The Gaze from the Undead Realm

“You—!!”

Mosator tried to say something more, but his voice was already blurring. His energy-formed dragon body began to break down, ultimately dissolving completely into the world.

On the ground, the players witnessed the entire process. However, because Iluvia had intentionally shielded them, they couldn't hear any of the conversation between the two.

As for why she blocked them out, there were certain things the players simply didn't need to know.

Nevertheless, through their movements, the players still managed to figure out roughly what was happening.

“Holy shit! The Goddess is too damn strong!!”

“I'm getting hyped! I'm getting hyped!”

“That was purification, alright? What do you mean 'hyped'?”

“Fire is fire! Close enough!”

“Look at that dragon! It's almost gone!”

“A moment of silence for three seconds.”

“What are you holding a moment of silence for?”

“Sigh, what a pity for my dragon-taming plan. It declared bankruptcy before it even started.”

“You're still thinking about becoming a dragon rider, kid?”

As the players were bantering excitedly, a faint voice suddenly piped up from the crowd:

“By the way... does anyone else think the Goddess's chains earlier were a bit... special?”

“Special? How so?”

“Just, you know... eight chains... tying down its limbs, wings, and neck completely tight...”

The air fell dead silent for a second.

And then—

“...Holy shit, now that you mention it, I suddenly got an inspiration!”

“What inspiration?”

“I'm starting work the moment I get back tonight. I've already picked the title: 《The Goddess of Light and the Lord of Plague: Forbidden Love Under the Chains》.”

“??????”

“??? You're wild, bro!!”

“My friend, a word in private. A friend of mine would love to read your work...”

“Is this 'friend' actually yourself?”

“Cough cough... If you know, you know.”

Iluvia: “...”

She could hear them—every single word.

Iluvia was utterly dumbfounded. Although she had anticipated something like this before, was it really polite to talk about it right in front of the person involved?

She silently noted those players down in her mind, resolving to give them proper "care and attention" in the future.

Paying no more attention to the players, Iluvia let out a soft breath, and her figure vanished on the spot.

High in the air, the pure white flames of purification slowly flickered out. With Iluvia's departure, the Divine Domain dissolved, and the sky turned clear once more.

Sunlight leaked through the clouds, spilling warmly across the ground as if the entire world had been reborn.

At the same time, the players finally realized they could move again.

They stretched in unison, rolled their stiff necks and arms, and then—

“I recorded it! I recorded the whole thing!”

“See you on the forums! See you on the forums, bros!”

“Can't wait to post this and blow up the forums! This is definitely the biggest hidden storyline of the version!”

“Goddess, look at me!!! I'll forever be your most loyal believer!!!”

“You were just saying you wanted to be a dragon rider!”

“What's a dragon rider? Never heard of it! Irrelevant! My eyes have always been set on Goddess alone!”

“??? You hypocrite, turning your coat faster than flipping a page.”

In the Divine Kingdom of Light, atop the Divine Seat.

Looking at those noisy, rowdy players who never seemed to know their limits, the corners of Iluvia's lips curled up in an unconscious smile.

Although there had been a minor accident in the middle where things almost got out of hand.

The result didn't seem too bad.

However, Iluvia had no idea that she was about to invite major trouble upon herself.

...

Far beyond the main plane of Aenoria lies a plane where the sun never shines.

The sky here is perpetually dim and gray, like a piece of old parchment soaked in water and dried, forever bearing a sickly hue.

There is no sun, no moon, no stars—only vague halos of light in the distance slowly drifting along the horizon, like the final blink of a dying being.

The ground of this world is white.

To be precise, bone-white.

Countless skeletons piled into mountains, stretched into plains, and bulged into hills, layer upon layer covering every inch of land as far as the eye could see.

There were human ribs, giant beast leg bones, and the spines of unknown creatures—intertwined and merged over ages of erosion to form a massive expanse of bone plains.

This was the Undead Realm—specifically, the fifth layer of the Undead Realm. But in Aenoria, it had another name: the Fifth Layer of Hell.

A skeletal hand reached out from the ground.

Five pale phalanges gripped the soil and pushed hard.

Immediately after, a complete skeleton slowly pulled itself up from the pile of bones. Two clusters of pale blue soulfire flickered faintly within its eye sockets, as if adapting to this world.

It stood upright, turned its skull, and looked around.

Then, taking a step forward, it began marching in a certain direction.

A second, a third, a hundredth, a ten-thousandth.

Across the entire bone plain, countless skeletons sprouted endlessly from the earth like bamboo shoots after rain.

The sound grew from scattered ones and twos into a sparse rustle, then a heavy shower, and finally gathered into an unbroken symphony of grinding bones, as though the entire earth was flexing its joints.

