Death… And Me

Chapter 3230: Isnʼt That Funny?

Roan was the first to ask, ”What is it?”

Rean then retracted his senses and elements from the Abyssal Soul Shard, shaking his head. ”This shard doesnʼt actually carry a consciousness. Itʼs just a tool to connect with the real thing. Through this shard, the Abyssal Soul can control others without being physically present.”

”Like the Werdlem Soul Worm?” Zangeshu asked.

”Exactly,” Rean nodded. ”The Werdlem System can use the Werdlem Soul Worms to take full control of their hostsʼ bodies. Weʼve seen it before. However, usually, the Werdlem System does not exert control over the hosts. It allows them to have their own thoughts and act independently. Of course, the host still remains 100% loyal to the Empire, regardless of whether they are being directly controlled or not.”

”This Soul Shard differs in that once it merges with its hostʼs soul, the real soul completely loses its consciousness. From that point on, the shard is in control. More specifically, the Abyssal Soul connected to the shard is the one controlling everything. You could say Duere was a puppet in the truest sense.”

Roan understood. ”That means we canʼt extract any information from this shard, since it simply doesnʼt have any memories to begin with.”

”Exactly,” Rean agreed. ”If we want any information, we would need to allow this shard to connect to its real soul and then communicate with it.”

[As long as it is inside our Dimensional Realm, it wonʼt be connecting to anything,] Sister Orb added.

”So, the question is,” Rean continued, ”should we allow it to connect to its real soul so we can talk to it?”

Kentucky didnʼt see the meaning behind it. ”And why would this so-called Abyssal Soul tell us anything? Itʼs just a shard, right? Even we can separate a small piece of our souls, and although it would hurt to lose them, we could still recover with enough time, especially if Rean is involved.”

”Thatʼs where youʼre wrong,” Roan recalled the time they had captured it with the systemʼs intervention. ”When we caught it, this thing tried desperately to escape. It was going crazy, not wanting to be taken. From the looks of it, this shard is extremely important to the Abyssal Soul. We can use it as leverage for information.”

Rean agreed with Roan on that point. ”We should be able to do it indeed. The question is whether we should try it or not.”

”Please, try it,” Rifindio quickly agreed with the idea. ”It took control over Duere, who is from the same race as me. It also tried to take me back to that Dimensional Realm. It even robbed me of almost my entire bloodline, which I didnʼt have much to start with. I want to know just what it has to do with our Camazotz Bats.”

Rean and Roan pondered about the issue. Truth be told, it matters little to them whether they know what the Abyssal Soul wants or not. If this thing hadnʼt intervened and tried to destroy the planet before the twins prepared to leave, they wouldnʼt have moved a single finger. This is not their problem, after all.

But then again, even the system paid the twins 100 Celestial Points just to make sure the Abyssal Soul wouldnʼt escape. Perhaps there is something useful about it that they donʼt know yet. Or maybe it could affect their future plans, and it would be better to know more about it.

”We try?” Rean asked Roan.

Who decided to accept the idea in the end. ”Yes, we can give it a try. But not now. The last thing we need is more trouble at this point in time. Letʼs first stabilize our situation, then we let this thing interact with the outside world from within our Dimensional Realm.”

”Thank you,” Rifindio quickly bowed in appreciation. Just too many things were happening to him. First, his involvement with Triaglia, the Universeʼs Owner. Now, this Abyssal Soul. Looking back at his life before, never would he think he would even interact with such important things.

”Ah!” Then, he remembered something. ”Rean, what about Duere? Before his soul finally went to the Underworld, he made that comment. ʼIf just I hadnʼt come here,ʼ was his last words. What did he mean with it? Also, how come he had been stuck in the Void Tempering Realm for over four hundred years?”

Rean indeed knew the answer since he read Duereʼs memories before his soul disappeared. ”Well, you said that before, didnʼt you? Duere was one more of those Camazotz Bats that kept pulling your leg, and he was especially fond of doing it to you since you were born around the same time.”

”So?” Rifindio didnʼt understand. ”He probably laughed out loud when he heard I was sent to the Mortal World, saying something like thatʼs where I deserved to be or whatever. It doesnʼt answer why he ended up here.”

”You truly know your bullies pretty well, donʼt you?” Rean asked with a smile before continuing. ”However, you were wrong about Duere. He did indeed hate to have someone like you with such low bloodline concentration around. Yet, what he hated the most was the fact that you never seemed to completely fall. You always clung to the last spots at the bottom, preventing the Supreme Palace from throwing you away outright due to its own rules.”

Rean didnʼt stop there. ”He was pretty much a bloodline supremacist. When he heard you were sent to the Mortal World, he actually thought that was the perfect opportunity to get rid of you. So... just after you left, he sneaked out of the Supreme Palace and even brought with him that Station where he spent his time.”

”He wouldnʼt intervene with your mission since it was connected to the Werdlem Empire Main Universe. He just kept checking the information without letting anyone know, waiting for you to finish it.” Rean spoke.

Then, he noticed something. ”That reminds me, the Supreme Palace sent you here to spend decades or maybe hundreds of years on that mission to find Roan and I. Yet, Duere was certain you would finish it pretty fast and return to the Supreme Palace immediately. In a certain way, he was the one who believed you the most. Isnʼt that funny?”