CHAPTER 51: THE ROAD DOWN BELOW.

Death was a strange thing.

A numb feeling.

An overwhelming sense of darkness. And a lack of presence or direction.

It was strange and off-putting indeed.

Nero thought to himself.

A drop of moisture landed on his face.

Nero’s brows twitched.

Then his lashes.

Finally, his eyes opened, their golden depths struggling to adjust to the ambient darkness.

’Where...’

His entire body was numb.

He tried to recall what had happened.

’That’s right. I fell into the ravine.’

From what he had seen, the ravine had been rather deep, like the entrance to Tartarus itself.

’Why am I not dead?’ he questioned a moment later.

By all means, even if he didn’t die due to his wounds, he should have definitely died from the fall.

It didn’t make sense.

He tried to rise up, but found he couldn’t.

Not just because the corpse of the Shadow Stalker was upon him, but also because his entire body was cold, damaged and unresponsive.

He made a wheezing sound as he tried to take a breath.

It became clear to him that even if he was not dead yet, he was still very close to death’s door. And so, he had to act fast.

The first thing he did was close his eyes.

Then he immediately addressed the Divine Oracle, his voice hoarse,

’Why am I still alive?’

{One of the many advantages of the Black Body Transformation, is the Heretic’s increased vitality. Of course, that much is not enough for the Heretic to survive several life threatening situations. The main cause of the Heretic’s survival, regardless, is the Black Body Transformation and a tinge of goodluck}.

Nero sighed,

’Goodluck? This doesn’t seem like good luck at all."

His mind went blank for a moment.

Then, he let his consciousness descend into the void within his soul.

In this space standing, sitting, laying down... All of it was as pointless as up and down, since there wasn’t any.

He turned his gaze up to the Divine Oracle,

"I need something stronger than a Divine Elixir."

The concentric circles of something covered in runes up above him glowed softly for a moment.

Nero looked down at the runes that had magically appeared before him,

***

Essence Pill ×3 Requests:

Contains concentrated vital energy that mends the flesh and soul.

***

Nero sucked in a deep breath then made the exchange with the Oracle. There was a flash of golden light in the void. Then a small golden pill appeared before resting on his palms.

Nero was still for a moment. Then he closed his eyes, but not before placing the golden pill into his mouth.

His consciousness left the void.

When he opened his eyes again, he was back in the dark space at the bottom of the ravine.

Before the bony claws of death could drag him any longer, her out the last of his energy into his teeth and ground the golden pill into a paste before taking a lot of effort to swallow it.

The viscous paste tasted like blood on his tongue as it traveled through his throat and into his stomach.

A moment later, a subtle warmth spread from his stomach into his chest.

Then into his neck and face. And then into his arms and legs.

It spread everywhere.

The sensation of having his body being knitted back together in real time was rather uncomfortable.

Finally, Nero had enough strength to push the dead Abomination off of him.

He struggled to sit up, leaning against the matted fur of the beast.

Breathing heavily, Nero was immediately assaulted by unbearable pain as his body began adjusting to the healing process.

Hot streams of tears rolled down his cheeks as pain far more than he could bear enveloped him.

But that was fine. Because he was alive.

***

Seals of Sin: (109/1000).

***

The glowing runes cemented reality for him.

By some strange twist of fate, he was still alive.

This was in no part due to his own abilities, he was sure.

’There is something strange going on here. Definitely.’ he thought to himself.

However, the joy of having lived through a horrible experience, and the pain of the consequences of living through said experiences drove those thoughts away for the moment.

Finally, after a long time.

Nero blinked and slowly sat up.

His body didn’t hurt as much.

He reached down to touch at his stomach and chest. Both holes were gone. Even the gruesome bite on his shoulder was gone as well.

Nero wiped his tears away then turned his attention to the corpse in the ground.

There was a hint of something dark in his gaze. However, it vanished quickly.

In a way, he had survived the ordeal thanks to this horrible creature.

He was a bit grateful.

He stooped then picked the Silver Blade up. Without hesitation, he began carving into the flesh of the Abomination, tearing up a large portion of it.

The flesh of a grade E Abomination was sure to contain far more Ein Sof than that of a grade F.

He was a bit curious.

For some reason, the stench of the flesh was also not as unbearable as he had imagined it would be. It was absolutely putrid. But he had definitely had worse.

With a dreary sigh, he routinely rolled up, tied, and strung the meat with a long piece of clothing he had made specifically for lugging meat around.

He picked it up quickly and slung it across his shoulder.

’Now then...’

He glanced around.

The ravine he had fallen into was quite dark. But he could make out a few things.

The first thing he could sense was the moisture in the air. He could also hear the crisp sound of flowing water.

He immediately decided to head down to it.

A few minutes later he arrived at the origins of the sound.

Staring at the murky blackness, Nero was silent for a moment.

’This is it.’

At some point, the river must have diverged, with one arm of it leading deeper into Malady’s Garden, and another leading to this place.

Suddenly, Nero’s eyes widened.

"The mountain weeps. Amidst the swirling grey fog. The four beasts. Beasts of Clay and tempest. Wild like flowing blood. A garden of roses. A garden of corpses. Follow the road down below."

"The road down below..."