Chapter 28: Hundred of Deaths

Lucifer opened his eyes and found himself standing near a beautiful flower field. Each flower had a different color, creating a scene like something out of a fairy tale.

But this had nothing to do with Lucifer. He needed to continue his journey to…to do what? Lucifer couldn't remember what he was planning to do, he could only think about the thousands of beautiful flowers before his eyes.

Lucifer knelt down on one knee and reached out to a purple flower. His arm touched the flower.

Right after that, his arm swelled up like something hideous and exploded. A lot of blood and strange mucus splattered all over his body and his face. This was truly disgusting.

Lucifer was stunned, not understanding what had just happened. Right after that, a terrible pain appeared, causing Lucifer to scream miserably.

His scream echoed throughout the entire forest, but no one would come to save him.

In his panic, Lucifer accidentally stepped on the flower field. Lucifer's legs exploded one after another, followed by his body and finally his head.

[Unknown Ring activated: 24/1000]

Lucifer's vision darkened, and he could no longer think. He was dead.

***

Lucifer opened his eyes, realizing that he was standing in front of a stunning flower field. He couldn't help but kneel down to touch the flowers.

He couldn't think of anything else but touching this flower. He had to do it, otherwise he wouldn't be able to live.

Lucifer touched a red flower, and that red flower immediately transformed into a huge mouth, big enough to swallow Lucifer whole with sharp teeth and saliva flowing out like a stream.

The reason this flower was red was not because of nature, but because it had absorbed the blood of too many victims.

Lucifer was dazed as he witnessed the massive mouth getting closer and closer to him. He was too frightened to run, or rather, he couldn't run even if he wanted to.

That giant mouth slowly covered Lucifer and chewed him like a delicious, juicy steak.

Lucifer's blood just kept flowing out, his body was crushed beyond recognition, Lucifer didn't even dare to lower his head to look at his body.

Lucifer couldn't escape anymore. He just let himself be eaten by the red flower without even bothering to resist. It was all hopeless. He couldn't escape even if he wanted to.

Lucifer was dead.

After swallowing Lucifer's mushy body, the red flower turned back into a normal flower. But this time, it was a little redder.

***

Lucifer opened his eyes and saw a gorgeous flower field in front of him. He felt familiar with this place, but it also felt like this was the first time he had seen this place.

He didn't know what was wrong with him, but one thing he was sure of was that he had to touch the colorful flowers near him immediately.

Just like that, Lucifer experienced hundreds of deaths and hundreds of resurrections. Every time he was resurrected, Lucifer couldn't remember what had just happened. And every time he was resurrected, he wanted to touch those flowers.

This was a cycle. Lucifer kept resurrecting and dying. Dying and resurrecting.

Lucifer had experienced many different ways of dying. Being cut, eaten, chewed, melted, corroded, suffocated, ...

Lucifer had experienced most of the most horrible and worst ways of dying. And every time he was resurrected, he couldn't remember anything. At least until he died 1000 times.

At that time, he would have to experience all the pain he had gone through before continuously, without even a second of rest.

***

Lucifer had died 215 times, but he couldn't remember those deaths. Several hours had passed since then, and now, the sun was directly above Lucifer's head.

It was noon, the hottest time of the day.

Lucifer didn't know if it was because of the heat from the sun, but the flowers were gradually withering. They no longer had the vibrant colors they used to have.

Because of that, Lucifer was no longer attracted to these flowers.

Lucifer opened his eyes, realizing that in front of him was a not-so-pretty field of flowers, all because the flowers had withered a bit, they no longer had as much vitality as before.

Lucifer suddenly felt quite puzzled.

'The flowers I just saw were still beautiful and healthy? Why are they all withered? And why is it already noon? Time really flies.'

Unable to waste any more time, Lucifer left without paying any attention to the flower field - the place that had killed him a hundred times.

***

When Lucifer returned to his hideout, the sun was starting to set and the moon was rising in the opposite direction. The deadly and bloody night was approaching.

If Lucifer wasn't careful, he would definitely die from the dangerous monsters. Lucifer hadn't found any meat to eat all day, all he found were two apples that looked juicy and delicious.

Lucifer didn't like fruits much, but in order to survive, he was willing to eat anything.

Owen had told Lucifer to always be careful with the vegetables and fruits he found in the Trial because no one knew if they were poisonous or not.

That's why people's only source of food would be monster and animal meat because these meats would never be poisonous for some reasons, unlike the vegetables and fruits found in the Trial.

Lucifer looked at the two apples without saying anything. He was wondering whether he should eat them or not.

'Wait, why am I wondering? I can just let Nothing test it to see if it's poisonous or not.'

Lucifer immediately summoned Nothing from his shadow. Nothing appeared in front of Lucifer and was also sitting on the same branch as him. Seeing Lucifer, his face showed obvious disgust.

"What's wrong that you called me out like this?" Nothing asked.

Lucifer looked at the expression on Nothing's face. Before, he was still feeling a bit hesitant about letting Nothing try the poison, but thanks to the expression on Nothing's face, he no longer felt guilty.

"I got two apples. Seeing that you had nothing to eat, I was going to share one with you."

Lucifer handed an apple to Nothing.

Seeing the apple, Nothing's face became much happier, he was smiling happily that Lucifer had never seen before.

"So you care about me too?" Nothing asked and took the first bite of the apple.

Lucifer observed Nothing's reaction for a moment. After confirming that the apple was completely normal, he could relax and put the other apple in his stomach.

"By the way, what did you do today? Shouldn't you have called me out of the shadow? I was bored all day, so call me out next time." Nothing rambled on, seemingly still happy that Lucifer had given him an apple.

'So I can manipulate this guy by giving him food? This is interesting.' Lucifer thought.

In this quiet, cold, deadly, and lonely night, having someone to talk to like Nothing was the only thing that made Lucifer feel a little better.

"But keep your mouth shut. You are going to attract the monsters in this forest."