Reborn as an Extra Chapter 551: There are infinite possibilities! Part-1.
Previously on Reborn as an Extra...
Guided by the cube of possibilities, Rio traversed a desolate wasteland brimming with tainted terrain and pools of viscous miasma, relentlessly battered by unending miasmic downpour.
Miasma hung so thickly in the air here that mana was practically absent.
This harsh reality helped Rio grasp why even Raji, an SS-ranker, had steered clear of this place, and why dragging anyone else along would spell disaster.
’Such intense miasma... it feels even thicker here than on the demon continent itself!’
From Alverto’s recollections, Rio knew the demon continent, yet nothing there matched the sheer dread and hostility of the spirit realm.
Advancing cautiously, Rio scanned the horizon and spotted an enormous mountain blocking his route.
’Is that truly a mountain, or another colossal beast in disguise?’
Having already encountered a turtle the size of a mountain, Rio wanted no part in tangling with an SS-rank entity, so he attempted to veer off and skirt around it.
Yet the cube of possibilities stubbornly directed him straight toward the mountain, leaving Rio with little option but to gamble and approach.
’I really hope it’s not that oddball showing up again...’
Rio had zero interest in crossing paths with Raika, avoiding any needless complications.
As he drew nearer to the mountain, Rio began picking up echoes of someone sobbing hysterically and howling in anguish.
The sheer grief in those sobs and howls unsettled even Rio to his core.
Every outburst unleashed a torrent of overwhelming mental corruption, psychic assaults, and soul strikes radiating outward.
These psychic surges were so intense that they disrupted the miasma’s flow, sending out relentless shockwaves that rippled everywhere!
Immune to the psychic and soul assaults, Rio’s sword intent effortlessly countered all the shockwaves as well.
Still, a scowl crept across his features as he pressed on toward the origin of the psychic onslaught.
’An S-ranker? Perhaps a top-tier S-rank evil spirit?’
In Rio’s eyes, ordinary S-rankers—be they humans or evil spirits—were mere pushovers; unless they hit SS-rank, he could cut them down without effort.
’Strange, though; what could make an evil spirit break down in tears like this?...’
Grimacing, Rio pushed through a barrage of countless psychic waves to reach the heart of the disturbance.
"ahhh!! Ahhhh!!! Sob! My child!! My child!! Ahhhh!!! Help!!! Ahhh!!!"
At the base of the towering mountain stood an evil spirit shaped like a humanoid figure.
Crafted from dense miasma, the evil spirit’s form was grotesquely warped, barely recognizable.
Its volatile frame trembled violently with each psychic burst as it fixed its gaze on the colossal mountain ahead.
Devoid of any face or mouth, the evil spirit somehow emitted piercing cries and wails without pause!
Rio moved in and positioned himself next to it, eyeing both the evil spirit and the mountain in bewilderment.
’This mountain... contrary to my fears, seems ordinary; just a handful of evil spirits and beasts dot its slopes. Otherwise, it’s unremarkable...’
’Yet this freakish evil spirit baffles me—it’s S-rank and hasn’t detected me right here, even though I’m not hiding at all...’
At a loss for words initially, Rio eventually chose to question the evil spirit directly,
"What’s happening? Why the endless loud sobbing? Can you hear me?"
Ignoring Rio’s query completely, the evil spirit ramped up its cries even further, declaring,
"My child!! My child!!! Those beasts took her!!! They killed her!!! Ahhh!!! My child!!! Those beasts!!! Those abominable beasts of the mountains!!!"
"ahhhh!!! Ahhh!!! Sob!"
Huddled on the ground in a contorted stance, the evil spirit kept its stare locked on the mountain.
One leg of its humanoid form was gone entirely, and its upper body had been wrenched into a full 360-degree twist, like a soaked rag squeezed dry!
Despite its mangled and warped state, the evil spirit mourned ceaselessly for its lost child.
’A remnant of some bygone memory?’
Rio recalled the academy’s texts on evil spirits and how they come to be.
Many stem from souls of the departed, burdened by regrets or dark feelings, twisted by miasmic taint.
Rarer still is another occurrence.
Similar to dungeons that mirror real-world locales from ages past or now, echoes of historical tragedies can manifest as evil spirits.
Noting the evil spirit’s nonstop tears and total disregard for Rio’s arrival, he figured it was probably a replay of some ancient sorrow.
In some era, at some spot, a grieving parent’s offspring fell to the mountain’s monstrous inhabitants, and this event’s anguish and despair had been vividly recreated.
Miasma feeds on sorrowful feelings and recollections; it delights in ridiculing folks’ painful histories or haunting recollections.
’So why would the cube guide me straight to this specific evil spirit?’
’Could this spectral remnant from yesteryear hold clues about the shadow dragons?’
Approaching, Rio placed a hand on the evil spirit’s shoulder and inquired,
"It’s truly tragic what befell your child. What would you seek... to grant her soul peace?"
Upon hearing Rio’s statement, the evil spirit at last responded.
Its wailing ceased as it turned toward Rio, revealing turbulent soul energies within.
Bewildered yet brimming with hope, the evil spirit paused briefly before voicing its plea, fueled by fierce resolve and venomous rage.
Such profound hatred gnawed at its soul, eroding it from within.
"You who?... No, that doesn’t matter... If you can, help me slay those horrors dwelling in that mountain!"
"They killed my child! I hate them all! Please! I beg you!"
In that instant, Rio realized the evil spirit hailed from a frail soul of an indeterminate past; its thoughts remained trapped in that era.
Unaware of its current might as an S-rank evil spirit, it still viewed itself as powerless before the mountain’s fabled beasts.
A grin crossed Rio’s lips at the evil spirit’s desperate appeal, as he gestured toward the wooden stick lying before it on the earth.
"You wish vengeance against those beasts... why not claim it on your own?"
"Wouldn’t striking back at the culprits beat endless tears and screams? Why hold back from that?"
Rio’s suggestion flustered the evil spirit, which stammered back,
"B-but I am... I am just an ordinary person... h-how will I go against those powerful beasts!... I-I am too weak!! I-I can’t..."
"Th-this... can I even do anything with this wooden stick?"