“There’s no magic? Elena, how is magic different from the power of Universal Law?” Searching through the Soul Shop, Keith was puzzled. There was no magic. Did Anthrus not use magic? Was it irrelevant?

“Master, Magic is secondary to Law. At Master Anthrus’s level, he amplified his physical abilities with the power of Life and Death. His hand could steal life as well as save it. The same concept applied to his magic. He used true magic. Mortals use chants and objects or other materials as intermediaries, but real magic is infused with the power of law. With his understanding of his laws, Anthrus combined it with his mana. As long as he knew what he wanted, with a wave of his hand he could make it happen.”

Whenever she spoke of Anthrus, Elena never joked and was full of reverence towards him. In many ways, he was her god, he was her religion. As his one and only disciple, she felt it was her duty to carry out Anthrus’s request to guide his descendent. If Keith did become the next Divine Monarch of Life and Death, the subject of her faith would be Keith. He would become the new God in her heart.

“Isn’t that… what?” Keith scrunched is eyebrows and brushed his hand through his hair as he tried to comprehend what Elena said.

Slowly he voiced his thoughts as if he was afraid to be berated. “But, doesn’t that mean he cannot use other types of magic, like…. Fire magic? I doubt that he would be able to use something like Instant Death Magic. That’s not real right, right?”

“It’s real.”

Keith: “…” Not even a moment’s hesitation before she replied…scary.

He didn’t know what to say. Instant Death Magic was real? Isn’t that a bit too strong?! With a snap of his fingers Anthrus could kill anyone he wanted?

Even though she could not manifest her soul body and only saw the world through Keith’s eyes, Elena could easily imagine his expressions.

“You only just learned about Universal Law. Naturally you would not understand even a fraction of its true power. So what, Master Anthrus could still create fire with his magic, it would just be so weak that it wouldn’t be able to kill someone that ascended right in front of his eyes. But, that’s for Divine Rulers. As long as you are a mortal, Master Anthrus’s flames would still incinerate you in less than a second, even if you were a so-called SSS-Rank. Ha, they are weak! They do not know what true strength is!”

Elena scoffed at the thought of Master Anthrus killing a so-called SSS-Rank. These mere mortals should cry tears of joy if Master Anthrus decided to kill them personally.

“That’s… your joking right?” Keith found what Elena said hard to stomach.

“No I am not joking. Although he could use such magic, it is not omnipotent. Its success rate against mortals was ninety-nine percent. As for newly ascended Divine Rulers, they had a sixty-percent chance to instantly die. If they ascended with the Laws of Life or Death, then they would still have a thirty percent chance to die. For any other Divine Ruler who’s had time to acclimate to their power the spell doesn’t work. There is also a limit. If the spell fails, it cannot be used on the same individual ever again.”

“Even so, that’s… I do not have words to describe what I am thinking right now.” Keith said, he was completely stunned, how could someone become so powerful? They truly were God-like.

Just as Keith wanted to ask another question, he put it in the back of his mind. With help from Elena, he had learned to close off his thoughts to her, so he had some privacy now. But that also meant she couldn’t answer his questions as he thought of them. But he didn’t mind such a trade-off, everyone needed privacy.

The reason he cut short his question was because in the distance he finally saw the gateway back to Earth. Since he took a detour in order to learn how to use his abilities, it had taken a few days longer than anticipated.

The gateway to Earth was actually a portal. There were four obsidian pillars. They were in a square formation, all equal distance from each other. A small band of light shot out from the top of the pillars, it was blue in color. The lights converged in the center of the square formation, and beneath it a blue portal was formed. If he were to step through the portal, Keith would arrive back on Earth.

“Strange, why is there no one there?”

On any given day there would always be countless parties of E to D-Rank entering and leaving the portal. Even if he was quite a distance away, he should have been able to see many groups of people. If he didn’t see them, even at the distance he was from the portal, he should be able to hear them.

Perhaps it was because he had gotten stronger these past few days, but Keith certainly felt as if he sensed something was off. Although he couldn’t smell it yet, he felt like blood was lingering in the air. Was there a battle, did the beasts escape to Earth? Even if it was an E-Rank Realm, someone of at least B-Rank was always on guard at the Earth side of the portal no matter the realms rank.

As if on cue, the moment Keith felt something was off, the ground began to violently quake. It shook so hard that the earth split. Keith lost his balance. Falling to the ground, he witnessed a sight that he never thought he would see.

