The regret soon turned to weakness. The sensation of impending doom assaulted her mind and weakened it. She knows that she will not get out of this place alive. She will disappear like the others that were never heard from ever again.
Her heart sank and her emotions bled out of her. The world became grey and dark. It became hopeless. She couldn't feel anything apart from despair. Her previous happiness is nowhere to be seen.
The heaviness of the Reaper's presence settled on her mind and consciousness and threatened to drown her in hopeless despair. She ignored the warning that his presence conveyed earlier. Now she knows what sort of situation she is in. The heaviness of his presence is a reminder that she is in danger and this time, it is not an illusion that she can ignore.
She stood there frozen as her partners in crime entered the plane.
"What are you doing just standing there and gawking?" Someone asked in jest.
But she didn't answer. She continued to hawk at the core of the plane. Her partners laughed.
"Maybe she saw something so expensive she couldn't believe her eyes," They said.
Then they traced her line of view and also froze.
"What in the damnable abyss is going on?" Someone managed to ask but no one answered. They saw what she saw and they despaired. There was no other feeling that could replace that emotion.
Some of them became angry at her and some cursed in order to dispel their despair. Her face was slack and unresponsive as one of the demon kings accused her of treachery.
"You betrayed us, didn't you? You brought us to feed him. You brought us to our death."
This demon king accused her in a loud voice tinted heavily with outrage and anger. But he didn't do anything to her despite his obvious anger. He is just shouting to try and fight off the overwhelming feeling of despair. But it is all to no avail. Their fate is sealed and they know it. So despair crept into their minds and settled in.
If they have any hope of living in this place it is through the Reaper's benevolence. But he wouldn't let them go after knowing his secret. Even an oath will not suffice. They will surely die for knowing that he is an abomination. So the anger slowly bled out of the shouting. Even the loudness of the shouting decreased until silence reigned over the mind and emotions.
The black reaper could have hidden the crowns that made the halo around the core of the plane. Those crowns are pure manifestations of the real ones attached to his soul. The external ones can be withdrawn. All they would have seen upon entering his plane is that the core is bigger and more powerful than normal. They will easily attribute it to the use of the Authority of the Celestial Supreme. Their ignorance might save them.
But he didn't do that. He let them see his crowns for a reason. That reason cannot be good. That helps them to narrow it down to the highest possible option. The Reaper showed them his crowns to let them understand that he will surely kill them.
"What do we do now?" One of them summed up the courage to ask.
They tried to come up with a way to survive to starve off the despair. Escaping is not an option. They can't escape unless they destroy the core of the plane. That's why you don't enter the plane of a demon king unless you're absolutely sure you can kill that demon king within their plane.
You don't barge in or accept their invitation either without the strength to overpower the demon king once you enter the plane. Otherwise, you will be at their mercy. So they are at the Reaper's mercy. They are as helpless as the proverbial meat on the chopping block.
The worst of the situation is that the Reaper hasn't moved one inch. They know where he is and they can see him. He is sitting calmly on his throne at the top of the black tower in the center of the plane. The fact that his throne is fashioned out of a demon king is unsettling enough but it is the face-splitting grin on his face that informed them that he is toying with them.
When a demon king toys with someone, then they should expect a lot of pain in the near future. The way the reaper displayed his red teeth also indicates that he will enjoy the pain he inflicts on them very much. All of these is making their heart sink and making it extra difficult not to feel despair.
The Reaper looks different from what they usually see of him. He has red fire crystal skin. There are four horns with golden tips on his head. And there is a black flame burning from the top of his head. The black flame is scattered and makes his head look like he has hair.
There is a golden ring within the black flames burning on his head that matches his blazing golden eyes. Those same golden eyes are fixed on them. In them, they can see how little he thinks of them. They can see that they are doomed. That feeling is not undermined despite the Reaper looking like a dwarf.
No demon king should be that small. Even their reduced form is 10 meters. They are currently in their 10 kilometers tall while he is 1.7m. But the threat they feel from him is real and that's all that matters.
"What is going on?" Someone asked indignantly with a great shout. "I don't have time to waste. Get a move on damn it."
It was the hellhound demon king that asked that question. She is the last to enter the plane. She entered and saw all of them standing still while staring vacantly at the center of the plane. Their slacking off is wasting her precious time and she isn't one to hold back her displeasure so she complained.
