The roar of the waterfall echoed beside Nolan's ears like a symphony of nature, vast and ethereal.
The sound gradually drew his dazed mind back from its wandering thoughts, and he slowly opened his eyes.
Light seeped through the cracks in the coffin lid, falling dimly across his face.
He adjusted to the faint light. The coffin lid had already opened a crack by itself, as if welcoming him to this new place.
They had arrived.
Nolan casually pushed the lid aside. It gave a faint scraping sound as it slowly slid open.
After lying in the coffin the whole way, he did not find it unbearable at all.
Being unable to move was already perfectly acceptable to him. At the very least, he had not been burned.
"Mm... are we there?" A lazy voice sounded from atop him. It was Melina.
She had fallen asleep on the way and had been woken by the sound of the waterfall and the coffin lid opening.
Nolan looked down. Melina was lying on top of him, gazing at him with sleepy eyes.
Her body was very light, but because Nolan was wearing heavy armor, he did not feel much of the girl's softness.
Of course, it might also have been because he was getting old. Along the way, he had somehow forgotten to remind Melina that she could turn into a spirit.
But from the look of things now, it did not seem to matter much.
Nolan sat up in the stone coffin, and Melina followed his movement, ending up kneeling on his lap.
Together, they looked outside the coffin. What they saw was a vast underground cavern.
Above them, the surrounding rock walls and even the entire underground space were covered in dense tangles of roots.
Those roots were extraordinarily thick, wide enough for someone on a warhorse to pass along them with ease.
Across the open underground world stood countless roots, large and small.
Dull rumbles sounded from time to time in the surroundings, as if something enormous were moving.
The air was filled with a rotten stench that made one want to retch.
Looking back, one could see corpse-like shapes floating on the water's surface, drifting slowly with the current.
The dim cavern was steeped in an eerie atmosphere. Along with the chilling sounds, the sickening smell, and the countless floating corpses, anyone timid enough would probably want to turn back the moment they arrived.
"Such a thick aura of death, and so many Those Who Live in Death. It seems the first Demigod of the Golden Order Dynasty to die in soul really did receive quite the grand treatment," Nolan said.
"But are those also Those Who Live in Death? Weren't they supposed to be mad monsters that lost their reason? Why are they so quiet?" Asimi suddenly popped out and asked, her face full of confusion.
Asimi stared fixedly at the water's surface. The corpses floated there in silence, utterly still.
But before she could relax, the floating bodies seemed to receive some kind of signal. All at once, they turned their heads and fixed their gazes on them.
Asimi shuddered in fright. Her round little body jolted like a startled rabbit.
In a panic, she hugged Nolan's neck. That gave her some sense of safety, and like an ostrich, she desperately tried to hide her tiny body behind him, leaving only her head poking out.
But she soon realized that the floating corpses were not looking at her.
They were looking at Nolan.
Nolan was not frightened by a field of moving corpses. Holding the girl who had just woken up in his arms, he slowly stood and met the gazes of those monsters who should have been dead, yet still lived.
Those Who Live in Death did not stare at Nolan for long. They turned away and continued drifting, letting the current carry them into the distance.
"Wow, Your Majesty, you're amazing! Those Who Live in Death seem really afraid of you!" Asimi excitedly rubbed against Nolan's shoulder.
"They were born from death, and I am the Lord of Death. Awe is only natural." Nolan glanced back at her.
As soon as he finished speaking, a dense black aura surged out of his body.
The ink-like mist spread rapidly, covering a large stretch of water in the blink of an eye.
Asimi, who was closest to Nolan, bore the brunt of it and was swallowed by the powerful black aura.
Her body began to tremble uncontrollably, as if gripped tightly by some invisible force.
She did not like this power, so she rarely used it, but it was not unfamiliar to her.
She had imitated Nolan's power more than once, and that naturally included death.
Asimi could clearly recognize the enormous, fundamental gap between true power and the imitation she produced.
Never mind the "fire" that she could never ignite, because she could not understand what it even was.
But the difference between their deaths alone was like the difference between a god and a believer.
"Your Majesty..." Asimi called out shakily, her voice almost pleading, her eyes wet as though she were about to cry.
"There's nothing shameful about fearing death, Asimi."
Nolan's tone remained calm. He reached back and gently patted Asimi's head, then continued,
"But if you don't understand death, how can you understand what life is?"
"Look. Those dead still live on. Life and death coexist, or rather, where there is life, there must be death. What meaning is there in fear?"
Those Who Live in Death decayed within the black mist at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if time had accelerated around them and life had been drained away in an instant.
Asimi had only just begun to listen to Nolan's words when the sight frightened her again. "But they died too."
"The dead long for release, so I granted them death. But those monsters born anew from death did not want to die, yet they died anyway. Do you know why?" Nolan asked.
Asimi shook her head.
"Because they couldn't resist. I made them die, so they had no choice but to die," Nolan said.
"So if you don't want to die, resist. No one else can help you with that. And of course, how you choose to live is also something only you can decide."
Was death frightening? Yes. But it was not that frightening.
He had once thought death might also be a form of release, but he was not dead yet. Someone was waiting for him, and he could see the road that led to them.
So he simply could not die. Death meant stopping, and if he stopped, he would never reach those people again.
He had to eat the pie Marika had drawn for him.
Asimi asked instinctively, "Then how should I live?"
"Didn't I say so? You have to figure that out yourself."
Nolan waved his hand. He had only said a few grand words to make this summoned beast stop being so timid. Who knew how to answer such a profound question?
After he finished speaking, the black aura around him dispersed like smoke blown away, and not a single one of Those Who Live in Death remained nearby.
Looking at the broad area covered by the underground river, Nolan skillfully blew the Spectral Steed Whistle. Torrent carried Nolan forward, cheerfully splashing through the water.
The clear current soaked his coat, and Torrent leaped joyfully through the water, like an innocent girl playing in a stream.
But before they had gone far, Torrent seemed to sense something. His ears pricked alertly, and he suddenly leaped to the side.
Boom!!
A massive gray-black figure fell from above, crashing down where Torrent had just been treading water and sending up a huge splash. A giant golden scepter swept out, raising a towering curtain of water as it struck.