Myriad Devils-Chapter 158: An incomparable fear

Initially, he would still have some trepidation towards the residents of this land. The longer he stayed in the mind swallowing abyss, the greater the chance of crossing paths with one.

But after tasting something so savory, so sweet, so juicy...

He suddenly felt that it would be worth it to stay here for a hundred years, once it meant that his will and soul continuously evolved at this rate.

Even if the indigenous people of this land found him, so what?

How would the rest of them know if those that did find him were unable to spread the word?

Sometimes, slaughter was the most effective option.

’Am I still affected by that serial killer?’ Anon mused with a playful grin.

However, unlike Anon, that soul had a fondness for young souls.

Currently, he did not suffer from such fetishes, so it definitely mean that he wasn’t affected by that serial killer still, right?

Shaking his head and sighing, Anon quickly walked deeper into the tunnel, and in no time, reached the end of this path.

Seeing this, he couldn’t help but click his tongue in wonder and think, ’Aren’t there supposed to be fortune after adversity in this mind swallowing abyss?’

’That remnant soul was also betrayed after he and his peer came across a treasure inside this mind swallowing abyss, and yet I didn’t see one in that tunnel?’ Anon sighed once more.

Even if a cavity could only form a single treasure, and the one in the first layer was taken by the remnant soul’s peer, then what about this cave?

For this soul which had been present since the great rebirth, logically speaking, since it was still present, it meant that no one had entered this cave, right?

’Ah!’ Anon slammed his palm against his forehead, ’Merely because I devour wraiths doesn’t mean others do the same. There’s a relatively high chance that this fortuitous encounter was already taken by someone else upon resisting the wraith with their magical power.’

After all magic affected the material realm as well as the conceptual realm, so it would also work against remnant souls and wraiths.

This was, in essence, the most common way to deal with remnant souls and wraiths.

Only due to the situation, with an injured spirit, Anon was forced to actively ’clean out’ this mind swallowing abyss by devouring the remnant souls and wraiths.

Though it strengthened one’s willpower, there was also a relatively high chance that one’s soul would be corrupted by the wraith and one would loose themselves.

Or rather, this possibility, as time went on, and one devoured one remnant soul after another, this possibility steadily increased until it became a certainty.

Devouring souls wasn’t something that could be done continuously, unless one could purify the corrupted energy. And purifying the corrupted energy wasn’t a common thing.

In fact, such an ability was so rare, it was basically nonexistent.

Naturally, such knowledge wasn’t written in the book that documented the contents related to the mind swallowing abyss. However, this lack of knowledge was negligible since, ’coincidentally’, Anon seemed capable of dealing with the residual corruption very naturally.

Anyways, upon realizing that a past entity had possibly seized the fortune in this tunnel, Anon shook his head and turned around, exiting this cavity.

.....

Standing in the empty void of the second layer, Anon randomly chose a cavity in the abyss wall before stepping in its direction.

Space propelled his figure toward the cavity, allowing him to appear before its entrance in a single step.

"Huh?" Anon silently exclaimed.

Stepping inside of the cave, he was pleasantly surprised by the lack of a foul stench. In the darkness, his sunny eyes were perceptible, his vision barely hindered by the darkness.

Fortunately, there weren’t any corpses that made an aisle in this tunnel, unconsciously causing a smile to surface on his face.

In the previous cavity, the stench was simply too potent.

Like before, the space within was rather dark and the tunnel was decently sized.

Though not sizeable enough to be suited for battles between entities on his level, simply for a calm walk, it was very suitable.

The winds deftly touched his skin, carrying a bone-chilling coldness, and the stifling aura of death was still omnipresent. Yet there was no clear scent of fermentation itself in the air.

’What kind of wraith awaits me here?’ Anon was slightly excited.

In fact, he had been greatly disappointed after devouring the previous wraith.

After all, back then, he was genuinely intrigued by the unknown, and the world before the great rebirth was part of this evasive veil that attempted to block his pursuit of knowledge.

However, from the serial killer’s memories, Anon quickly came to realize that the world of old that the six human generals came from, was an utterly plain and uninteresting world.

It was to the point that Anon did not wish to learn more about it, and in fact wanted to quickly forget about such a world.

