"Is that the monster I saw when I first entered the realm of the dead?" Ray squinted his eyes.

The skeletal figure, cloaked in black, revealed only its hollow eye sockets and held a scythe in its hand.

This was the image Ray had seen before; it appeared in his mind when the Necromancer reached Awakening II.

Ray couldn't see in this deep darkness, but he wasn't as scared as he had been before.

It felt like it couldn't harm him in the slightest now; instead, it felt more subservient to him.

It was as if he could control this eerie darkness to some extent.

Necromancers are beings who are close to the realm of the dead and have a certain affinity with it.

Ray, too, had an affinity with the realm of the dead. However, even with this previous connection, he would still feel that terrifying sensation, especially when he was unable to pull a soul out of this realm.

As Ray floated forward, his pupils shrank.

"So you were here, huh?" Ray muttered while looking at the giant figure in a cloak.

The skeletal figure was enormous, so tall that Ray couldn't even see its head properly due to its sheer size. Strangely, even though he couldn't see in this place, Ray could still see the skeletal figure clearly, as if it were the brightest part of the day.

The giant skeletal figure slowly turned towards Ray, raising its skeletal arm and pointing at him.

"You... are... a... celestial... you... shouldn't...

be... in... this... area..." the voice sounded deep and ancient.

"What do you mean?" Ray immediately frowned.

However, before Ray could utter another word, he suddenly felt a pulling force that instantly moved him.

Ray tried to resist, but he couldn't muster any strength at all, becoming completely vulnerable and weak.

His muscles seemed to refuse to work under this terrifying suction force.

All his mutation energy and everything he had became instantly ineffective.

Helpless, Ray felt a sense of powerlessness for the first time in a long while. His body appeared in front of the skeletal figure completely vulnerable as Ray couldn't use a single bit of his strength.

"You... should... go... to... the... second...

area…"

"Second area?" Ray narrowed his eyes.

His body suddenly lifted, and the whole world seemed to blur, even in this eerie darkness.

"It feels like I'm travelling at light speed," Ray grumbled in his heart.

However, even if he was, there was no resistance to stop this force, helplessly guided by the skeletal figure.

At a certain point, a "ting" sound rang out, as if metal had been struck, like some kind of barrier had been broken.

Ray felt his body again, a wave of dizziness hitting him, almost as if his brain had turned to mush.

All he saw was still the eerie darkness, but now this darkness sent chills down his spine.

"This… this is the realm of the dead?" Ray thought, his heart stirring. Even he seemed shaken by the sheer fear of the darkness that engulfed him.

"How?"

He looked at the skeletal figure again.

"Necromancer… this… is… the… area… for… celestial… beings," the skeletal figure spoke in the deep, ancient voice again, pointing around with its outstretched skeletal hand.

"Celestial beings?" Ray fell silent, the faint sense of authority he once had over the eerie darkness now gone. He couldn't contain his disappointment.

He knew that if he could harness this eerie darkness, it would be undeniably valuable to him.

The soul was eternal, and only this eerie darkness could wipe it out. If he could use it in the real world, he wouldn't even need to physically fight individuals. He could simply spread the eerie darkness and directly wipe out their souls, no matter their strength.

Even the undead, beings teetering on the edge of life and death, still possessed their souls within their bodies.

But Ray wasn't too worried about such things at all, because in the real world, he couldn't find an opponent capable of matching him. Once he advanced all his skills, his strength would rapidly increase.

At that point, Ray would find it even harder to encounter a worthy opponent.

Level three undead were basically weak chickens to him, and even S-class Awakeners, no matter how much mutation energy they accumulated, could never match Ray. They were like bugs he could crush at will.

"Yes… if… a… celestial… being… dies… the… creature… will… come… to… this… place," the skeletal figure said.

"I see," Ray frowned, sensing some floating black orbs in the area.

Unfortunately, if he wanted to bind these orbs, he would need the creature's material possession, preferably their body. Otherwise, he himself might sink into the darkness while trying to pull the orb.

"Why are you telling me this?" Ray asked, looking at the skeletal giant in front of him with a calm expression.

"According… to… the… contract… with… the… supreme… being… I… must… maintain… the… realm… of… the… dead…"

The skeletal figure murmured and uttered words that Ray had never heard before. Beyond the first sentence, Ray couldn't discern what it was saying at all.

"Galvanic… no. 988…"

"Wait, what supreme being?" Ray asked, utterly confused.

But the skeletal figure didn't seem to have heard him, as it pointed at him again.

"If… you… need… to… summon… me… just… visualise… my… image…"

"Huh?"

Ray snapped his eyes open to see the familiar ceiling above him.

"This… this…"

He propped himself up and looked around his surroundings.

The last words of the celestial figure seemed to echo in his mind, over and over.

"I summon that being?"

Ray was almost tempted to try it on the spot but restrained himself. There's always a price to pay when summoning any being, even those he had bound; they still consumed his mental energy just to exist in this world.

If he were to summon that giant skeletal being, the cost might be too terrifying to imagine.

"I guess I have another ace in the hole if anything goes wrong," Ray smiled bitterly. Then he looked at his other skills. "It's time to advance the other skills."