The Extra of The Lunerra-Chapter 488 - 23: An Interesting Soul

The runes that messed with my head, the blood dripping onto my forehead...

"H- hey!"

This place was definitely not a harbinger of good things.

This guy had really brought me here to sacrifice me or something!

"Shut up, kid!"

His voice echoed through the room, which began to shake as if an earthquake were happening. It was so angry, so furious... that I swallowed my words and froze.

"Say one more word and I swear I'll change my mind and kill you right here! Just keep looking up, idiot!

Unable to find anything to say, I did as he said and focused my eyes completely upward.

Blood droplets continued to fall on different parts of my face, and the runes around me accelerated, becoming even more chaotic.

Then...

"H- huh?"

I found myself somewhere else.

A dark place.

The coldness of the stone altar, the warmth of the blood drops falling on my face, none of that was here. I wasn't lying anywhere; in fact, I wasn't even sure what my position was.

I was just... floating, somehow.

I tried to look around, searching for Chris.

Aside from Chris, I was looking for anything I could see.

But it was so... dark and numb here that I wasn't even sure if I was actually turning my head in any direction.

"Hey! Is anyone there? Where am I?!"

I could hear my voice. Though it wasn't clear if it was echoing inside my mind or if I was actually hearing it with my ears.

And then...

'Ah, you succeeded.'

A voice clearly echoed in my mind.

A voice that wasn't mine, but one I knew quite well.

"Lithoa!"

'Stop yelling, kid. I can hear you even if you speak inside your head. Why are you raising your voice?'

…

Was I yelling?

"Okay... but you know very well that I have questions."

It had been a while since I'd heard his voice, so talking to him now felt strange, inevitably. Still... it felt like he knew the situation I was in.

He was the one who pushed me to interact with his family, saying that doing so would make me stronger. He was, in a way, the reason I was here.

So he must know.

'Forget your questions for now. You'll understand everything when it's over, and Chris will explain the things you don't. For now... close your eyes and do as I say. Otherwise, you'll be here forever.'

Forever...?

Where am I to begin with?

"Something you can't perceive is searching for something in your body. Because it can't find it, you're waiting in this darkness, and if it continues to fail, it will soon imprison you here, considering you an enemy. That's why you have to give it what it's looking for."

"What... is it looking for?"

'Your connection to me. A part of me. Any sign of whether you come from my bloodline. So relax, ease the search. Clear your mind and let the thing in the darkness enter. Open your soul to it so it can see me, recognize me.'

What… does that even mean?

How can I open my soul to something I don't even know what it is, something I can't perceive?

Did I close my soul in the first place?

'Do as I say, Adrian. Time is running out.'

If only it were as simple as saying it!

Still, I closed my eyes, though I wasn't even sure they were open because of the intense darkness around me. I tried to empty my mind, to clear my thoughts.

Trying not to think of anything seemed impossible; that was a thought, after all. Still... I did my best.

Finally... I tried to imagine, swallowing hard.

That my soul was behind a locked door, that I reached for that lock... and opened it.

That I allowed anyone who tried to reach it.

Nothing else came to mind. I didn't know what it meant to open my soul to someone.

But...

It worked.

Because, shortly after, I felt something.

It was a rather uncomfortable feeling.

It was as if something... was wrapping itself around my body, looking inside as if it were transparent.

It was as if I wasn't alone in my mind. There was something else there besides me and Lithoa. It was reading my thoughts, searching for something, just like Lithoa said.

But then I felt a much deeper, more intrinsic difference.

And the moment I felt that strange thing, the darkness I was in changed.

I found myself in front of something.

It was like a white... sphere. It resembled that ball-shaped glow that Lithoa took the form of when he occasionally emerged from my chest. It was something about three or four times the size of my fist, constantly rippling as if its outer contours were indistinct. It had a misty aura spreading around it. There were structures that looked like blue veins extending towards its center. They had gradually enveloped the sphere, as if becoming one with it.

