Chapter 121
The Tide of Eternal Slumber
The water level of the Styx was rising at a terrifying speed, and countless pale arms erged from the murky waves.
The wraiths swallowed by the Sea of Eternal Slumber for tens of millions of years were climbing ashore with the tide, their fingernails scraping against the rocks with a sound that chilled the bones.
When the tide of the Sea of Eternal Slumber swept over the land, whether wandering souls or native inhabitants of the realm of the dead, any who touched the water’s surface instantly perished.
This stretch of water, known as the Dead Sea, devoured anything that floated upon it, dragging living beings into the depths to slumber for all eternity.
The domain of authority belonging to the Sleeper was spreading across the realm of the dead at an alarming rate. The Styx had been engulfed, and the Nurturing Cradle had turned into a vast ocean.
"Sothing is coming through the water!"
Lucy’s silver hair was lifted by the fishy wind, and Soul Scent caught the heavy stench of decay within the tide.
It was a soul fluctuation a hundred tis stronger than that of Chief Arbiter Zoe, and the divine contamination in the air was increasing at a rate visible to the naked eye.
No sooner had she spoken than the entire Styx suddenly began to boil.
The river water surged backward, forming a wall of water a hundred ters high. A massive face, composed of countless drowned visages, erged from the waves.
Hollow eye sockets flickered with ghostly green flas.
"Thief who steals the offerings!"
The deafening whisper shook the soul directly, and blood trickled from Lucy’s ears and nose.
In her sea of consciousness, Fenrir instantly bristled in alarm.
"We’re done for! Boss’s true body may still be in the Sea of Eternal Slumber, but this is an avatar ford from millennia of accumulated wraiths!"
The wizard’s robe of Theodosius flapped violently, and the star ring appeared behind him.
The old man bit through the tip of his tongue and spat a spray of blood, the droplets forming crimson runes in midair.
He had already resolved to burn his star ring in a desperate fight.
Lucy, however, pressed a hand on the old wizard’s shoulder.
"Master, this body is not the Death God Himself. Now is not the ti to go all out."
With that, she retrieved the Ark of the Styx from the Abyss of Nightmares and threw it into the encroaching seawater.
This small boat, bearing the attributes of "indestructible" and "never sinking," shuddered violently upon contact with the waters of the Sea of Eternal Slumber, which allowed nothing to float.
Countless pale arms stretched out from beneath the boat, clawing at its worn hull. Yet no matter how hard those wrathful dead pulled, even as the seawater of the encroaching tide lapped against the gunwale, the Ark of the Styx still stubbornly floated upon the surface.
"Get on board!"
Driven by terrifying ntal strength, the ark sliced across the water, sending waves spraying into the air.
Within the towering hundred-ter waves, the giant face opened a gaping, blood-red maw, and its dreadful voice stabbed into the eardrums with unbearable pain.
"Be careful, the Sleeper’s angel legion is coming!"
Angels?!
Lucy rembered dissecting one of the Lord of Golden Worship’s angels back in the Tower of the Four Sages.
These divine constructs were among the symbols of a chief deity, possessing imnse combat strength and an unflinching will to fight to the death.
Lucy said, "Master, the Death God’s angels are here!"
At her words, Theodosius’ face changed. He imdiately leapt to the stern of the boat and looked toward the water—
Only to co face-to-face with a ghastly, pale visage subrged beneath the surface.
"Corpse-Stitching Thread!"
Over a dozen silver threads shot into the water, sending up a spray of gray droplets.
At that sa mont, dozens of Death Realm angels in black cloaks, wielding soul-reaping scythes, burst forth from the depths.
Theodosius activated his witchcraft tools once again, and in an instant, tens of thousands of silver threads blanketed the sky.
The mont the angels touched the Corpse-Stitching Threads, their bodies were sliced cleanly in half and fell into the waters of the Dead Sea.
But in the next instant, the severed angels re-ford their bodies like leeches.
