The Gate to the Underworld
Chapter 67. Cosic Village, William Cemetery. This place was not far from Kain's house and was where he had first awakened his Ebon in the past. Unlike the village, where new streetlights had been installed, there was no sign of any lighting or lamps here, just as before.
"……."
Memories of walking this dark path relying only on the light of his smartphone in the past resurfaced vividly. But things were different now. Unlike when he had been powerless, this level of darkness was far too insufficient to obscure his vision.
Beyond his glasses, countless tombstones and graves stood in neat rows, clearly visible. Just as in his childhood, Kain strode through them without hesitation, heading straight toward a spot in his memories.
Probably around here.
His memories were hazy since he had only just awakened his Ebon at the time, and he had wandered aimlessly with the intention of ending things quickly, so he couldn't recall the exact location. Still, once he entered the cemetery, he could vaguely sense where he had awakened. After all, he was the first Absolute-level Ebon user to appear since Binghu in the north. Even though he had suppressed the aftereffects of that awakening with black magic, traces were bound to remain. Even after ten years had passed.
"This is it."
He followed the traces. Residual mana from the Inner World that had failed to escape the cemetery and lingered, creating a faint distortion in space as if forming a miniature Inner World. Kain let out a light sigh.
"Lucky it didn't explode. This thing."
Every human possessed a basic defensive mechanism in their brain. It was, in a sense, a survival instinct. When faced with something overwhelmingly powerful, they deliberately shut off their perception, refusing to acknowledge its reality. The distortion before Kain's eyes was no different. It was the remnant of an Ebon rampage. An Ebon bomb that the young Kain had forcibly suppressed using the ego of a superhuman-level black mage. Even if it exploded, it wouldn't turn the entire Ellemental Kingdom into a wasteland like the northern continent, but at the very least, the northern region of the Ellemental Kingdom would become uninhabitable. Its power and danger were such that ordinary people would find it difficult to notice. Only expert-level ability users might have sensed something amiss. And unfortunately, expert-level ability users had no reason to visit this rural village. At most, a skilled priest might occasionally come to sprinkle holy water.
The Archbishop wouldn't come all the way to a place like this just to sprinkle holy water because he had nothing better to do.
So it was no surprise that no one had noticed this anomaly until Kain arrived. Pride, following Kain's orders in the past to investigate the identity of the black mage in this tomb and Bulsa-wang, likely hadn't ventured this deep into the cemetery either. Even Kain had only realized what it was after seeing it with his own eyes, so he wasn't the type of ruthless superior to berate his subordinate for failing to notice something he himself had missed.
Impressive.
Instead, Kain found himself admiring his own past handiwork. How had he created something like this at such a young age, when he had only just begun to bloom as a black mage? Now, its crudeness was obvious, but if he were to return to the past and try to replicate it exactly, he wasn't confident he could succeed. That was how remarkable it was. Despite the visible distortion in space, not a single trace of leaking mana existed.
It must be escaping somewhere else.
Seeing it with his own eyes, he could be certain. This was the passage leading to the Underworld. When mana was used, waste was inevitable. It was a fundamental law of the world, and even an Absolute with exceptional mana control couldn't violate it. Even Kain couldn't have created a seal at such a young age that prevented even the slightest leakage of mana. In other words, the mass of rampaging Ebon mana was escaping to somewhere other than this place. And that place was undoubtedly the Underworld.
Why didn't I anticipate this?
The moment he heard from Pride that Bulsa-wang was the culprit, he should have thought of this place. The black mage killed by Kain's hand back then. He had known since long ago that the man was one of Bulsa-wang's pawns, and cases like the Masao family, where black mages left posthumous curses after their deaths, were extremely common across the continent. A posthumous curse was, in other words, the strong lingering will of the black mage, even in death. Whether it was magic, spirit arts, or black magic, the foundation of all abilities in this world was mana as the material, combined with the thought and will to achieve one's desire. The black mage's ego had left a phenomenon even after death. Kain's Ebon awakening. The mana released at that time had been imbued with the black mage's will. As a result, it had remained in this world as a posthumous curse. What he had desired was likely what Bulsa-wang wanted. And that had eroded the barrier between the Underworld and the world of the living, creating a hole.
Theoretically, it's not impossible.
An Absolute-level Ebon user and a superhuman-level black mage. Their collaboration could have brought about such a miraculous feat. Even if the possibility was infinitely slim, it was by no means impossible. But separate from that, Kain couldn't fully accept it.
Disgusting.
If this was true, then it meant his own responsibility was involved to some extent in his sister's death. That was something he could never accept or acknowledge.
"……."
Kain reached out toward the spatial distortion. At the same time, the surrounding atmosphere sank heavily in an instant. A silence fell as if gravity had multiplied several times over. The cemetery, already filled only with the eerie sound of wind, was erased into perfect silence.
Crack.
The space ahead collapsed. The domain constructed by his younger self. He deliberately shattered it, forcibly detonating what lay dormant within and taking complete control. The reason his past self couldn't handle the rampage was simply because he was young and inexperienced. The current Kain was an existence that transcended the realm of humans. There was no way he couldn't handle something that had only grown weaker over time.
"Die."
