Chapter 734: Frozen in Deathly Cold

After using the power of the River of Darkness to escape from the prison dimension of Kasseli, Donald retracted the River of Darkness’s power from Yasas. Standing in the void of the Lower Realms, Yasas gazed at the vast abyssal world seemingly within reach, along with the nine layers of hell beside it, feeling uneasy.

“What are your plans now?”

The voice of that mysterious will rang in his ears once again. Yasas shook his head.

“I can’t stay in the Lower Realms. Though the multiverse is vast, finding a place my father can’t reach will be difficult! I’ve barely managed to break free from those powerful figures’ control with Edimachus—I certainly don’t want to fall under another powerful supreme god and be shackled again!”

The voice fell silent for a moment before speaking again, “Then I can point you toward a rather good path…”

To avoid revealing his connection to the River of Darkness, Donald didn’t place Yasas in his own divine kingdom or the nine layers of hell. It wasn’t out of distrust toward Yasas, who had already signed a contract with the River of Darkness, but because Yasas had just used its power to escape Kasseli and joined his forces, which would surely arouse the suspicions of that King of the Undead. Until everything was settled, he didn’t want to reveal the River of Darkness’s ultimate power!

So, after consulting Yasas, Donald suggested they go to a place above the Upper Realms—the Fallen Kingdom, adjacent to Azeroth.

“The Fallen Monarch, Prince Mathius?”

Upon hearing this suggestion, Yasas suddenly felt joy.

“Thank you, great Lord of the River of Darkness, for your guidance!”

If they went to the Fallen Kingdom, joining forces with Edimachus there would indeed make his father wary. Not to mention Prince Mathius’s once formidable strength as a abyssal giant; even if he was now said to have fallen to the rank of a mid-tier god, he still couldn’t be underestimated.

On top of that, the Fallen Monarch had unclear ties to the newly rising pantheon of nature gods. That powerful Nature Guardian, along with his allies, was enough to earn the attention of supreme gods.

Most importantly, behind the pantheon of nature gods stood the legendary Elven Lord, who was said to have taken that first step toward becoming a demi-god. Until Ignatz’s situation was clarified, given his father Grant’s cunning and suspicious nature, he surely wouldn’t take reckless risks.

He also had one or two exchanges with that fallen prince. Given their shared situation of having strayed from the Abyss and out of consideration for the Lord of the River of Darkness, there was a high chance he would be accepted by Matthews. Realizing this, Yasas immediately expressed his sincere gratitude to the being behind the River of Darkness, then left without looking back, traveling through the void toward the inner realms. …

After the Fallen Prince successfully left Kasseli with his rescued target, Oscar, the Immortal King who had taken the form of Thanobos, saw his power rise to the level of a mid-tier god, which caught the attention of Nergal, the ruler of the City of Death. Nergal, who was fighting against the power of the River of Darkness, suddenly reined in his strength and waved his staff, a powerful artifact named the Reaper. A huge scythe-like blade emerged from its tip. Nergal, the Reaper of Flesh and Blood, earned half of his title due to this ancient and ferocious artifact. Even immortal demi-gods, if struck by this special mid-tier artifact, would have their divine flames torn apart, their souls harvested, leading to their complete destruction. It is said that the God of Death, Nergal, originated from the ancient Soul God lineage. However, he betrayed them for unknown reasons, resulting in his being demoted from a supreme god and falling into madness. How powerful was the ancient Soul God lineage? It is said to have beings who were just a step away from being supreme gods, and it also had a strong connection to the realms of souls and death, as evidenced by Nergal himself originating from that lineage. It was because of this knowledge that Oscar coveted Nergal’s power so much. If he could seize Nergal’s authority, he could gain insight into the profound mysteries of the ancient Soul God lineage, adding another significant advantage to his plans to dominate the Abyss. So when Nergal abandoned his confrontation with the River of Darkness and charged fiercely with the Reaper in hand, Oscar did not flee but reached into his chest and took out another powerful artifact renowned throughout the multiverse—the Staff of Death. An immortal domain instantly expanded. Even in Nergal’s territory, the Staff of Death, with its power comparable to that of high-tier artifacts, allowed Oscar to establish a strong domain to fight against the God of Death, Nergal. “The Staff of Death?” Nergal’s hoarse and rough voice echoed in the souls. Clearly, this God of Death recognized this powerful artifact.

It’s hard not to recognize it, for this Staff of Death was originally a unique artifact possessing a portion of the power of Naraku, once a high-tier divine artifact. But after it was sealed by the gods of the ancient soul pantheon, that portion of Naraku’s deathly power was also sealed, causing its strength to decline and preventing it from returning to its status as a supreme god.

