34: second wish

Jonathan was controlling his own soul.

He didn't know exactly what he was doing, but he knew that if he stopped, that thing would devour him or the hidden being he felt deep within his soul would awaken, with unpredictable consequences.

He persisted. He controlled every thread of his soul, directing them toward the terrifying entity entering through the crack in his soul.

The horror gazed with its countless eyes at the vastness of the soul it was invading. It saw the threads approaching and attempting to entangle it to halt its advance.

But the being resisted the countless threads and ended up destroying them all.

Seeing how that horror was destroying his defenses, Jonathan felt desperate once again.

The indescribable being fully submerged into Jonathan's soul, advancing toward his core without encountering sufficient resistance.

"No, no, no... Please, I don't want to die, not like this, not now. Not without returning to my world! I wish that damned being would die! I don't want to die, not now!" These were the thoughts he had in his own sea of despair. He trembled, with tears threatening to fall from his eyes, his hands clenched in helplessness, and his face contorted with the rage he felt at his own weakness.

He had already died once, and despite having been revived, this death would not be like the previous one. This time it wouldn't be his body that was destroyed; it would be his soul, his soul would be devoured. He had no hope of surviving the destruction of his soul.

"I WISH YOU A HORRIBLE DEATH, DAMN MONSTER!!" These were the words he shouted, his voice shifting from sadness and despair to the fury and rage he felt towards the being that wanted to devour him from the depths of his soul.

But without him knowing, his words would trigger something unexpected.

The mist, which had always remained calm in his soul, only changing when he controlled part of his soul, now began to stir.

The grayish-white mist began to gather, forming an immense ball of thick mist that moved toward the horror trying to reach his soul's core to consume it.

The being noticed the sudden change and let out a roar toward the mist that made Jonathan's immaterial body shudder, causing him to fall to his knees and clutch his head.

His hands trembled, his eyes wide open staring at the wooden floor. He couldn't withstand the roar of the being that threatened to drive him mad at any moment. But before that could happen, the mist covered all sound and movement.

The mist completely enveloped the invading entity, blocking any sound trying to escape from within.

Jonathan could see the figure covered by the thick mist struggling against tentacles emerging from its interior.

That thing tried to resist the crushing power of the illusory tentacles that enveloped and tore it apart piece by piece. Chunks of something resembling flesh could be seen falling everywhere within the mist dome.

Without fully understanding the events unfolding one after another, each more surprising and terrifying than the last, he could only think of one thing.

"Will I live?"

His mind filled with similar thoughts. His great despair and laments now drowned by questions about his survival.

He calmed down a bit, still observing how the invading being tried in vain to flee toward the crack; the mist would not let it go.

He took a moment to compose himself and look at his own soul. The previous mist that covered everything and muted it now seemed to have dissipated a bit. His dark sky no longer had hundreds and hundreds of ethereal threads falling from it. All or most had been used to try to stop the invading horror, being destroyed in the process.

He looked at the dark place in the sky where his core of ethereal threads was, now with nothing hanging from its only cord extending from its lower part. Not far from the core was an immense dome of mist, surrounding an equally titanic creature. The creature was being killed and mutilated little by little by the powerful tentacles.

But its power, despite being extremely superior to that of a barely awake boy, paled before the power of the being controlling the mist.

Jonathan shuddered and trembled at the thought of a being capable of toying in such a way with another horror that could invade the very souls of others.

After what seemed like an eternity, or perhaps just a few moments, the creature stopped struggling. It seemed to have given up, with a tentacle piercing the center of its body. From that tentacle, three balls of bright darkness fell.

And from his core of threads, one thread emerged from its interior. It moved toward what appeared to be three corrupted soul cores.

When the ethereal thread touched the three cores, they disintegrated into a sea of white sparks, all of which were absorbed by the ethereal thread that then re-entered its core.

Countless threads began to fall from the sky once more, filling his soul's sea again with a rain of ethereal threads, now all empty.

Jonathan was shocked and confused by the scene he witnessed.

'What is that supposed to mean? Why did a thread emerge from my soul and apparently absorb the cores of that monster?'

His surprise at the scene lasted only a moment because after that second of thoughts, the spell resonated in his ears:

[You have killed a corrupted demon, king of souls.]

[You have received a memory.]

[Your soul is wrapped with more threads.]

[Your soul overflows with threads.]

