“Help me… Help me…”
“You’re the only one who can help me… Lily…”
Although the voice behind Lily sounded gentle, it contained a poignant note to it. The voice seemed to pluck at Lily’s heartstrings and invoke the kindness and sympathy hidden deep within her soul, making it impossible for her to resist the lure.
Is it really fine for me to ignore it?
Lily felt like turning back to verify her doubts, but her rational mind reminded her that it was impossible to hear a woman’s cry for help up so high in the clouds above Mt. Izumo, that too from a woman she knew.
It was not that easy to reach Mt. Izumo’s summit, so she believed that it was a trial that tested her weakness.
I must maintain a clear mind!
Lily suppressed her feelings and continued climbing the floating stone steps.
The powerful gusts were no obstacle to her. Her mind was the only obstacle right now, and this was a trail that tested her wisdom and soul.
“It’s probably a trial from the gods!” Lily strengthened her resolve and sped up.
The gigantic peak within the dark clouds was almost in front of her eyes now. She just needed to traverse another thousand meters to arrive there.
“Am I going to succeed so simply? Is this real?” Lily’s eyes filled with joy.
However, she saw a fork in the path ahead of her when the clouds dispersed.
One of them led to the gigantic peak and was just hundreds of meters in length, but the other deviated to the side and led to an ancient circular stone gate. The stone gate was entirely dark and was covered with carvings of demons and scenes of humans suffering from punishment in the underworld. The ancient stone gate’s center was pitch black in color and had blood seeping out from the edges.
It was clear that the stone gate led to an incredibly dangerous location, so Lily did not feel shaken and selected the right path by moving towards the peak.
However, she heard a voice from the stone gate at this moment. It was a voice that she had not heard in a long time. Although she had not gotten that many chances to hear it before, it was a voice that she could never forget.
“Help me, Lily… Help me…”
It was Rinne’s voice1.
Lily revealed a dazed look when she heard the voice and looked back at the stone gate in a dumbfounded manner. She saw the phantom of a girl at the center of the gate, and even though she looked just like her, she possessed different charms and looked at her with a lonely, bitter yet gentle expression.
“Senior Rinne!”
“Help me, Lily… I’m trapped here… Help me…”
Rinne’s silhouette disappeared into the darkness of the gate after leaving such helpless words.
“Senior Rinne!” Lily cried out mournfully. The stone step behind her plummeted at this moment, and the stone step she stood on also began to wobble.
She had been forced to make a choice here. Otherwise, both paths would just disappear.
Senior Rinne’s soul is dormant within the mirror space. It’s impossible for her to appear within the gate. It’s fake. I’m sure of it! However… what if it was her consciousness? What if this is the guidance of the gods? Should I give up this chance just so that I can remain safe?
The stone step below Lily’s feet began to plummet as well.
Tears flowed out from Lily’s eyes as she said, “I can’t give up on this chance even if the phantom is fake!”
She leaped onto the path that led to the dark gate2.
She proceeded with no hesitation and climbed the floating stone steps one by one with a calm expression on her beautiful face amidst the gales that disheveled her hair and stepped into the dark gate.
Nothing could waver her mind as long as there was a glimmer of hope for saving Rinne. She was willing to even walk into true hell, let alone a trap. The blood-scented darkness, which surged with murderous intent, consumed her in the next moment.
Lily felt her head spin and felt as if she was in the middle of a black, muddy, vortex, and sensed an unprecedented amount of evilness and fear within the darkness.
“Arrggghhhh!” She screamed in terror but could not even hear her own voice and almost lost consciousness.
“No! I can’t give up here! S-Senior Rinne might be waiting for me on the other side!”
Copious amounts of grudge oozed out from Lily and resisted the darkness just like an amaryllis that bloomed in hell.
Lily passed through the dark, muddy vortex and got thrown into a cold and dark world that was covered in ashes. The skies were lit up by dark blue clouds that illuminated the monstrous black peaks that filled the world to the ends of it.
Lily stood up while shivering. The vast and cold world in front of her seemed to freeze both her body and soul.
“What is this place?” Lily looked at the dark, vast world before her.
A series of elongated shrieks emerged from all around her in the next moment, and these shrieks seemed to sting at her soul.
Whoosh! A black-faced, translucent head that wore an Eboshi hat and a formal robe flew out from behind the fallen stone lantern that was lit with a blue flame.
Lily felt a shiver pass through her spine when she saw this translucent monster.
“Who are you?! Where’s Senior Rinne?! Tell me!”
