As soon as he grabbed the scroll, Lyrian allowed his eyelids to slam shut. He had only been forcing them to stay open under immense pressure in order to find the right cultivation technique. There was no longer any reason for them to stay open.
Without hesitation, he placed the scroll inside his storage ring. With his goal completed, Lyrian's resolve waned and began to diminish. Just as he was about to black out, he saw two figures dressed in white robes appear in front of the bright purple Purgatory Stone. Them quickly rushing towards him was the last thing he saw before fully losing consciousness.
***
Lyrian realized he was conscious once again. He couldn't tell how much time had passed, but he knew that his eyes were closed. Surprisingly, he felt almost no pressure on his body.
'I must be outside of the Ancient Library,' he thought to himself and then remembered that he succeeded in retrieving the best cultivation technique that he could. He didn't even take a look at what it was. He didn't care if it matched with him or anything else.
All he wanted was the best of the best. This was enough to make him eager to test it out. At the moment when this thought of his ended, a loud explosion suddenly sounded out of nowhere.
The explosion was so loud that it nearly ruptured Lyrian's eardrums and shook his entire body. Along with this, at the exact start of the explosion sound, he felt a hot wave of air splash against the side of his body. He felt it most in his cheek.
His eyelids flew open in shock as soon as the sound went off, and what he saw made him gasp slightly in astonishment. His eyes opened wide and his brows furrowed, a completely bewildered expression on his face.
His vision was slightly blurry, but what he saw around him was no more than hellfire and destruction. Instead of the normal view of the abyss, which was portrayed as a red dungeon, this place was completely purple.
It looked exactly like the Purgatory Stone. Small volcanoes erupted, spewing magma as rivers of purple lava flowed through the ground. He looked up to see lava falling down from the purple, dark stone ceiling of the place.
Looking forward, he saw nothing but an endless expanse of this purple hell. It was atrocious to look at. It was horrifying, enough to even give Lyrian an overwhelming sense of doom.
There was absolutely zero spiritual pressure placed on him, yet his body, which felt fully recovered, still gave into fear. His knees buckled and folded underneath him, causing him to fall flat on his rear.
"Wh--what is this place?" He rhetorically asked himself. That was when he also noticed the invisible shield orb surrounding him on all sides. Inside the orb, the stone was only a dark gray, while just outside, the stone was a deep and rich purple.
Lyrian assumed this barrier was what was keeping him from being burned to an incinerated crisp at that very moment. Although this might have been true, he was still utterly baffled at what was going on.
'This... must be Purgatory. The 5th level of abyss.' He thought to himself, eventually beginning to calm down as he regained his composure.
Ever since the beginning, Lyrian had some sort of primal instinct that told him that he was being watched. It was an eerie feeling, but he knew it was there. He was sure of it.
Although he was confused, he stood back up, firming his ground. Others would try to figure out how they got to such a scary place and would want to find a way out, but Lyrian began to get some exciting thoughts instead.
His brightened up slightly as he considered the possibilities. "All I know is that I'm here, a place which most likely is Purgatory. I don't think many get to come here... I don't want to waste such an opportunity. Who in their lifetime gets to explore the abyss?"
He asked, his eyes darted around as he thought of what to do. He wanted to explore this place. Maybe he could find something to make him stronger, or maybe he could see something that held great value to him. He didn't know exactly what would occur, but his curiosity got the best of him. He was still human, after all.
"I can't step out... I will be instantly eviscerated by that heat, I can tell just from standing here." He slowly circularly moved his head, "This barrier might be protecting me from most of the heat, and all of the spiritual pressure, but I can still feel some of the burning sensation on my arms and face."
He put his head down, thinking of how to explore this area. Unlike others, he wanted to exploit his situation as much as possible. Just then, he noticed his shadow on the ground.
"Hmm... shadow... perfect!" He exclaimed, a slight grin forming on his face. "Unlike my body... my shadow can feel no heat. Shadow, come out!"
He said as a dark being jumped out of his chest, causing his limp and unconscious body to fall flat on the floor.
Wanting to be careful, Lyrian first only put one of his shadow hands outside of the barrier. He squinted his eyes, expecting an excruciating burn. But nothing happened. He felt no pain, in fact, he didn't feel anything.
His head rose, 'Oh, that's right! If I have no pain receptors, how would I feel pain?' He eagerly thought to himself as he quickly flew out of the barrier and began to journey forward—his shadow body swerving left and right as it swam through the air.
Turning past rocks, volcanoes, and more, Lyrian's shadow form continued at a fast pace. Suddenly, he came across an odd yet terrifying animal. It looked like a big beetle and walked on all four of its pointy legs. Its back was covered in long human-like hair, and its face was covered in eyeballs.
The thing was putrid to gaze at, but still amazing to see.
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