3 More Years of Life

Magnus wasn't present to hear Ariel's short speech.

He had hurriedly followed after the Ghost Union Kraken, devouring as many ghosts in his path as he could.

His Spirit Attributes were growing once more, supplementing his strength as well.

Right now, his Spirit Attributes were at 1.3-stars. His general threat level rose to 2.4-stars. It was a pleasant thing to have.

But that did not matter right now.

With a rapidly beating heart, Magnus charged after the kraken. He followed its ominous aura through the earth.

Excitement wrapped around his body as he chased after such a powerful being.

The thrill of not knowing whether or not he would be instantly killed for this transgression was addicting.

In what manner would his death arrive? Consumed by the kraken? Slapped to death by the kraken? Stared to death by the kraken?

Which one?

Of course, getting his soul consumed would be the worst possible scenario as that would be his true death, but right now, Magnus did not care.

He relished in these moments just inches away from death.

As the Ghost Union Kraken moved, its tentacles wriggled in a sporadic manner. Sometimes, a tentacle would brush past Magnus and take away a bit of his soul in the process.

Magnus could feel bits and pieces of his memories and self disappear each time the tentacles brushed past him.

He forgot about certain childhood events, like sports tournaments and the like. He lost portions of certain core memories related to cartoons, anime, and novels.

He even forgot the day he was born.

It was a harrowing experience.

"Come on!" Magnus whispered excitedly, "Show me what I want to see!"

It was then,

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The low hum of immense power loomed through tremors in the earth.

Magnus could feel the earth tremble, constantly and ominously.

CRIIEEEEEEEEE!

The cries of ghosts reached his ethereal ears. He could hear them through the thick rock. That was a feat worthy of being mentioned in textbooks.

Magnus then found himself in a wide underground cavern, where a hole as deep as Tartarus could be seen at the very centre.

Stalactites and stalagmites littered the ceiling and floor, bringing about an aesthetic beauty to the ghost-lit cavern. The soul fire that burned in their irises brought about a cold light to the area.

Meanwhile, right above the deep hole, there floated a spherical Gate. It was pulsating in a vivid, blood-red colour and spewing out ghosts nonstop.

Crackling blood-coloured lightning appeared every once in a while, extending from the Gate like zigzagging tendrils.

Poof!

A Scroll appeared before Magnus.

[[ Lifespan Scroll ]]

[[ Tear this Scroll to receive an extra three (3) Tharean years' worth of lifespan. ]]

Licking his lips, Magnus tore the Scroll apart. A mesmerizing feeling then engulfed his lean frame. It rushed through him from the atmosphere, entering through his pores.

Something mystical was happening at this moment. Magnus' telomeres were allowed to grow, and his lifespan was lengthened by a mystical force.

"Haaah,"

Magnus could not help but let out a moan of pleasure.

The feeling of gaining extra lifespan was just too good.

But he swiftly recalled what had led him there.

Placing his gaze back on the gigantic tentacled being, Magnus watched as the Ghost Union Kraken made a beeline towards the deep, dark hole that even the ghosts refused to enter or linger over.

The Ghost Union Kraken squeezed into the hole until it filled it up like a liquid. Not even a single portion was left with a gap.

Magnus wanted to see more, but there were thousands of ghosts between him and his goal.

He had tempted fate enough.

Now, he just wondered what kind of opportunity and what type of answers he would supposedly encounter and learn of.

Thus, in his ethereal state, he waited. He hid far from the ghosts' sensing range and kept an eye out for any abnormality.

He waited patiently.

1 minute.

2 minutes.

3 minutes.

5 minutes.

10 minutes.

Half an hour.

An entire hour.

Nothing came.

Three hours then passed and still, nothing.

Magnus pursed his lips, but he continued to wait.

He trusted in The Jester's guesses.

When the fourth hour passed, something finally occurred. The red Gate pulsed as if it wished to spew out another batch of ghosts but instead, an injured human stumbled out of it. He nearly fell into the great hole where the kraken lay in hiding and crashed into a bunch of stalagmites.

Silence.

Thousands of ghosts turned to look at this human.

They stared at him for a moment.

And the human stared back. Disbelief splattered across his expression.

"No..!" The human gasped, clawing his way back into the Gate.

He wanted to escape… but the ghosts did not permit him to do so. Nor did the terrain.

A ghost dragon roared. With a flap of its wings, it took a huge mouthful of the human's soul with it.

"Ah!" The human cried out in pain. He tumbled back onto the rocky floor. His eyes had glazed over.

"No!"

His voice came out, seemingly subconsciously.

