Yarra's Adventure Notes-Chapter 1448 - 234: The So-Called Divine Kingdom

Once again, he found himself in the Grimreaper’s Divine Kingdom, and everything, compared to his first visit a century ago, had hardly changed at all. This was a magical world, without light yet visible, without air yet breathable, devoid of sky and earth yet one could stand normally, colorless yet full of brilliant hues. The rules of the Yarran World were almost entirely altered here, no longer holding any sway. This was the capital of the deities, upheld solely by the will of the divine, a realm distinct from the normal world where common sense could be overturned, and all was decided by the will of the deity.

Every deity possessed their own world, which the mortals of the Yarran World referred to as Divine Kingdoms. The deities used their powers to shape these worlds according to their desires to the fullest extent. When a follower of a deity died, if they were devout enough or fortunate enough, they might be chosen by the deity’s messengers and brought into the Divine Kingdom to live, basking eternally in the deity’s glory, enjoying the bliss of companionship with the divine. Therefore, to enter a Divine Kingdom after death became almost the ultimate pursuit of every fervent believer in the Yarran World; it was not just about happiness in the afterlife but also their greatest honor.

However, very few could step into any Divine Kingdom while still alive. For mortals, it was a mysterious realm only accessible after death, and the dead could not return. Thus, mortals’ impressions of Divine Kingdoms mostly came from the guesses and fantasies of artists. Of course, ’very few’ did not mean none. Occasionally, some living souls were lucky enough to temporarily enter a Divine Kingdom, but if you asked them what it was really like, without exception, they could not answer. The world of a deity was beyond the realm of mortal description, and in many aspects, even beyond their comprehension. Mortals found it difficult to even understand the divine world, let alone describe it, and this indescribability only added to the mystery of the Divine Kingdoms, intensifying the awe and yearning people felt towards them.

Even though Divine Kingdoms were enshrouded in mystery, knowledge about them gradually increased over time, especially among top-tier powerhouses, who at least grasped some of their traits. For these powerful individuals, the existence of a Divine Kingdom seemed fundamentally the same as their Inherent Psychic Domains, both being shaped by one’s will into a space that was illusory yet real, independent from the world but closely linked to it. The only difference was that Demigods’ Inherent Psychic Domains consumed a vast amount of energy, making it hard to sustain them for long and impossible to sever from a critical point and fully transform from illusion to reality. Meanwhile, deities, due to their strength and the reinforcement of their followers’ faith, vastly exceeded the Demigods, who were yet to transcend mortal boundaries. Thus their Divine Kingdoms could exist perpetually and were infinitely close to reality.

In theory, this view was correct. The so-called Divine Kingdoms were indeed enhanced Inherent Psychic Domains, projections of spiritual will that exhibited intensely personal uniqueness. Due to the diversity of the spiritual world, they all possessed absolute exclusivity. Regardless of how closely aligned two beings or two deities were spiritually, and regardless of the intimacy of their relationship, their Domains or Divine Kingdoms could never coexist without collision. Therefore, considering Divine Kingdoms as infinitely strengthened Domains was not fundamentally flawed. However, there was a clear distinction between the two. The greatest difference lied in the qualitative gap in strength that allowed Divine Kingdoms to separate completely from the world, granting deities the liberty to change the rules at will during their creation. Naturally, once a Divine Kingdom took form, it rarely changed, for any such alteration risked catastrophic collapse, rendering aeons of effort meaningless, forcing a reconstruction of the Divine Kingdom. In contrast, the power of Demigods was insufficient to support an independent world, resulting in their Inherent Psychic Domains being bound to the main world, with rules matching it.

It was this fundamental commonality that, over a century ago, allowed those heroes who had never entered a Divine Kingdom but dared to delve into Danacus’s Divine Kingdom to adapt to battle within it at an astonishing pace. Or rather, it allowed them to swiftly adjust to fighting the ruler of a world under the pressure of the entire world. Even Pannis, though he had not awakened his Inherent Psychic Domain, had ample experience fighting Demigods within it. As for now, having awakened his Domain, his understanding of Divine Kingdoms was even more profound. After entering the Grimreaper’s realm time and again, there were no more surprises, no more confusion.

Stepping into the Grimreaper’s Divine Kingdom, Pannis stood in the void as if on solid ground. The figure that appeared nightly in his dreams finally materialized before him, no longer a memory from his dreams nor an intangible Phantom within his Inherent Psychic Domain, but her, truly existing, tangible and fleshly. However, the familiar silhouette now seemed so utterly foreign; it was hard to believe that the her of the past and the present were, at least in form, the same person.

Nellie sat upon the familiar Bone Throne, adorned with the delicate Bone Crown, her body clad in full armor that left only her face exposed. The armor was black, a pure darkness akin to the night, absorbing all light. Next to her feet, a four-meter-long knight’s lance lay horizontally on the ground, equally dark, as if to swallow all light within it.

As Pannis walked in, the former knight leaned against the back of the throne, resting on the armrest with her right arm propping up her chin, sitting motionless with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile, her eyes like the Cold wind of the Perpetual Icefield, watching Pannis, who had suddenly appeared.

In truth, Nellie’s appearance hadn’t changed at all; over a century, Pannis’s looks had not altered, and neither had Nellie’s. She was still as robust as on the day they parted, with long black hair, and that same ordinary but overly stern face that carried a unique charm. Everything was the same as if they had been separated just yesterday.

But aside from her appearance, the whole aura Nellie exuded around Pannis had changed.