Reborn as an Extra Chapter 579: One more Final Gamble, Both or None! Part-4.
Previously on Reborn as an Extra...
Rio gave a casual shrug in response to her remark.
"Yeah, that’s the primary reason I showed up solo; not a single member in our group could handle this level of miasma..."
"The whole spirit realm overflows with miasma, and just beyond your enclosure, it’s thick enough to challenge even SS-rankers for an extended stay..."
Upon hearing Rio’s explanation, Ellie let out a soft giggle before responding,
"Liam truly is a fortunate fool, right?... He’s lucky to have a buddy like you who braved a full layer of torment to pull him from the depths of despair!"
"I bet no one else would go this far purely for the bond of friendship..."
Rio rolled his eyes in reaction to her comment and shot back,
"I vowed to the folks back home that I’d return that idiot in one piece; naturally, I couldn’t back out midway after giving my word..."
"Besides... miasma acts like a slightly volatile power reserve for me; getting here wasn’t such a big deal after all..."
To Rio, the spirit realm felt like a personal haven; it was as though designed specifically for him, and he wouldn’t have minded lingering there indefinitely.
While others might view Rio’s three-month trek across the spirit realm as deserving of the moniker ’Hell-Walker,’ he found it remarkably straightforward.
"Hehe... no need to act so cocky... I get that you’re powerful..."
Ellie managed a smile, though it looked more pained than joyful; as they neared the massive door, a heavier gloom and unease settled between them.
Unspoken, they both sensed the weight of unresolved issues burdening their thoughts.
Ellie fretted over Liam, while Rio concerned himself with their shared fate.
Rio could sense Ellie pulling away emotionally right then; she appeared so ethereal, as if she might vanish without constant vigilance.
Her form remained delicate, locked in an ongoing cycle of miasmic erosion and bodily cleansing.
Despite reaching peak S-rank, her physical state was so frail that even Riya’s lightest strike might overwhelm her.
A heavy quiet descended, thickening the sorrowful air, and it demanded great resolve from Rio to voice his next inquiry to Ellie.
"Can Liam return to a normal life?"
Rio’s tone came out unusually hushed and restrained as he posed the query; it was the sort of question capable of shattering someone’s spirit.
Liam’s form lay utterly broken, with every bit of his hard-earned enhancements and progress wiped away.
No path existed to reclaim what was lost.
Rio had dreaded asking that, knowing its harsh cruelty would force Ellie to confront the dire straits she and Liam faced.
Yet he had no alternative; he needed clarity on just how grave things stood.
"He... won’t be able to resume his old life..."
Uttering those words drained Ellie completely; facing that truth proved an immense struggle.
Should they pull off Liam’s rescue, he’d face the grueling task of rebuilding from the ground up.
"I barely preserved his soul... No other means exist to aid him... and I’m trapped here; I lack the freedom to seek a fitting vessel for him..."
"I feel so helpless and worthless... Even extracting his soul from the spirit realm poses a massive hurdle..."
"Once a soul enters the spirit realm, miasma claims it greedily, denying any chance of true liberty..."
"Should Liam endure somehow, miasma will pursue him relentlessly... A ordinary existence lies forever out of reach..."
Each phrase from Ellie chipped away at her resolve; Liam’s plight offered scant optimism for what lay ahead.
Much like her own trapped existence in this eternal prison, Liam had become miasma’s eternal quarry, forever hunted.
"Sigh... this mess runs deeper than I imagined..."
Rio lacked the skill to craft genuine human forms and fortify them sufficiently for an A-ranker’s soul.
Such talents were exceedingly uncommon, and Rio knew of no one but Alverto who’d achieved it.
During that encounter, Alverto had deployed a puppet eerily resembling a human to breach the dungeon and clash with Rio, ultimately elevating Jin to SS-rank.
In that instance, Alverto had infused a fragment of his soul and awareness into the lifelike puppet; it served as a duplicate echoing his true self.
Only Alverto possessed such prowess, thanks to his fabled ’Soul Resonance’ skill.
’Plus, I’m still clueless about how Alverto forged that lifelike duplicate to house his soul and mind...’
’If I’d only extracted that technique from his recollections back then...’
With a sigh, Rio spoke up,
"Before arriving here, I actually met your father and the fused shadow dragons... they bestowed upon me a scale from a shadow dragon, infused with their essence..."
"I learned it helps in holding souls... Could we fashion a short-term vessel for Liam with it..."
"I can’t whip up a synthetic body right now... but to pursue any real salvation for Liam, I must transport him to the human realm..."
Ellie paused in silence for a moment before replying,
"I’ll craft a suitable holder for Liam’s soul using that scale... It’s lucky you obtained the shadow dragon scale..."
"Providing one on my own would’ve been impossible..."
Gathering her resolve, she finally mustered the will to inquire.
"H-how is my father doing? Is he... still breathing... I mean..."
In response to her plea, Rio chose honesty.
"The shadow dragons have all combined into a single form, twisting them into a grotesque, malformed, tree-like being..."
"He clung to life awaiting King Allen’s return until the very end... Once I connected with him, he surrendered his last shreds of reason, which he’d preserved solely for King Allen..."
Meeting Ellie’s gaze, Rio continued,
"Though his dream of rescue by King Allen went unfulfilled, joy filled him upon learning you survived and bonded equally with a summoner..."
"He passed laughing, content in his final instants with news of you..."
Rio drew in a steadying breath prior to pressing on.
"After his mind fully unraveled... he spiraled into total chaos and might still be wreaking havoc somewhere..."
"Miasma showed him no mercy... He endured tremendous agony for his past error..."