Chapter 73: Forced Spirit Realm Experience! / Volume 4 Start!

"Your Highness, Idonea has arrived." Said Illumia as she opened the door to Elif's room and entered with Idonea following right behind her.

"Good; now we can finally go see what Mother and Father want me to do." Muttered Elif with his eyes closed while sitting on his bed as he had just been cultivating before Illumia and Idonea arrived.

Opening my eyes, I'm met with the usual attire of Illumia, while Idonea was wearing special royal guard armor, signifying her status as my follower. Exiting my room, I first visited Elaine since I had a feeling I wouldn't see her for a bit; when I arrived at Elaine's room, I ensured she wasn't cultivating before I entered since I didn't want to interrupt her.

"Elaine, I came to visit and say farewell." Said Elif, walking into the room while Elaine sat on her bed, seemingly having recently finished cultivating.

"Hmm, what do you mean by farewell? Are you going somewhere?" Asked Elaine, startled by such abrupt news.

"I don't know for sure, but I have a strong feeling that I'll be leaving Yggdrasil; I figured I should come and tell you about it beforehand and not just disappear." Said Elif, eyeing Elaine's arms that had mostly healed from yesterday's heavenly tribulation.

"Can I come with you!?" Asked Elaine hopefully, though; this time was different, unlike most times when Elif would agree with her.

"No. First off, you haven't even explored Yggdrasil, so why are you interested in outside of Yggdrasil? More importantly, I'm doing this because Mother and Father told me to." Replied Elf, eliciting disappointment within Elaine, though that didn't last long.

"So all I have to do is, have mother and father agree? If so, let's get going, brother!" Said Elaine in joy as she quickly exited the room with Maxim while leaving a sighing Elif.

Catching up to Elaine, she and I walked side-by-side while Illumia, Maxim, and Idonea followed behind us as we navigated through the hallways, finally arriving at the throne room where Mother and Father were currently at.

"Father, mother, can I-" Said Elaine, presumably going to ask if she could venture with Elif, but she got interrupted.

"No." Said Marcus, ruthlessly crushing Elaine's hope.

"But father, why not?" Asked Elaine, feeling annoyed at Marcus's quick answer.

"Because this is meant specifically for Elif; besides, you're not strong enough for where we plan on sending him." Stated Maria in a no-objection tone, causing Elaine to huff displeasure.

"Mother, father, now that Idonea is here, can you tell me where you're sending me?" Asked Elif curiously, while also incredibly interested since it seemed like a place full of action, and what child doesn't like some action?

"We plan to send you somewhere so you can experience the outside world." Said Marcus, causing Elif's curiosity to be at an all-time high.

"So where and what exactly is it!?" Asked Elif with a smile as he began fanning himself with his quạt tay to cool off his burning curiosity, though the moment he got his answer, his entire persona instantly changed.

"We plan to send you down to a random Spirit Realm so you can get an understanding of how the OverRealm operates without the necessary dangers of the OverRealm, though since a Spirit Realm can only house Half-step Divines and below, Idonea will be required to suppress her cultivation base, lest she wishes to get forcefully dragged into a Heavenly Realm." Said Maria, as she and Marcus internally chuckled at Elif's expression.

With how exciting and mysterious Mother and Father were, I thought I would go to some secret place or possibly a separate dimension. However, not once did the thought ever appear in my mind that I'll be going to a Spirit realm, not a Heavenly realm, but a Spirit realm. I've only lived for eight years, but I can confidently say this will be one of the very few moments where my irritation has peaked.

"Nope, I refuse to go to some backwater realm where they probably don't even have drinkable water; I'd rather die than go there!" Declared Elif as he looked at his parents, feeling greatly annoyed, before turning around and leaving the throne room; well, he at least tried to.

"Well, too bad, your mother and I have already decided to send you there." Stated Marcus as he grabbed hold of Elif with a large golden palm.