I felt a strange... connection to the thing in front of me.

It was as if it were a part of me.

"You have an interesting soul."

I paused abruptly at the voice I heard.

I had spoken to it just a moment ago.

It was the same voice.

But... it hadn't echoed in my mind.

I heard his voice with my ears.

He had come from right next to me.

I slowly turned my eyes to my right.

And... I saw a figure.

It was indeed a man standing right next to me, taller than me. He was dressed quite ordinarily in a white shirt and brown pants.

All his hair was gray; there wasn't a single spot on his relatively long hair that didn't have that pale white color that signifies old age. His short beard had also taken on that color.

But his face... was different. He looked like he was in his forties; his face didn't show the heavy old age that his hair did. He had few wrinkles as if he had just begun to age. He nevertheless had a serious face. Although he appeared calm, he also gave the impression that he could become angry at any moment.

His ocean-blue eyes were fixed on the sphere in front of me... on my 'soul'.

"Lit... hoa...?"

Even though his lips parted, his eyes did not leave my soul.

"You're right, Adrian. This is how I looked when I was still alive. But I'm a little different from the person in your mind, you should know that too."

And at that moment, I realized that his way of speaking and his attitude did not match the 'Lithoa' I knew.

The person in front of me... was truly someone different.

"H- huh? What?"

"I watched your entire life from the beginning to here after you opened your mind to me. I know why you're here, who you are, your goals... everything. I also know you carry my soul."

As he said this, he slowly raised his left hand and pointed to my left rear side over my shoulder.

When I turned my face there...

My eyes widened, my lips parted, and I just stood there with my mouth open. I stared at the thing in front of me, unable to utter a sound.

It was many times larger than mine, standing there as if it were the size of an apartment building.

There were no blue vein-like structures on it. It was pure, seemingly unaffected by anything.

"I had clearly stated that I would not reveal my lineage to anyone outside my family."

I was still reeling from the impact of that enormous spirit when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I spun around abruptly and found his ocean-blue eyes fixed on me. Now that they were looking at me, and not my soul... they were much clearer.

They were exactly like Chris's eyes.

"But I saw your interactions with myself, your conversations with Chris, your 'past'."

His expression was emotionless.

"You have potential. You can help the real Lithoa realize his dream."

But even in that emotionless expression, there seemed to be an expectation.

"That's why I'll make an exception."

It was as if he wasn't actually emotionless... but he was just trying to appear that way.

"You don't carry my blood. Therefore, you will suffer greatly. You might wish for death. But I think you can endure it."

Then... his expression changed. The corners of his lips turned up slightly, and the coldness in his eyes seemed to give way to...

Hope.

"I'm sure you won't disappoint me, the real me, Adrian. Keep doing your best."

Then... darkness enveloped everything again.

Everything vanished once more.

But it didn't last long.

I found something else in front of me.

No, everywhere...

Surrounding me.

Knots, connected to each other, constantly changing color.

Countless thread knots, seemingly stretching into infinity, enveloping everything.

I swallowed involuntarily.

The image before me was dazzling.

So much so that it made me forget what I had just experienced for a moment.

But this fascination didn't last long.

Because after a while, I saw one of these knots move.

Slowly, along with the entire structure it was connected to, it was approaching me.

It was pulling all the darkness around it toward me along with itself.

Finally... it touched me.

And in that moment, I understood what that 'Lithoa' was talking about.

Because when the knot touched me, my body trembled with pain.

Because when the other knots reached me after the first one, my soul writhed in pain just like my body.

Because each of the knots that wrapped around my body, slowly working their way inside me, caused me separate pain.

It was a kind of pain that made me feel like I was being torn apart, preventing me from even making a sound, let alone screaming.

And it continued without stopping.

Without caring about the passing of seconds, minutes, hours.

Even as days, weeks passed, it never stopped.