Chapter 23
The chapter begins with Carl and Gabriel—the detective and the criminal. If we view things from Carl's perspective, the detective, the serial killer, and the victim—the white and the black, the noble and the commoner, the poor and the rich, the Westerner and the Easterner—but those who truly fell into the void were the geniuses. Perhaps this is their truth, or maybe this is the only standard of excellence in the universe: to continue falling into the void of loneliness, despair, regret, pain, loss, confusion, meaninglessness, and most importantly, the void of darkness. This time, the fall was swift. Their screams were loud, but they went unheard and will never be heard. Their fall did not stop, and their true fall will not stop until they realize the truth.
The fall was rapid, but time no longer held any meaning here. Their cries faded before they were even born as if the void itself swallowed them before they could form. There was no ground, no sky—only an infinite, dark void. Yet, they were not in true nothingness.
They stopped falling, and suddenly, a scene of true horror and fear appeared before them.
Stretching before them were infinite worlds—no, not just worlds… universes without end. Perhaps what lay before them were 500 billion universes!
Suspended in the void, the universes manifested as massive spheres, each pulsating with its existence. Each one contained its laws, realities, histories, and perhaps its beings. They were not mere celestial bodies but complete truths condensed into points of light and darkness. Some shone like the sun, while others were as dark as bottomless abysses.
There was a universe glowing blue, pierced by white storms, as if primal energy whirlwinds raged within it, yet to take form. Beside it, a black universe covered in golden cracks as if a giant hand had tried to shatter it, but it refused to break, holding its secrets in arrogant silence. Another, purple in color, was streaked with violet lightning as if it were dying or being reborn.
But the most terrifying was the colossal universe at the forefront. It seemed to contain entire galaxies swirling within it, like a living mind dreaming of new creation—or perhaps the end of everything.
Carl and Gabriel were no longer human here. They were not even beings with meaning. They were merely two lost points in an ocean of absolute existence, like two thoughts born in the mind of an incomprehensible entity.
Then, amidst this eternal silence, came the voice.
It was not a voice that could be heard but a scream of the universe itself, a whisper of time, a groan of nonexistence. Carl and Gabriel did not understand its words, but it pierced their bones, planting within them an inescapable truth:
"Did you get it????????????????????????."
At that moment, their entire lives flashed before them—every moment of sorrow, every moment of happiness, if there ever was any. Memories struck their faces at incredible speed, not just their memories but everything they had learned since birth. It all rushed at them with overwhelming force. Then, the two began to laugh—a light, eerie laugh that quickly turned into hysterical laughter, tears streaming down their faces. Were they tears of sorrow or madness? They fell heavily from their eyes as they laughed, their laughter resembling that of psychopaths or villains from old horror tales. It was truly a laugh of despair.
Then they woke up, gasping for breath from this terrifying, abhorrent, and sorrowful nightmare.
Fear gripped them—not just fear of what they had seen but fear of everything. They froze in place, perhaps even afraid to do anything.
Carl, panting, said, "Who are you? Are you the killer? What's your name?"
Gabriel: "I don't know what you're talking about. My name is Gabriel Sunderland."
Carl raised his gun and pointed it directly at Gabriel's head. Gabriel stepped back to the far end of the room, then laughed a mocking laugh and smiled. Slowly, he raised his finger, his gaze turning serious—or perhaps dead, nihilistic, and filled with apathy. Gabriel pointed his finger directly at the center of his forehead while staring at Carl with intense determination. Carl's mouth opened slightly in shock, and his hands began to tremble violently. He hadn't expected this. The man before him was psychologically dead.
Carl drew his gun and said, "I think I have a small idea of what brought you to this state. Do you have any information about this island, Gabriel Sunderland?"
Gabriel: "All I know is that it's a frozen hell."
Carl: "My friends died before at the hands of a cave-dwelling monster. And that strange black void—why do we keep falling into it?"
Gabriel: "I think it's because we haven't found peace and haven't atoned for the sins that haunt us."
Carl: "Speak plainly. Are you insane? By the way, do you know the story of the old ghost?"
Gabriel: "Kazia Misien… Hahaha, she's an old friend. I envy you for not having met anyone like her."
Carl: "Are there others like these nightmare creatures?"
Gabriel: "An infinite number."
As they spoke, a strange object fell from the ceiling with terrifying force, shattering wood and stone and spreading dust everywhere.
The explosion of ash filled the room, and the air grew heavy with the stench of death. From the rising black cloud, glowing grayish-dark bones began to emerge… and then, from the shadows, stepped the living dead—Zolish.
Carl screamed at the top of his lungs, his veins pulsing with terror: "Aaaaaah!! A l-l-living skeleton!!"
But the creature before him was not just a skeleton… it was something else, something that should not exist… something that must not exist.
Zolish slowly raised his head, his bones creaking as if moving for the first time in centuries. His jawbone moved, releasing a deep, ominous voice—a tone no human was meant to hear:
"Wonderful… another dull mortal has joined the party."
His words carried something hidden, something evil that seeped into the bones… as if every syllable was an ancient curse coming back to life.
Then Zolish bent slightly, as if something had piqued his curiosity, and green flames erupted from the hollows of his skeletal eyes, staring directly at Carl, piercing his naked soul.
