Martial Arts Worlds-Chapter 848: Truth About Death

Step~ Step~ Step~

Walking down a hallway, Kiernan had his hands inside his pockets and looked like he was having a nice stroll.

The walls were gushing with lava, and it felt like he was walking through the gates of hell.

"Halt right there!"

In that moment, Death Castle guards saw him approach the throne room, and they readied their spears.

"Stop right there!"

They shouted.

Kiernan didn’t stop and, instead, kept strolling towards the doors, ignoring the existence of the guards altogether.

The two guards exchanged a gaze. They nodded. And they then screamed and started running towards Kiernan.

"Haaa, dieee!"

Their spears hit Kiernan, but in that moment, the spears snapped in two, and the blades shattered.

The guards couldn’t believe their eyes. Those spears weren’t the ordinary kind. They were forged in the flames of hell.

There was nothing they couldn’t pierce, but for some odd reason, they couldn’t penetrate this single human’s flesh!

Swoosh~

Kiernan revealed his hands from his pockets. He touched the guards’ necks with his finger. And their heads suddenly fell off their shoulders.

Thud! Thud!

The two guards dropped dead to the ground.

Now, in front of him, the doors of the throne room awaited, and without further ado, Kiernan kicked them open.

BAAAAAANNNNNNGGGGGG!

"Hmm?"

Kiernan noticed that the throne room was empty, but one of the windows was open, and he walked towards it.

’I thought he was supposed to be here, at least according to that Black Knight I left alive for interrogation. Was he lying?’

Kiernan closed his eyes and expanded his senses to the far corners of the Afterlife, and he was able to soon sense everything.

Including a figure that was currently running away towards the Gates of Heavens.

’He is escaping?’

Kiernan frowned, and then he jumped out of the window and started flying across the skies with supersonic speeds.

...

"Huff! Huff! Huff!"

Death was making his way down the desolate lands, and in the distance, he was able to see the Gates of the Heavens.

Gates of the Heavens were heavily guarded so none of the trapped souls of Hell could get there.

’I’ll first head to the Heavens and then find a smuggling route for me to get to one of the smaller realms. Heh, maybe I should even go to Earth Realm and see what all the fuss is about there!’

Death smirked.

A while later, he arrived at the Gates of the Heavens, and there were soldiers of the Heavens walking about there.

The Gates of the Heavens weren’t guarded by anyone except the soldiers of the Heavens. It was an extremely important job.

Thus, the soldiers of the Hell—the demons—weren’t allowed anywhere close to the Gates of the Heavens.

Because they were not to be trusted, and they weren’t allowed in the Heavens.

"Who goes there?!"

One of the soldiers said, and everyone readied their weapons, but then they saw the person who was walking over.

"Huh?"

Death looked at them angrily, and they flinched and backed off instinctively.

"L-Lord Death... W-why have you come here?"

"I am going to Heavens! What does it look like, you moron? The Feast of the Gods is still going, isn’t it?"

Death asked angrily.

Even he wasn’t allowed to Heavens under normal circumstances, but the Feast of the Gods was still happening, so he had a chance to go.

"Ah right... Go ahead, sir."

The soldier said.

They were just confused why he left the Heavens in the first place and waited a long while to go back there.

It wasn’t like the Feast of the Gods was lasting much longer anymore, as it had already been going on for a while.

"Hmph!"

Death walked past them and watched as the soldiers slowly opened the beautiful gates to the Heavens.

The gates soon opened fully. The beautiful land of the Heavens stretched out infinitely before them, a paradise beyond imagination.

It looked like just by walking through the gate he was walking into a different room, as if the Heavens were part of the Afterlife.

That wasn’t the case.

The Heavens were located in an entirely different place, but the Gate of the Heavens worked like a portal pretty much.

A very advanced portal.

"Thank y—"

Death was about to say and was just about to step through.

In that moment.

BOOOOM!

Someone crashed into the ground behind him. The ground shook. And it almost felt like the sudden earthquake had attacked them.

