City of Fallen Souls: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 3) by Jez Cajiao (fb2 epub reader .txt) 📕

darkness, looking up. There, before me… was a portal out, and I knew it was my vision; it was what my eyes were seeing now, but I was separate from it.

I stood in a circular room of rough-hewn stone, as though in a cave, and to my left, bisecting the space neatly, was a shimmering barrier of rippling power.

I turned to face it. The curtain ran into the distance somehow in both directions, as though it was the surface of the sea, and I hovered above it.

It was the Veil, I knew… somehow...

The Veil between life and death, between Amon’s reality and my own.

He’d never gone deeper, to his rest. Instead, he’d been tethered to it, bound to the Veil, forced to peer through it to see everything he’d ever believed in, despoiled by his greedy, squabbling children.

He’d seen millions die, seen their souls pass through the Veil, sinking deeper into those peaceful waters. Those blessed spirits went on to the rest they deserved, lifted in some cases, by higher beings. He’d seen and felt the miasma left by the passing of Liches and other dark creatures who transcended the Veil.

He’d felt the dead having their rest invaded as stinking, disease-ridden claws sank through to tear souls out, stealing them, as they wept with pain, to be used in sick games.

He’d felt the good, the sweet and the innocent lifting on their own and passing through the veil, traveling back the warmth and the light, being reborn.

He’d seen some of those same souls pass him time and time again, returning because they knew they were needed. That the Realms needed them.

He’d seen those same souls broken, tortured into insanity, sinking eventually into the darkest deeps.

He’d wept and screamed. He’d railed against the realities, screaming for the Lost Gods to awaken and grant him justice, to save those souls he was responsible for, or to give him the power to do it himself.

Now that he had it, he could feel the Veil at its very weakest since he’d passed through. He wasn’t dead, not fully, not while one of his descendants still drew breath. He could never die, and now he knew how to pass back through, how to right the wrongs, and how to save the souls he felt being tortured, even now.

He just had to abandon all he stood for in life to do it.

I felt him, I saw him, as he floated up, coming to a rest before me, staring into my eyes.

He was a tall man, or had been in life. Solidly muscled, with brown hair that floated around his face, he had a strong jaw and deep sapphire blue eyes. He stared at me, a frown of anger furrowing his brow as he regarded the last step to his return to the land of the living.

He made me feel like a local bully, turning the corner to find a child crying, holding Dwayne Johnson’s hand, and pointing at me. I felt like I’d just been judged, that all I’d done, all the achievements I’d managed were as nothing, compared to this mountain of a man, the actual Eternal Emperor, who was watching me through the Veil of death.

I couldn’t stand before him. I couldn’t compare, not to that… He was the Emperor, and I was nothing, I was…

I was Jax, that was all. I didn’t know what I was doing, not really. I was making it up as I went along. I didn’t know how to rule the Tower, how to fix the problems. I didn’t even know where to begin! I’d spent most of my time in the Tower, after gaining control, just running back and forth. I was always chasing the problems, trying to find a solution. This man—no, The Emperor—wouldn’t be doing that… He’d…

He’d be raining fire down on the Realm…

He’d be killing the innocent and guilty alike, so that the dead could finally rest in peace.

He’d be preventing the possibility of all the good that could come, stilling the laughter of children, and the tears, because all he could see now was the cost of it, not the gain.

He’d be sacrificing love and honor to end the pain that filled the world for so many.

He was going to cure all the pain and sadness that existed by destroying all the hope, all the love, and all the happiness.

I stared into his eyes, seeing the death there. Not just the effect of his dying, but the centuries of pain that had deadened his soul as well.

“No,” I said, my voice echoing around in the silence of the cavern in my mind.

He would kill that little girl we had just rescued, in order to stop her pain. But I would bring her life; I would bring her joy.

I saw the woman that Yen had helped to her feet, and I knew somehow that she was, even now, being dragged along by my people, being forced into life, because life was pain. Life was hardship, and it was never giving up. Never giving in, because to do so was to rob yourself of the sweetness of love, of passion, of hope.

I knew I could save her. I might not be able to save her for long; I might not be able to give her the happy life she deserved, not long term, too much was unknown, but for now? For today, and tomorrow? For all the days yet to come, that I could?

I’d be there. I’d reach out, and I’d take her hand. I’d help her to stand, and I’d lift that child up to stand on my shoulders, to see the sun, shining through the clouds.

I’d make sure that she got that chance.

I looked into Amon’s eyes, seeing the film of death, the cold greyness as they stared back at me. I knew in that instant that I had a choice. I could allow Amon through, I could let him become me, and I’d share in his power, share in his knowledge.

He would spare