The entire Graveyard had no exit. It was like this was the last place in the Temple of Ancestors. However, seeing the absence of the Goddess of Light, it didn't make sense to him.
He found it quite clear that this wasn't the end, but this was just one of the sections in the temple. From what he could guess, the exit of the maze took everyone to a different place, according to their affinity.
He had already felt the space change as soon as he passed through the exit, as if the space was being connected to the thousands of paths, selecting the best destination.
....
Back in the maze, a long time had passed since Karyk left the maze. However, it was only now that another person reached near the end of the maze.
The Goddess of Light was also in the worst condition of her life. Her whole face was covered in blood and she was walking with the support of the wall, barely reaching.
However, as she came near the exit, she saw the corpse of a giant beast lying on the ground.
"This...?" She frowned. Looking at the corpse, she was sure that the beast was killed only recently. And there were also some traces of the aura of death.
"To think that you are actually here, and even ahead of me... But that's for the best. I'll take all the help you give me, my dear Karyk."
She was sure that she wouldn't have won against the beast in the condition she was in. However, thanks to Karyk killing it, she had an opportunity to pass without having to fight.
"As a gratitude for your help, I'll make sure to give you a quick death when I become a True God!"
Limping, she dragged her weak body to the exit of the maze, passing through to the Ancestral Realm of Light.
****
Karyk sat on one knee before the first tombstone, which was shrouded in a black aura.
There were some words on the tombstone, but they appeared to be carved a long time ago. Some of the words were almost impossible to read, thanks to wounds that the passage of time left on the tombstone.
Despite that, Karyk was still able to understand some.
"Beyond death, before life..." Karyk read the strange line on the tombstone which made him wonder just what it meant.
Unfortunately, most of the words after that were impossible to read.
Unlike the partially destroyed line above, at the bottom of the tombstone there was a line which was completely intact, as if it was carved just recently.
Moreover, that last line appeared more like a spell, and nothing else. Just a single glance at the long and Karyk found himself in a daze, as if he was lost in the passage of time.
It was as if his consciousness was pulled out of his body, and shoved into a world unknown.
Meanwhile, his physical body remained still. His eyes were blank, as he remained seated like a lifeless statue.
Even in this condition, the Marks of Death around his body slowly started increasing slowly. Moreover, dark energy from the tomb also slowly started flying towards Karyk, being absorbed in his body.
****
An unknown amount of time passed before Karyk finally opened his eyes.
He didn't know how much time had passed, but it felt like an eternity. For a moment, he was so lost that he even forgot where he was or what he was doing.
As soon as his consciousness was sucked by the tombstone, it was as if he liked an entire new life, from the birth to his eventual Death, experiencing everything that a mortal life had to offer.
In the dream, he had completely forgotten just who he was. Instead, he lived a life as a completely naive man, unaware of any magic. He watched the loss of the people around him.
Some died from sickness, some were killed by bandits while some died in accidents. It was as if that dream was only surrounded by death, and nothing else. Wherever he went, death followed, killing everyone else around him.
Most of his life in the dream was spent in isolation, trying to avoid any other person, so he didn't spread this death to others.
In the isolation, he tried to find out just why death was following him, unaware that it was a dream.
In the dream, he spent close to fifty years, trying to understand death...
"Did I see... Your life?" After a long time, Karyk came to his senses, realizing that what he saw was much more than a dream. It was like he was living someone else's life...
Even though the name on the tombstone was scratched out by someone, but from the small signs he could see, the name was exactly the name he was known as in his dream.
Moreover, all the knowledge that this person had researched was now in Karyk's head.
He already knew as much about death as he could, since that was his main element. However, from the new memories, he managed to understand some new things about death from the perspective of a mortal who lived his life being hounded by death.
"The aura of death had completely disappeared from here..." Karyk stood up, after taking one more glance at the tombstone.
He moved into the next tombstone. If all these tombstones contained a life, that meant he had to live all their lives through their memories! He had to live thousands of times, and die thousands of times to break through his limits, and he understood that.
Even though he was slightly concerned about living so many lives, to the point that he wondered if he was going to be the same person at the end of everything or not, not he still continued to the next tombstone.
The next tombstone had even more deathly aura surrounding it compared to the first, but there was something different about this aura... It felt a little too familiar.
