Chapter 632: The Beginning of ‘Fate’
....
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The sky was dim, the ground beneath the feet was dry, and the air was full of the stench of corruption. This was Roy’s first impression of the Mardum Prison.
This was a dimensional s.p.a.ce that Sargeras had opened up alone. It didn’t exist in any world but existed in the crevice between the Void and reality. There was no exit, nor were there any flaws to exploit. A gigantic land floated in the darkness, without any sun, moon, or stars around. This isolated island imprisoned all the Twisting Nether demons that Sargeras had captured.
Darkness didn’t affect the vision of demons. After Roy entered, he floated above the land and observed the demons here. The number was terrifying. This place was Sargeras’s achievement of fighting against the Twisting Nether for hundreds or even thousands of years. Over such a long time, he had imprisoned at least hundreds of millions of demons.
With so many Twisting Nether demons imprisoned on this land, even though this place was large enough, it was still crowded. The demons of the Twisting Nether didn’t die in Sargeras’s hands, but they frequently fought each other for the living s.p.a.ce in Mardum. The winners devoured the flesh and blood of the losers, and the losers could no longer be reborn in the Twisting Nether. Once they died, they would really die.
Looking at the scenes of demons fighting below, Roy felt no emotions. He even found that it was a little familiar. Wasn’t this a recreation of the scene of his home, the Abyss?
Demons that evolved due to the contamination of fel energy and Void energy were often crazy and irrational. The lower the level of a demon, the crazier they were. Not long after Roy was sent in, he was attacked by two waves of low-level demons. These crazy fellows ignored the suppression of strength and brazenly attacked Roy. Roy impatiently tore them into pieces and fed them to Rafaro.
Realizing that the prison’s ecology was very chaotic, Roy didn’t want to fall into endless fighting. The souls of the Twisting Nether demons were contaminated. Even if he obtained their souls, he couldn’t use them effectively in the system, so he didn’t intend to kill the demons in the prison to obtain souls.
Riding Rafaro, he found the center of the land, killed several demon lords entrenched here, s.n.a.t.c.hed their territories, and settled down.
After arranging this temporary residence, Roy set up a large-scale barrier to block the crazy demons and obtain some peace. After doing this, he began to wait quietly.
Roy knew that he wouldn’t be in Mardum for long. Under his guidance, Sargeras had already seen the power of the Old G.o.ds, so he would definitely continue to explore other galaxies corroded by the Old G.o.ds. A single example wouldn’t cause warriors of the Pantheon like Sargeras to feel fear. But as he continued to explore, terrifying scenes of devastation would gradually appear in front of him.
In particular, when Sargeras saw the worlds that gave birth to world-souls but were already devoured by the Old G.o.ds, he, who was also born as a world-soul, would gradually put himself in their shoes. Fear would not suddenly appear, but it was a process of quant.i.tative change to qualitative change. When he felt deeply helpless, his caution of the Void would turn into fear, and the fear would finally turn into despair!
In the end, Sargeras would complete his transformation and fall like in the original history. He would personally break the cage of Mardum and release Roy and all the Twisting Nether demons imprisoned here.
Roy was looking forward to that day…
Roy couldn’t estimate how long it would take. It might be months, years, or decades. This depended on the speed at which Sargeras wandered the universe and the acc.u.mulation of his fear. But no matter how long it would be, Roy only needed to wait.
While waiting, Roy took out Frostmourne and had a headache about how to repair this divine artifact.
In the collision with Sargeras’s weapon, Gorshalach had cut deep into Frostmourne. This made Roy realize that the sword he created was still quite a distance away from a weapon like Gorshalach. According to his knowledge, Gorshalach was the strongest weapon known in this world or this universe. It was the ceiling of all divine artifacts. On the other hand, Roy had constructed Frostmourne using souls in the system. Its strength was related to the number of souls he had invested. Clearly, it was normal for Frostmourne to lose to Gorshalach under these circ.u.mstances. Being able to persist until there was only a deep gap instead of being broken was because Roy had infused mighty power into the sword.
It was definitely possible to repair Frostmourne. He only needed to invest a large number of souls in the system. But repairing Frostmourne like this was no different from before, unless he was willing to invest more souls to modify it.
But if he wanted to upgrade Frostmourne to the level of Gorshalach, the number of souls he would have to invest would be astronomical.
Roy didn’t have so many souls now. In fact, as his strength continued to improve, Frostmourne could no longer keep up with his usage needs. When you had the power to crush your opponents, you often didn’t waste time trying to debuff them. Frostmourne was like this now, so Roy was using it less and less.
Now, Roy’s headache was about whether he should repair Frostmourne. Although he wanted to repair it for sentimental reasons, he actually felt that he should forge a stronger weapon to use against Gorshalach in the future.
