Chapter 6: Lord of Hell
Even though not much of her holy, noble aura remained, the angel still tried to speak in the most solemn voice she could.
A divine being like her didn’t need to breathe, yet she was now taking a deep breath just to gather air, proving just how nervous she still was.
"O human with a powerful soul, you have come very far on the path toward eternity. Within the endless flow of time across the universe, your name is slowly becoming a mark that will never fade. On behalf of God, I bestow upon you His blessing. I hope you can stand firm on this path filled with hardships until the very last moment."
As soon as she finished speaking, holy light poured down from above and filled the entire space. Golden cards appeared out of the void, floating everywhere.
At first there were tens of thousands, then millions, billions, trillions... The number of cards kept increasing to an unimaginable amount, so many that no mortal’s eyes could ever see them all.
One of them flew in front of the young man and stopped, as if this was the blessing that belonged to him.
"So I just have to take this card?"
Faced with that question, the angel didn’t answer right away. She didn’t stay silent because it was difficult, but because she was breathing heavily from exhaustion. After countless years, this was the first time she had ever felt tired from reading this prepared speech.
This prepared speech had been suitable for every human she had ever met, but with this guy, it was completely different. The speech and him were like two parallel lines that would never meet.
A powerful soul? Not at all. In her eyes, this young man was so ordinary that he was practically trash among humans.
What about eternity? Not that either. No matter how she looked at it, she couldn’t find even the slightest connection between him and eternity in this universe.
As for his name? She didn’t know! His past was unbelievably strange. Even when she used her power to look into the past, all she saw was... Nothing at all! It wasn’t hidden. There was simply nothing there to see.
As for the path filled with hardships, she wasn’t completely sure, but she guessed that wasn’t true either. With his expression even more emotionless than an angel’s, she felt like he had never experienced hardship for even a single moment.
"Not necessarily, but it’s the one most suitable for you. I didn’t choose it either. I’m only responsible for giving it to you. If you want, you can take another card. Every card here contains an S-rank ability or higher."
She thought everything was over at this point, but his next sentence made her jump in shock.
"Can I take all of them?"
His completely "innocent" gaze, without the slightest hint of greed as he looked at the angel, made her feel a chill run down her spine for the first time.
"You’re joking, right? No one can take all of them."
For some reason, even though she said it as a certainty, there was a trace of uncertainty in her voice.
"I see. So it’s possible."
Now that he had his answer, he naturally didn’t waste any more words and simply reached out his hand. Whether in his spiritual soul state or physical body, his strength never changed at all.
He had no weakest moment, nor did he have a strongest moment. Absolute stability across countless eras had never changed.
His overwhelming power directly bent the rules governing the golden cards, causing them all to fly toward him at the same time, no matter how far away they were.
The cards were forcibly fused together by his terrifying power, causing the surrounding space to crack apart.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
For the first time in her life, the angel could only fly around in a panic and scream like a little child who had just made a huge mistake but had no idea how to fix it.
"It’s collapsing! Everything is collapsing!"
The angel’s tears carried holy power that suppressed demons, yet now they flowed nonstop like something worthless being given away for free.
She looked no different from a helpless little girl anymore, with nothing left resembling an immortal divine being.
No matter how much she cried, he didn’t care. He just wanted to know what these things would become if they were fused, because nothing like this existed in his plane.
As all the golden cards fused, their color changed as well. It became a black card, so black that it couldn’t reflect any kind of light.
Even though this was clearly a space for spiritual souls, he could distinctly sense that this black card existed in a strange state between matter and soul.
For comparison, the material density of this card was even more absurd than a singularity, because this special material carried the highest authority of this plane.
If this card were thrown onto Earth, then Earth—no, it would be more accurate to say the entire solar system or even more—could easily be shattered by it.
"How do I use this thing?"
Although his tone was calm, he could now tell that he couldn’t destroy the black card. It couldn’t do anything to him, but at the same time, he couldn’t damage it either.
"Waaah! I don’t even know what that thing is!"
From an angel that mortals could only look up to, she was now lying flat on the stone floor, crying in despair.
Could someone please tell her where this illogical monster had come from? Weren’t only spiritual souls supposed to enter this place? How could someone cause this much destruction?!
While she was drowning in despair, the sky suddenly turned crimson. The pure white holy space was polluted by black smoke emerging from the void. The stone floor split open into deep cracks, followed by the appearance of lava and gloomy flames.
An eerie laugh echoed through the spiritual soul of anyone who heard it, making the angel stop crying instantly. Her expression immediately turned hostile.
"The Lord of Hell, Lucifer, greets our special guest."