Reborn as an Extra Chapter 589: Fighting Inside An Unstable Wormhole! Part-1.

The instant Rio's strike with Raika made contact, he realized Ellie would suffer greatly from the impact, and the grand seal could potentially shatter as well.

To avoid such a disaster, Rio shifted to a defensive stance, striving to safeguard the grand seal to the fullest extent.

Rio had vowed not just to Liam but also to ensure Ellie's survival.

At first, Rio feared that corruption had tainted Ellie, possibly leading her to harm Liam’s soul, and his concerns grew deeper as he navigated the spirit realm.

Creatures within the spirit realm were mostly corrupted, lacking any semblance of reason, which only heightened Rio's anxieties.

Fortunately, Ellie proved clever; by fusing with the grand seal and becoming immobile, she escaped the grim destiny of becoming a toy for miasmic corruption.

Had corruption long ago consumed and ruined her, she would never have encountered Liam to begin with.

With confirmation that Ellie remained uncorrupted and mentally sound, Rio refused to witness her demise, so he took it upon himself to shield the seal.

Rio channeled every bit of mana accumulated from his earlier boost into that one assault, while Raika unleashed tremendous force; as a result, the space-time fabric across a hundred-kilometer span was utterly obliterated!

In the external world, such a clash between Rio and Raika wouldn't have fractured the space-time fabric so readily, yet within the spirit realm, the unstable space buckled under the overwhelming force and tore apart.

The rupture in the space-time fabric violently tore open a huge wormhole, drawing both Rio and Raika into its depths!

Drained of mana, Rio failed to evade in time and tumbled into the void.

Raika, being merely a projection, could have simply vanished and reformed elsewhere to avoid the wormhole, yet he chose otherwise.

Instead, he deliberately plunged into the wormhole, hot on Rio's trail!

"You aren’t getting away from me today, Rio Flash!!! I will chase you down to the very depths of hell!!!"

Trapped within the wormhole already, Rio ceased resistance and swiftly retrieved multiple high-grade mana potions from his space ring, swallowing them in a single gulp!

Rio drew his sword and thrust it into his abdomen, injecting vast quantities of sword intent directly into himself.

He then compelled the rapid absorption of the newly consumed mana, channeling it throughout his form via sword intent as the conduit!

Despite the blade penetrating his stomach, no blood flowed nor injury appeared, as though the sword had glided through harmlessly.

This feat stemmed from Rio's combined mastery of spatial and soul manipulation fused with sword intent.

The notion of accelerating mana absorption struck Rio when he observed how Raika, upon reforming, drew energy from his linked entity to swiftly reconstitute his physical form.

That process rapidly dispersed energy across all regions, converting it into Raika’s solid body.

Such a sight inspired Rio to circulate energy via sword intent to every corner of his being, boosting both intake and release simultaneously!

With his sword intent reaching 99.99%, Rio executed this technique with remarkable ease and precision.

Thus, Rio wasted no time, and as his mana reserves depleted, he launched an impromptu trial of the method right amid the fray!

"OHO? You are copying me now? You really do make me jealous!"

Raika directed his finger at Rio, summoning enormous magic circles that encircled him, radiating intense light infused with diverse elemental forces.

Through these circles, Raika unleashed a barrage of elemental projectiles at Rio, wielding the arrays like rapid-fire artillery!

Water, stone, metal, wind, fire, light, miasma, and more—all manner of compacted shots flew forth, and with both plummeting through the vast cylindrical wormhole, Rio had scant room to maneuver!

Expending excessive force risked destabilizing the wormhole entirely, so Rio refrained from deploying sword intent!

Leveraging the wormhole's inherent turbulent spatial ripples, Rio generated a surge of spatial distortions that surged toward Raika, redirecting the path of every incoming projectile!

The majority of shots veered off course, slamming into the wormhole's barriers and being expelled to distant, unknown realms in the cosmos!

This time, Raika forwent his phasing ability, opting instead to smash the approaching spatial surge with his fists, shattering it into oblivion and halting its formidable advance!

Upon noticing Raika's avoidance of the vanish-and-reform strategy, Rio's gaze sharpened immediately.

’So even he can’t do it inside the wormhole?’

A wormhole links one point in the space-time continuum to another.

It lacks fixed coordinates, rendering it difficult to pinpoint or follow.

Countless mini-wormholes emerge across the universe in the billions, and this one arose from the cataclysmic clash of Rio and Raika's powers.

Its emergence was utterly haphazard.

The endpoint remained unpredictable, with no way to trace its interior.

Should Raika attempt to phase out, he would cease to exist and couldn't reform within the identical wormhole, given the absence of trackable coordinates.

Without prior experimentation to determine a wormhole's exit and precise endpoints, foreseeing its terminus proves impossible.

It might hurl you to any spot across the universe, and as is widely understood, one-tenth of the universe falls under the domain of the sea of endless miasma.

Thus, there's a real possibility of landing within it.

Rio would have much preferred avoiding entry into this unpredictable wormhole due to its extreme dangers, but circumstances left him no alternative, caught unprepared amid his mana exhaustion.

Clashes with superior foes often spiral beyond control, and no strategy unfolds flawlessly every time.

Rio anticipated the immense challenges of battling Raika, yet he couldn't allow Raika to retain Liam’s soul unchecked.

Confrontation was inevitable; he had to seize Liam's soul by any means necessary.

’No, in fact I am the one who’s at a disadvantage...’

Rio recognized that Raika pursued him voluntarily, and he might even be holding back, repeatedly expressing a desire for friendship with Rio.

Should the controller of this projection wish, they could vanish with Liam's soul alongside the projection at any instant.

In that case, Rio would remain ignorant of the thief's identity or where to seek Liam.