Brand New Life Online: Rise Of The Goddess Of Harvest Chapter 1993: Resolve

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"Wait a moment, Elayne. Who is it?" Yaga asked.

"Ah! That’s Little Gabriel, an Archangel I befriended," Elayne replied with a warm smile. "He was badly wounded and regressed into a cherub. He had lost most of his memories, but over time he started growing bigger again. I don’t know what became of him, but I believe he is still alive and safe somewhere."

"Y-You befriended an angel... That is insane..." Sailor muttered in disbelief.

"Incredible. This just proves how great our leader truly is," Norman said. His skeletal jaws shifted into a genuine smile. It looked somewhat creepy, yet it was a smile nonetheless. "I made the right choice in following you."

"If you could summon that archangel here, we could probably defeat almost anything," Granny Yaga remarked. "Still, it is impossible. Angels have no right to descend this far down. They rarely, if ever, enter hell after all."

"Hmm." Elayne nodded thoughtfully. With her Skill, Soul Rune Imprint, she could probably create a spell that channeled Gabriel’s holy light. However, she was unsure whether it would work properly or simply collapse. "Well, that is just wishful thinking. Anyway... about the undead..."

Elayne had tried to clear her mind by admiring the scenic view and taking a few photos, but the mistreatment of the undead continued to weigh heavily on her heart. As someone who had become known as a "liberator of the undead," she had dedicated herself to helping oppressed undead and anyone else who suffered injustice. The way the undead were treated here filled her with deep frustration and sorrow.

"It is really unfair..." she sighed. "There is the Demon King of Death who enslaves undead and treats them like livestock or expendable soldiers. Then there are the rest of the people, especially the noble races, who view them as inferior trash or treat them exactly the same way. It makes me wonder what the real difference is between the noble races and the Demon King of Death. Both sides essentially treat the undead the same. Some undead might even prefer the Demon King of Death because he is also an undead. They could develop that ’us versus them’ mentality. But in the end, their society is just as ruthless and unforgiving."

A heavy silence fell over the group.

"..."

"..."

"..."

No one spoke, yet they all agreed with her words in their hearts. The Netherworld, its society, and its rules were truly twisted, strange, and often bizarre.

Undead who came here seeking rest were treated worse than garbage. This created a horrible afterlife for souls who had already suffered greatly in life but could not find inner peace or closure. After all, souls only reached this place naturally when they could not find resolution yet could no longer remain as undead in the living world. They were inevitably dragged into the Netherworld.

Those who died with peace of mind, having done everything they could without resentment, usually passed on peacefully to a heavenly realm instead. Meanwhile, truly sinful and malicious souls who had committed horrible acts were often sent straight to a hell realm. There, their souls endured all the pain they had inflicted on others until they were purified, stripped of memories, and either faded away or were consumed.

The Netherworld served as a strange middle ground among afterlives. If someone died with peace of mind, they usually did not end up here, though it was still possible to be dragged in through magic or accidents. Even evil souls could occasionally arrive here instead of hell. This made sense to Elayne, as she had encountered some truly terrible undead during her time here. Not all of them were innocent victims. Some were genuinely evil beings she despised with all her heart.

The reasons souls arrived here could vary, but it was almost always tied to lingering resentment or something similar. Still, the core point remained. People did not come here as undead because they wanted to. It was simply what happened. The Netherworld was originally built as a sanctuary where undead could find rest, achieve solace, accept their deaths, and eventually move on.

Yet long ago, those strict laws and rules were shattered during the ancient war between gods and demon kings. Hecatoncheires, one of the sons of Gaia, perished and fused with the Netherworld, twisting and warping it with his body and soul. After that, several other deities fell one by one as the cataclysm rewrote the Netherworld and threw its laws into complete chaos.

Along with the arrival of the noble races came even more upheaval. Hundreds of millions of years ago, the Netherworld expanded dramatically, forming new areas, continents, and the very labyrinth where they now stood, which had been forged from that titan’s corpse. From that point onward, the Netherworld became something entirely different. Although its original laws still existed in part, new contradictory rules emerged, and entirely new species of beings caught between life and death were born.

The lingering resentment, miasma, and nether energy of this changed Netherworld gave rise to Bone Beasts, Ghost Beasts, Zombie Beasts, and countless other twisted, monstrous creatures. These horrors threatened both newly arriving dead souls and the so-called noble races.

Hundreds of millions of years later, this was the current state of the Netherworld. At this point, it often seemed more merciful for a person’s soul to be completely destroyed and vanish into the void than to arrive here seeking solace, only to face endless suffering before any hope of peaceful passage or reincarnation.

This was how the world functioned now. As twisted as it was, there were still people who called this place home.

"I want to create a place where we undead can live in peace," Elayne sighed, her voice filled with quiet determination and sadness. "But at the same time, I must return to the world of the living. I wish... I wish I could do both. Deep down, I know it is not truly my place to change everything here. Still, I will defeat our enemies and save as many as I can while I am here, before I find a way back to my daughter."

"...Thank you," Norman said softly, nodding with respect. "You are the only person in this Netherworld who has ever given us undead any real hope."

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