1120 Demon

"Not again!" Alex shouted as he looked for a place to hide, but there was no such place at all. At least, not to hide.

"Spirit? Have I won?" he asked.

"No, master White Tiger," the spirit spoke from somewhere.

"Goddammit!" Alex cried out in anger. He looked towards the right and saw the cracks in space as well as the void.

"If I can…"

There was no time to think. He dashed forward as quickly as he could and arrived next to the girl's body which was prime for an explosion.

For some reason, her body was already dropping to the ground, but he couldn't guess why. He grabbed the and tossed her towards the fractured space.

The body exploded just as it reached the fractured space and Alex jumped next to the dead dark-skinned girl's body before putting it up as cover.

That barely did anything as the explosion shattered the girl's body into a million pieces, all of which shot onto his own body like shrapnel.

Then, the explosion reached him and it all turned black.

A small, white object flew out from the corner of the room. "Dammit, I nearly killed myself," the girl's voice came out of the white object.

It was her Nascent soul that she had tossed out before her body had exploded. She had tried to run as far as she could, and even then she had taken a lot of damage.

'At least I survived,' she thought. She looked towards Alex who had nearly turned into a pulp and then towards the side where her body had exploded.

She could see that the cracks had grown larger here and the thing beyond the cracks was more and more visible.

'What is that thing really? It's so eerie,' she thought as she looked at the void. It was somehow dazzling and terrifying at the same time.

"Oh right, I should complete the mission," she thought. The last part of the mission, after killing the suspect was to get rid of the body.

Although, she wasn't sure what body there would be after such a massive—

She turned around back at Alex just in time to see his body wriggling. Bones grew out from the dust and muscle fibers soon filled it up.

The girl's eyes went wide as Alex's body slowly reformed itself.

"No…" the girl said softly. "That's not possible. He has to be a demon of legends. How the hell does he keep coming back to life? He should be dead."

In less than 10 minutes, his body was back to normal, surprising the girl to no end.

However, even when his body was back, he seemed to still be unconscious.

"Wait… he survived, but he's still out," she thought as an idea floated into her head. "If I use this opportunity… I can take his body, his body which cannot die."

Without hesitation, she jumped into his body and soon found her mental self inside Alex's spiritual sea.

Godslayer flew aimlessly atop Alex's spiritual sea, half-worried, and half-bored with what was happening.

"Not again. How do you keep falling unconscious every single time?" he grumbled a bit, but he still stayed there, waiting for him to wake up. He was ready to take over for him if Alex needed some help.

His help wouldn't be worth as much since he had lost a lot of his power compared to what he had been before, but he was sure he could still aid a bit.

Suddenly, he sensed something and turned around.

The crystal ball with the black flame in it saw the woman that had managed to sneak in there.

"Who are you?" Godslayer asked as he looked at her closely. "Are you the little brat he was just fighting?"

"Another soul?" the girl looked at Godslayer with a weird look on her face. "Is that how he's been able to come back to life? You must be the soul that has been teaching the young man weird skills."

"Hahaha, soul you say. That's why I say this world is full of frogs that live in the well. Can't even tell the difference between a soul and a—"

"I won't hear your words, you demon," the girl said. "What have you done with his spiritual sea? What is that mountain? Is that an artifact to bring him back to life?"

"I am no demon, stupid girl," Godslayer said as he slowly moved toward her. "Why did you come here?"

"I—"

"Let me guess," Godslayer interrupted her. "It must be so you can take over his body, isn't it? Well, as someone who tried it before and failed, let me give you this advice, little girl. Give up. You can't take over his body."

The girl looked at Godslayer with a smirk and asked, "Was that meant to threaten me into leaving? Demon, you can't make me leave this easily. I will kill you and then kill that kid. Then, I will forever live on."

"I'm not a demon!" Godslayer shouted in an agitated voice. "Hey boy, are you going to kill her or not?"

Alex was still unconscious, so there was no answer at all.

"He's not going to answer you," the girl said. "He's been using some sort of spiritual attack for a while and has definitely run low on spiritual energy. With him unconscious, this is the perfect time for me to take over his body."

Godslayer sighed. "Fine," he said. "I guess I will do it then."

Suddenly, black fog rolled out of him as he was quickly clad in it. It flowed out towards the girl so quickly that she didn't even realize that she had all been surrounded by the fog.

"What is this?" she shouted and tried using her abilities, but the fog ate it all over, destroying everything in it.

"Nice talking to you, little girl," Godslayer said and then the girl died.

The black fog rolled back into him, disappearing completely, instead of sticking around him like the black goo it used to.

"That was a nice meal," he thought. "My strength grew quite a bit too. I knew eating Nascent souls was far better than some remnant spiritual impression from a beast. I should ask the kid to get me some more of them to repay me for my help here today."

Satisfied, he turned around and went back to aimlessly floating around Alex's spiritual world.

Alex woke up sometime later and slowly got up as he looked around in a daze. He remembered a second later what had happened and was surprised that he had even survived such an explosion.

"Did my last-minute idea of throwing the body into the void work?" he wondered. He looked towards the cracked space and his eyes went wide.

The cracks had grown further and seemed more dangerous now.

They filled up a third of the room from what Alex could see and the gaps in them that led to the void were large enough for a human child to fit through without touching any of the sides.

"Holy… isn't that bad?" he couldn't help but ask.

"That's fine for now," a voice spoke from next to him.

Alex looked towards the Spirit that had just arrived. "Why do you always leave me to die?" he asked. "Can't you just save me?"

"I must adhere to the rules, master White Tiger," he said. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you."

Alex sighed but said nothing he looked around. "Where did the…" he looked for the pink-haired girl's clothes. "Must've been destroyed."

He then searched for the other two girls' clothes, but they were not there too. "Dammit, all that battle, and I can't even get any reward in the end? All their clothes are gone," he shouted.

The spirit looked at him weirdly. "You… wanted their clothes as victory loot, Master White Tiger?" it asked.

"What?" Alex looked at him. "No, not their clothes. I wanted their storage bag, which they keep in their clothes. Dammit, not a single one remained."

"Ah, I see," the spirit said. "Well, what can you do? The girl did explode her physical body."

"Right, she did," Alex said. "She was a Saint Soul realm cultivator. What happened to her soul? Is she still alive?"

"No, she is dead," the spirit said. "I will be taking you back now."

Alex absentmindedly nodded and was teleported back outside the floor he had just left.

"There you go, you're back on the 39th floor," the spirit said.

Alex slowly nodded as he looked at the two rooms that were there. "Wait," he paused when he realized what the spirit had just said.

"39th?" he asked.

"Mhm," the spirit nodded.

"I left the 38th floor," Alex said.

"No, you left the 39th floor," the spirit said.

"No, I left the 38th floor," Alex said. "I did the battle against the puppet on 35, walked through a dream-illusion formation on 36, and completed the elements battle on 37. Now it's the 38th floor, with the painting in that room, and whatever it is on the room."

"Ah!" the spirit said. "I see where the confusion is. You are right on all accounts except the fact that you are on the 38th floor. In fact, you skipped the 38th floor, Master white Tiger."

"I… skipped it? Why?" he asked.

"Because I don't have access to it anymore," the spirit said. "The formation there has been completely destroyed, so anyone who passes the 37th floor gets sent directly to the 39th floor."

Alex looked at the spirit in awe. "Does that mean I was one challenge away from reaching the 40th floor?" he asked.

"Yes," the spirit said cheerfully. "Good luck on the rest of the way, Master White Tiger. I sincerely hope you complete all the challenges soon. Goodbye."