98 COI
Lumian nodded, his right hand naturally falling on the Traveler's Bag.
He then walked over to the dilapidated, gloomy boat, noticing the severely decayed boatman turning aside to make way, as if signaling for him to hurry aboard.
"Can you ferry me across the Styx?" Lumian asked politely in Dutanese.
Given that the former Death hailed from the Southern Continent, Lumian figured that speaking Dutanese might be more readily accepted by "all parties" in the Underworld.
After all, in an environment so rich with the stench of death that a living person couldn't last a second, using mystical languages like ancient Hermes, which could manipulate natural forces, might have unexpected effects. For instance, merely uttering the words "River Styx" could forge a strong connection with the dark, ethereal river before him, possibly causing it to whip up a massive wave and sweep him away.
The boatman, its eye sockets filled with thick blood vessels and oozing yellow pus, faced the river, wide enough that the opposite bank was out of sight, and remained motionless.
It seemed it was answering Lumian with his actions:
Why would you try to communicate with a corpse?
I can't hear you, nor can I make a sound.
It seems ordinary language won't do... I've heard that the Death pathway includes a Language of the Dead, but unfortunately, I don't speak it... Lumian muttered to himself quietly as he let his eyes take on a silver-black hue and slowly stepped onto the rickety, gloomy boat.
In his Eye of Calamity, the boatman's destiny was pure black, dead and void, showing no signs of change.
Does this mean no matter how much the boatman struggles, it can't change its status as a corpse, and its only fate is to wither away with time until even its existence vanishes?
But that doesn't mean the boatman can't do anything during this time before its demise. Its actions can still affect the fates of others, including mine and other undead beings. From this perspective, the boatman, or rather the summoned undead, should still have a destiny, only that the outcome cannot be changed...
Indeed, they have destinies, but my current rank isn't high enough to see them, is it? After all, objects have destinies too, but I can't see them now...
It might also be that the destinies of the dead need to interact with others to manifest in the destinies of those others...
Perhaps because he had temporarily become an undead himself, Lumian couldn't help but ponder the destinies of these "residents" of the Underworld.
With the mystical knowledge he currently possessed, he couldn't define destiny precisely, nor did he know how much the mercury river of fate encompassed, or whether there were unseen aspects or hidden parts he wasn't aware of yet.
He felt there must be, which stemmed from a few simple questions:
Could it be that by donning the Eggers family's golden mask and becoming an undead, the river of fate that still existed for me simply disappears, turning utterly black and void?
And when I take off the mask, does the river of fate instantly return?
What then is the river of fate? A plaything at our disposal?
Although the golden mask of the Eggers family was made by Death, it didn't contain Beyonder characteristics and was only of a higher rank.
It surely wasn't simple enough to manipulate the river of fate so easily!
Later on, if there's a chance, I should have a Monster pathway Beyonder observe my fate to see the changes before and after donning the golden mask...
Uh... never mind, unless I find a demigod-level Monster pathway Beyonder, otherwise it would only harm them. Even when I had only Mr. Fool's seal, the false angelic rank, and the residual aura of the Blood Emperor, the patrol team's 'machine' Kolobo from Port Pylos was already too afraid to look at me, thinking it would bring him great danger. Now, I have also added the Underworld Daoist's seal and Omebella's bloodline...
Lumian positioned himself at the center of the battered boat, allowing the golden mask to turn his eyes iron-black.
He wanted to preemptively spot the boatman's weaknesses to prepare for any potential mishaps.
At that moment, the highly decayed boatman began to row, slowly steering the dark boat towards the other side of the surreal, shadowy river.
His body was entirely cloaked in dark colors, and Lumian struggled to find any sign of a vulnerable pale spot amid the black.
Of course, these dark colors also meant that the boatman was completely vulnerable to sunlight and lightning.
The next second, Knight of Swords Maric's voice rang in Lumian's ears: "Its weaknesses might not be here."
Not here? What do you mean they're not here? Can weaknesses be separated from the person? Just as Lumian was filled with intense curiosity, he remembered several stories his sister had once told him.
In those stories, a type of monster called a lich would create phylacteries and hide them in heavily protected, secret places. As long as the phylacteries were not found and destroyed, the lich would not truly die, effectively separating its fatal weakness from itself.
(Amonoculus' note: phylactery ⌜ either of two small square leather boxes containing slips inscribed with scriptural passages and traditionally worn on the left arm and on the head by observant Jewish men and especially adherents of Orthodox Judaism during morning weekday prayers.)
And in the twenty-two paths of the divine, such things were hardly surprising.
The Knight of Swords continued, "Were you trying to discern its fate earlier?"
"It holds a considerable rank; this is a dangerous endeavor."
A considerable rank? Lumian glanced at the boatman, draped in tattered clothes and highly decayed flesh, unable to see anything particularly formidable about it.
However, the fact that it could ferry across the River Styx without sinking into it certainly suggested something extraordinary.
Lumian diverted his gaze, closely watching the boatman's every move, patiently waiting as the dilapidated boat made its way across the River Styx to the opposite shore.
The battered boat rocked slowly, as if it might fall apart at any moment, taking what felt like an eternity to reach the middle of the river.
Suddenly, the highly decayed boatman raised its long oar and turned toward Lumian.
As the gloomy boat came to a halt, the boatman's mouth abruptly opened, splitting down to its decayed chest, its hollowed-out navel, and further down to its groin.
Its body unfolded like a coat unbuttoning, stretching out to the sides, revealing no darkened organs or bones of its own, but rather a heap of half-melted, decayed limbs.
Once again, Lumian felt a chill that made him shudder, daring not to harbor any thoughts of resistance.
He clenched his right hand, which had been ready.
He grasped the Sword of Courage from the Traveler's Bag, holding the hilt of the iron-black broadsword.
Courage swiftly filled Lumian's body, prompting a manic smile on his face.
What is there to fear from a mere boatman?
Even if Death Himself stood before me, I would strike Him down with my sword!
Lumian drew his broadsword, now ablaze with white-blue flames, and slashed fiercely at the boatman, who was lunging at him with its skin peeled open.
With a thud, the Sword of Courage cut through the pile of melting limbs in the boatman's stomach and struck the layer of rotting skin riddled with holes behind its chest.
But the broadsword failed to split the seemingly fragile, decayed skin.
As Lumian readied a second strike, one accompanied by a massive explosion, the boatman swiftly recoiled, slowly closing its opened chest and abdomen.
At the same time, the voice of the Knight of Swords rang in Lumian's ears: "Stop. We've got it under control"
"This is our chance to finish it off!" Lumian responded without hesitation.
He and the Knight of Swords were communicating in Intis.
The Knight of Swords paused for a second and said, "I know, you're not afraid of it, and you could kill it, but if it dies, we can't cross the River Styx."
Seeing Lumian calm down a bit, the Knight of Swords added, "Besides, killing it won't grant you any Beyonder characteristics. It's merely the skin of the true Ferryman. It seems to have been consuming other corpses, trying to regain a body but never succeeding."
Lumian accepted the Knight of Swords' explanation.
Having courage didn't mean being deaf to others' words, it's just selectively ignoring dangerous warnings.
He then placed the Sword of Courage back among the ordinary straight swords in the Traveler's Bag.
This time, he didn't feel the post-event fear because this was the purpose of using the Sword of Courage. The only thing he feared was:
A demigod's skin has been peeled off? What in hell happened in the Underworld back then?
Lumian watched as the boatman slowly and struggle-fully pinched together the split skin and rotting flesh on its chest, like buttoning up a coat.
Following this, the boatman plunged its long, dark, decayed oar into the surreal shadowy River Styx, moving it at an even slower pace as if resisting something.
Has the demigod of the temperance faction possessed the boatman, forcefully taking control and making it continue to row? It looks like this control is met with strong resistance... Lumian remained ready to draw the Sword of Courage again in case of any unforeseen incidents.
As the gloomy boat rocked its way towards the opposite shore of the Styx, Lumian, having nothing better to do, started a conversation with the Knight of Swords.
"I saw the entire Underworld as a series of descending layers earlier. Crossing the Styx should just get us to the other side of this layer, so why did you say it's like entering deep into the Underworld?"
The Knight of Swords simply replied, "The geography of the Underworld doesn't completely align with the real world. According to the many notes of the Eggers family, there are two ways to enter the depths of the Underworld. The first is to descend layer by layer through the worlds encircling the Styx, which are used to punish sinners, ultimately arriving at the realm where the Blessed of Death reside. The second is to cross the Styx directly."
"Is that so..." Lumian mused aloud, "So, our destination is the realm once inhabited by the Blessed of Death?"