"...?"

Death slowly turned his head around.

The soldiers of the Heavens pointed their weapons at the person who had just arrived, and they didn’t recognize the guy.

"Where do you think you are going?"

Kiernan asked coldly.

Death turned paler—well, paler than usual—and he slowly backed off towards the gate that led to the Heavens.

’How the hell did he catch me already? How fucking useless are everyone? I-I just need to enter the Heavens... These soldiers will stop him if he tries chasing after me.

’And once I am in the Heavens, I am under the protection of the Gods. They’ll stop this maniac before he can kill me!’

Death told himself.

The soldiers quickly realized that there was something going on here, and to them, it actually looked like Death was trying to escape!

Trying to escape from this... human?

"We don’t know who you are, but you aren’t permitted this close to the Gate of Heavens, so we ask you to back off!"

One of the soldiers of the Heavens shouted.

"I will if you close the gate and won’t permit Death from entering either. Otherwise, if he goes there, so will I."

Kiernan said coldly.

He doesn’t feel animosity towards the soldiers of the Heavens. They were the "good guys" after all.

But if they tried stopping him from saving his daughter, he was also going to kill them if they stood in his way.

The soldiers exchanged glances. Then looked at Death. And they were wondering why he wasn’t doing anything.

It looked to them that Death had caused some problems for himself, but in the end, he was Death.

He should be able to kill this human in a single breath’s time, but instead he just stood there, frozen.

"What are you morons doing?! Your job is to guard this gate, is it not? Then why aren’t you doing anything to chase him away?!"

Death asked angrily.

"What is actually going on over here?"

The head of the soldiers asked.

There was obviously something going on that they weren’t aware of, and they didn’t really want to intervene.

"He cursed my daughter. She is currently dying. I came here to get him to undo his curse. He sent his Reapers after me. I killed them all. Now he is trying to escape."

Kiernan said casually.

It was a crazy thing to hear.

The soldiers, who knew just how strong the Reapers were, became completely stunned as if they couldn’t believe what they were hearing.

"...Oh."

The head soldier said with a gulp.

He looked at Death, thinking, ’Is he really running away?’ and saw his panicked look whenever he looked at Kiernan.

It was obvious that he is fearing for his life!

"Alright, close it down."

The head soldier waved his finger, and the other soldiers closed the gate with a loud clang.

"What the hell are you morons doing? I will kill all of you and send you all to Purgatory; this is a promise!"

Death screamed.

"We’re the soldiers of the Gods. You can’t do that to us. We are immune to being sent to Hell, you should know that."

The head soldier said, and then looked at the other soldiers and said, "Let’s go for a coffee break," and they headed off. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"..."

Death’s eyes shook, and his face lost all the color, and then Kiernan slowly approached him with his fists clenched.

"Alright, I am sorry!"

In that moment, Death dropped down to his knees and put his hands into a prayer, as if he was begging for his life.

"I was impulsive. I am really sorry. I’ll get rid of the curse!"

Death snapped his fingers, and just like that, the curse left Ellie.

"..."

Kiernan looked coldly down at him.

It didn’t look like he was any happier.

"You’re more pathetic than I thought. I’ve had a hunch for a while now. But could it be that... you aren’t the real Death?"

Kiernan asked.

With a shocked look, Death looked at him, and then he gritted his teeth and nodded weakly.

"T-that is correct... I-I am not the real one..."

"Where is the real one?"

Kiernan asked.

"I-I don’t know... Nobody knows that he left..."

"When did he leave? Was the Death that I met during my first time here you or the real Death?"

Kiernan asked.

"Haha... You think that you could’ve fooled the actual Death? He would’ve been able to see whatever you attempted one week in advance. I was the one that you fooled.

"The actual Death has been gone for thousands of years by now. He got tired of this place, and he wanted to leave.

"Therefore, he made me look like him. Gave me a little bit of his divinity. And made me as Temporary Death with the same abilities as him!"

The Fake Death said.