Mythos Of Narcissus: Reborn As An NPC In A Horror VRMMO

Shrill mockery and screams tore through my imaginary eardrums, and mercilessly clawed onto my soul. From voices of the abyss to the language of the gold and red, eyes shined at me…

"We have told you, you're one of us."

"Must be anguishing, isn't it? Knowing that you're fated to suffer the same fate as us."

"Ah, if only you could see your own expression back then~!"

"Fear of the future and the unpredictable, for they shall be your doom."

"Can you even trust the people you choose? Daffodil is fated to suffer a lot of betrayal. "

"Maybe you need to stop clinging and relying on people."

"I foresaw this miles away!"

"How disappointing, to think that this one will end up the same."

They did what they promised me.

They were haunting me, ensuring that I braced for the disastrous fate that was waiting for me.

But should I trust them? Was the concept of fate that absolute?

It was the first time ever in my life where I was so scared of what was waiting for me in the future, and all of that was because of the undeniable confirmation that I was 100% Daffodil, and that Lothair and Narcissus was my mask all alone—

As if! I have lived years of torturous life as Lothair, and it was so miserable that I forgot all of the great and happy things that befall upon me.

All because of that stupid syndrome, a mental illness that destroyed my perception of humanity, the parasite that prevented me from making any meaningful relationship, even with my own family…

What if this perfect face of mine was only an illusion created by whoever cast me down to this accursed world…? What if it was fake, just like how all of my charm was nothing but a forced curse…!

What if I scrape this face apart and see if there was any flesh behind it…?

The world around us seemed to hold its breath as Eve tilted her head, her spiraling hair slowing to a languid, hypnotic grace. Her grin widened to an almost predatory stretch, and she took a single step closer. I tried to steady my breathing, my mind still reeling from the pain and doubts.

The weight of it was suffocating, my knees weak from the truth I hadn't even been prepared to admit to myself.

But to deal with an entity that even a place as crazy as Carcosa was banished from?

Can I really survive this?

And then, contradictory to my expectation, Eve did something wholly unexpected.

With an exaggerated flourish, one of her floating hands conjured a bouquet of black, withered roses, their petals curling inward as if trying to escape her touch. Another hand gestured grandly as she descended onto one knee before me, her spirals forming a halo around her pale face.

"Dear Daffodil," she said, her discordant voice softening into a haunting yet unified melody, though her many echoes still reverberated like a distant choir. "Thank you... for your honesty."

She extended the bouquet toward me, her third hand forming a dramatic pose as if pleading with the heavens.

"Marry me." Continue your adventure at empire

I froze.

What?

Viviane's telepathic voice cut through the haze of my disbelief. "... Do not answer that."

"I wasn't planning on it!" I snapped internally, barely suppressing my shock.

Eve's spiraling hair began to undulate faster, her white irises glowing faintly as her grin stretched impossibly wide. "Oh, sweet Daffodil, your truth has unlocked something... precious within me… I just realized that just by seeing you, it makes my heart flutter…! I can no longer wait, I must consummate with her…! If there was a goddess in this barren world, you're one of the angels that she sent to vanquish this sinful witch…! Let us unite our chaos and create something glorious—"

Her words were abruptly cut off.

A deafening crack split the air as a massive harpoon impaled Eve from behind, the weapon spiraling with a reality-bending force that tore through her unstable form. Her spirals shattered into wild arcs, her floating hands twitching violently as the harpoon spun, creating a vortex of water and darkness that splintered the pristine white void.

Eve let out a guttural scream, her dissonant voice fracturing into a thousand incoherent echoes. She staggered, black tears streaming down her face as she clawed at the weapon embedded in her back.

From the shadows of the fragment stepped a figure, one I recognized instantly.

The Drowned Revenant.

Gone was the hulking, barnacle-encrusted behemoth I had once fought. Instead, she appeared as a lithe, human-sized woman clad in remnants of her corroded armor, her damp, dark hair clinging to her pale skin. Her jagged harpoon, still lodged in Eve's back, glistened with oily seawater as she yanked it free with a sharp twist.

The Revenant's eyes, burning with an unnatural fury, locked onto me. Then, with a swift motion, she dropped to one knee and bowed her head low.

"My master," she said, her voice as deep and resonant as the abyss. "I have come to serve and protect you, as decreed by our pact."

I blinked, unable to process the sudden shift in dynamics. "Wait—what? Who sent you?"

"The Collector," she replied, rising to her feet. Her harpoon rested lazily across her shoulders, and a maniacal grin spread across her face as she glanced toward Eve, who was still recovering. "She deemed it prudent for me to intervene early."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

There was also a hint of insurmountable amount of power surging from the Revenant.

Was Kuzunoha that strong to be able to cripple this demi-god of an entity into something that I could overpower with my Valtherion form?

Well, she probably was.

Viviane's voice rang through the telepathic channel, laced with disbelief. "That's a Qliphoth Object. Narcissus, how in Carcosa did you manage to make a Qliphoth Object... make a pact with you!?"

I hesitated before answering, my gaze fixed on the Revenant as she twirled her harpoon with a deliberate, almost playful grace. "It's a long story… Kuzunoha and I sealed her, and... let's just say there was a deal, but that was supposed to happen later.

"And it seemed like Kuzunoha was worried sick about us, to the point that she sent this beast of a calamity to be my temporary bodyguard."

