Reborn as an Extra Chapter 595: Soul Merge. Part-1.
Previously on Reborn as an Extra...
A gateway materialized next to the massive entrance, and Rio emerged from it, his expression weary and drained.
Even though Rio's sudden advancement during the fight had allowed him to mend his wounds, he had still sustained numerous small injuries from clashing against Raika’s most powerful strike with his own force.
Scratches and contusions marked his frame everywhere, including a few fractured bones, yet these remained mere trivial harms, and Rio felt little concern over them.
As soon as he exited the portal for teleportation, Rio drew in the nearby miasma and employed it to restore his health.
He had consumed plenty of mana potions and absorbed them under duress, leading to harsh repercussions within his system.
While sword intent helped him suppress and minimize the fallout from that compelled mana absorption to minimal degrees, it nonetheless inflicted massive harm deep inside his physique.
Fortunately, abundant miasma lingered in the area, serving as a substitute energy for his recovery.
Without it, Rio would need to rely on potent healing elixirs, since the mana backlash currently prevented him from channeling mana effectively.
Bearing a fatigued and injured form, Rio proceeded to the rear of the enormous door to encounter Ellie.
’The outer barrier of the great seal has entirely crumbled... the central zones have suffered severe destruction too...’
’No traces of life can be detected anywhere around...’
Every stride came burdened and laborious; the dread of advancing no further echoed relentlessly in Rio’s thoughts, yet retreat was not an option.
Tremendous resolve propelled Rio onward, until the sight before him froze him in place with astonishment.
Elisia Mistiltienn, the shadow dragon and a companion who had shared countless journeys with Rio and his allies, lay motionless on the earth, devoid of life.
Her eyelids were shut, a serene expression graced her features, with a faint smile curving her mouth, radiating utter tranquility.
Her form bore countless fist-sized punctures, and crimson stains spread across the soil, yet strangely, blood depletion did not appear to be her cause of death.
Elisia had offered up her soul essence and all leftover life force to draw Liam’s soul close to her.
Liam’s spirit now slumbered peacefully within her hold, shielded by her lifeless remains, while the scattered remnants of Elisia’s own soul clustered protectively around it.
’I arrived to retrieve them both... I vowed to rescue them... and...’
In his wildest imaginations, Rio had never envisioned Elisia perishing in such a manner, nor Liam’s existence fading so utterly.
’How do I even explain this to the rest?...’
Rio possessed no response to that dilemma.
The most heartbreaking aspect was Rio’s inability to experience sorrow, remorse, or any form of regret right then.
Elevating his sword intent proficiency to 99.99% had not been ’gratis’.
Deepening his ’comprehension’ of the ’Path’ he treaded had not been ’gratis’.
Diminishing the ’flaws’ in his ’flawed sword heart’ and ’flawed sword body’ had not been ’gratis’.
Rio’s surge in power had always carried a ’price,’ and this time, he settled it by sacrificing his feelings once more.
Yet again, he grew even more devoid of emotion. So detached that Rio couldn’t summon grief over Elisia’s passing.
He felt no blame for permitting her demise in that way; no sorrow for failing to preserve her.
In that instant, Rio sensed absolutely nothing.
He remained rooted there, ’numb,’ ’detached,’ and ’untouched’; miasma mended his form automatically, erasing injuries gradually as his mana regenerated independently.
Sword intent alleviated any lingering strain or psychological scars on his being.
Rio stood ’untouched’ by the fierce struggle for survival, but Elisia... She had settled the toll with her very existence.
’Maybe I ought to have struck down that wretched Raika right from our initial encounter...’
At that time, Rio lacked knowledge of Raika’s identity or nature, even confusing him for an SS-ranker, so he avoided any confrontation.
Raika’s seizure of Liam’s soul as leverage finally compelled Rio to draw his blade against him and engage in direct combat.
Had he refrained, Rio might have evaded battling Raika altogether.
Elisia could have survived unscathed.
She might have remained trapped in this prison, but at least breathing.
Fixed in position, Rio found himself unable to contemplate next steps; his thoughts stalled, leaving him only to wield his miasma manipulation and bar the miasma from nearing her corpse.
As despair began to overwhelm Rio, Lia’s parting words to him resurfaced abruptly in his consciousness.
Recalling them, Rio’s gaze widened in sudden realization, and his sword intent surged back to vibrant intensity the instant after!
”Yes! I won’t yield to defeat this way!”
’Lia trusts that I’m capable of anything! I refuse to surrender without exhausting every effort!’
Rio swiftly processed countless scenarios in his thoughts, birthing a fresh concept within.
’What if... I attempt to fuse a fragmented soul anew?’
That notion struck Rio like a profound revelation breaking through!
Fusing souls ranked as an almost unattainable feat, one that even Miasma couldn’t achieve over millennia!
Yet Rio recognized its apparent impossibility didn’t equate to true impossibility!
Rio himself embodied irrefutable evidence that soul fusion could indeed succeed!
’If anyone in existence can pull this off... it has to be me...’
Since stepping into the Spirit Realm, Rio’s mastery and insight into miasma and souls had advanced at an extraordinary pace!
He had observed vast multitudes of creatures and monsters harboring multiple souls, all botched experiments of miasma.
Their souls failed to integrate seamlessly, marking them as rejects.
Rio had conducted extensive trials and analyses on those rejects, elevating his soul expertise to unparalleled heights—no other soul in the world rivaled his depth of understanding!
Prior to Alverto’s demise, his ’soul resonance’ held prominence, but now Rio reigned as the supreme authority on souls and miasma!
Furthermore, he alone across the cosmos had flawlessly united his dual souls!
No individual grasped soul fusion more thoroughly than Rio!
”Her soul splintered due to sacrificing her soul energy, unable to endure the strain and fracturing into shards...”
”Yet if I utilize the identical soul fusion method on her splintered pieces...”
”In theory, I could reconstruct her soul to its prior wholeness...”