Lucian held the pair of golden hand-axes in his grasp and gave them a few casual swings.
Then, imitating the Death Knight's movements, he activated the Ash of War engraved upon the axes, Blinkbolt: Twinaxe.
The moment his body followed the power of the skill and completely transformed into lightning, Lucian was genuinely stunned.
It was not some visual trick or sleight of hand.
He had truly become lightning.
Wasn't that a little too outrageous?
No matter how he thought about it, Lucian could not comprehend how such a thing was even possible.
If it were a being on the level of a Dragonlord—something akin to Dragonlord Placidusax, using a technique like transforming into a stormcloud of lightning, Lucian would not find it strange. In fact, he would consider it only natural.
But thinking carefully… that Death Knight earlier had not been weak.
He had already stood among the ranks of top-tier champions.
For someone of that caliber to possess a unique, secret technique like this—perhaps it wasn't so impossible after all.
Besides, the followers of the Mohgwyn Dynasty could transform into blood and travel through it. When considered from that angle, becoming lightning did not seem entirely unacceptable.
In any case, the Ash of War now belonged to Lucian.
After some thought, he realized that with this "Blinkbolt" in his arsenal, once he further developed it and combined it with his storm abilities, he might be able to create a low-tier version of lightning-cloud transformation ahead of schedule.
And beyond the Ash of War, the most valuable aspect of the axes, the weapons themselves were of excellent quality.
It was clear they had been crafted by a master smith. The workmanship was superb, and they had already been strengthened to Somber [+7].
A Somber weapon at [+7] was already considered exceptional within the Lands Between.
Even the Sword of Night and Flame in Lucian's possession, also a Somber weapon, was only [+7], and that blade had been passed down through the Carian royal lineage.
The Death Knight's identity in life must not have been low. He was likely a close retainer of Godwyn the Golden.
Lucian stored the Twin Axes away for future use.
After that, he circled the chamber once more and retrieved a set of Spirit Ashes that had been enshrined here.
It was one of the legendary ashes: Lhutel the Headless.
If she were still alive, she certainly would not have followed Lucian. She had been a loyal knightess, after all.
But now that her Spirit Ashes were in his hands, she no longer had a choice.
In the future, he would make sure to summon her frequently—to deal with Godwyn's subordinates.
Heh.
Suppressing that thought, Lucian turned his attention back to the center of the chamber.
For now, it was time to resolve this so-called "Ritual of Death."
At the center of the room, the devotees had once knelt in a circle.
Now, they had died in that same circle.
Their bodies had been charred black by dragon lightning, twisted grotesquely—yet their corpse-ring resembled a faded, colorless sun.
Looking at the circle of remains, Lucian felt a flicker of unease.
The dead deserved peace. Once someone had died, wasn't that enough?
After Godwyn's death, they continued to torment him in this way. Had Godwyn himself ever consented to this?
The iron spire enshrined by the devotees remained intact, standing at the center of the circle without even having shifted from its original position.
Above it floated that strangely tinted gray mist, completely unchanged.
Moments ago, it had endured gravitational pressure, Ancient Dragon lightning, and even the shockwaves of Lucian's battle with the Death Knight, yet it had not suffered the slightest damage.
Seeing it untouched made Lucian's head ache.
He hated things like this, objects of unknown origin and incomprehensible nature.
Even the item prompts that usually appeared in his vision failed to identify it.
Still, its purpose was obvious. It was clearly a crucial component in maintaining the Faded Sun and conducting the Ritual of Death.
Only by destroying it would the Faded Sun likely vanish, or at least weaken.
Lucian circled the spire crowned in gray mist twice. After considering for a moment, he withdrew his strongest weapon:
The Starscourge Greatsword.
The previous attacks, though violent, had not been directed squarely at it.
He would test whether it could be destroyed. If even this could not damage it, then he would seek another method.
Taking a deep breath, Lucian channeled immense gravitational magic into the Starscourge Greatsword, imbuing it with overwhelming power.
He raised the twin blades high and brought them crashing down.
As the swords struck the spire, violet gravitational waves spread outward from their edges.
After a brief stalemate—
The iron spire was finally crushed to pieces beneath the blow.
The gray mist that had hovered above it shattered like a burst bubble.
But just as Lucian felt relief at having destroyed the ritual—
The exploding gray mist suddenly expanded, instantly engulfing the entire chamber.
Lucian immediately summoned a storm to disperse it.