The Knight of Swords paused for a second and said, "Death's palace should be there as well."
The palace of the former Death? Lumian's eyelids twitched at the thought.
As he and the Knight of Swords alternated between silence and conversation, the boundary on the other side of the Styx finally came into view.
-x-X-x-
Unlike the wilderness Lumian and company had passed through earlier, strewn with grayish-white rocks, the soil on this side of the River Styx was pitch black. There were no withered blood-colored flowers, no ghostly skeletons, and no decaying corpses to be seen.
The sky above was no longer lit by pale, dim, cold "sunlight." Instead, a rich darkness dominated this boundless world.
Deep within the darkness, clusters of pale-white, greenish-hued flames hung quietly in mid-air, spaced far apart as if serving as street lamps.
Using the illumination from the nearest pale flame, Lumian quickly leaped from the gloomy boat to the shore.
Once his feet hit solid ground, his heart steadied considerably. As he crossed the River Styx, the scent of death in his undead body became more intense and evident, while his spirit and consciousness, tightly protected by the Eggers family's golden mask, felt a slight chill.
Following that, a sinister coldness pervaded his body, but the highly decayed boatman, with its hollow eyes, simply reinserted its long oar back into the river's current.
It made no new move to attack Lumian.
It seemed incapable of attacking targets on the shore.
Watching the gloomy boat and the boatman, now facing away from him, slowly drift away, Lumian mused, "Not going to finish it off? With its rank, that decayed human skin would match your messenger quite well" This referred to the Knight of Swords' messenger, the Half-Fairy, a spirit being missing the outer half of her body, meaning she was precisely lacking human skin, while the boatman was just the peeled skin of a demigod from the Death pathway.
The Knight of Swords was silent for a few seconds, letting his voice echo in Lumian's ears: "She only lacks her own skin."
This reply was curt and restrained, yet Lumian almost heard the Knight of Swords roar: Don't just find any skin for my messenger to wear!
Pausing for a second, the Knight of Swords continued, "We might need to return across the River Styx, and we don't know how many Ferryman are left there."
A need to return across the Styx? Lumian then pondered a very serious and important question.
"After dealing with Oxyto's child, how do we leave the Underworld?"
Clearly, this was not something that could be solved by teleportation.
"Our allies in the outside world should be seeking help from the Death pathway's Sequence 5 Gatekeeper or a corresponding demigod, which might necessitate our return to the peripheral areas of the Underworld we were in before, to access the bronze doors of the Underworld."
Lumian nodded, following a vague sensation brought on by the black mark on his right shoulder, and took a step forward.
He didn't ask the Knight of Swords and the temperance faction demigod if he was veering off the path to find Oxyto's child.
If he were wrong, they would inform him.
Reaching the nearest pale flame, Lumian realized it truly served as a street lamp.
It was crafted from gold, shaped like a kneeling figure with hands bound behind its back, its head tilted back and torso bent outward.
A dark, sinister wick protruded from the statue's mouth, coated in a layer of pale yellow translucent grease. The pale-white flame burned quietly, seemingly for thousands of years without a hint of extinguishing.
From this human-shaped lamp onward, the ground was covered with dark, cracked stone slabs.
Lumian could imagine just how solemn and solemn the path to Death's palace must have been.
(Amonoculus' note: Not sure why the official translation has used the word solemn twice here.)
He walked along the path, which was inexplicably cracked and shattered, quickly but cautiously heading deeper into the darkness, towards the place suspected to hold the Abscessed Hand's body part.
The path also presented a slightly downward trajectory.
This reminded Lumian of Hotel Orella he had once stayed in, recalling the words spoken by Iveljsta, a descendant of Death-many believed that the true hell and the origin of death lay deep underground, so one had to continually descend, delving deeper and deeper.
This is reflected in the Underworld too... After walking for a while, Lumian suddenly conjured a large, blazing white flame in his hand.
The bright light quickly dispelled the darkness further away, allowing Lumian to clearly see the surroundings: Mausoleum-style buildings were either completely collapsed or half fallen, deathly quiet, with no bones or bodies. These buildings varied in color, not just black, but also pale-white, golden, dark red, and sinister green.
"Did the Blessed of Death once live in these houses?" Lumian asked the Knight of Swords, who was well-versed in the history of the Southern Continent and the legends of the Underworld.
The Knight of Swords replied succinctly, "I don't know" He then added, "Only by finding a creature that entered and exited the Underworld before the fall of Death can we be sure."
"Alright..." Lumian didn't press further and quickened his pace.
This was because he felt that the body part of the Abscessed Hand was not far ahead!
His right hand went back into the Traveler's Bag, ready to draw the Sword of Courage at any moment.
As for the Devil's Whispers ring, he didn't plan to wear it yet; he didn't think becoming undead would immunize him against the malevolent effects unleashed by that Sealed Artifact.
Undead beings could harbor malice too!
After all, undead beings such as wraiths and evil spirits were formed around the core of their own obsessions and residual malice.
Moreover, Lumian's spirit and consciousness were still protected by the golden mask of the Eggers family, remaining in a living state.
After a quick jog, guided by the pale-white flame of the human-shaped street lamps and the blazing white orb above, Lumian discovered a grand structure along the side of the cracked stone slabs.
It appeared to be a cathedral, entirely black and about fifty to sixty meters tall, but its upper half had already collapsed into the lower part.
Lumian concentrated, listening intently, and heard faint, strange sounds emanating from the grand but ruined cathedral.
It was as if someone was using a blunt sword to slice through flesh and saw through bones, causing a headache to the listener.
"I have another matter to resolve inside this cathedral," Lumian finally disclosed his intent to the Knight of Swords and the temperance faction demigod.
He then firmly added, "It should be quick."
He remembered what Madam Magician had said: the true danger of the Abscessed Hand would only manifest once all its parts were assembled, and currently, two parts were still in the City of Exiles Morora, so there was no need to worry about that.
The enemy he might face next could be the undead being creating the sound just heard.
"Alright," the Knight of Swords did not inquire about the specifics.
"Thank you," Lumian responded sincerely.
The Knight of Swords and the temperance faction demigod neither objected nor disengaged from Lumian's body, indicating their tacit approval to provide the necessary assistance when needed.
Lumian extinguished the blazing white orb hovering above his head to avoid provoking the undead within the dilapidated cathedral.
He transformed into a shadow, blending into the areas not illuminated by the pale-white flames, and silently infiltrated the building whose upper half had entirely collapsed inward.
From the shadows, Lumian saw columns thrust into the ground, a dome shattered into pieces, and a bird statue broken in half.
After winding through the ruins for a while, Lumian's path brightened suddenly.
Ten meters ahead on a crumbling wall, several bone torches burning with pale green flames were inserted, the dense darkness above streaming through a large hole created by the collapsed dome, blocked outside by this dim light.
Beneath the bone torches, a long table made of grayish-white stone was set up, upon which lay a half-corpse, head severed and vertically split open.
The corpse wore no clothes, its body bluish-black and swollen with decay, oozing yellowish-red pus everywhere.
It appeared significantly larger than a normal human, unclear whether it was a half-giant in life or merely bloated by post-mortem gasses.
Lumian recognized it instantly-this was the body of the Abscessed Hand!
It comprised the left half, including one hand and one foot.
In front of the Abscessed Hand's corpse stood a towering figure, about four meters tall. The figure's skin was pitch-black, etched with numerous sinister patterns, most of which had decayed, exposing bare, ghostly white bones or appearing as half-melted, viscous tissue.
At that moment, this figure, bent over, was slowly cutting into the half-corpse of the Abscessed Hand with an even larger pale-white leg bone, likely from another unknown source.
Lumian noticed two curved, tattered black goat horns growing from the figure's head, its profile resembling a fusion of human and goat features, becoming increasingly terrifying the longer he looked.
An undead being transformed from a Beyonder of the Devil pathway after death? Just as Lumian had this thought, he saw the goat-faced giant slice off a chunk of bluish-black decaying flesh and stuff it into its mouth, chewing vigorously, causing pale yellow pus to splatter.
On the half-corpse of the Abscessed Hand, the decaying flesh writhed and grew, filling in the cuts made.
A cycle of one eating, the other growing? Lumian was pondering a plan to take the Abscessed Hand's corpse when the Devil-like undead suddenly turned around, looked towards the shadows where he was hiding, and spoke in an unintelligible language using a hollow, decayed voice.
Though he couldn't understand the words, Lumian felt a strange pulsation in his flesh, compelling him to leave his shadow form and revert to his undead appearance with the golden mask.
However, the decaying, goat-faced Devil did not take the opportunity to attack.
