"No! No!" The figure of a man, who was in the company of a red-haired girl, was seen crying out in sheer terror. He had bravely ventured off the beaten path in an attempt to free all the prisoners, only to be dumbstruck by an order resonating from afar. "Execute all prisoners!" echoed a distant voice. Eerily, all soldiers present instantly unsheathed their sharp swords, ruthlessly cutting down the hapless slaves and prisoners. Their bodies fell to the ground, pools of blood painting a grim scene. "Damn it! Zera, they've already started the ritual!" roared the man, known as Schmidt. He and his companion could only stare in stunned silence as the guards mercilessly butchered all the prisoners within their reach, displaying no shred of pity. "Boom!" Another crash of lightning echoed from afar, followed by a billowing mist, a consequence of the upturned earth stirred into the air. "It seems that Lucius has launched his attack," Schmidt surmised. "What should we do next, Schmidt?" "
"Where am I?" Lucius opened his eyes and was surprised to see a room that resembled a cube. It was very cramped, as if he was confined in a chest with strange walls. The walls of the room were light green in color, looking soft to the touch. Lucius woke up and reflexively held his neck. His neck hurt because of the fine hairs from the monster earlier. "What's going on? Am I in heaven?" "No, no. I, someone like me, can't be in heaven." Lucius shook his head rejecting his first conclusion. "System, can you hear me?" asked Lucius, hoping that a hologram of the system would appear before his eyes. [System hears master] "Good. Can you tell me what this place is?" "The space between the real world and the memory universe." "Memory universe? What is that?" asked Lucius anxiously, hoping that the system would not give any more strange answers. "Universal memory is the memory of a world that once existed but has been destroyed," said a young man who suddenly appeared in the room. The y
The guards patrolling the special prison wore expressions of disbelief. "General Nefion?" they stuttered out in unison, astonished at the sight of the rumored dead general in their midst. A figure who, by all accounts, should not be present in this location. The man appointed to replace General Nefion gazed at him, his face a mask of incredulity. He struggled to comprehend the sight of a man thought to be dead, now standing before him. "General Nefion, is that truly you?" he asked, uncertainty lacing his voice as if he suspected an illusion or a trick. "Do I need to bash your skull in to convince you?" replied the general, his tone sharp, the force of his martial aura palpable. This retort earned a few surprised chuckles from the others and silenced further questions. "So, were the rumors of your death fabricated?" "Clearly. Do you think I could be easily killed?" General Nefion retorted. His unexpected resurrection sent ripples of shock throughout the prison, particularly among t
As night fell, the heavens took on an unusual aspect. The moon, resplendent in its full glory, dominated the sky, its brilliance unimpeded by the absence of clouds. Like a celestial carpet, countless stars twinkled in response to the lunar glow, casting an ethereal light on the figure below. Lucius, the teenager on the run, appeared to have reached his destination—an ancient graveyard filled with thousands of tombstones. The site was often deserted due to eerie local tales and rumored hauntings that dissuaded visitors. "Huh?" Lucius halted, quickly taking cover behind a grave as he detected unfamiliar footfalls. They seemed to appear almost concurrently with his own arrival. "What was that noise?" "I'm not sure, boss. I heard footsteps too, but they've ceased," replied a lanky figure in the dim light. "Three individuals? But why did the noise suggest a greater number?" Lucius puzzled, peering from his hideout. He had expected to see more than just three figures—a large man, a slen
Lucius let out a sharp cry as his arm was mercilessly twisted by the pair that had attacked him earlier. The intense pain was unbearable, as his bone snapped and blood began to seep from the wound, soaking his clothes much like water wrung from a drenched cloth. "Hold on, don't kill him yet. He could be a valuable sacrifice," a different individual commanded, intervening and halting the violent assault. He nonchalantly swatted away Lucius' desperate attack of red and black lightning as though it was an insignificant threat. "What's happening?" Lucius cried out, retracting his injured arm and recoiling a considerable distance back, his eyes aflame with fury as he glared at the figures that his system had identified as non-human. "Who are you?" he demanded, clamping his other hand over his bleeding wound in an attempt to staunch the flow. "Ah, who are we indeed? Well, we can't reveal that. The heavens would be enraged, and it would cause chaos," retorted one of the assailants before
The figures swathed in red shared glances among themselves, their eyes exchanging unspoken confirmations sparked by Lucius' previous statement. "Where did you hear that?" A frosty question hung in the air, the speaker's tone implying a strong aversion to dishonesty. "I can disclose that, provided my safety is ensured," Lucius proposed. The red-robed figure sneered, pointing a callous finger towards the human-filled cage. "How selfish of you. You don't seem too concerned about the rest of the livestock." Lucius met the statement with a steely gaze. "I have my own priorities." "Your safety is dependent on the value of your information," the figure stated, almost threateningly. "I can retrieve the fragment of the Dead King's system." "You can do what now?" Before Lucius could clarify, a cloak-swathed figure lunged at him, seizing him by the throat and lifting him off the ground. Lucius writhed, gasping for breath as the strong grip strangled him. "I am not lying," Lucius choked o
Lucius arrived at the location, which resembled a cave adorned with stalactites and stalactites at its top and bottom. The spiky rocks glowed an eerie green, adding to the haunted atmosphere of the place. "I feel it, the fragment is really here," Lucius muttered to himself. He was trying to recall how the future King of the Dead had used the power of the fragment to raise a terrifying corpse army. "You said you could retrieve it, right? Do it," ordered the woman. Lucius immediately began to move forward, each step measured and careful, as if afraid of treading on something dangerous. When Lucius reached the center where the energy was pulsating, he bent down and began to dig. His movements were quick, like an animal, which caused the robed figure watching him to occasionally chuckle. "He seems to really know the location of that thing," one of them remarked. Beneath Lucius was a dirt floor littered with human skulls, indicating it as the dumping ground for the victims of their ri
In Lucius' eyes, this was not an ordinary battle, but rather one that he felt more apt to call the Battle of the Gods. After all, how could it not be when lightning bolts and dreadful explosions took turns illuminating the scene? What was truly unique, however, was the faceless creature with large wings that seemed to be dominating the men in red robes. It was as though adults were toying with children; they were merely human and appeared completely outmatched. "Sassy!" A buxom girl, wearing a sinister-faced mask, seemed unable to hold back any longer and lunged skyward toward the four faceless, angelic figures. "Bang!" Her blow was so powerful that it sent the faceless angels spiraling into space, as if they had been struck by a devastating blow. "King of the Dead, I hope you don't run away," she shouted from above while Lucius, on the ground, merely tilted his head in confusion. "King of the Dead? Now she's calling me the King of the Dead?" The young man was obviously confused.