Spirit Soul

Kyle was not sure why, but he felt that the last trial would be the most burdensome and tricky. He believed that it would be a lot more grueling to his mentality than any of the former trials.

The environment he had been brought to play with his mind as the surrounding seemed to change at a rapid pace.

It was a dizzying sight to watch the extremely lush nature around him wither, only to be rejuvenated, returning to its old glamor within seconds.

This process repeated itself over and over again, distracting him several times.

To him, it felt as if he was stuck in a time loop.

Unfortunately, the ever-changing environment was not the only distraction.

Rather, it was the lightest distraction Kyle had to face.

Meanwhile, the white, glowing eyes of Nitran seemed to stare straight into the deepest parts of his conscience.

A distinct fear crawled up his spine, adding to Kyle's growing anxiety.

He was not sure what was going on, but the Reaper knew that he was one of the Old Souls.

However, that was not all because it looked like Nitran could easily figure out everything about him.

Kyle found himself in a rather tricky situation.

He was unable to lie convincingly owing to the soul-staring Eyes, and the distracting environment.

This left him with three options- Kyle would either have to tell the truth, lie and wait for the Reaper to figure out that he was lying, or to remain silent.

To his misfortune, remaining quiet was also not something he could do easily.

Nitran's Scythe was looming over him, releasing the distinct desire to taste Kyle's blood and reap his life.

"You know, we Reapers cultivate with the surrounding mana.

But what makes us so unique and powerful is the ability to devour the souls of the deceased!

The older a soul, the better…"

Initially, it looked like Nitran wanted to continue with his short monologue and explain further.

But, after thinking about it for a moment he stopped in the middle of his sentence, ending it right there.

Kyle was aware that certain races called the Reapers as Soul Reapers.

And, after hearing Nitran's slip of tongue, he knew why this was the case.

From the Reaper's point of view, he must look like a delicacy to be relished.

This simple thought caused Kyle's entire body to shudder.

Somehow, he managed to calm down because he wouldn't be able to think straight if he let fear overwhelm him again.

'Is he trying to slowly tear down my defenses to get to know the information Li was unable to procure?' Kyle wondered, not sure if it was that simple or not.

Yet, a moment later, this thought was reduced to be nothing else than a needless worry.

In an emotionless voice, Nitran gave him the task he had to accomplish in order to pass the last normal trial.

"Youngest reincarnation of the Old Soul, the last normal trial is relatively simple.

You will be given multiple riddles, and the answers can be found all around this enclosed area-The Land of Life and Death.

Other than that I will ask you various questions which you can answer on your own accord.

Some questions will be about your personal life.

While others would be about things you should have figured out in the short time you have spent on Shima after your reincarnation.

Meanwhile, when you are asked other questions that revolve around specific topics, you can only assume things, and try to comprehend everything.

These questions will let us understand how much you trust us, how vast your knowledge is, and how much you can understand about things you should have never heard about.

All of this will be done in accordance with the restrictions imposed upon you since you entered this place!"

'Trust?' He almost immediately asked. Fortunately, he bit back his tongue and didn't say anything else.

Nonetheless, he was baffled because the last trial seemed to be quite easy at the first glance.

Yet, the prospect of being subjected to a grilling questionnaire made him feel both nervous and excited to finally finish the trials.

The combination of the Reaper's Scythe, his glowing white eyes, and the distracting environment was an extreme nuisance, to put it simply.

As such, answering even the simplest questions wouldn't be that easy.

It would be a daunting task to come up with answers while trying to solve the riddles.

Whether the Undeads did this in order to figure out more about his past or to complete their evaluation of him, Kyle did not know.

However, what he knew was that the last normal trial was a hassle.

"Don't worry, youngest reincarnation. Only the first part belongs to your trial, the rest is for something else.

As such, you are free to decide whether you want to answer my questions or not. If you are not sure about a question, you may skip some of them altogether.

However, I can promise that there won't be any harm in answering my questions. If you're not suitable for our plans, we won't kill you either."

These words that should have been otherwise reassuring caused Kyle's eyes to widen. But it was barely a second later that he regained his senses as he stared at the Reaper in doubt.

"But what will happen if I'm suitable for whatever you guys have been training me for?"

From the looks of it, the Reaper, Nitran, was similar to Knirg and Lahan.

He was friendly and easily approachable, which was a huge contrast to the first impression Kyle had of the Reaper.

However, even his second impression of Nitran could be wrong.

As such, he remained vigilant while Nitran continued to ask the question.

Kyle even dared to look at Nitran after overcoming the initial fright of the Reaper. This helped him to calm down a lot, and overlook the things that had been discomforting.

It included the ever-changing surroundings and the Scythe's bloodlust that was much easier to endure.

With this opportunity, he tried to adjust to the discomfort the environment created within him, while doing the same about the Scythe.

Not knowing whether the Reaper's eyes would mash his mind, and further confuse him, adjusting to the other distracting factors was quite important.