After two seconds, the voice of the Knight of Swords reached Lumian's ears: "It's asking: 'Do you need flesh?'"
Do you need flesh? Lumian was first stunned, then relieved that he had a translator.
Looking at the hunched-over, Devil-like giant undead, Lumian suddenly had a strange thought: Is this considered making a deal with a Demon?
Has the aftereffects from using the Authority Holder's Under-the-table Transaction finally caught up with me?
-x-X-x-
For a moment, Lumian was unsure whether the Authority Holder's Under-the-table Transaction, a Beyonder item from the Broker pathway, actually had negative effects.
On the one hand, encountering a deal with Demons and other evil beings surprisingly prevented a potential battle. Without this "negative effect," Lumian suspected he would have been attacked the instant he was spotted by the goat-faced Demon, instead of being asked if he needed flesh. This seemed like a manifestation of how a Shadow Merchant could reduce the malice from dangerous creatures and mysterious entities.
However, it was definitely wrong if this wasn't considered a negative effect. Dealing with a Demon wouldn't be simple or easy. It might even be very dangerous, even if the Demon was already dead.
After a few seconds of deliberation, Lumian, pointing to the half-body of the Abscessed Hand on the grayish-white stone table, asked, "I want it all. What must I give in return?"
He planned to gauge the difficulty of the transaction first. If it proved too challenging, he would ask for help from the temperance faction demigod to confront and collectively eliminate this decaying goat-faced Demon!
Having a deal offered by a Demon didn't mean you had to accept it!
As soon as Lumian spoke, he felt his body stiffen and a coldness spread within him.
He understood what was happening and didn't resist or struggle, then found himself involuntarily speaking in a gravelly, metallic voice, as if using dead vocal cords.
His words were repeated in an unknown language by the goat-faced giant, and every word struck a chill into Lumian's spirit, feeling as though they were piercing his Spirit Body.
Bent over and goat-faced, the black-skinned decaying Demon responded in the same hollow language, its voice echoing ominously.
One of the words seemed to grasp Lumian's Spirit Body and body as if by a giant hand.
If it weren't for his "dead" state and the protection of the Eggers family's golden mask, just this interaction alone could have severely harmed him.
Soon, the ethereal voice of the Knight of Swords resonated in his mind: "I want Farbauti dead!"
Farbauti? The Devil Monarch, Farbauti, the true form of Naboredisley?
The terms of the deal require me to kill an ancient god? Lumian narrowed his eyes at the towering goat-faced devil, regaining control of his voice to say, "That's an ancient god. I can't do it. Change the terms."
If the goat-faced devil refused to change the terms, then there was no need for negotiation!
Facing an ancient god might be beyond me, but taking you down certainly wasn't!
It was just a matter of owing a favor to a demigod!
That debt could be repaid slowly over time!
It was unclear whether it was the Knight of Swords or the temperance faction demigod who then took control of Lumian's body, translating his words into a language the goat-faced Demon could understand.
This also brought Lumian a strange sensation.
The goat-faced Demon, capable of standing four to five meters tall but appearing only a bit over three meters due to its bent back, fell silent for a moment before speaking in a deep, hollow tone, "I want that egg."
Egg? Lumian muttered to himself in confusion.
He understood directly because the Knight of Swords had already translated it synchronously.
"Where is this egg?" Lumian inquired.
As a member of the temperance faction took control of his mouth to relay the question, the decaying goat-faced Demon let the massive thigh bone in its hand drop to the ground with a loud thud.
"In the palace," the goat-faced Demon answered simply, making the Knight of Swords' job of translating much easier.
This also made the Knight of Swords' translation job much easier.
Lumian asked, seeking confirmation, "The palace of Death?"
Could a former divine residence be extremely dangerous?
The goat-faced Demon's eyes, oozing blood and pus, shifted slightly.
"Yes."
An egg within Death's palace... Lumian hesitated between agreeing to the deal or just seizing it.
As he surveyed his surroundings, he further inquired, "What does this egg look like?"
While waiting for the member of the temperance faction to translate, Lumian noticed a broken statue by a half-buried stone pillar, with only parts of its body remaining.
It was vaguely recognizable as an avian statue, its feathers seemingly woven from mystical patterns, pale-white and dim.
An avian statue... Lumian thought, connecting this with the egg the goat-faced Demon wanted.
Once the translation was finished and control of his mouth returned, he added, "A bird's egg?"
After about ten seconds, the goat-faced Demon dragged its pale thigh bone forward a few steps, which scraped against the ground, producing a grating sound.
The goat-faced Demon spoke slowly and intermittently, "Yes. It's large. Black, within flames."
It really is a bird's egg, and obviously from an abnormal mother...
Birds... Lumian suddenly remembered the prematurely born child they were tracking, associated with the Banshees in their full might.
They resembled birds, with claws and wings!
Although there are clear differences from this bird statue, they are at least all birds... Moreover, since there is an abnormal bird's egg inside Death's palace, it implies the existence of a mother, a mother in the mystical sense... Lumian vaguely grasped the reason Oxyto had conceived such a stillborn and cast it into the Underworld.
Was her goal also this egg, to use it to do something to the Underworld?
Whether integrating the realm of the dead in the Raklev region into her own Paramita or conducting a ritual to impregnate corpses and bear children, was it all for this purpose?
Sheesh, does she intend to merge the Underworld with her own Paramita?
That's quite ambitious, isn't it?
This is a legacy of a true god, a former divine kingdom!
But if Oxyto really succeeds, wouldn't the Great Mother be able to descend directly?
Even if she can't fully merge the Underworld just yet, just planting a seed is still a very dangerous thing for our world!
Lumian immediately asked the goat-faced Demon, "Have you seen a giant baby with bird claws?"
The decaying goat-faced Demon looked at Lumian but did not respond. It was unclear whether it hadn't seen such a thing, or if the influence of the Broker pathway was limited to the transaction itself.
Lumian fell silent for a few seconds before stating, "Deal!"
The goat-faced Demon's head moved almost imperceptibly. It turned and began dragging its pale thigh bone, step by step, back to the grayish-white stone table where the half-body of the Abscessed Hand lay.
Lumian, lowering his voice, shared his recent thoughts with the Knight of Swords and the temperance faction demigod.
Knight of Swords Maric quickly responded, "Let's head to Death's palace right now.'
Seemingly to reassure Lumian, the Knight of Swords added, "You're wearing the Eggers family's mask. Many dangers in the Underworld will naturally avoid you. We only need to worry about anomalies like the boatman. And if Oxyto's monstrous child can get close to Death's palace, close to that bird's egg, then we should be able to as well. Even with the premature birth and the powers inherited from Oxyto, it's at most equivalent to a Sequence 4."
Upon hearing the Knight of Swords say so much in one breath, Lumian pondered and said, "Its state of existence and birth ritual are quite unique. It might be able to harness some of the Underworld's power. Even if it hasn't reached the Angelic level due to being premature, we must treat it as a Sequence 3 demigod in the corresponding environment.'
After all, this was a baby born through the integration of Paramita and the spirit realm, facilitated by Lake Dalsh. And this baby had undergone gestation within a corpse, birth post-mortem, and then returned to its original form through a process of mutation and integration.
It absolutely couldn't be considered a living creature, for living beings would instantly die in the Underworld.
"Yes," the Knight of Swords answered succinctly.
Under the pale glow of a few bone torches mounted on the broken wall, Lumian asked the two members of the temperance faction within him, "If we continue along the path we were on, into the depths of the darkness, will we reach Death's palace?"
Lumian remembered that the Knight of Swords had mentioned reading many notes from the descendants of Death.
Before the Knight of Swords could reply, the goat-faced Demon standing at the gray stone table suddenly lifted the large pale thigh bone.
It used the bone to point toward a dark, deep hole that had been smashed open by a dome-shaped stone block near the broken statue.
That seemed to lead to the dark cathedral's basement.
Lumian paused, then blurted out, "You mean, this leads directly to Death's palace?"
Based on the Knight of Swords' explanations and what he had seen earlier, Lumian believed Death's palace was situated at the bottom of the dark Underworld. One would have to keep heading downward, deep into the ground, to reach it.
But since it was a descent, jumping directly into the seemingly bottomless "basement" might also be feasible.
Emperor Roselle once said, "All roads lead to Trier!"
The decaying goat-faced Demon nodded slowly.
It was only then that Lumian realized: This fellow understands my Intis language! Why did I even bother getting a translator? Is a Demon still a Demon even after death?
Lumian didn't waste any time confronting the decaying goat-faced Demon. He ran a few steps to the edge of the dark, vast hole.