The storm had no effect.
In the span of a single breath, Lucian was swallowed by the mist—
—
Amid a dizzying whirl of disorientation, Lucian quickly regained clarity.
His surroundings had changed completely.
Looking around, he saw that above this place hung a cold, Faded Sun suspended in a silent black night, casting its light upon the land.
Across the ground burned pale spirit-flames.
Yet neither the Faded Sun nor the spirit-flames provided warmth.
Instead, the entire realm felt like an icy crypt.
Lucian looked down.
What lay beneath his feet was not soil, but fine, pale sand.
…No.
He crouched and examined it more closely.
Brushing aside the upper layer, he uncovered countless bones beneath.
It was not sand at all.
It was pulverized bone... bone dust blanketing the entire land.
Looking into the distance, he saw nothing but endless pale terrain stretching beyond sight.
Near him stood several thick "trees."
But when Lucian focused his gaze, he realized those "trees" were actually pitch-black thorns.
And upon those thorns grew densely packed eyes of the dead.
Some of the dead eyes had even sprouted thorny branches themselves, hanging like fruit from the bramble mass.
Flies swarmed around them. Something writhed along the thorns, likely Death Blight worms.
Lucian frowned deeply and chose not to approach those curse-laden brambles.
This place was deeply wrong.
Where exactly was he?
There was no Site of Grace here. Even if he wanted to teleport out, he had no means.
He did not act rashly.
Instead, he reached inward to communicate with Asimi within him.
"Asimi? Asimi?"
After several seconds, Lucian sensed a faint stirring from Asimi's dormant core. She appeared to awaken.
"Mmm… My lord, I'm here. What's wrong?"
"Eh?!"
"W-Where is this place?!"
Asimi had briefly fallen dormant when Lucian was swallowed by the gray mist, and only now realized they had been transported elsewhere.
Lucian did not answer. He did not know either.
Yet hearing Asimi's voice made his heart sink.
This situation was troublesome.
Asimi was still within him. That meant this was no illusion constructed by sorcery or incantation.
His physical body had truly been transported.
Which meant he could not simply remove an abnormal status and escape.
But was this truly a part of the Lands Between?
If forced to name it, only one explanation came to mind:
The Spirit World.
However, the original Spirit World had long since collapsed—destroyed when the Erdtree rose to dominance.
This place was certainly not the original Spirit World.
Yet the presence of spirit-flame meant there was undoubtedly some connection.
As for those thorned growths of death, had Godwyn's followers reached some agreement with the Deathbirds, representatives of the Spirit World?
Lucian touched his body, carefully sensing for abnormalities.
At a glance, nothing seemed wrong.
All his abilities and powers remained usable.
All except one.
The power of the sun was completely suppressed here.
He could feel it within him, but he could not draw upon it at all.
Was it because of the total dominance of the Faded Sun in the sky?
After thinking for a moment, Lucian began walking in the direction his intuition suggested.
He had no destination anyway, he might as well trust his instincts.
After walking some distance, however, he suddenly stopped.
Closing his eyes, he focused on his soul.
He felt a faint burning sensation, an ongoing sting.
Since being struck once by Radagon, he had come to recognize the sensation of soul damage.
And now, his soul was suffering continuous, subtle harm.
It was not intense. It was nowhere near Radagon's devastating blow.
He had almost dismissed it earlier as environmental discomfort.
But if he remained here too long, his soul would surely be damaged.
Worse still, prolonged exposure seemed to gradually muddle his consciousness.
Perhaps due to his high attribute sensitivity, Lucian realized this quickly.
Asimi was a special lifeform, somewhere between soul and physical being. He did not know whether she would be affected.
He asked her:
"Asimi, do you feel like your soul is being slowly eroded here?"
After a moment of sensing, she replied:
"My lord, I don't feel anything."
Lucian glanced up at the Faded Sun overhead, shook his head, and continued forward.
He walked on, traversing bone-dust plains and thorned paths.
Everywhere looked the same.
No landmarks.
No reference points.
Wherever he went, the same spirit-flames burned.
The same brambles.
The same flies and writhing worms.
And the same countless dead eyes watching him without pause.
In such a place, even time lost meaning.
Lucian began to suspect he had not moved far at all, but he had no choice but to continue.
After an indeterminate stretch of travel, he finally saw something different in the distance.
At the edge of his vision stood a massive and deeply strange tree.
It bore no leaves or branches, only a thick trunk.
