Reborn as an Extra Chapter 543: Inside Hell. Part-2.

Rio possesses the skill to control souls, yet even he cannot insert two souls into one body without sparking a clash between them.

Stuffing two souls into the same body ranks right up there with endless torment!

Those souls would keep battling one another, inflicting severe harm, which triggers excruciating agony straight to the soul, and in the end, both souls get obliterated after enduring prolonged, unbearable suffering.

‘Actually, I have no clue how my soul ended up in this body, but if it hadn’t merged with the original Rio’s soul, then I’d be enduring that very same doom...’

Rio still hasn’t unraveled the enigma of his own form, and he remains unaware of how his soul blended so seamlessly with the original Rio’s without causing any harm.

However, this bizarre entity is far from enjoying a favorable state like Rio’s.

Its whole form is grotesquely warped and contorted from the taint of miasmic corruption.

Truth be told, it looks as though somebody grabbed a haphazard chunk of decaying flesh and crammed dozens of souls into it.

Afterward, they infused it with miasma to warp and reshape it into a mobile abomination.

The souls within it collided repeatedly, forcing them into nonstop, excruciating torment, and every face wept bloody tears from the agony and despair.

Yet that wasn’t the worst part; the true horror lay in how the Miasma was steadily mending their wounded souls, trapping these souls in perpetual agony!

They were unable to merge or annihilate one another, since the miasma persisted in restoring and polluting them simultaneously!

Certain faces sobbed uncontrollably, others cackled insanely, and some were so tainted that distinguishing them as faces proved nearly impossible.

"What the actual f*ck is this thing!?"

Rio had never encountered anything like it; the sight was so disturbing that, were he capable of experiencing ‘disgust,’ he’d have hurled endlessly from sheer revulsion.

As Rio grappled with that unease, additional such horrors emerged from the lake, with some sporting decayed organs protruding from their already mangled frames.

One featured an enormous eye that fixed its gaze on Rio without pause.

Rio can sense soul vibrations and infer the feelings of others, and that colossal eye was endlessly begging for aid and compassion.

It regarded Rio with profound sorrow and desperate hope!

‘It’s no surprise that folks warned this spot is far from normal... it truly is an utterly distressing place to linger...’

Rio lacks the emotional depth to experience compassion or sorrow for anyone, but even he felt a wave of discomfort witnessing all of this.

This clearly indicates that anyone else stuck here would have succumbed completely to corruption by now, shattered by mental collapse.

‘To roam freely in a realm like this, you’d require extraordinarily robust mental strength and potent defenses against prolonged miasmic taint...’

Rio lifted his flute skyward and channeled light elements to unleash a brilliant purifying glow in every direction!

The instant the purifying radiance touched those tainted beings, their forms began dissolving into oblivion nearly at once.

As they vaporized, each one radiated a sense of ‘relief’ and expressed profound gratitude to Rio from their deepest core.

Their souls fragmented right there, overwhelmed by the heavy miasmic corruption, and the purification set their essences free.

The Miasma had been compelling their fractured souls to hold together, but once its grip was removed, they shattered without delay.

Having cleansed those strange abominations, Rio leaped from the enormous rock and touched down on the earth, calling forth the ‘cube of possibilities.’

He allowed it to hover freely nearby, shielding it with his sword intent, and pressed onward.

‘This area—it’s throwing my instincts into total disarray and rendering them pointless!’

Rio sensed that his S-rank instincts and his knack for instinctive foresight were spiraling out of control since stepping into this domain.

Though Rio could still command the miasma within this space, it felt like the local miasma was deliberately resisting his authority.

‘How strange, it’s behaving so peculiarly...’

Rio is well aware that miasma holds a partial awareness and embodies a fiercely aggressive force.

Normally, it remains quite obedient under Rio’s command.

The miasma in the spirit realm acts like a child flustered and torn when forced to choose between favoring Mom or Dad.

The miasma displays similar bewilderment; its inherent awareness seeks to muddle Rio’s instincts, yet it hesitates to lash out at him.

‘Never mind, I lack the moment to puzzle over the thoughts inside the ‘law’ of ‘miasma,’ and I’m not even sure if it possesses thoughts at all...’

Rio shook his head and swung his sword.

Rio harnessed the miasma already diffused throughout the surroundings to establish a sensing perimeter for himself.

He could rely on his own mana for that, but since his mana reserves are finite and he aims to conserve them, he opted for miasma to replicate ‘mana detection’ precisely.

Through this method, he can perceive everything nearby even amid the thick miasma without expending any mana whatsoever.

Rio advanced at a deliberate, unhurried stride without taking to the air, aiming to remain inconspicuous and as covert as feasible.

The spirit realm harbors numerous formidable malevolent spirits, and countless corrupted horrors probably dwell within.

Should Rio charge ahead at high velocity or deploy potent space-warping techniques here, it would stir massive ripples in the miasma’s currents.

Such disruptions would be readily detected by any nearby SS-rankers.

Therefore, maintaining a subtle approach proved wiser than barreling forward foolishly.

As he progressed, Rio encountered yet another grotesque horror.

It resembled a colossal flower, though not formed from a mishmash of fused lifeforms.

In reality, it mimicked a vast lotus, with a thick stem arching downward to suspend the bloom.

That stem consisted of hundreds of hands; some human-like, others elven in appearance, and more from diverse beings.

All melded chaotically and decaying at a frantic rate.

The petals formed from enormous, rotting organs, swollen and oozing dark blood without cease.

At its core sat a gigantic face with an oversized maw, perpetually spewing miasmic waste as the flower ambled forward using those amalgamated hands.

The odd beast chuckled madly at intervals before resuming its vile expulsion.

Simply beholding the creature would suffice to inflict permanent trauma on any ordinary individual.