Grotesque Lord: Ascension

Abyss

'Where the hell am I...?'

The last thing Deor remembered was separating his soul from his body and if everything were to go according to plan, he should be in a purgatory-like space right now.

Being a god talented in spatial magic he naturally understood the structure of all kinds of realms, from dream worlds, knowledge seas, divine realms, parallel dimensions, and of course purgatorial spaces.

When mortals like humans die as long as there's no external intervention their souls enter purgatory, these purgatory spaces defer usually depending on factors like local gods of a certain reality but they all serve the same purpose to determine whether a human soul should be reborn as an angel, demon, spirit or return to the circle of transmigration.

It's a fundamental process controlled by the [will of the universe] and although god-like deities can interfere with it, they can never control it. This is an 『absolute law』. Absolute laws are fundamental rules even Deor can't break or bent.

That was why he was sure this wasn't purgatory, it was an endlessly dark void barely having the concept of time. He didn't know by how much but time moved ridiculously slow here.

Deor looked down at his bare soul, though you could not see its outline most likely because it was as black as the abyss, there was a golden sphere-like core in the middle permeating the area with a pure and holy aura this was 『Zerdall's Saint Soul 』.

[It's probably because I'm not supposed to even exist in this form, is the universe trying to trap me here for eternity?]

Deor understood that once you reach Demigod/Demon Lord level, it should be impossible to reincarnate. If chosen souls were being reborn as low-level demons and angels and gods were reincarnating indefinitely, wouldn't the balance of the universe collapse?

At first, he thought this was an absolute law but when he thought about it deeply, Deor realized if he could separate part of his soul to form soul bonds with weapons, why would it be impossible using 『Order』 to completely separate it from his body?

That's how he came up with the spells 『 Soul Separation』and 『Divine Reincarnation』 after years of experimentation. His plan was simple. Separate his soul from his body, use the spatial quake caused by Zelimns destruction to descend onto the world of mortals and possess a body.

Now that was looking impossible the universe was denying his existence, in fact, Deor didn't know it yet but if it wasn't for 『 Zerdalls Saint Soul』 his existence would already be extinguished it was constantly forming a barrier that was preventing the abyss from corroding him.

Deor tried using 『Order』  to find and open a backdoor in the space, but it was too late his imprisonment in this abyss was already an absolute law.

[f**k!! This is bad.]

He had no clue on what to do and the abyss had properties that prevented him from thinking clearly, every time Deor came up with some sort of idea of deciphering its structure, he would go in and out of consciousness, and when he came to, he could barely recall his train of thought. 『Celestials Thought Processing』was completely sealed.

Time passed by like this or maybe it didn't. He felt as though he lived trillions of years, and yet a single second didn't go by. It was strange to think time could be this twisted.

[This is true agony...] Deor was tired, he didn't know how he was going to escape this hell, no he understood that by himself there was no way he could break an absolute law [... maybe if Eleanor were here...?] just as he was about to give up on his sanity—

-Crack...crack!

The abyss creaked and cracked with golden lines; it looked similar to when Deor made the spatial rift to Zelimn.

[....!]

Deor didn't even have time to understand what was going on before long the abyss exploded with a bright golden light.

When he came to Deor could really see his soul body, but that was the last thing on his head right now. He gazed around at the sight that fell upon his eyes and couldn't help feel shocked at what he saw.

A giant city floating in eternal darkness. The white-gold themed city was so majestic that it made the capital of the True Gods Artizial pale in comparison 'Wait is there even a comparison?' he thought.

But that wasn't the shocking thing, Deor didn't understand how he got so close to the city, but being this close he could feel it, millions of peak Demigods and hundreds of thousands True Gods.

[What the f**k!? Won't I be killed if I hang around here!?]

Deor might have been able to use the Holy Element, but he was still an Evil God, before age ten he had already killed over a hundred thousand mortals and angels, at the age of 14 he had his first military campaign where he burned down a city home to five million people.

Normally he would just mask his murderous aura, but right now he was a naked soul this could be described as his true self there was no way of hiding his sins. And he knew that such a holy-looking place would never allow such an evil presence to roam around.

's**t. Why is my luck so bad!' He began floating away from the city without a second thought 'Isn't suffering in the abyss better than b—!?'

[eh?]

In the blink of an eye, his giant ethereal body was standing in front of a white-haired woman, Deor was about 12 feet tall in his soul form but staring into the woman's deep golden eyes he couldn't help feel smaller than an ant she wasn't even releasing any sort of pressure it was just an instinctive reaction, there was also a strong feeling of familiarity coming from her.

The golden-eyed woman turned away from Deor and started talking to the blonde blue-eyed beauty next to her.

"°•°•°•°•°•"

"•°•°•°•°•°•"

He could not even begin to comprehend what any of them were saying, but their voices were so soft that it soothed his soul.

The golden-eyed woman turned back to Deor and softly whispered under her breath, and a gentle golden aura covered Deor making his soul shrink.

[...eh!? This is 『Order』right...!? Then you must be t-!?]

"Indeed I'm Zerdall." her voice was humble yet majestic.

[...!]