God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.-Chapter 1140: The Third Trial (2).

Darkness...

And then, there was light.

No. It was not light.

Cain slowly opened his eyes.

The strange "light" that filled his vision was rather odd, off and enigmatic.

The light flowed in strange, complex patterns.

That was all he could see for a long time.

Sound, smell, touch...

Those were lacking too.

After a long time...

Cain sucked in a deep breath.

His face was pale and his expression pallid as he glanced around.

Then he looked up.

In an instant, he felt like the smallest thing in the universe.

Above them was a swirling expanse of "lights".

Of colors he had never seen before. Lights of colors he couldn’t even comprehend or fathom.

All melting within an enormous stretch of blackness.

He had felt this before.

The darkness of eternity.

From where he was, he could see entire seas of floating rocks arranged in strange cyclic patterns, each one spiralling in different directions or twisting in on one another.

"Looks like we made it to Graveyard of Stars."

Cain turned around.

Behind him was Steven, Hunter, and everyone else...

They all had rather displeased expressions on their faces, with a few even hunched over, hurling their guts out.

Cain huffed and turned his gaze away.

"Indeed, this is the Graveyard of Stars."

The Graveyard of Stars was a specific location within the strange universe of the Third Trial with a rather compelling story behind it.

According to the legends and what was known about the area, it used to be a large binary star solar system.

A battle between two high Tiered entities had broken the foundation balance of the Star system, which had caused the space to collapse and for both stars to vanish completely, leaving behind only space dust and debris.

Normally, such a thing should have spelled the end for the Star system.

However, with the loss of the stars, a new, strange energy source seeped into the star system to keep it together.

It was these strange, twisting lights.

They were highly concentrated streams of energy that powered the world through mystical means. It was not magic, neither was it Ki.

Rather, it was energy unique and local to this strange universe.

And while it did keep the strange worlds of thus universe functioning, it was also the reason for their tragic decline.

The strange energy that had no name slowly seeped into the various worlds, breaking them apart and pulling them together until they formed one super huge planet, the rest of the mass scattered around the enormous world in the form of the countless floating rings of rocks and stardust.

It was poetic.

It was beautiful.

But it was also troublesome, especially for Cain and the Golden Asura.

Because being in the Graveyard of Stars meant they were bound to be in for a very terrible time.

This strange universe was much smaller than their universe.

It had two poles and twelve locations between the two poles. The Graveyard of Stars was located at the far south side of the bottom pole, very close to the area that housed a very troublesome breed of the creatures local to this world, known as the {Kaelor Fiends}.

These beings were troublesome and terrifying for two reasons.

One, their physiology was extremely similar to that of Devils.

However, there were a few... stylistic differences. The models the system had created for him to see were rather graphic and detailed.

But concerning how many samples had been brought out with the countless trials that had taken place in the past, he was not surprised.

The second was that most of them were attuned to the flame element. However, the concept of "flame" in this universe, was much different than what he knew it to be.

To make matters worse, these beings were very intelligent— as intelligent as an average specie that populated the other universe, such as Orcs, Elves, and even Humans.

They constructed large spires of flames they called "Bastions" in their native tongue.

And since they were built to survive harsh climates caused by a lack of an atmosphere on this world, they were extremely hardy.

Cain huffed deeply.

It was good that he had activated {Aegis} to envelop his body. If he hadn’t, he would have freezed to death in a heartbeat.

He most definitely didn’t want to go out like that.

Besides the beings native to the world, the Graveyard of Stars was dangerous due to the rocks that floated above it constantly.

The rocks were held in place by the strange multicolored energy.

However, the energy could shift and change intensity at any moment, leading to a phenomenon commonly known as "Starfall".

This was incredibly dangerous for other reasons.

Beyond that, the world was littered with even more terrifying creatures. Pools of poison, acid rain, strange nonbiological creatures made of stone, metal, with some even being partially astral in nature.

The concepts within this universe were simply too alien to his own.

Cain slowly massage his temples,

"This has to be the worst..."

Steve guffawed. He was also encased in a bubble of shields,

"I feel we got rather lucky. Anything further south would be... that place."

When he heard that, Cain shivered.

Suddenly, he was feeling rather grateful to whatever gods of goodluck had favored him.

After all, at the very very ends of the south pole, was a world shrouded in darkness and filled with all kinds of Eldritch entities.

It was said that while the rest of the strange universe was danger, this place was a death sentence. There was extremely little information from this place since those who ended up there died, regardless of their Tier.

Cain couldn’t help but feel a bit relieved. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Still, that didn’t mean their situation was less terrible.

The world’s located towards the center were the safest.

Meanwhile, those at the fringes were the most dangerous.

’Where exactly in the Graveyard of Stars are we?’ he thought to himself.

He activated the {Beholder’s Eye}.

With a sickening pop, both of Cain’s eyes exploded right in their sockets, two fountains of blood violently spewing forth.

He fell to the ground.

Unconscious...