"We have to move quickly, but with caution," I said as we moved beside one of the springs, "I don't want to attract his attention."
"Whose attention?" Thor asked.
"You know who I am talking about," I replied calmly and coldly. "There's a well at the center of the Underworld, and all the Yellow Springs end up there. However, we can't reach that well, because he is sealed there, and once I get near him, he'll definitely notice it, and that wouldn't be a good thing."
"So, what do we do?"
"We get as much as we can to the well." I said and sent Zi a message, "Zi, this will be a dangerous ride, so it is better to finish it as soon as possible. I hate to say it to you like that, but you'll slow us down, little buddy."
Zi nodded, although it was apparent that he was reluctant. I waved my hand at him, and he disappeared into my storage space.
The moment I did so, my speed skyrocketed, using the wind element to speed my pace. Thor was beside me, cloaked in lightning with a speed equal to mine. As for the basilisk, it was holding up pretty well, although it was still slower than us.
We saw a lot of weird beasts along the way, and I could tell that they wanted to follow us, but couldn't keep up. After going at it for a while, the basilisk finally stopped, causing us to stop too.
"What's the matter?" I asked calmly.
"I apologize, my lord, but I can't keep up. My body is drained of energy," the beast replied while struggling to catch its breath.
I pondered a little bit, then decided, "Alright. Since you helped us a lot, I'll let you leave alive."
"Thank you, my Lord," the basilisk said and bowed its head. Then it was preparing to leave, but stopped when I continued talking.
"However, I will leave a strand of my senses on you. If you do anything against me, even if it is a little thing, I'll kill you immediately."
"Understood," replied the basilisk, and then it left after I branded it with my senses.
"Let's go, Thor," I said, and then continued at full speed.
Soon, we reached a suitable distance from the well, and we stopped there. I looked at the Yellow Spring in front of me. Its color was more yellowish here, as the spring was denser with souls.
I brought out Tulip's fragile soul and engulfed it with a bit of wind to protect it. I then knelt beside the spring and gently put her soul inside it. She drifted along with the other souls, but I swear that I could see a hint of a smile on her pale face.
And then she was gone...
I stood in silence for a moment, for grief was threatening to take over, but I let out a heavy sigh before turning to leave. However, at that moment, I sensed a terrifying presence, a presence equally as terrifying as Richard's.
And then it was followed by a deathly, ghastly voice, "You should not have come here, Evil... It was a mistake... My clones... My minions... Bring me Evil's body..."
"Sh*t sh*t sh*t sh*t sh*t!" I said as my expression changed greatly. "Thor, we have to get out of this place, NOW!"
He nodded as we dashed towards the exit. Behind us, millions of beasts and people appeared and were running towards us.
I immediately transformed into my Quasi-Draconic state, and my skin turned into scales, wings, and a tail sprouted from my back, along with the bones that came out of my forearms and calves, and the two horns on my head. And in the end, my pupils turned vertical.
Lightning was dancing furiously around Thor as we hurried back to the exit. The time we took to get back to the gate was way shorter than the time to get to the well. Behind us, Orcus's minions were hot on our trail.
Once we reached the gate, I pulled out the Darkvoid Emerald to close the gate without any hesitation and without even telling Thor to cover his eyes. That wasn't important at the moment.
The most important thing at that time was the endless army coming at us in a state of frenzy. The gate takes time to open, which naturally means that it would take the same amount of time to close, so we have to face the army no matter how we get around it.
"Hurry up!" I screamed at the door, not that it would change anything. But then, after I said that, something happened.
Orcus' army arrived!
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Updated on 28/6/2026