Following the directions given by the cube of possibilities, Rio crossed a barren wasteland filled with corrupted lands and puddles of liquid miasma under the constant assault of miasmic rain.
The density of miasma in the area was so high that mana was almost nonexistent.
This situation made Rio understand why even Raji, an SS-ranker, refused to come here and why bringing others with him would have been a bad idea.
’So much miasma... miasma here might be denser even when compared to the demon continent itself!’
Rio had seen the demon continent from Alverto’s memories, but even that place wasn’t as horrible and hostile as the spirit realm.
While walking at a slow pace, Rio looked into the distance and noticed a massive mountain in his path.
’Is that really a mountain or some kind of gigantic monstrosity again?’
Rio had already seen a massive mountain-sized turtle, and he didn’t want to get involved with an SS-rank being, so he tried to change directions and bypass the mountain.
But the cube of possibilities kept pointing in the direction of the mountain; thus, Rio had no choice but to take a risk and go near it.
’I just hope it’s not that weirdo once again...’
Rio didn’t want to get involved with Raika at all, as he didn’t want any unwanted trouble.
*Sob* *Weep~* *Sob*
As Rio started to reach closer and closer to the mountain, he started hearing noises of someone crying loudly and wailing at the top of their lungs.
The wails and cries carried so much sadness that even Rio felt uncomfortable hearing them.
With each cry and wail, an insanely powerful wave of mental corruption, mental attacks, and soul attacks would spread in all directions.
The mental attack waves were so powerful this time that even the flow of miasma was being disturbed, and powerful shockwaves were being spread in all directions continuously!
Rio was unaffected by those mental and soul attacks, and with his sword intent, he was able to nullify all shockwaves too.
But a frown appeared on his face as he stepped forward towards the source of the mental attacks.
’An S-ranker? Is it a peak S-rank evil spirit?’
To Rio, most S-rankers are just weak and fragile people, no matter if they’re human or evil spirits; as long as they’re not SS-rankers, Rio can slaughter them easily.
’It’s odd though; why would an evil spirit be crying?...’
With a frown on his face, Rio endured the bombardment of hundreds of waves of mental attack as he made his way to the source of the trouble.
"ahhh!! Ahhhh!!! Sob! My child!! My child!! Ahhhh!!! Help!!! Ahhh!!!"
Near the foot of the giant mountain, there was an evil spirit in the shape of a humanoid being.
The evil spirit’s body was made up of condensed miasma; it was horribly distorted beyond recognition.
Its unstable body was shaking and quivering with every mental attack as it stared at the giant mountain in front of it.
The evil spirit had no face or mouth, yet it was producing noises somehow and was able to cry and wail loudly nonstop!
Rio stepped forward and stood beside it; he looked at the evil spirit and at the giant mountain, feeling confused by the situation.
’This mountain... unlike what I was expecting, it’s normal; there are only a few evil spirits and beasts present on it. Aside from that, it’s quite normal...’
’But what is going on with this bizarre evil spirit? It’s an S-rank one and it’s not sensing me standing beside it when I am not even using stealth right now...’
Rio couldn’t find word for a while but then decided to ask the evil spirit,
"What’s going on? Why are you crying so loudly like that? Can you hear me?"
As if it didn’t care about Rio’s words at all, the evil spirit started crying even louder as it said,
"My child!! My child!!! Those beasts took her!!! They killed her!!! Ahhh!!! My child!!! Those beasts!!! Those abominable beasts of the mountains!!!"
"ahhhh!!! Ahhh!!! Sob!"
The evil spirit kept staring at the mountain while sitting on the ground in a twisted posture.
One of the legs of its humanoid body was missing, and its entire upper torso was twisted 360 degrees as if something had twisted the body of this evil spirit like a wet cloth being wrung to get rid of water!
But even in this disfigured shape and twisted form, the evil spirit was crying and wailing at the loss of its child.
’A manifestation of a past memory?’
Rio has read about evil spirits and their origins in the books of the academy.
Most of them originate from individuals who die with regret or negative emotions, and their souls get corrupted by miasmic corruption.
But there is one other much rarer phenomenon.
Just like how the dungeons sometimes replicate the real-life places of the world from past or present, it’s possible for a manifestation of a past event to happen in the form of evil spirits.
Seeing that the evil spirit was constantly crying and didn’t even react to Rio’s presence, Rio concluded that it was likely a manifestation of a past event.
Somewhere and at some particular time, an unfortunate parent’s child must have been killed by monsters living in the mountain range, and the parent’s sadness and negative emotions must have been replicated by this phenomenon here.
Miasma thrives on negative emotions and memories; it thrives on making a mockery out of people’s traumatic past or their bad memories.
’But why did the cube lead me to this particular evil spirit then?’
’Does this evil spirit from the past know something about the shadow dragons?’
Rio went over and patted the evil spirit on the shoulder and asked,
"It’s quite unfortunate that your child had to face such a disaster. What do you want to do... to put her soul to rest?"
Once Rio said these words, the evil spirit finally reacted.
It finally stopped wailing and looked at Rio, causing Rio to notice the soul fluctuations in its body.
The evil spirit was perplexed and hopeful at the same time; it hesitated for a bit but then made a request with a lot of determination and hatred.
The hatred inside the evil spirit was so deep that it was corroding its soul from inside out.
"You who?... No, that doesn’t matter... If you can, help me kill those monstrosities living in that mountain!"
"They killed my child! I hate them all! Please! I beg you!"
At that moment Rio understood that the evil spirit belonged to just a weak person from a time unknown; its mindset was stuck in the past.
It didn’t even realize that its body was now that of a strong S-rank evil spirit; it was still considering itself weak and helpless against the so-called monsters of the mountains.
Rio showed a smile at the evil spirit’s words of plea and pointed to the wooden stick placed in front of the evil spirit on the ground.
"You want to take revenge on those monsters... why not take it yourself?"
"Instead of crying and wailing, wouldn’t punishing the offenders be a better choice? Why not do that?"
The evil spirit became anxious at Rio’s words and replied,
"B-but I am... I am just an ordinary person... h-how will I go against those powerful beasts!... I-I am too weak!! I-I can’t..."
"Th-this... can I even do anything with this wooden stick?"