But unlike the death-brambles, this tree at least appeared… normal.
Lucian quickened his pace toward it.
Upon drawing closer, he saw its full form.
Its size was roughly comparable to the Minor Erdtrees scattered throughout the Lands Between.
But its trunk was riddled with dense, hive-like hollows, as though meant to house some form of life.
And sure enough—
As Lucian approached, countless creatures like lumps of rotting mud slowly slithered out from those hollowed chambers.
Their shape resembled slugs.
But their bodies were not cohesive flesh—
They were formed from clumps of pitch-black substance gathered together.
These mud-like creatures were not small. Each of them carried numerous skeletons upon their backs.
The skeletal bodies embedded in the sludge were tightly fused together, and within their hollow eye sockets flickered an eerie light.
From one of the hollows in the great tree, a lump of sludge suddenly dropped down, landing heavily on the ground.
Meanwhile, the many other sludge-creatures remained at the mouths of their hollows, peering outward.
Lucian frowned as he watched the thing.
Just what kind of hellish place was this? Why were even the lifeforms here so abnormal?
By appearance alone, these creatures seemed utterly incapable of communication. And yet, their behavior gave Lucian the distinct impression that they possessed intelligence.
After some hesitation, he decided to try speaking to it.
If this truly was a reshaped Spirit World, then perhaps the forms of life here differed fundamentally from those in the Lands Between.
Maybe this appearance was even considered… desirable here.
Lucian opened his mouth and addressed the writhing abomination slowly creeping toward him.
"Can you understand what I'm saying?"
The mass of sludge, formed from countless fused corpses continued to slither forward. The skeletal remains on its back groaned and wailed incessantly.
The sound was horrifying and chaotic, completely devoid of discernible meaning.
Lucian shook his head.
Communication was impossible.
Still, the sludge did not appear overtly hostile.
After a moment's thought, Lucian stepped forward.
As they drew closer, several arms suddenly thrust outward from the corpse-cluster on the creature's back.
One trembling skeletal arm extended toward him.
When its palm lightly touched Lucian's body—
He instantly felt the damage to his soul intensify.
His expression changed sharply, and he stepped back at once.
Whether or not it could communicate remained uncertain, but one thing was clear—physical contact was not an option.
The sludge-creature did not pursue him. Seeing Lucian retreat voluntarily, it remained where it was.
Lucian studied it more carefully.
Beneath the pile of corpses it bore, within the black sludge, two narrow dark-red eyes had formed. The pitch-black substance continuously flowed across its surface.
That shape stirred a strange sense of déjà vu within him.
Was this… a Man-Serpent of corruption? A clump of Those Who Live in Death?
While Lucian was observing the sludge-creature, two entirely different monsters suddenly rushed out from beneath the great tree.
They were two enormous skulls engulfed in Spiritflame. They shot out from somewhere under the tree and immediately charged toward Lucian at terrifying speed.
As they opened their jaws and flew toward him, Lucian could clearly feel their hostility.
Golden helmets adorned the tops of their skulls, marked with a corroded sigil of the Faded Sun.
Perhaps they were the severed heads of the headless knights?
But their size rivaled even the massive Flame Chariots.
In any case, best to test their strength.
Lucian drew the Sword of Night and Flame from his spatial disc and swung it toward the incoming skulls.
A scorching wave of flame erupted forward, swallowing the space ahead and blocking their path.
To his surprise, the two skulls burst straight through the blazing inferno, continuing their charge without slowing.
The flames had done nothing to them.
Fire immunity?
Lucian shifted slightly, allowing the leading skull's gaping jaws to graze past him.
Its attack missed.
He retaliated with a backhand slash—
But what happened next caught him completely off guard.
The Sword of Night and Flame passed straight through the skull without the slightest sensation of impact.
He slashed again, this time infusing the blade with sorcery.
Still nothing.
His eyes widened.
Weapon attacks were ineffective?
What was going on?
By then, the second skull had already reached him.
Lucian coated his left hand in gravitational magic and threw a punch directly into its face.
This time, the strike connected.
The skull was sent flipping upward, cracks spreading across its brow.
But Lucian clearly felt it—
Beneath his flesh, his soul suffered a sharper injury from that collision.
Even the gravitational force had failed to produce its full effect.
He frowned.
This likely was the Spirit World after all.
The creatures here were probably pure soul-forms.
