CHAPTER 161: CHAPTER 161: BLACK DOOR

Chapter 161 – Black door

Kaden and Asael looked at the dark stairs going down with a difficult expression.

They didn’t need anyone to tell them it was dangerous, not with the kind of aura leaking out of that space. It was a void of absolute black, with nothing visible except maybe...the shadowy outline of the stairs themselves.

They both wondered how it was even possible, but they didn’t linger on that thought too long.

The only thing they knew was that... the death aura emerging from this place was harrowing.

Kaden couldn’t help but shudder in deep horror at the sensation. And that made him even more apprehensive, because with his current alignment to death...if even he was feeling like this...

Then how the hell would Asael fare?

Thinking that, he turned his head slowly toward his companion to check on him and he was surprised to see that while Asael was tense, there was nothing else.

No fear. No trembling. No dread.

"Are... are you not feeling anything?" Kaden asked, for a moment wondering if he was the only one sensing it. But Asael’s next words immediately crushed that idea.

"Oh? You’re talking about the death aura, right? Yeah, I feel it. It’s pretty powerful, isn’t it?" Asael said softly, lips tugged into a faint smile as he turned his head toward Kaden.

That’s when he noticed Kaden’s state.

"Oh... right. You’re still new here, after all," he added, then grinned wide.

"Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it."

Then he clapped his hands lightly together.

"Let’s go, shall we?" Asael said, and Kaden nodded in response.

Together they started walking down the black stairs slowly with their senses sharpened to the max, ready to act against any unforeseen danger.

The stairs weren’t wide enough to accommodate both of them side by side, so Kaden went ahead, Asael following behind.

Asael smiled softly at the arrangement.

It looked instinctive — the way Kaden left his back wide open to him — and that only meant one thing.

He trusted him now.

And that... made Asael smile again.

He focused back on their descent, and soon, they reached the ground.

Here, they expected everything. A pool of blood, mountains of dead bodies, or even corpses twisted by failed experiments... Just they expected anything correlated with death.

But what they saw was nothing of the sort.

Once they arrived, Kaden and Asael stepped onto a spotless white floor so striking it felt surreal. The material didn’t look like ordinary stone, but neither of them cared. Their attention had already locked on something else.

A huge black door.

It stood tall, absorbing the light of everything around it, radiating a vile, profane aura of death.

The door looked big enough to fit a giant. And on its smooth, abyssal surface, there was a rune.

The same rune as before, but this one was white.

A white scythe, with streaks of subtle black here and there, as if slowly being corrupted by something harrowing.

They stayed silent for a moment, both eyes on it, until Asael finally spoke.

"Same process?" he asked, gaze never leaving the door.

Kaden nodded.

"Same process."

After that, he stepped forward, closing the distance to the door and started channeling his death mana to fuel the rune in order to open it.

But it didn’t work.

"What the...?" Kaden muttered, his expression growing more somber.

He tried again but the rune didn’t even react. The death aura wasn’t even accepted induce the rune.

He paused and took a step back, frowning as he analyzed the situation.

Asael stood beside him, thoughtful.

The death aura hadn’t even entered the rune.

It was like it didn’t fit.

Like...like trying the wrong key in a lock to open something...it just wouldn’t open.

They both reached the same conclusion at the same time and snapped their heads toward each other.

"It’s not death mana we need for this one," Kaden said.

"Yes. But then... if it’s not death mana, what is it?" Asael asked, his tone pensive.

"Intent," Kaden said immediately, stepping forward again.

"If it’s not death mana... then it must be death-type intent. Let’s try it."

He activated his intent — Envoy of Death.

He raised his hand slightly, and deep black light began to gather around it, cloaking it completely in a hazy shroud of darkness.

The intent was unstable as it was fluctuating sporadically, the black light flickering like a living flame.

Kaden frowned, already feeling how hard it was to sustain it for long. So without hesitation he touched the rune with his intent and immediately, it lit up.

And that made both of them confirm their thoughts...It was indeed intent.

But there was one problem.

The glow it gave off... was barely visible.

"Your intent is still too weak to open the door. At this rate, we will need years to break through," Asael said, looking at the door with a dark frown on his handsome face.

Kaden didn’t respond, but inwardly, he was frustrated.

They finally had a lead on this dungeon... and it just so happened that whoever made this wanted to ensure that only someone with deep understanding of death would get past this point.

He raised his head slowly, but all he saw was the black ceiling above with the same scythe painted across it.

He sighed woefully.

Because it wasn’t just danger and dread he felt in this place.

No.

Inside him... Kaden felt a pull.

Something calling from behind that door.

And his perception whispered to him one thing.

Opportunity.

’I need to improve my intent comprehension as much and as fast as possible.’

’And the fastest way... is to kill those corrupted, take their cores, and synthesize their bodies into mine.’ Kaden decided, then turning slowly and walking back up the stairs.

"Let’s go. It’s time to give peace to the corrupted," Kaden said, his voice as cold as death.

Asael smirked as he followed behind, feet light but heavy at the same time.

"Now... now we’re talking, my friend."

...

Once upstairs, the two of them sat across from each other.

"Tell me what you know about the dungeons," Kaden asked, wanting to absorb every bit of useful information.

"Okay, first of all — the corrupted retain their skills from when they were ’alive’ or themselves. But now there’s an added death amplification effect on all of them making it more lethal. And also... you can only kill them by destroying or taking out their Origin core. That’s the only way."

"And I already told you, the master of this dungeon is a peak Grandmaster-rank being. Meaning he’s just one step away from whatever stage comes next." Asael said with a serious tone.

"You don’t know the next stage? And how the hell are you even alive with a Grandmaster around?" Kaden fired his questions back-to-back, hungry for answers.

"I don’t know the next stage. But believe me...whatever it is, we better pray to all the gods that motherfucker never reaches it," Asael said with a dark tone, pausing for a beat before continuing.

"And I’m still alive because the Grandmaster can’t leave his territory. He is stuck inside, guarded by Master-ranked corrupted that might as well be Grandmasters themselves, just without domains."

"And how do you even know all this?" Kaden asked again. After all, he didn’t receive any news from The Will.

Logic, He was in Darklore.

So how the hell did Asael know?

The man only smiled.

A wide, deranged, mad smile.

"Ah... Kaden, my friend, isn’t it obvious?"

"I just took a little stroll in there... and introduced myself to the owner of this beautiful place."

His smile widened further.

"That’s basic courtesy, isn’t it?"

—End of Chapter 161—