Finally, after spending three more days walking and fighting against abominations, the small army arrived at the rendezvous point where they were supposed to meet with the scouts.

Luna paused for a moment, her gaze lingering on the once great city of Verge which was now empty. As expected, its ancient structures were made of made of the same red rock as the previous city. No. It wasn’t a city but a town.

She remembered what the Wraith said. It claimed to be a former priest of Verge who was transformed into that through a gift from the god of death. But could it really be called a gift if he turned into a cursed creature because of it? The True Celestials made him into that. But how exactly?

From her observation, Luna noticed that the Wraith had recovered bits of its humanity after taking control of human minds. And before that, it had just been a cursed creature with the single intention to kill.

Luna hoped that she would get some answers while here, in Verge, their final stop on this level of the Blood Tower, hopefully. The city still stood, with some of the structures standing in all their glory. Some were damaged by time while others showed clear signs of war.

Something had transpired here.

“For a city owned by a king, it sure has no subjects.” Darkness stepped forward to give herself a better look at the ruined city. The Warmonger had been expecting some action, but the silence disappointed her.

Luna smirked at the warmonger’s statement and added, jokingly. “I guess he’s not that good of a king.”

Darkness scoffed at her statement.“Would you look at that, one of the princesses has some humor. Though I can’t call your statement funny at all.”

Luna didn’t know why, but that last sentence felt like a direct punch to the gut. What did she mean that wasn’t funny at all? And that she’s surprised she has a sense of humor.

‘I make jokes online all the time and they laugh. I’m quite a funny person.’

“What do you mean it's not funny?” she pouted. “I’m a very funny person.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“In your head, you are, princess delusional.” Darkness snickered as she walked ahead. She had long dropped the armor and was now in a tunic that showed too much skin. Her milky muscular legs were exposed but she didn’t seem to mind due to the extreme heat conditions.

Also, everyone was too focused on the mission to even consider her way of dressing.

Lena was also in a tunic anyway, but not as revealing as it was for the warmonger.

Why wasn’t anyone bothered by this?

“Perverts…” Luna hissed as they continued marching forward. Meanwhile, she was still in her nanoskin armor. It was once again in its original form—resembling a black skin-tight body suit—with a sword attached to her small waist. The sun didn’t seem to bother her much because the suit’s insulation was superb.

‘My thoughts are so jumbled today.’

***

When they arrived at the city’s entrance, the unit was greeted by a beautiful red-haired woman dressed in red metal armor. She almost looked to be as old as Lena or slightly older, depending on how you saw her. She was small with a petite body structure and her intelligent eyes were the same color as her short red hair.

Everyone except Luna seemed to be familiar with the clairvoyant lady and greeted her with a smile.

“I am glad you are well, Lady Lunaris.” She spoke with a respectable level of familiarity.

Luna smiled gently. “Thank you for your concern and for helping my sister. Please, call me Luna.”

“Rita.” She smiled back before bowing to Shin who would’ve been her superior in this case. They were both diviners, after all.

After their greetings, Rita led the small group of soldiers through the empty and destroyed streets of the ruined city.

The silence of the city was rather eerie, the warm winds carrying silent echoes of the past as they blew silently through the desolated place. Many of the red buildings had collapsed and the ones still standing were filled with ugly cracks as if they were on the verge of breaking down any time soon. The streets were made from red rock but shaped to look like clobber stone paths leading cutting through the city. Some parts of the street were destroyed beyond recognition while others remained intact with only a few cracks.

Noticing the silence, Shin finally spoke. “This was once part of the divine realm. Fascinating…”

“Keep your heads up, you never know when something attacks.”

Len commanded and every soldier in the group immediately steeled themselves, the ascenders had their weapons already manifested. While the mundane ones also stayed on high alert.

But Rita relaxed everyone with what she said next. “The cursed creature that rules this place is a cursed general, it controls both Soldiers and Beasts. Those creatures are currently focused in the center of the city guarding the portal supposed to lead us out here. The Undead king doesn’t have any intentions of attacking us unless we enter the guarded territory.”

“Wait? Do you mean a Cursed General can be that powerful? Powerful enough to control the other creatures?” Len asked, her voice tinged with surprise.

Rita was silent for a moment before answering. “It seems so. The Undead King, as we named it, is a humanoid with one single powerful ability...Control. Every undead here is under his control including the creatures in a lower class. We believe he was some kind of mage before getting cursed and turning into that thing. He’s very powerful due to that connection.”

‘Cursed?” Luna’s eyes widened. “Is that what happened to the people in this city?”

Rita nodded. “Cursed, wrath, blessing…whatever you want to call it. The people of this world called it Wrath while others called it Blessing. But yes, it is what happened to the people of this section of the divine realm. The god of death’s wrath is what destroyed every human here—they were cursed to live forever.”

“I see. So this is the god of death’s doing. How cruel.”

“Not all of this is the god of death’s doing.” Rita cut in, responding to Luna’s words. “From the little we’ve uncovered, I am sure that the people of this city became moving corpses after they did something to the god of death.”

“This was their punishment.”