The Witch Hunter System
chapter-821

Gehenna, Shadowcage Territory

The Shadow Realm, the Dark Side, the Lightless Domain, the Land of the Dead, and the Bone Graveyard...

The ninth and furthest planet from the Gehenna Star has been known by many names since people learned it belonged to Great Devil Thanatos, the Realm Lord of Gehenna.

Although it was considered one of the seven habitable territories, it was no different from the uninhabitable territories. After all, only Thanatos and his army of the dead resided there; it was not a place for the living.

The Shadowcage Territory itself did not have any atmospheric protection to provide living beings with breathable air. It was just a giant space rock in simple terms.

However, it was extremely rich in mana- -far more than the other eight territories combined -due to the existence of the Sea of Darkness, which devoured everything like an insatiable black hole, be it gas, light, or anything else.

No one really knew where everything went once they were devoured.

However, it was undeniable that the Sea of Darkness-no, the Shadowcage Territory- possessed an unimaginable amount of magical energy.

Nevertheless, unless one learned how to breathe in the magical elements of the Shadowcage Territory and convert them into sustenance for the body, like spirits, it was not a place for anyone to live.

That said, even if people knew how to breathe in the magical elements, it was not a place anyone would dare choose to live, either.

After all, while it wasn't as dangerous as the Purpleflame Territory or the Darksea Abyss Territory, it was undoubtedly the most dreadful place to be for living beings born of flesh and blood.

It was the innate fear of living beings to instinctively avoid places of death, let alone one with such an unfathomable amount of death energy like the Shadowcage Territory.

However, today, the Shadowcage Territory received a rare visitor - Great Devil Helcan.

After passing through a great teleportation gate and setting foot on the dark, barren land filled with wooden stakes and stone graves, Helcan took a deep breath before heading to Thanatos's dwelling place-the Sea of Darkness.

Swish...

The deathly silent yet serene land was quickly disturbed by Helcan's footsteps, causing ghastly sharp winds to ravage the region like angry howls of the sleeping spirits, undead, and all that was unholy.

Black mists also seeped out of the ground like steam and accumulated in the area.

The howling winds and gathering black mists affected only Helcan's surroundings. They followed him like a plague as if informing him of his unwelcoming presence.

Further down the path, bone soldiers and rotten corpses clawed their way out of the earth. Vengeful spirits and mindless specters also flickered in and out of sight above their graves like ghostly flames snuffing out by the winds and coming back.

However, as Helcan drew closer with his intimidating divine pressure, the bone soldiers and rotten corpses crawled back into their graves, and the vengeful spirits and mindless specters faded from sight.

Helcan scoffed at their cowardly retreat, thinking these unholy beings had at least the minimum intelligence to know their place.

In truth, Thanatos had commanded them to clear the way.

Otherwise, they would have swarmed Helcan to death or get destroyed trying to do so. Unless Helcan were adept in soul attacks, they would be practically immortal due to the endless death energy permeating the land.

As Helcan drew closer to the dwelling place of Thanatos, he recalled the old legends about the Shadowcage Territory.

Supposedly, the land used to thrive with life in the far ancient past. Hundreds of mortal kingdoms spread across its land.

However, war broke out, and countless dynasties experienced their rise and fall throughout the full course of its history. Eventually, the endless ravages of war consumed everything, leaving behind nothing but ruins.

The accumulated death and hatred during that period cultivated the greatest evil known to the world then.

Nevertheless, it was quickly sealed away in the deepest depths of the Sea of Darkness and has remained a mystery since then. Even the truth behind the formation of the Sea of Darkness was not clear.

There were also old rumors that the previous generation of the Seven Great Devils, the Seven Deadly Sins, obtained their divine powers from the evil sealed away in the Sea of Darkness. However, Helcan couldn't figure out how much of those rumors were actually true. 'Perhaps Thanatos isn't the real reason why everyone naturally dreads and fears the Shadowcage Territory, but the source of evil sealed away in the depths of the Sea of Darkness...' Helcan thought.

He could feel his soul quivering as he drew closer to the Sea of Darkness.

The Sea of Darkness was only like a black hole due to its insatiable appetite to swallow anything and everything. In terms of its devouring ability and appearance, it shared no resemblance to a black hole whatsoever.

In reality, the Sea of Darkness was more like a vacuum of cosmic proportions.

It was just a whirlpool of endless black mist, and everything caught within its extensive net. Although it could pull things from beyond the Gehenna Star Realm, its devouring force was actually very weak.

Even Rank 3 aerial beings flying over the center of its opening could resist its tugging power.

However, that made it all the more terrifying and eerie - Its weak tug was like a soft call to lure beings into its seemingly bottomless dark abyss.

No one knew if their lives would just be silently robbed away in its calming pull, but it was the natural fear and assumption that steered them far away from it.

And yet, Thanatos made his dwelling abode float right above its central opening.

That wasn't something anyone else, in their mind, could do, let alone sleep in it for most of their days. It was no different from sleeping next to death.

If Thanatos weren't just made of bones, people would definitely say he had nerves or balls of

steel.

"Lord Thanatos, Helcan requests an audience," Helcan announced after stopping at the cliff's edge before the Sea of Darkness.

"..."

The floating abode was silent for several breaths before the endless black mist in the Sea of Darkness rumbled and surged out, forming a black bridge connecting it to the cliff's edge. Helcan glanced at the dark abyss of the Sea of Darkness with dread and fear before looking back up at the floating abode. He felt very conflicted about crossing the black bridge. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like he had much of a choice if he wanted to meet Thanatos. "Fuck," Helcan gritted his teeth.