Reign stared at the vortex that was slowly dragging him toward itself. He could still get out, but he knew that without managing to block it or figure out what the vortex truly was, he wouldn't be able to help Liara.
'Aethion, I got an idea.'
"Do tell, because right now, I got no idea what the hell we can do."
'Listen, what if …'
"You're an insane bastard, you know that?" Aethion asked Reign who chuckled.
'Do you think it can work?'
"Yes, it could, but you do understand that that part, as little as it is, will be gone forever if the vortex simply decides to devour and destroy it, and make no mistake, healing the soul and making it stronger is not as easy as it is with the body."
'I know, but what else can we do right now?'
"Yes, I know that you're right, I just hope that it will go as you think it will," Aethion said before grabbing a soul and making it appear next to Reign.
"The leader of the demon group, his soul is strong, so he will be the best choice for this."
"Don't worry, I have already wiped his consciousness, he is nothing but a shell, just pure soul power that can't do anything but follow orders," Aethion said before getting serious.
"Now, do your best to relax, this will hurt, it will hurt a lot."
Reign nodded his head before suddenly clenching his teeth as pain assaulted him. Outside, one could only see Reign whose body had clenched from the pain as sweat started coming down his body, but if one saw his soul, one would be shocked to see that a small part of it, a part as big as a baby's hand, was being torn away.
"Tearing a part of the soul and placing it in the empty shell will allow you to see what is going on, as well as sense what is going on around the shell, so if you do send it to the vortex and it doesn't get destroyed immediately, you should be able to see what is inside of it."
"Of course, there is the chance that there is nothing in the vortex, that it is simply something that destroys souls, but since it is causing Liara to act differently and isn't hurting her soul, I don't think it's as simple as that," Aethion said, to which Reign nodded after the small part of his soul was finally torn from him and placed in the shell.
He used the rope and got further away from the vortex before focusing on the small part of his soul that was in the shell. He could hear and sense everything around the shell, he could even move it, but barely.
He had only put a small piece of his soul in it, and unlike some beings who could split their soul and place it in multiple bodies, he didn't have such an ability, it was mostly thanks to Aethion that he was able to do this, and even then, it hurt like hell.
The shell was drawn over by the vortex and moved toward it, all the while Reign was doing his best to focus and sense everything around it. As it got closer and closer to the vortex, the connection between Reign and the soul fragment he had placed inside became more unstable, and when it entered the vortex, the connection was severed, gone completely.
"Dammit!" Aethion said before sighing. Losing a piece of your soul was not a small issue at all, even though the piece Reign had lost was tiny and wouldn't affect him that much, it still made his soul incomplete, so using soul power, commanding the soul army and such would be more difficult in the future, of course, it wouldn't make a big difference, but it could in the long run.
'I really thought it would work.' Reign said with a sigh as he stared at the vortex and shook his head. It seemed that the only thing he could do was to create another barrier. Even though the vortex would become more powerful because of it, Reign had to do it.
He had to fight fire with fire and bet everything on managing to find out more about the vortex in the near future before it became too large and powerful for him to stop.
Just as Reign was about to use the souls, he suddenly froze.
"Hmmm … kid, are you alright?" Aethion asked as he stared at Reign before his eyes widened.
"The fragment, don't tell me, the connection has been re-established?"
Aethion's words proved true as Reign was suddenly able to sense and see everything around the soul fragment inside the vortex. The shell that the soul fragment had been put in was almost gone, ripped apart by the vortex, which was actually the main reason he could sense it right now.
The shell had been attacked and devoured by the power inside the vortex, and it was when it was nearly finished, that Reign was finally able to sense the fragment. For some reason, the power inside the vortex was not doing anything to him, he could sense it, the mysterious power that was destroying the shell, it was right next to him, and yet, it did nothing to him.
In fact, that wasn't true, it was doing something, it was … protecting the fragment.
Reign could see darkness all around him, a void of nothingness. The power was like a gray smudge inside that void, and it was coiled around him, protecting him from something, making sure the fragment was safe.
"He is here."
"He has arrived."
"He has sensed us."
"No, he had gambled on this."
"No sensing, the power masks us."
"But he is here, he has arrived, he will help."
"Yes, help, he will help."
"He certainly will help us."
"Our voices reached him."
Suddenly, a multitude of voices were heard by Reing, all of them coming from somewhere deeper inside the nothingness that his fragment was in.
"Bring him to us, bring him over."
"Come, come to us, the void is empty and lonely, we shall help you."
"No, he shall help us, he is the one that shall help, not us."
"Powerless, we are powerless to do anything."
"He is not, he can help, he can free us."
"Yes, slowly, carefully, bring him to us."
The voices were … archaic, they were loud and yet quiet, it was as if they were speaking directly to Reign's mind, to his soul. He didn't know just what the voices were, or who they came from, but it seemed as if they … they had been expecting him?
'The system sent me here, to meet Liara, who is without a shred of doubt connected to Lieara, and then, then these voices, they say that they have been expecting me, how?' Reign thought as the gray smudge of power slowly but surely brought him deeper into the darkness.
Reign felt the fragment slowly move through the darkness, and he tried to use his power to sense what was around them, and it was at that point that he realized why the gray smudge was coiled around him, why it was protecting him.
He had only briefly come in contact with the darkness around them when his mind went blank, he stopped breathing, he stopped thinking, and he stopped doing anything, which was why his senses went back, allowing him to go back to normal.
'This, what the hell is this?' Reign asked in horror as he gulped.
A brief contact, just a simple contact that lasted for less than a second, and the darkness inside the vortex had almost made his soul fragment and scatter into nothing. Once inside the darkness, one wouldn't be able to sense a thing.
No emotion, no memories, no thoughts, nothing.
Imagine if you suddenly lost everything, you weren't able to think, weren't able to see, feel, hear, you couldn't even imagine a picture in your head, you couldn't remember a single thing, you just existed, and that was it.
That was exactly what happened to Reign for that brief moment, and it terrified him.
It was as if everything had been wiped, his entire being was gone, turned into a blank canvas for that instant.
'How the hell can I hear the voices then, what the hell is that place?'
"I wish I knew kid, but I'm as lost as you are, this thing, it's dangerous, but, it seems whatever or whoever is inside, wishes to speak to you for some reason, look, the vortex has even stopped moving," Aethion said as he pointed at the vortex, making Reign look and nod.
It truly had stopped moving, it was no longer pulling anything in, it didn't even look like a vortex anymore, but like a black smudge present in Liara's soul. Because it had stopped moving, it also stopped influencing Liara, who found herself in Reign's lap, topless.
She quickly covered herself and was about to berate Reign, only to find him still, not moving at all, the only thing he did was breathe.
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