Chapter 15

"Re-establish The Underworld?" Vanessa asked while being shocked. The entire concept was foreign to her. Heaven and The Underworld were only myths in their world after all.

"You will understand in due time, so don't rush. Herald, alert The Twilight Guardians. Our enemies will certainly try to interfere in our actions. Stop them."

"Yes, Your Excellency." The Herald bowed slightly. He turned to a seemingly empty space and started talking, "Alert the captains of an incoming invasion. Mobilize all our defenses and keep an eye out on The Universal Barrier." The shadows squirmed slightly on the ground before rising up and creating a figure made of shadows, "Yes sir! Shall I inform my shadows to counter-attack those who dare attack us from the inside?"

The Heart of Darkness replied instead, "No, it is too soon to provoke them. Maintain a low profile."

"As you wish, Your Excellency." And with a puff of smoke the shadowy figure disappeared.

'United and efficient. Not a word of complaint was spoken, and they didn't get offended at his opinion. Looks like I will grow very attached to here.' Nathan really liked what he saw so far and was mind blown by their way of conduct, and he was looking forward to seeing more.

"Herald, I do not wish to be disturbed during the process. See to it." And with that, The Heart of Darkness turned to the chosen, "come with me, you too, have a role to fulfill."

They moved over to the center of the spherical room, with The Herald maintaining his distance from them.

"Put your hand on my crystal body Nathan, the rest of you, keep in physical touch with him at all time, no matter what."

Lucy instantly jumped and hugged Nathan's arm in between her bosom. Vanessa and Damon put their hand on his back quietly, while Primrose stood there, seemingly lost.

Seeing his shy new Sister standing there awkwardly, Nathan smiled gently, and extended a hand toward her. Seeing his actions, her smile bloomed like a flower, and she dashed forward to accept his offer.

After everyone settled, Nathan extended his hand and put it on the amethyst-looking crystal. It was cold to the touch, and he could feel a mist-like substance moving underneath his palm.

"Now, let us start." The Heart of Darkness shone with a blinding dark purple light, and in just a blink of an eye, all the cracks that covered it from top to bottom, magically healed.

[Lethal energy fluctuation detected!]

[Receiving request to establish a connection.]

[Request accepted! Proceeding…]

[Attempting to establish a connection with (The Core of The Underworld)…]

Nathan could see many mythical-looking items appear in front of them, before they merged together in the center of the room.

He could see a large piece of rock that phased in and out of reality, a seemingly bottomless bowl that was filled with a liquid made out of ghost faces, and a ball of light that shone with a rainbow color, among many more…

As more time passed, more items merged together in the middle of the room and created a blob of materials, and slowly, the blob started spinning.

Many hours passed, and The Heart of Darkness had stopped feeding the blob with more items long ago. Now, the blob was only absorbing Energy.

*Boom*

Suddenly, the entire room started shacking uncontrollably. Causing Nathan and the other to almost fall down.

Primrose looked around, not showing much fear, rather curiosity, "What is happening?"

The Herald was still calm, so they didn't start to panic yet. He waved his hand and a barrier appeared around them, while he simply said, "They have come."

*BOOM*

The room shook even more violently, and the door had a massive dent on it now.

*BOOOOOOOOOM*

*Crash*

The door was sent flying into the opposite wall, allowing them to see the perpetrator. There stood a man of over 7 meters of height. He was bald and he looked like he did body building for a living. He only wore pants that covered his legs till his knees but thats where his 'similarities' to a Human ended.

His skin was ash gray and his body was littered with disgusting black veins that pulsated ever so slightly. Nathan looked behind him, and saw The Twilight Guardians were in a heated confrontation, the enemy outnumbering them by 10 to 1 easily and more were coming, but surprisingly, it was the enemy that was getting pushed into a corner.

Nathan saw that a knight get stabbed in his torso with a spear, but he didn't even flinch. He raised his sword and cut the owner of the spear in two, like he was tofu, before he grabbed the spear and threw it at another invader, his armor was not even scratched!

"The Fallen… those who gave in to the temptations of The Void, seeking to destroy the place they once called 'home'… and who are you?" The Herald was obviously giving them an explanation of who they were facing.

