"Oh no, this is bad! What do I do?"
A majestic platform hung amidst a sea of rainbow-coloured clouds. Fountains of crystal clear water fell from between the clouds onto the platform in two beautiful streams forming a pathway to a grand arc of purest white marble. On it sat a familiar angel. She had long hair that drifted in the wind behind her. Six radiant wings of light floated behind her, rustling softly as she shifted uncomfortably.
"How the hell did a witch get in there?"
She gripped the arc anxiously as she watched Rael and the fellow prisoners walk out of the first corridor and progress forward after defeating the first group of enemies, totally unaware of the scale of the trap they were about to walk into.
"W-well, at least it isn't the real witch of Lust. But still..., even a weaker fragment like that is enough to kill an unprepared candidate, even if he is a voidwalker."
"Argh, this is so frustrating. How did an entity this bad end up in a scenario?!"
"What is~?"
She sprang up on fright as she felt the breath of someone behind her. In an instant, the entire realm dissolved into brilliant motes of light before morphing into an immeasurable number of Divine Lances, all aimed at the spot behind her.
There a seemingly ordinary boy stood faintly amused as he waved at her. He was dressed in a simple clo#%...
A simpl= ~|@#%...
She immediately realised she had to avert her gaze as she felt his eyes on her.
Her eyes widened as she recognised the boy...no, the being before her. She immediately floated down, inclining her head deeply to recognise her superior.
"Grand Archivist..."
The young boy leaned back against the lances behind him, causing them to immediately warp and reshape themselves into a wide, white cushioned seat seemingly made of some thin pale substance somewhat similar to paper.
She immediately released her control over the world before it broke from the force he exerted on it, causing it to revert bact to it's previous paradise-like form.
She fluttered down anxiously, the eyes on her halo seeming to dart around in panic.
"Quill, what brings you here? Was it because of the last batch of hero candidates? I'm afraid you just missed them, they have already been sent out to the target world. If there is any other thing, I'll be happy to..."
He raised a hand, stopping her mid-sentence with a bored sigh.
"I expected more from you Marael. Making one of Void's children to undergo one of your trials using my gateway. Truly, I didn't think you could do such a thing..." He chided with a smile.
'Of course he knew.'
She seemed to shrink under his gaze as her many eyes tried to look anywhere but at him, most settling for staring down at the floor. Despite being a majestic, imposing figure herself, she was nothing in front of this being who could casually erase her with a glance.
"I didn't think you would hide such an interesting entity from me."
Then her face suddenly turned confused for a moment before contorting in shock.
"Wait...the black soul is an [Entity]?"
"Well...maybe not on the same level as the other freaks like that woman." His face seemed to twist on annoyance for a moment before reverting to his former carefree smile.
"But I can say he is definitely worth watching."
He suddenly looked at the screen that floated beside Miraele before stretching his hand towards it. The screen rippled as it began to pale and extend, easily reaching the size of a cinema screen. It showed Rael smashing at a specific spot in the endless tunnel, causing the trap to disintegrate into purple sparks.
Maraele's eyes widened in shock.
"The tunnel of Lust? How did he even know about it, let alone the specific weakness?"
"Shush, you're spoiling the movie." He said flatly.
He watched how he managed to figure out the way to minimise the influence of the witch of lust's authority after seeing the earth swordsman die to it once.
He mumbled to himself as he saw the witch on the throne.
"So there was a fragment of that bitch left after all. I thought she didn't have any old ones from back then. Lucky it's one of the weaker ones."
Maraele winced, her wings rustling slightly as he cursed, yet she didn't dare correct him least she risk being erased herself.
"Hey Mara, the pass condition was to kill the count responsible for the summoning right?"
"Y-yes sir!" She responded instantly.
"Isn't that the guy's withered corpse over there in a corner?" He asked with an amused smile on his face, pointing to a corner behind the corner where a heap of naked, dried up human husks were tossed in a pile. Among them was one dressed in a ridiculously flamboyant version of the cult's dark cloaks. It was studded with so many different precious gems that you might have thought it was an armour for some quirky billionare, making the sight look more amusing than gruesome.
Maraele gritted her teeth in annoyance.
"How did that fool even get a method for summoning an ancient witch like her? And he had to summon the second most dangerous one too."
She was understandably angry. Seeing some of Rael's records, she had assigned him a suitable trial. To kill a heretical Duke who was about to summon a demon using experiment subjects as vessels to house it.
It was supposed to be quick and easy, find a way out of the dungeon, bypass the guards and fight the boss in the large hall in the coreidor. She didn't expect him to have to deal with an actual ancient witch instead.