He formed a clump of blazing white flame and placed it at the edge of the hole, illuminating some of the interior: massive stone pillars, blackened wood racks, collapsed stone slabs, and a winding staircase extending downward, disappearing into the darkness.
"No problem," the Knight of Swords conveyed the judgment on behalf of the temperance faction demigod. "It leads to Death's palace."
Without hesitation, Lumian jumped onto the partially collapsed staircase.
Instead of running down the stairs in the usual way, he jumped back and forth between stone pillars, wood racks, staircases, and walls in a linear free-fall.
During this process, Lumian occasionally transformed into a blazing white flame spear to leap over completely collapsed parts without footholds and at other times turned into a shadow creature to navigate around special areas.
The surrounding darkness seemed to hide something, something even the blazing white light couldn't illuminate, but Lumian ignored it, pretending not to notice.
After descending for an indeterminate amount of time, Lumian's feet finally touched the ground.
In the light of the blazing white flame, he saw that the area was littered with broken bones, some white, some yellow-brown, and some dark brown.
Not too far from Lumian, a deep black stone wall stood, set with a heavy wooden door large enough for a giant to pass through.
Lumian walked up to the door, bent over, and extended his palms, beginning to push outward with all his strength.
His instincts told him that beyond this door lay Death's palace.
-x-X-x-
Amidst the heavy tearing sound of a long-unmoved wooden board, the chestnut-brown door slowly opened outward.
The first thing Lumian noticed was the dim light, unlike the darkness typical of the deeper parts of the Underworld, emanating not from golden humanoid streetlamps but from all objects ahead.
He then got a clear view of the exterior.
There lay a cluster of palaces half-sunken into the void, with a majestic main hall, several high towers, and aerial corridors connecting them.
Deeper into the palace complex, the structures seemed to sink further into the void, while those on the periphery stood solidly on a barren wilderness.
Even so, the main hall in the core area towered much higher than the rest of the buildings.
Now, most of the structures were completely collapsed, leaving only ruins and broken walls. The relatively intact palaces and towers were concentrated on the periphery, with the only visibly towering structure in the core area being the main hall and its four attached spires.
At this moment, whether it was the broken palace complex or the surrounding wilderness and the sky above, all had faded to a dim, pale white, enveloping and infusing the entire world with pallor.
They brought light.
This pale-white world still retained a few other colors-gold embedded on the surfaces of buildings and the black at the bottom of the palace complex representing the void.
The latter had two other sources: one was the silently falling illusory dark River Styx from above, cascading behind the main hall, and the other was a creature long enough to be described in hundreds of meters, nestled among the four spires atop the grand main hall.
It was an exaggeratedly large bird, its wings woven from pale-white flames and mystical patterns, quietly sprawling on the roof of the main hall. Many of its pale-white fiery feathers had shed, revealing the black, decaying skin underneath.
Despite the considerable distance, and even with just a few fleeting glances, Lumian couldn't help but feel his "death" accelerating.
He lowered his head to look at his hands and found his already pale, dull, and withered undead skin now marked with spreading patches of blue-black decay.
These marks moved slowly, deepening continuously.
Moreover, his clothes were also beginning to be "infected" by the pallor of this world, all colors turning dim.
"What kind of monster is that?" Lumian dared not gaze at the distant giant bird anymore and could only look directly at the palace complex itself.
After a few seconds, the increasingly ethereal voice of the Knight of Swords, Maric, rang out: "It might be the corpse of Gregrace."
Gregrace? The Phoenix Ancestor, the ancient Death among the eight ancient gods of the Second Epoch? Lumian blurted out in astonishment, "Why would Her body be here?"
After posing the question, Lumian felt it was somewhat meaningless.
This was the Underworld, and it was not strange for any deceased's body to appear here. The Phoenix Ancestor-ancient Death-had perished before the Underworld anomaly.
On the other hand, the absence of the Eggers family's Death's corpse, hidden somewhere, was an anomaly.
Lumian didn't expect the Knight of Swords to actually answer his question.
"It might be that the ancestor of the Eggers family, the former Death, placed it here."
Uh... Does that mean the Eggers family's Death not only acquired the Beyonder characteristics of the Phoenix Ancestor Gregrace but also brought Her body back to the Underworld, hiding it somewhere in the palace complex? How did She, no-it end up on top of the palace? Is it just a corpse? Was it placed there initially? Or did the anomaly in the Underworld come from this ancient god's corpse? With the reigning Death dead, has the ancient god's corpse reanimated?
Lumian suddenly had some thoughts.
At that moment, he heard the Knight of Swords add, "Sharron just saw the egg."
The egg? The one the goat-faced Demon wants? Is Sharron referring to the temperance faction demigod within me? Lumian's heart leaped with joy before he quickly asked, "Where is the egg?"
"Below the belly of what seems to be the corpse of the Phoenix Ancestor. It has a pitch-black shell and is engulfed in pale-white flames, about a meter in diameter,' the Knight of Swords briefly described the egg.
Protected by the corpse of the ancient Death? Lumian's scalp tingled at the thought.
How am I supposed to retrieve it?
This might as well be no different from slaying the Devil Monarch, Farbauti!
Of course, for those of high stature, a living ancient god and a Beyonder-characteristic-lacking one reduced to a decaying corpse were not on the same level; the difficulty of these tasks was as different as heaven and the abyss. But for Lumian, they were equally insurmountable, both falling under the category of "impossible even with self-sacrifice."
Son of a sow, that goat-faced fellow really is a Demon turned undead!
Fine, if it can't be completed, then so be it. Just finish off the contractor as if there was no task at all!
As malicious thoughts spread throughout his body, the Knight of Swords added, "It's not entirely impossible to retrieve the egg. The state of the Phoenix Ancestor's corpse is somewhat strange."
Strange state of the corpse? Aren't there only two states for a corpse, eternal rest and reanimation? Lumian dared not use his own eyes to inspect the decaying corpse of the ancient Death, Gregrace, and could only inquire of Sharron, the only one present who could withstand looking at the body of an ancient god to some extent, "What's strange about it?"
The one responding was still the Knight of Swords.
"It's asleep, the kind of deep sleep that's hard to awaken from.
"This doesn't align with the current state of this Pale-White Nation."
Asleep? Dead and transformed, yet still needing sleep? Lumian frowned slightly and asked, "Why does that not align with the current state here?"
The Knight of Swords paused a few seconds before explaining, "From what we've seen, one of the reasons for the original anomaly in the Underworld was the reanimation of the Phoenix Ancestor. It destroyed Death's palace, killed all of Death's Blessed present, and turned this place into a pale-white nation.
"We've encountered a few demigods from the Death domain. Since the Underworld anomaly, they could still manage some affairs in the Underworld, even enter directly, but none dared to venture deep into the Underworld to search for the treasures within Death's palace. Their instincts told them it was too dangerous, absolutely not to be approached.
"But Sharron didn't have such a premonition for danger, so she agreed to come here."
That means, for a long time after the Underworld anomaly, the body of the Phoenix Ancestor still roamed this pale-white nation, keeping the high-ranked beings of the Death domain at bay, but now, it lies asleep... Lumian found the oddity from Maric's description.
"When was the last time a high-ranking Beyonder of the Death pathway felt danger approaching deep into the Underworld?" Lumian tried to determine the approximate timeframe.
"I don't know," the Knight of Swords answered promptly.
Don't know... It seems then, that the Phoenix Ancestor's body has only fallen asleep in recent years. Otherwise, the high-ranked Beyonders of the Death pathway entering the Underworld would have discovered that it's not so dangerous here anymore, and might have attempted exploration, not leaving without a trace nor without any news spreading... What happened in recent years? Lumian thought, unable to suppress his complaint.
"Why did the Eggers family's Death bring back the Phoenix Ancestor's corpse, leaving such a huge risk? As a true god, He could have directly destroyed this corpse!"
The Knight of Swords responded to Lumian's complaint, "The Underworld was established by the ancient Death in the spirit world, and as an ancient god, She wasn't limited to the powers of the Death pathway when She created the Underworld.
"It might not have been easy for the Eggers family's Death to initially take control of the Underworld; He might have needed to use the corpse of the Phoenix Ancestor. By the time He truly took control, His state might have changed, no longer concerned with such trivial matters."
Does this mean the Eggers family's Death went mad later? The Underworld wasn't naturally formed, it was created by the ancient Death, Gregrace... Such a powerful ancient god, no wonder She could have undergone reanimation... Lumian reflected inwardly.
