Reborn as an Extra Chapter 577: One more Final Gamble, Both or None! Part-2.
Previously on Reborn as an Extra...
"Though it might appear smaller from the exterior, various space-time elements make the interior far more expansive..."
"In terms of area, you could compare it to the sprawling capital of the human empire..."
Rio gave a nod in response to Ellie's explanation and posed a question,
"How come there are trees, birds, and all sorts of things here... they don't feel truly alive to me, yet they're no mere illusions..."
Such an odd sight was entirely new to Rio.
While the mighty purification barrier kept cleansing this area without pause, that alone wouldn't sustain life for other entities or beasts within it.
Ellie herself had paid a heavy price and taken a massive risk just to secure her existence here; creatures like trees or tiny bugs should never have survived in such a harsh environment.
Still, Rio spotted thriving greenery, patches of grass, hopping rabbits, flying birds, and plenty of other adorable animals scattered all around.
"Oh, these?... They're projections crafted from soul fragments and puppets built with rare materials..."
"I keep them as companions to ease the boredom... they're not genuine creatures, merely fractured soul pieces animating simple puppets..."
"Don't they look adorable! Hehe~"
Even with her icy, aloof, and stunning princess-like demeanor, Ellie came across as surprisingly approachable.
A proud grin lit up her features as she discussed her charming puppets, clearly delighted and thrilled by them.
"Did you create them?... I had no clue you possessed such remarkable soul-handling talents... I couldn't even tell they were beings formed from altered soul pieces..."
"This degree of expertise in soul control... I've witnessed it only once prior... it came from the demon prince Alverto, bearer of the fabled skill ’Soul Resonance’!"
Rio's personal abilities in soul manipulation drew heavy inspiration from that demon's techniques and prowess.
Prior to their clash, Rio lacked deep command over souls or the sea of consciousness; he adapted much of it from Alverto right in the heat of combat.
Yet, Rio remained unable to tweak or refine souls with the same precision and ease as Alverto; lacking the famed skill ’Soul Resonance’ held him back, after all.
The pinnacle art known as Soul Resonance stands as the ultimate achievement in soul command and insight into the sea of consciousness; few are worthy of its secrets.
Alverto himself devoted over a hundred years to claim it, bolstered by his innate gifts and aid from a colossal entity of vast might.
"Exactly! That very demon prince! He crafted these for me ages ago..."
"Alverto ventured into the spirit realm once, and that's when I forged a steady mind-link with him... He must have wielded some potent relic to connect with me..."
"I bartered with him... He sought the grand seal of the ultimate wager... the position of that massive gateway to the sea of miasma for whatever purpose..."
Gazing toward the far-off grand door, Ellie continued.
"I shared its location with him, and in exchange, he gave me a sealed gem... He'd poured his essence into it and shaped it to fit my wishes..."
"Shattering the gem here unleashed this landscape and brought forth all these projections..."
"For much of my confinement in this vast prison, I'd sat amid desolate emptiness with nothing to behold... Mostly, I slept or let my summoned visions wander the outside world..."
Ellie's grin held traces of her sorrow and lingering remorse, leaving Rio at a loss for comforting words, since nothing could mend such a profound and devastating scar.
"I believe he spotted my summoned projection during his assault on us in Oaklum, having already felt my presence years earlier from our exchange..."
At that time, Alverto had ridiculed Ellie as the ultimate disgrace to the shadow dragon lineage, for forsaking her whole kin just to cling to life, without lifting a finger for their benefit.
Alverto poured his all into advancing the demon race, so his drives clashed utterly with Ellie's; that fueled his disdain, and that sparked his taunts.
Had Alverto been a shadow dragon instead of a demon, placed in Ellie's shoes, he wouldn't have cowered like her but challenged fate head-on for his people's endurance.
Such was his character, through and through.
Alverto embodied a true hero, unlike Ellie; she chose self-preservation over sacrifice, and that held no fault. It simply reflected clashing beliefs and outlooks.
A divergence in ’Paths,’ where every ’Path’ stands equal; the traveler upon it decides its true worth.
"So... how did you manage a trade with him while trapped in this prison?... He couldn't possibly have breached this space... Even I relied on unusual tactics..."
Rio wielded such command over miasma that demons paled in comparison; that let him slip past the miasmic rifts and infiltrate this enclosure. Alverto had no such chance.
Straight teleportation into this prison proved impossible too, as Rio detected the space-time weave here was rigidly fortified by the grand seal.
’Even SS-rankers might fail at teleporting within... This realm feels anchored by countless potent space-stabilizing devices...’
Space-stabilizing anchors artificially harden the space-time weave.
In turn, this renders the fabric tough to bend or break, crippling teleportation and similar spatial arts, often nullifying them outright.
"I haven't a clue what method he employed, but with the details I provided, he summoned a ritual circle straight to here..."
"I suspect he drew near from beyond but couldn't step in bodily, so he linked with me inside and attempted to use that to gain entry..."
"Whatever his aim with that grand door, he only projected his strength and aura within, never crossing over, so he departed frustrated..."
Ellie claimed her prize, transforming the cage's stark void through Alverto's might, yet Alverto fell short of his ambitions.
’Maybe he aimed to breach the seal and forge stronger ties with the sea of miasma?... Or perhaps venture into the sea of miasma chasing a ’fragment’? ’
Rio held two ’fragments’ himself, and he could pinpoint the vague bearing of yet another.
He even perceived that a ’fragment’ probably lurked within the sea of miasma or along that path, at minimum.
So, Alverto might have hunted it to fuel his scheme of invoking the ’Spire of Ascension’ here and reshaping the world's core balance.
’Luckily, Alverto never located the third fragment he sought before I grew powerful enough, or his schemes would have triumphed without effort...’
Without Rio's interference, Alverto's vision would have prevailed unchallenged, leaving the world utterly transformed by now.