The Experimental Log of the Crazy Lich

The black giant seemed like a mountain. He was Mars, the incarnation of War, the leader of an amalgamation of countless undead armies. And, from a certain standpoint, he was also one of my newer children.

By the time I finally returned to the mortal plane, Mars had already matured by himself without my assistance as he had been constantly gaining experience in the Northlands.

Reyne and Glina had both been quite influential in his development. He had originally been a Graveyard Demon, a moving base for restoring the undead, but now, he was a moving incarnation of War.

The faceless man stepped forward, and transformed into a giant black earthen castle.

This was a floating castle that cast a gigantic shadow over all of Starwood City. Beneath the castle, several Tower Giants from the Earth Elemental Plane charged forward and acted as the vanguard. They were also the supporting pillars for lifting that tremendous castle in the sky. But, I knew that this was simply the method that Mars had chosen to walk around with. Mars was the amalgamation of countless existences, and he could also choose to separate into countless smaller bodies at any time he wished.

Right now, this pitch-black mountainous fortress blocked the only path of the undead army’s invasion. Previously invisible doors suddenly opened up in the castle as silent undead walked out from within. Two undead armies were now about to face each other.

Conservation (previously Zero)’s undead army started making a commotion. The intelligent undead among them had never expected that they would meet their own kind here. However, their march to attack us wasn’t affected at all.

“Mars, don’t allow any small fry to break through the blockade.”

Mars slowly stepped back, readjusting the position of his entire army. Mars and his army’s purpose here was simply to prevent any scattered troops or generals from breaking through.

“…Perhaps I am actually the person who lost the most during the construction of Hell.”

I had indeed lost much after the battle of Hell’s conclusion. I was forced to sacrifice my ace card Soul World, the “Eternal Diffindor”, in order to create a new Soul World for Hell. My Frigidwinter Earth world also became one of the foundational building blocks of Hell. I’d also lost the ability to use my cheat-like God’s Descent with Wumianzhe as Wumianzhe had now become truly independent.

“…But, I’ve gained even more than I lost.”

This was a battle that belonged to me. How could I possibly let Mars steal all the glory? Besides, I finally had a chance to test my new toy—a new world that I’d obtained in exchange for my Soul World and Frigidwinter Earth.

“Welcome to the land of Hell. How does it feel to finally come home? Amazing, isn’t it!”

There was no incantation or roar of anger. The entire world distorted as the black land transformed into a world without sunlight. Not far in the distance, the River Styx could be seen flowing slowly. Four pillars supported the sky, while a group of silver palaces were currently judging all the dead souls at the end of the mountains.

The aura of Hell began strengthening all the undead present. Even the low-level skeletons temporarily regained their intelligence. However, they suddenly all fell down to the ground. This world of eternal rest and death caused them to instinctively feel fear and confusion. They didn’t realize why they were here; they were confused about being here; they didn’t understand why their souls were now in someone else’s grasp.

This was no illusionary Soul World at all. This was really a land of death, with the true essence of Hell…

“…Bastards who enslave the dead, why don’t you have a taste of the dead’s revenge?”

The moment that I gave this command, all soul contracts were instantly shattered. Undead magic contracts were all meaningless in front of Hell’s dimensional laws.

The low-level undead who’d suddenly received their freedom all had their eyes begin burning with fire of rage. The moment that they were freed from their soul contracts, they immediately began attacking their former companions… or more accurately, former masters.

“You dare to…?”

A death knight didn’t even have the time to react when the skeletons and zombies that he’d always looked down upon suddenly dragged him down from his skeleton horse. Countless skeletons and zombies tore his body and soul apart.

The low-level undead’s rebellion caused the entire undead army to begin panicking. Yet, this was only the beginning.

“Don’t panic! The cannon fodder isn’t important! Just get rid of them. This also can’t possibly be the real Hell. This must be an illusion.”

An angrily roaring Winter Demon revealed himself to be the commander of this entire undead army. He jumped into the low-level undead’s formation, and easily wiped out all the low-level undead around him with a frost spell that left nothing more than shattered bones behind.