The Knight of Swords, sensing his sigh, simply said, "It's said that even among those mad ancient gods, the Phoenix Ancestor, Gregrace, was particularly fond of stirring things up, much like the Blood Emperor Alista Tudor of the Fourth Epoch."
Now that you put it that way, I can understand perfectly... Lumian's gaze continuously shifted among the pale sky, the wilderness, and the collapsed palace complex, pondering whether to seize the opportunity of the ancient god's corpse being asleep to steal the enormous black egg burning with pale-white flames.
Suddenly, he spotted a figure still capable of movement.
It was a creature with a human head but the body of a giant bird.
The creature's limbs were bent, with nails that flickered with a cold light; its back sported wings covered in half pale-white, half chestnut-brown feathers. The development of its head seemed incomplete, resembling several infant heads slowly merging together.
"Oxyto's premature child? It's indeed here!" Lumian recognized the creature's identity.
That was the target he and the members of the temperance faction had been tracking!
At that moment, Oxyto's monstrous child was flapping its wings, continuously circling and stealthily drawing closer to the sleeping ancient god's corpse.
Its target appeared to be the enormous black egg pressed beneath the corpse!
"We must stop it! Sharron will handle cursing and controlling it, and we'll take care of the attack!"
The voice of the Knight of Swords echoed in Lumian's mind. "Okay."
This time, Lumian didn't hesitate and sprinted out from the base of the pitch-black cathedral.
As soon as he stepped into that pale-white nation, his entire being was dyed pale-white, devoid of any additional colors.
This caused him to shiver both body and soul, wanting nothing more than to kneel down on the ground, lying prostrate and motionless.
Silently, Lumian drew the Sword of Courage.
The blade, now color-eroded by the pale-whiteness, suddenly ignited with a bright white flame tinged with blue.
-x-X-x-
Filled with the courage to battle against the heavens and to strike at true gods, Lumian stood straight and tall, unflinchingly facing the ruined palaces within the Pale-White Nation.
Just then, his eyelids dropped uncontrollably, shielding his eyes.
Almost simultaneously, the voice of the Knight of Swords resonated once more in his ear: "Our target is Oxyto's child, not the ancient god's corpse."
This was to prevent Lumian from looking directly across the pale-white wilderness at the corpse of the ancient death god.
"There's nothing to fear!" Lumian quickly responded.
His voice, once it left his mouth, was also "infected" by the pallor governing this world, becoming weak, hollow, and devoid of emotion.
The Knight of Swords earnestly advised, "But this will affect our battle with Oxyto's child; we must resolve it quickly. Once that's done, you can do whatever you want."
Lumian fell momentarily quiet before responding, "Okay."
Honestly, wearing the Eggers family's golden mask and in his undead state, Lumian felt a bloodline-based fear and an awe towards the Phoenix Ancestor's corpse atop Death's palace, which the courage did not dispel and even somewhat weakened, creating a balance.
Otherwise, Lumian, wielding the Sword of Courage, would not have been so agreeable!
Immediately, Lumian ignited into a bright white flame, transforming into a long spear of light, hurling towards the still-intact buildings at the edge of the palace complex.
As the fiery spear cut through the sky, it too was eroded by the pallor, dissipating and dimming even faster, which meant Lumian only managed half the intended distance.
Finally, as the pale-white light extinguished, Lumian appeared mid-air, plummeting straight towards the ground.
He landed softly on the wilderness, making only a slight sound, and all around was deadly silence.
The bright, blazing spear of flame took to the air once again.
After repeating this five times, Lumian finally reached a high tower adorned with numerous golden patterns and stood at its top, with the figure of Oxyto's monstrous child becoming clearer in his sight.
Although the other did not display the potentially incomplete Mythical Creature form, merely seeing the bent human limbs, a head formed from several merged infant heads, and wings stretching from the torso with half pale-white, half chestnut-brown feathers, Lumian felt dizzy, accompanied by spasmodic pain.
Additionally, something inside him seemed to be calling, slowly gathering towards his abdomen.
It was the bloodline of Omebella!
Lumian felt no fear from this.
Wasn't this inevitable?
In the next instant, two figures materialized before him.
One figure wore a black Gothic-style court dress, complete with a matching petite bonnet and her light golden hair neatly bundled up; the other, slightly disheveled, donned a traditional black vest over a white shirt.
Temperance faction demigod Sharron and a member of the temperance faction, the holder of the Knight of Swords Minor Arcana tarot card, Maric!
As they approached their primary target, they finally detached from Lumian's body, ready to battle.
Indeed, both Sharron and Maric bore colors derived from the impressions left by Lumian, not truly manifested, appearing pale-white and dim.
Moreover, their bodies were transparent and ghostly, in a state of Wraiths.
If not so, they would have instantly died, becoming real undead creatures devoid of consciousness.
The monstrous child of Oxyto, hovering close to the belly of the ancient death god's corpse, sensed the proximity of Lumian and the others. From a distance of two or three kilometers, it half-turned its body and looked over with its twelve clustered eyes.
Lumian immediately felt the protective essence of his mind and consciousness, shielded by the Eggers family's golden mask, along with the life force deep within, showing signs of disintegration.
In his eyes, the temperance faction demigod named Sharron, using the reflective mirror effect of the pure gold surface, flickered twice between the crumbling palace and the high tower, coming within three to four hundred meters of the Phoenix Ancestor's corpse.
She opened her mouth towards Oxyto's child and emitted a piercing scream.
This was Lumian's first time hearing Sharron's voice.
Eroded by the pallor during its journey of over two thousand meters, the sound reached Lumian's ears as a faint echo, almost like an illusion.
Oxyto's child didn't see it that way. The feathers on its wings-half pale-white, half chestnut-brown-rapidly fell off. One by one, the eyes on its face burst open, the flesh on its uncovered body festering down to the bone, as if struck by a potent curse!
Seeing this, Lumian, fearless, transformed once again into the fiery spear of flame and hurled himself at the creature. Meanwhile, the Knight of Swords flickered forward on various reflective surfaces.
Oxyto's child let out a mournful howl.
Though distant and further muted by the dense pallor within Death's palace, the sound was soft when it reached Lumian, yet it still made him dizzy for a moment, a bloody stench of decay filling his nostrils, involuntarily causing him to revert from his fiery spear form.
With this howl, Oxyto's monstrous child morphed into a writhing, twisted, huge pale-white bud. The exploded eyeballs, festering flesh, and fallen feathers were all absorbed into the bud.
In a blink, the bud blossomed, sopping wet, and produced two children.
One was intertwined in pitch black and dark red, its sores festering rapidly until it stilled, turned pale, and fell to the ground; the other was an unscathed, massive bird-clawed monstrosity.
Through this transformation, Oxyto's monstrous child shed the curse and was reborn.
But Sharron seized the moment, her figure reflected within its clustered twelve eyes.
Oxyto's monstrous child froze mid-air, just a few dozen meters from the Death's main hall where the Phoenix Ancestor's corpse lay.
In its twelve gleaming beautiful eyes, the figure of Sharron, wearing her petite bonnet, flickered in and out of view, soon illuminated by intense, bright white light.
A flamboyant spear of flame shot forth, striking an ancient, partially collapsed tower nearby.
As the light dispersed, Lumian, single-handedly wielding the Sword of Courage, appeared.
He did not hesitate or feel fear. Despite the dizziness and pain in his head, his eyes turned an iron-black.
This iron-black shade emerged only to be eroded by the pallor, harmonizing completely with this nation.
This did not impede Lumian's observation of his target's weaknesses, though all he saw was pallor.
Compelled, Lumian relied on his Hunter kin senses to detect weaknesses, picking the most appealing and battle-raging spot among those pale hues.
Once again, he became the increasingly pale and dimming fiery spear of flame, positioning himself above Oxyto's monstrous child.
His figure outlined; he grasped the Sword of Courage, blazing with bright white and blue flames, and plummeted like a boulder towards the body of Oxyto's monstrous child.
As they drew close, Lumian struck at the monstrous bird-clawed infant's abdomen with his broadsword, now tainted with pallor.
He was using his Cull.
Before this, the Knight of Swords, Maric, appeared atop the half-collapsed tower, slipping on a ring carved in the shape of the sun god's bird.
In his hands, he quickly formed a lance as clear as pure sunlight.
This caused the nearby pallor to fade slightly, erasing shadows and causing the Wraith-like state of the Knight of Swords to melt inch by inch. Droplets of dim liquid fell like wax in a fire.
The droplets evaporated quickly, leaving behind a bit of dust that slowly dispersed.
Enduring the melting of his right side, Maric's expression twisted into one of madness as he hurled the lance of sunlight towards Oxyto's monstrous child.
