To The Afterlife?

In a vast domain full of hovering islands within an endless sky, there were two figures on top of a cliff where one was standing with his hands folded while the other was sitting on the edge of the cliff, the standing person being me and the sitting person being Master.

My eyes glared at him without a twitch. On the other hand, he kept pretending normally. I conversed, ""MASTER, I'M SURE YOU TOLD ME THERE ISN'T MUCH TIME DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THIS ENTIRETY OF EXISTENCE AND MY HOMELAND. CARE TO EXPLAIN WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT?!""

In awkwardness, he spoke, "Well…, the thing is…!"

I shouted, ""STOP PAUSING, WOULD YOU?!!""

He flinched. After letting out a deep sigh, he revealed, "The two million years of time difference occurred only in your infinite void. So, don't sweat it. However, if you want to know why time drifted more than it was supposed to…, then I would say it's your fault for practicing even during your vacation!!"

I asked, ""A BIT DETAILED, PLEASE!!""

He continued, "Well, when I sensed your presence, it felt like your soul had changed so much. Meaning, you reconstructed the infrastructure of your soul dimension. However, that must have also affected your terrain in the absolute abyss, henceforth making starry days and cloudy nights. Not to mention the flow of time expanding!!"

I flexed my arms to examine my body. He then emphasized, "Just how much did you practice for things to change that much?!"

"...!", hesitation haunted me at that moment. Master continued staring me in the eyes. I exclaimed, "So, here's the thing. Whenever I felt like it, I entered my soul dimension and took the chance to improve all my traits!"

He responded, "There you have it. You brought this to yourself!"

I replied, "... Master, take a look at this!"

He didn't get it, "???"

Thus, I enchanted, ""THIRD SOVEREIGNTY: FLAWLESS BLACK SUN!!""

---fwoosh---

My body transformed. My clothes began to emit a yellow shade of light with black smoke while my skin remained normal. Master attempted, "Okay, what's there to see-!", but halted his sentencing after noticing tiny green sparkles emerging out of the darkened yellow flames. His eyes and mouth gaped in shock.

"You… hit the bottom!", he commented. I questioned, "Huh, bottom?!"

He interpreted, "Yes, unlike the power of light where the upper threshold keeps expanding as it gets manifested, the power of dark doesn't expand due to its unreachable bottom!!"

I spoke, "And I hit that unreachable bottom?!"

He corrected me, "No, even I myself never succeeded in reaching it. What I meant was you hit the bottom of the third stage, henceforth digging your way to another stage!!"

I responded, "Now that you put it like that, I'm curious about something!", and he said, "Go on!"

"When I was in zooviya, I didn't feel much since it was my first time entering the sub-realms of the absolute abyss. But when I descended upon the quashi-zodium realm, I felt my weight decrease.

Even the intensity of the atmosphere, gravity and weather. If I were to compare those factors with zooviya, I would say they're too weak!", I interpreted.

Master got up and waved his left hand. I walked to him. With his right index finger pointing downward, I looked below. He asked, "Imagine yourself as an ordinary human. If I were to tell you to climb down this cliff by jumping, would you be able to do that?!"

I answered, "No, if I were to do that, I'd be crippled for the rest of my life!"

He countered, "Exactly, the deeper the ground, the greater the impact. You entered a darkened yellow realm and a darkened orange realm through my authority. But if I were to be frank, souls which end up in the absolute abyss always fall upon the lowest realm with beings of darkened crimson flames stage. If they want to ascend, then they should achieve ascension by themselves.

After ascending, they'd go to a below sub-realm comprising darkened orange flames stage entities. Below that sub-realm would be the darkened yellow flames realm followed by green, blue, indigo and violet. The deeper you go, the greater the intensity!!"

I mumbled, "That was lengthy. But still thanks to you, I gained another insight!"

"You're always welcome to!", he commented. I exclaimed, "Well then, since we're done with that, "WHY DON'T WE GET DOWN TO BUSINESS?!""

With a smile, he said, "Yeah, we'll get down to it. But first, undo your sovereignty. My infinitos are quivering because of you!!"

"... Okay!", I said and cancelled my sovereignty.

---flick---

I was back to normal. He started walking down the cliff and I followed him.

"I don't know how to say this. But this time, I'm not one to assign tasks!", he stated. I got confused, "Huh, what does that mean?!"

"Well…, all I can say is that you will be going to the afterlife for your upcoming mission!", he announced. It made me spellbound. In a daze, I remained in the same spot. Master then turned around, "Stop spacing out and follow me!!"

