When you're down on your luck, everything goes wrong. That's exactly how Leo was feeling right now. What the hell was this even supposed to be...
To think he ran into Thresh just trying to activate his codex... wait, hold on. A thought suddenly occurred to Leo... was his meeting with Thresh truly a coincidence?
Looking at the Purple Prison Mountain deity whose eyes were practically glowing as he stared at him, Leo's mouth twitched. Thresh's next words immediately gave Leo his answer, clearing his confusion.
"It seems my trip wasn't wasted. To think a soul like you exists within Purple Prison Mountain... You are even more marvelous than that woman with the broken sword I met last time. How on earth do you do it?" On his handsome face, his deep pink eyes shone with a manic joy. Thresh tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.
"What a scent. A truly wonderful scent. Do you know, child? My very soul trembles for you." Like a pathological madman, Thresh kept his eyes closed, wrapped an arm around his own shoulders, and moaned.
"Oh, lost soul, what is your story? The song your soul sings is one I have never heard before. From where did you wander to arrive here? You are lost, aren't you? You need help, and I just so happen to be able to find the way for you."
Opening his eyes, Thresh looked at Leo. The joy in his eyes was now stained with a touch of madness.
These deities of the Spirit Blossom world exist because of a single, driving obsession. For Thresh, that obsession was to seek and to torment. The Thresh from the main universe was dangerous enough, let alone the Thresh from the world of Spirit Blossom...
Pinned by Thresh's stare, Leo stammered as he looked up at the man on the snake's head. After a moment, he pointed a finger at his own mouth. "Aba... aba..."
"Mute?" "Hahaha!" "Oh, lost soul, my child, there's no such thing as a mute soul!" As his voice fell, Thresh vanished from before Leo, only to reappear right behind him.
"Hssss—" A hot breath ghosted across the back of Leo's neck, making him instinctively clutch his throat and spin around. He came face-to-face with a stooping Thresh. It was only now, this close, that Leo realized Thresh had to be nearly three meters tall. The proximity was suffocating.
Meeting those pink eyes, Leo felt as if he were standing naked before Thresh. But what he felt wasn't shame; it was a fear that defied description. Those eyes were like an abyss, devouring his very soul.
"Don't be afraid, child. This isn't true suffering."
[Soul Strength is decreasing!] [Summoner, please flee immediately!]
Flee my ass!If I had a way to escape, I'd have been long gone! Hearing the system's notifications, Leo cursed it viciously in his mind. This damn system, was it really looking out for him? What a joke. Did it think he didn't want to run? No, the real question was, how the hell was he supposed to run?!
"Let me see... what your story really is." "Your soul is euphonic, melodious. You are truly more fascinating than the trillions of souls I have seen before!" Thresh stuck out his tongue, licking his lips as he reached a long-fingered hand toward the top of Leo's head.
The hand's speed was neither fast nor slow, but in Leo's eyes, time itself seemed to have frozen. What Leo saw was no longer the purple bamboo forest, but a gloomy, violet lantern that had appeared behind Thresh.
His ability to adapt was truly frightening, so much so that even Leo himself found it appalling. Because even in a situation like this, Leo somehow noticed that Thresh's fingernails were long, like the sharp claws of a wild beast. Wait... was this really the time to be thinking about that?
Just as Thresh's hand was about to touch his head, an ethereal voice rang out. "Stop!"
A flash of white light accompanied the voice. Leo felt his body being pulled by another force, drawing him backward and away from Thresh. But Leo couldn't turn his head. The expression on Thresh's face had changed completely, becoming sinister and fierce. A pair of eyes appeared on the enormous, ancient purple lantern behind him. Then, a crack spread from two-thirds of the way up the lantern, splitting it open like a terrifying, monstrous mouth.
[Soul Strength is decreasing!] [Soul is being healed!] [Soul Strength is decreasing!] [Soul is being healed!]
The system's beeps rang incessantly in his mind. Leo tilted his head back in agony, wanting to scream but unable to even make a sound. Behind him, the white light pulled at his body. Before him, the violet-black light pulled at his body.
"Damn you! It's you again!" Thresh snarled from in front of Leo.
"I trust you've been well, Thresh. Have you counted how many souls you've collected recently?" The ethereal voice was beautiful, and its tone carried the faintest hint of a smile.
"Get lost! This one's soul is mine!"
"Oh, that won't do~ Finding the way for lost souls is my duty. Thresh, I will not hand him over to you. I won't."
"How many more times are you going to stand in my way!"
"Until you give up persecuting these lost souls, of course, Thresh," the beautiful voice replied, yielding no ground.
Leo looked in agony at his descent timer.
Counting down the seconds, Leo waited for the timer to hit zero. What kind of joke is this... He had originally thought he could enter the Spirit Blossom world at will, that death had no penalty or consequence. But now he saw that he had been completely naive. For powerful demigods like these, they had more than enough power to trap him in this space forever. Although he didn't know if being killed by them would send him back to his hub space, now was clearly not the time to experiment.
Leo didn't know who this other "god" who had suddenly appeared was, but the white light and her opposition to Thresh told him that the deity helping him was from the Kanmei faction. This was good news. She had blocked Thresh for him. Otherwise... he might have already become another resident of Thresh's lantern.
3 2 1
The descent timer reached its final second. [This descent has ended!] [Tallying Exploration Value...] [Accumulated rewards are being acquired...]
"Vmmm!" A bizarre hum of energy suddenly flared between the gentle white light and the deep violet light. In the next instant, Leo, who was being fought over by the two forces, vanished from the spot.
"No!" As Thresh's furious roar echoed, the two powerful forces collided. Purple Prison Mountain trembled, the earth shook, and the lake's waters churned violently.
"Fox! You let him get away! I was so close. I was so, so close to succeeding," Thresh's voice became pained and chaotic.
"All the better, Thresh. Although I don't know how he did it, he seems quite clever. I like him. And I succeeded in stopping you again~" the ethereal voice let out a lovely laugh. "Well then, until next time, Thresh."
"Let's hope we never meet again!" Thresh said grimly, watching the white light and the fox tails fade away. He was utterly powerless against her. In the entire Spirit Blossom realm... No one was. Because she was the guide for lost souls, the spirit of salvation in this world. And, at the same time, his mortal enemy.
In the purple bamboo forest, Thresh bent down, looking at the small footprints on the ground. He reached out, stroking the impressions as his nose twitched.
"I won't let you get away... child. I will find you." "I was so close..." "Just a little bit closer."
Slamming his hand deep into the ground, Thresh lifted it, cupping the soil marked by the footprints. Then, he placed the earth into the lantern at his waist. With that, Thresh vanished from the purple bamboo forest.