Fire Mage (Web Novel)
chapter-418

Chapter 418: Underworld

Other than the strange bluish fire-like eyes, Titus was nothing more than a normal skeleton!

He tried to open his mouth, but only a strange creaking voice came out from it.

He then raised his hand, touched his skull, and then sighed. After that, he turned around, looked up ahead, and checked the surroundings. The nether lake was located next to a small hill and covered more than one km radius. Titus even saw some strange withered trees and plants near the nether lake and became more curious about this new world.

'For now, I should find a safe place and hide for some time before start gathering more information about this world.' He first wanted to familiarize himself with his new skeletal body.

Nodding inwardly, he cast the [Shadow Stealth] skill and tried to blend with the surrounding darkness. Unfortunately, there was no physical object like trees or plants to give shadow to the surroundings. The only thing that appeared in front of him was his own shadow…

'But that's now how my skill works. Although most of this world is dark, I still need the shadow of an object to use this skill.' He subconsciously shifted his gaze towards the small hill. He saw many rocks in the small hill and also saw a large shadow on the other side.

A creaky sound in the form of a laugh came out of his white skull as he tried to laugh.

But just as he took a few steps forward, he suddenly perceived some presence up ahead and got tensed up.

He saw a group of armored-skeletons walking out from the other side of the hill! A total of five humanoid skeletons of different sizes appeared in front of his eyes. Among the five, two undead skeletons looked the same height as him, while the other three seemed to be 3-meter tall and appeared gigantic. They even held broadswords and appeared imposing.

But what shocked him was not the presence of these skeletons but their eyes! They had reddish fires burning in their eyesockets and emitted a strange form of death energy.

No! It was a dense form of nether energy full of impurities!

'They are evil!' He muttered subconsciously and hurriedly moved towards the nearby rock.

'How did I know that?' Confusion appeared on his face as he arrived near a large rock and hid his presence in the rock's shadow.

'I think it has something to do with the nether impurities, lad. Most of the things in this universe have two sides. For example, if there is an evil force, there will also be a good force. The same goes for everything. Many powers are contradictions to each other. Is this to create a balanced universe? Is it just an anomaly? I don't know.'

'But everything has two sides. The chaos faction is known for causing chaos all over the universe, while the Lawful faction tries its best to control the chaos and bring peace and rule. Destiny's power wants to control everyone's future, while the power of 'Time' wants to break these shackles and wants to be a free bird. Fire wants to burn things while the water wants to extinguish the fire and soothe everything. The wind wants to roam freely while the earth wants to stay in a single place. This list will go on in every power.'

'So, this death power might also have the good and evil side. If my guess is not wrong, these skeletons might be an evil form of Nether energy, and what you are using might be the good form of Nether energy. And, there also seemed to be a restriction to use this purest form of this death energy.'

'Restriction?' Titus asked in curious.

'Yes. To use the nether energy, you need to be an evil person. Not only your habit, but your thinking must also be evil to the core. Impurities gather in the form of evil and chaos. I think that's how this nether energy works here. But unlike them, you are a pure-hearted child. You always respected the laws and rules of the mortal world and tried your best to follow them. Even when you got forced into a corner by your enemies, you didn't try to kill them. You killed them only when they crossed their line. You always considered the mortals as equal. You respected them. That's more than enough for you to get the approval of this death energy. But there must also be many loopholes out there to control this pure death energy. If not, how could those necromancers control this same death power?' Charles asked in his mind.

While Titus was discussing with Charles's Will, the armored skeletons walked towards the nether lake and soon looked at the shoreline area.

They soon noticed a skeleton's footprints near the lake and followed the trails.

'What are you going to do now, lad?' Charles asked.

In the meantime, Titus pondered for a moment and soon spoke in his mind.

'I don't know, Teacher. But unlike the humans, I don't feel any sympathy for these undead skeletons. No, I feel a sense of loathing towards them. It's as if they do not belong to this world at all. They are evil; their souls are corrupted and filled with so many impurities. I want to eliminate them.'

'Oh? Are you feeling hatred towards these undead skeletons? That's a surprising thing. Do you think of another reason other than them being evil nature?' Charles asked rationally.

Meanwhile, Titus got stunned by his question and soon asked in surprise.

'What do you mean? Aren't they evil? So, what's so surprising about my loathing feeling towards them?'

'There is no good and evil in this universe, lad. If you think of some practice as a good thing, it will turn into a good thing from your perspective. If you think of the same practice as a bad thing, then that thing will become a bad one. Take a necromancer as a primary example. He mostly studies the human bodies and experiments on humans, animals, and even souls. But he might consider his practice as a normal thing. He does experiment on human subjects as we do on normal animals. Do you think this death energy won't accept his belief when he comes in contact with it? I don't think so. Death energy has no personal emotion to find which person is good or which person is bad. If the necromancer does human experiments pure-heartedly, he might one day get accepted by this death energy. That's the fact.' Just as he finished his words, the group of armored skeletons finally noticed Titus's presence and glanced at each other.

Even though Titus hid under the shadow, the enemy skeletons found his location due to the white bones.

In a blink, one of the five armored skeletons suddenly walked towards his direction and soon unsheathed his sword made of emerald-like metal. He appeared the same height as him and wore a simple black cloak over his body and the armor.

Once the cloaked human skeleton arrived near the rock, he sized Titus up and down, turned his skull towards the other undead skeletons, and spoke in an unfamiliar language.

"%*#U% @O$%% $%I#email protected"

In the meantime, one of the three giant undead skeletons nodded his skull, took out an eerie blackish book from his bag-like thing, and tossed it towards the ordinary cloaked skeleton.

On the other hand, the cloaked skeleton caught the book, shifted his gaze towards Titus, and threw it towards his feet.

Then, he made a hand gesture and told him to pick it up.

'What is this book, Teacher? Is it safe to pick it up?' Titus asked, and at the same time, getting ready to use his Grim Reaper ability.

Indeed, his grim reaper incarnation was still standing in his Inner World and appeared good as new.

Alas, Titus decided to use it only when it was necessary.

At that moment, Charles's Will also got puzzled by the skeletons' response and fell into deep thoughts.

After two seconds, he let out a deep sigh and spoke inside Titus's mind.

'Pick it up. Even if it has some enslavement spell, I think your Grim Reaper is more than enough to severe the shackles.'