Viviane's tone sharpened. "Deals with Qliphoth Objects do not end in loyalty, Narcissus. They are entities of entropy and annihilation. They exist to destroy, not to serve."

"Yeah, well, this one does, which is concerning," I shot back, though the doubt in my own words was palpable. "And right now, I'm not questioning it."

Eve straightened slowly, her spiraling hair knitting itself back together as her floating hands steadied. Her black sclera gleamed with rage, and her lips curled into an unhinged smile.

"You dare interrupt me?" she hissed, her voice a venomous whisper layered with growling echoes. One of her hands reached forward, its fingers curling into claws as if to grab the Revenant. "You insignificant little speck of—"

The Revenant let out a low, guttural laugh, cutting Eve off mid-sentence. "Oh, how delightful," she said, her tone dripping with derision. "The Holy Witch herself, reduced to whining because someone dared to play in her sandbox."

Ah, it seemed like they already knew each other.

Great, maybe that was one of the factors why the Drowned Revenant was so willing to protect me.

It was probably so that she could fight this eldritch nutjob.

Eve's spirals twisted violently, her floating hands darting around her like frenzied specters. "I was proposing!" she screeched, her voices overlapping in a cacophony of rage. "And you—how dare you disrupt my moment of bliss…! Unforgivable, off with her head…! I must have you paid for tainting my pride in front of my fiance…! I shall mince your flesh and present it to my beloved… How could you, I have done nothing to you…!"

The Revenant's grin widened, her harpoon spinning with deadly precision as she assumed a combative stance. "Bliss, you say? Let's see how blissful you feel after I carve you into pieces."

As if expecting the inevitable.

The two entities clashed with a ferocity that defied comprehension.

Eve's floating hands lashed out like vipers, each one emanating waves of chaotic energy that distorted the air and ruptured the ground. The Revenant met her attacks head-on, her harpoon slicing through the dark appendages with terrifying precision.

The battlefield warped around them, the white void splintering into jagged shards of color and shadow. Time seemed to stutter and loop as their blows collided, creating shockwaves that rippled through the fragment like cracks in a glass dome.

Viviane and I stood at the edge of the chaos, shielded by her protective barrier. My gaze was fixed on the battle, my heart pounding as the two eldritch entities unleashed their full fury.

"This is..." I trailed off, struggling to find the words.

"Two calamities vying for dominance," Viviane said with a detached voice, her eyes narrowing as she watched the scene unfold. "And we're caught in the crossfire, for some reason."

The Revenant let out a guttural roar, her harpoon slicing through one of Eve's spirals and sending it crashing to the ground in a shower of black ichor. Eve retaliated with a burst of energy that tore through the fragment's fabric, creating a gaping void that threatened to consume everything around it.

"You're quite spirited for someone so pathetic!" Eve taunted, her grin widening as she summoned a dozen more hands to replace the ones she'd lost, with each of them holding an unholy spear branded by the essence of void itself. "But I wonder—how long can you last before you drown?"

The Revenant laughed, a hollow, chilling sound that echoed through the fragment. "I've already drowned," she said, her voice dripping with malice. "Now, let me show you what it feels like."

Water surged around her, flooding the battlefield in an instant into the very same black oily sea that I once drowned before.

The Revenant moved like a phantom through the rising tide, her harpoon striking with the force of a tidal wave. Eve's spirals twisted and writhed, her hands clawing at the water as it dragged her down.

The two forces clashed again and again, their attacks tearing through the fragment with an intensity that left me breathless, unsure, and terrified. Each strike felt like the end of the world, a cataclysmic collision of entropy and madness.

Viviane placed a hand on my shoulder, her expression was much more grim. "We need to move," she said, her voice cutting through the chaos. "This fragment won't hold much longer."

I nodded, tearing my gaze away from the battle as we began to move. The protective barrier shimmered around us, shielding us from the aftershocks of the eldritch clash as we navigated the fractured landscape of endless tidal and whirlpool.

Behind us, the battle raged on, the Revenant and Eve locked in a struggle that defied all logic and reason. Their voices, laughter, and screams blended into a discordant symphony, echoing through the fragment like a haunting melody.

The Revenant should be fine, right? She was able to find our location, so she should be able to go back or maybe I'll ask if Kuzunoha would be able to retrieve her, considering that she was the one who sent that entropy-personified into this fragment of reality.

At the same time, I worried about my people.

"Verina…"

I wonder if Verina was safe, or atleast survived with some pieces of her left.

I don't want a scenario where there was no way to have her be on my side like before, even though it wasn't long after our first meeting.

"... I'm sorry that you have to go through all of that," Viviane said as we navigated the tormenting sea.

"Why the apology…?"

She pointed at my face, with an expression unsure of what the right course of action was. "Tears are streaming down from your eyes."

"Right… thank you for the reminder." I wiped my ugly tears with my own hand. "I guess knowing that I'm not who I am all along did some embarrassing things to me… I'm sorry for lying to you, technical wise."

"No need, I noticed that your distress is genuine," she sighed. "But for a fairy to not aware of her true name, that, on top of psionic curse. Someone or something might be behind all of this, pulling the strings.

"So don't worry, our deal is still intact, and I'm not as childish as you think for being mad at you just because of an inevitable misunderstanding."

"... Thank you, I really meant it."