The demon, while humanoid, looked nothing like a human. It had two arms, two legs, one head, and a torso, but that was where the similarities ended. All of its limbs weren't symmetrical on its body and seemed to be scattered about randomly.
It looked more like a ball of meat than a person.
When the demon sensed Mira approaching, it turned around and screeched at her like some abominable siren, but that was all it could do before she swung her scythe, cutting through its body like it was warm butter.
As soon as Mira 'killed' it, the demon's body turned to dust, leaving behind a 2-meter-tall white wisp.
Mira's eyebrows shot up in confusion as she didn't expect that to happen.
'I suppose it must be the uniqueness of this trial and Secret Realm,' Mira thought, but her theories didn't stop there as she took in the hellish sights around her, 'I have a feeling this place is Hell or at least somewhere similar to it in nature. If that's the case, then these demons and creatures are technically already dead. All that's left of them is their souls.'
Mira turned her attention back to the white wisp, which was filled with a unique energy she'd never felt before.
'This must be its souls in its truest form. That should be all that's left of these beings anyways, granted this place is actually hell.'
Mira's thoughts weren't wrong, as this was a Secret Realm that simulated Heaven and Hell on a much smaller scale than she was used to. While the concepts were pretty much the same, the size, quality of entities, and danger levels were nowhere near similar.
In the 'main' Hell, Mira's attack wouldn't have even scratched that demon. No, before she could even attack anything, her body would have already burst into flames, leaving nothing behind but her soul.
Then, her soul would've most likely been thrown into the River of Reincarnation right after dying, not giving her any chance of reviving.
'Now the question is: what do I do now?' Mira pondered. However, as she was thinking, the white wisp before her began wriggling, and within seconds, the demon's body was reformed to how it was previously.
Only this time, it looked just a bit more deformed than before.
'Interesting. So, it seems that the outward appearance of these demons is just a manifestation of their soul, or in other words, their existence. They are this fugly and gross-looking simply because their soul has been fucked up by them being in Hell for so long.' Mira eyed the demon curiously before chopping its body in half, 'killing' it again.
Seconds later, the demon reformed, its body slightly worse looking than before. However, Mira didn't give the being any respite as she killed it again, except this time she used her Yin Fire.
When it reformed again, Mira was surprised to see that its red body now had a hint of blue, plus it now had small nasty boils all over its body.
'Hmmm~ So, the method they 'die' reflects on their soul. How interesting!' Mira grinned like she had found a new toy to play with and began 'killing' this poor soul over and over again. There was so much to learn about the soul by doing this that she couldn't stop herself.
Whether or not these 'demons' were good or bad people never crossed Mira's mind. What did that matter when they were already in hell? It's not like their lives could get any worse!
So, Mira spent the next few minutes killing it repeatedly, finding out how external forces change one's soul.
'From my understanding, after this brief little experiment session, the soul is just a reflection of who we are and our experiences. It is 'you' in the purest sense of the word. For example, if someone asked me who I am, I would usually answer "Mira", and while that would be true, that's not who I am. Mira is just a name. However, if I were to show my soul to them instead, that would be the correct answer as that's a direct representation of who I am.'
Although Mira came to that conclusion, her soul was nothing like that. It was black or filled with blood. Rather, it was blank. Aside from the Firmament, Elenei, and her Scythe, which resided in her Soul Sea, there was nothing special about her soul.
'How peculiar. I wonder if it's because I haven't reached the Soul Transformation Realm yet.' Mira thought but soon shrugged her shoulders and discarded these ideas
'I should probably move onto something else so I can be done with this Secret Realm.'
Mira stopped thinking about useless things and killed the demon again. However, she didn't wait for it to reform this time and jammed her arm into it instead.
As soon as she made contact with it, the white wisp trembled for a moment before it shot toward her head.
"What?"
Mira tried to stop it, but the wisp was too fast and entered her body before she could do anything.
'Fuck!' Mira cursed and swept her consciousness through her body, only to find the wisp hovering in her soul. It wasn't doing anything, not wreaking havoc or trying to take over her body. It just hovered there as if it had found its new home.
'Hmm? Why did it-'
*OOOOOOHHHHHMMMMM!*
Mira couldn't finish that thought as an ethereal pressure enveloped her body, causing her feet to sink into the ground.
'Now what?!'
Mira's consciousness returned to her body, and when she opened her eyes, she was blinded by a golden light shining on her!
*Tssss!*
Her eyes seared from the light, but she didn't close them and instead searched for the source of her problems, which didn't take long to find as there was only one thing in this entire place that emitted light!
'The Gates of Heaven!!' Mira screamed internally.
That's right! The Gates of Heaven had opened up slightly and were now beaming her with light!
'Why is it attacking me?! Is it because I absorbed that soul into my body?' Mira guessed and was certain that she was correct. The only thing she had done in this Realm was she killed a demon a few times, but the Heavens didn't react to that. Only after the soul went inside her body did it react!
Now that she understood why it was attacking her, a few more things started to make more sense. For example, how she was supposed to clear this trial.
'The Firmament told me that I was rebelling against the Heavens and that if I wanted to continue down this path, then I had to fight.' Mira raised her hand and touched the light. It immediately began trying to eradicate her, but her body was too strong, and her regenerative powers were too high for it to do any harm, 'I'm guessing the part about fighting them means something like this.'
Mira turned her attention to the other demons around her and looked around, 'Or does it instead want me to fight those things, and the part about "conquering" has to do with overcoming this light?'
Mira was unsure if that was correct, but she felt she was one step closer to the truth.
Shaking her head, she stared at a similar-looking demon and ran over to it, ignoring the light and the pressure around her.
'Let's see what happens if I absorb another soul.'
The demon didn't get a chance to retaliate before Mira swung her scythe and chopped it in half. After its body dissipated, leaving behind a white wisp, Mira touched it, and the same thing happened again. The white wisp flew into her brain, straight for her soul, and merged with the first wisp.
As soon as that happened, the light and pressure around her body intensified, though the effects were still minimal.
Nodding her head as if she expected that to happen, she thought, 'It seems the Heavens aren't happy with my actions. So, could this be considered an act of rebelling? Is this what the Firmament means by fighting against the absolutes? But how am I fighting against hell and the 6 other absolutes by doing this?'
Mira had too many questions, yet not enough answers. In fact, from what the Firmament explained not too long ago, balance and order were incredibly important to maintaining the universe. However, she didn't know what it meant to break that balance.
'Is absorbing these demon's souls breaking said balance? But how? Is it because they can't return to the River of Reincarnation? Or that I'm not supposed to have more than one soul in my body?'
For some reason, these questions plagued Mira's mind more than she thought they would, but no matter how hard she thought about them, she couldn't come up with any concrete answers.
'Whatever!' In the end, Mira just threw her arms up in the air and gave up thinking. She decided to put her time toward something more worthwhile, 'Since it seems the Heavens react to me absorbing demon souls, then I'll continue to do just that!'
Leaping up in the air, Mira shot toward her next prey!
