Darkness

Darkness...

Darkness that pervaded this forsaken land

No sun dared to cast its brilliance, no stars shined in the sky, and even the moon withdrew its gentle glow.

This place looked like an abyss that was stretching endlessly into infinity—absolute darkness.

Suddenly, a crack appeared in space.

The crack grew larger and larger, then space was torn in half by two hands.

A humanoid figure came out of the crack. It looked like a mature-looking man emerged from that crack in space. He had a light skin tone and golden eyes that seemed to see through everything. He had white hair, and his body wasn't big but was well-built. He was wearing a red robe that had golden dragon patterns on it.

He had a sly smile on his face, and arrogance could be seen in his eyes.

He was flying in this infinite abyss, looking beneath him. He said, "I can see you come out, little kitten."

Nothing was there, or at least so it seemed. Suddenly, a pair of glowing gemstone green eyes opened at the place that the man was looking at.

One couldn't see the full body of the creature that opened its eyes due to blending in with the blackness in the surroundings with its dark body color, but it was incredibly huge.

The creature then said, "Arrogant lizard, you only have petty tricks. You think you could've wounded me if it weren't for that poison? To think that your so-called prideful race would stoop so low. Hehe, but I guess that's to be expected from a bunch of lizards who could only hide in the corners of the universe during the four elemental era."

The man with the red robe revealed disdain at the creature below. He then spoke, "Times have changed. We who were hiding are now the ones standing at the top. Now, look who's hiding—you, the being that ended the four elemental era, the first chaos of this universe. You're now nothing more than a little kitten hiding in this cursed place from me."

"We've chatted long enough. Let us continue. We've already been on this hide-and-seek game for more than 3000 years. It's time to end this."

The pair of glowing eyes moved upwards to the same height as the red-robed man and said with a calm tone, "You're right."

It then opened its mouth, or to be more precise, it was a maw. A purple sphere was being formed with some kind of magical energy in front of the maw.

Suddenly, the creature shot out that sphere of magical power at the red-robed man.

The man then quickly retreated with speed that can't be traced with the naked eye. He then shouted, "Yes, yes, this is it! I was disappointed earlier and thought you only knew how to hide. Come at me! You are truly a worthy opponent."

After speaking, golden light covered the man's entire body. The human body of the man suddenly turned into a massive figure. It was huge with shiny scales of the color gold and red. It had white hair, a pair of horns, majestic huge wings, and a tail.

It was a dragon.

All this happened in less than a second.

The sphere that had been shot by the creature turned into countless smaller spheres shining in the darkness, which looked like stars shining in the dark night falling down on the dragon.

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At the same time, in another place in the abyss,

There was a tiny glimmer of light that was shining faintly in this black abyss.

Upon closer inspection, it could be seen that this tiny glimmer of light was coming from a place, a structure that looked like a floating island in this completely black place. It was only a mere speck, but in truth, it was incredibly massive.

It was so huge it could be compared to multiple galaxies.

On the surface of this structure, there were multiple black-colored pyramid-like buildings. But what was most notable about that place is that there were multiple pillar-like towers on the edges of this structure, circling around it.

There were some creatures that existed there with all forms and shapes; some were human-like, some were monstrous and bizarre, some had no certain form and shape, changing chaotically.

All these creatures were... alive?

The tiny glimmer of light came from lanterns that had emerald green flames inside them, which seemed to have a special ability to light up the area.

In the middle of the structure, there seemed to be what looked like dots of spilled milk.

These dots were souls. These souls were in a line that stretched to what seemed to be infinity.

These souls included humans, young and old, rich and poor, big and small. Some used to be monarchs ruling over empires, while others were beggars that couldn't even afford a decent meal.

All standing in the same line, all equal in the thing that terrifies all beings the most...

Death.

This was the underworld.

At the beginning of the line that was formed by the souls, there was a middle-aged man's soul waiting in line.

The soul thought,'Finally, I am so close to the end of this damn line. I can't even remember how many years I've spent in this place.'

Suddenly, a commotion happened behind him. The soul looked back to see what was happening.

He could see a man wearing light armor with a muscular body. That man must've been a powerful warrior in his life.

That man moved out of the line formed by the souls. It was clear what he was trying to do; he had grown impatient.

The soul thought, 'Another one foolish enough to challenge the authorities of this place. Rest in peace, warrior. Oops, I forgot you're already a dead soul.'

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a fully black-armored dark knight appeared out of thin air. His armor covered him from head to toe, where only his completely black eyes were visible.

The black knight shouted, "Get back in line," while pointing a spear that had its tips ablaze with the same flame that lit up the lanterns.

These flames sent instinctive fear into all souls present, as if it was their natural enemy.

However, the man refused to move back into line and moved forward, looking into the eyes of the black knight.

Without uttering a word, the black knight slashed the man's soul in an instant.

Traces of the green flames could be seen on the slash. These flames instantly spread through the entire soul, melting it in the process.

Souls didn't have a physical body to make a sound, but if the man that was melting could make a voice, it'd be screams of agony due to the extreme torture of having your soul melt.

After the soul completely melted, all the surrounding souls withdrew their gazes and continued waiting for their judgment.

After a while, finally, it was the soul's turn for trial.

The soul had an excited yet terrified expression, excited that finally, it had arrived but terrified that this trial might go wrong.

In the middle of this inner turmoil, a voice echoed only into the soul's ears loudly.

"Marcus."

Marcus was the soul's name before it had died.

The soul suddenly teleported to a huge hall. In front of the soul, there was a man with three eyes and an extra eye in the middle of his forehead. His hair was jet black.

Sitting on a high platform, the man held a gavel in his hand.

After exactly two seconds, the man's voice echoed again.

"Hell."