Blood sprayed in all directions as a blood-soaked hand burst through Olivas's back and pierced straight into his chest.
He clearly saw the hand clutching the Magic Stone nestled inside his body.
"Wh… who…"
Olivas desperately tried to see who had attacked him from behind, but the only response was the hand yanking itself out with force.
"Pfft!"
Blood gushed from the wound. Powerless, Olivas dropped to his knees.
His body wouldn't move. He couldn't even form a single word. He could only watch in despair as the goddess began her transformation right in front of him, while he himself faced death at the moment of her imminent descent.
As a hybrid of human and monster, once his Magic Stone was removed, Olivas's body lasted only a few seconds before it began turning to white ash.
In the end, he died with nothing but despair.
The body died, the soul was cast into reincarnation.
Freed from the shackles of flesh, Olivas's soul finally caught sight of the one who had ambushed and killed him.
A child!?
A child killed me!?
Olivas couldn't believe it. Back during the sacrificial incident on the 27th floor, he was already Lv.3. The goddess had saved him then, and after years of growth, he had become even stronger. So how could he be pierced through the chest by a mere child?
Staring at the child who had killed him, his gaze full of resentment, Olivas's heart brimmed with hatred.
He had no thoughts about his own failure—only hatred for the one who had ended him.
But as a mere soul, he had no way to take revenge.
And a soul, once stripped of its physical vessel, could no longer act freely. It could only drift toward the pull of reincarnation.
At least—that's how it was supposed to be.
Suddenly, several chains emerged from the void, wrapping around Olivas's soul and forcefully halting its descent into the cycle of rebirth.
!?
The sudden shock froze Olivas's consciousness.
At that moment, he noticed the child who had killed him looking up, locking eyes with him.
"Oh? A hybrid of human and monster, but the soul's essence… still human."
Before Olivas could process what that meant, he felt a tearing sensation—his soul being ripped apart.
Aaaaaaaaah!
Though he could no longer make a sound, instinctively he let out a silent scream.
But screaming didn't stop the tearing.
In the next instant, Olivas's soul was shredded into fragments by the chains. What little remained of his reason and awareness evaporated into nothing.
Once a soul is torn to pieces, reincarnation is no longer possible. It becomes nothing more than raw energy, scattered into the flow of the cycle.
Bell turned his gaze away as the soul dissipated.
So it was confirmed—hybrids of humans and monsters did possess human souls. Meaning the so-called transformations didn't involve the soul at all; they were purely physical modifications.
In other words, as long as the body was swapped and kept functioning properly, it was possible for a transformed individual to abandon their past and become human again.
Bell raised an eyebrow, but quickly pushed the idea aside.
He glanced at his bloodstained gloves. With a flick of his fingers, the red vanished, restoring the gloves to their original white.
With a casual motion, he tossed the prismatic Magic Stone in his hand onto the green membrane encasing the "Spirit Fetus." The newly ascended fetus slowly opened its eyes.
Those eerie, oversized eyes swept across the surrounding Virgas and Violas, but the monsters showed no reaction at all.
*The job of the "Collectors" is only to collect. They won't move unless you're in danger. "Isn't that the command you gave them, Spirit?"
At those words, the fetus fixed its gaze on the man before it and let out a strange, genderless voice.
[You again! You again!! Lapdog of the gods!]
"Oh? That's all you've got to say?"
Bell smiled brightly as he looked at the "Spirit." It still lacked a vessel—it only had the conditions necessary for converting into power.
But even now, the "Spirit" showed no sign of choosing a vessel.
"Judging by your expression, it looks like you know what I did to your other fetus. A soul projection, huh?"
The fetus's large eyes burned with hatred. It remembered the scene of that previous clone being tortured. If it hadn't severed the connection in time and escaped, it would have ended up enslaved by this man.
"Looks like, since the fetus was born from you, you left a mark on it the moment it came into existence. That lets you monitor them whenever you want."
"No wonder your hostility toward me is so intense."
Bell found it amusing. He'd run plenty of experiments on that previous fetus—it seemed the "Spirit" had experienced them firsthand.
"Snap!"
Bell flicked his fingers.
The fetus's eyes widened in shock. It could feel itself trapped, unable to escape easily, as the man before it revealed a devilish smile.
"Spirit, you really are the most troublesome thing in the Dungeon."
"The only thing I hate more than reincarnation is trouble I can't control. And you're the root of all that trouble. The fact that you can birth these 'fetuses' is a real pain."
The fetus realized things had gone bad. Its will was locked in place—there was no way to separate itself from this clone.
"So, once I tear off part of your soul, will you still be able to stash fragments of it into these clones like before?"
The "Spirit" immediately understood what choice this man was giving it—and what sort of devilish scheme he was plotting.
"Will you let your projected consciousness be shredded by me, or will you cut your losses and run?"
"I'll give you three seconds to decide."
"Three..."
Bell smiled as he began the countdown.
The "Spirit" frantically searched for an escape, only to realize it had been played.
The barrier had fused its consciousness with the clone. There was no way to leave with its soul intact.
This wasn't like last time.
Last time, it had hidden well enough to avoid detection, projecting its soul into the clone without being noticed. Otherwise, it was sure the man would've torn a chunk of its soul away right then.
But this time, he'd caught on.
There was no way to flee with the soul as it had before.
The man had prepared for this from the very beginning.
"Two..."
No time left.
The "Spirit" knew it had no real choice.
Surrounded by the barrier, it couldn't control the Violas or Virgas.
Without a vessel, it didn't even have a chance to resist.
If it got caught now, it was certain this man would obliterate its consciousness completely.
The "Spirit" clenched its will, abandoned that portion of its soul, and forcefully ripped it from the clone's consciousness—pouring everything it had into projecting its awareness back through the only available escape route.
Seeing this, Bell chuckled—without a hint of malice.
"See? You can make decisions after all."
...
(100 Chapters Ahead)
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