Gate of Heaven

The familiar glow, the familiar Magic Array pattern, and the even more familiar Captain’s Cabin.

Yinsen looked at the environment he knew so well, as well as the huge crowd that had nearly packed the entire Captain’s Cabin, and could only give a helpless, bitter smile.

"I really went and got myself killed."

Yinsen had secretly meddled with souls under the Grim Reaper’s jurisdiction without filing an application or obtaining permission. Naturally, he had enraged that great being.

The other party had launched an attack by following the fluctuations of Yinsen’s magical power.

Yinsen was fortunate that this Grim Reaper was perhaps used to dealing with mortals. Its first instinct had been to wield its authority as a Grim Reaper to punish the one who dared offend its majesty, so its first attack had been ineffective against Yinsen, an outsider.

The Grim Reaper reacted quickly and immediately launched a second attack. Unfortunately, Yinsen had already realized something was wrong by then and decisively activated the Teleportation Magic Array to escape.

Yinsen was a considerate man. He had not only escaped himself, but brought everyone around him back as well, sparing them from having to remain behind and bear the Grim Reaper’s wrath.

After standing still and carefully sensing his surroundings, he confirmed that Anubis, the Grim Reaper of Mummy World, could not break through the Plane Barrier to pursue him into this world. It was safe to say that he was now safe.

However, he had not escaped without paying a price.

"Yinsen, your hand!"

Even Logan could tell that Yinsen was in bad shape. His entire right hand and half his forearm had turned black. Even a Druid like Logan, who had not truly begun training, could clearly sense the dense Death Energy. This terrifying energy had not only corroded and destroyed Yinsen’s palm and half his forearm, but was continuing to spread upward.

"Loki!"

Loki and the others had sensed Yinsen’s return the moment he arrived. A terrifying energy fluctuation had accompanied him, and both Loki and Selene realized that something had happened. Even without Yinsen calling for them, they had already rushed in.

Ignoring the many unfamiliar faces, Loki saw Yinsen’s outstretched right hand and immediately drew his Ice Scepter. Then, with one swift and decisive motion, he used its curved blade to chop off Yinsen’s entire right forearm.

At the same time as he severed Yinsen’s arm, the Ice Power within the Ice Scepter erupted, instantly freezing the stump. The severed section of Yinsen’s arm was also completely wrapped in frost, preventing the dense Death Energy within it from spreading freely.

When they saw that some black Death Energy remained at the severed limb but was no longer spreading, everyone finally let out a small sigh of relief.

Only then did Loki have the chance to ask what had happened.

He knew Yinsen’s current strength. It was no weaker than Loki’s had been in the past, perhaps even somewhat stronger. Yet Yinsen had actually suffered a loss during his trip to that Mummy World.

That made Loki extremely curious. What kind of being could have done this?

After Yinsen roughly described the situation, Loki showed a trace of surprise upon learning that the being who had injured Yinsen had not even revealed its true form, and had attacked him from another plane.

"Looks like the world you visited this time was not as boring as I thought."

Anubis’s attack had not been easy to withstand. Yinsen had experienced that pure power of death firsthand. Yet he did not care at all about his severed hand, because if he wished, he could quickly remove the residual energy from his arm and use his powerful Healing Factor to restore it completely.

However, he had discovered that this Death Energy was extremely pure. Energy of such purity was not easy to find, so he wanted to study it properly.

Hearing Yinsen’s plan, everyone was speechless. At a time like this, he was still thinking about studying a Grim Reaper’s energy? Wasn’t that a little too overconfident?

There were still several people who had not figured out what was going on at all. Evelyn and Jonathan, along with O’Connell, had practically been caught in a barrage of bullets while lying down, then inexplicably dragged away from their original world. When they heard that this was already Other Worlds, they thought Yinsen and the others were joking with them.

Imhotep, meanwhile, fell silent. This silence was not a good sign. Anyone normal could sense the near-explosive excitement hidden beneath it. Fortunately, Yinsen spoke up to calm him down.

"Don’t get worked up. Although I angered the Grim Reaper this time, I successfully summoned back Anck-Su-Namun’s soul."

Imhotep had been ready to risk his life against Yinsen, but upon hearing those words, more than half the rage in his heart vanished at once. What remained was only because he doubted whether Yinsen was telling the truth.

If Yinsen proved that he had truly summoned Anck-Su-Namun’s soul back, that anger might instantly turn into gratitude.

If Yinsen was deceiving him, then the anger that had faded would gather again, perhaps becoming even fiercer—though Imhotep had yet to notice that, cut off from his faith, all his magical power had already dissipated.

