Reincarnated as a step-dad in a fantasy world

Chapter 189 : Black heart

"Shit! What is this?" Alex groaned as he attempted to stand up but failed miserably; his feet buckled and lost their strength.

The cause of Alex's condition was a sinister dark mist tinged with red that emanated from the room he had initially believed to be a treasury.

The mist carried such strong feelings of evil and cruelty that it quickly overpowered Alex's senses, causing his mind to go blank.

Just standing before the door a few seconds ago felt like he was facing the most evil being he had ever witnessed or heard of. Even now, Alex's instinct was screaming at him to get the hell out of here if he wanted to remain alive. In fact, judging by the viciousness of the dark mist, Alex felt that death wasn't actually the most harrowing thing that could happen to him.

A bone-deep fear paralyzed his entire body, sapping his strength. In this state of fear and shock, Alex didn't even notice that his attire made of smoke had completely disappeared, revealing his sweat-drenched body.

As a soldier, Jack Green, who was part of the current Alex, had been trained to keep his fear in check and control it, but right now, he seemed to have completely lost that ability.

Fortunately, a few seconds—or what felt like an eternity to Alex—later, the mist lost its touch of malevolence, finally releasing Alex and allowing him to catch his breath.

It was what Alex thought had happened, but in truth, during this short period, his body had become accustomed to the mist's evil energy; the mist was still as dangerous as ever, it's just that it didn't affect him anymore.

"Haa..haa...haa," Alex breathed in a ragged manner, sweat pouring down from his face like rain, drenching the ground beneath him.

"Just...what was...that?" Alex wondered once again while trying to catch his breath.

After catching his breath, he attempted to stand up once again; however, he still couldn't manage. Although the evil aura of the mist had disappeared, the fear it instilled in Alex was still very much present.

'Get a hold of yourself, Goddamnit!' Alex forced himself to stand up, even when his very bones refused to move, not wanting to stay in this shameful position anymore.

The first thing Alex did after standing up was look towards the treasury to see if the mist had traveled far enough inside the corridor to enter the treasury.

Fortunately, it seemed that the dark red mist didn't want to spread around and only stayed around this door.

Breathing a sigh of relief that the mist hadn't surely come into contact with any of his wives, Alex finally allowed himself to think about what happened.

'I hate that feeling,' he gritted his teeth.

That feeling that made him want to run away with his tail between his legs, that feeling that made him freeze in his place, unable to move even a finger, that feeling of fear that made him feel like he was just a weakling, he hated, no, he loathed it.

In that brief moment when fear consumed his thoughts, if there had been an escape route, he might have taken it without considering the potential harm to his wives, and when he thinks about that he feel disgusted by himself.

'Never again!' Alex vowed in his heart.

Though he vowed not to succumb to overwhelming fear, Alex realized that as long as he wasn't the strongest in the room, moments of fear might still come. However, what he refused to do was allow himself to let fear paralyze him or make him act selfish, forgetting his loved ones.

Taking a deep breath, Alex calmed his racing heart.

Wiping the sweat covering his face and clearing his vision with his hand, he stepped forward, entering the room where the dark mist was emanating from with a determined expression.

Was it a bad idea to enter the room from which the mist, causing him to collapse seconds ago, was coming? Probably.

But as the saying goes, you can never go beyond your fear until you confront it; Alex needed to know what had caused him to feel that fear.

The first thing Alex noticed when he entered the room was that, contrary to the other room, there were no treasures here—no golden coins, space rings, etc. However, he already expected that the moment this ominous mist had appeared.

At the center of the room, however, stood a beautifully crafted white pillar, at least one meter tall. On it was placed a chest tinged with a deep, bloody red.

'It's coming from there,' Alex thought when he noticed that the ominous black mist was emanating from inside the chest.

Alex slowly made his way to the center of the room while being cautious of traps or anything dangerous that may be there.

Stopping in front of the elevated chest, Alex observed its rough exterior for a moment.

'It looks quite worn; how long has this thing been here?' he wondered as he examined the weathered wood and rusty black metal fittings of the chest.

After a moment, Alex touched the lid of the chest, and to his surprise, it easily opened, revealing the secrets contained within.

The moment Alex laid eyes on what was inside the chest, his heart skipped a beat.

"Just what in the heavens is that?" he managed to utter after a moment.

Just there, inside the weathered chest lay an organ, a pitch black heart, pulsating intensely. The sound of its silent beat sounding like war drums in the ears of the stunned Alex.

With each beat of the black heart, the black mist tinged with red that had filled Alex with fear was released.

'How can it be beating whil-' 

Alex's words were cut short as he felt an excruciating pain take hold of him, coursing through every fiber of his being.

It wasn't the first time Alex felt such a sharp pain, so he immediately recognized the source – it wasn't physical or mental, but rather his very soul that was hurting.

Feeling that it was the cause of his pain, Alex quickly looked away from the black heart. Shortly after, the pain in his soul subsided, but not before a trickle of blood ran down from his nose.

'Just now, it felt like I was looking at something I shouldn't, just what the hell is this black heart?!' Alex pondered as he took a step back to distance himself from the chest.

However, at that exact moment, the black heart moved!

The heart shot through the air, and before Alex could do anything, it entered his chest!!

"W-What the..." Alex's eyes widened in shock, his brain coming to a halt, unable to comprehend how things took such a turn.

'Get a hold of yourself, it isn't time to ponder on it!' Without wasting a second, Alex sat on the ground, crossed his legs in a meditative position, closed his eyes, and used the mana inside his body to introspect what the hell was happening inside his body.

As seconds ticked by, a frown slowly made its way onto Alex's face. A minute after he began his introspection, Alex came out of it, his expression somber.

'Nothing changed?!'

Moments ago, the black heart entered his body, Alex was certain of it because he very much felt it, but now that he was looking inside his body, there was no trace of the black heart!

It didn't take the place of his own heart like Alex feared, nor did it implant itself inside his body, it just vanished like air, no trace, not even the faintest trace of the invading black heart could be felt inside his body.

As seconds ticked by and he still couldn't feel the black heart's presence, a deep scowl appeared on Alex's face, his anger beginning to flare up.

'What was that thing and how dare it-'

At that exact moment, Alex felt something rush through his body. It wasn't the black heart, no, it was something else, something that felt both familiar but, at the same time, wholly different from what Alex is used to.

'An enhancement?' his eyes opened wide in shock.

Before he could ponder on the series of bizarre events happening, Alex felt an energy akin to fire spread through his body.

"Shit!"