Yet, his words stating that this was only an illusion were instantly proven to be wrong. Souls nearly identical to the living’s all walked out from those shattered bones. These souls then happily flew to where souls belonged under the guidance of the Tower of Death.

This scene caused the Winter Demon to talk to himself in confusion.

“…What the hell type of place is this?!”

Right, what the hell type of place was this? Actually, even I didn’t understand what the hell this place was.

This world was a part of Hell, but it was impossible to reach the Four Pillars or Four Halls of Hell from here. This place had the Land of Death, the River Styx, and Hell’s aura. Yet, the River Styx was now its own self-contained cycle that nobody could exit.

During the battle of Hell, I had to give up my Eternal Diffindor Soul World to help create Hell as a new Soul World. In that case, logically speaking, was the entirety of Hell now my Soul World?

The answer was evidently no. Hell was a true independent world of its own that had been created using Dragon World and Frigidwinter Earth as its core materials. The Four Pillars and Four Pillar Gods were just like nails that nailed it tightly down. How could Hell possibly become my personal Soul World? If that was really the case, if I ever died, wouldn’t all our efforts have gone to waste, as Soul Worlds would die with their creators?

Yet, I had indeed created a new Soul World of my own. And so, this was a logical contradiction. If this had happened in the mortal plane of Eich, such a logical contradiction would have been automatically fixed by the dimensional laws. Whenever I “died” in Eich, I would lose my Soul World. However, everything had happened in a new world similar to the void, and Hell was my personal creation. The Four Pillar Gods were also all my allies, so how could they possibly let me lose out? The dimensional laws of Hell’s friendly bias towards me created this logical contradiction.

Not to mention, also on my side was one of the Creator Goddesses herself, who was an expert on finding loopholes in the rules… How could the Goddess of Order Astrya possibly let such an opportunity slip by? With her involvement, a portion of Hell was brought into the Cycle of Reincarnation together with me the previous time that I died. That portion of Hell was now bound to my soul.

So with this “logical contradiction that shouldn’t exist”, this place was still a portion of Hell itself. This place was also connected to the other sections of Hell. The Hell Gods could even toss Hell Devils and other such things into this portion of Hell for me to make use of, but the Hell Gods weren’t actually able to come here.

“This is an overlapping dimension that’s similar to an alternate existence. This place both exists yet doesn’t exist. You even managed to create such a contradictory existence that magical scholars are still debating about the possibility of. Roland, you’re so outrageously lucky.”

This was Harloys’ envy-filled assessment of my new world, which I treated as praise.

And so, thanks to the Goddess of Order personally helping to use bugs in the dimensional laws, this bug-like new world became my new ace card. This world was also how I could keep in constant communication with the Hell Gods and other residents of Hell.

“Taste the fury of Hell Dragons.”

Hell Dragons were currently flying in the skies, with black mist shrouding their existences. They suddenly swooped down from above, leaving nothing but dragonbreath that emanated the pure aura of death.

“How is this possible!?”

That Winter Demon leader took a direct hit from the dragonbreath. Although his eternal ice wasn’t melted, his soul was forcefully dragged out of his physical body and into the River Styx.

This black dragonbreath that seemed like a raging fire baked this Land of Death. All undead that had their physical bodies destroyed had their souls forced into the River Styx by the Pillar of Death. Their souls finally returned to the Cycle of Reincarnation, which was one of the most basic dimensional laws of Hell.

And, Hell Dragons also had the duty of guiding the dead into Hell’s Cycle of Reincarnation. Since the undead were dead already, any who were struck by a Hell Dragon’s dragonbreath would be forced into Hell’s Cycle of Reincarnation—even if that undead had the strongest physical body in the world. The only exception would be if you were powerful enough to break free from the Cycle of Reincarnation… meaning an Undead Emperor.

“The dead actually dare to challenge the ruler of Hell in Hell itself? Should I call them arrogant or ignorant? As I said, this is a battle where the strong is bullying the weak. Yet, this is only the beginning.”