Circle of Inevitability

767 Underworld

With Lumian vanishing before the crystal skull, the human skulls, already covered in countless cracks, lost their support.

They shattered with a thunderous crash, bringing down the shadows from above and splitting the grassy wilderness into fragments.

Oxyto's Paramita crumbled toward the cracked crystal skull, and everything there silently turned to dust.

The spirits dissipated, the light vanished, and the void of darkness swallowed everything.

No one knew how much time had passed before a gentle light began to glow in the absolute blackness, revealing a barren, dim, pale, and almost frozen wilderness.

In the center of the wasteland lay the tranquil and sacred Lake Dalsh.

The headless lady, draped in a dark-black dress and carrying four heads, swiftly appeared beside the lake, quietly gazing at its serene, transparent surface.

...

As soon as Lumian was pulled through the bronze door, he felt countless eyes upon him, chilling his body further and numbing him.

Meanwhile, arms of unknown origin reached out, grabbing at his head, neck, torso, and legs.

Some had dull skin with white, bony teeth; others were so decayed that their flesh was falling off, slowly wriggling with equally decayed worms; some lacked skin altogether; others were merely illusory Spirit Bodies...

What they all shared was a bone-chilling cold that could freeze the soul.

On Lumian's face, the golden mask painted with black and white oil sparkled with a faint yet pure light. The reaching arms halted momentarily before retracting.

The eyes watching him from the darkness also withdrew their gaze.

Lumian regained his thoughts and his sense of his body.

Below him, he discovered a deep pit with no visible bottom or boundaries.

The edge of the pit was made up of layers of blurry worlds, spiraling downward to the limits of his vision.

These jumbled worlds layered atop each other, and Lumian couldn't make out what lay within them, only knowing that each was vaster than the Star Highlands, with all previous watching eyes stemming from the pit's bottomless dark.

Lumian plummeted suddenly, falling into one of these blurry worlds in the blink of an eye.

Miraculously, he stood on a barren wilderness exposed with gray-white rocks, surrounded by heaps of bleached bones, densely packed and stretching toward various distant places.

At this moment, these bones lay still, as if slumbering through time.

Is this the Underworld? I wonder where the Abscessed Hand's body part might be. Lumian looked around, muttering to himself in silence.

(Amonoculus' note: It is the contracted creature that gave him the traverse the Spirit World. Lumian must find its body parts or else he cannot achieve godhood. According to Fors, one of the body parts is located in the Underworld.)

It was the chance to enter the Underworld that had prompted him to help voluntarily, using the Eggers family's golden mask and the Underworld Daoist's seal to push open the bronze door inside the crystal skull.

Now, the problem was that the Underworld was much more vast than he had anticipated, and he had no idea where to start looking.

Similarly, the whereabouts and intentions of the decaying infant that Oxyto had sent were unknown.

Perhaps I could rely on the contract I had signed with the Abscessed Hand. Essentially being part of the same body, they are mystically connected. The contract I had signed is, to some extent, also with the rest of its body... Lumian quickly formulated a plan and spoke in a cold, hoarse voice, "Knight of Swords, have all of you entered as well?"

"Yes," came the faint voice of the Knight of Swords, Maric.

Pausing momentarily, he added, "A companion of mine has also entered."

Lumian nodded. "Why aren't both of you coming out? You are now in a wraith state, so there's no need to worry about dying instantly in the Underworld."

You're essentially undead beings now; what's there to fear about the Underworld's unique conditions?

The Knight of Swords responded, "But we are fundamentally still living beings. If we stay in the Underworld as wraiths for too long, we won't be able to revert to human form and will forever exist as wraiths or evil spirits. By using your body, we can temporarily avoid the influence of the Underworld, emerging only when it's crucial."

"I see..." Lumian looked up at the pale, dim sky, "I also can't wear this Eggers family's mask for too long. We have about three hours."

As he spoke, Lumian tried to activate without using the black mark on his right shoulder, which was the Abscessed Hand's Spirit World Traversal ability.

With this mark, he faintly sensed something at the end of the wilderness on his right calling to him.

Is that the body part of the Abscessed Hand in the Underworld? Just as Lumian had this thought, a figure appeared ahead.

It was an extremely delicate-looking young woman with an unnaturally pale complexion. Her deep blue eyes were profound and devoid of any emotional fluctuation; her light golden hair was tied in astern bun adorned with a small black bonnet with a fine black veil, and she wore a complicated, exquisite black Gothic court dress.

