CHAPTER 85: NOLAN WASTERIA

Clouds, thick, fluffy pure white clouds, the kind that appear in the monsoon season before a heavy rain was the ground. Hundreds of tall white pillars holding a giant pointy shaped roof with an extremely beautiful architecture, with an almost infinite amount of giant, highly detailed statues.

"Am I dead?" This was the only thought that made sense, Johan should’ve been inside his body, but now, he was standing in a place that looked similar to how one imagined heaven.

"No you’re not." a calm voice that reeked of wisdom, and ’I know it all’ reverberated from the south to which Johan sharply turned around.

’Is this a trap by Johan? Nothing like this happened in the original game, at least in all the choices I played.’ Johan frowned, but what he saw after that was just... horrifying, more horrifying than any trap.

The man who spoke had the body of an average muscular man, six feet tall, wearing a clean bright white priest’s robe that gave off a peaceful feeling just by looking at it.

But... its head, the place where the man’s facial features should be, were replaced by millions, no billions of caterpillar-like bugs that were as small as one inch, moving in a spiral at an extremely slow speed.

The color of the worms was weird too—pure white with a bloody mouth with small sharp fangs, which Johan suspected was the blood of their own species, and the man’s flesh.

"What the fuck are you!?" Johan blurted out, suppressing the urge to puke on the spot.

"Haha, you’re definitely not the first to ask this..." the worms twisted slightly, revealing two bloody lips and teeth, the worms still eating the lips, but they seemed to be regenerating faster than the worms ate.

’This man is not normal.’ This was the first thought that rang in Johan’s mind, and it reverberated louder as he sensed the aether reserves of the man in front of him.

If Radhaan’s aether pool was a river, then this man’s was an entire ocean, while Johan’s even improved, went close to a giant pool.

It didn’t take a genius to understand the fact that Johan was no match for the weird man.

Johan, ever the professional people-pleaser, smiled respectfully, "I see, I am sorry for the rude comment. How can I help you?" he asked softly, trying to understand the man’s motives, and identity.

"You’re also from another world, right? I just wanted to have a talk with you..." The man just directly dropped a bomb, making Johan lose all sense of composure.

’And... what the fuck does he mean by also!? Leor?’ Johan felt like his world was crashing down, he never expected his greatest secret to be just revealed like this, and who the fuck was this man again?

Then his identity should be clear, he was behind the dungeon, or at least after the trial—as Leor probably went through it as well.

"Ah, where are my manners? I am Nolan Wasteria, nice to meet you! First of all, I mean no harm. You can relax. Your secrets are safe with me." Nolan said softly, shaking his head, his lips curling up in a small smile, the worms also moving with his lips too, some even falling on the cloudy ground, making Johan flinch.

’So he read both mine and Leor’s memories... yeah, there should be something similar with the trial. I should’ve known this.’ Johan immediately guessed this from Nolan’s tone, regretting why he didn’t think of the trial’s specificity before entering.

Maybe because of the stress, or worry for Acier, this minor detail of the game just slipped past his brain, otherwise he would’ve definitely sent Sebas inside.

Johan took a deep breath, schooling his expression to a more serious one, "So you’re an Asura?"

Wasteria was the caste of the main family of the Asura, of which not many even knew of, confirming Johan’s suspicion of this man being behind the dungeon.

Johan knew some things about him because of many references to them in the game.

Especially the man named Nolan Wasteria. He was the one who made peace in the war as old as time—a war between Asuras and Demons. And he was a man who Lucifer hated, as he could fight him at an equal level.

Nolan was never actually shown in the game, but there were leaks that he would be one of the main side characters in the new DLC update that was going to come out five days after Johan’s death.

"You can call me that, I am biologically an Asura, but I have long abandoned them... but could you answer my question first?" Nolan asked respectfully, treating Johan as an equal.

"Sure." Johan flashed a fake smile.

This guy seemed nice, at least from the experience with the people Johan had till now since coming to this world. Every last one of them was a psychopathic war criminal.

"What exactly are you, and Leor? Why are you in this world of mine?" Nolan’s voice was dangerously low at the end, sending a chill down Johan’s spine.

’I was wrong... he’s also a psychopath!’ Johan sighed, thinking of a reply quickly.

"What am I? You probably already know... Leor must’ve passed from here too, right? You must have seen most of our memories too, that’s what lets you create such trials." Johan first started by revealing the confirmed information he just gathered.

Then, it was time to speculate. "But... it seems like you didn’t talk with Leor by your tone, meaning there was a problem you noticed. But then what makes me different?" Johan analyzed thoughtfully, startling Nolan with the many things he got right after just a few seconds of conversing.

"Yes, I did see the memories of your and Leor’s previous life, and also clearly understood your desire to have others around you, so I designed that trial... but, at certain points—

I was unable to see things properly. My own memory, and eyes were being blurred, but I still noticed some things, like how you two have multiple affinities with entirely different abilities, and get them with little to no effort at that." Nolan’s voice grew uncertain.

"Like how you went inside a toilet, and got out. And could those abilities... it was too unreal. And that brat Leor—even I felt a little bit of threat from him, especially because of Lucifer treating him like his lost little brother."

Nolan sighed, "And his memories were even weirder than yours. Without ever training in light magic a single day in his entire life—this, and previous—then randomly being able to move at the speed of light, the hardest skill to learn in light magic."

"All it took for him was just comforting that sharp boy Indra likes with a hug, and letting him cry on his shoulder... just that, and he could use a skill that took me a hundred years to master."

"You two are too dangerous, and unpredictable."

Nolan’s eyes sharpened, observing Johan closely who didn’t seem shaken one bit by any of Nolan’s words, definitely hiding something related to what Nolan was most curious about:

"You do realize I can kill you at any moment? Your body outside will die too if you die here... You won’t be able to even defend. Your consciousness is literally in the palm of my hands."

"So answer. I mean no harm. How can you have multiple skills with little to no effort?"

Nolan’s voice finally grew cold, losing its original warmth.

He chose to frighten Johan into answering, as he clearly understood humans were the most obedient when they knew they had no control over anything—including their fate.