Chapter 29: Knowledge of the Soul.
Spatial Magic + Blood Magic, it is Arisa Skarret's main abilities, Crimson Blood Magic, an advanced form of Blood Magic.
Since I'm still trapped inside her body, I can check out her soul by using [Spatial Investigation], an old spell that I've been improving for a while.
Poof.
Wow. I'm suddenly in a beautiful place full of flowers.
The valleys stretch out as far as the eye can see. I know that it's not real, as it is just the representation of one's soul.
"Ooo... Welcome, little Vixen."
Says the strange little girl sitting on a plastic chair, surrounded by large pillars. She looks familiar, like I've already met her before... But I just can't remember for some reason.
There's a magical circle formed with blood around her, it has an odd interference of magical energy right above.
"Sip sip."
She's drinking tea.
What's she even doing in here?
"Hmmm... Aren't you the little one here?"
I approach her, but an invisible force prevents me from crossing past the circle.
"This is the sacred sanctuary of the Behemoth. This is the heart of hearts."
Heart? Is she talking about Heart Cornea?
"I'm the guardian. The last. The one of Earth."
"What strange words you're saying. May I ask, where is Arisa, if we're in her soul?"
"I cannot answer that question."
"Sigh... You're kind of annoying..."
She stares forward. While talking to me, she takes a sip of her tea.
It seems like she's not looking at anything, as if she's blind.
She's wearing a red dress. There's a halo above her head, like those things that angels have.
"When you tried to enter Arisa's soul, I took you here instead. I'm her protector, I get rid of any attacks to her soul."
"I'm not an attacker though... Ahem ahem. Anyways. While she's healing my soul, let's talk for a while then!"
"You're a pesky one aren't you? Can't you see that I'm drinking tea here?"
The tea she's holding isn't even decreasing, even when she takes a larger sip.
She talks calmly, not expressing any forms of emotion, despite being this rude.
"I'm the leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. To save myself from danger, I had to accept a deal with Arisa Skarret and become her guardian."
The USSR? If I'm right, that only existed in Earth.
"Giggle giggle. No way that a mere child like you is the dictator of such a powerful-"
"I'm Reyana Sorret. You may know me as Dmitri Arel."
Dmitri Arel..?! Isn't that the same name as the dictator of the Soviet Union back in earth?!
His name's probably in the Library of sharks huh. You can't fool me, Reyana!
"I can't use magic but I can manipulate humans. This body is Arisa Skarret's body, before she became that monster."
"Hm? Was she actually a good person, or a friendly human before?"
"No no no. She's still a good person. She did save me from death after all. Despite being her soul, my body is still alive, this place is real, you know?"
"So if Arisa were to die, you'd die as well?"
"Yes. It's that kind of deal. But not really. Once Arisa completes her demon form, I'll return to her world, with this body of course."
"Better be thankful then. I did revive you and Arisa after all!"
"Sip. Sip. Okay. I can help your soul. As thanks for bringing us back to life."
Help my soul? When Arisa told me that she would fix my soul and remove those seals, was she just going to make Reyana do it in her place?
"The first step in fixing your soul, is by giving me an electric guitar."
An electric guitar? Seems pretty random. How will it even fix my soul?
"I'm a master of the arts... The arts of electrical guitars. You see, I'm not just a dictator. I'm also a guitarist."
"Guitarist? There were no records of Dmitri Arel having a guitar. You're a fake huh?"
"No. Sip sip. Before we died, Ruthenoceras Ptychodus taught me how to use strings, I applied it into the electric guitars, and it worked."
That Salmon Shark again..? How long did they live? Demons like Arisa... The Book of Epitomy stated that she lived for more than 10k years, if that Shark lived longer than that, then....
"Oh right. There're 21 seals removable in your soul. I can take them off without problems. But it will also give me access to all of your memories.
"My memories..? Well. You are a reincarnation too huh..? I doubt it would be bad if you found out that we're the same as well..."
"Reincarnation? Ah. A strange man told me about that. I don't mind, little Vixen. I've already seen some of your memories since you've gotten here."
"Great. It feels nice to finally talk to a friendly reincarnation! The only other reincarnated person I know is one of the main villains of this story!"
"Story? Oh. Tsuchinoko, the snake. Speaking of japanese things, the Baphomet is a japanese as well. Or at least, her master was a japanese man."
Master..? The Baphomet? Japanese?
The Japanese martial arts of Karate? So her master was another reincarnation?
Man... Reincarnated people really are overpowered or significantly important in this world.
"Well then. Let's get rid of those 21 seals shall we?!"
"Alright. Here we go. It will only take a few seconds."
