On the other side, the remains of the mountain of flesh had finally finished falling.
It was over.
But Elias didn't even have a chance to catch his breath.
Because the bill for destiny had arrived.
The reckoning for ten stacks of Soul Screams arrived right on schedule.
There was no warning, no prelude.
Elias only felt his vision suddenly go pitch black.
Following that was the total destruction of his hearing.
That sound didn't originate from his ears; it exploded directly inside his brain.
It was an indescribable, sharp screeching.
It was like the sound of ten fingernails frantically scraping against a chalkboard, amplified tenfold, then poured directly into the depths of his soul along his neurotransmitters!
He was instantly deafened.
All external sounds were forcibly stripped away.
Intense pain followed.
It was absolutely not a physical pain originating from some part of his body.
It was a frantic tearing and stinging from the depths of his soul!
Yet, this non-physical stinging was projected with incredible clarity onto every corner of his body.
Every nerve, every cell, was screaming in agony.
His senses were rapidly fading.
He couldn't even feel the weight of his own body.
Nor was he aware that at this moment, blood was gushing uncontrollably from his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth.
Bleeding from his seven orifices, he looked wretched.
Then.
Like a piece of rotten wood, Elias toppled straight forward.
A second before his consciousness completely sank, a trace of intense frustration flashed through his mind.
"Dammit..."
"I didn't even get to see that girl one last time."
This was his final thought.
...
"Am I dead?"
Elias tentatively asked himself in his heart.
Nothing remained before him but pure, suffocating darkness.
No pain, no sound, and no more of that lethal Soul Scream.
He felt as if his consciousness had been completely peeled away from that physical body.
He was light as a feather, weightless.
This feeling wasn't entirely unfamiliar to him.
It was somewhat like the strange experience of his spirit leaving his body when John tried to possess him.
Only this time, it seemed more thorough.
But he also felt something wasn't quite right.
Soul Scream, as the name implied, was a vicious curse aimed directly at the soul.
This wasn't something you could easily shake off like a coat just because you'd left your body.
Logically, even if he was a ghost now, he should be rolling on the ground in agony.
"So what state am I in right now?"
Elias complained amidst the endless darkness.
Soon, the dead silence finally changed.
In the depths of the infinite darkness, a tiny spark of fire abruptly ignited.
An orange halo rose and flickered.
It drifted slowly toward him from the distance.
"Who's there?"
Elias immediately called out.
His voice traveled far in this void space, carrying a hollow echo.
But no one responded to him.
Until the spark of fire drifted sluggishly before his eyes.
By the dim light, Elias finally saw the true face of the newcomer.
Then, he fell silent.
It wasn't a person at all.
It was just a pair of hands suspended in mid-air!
A pair of hands holding a pale candle!
These hands were a ghostly, dead black, with no skin texture at all, like two pieces of obsidian carved into the shape of human hands.
If not for the flickering light of that candle.
In this pitch-black darkness where one couldn't see their own hand, he wouldn't have been able to discover what kind of thing was holding the candle at all.
Before Elias could speak.
The black hands held the candle and gestured slightly toward the direction they had come from.
As if beckoning.
It was a signal for Elias to follow.
Then, without caring whether Elias understood or if he was following behind.
It "turned" and drifted back the way it came at a leisurely pace.
"Hey, wait a second!"
Elias was stunned for a moment before immediately starting to follow.
"What's this supposed to mean?"
"A mute NPC leading the way?"
The fire drifted ahead, and Elias chased from behind.
The surroundings remained an impenetrable darkness.
"Hey, buddy, can you give me a hint?"
"Can I still live?"
"I still want to know how my sister is doing. I just gave her that potion!"
Elias began his habitual rambling.
"If I really can't be resurrected, that's fine too."
"Just leaving me as a spirit is acceptable!"
"So where exactly are you taking me?"
The pair of black hands ahead were deaf to his words, continuing to drift forward at a constant, snail-like pace.
Elias sighed.
"Forget it, I forgot you're just a pair of hands."
"You don't even have a mouth. Expecting you to talk... I must have lost my mind."
He'd been asking for ages, but it was like playing a lute to a cow.
The hands didn't seem affected by Elias's rapid-fire questions at all; even the frequency of their drifting didn't change.
Elias immediately began to feel a bit bored.
This endless walk through the darkness was a mental asylum of a journey.
However, it wasn't long.
As he continued forward, a faint light different from the candle finally appeared ahead.
By the light, Elias suddenly realized.
He seemed to have been walking inside some massive building all along.
Because as he was about to step into the illuminated area ahead.
Under the reflection of the fire, he clearly saw tall, majestic stone porticos on both sides, covered in intricate reliefs.
Above him was an arched structure whose ceiling was lost in the shadows.
It was like walking through the deep corridors of some ancient castle.
He followed the black hands through the portico and into a dimly lit, spacious room.
The first thing that caught his eye was the room's only light source—
A massive stone fireplace.
A vigorous fire burned within, making the crackling sound of wood splitting.
The fire was warm, even giving him a long-lost sense of comfort.
Then.
Elias's gaze moved past the fireplace, and he noticed there were other people in the room.
A tall figure was slowly walking toward him from the darkest corner of the room.
"My apologies."
A low, magnetic man's voice sounded, tinged with a bit of regret.
As the other person approached step by step, extremely heavy footsteps echoed on the floor.
In addition, there was the crisp sound of thick metal plates rubbing and clashing against each other.
Clack, clack.
The person stopped in front of the fireplace.
"I have been waiting for you for a long time."
The dancing firelight instantly illuminated the person's entire body.
Elias was startled.
He saw that incredibly familiar heavy armor.
The black metallic texture, and the lifelike owl carved onto the breastplate!
That's right.
It was the set his "dream self" had worn!
Not only that.
Under the firelight, the face hidden in the shadows finally became clearly visible.
Elias sucked in a breath of cold air.
He's so damn handsome!
He's almost as handsome as I am!
But Elias quickly snapped out of this shameless narcissism.
That wasn't the point!
The point was, what did this guy just say?
"I have been waiting for you for a long time."
Elias's brain began to work at high speed.
This armor, this dreamlike scene, this eerie way of being led here.
If the other person had been waiting for him here all along.
Doesn't that mean...
He could only successfully meet him when he was on the verge of death, or completely dead?!
Elias asked tentatively:
"How about you wait a little longer?"
Rate on N.U.