"No… no…"

He mumbled incoherently as the ghosts charged forth with wails and screams.

Their starved expressions revealed delight as they pounced on what little prey they all had.

And when they were done, the human was nothing more than a zombie. Soulless, seemingly mindless, and barely alive.

Magnus saw this all and he could not help but squint. Something had caught his cyan eyes.

From a Storage Scroll, his Golden Gravity Sphere appeared. He rolled the sphere across the ground, avoiding the ghosts as it went.

Magnus then used it to pull the zombified human towards him.

The human stumbled at first, and then it was flying through the air.

The ghosts did not seem to care as two lifeless beings interacted.

Thus, Magnus successfully brought them back to his corner of the cavern where none of the ghosts seemed to want to approach.

It was a weird pocket that Magnus had moved towards. There were multiple of these zones among the sea of ghosts and Magnus had no idea why it was a thing.

Until he spotted a shining gemstone after his gravity caused the loose rocks beneath him to shift.

"Ah," Magnus picked the item up. "This might be a good cash source."

He used his gravity to move the gem around and he noticed that the ghosts seemed to avoid it like the plague.

"It's weird how this gemstone isn't embedded into the earth, though." Magnus thought to himself.

He subconsciously glanced at the zombified human and asked, not expecting any reply, "Could you be the source of this?"

Was it a plan that had gone awry? Perhaps the human had planned to save himself a path out by leaving a trail of these gems, but things didn't work out.

Right now, there was no such path. Something must have messed with the gems some time ago.

Anyways, that did not matter much to Magnus right now. There was something else that was more important.

Magnus secretly retrieved the zombie's belongings. He made sure not to alert the zombie itself lest it exerts its strength to attack him.

He did not know if the gemstone could ward away zombies.

He also did not know how many stars the zombie was at. Especially since its body looked pristine—despite its injuries of course—and it was likely that it could exert the same amount of power as it had when it was alive. Perhaps maybe more or maybe a little less.

Nonetheless, someone who could cause the Gate Overflow of a 4-star Gate was bound to utterly annihilate Magnus. No questions asked.

Even as a zombie.

Thus, a small pouch levitated through the air and floated around the ethereal Magnus.

Excitedly, Magnus opened the pouch by manipulating a few strands of gravity.

The simple metal lock clicked open with a little effort and the leather flap was pulled out swiftly and deftly.

This action revealed a familiar orb. An orb of crystalline blue, with stars seemingly shining within its borders.

It was a beautiful item for such a dangerous purpose.

Magnus commanded gravity to bring this orb to him. He planned on making use of this orb to cause more chaos and complete another Trial.

But that was when he noticed it:

There were more orbs within the pouch. All of them were shining in their beautiful blue and white colours.

Magnus was stunned.

"No way… was this person before me triggering multiple Gate Overflows?" His mouth gaped open, "That's a thing? But how in the world…?"

Magnus eyes the zombified human before him. Numerous thoughts flashed through his mind as several realisations dawned upon him.

But his realisations were all theories. He was close to the answers he was supposed to encounter, but not quite there yet.

"Then… to get the answers I was scheduled to receive…"

Magnus lunged forward. His body turned physical as his palm landed on the zombie.

His lips were rapidly chanting a certain invocation.

"Urk?" The soulless zombie groaned.

Its dull eyes suddenly gleamed. Undead Energy surged through its veins and exited as smokey light from its mouth and nostrils. At that moment, the zombie looked akin to a smoker breathing out a cloud of thick smoke.

Then, as if finally realising that there was a living, breathing being right in front of it, it swiped its hand at Magnus.

Fwish!

—Thud!

It happened faster than Magnus could blink.

He was flung into the horde of ghosts like a fly slapped by a fly swatter. He could do nothing against the force of what seemed to be a 4-star zombie.

"Gah!" Magnus choked as he bounced off of solid rock.

His organs were sent into disarray and hundreds of his bones were shattered. He instantly shifted into his ghostly form to stay alive and devoured the first ghost that had made it to him.

"You're not making it easy for me to assimilate you, I see…" Magnus growled. His heart was once again thumping in his ethereal chest.

SHRIEEEEEEEK!

The ghost horde finally noticed Magnus' delectable soul just then. There was no gemstone to ward them off and block off their senses.

Magnus couldn't help but chuckle wryly as he looked around him.

There were the regular 2-star ghosts, the 3-star banshees, phantoms, and wraiths, the 4-star ghost dragons, and even the Ghost Union Kraken slumbering in the distance.

Without a doubt, Magnus was currently inside what seemed to be…

A hellhole.

"I think… I made a mistake."