The Rise of the Black Plain

After some time, Minos and Abby's group encountered several more of their opponents in their path, having done as before, exterminating their enemies.

At the same time as they did this, they reunited several innocent citizens who had been killed by the forces of the God of Death.

Many of them had fought far from the previously existing city in that area, so some had awakened amidst the opponents.

But with the help of the seven skeletons and Abby, Minos distinguished such people from the enemies and had not attacked them during this period.

Because of this, of the approximately 40,000 opponents, in less than a day, 5,000 of them had already been eliminated by the joint efforts of Abby and Minos!

And with that, a group of a few hundred skeletons was already following them, heading towards the area where most of the 200,000 dead from the Goddess of Life's homeland should be.

...

While traveling through that gigantic cemetery, Minos' group stopped to rest.

Not that the skeletons needed it, but the two living beings there needed to stop from time to time to feed.

With that, as they traveled, every few hours, they would stop for a few minutes, long enough for Minos and Abby to eat something and recover from the mental fatigue of having to fight constantly.

That was what they were doing at the moment, where Minos and Abby were sitting on a large gravestone while the skeletons gathered in their surroundings, talking.

"The wretched God of Death's followers!"

"These damned need to be wiped off the face of this world! Their existence is a sin!"

"Yes! Yes!"

"The worms kill left and right, acting as if they were the lords of life and death." A skeleton with no clothes nor armor said this in an indignant tone.

"God of Death?" Abby heard that for the first time in this place, while Minos was also surprised to hear it from these people.

"What are you people talking about?" Minos asked, making those skeletons silent due to their respect for him.

One of the seven subordinate skeletons of the Goddess of Life then said. "Those who caused the tragedy of the Goddess' homeland were men of the God of Death."

"Oh? So, you were enemies?" He asked, not expecting it.

One of the more robust skeletons there found Minos' question strange and asked. "Have you ever heard of the God of Death? How can that be? Don't tell me the bastard turned into a real God?"

Minos understood the misunderstanding and explained. "We don't know him, nor his history. As far as we know, there is no one with that pseudonym among the human Gods. But we once met their followers."

"Met? So, they still exist?" One of them asked in an irritated tone.

As each of those creatures looked at them, Abby replied. "We don't know if they exist or not. What we found were worshippers of the God of Death. But we don't know about their connection to the organization behind this enemy of the Goddess of Life."

"In any case, they were our enemies, so my husband exterminated them. As for news of the God of Death, these followers of his supposedly believed that organization had collapsed hundreds of thousands of years ago."

"Oh?" The skeletons seemed much happier upon hearing this good news.

"Hahaha, they deserved it!"

"It's good to know that the bastards died!"

While some commented on the end of the God of Death, others looked at Minos and Abby with even more reverence.

"As expected from Lord Minos. Not only is he helping the Goddess' chosen one, but he had been an enemy of the God of Death for a long time!"

"Yes! No wonder the Goddess chose his wife! She has a lot of affinities!"

Comments of all kinds circulated around that area as Minos and Abby watched this in silence.

The first skeleton who encountered Minos and Abby then answered his earlier question. "Anyway, we were his enemies."

"The God of Death was as you might expect. A cruel person who bathed in the blood of his countless victims, cultivating a diabolical path that depends on others' sacrifice."

Abby's eyebrows arched, and she asked. "Are you saying he could get stronger by killing people?"

"Not only him, but his most loyal followers, those who received his creations, could too." A skeleton said in a solemn tone. "They were terrifying. They mercilessly slaughtered entire cities, sometimes without even being offended or anything like that."

"All they had to do was be at the right time, and they would annihilate a city so they could cultivate faster." One of them said as the many skeletons stared at the ground angrily, clenching their fists.

"Right time?" Minos questioned that.

"Yes, they couldn't do that at any time, thank heavens..." The stronger skeleton said in a sighing tone. "Otherwise, they might have annihilated the whole continent!"

"It doesn't make sense. How could they do that? Shouldn't it be easy to recognize a cultivator who uses such a method?" Abby questioned in doubt.

"No. These people were easy to distinguish on the battlefield. But in cities, especially in a place where they weren't the strongest, they would behave well so as not to attract attention." Someone began to explain.

"They would join organizations, be loyal members, and sometimes never draw attention. Meanwhile, they would kill and grow stronger in secret. That would go on until it was too late, and then tragedies would happen..."

Another skeleton sighed and said. "They were lost people, who pretended to be great, but who were actually ready to kill even wives, children, in short, anyone in their way."

"The possibility of the power they had was simply terrifying!"

"Yes, there was no way they could control themselves knowing that they could get stronger just by killing..."

Several comments came up there as Abby understood the situation.

She then asked. "So, how did you fight people like that? It must have been tough, right?"

A skeleton shook its head negatively and explained. "Actually, their strength was very ordinary. The problem was their cultivation. Most of them cultivated too fast because of those devilish techniques."

"But when they were caught, they generally faced quite difficult situations. Because of that, there were ways to fight them."

Minos found this interesting and asked. "How fast was this God of Death in his cultivation? He must have been the most proficient in those techniques, right?"

"Yes, he was the most talented in our time. And because of those techniques, he reached level 90 at 300 years old." Someone said.

Upon hearing that, Abby's jaw almost dropped to the floor, as such a thing was awe-inspiring.

A Spiritual Demigod could live for more than 25,000 years, so reaching this stage in a few centuries was challenging.

And thinking about it, she could not help but question. "That being the case, that person must have reached level 100, right?"

"I don't know..."

"I died before him, so I can't answer..."

Several of them said similar things.

But Minos then broke his silence. "Impossible. He died at level 99."

"Oh? Why do you say that?" One of the skeletons asked.

"Simple, this is an artificial method of cultivation. And like any such method, it is impossible for someone using it to reach the top, since this is not an earned power, but rather, rented."

"When you cultivate hard over the years without shortcuts, all that power is yours alone. So, during breakthroughs, you have an easier time surviving and reaping fruits. But when you overuse resources, you create a dependency on them and lose independence over your power."

"Because of that, it's impossible for someone like that to have broken through to level 100."

"The God of Death was weak and pathetic to endure something so difficult."

"Thus, he died as a mere Spiritual Demigod." Minos said with his eyes closed, with a slight smile on his face, confident this was the case.

...