This caused what had originally been only a hundred or so Death Realm angels to multiply into tens of thousands after Theodosius’ onslaught.
They gathered above the ark, forming a vast black cloud that blotted out the sky.
As the number of Death Realm angels swelled, the pressure on Theodosius grew heavier.
Even one with ntal strength as formidable as a Star Ring Wizard could not easily handle so many foes at once.
He gave a muffled grunt, and a string of blood droplets quietly slid from his fingertips.
"They’re Eternal Slumber Angels!" Fenrir’s soul-light trembled violently in the sea of consciousness. "Boss actually deployed the angel legion that guards the Sea of Eternal Slumber!"
"Then tell quickly how to deal with them," Lucy urged.
Fenrir shook his head. "These things are incarnations of law. If we were on the Primary Plane, there might be a way, but here in the realm of the dead, they are nearly immortal. The only option is to hold out until we reach the Gate of the Dead."
By now, the Death Realm angels had closed to within less than ten ters above the ark.
Their pallid faces, so much like those of the drowned at the mont of death beneath a wizard’s hood, were now plainly visible to the naked eye.
"Sickle of Harvest!"
Lucy swung the rusted blade toward the sky. The mont the sickle’s edge swept through the air, a swath of the angel legion fell from above.
But almost instantly, more Death Realm angels filled the gap.
The two of them now seed like a lone skiff in a raging storm, at risk of being swallowed whole by the towering waves at any mont.
Just then, countless crimson tentacles broke the surface from the original channel of the Styx.
Caught off guard, the angels were dragged into the water one after another. After brief struggles, they fell silent.
Densely packed squid-like shapes surfaced.
Seeing this, the Death Realm angels turned their weapons upon the tentacles, hacking them apart. Hundreds, even thousands, of writhing tendrils fell into the waters of the Dead Sea.
Imdiately, the two sides clashed in a chaotic battle at the border between the Dead Sea and the Styx.
"What’s going on?!"
"Hah, I knew Icarus would turn on them," Fenrir laughed. "The Styx is his domain of authority—there’s no way he’d allow the Death Realm angels to run wild here.
"And besides, he and the Sleeper have never gotten along. If the Sleeper really descended onto the Primary Plane, his power would grow imnsely, and Icarus would surely face retribution then."
With a brief reprieve, the two poured their ntal strength into moving the ark. It sped across the water like a motorboat.
The giant face, however, realized the situation was slipping out of control.
If this continued, the tens of millions of sacrificed souls would be completely lost.
The massive face threw back its head and let out another sky-shaking roar.
At the sa ti, in the deepest part of the endless black ocean at the far end of the Styx,
The Death God, the Sleeper, opened His eyes.
…
Crack—
A sharp sound rang out within a room bathed in azure light.
An old wizard, eyes closed in ditation, suddenly snapped them open. In that instant, the clouded gaze blazed with terrifying brilliance.
"The Sleeper has left His domain of authority!"
The mont he spoke, a gray-violet rift in space split open beside him.
Without the slightest hesitation, he stepped inside.
…
At the border between the Styx and the Sea of Eternal Slumber, two divine powers clashed violently.
Lucy gripped the ark’s edge so tightly her knuckles turned white.
At the stern, Master Theodosius wove the Corpse-Stitching Threads into a silver barrier, holding back the splashing waters of the Dead Sea.
"Hold on for five more minutes and we’ll see the Gate of the Dead!" Fenrir’s voice thundered in the sea of consciousness. "But the Boss’s true body is on the way!"
As if to confirm the hound’s warning, the entire gray sky suddenly twisted and warped.
An invisible giant hand tore the cloud layer open, revealing the fathomless darkness beyond.
A terror beyond even the quasi-divine level swept like a tide over every corner of the realm of the dead.
The native beings of both the Styx and the Dead Sea halted their fighting, every living thing bowing to the descent of a true god—everyone except one.
"Star Ring—unfold!"
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