Chapter 380: Netherworld

Ashlock watched through his Evil Eye as Elysia commanded Pluto's tendrils to stop the castle from exploding. Of course, it was merely an illusion—not that he had told Elysia that. Ashlock worried she wouldn't put on a dramatic enough performance if she didn't believe failure would result in the loss of millions of potential new worshipers.

"Though I have to say that girl somehow became even more insane. I didn't expect to find her bathing in a pool of blood and animal parts while praying to one of my offspring," Ashlock sighed as he watched Elysia cackle away as she made more of Pluto's tendrils snake their way into heaven's carefully woven reality. "Just how broken is her mind to imagine Pluto's body to look this eldritch?"

Just a few months ago, when they first met, the body Elysia could conjure with Mystic Qi for Pluto could easily fit in an arena, but now... it looked like the sky might fall like ceiling paint holding back a leak.

"Is that what Maple's true body looks like?" Ashlock mused. Pluto was Maple's little sibling, and they were both Worldwalkers, so he doubted they differed that much. The display was quite horrifying and made all the worse as he watched it unfold through his Evil Eye. Pluto was just darkness in his sight—an all-consuming void that devoured everything it touched.

[A large inflow of divine energy has been detected]

Golden letters flashed before his eye, informing him it had begun. Elysia had spread his name while putting on a performance that even impacted him. It was such a raw display of reality-bending power that even he wouldn't want to mess with Elysia. Yet she happily proclaimed that she was wielding such cataclysmic powers in his name, which would definitely bring their respect for the All-Seeing Eye to new heights in the minds of the millions of mortals watching.

"System, what's my current number of sacrificial credits?"

[You have 3500 sacrificial credits and rapidly counting]

"That's quite a lot," Ashlock mused as his Evil Eye swiveled to look at the mortals lining the streets gazing up at him and the castle in fear. Maybe in hindsight, Elysia hadn't been the best one to handle this.

"This could have been an opportunity to give the cult a new light! Darn it, I should have tried to appear more majestic and benevolent." Ashlock sighed. "This display has definitely furthered my evil god image, but I fear that might be the only option moving forward."

They had mystic Qi on their side, and it could manifest anything, but the problem was that, unlike illusion Qi, it only worked if the cultivator fully believed in what they were trying to conjure. Ashlock glanced back at Elysia, whose eyes had rolled back, and she looked possessed as she pulled immense amounts of mystic Qi in from her surroundings to manifest Pluto's body. All of her family and the dozens of ritual rings were pumping her with Qi and it looked like she would go supernova any second as Pluto kept coming.

"Should I... tell her? That it's just an illusion, and she doesn't need to go this far?" Ashlock wondered as he felt a little bad and definitely didn't want Elysia to die or explode, but on the flip side, the insane girl seemed to grow in strength the more she broke, so...

"I'm sure she will be fine—ow!" Ashlock winced as he felt pain shoot through his root network. He hadn't felt pain like this in a long time, as he had his root network tuned out. It would drive him crazy if he were to experience the fears, concerns, and pains of every tree he was linked to across the realm. So something big had to have happened for the pain to be so extreme it overwhelmed his ability to tune it out.

Immediately, he tried to locate the source of the pain. Anything that could cut through so many of his S-grade ethereal roots so effortlessly had to be something at the Nascent Soul Realm. "Could it be Vincent? Is he attacking me somewhere? Or maybe the beast tide has reached my roots sooner than expected?"

Following the pain, all signs pointed toward his roots inside the castle.

"Is Vincent trying to claw his way out like a caged rat and hurting me in the process?" Ashlock's vision blurred as he switched to his spiritual sight through his roots inside the castle. All he was met with was an all-consuming darkness. It took a moment for Ashlock to realize what he was surrounded by as he shifted his view through his roots until he could finally see. "This looks like the vague remnants of a room and are those cries of fear. Wait, they aren't Vincent. Why the hell are their maids here? Oh god."

The ceiling collapsed as a tendril of void belonging to Pluto crashed through. The wood hissed as it was deleted from existence, and the tendril rushed into the room like a flood of ink.

The darkness was Pluto, and it was about to reach three maids cowering in the corner behind a table.

"Pluto, stop," Ashlock commanded the Worldwalker with Abyssal Whispers. But the encroaching void did not cease. "Pluto, I know you can hear me. Stop what you are doing; mortals are here, and you are destroying the castle."

A deep and otherwordly laugh that reminded Ashlock of a whale calling out through the vast ocean filled not just the room but the entire castle.

"You may have a leash on my sibling, but you don't control me. I can devour what I please."

The void tendril that had crashed into the room suddenly lashed out and plowed through the table and cowering maids. It was unsettling how silently the attack deleted them from existence as if they had never existed.

Ashlock didn't understand why Pluto was doing this.

