Merrick's spiritual power wasn't as high as Duke's, but he also seemed completely unconcerned about Bell, not even considering him worth noticing.
As Alfred finished explaining the rules, it also marked the official opening of this Void Corridor. The people on the platform instantly vanished, all entering the light curtain above.
Duke only felt a spatial fluctuation before he found himself in a dim world.
Surrounding him was a forest of deathly silence, the trees tall and twisted, their trunks a deep, charred black as if scorched by fire, surfaces covered with deep cracks and burls.
All the branches were bare, stabbing into the gray sky, grotesque and bizarre in form, like countless skeletal arms of despair reaching towards the firmament.
There was no wind, no insect chirps, no bird calls, not even a detectable flow of air.
Only a bone-chilling cold and the pervasive scent of decay spread across every inch of space.