Reyana puts down her tea on the grass before standing up, deactivating the magical circle around her.
She steps out, allowing me to walk past the circle.
I sat down on the plastic chair and the circle began to activate again.
"O' great gods of heaven. Relinquish thee kind soul, innocent and untainted. O', May the lights of lights be with you."
Didn't Cat say that as well-?
"FUGHHUUU-!!!!"
The magical circle brightened. An intense pain struck my body, or my soul, I think.
A stream of smoke forms.
Reyana dusts off her hands, as if there was even dust on her hands.
"Now that it's complete, the dark gods have taken some of your soul, basically biting a chunk off your soul."
"WHY'D YOU DO THAT?!!!"
"You told me to remove those seals didn't you? Besides, souls grow back, they just got rid of some of your feelings. You won't be feeling the emotion of Love anymore. Kukuku..!"
Love..? Well... I can grow it back anyways, and I don't think Love would be useful during this apocalypse right now.
"Oh, love. Heh. It's better than losing happiness at least."
"I couldn't help but giggle. Giggle giggle. Anyways. You're right. There're 2 types of soul soups, first one are the emotions, and the second one are the consciousnessses."
"Consciousnesses"? Is that even a real word?
"Huh? What do you mean by soul soups? Soup for the gods?"
"Yes. The dark gods eat souls. One of them just ate a large part of your soul. It might've made your magical energies weaker, but once they grow back, you'll bee stronger than beefloor."
"Beefloor? What are you talking about?"
"What's a honeycomb full of bees? They usually fly onto honeycombs, for many reasons of course. When a larger creature, typically a human, steps on them, you could call it a floor of bees don't you think? Beefloor. Floorbee. Frisbee."
"Frisbee..? What does all of that have to do with the dark gods?"
"A frisbee, or rather, a freezebee. When you catch and freeze a bee, it becomes a freezebee, frozenbee, Frostbee, and then, Frosbee."
Wait... Aren't those Rabbit's jokes?!
They're all written down on the Book of Epitomy. She also memorizes her jokes just to say them in public..!
"Yes. I've only helped you slightly, but you've helped me greatly. I've acquired all of your memories now. If I wanted to, I could act, and do anything that you can do."
Well. That's expected, of course.
"The dark gods, when they bit you, a portion of your soul ripped out. I took all of those pieces, like collecting bread crumbs and put all of them together, effectively getting 100% of what they held until now."
"But it wasn't my entire soul, was it? How did you get all of my memories from such a small portion of my soul?"
"It wasn't just a small portion, I've told you already, it was a large one. The useless part of your soul, like emotions and feelings were ignored, and only your memories spilled out."
"My memories spilled out? I shouldn't have any thought then. Besides, you could've just chosen the "useless" parts of my soul to be eaten, why my memories specifically?"
"Because why not? Fufufu..!"
Oh. She showed me a smile.
So she wasn't actually emotionless then?
Later, Reyana sat back on her plastic chair, leaving me outside the circle.
"Now then. Go on, walk forth. You won't heal in here. Observe Arisa's actions, and try to find an electric guitar along the way."
Is the electric guitar necessary..?
Poof.
I was back in the mortal realm again.
The next thing I see is Arisa Skarret walking through the empty city, devoid of living creatures other than Ziio, Maire, Doun, Noll, Gray, Heart, and Fiya.
"The Automatic Killing Range, or the Redone-Auxiliary Blood Feast is a fancy lil' way to instantly drink all blood within a range. I'm still a bit rusty after wakin' up so I had to make slight adjustments for the Beastfolks."
She says, as she stomps out the road each step, leaving behind large footprints trailed with blood.
....
Arisa Skarret's body mass-produces blood, so much that it spills off externally.
The blood outside then gathers up, forming a thin, but concentrated field surrounding her entire body. This shield of blood can be used as [Extraplanetarium Rose], a Crimson Blood Magic spell.
"Vixen Vixen... Don't take too much from my soul, okay? It tires me more, and it's kinda annoyin' when you do that."
I apologize. Surely, she will know telepathically.
While my soul's still trapped inside her body, I can search more inside of her soul as well, gathering information and knowledge. It isn't the same for me though, she won't be able to search mine. Hehehe..!
"Ah. We're here. The Royal, Ugrondemion family palace."
She says as we stop infront of the large mansion, surrounded by fences.
The Ugrondemion family is a royal family that has existed for over a thousand years. They prospered thanks to the Beastfolks who helped in producing weapons for wars, making their jobs easier due to their natural strength better than the human's.
The population of Hreamlea has decreased drastically, probably by 70%. All because of Arisa Skarret just walking around.