"Why did you kill the mortals? They don't have any Qi worth devouring."

"They deserve to die as reality is a stain on the void. Before, there was beautiful chaos, but now there is a clear barrier—a divide between the nothingness of the void and the everything of reality." Pluto's voice raised to a thunderous volume that seemed to echo throughout the void, "Tell me why I should be born into slavery, to guard something I'm not even allowed to taste?"

Another void tendril drooped down and slammed through a side wall, silencing another set of distant cries. The castle was still full of hundreds if not thousands of maids, and they would all be devoured by Pluto at this rate.

"In here, it's beautiful." Pluto continued, "The air is sweet and dense with Qi. Millions of different organisms are waiting to be savored and minds to be broken. Compared to the void, where even time doesn't flow, how am I supposed to exist knowing what I'm being denied?"

Ashlock was reminded that the Worldwalkers were realm-devouring monsters. They grew in power by destroying, and it seemed Pluto viewed reality as a golden chest they desperately wanted to open.

"So when given entry to this paradise, all you seek is to destroy it in childish rage? If you devour it all, there will be nothing left." Ashlock tried to reason with him, "Reality will return to the void."

"Good, then all will be fair. These puny humans devoid of Qi cower before me yet live better lives than I." Another tendril silently shot off through a wall, snuffing out the candle of life on another group of maids. "Power is supposed to be all that matters, so why am I denied what is rightfully mine?"

"You are nothing but a foolish and short-sighted child." Ashlock switched his perspective to his Evil Eye and glared at Elysia. "It's over, Elysia. Send Pluto back to the void."

Daily Credit: 77

Sacrifice Credit: 6117

[Sign in?]

[Are you sure? Over 6000 credits will be used on a random draw]

"Of course, I'm sure. There's still some Nightrose Elders to devour for dessert anyway."

[Very well...]

[Sign in successful, 6194 credits consumed...]

[Unlocked an SSS-grade Summon: Netherworld Wraith]

An SSS grade summon? It had been a long time since he had drawn a summon, the last being Kaida, but he had slowly leveled his summons up through the grades. What would an SSS-grade summon even be capable of? Would it rival a Monarch Realm or perhaps even surpass them in strength?

"Where is it?" Ashlock asked as he noticed the divine energy swirling around the castle suddenly take on a hint of sinister darkness.

[This is bad...]

Ashlock didn't need to be told. He could feel it. The coming of death.

"What is happening?"

[You are not yet strong enough to wholly control the ego of an S-grade being, let alone an SSS-grade one]

The darkened divine energy began to condense around a vague figure in the castle's center.

[We may have just welcomed an uncontrollable harbinger of death into the realm]

"A harbinger of death? Just what is a Netherworld Wraith?"

[It's a being born from the intersection of death and life and is said to feast on lost souls. They are neither alive nor dead and are said to inhabit the liminal space between the realms. They can traverse reality effortlessly since they exist on the bridge between life and death. I believe Netherworld Wraiths can phase through physical matter and can't be harmed by conventional means]

"Why have I never encountered them before?"

[They exist on a different plane of existence to us and are also egoless beings. They don't know how to seek out sustenance; they simply float around the liminal space between the realms and devour any souls in reach like jellyfish]

"If it's egoless, why can't I control it easily despite being SSS-grade?"

[What is there to control? Without an ego, it has no brain. Not thoughts or desires that can be altered to suit your needs]

"So we just need to give it an ego, right? One that's already under my control."

[You want to transplant an ego into an SSS-grade being? It would have to be one you have a firm grasp on, is of at least the Nascent Soul Realm, and has a deep understanding of soul dao]

"I happen to know just the girl for the job," Ashlock said. There was no way he was letting a Netherworld Wraith wreak havoc right after he had vanquished Pluto back to the void. This was his realm, and his alone to conquer.

***

"It sure is quiet..." Nox muttered as her dryad form lay in a field of white flowers around her tree. Ever since she had inherited the Dark Throne and learned the shadow Qi law, she had been left to oversee a pocket realm called Tartarus. She had worked hard to set it up in preparation for members of the All-Seeing Eye to train here, but nothing had happened yet.

"The others must be busy. Sigh, I just wish someone would visit me," Nox sat up with slothful grace. All around, there was nothing but darkness. It might as well be the void, and she was starting to get lonely. "This is the most powerful I have ever been, yet I have never felt more trapped than now." A sad chuckle escaped her lips, "I know they said it was lonely at the top, but I didn't imagine this—" A sudden message in golden letters manifested before her face.

[Ashlock has requested to implant your dryad soul into an SSS-grade spiritual being. Doing so will promote the summoned {Netherworld Wraith} to a Mythical Grade being]

[Do you accept?]

"Mythical grade? What in the nine realms does that mean?"