THE RISE OF WHITE CONQUEROR

Chapter 89: Soul World

If he had to describe it...There was only one other time he had felt something similar. The moment when the men who had hurt his grandfather had pulled a gun on him. That same crushing feeling. The helplessness of a child standing before something he could never hope to fight. Kelly felt it again now.

And the most horrifying part...The woman hadn’t done anything. She wasn’t attacking him...She wasn’t threatening him. She was simply sitting there calmly, effortlessly upon that throne. Like a queen observing something insignificant. In her presence, Kelly instinctively understood something. To her...He was nothing. A being so far beneath her that he barely even registered.

And yet she sat there with absolute composure, as if she existed far above everything else. For what felt like the first time in his life, Kelly finally understood the true meaning of royal presence. Not the kind worn by rulers with crowns or robes. Not the authority of politicians or religious figures.

He had met powerful people before even the Pope and King and the whole royal family combined however then also none of them had ever made him feel this level of dread. Compared to the woman before him, those figures now seemed... ordinary. Terrified, Kelly tightened his stance once again, his guard rising instinctively. After all this was the first time he had ever witnessed something like this. And it had completely caught him off guard. Yet despite his obvious reaction, the woman showed no response at all. She remained seated upon her throne, unmoving. Then, in that same calm voice. She spoke again.

"Ordinarily, this place would remain beyond your reach until the completion of your foundation. Yet your circumstances are... unusual. You possess not only an affinity for souls but also bear my very skill. Consequently, you have found your way here far sooner than intended."

The woman’s voice was calm...Cold...Almost Indifferent, as if she were simply stating an obvious fact. Kelly, however, could only stare at her in stunned silence.

"...."

His mind struggled to process what he had just heard. The words clearly carried meaning, yet none of it fully settled into place in his thoughts. For a moment, he simply stood there, dumbfounded, his eyes fixed on the hazy figure seated upon the throne.

Perhaps noticing his confusion, the woman fell silent. She gave him space to think or at least that was what Kelly would have liked a moment to gather his thoughts, but...

"You are hardly the keenest blade in the armoury, yet even a dull mind ought to have grasped that much by now... Well then will you continue standing there agape like a fish, or will you speak? Our time is far too precious to be spent indulging your silence."

"...!"

Or not. The woman clearly had no intention of considering Kelly’s feelings. Without the slightest hesitation, she ruthlessly slammed him with a barrage of blunt words. Kelly froze, for a moment, his mind went completely blank after being hit with such back-to-back insults. Ironically, that brief mental shutdown helped him push past the crushing pressure of her presence. The overwhelming aura that had suffocated him moments earlier faded slightly from his awareness as irritation began to take its place.

His lips twitched. A faint spark of anger flickered in his chest. Clenching his jaw, Kelly forced himself to calm down and began thinking more carefully about what the woman had just said trying to understand what exactly she was attempting to convey.

’Soul World... as in my soul...What the hell... are we inside my soul...And why does she sound like she’s speaking in some kind of prehistoric drama’

Those frantic thoughts raced through Kelly’s mind one after another. Panic bubbled beneath the surface of his composure, his brain desperately trying to piece together the strange situation he had been thrown into.

Despite the chaos in his head, a small part of him even found the time to question the peculiar dialect the woman was using. Her tone carried an old, almost archaic elegance, like something straight out of a historical play. Unfortunately for him the woman answered.

"Not wrong... but not entirely correct."

Kelly’s eyes widened slightly. She continued calmly, her voice echoing across the dark expanse.

"You see, a being’s soul is distinct from their mind, body, or ego."

She paused briefly, as though simplifying the explanation.

"In simpler terms, it is your divine consciousness."

Then, after another short pause, her tone shifted slightly almost as if she were adjusting the explanation specifically for him. And if Kelly was paying attention even her tone and dialect started resembling something that was comfortable and familiar to his ears.

"And to simplify it even further so that you may understand... your body is merely a shell that houses your soul."

The hazy figure remained seated upon the throne as she spoke, her blurred silhouette unmoving.

"All that you are your character, your personality, even your sense of self originates from the soul itself."

This time, Kelly forced himself to listen carefully. He focused on every word the woman spoke, trying to understand the explanation she had just given. Yet the more he thought about it, the more questions began piling up in his mind. One question, in particular, pushed itself to the front. The most obvious one.

"Why the hell are you inside of me?!"

Kelly shouted the words dramatically, confusion written all over his still-furrowed face. His voice echoed through the dark expanse, carrying both disbelief and frustration. Meanwhile, the woman remained seated calmly upon her throne. Her blurred figure did not move in the slightest, and her presence stayed just as imposing as before. When she answered, her tone carried the same uninterested indifference.

"You truly do not listen, do you, boy...Remember what I told you."

"Stop speaking in riddles...wait."

Kelly responded instinctively, irritation slipping into his voice.

But midway through his protest, he suddenly stopped.

"...."

His brows knit together as he forced himself to think.

He replayed the woman’s earlier words in his mind, carefully piecing them together. For a few seconds, silence filled the dark space while his brain worked through the fragments of information.

Then...Something clicked. A realization sparked within his thoughts. Slowly, Kelly lifted his head and replied.

"My... skill"