Is this the temperance faction demigod that was attached to me earlier? Lumian recalled the two blurry figures he saw through the crystalline ice.

One of them matched the lady before him perfectly!

The temperance faction's demigod floated in mid-air, slowly turned around, and then pointed in a direction, nodding at Lumian.

She was pointing toward the end of the wilderness on the right.

"Do you mean that Oxyto's prematurely born, decayed child might be over there?" Lumian asked for confirmation.

The lady in the black bonnet nodded gently in affirmation.

She then vanished into thin air, and Lumian felt another chill inside him.

It's all in that direction, huh... A coincidence? No, not a coincidence, it's more likely that something in that direction is drawing them there... Lumian turned his body, ready to teleport to the edge of his vision.

As soon as Lumian started to become transparent, his body was suddenly grabbed by pale hands that appeared out of nowhere, seizing his arms.

Lumian felt a paralyzing sensation throughout his body, as if his soul was being torn apart by an invisible force.

This time, the faint glow from the golden mask had no effect.

Lumian attempted to ignite a blazing white flame to ward off the cold, stiffness, and numbness, but he was overwhelmed by an invisible terror, trembling uncontrollably, unable to respond effectively.

When he regained his clarity and composure, he found himself still standing in the same spot, but surrounding layers of bleached bones had all risen up, encircling him as if to protect him.

At the same time, Lumian heard the voice of the Knight of Swords, Maric: "Once you put on the Eggers family's mask and become a pure undead being, you will also possess all the traits of an undead, one of which is being suppressed by higher beings of the Death pathway, making it difficult to resist and your body and mind willing to accept enslavement.

"In contrast, we wraiths, who aren't pure and can switch states freely, are less affected."

Was this why I couldn't resist just now? I wonder if the Sword of Courage can counteract this effect. It theoretically should... Lumian realized with a start. "Did both of you save me just now?"

The Knight of Swords didn't continue on this topic but instead reminded Lumian, "It seems that in the Underworld, you can teleport but not teleport freely, as that is considered a desecration of Death and attracts the punishment of the Underworld" According to the mystic knowledge mentioned by Madam Magician, teleporting should be normal in the Underworld since it stems from the spirit world, but considering it as desecration of Death seems a bit too strict, typical of the oppression by higher-ranking beings of the Death pathway... Lumian pondered for a few seconds, slightly bending his back.

A blazing white, radiant spear of flame immediately shot forth, illuminating the pale, dim half-sky, casting towards the far reaches of the wilderness.

As the white and red trail of the flame spear disappeared inch by inch, Lumian, transformed into the spear, hurled himself forward at the fastest speed he could achieve.

During this process, he noticed the wilderness sloped downwards, and the destination he, the Knight of Swords, and the temperance faction demigod aimed for was at the bottom of this 'hillside'.

After a while, the blazing white light scattered in all directions, and Lumian, now clad in a thick jacket, descended toward the ground.

Ahead of him lay a wide, surreal black river, so vast he couldn't see the other side.

The river flowed silently from the edge of the sky to its limits, exceptionally quiet.

"Is this the River Styx?" Lumian inquired of the temperance faction demigod within him.

Responding to Lumian was still the Knight of Swords, Maric: "It should be. It spans every layer of the Underworld. Crossing it is like entering the depths of the Underworld. If you hadn't stopped earlier and ended up flying above it, you would have fallen straight into the river, and no one would have been able to pull you out."

Good thing the issue with teleporting just now gave me a warning: it's best to pause in uncertain environments... Lumian glanced left and right, noticing the wilderness was dotted with withered blood flowers, each concealing a multitude of corpses, bones, and shadows.

"How do I cross?" Lumian sensed that the missing part of the Abscessed Hand's body was on the other side of the River Styx.

No sooner had he asked, and before the Knight of Swords could respond, a dilapidated, gloomy black boat suddenly appeared on the shadowy river.

A figure draped in fragments stood on the boat, rowing with a long oar, guiding the vessel to Lumian's side before stopping at the river's edge.

Peering closely, Lumian saw that the ferryman was a severely decayed male corpse. Large portions of his body were exposed, and his eyes appeared gouged out, leaving hollow sockets entwined with thick blood vessels oozing yellow pus.

"Take this boat across?" Lumian asked, lowering his voice to consult the temperance faction member inside him.

Knight of Swords Maric replied in an ethereal but slightly grave tone, "It's the only way... But be careful of the boatman. The Underworld has mutated, and it could be affected too."

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