A dull longsword and a heartbroken villager

"Is it that you can't accept the fact that you're dead?"

“…” Bray was a little annoyed.

"Of course, this old man can't tell if someone is lying or not."

"But if it's true, I hope you can get back safely." The old man said this without any joking tone.

Yes, he couldn't tell if others were lying to him, but if Bray really had come in by accident, then he sincerely hoped that he would leave safely.

This place is too unbearable for the living.

"And another thing..." The old man suddenly stopped speaking.

"Forget it, asking you to pass on a posthumous message is too much to ask of you."

"Have a safe journey. If you want to know anything, you can come back and find me."

"Don't hurt those poor guys."

“I understand.” Bray nodded, naturally knowing exactly what the old man meant by “poor fellow.”

"If they don't bite me, I'll just take a detour."

“I don’t think they usually bite.” The old man shrugged, his poor eyesight watching Bray stand up.

Ah, what a pity, it's rare to find a young man to chat with. Bray walked in the direction the old man pointed.

Along the way, he saw many dead people whose memories were fading away.

Some people are shouting that they must find someone, but they forget who they are looking for.

Some people always say they love everyone deeply, but they don't know who that "everyone" includes.

Some people hugged the stones, revealing a smile that only appears in sweet dreams.

Just like that old guy said, they're nothing but a bunch of pathetic creatures.

However, Bray sometimes feels that he is too trusting and that he might be sold out one day.

He believed what the old man said, and some of it even made a lot of sense.

I wonder if that guy was trying to lie to me.

Fortunately, so far he hasn't been scammed too badly; he's been cheated far more often than he's ever been.

Trust clearly takes time, especially with strangers, yet he still often trusts the help he receives from strangers.

After walking for a while, Bray became certain that the old man wasn't lying to him.

He casually looked up and saw the towering stone platform.

The shape of this stone platform is very similar to the surrounding stone mountains, so it is impossible to distinguish it from a distance; it can only be recognized when you get up close.

Although it is said to be the highest point in the underworld, it is actually not very high, at most a little taller than a typical clock tower.

"Again?" Bray shifted his gaze from the highest point of the stone platform to the Yellow Springs Guardian in front of him.

These guardians of the underworld can be encountered along the way, as if they are scattered throughout the entire underworld.

On this side of the stone bridge, it was the first time that Bray had encountered the Guardian of the Underworld.

To be honest, Bray wouldn't be surprised at all if he encountered any of the Underworld Guardians right now, and he could remain very calm even if he encountered a large group of them.

However, Bray was shocked when the Underworld Guardian could speak fluently.

For example, the one in front of me.

“You’re alive…it seems you’re the target.” The guardian of the underworld touched his skeleton with his hand.

He spoke without any pauses, nor did he sound confused or incoherent.

It's as ordinary as it gets, but this ordinariness becomes very strange when it appears on the guardian of the underworld.

"Can you speak?" Bray asked tentatively, his hand on the scabbard, ready to draw his sword at any moment.

"Of course I can speak; after all, I'm still a human being..."

"Or rather, not long ago I was still alone," the guardian of the underworld said.

"But judging from your tone, you must have encountered my companions before."

Bray raised an eyebrow; the other person's words revealed a wealth of information, so much that he couldn't process it all at once.

But after saying those words, the other party swung the chain hammer in his hand without hesitation.

When the chain of the hammer is swung, it leaves a trail of afterimages, as if countless hammers were swung out at the same time.

Bray squinted his right eye and wedged the hilt of his sword into a joint of the chain.

Due to its immense power, the chain hammer, along with the chain, tightly wrapped around the hilt of the longsword.

When the opponent tried to pull the chain hammer back, he found that his strength could not be transmitted to the chain hammer at all.

However, this guardian of the underworld has more than just weapons as a means of attack.

"The Touch of Dizoca"

A hoarse voice came from beneath the skull of the skeleton.

Countless wronged souls surged from the ground, grabbing Bray's hand.

These vengeful spirits not only seized Bray's body, but also his "life".

Bray took a few steps back, but unfortunately, the vengeful spirits held on tightly, and such a small movement was absolutely not enough to break free from their grasp.

Bray hadn't expected to break free from this divine spell so easily; his retreat was to create some room to maneuver.

He patted the base of the longsword hilt with his left hand.

The next moment, the wronged spirits seemed to be dispersed by a spreading ripple, disappearing without a trace.

"What exactly are you? Are you living people?" The dragon pattern hidden under Bray's clothes glowed faintly.

"A living person? Yes, they were."

"But because of you, we have already lost our status as living people."

"We are so ridiculous, and so pathetic."

When the Guardians of the Underworld failed to retrieve their weapons, they simply abandoned them and lunged at the mine with their bare hands.

