"Stop right there! Catch them!"
"Damn it! They saw us!"
Five men run through a dark forest, trying to remain unnoticed with stealth magic, but their enemy is equally formidable, capable of seeing through all their tricks.
"You go ahead, I and the others will handle this, you…"
"Understood, we'll meet at that place!"
Three men stay behind and soon the sounds of a fierce battle can be heard.
"Lawrence, stay by my side. If I see any strange movement from you, don't blame me!"
The man named Lawrence dares not disobey, nodding without a second thought.
While continuing to run, the man dressed in black says: "All this is happening because of that miserable traitor. Our Abyss Soul sect was about to begin the journeys to the Inferior Plane, damn it!"
The world is divided into two planes, while the Inferior Plane is where only the frogs in a well live, it's the Divine Plane where true immortality can be achieved! But both planes are divided, it's impossible to travel from the Divine Plane to the Inferior.
At least, not through conventional methods.
"They slipped away! There they are! Stop!"
"Damn it!"
The man in black curses and then looks at his companion with bloodshot eyes. "Lawrence, open the Dimensional Rift! We're traveling now!"
With a worried face, Lawrence looks around and then nods.
"I'll hold them off, don't you dare move--"
Just as the man turns his back, Lawrence suddenly pulls a dagger from his storage ring and stabs him in the heart.
"Huh? What did you just do--?"
"Help! This man used me as a hostage! I was just caught up in all this!"
"How dare you--!"
Coughing up blood.
Without mercy, Lawrence stabs him again with the dagger, worsening the wound.
"Don't move! Stay there!"
The next second, three knights in silver armor surround Lawrence. He raises his hands and kneels on the spot.
"Check his element, it's impossible for anyone in this evil sect to practice pure arts. If he has even a trace of corrupt mana, you know what to do!"
"Yes, sir!"
The knights immediately approach the man in black and perform magic on him. As soon as the results appear, they look at each other and nod.
"No! You're wrong!" The man in black, foreseeing his fate, speaks hastily. "This guy is lying! He's one of ours!"
Lawrence's eyes widen and then he bites his lip.
"If what you say is true, this magic will tell us everything."
Facing death, the man in black smiles vilely. If he's going to die, he won't go alone!
The knights approach Lawrence and perform the same magic on him. As soon as the results appear, they unsheath their swords.
"This guy is clean, his affinity is for sacred magic and he has no trace of corruption. You will die like the others."
"No! There's a reason why--!"
Before he can finish his words, his head is cut off.
"We don't have time to investigate this man's situation." The lead knight looks at his men and then points his finger. "You stay with him, the rest follow me! Today the evil sect Abyss Soul will fall by our hand!"
"Yes, sir!"
After disappearing into the forest, only Lawrence and the knight in silver armor remain at the site. Minutes pass in the blink of an eye, during which the sounds of battles are heard from all directions.
"I need assistance! Two of my companions have died!"
"!!!"
The knight is startled and looks toward the place. He quickly sees a badly wounded man in black and a knight with his armor covered in blood chasing him.
After assessing the situation, the knight makes a quick decision.
"Wait here! Your sentence is assured if you escape, we have this place surrounded!"
"I wouldn't dare, sir knight."
Lawrence humbly bows.
After seeing his act, the knight turns and begins to chase the criminal along with the other knight.
Alone at the site, Lawrence smiles.
"At last I am free!"
In front of him appears a Dimensional Rift, chaos inhabits behind this extraordinary phenomenon. Without wasting more time, Lawrence steps into this rift and then disappears without a trace.
"Hey, where are you?"
Minutes later the knight returns, unable to find any trace of Lawrence's whereabouts.
He immediately activates a communication magic artifact and alerts the rest of his comrades. "Attention all, a man of sacred affinity is among the evil sect. If seen, kill him without question!"
That day the Abyss Soul sect was wiped off the map, along with all its followers.
+++
"This lack of mana... Am I in the Inferior Plane?"
After passing through the Dimensional Rift, Lawrence appears before a beautiful lake with crystal clear waters. Curiously, he approaches the lake and drinks from its waters, but as soon as it enters his mouth, he spits it out.
"Even the water is of inferior quality, as expected of a limited plane."
In the Divine Plane, beings have no level limits, a common person can reach level 999 if they are lucky and destined. Not so in the Inferior Plane, whose level is capped at 300 in all aspects.
If one wishes to break this barrier, they must ascend to the Divine Plane. But ascending is one thing, and descending is quite another.
"If returning to the Inferior Plane were so easy, that evil sect wouldn't have needed me."
Lawrence is one of the children predestined to be doors of change. From an early age, he awoke the ability to send people to the Inferior Plane, thus generating changes in the entire world due to the versatility of races and genes.
Yet, not all is good news.
These children are born with a very special feature, a short lifespan, they do not survive past the age of twenty. And if that weren't enough, in the Divine Plane only ten of these children are born every thousand years.