Fortunately, this dilemma was eliminated before long because Roy encountered a demon in Mardum.
It was a… dreadlord, a nathrezim!
The pale skin, sunken eye sockets, huge bat wings, and sharp claws were very familiar… When Roy saw the dreadlord who came to find him, he thought that he had encountered Tichondrius here.
But it was obvious that this dreadlord was not Tichondrius. He called himself Diathorus.
It couldn’t be helped. The nathrezim all looked similar, and those who were not familiar with them would definitely not recognize the differences. Diathorus didn’t break into Roy’s territory by accident but came for him. After entering Roy’s territory, he stayed where he was and waited for Rafaro to appear before loudly telling him his purpose in coming, hoping to see Roy, the King of Despair.
Roy was very curious about encountering a dreadlord here, so he got Rafaro to bring him over.
Upon seeing Roy, Diathorus knelt respectfully on one knee. The talent of eloquence of the nathrezim was vividly displayed in him. As soon as he came, he flattered Roy, praised his strength, and so on.
Roy couldn’t stand listening to him. He waved his hand to stop his ramblings and asked, “Why did you come find me?”
“Lord Osiris!” Diathorus explained respectfully. “I have been imprisoned here for more than twelve hundred years. You are the strongest demon that has entered Mardum as far as I know. When you appeared in this s.p.a.ce, I could already feel your powerful aura, so I found a way to learn your name from the demon lords you defeated and came to see you, hoping to obtain your protection and serve you.”
Roy stared at Diathorus without saying anything for a long time. Diathorus lowered his head respectfully. The scene fell silent.
Obtaining protection and serving was all fake. Roy knew very well that the nathrezim were only truly loyal to one master. So after hearing what Diathorus said, he directly ignored it. But he was still a little surprised by him.
What surprised him was Diathorus’s intelligence-gathering ability. Mardum was isolated from the outside world, and the demons here didn’t know what was going on outside. But not long after he came in, Diathorus actually heard his demon name and t.i.tle and even found his territory. This intelligence-gathering ability couldn’t be underestimated.
Roy’s demon name was easy to discover. After all, when he expelled those demon lords earlier, he had announced it himself, but he hadn’t mentioned the t.i.tle of the King of Despair. In other words, it was impossible for demons in Mardum to know his t.i.tle outside. But if he remembered correctly, what Diathorus had said to Rafaro earlier was that he wanted to see ‘His Majesty Osiris, the King of Despair’.
If Roy were a boorish demon, he might have ignored this small detail. Unfortunately, his thoughts were meticulous, and he noticed something wrong after some thought.
Why does Diathorus know my t.i.tle outside? Hasn’t he been in this prison for more than twelve hundred years? Did… someone outside tell him?
Roy immediately understood. Yes, his compatriots outside probably told him!
The nathrezim were a race created by Sire Denathrius. Their mission was to infiltrate various forces and act as spies. The universe was so vast, and the various forces were so far apart, so how did the lurking dreadlords quickly and accurately report back their intelligence?
Through this small flaw, Roy immediately realized that there might be some unknown method of contact between the nathrezim, and this method of contact could even break through the dimensional blockade of Mardum!
Even if it were just a breakthrough in information, it was enough.
Thinking of this, Roy realized that this dreadlord named Diathorus was probably not simply captured by Sargeras and imprisoned. He had probably gotten into this prison on purpose.
These fellows were even unwilling to leave out the intelligence collection work of a prison. What model workers…
Of course, if Sargeras caught more dreadlords in the future, Roy was more willing to believe that this was probably a scheme of the nathrezim. Not only was he plotting Sargeras’s fall, but the nathrezim were also doing the same thing. But perhaps because of his existence, this scheme was already ahead of what the nathrezim had conceived…
These thoughts flashed through Roy’s mind, and he instantly understood. Although he was very vigilant against the nathrezim, he felt that, at least for now, the nathrezim had the same goal as him and were natural allies.
Thinking of allies, Roy immediately recalled the familiar and close att.i.tude that Tichondrius and the others had when they faced him when he appeared on Argus…
Yes, it seems like my ‘fate’ with the nathrezim should start at this time…
Roy nodded and finally said, “Very good, Diathorus. I accept your loyalty. Now, tell me. What can you do for me?”
Diathorus didn’t know that his ident.i.ty had actually been seen through. Joy flashed in his eyes, but he still lowered his head. “Your Majesty Osiris, after all, this is a prison set up by Sargeras. I believe you hope to get out as soon as possible. I can unify the demons in Mardum for you and get all of them to work for you. This way, we can concentrate our efforts on finding a way to break out of the prison!”