The Reaper noticed this but made no further move to overwhelm Kyle. Instead, Nitran simply answered the question.

"To be honest, the best scenario for you would be to accept the Razkadan castle's inheritance and embrace death...in order to become an Undead, of course.

But after observing you, we do not think of it as a feasible option.

And the likelihood further decreased after we figured out that you are a reincarnated soul of the Old Universe, with intact memories, and two special traits.

You should have been able to choose your abilities and traits by yourself, and they're probably complementary to each other too.

If that wasn't enough for us to be interested in you,  your endurance and determination certainly piqued our interest.

Though, your talent isn't all that appealing.

Either way, we won't hold that against you.

It simply means that either your past life was riddled with challenges, or something in your present life makes you work extremely hard!

In the end, we shouldn't care about the reason behind your attitude.

We are rather interested in knowing what we can gain from your determination and abilities.

It is the reason we want to figure out as much as possible about you.

Other than the things I mentioned about our interest in you, our young Lady took a liking to you...I should apologize for that…"

While listening intently to what the Reaper had to say, Kyle grew confused.

But then he slowly comprehended what was going on as his mind went wild.

'How does he know so much about reincarnated Souls of the old Universe? What gains does he even mean...Why should I even help without gaining something in return either?! And what is that mess about the young Lady taking a liking to me...apologize!? How, Why?!'

Kyle's confusion was visible because as far as he knew he had done nothing to gain someone's attention.

All his focus had been on staying alive and crossing the obstacles thrown at him.

Thus, he had never had the time to behave in a way that would make someone like him or choose him for something.

Yet, Nitran's words were relatively clear to understand- Kyle wouldn't be able to leave that easily.

Kyle might be able to survive, but leaving after passing the last normal trial was something he probably would not have the luxury of.

That was a little bit frustrating, yet, instead of complaining, he just nodded his head.

Meanwhile, Nitran's mana fluctuations were fluctuating a bit, making Kyle believe that the reaper was laughing.

No sooner had he thought that he froze in place after recalling that the Reaper can read his mind as he cursed out.

"Fuck, I forgot that!"

However, this exact curse helped Kyle break his tension, and relieve him of the suspicion and doubt he was holding against the Reaper.

He seemed to be even more open-minded than Knirg and Lahan, and everything he said sounded genuine to Kyle.

Nitran even avoided commenting on Kyle's thoughts about him and decided to continue sharing his thoughts.

"Obviously, if you help us, we won't force you to do anything and there will be a reward...actually, we cannot even force you, to begin with!"

Kyle was not sure if Nitran wanted to help him with the answer or scare him with the last few words he said.

Yet, instead of being intimidated, Kyle remained calm and simply smiled.

Nitran was by far, the most humane Undead he had encountered until now if he could even call him that.

And, it made him feel relieved because he missed meeting other people and having a talk with them.

Selene was not there around him to give him company.

He could only hope that she was probably giving her all in order to survive without him.

It was possible that she might have already entered the Lahin Kingdom, or she could be doing something else.

In the end, it would be a lie to say that he didn't miss her. Despite her traumatic past, she was quite cheerful, and supported him through thick and thin.

Initially, he had thought that he was supporting her mentally and that he was a pillar for her to rely on. However, now that she wasn't by his side, for several months at that, he felt that his own mental health was deteriorating in her absence.

This simple realization struck him deeply and made him understand how lonely it was to brave the challenges alone.

When Kyle had figured out how much her absence ate at him, he had been melancholic for a few days.

Yet, this didn't help him to find a way outside the Razkadan castle, back to Selene, or even the Jars.

Thus, he had reverted to working hard when he understood this.

Unfortunately, his mind was currently a mess, and he had no idea how to untangle the jumble of thoughts.

He was confused already and Nitran had yet to give him the riddles.

However, this changed sooner than Kyle expected, and Nitran started speaking. To his misfortune, the number of riddles and questions he was bombarded with overwhelmed him right from the start!

"Brat, let's start with an easy riddle to help you warm up- What is alive, keeps living even after it's dead, yet is never visible?"

Initially, he wanted to think about that riddle the moment he heard it, but Nitran didn't even give him the time to breathe.

He simply asked him more than ten additional riddles without a break.

As such, all Kyle could do was just stare at him blankly.

Ignoring his blank stare, the Reaper began with his set of questions.

"Why did you reincarnate so late? Do you even know how old the other reincarnated souls of the old universe are? You are the first living intelligent individual that was able to enter the Razkadan Castle, so an easy question...who brought you here?

What is a domain? Where did you live in your past life….."

"..."

".."

"."

**

If you want to support me use your golden tickets and powerstones.

You can also visit my pa treon: Pa treon.com/HideousGrain

More character images and nice chats about the HideVerse:

https://discord.gg/EdsDgFVWwZ

Link also in my description.

Do you like it? Leave a review and add it to the library!