Darkness.
Not the darkness of closed eyes.
Not the darkness of night.
This…
Was the absence of existence itself.
Lucas floated within an endless void where neither time nor sound existed.
His body felt impossibly light, as though every burden he had ever carried had simply… disappeared.
No pain.
No fear.
No heartbeat.
Only silence.
A silence so absolute that even his own thoughts seemed distant.
“…Am I…”
His voice drifted into the void before dissolving into nothingness.
“…dead?”
No answer came.
He couldn’t remember how long he had been floating.
Seconds…
Hours…
Centuries…
Time no longer held meaning.
Then—
A cold wind brushed against his face.
Lucas slowly opened his eyes.
His pupils contracted.
He was no longer floating.
Beneath his feet stretched an ancient road forged from black stone, worn smooth by the footsteps of countless souls that had walked it before him.
An endless crimson mist blanketed the world.
There was no sky.
No sun.
No moon.
Only an oppressive red glow hanging over everything like an eternal twilight.
Lucas slowly turned. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
His breath caught.
Figures.
Thousands…
No. Hundreds of thousands of pale, translucent figures stretched endlessly in both directions.
Some were children clutching invisible toys.
Some were elderly, walking with broken backs.
Others wore armor blackened by forgotten wars.
Kings…
Beggars…
Soldiers…
Mothers carrying infants that no longer cried.
Every soul was bound by the same glowing violet chains around their wrists.
Every face was empty.
Every pair of eyes stared forward.
No one spoke.
No one resisted.
They simply walked.
Step…
Step…
Step…
An endless procession marching toward a destination none of them could escape.
Lucas instinctively looked down.
Cold metal embraced his own wrists.
A glowing violet chain had appeared around both arms.
“…What…?”
He pulled.
Nothing.
The chains didn’t even tremble.
A strange pressure settled over his chest.
Instinct whispered a truth his mind refused to accept.
He had crossed the boundary between life…
And death.
Before panic could consume him—
CRACK!!
A deafening sound echoed through the crimson mist.
A thorn-covered whip tore across the back of a nearby soul.
The old man cried out before stumbling forward.
Lucas looked up.
Towering over the procession stood monstrous figures nearly four meters tall.
Their skin was dark gray like weathered stone.
Massive tusks protruded from monstrous jaws.
Each wore black armor engraved with ancient runes.
Their crimson eyes glowed beneath horned helmets.
One hand held a gigantic executioner’s axe.
The other gripped a barbed whip still dripping with ghostly light.
They weren’t human.
They weren’t Corrupted.
They were something far older.
One of the giants slammed the butt of its axe onto the road.
BOOM!!
The ground trembled beneath Lucas’s feet.
“MOVE.”
The single word rolled across the endless procession like thunder.
Every soul immediately obeyed.
Lucas found his own feet moving with them.
Against his will.
As though the chains themselves commanded his body.
His heartbeat should have been racing.
Yet…
He couldn’t hear one.
Because hearts did not beat…
In the land of the dead.