The fiendish devil stood imposingly before Northern, its quartet of eyes viciously boring into his very soul.
Ellis slightly raised his head to once again behold the monster's terrifying visage.
He had indeed seen it before, but no matter how many times he laid eyes upon Dark Terror, the reality that Northern commanded such a formidable monster always struck him anew.
'How is this even feasible?' he pondered to himself. 'How is he able to tame and control a beast of this caliber?'
If Northern was truly a tamer, as Ellis suspected, that meant he had defeated the monster to the brink of death to successfully subjugate it.
Since taming typically involved overpowering the beast. And not all monsters were tameable.
'Does that mean...he battled a monster and prevailed?' He gulped, 'Terrifying, truly terrifying, I really should hold my tongue.'
Meanwhile, Northern stood before Dark Terror, hand beneath his chin, scrutinizing gaze fixed upon the monster.
True Name: [Singularity]
Attributes: [Chaos Thread], [Spawn Of Void], [Chaos And Void]
Attributes Ability: [Void Flames], [Darkness Embrace], [Chaos Berserk]
Danger Level: [Devil]
Soul Fragments: [14/300]
'Intriguing. So, all of Night Terror's attributes were indeed copied. Void must be truly remarkable.'
Northern inspected the floating runes before him for a couple of minutes before dismissing them.
'I wonder if it's because of my new talent that I can perceive his profile in such exquisite detail...'
He stared at Dark Terror for a long while. His eyes suddenly widened as he realized he had overlooked something crucial.
Immediately, he summoned back Dark Terror's profile and began studying it intently, and there it was.
Soul fragments: [14/300]
'That makes no sense, unless he would be advancing in soul rank... Wait, wait, wait. Can Dark Terror truly advance in soul rank?!'
Northern felt his heart pounding with excitement and trepidation.
What he knew was that monsters were incapable of rising in soul rank; they could only increase in danger level.
However, seeing 'soul fragments' on Dark Terror's profile hinted at an entirely different, thrilling possibility.
Then the next detail that made his heart race was:
'Is this even meant to be here?'
As far as Northern knew, a monster possessing Talent had never been recorded.
That didn't mean it was impossible for monsters to have it.
Take Koll, for example; he had some special skills one could classify as talents and talent abilities.
But Northern didn't know if a case study on that had been conducted or if a theory had been postulated.
All he knew was that a monster with Talent was exceedingly rare.
So if Dark Terror indeed possessed Talent, then this monster could grow to be an even more invaluable ally than he had ever expected.
The thought filled him with immense elation. He wanted to leap with joy.
But this time, he reined himself in.
There was a task at hand.
He recomposed his features into a serious visage.
"Hey buddy, I have a task for you," he said in the monster tongue.
Ellis immediately paled, eyes widening as he shrank back, pressing against the wall, legs folded in abject terror.
That otherworldly utterance had filled his heart with unfathomable dread, even though he understood not a word of it.
As if Dark Terror could comprehend its master, its eyes gleamed viciously for a moment before dimming.
Northern, seeing this, curled a small smile and continued:
"Go out of here...be seen by people, but do not harm anyone...well, if they try to hurt you, fight back but do not kill. Your main objective is to leave this place and eradicate all the monsters. Every single beast in this entire surrounding area."
The devil's menacing eyes glowed evilly again for a second, and slowly, its entire form crumbled into its shadowy embrace and streaked away.
Northern smiled and looked at the curled, shaking Ellis.
"Uh? What is this?" The smile faded from his lips. "What ails you?"
Ellis unfolded himself, panting and drenched in sweat.
Slowly, he crawled to the edge of the mattress and looked at Northern, sheer terror etched onto his face.
Northern beheld the poor boy's petrified expression and grinned like a devious fiend.
"Now, that's more like it. But tell me, what troubles you?"
Ellis couldn't bring himself to speak, even after Northern's prompting. He just stared at the white-haired man, heavy fear in his eyes. Then, after a couple of gulps, he found his voice.
Slowly, he asked: "What is that language? And how are you able to speak it?"
Northern scratched the back of his head and smiled sheepishly.
"Oh my, I literally forgot you were here. Did you hear that?"
"Of course I did!" Ellis yelled, immediately shrinking back again.
Northern raised his head, staring at Ellis blankly for a few seconds.
'I don't know what to make of this one at all... it's like he's terrified of everything.'
Currently, Northern did not comprehend the effect that hearing the monster tongue had on a human.
He didn't know that the language was so imbued with incorporeal power that it made one's heart shrink without reason, imbuing every fiber with inexplicable dread.
It instilled an unfathomable sense of terror.
That was how strange and powerful the monster tongue was. However, neither him nor anyone around yet grasped the true magnitude of it.
"See, disregard all of that. And prepare for what is to come. Very soon, they'll come and release us," he said sternly to Ellis, folding his arms as he continued.
"I want you to go back to Hao. I need quality swords, daggers, armors, and charms. Then you can acquire any other items you think I might desire. I'll also leave some soul cores at your disposal. You can either use them to grow or trade them. But beware, I'll expect a return on my investment when I return."
Ellis's brows furrowed slightly, "Wh-where are you going? What are you plotting?"
Ignoring the boy's question, Northern raised his head and turned to the cell bars.
"First, I will start by crumbling the so-called system and order that Gilbert has constructed... let the games begin"