Kain's eyes, hidden behind his glasses, gleamed ominously with a violet light. The spatial distortion, which had initially resisted, now seemed terrified and desperately tried to distance itself from him. But it was too late. At Kain's command, the distortion shattered like broken puzzle pieces. All the mana was erased, and the posthumous curse left by the black mage imprinted within lost its concept and vanished without a trace.
"……."
Thus, the aftereffects of the Ebon rampage completely disappeared, leaving behind not a dangerous distortion but a faint haze that was barely perceptible. A space where coordinates were jumbled together, as if randomly constructing a teleportation spell. The end of those coordinates pointed not to an error, but to a nonexistent imaginary number. It meant that those coordinates pointed to somewhere that didn't exist in this world, but in another.
Step.
Finally, the entrance to the Underworld revealed itself. Without the slightest hesitation, Kain stepped toward the place that appeared utterly unremarkable from the outside.
"Ugh."
At the same time, Kain, who had entered, grimaced and complained of sudden dizziness. His vision spun. The absolute law of the Underworld, which never permitted the intrusion of the living. It reached out to Kain, who had trespassed into the land of the dead without permission, and bleached his very existence white. This was the reason the memories of the dead who had returned to the world of the living had faded. Experiencing it firsthand, Kain merely furrowed his brow as he brushed off the damage and looked around.
What met Kain's eyes was a vast river stretching endlessly like a sea. Pitch-black like ink, the river was so dark that even Kain's vision couldn't make out the bottom. Its surface was so still and calm, without a single ripple, that it felt as if it were frozen ice.
So that's the River of the Dead.
The River of the Dead, or the River Jordan. The river that the dead crossed at the entrance before entering the Underworld. Kain knew about it, if not in detail, at least roughly. There had been a section describing the river of the dead in the journal written by a black mage who had studied the afterlife in the past. The River Acheron of Sorrow. The River Cocytus of Lament. The River Pyriphlegethon of Flames. The River Lethe of Oblivion. The River Styx of Hatred. The river of the dead, divided into a total of five zones. The black mage's journal had stated that the dead must cross all five rivers to meet the King of the Dead.
At the same time, it said that beyond that, he was chased by the ferryman and couldn't proceed further.
The black mage who wrote that journal was said to have reached the realm of a superhuman at the time. Even he had been driven back to the world of the living by nothing more than a ferryman. In the Underworld, where the entrance was blocked by a vast river, the ferryman was another word for gatekeeper. If he could repel a superhuman without giving them a chance to resist, his skill must have been at least on par with an Absolute. Having violated the laws of the Underworld, everything in this land of the dead was now his enemy. The one he had to be wary of wasn't just the King of the Dead, the ruler of the Underworld.
It's made of mana.
Up close, it was clear that this river of the dead was no ordinary river. No, it wasn't water at all. This was mana. Mana condensed to such a high density that it became visible to the human eye, forcibly transformed into a liquid form, like liquefied nitrogen. In other words, this itself was a phenomenon, like magic or spirit arts. But it bore no resemblance to any discipline created by humans. If he had to compare it, it was similar to black magic, which defied the laws of this world.
"……It's been a while since I've seen a living person."
Just as Kain was blankly analyzing the river, his vision suddenly blurred. A thick fog spread. This, too, was a mass of mana made visible, like the river of the dead. And through the fog, an old man approached him.
"You don't look like someone who got lost and wandered in by mistake."
The old man wore a tattered black hood. Stepping off a small boat-like vessel onto the ground, he exuded an extraordinary aura at a glance.
"Are you perhaps in league with those causing a ruckus in the Underworld?"
His tone was indifferent, devoid of emotion. But in contrast, a hostile atmosphere emanated from his gaze. A heaviness, as if the air itself had turned to steel, pressed down on Kain.
"Wrong. It's the opposite."
At the old man's words, Kain adjusted his slipping glasses. Compared to the old man, who radiated an overwhelming presence, Kain was endlessly quiet. But his gaze showed not the slightest intimidation from the old man's aura.
"Because you lot couldn't manage your own house, we ended up suffering for no reason."
So he had come to complain. Saying this, Kain took a step forward.
"So guide me, ferryman. To where your master is."
"……I apologize on behalf of the Underworld regarding that matter. But the laws of the Underworld are absolute. The living may never set foot beyond this point."
"Don't make me laugh."
What did he care about the laws or rules of the world?
"Before me, my will is law."
Black mages were beings who forced their own stubbornness upon the world. And Kain was the one who stood at the pinnacle of such black mages.
"If you interfere, I'll kill you. You."
If anyone defied his will, he would kill them. He always had, and he always would. That was the history Kain had built until now.
"……Words won't work with you."
Had he sensed that words wouldn't suffice? The old man raised his oar, as if intending to drive Kain out by force. At the same time, the river surged upward with terrifying force. Amidst the waterspout soaring high into the sky, the old man pointed his oar at Kain.
"That's what I was going to say."
Tugwi was the same. The Empress was the same. And so were you. Why couldn't they just listen the first time? These idiots only came to their senses after getting hit. With a sigh, Kain brushed back his hair, dampened by the increased humidity. At the same time, the sky of the Underworld, hidden by fog. The place that had been fading like twilight was now painted pitch-black, without a single point of light.