And the fool had to get himself killed too. Now there was no proper way for Rael to clear the trial.
The worst part was that she had spent most of her EP on sending him into that trial and she would barely have enough to bring him back out. And that was if he even survived long enough for her to do that.
She clenched her fists so tightly, a stream of golden blood dripping from her hands before being erased by her intent as she took a deep breath.
Quill glanced at her briefly before turning back to the screen, his smile dimming as he watched Rael struggle against the pressure of the witch.
Right as he was about to leave from boredom, he saw the trick Rael used to gather momentum as he tried to go for the killing blow.
And ended up looking Euphoria in the eyes.
He clicked his tongue and stood up to leave.
"Well, he's cooked."
Maraele looked like she had just seen a ghost. She was frozen in fear as she witnessed Rael get stuck in an illusion.
The scene on the screen was a bit blurry as it sped through the first day of the illusion before slowing at his house as Rael walked in to the smell of blood.
Quill was already on his way to leave when he felt a sudden sense of danger. Turning around, the throne he was seated upon suddenly burst into a flurry of scrolls and sheets, he hurriedly swiped his finger across the sheets, causing them to reform and transform into a wall of solid gold. Before Maraele could react, a blast of dark-purple miasma burst out of the screen, surging towards her faster than light.
Luckily, Quill pulled her back behind the wall by a wing before she could be devoured by the dark miasma.
The black cloud slammed into the wall, instantly cracking it. Quill cursed as he stretched his hand to the left, causing that entire side of the realm to erupt in a pale brilliance. Immediately an incredibly loud of rustling pages echoed as the entire left side of the heavenly dimension transformed into innumerable pages.
With a flick of his finger, they all stacked upon themselves infinitely, coalescing into a single blank page.
"[Eadit]!"
Quill's voice echoed across the void as his entire right arm burst into a sort of black ink-like substance, dripping onto the space around it.
He slashed the ink that was once his arm across the white page and commanded quickly.
"[Erase]!"
Immediately, the paper shot right through the barrier and into the black mist. The black mist instantly tried to absorb it, writhing and extending tendrils of black-purple ink ink across it.
The struggle continued for a few moments that Quill actually thought it might have failed. But eventually, the paper lot up with a pale brilliance, as golden lines of text suddenly burst out of the page, binding around the mist and actually restricting it.
He watched with bated breath as the mist got smaller and smaller, until all that was left was a small writhing dot of black-purplish ink surrounded by an intense golden glow. The paper was now semi-transparent and cracked around it's sides, making it seem like it could crumble into dust at any moment, yet it was folded into a sphere, holding the blot inside.
Maraele was frozen in shock as she looked at him. She didn't even notice the attack until she was behind the barrier and before she even knew it, he had already subdued...whatever that was.
She looked at him with shock, seeing his missing limb. Normally, a missing limb would be nothing for a [Being] of such power as he could simply just regrow it instantly. But the sheer fact that something that could hurt a being that was many grades above her had almost reached her made her uneasy.
That was when her eyes widened in shock.
She could actually see his arms...they were @#/*%
An intense pain flooded her eyes, causing them to snap shut as she tried to take a look at him.
"What the fuck are you looking at? Keep your eyes closed." He said flatly as he looked at the now-cracked screen. The golden surface was now cracked and dark, veins of purple pulsing at the edges. From beyond the cracked glass, a pair of silver, mirror-like eyes stared into his with a chilling coldness.
He stared back.
Around the eyes was a black wall of darkness, blocking the view of the trials. No matter how much he tried, his gaze could not pierce through the darkness.
"You are obstructing a trial, @#1+/%{..."
His voice suddenly turned cold as his eyes suddenly turned monochrome, his eyes becoming a ~|#@ colour.
"Do I take it the witches want to make an enemy of me?"
There was no response.
The eyes just stared at him coldly for a moment as if waiting for something. He was about to lash out at her when a cold, yet sonorous feminine voice rang out across the realm, causing him to freeze in shock.
[Hero Rael Deth has passed the trial of Void!]
[A new [Entity] has awakened!]
[Hero Rael Deth has acquired the Title Conqueror of Desire!]
[Hero Rael Deth has acquired the Title Witch Slayer!]
[Hero Rael Deth has awakened a True Name!]
[The Hero's true name is Hollow End!]
[The void is watching!]
"Eh?"
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I know that this is a long chapter but be honest, did you not enjoy? Reply with power stones please.(☞ﾟ∀ﾟ)☞