Considering that Oxyto was a Shaman King of the Moon pathway, the temperance faction had prepared a Sun pathway Sealed Artifact in advance, which unexpectedly proved useful at this time!
This Sealed Artifact, both in effect and trait, would bring significant harm to the Wraiths.
The clean and bright spear of flame became an anomaly in this pale world.
It too was being eroded, but it was also dispersing the pallor, appearing to be able to strike the body of the monster child before Lumian's Sword of Courage could.
Although the monstrous child of Oxyto was possessed by the demigod Sharron and forcibly controlled, it wasn't completely turned into a statue to be slaughtered at will.
It struggled against the influence of the Wraith, as its "reborn" body slowly contracted, seemingly returning to an embryonic state, seeking the comfort of its mother's embrace, while unleashing its own Paramita.
The pale-white wilderness quickly engulfed the surrounding ruined palaces and the half-collapsed tower, also drawing the bodies of a few Blessed of Death who had died in this area into its scope.
In the deathly silence, a horrific giant snake, bearing only bones and some rotting flesh with exaggerated wings, sprung from the collapsed palace into the air, blocking the path of the Knight of Swords' spear of sunlight.
The blinding sunlight burst forth, filling Lumian's eyes.
His strike with the Sword of Courage did not slow down; he firmly slashed downwards.
The sunlight blackened his pale, dim skin, sparking a burning smoke.
A soft "clang" sounded as Lumian's Sword of Courage struck the head of the winged giant snake, splitting the target, which had become exceptionally fragile after absorbing most of the sunlight damage.
In a barely audible silence, the snake's bones either evaporated or shattered, completely losing their support and falling like rain to the ground.
With the help of the giant bone snake blocking a strike for him, Oxyto's monstrous child controlled by Sharron contracted even more fiercely.
Its half pale-white, half chestnut-brown wings and bent limbs had merged with its body, forming a sphere, with only its head, formed from several merged infant heads, still visible.
Its Paramita then encompassed the entire main hall of Death and the corpse of the Phoenix Ancestor.
-x-X-x-
The pale-white light quickly engulfed the bird-clawed infant's Paramita, rendering the spread-out wilderness dull and indistinguishable from the surrounding ruined palaces, towers, and corridors.
This Paramita lost the features distinguishing the interior from the exterior, effectively withering and dying.
As the bone serpent collapsed, Lumian fell straight down, landing amidst the broken walls and debris scattered across the wilderness.
With a forceful bend of his waist and a forward flip, he landed firmly, not relying on his burning-white spear form to avoid the damage from such a fall.
In this pale-white nation, even the rules of the world seemed corrupted; falling from fifty meters felt no different than jumping from a five-meter building.
At this moment, the monstrous child of Oxyto retracted its head into the pale-white flesh sphere, forcing the temperance faction demigod Sharron to detach and hover in mid-air.
In the area near the main hall of Death, five or six terrifying undead creatures, influenced by Paramita, shakily rose to their feet.
Among them were two giant serpents with feathered wings and hairy corpses, a bloated, rotten giant, a humanoid mountain of white bones, and a woman with hair like thick snakes and a face two-thirds decayed.
Each of these risen dead, summoned by the bird-clawed infant, exerted immense pressure on Knight of Swords Maric.
As a Sequence 5 of the Prisoner pathway, he knew he couldn't control these corpses; attempting to wake them would only result in his own immediate dismemberment.
The undead, immense and horrifying, locked onto the temperance faction demigod, Sharron, but their movements were sluggish, as if hindered by an unseen force, unable to attack immediately.
Sharron, too, could control corpses and command the dead, and she was a true demigod with a higher rank than the premature bird-clawed infant!
Sharron's divided focus to influence the former Blessed of Death gave Oxyto's monstrous child a chance for rebirth. The pale-white flesh sphere bloomed like a flower, revealing a giant baby cleansed by pure water, while the sphere itself withered rapidly, turning pale and decaying as it fell to the ground.
Just as the giant baby spread its half-pale, half-chestnut wings, Sharron abandoned her control over the corpses.
In her pale-white eyes, the floating bird-clawed infant was reflected.
She opened her mouth and let out a scream that seemed to come from the depths of her soul.
The giant baby froze, instantly transforming into a lamb covered in pale fur. Unable to fly or use any Beyonder abilities, it plummeted towards the ground, towards Lumian, who stood with the Sword of Courage.
Transfiguration Curse!
Without the monstrous child's support, Paramita began to collapse.
The risen dead lost the foundation of their existence, gradually halting their movements and toppling over in the ruins.
The lamb covered in pale-white fur seemed corrupted from within; as it fell, its skin split, sprouting half-pale, half-chestnut feathers, and its belly swelled, as if nurturing new life.
No creature could escape the fate of being corrupted and nurturing new life, not even an ordinary lamb!
This was a trait of the Madame pathway, and the Transfiguration Curse could not strip corresponding Beyonders of these traits!
Sharron never expected to resolve Oxyto's premature child with just the Transfiguration Curse. Seizing the opportunity, she let her pale-white figure reflect in the mutated lamb's eyes.
The lamb's swelling belly began to slow, and the mutation caused by the corruption became less rapid.
It continued to plummet towards the ground.
Lumian, standing on the ground, looked up with a smile, raising the blue-hued blazing white Sword of Courage.
As the lamb entered his attack range, a spear of pure, intense sunlight shot from the half-collapsed tower.
Knight of Swords Maric, enduring significant pain and damage, once again projected the spear that illuminated the pale-white world.
This time. the bird-clawed infant. still in lamb form. could not evade or find a helper to block the spear. It could only watch as the golden spear of sunlight pierced its abdomen and exploded.
At this moment, as the scorching white sunlight engulfed the target, Sharron used Lumian's eyes and the pure gold in the nearby ruins to Mirror Jump away from the bright, sunlit, and fading pale area.
Although the lamb's body shielded her from the direct harm of the sunlight explosion, she, as a spirit-like Beyonder, still suffered significant impact.
When she reappeared in a golden pattern embedded in a wall hundreds of meters away, her figure had thinned noticeably, dripping waxy liquid like sweat.
Lumian stood close to the pale-white lamb, filled with courage, not dodging, but standing firmly, welcoming the spreading sunlight.
Wearing the Eggers family's golden mask, his entire body ignited, blackening and melting like a candle, bringing extreme pain.
Fortunately, he was not at the explosion's core, most of the damage falling on the bird-clawed infant, with Sharron taking some as well.
Otherwise, the sunlight spear might have purified him in one blow.
The Sword of Courage also absorbed half the damage, making his injuries not as severe as they appeared.
Clenching his teeth, Lumian advanced instead of retreating, running towards the falling bird-clawed infant with the eroded white broadsword in hand.
With a faint thud, the half-melted, ghastly pale lamb crashed onto the shattered stones.
Lumian arrived a second later, his eyes turning from iron-black to pale-white.
He swung the Sword of Courage with both hands.
Bright white and blue flames flared, the sharp sword striking the lamb's chest and abdomen.
The explosion was not loud, but the flames and the violent shockwave lifted the surrounding rubble, tearing a jagged hole in the lamb's chest and abdomen.
Boom! Boom!
Lumian swung the sword twice more, splitting the bird-clawed infant's lamb form into charred fragments.
The charred pieces were immediately eroded by the pale-white color, bringing a sense of dark, dead silence.
Just as Lumian was about to strike again, the pale lamb's abdomen exploded, scattering rotten flesh and liquid with a strange aura.
Instinctively, Lumian slashed the void ahead with the Sword of Courage, cutting through everything there.
Boom! Bright white flames and a violent shockwave formed a solid wall, blocking the rotten flesh and evil liquid.
As the pale lamb's abdomen exploded, a small, phantom figure with bird claws and wings, covered in a layer of pure water, flew out, heading straight for the black bird egg beneath the ancient Death's corpse.
This time, the bird-clawed infant, reduced to a phantom, was no longer cautious, no longer circling.
Knight of Swords Maric could not throw the spear of sunlight again, as it would cause his severely injured body to dissolve in the light.
Instead, he opened his arms, summoning a divine pillar of clean flame from the sky, aiming at the phantom heading for the main hall of Death.
The bird-clawed infant's figure first disappeared, then reappeared, evading the divine pillar's attack, but was immediately locked by Sharron's pale-white eyes.
Sharron transformed into a dim, stiff doll, encasing herself in layers of ice.
Simultaneously, layers of crystalline ice emerged around the bird-clawed infant, briefly fixing it in place, preventing its disappearance or progress.
The bird-clawed infant raised its head, letting out a howling wail within the ice cage.