"I hate these guys. Let's go in 'n kill them."
"Killing because of hate is bad, you know? We mustn't murder personally, that just makes you unlikable."
"I'm sorry I'm sorry... Kekeke..! Let's kill them because they're too rich then! These guys were startin' to ruin the economy with their annoyin' business. It'd be bad if they kept it up for another thousand years."
"Good. I've heard that they have something called chocolate. That'll be my reason to kill them."
Demons trying to be reasonable in getting rid of people..?
At the end of the day, they are just murderous monsters.
Arisa walked through the front gates, as if she was walking through a simple cobweb.
The guards and most of the people in this place's already passed away. The city is big so there are still some survivors left but they'll eventually be eaten by monsters anyways.
Come to think of it, why'd Heart get surprised by their survival when she already planned this from the start?
"The Embodiment of Fate is here, or more specifically, their spell books. The actual person is in Rintan's kingdom of course, but they also left some things in here."
"Ummm... Do we need to kill them..? I-I thought- can we just take the books and leave..?"
"Ziio, these guys are dangerous, didn't you see Arisa get blown in the stomach by one of their spells? I never thought they'd actually spread those books everywhere, especially right now..."
So that was what Heart was surprised about?
Arisa broke through the entrance, revealing the large interior of the palace. It was large enough for Arisa to walk around without destroying anything.
"I can see them. Anythin' within the range of Redone-Auxiliary Blood Feast's also within the range of Psychokinetic Blood Clairvoyance's."
[Psychokinetic Blood Clairvoyance], it is just [Clairvoyance], but automatic and better. It instantly shows all blood within range.
Because my soul's also shared with Arisa's, I can see what she sees. Most of the things she learns, knows, and thinks about, I can see them as well.
"There're still some small fry in here. It's best to make this quick."
"Don't worry. You don't have to worry about anything.... Because with this, it'll all be over for them...
Cloud Refrigerating."
A certain way to use her 5th dimensional gates is by targeting particular things only.
[Cloud Refrigerating] is an easy option, it can spread her Soul Nullification techniques, ingraining the air with it so that her 5th dimensional gates won't attack us.
In a matter of seconds, the presence of foreign Demons were quickly rid of. A massive portal instantly opening from thin air rapidly breaks through the palace.
Rumble...
"Cloud Close."
The portal closes. The void seen through it becomes faint, and it slowly began to disappear.
Thanks to Arisa's knowledge, Heart's abilities are also clear to me now.
The Cloud spells are a secondary of her 5th dimensional gates. Although it is almost devoid of her Soul Nullification techniques, the effectiveness compensates for that.
The 5th dimensional gates are mostly just gates leading into an empty void, the void, which is the abyss.
It is the upmost, but not the best. It's special, another branch of Abyssal Magic. It's extremely rare to find someone actually using them, since most records have been lost and learning it will be very difficult.
Another reason why not a lot of people can use it is because of the Soul Nullification techniques, which are only found on the hands of the Fanine Clan.
Poof.
"My my. The 5th dimensional gates accidentally hit you?"
Says Reyana, sitting on her plastic chair.
It seems that Heart accidentally hit me, even though her abilities weren't supposed to that.
Nothing to fear however, since my soul only exists within Arisa's physical form, no damage will be done and I can just go back to the mortal realm.
"Mind to speak for a bit? It's lonely being in here, you know?"
"Lonely? Don't worry, you'll be back outside soon. Besides, why're you saying that now when you've been living here for decades?"
"Arisa and the subjects will only be doing boring nonsense. Why do pointless things with them? Besides, let's have a brief discussion of what has happened so far. Sip sip."
Well... It is true that they're just walking around and destroying things instead of actually finding my friends.
"Alright. You're still fixing my soul or something right? I guess I can sit here and wait for my powers to come back."
I say as I sat down on the soft grass.
"The Hammerhead Demon has infiltrated Earth. It won't be long until the end of days arrive."
"Hm? The Hammerhead..? Oh, Manta Ray?"
"Yes. While it is almost impossible to stop them now, a potential solution to all our problems may just exist within the Temporal Spatial Pyramids."
"That Salmon Shark's place? Whoever they are... They must really know a lot of things huh?"
"I have a plan however. Different from everyone, who doesn't have one."
"Hohhh..? I'd like to hear it. Heart told me that she had one but then completely forgot about it."
"Oh right. We have the same plans as well."
Eh? Really? But Heart mentioned it even before Arisa was revived...
"The real one's about to introduce themselves soon. I'll only explain the plan shortly before she arrives."
The real Baphomet is going to attack us..?!
Well. We have Arisa Skarret on our side.
Escaping should be easy.