Chapter 13: Becoming the Dark Lord

An infinite void stretched before Luke. He was floating in the dark. Time didn’t move. Or maybe it did, and he just couldn’t feel it anymore. Sometimes, he was aware—lucid, almost awake. Other times, he drifted, half-dreaming in an eternal sleep. Until, inside that dream, a strange heaviness pulled at his vision… and he closed his eyes.

Then—he woke up.

His eyes snapped open as if jolted by electricity, his body flinching like a startled cat. A small cry of pain escaped his lips before he could stop it, pure reflex from the last thing he remembered.

When Luke looked at his body… he froze.

“Did I die?”

Both hands stretched in front of him, whole. Untouched. Not a single wound. His head ached faintly, like a fading echo, and his thoughts stumbled through the last memories. But one image remained sharp—his torso split open. His insides spilling out.

He looked down again. His body was whole. No cuts. No pain. His clothes were torn in the same places where he had been wounded, but the skin beneath them was perfect. Clean. Unscarred.

His mind jumped to the boss—but he remembered the demon falling into the abyss. Gone.

Luke slowly turned his head and took in his surroundings.

“The Forgotten Temple…”

He was inside. Sitting.

Somehow, the temple had been rebuilt. The shattered walls were pristine again—reinforced, restored, better than before. The torches were no longer crude metal stubs; they were mounted in carved sconces, burning with quiet, regal fire.

Then he looked down—and nearly jumped.

The statues… they had moved. All of them now knelt. In front of him.

He turned, his breath caught in his throat. He had been sitting on the throne.

Luke staggered to his feet, nearly stumbling off the stone seat. His eyes scanned the room as realization dawned. The throne itself had changed. It wasn’t the same cracked and ancient seat he remembered. Now it stood taller, darker, crafted from deep gray stone with polished, jagged edges. The worn carvings were gone—replaced by something harder to define. Something rawer.

“What the hell happened here…?”

He began to walk, careful not to step too close to the statues, still bowing in silence. As he moved past them, something caught his attention—just ahead sat a chest.

At first, he thought it was the one that had once held the key. But as he got closer, Luke realized it was a completely different chest. And something told him… this one held something else entirely.

Luke couldn’t make sense of what had happened inside the temple. And, for the first time, he didn’t care.

He broke into a sprint, rushing out of the grand stone hall. His footsteps echoed as he crossed the marble floor and passed through the forest trail beyond. But even the trail had changed.

The forest… was beautiful. The shattered, warped landscape was gone. In its place stood tall, lush trees, vibrant leaves glowing with life. He even spotted fruit hanging from their branches—fresh, untouched, almost glistening.

And then he reached the edge. Where the abyss used to be. He stopped cold.

“The abyss is gone…”

There was no floating island. No endless void. Just forest.

Thick, green, vibrant forest.

The island… merged with the dungeon?

He stepped onto the grass, dumbfounded. His eyes landed on something oddly familiar—his shoes. Right there, resting on the edge of the clearing where he’d first stepped barefoot onto the bridge. He bent down and picked them up, glancing back toward the temple. His heartbeat quickened as a memory surfaced—that thing, formed entirely of darkness. That massive face in the sky, watching as he bled out.

“The demon bloodline…” he whispered.

He needed to know if it had truly happened. There was only one way to be sure.

He willed the system to open. And it did.

But when he opened his notification history, he froze. There was nothing. No record of the final boss. No mention of the sacrifice. Not even the system logs for clearing the three trials. The last message… was the one where he’d selected Assassin’s Dash.

“No. That’s impossible. I didn’t imagine it. My clothes are still torn where I was wounded…”

But then, a worse thought crossed his mind.

“The key.”

He had to know if it was really with him.

When he opened his system screen, Luke was shocked.

Name: Luke

Level: 2

Rank: F

Class: [Assassin (Lvl 5)]

Race: Half-Demon

Profession: –

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Titles: [?]

Bloodline: [Bloodline of the Dark Demon]

Health Points (HP): 200/200

Mana Points (MP): 110/110

Stamina: 90/90

Stats:

Strength: 15

Agility: 23

Endurance: 9

Vitality: 20

Perception: 16

Intelligence: 11

Free Points: 0

Inventory: [Throwing Knife Holster], [Smoke Bomb (x1)], [Statue Key]

Class Skills: [Basic Blade Handling (Common)], [Knife Throwing (Common)], [Twin Blade (Common)], [Assassin Dash (Uncommon)]

Race Skills: [Identify (Common)]

“Half-demon?!”

Luke’s eyes widened. He blinked, closed the screen, reopened it. Tried again. And again. The words didn’t go away.

Bloodline.

That part was new.

He remembered the moment right before everything went black—the voice, the offer, the system prompt. Do you accept the demonic bloodline?

“I actually accepted it,” he whispered, horrified.

His first thought was…