When Father grabbed me, I didn't even bother trying to fight back, not like it would do anything in the first place, so I just sighed in defeat. While being held inside Father's hand, I watched how Mother stood up from her throne and made a slicing motion with her hand in mid-air, and when she finished, a large tear in space appeared, which led into a void of darkness.

"Alright, done. Now you two, step through this hole, and you'll be sent to a random Spirit realm." Said Maria as Marcus gently set Elif down next to Maria while Idonea quickly arrived near him.

"Tch, can't I at least bring Illumia? Isn't she my personal maid?" Asked Elif with crossed arms.

"Nope, Illumia will be staying in the OverRealm." Answered Maria, much to Elif's annoyance.

"Fine, let's go, Idonea. Bye, Elaine." Said Elif in annoyance as he stepped into the black hole with Idonea following directly behind him.

"Almost forgot." Muttered Maria, pointing her finger toward Elif, who was walking through the hole, before firing a small Qi ball from her finger that got absorbed inside Elif's body without him ever even noticing. But don't underestimate that small Qi ball, as that thing contains enough power to kill a Half-step True God.

While walking through the seemingly endless black void with Idonea, we suddenly saw a bright light in the distance, and since that's the only place not pitch black, I headed in that direction and eventually arrived at the bright light. Not knowing what to do exactly and figuring mother and father wouldn't create a passageway that could potentially harm me, I stepped into the bright spot, and arriving on the other side was what looked like a typical forest.

However, I instantly realized this wasn't the OverRealm anymore with how incredibly thin the Qi was in the atmosphere; the Qi was so nonexistent that I felt like I was on the verge of suffocating from lack of it. And what made it worse was that the small amount of Qi present was filled with impurities, so much so that I was forced to stop breathing.

"This place is far worse than I could Imagine. Can life even survive in this type of environment?" Muttered Elif in pure disgust as he eyed his surroundings, realizing that Alchemist Caine's office was a paradise compared to this place.

Turning around to see if I could possibly head back, though the small amount of hope I had was quickly extinguished when Idonea exited the portal while the hole instantly closed afterward, leaving the two of us trapped inside this hell-hole.

"This place, it's bad." Commented Idonea with a great deal of disgust; however, she didn't speak anymore and stood quietly behind Elif.

As much as I didn't want to explore this realm, I ultimately decided to do so since I didn't want Mother and Father to send me to this place again in the future after they found out I did nothing but seclude myself in this forest. Using my divine sense to scan this realm as it shouldn't be big, I quickly expanded it to encompass the entire realm while concealing it as well since I didn't want anyone to know of my presence and possibly wish to interact with me.

However, when my divine sense fully encompassed the small realm, I was astonished by the sights of so many killings, destructiveness, and other terrible things that I was beyond shocked. Seeing people eradicate entire families just because they looked at them or people destroying beautiful nature for fun were things I was expecting as mother, father, and Illumia have told me tales of the danger OverRealm possessed. Still, if it's already this bad, I can't even begin to imagine how dangerous the OverRealm truly is. Though what I mentioned was the minority, most people were killing each other for cultivation resources, which was justifiable, in my opinion. The strong prey on the weak, and if you wish to become part of the strong and not stay weak, you must gather resources, whether it's buying them or stealing them, otherwise you'll be the one to die one day; luckily for me, I was born as a royal elf that governed an Immortal empire, so I had plenty of resources.

'I guess it was beneficial for me to experience how the world works; still, I'm going to have to get used to all these useless killings as it's not my cup of tea.' Pondered Elif feeling a little uncomfortable as he retracted his divine sense since he didn't wish to witness all the killings and other horrible atrocities.

"What shall we do first, your Highness?" Asked Idonea curiously, already having scanned the entire realm with her divine sense the moment she arrived in this realm.

"Hmm, no idea, however, there is a small human group nearby in this forest, and they seem decently important in this realm, let's go and visit them. They could be of some entertainment in this forsaken place." Said Elif before vanishing from his position along with Idonea as they headed toward the human group.