And he possessed no means of directly harming souls. The only way to fight was through mutual attrition of spirit.
Which was bad.
Any contact resulted in soul damage.
But without contact, he couldn't attack them at all.
What was he supposed to do?
Asimi suddenly offered a suggestion.
"My lord, let me try."
"If it's me, it might work."
Right.
Asimi was a half-spiritual being, and she wasn't suffering the constant soul erosion of this realm.
Lucian nodded and immediately allowed her to take over the battlefield.
Asimi quickly manifested, holding a replicated Sword of Night and Flame.
The skull that had previously missed him had already turned around and now came crashing down from above.
Asimi swung upward to meet it.
This time, the blade struck solidly.
The massive skull shattered midair, breaking apart into countless fragments.
Then, a wisp of black mist drifted from the destroyed skull and entered Lucian's body.
He immediately felt a small mass of blackened soul settle within him, something he could not absorb.
That fragment of soul was filled with resentment, despair, and other negative emotions.
Asimi flexed her fingers.
"My lord, it seems my power is being weakened."
"I can only exert about half of my original strength here. But dealing with them is still manageable."
Lucian glanced at the remaining skull charging toward them and assessed the situation.
Asimi was only a half-spiritual lifeform. She could not display her full power here.
Normally, she could only unleash about sixty to seventy percent of her strength.
Now that was halved again, leaving perhaps thirty percent.
In Lucian's estimation, that placed her roughly at the level of a top-tier champion.
Strong, but not enough to dominate this place.
If he relied solely on Spirit Ashes, could they exert their full strength here?
But the ashes he possessed weren't powerful enough…
So far, these were only headless soldiers or headless knight heads—mere fodder.
He didn't yet know whether stronger enemies lurked here.
At that moment—
The sludge-creature that had seemed harmless earlier suddenly began swelling in size after witnessing the giant skull's destruction.
The corpses on its back stood upright, its mass expanding several times over. Countless skeletal arms lashed out toward Lucian.
Lucian stared at the sudden assault, puzzled.
Why had it gone berserk?
What, was it also one of Godwyn's subordinates?
Asimi had already destroyed the second skull and rushed over, cleaving the sludge into two with a single slash.
Even split in half, the sludge continued writhing.
She followed up with several more strikes, reducing it to fine fragments before finally eliminating it.
In the distance, dozens of flaming skulls began flying toward them—at least thirty or forty at a glance.
Meanwhile, the other sludge-creatures clung to the great tree and merged together, forming a massive, grotesque humanoid mass.
Lucian asked,
"Asimi, do you think you can handle this?"
Even at only thirty percent strength, Lucian believed he himself could deal with these creatures.
But could Asimi manage?
Asimi looked at the growing swarm of enemies and pursed her lips.
"My lord, I think we'd better run."
"We can handle this many, but if more arrive, that's another matter."
Lucian nodded.
"Fair enough."
"Then let's carve a path out."
Just as they prepared to break through in one direction—
A voice suddenly rang out.
"Why are you still standing there?!"
"Run! I'll help you!"
As the words fell, the area around Lucian and Asimi was instantly engulfed in thick mist.
Lucian tensed in alarm—
But then he saw a figure emerge from within the fog.
A figure that felt familiar.
Too familiar.
She wore the robes of a Finger Maiden. Her shoulder-length brown hair was slightly disheveled from running.
She was the first person Lucian had ever met in the Lands Between.
His Finger Maiden.
He stared at her in silence.
What was this?
Could it really be her?
The woman dressed as a Finger Maiden grabbed Lucian's hand and pulled him urgently in one direction.
"Quick! Follow me!"
"You've stirred them up! It's too dangerous here, we can't stay any longer!"
Caught off guard, Lucian allowed himself to be pulled along.
He had arrived in this inexplicable world with no understanding of it, only guessing it might be the Spirit World.
Was it possible—
Had her soul come here?
Lucian quickly recalled Asimi into his body and followed the maiden into the fog.
From above, the mist could be seen spreading outward in all directions, concealing their escape route entirely.
They ran through the fog for some time.
Finally, a forked black spire appeared before them.
When they reached it, the woman in Finger Maiden attire finally stopped and let out a breath of relief.
With her back turned to Lucian, she brushed her disheveled hair aside and took a steadying breath before turning to face him.
"Honestly… how did you end up in the Spirit World?"
Her eyes shimmered with expectation as she looked at him.
"You… came to find me, didn't you?"