"Aren't you the one controlled by the whispers in the darkness…?"
Time stopped. Everything froze. Carl's pulse nearly ceased.
Slowly, with wide eyes, Carl stammered with trembling lips:
"H-how… h-how do you know that name?!!"
Zolish laughed. No, it wasn't a human laugh. It was more like the sound of thousands of shattered skulls rolling in the void, or the creak of cemetery doors opening after centuries of silence.
"Didn't your friend tell you… that I know everything?"
Carl could no longer think. He had seen nightmares before, but this… this was no nightmare. It was something else. It was the truth itself crumbling before him.
Carl stumbled back and fell to the ground, his body shaking as if cold had penetrated his bones. He couldn't even move his fingers.
"W-w-what… W-who the hell are you…?! I've never seen anything with such a terrifying aura before…!"
Zolish slowly raised his skeletal hand, and a black vortex of dark winds formed within it, as if the universe itself was disappearing into it.
Then he tilted his head slightly, resting his bony chin on his other hand, before muttering with a wicked smile:
"Thank you for the compliment… mortal."
"This is a higher being… like an Overlord from fantasy stories."
Zolish smiled. Or at least, his jawbone moved in a way that suggested a smile, while a strange hum escaped him, like a laugh coming from beyond the void.
Carl, who had begun to doubt his sanity, muttered something between sarcasm and absolute terror:
"Is this… another hallucination?"
Gabriel
"Ohhh… believe me, this one… is real."
Zolish didn't move, but he was there… filling the room with his presence. He wasn't just an entity—he was more like an invisible wall of raw terror, suffocating and making the air as heavy as molten lead.
Then, with a barely perceptible movement, Zolish raised his hand.
A storm of violent winds erupted from him, sweeping through the place with the force of a hurricane born from the void. It wasn't just air… it was something more sinister, something that devoured everything in its path.
Carl had no chance to escape. His body was lifted off the ground like a paper doll in the heart of a tornado, and the door behind him shattered with demonic force before he was hurled through the air like an insect struck by an invisible hand.
Eighty meters… that was the distance he flew before disappearing as if the storm itself rejected his presence in this place.
His fate now… was unknown. Completely unknown, like everything else in this world.
But Zolish didn't turn, didn't pay it any attention. His focus was now entirely on Gabriel.
He stepped toward him slowly, his voice not just words but whispers planted directly into the mind, as if each syllable pulsed with a different reality as if each sentence carried a secret that should never be discovered:
"Well, human… it seems we have a conversation to finish."
This wasn't natural terror… it wasn't just fear… it was a deeper kind of realization. The realization that his very existence had become questionable.
Yet, despite it all, he found himself muttering, in a voice he wasn't sure was his own:
"What… what happened? You were in the Demon Lord's dimension… how… how did you get here? Give me an explanation…"
Zolish stopped. For a moment, he didn't move before raising his head slightly as if something amusing had occurred to him.
Then he smiled.
"I don't know. I don't understand. Who said we were ever there? Who said we… left? Who said this place… is real? Who said my promise to you would come true?"
Then, that pause… that moment that stretched as if time itself had frozen.
Zolish stared at Gabriel as if seeing him for the first time as if all the memories he had of him didn't exist before this moment.
Then he said, in a quiet voice that carried something… something indescribable, something neither human nor demonic… but something… else:
"Wait a minute… who are you, human? Do I know you? Have we met before?"
Then, without warning, his tone changed. It turned into something… hungry.
"All I know… is that you look delicious."
The void itself shook. The air grew thick and dense, as if the entire place was beginning to melt.
Zolish took a step forward, then another, staring at Gabriel like a wolf that had found its prey.
Then, he slowly opened his bony mouth… so slowly, until the black void within was revealed, until his teeth began to move rapidly, emitting a grating sound as if a hellish machine was being sharpened before its feast.
Then he whispered, in a voice that was not human, but the voice of the abyss itself, something that should never have been spoken, something Gabriel should never have heard…
"Promoventis."
And in the next moment…
Nothing was the same anymore.
Then they returned to that moment in the kingdom of the Demon Lord, Demofi Tempest—specifically, the moment when the demon unleashed a gamma explosion from his hands toward Gabriel. But this time, Zolish pulled Gabriel away, allowing him to avoid the blast, and unleashed black fire from his hands, incinerating the demon and turning him and the 20 guardian demons who had attacked into ash. Zolish approached Gabriel, who was still struggling to comprehend what had happened, and said to him:
"Don't be afraid, boy. You're just traveling back in time when you die… I'll bring you back to the present..."
Gabriel: "What the hell are you talking about?"
As they spoke, a young, tall, pale demon appeared. Lightning and an aura of terror emanated from him. Everything around him in the sky froze and shattered. His aura shook the entire dimension. His eyes were red, filled with sparks. He attacked Zolish with a massive, ghostly black hand, choking him to the point where he spat blood from his mouth. It was the first time Gabriel had seen this terrifying cosmic entity bleed. Before him stood a cosmic being even more powerful—the Demon Lord, Demofi, who laughed strangely and said:
"Welcome, my bones son I've missed you.
End of chapter