Salvos

Chapter 567: Recollection

567. Recollection

I woke up.

I blinked my eyes open as my head spun. The world whirled around me, and I tried to regain my bearings. My head was aching. My entire body stung with an intense pain. I groaned as I got to my feet, before taking in the room around me.

I was still in the Remnants of the First Demon Kingdom. It was a Dungeon one that existed here in the Netherworld. Previously, I thought that Dungeons were a thing of the Mortal Realm. But now I knew that the Netherworld was just like the Mortal Realm.

Or rather they were similar.

They both had history. They had kings whether it was in the past or the present, they had rulers and nations. Society existed in the Netherworld. And it wasnt an idea birthed here by the Demon King Regnorex.

My father had a kingdom once. Long before Regnorex created his own nation. Back then, Sal had been called Samuel, and he had been known as the Devil King.

I didnt know how much time I spent, but I spent quite some time exploring Sals old kingdom. And I learned a lot. For one thing, I discovered that the Netherworld used to consist of twelve different layers. Now, only a single layer remained.

And it was all because of the corruption.

It was the end of the world. Just as the Kobolds had foretold. The Nexeus was collapsing its three planes no longer could sustain. Everything was going to come to an end. Eventually. Maybe it would happen in a hundred years. Or maybe it would happen in another ten thousand.

I didnt know. I just knew that I had met a survivor of my dads kingdom a Primordial Demon named Belphegor who had spent eons locked in battle against the end of the world down below. He led me through the Gate of the Netherworld. He showed me what was left of the second layer.

And he showed me the end of the world. The wall of infinite corruption that was consuming the Netherworld that which was destroying all.

The corruption spread quickly down there in the second layer. It was more corruption than I had ever seen. And it was nothing like the corruption I had faced before. It was stronger. It was far more potent.

Even the Corrupted Rocks I saw down in the second layer were far more dangerous than the Cursed Boulder I encountered in the Beastmen Plains. Each Corrupted Netherstones I battled would have taken down countless Corrupted Islands with ease. I was certain that if the [Ancient Centinel] I fought in the Bloodied Gulf had unleashed its Grand Skill of corruption against a Corrupted Netherstructure, it would still lose with ease.

The only reason I survived down in the second layer for as long as I did was because I had my Grand Skill with me. And even then, I only escaped with my life thanks to Belphegors help.

I left him behind to face the end of the world. I wanted to help, but there wasnt anything I could do against the wall of infinite corruption. It spawned an entire army of corrupted creatures creating Corrupted Hellspaces out of thin air.

I tapped a clawed finger on the glass-like wall, and the pocket space surrounding me opened. I stepped out of my own little world, before shaking my head. It was my Grand Skill. But it was unlike the other Grand Skills in its application. It was almost like a passive effect.

I could conjure up this pocket space whenever I wanted. It was no different than when I was able to use [Fragmented Pocket Dimension]. Except [The World Of My Mind] was far stronger I could use it to transport me and traverse between the folds of the Netherworld without even interacting with my environment.

Just like my dad did when he showed me the multiverse.

But that begged the question if this was the passive effect of my Grand Skill, what was its active effect? Was there something more it could do that I didnt know about?

I had just learned it, so I didnt know for certain. There were a lot of experiments I could do with it. In fact, I could even use [The World Of My Mind] to avoid the destruction of Revelation entirely.

But I shook my head and started past the broken altar, stepping over the pile of ancient collars, before heading up the stairway to exit the Dungeon. I walked with a skip in my step as I ascended the long passageway. I wasnt going to hide behind my pocket space I was going to explore the world above.

I knew that it was going to be dangerous. Certainly not as dangerous as the second layer below. However

I emerged from the stairway, reaching the first chamber I had found myself in when I escaped from the Level 182 [Hellabomination] that had nearly killed me. I teleported in here because I was at deaths door, and I would have been incinerated into ashes.

And yet, now I was going to go back out there. Because I wanted to see how much stronger I had become. I wanted to test myself and more importantly, I wanted to grow even stronger.

I swept my gaze over the ruins surrounding me. I stared at the broken weapons and the shattered armor littering the ground around me.

I knew what kind of a fate awaited me if I made a mistake. I would perish. But I wanted to test out my new Skills. I wanted to keep my promise to my dad to become the strongest in the Nexeus. But I also wanted to keep my promise to Haec and Belphegor as well.

There were a lot of things I needed to do. And the first step was to leave this place to face the destruction of Revelation above.

So I grinned as the world warped around me.

And I teleported out.

Now Leaving [Dungeon: Remnants of the First Demon Kingdom].