The black robe fluttered, revealing a body pieced together from countless bones.

As expected, no matter what, it's impossible to connect Him with the living.

At that moment, Bray saw a very familiar shadow in this guy.

"The Deathbringer?" For some reason, Bray blurted out that word.

The attire of the Underworld Guardians was so similar to that of the Deathbringers that Bray initially thought the Deathbringers' fanatical followers were imitating the Underworld Guardians.

However, he never considered the possibility that the one who would claim his life was the Yellow Springs Defender.

No matter how hard you try, you would never think of coming here, because this hellish place is the underworld, a place where the living cannot enter.

Even a living person wouldn't want to come in.

"Hahahaha, it seems you remember us quite well."

Those guardians of the underworld—no, they should be called death hunters—

Laughing loudly, he used his sharp nails to stab at Bray's head.

"Why have you become like this?" Bray asked, his brow furrowed.

“Because of you, because of the oracle,” He said softly, his hands less than a centimeter from Bray’s head.

But He could not cross that one centimeter.

"Kill me, or let me die a second time," the killer said.

Silence, stillness.

"..." Finally, Bray's sword hilt, still bound by the opponent's chains, struck the body made of piled bones.

"Returning to Heaven."

Without being knocked away or bleeding, the reaper dispersed within that solidified one-centimeter space.

Countless bone fragments exploded, tearing apart the fragile black robe.

After untying the chains binding his sword hilt, Bray stared at the black robe that lay limply on the ground.

No wonder the Guardians of the Underworld gave Bray such a strong sense of familiarity; they were all the previous Deathbringers.

He exhaled a breath of stale air and straightened his back.

He stood there, but the surrounding rocky mountains seemed to be revolving around him.

In the shadows of the rocky mountain, a red light, filled with murderous intent, flickered.

"These guys are definitely working in groups." Bray took a deep breath, realizing he was surrounded by several Underworld Guardians.

If I'm not mistaken, all of these guardians of the underworld are transformed from the Soul Reapers.

Forget it... I'll just call them the Deathbringers from now on.

From the moment he learned that the Guardians of the Underworld were transformed from the Deathbringers, Bray felt inexplicably uneasy.

It's not that I pity these killers who take lives, but rather that I'm annoyed by other things.

Some of those who seek to take lives are extremely devout believers, while others acquire this identity for other reasons.

However, they have all been cast into the underworld without exception—all because of that divine decree.

They were once living, breathing people, but now they have become wandering souls in the underworld.

Of course, while paying the price, they also gained power, a power far greater than that of the Deathbringers.

Unfortunately, this power serves no purpose other than to serve Dizoca.

Even after becoming a powerful monster, memories will still fade away just like those of other dead souls in the underworld.

The memories of the killer on this side of the stone bridge have not completely disappeared, so it seems that some of their humanity has been retained.

When memories are completely lost and humanity is exhausted, one will become an empty shell, just as the old man said.

It is still an empty shell that exists only to fulfill the Dizoca Oracle.

They will involuntarily cross the bridge, becoming all the guardians of the underworld that Bray had recently come into contact with.

Roaring meaninglessly, it crawled out of the murky river, chasing after Bray, the only living person in the underworld.

This will be the sole meaning of their existence.

Ultimately, the Golden Seed does not possess any genuine "kindness" towards beings far inferior to itself.

Saving the townspeople and creating the Deathbringer were all for their own smooth arrival in Kapras.

"Crack crack crack crack... The feeling of dying a second time is really not bad." A death hunter with a voice like that of a middle-aged man said with emotion after being cleaved in two by Bray's sword.

For Him, this might be a relief, just like the one before.

Dezoca, loyal to the one who saved him from despair, and tormented by becoming a monster of the walking dead, was killed by Bray's sword—this was the best ending.

The words of the Deathbringer echoed in Bray's ears as he stood on the stone platform.

Bray stared at the corpse of the Deathbringer, which had fallen backward and crashed off the stone platform.

A corpse? Do the dead even have a corpse to speak of?

From the moment they were summoned to the underworld by Dizoka, they became a contradictory existence.

Bray fanned away the eerie blue flames drifting around him and gazed into the distance from the towering stone platform.

Despite encountering countless death-reapers along the way, Bray still managed to stand on the stone platform.

Thanks to the old man's words, he avoided taking a long detour and quickly climbed up.

The tower is quite high to climb, and the time it takes to climb it is not much shorter than walking it.

A gentle breeze carrying a strange chill blew by, softly lifting Bree's messy bangs.

"..." A pale golden door was reflected in Bray's right eye.

The gate stood out starkly against the overall atmosphere of the underworld.

The outer frame of the gate is made of countless black rocks arranged in a circle, and what makes it appear golden is the "door".