2 The Devil's Descent

An unique soul surfaced into a certain world from the crack in dimensions. It was a pitch-black wisp with a lime-green crown above it and a strange illusory core in the center. An unnaturally beautiful soul one may say—if they saw it.

There were a hundred different-colored strands extending from the illusory core in all directions throughout the soul's body. The scenery within this strange soul was quite something to behold. It wasn't unusual that souls come in different colors and shapes, but this one was far too weird to be considered a normal soul.

First of all, every soul that drifts through the vast worlds has its own color - red, green, yellow, purple...

Any color can be found—any except the black color. There was no law forbidding souls from being in the color of black, because every soul at the start of its journey is pitch-black and gets painted bit by bit as it grows.

That's why meeting a black soul—a stable black soul even, was impossible until this one. What kind of a being was this soul of? To be able to remain purely black, like at the time of its birth, yet to contain this strange core that seemingly doesn't exist within reality and even a hundred strands extending from it.

Furthermore, what's up with that lime-green crown above it? No souls come with a crown, nor develop one!

Why?

Because crown symbolizes something majestic, godly, divine!

Then... this soul must be a divine soul, right?

Sadly, there was nobody who could even see it, much less answer that question. As to what kind of soul that is, only fate can tell...

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In a strange, creepy place—there were nine hundred and ninety nine people, all wearing gloomy grey robes with red and silver patterns. There were humans of every kind and age among them, yet there was something strange about this setup.

Their eyes were red as tears of blood started dripping on the faces of everyone present. What was strange is that neither young children nor elderly let out a sound. They all stood in certain places in a massive circle with nine hundred and ninety nine positions, all of them interconnected.

All of them had a fanatic light in their eyes and didn't budge at all. Every now and then, someone would make a cut on their body, letting their blood seep out and into the carvings on the ground that all led to the center of the circle.

In the middle of this giant magical circle, only a single meter shy of being a kilometer wide in diameter, there was a strange egg. The egg's surface was black and its surface was decorated by myriads of different-colored patterns and markings.

"Aahhh!!!"

A child screamed, and then fell on the ground. Yet nobody turned their head to look at it. A poor child kept wailing in pain as it suffered but—as if it was chained by something—it could not leave its area in the massive circle.

One after another, many others followed in the child's footsteps, falling on the ground, wailing, crying. Despite so much suffering, nobody helped another—whether they couldn't or didn't want to. The massive underground room filled with screams and wails of horror as more and more people started falling on the ground, nearly exhausted and powerless to do anything other than scream.

To make things even stranger and more terrifying—the wounds they had initially opened started multiplying by themselves, as if someone cut them with invisible knife. One thin red line would branch out into multiple until almost all the skin was massacred by these invisible knives.

Yet, despite all the blood leaving their bodies and this much pain and suffering, nobody died. That was definitely the strangest part of this all—how could everyone survive such a thing?

Naturally, there was a reason for everything, and the same goes for this case. It was, however, only later that this reason will become clear.

At the very edge of the massive magic circle, there was a weird channel made of ten smaller channels, each of them wide a few millimeters.

Where this channel led to was unknown, but ten strange streams of liquid slowly passed through it, each of the streams carrying a liquid of different color. Ten different streams, ten different colors, all of them waiting to enter the channels of the magic circle filled with blood. The only obstacle in their way was the blood that was already inside—the blood and this liquid didn't mix so it couldn't enter yet.

With everone left devoid of all the blood in their bodies and collapsed on the ground, the blood they lost slowly entered the black egg in the center of the magic circle. This strange egg could absorb their blood.

After a long time had passed, the wails from before had turned into gasps and strange noises. By then, all the blood was finally absorbed by the egg. Ten streams of liquid slowly entered the crevices on the ground and slid toward one of the collapsed people.

It was an old man, full of white hair and cracked skin. His eyes were the only exception to everyone else in this room—his eyes were entirely black. As if pupils had grown and devoured the entirety of his eyes.

Whether he could see with these or not, only he knew. But what was certain is—those eyes were no normal eyes. Ten streams of liquids slid in the circle below him and shiny particles started coming out from his circle, revitalizing his dried-up body and entering his body through the cracks in his skin.

After some time had passed, the old man stood up and started manically laughing. The ten liquids were gone, taking the place of missing blood in his body. The old man's hair started rapidly changing and formed ten different segments, each having its own color that matched the previous streams of liquid.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! FINALLY! ELEMENTAL BLOODLINE WILL FINALLY BE MINE! HAHAHAHAHAHA", he shouted manically, unable to contain the excitement he felt.

He stood up and frantically ran up to the black egg, only to get scared stiff one meter away from it. His eyes glowed and he hurriedly shot back all the way out of the magic circle on the ground, landing at the position where ten channels connected to the circle's channels.

"Close. Close! It was close! I almost became a sacrifice for that thing! I need another soul. I forgot to prepare another... No. I have one. She will not be useful anymore, might as well..."

The old man quickly ran out, following the direction of the ten-stream channel and after a while carried an unconscious little girl back. Her eyes were closed and her unnaturally long black hair hung down from the old man's shoulder.

The old man seemed ecstatic as he almost tripped several times while hurrying toward the center of the circle.

"E-ele-el-ele... elements! Elemental bloodline! Is m-mmm-mine. It has to be! I must. I must! She will replace me. I must take it. She will be the sacrifice in my stead. I can't wait anymore, it has to be like this!"

He murmured along as he ran up to the place where he previously stood in the circle and placed the girl there.

Grabbing a weird staff from the side, he came in front of the black egg and raised the staff from the ground, gathering tons of energy to finish the ritual.

"It begins! The sacrifice begins! HAHAHAHA! EVERYONE REJOICE! YOU WILL BE THE OFFERING FOR THE NEW KING! REJOICE, FOR I WILL BE REBORN!!!"

Just as he was about to slam the staff on the ground, a strange scene happened—the space cracked and a small black wisp came out of it. As soon as the wisp appeared, everything froze until it quickly shot inside the black egg. Only then did everything return to normal.

In the old man's eyes, that was a scene of despair. He was so close to obtaining a new body, being able to live another life, to have better fate and even a new bloodline after that! Yet all of that collapsed, by the interference of heavens—by that tiny wisp. By the drifting soul whom heavens sent!