"I killed Neo Aldif, but he had a plan in place for such a situation... That’s where Liam Aldif comes in..."
"He used Liam as a ’pawn’; he plotted a sinister plan to take over Liam’s body..."
Ashtel told everyone about Neo’s plan and how he used a forbidden technique to seize Liam’s body for himself and then forcefully ascended him to the rank of SS-rankers to fight him.
The more Rio and Link listened to this matter, the more shocked they became.
Up until now, Rio had thought that although Liam’s father was indeed not a good person, he would at least take care of his own son.
But to think Neo would do such cruel things to even his own son—that was something no one had expected.
"N-no wonder Liam is nowhere to be seen..."
Link shivered thinking about this matter.
His father fought the heavenly punishment for his sake! Due to this, Link has always respected his father, and he was naively thinking that all fathers might have some basic level of love for their child.
But he was very wrong; Liam’s father was a monster through and through. He was the type of person who had no bottom line, and he could do anything as long as it could help him achieve his goals.
"He took over Liam’s body and with the help of the spire of ascension, he became extremely powerful... even I was pushed to a corner with his insane strength..."
"In the end, I managed to drag him down to hell along with me with one final attack. I was prepared to die at that moment; thankfully, Riya saved my life..."
Rio narrowed his eyes as he asked the question that had been plaguing him since the moment Ashtel started talking about this incident.
"You are referring to Neo Aldif every time you say that he died... But wasn’t he inside Liam’s body? And if you killed Neo in that form, does that mean that..."
Ashtel took a deep breath at Rio’s question and replied solemnly,
"That’s the main reason I wanted to talk about this matter; the thing is... I did completely destroy Neo Aldif’s body and soul... Liam Aldif’s ’body’ was also destroyed by me and reduced to nothingness..."
"But! I am very sure that ’something’ happened at the final moment! I sensed the presence of a very bizarre power for a few milliseconds back then..."
Ashtel clenched his fist as he continued speaking.
"I was already at my limits and perhaps it’s just a hallucination or mistake of mine, but I would prefer considering the ’better’ option; unless we are completely sure, we cannot declare ’Liam Aldif’ dead..."
"I suspect that some bizarre power helped transfer Liam’s soul before his body was destroyed by me!"
Hearing Ashtel’s words, a ray of hope appeared in the eyes of everyone present.
As long as there was even a little bit of hope left, it meant that there was still a possibility that Liam might be alive.
"Was it Ellie’s power... I remember hearing from Liam at one point that Ellie’s powers are very mysterious, as she’s a shadow dragon..."
Ashtel nodded his head at Rio’s question.
"I know about that dragon girl... she’s only with Liam in astral projection form; her real body is likely somewhere in the ’spirit realm.’ After all, ’shadow dragons’ have to face many problems if they leave the spirit realm with their real body..."
Shadow dragons once caused a catastrophe due to their betrayal and were banished to the spirit realm. If any of them tried to enter the material world with their real body, they might get targeted by everyone!
Liam having Ellie beside him was already quite a controversial topic, and many people who knew about him actively criticized him for that matter.
Even Neo himself was jealous of Liam’s ability to maintain a stable contract with Ellie, a shadow dragon who’s capable of many types of shadow magic.
"It’s possible that dragon girl might have some ability that can let her contractor’s soul escape to her side if they are in mortal danger. But I am quite sure that there was some other power too..."
"That kind of power is not something any random person can create; it was power that seemed to have affected ’reality’ itself..."
Ashtel is a powerful person who’s shattering ’space-time fabric’ and many types of magic every other day.
He’s very sensitive to such high-level powers.
"That was definitely the effect of some powerful ’World Authority’! But I don’t think I have heard of anyone who has ’that’ kind of ’world authority’; it was the first time I saw it..."
"That bizarre power, likely helped Ellie transfer Liam’s soul out of his body..."
Ashtel was also confused about who that power belonged to and why that power helped ’Ellie’ in rescuing Liam’s ’soul.’
Back then, Ashtel didn’t have time to think about the matter properly, as he was also reaching his limits, but now that he has given the matter proper thought, many clues have appeared that were invisible before.
Rio and Link immediately got up from their seat after hearing Ashtel’s words.
"Then what are we waiting for! Let’s go! We will search every nook and cranny of the entire spirit realm and bring him back!"
"As long as there’s a possibility that Liam’s soul is in the spirit realm along with Ellie, we can bring them both back!!"
Rio, Link, and Liam became best friends long ago, and they will definitely not sit still after knowing that their friend needs their help; the two of them were ready to go that very moment.
"No... This matter is not that simple. If it were that simple, I would have already gone there myself. Why would I need to discuss it with you all?"
Hearing that question from Ashtel, Rio and Link stopped being overconfident and obediently sat down.
They both knew that Ashtel is the type of person who could just shatter a hole in the ’space-time fabric’ and make his way to any place in the world forcefully.
Even the Dragon King cannot stop Ashtel if he decides to forcefully enter the dragon valley, and if he’s not doing this, then it means the matter is definitely more complicated.
"The thing is, you two do not know what kind of place the ’Spirit Realm’ actually is..."
Link was confused by Ashtel’s words and retorted in a confused tone,
"How can that be? In the academy they clearly taught us that the spirit realm is a place filled with spirits; it’s a lush and vast forest filled with all kinds of spirit being... How bad can such a place be?"
Ashtel smiled at Link’s naïve words and, instead of answering his question, asked back,
"If the ’spirit realm’ was indeed such a happy and colorful place, then why would the ’Shadow Dragons’ be banished to that place of all as a form of ’punishment’?"
"You don’t really think that everything you were taught in the academy is a hundred percent true, right? The true world is not like that; it’s ever-changing and never in the same state at all times..."
Ashtel rolled up his left arm’s sleeve and showed a ’permanent scar’ on his forearm.
That scar has been on his hand since a long long time ago, since the time he had just reached the realm of SS-rankers.
"The Spirit Realm is not a pleasant place; it’s a literal ’Hell Hole’!"