"Hmph!", I snapped out of the shocker.

[Bring yourself together, Dray.]

…

We walked to his castle hall. I said, "Master, I'll take my leave!!"

He commanded, "Okay, prepare yourself. You'll be departing to the afterlife in a day!"

I requested, "Can't you at least give me a hint?!"

He exclaimed, "All the details will be given after you enter the afterlife, goodbye!"

"Wait!!!", I shouted.

---snap---

But he snapped his fingers which made me vanish.

…

{In the infinite void}

Inside my chamber, where there was a pool in the middle, Kendor was chilling out on a floating leaf as usual. That's when the unexpected happened.

---flick---splash---

I spawned out of nowhere and fell on her. Her relief was destroyed by my surprise attack. In dumbfoundedness, she gigantified herself and tried to take me out of the water. I ordered, "I'm fine, Kendor. Just let me be. The water seems to be cooling down my hot head!"

She jolted, "You can talk inside water!!"

I asked, "What's with your reaction?!"

The celestial bird said, "I was just shocked 'cause my first owner, Master Zord never had the ability to breathe underwater. I mean no human could breathe in water!!"

"Sigh, whatever. For now, let's just act dead!", I said and closed my eyes. Kendor dwarfed herself and hopped into my hoodie cap. Just like that, we kept rolling around the pool.

…

Quite some time had passed. I was sitting in the meeting room where I and the quashi-zodiuns previously had a private meeting. My gaze was glued to the ceiling in a daze with an open mouth. Kendor kept staring at me while standing on the table, wondering, 'What happened to him?!'

I told her, "Kendor, you do know I can hear the thoughts of others, right? "YET, WHY DO YOU KEEP MUMBLING?!""

"Gasp, I'm sorry, your highness!!!!", she cried out amid planting her face flat on the table. I sighed and continued staring upwards with the same opened mouth. Time seemed to pass bit by bit.

---click---

Suddenly, the elevator door in the front clicked open. I and Kendor turned around. It was Macaurina inside the elevator. Behind her were Andro, Gremoria, Azmou, Ashrath and Bayliel alongside their disciples Augustia, Lauria, Jouel and Gravia. However, there were two figures, one male demon and one female elf with an average appearance. I asked, "Who are those two infinitos?!"

Kendor introduced, "Oh, they're one of our recruits chosen by some 'Dowel' couples? Anyway, they reached the god-level martial prowess after you left. Thus, Prat went in and brought back these two youngsters!!"

"Why do I feel like I've seen them?!", I mumbled. Little celestial birdy emphasized, "Now that you mention it, they did tell me that they were the first zooviyan you've met!"

"!!!!", my head rang a bell, henceforth making me attempt, "Arun and Sweley?!"

"????", both the youngsters flinched at my call. I smiled, "So it is you, eh? Long time no see, kiddos!"

They responded to my words by stepping forward and bending forward. Kendor exclaimed, "What are you doing? Get in!"

The remaining people who were standing exited the elevator, thereby entering the room. Gremoria hit Sweley and Arun on the head, saying, "That's not the way to greet your lord!"

By kneeling on her left knee, placing her right elbow on the standing right knee and bending forward, she exclaimed, "Figurine Gremoria greets her one and only king, Lord Adrona!!"

Followed by her, Andro also bowed in the same way, "Figurine Andro greets his one and only highness, Lord Adrona!!"

I interrupted, "Stop right there. I know that you're paying your respects to me. But try coming up with a better method. The term 'one and only' is getting on my nerves!"

In anxiety, Gremoria and Andro made a firm nod and got up. I questioned, "Macaurina, ever since my arrival, you keep addressing yourselves as figurines. Care to explain to me what that is?!"

Macaurina answered, "After the count of our strength reached a hundred thousand, Elder Prat came up with a new hierarchy called 'figurines', indicating people solely chosen by you like ourselves. We came to you requesting approval for these two newbies to be promoted as one of us!!", while pointing her hand towards Arun and Sweley.

I took a glance at them from top to bottom. Macaurina gulped her saliva. I asked, "Huh, I almost forgot. Now that our people count has expanded excessively, I can't simply accept them. Surely you must have developed some hierarchies accommodating such procedures!"

Gremoria stepped forward, "Your hunch is on point, my lord. For every member under your command, we introduced a hierarchy called 'Record of Soul Realm'!!"

[Record of Soul Realm?]