It didn't feel like the pits of hell. Sylas was almost certain that if the universe had a hell, then this would certainly be it. This was no replica, this was the real deal.
Waterfalls of lava, stone of obsidian, a scent of sulfur that burned at the hairs in your nose. Every part of it was completely unnatural.
And ahead, looking down on Sylas from above, was a pair of eyes that he sohow instantly recognized.
Arcane Madness.
"Why have you co here?"
The voice was so ancient it was impossible to decipher the words, and yet the Will was so powerful that Sylas knew exactly what they were saying nonetheless.
"To help soone take sothing back." Sylas replied calmly.
A wild grin appeared beneath the floating eyes.
"You are bold, child. You have always been bold. But you no longer follow my Path of Gluttony, I will not give you the sa leeway now that I have in the past."
Sylas could hear the hints of disappointnt in the voice. No, not the voice, but the Will itself. The problem with communicating this way was that there was no hiding the intentions in your heart.
Or maybe Arcane Madness was so powerful it didn't care whether its intentions were known or not. It had evolved long beyond the point of needing to be careful with what it showed the world.
It could fall asleep wherever it pleased, laugh when it pleased, be enraged when it pleased.
This was true power.
"Go on, then. Good luck." Arcane Madness said. "If you lose your life here, it won't have anything to do with ."
Sylas frowned. "Where is this place?"
Arcane Madness laughed. "Now you want to ask questions? Why should I answer?"
"Because you want to."
Arcane Madness' laughter beca uproarious.
"You know, even when others can sense my intention through my Will, they don't dare to ntion it. Are you aware of the power gap between the two of us? Do I need to explain it to you?"
The words seed to remind Sylas of a conversation he had just had, except this ti, the roles were completely reversed.
The difference was, though, Sylas had no intention of backing down. He had made a promise to help Fanelei, and allowing her to fall like this would not only be breaking it, it would be utterly foolish of him.
He refused to allow himself to make mistakes, even if it ant going against Arcane Madness.
"Hohoho," Arcane Madness chuckled, "this place is, indeed, Hell. The souls of the banished co here to accept their punishnt for an eternity. It is quite useful for Arcane Will as well. Their cries fuel it.
"Unfortunately for you, these losers also believe that there is a chance for them to escape should they beco powerful enough, so many of them have never given up on advancing. Though… their minds aren't all the way there.
"Your little friend is probably sowhere amongst them."
Sylas frowned. He didn't have the ti to scale and search an entire hell for one person, and judging by Arcane Madness' words, even if he did there wasn't a way out.
He didn't know how his luck was so bad.
Retrieving the Madness Key should have been a simple mission, but he ended up getting swallowed up into a Dungeon raid. Then he was supposed to help Fanelei out, but now he was stuck in literal Hell.
'Literal hell…'
Sylas' eyes flashed and he cald instantly. Just as quickly, there was a flash of annoyance in Arcane Madness' eyes. He had watched Sylas for a long ti now from afar, and when he saw the young man frowning, he was feeling a little giddy on the inside.
In truth, there was a way to escape this Hell, but it required becoming a True Disciple. All those here had already failed to do exactly that, and they were constantly being oppressed by the light of Madness as well.
Their minds were constantly being corroded by Madness. Barring a miracle, their best chance to reach that level was the instant they arrived. Every mont afterward practically sliced those chances in half.
And considering they had only arrived because of their failure, the chances of escape were basically zero.
But Arcane Madness had been watching Sylas for long enough. Whenever he got that look in his eye, it ant that so bullshit was about to happen.
Arcane Madness sighed as Sylas took out a large hunk of Genesis Forge Ore. Its grin twitched.
Where the hell had Sylas gotten sothing like that from? That material—.
"Listen, Sylas, there's no real need for this."
Sylas looked up. "You'll bring her out for ?"
Arcane Madness froze. This boy was utterly shaless.
"I cannot do that. I must follow the rules."
Sylas went back to looking at the Genesis Forge Ore, his mind calculating several things ahead.
There was another problem with communicating with your Will mostly, it wasn't just your intentions that were hard to hide, but so too were your secrets.
When Arcane Madness said Hell just now, the intent behind those words, its secret aning, its truth was just the sa as the use of Hell that the First Race had.
This Genesis Forge Ore was the perfect embodint of Hell Rune Creation.
And this Hell here for Madness Disciples was just the sa as well, forcing those here to never move on, to never grow, to remain still at the sa level of failures they had always been, trapping them in a perpetual cycle.
This concept of Hell was far crueler, and far narrower in scope, but the truths it pulled on were fundantally the sa.
If Sylas could use the Genesis Forge Ore to pull on that Will, then he would be able to gain access to this understanding of Hell through Will as well.
That would instantly allow his Fathomless Rune Creation to be extrely effective here. That was because while this place was built using concepts of Hell, it wasn't the sa as the mountain he climbed. It didn't restrict other forms of Rune Mastery, just made it harder to comprehend for those that did follow another Rune Path… A problem Sylas wouldn't have.
It was just that if he did this, he would definitely distort the Will that ford this Hell and throw things into chaos. He just also didn't care.
"Alright, alright, alright, fine. I'll get her for you." Arcane Madness sighed.
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