Rean appeared on the other side, quickly making sure that his Light and Divine Sense Bending were still working properly. As for the effects of the second layer, the mory wiping part, Rean wasn’t worried.
*Pin!*
[Attempts to intervene with the host’s mory detected... blocked.]
Even the River of Forgetfulness couldn’t get past the system’s Soul Protection.
Rean ignored that, following the flow of the river, although it wasn’t really a river. It was empty, and Rean could only move in the direction of the next layer, letting himself be pulled away. ’Hum... there are no Divine Senses in this area. Seems like the Werdlem Empire has no interest in the River and the Transferring Layers.’
Still, Rean continued, and it took him almost nine days to see the portal to the next layer. Finally, he jumped inside, and just like back in the Lisan Universe, he began to see countless images of births and conceptions everywhere.
It was all different from race to race. So races, like the spirits, only received their souls the mont they were created. For humans in their mothers’ wombs, however, the souls already arrived in their heads while they still had various months of gestation remaining. Those and many other types could be seen flashing by Rean’s eyes everywhere.
Rean didn’t pay attention to those, though. The system protected Rean, so his soul was obviously not sent sowhere else to be reborn. He could stay in that place for as long as he wanted. However, there was no need to do such a thing.
’Co back, Rean,’ Soltrex and Hick spoke. ’Sister Orb is letting us feel the environnt around you. Aurethra is definitely not in the River or the Transferring Layers.’
*Zush!*
In the next second, Rean reappeared inside the Celestial Soul Dinsional Realm. "Yeah, the system hasn’t given any updates to the quest either. Anyway, I’m going out again."
*Zush!*
And so, Rean appeared once again by Roan and Kentucky’s side. "Alright, the Primordial Beasts confird they can feel Aurethra here at the Arrival Layer, but they can’t feel her in the River and Transferring Layers." His eyes turned in the Dark Portal’s direction. "That leaves us with one option only."
In fact, Rean was already very, very close to the Dark Portal. While Rean checked the other two layers, Roan and Kentucky made their way to the Dark Portal, just waiting for Rean to return. Souls kept falling into it, disappearing inside.
[I really don’t like this thing,] Sister Orb warned the twins once more.
Roan snorted. "Hmph! It is either that or go back. Celis is waiting outside in case we need a quick exit. Even if this doesn’t work, there are the Relay Nodes we can use with Celestial Points as well."
"Soone is approaching," Rean suddenly said. "If we don’t enter now, we will have to move away so this guy doesn’t get too close to my bending skill."
Roan shook his head. "No need to wait anymore. Let’s enter and see what we can find on the other side."
Then, Rean, Roan, and Kentucky jumped inside the Dark Portal, joining the countless souls that disappeared inside.
---
Silence... that was the first thing the twins’ group noticed when they arrived on the other side.
Turning around, they noticed that the Dark Portal that they used to enter this place was nowhere to be found. They kept calm, looking around next. The place felt overbearing, a colossal abyssal expanse, but not empty.
Above them, they could see Billions of suspended souls, and that’s just the amount they could imdiately identify with their eyes. Judging by the expanse, there were countless more as far as their eyes could go. Those souls were not floating freely, though. They were hanging, like stars pinned into a black sky.
Each soul was frozen at the exact mont it would have transitioned into rebirth. Inside the Celestial Soul Dinsional Realm, it didn’t take long for the Primordial Beasts to understand what was happening here.
This is the Interception Point.
This is where recurrence is stopped.
’The cycle has been stopped,’ Hick spoke to Rean, Roan, and Kentucky. ’These souls... they are stuck. They can’t go to the River, to the Reincarnation, nowhere. They are kinda...’
’Kinda waiting...’ Nyxara understood as well. ’It is as if they are just waiting for their ti, but their ti will never co.’
The twins’ group didn’t doubt their words. The Primordial Beasts definitely knew Aurethra way better than they did.
Rean then tried to pay closer attention to a single soul. But at that mont...
*Frin!*
The souls around the one Rean paid attention to reacted, and a wave of soul energy spread sideways. Rean and the others didn’t know why, but those souls seed to be reacting to their existence in this place.
They waited for a mont to see if anything else would happen, but the souls returned to their frozen state almost imdiately. It felt like the fact that they paid attention to the souls was the trigger for those reactions. Could they feel the twins’ group’s presence?
Seeing that nothing else happened after a while, the twins’ group turned their attention away. As long as they didn’t focus too much on those dead souls, they would stay frozen, hanging from above.
"That’s weird. Still..." Rean comnted. "There are no Divine Senses here. Are there no experts protecting this place? Seems pretty important to ."
"Perhaps because there is no way out?" Kentucky suggested. "The portal we used to get here simply vanished, after all."
"Let’s move," Roan wasn’t in the mood to speculate at the mont. They just didn’t have enough information.
The twins’ group didn’t really know where they were going, though. They kept flying forward, making sure not to lose sight of the souls above. Just like that, weeks passed. At so point, Rean and Roan just jumped on Kentucky’s back, who accelerated.
They tried to get close to the souls above after spending so much ti without a destination. However, the weird thing was that every ti they tried to approach the souls, they seed to get away from them. Attacks also seed aningless. Whatever they threw at the souls would simply dissipate way before they got anywhere near the souls. Obviously, this place prevented them from getting close to or affecting those souls in any way.
It didn’t continue like that forever, though. After the sixth week of traveling, they finally saw things change.
At so point, the farther they moved, the more the expanse ceased to be empty. Lines of dim golden light began to appear in the distance, stretching across the void like veins. They were not stationary. They pulsed slowly, as if sothing imnse was breathing beneath the darkness.
Even further, sothing vast rotated. At first, it looked like a broken star. But as they drew closer, its shape beca clearer: colossal rings, layered one within another, each spanning distances that dwarfed entire Divine Realm Continents.
"That’s quite the sight, not gonna lie," Rean comnted. The scale was incredible.
*Pin!*
At that mont, the sound they had been waiting so much to hear finally echoed in the twins’ minds.
User Comments
0 comments from readers