The ice cage silently shattered.
The bird-clawed infant's body, covered in clear, pure water, splashed towards the ancient Death's corpse, forming droplets of faint golden liquid.
These droplets, drawn by an unseen force, converged into a river, carrying the bird-clawed infant towards the black bird egg burning with pale-white flames.
Seeing this, Lumian instinctively wanted to avoid the Phoenix Ancestor's corpse. He leaned back, raised his arm, and hurled the Sword of Courage.
The broadsword, eroded to pale but blazing with white and blue flames, flew like a conscious missile, covering hundreds of meters, leaving a trail of flames in the air, and striking the bird-clawed infant.
Locked on!
Rumble!
The sky near the black bird egg erupted with expanding white flames, forming a mushroom cloud.
Silently, charred shadowy fragments fell from the expanding flames and cloud, like a rain of dust.
The dust turned pale before touching the ground, some blown by the wind onto the black bird egg.
At that moment, Lumian heard an illusory shattering sound and felt his Reaper potion fully digest.
He had no time to rejoice as his mind and consciousness, protected by the Eggers familv golden mask, were overwhelmed bv fear and dread.
He lowered his head, knelt to the ground, and hugged himself, trembling.
He only wanted to obey the orders of the Phoenix Ancestor's corpse.
As an undead, he lost his courage, his vision darkening.
Thump, splash... In extreme fear, Lumian heard the sound of a heartbeat and flowing blood.
It came from nearby, within this Pale-White Nation.
It resonated strangely with Lumian.
Faintly, Lumian heard a mournful cry: "Child!
"My child!"
Who is your child? Who are you? Lumian instinctively wondered.
The mournful cry continued:
"My child, where are you?"
The voice paused and then rose slightly:
"Omebella, where are you?"
-x-X-x-
The mournful cry seemed to draw closer: "My child, Omebella, where are you?"
Hearing the name "Omebella," Lumian shuddered violently, snapping out of his fear-induced daze.
Who? Who is looking for Omebella? Why are they looking for Omebella?
As he wondered, Lumian noticed the surrounding area growing darker, with a sense of confinement and imprisonment.
He reached out, his hands brushing against a cold, hard "wall."
He pressed himself against it, trying to peer through its cracks.
The "wall" was pitch black but semi-transparent, and Lumian could faintly see the pale-white sky, the collapsed towers, and the shattered palaces.
He also saw Sharron, the temperance faction demigod dressed in a small bonnet and a Gothic dress, floating nearby. She extended her hand, summoning the Sword of Courage, now pale from erosion.
Beyond Sharron, he looked down at the rubble-strewn ruins. A pale figure in tattered clothes was kneeling, bent over as if to crawl.
The figure was trembling all over, struggling to raise its head and straighten up.
It was a face wearing a golden mask-his own face!
Me?
If I'm outside, then who is here?
Already half-conscious, Lumian felt even more bewildered.
Almost simultaneously, he saw his outside self, with charred skin peeling off, sprouting half-pale, half-chestnut feathers. His belly writhed visibly, while wheat, mushrooms, and flowers grew from the sunlit wounds.
Silently, Sharron leaped onto the golden mask and appeared before Lumian, placing the Sword of Courage into his hands.
The surge of courage instantly dispelled the fear suppressing his mind and consciousness, making his vision pale-white and no longer pitch black.
The sense of confinement and entrapment around him also dissipated.
He raised his head higher, no longer seeing himself or using a top-down perspective.
His gaze fell on the black egg under the ancient Death's corpse at the top of the main hall.
He instinctively believed he had just been inside the egg, observing the outside through its shell!
No, it wasn't me inside the black egg, but the part of me that lost courage and was subdued by the ancient god's aura resonating with the creature inside the egg, sharing its senses.
So, I "saw" the scene outside the shell, "heard" the mournful cry for Omebella, and showed signs of corruption!
Thinking this, Lumian quickly looked down at his body, seeing the feathers falling off, mixed with wheat, mushrooms, and flowers.
They had all lost their color, turning pale and dim.
Lumian also saw his belly flattening, feeling his blood, meant to be solid as a deceased, flowing throughout his body.
Suddenly, he understood why Oxyto risked so much to nurture a fetus with undead traits and an aura of the Underworld.
Even with just a bit of Omebella's bloodline, suppressed by the ancient god's corpse, he could resonate and interact with the creature inside the black egg. How much more could the bird-clawed infant, with more of the Great Mother's gifts, fused with Paramita and the Underworld, and perhaps also with Omebella's bloodline!
If we hadn't taken out Oxyto's premature child in time, it might have used the resonance and interaction to merge with the creature inside the black egg, controlling it from the source, or completing its catalysis!
Hmm, the premature birth meant the bird-clawed infant lacked the rank and traits, requiring extreme caution. Even if it reached the final step, there was a high chance of failure...
Now, the question is, why could the creature inside the black egg hear the 'Mother's' call for Omebella...
Who exactly is Omebella's 'Mother'? It can't really be the Great Mother, can it? Isn't She always outside the barrier?
What is the relationship between the creature inside the black egg and Omebella?
As these thoughts raced through his mind, Lumian suddenly heard a faint cracking sound.
He looked up in astonishment, seeing the pale-white flames burning on the black egg dim significantly and peel away. The black egg itself developed a noticeable fissure.
It seemed to be disintegrating to some extent.
The next second, the entire Pale-White Nation began to tremble. A deathly aura from the black egg, where the ancient Death's corpse lay, started to emerge.
Even with the Sword of Courage in hand, Lumian couldn't help but freeze, trembling.
The surrounding palaces and towers, whether in ruins or half-collapsed, began to shake violently as if struck by an earthquake.
A thought flashed through Lumian's mind: The Phoenix Ancestor Gregrace's corpse is awakening... Run! Escape!
He shouted this in his mind but couldn't turn his body or take a single step.
The temperance faction demigod Sharron grabbed him, and in his eyes reflected the dim figure of the Knight of Swords, who looked much fainter than before.
Cracks appeared in the pale-white sky, extending towards the trembling ground. An overwhelming sense of dread was rapidly accumulating at the top of the main hall of Death.
Sharron, holding Lumian, initiated Spirit World Traversal.
This could be used in the Underworld but would trigger retribution.
Countless indescribable limbs reached out from the void, grabbing at the swiftly moving Sharron.
Sharron endured the damage from these limbs, continuing to head towards the pitch-black cathedral at the edge of the Pale-white Nation.
Her body ignited with pale-white flames, directly burning her spirit, causing clumps of powder to fall continuously.
Sharron could no longer sustain it any more than three seconds, interrupting the Spirit World Traversal and falling onto the pale-white wilderness outside the palace of Death, nearly a kilometer from the pitch-black cathedral.
Holding the Sword of Courage, Lumian, now outside Death's palace complex, no longer felt as afraid. He immediately pointed at himself, indicating for Sharron to possess him.
At the same time, he saw numerous jagged cracks rapidly spreading from behind, revealing a bottomless darkness, spheres wrapped in blood-red substance, and mountains filled with tombs...
Feeling achill within him, Lumian quickly ignited in blazing white flames, transforming into a magnificent spear, and launched towards the edge of the Pale-White Nation.
Above, below, and on all sides, countless cracks chased after him like shattered glass. Behind him, from the direction of the palace, a heavy sound emerged.
Amid the pale erosion, the flaming spear disappeared and reappeared twice.
Finally, Lumian escaped the Pale-White Nation, landing in front of the towering pitch-black cathedral.
Here, only the underground portion of the cathedral was visible, resembling a massive mountain.
Lumian passed through the heavy wooden doors, once again transforming into a flaming spear and launched upwards.
When the flames dispersed, he sheathed the Sword of Courage, climbing upwards using the collapsed stairs, peeling walls, and broken pillars, repeatedly jumping between them, sometimes leaping across support-less areas as a flaming spear.
Before long, the pitch-black cathedral began to shake violently. The already precarious corridors, stairs, walls, and pillars started to crack and fall.
Seeing himself about to be crushed and buried by the collapsing building, Lumian prepared to draw the Sword of Courage to carve out an escape route.
At this moment, he was surprised to find the stones and pillars above him seemed to have a life of their own, avoiding him and continuing to fall past his sides.
In such a dangerous situation, Lumian remained unharmed.
He guessed Sharron provided some help, not wasting any time, and continued his ascent, repeating the process.
After an unknown amount of time, the violent shaking abruptly stopped.
Lumian didn't relax, maintaining his pace and rhythm until he sawa pale green light above.
A blazing white spear shot out from the dark hole within the half-collapsed church.