[A new core is being woven.]

His eyes widened as he realized what had just happened. 'My core absorbed the entirety of that corrupted demon's essence,' was the only thought he had before feeling it.

"What is... what is this burning? Why is my chest burning? This... this is..."

Blinded by the pain, Jonathan failed to perceive the final message the spell gave him.

[You have unlocked...]

"AAAGH AHHHAHAGG!!"

Before finishing his sentence, he screamed. His soul, once as calm as it was the first time he entered, now echoed with the scream of its own owner.

Jonathan lay on the wooden floor, his hands pulling at his hair, his body trembling, his eyes tearing, and his screams so loud that his human vocal cords began to tear within seconds.

It was so harrowing that the only thing on his mind was the pain.

Feeling and thinking only of the agony he was experiencing at that moment, Jonathan didn't notice the beautiful event occurring in his own soul's sea.

In the dark sky of his soul, countless ethereal threads were gathering, all forming together a beautiful circular weave that was filling up little by little with each thread entering it.

His new core of threads was weaving itself above his convulsing body.

"AAAAHHHH!!"

The pain threatened to make him lose consciousness. It was an agony so great that his suffering seemed like an eternity.

The pain felt like a part of him for what seemed like cycles of eternal suffering, but only a few seconds had passed.

...

This hell of immense pain lasted only a few minutes. But for Jonathan, who was not at all accustomed to feeling such pain, that time seemed like an eternity of continuous torture.

When his pain subsided, he was able to think of something other than agony or pain.

"This is horrible." His hands trembled and his body still shivered slightly. His eyes still had tears flowing from them. He looked at his hands, unable to process everything that had happened.

After what he thought were hours, or perhaps minutes, he managed to calm down enough to think about the situation outside his soul.

'The shell demon, he had to fight that corrupted demon. But if he died here, then he shouldn't have suffered as many injuries as in the novel. This is my fault; if someone dies now, it will be entirely my fault. All for not keeping my composure."

Jonathan's thoughts were a mess; he believed that the awakened demon who was supposed to fight the corrupted demon until dawn wouldn't be injured in the same way as in the novel, and it would be his fault.

And if the demon managed to kill someone, it would be because he intervened in the story, perhaps causing an undesirable effect. If any protagonist dies, the story will take a 180-degree turn. He couldn't allow that.

With a thought, he left his soul's sea.

When he felt his flesh and bone body again, he was lying on his back on the branch of the tree where he had opened his eyes to find that corrupted demon.

He quickly got up and looked around, noticing that there was no one else except Cassia, who was sitting and hugging her knees.

He ran toward Cassia, who noticed his hurried steps and looked in his direction. Then she spoke, with a tone full of fear and anxiety.

"Jo-Jony, what happened? What happened to Nephis and Sunny? Did they defeat the demon? Where is everyone? Why do I only hear you?"

Bombarded by her questions, he stopped beside her and took her by the shoulders, trying to calm her down a bit, and then he spoke.

"Listen carefully, Cassia. I don't know what you're asking me, I was unconscious until just now. I need you to tell me where everyone went; I'll go help as soon as possible."

His voice was firm and determined; if he didn't want to change the original story too much, then he had to prevent the protagonists' deaths.

Cassia hesitated and then spoke, her voice tense and fear in her blue eyes.

"They went to face the demon. A few minutes ago, the mist stopped, and they said the demon wasn't very injured, he was coming toward us. They went to fight the demon." Her words were rushed, her voice faltering, and her body trembling.

"I'll go find them, don't move from here." His calm voice attempted to soothe the blind girl. This seemed to relieve the girl a bit, as her body seemed to calm down a bit.

He concentrated again on his senses, specifically on his sense of souls. His range expanded to a huge radius around him.

About three hundred meters away, he sensed six souls, all spinning rapidly around each other. He immediately ran toward where his friends were fighting the demon.

He ran and jumped from branch to branch until he reached the ashen ground. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he took great strides, raising a trail of gray ash with each step.

He saw his friends and noticed the centurion demon, missing a scythe and a pincer. Two of its eight hind legs had been cut off, and one of its front legs was wounded.

He also saw the demon attacking Nephis with its scythe, and she barely managed to dodge it a split second before being sliced in half.

With his new speed from now having two cores and being a latent monster, he accelerated and reached the battle in just a few seconds.