Reborn as an Extra Chapter 542: Inside Hell. Part-1.
Previously on Reborn as an Extra...
Once Rio finished playing the flute to his satisfaction, noon had already arrived.
The heat intensified, turning the surroundings sweltering, so Rio rose to his feet and tucked the flute at his waist.
After drawing in a long breath, he cast a final glance at the serene ocean before his expression turned utterly blank.
That faint grin vanished from his features as he shifted straight into focused determination, his presence fading almost entirely after he reined it in completely.
’If only I’d had more opportunity to delve deeper into the dwarf kingdom, but time just isn’t on my side...’
’Time to move; that crucial task awaits...’
Not a moment of delay crossed his mind as Rio leaped from the cliff, allowing his form to plummet unchecked.
His flute session hadn’t been idle amusement; rather, he’d been biding his moment for the ideal instant.
While descending, Rio checked his wristwatch and confirmed the timing: precisely 12:00 PM.
’Good thing I got the details in advance, or I’d have been left to puzzle it all out alone...’
Ashtel had supplied Rio with heaps of data from those hidden files, the key piece being the precise ’time, location, and method’ required to breach the ’weak node.’
Sword intent enveloped Rio’s whole frame, shielding him from the fierce gusts battering against him or any drag from the air.
His drop accelerated to a blistering pace, and it looked like he’d plunge right into the sea if he continued straight.
Yet that outcome never came to pass.
In mid-descent, Rio drew forth his flute and thrust it downward with tremendous power.
Normally, only top-tier SS-rankers such as Ashtel could rupture the space-time continuum with such ease, and Rio wouldn’t have managed it elsewhere.
However, this spot held a special quality.
It served as a ’weak node’ linking the physical realm to the spirit world.
Even high-level S-rankers could fracture the space-time barrier here under specific conditions on a certain day.
The full moon shone today, and Rio had timed his action exactly as Ashtel indicated.
Success came on his initial attempt.
Rio’s overwhelming strike splintered the space-time fabric like shattering glass.
Differing from the norm, the rift this time birthed a fleeting wormhole to the spirit realm, into which Rio tumbled at breakneck velocity.
The wormhole’s emergence didn’t catch Rio off guard.
Typically, Ashtel’s disruptions to space-time revealed mere voids or emptiness, since those spots lack strong ties to the spirit realm.
Disrupting it here yielded a different result.
’Easier than I anticipated...’
’Without the constraints of timing and instability, a lasting gateway to the spirit realm could have been set up right here...’
Modern tech allows for steady portals or wormholes, yet they avoided building one here probably because it’d prove worthless.
In the end, such a link would tie straight to a zone brimming with miasma.
Before long, miasma would leak from the gateway, endangering the surroundings and corrupting all nearby life into ruin.
’This wormhole feels incredibly delicate...’
Rio scanned his surroundings and saw the wormhole passage as brittle in his perception; he could destroy it if he chose, but that would eject him to an arbitrary spot across the cosmos.
Rio lacked the leisure for such an odd trial right now, so he proceeded through the wormhole without fuss.
Merely seconds into the transit, immense force hurled Rio outward.
In the air, Rio righted himself and touched down with a classic ’heroic’ landing!
Having expelled Rio, the wormhole vanished at once, though Rio sensed the local space remained fragile, allowing a return trip by simply breaking through as before.
Exploration hadn’t even begun when a foul odor overwhelmed him, so repulsive that Rio nearly blacked out immediately.
Rio ceased breathing right away, relying on mana for sustenance, and then sheathed his face in Sword Intent to seal off any contact with the external air.
As an S-ranker, Rio required no air or food; mana sustained him fully.
’What the hell!? This stench is unbearable!?’
Rio surveyed the area and found himself atop a rock amid a tiny lake, its waters utterly dark.
"Liquid miasma... And this... decaying bodies... Wait, crude oil’s mixed in too..."
The lake consisted of crude oil that reeked terribly and proved poisonous, blended with decayed remains too mangled to identify their origins.
Added to that, miasmic corruption hung so thick that even Rio grimaced.
Rio glanced about and saw miasma tainting the atmosphere, with ominous clouds of solidified corruption looming overhead.
A desolate wasteland stretched in all directions, the earth blackened by pervasive miasmic taint.
"This realm is absolutely saturated with miasma..."
Any lesser S-ranker would already be succumbing to corruption and restraint here.
Miasma despises beings infused with mana, striking them with intense suppression the instant they arrive.
Miasma launches direct assaults on intruders!
A brief stint on this central boulder amid the miasmic sludge would suffice to crumble their psyche and initiate inner decay.
Nothing short of an SS-ranker could endure unscathed in this nightmarish domain.
As Rio observed the landscape, a beast emerged from the inky miasma pool and slithered onto the shore.
Rio first mistook it for a serpent, but shock hit when he saw its serpentine form bore human-like faces across its hide!
Upon exiting the water, the bizarre entity unleashed a frenzy of shrieks from every face on its skin, amplifying the eerie horror of the sight.
’Assaults on mind and spirit?’
Rio’s gaze sharpened as he detected those agonized cries radiating fierce mental and soul barrages outward wildly!
’What in the world is this monstrosity... I detect over a dozen souls in perpetual conflict within its form...’
A profound scowl etched Rio’s features while the full creature hauled itself from the lake, convulsing as black-blooded tears streamed from all its embedded faces.
’These souls... locked in endless strife, inflicting wounds on one another... this amounts to... supreme agony!’