Most of the time, these children die before the authorities notice them. The rest die without the authorities being able to do anything.
After looking at his reflection in the lake, Lawrence sighs.
"Those knights in silver armor won't rest until they look under every stone... Weeks won't be enough, even months won't be. If that's the case…"
"I'll wait a year before returning to the Divine Plane."
+++
In the following days, Lawrence figured out where he was. It turned out he was in the Sky Blue Mountain Kingdom, a kingdom inhabited solely by humans.
In terms of military power, it is one of the weakest, but it has the advantage of being surrounded by a great number of mountains. This key point hinders any kingdom that wants to take over the territory of the Sky Blue Mountain Kingdom.
That said, in the following weeks, he hired various masons to build a mansion by the lake. Months later, they finished its construction. As for the money, after selling one of his magic artifacts, he had enough to cover the expenses.
"Despite everything, this Inferior Plane holds unfathomable secrets."
Over the course of a year, Lawrence focused on verifying the information obtained through the kingdom's hunters and from what he heard in the evil sect.
"Unlike the Divine Plane, in this place there are Forbidden Areas, places that are easy to enter but difficult to leave."
With interest, he recalls the events of days past. He personally headed to one of the Forbidden Areas of the Inferior Plane, but surprisingly felt a profound fear after partially entering it.
He dared not continue, for if he did, he could not ensure his life.
"A Forbidden Area scared a level 431 hunter? I fear that if I bring this story back to the Divine Plane, no one will believe me."
Sighing, he enters his mansion and after lying down on his bed, he closes his eyes.
Tomorrow marks a year of entering the Inferior Plane and consequently, the day of returning to the Divine Plane.
The next day.
After securing all the necessary goods for his return, Lawrence crosses the Dimensional Rift, surprised at the landscape before him.
"God... These knights spared not even the flowers in the courtyard."
The previous forest, which served as cover for the evil sect, is now nothing but ashes. A fire destroyed all the vegetation in the place.
No, it would be more accurate to say that a mass destruction fire magic caused it.
"If it weren't because they wanted to verify the identities of their targets, they would have attacked with that magic from the beginning. I was lucky…"
Swallowing, Lawrence thanks the knights' responsibility.
"I must leave this place as soon as possible. If it were the Inferior Plane then I wouldn't worry, but in the Divine Plane the lifespan exceeds 500 years, investigating the crime scene for a year doesn't sound unreasonable."
Using sacred magic, Lawrence enhances his physical capabilities, allowing him to cover terrain that would otherwise be impossible.
After traveling a few kilometers, the ground fractures.
"Human! Your sacred magic is disgusting! Though I hold no grudge, you must die!"
The corrupt fire mana gathers in one place, forming the appearance of a tortoise with horns and aberrant fangs.
Seeing this, Lawrence clenches his teeth and thinks: 'Just what I needed! A demonic beast born from the souls of the followers of the evil sect!'
He has no time for this, so he adds mana to his enhancement to improve his speed.
"Don't run away! This great one wants to tear your body apart and consume your soul!"
"Don't tempt me! A battle benefits neither of us!"
"You talk too much for an ant!"
"Tsk, this newly born demonic beast can't even distinguish between our levels. It's useless to talk to it."
Without any other option, Lawrence shows his power. If he can't reason with it, he'll let its instincts prove him right!
"Ack! What is this? What are you doing to me, human!"
Hundreds of sacred chains surround the giant tortoise, the corrupt mana erodes upon contact with them.
"Don't think you can escape from me!"
Seeing the distance between them grow, the tortoise calls to the wandering souls of the place. Immediately thousands of souls surround it and extend its body for tens of meters.
"AAAAHHHH!"
"That stupid tortoise! You're alerting the knights in silver armor!"
No longer caring about acting stealthily, Lawrence directly begins to fly, but this brings with it a great flaw. The sacred magic is extremely flashy, a man flying with extravagant luminous effects is clearly visible in the sky.
"AAAHHH! It hurts! You insignificant bugs! Show yourselves!"
Lawrence looks back in fear, 'Eh? The tortoise is taking damage?'
Immediately he lowers his altitude, but it's too late.
A wave of fire 20 meters high approaches at high speed towards his position.
"You stupid tortoise! You killed us both!"
Of course, such an attack did not come from the demonic beast, but from the knights in silver armor in the distance.
"Damn it! Damn it!"
Lawrence flies skillfully and then falls straight to the ground.
Just before hitting the ground, a Dimensional Rift appears in front of him. The very moment he crosses it, his previous position erupts like a volcano.
Seconds later some knights arrive at the site and after looking at each other, nod their heads.
"Target eliminated."
+++
Inferior Plane.
Water splashes in all directions, generating waves of tens of meters.
From the center of the lake, a hand ascends. Lawrence lessened the impact of his fall by using the lake in front of his mansion.
After getting out of it, he sits looking at the sky.
"Waiting another year doesn't sound too bad either."
The following year he ascends to the Divine Plane, this time with better luck.