The Sky Castle represented the light of the Divine Realm, while the dungeon at the bottom of a ten-thousand-zhang abyss embodied its hidden darkness.
The Divine Realm had its hierarchies, both in terms of power and elevation…
Directly beneath the opulent Sky Castle, at the lowest layer of the clouds, lay a cavern like a black hole—a rift in space that ceaselessly devoured the brilliant light from the Divine Realm’s surface.
It was no different from the most ordinary prisons in the Human World: dim, damp, and rotten.
The air reeked of flesh and some indescribable putrid fishy stench from decay. This prison seemed to differ from those in the Human World only in how impossibly difficult it was to enter or leave.
Abel stood alone on the white platform. As over a thousand runes activated and flickered to life, the platform began to descend slowly, piercing through the clouds to reach the Divine Realm’s “hell.”
…The prison known as the Endless Tower.
If the first impression of the Divine Realm was dazzling “gold,” then the Endless Tower was the very synonym for “darkness.”
It resembled a bottomless cavern, descending like stepping into the gaping maw of a demonic abyss. As the vortex drew ever closer, even Main God Abel’s spirit trembled faintly, struck by the desolation of this place called the Endless Tower.
Here, there was almost nothing.
Only floating stone platforms formed rotating staircases as footholds, along with rooms of various sizes lining the cavern’s edges.
As the stone platform descended, Abel sensed countless eyes watching him. But when he turned his head, those pitiful Dark Filth averted their gazes, curling back into the corners behind their iron bars.
This was the prison for the enemies of the gods. Most inmates were threats to the world too difficult to eradicate completely, or beings that still held some utilitarian value.
“Sooner or later, I’ll toss the Evil Dragon in here too, heh…”
Abel curled his lips. Though no one could see his expression under the hood, that repulsive sneer evoked the image of a leering, grotesque man.
The platform sank lower and lower. Abel looked up to find the sky’s light source growing ever more distant, fading completely into the gloom of the Endless Tower. Only when the darkness pressed down on his mind, nearly suffocating him, did he realize that all light had vanished here…
…Or had it?
At the lowest level of the Endless Tower, in the deepest part of the ten-thousand-zhang abyss.
The bottommost cell was a prison more cruel than any other.
Abel halted the platform, his white boots touching down on the pitch-black stone floor with a slight tremble. Were it not for the light emanating from his own divine power, he might have lost himself in this cage of Dark Filth, becoming no different from those bloodthirsty creatures.
The prison gate consisted of six triangular petals. Abel inscribed golden runes upon it. After several minutes of decryption that left even his fingers aching, the gate finally creaked open…
“Creak… creak…”
As if sensing the bottommost prison being unsealed, several scarlet eyes peered out from behind the surrounding walls and bars, brimming with curiosity…
But even more so, with anticipation.
They seemed to expect Abel to release whatever lay within, cheering and ready to break free from their cages at any moment to welcome the entity imprisoned at the very deepest level.
Yet the anticipated darkness did not emerge.
The gate swung open slowly, revealing nothing more than ordinary iron bars. Beyond them, in the dim corner of a cramped space even more squalid than a thatched hut, a faint golden glow emanated.
—It was a girl with golden hair.
Clad in tattered white rags, she knelt barefoot at the edge of the wall. The bloodstains on her clothes and body told tales of inhuman torment.
Her head hung low, the shackles on her wrists and ankles chaining her to the icy floor without mercy. The oppressive weight from the bottom of the Endless Tower, which could crush even a Main God, seemed to erode her soul at every moment.
Sensing the light from beyond the prison, the girl lifted her head slightly. Her dulled golden pupils confirmed the visitor was Abel, and like one who had already died, she curled back into the corner, radiating the darkness’s sole remaining faint glow.
“Heh, how does it feel to bunk with the Dark Filth?”
“…”
“Great War God Dolores, are you listening?”
Abel’s voice echoed through the bottom of the Endless Tower, reverberating with lingering tones. The girl called Dolores offered no reply—but silence was a reply in itself.
War God Dolores.
Or rather, the Main God once known as the “War God”: the golden-haired girl, Dolores.
Abel showed no impatience at Dolores’s lack of response. He produced a palm-sized orb as transparent as a glass bead, held it aloft, and aimed it at the girl on the other side of the railing. Then he began chanting obscure runes in a low voice.
“Cou ei li li ao nie guo.”
The instant the incantation left his lips, the Dark Filth monsters enclosed by the overhead railing erupted in a chorus of hissing screeches, as if to intimidate him. But Abel knew exactly what that eerie noise meant.
They were afraid.
“Originally, the Usurping Treasure Orb was designed to siphon the power of Dark Filth and store it away. But after my modifications, it’s capable of extracting the power from you—the Main God herself.”
“Conflict between Light Emissaries is forbidden. But when it comes to a betrayer from the Tide of Dark Filth, locked away at the deepest level of the Endless Tower? Well, that makes everything perfectly reasonable.”
“Your sins—the sin of colluding with Dark Filth—are ones you’ll never repay. Heh…”
“Though, most of the time, all we really need is a scapegoat, don’t we?”
Abel chuckled as he spoke.
War God Dolores remained utterly unmoved. Her gaze never strayed from the floor, not even by a fraction.
By now, she was accustomed to having her power drained.
The energy her body had generated over the past few days was stripped away once more by the chains radiating golden light. It coursed along their strange material into Abel’s arm, only to be repelled by the clashing forces of the Light Emissaries and funneled into the transparent Treasure Orb clutched in his hand.
The orb filled with golden power, transforming into a gleaming yellow sphere. The glow emanating from Dolores dimmed further. She bowed her head, her body trembling faintly. The agony that tore at her body and soul failed to crack her rigid expression—it merely sent a few clear tears trickling down her beautiful face.
Abel wasn’t one to revel in torment, but he couldn’t help marveling aloud.
“As expected of you, Dolores. To produce divine power of this magnitude in just a few days…”
“This will fund some truly grand schemes. Heh…”
It was as if she’d latched onto a key phrase. Dolores finally parted her lips, but her heartbreakingly lovely features conveyed no message. She could only watch helplessly as Abel claimed her power. Dignity, glory, faith… all seemed long forsaken by the Light Envoy once known as Dolores.
Dreadful noises echoed once more from the surroundings of the Endless Tower, as though rebuking the god named Abel—the thief who stole her strength.
“But your suffering won’t last much longer. Just a few more weeks.”
“As a betrayer, you’ve surely prepared yourself for the ultimate sacrifice by now, haven’t you?”
