Four chains were slashed like they ant nothing. A man dropped to the ground, facing the woman who stood before him.
She didn't speak any words. She looked into his eyes for but a mont before turning and walking away.
"Hey!"
The man yelled out, trying to stop her. However, she was ethereal. When he reached out to grasp her arm, he found that she was almost entirely intangible.
And, she didn't acknowledge his presence any longer. As if her job was finished the mont she cut those chains, she pretended as if he didn't exist.
"Tch! Wait, I said!"
The man persisted, following her along the way. He didn't know where he was, who she was, or what he was ant to do.
He only knew that he couldn't be left alone here. In this place where even the air slled of death, he did not want to be left to his own devices.
The two people walked one after the other, through plains that the man couldn't quite comprehend. The environnt around him seed to blur into a single vague picture of tornt rather than a natural scenery.
He rembered seeing shades of red and black. He rembered slling blood and death. He rembered being terrified of the unknown that lay beyond, however, what did he truly see…?
To this day, he could not rember.
That vague impression was the first Horus had of the Underworld.
That mont…
He couldn't even rember how long ago that mont was, but it had to have been several years at the very least.
His life wasn't easy from there on out. It was grueling in ways he never could have expected.
He followed that woman to a city with an ancient atmosphere. It was walked by people of all kinds, all of whom gave him strange looks as he passed by.
Only after glancing at the woman walking in front of him did those others take their attention off of him.
From that alone, he knew that he was out of place. He was a stranger in a new world.
The building they eventually entered was nearly empty, save for ten or so people.
Thinking back, they were the only reason he was able to survive.
They were also the ones who told him exactly where he was and what was happening.
"Welco to Hell… Well, maybe that isn't really the right word."
With that kind of introduction, Horus was introduced to this world.
A world where he was the only living person that anyone had ever seen.
His body gave off an aura of life that was incredibly dangerous. Underworld creatures and spirits with sentience were all those who could not enter the cycle of reincarnation.
Those people would grow within the Underworld itself to beco spirits of higher rank so they could enjoy more privileges and better lives.
The aura of life was a very beneficial thing to their cultivation. It was similar to how humans sotis ingested poisons or volatile energies to feed their cultivation.
Horus walked through the city and practically advertised himself as a perfect cauldron, but the presence of that one-horned woman changed his fate.
He didn't get to learn who she was, and after leaving him at the building, she disappeared without a trace.
However, it was unquestionable that if he didn't have her help, he would have experienced a much worse fate.
His very first introduction to this world was a shocking one. He never expected that of all places, he'd be in the Underworld.
He was lucky enough to not fall into the Underworld belonging to his own Society, but was this much better?
His introduction to this place was relatively friendly, but that was where the friendliness ended.
The Underworld, at least the portion of it not occupied by tortured souls, was like a crueler and colder version of the cultivation world he already knew.
And it ca with its own struggles.
Horus was caught in the midst of a conflict between two forces from the get-go. He really had no choice.
Those people who saved him called themselves Spirit Arm. They were his only hope of survival, and more importantly, they were the only ones who could give him the artifact he needed to hide his vital aura.
By Spirit Arm's side, he learned about the Underworld's unique cultivation system. He learned of the relationships between forces in this city called Gaeda, and he learned about the "other side" of the Underworld.
Of course, the Underworld that he knew existed. A majority of the Underworld, specifically in the center surrounding the Lord's Fortress, it was like that.
Countless souls were being tornted as their sins were cleansed from their souls. Those souls would eventually, whether in one day or one million years, be sent back into the cycle of reincarnation to be reborn.
The outskirts of this Underworld were very different. Find your next read on empire
No, the outskirts of every Underworld were like this. It was even theorized by so of these spirits that the outskirts of all Underworlds ford a single plane that connected all of the different locations together.
Still, none of this had to do with Horus' own experience.
And, even his first escapades with Spirit Arm took place several years ago. Horus' current situation…
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Massive purple bursts of energy filled the black skies. Countless people fought in every direction one looked.
They used swords and blades coated in strange kinds of energy that couldn't be seen in the real world. They clashed, slashing into each other's bodies and ripping their souls apart.
It was undoubtedly a scene of war.
"Horus, push forward!"
A voice ca from his side. He slashed down the enemy in front of him and roared back.
"We cannot!"
He knew what they wanted to do, but it simply wasn't possible. If they pushed now, it was more likely that all of them would die before they achieved anything.
Nevertheless, they were pushing for a reason.
"We have to! You know what happens otherwise!"
He did.
He knew, but–
"...!"
Horus couldn't keep paying attention to those words.
He rapidly moved his head to the side, barely avoiding a blade coated in a slimy green energy.
"Dania!"
He roared, his eyes turning red in rage.
"How dare you appear here!"
A golden black energy left his body, returning to the world in the sa way it had several tis already.
This was clearly not a battle taking place randomly.
Right, whether it be relationships or knowledge, Horus had accumulated many since he'd first been trapped here. He built a life in the Underworld that led to the current war.
Atlas rushed as fast as he could to reach his friends, but the six months he spent in the real world translated to far more ti in this plane.
It would be strange if Horus was able to remain uninvolved in conflict for that long.
But, how he got there…
It was a much, much longer story than could be told in only a few words.
If Atlas wanted to hear that story, he'd have to find Horus and hear it for himself.
Yet, even then, it was unknown if he'd really be able to believe it all.
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