With the flames dispersing, Lumian's figure appeared, standing firmly on the cracked stone slab.
Next to a broken wall embedded with several bone torches, a tall Demon with a human-goat hybrid face slowly turned, dragging a white bone leg.
At that moment, Lumian realized he hadn't retrieved the black egg, failing the Demon's commission.
Instantly, anger surged within him: Was this a task I could complete?
You were sending me to my death! Truly a Demon's commission! Fine, since completing the task is no longer an option, I have only one choice: destroy the commissioner!
Despite these thoughts, Lumian only reached into the Traveler's Bag, preparing to draw the Sword of Courage, without intending to fight immediately.
He was concerned that the ancient Death's corpse's awakening would cause mutations to spread here, preferring to leave the depths of the Underworld as soon as possible, especially given the unknown strength of the goat-faced Demon.
Hunched over, the goat-faced Demon staggered in front of Lumian.
It stared at Lumian silently before speaking in a hollow, decayed voice.
This time, it used Dutanese: "You've taken that egg for yourself!"
Before it finished speaking, the goat-faced Demon straightened its four or five-meter-tall body and swung the white bone leg at Lumian.
-x-X-x-
As the goat-faced Devil approached and stared at him, Lumian's hand was already gripping the hilt of the Sword of Courage.
When the white bone leg came crashing down, he swiftly drew the iron-black sword, burning with a bright white and blue flame, and met the attack head-on.
Clang!
The clash echoed loudly, and Lumian's palm split open, spilling blackened, coagulated blood.
The immense force from the goat-faced Demon's strike made him lose his grip on the Sword of Courage, sending him flying and crashing into a pile of rubble.
The goat-faced Demon stepped over the fallen sword in two strides, standing before Lumian and raising the bone leg again.
Suddenly, in its blood- and pus-filled eyes, the figure of Sharron, the temperance faction demigod, appeared. Its raised hands froze in midair.
Seeing the goat-faced Demon's movements slow down as if struggling against something, Lumian ignited with white flames, transforming into a spear and darting past the high-ranking undead to where the Sword of Courage had fallen.
Perhaps because the goat-faced Demon wasn't an undead created by the Death pathway, its intimidating effect on Lumian was weak. It lacked the ability to enslave his body and mind, allowing Lumian to muster the courage to fight back.
While retrieving the iron-black broadsword, Lumian released the spirituality he had accumulated using his Ascetic ability.
At the same time, his eyes turned iron-black, reflecting the many colors on the goat-faced Demon.
He quickly found a patch of pallor, took two steps towards the goat-faced Demon, and leaped high.
In midair, Lumian adjusted his posture, gripping the Sword of Courage with both hands and descending towards the slow-moving Demon, still battling Sharron.
This time, he used the Sword of Courage's Cull ability!
His spirituality surged into the iron-black broadsword, causing the bright white and blue flames to flare up and then condense inward.
With a heavy thud, Lumian landed on the Demon's back, stabbing the Sword of Courage into the junction of its neck and body. The blade sliced into the decayed flesh like butter.
As pus splattered, the flames on the broadsword poured into the goat-faced Demon's body.
Boom! A muffled explosion echoed, and Sharron quickly withdrew from the Demon's body.
The Demon disintegrated into a puddle of sticky black liquid, condensed from evil thoughts.
The liquid, scattered by the expanding flames and shockwaves, swiftly flowed into the dark hole leading to the Pale-white Nation, seemingly to reassemble itself.
Holding the Sword of Courage, Lumian felt his released spirituality deplete by two-thirds. He wanted to chase and fight the Demon again but felt his body stiffen and his soul trapped in an invisible cage.
"Retrieve your target item first," the faint voice of the Knight of Swords echoed in his ears.
Right... Lumian agreed with the Knight of Swords' reasoning.
I don't fear the goat-faced Demon. I can totally grab the Abscessed Hand's body before it reassembles!
He transformed into a burning-white spear, darting to the bone torches. To better move the Abscessed Hand's body, he temporarily stashed the Sword of Courage in the Traveler's Bag.
Moments later, Lumian felt a pang of fear: I only have a third of my spirituality left, yet I was thinking of a life-or-death fight with the Demon?
And Sharron is clearly in poor condition!
Now isn't the time for that. Shouldn't I grab the target item and leave the collapsing cathedral before the Demon reassembles?
Thankfully, the Knight of Swords acted as a valve for my courage and found a convincing reason!
Without hesitation, Lumian grasped the Abscessed Hand's half-body, trying to lift it.
It was extremely heavy, like metal. Fortunately, Lumian was now a Sequence 5 Beyonder, from a pathway known for their strength.
During this process, Lumian worried the body might suddenly reanimate and deliver a fatal blow. However, the Abscessed Hand's half-body, after enduring years of cutting by the goat-faced Demon, seemed lifeless with no abnormal reaction.
Lumian placed the half-corpse into the Traveler's Bag, relieved to see it "sink" inside.
Living flesh couldn't be stored in the Traveler's Bag, and the Abscessed Hand's body had shown self-healing traits earlier. Lumian had thought if he couldn't store it, he'd carry it or have the Knight of Swords or Sharron possess it to make it move.
With the body stored, Lumian heard creaking sounds from the dark hole.
He immediately transformed into a blazing spear, darting out of the half-collapsed pitch-black cathedral.
With a swoosh, the white flames left a burning trail in the dark, spreading quickly into the distance.
Without the Pale-White Nation's erosion, Lumian flew far in one breath.
Under the golden humanoid lamplights, he repeatedly transformed into a blazing spear, finally reaching the shadowy River Styx.
He saw the gloomy, tattered boat reappear, slowly approaching as the boatman rowed.
Lumian waited anxiously, not daring to fly onto the boat as a spear.
According to the Knight of Swords Maric, doing so would make him sink into the river's depths, never to be saved.
Behind him, pale green flames burned quietly, sometimes swaying with the ground's tremors, sometimes shaking with some vibrations.
Lumian tensed, feeling an increasing danger, unsure if it was from the ancient Death's corpse awakening or the goat-faced Demon's pursuit.
He looked at the slow-moving boat, using a Hunter's method to calm his emotions.
He chuckled and spoke to the Knight of Swords Maric within him, "I thought the goat-faced Demon was powerful, just below the ancient gods, holding a grudge against the Devil Monarch and desiring the egg beneath the ancient Death's corpse. But now, it seems it's just at the Saint level, with only a corpse left, lacking Beyonder characteristics."
The Knight of Swords didn't respond.
Lumian continued, "The goat-faced Demon's initial request to kill the Devil Monarch was likely a bluff, making us more likely to accept the second condition, thinking it reasonable. If Oxyto's premature child hadn't interfered, we might have stolen the egg, only to face the ancient Death's wrath, unrelated to the goat-faced Demon.
"It also used the request to kill the Devil Monarch to build its image, making us think it was formidable, of high rank, preventing us from attacking it or abandoning the egg task.
"What a cunning Demon..."
Lumian then remembered the demon's accusation: "You've taken that egg for yourself!"
When did I take the egg? It's still under the Phoenix Ancestor's corpse. I only resonated with the creature inside, hearing and seeing what it did... Did the Demon mistake this resonance for me taking and breaking the egg? As an undead, even if it was a Saint-level Demon in life, it might have little brain left, acting on its cunning Demonic instinct... As Lumian pondered, the tattered boat finally reached the shore.
He jumped aboard, standing behind the boatman.
Though the boatman might attack later, compared to the goat-faced Demon's pursuit and the ancient Death's corpse's awakening, it was "friendly."
This was manageable.
The rickety boat shook as it left the dark shore, slowly heading towards the middle of the shadowy river.
Lumian looked back at the depths of the Underworld, seeing the intense darkness calm down, no more tremors or heavy sounds.
Everything was serene again.
Lumian relaxed a bit, instinctively sighing.
This Underworld trip was indeed "intense"...
Only now did he ponder the huge black egg issue: The creature inside seemed related to Omebella!
From this, Lumian felt the Great Mother naming Her Child of God after the ancient god, Omebella, wasn't just for symbolic reasons to erode the Earth Mother's authority. The fallen Goddess of Harvest held significant secrets.
But Omebella wasn't one of the eight ancient gods ruling the sky and land, just the Giant King's queen, akin to an Angel. How can Her secrets affect the current era?
Ah, many key pieces of information are obscured by history's fog. Only a few high-ranking beings from the Second Epoch know a bit...
Lumian mused as he watched the dark land of the Underworld recede, until only the shadowy River Styx water filled his view.
He suddenly felt the matter had finally come to an end.