Most of the soulfire flickering in their eyes was pale blue—the color of ordinary undead, representing mediocrity and obedience.

But a few were green, orange, or even a sparse scattering of red.

And whenever a red-flamed skeleton stood up, the ordinary skeletons nearby would step aside of their own accord.

They began to gather.

Countless skeletons, one after another, swath upon swath, converged from all directions like bone-white streams pouring into a great river, or millions of chess pieces being placed on a board by an invisible hand.

Soon, an endless undead army had taken shape.

Within the undead army, some wore heavy armor, some rode bone horses, some held bows and arrows, and some wielded staves.

Following that, these endless skeleton warriors, bone cavalry, bone archers, and skeleton mages assembled in neat ranks. With heavy, mechanical footsteps, they marched across the thick bone terrain toward the edge of the plane in orderly progression.

Above in the sky, dozens to hundreds of massive bone dragons circled and hovered. Their giant skeletal wings fanned dead, tempestuous winds, while dark flames burned in their hollow eyes and black undead fire spewed from their maws, intimidating the entire world.

This was no chaotic riot, but an expedition of billions of undead sweeping across the entire Undead Realm!

Vast, grand, desolate, and chilling.

The endless skeletal legion flooded the land and blotted out the sky. The epic pressure of billions of dead creatures moving in unison was enough to shatter the mind of any living being.

Meanwhile, at the border of the plane, a blood-red vortex hundreds of feet high spun frantically, like a giant wound ripped open at the edge of the world.

One demon after another stepped out from the other side of the portal—

There were humanoid demons with ram horns, giant war demons engulfed in flames, mutated demons with four arms and six eyes, and winged demons resembling bats magnified countless times over.

Their lowest rank was Gold Rank.

The moment the demons stepped onto this bone-covered earth, they began spreading out in all directions like black ink poured into clear water.

Soon, they encountered the undead army converging from all directions.

The two armies clashed.

Without horns or battle cries, slaughter erupted the instant they made contact.

The undead army advanced like a white tide.

Bone cavalry launched a death charge at the demons first;

Skeleton warriors followed close behind, wildly advancing while swinging bone blades and rusty swords;

Bone archers nocked arrows and fired in volleys, dense clouds of bone arrows blocking out the sky;

Skeleton mages formed ranks in the rear, chanting spells in unison. Gray undead magic gathered into a sea of mist, pressing down toward the demon encampment.

High above, giant bone dragons circled and dived, dark green soulfire burning in their hollow eye sockets. They spewed black dragon flame onto the demons, rapidly consuming their flesh and blood.

Demons collapsed in agonizing shrieks, turning into ash.

But even more demons surged forward.

A ram-horned demon warlock stood firm, chanting a lengthy spell as blinding purple light erupted from its staff.

In the next second, a highly corruptive beam of dark purple energy shot into the sky, precisely striking the highest-flying bone dragon!

The bone dragon let out a silent wail as its bones shattered inch by inch. Its massive body crashed down from midair like a collapsing white tower.

The ground trembled, bone debris scattered, and splinters fell like snow across a radius of a hundred meters.

Battle swept across the entire plane.

Yet on this boundless bone battlefield, all of this was merely a drop in the ocean.

...

Deep within the core of the plane.

A high platform composed of various bones rose from the ground, pointing straight into the dim sky.

Among those bones were dragon ribs, the spines of deep-sea leviathans, and the torsos of ancient magical beasts, intertwined in a profound pattern to form every inch of the platform's structure.

Atop the high platform, countless dragon skulls, ancient beast remains, and terrifying withered bones intertwined to forge a majestic, overwhelming bone throne.

Seated upon the throne was a figure cloaked in pure black.

The hood was pulled extremely low, completely concealing its face, leaving only two dots of pure white soulfire burning quietly in the shadows.

Unlike the pale blue of ordinary undead, that fire was as pure as twin cold suns, bearing a deathly silence that looked down upon all creation alongside an authority etched into its very bones.

It had originally been gazing down at the battle on the plane's border, distinct bone fingers tapping absentmindedly against the throne's armrest.

But in the next second, its movement abruptly froze.

The soulfire beneath the hood flickered violently, its previously serene flames shaking intensely.

It slowly turned its body, skull angling toward the direction of the main plane of Aenoria.

Though separated by countless planar barriers and endless void, that gaze seemed to pierce through space and time, falling directly onto Starfall Forest.

In the dead, quiet air, it slowly spoke.

Its voice was low and raspy, like white bone scraping against rock after ten million years of stillness, carrying a millennial gloom and complex emotions.

Word by word, light as a sigh, yet heavy enough to cause the entire bone platform to quiver slightly:

“You're finally back...”

“Devili... tafil...”