Of course, Yinsen had not deceived Imhotep. He disdained lying about such matters. The Grim Reaper’s fury had not been without reason.

That Grim Reaper had been so enraged not only because a soul under his jurisdiction had been forcibly taken away, but because Yinsen had done something the Grim Reaper found deeply taboo: luring the dead from his Realm of the Dead into another realm where the dead rested.

That place was the Holy Light Cross, which had been undergoing strange changes all along.

Ever since the Holy Light Cross had changed in Biohazard World, Yinsen had kept a close eye on it. While forcibly summoning Anck-Su-Namun’s soul this time, he had been surprised to discover that his Holy Light Cross seemed capable of attracting the dead and even giving them a place to reside. Using the Holy Light Cross alongside the Soul Summoning spell had produced unexpectedly excellent results.

Naturally, this act of "stealing people" had completely enraged Anubis. After his first strike failed, he immediately unleashed an even more powerful attack. Although Yinsen had escaped in time, he had still suffered a loss.

Still, Yinsen had not truly lost anything. He had accomplished his main goal for this trip, and the only unexpected result was that the Holy Light Cross’s status had risen dramatically.

He brushed his left hand across his chest, then reached out. A soft golden glow flashed, and a great door radiating a sacred aura appeared from thin air before everyone.

As the door opened, a woman who looked half-transparent, hovering between illusion and reality, walked out.

"Anck-Su-Namun!"

Imhotep immediately rushed forward, but when he tried to embrace his beloved, he found that he could not touch her at all.

He turned to look at Yinsen. Now, he could only place all his hopes on this powerful spellcaster, because just moments ago, when he had tried to use magic to resurrect Anck-Su-Namun directly, he had been shocked to find that not a trace of magical power remained within him.

"This isn’t your world. Your magical power came from the god you served, as well as the curse that god cast upon you indirectly." Yinsen shrugged. "Obviously, those gods can’t reach us here."

Imhotep nodded, but he did not care about that at all right now. What he cared about was whether Anck-Su-Namun could be resurrected.

"She can."

Yinsen quickly gave him an affirmative answer and pointed to the side. He had endured one attack from the Grim Reaper not because he had no chance to dodge, but because he had wanted to bring Anck-Su-Namun’s body back with him as well.

"I keep my word!"

With her soul, her original body, and Yinsen’s Spring of Life, which could replenish Life Force, Anck-Su-Namun’s resurrection faced no great obstacles.

Especially since Anck-Su-Namun’s soul carried no "shackles." Once she was successfully resurrected, it would be a true resurrection, without any side effects.

This attempt had also allowed Yinsen to work out a not-quite-solution.

Snatch the soul and run before the great being had time to react!

If it was a world like Mummy World, with clearly defined gods, he probably could not go there again in the future. But in a world like Marvel, where it was still unknown whether anyone ruled Hell, he might only need to avoid that initial attack based on certain rules.

If the other side’s Hell was controlled by a set of rules, Yinsen would not even need to endure this attack. He could use his cross to create an illusion: that the soul had merely been transferred somewhere else it was supposed to be, such as ascending from Hell to Heaven, rather than suddenly escaping and breaking some rule by returning to the human world for resurrection.

Once the soul had been brought into Yinsen’s Holy Light Cross, whether it was resurrected afterward or continued resting in this Small Heaven would have nothing whatsoever to do with institutions like "Hell" or the "underworld." Naturally, that would not cause any further trouble.

Having sorted out this line of thought, Yinsen felt that the trip had not been wasted. Although he had taken a hit from Anubis, he had ultimately obtained everything he wanted.

He had even obtained things he had not wanted.

Looking at the Goddess of Dawn, which had suddenly become so lively, Yinsen did not know whether to laugh or cry.

"It really takes some getting used to, having things become this lively."

Logan knew that Yinsen had not deliberately wanted to bring so many people back.

Jonathan, for instance, had no skills beyond stealing and causing trouble. He had little Combat Power himself, so under normal circumstances, Yinsen would never have brought him aboard.

His sister Evelyn was at least a sweet, absent-minded girl, pleasant enough to look at when there was nothing else to do. Jonathan, as a man, did not have that advantage.

O’Connell was the same. Although he was strong and an expert marksman, that meant nothing. With his abilities, the most he could do aboard this ship was some odd jobs.

But in the end, Yinsen had been the one to drag them into this mess. He could not simply abandon them in some random world without a care, so he still had to take responsibility. Whether they wanted to go to a suitable world or remain aboard the ship, Yinsen would agree.

As for returning to Mummy World? That would probably be difficult. Yinsen would not be going there again anytime soon.