Lily questioned the monster staunchly in a loud voice.
However, the monster just ignored her and extended its handless sleeves towards her, from which incorporeal tentacles shot out.
“You want to attack me, huh? Dream on!” Lily took out Yasutsuna and slashed at the tentacles.
However, her blade just passed through them instead of severing them, which allowed them to stretch until her body and touch her soul.
“What?!”
“Arrggghhhh!” Lily felt a cold, sharp pain pass through her soul and writhed on the ground because of the unimaginable soul-ripping pain brought by the tentacles.
Lily still persevered through and rolled on the ground to dodge the tentacles. She broke out in a cold sweat as the icy sensation permeated across her entire body.
Lily used her katana to stand up with much difficulty and saw the monster float towards her.
She tried to employ her domain but discovered that she could not manifest it here.
Lily shot out flame blades, ice blades, wind blades and all sorts of different magic attacks at the monster. Although all of these attacks were low-level magic spells that could kill a Permeance-level powerhouse in an instant, they also passed through the translucent monster and struck the rubble behind it.
Physical and magical attacks were both ineffective against this soul monster.
Lily had long used up her Phantom Soul Blade, so she had no means to kill it.
“Don’t tell me Senior Rinne’s soul is imprisoned in this place? Has she been suffering from such pain all this while?”
Lily mustered her spirit power and released another attack. “Blossom-Clad Moon!”
A poignant, gigantic sword beam shot towards the monster, but it still failed to hurt it.
The monster approached her again.
“Don’t come over!” Lily felt a sting of pain in her soul the moment it neared her, so she turned around and fled from it.
However, the monster continued its relentless pursuit of her.
Lily saw a slanted, dilapidated temple ahead of her and closed its doors after she entered it. However, the monster’s tentacles passed through the door and touched her body.
“Arrggghhhh!” Lily screamed in pain and collapsed to the ground. She dodged the monster’s second attack somehow with a subconscious roll and rolled underneath an enlightened one’s ancient statue.
Lily raised her head in hope when she saw the statue and wished for the gods to protect her and dispel the monster. However, the enlightened one’s statue actually had an incredibly malevolent expression on it.
Whoosh! The enlightened one’s phantom-like soul emerged from the statue with a translucent staff in his hand.
Lily rolled aside subconsciously when she saw him strike at her with the staff, but the staff turned malleable and transformed into a whip before it lashed out at her waist, which brought her soul a despairing stab of pain.
“Arrggghhhh!” Lily grabbed her chest and cried out in pain.
The enlightened one was the same as the tentacle monster, an enemy. A bunch of fearsome, eldritch monks emerged from the corners of the temple and pressed on towards her at this moment.
Lily cleaved open one of the temple walls with her blade and leaped out from it before she fled to a distance, but the soul monsters still followed her relentlessly.
The monsters continued following her even when she had escaped from the canyon that she was in.
The stinging pain in her soul disabled her from focusing and slowed down her movements as she fled for her life, and the icy sensation behind her seemed to approach closer with each passing moment.
Whoosh! Whoosh! A bunch of vengeful spirits dressed in ancient court dresses and some female vengeful spirits dressed in tattered formal kimonos emerged manifested on top of the canyon and jumped down to block Lily’s path one after the other, which caused her to tumble down. However, she rolled forward whenever that happened and finally saw a ray of light when she arrived at the canyon’s end.
“I must escape from here as soon as possible!”
The frequent attacks from the soul monsters made Lily feel as if her soul was going to shatter and the pain had pushed her body to its limits.
“Senior Rinne… Senior Rinne…” Lily was just obsessed with one thing right now, which was Rinne. She would have long lost consciousness if not for that.
Maintaining a clear mind meant that she needed to suffer through an unimaginable pain, and it was much easier to just lose consciousness, but Lily did not do that. She charged towards the light at the exit of the canyon with shaky steps, which was more of a sprint than a run, all while suffering innumerable attacks from the monsters.
I must persevere at all costs! I must reach the exit!
“Senior Rinne!”
Lily endured through the soul-ripping pain and mustered the last remaining obsessive will within her and rolled out from the canyon’s exit like a tumbling rock.
The bright light from the skies illuminated her fair skin when she tumbled out of the canyon. Lily sat up slowly and had her vision blinded by a bright blue light when she opened her eyes.
However, her soul seemed to freeze up when her eyes adjusted to the light.
An uncountable number of faceless soul monsters dressed in tatters filled the land and the skies illuminated by the icy blue light.
