Gehenna.
The namesake of the tribe.
According to the Saintess, it was a land beyond reality that would only open when it chose to.
There was no rhyme or reason to its appearance, but when it was preparing to do so, the Saintess would always know.
As the Saintess said when she first introduced it, Gehenna had another name.
The Spirit Cemetery.
It was a direct translation from the Gehenna Tribe's native language into the universal language of the cosmos.
The Saintess explained with great grandeur.
She spoke about legends and myths, about stories as old as time, but as Damien wasn't one to believe such stories until he saw for himself that they were real, he took most of it with a grain of salt.
Though, he didn't completely put them out of his mind.
He respected the Gehenna Tribe. He wasn't immediately going to declare their beliefs as something fake.
Nevertheless, as its name suggested, Gehenna was a place where spirits resided.
It was the graveyard where the most heroic beings of the Gehenna Tribe rested their souls, along with the ancients who ruled the sacred jungle in eras long past.
And it was a prison for beings whose souls could never be allowed to enter the cycle of reincarnation.
Gehenna was the source of the tribe's strength, and it was the place where their beliefs stemmed from.
While its appearance was mysterious and erratic, the tribe naturally had traditions related to it.
For instance, their Acknowledgement Ceremony.
This ceremony would take place for whatever generation Gehenna opened for.
The rising youths would be allowed to enter the cemetery, where they would find opportunities and chances to grow.
It was quite similar to the secret realms of the Heavenly World, but there was a key difference.
These "chances" only came to the Gehenna Tribe because of their bloodline, because they were people of the jungle.
It wasn't a place others could just enter.
"That is why you are so mysterious, young hunter."
The Saintess gestured into the air around her.
"You can see them, can't you?"
Damien glanced away from her, merely panning his gaze around the room.
"I can."
He'd been seeing them since he got close to the Saintess' residence.
They were flying through the air, appearing in all shapes and sizes. Some were animate, while some were not at all.
But they all possessed the same light halo, the same glow that marked them as beings of a different, more ethereal, world.
"They're spirits?"
"That is right. They have yet to reach the other side, but they will one day become spirits too."
Damien didn't know what spirits were in this world.
In his home cosmos, spirits were not such grand beings. They were wandering souls, or maybe just beings made of mana.
Some were just part of a race of spirits that didn't necessarily have a special state of existence compared to others.
However, it wasn't just the Gehenna Tribe's belief that spirits here were special.
No, all of these tiny beings he was seeing, all of these small white specks in the grand, grand world, had Legends supporting their existence.
All of them had some kind of meaning, and their existences were special. There was something more to them than just their form.
"It is because Gehenna chose you."
The Saintess spoke again.
"I do not know why. I am only a messenger. If you want to know what your connection with Gehenna is, then you must go there. It will allow your entry."
Damien was the only foreigner to ever be welcomed by Gehenna. The Saintess was naturally curious about why, but she didn't ask any questions.
However, he couldn't just enter because he wanted to.
People still existed.
Gehenna was a sacred place. A foreigner entering that place as he pleased was naturally not something everyone in the tribe could accept.
But there was a way to make them.
Damien had to undergo several trials the tribe had set in place for those who wished to enter Gehenna.
It would be somewhat difficult, but as long as he could do it, he would be able to not only move onto the next step properly, he would be able to extinguish most of the hostility those few tribesmen had for him.
Damien accepted without much of a second thought.
The Saintess smiled happily.
"Go to Pehran. He will give you your first trial."
Those were the last words she said to him.
She'd called him to deliver the message. She didn't have anything else to say.
Since their meeting was over, Damien gave her a respectful bow before bidding farewell and leaving.
It was a short meeting.
It was short because the Saintess couldn't say everything she wanted.
She was just the messenger.
She didn't have the authority to decide which messages could be delivered at what time.
So she had to withhold the things she knew. The time to deliver those messages had not arrived yet.
"The man with eyes of gold…"
She whispered to herself, her eyes once again hazy.
"...has he finally come?"
Her body shook as if she'd been struck by a cold breeze.
"To overrule the darkness, to corrupt the corrupted, he shall arrive. A man with eyes of gold, the apostle of the ancients. With his mighty sword, he will bring light to the darkness. With his burning heart, he will save the world."
A story she'd heard when she was young.
A story she thought would always remain just a fairytale for children.
Was it finally time for it to come true?
She stood up, using her staff to support her movements.
"Time is running out."
She didn't expect to have guests this time, but she'd known Gehenna was opening for several years now.
The problem was the other things she knew.
She stepped out of her residence, looking down at the entire village sprawled out below her.
There, she saw a smiling woman, young and innocent. That woman was her successor, and someone she treated like her own daughter.
Her eyes contained a trace of melancholy as she looked at that woman.
"I trust in you, Thalia…"
She knew Thalia couldn't hear her, but she continued speaking.
"Become the woman I believe you to be, and bring our tribe back to where it once stood."
Damien didn't know it.
Actually, nobody in the village did.
The Saintess' power wasn't just to converse with spirits.
No, it was something far greater.
The Saintess looked into a time yet to occur, and she saw the fates of all living beings.
She herself was not excluded.
The future was not set in stone.
Fate was something that could be changed.
It was.
…right?
Regardless, time waited for no man.
Before long, chaos would ensue.
Even the Saintess, with her mystical power, was left to wonder.
Would everything go as she'd seen?
Or would a miracle occur in its stead?
As she looked down at the village, days passed and turned into weeks.
Damien began to blaze through the trials placed upon him.
No matter what the villagers and the world threw at him, he moved like an unstoppable beast.
Gehenna continued to approach until it was only a few days away.
And Damien was left with only one trial before he could gain entry.
Unbeknownst to him, however, chaos was approaching.
Extremely fast, at that.
