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Yaga was shocked—but intrigued. She tried to see more.
More than she should.
She attempted to help Elayne unravel the true nature of her existence—what she truly was.
She read through the "soul’s history."
And within it, she saw a giant skeletal hand grasp Elayne’s soul and shatter it into countless fragments.
"What... how could she survive an attack of Absolute Soul Destruction from the Demon King of Death?!"
At that moment, Elayne’s soul should have been utterly annihilated. She shouldn’t even exist.
Yet her soul history persisted—beyond complete and absolute destruction—as if it had respawned within her corpse as it fell into the Netherworld.
"Her soul... cannot be destroyed? No... it’s not that. It can simply... re-exist. This isn’t normal. Is this a Living Concept? She... Elayne must have some connection to the Ancient Gods. Only they and the Demon Kings can wield Concepts like this—Absolute Laws!"
And then Yaga saw it. Her entire soul froze.
There was something inside Elayne.
No, it wasn’t a spirit or anything she recognized.
It was something else, buried deep within.
A pair of golden-green eyes stared down at Yaga, piercing through her soul and entire being.
"A-Ah...!"
The pressure was immense. Her soul trembled in pain.
The entity glared at her, and giant hands began to move—reaching for her.
"Oh, child of Nether... you’ve overstepped your boundaries..."
Then the hand seized her.
"Aaahh!"
Granny Yaga screamed, stumbling backward. Her body broke into a cold sweat as she gasped for air, staring at Elayne in terror.
"W-What’s wrong? Are you okay?"
"..."
Granny Yaga realized Elayne and the entity she had seen were distinctly different...
And yet, somehow, the same.
"You have something inside you, Elayne..." she muttered. "Something... monstrously powerful, yet strangely dormant."
"Eh?" Elayne blinked. "I... I do? What are you talking about?"
"Hm... I’ll explain it later. I need to rest. Well, before that, we should plan what to do next," Granny Yaga sighed. "Ugh, my head... I need tea."
She went to prepare a cup of nether tea, sipping it calmly as if she hadn’t just screamed moments ago.
"Hey, Gardenia, did you feel it too?" Elayne asked. "What she saw?"
Gardenia, who had been drifting between sleep and wakefulness, opened her eyes and manifested a spiritual avatar composed of Nature Spirit Energy, Nether, and Ghostly Power.
"I felt something strange. That granny was trying to uncover the nature of your soul... but she ran away from it. For some reason," Gardenia murmured. "Hmm, I can’t really tell what’s wrong. I’m not in my best condition right now."
"Yeah, I know..." Elayne nodded. "Okay then, everyone. Our plan is simple. First, we need to find a safe place—free from the influence of powerful factions and the Demon King of Death. It’ll be a long journey. To do that, we must leave the Labyrinth. It’s the most dangerous place, where the Demon King’s influence is strongest."
Elayne unfurled a map Granny Yaga had brought with her when she escaped White Bone City, placing it over a stone table. The Undead who gathered around it were shaken by its scale.
"W-What is this?!" Sailor gasped. "T-This is...! This is the Netherworld?!"
"Yes..." Elayne nodded. "You heard everything she said—why act so surprised?"
"I don’t know. I thought it would be smaller," Sailor sighed.
The map was enormous, detailing many key locations—dozens of regions and places to avoid.
Even stepping into the wrong area could mean certain death. The Netherworld was as vast as it was perilous.
"This feels like the Dark Continent reveal in HxH..." Mark muttered.
"Right now, we’re here," Elayne said. "At the surface layer of the Labyrinth. To reach the wetlands, we’ll need to descend into the mid-layers. They’re said to be extremely dangerous, with hostile environments for most."
"Most of us have never dared to leave the caves. It’s all we’ve known—our world. We always thought this was all there was..." said a tall, muscular zombie orc with arms like logs. He was the renowned sculptor once enslaved as an architect in White Bone City before escaping thanks to Elayne. His name was Orkus.
"Yeah, this is shocking! Wow! But kind of exciting!" said a pink ghost girl with pointy horns and a long tail. She was Mary, a friend of Little Hope. Her illusion powers had once entertained the citizens of White Bone City before her escape.
"We need a place to settle and live peacefully. If we stay here too long, something—or someone—will come after us," Norman sighed. "But leaving won’t be easy. To cross the mid-layers, we’ll have to pass through the fortress of the Demon King of Death..."
"Hm," Elayne nodded. "It won’t be easy, but it’s our only option. For now, we need to plan a route where we can gather resources and grow stronger. The Realm Core also needs to feed on high-quality materials to evolve, rank up, and gain new abilities to protect us."
"If it needs food, we should hunt Nether Beasts, Ghost Beasts, or Bone Beasts," Norman suggested.
"I agree. We should hunt to gain both resources and money," Sailor added. "But where?"
Elayne pointed to a route commonly used by traveling merchant caravans, connecting several small villages and key locations.
"We’ll start here—moving from White Bone City along the Nether River Route. We’ll reach White Tooth Village, where we can stock up on materials, food, weapons, and armor. Maybe learn a few things from the locals. From there, we’ll follow the river road to the Ghostly Garden, a village inhabited by White Ghosts. There’s also a large cavern system nearby, filled with monsters we can hunt safely... I hope. After that, we’ll head to the Twin Finger Bone Mountains and cross them, maybe mining ores along the way. Once we survive the mountains, we’ll be close to the Fortress. The route is long—practically like traveling around the planet three times."
"T-Thrice?!" Sailor exclaimed.
"Don’t worry. With the Domain moving this fast, it should only take weeks—maybe a couple of months," Elayne said.
"That’s a lot of time... but we don’t have any other choice," Orkus sighed.
"And... we’ll also be looking for new recruits. There are friends I’m searching for," Elayne added. "I can feel their connection to me faintly. If we keep moving, we’ll find them."
"Hm, that’s fine. You’re the leader here," Sailor said. "We should train and cultivate while we’re here. Maybe discover new types of plants."
"Yeah," Elayne nodded. "Alright, let’s do that then."
Thus, Elayne’s journey across the Netherworld finally began.
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