The portal to Earth began to flicker, and its faint humming noise grew louder and louder. Space began to distort as the portal changed color from a sky blue to an ominous looking purple color. Gravity changed and became heavier forcing Keith to nearly fall face first onto the ground, unable to move an inch. Luckily, he had already known what was occurring by instinct. Only one thing could make the realm act so violent without warning. The Kavala Wastelands was mutating. There was no telling what rank realm it would become.

Struggling to stand, Keith witnessed the skies turn black. Thunder boomed, and lightning streaked across the sky in myriad colors. Rain began to downpour. The ground continued to quake and split. The brown, red, white, and turquoise sand types all blew into the air, mixing in a flurry. They created a sand storm.

Although it was difficult to see, Keith saw a faint glimmer of the portal through the sand storm. Once the light disappeared, and the pressure he felt from gravity dissipated, he knew the portal had disappeared.

The world around him didn’t become peaceful. Instead it grew more violent. The most dangerous part was the mixtures of sand and the ground beneath him splitting.

Keith grew disoriented in the sand storm. Some of the reddish-gold sand even sparked, causing small fiery explosions which burned his skin. He trudged forward to the pillars that remained. They seemed to be in the only stable area. It was like the eye of a hurricane. Perhaps because the portal was originally in the square formation created by the pillars, the area was calm.

Almost losing his footing several times, Keith finally came to the only safe area. After he came to his senses he looked around. The sight that greeted him, well… he had a bad feeling and predicted something like this would happen but the sight was grotesque. Even if he was used to blood and death, this was a first for him.

“Horrifying isn’t it.” Elena said emotionlessly, “Take a good look. This is what happens to you if you do not grow stronger rapidly.”

Keith looked at the bodies around him. The people here, they weren’t just E or D-Rank. Some of them were wearing armor that clearly was expensive. Based on his knowledge, people in such armor either were spoiled kids from rich families, or they were legitimate B-Rank Hunters. Keith leaned towards the latter option. But why were their B-Rankers here? What happened here?

The people weren’t just killed. They were slaughtered. Some of the corpses looked like they were tortured for information based on their shallow wounds. They probably died from fear and shock. But this wasn’t the worst of it. There were plenty bodies without heads. Most of them were missing limbs. Some even looked as if their limbs were ripped from their sockets one by one. Others bodies were cleaved in two. After seeing all this, Keith felt the urge to vomit. This was especially true after he saw a young girl who couldn’t be any older than fifteen. Her stomach was ripped open and ravaged as if something began to eat her alive. This scene… he knew he would remember it for the rest of his life.

For a long time, Keith was silent. Although he felt that he’d changed after killing for the first time, apparently it was less than he would have liked to believe. He thought that his confidence grew. He thought that he could defend himself. But after witnessing this scene, it was a reality check for him.

“Elena, I will need your advice, please guide me.”

They were simple words, but the magnitude of emotions behind them was not lost to Elena. Although she was only a sliver of her former self and lost most of her memories after drifting as a soul for hundreds of years, she still had a personality the same as when she was alive. With every soul Keith devoured, as his soul grew in strength, so too did she. Perhaps in time, most of her memories, especially those related to the myriad realms and her adventures throughout them would return.

“I am here for you.”

Elena didn’t give a speech. She knew exactly what was going through Keith’s mind. The portal disappeared and this scene showed him how weak he was. His power was newly awakened. She knew just as well as he did that although rare, when a realm mutates not even a Divine Ruler would know the outcome. Keith’s chances of survival had just plummeted.

The only thing he could rely on was her, she was his mental support. She couldn’t do anything to ease the hardships he would go through from now on; all she could do was give her meager advice, at least for now.

She only had limited knowledge and it was hundreds of years old, but she had made a vow to Anthrus, and she planned to see it through. Not only was it out of respect for her previous Master whom she worshipped –and also secretly regarded as a father figure-, but also because she could see the latent potential of Keith. If Keith truly wanted to inherit Anthrus’s mission and deal with “that” which not even Anthrus could kill, then he would have to survive in conditions far worse than this.

He would have to suffer far beyond what even Divine Rulers could tolerate. He would have to climb from the deepest depths of despair, where there was not even a sliver of hope. The path Keith chose, it would be like releasing Pandora’s Box. However, at the bottom of the jar there would not be hope, only pain and despair.