Ring of Fate

Chapter 774 The Pale Kingdom
With the heavy tearing sound of wooden boards that had not moved for a long time, the brown door slowly opened outwards.

The first thing that caught Lumian's eyes was a dim light that was different from the darkness in other areas deep in the underworld.

This does not come from the golden human-shaped street lamp, but is emitted by all things in front.

Then, Lumian saw the scene outside clearly.

It was a palace complex that seemed half-sunken in the void. It had a towering main hall, many tall towers, and aerial corridors connecting the palaces and towers.

The deeper you go into the palace complex, the more it seems to sink into nothingness, while the edges seem to stand solidly in the wilderness.

Even so, the main hall in the core area is still much taller than other buildings in the palace complex.

Today, most of the buildings here have completely collapsed, leaving only broken walls and ruins. The few relatively intact palaces and towers are mainly concentrated in the marginal areas. The only building still standing tall in the core area that can be seen with the naked eye is the main hall and its four spires.

At this moment, whether it was the ruined palace complex, the surrounding wilderness, or the sky high above, all other colors faded away, presenting a dull paleness that enveloped and infected the entire world.

They bring light.

There are still a few other colors remaining in this pale world, namely the gold inlaid on the surface of each building and the black representing the void at the bottom of the palace complex.

The latter has two other sources. One is the illusory dark river of Hades that falls silently from the sky and pours into the back of the main hall like a waterfall. The other is a monster that is entrenched between the four spires on top of the majestic main hall, and its length is long enough to be described by the quantifier of one hundred meters.

It was an exaggerated giant bird, with feather wings woven with pale flames and mysterious patterns spread out, quietly crawling on the roof of the main hall. A lot of the pale flames on the surface of its body had been peeled off, revealing its dark and rotten skin.

Even though he was at a considerable distance, even though he only looked at it two or three times, even though he could not see it clearly, Lumian could not help but feel that his own "death" was accelerating.

He lowered his head and looked at his hands, and found that his skin, which was already pale, dull, and dry due to his transformation into an undead creature, was now covered with dark blue marks of decay.

These marks slowly crawled and deepened.

In addition, his clothes were also initially "infected" by the paleness of this world, and all colors became dull.

"What kind of monster is that?" Lumian didn't dare to look at the giant bird in the distance anymore, and could only look at the palace complex itself.

After a few seconds, the increasingly faint voice of the Sword Knight Maric rang out:
"It could be Gray Carrie's body."

Graygari? The ancestor of the Phoenix among the eight ancient gods of the Second Epoch, the ancient god of death? Lumian blurted out in astonishment:
"Why is his body here?"

After asking this question, Lumian felt that it seemed like a meaningless question:

This is the underworld, so it is not surprising that any dead body appears here. Moreover, the ancient god of death, the Phoenix Ancestor, died before the changes in the underworld.

On the contrary, the body of the "God of Death" of the Eggers family did not appear, and no one knew where he was hidden. This was an abnormal phenomenon.

Lumian didn't expect that the "Knight of Swords" would actually answer his question:

"It might have been placed here by the Eggers family's ancestor, the former 'God of Death'."

Uh... Does that mean that the Death God of the Eggers family not only acquired the extraordinary characteristics of the Phoenix ancestor Gray Carrie, but also brought his body back to the underworld and hid it somewhere in the palace complex? He, no, how did it run to the top of the palace by itself? It's just a corpse! Was it placed like this in the beginning? Or, was the change in the underworld caused by the corpse of this ancient god? With the death of the current "Death God", the ancient Death God turned into a corpse? Lumian immediately had some associations.

At this time, he heard the "Knight of the Sword" add:

"Sharon just saw the egg."

That egg? The egg that the goat-faced devil wants? Sharon is referring to the temperance demigod in my body? Lumian was delighted and asked:
"Where is the egg?"

"Under the abdomen of the corpse suspected to be the ancestor of the Phoenix, it has a pitch-black shell and burns with pale flames. It is about one meter in diameter." The "Sword Knight" briefly described the condition of the egg.

Being protected by the corpse of an ancient god of death? Lumian's scalp suddenly went numb.

How can I get this?
This is no different from killing the demon king Fabuti!

Of course, for those in high positions, a living Ancient God and an Ancient God who has lost his extraordinary characteristics and is left with only a rotting corpse are obviously not on the same level. The difficulty of the two tasks is as different as heaven and abyss, but for Lumian, they are all the same, and are both in the category of "cannot be completed even if you sacrifice yourself."

Raised by a sow, the sheep-faced creature is really an undead creature transformed from the devil!

Okay, if it can’t be completed, then don’t complete it. Kill the person who commissioned it and pretend that there is no such task!

As the malice in Lumian’s heart spread to every part of his body, the Sword Knight said:

"It's not impossible to get the egg. The state of the Phoenix Progenitor's corpse is a bit strange."

