this infinite world

dark.

Undoubtedly dark.

As far as the eye could see, there was only a thick, inky darkness. This darkness seemed to possess a tangible quality, completely enveloping and swallowing Yang Yun's figure. Ahead of him lay a deep, chilling blackness, with only the path he had come from faintly revealing a few glimmers of light...

However, as Yang Yun turned a corner around a cliff, this last glimmer of light was completely left behind and vanished without a trace.

—An abyss? No, it doesn't seem like it...

Faced with this endless darkness, Yang Yun's first thought was of the Abyss in Dark Souls 1—a truly dark realm devoid of light, whose ruler was none other than Manus, the ancestor of mankind mentioned by Ocelotus earlier, the Lord of the Abyss.

During the main god space, many members of the Arctic team believed that he was the dwarf who had no name and did not appear in the opening animation, and who had truly obtained the "Dark Soul".

However, since Ocelot is so certain that he has glimpsed the future, this place cannot possibly be the Abyss. As a former member of the Sun God Clan and the noble god of fire, Fran, he must be intimately familiar with the Abyss, the enemy of the Light.

While the possibility of the abyss swallowing the present world is certainly not zero, if Ocelotus were to be easily deceived by this pitch-black world and even willingly fall into madness, it would be a gross underestimation of the wisdom and insight of this former god.

Moreover, this place differs from the abyss in one fundamental way—

"...The energy in this world has become so scarce."

Not long after entering this dark world, Yang Yun clearly sensed that this world was fundamentally different from the space-time he had been in before—the most significant difference being the extreme scarcity of energy in the air.

If the previous world, though the flames were dying down, still allowed one to feel energy flowing between heaven and earth, then this place is like a desert drained of all life, where even the most basic energy activity has dropped to freezing point.

This was undoubtedly a scene of apocalypse, like a mid-magic plane sliding towards low-magic, eventually plunging into a magic-free abyss where all supernatural powers had vanished. The energy in the world was so thin it was suffocating; it felt as if even breathing was draining one's energy...

For Yang Yun, who is not a real living being but an aggregate of spiritual light and the embodiment of his own will, this world is extremely unfavorable. A dry and stagnant feeling came from all directions, as if he were the only source of light in this dark world.

“...A world without fire.” Yang Yun slowly opened his palm, gazing at the gradually dimming blue glow at his fingertips.

In Yang Yun's perception, the spiritual light that constituted this avatar was, at this moment, like fine sand in an hourglass, silently flowing away at an extremely subtle and slow pace. But what was even more alarming was that this loss was not a simple dissipation of energy, but some deeper, irreversible "dissolution," as if the world itself was rejecting the existence of some powerful being...

The most bizarre thing is that this loss of power was subtle and gradual. If Yang Yun hadn't possessed an incredibly profound control over his own energy, he probably wouldn't have noticed anything amiss until his power was more than half depleted. Even just imagining it makes it clear that if Yang Yun's microscopic abilities couldn't completely prevent this from happening, then the Demon King Ocelotius, who had also entered this place, must have been even more terrified. How horrified he must have been to feel his magic power collapsing like a burst dam! He probably hadn't even gone very far after entering this world before most of his energy was drained away, forcing him to flee back in a panic…

"So that's how it is. No wonder it transformed from a 'god' into a 'dragon'..."

Having grasped the true nature of this world, Yang Yun finally understood the deeper motivation behind Ocelot's descent into madness. This former god of fire, the ruler of Lothric, had likely mistakenly identified this "fireless world" as an ancient era before the First Flame ignited, a time when only ancient dragons could survive.

Since the distant past, all who know the truth have understood that the First Flame will eventually be extinguished, and darkness will inevitably descend. Whether from the accounts of the two princes of Lothric or the information in the memories of the Dragon Slayer Armor, the legend that "after the First Flame is extinguished, the world will return to its original state" has always been widely circulated—and in that prophesied world, only ancient dragons can survive normally.

As is well known, the ancient dragons' indestructible scales granted them unparalleled defensive capabilities, which was the very reason they survived in the primordial world. If Gwyn hadn't discovered that lightning could pierce dragon scales, and if Seath the scaleless white dragon hadn't betrayed his kind, this world might still be under the rule of the ancient dragons…

It is likely that Ocelotus glimpsed a fragment of this world, which is why he was willing to do anything to transform himself into a dragon, attempting to gain a place to survive in the prophesied new era.

Reflecting on this, Yang Yun gradually grasped the deeper meaning of Ocelotius's words. The "Deep Sea Age" wasn't a world literally submerged by seawater, but rather a world transformed into a vast, silent ocean of energy. In this unique "sea," all life lurked in the darkness like deep-sea creatures, and only those with sufficient energy reserves and adapted to the extreme environment could thrive in this energy-scarce state…

"But this is not some bullshit 'Deep Sea Age'."

Extending his perception, which far surpassed Ocelot's in both precision and breadth, outwards, the true picture of the world slowly unfolded in Yang Yun's consciousness. Although the world was shrouded in eternal darkness, and all things seemed to have fallen into silence, in that seemingly lifeless depth, he clearly captured traces of life.

What surprised him even more was that these creatures struggling to survive in their desperate situation were actually a type of monster he had seen before—

"...A crow-man?"

Yang Yun's brows furrowed slightly. Those figures, slumped on the ground emitting "cawing" sounds, bore at least a striking resemblance to the Arakkoa from the original Dark Souls' art world. Their bodies were hunched, their feathers sparse and dull… But why were these creatures, who should have been roaming the art world, appearing in this fireless world that Ocelotross considered the "future"?

What concerned him even more was that the group of crow-men were currently surrounding a strange mark that emitted a faint glow. The mark, appearing and disappearing in the thick darkness, outlined a familiar shape—

"This is……"

Yang Yun's pupils contracted slightly: "In the game, a 'white talisman' for summoning spirits?" (End of Chapter)