Reborn as an Extra

Chapter 598: Soul Merge. Part-4.

Even Rio knew how dangerous this power was.

Using this power, Rio can literally create new ’Souls’ all by himself.

He would just need to extract pure soul energy from others, and then he can create a new ’soul’ from that soul energy in whatever form he wants to.

Then Rio can create an ’Artificial Sea of Consciousness’ inside that soul, and he can give any kind of memory to that sea of consciousness.

He can literally create ’brainwashed’ creatures by just adding memories of being loyal to him in the artificial souls and giving that soul to him.

Not only that, but Rio can actually transplant a soul fragment to another’s soul and make them loyal to him in a matter of milliseconds.

’This is a signature power of a final villain-type character...’

Of course, Rio is still not proficient in this and still needs more improvement, but he can surely reach this goal soon.

’Was this the reason why Alverto’s subordinates were so loyal to him? Was he using this power in that ’curse’ he planted on others too?’

Alverto had great mastery over the domain of souls and the sea of consciousness.

Not only was he able to use souls to enslave others, but he was also able to use his sea of consciousness and memories to control the spire of ascension!

The only reason he lost that day was because an anomaly ruined his plan; otherwise, this world would have been completely changed that day.

’Although he had ’soul resonance’ and perhaps even the power to brainwash others... he likely didn’t have ’soul merging’ capabilities...’

The reason why Rio came to that conclusion was because if Alverto had the capability to do soul merge, he would not have lost to Rio in the final battle.

He could have just recovered his own soul after performing those multiple soul sacrifices by extracting others’ soul energy and adding it to his own soul.

Also, he never used that ability in any of his attacks.

’Perhaps his mastery over his legendary skill was still not at 90%...’

Mastering a legendary skill to 90% is almost as difficult as raising a ’world authority’ past level 3.

It’s highly dependent on your own understanding of your ’Path’ and the ’laws’ of the ’world’ itself.

Rio was able to raise it so high purely because he’s got an insane understanding of his own ’Path’ and the ’law’ of the ’sword.’

He’s even going emotionless and has become even more compatible with the ’law’ of the ’sword’ with each passing day in this world.

Rio’s limitless ’sword aptitude,’ his imperfect ’sword heart,’ and his incomplete ’sword body’ all stack up together to help him reach high mastery and understanding of his own legendary skill.

But Alverto was different; he didn’t have that kind of overpowered understanding of his own legendary skill.

’I guess he might have reached greater heights if he had been able to live for a few more decades...’

’Well, time waits for no one... he had two entire centuries to master it and he still couldn’t do it... It was his own fault, I guess...’

The current Rio had already surpassed Alverto’s level of understanding in the realm of souls and the sea of consciousness.

Even without the legendary skill of soul resonance, Rio can still perform insane feats now.

’No wonder Miasma is hell-bent on trying to accomplish soul merge... it’s such a powerful ability that you can do almost anything with it...’

Soul merge can not only be used to cure people like Rio is doing, but it can also be used to do extremely evil things.

You can create creatures at whim in such a way that you can torment them with maximum pain and suffering.

You can modify others’ souls to make them your sl*ve, you can modify your enemy’s soul to make them go insane and do humiliating stuff and ruin their reputation.

You can even modify others’ feelings and make any person fall in love with you from the very bottom of their heart, you can earn anyone’s friendship, and you can become a tyrant that can rule the entire world by brainwashing them all!

And the most overpowered part of it all is that you can make it so that the person who’s brainwashed won’t even realize that they have been converted.

Their memories themselves can be modified in such a way that they will think that all the suffering happening to them is normal.

’Soul Resonance’ and ’soul merge’ are such bizarre and overpowered abilities that if a wrong person gets ahold of them, they can easily destroy the world.

’I shouldn’t tell anyone that I have this skill... not even Lia...’

Rio has this overpowered ability and the potential to take it even further than it has already come, but if he tells anyone about it, he will become the enemy of the world.

Of course, Rio believes in Lia and his friends, but what if he told them that he is capable of altering their souls and minds any time he touches or comes close to them?

They will subconsciously start to feel afraid and cautious of him.

’And if someday Lia looked at me with a frightened expression... if she felt afraid because of me... my heart will shatter into pieces...’

Rio was not afraid of the world thinking of him as a monster, and he was certainly not afraid of the entire world turning against him either.

He’s the type of person who can even destroy the world if it tries to conspire against him.

The only person Rio was afraid of upsetting was Lia and her alone.

’Phew~... stop Rio... focus on the task at hand... you are losing focus...’

After thinking so far, Rio forcefully calmed himself down and brought himself out of that daze.

Staying in the dark and damp spirit realm, Rio ended up developing the habit of thinking too much and worrying about too many things at the same time.

With no one to talk to, he had become accustomed to talking in his head with himself for long periods of time.

’I need to focus on the task at hand... I have already fulfilled the first three conditions; now only one more is left...’

The first condition was obviously matching soul fluctuation. It was already cleared because Ellie’s soul shards had the same soul fluctuations.

The second one was arranging Ellie’s soul fragments in a proper order. Rio spent several days but succeeded in doing it.

The third condition was repairing the soul and sea of consciousness by filling the gaps; Rio accomplished it by planting artificial soul and sea of consciousness into the gaps.

The final condition and the most important condition to repair Ellie’s soul was the process of merging the soul itself.

Rio needed to merge the soul successfully without causing any soul fluctuation imbalance and make it reach a perfect stable state with seamless integration.

Miasma had achieved some partial successes in all the other conditions, but it was stuck on this final condition.

Rio himself only partially succeeded twice during his experiments.

The reason for it is simple.

Rio could not find proper compatible souls in the spirit realm, and there were many factors influencing his skills.

But the major one was collecting immense amounts of soul energy.

While merging souls, you need to constantly control their soul energy; you have to maintain a perfect balance so that when two souls fuse, they neither produce too much energy nor too little.

This is the main reason why Rio didn’t leave the spirit realm until now despite the fact that he had already reached his destination a week ago.

He stayed near the weak node point for a week and collected an immense amount of soul energy by killing monsters and also honed his skill at the same time.

Time was running out, and if Rio didn’t complete the task soon, he would have to travel all the way to the human empire by himself on foot, and that would be very dangerous.

If some SS-ranker discovered him carrying dead bodies and souls while passing through their nation’s, Rio would not be able to explain the situation properly.

"No need to worry too much... I have practiced and prepared for this day for months now..."

Rio took deep breaths as he undid the seal on the container that carried Ellie’s soul fragments.

He brought out the soul fragments using his soul manipulation and arranged them all in a circular orb-like manner in such a way that they all fit perfectly among each other.

Then Rio brought out his sword from its sheath, sat down in a meditative pose, and focused all of his sword intent into one task.

Control and manipulate the soul with precision so high that not even a single atom or a strand of energy is misplaced by mistake.

"I have done everything I could do... it’s either now or never..."

Rio can’t do this process in the human empire or anywhere else; the soul fragments still belong to Elisia, and they can’t be taken out of the spirit realm.

Only after the soul fragments fuse into each other will they be recognized as a ’new’ soul, and only then will the ’laws’ of the spirit realm allow Rio to take this soul out of the spirit realm.

Reading through Ellie’s memories made Rio understand that her shadow dragon clan was not able to get out of the spirit realm not because others were stopping them and killing them outside.

It was because they had been confined to the spirit realm.