Chapter 111: Void-Touched A few minutes before Charles regained consciousness... "How long do you plan to sleep?" asked an amused voice of a young lady. "If you don’t wake up soon, you’ll really die, you know?" Charles slowly opened his eyes and found himself in a white-colored world, which stretched as far as the eye could see. ’Where am I?’ Charles thought. ’What happened?’ After briefly searching his own mind, he remembered running alongside Lavinia when something hit him out of the blue. Intense pain followed, but he soon blacked out and was no longer aware of what happened next. "Hah... You’re so helpless. But since I’m in a good mood, I will let you see what’s happening inside the dungeon." The space in front of Charles rippled until he could clearly see the scene currently taking place inside the Dungeon of Beginnings. He watched as Alex and his new comrades fought hard to protect him from the Purple Stag, which seemed hell-bent on killing him. "I don’t know who you are, but please, let me return!" Charles pleaded. "I need to help them." "Help them?" The voice chuckled. "What can you do to help them?" "I can fight!" Charles replied. "Of course, you can," the voice stated. "But you don’t even know the proper way to fight. With your current strength, it will be impossible for you to defeat them. "However, if you manage to control your true powers, you can save your friends. Are you ready to embrace your destiny?" The young man didn’t need to think before answering this question. Right now, all that mattered was that he could join the battle so that he and his friends could live. "What must I do?" Charles asked. "Fight against your destiny," the voice replied seriously. "You’re someone who isn’t supposed to live. And yet, someone has knowingly risked his life to change that fate and give you a new shot at life." The image then focused on Alex, who was now covered in wounds. He could barely lift the shield in his left hand, but he still blocked the attack that was meant for Elaine, causing him to collapse on top of Charles before losing consciousness. "Remember this, Charles Lambert. Your life no longer belongs to you. Someone is willing to pay the price just so you can live another day. Even if the world becomes your enemy, he alone will not. Do not forget that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." In front of Charles, a black orb then appeared, oozing with powerful fluctuations. "Go forth, Challenger," the voice said. "Challenge your destiny until it bends to your will." Charles reached out to the black orb and pressed it over his chest. A moment later, a blood-curdling scream escaped his lips as the black orb merged with his body, taking root deep inside his heart and soul. ——— Present Time... The Stag of Twilight, Aurhorn, could no longer see, which was probably for the best. The person whom it had tried to kill over and over again was now biting its neck like a savage animal that hungered for flesh and blood. Charles, whose entire body was covered in black armor with gold stripes, wrapped his arms around the Boss Monster’s body and started to feast upon its flesh. The other Dungeon Monsters roared in anger and lunged in his direction, ignoring Alex and the rest, who were on their last legs. They threw themselves into the fray as if they had lost all reason. Their instincts strongly urged them to kill Charles by any means necessary. It didn’t matter how many of them died. As long as they were able to complete their mission, that would be enough. Charles, who seemed to have also entered a berserk state, welcomed them all with open arms and a mouth filled to the brim with razor-sharp teeth. It was a gruesome sight. It was a fight of monsters against a monster, who wished nothing more than to devour and eliminate anything in existence. While this was happening, Alex finally regained his consciousness, but he was thoroughly incapable of moving his body. He forced himself to look at the battle. There, he saw the black-armored creature fighting tooth and nail against countless monsters surrounding it. Suddenly, a blue window screen appeared in front of him, making his eyes widen in shock. ——— < Charles Lambert > "The stars do not whisper, they scream my name." Monster Rank: Rank 3 Boss Monster Monster Grade: Legendary Type: Void-Touched Status: Forced Monsterfication (Berserk State) Health: ?????? / ?????? Mana: ?????? / ?????? Active Skills: ???? Passive Skills: ????, Challenger’s Mark. < ???? > — I died in silence. What came back doesn’t need your mercy. < Void-Touched > — To be Void-Touched is neither a blessing nor a curse. It is a condition of survival beyond the edge of sanity. — To be Void-Touched is to be remembered by something the world tried to forget. ——— "V-Void-Touched?!" Alex gasped after reading Charles’ status window. He could only see the information of monsters, never the status window of people in the world of Arcana. The fact that he could see Charles’ status meant that the teenage boy had transformed into a monster. But Alex felt relieved after seeing his status of "forced monsterfication". This meant that his friend still hadn’t reached the point of no return. In other words, the teen could still be saved. Due to the countless particles of light that were shining around Charles, who was in a berserk state, it was hard to see him with the naked eye. Aurhorn, who had terrorized them earlier, was now lying on the floor with its legs broken, unable to stand. The most it could do was to move by dragging its body bit by bit, but doing so was futile. Even in his berserk state, as he continued to fight the monsters around him, Charles made sure that his prey wouldn’t be able to get away. "M-Master," Alex called out to Cairo, prompting the latter to crouch down to help him. "Don’t talk," Cairo said before taking out a purple potion. "Just drink this. It will hurt, but it’s better than nothing." Alex didn’t hesitate and drank the bitter potion, which made his throat burn as if he were chugging a bottle of vodka. Heat washed over his body, making him regain a bit of his strength. "Master, we need to stop Charles before he completely becomes corrupted," Alex said after regaining the ability to talk. "If we let him continue in that state, he will really turn into a monster, unable to return to being human." "Okay," Cairo replied. Alex was familiar with the term Void-Touched as it was part of ELO’s lore. The Void-Touched were neither good nor evil. But since they acted on their primal instincts, they were treated as monsters who attacked anything that they deemed hostile to them. Some were naturally born as monsters, while others were transformed into monsters after meeting certain requirements that no one had discovered in the game. The Rank 6 in the Global Rankings of ELO was a Void-Touched who could freely transform into a monster at will. Last but not least, it was said that only thirteen Void-Touched could exist at a time. Just as Alex and Cairo were about to make their move, Aurhorn, which had made things extremely difficult for all of them, cried out in distress for one last time before turning into particles of light.