Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1189 - 1188 - Maze of Souls

Lind knew he was going in a circle after a time. He had been walking for a day but the floor never seemed to end! The tubes were far more numerous than he had imagined.

"Stacked like crates in my old world." Lind mumbled as he kept moving deeper into the center of the mountain. It was not just a floor but a ring within ring design. He had yet to find stairs or any incline up or down.

He knew they had to exist but there was nothing until at last he came to a wall. The metal path circled to the left and he could only follow it until he found a ramp down. The trail split around it so he assumed it would also lead upwards. He did not know which he wanted but down was best to try as he was near the base.

Days passed as he realized he was surrounded by nothing but lost souls. The Fiends were vicious monsters to all but at that moment, he saw them reduced to components. The Great One did not value his own race at all!

He pushed his legs to greater speed but the sheer size was daunting as he finally reached the widest floor. It was just more tubes like the rest. The central ramps indeed would go down in one area but go up around the other side.

He slowly observed the ravaged Fiends. Their flesh was intact but not a single one would ever move again. Their souls had been too damaged by the tubes.

He still had no idea where it all went but the fuel was clear as day.

The Corruption was Fiend souls separated partially from their bodies. It still needed to be sent out into the world but Fiends could live nearly forever so long as they were fed.

It was the other mystery he could not figure out. The souls were harvested but how had the Fiends endured for so long? Their life should have been extinguished long ago.

Over a million years was long enough to exhaust even them!

They would need to refine fresh souls, so where were they getting them from?

He finally reached the last floor and rage filled his soul at the sight!

Humans and demons! There were millions of them set up like cattle! They were stacked and mashed together like they were nothing but objects! Their life force was being drained away and he realized why those paths existed even more than before.

They must have used the various lairs and agents to send fresh bodies to them. New souls to be consumed in the ever increasing need to support the Corruption.

It would take time to refine souls and likely billions had been sacrificed to it all!

He let his harmony flood the room like a whirlwind. The various dull eyed humans and demons reacted suddenly. They smiled at him! They actually smiled at him!

Their bodies turned to ash as their souls were set free. It would not end the Corruption immediately but it would make it damned near impossible to keep it going even if he died now.

He left the horrible area and moved upward at his best speed. The sickening facility demanded to be destroyed but he needed to find its heart to be sure. He had to know it was broken forever!

Days passed as he moved narrower and narrower but he never saw anything but the thrice cursed tubes!

He finally reached the peak and felt confused. He clearly remembered the female Fiend when he traced it back before but she was nowhere to be found now?

The central column was not that big either. He would be able to brush both his shoulders once he reached peak if he tried to move inside. Where was she? Where was the main apparatus of that cursed place?!

He tried tearing through space but there was no inverted area hidden away. It was not dimensional either. Where was it?! It had to be there with all the damned Fiends around him!

[Such a threat is so limited? You can destroy the facility but it will not stop us. We will rebuild and we will consume you all!] Her voice finally entered his mind and he could not stop it. He tried to pinpoint her location but he had nothing!

His Eyes and Touch found nothing. His Talents failed him!

He had no further contact but there had to be a way to find her!

He saw the various tubes running into the walls and floor but suddenly realized he had never seen their connections. Between floors there was nothing but the repeated pattern aside from the bottom floor.

He backtracked to the damaged pod and let his harmony flow into the tubes. He followed the traces and was shocked as it kept going far beyond the walls into a place he found difficult to grasp.

It was not the central pillar at all but somewhere beyond. His mind and dantian stained to grasp at it but his harmony flared in response.

His eyes glowed as he entered a trance and followed the flow of souls. One moment, he was on the gangway among the tubes and then he took a step into a tear of emerald flames.

The world fell away and Heaven felt far away from him. He had come to a very different place.

He was not entirely sure what had happened. His harmony had followed the flow of souls until a tear was created. He had not really grasped the how but he knew a Law was involved.

He was in a massive room but there was no metal nor stone. It was all made of a material that gave him chills. It felt wrong to him even more than Fiend Qi!

[Oh ho? So you are not totally incompetent? Welcome to the world in between!] The female Fiend felt closer now but he still could not find her.

The world in between? In between what?

He knew there was a world between death and rebirth as he had literally stood there but the present space felt nothing like it.

He found the floor and walls were shimmering to his eyes but it was not a material he recognized at all. It was also scaring the crap out of him.

His very soul recoiled even glancing at it.

Still, he had to move forward. He took a step and the world blurred until he found himself at a crossroads. There were 5 choices and he had no idea how he even got there!

What was going on?!

He calmed his racing heart and assumed a lotus position. He let his harmony and mind wander until he slowly grasped what he was looking at.

The harvested souls! They were used to make the corridors around him. The entire plane was made up of those souls.

Were they not the fuel for the Corruption? Was he wrong?

She called it the place in between. Was it in between the souls and the 2nd layer?

Lind had only questions but he had to find his way through the maze he found himself in. Rather than wander blindly, he tried something direct.

[I know you were consumed by Fiends but I am here to break their hold. Can you help me?] He let his intent flow down the various corridors around him and the walls shimmered brightly.

He carefully observed the flow of the shimmer until a single corridor lit up. He stood up and walked down it. He had no better ideas but he also felt danger.

His instincts were screaming at him of danger ahead. He took that as a good sign.

The world was blurred once more before he was sent tumbling down a pit! It was like the rules of cause and effect had no place there!

It was only at that moment that he grasped where he was.

There were no Laws, no Heaven, and no Qi. Only souls!

He was in a true maze of souls! Treating it like a place would only get him more lost!

He focused once more and a new path was lit up. Rather than try to physically move, he let his harmony carry him. It felt strange not to walk or even float but to move solely by his soul.

The rooms moved at a normal pace but there was no up nor down. Any direction was meaningless quickly to his normal senses.

He had to close them off until there was a shift in the scenery around him.

The once shimmering walls were replaced by dark metal. The Fiend Qi was all too familiar as he slowly opened his eyes and settled on the cold steel. He stood up and finally felt a power far beyond him ahead.

He looked back and saw the souls were being absorbed into the metal. He was at the heart of it all!

A massive structure was sprawled around him. It was neither a tower nor a building but a web of metal all gathering at the center. He walked along one of the spines until he felt a presence ahead.

He looked up and saw a gorgeous female Fiend sitting on a throne smiling at him.

"I was not sure you would make it here, Lind Frey. Traversing the Soul Space is not something most can do." The cadence was wrong. The intent version he had faced was very different.

She was cold, calculating, and flat out unrelenting but the person in front of him was still familiar. He frowned deeply as he realized what was going on.

"You wanted me here, Useless One?" A smile spread on her ash gray face as she nodded.

"My dear loyal servant gave herself up to me but I had to hide here or Heaven and Earth would interfere again. To be fair, I am quite busy at the moment. Do you want to know why?" Lind let his harmony cover both his hands but froze as a display suddenly appeared between them.

On it, he saw his beloved son Hei and Zao were fighting back to back against a horde of Fiends and demons. He recognized the place too. It was near the floating section of the city he had resurrected!

It was the 1st layer.

"So, you have a choice. Behind me is the core of the entire facility. You have more than enough power to destroy it but if you do, your sons will die. If you walk away, your family will get to live a long, long time without my interference. What will it be?" The Fiend's face sneered at him as Lind felt terror take hold.

It was impossible! How could he choose between his sons and the rest of the Celestial Fields?!