Death… And Me

Chapter 4557: The Hole

The moment Rean cut the portion of Azerion’s soul out of the array, Azerion’s consciousness practically collapsed. There wasn’t even enough time for him to scream in pain. The pain was there, unimaginably intense, but it came so suddenly and violently that his mind simply shut down before he could process it.

Rean didn’t waste even a second. He immediately wrapped the severed portion of Azerion’s soul from the array with his Light Element, carefully preventing the countless ancient array runes that had merged into it from scattering.

At the same time, back in Azerion’s physical body, Rean’s Light Element, mixed with Vinx’s Echo, began forming a bridge between the inside and outside of the sealed space. A passage gradually opened between the two sides, using the connection that still existed between the two portions of Azerion’s soul.

The Light Element and Echo inside the sealed space reached toward the corresponding energies outside, while the energies outside reached back toward them, with both sides behaving almost like living tentacles as they stretched through the passage and entangled with each other.

”Time to say goodbye!”

With a single decisive push, Rean pulled the portion of Azerion’s soul that remained inside the sealed space through the newly created passage. His body immediately erupted with even more Light Element, becoming so brilliant that he looked like a miniature sun.

The two portions of Azerion’s soul had never truly been separated in the first place. There had always been a connection between them, allowing their memories, consciousness, and sentience to remain linked despite one portion being merged with the sealed space and the other remaining inside Azerion’s physical body.

If they had actually become completely independent from one another, Rean wouldn’t have been surprised if the portion inside the sealed space had eventually evolved into an entirely new being, but fortunately, that hadn’t happened. The connection prevented that.

For a brief moment, the process gave Rean a strange feeling, almost as if he were pushing two lumps of dough together. Rean’s Light Element and the Echo continued pouring into the process at full strength as he carefully merged the two portions back together, reconnecting every damaged section while ensuring that the memories and consciousness remained properly aligned.

The healing process was extremely difficult, but the worst part was already over. The cut itself had been the most dangerous step.

Several minutes passed before Rean finally managed to stabilize the mended soul. He carefully guided it back into Azerion’s main body, making sure nothing remained dangerously disconnected.

One can’t misunderstand Rean. He didn’t heal the soul completely. He didn’t have the power for such a thing even back when he was at the peak of the Vinx Great Void. He just made it so the two sides could heal on their own again without collapsing. The rest would take a very long time and would be totally up to Azerion.

However, there was still a very tiny portion of Azerion’s soul left behind inside the sealed space. It was so small that losing it wouldn’t affect Azerion’s memories or sentience in the slightest, and its only purpose was to maintain a connection between Azerion and the sealed space, allowing him to continue exercising some degree of control over it.

It was somewhat similar to the tiny pieces of souls that cultivators used to create Soul Flames. This fragment served a similar purpose, except that it had been left behind for the sake of control rather than to act as proof of life.

Did Azerion plan for that?

No. Azerion hadn’t known Rean could leave such a tiny portion of his soul behind, nor had he even known that doing so was possible. As far as Azerion was concerned, the plan had simply been to sever his soul from the sealed space and reunite the two portions within his body. That was actually part of Rean’s own plan for what came next.

Once he confirmed that Azerion’s soul had stabilized, Rean reached toward the pillar again. This time, when his consciousness entered the sealed space, he could clearly see the hole in the ancient array surrounding the Womb.

The tiny fragment of Azerion’s soul remained there, almost like a support holding the entire structure together. This was still a spatial space even if it wasn’t a Dimensional Realm. He couldn’t simply assume that removing Azerion completely would have no consequences. If the sealed space collapsed after Azerion’s departure, the Womb might disappear along with it, and if that happened, the very thing stabilizing the connection to the Goslau Great Void Echo could vanish as well.

’Good. It is holding together.’ Rean was satisfied when he confirmed that the space remained stable. He then reached through the opening in the ancient array and touched the Womb with his projection. ’How about it, Sister Orb?’

[That’s perfect! I’m going to absorb the Goslau Great Void Echo now!]

Rean obviously hadn’t told him about this part of the plan. If Azerion knew Rean intended to use the opening to directly absorb the Goslau Great Void Echo, he might have suspected that Rean intended to get rid of him instead of helping him escape his connection to the sealed space.

Fortunately for Azerion, Rean had fulfilled his part of the agreement by separating him from the array regardless. That tiny piece of his soul remaining behind wouldn’t be enough to lock Azerion inside the Woster Guarding Grounds anymore. He fulfilled his part of the agreement. Azerion was saved. Azerion was free!

*Pin!*

[Warning!]

[Goslau Great Void Echo is rejecting the Orb System.]

Rean was taken aback, and Sister Orb was clearly surprised as well when the warning appeared automatically.

[Shit! It is resisting me!]

*Rawr!*

’Rean, it is angry!’ Luxa suddenly sent the message through Godly Sense.

Rean immediately remembered what Luxa had been telling him ever since they entered this place: that strange feeling of unwillingness had never disappeared. Until now, he had assumed it was connected to Azerion. After all, Azerion was the one controlling part of the array and the womb’s power. However, the situation now suggested something completely different.

’Luxa, is it unwilling to separate from Azerion instead?’ Rean asked hurriedly.

*Rawr...*

’Yes... but also no. It isn’t exactly because of Azerion. It’s because of what Azerion meant to it. I can feel it more clearly now.’

The hole he had created in the ancient array was the reason Luxa could now sense the Navy Blue-Golden Womb so much more clearly. Luxa’s own connection to the Womb had suddenly become many times stronger.

Luxa continued explaining, ’It is unwilling to come out. It hasn’t matured yet. It can’t think, but it can feel, and it can feel that what you did is probably cutting off its own source of Yin Energy.’

’Ah!’

Rean finally understood. When Azerion had merged part of his soul with the ancient array, he had become the Ghost of Woster. Thanks to that connection, countless dead souls had been retrieved from cultivators who attempted to escape Woster, and those souls had eventually become Yin Energy that was absorbed by the Womb.

The Womb didn’t know any of that, of course. It had no sentience, memories, or understanding of the history surrounding it. All it knew was that something had changed. The being that had been connected to it for countless years, the same one that provided it with a lot of Yin Energy, was now gone.

Its reaction wasn’t rational. It was instinct.

That instinctive rejection was now strong enough to interfere with Sister Orb’s attempt to absorb the Goslau Great Void Echo, leaving Rean momentarily unsure of what to do. However, his expression changed as he considered the possibility.

’Wait, Luxa. You woke up because of me, right? Were you mature at that time?’

*Rawr...*

’I don’t know...’

Rean’s eyes narrowed as he pieced the information together. ’Most likely, you weren’t. If I’m right, then...’

Rean’s hair remained black and white as he immediately contacted Roan through their soul connection. ’Gonna take some of it.’

—

Somewhere in the north, just outside Dlaval City, Roan found himself surrounded by several High-Elders of the Rosvelt Sect. The situation looked terrible from the outside. He wore an expression of clear displeasure, as if he hadn’t expected the Rosvelt Sect to react so quickly. Little did they know that everything was proceeding exactly according to plan.

Roan remained calm despite the situation. Through their soul connection, he had already received Rean’s request, so there was no need for him to ask why or waste time discussing it. He simply agreed.

’Take as much as you need.’

And so, instead of Roan’s Dark Element, what ended up being sent to Rean was actually the purest Yin Energy that Roan had always had!