This was an eternal river.
Its dark waters flowed on in silence, forever coursing through the boundless past, present, and future, never ceasing.
All who had died slumbered in the river, without the slightest awareness, drifting and sinking with its current.
This was the River of Death.
No living creature could ever reach this place.
But if a god could come here and venture into the river's depths, they would discover that the abyss below was nothing like the tranquil surface.
At a certain moment.
A faint sound came from a shadowy cavern beneath the water.
"Go... to the Living World..."
"Quickly... go..."
Whisperlike voices drifted through the dim, lightless dead waters, murmuring again and again.
The voices gradually grew clearer, reaching some nameless presence in the depths.
"Lurking in the River of Death..."
"Apocalypse Messengers..."
"...The time has come..."
"...Wake up!"
In the darkness, a pair of vertical pupils, brimming with icy menace, suddenly lit up.
A vicious, peerless aura spread in all directions.
Deep in the abyss, a colossal figure surged toward the surface, churning the water as a low rumble rolled out:
"The appointed time has not yet come. Why have you summoned me?"
Whispering voices swirled around it, unceasing, and murmured, "That corpse... it carries a secret... its whereabouts are known..."
"...Quickly... go..."
Boom!!!
A figure vast enough to blot out the sky burst from the River of Death. It roared down at the silent waters below:
"My subjects, Apocalypse Children lying in wait, wake up! Come with me to the Living World."
"We must find that secret!"
The dark waters surged and churned.
Countless beings stirred the river, their densely packed lights gleaming beneath the surface.
A slope blanketed in ice and snow.
Behind a massive boulder.
The campfire crackled. Its warmth drove off