"I am called The Devourer of Stars. I have eaten thousands of Stars in my lifetime, and was granted this name by my Lord, who shall devour all!" His voice was so husky, it sounded as if it came directly out of the abyss itself, yet the pride in it was unconcealed, bare for all to see.

"Thousands of Stars!?" Even the normally cool headed Vanessa couldn't believe her ears. How powerful one must get so that they can devour an entire Star!? Let alone thousands!

The Devourer of Stars didn't pay them any attention, or maybe he couldn't see them at all because of the barrier. Nathan couldn't be sure.

"Hmm… you must be pretty powerful if they chose you to come here. Good. It should be sufficient to teach the young ones of what they face." The Herald was not taking him seriously at all, which angered him to no end.

He raised his hand and flames started to dance around his palm, and created a miniature Dark Star, double the size of a normal person's head. The move itself seemed mediocre, but the new chosen were absolutely stricken with terror feeling the tidbits of aura that The Herald allowed to pass through the barrier around them.

[Astral Level threat detected!]

The Devourer hurled the miniature star at The Herald, yet he didn't do anything. The ball of fire reached him, and sank into the darkness of his robes. After that it was silence…

The Devourer was absolutely stunned at loosing connection with his Energy, "IMPOSSIBLE! THERE SHOULD NOT BE ANYONE CAPABLE OF FACING ME HERE!"

He completely lost his mind, "YOUR PUNY PATH WAS DESTROYED BY US THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO!"

"Look at him, young ones. Sometimes, the contamination of The Void brings upon severe consequences. He, in this case, cannot control his emotions." The Herald was completely laid back and uncaring, as he created three spears of Dark energy and threw them at the so called 'Devourer of Stars'.

[Spear of Darkness]

The spears reached The Devourer almost instantly, and impaled him to the wall,

*BOOM*

The room shook once again, causing cracks to form on the Aether glass, showing the ridiculous amount of power that was packed in that simple move. Yet, the spears sank into his body and disappeared. His body glowed slightly with an eerie light. Which seemed to strengthen him.

"HAHAHAHAHA! You cannot harm me! The Great Void is destined to devour all! Your puny spears are nothing in front of its Majesty!" The Devourer looked really smug at finding the 'weakness' of The Herald.

"As you can see, normal methods are meaningless against them, and it would only feed them to become stronger. You must find different ways to kill them. Now then, class time is over…"

The Herald finally revealed his hand for the first time. A skeletal bony hand that was pitch black…

[Hand of Darkness]

A giant hand made of Dark Energy materialized and caught The Devourer firmly in its grasp. From the hand, purple lines spread across The Devourer's body causing him extreme agony,

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGGGGGG"

Dark energy corrupted his body bit by bit until he was completely covered by it.

"Silence, insect!" As if the word of a god, The Devourer's voice was cut off. The Herald bent his fingers lightly, and the hand around The Devourer tightened until suddenly,

*Poof*

He exploded into a shower of dust. He, whose power could extinguish Stars, was wiped from existence.

"Play time is over. Guardians! Clean up this mess."

The moment he finished speaking, Dark Energy exploded from The Guardians and within mere seconds, all of the invaders became nothing but torn pieces of cold flesh across the walkway. Nathan even saw one knight tear off an invaders head with his bare hands, yet strangely he felt nothing. No fear or disgust that he expected came, which puzzled him.

Before he could think too deeply about it, a notification popped up in front of him, causing him to be relieved.

[(The Core of The Underworld) has stabilized.]

[Connection has been successfully established.]

[For more details please check your status menu.]

The blob in front of them stopped spinning as The Herald removed his barrier. The Core was a dark sphere with red patterns that covered it partially, as they shimmered slightly. It hovered in the middle of the room, spinning slowly.

The Heart of Darkness also stopped shining, and when Nathan looked at her, he could see the cracks were back and there was more of them this time.

Noticing his worry she chuckled, "Don't worry. With the core being restored, the more you strengthen it, the more I will recover. This is the price that we had to pay to achieve our goals."

"I never thought I would get to witness the rise of our path, but with this, it may just be possible…" The Herald sounded emotional, even though his tone of voice never changed.

"Indeed. Now then, young chosen, prepare yourself. You are about to start your journey in a new world…"