A world without magical mysteries and cultivation was okay.

But if there weren’t any magical mysteries, weren’t there supposed to be other kinds of mysteries to make this world interesting?

Or was the fact that there wasn’t any magic the mystery in and of itself?

As much as that was a mystery to the current him, Anon actually knew that the Otherworldly Knights understood the reason for this.

In time, he too would come to know.

So was that really an intriguing mystery?

What he wanted was knowledge of the unknown, and for it to be unknown, only a handful, to utterly no one, should know about whatever this unknown was.

In the end, Anon was greatly disappointed, and did not wish to think about the memories of the wraith.

’But what about other wraiths?’ Anon mused internally, ’I highly doubt that all of the wraiths in this mind swallowing abyss originate from the old world.’

’So if that’s really the case, and if these wraiths were actual figures of strength before succumbing to death...’ The more he thought this, the faster his breathing became chaotic.

’Maybe this is my fortune!?’ He smilingly thought.

At the same time, he had already taken several steps into this tunnel.

With his powerful physical body naturally affecting the space around him, these several steps took him almost a hundred meters into the cavity, slightly surprising him.

’It seems this tunnel is a little deeper than the others.’ He mused whilst continuing to take strides spanning several to over a dozen meters.

Just then, Anon’s ears twitched slightly, and the radiant suns in his eyes lit up.

The ground under his feet quaked slightly before he abruptly exploded with speed and rushed into the depths of the tunnel, seemingly uncaring for any particular threats!

In the blink of an eye, Anon reached the end of the tunnel. Before him, in the darkness, was a small pool of bubbling liquid.

The black water released invisible ripples in the air, with each ripple containing faint but discernable whispers.

The present yet almost distant sounds were creepy and easily chilled the heart.

These invisible ripples contained a mysterious magical property that even slightly affected Anon. Ordinary persons would quickly lose their minds in this environment.

Furrowing his brows, Anon observed the black pool.

It was no larger than three or four meters in diameter, and under his sharp gaze, as he drew closer to the pool, Anon also perceived an observing gaze that came from a pair of foreign eyes.

These blood-colored eyes were inside the black pool, submerged under the dark water, simply observing him just as he too, observed.

The black water gurgled, and Anon’s thoughts churned, ’Is it a treasure? Is it ingredients to forge a treasure? Or is it a harmful substance? I don’t recognize it at all.’ Anon was somewhat taken aback.

After all, he had gone through many books in the military academy.

His knowledge about myriad things in this world was extensive, so for him to come across something that left him with absolutely no clues to its identity, was indeed surprising for him.

Breathing deeply, Anon casually raised his right foot before stomping into the ground.

A loud tremor resounded, and the tunnel’s walls quaked and trembled with small rocks falling from the ceiling and into the black pool.

Anon continued to observe as these rocks fell into the bubbling pool.

Unexpectedly, when they fell into the pool, these small stones and rocks only sunk deeper, as if there was nothing unusual about the black water whatsoever.

This was actual beyond of his expectations.

After all, the usual course of actions was that this would be some burning poisonous waters or something...

Hmm?

’It doesn’t affect foreign objects?’ Anon’s eyes squinted at the sight. Right after, a thought flashed across his mind, followed by a light chuckle.

"Oh. You’re quite the timid little guy, aren’t you?" Anon smiled, and then without any hesitation, stepped into the pool.

Thrum~

As soon as he made contact with that black water, a wave of foreign emotions attempted to forcefully submerge his heart.

Once more of his figure fell into the pool, these emotions quickly intensified ten no, a hundred times over.

Ah?!

Fear!

An overwhelming amount of fear washed over Anon’s heart. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

This wraith...?

A fleeting thought passed through his mind, but he quickly overlooked it.

After all, how could this be a wraith’s doing?

These creatures brought with them foreign emotions which were given birth by their own experiences.

However, what Anon felt did not come from some other individual’s memories.

This fear...

It came from within himself.

The fear of an uncertain path.

The fear of a war against the unfathomable, the unseen, and the unparalleled.

The fear of standing atop a solemn mountain, battling by one’s lonesome self, against gods and devils, and an incomprehensible race!

This fear was no one else’s.

It was the fear of his, Anon’s own, future path!