Reborn as an Extra

Chapter 595: Soul Merge. Part-1.

Spirit Realm, Near The Giant Door.

*SHmmmm!!!*

A portal opened beside the giant door, and Rio walked out of it with a tired look on his face.

Although Rio had managed to recover from the injuries due to his sudden breakthrough mid-battle, he still got quite a few minor injuries when stopping Raika’s strongest attack with his own.

His body was covered in small cuts and bruises all over, and there were even some broken bones, but those were just minor injuries, and Rio wasn’t too worried about them.

The moment he stepped out of the teleportation portal, Rio gathered the miasma from the surroundings and healed himself with it.

He had used a lot of mana potions and had absorbed them forcefully, thus causing severe backlash in his own body.

Although he used sword intent to manage and reduce the backlash of forced mana digestion to very low levels, it still managed to cause tremendous internal damage to his entire body.

Thankfully there is a lot of miasma in the surroundings, which can be used as an alternate source of power for healing himself.

Otherwise, Rio would have had to use powerful healing potions instead, as he was currently not able to properly use mana due to mana backlash.

With a tired and battered body, Rio walked over to the backside of the giant door to meet Ellie.

’The entire outer layer of the grand seal has collapsed... even the core areas have been heavily damaged...’

’I can’t sense any sign of life in the area...’

Each step felt heavy and difficult; the thought of never taking another step kept ringing in Rio’s head, but he couldn’t back down.

It took Rio immense determination to walk forward, and what he saw made him stop in one spot in shock.

Elisia Mistiltienn, the shadow dragon, a friend who had been with Rio and others for several adventures, was now lying there on the ground, lifeless.

Her eyes were closed, and there was a look of relief on her face; a slight smile hung on her lips, and she seemed extremely peaceful.

Her entire body was riddled with holes the size of a palm, and blood was splattered all over the ground, but oddly enough, she didn’t seem to have died from blood loss.

’Soul collapse...’

Elisia had sacrificed her soul and whatever remaining vitality she had to summon Liam’s soul to her side.

Liam’s soul was now resting quietly in her embrace, protected by her dead body, and whatever shattered fragments of Elisia’s soul were left were also gathered around Liam’s soul.

’I came to bring them both back... I made a promise to save them... and...’

Rio had never even thought in his dreams that Elisia would end up dying like that and that even Liam’s life would become obsolete like that.

’What will I tell the others now?...’

Rio had no answer for that question.

The saddest thing of it all was that Rio could not feel any sadness, guilt, or any kind of regret in that moment.

Raising his sword intent mastery to 99.99% didn’t come ’Free’.

Enhancing the ’understanding’ of the ’Path’ Rio was walking didn’t come ’Free’.

Reducing the ’imperfections’ in his ’imperfect sword heart’ and ’imperfect sword body’ didn’t come ’Free’.

Rio’s increase in strength was never ’Free’.

It had a ’cost,’ and Rio paid it with his emotions once again.

Once again, he had become even more emotionless. So emotionless that Rio could not even feel sad at Elisia’s death.

He could not feel any guilt for letting her die like that; he could not feel any regret for not being able to save her.

Rio could feel nothing in that moment.

He just stood there, ’emotionless,’ ’indifferent,’ and ’unaffected’; his body healed itself on its own using miasma, and all his wounds disappeared slowly as his mana started to recover on its own.

His sword intent reduced any stress and trauma on his body.

Rio was ’Unaffected’ by the previous life-and-death battle, but Elisia... She had paid the price with her life.

’Perhaps I should have attacked and dealt with that bast*rd Raika the moment I first met him...’

Back then, Rio had no idea what or who Raika was, and Rio even mistook him for an SS-ranker, so he didn’t want to get in a battle with Raika.

Only when Raika took Liam’s soul hostage was Rio finally forced to raise his sword against Raika and fight him head-on.

If he hadn’t done that, perhaps Rio would have never fought Raika in the first place.

Elisia would have been alive and well.

Although she might have been stuck in this cage, at least she was alive.

Standing on the same spot, Rio could not think about what to do at all; his mind stopped working, and all he could do for now was use his miasma control and keep the miasma from getting close to her body.

Just when Rio was losing hope, the words Lia said to him before leaving suddenly appeared in Rio’s mind.

{Certainly, I am not worried about you; you are strong, Rio! I am sure there is nothing that can defeat you or stop you! Hehe~}

{To me, it seems like... you can do anything, and I like that about you~}

Remembering those words, Rio’s eyes suddenly opened wide, and his sword intent once again became alive and lively the very next moment!

"Yes! I can’t accept defeat like that!"

’Lia believes that I can do anything! I can’t accept this until I have tried my best!’

Rio immediately ran many simulations in his mind instantly, and a new idea appeared in his mind.

’What if... I merge are shattered soul once again?’

That thought appeared in Rio’s mind as if a new enlightenment had dawned upon him!

Merging souls was a near impossible task that even Miasma had failed to accomplish after thousands of years!

But Rio knew that it seemed near impossible, but it was not really impossible!

Rio himself was walking and living proof that merging souls was really possible!

’If there is anyone in this world who can do this... I guess that person is me...’

Ever since Rio entered the Spirit Realm, his control and understanding of miasma and soul have been improving tremendously!

Rio saw hundreds of thousands of monsters and beasts that had more than one soul in their body, and they were all failed test subjects of miasma.

Their souls could not merge properly with each other, and they were failures.

Rio had run many tests and experiments on those failures, and his understanding of soul was now so high that there was literally no one in this world with more knowledge about soul than him!

Before there was Alverto, who had ’soul resonance,’ but now that he was dead, Rio was the person with the most knowledge about souls and miasma!

Moreover, he was the only being in the universe who had successfully managed to have his two souls merge ’perfectly’!

No one knew the topic of merging souls better than him!

"Her soul has shattered because she sacrificed her soul power and it couldn’t withstand the burden and broke in many pieces..."

"But if I can apply the same soul merge principle on her broken soul fragments..."

"I should technically be able to return her soul back to its original state..."