginning to walk a route that takes you directly to the train, "Zenos, it is."

At any rate, Zylus still didn’t feel bad. His heart didn’t even beat that much when Emilia left him, or when Frey got mad at him; he just didn’t care.

Was this what an ’edgelord’ is defined as? Is this who Zylus really has become?

Zylus, while walking down an open concrete path, gripped his chest. He didn’t smile, nor did he frown; he just stood and stepped forward with a serious expression.

Zylus ran a hand through his hair, trying to think things over, or his plan. Though after what happened with Frey and Emilia, he decided his best bet was to skip the cadet course on this upcoming Monday.

Zylus now frames himself as someone he isn’t, but was forced to become. None of this was his fault, but he took the blame. He didn’t need to protect others, but he did. He didn’t have to work alone, but he chose to.

’A world without pain isn’t a reality.’