Becoming the Dark Lord

After testing Charlie’s Spectral Soldier skill for a while, Luke returned to the fortress. He had uncovered a few things about the power, and some of them were worth noting. The summoning cost was 500 mana. Charlie had nearly two thousand, but that didn’t mean she could call forth four versions of General Morvat. The skill only allowed one. And after a while, the summon dispersed.

Luke still wanted to push the limits in combat, find out what happened if Morvat was actually killed, or how he functioned in different styles of fights. But one thing was already clear: once Morvat dissipated, he couldn’t be called again immediately. The real test now was the cooldown. How long until the skill could be triggered again? How many times in a day could they rely on it? That would take longer experiments, and this wasn’t the time.

The survivors of the fortress were racing against the clock. A major meeting was scheduled soon, where they would decide how to announce the capture of the second fortress to the other Safe Zone. That also meant facing Bartholomew’s inevitable hostility. And Luke couldn’t risk draining Charlie’s mana reserves too low. Even with Jerry watching Bastion’s movements, they had to remain prepared for a full-scale clash at any moment.

As he passed through the fortress halls, Luke spotted Jack. The healer had spent every waking moment tending to the injured. He was burning through his mana quickly, so a new system was put in place: instead of fully healing a single person, Jack would stabilize them to about seventy percent, enough so they could work again. The goal was clear, get as many people back on their feet as fast as possible, ready to fight if it came to that.

Everyone had their roles. Skilled builders were strengthening the fortress walls. Some had high enough levels to transmute one type of stone into another, fortifying even simple bricks until they were stronger than iron.

When dinner came around, most gathered in the dining hall where food was being handed out. Luke slipped away. He wandered through the halls until he reached the greenhouse. Alone, he built a fire, pulled out some pans and a pot, and began cooking.

“One day at a time,” he muttered to himself.

It had been a long day, their first night after taking the second fortress, but vigilance was still required. Part of him couldn’t wait for the system’s notification, the riddle that would reveal the third mechanism’s password. He wanted to get there, to explore the fortress and discover its dangers. If taking the second fortress had been this difficult, what kind of nightmare awaited inside the third?

He shook the thought aside and focused on his cooking. From his pocket dimension, he drew out some meat, chopping it at blinding speed with his throwing knives until it became ground beef. He pressed it into small discs and laid them on the pan. The smell filled the room. When the patties were done, he slid them into bread. Then came lettuce, tomato, cheese, onion. He even had bacon, courtesy of reward chests from past events.

Luke had made himself a hamburger. With the salt packets he’d stashed from loot chests, Luke crushed a few tomatoes, mixed in herbs, chopped plants, a little water, and stirred it all together until it thickened into something that looked like a potion. In truth, it wasn’t alchemy at all.

It was ketchup.

He sat down on a wooden bench, uncorked the makeshift potion bottle, poured a generous splash over the burger, and sank his teeth into it with a satisfied bite.

“You traitor! Where’s mine?” Artemis complained.

Luke ignored her, chewing slowly, savoring the taste.

“I had to take the first bite. Don’t start whining.” He grabbed another burger, set it on a plate, drizzled ketchup on top, and slipped it into the pocket dimension. “Satisfied?”

Her muffled, distorted voice came through, probably because her mouth was full. Apparently, she was.

Luke leaned back, exhaling through his nose. “A little piece of America in this place,” he murmured, memories of home slipping through his thoughts.

The moment broke with the creak of the wooden door behind him. Someone had stepped inside.

It was Allison.

She crossed the room, her tone calm but firm. “Things moved too fast today. We barely had time to talk. We need to plan the journey to the third fortress, figure out what dangers are waiting for us on the way.”

She pulled a chair over and sat near him. Then her eyes dropped to the table.

“Wait… are you eating a burger?”

Luke swallowed and shrugged. “Yeah. Want some?” He gestured toward the plate stacked with a few more.

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“No,” she murmured, though her gaze lingered.

“There’s ketchup,” he added, sliding the potion-bottle closer to the tray.

Allison glanced at the ketchup, then at the burgers. Her resolve cracked. “Maybe just a little.” She picked one up, still looking at him. “I actually came to call you to dinner with the others, but it seems you’ve already taken care of yourself.”

She took a bite, chewing thoughtfully, then met his eyes.

“Tastes good, doesn’t it?” Luke asked.

She nodded, a faint smile curling her lips, before her expression hardened into something more deliberate.