As for the Reaper, it was an artifact created later on. Though its power surpassed that of ordinary mid-tier artifacts, it was far inferior to the Staff of Death—even when the latter was sealed.

Upon first seeing the artifact he had lost, Naraku’s first thought was one of joy at its recovery.

However, even his own deathly power couldn’t break through the powerful seals cast by the ancient soul gods. Even Oscar, his opponent, didn’t know that the powerful artifact he relied on for fame originally belonged to the Death God Naraku—and that it was a sealed high-tier artifact!

Thus, Naraku couldn’t harness the power of the Staff of Death through the artifact’s resonance.

As a result, the battle turned out to be extremely frustrating.

Especially since Naraku’s scythe artifact possessed terrifying power to slay any creature and strip its soul. Yet Oscar, after being revived, appeared as an immortal demon like Thanobos, not a true living being but rather an undead creature. So despite its strength, the Reaper couldn’t inflict as much damage on the King of the Undead as it could on ordinary living beings.

Losing these advantages, Naraku found himself in a complete disadvantage. Despite roaring in fury, he couldn’t defeat his opponent.

But after all, he was an ancient god. Even though his power had declined and he had gone mad, he was still beyond the reach of ordinary gods. Even with all the advantages, Oscar couldn’t defeat this tenacious Death God, let alone bind him and drain his deathly power.

The battle lasted for over ten hours, and almost the entire City of Death was destroyed by the clash between the two gods.

In his madness, Naraku regained a sliver of sanity. He realized that if they continued to fight like this, he would eventually be gradually drained of his strength. So he resolutely used his last card—other than mutual destruction.

Beneath the Hidden Hall at the core of the City of Death, there were small tunnels leading deeper into the frozen surface of this layer, possibly even to those terrifying dome rooms that even the demon priests refused to explore.

That was the place where Nairou conducted terrifying experiments whenever he occasionally regained some of his consciousness and memories. Even among the powerful undead demon priests under the Death God, few knew the full details.

This place was not just Nairou’s laboratory; it was also a crucial trump card in his hands.

When Nairou activated the mechanisms in the dome-like chamber, the entire Death Abyss layer trembled instantly. Absolute-zero cold air surged up from the ground, spreading throughout the layer, even reaching the outer areas of the Death Abyss City, freezing everything inside black ice.

Realizing the situation was dire, the King of the Undead, Oscar, used the Death Staff to break free from the ice before it could engulf him. But Nairou, on the other hand, neither avoided nor flinched—he simply sat on his throne, waiting to be completely frozen.

This suddenly erupted wave of ice was no ordinary ice force; it was a composite power of deathly cold and destructive laws. Its strength rivaled that of true divine artifacts. Such a vast area of ice could take even higher gods a long time to break, unless they possessed advanced artifacts capable of countering both death and cold.

Especially in the core area, which had already formed a solid whole, every time a piece of ice was shattered, the cold energy circulating in the layer would replenish it. The only way to resolve this situation was to break free from the restrictions left by the ancient Soul Deities by completely destroying the Kasseli dimension.

Nairou had prepared for countless years just to wait for an enemy he couldn’t defeat, so he could freeze himself and even seal the enemy away as well.

Although frozen, the Death God lost all ability to resist and could only rely on the icy mountains to defend against external attacks. Yet, there were few who could break through these ice mountains.

Even Oscar, with his Death Staff, would likely have to pay a heavy price to break them.

“Damn you, Nairou!”

Despite all his plans, Oscar never expected Nairou to have such a desperate move. Though he avoided being frozen, he was expelled outside the Death Abyss layer.

When he tried to find the Ship of a Hundred Coffins, which wandered in the icy sea, to return to the deepest layer of Kasseli and capture the defenseless Nairou, he searched the entire icy sea layer but found no trace of the white sailboat.

This meant the only path to the deepest prison in Kasseli was now cut off.

Gazing at the abyss of the vortex waterfall in the icy sea, Oscar could only leave in anger. Having regained his power as a mid-tier god, he could wield the Staff of Death to achieve the strength of an upper-tier god for a short time. Unbound like those prisoners, this was enough for him to escape this prison dimension.

Far away in the Ninth Circle of Hell, Donald watched coldly, having no intention of interfering in this battle between the undead and death. He didn’t even stop Oscar from leaving.

To Donald, neither Death Naraka, who constantly plagued all intelligent beings and brought them death and disaster, nor Oscar, the King of the Undead who took pleasure in torturing the souls of intelligent beings using their corpses, was anything good.

He preferred to just watch from afar as these two fought each other.