Ancient Archfiend

[Welcome to the Death's Abyss]

A shrill, grinding voice echoed in his ears.

Meanwhile, the scene around Rylan began to ripple. The surroundings flickered incessantly and sometimes froze, much like a low-quality web game riddled with glitches. After blinking a few times to clear his vision, Rylan finally stood up.

He had already left the village and entered a completely unfamiliar region. The sky was a dark crimson, and something resembling black snowflakes kept drifting down from above.

Beneath his feet stretched a scarlet expanse of uneven ground, dotted with numerous red pillars. They looked so worn by tens of millions of years of erosion and weathering that their surfaces were scarred and pitted.

All around, there was no suggestion of life—only silence and death filled the landscape. It was nothing but a desolate wasteland.

[Warning!]

[You have stepped into the Death's Abyss!]

[You have been infected with the Soul Plague!]

A cold mechanical voice rang out. The next moment, Rylan noticed a Debuff icon appear in his status.

"Soul Plague!" he muttered with a frown.

In his previous life, the plague that consumed Earth was not caused by a single disease, but by multiple plagues combining into one.

Among them, the strongest and most terrifying was the Soul Plague, a horror exuded by fiend lord–level creatures. Once infected, it ravaged not the body, but targeted the very soul.

In his past life, any human unfortunate enough to contract this plague—regardless of their power—could only meet one end: death.

It afflicted creatures on the soul level, forcing them into unending agony every moment of their existence. No method could cure it. The infected either relied on sheer willpower to fight it or opted to end their own lives.

Yet now, despite having contracted the "Soul Plague," Rylan didn't feel any obvious discomfort. The reason was that he was still just a player—and most importantly, he had logged in using a helmet.

This was precisely why he had insisted on purchasing that device earlier.

Among all the login gear for Myth, the VR helmet was the only one that didn't link directly to a person's senses or merge with their soul.

In other words, no matter what happened in the game, the real Rylan wouldn't feel a thing.

Otherwise, even if only 0.01% of the sensation seeped through, Rylan's current condition couldn't endure the plague's devastating effects. He would have succumbed to emotional collapse on the spot.

…

"There's Soul Plague here! Could it be…?"

He looked at the rotten, silent terrain around him, a jolt of shock flashing through his eyes.

Rumble…!

Just then, the ground not far from Rylan began to tremble violently. He quickly steadied himself.

"Who's there?!"

A booming voice echoed across the land and reverberated throughout the Death's Abyss. At the same time, a nearby mountain began to tremble slowly.

Rylan turned to look—and realized in astonishment that it wasn't a mountain at all, but a fiend. Under the Eye of Insight, an entire range revealed itself to be connected into one massive fiendish being.

The voice just now had come from that creature's mouth, and its colossal size was entirely beyond Rylan's imagination. Even in his previous life, he had never seen a fiend of such staggering proportions.

…

[Ancient Archfiend]

Name: Baal

Talent: ???

Level: ???

HP: ???

Attack: ???

Defense: ???

Magic: ???

Status: Soul Imprisonment, Soul Torment, Unable to Move, Unable to Attack

Note: Under Soul Imprisonment, Baal's HP has been reduced to 0.01%.

…

"An Ancient Archfiend! I never expected Baal to be sealed here!"

Rylan's fists clenched as he read the information relayed by his Eye of Insight.

Ancient Archfiend—Baal

In his previous life, this name was absolute taboo. He was also known as "the Plague Cataclysm." The immense plague that once swept across Earth was largely his doing; to many people, Baal was the embodiment of death.

Rylan still recalled a few crucial details from his past life—how a fiend-worshiping cult broke the Abyss barrier and freed Baal. And though humanity's elite future-class warriors rushed to kill this weakened archfiend, Baal's power surpassed everyone's wildest expectations.

Even at only 0.01% HP, his health was still an astronomical ten million points, and his other stats remained sky-high.

Moreover, his talent was unimaginably potent: one touch from him could poison even a level 100+ Saint in an instant.

Rylan hadn't joined that battle, but he heard about its brutality. Afterwards, humanity utterly lost the capacity to resist. With Baal unleashed on Earth, society collapsed into chaos. While nobody actually saw him again once the plague followed, everyone lived in constant terror of his name.

Rylan had assumed that if anything, this place contained Baal's minions or perhaps a mere avatar—but here was Baal's true body, truly sealed in this spot!

Staring at Baal, countless memories careened through Rylan's mind. A moment later, he grasped his Sanctuary Blade tightly.

"Kill him! Now's the only chance to end him for good!"

This savage idea formed in his mind—and once it appeared, it wouldn't leave. It spiraled endlessly in Rylan's thoughts.

"If I kill him, the Great Plague will never rise! Earth won't fall to an early invasion! Humanity can claim greater victories in Myth!"

A glint of ruthless determination surfaced in Rylan's eyes. He strode, step by step, toward the Ancient Archfiend.

…

"A human? So it is a human!"

Just then, Baal's deep voice resounded in Rylan's ears.

"How curious. Human, who are you? I can sense you're very weak, yet you're not succumbing to the toxic miasma."

"Human, do you even know who I am? I am the mightiest fiend of ancient eras. If you help me break this seal, I promise to make you one of my chosen. I will name you commander of the Burning Legion and grant you immense power and glory. Human, I—"

Baal's resonant speech cut off the instant a slicing beam of light from the Sanctuary Blade came at him. Along with Rylan's furious shout:

"Shut the fuck up and die!"