“I want you to know I’ll keep the promise I made, to help you find the truth about your mother. Even if I don’t get along with my family, my name still carries weight. I’ll use it to help you however I can.”

Luke thought about brushing it off, reminding her that he already had an agreement with Samael. But before he could, she leaned forward slightly, her gaze sharpening.

“But you should have trusted me months ago, before you decided to run from Haven.” She pulled back, voice low but steady. “You were the one who helped me when I first arrived here. I was lost, drifting without a purpose. Fighting myself more than the world. But through everything we’ve faced since then, the trials that broke us, the choices that forced us to change, I realized something. Our old selves can’t survive here. We either adapt, or we’re swallowed whole.”

Luke listened, her words echoing against flashes of his own journey, the scars, the battles, the mistakes that had carved him into something harder, sharper.

“What are you trying to say?” he asked quietly.

“That you helped me,” she replied. “You were just an ordinary person thrown into all this, but you endured. Because you had a goal. I learned to do the same. To cut away what no longer served me. To leave the dead weight behind.”

Allison’s gaze dropped to the sheath of her sword. “From here on out, things are only going to get harder. We may have to fight people, even kill them before they kill us. I know you, like me, won’t hesitate if it comes to that. But I need to hear it anyway. Will you help me get back to Earth? The same way I’ll do everything I can to help you? What I mean is… will we help each other out of this place so we can reach our goals?”

She extended her hand.

Luke clasped it without hesitation. “Of course.”

“Even if the road there isn’t… a good one?” she pressed, tightening her grip. “Will you give up on your goal, or keep pushing forward?”

He squeezed back harder. “Always forward. I’ll return to Earth. After everything I’ve been through, there’s no chance I’ll stay behind.”

She exhaled, watching him intently. “Then it’s settled. Back to the beginning. Partners again.”

The tension lifted, and Luke felt the distance he thought had formed between them dissolve completely.

“But what’s going on here?” a voice interrupted.

Luke turned to see Evangeline standing in the doorway, Jack hovering just behind her.

“Don’t tell me this is what I think it is…” Evangeline marched closer, eyes narrowing on the tray of burgers and the bottle of ketchup.

She glared at Luke. “Burgers?”

“Yes, they’re for—” He stopped as she snatched one. “I made extras to store away… they weren’t for you.”

Evangeline sat herself down, slathered on ketchup, and bit in without remorse. “This is amazing!”

The thief had stolen one of his burgers.

Jack lingered nearby, staring at Luke, then at the tray.

“Go ahead, take one,” Luke sighed.

“Th-thank you, Luke! May the Goddess of Kindness bless you!” Jack said earnestly, grabbing a burger before sitting at Luke’s side.

“Why did all of you come here, anyway?” Luke asked.

“To drag you to dinner,” Allison replied.

“I came to snoop,” Evangeline said with a grin.

“I came to thank you for bringing me here,” Jack added. “And to ask where I can sleep. I’m officially homeless. Everything I owned is still back in the Safe Zone.”

So the four of them ate together, trading thoughts about the next day. For a moment, worries and burdens melted away, replaced by something simpler. But then it happened. A system notification chimed the moment twenty-four hours had passed since they activated the mechanism.

[The riddle for the third mechanism is now available!]

The four exchanged looks.

“You all got that too?” Jack asked.

Evangeline shot up from her chair and bolted through the halls. Luke and Allison went after her immediately, Jack trailing behind. They reached the mechanism chamber where Mason stood alone, staring at the construct. No one else was allowed near it without clearance. Jack stayed outside the threshold.

Allison, Luke, and Evangeline approached.

Mason turned. “The riddle’s appeared.”

As Luke stepped closer, a glowing message unfolded before him:

**When the night hides its first glimmer, the cycle begins in the absence of light. Return to the first sanctuary, where darkness is the key to uncover the secret.**

The words seared into Luke’s mind. Solving this riddle meant one step closer to Earth.

Silence hung heavy, until Evangeline’s voice broke it. “I… I solved it.”

The three of them turned to her, startled by how fast it came.

“Already?” Allison asked.

“It’s a-almost the same,” Evangeline stammered. “Nearly identical to one from before.”

She looked at them, her voice steadier now. “I know what it means by ‘return to the first sanctuary.’ It’s talking about the first mechanism. The lunar panel on the wall.”

The revelation hit like a thunderclap.

“Don’t tell me…” Mason muttered.

“That the only way to get the answer,” Evangeline said, her tone grim, “is by infiltrating Bastion.”