The state of the corpse is strange? Aren't there only two states of corpses, eternal sleep and corpse transformation? Lumian didn't dare to observe the rotting corpse of the ancient death god Graygari with his own eyes, so he could only ask the only person present who could observe the body of the ancient god to a certain extent, that is, the temperance demigod Sharon:
"Why is it weird?"

The one who answered was still the "Knight of Swords":
“It’s in a deep sleep, a sleep that’s hard to wake up from.

"This does not fit the status quo of this pale country."

Sleep? They are all dead and transformed into corpses. Do they still need to sleep? Lumian frowned slightly and said:

“Why do you say it doesn’t fit the current situation here?”

The Sword Knight explained after a few seconds:
“From the current situation, one of the reasons for the changes in the underworld was the transformation of the Phoenix Ancestor. It destroyed the palace of the God of Death, killed all the followers of the God of Death present, and turned this place into a pale kingdom.

“We have come into contact with several demigods in the realm of the God of Death before. After the changes in the underworld, they were able to use it to accomplish some things, or even enter it directly. However, none of them dared to go deep into the underworld to search for the treasures left in the palace of the God of Death. Their intuition told them that this place was very dangerous and they must not get close.

"And Sharon didn't have such a premonition of danger just now, so she agreed to come here."

That is to say, for a long time after the change in the underworld, the corpse of the Phoenix Progenitor was still wandering in this pale kingdom, making the high-ranking people in the "Death God" field dare not approach it, but now, it is sleeping... Lumian found the strangeness from the description of the "Sword Knight" Maric.

"When was the last time a high-ranking being from the Path of Death approached the depths of the underworld and sensed danger?" Lumian tried to determine the approximate time frame.

"I don't know." The "Knight of the Sword" answered quickly.

I don't know... It seems that the body of the Phoenix Ancestor has only been sleeping in recent years. Otherwise, the high-ranking people of the "Death God" path would find that it is not so dangerous after entering the underworld, and they could try to explore it. It is not that there are no traces left, and there is no news leaked... What happened in recent years? Lumian couldn't help complaining while thinking:

"Why did the 'God of Death' of the Eggers family bring back the corpse of the Phoenix Progenitor, leaving such a huge hidden danger? As a true god, he should be able to destroy the corpse directly!"

The Sword Knight responded to Lumian's complaint:
“The Underworld was created by the ancient God of Death in the Spirit World. As an ancient god, He does not only have the power of the ‘God of Death’ path, and He did not only use the power of the ‘God of Death’ path when He created the Underworld.

"It may not be easy for the Eggers family's 'Death God' to control the underworld at first. He needs the help of the corpse left by the Phoenix ancestor. By the time He truly controls it, His condition may not be right anymore and He will no longer pay attention to such trivial matters."

Does this mean that the "Death God" of the Eggers family went crazy later? It turns out that the underworld was not formed naturally, but was created by the ancient Death God Graygari... This ancient god is really powerful, no wonder it is possible to transform into a corpse... Lumian sighed in his heart.

The Sword Knight seemed to sense his sigh and said simply:
"It is said that even among those crazy ancient gods, the Phoenix Ancestor Graygari is the one who likes to make trouble the most and has caused a lot of trouble. She is similar to the 'Blood Emperor' Alistair Tudor of the Fourth Epoch."

I can understand your analogy very well... Lumian's eyes kept moving back and forth between the pale sky, the wilderness and the collapsed palaces, wondering whether he should take advantage of the ancient death god's corpse sleeping and steal the black giant egg burning with pale flames.

Suddenly, he found a figure that was still able to move.

It was a monster with a human head but a body like a giant bird.

The monster's limbs were bent, and its nails gleaming with cold light extended. Its wings covered with half pale and half brown feathers were spread out on its back. Its head seemed incompletely developed, as if several babies' heads were slowly merging together.

"The premature baby from Oseto? It's here too!" Lumian recognized the monster's identity.

That was the target he and the temperance members were tracking!

At this time, Osetto's monster child was flapping its wings, circling continuously, and quietly approaching the sleeping body of the ancient god little by little.

Its target seemed to be the huge black egg beneath the corpse!
“It must be stopped!

"Sharon is responsible for cursing it and controlling it, and we are responsible for attacking!"

The voice of the Sword Knight echoed in Lumian's mind.

“Okay.” This time, Lumian did not hesitate and ran out of the bottom of the dark church.

As soon as he stepped into that pale country, his entire body was dyed pale, without any additional color.

This made his body and mind tremble, and he just wanted to kneel on the ground and crawl motionlessly.

Silently, Lumian drew out the "Sword of Courage".

The blade of the sword, which had been eroded by paleness, suddenly burst into a blazing white and blue flame.

(End of this chapter)