Realm of Death

[AN:] Thank you for the recent support of me starting to write on the story again! It means a lot to me!

Also, for some terms (Energy) used in this chapter to make a little more sense, you should go back and check out the 'Ranking / Information' chapter, where some new information is at the bottom.

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Lucifer swept through the tunnel made of merged rainbows at a speed a couple of times faster than sound. His momentum didn't slow down but instead kept on increasing over time, and at last, he had reached the speed of light.

At the start, It was still possible for Lucifer to spot the different colors and enjoy them. But when he reached the speed of light, everything became a blur, and since he wasn't strong enough, he felt that the speed took a toll on his body. A pain went through his limbs, chest, and abdomen, resulting in his whole body aching with pain. Although it was bearable, it was extremely annoying and uncomfortable, but at the same time, it gave a refreshing feeling.

When reaching the speed of sound, an ordinary person without any sort of protection would likely be dead in no time, so when Lucifer hit the speed of light, he couldn't help but be amazed at how durable his dragon body was compared to a human body. He'd read in novels and fiction, that a dragon's body was much stronger than a human's, but he didn't expect it to be so much stronger.

Gradually Lucifer felt that the speed at which he was flying at while in the rainbow tunnel reduced, and the pain greatly reduced as well. He'd probably arrived at his destination, wherever that was. Since Madison or the Goddess of Creation and Life hadn't said where she'd send him, he had been a little excited. He had already guessed that she wouldn't send him back in front of the portal since there wasn't much else to look at. It was also obvious that she would do what she could to help him as much as possible in growing stronger.

Suddenly his surroundings changed. Going from all sorts of different colors to dull and grey. Everything had different shades of white, grey and black. Not even trees or nature had any other colors. It felt like Lucifer was inside an old black and white movie.

The surroundings gave off an extremely uncomfortable and eerie feeling, while energy reminding Lucifer of death, polluted the air. Compared to Zylghen which was called the World of Chaos, this world would've matched better with that kind of name.

Although it felt real as if he was in that place, at the same time it felt fake, almost as if it was some kind of extremely powerful illusion, that was meant to disorientate living beings.

-"Loton what is this place?"

Since Lucifer didn't know where he was, the only thing he could do, was to ask Loton to help him find where he was. Although Lucifer knew that his system didn't know everything, that was the only thing he could do to find out his whereabouts.

["Currently the Host has been transported to the Realm of Death. It has been named as such due to a large amount of Death Energy present. The Realm of Death may have been modified to fit certain living standards in ancient times by a powerful creature. Due to the large amount of Death Energy, it is still possible that an extremely powerful creature still resides within this realm. The System currently cannot locate the Realm's whereabouts."]

What could his objective be? What did Madison want him to do here? Although it was just a thought, it could've been a mistake that she had sent him to this place. If it wasn't a mistake it would still be extremely annoying, since she hadn't told him what to do. But since Loton had said that a higher lifeform might exist in this realm, it was possible that it could be something of Angel Rank or above, which was way out of Lucifer's league. That was something he had to be wary of.

When walking around and if you couldn't sense the Energy in the air, then the Realm of Death wouldn't be much different from any other place except for the lack of color. But Lucifer could feel that everything had Death Energy attached to it, which meant that this place was either built like this, or some sort of being had polluted it. Thinking about this, Lucifer felt a shiver down his spine. If a being would be able to create a whole realm, wouldn't they be so strong that they could match Gods? Although Lucifer wasn't sure how strong one had to be before it was possible to create a realm, but, he knew one would have to be hundreds if not thousands of times stronger than he was as of now.

Perhaps it was such being that had threatened the Gods of Zylghen and even killed 8 gods? Although he didn't know which gods had been killed, he knew they couldn't have been weak. It might even be an old God of Death that had resided in or created this realm he was currently in.

When Lucifer looked up into the sky, it was only now that he noticed there was nothing but grey. Neither sun nor moon was present in the sky, while stars didn't seem to exist. It was the same as the realm. Grey. Weirdly enough, it wasn't dark, as there was enough light for one to see.

-"Loton, what use is this realm for me?"

["The usefulness of this realm depends on the Host. Creatures different from other realms and Zylghen exist here, which means this realm contains skills that cannot be found anywhere else."]

Lucifer had thought of that, but he had hesitated to make any rash actions, so when he heard Loton confirm his guess, it reassured him that this realm could be extremely useful depending on his strength and luck. The deciding factor would be his strength since he'd need that to slay other monsters, but even someone weaker than him might be more dangerous than someone stronger. It all depended on Lucifer's intelligence, strength, and luck. He knew he should never underestimate an opponent.

While Lucifer was lost in thought he had already walked for quite a while, resulting in him arriving at the edge of a forest. He didn't fly since there was a higher chance of him being spotted by other creatures, due to his huge size. Standing in front of the forest, it gave him an extremely sinister and eerie feeling. The trees were four times as big as Lucifer himself, and he wasn't some small dragon either. His height could already be counted as high as a building on Earth.

Due to the sinister feeling he got from the forest, Lucifer didn't want to enter the forest, but it was as if something was calling for him. Something that wanted him to come and get it. Perhaps it was what had brought him to the edge of this forest while he was lost in thought unknowingly?

When he had first gotten to this realm, he had been in the open with a couple of trees that were normal in size, resulting in Lucifer not taking any notice to them. But seeing such huge trees surprised Lucifer.

While he was contemplating if he should enter the forest, the calling became more apparent and much stronger. It gave the feeling that he was longing for whatever it was that resided inside the forest.

Although he felt that something was not right, deep down, he knew that it could possibly be something that could help him with increasing his strength. He knew that it couldn't harm him as long as Madison was keeping an eye on him, but he also knew that if some entity stronger than Madison was to find him, he would be doomed, even with her protection.