Chapter 29: Return Through the Soul Corridor
The soft hum of an air purifier filled the private briefing room, blending with the faint tapping of rain against the tall glass windows. The city outside was wrapped in a copper dusk, skyscrapers glowing like silent beacons against the fading light.
Jessica Walton sat at the round table, legs crossed, eyes fixed on the tablet in her hand. The screen reflected faintly in her blue irises, sharp and focused as always.
A light clink broke the silence.
"Miss Jessica, your coffee is ready," said a deep, warm voice.
Saren—broad-shouldered, athletic, with tightly coiled black hair—set a steaming cup of dark roast beside her. The rich scent of coffee roses filled the room.
Jessica murmured a distracted, "Thank you, Saren," without looking up.
But Saren noticed the intensity in Jessica's posture. Her shoulders were slightly stiff, her jaw tense—the look she only had when something truly bothered her.
Saren leaned closer, curiosity lifting her brows.
"What has you listening so closely?"
Jessica didn't answer immediately. She switched off her Bluetooth earpiece, tapped the tablet, and played the audio aloud.
Soma's voice filled the room — young, steady, and strangely calm.
> "Wait… Miss Jessica?"
"Yes?"
"Did you remember something else?"
"You should… get a medical checkup soon."
Jessica stopped the recording and set the tablet down with a soft thud.
Saren blinked, eyes widening. "I caught something. In the recording, the boy calls you by your real name."
Jessica nodded slowly. "Yes. And the strange part is… I never told him my real name."
A chill passed through the room.
Saren frowned. "That's… odd. Who is this kid?"
Jessica slid a photo across the table—Soma's school ID picture.
A quiet boy. Dark hair. Deep eyes. Nothing outwardly special.
"His name is Soma," Jessica said, her voice lower now. "I went to India to investigate the Black Day incident. My team analyzed the epicenter and its surrounding radius. That's where I met him."
Saren leaned back in her chair, tapping the photo with her finger.
"What else happened?"
Jessica inhaled slowly, picking up her coffee again.
"When I left his house," she said, "he didn't just call out to me by name. He touched his own throat… and told me to get my body checked. It felt deliberate. Too deliberate."
Saren's brows knitted.
"And? What did you find?"
Jessica set her cup down, her eyes softening for the first time.
"A malignant growth," she said quietly. "Near my vocal cords."
Saren's breath hitched. "Really?"
Jessica nodded. "The specialist told me that if I had waited even a month or two, I could have lost my voice… permanently."
For a moment, the room was silent except for the rain.
Saren handed the photo back with a thoughtful hum.
"Then you should thank that boy the next time you're in India."
Jessica allowed herself a faint smile. "I plan to. He… saved my life."
Saren leaned on the table, her expression turning serious.
"But what about the Black Day incident? Did we find anything conclusive?"
Jessica shook her head, her blonde hair brushing her shoulders.
"No. No evidence. Nothing to explain why sunlight vanished in the middle of the day."
"Then what's the official story?" Saren asked.
Jessica snorted softly. "To prevent global panic, the higher-ups approved a narrative: an asteroid passed between the Sun and Earth. A temporary eclipse."
Saren crossed her arms. "But you don't believe that."
Jessica's lips curved into a humorless smile.
"No. I don't."
Her eyes drifted back to Soma's photo—
a quiet boy sitting in the center of a mystery far too large for him.
Or perhaps…
far too large for the world.
---
Morning sunlight warmed the dining table as the smell of fresh ginger tea and toasted cumin drifted through the quiet kitchen.
Soma sat with his bowl of poha, half-awake, half-distracted, still thinking about yesterday.
Across from him, Savitri lowered her spoon. The soft clink of metal against the ceramic bowl made Soma look up.
She cleared her throat gently.
> "Beta… I got a phone call from your school this morning."
Soma froze mid-chew.
Savitri continued, her voice carrying that calm firmness only grandmothers possess.
> "Now that the lockdown is easing, they want to finish this year's annual exams."
"The exams begin next Monday."
Soma stared at her.
Then—
"I… completely forgot."
His head thumped onto the table, a long groan escaping him.
Savitri hid a smile and reached over, brushing his hair with a soft, motherly touch.
> "I've sent the exam schedule to your V-Chat. You have three days. Study hard, hmm?"
> "Yes, Grandma…"
He finished eating, washed his dishes, and trudged to his room like a man walking toward his own execution.
---
As he dropped into his chair, the familiar hum of his computer filled the air while he powered it on. A soft blue glow washed over his face as he opened the exam routine.
Five days.
Monday to Saturday.
Soma grabbed his head.
> "Feels like a guillotine hanging over my neck…"
A gentle bobbing movement caught his eye.
Alex was floating near the computer screen, drifting back and forth like a curious balloon, her pale light reflecting off the monitor.
Soma's face brightened.
> "Wait—Alex! With your help, the exam will be child's play!"
She tilted her head slightly, amused.
Soma stretched back, relaxing.
> "Haah… I worry too much. Let tomorrow's problems stay with tomorrow me."
He stood up straight.
> "Alright, Alex. How many souls do we need to unlock all the symbols in the Rune?"
Alex closed her eyes, calculating. Light ripple across her form.
After a moment, she spoke.
> "With each new symbol, the Rune requires higher-quality souls.
For all seven rings and their twelve symbols, we'll need approximately… seven trillion souls."
Soma choked on his own breath.
Seven trillion.
Then he smiled helplessly.
> "So… we need to destroy a few galaxies to reach our quota?"
Alex blinked.
Soma shrugged.
> "I have plenty anyway, thanks to the Guardians. Let's unlock a few symbols."
---
Closing his eyes, he visualized the Rune.
In the darkness behind his eyelids, the seven rings slowly emerged — massive, luminous, ancient.
He focused on the first ring: Anima — The Ring of Soul.
His attention shifted to the third symbol. Golden text formed shimmering:
> Requires 1,000,000 Awakened Souls to unlock.
YES / NO
Soma selected Yes.
A soft vibration spread through the void.
> New Upgrade: Soul Absorption Radius increased by 10×
> Nice. Ten-kilometer radius…
He moved to the next symbol.
Golden light formed again.
> Requires 10,000,000 Awakened Souls to unlock.
YES / NO
He selected YES.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then text appeared—
but halfway through, his vision blurred.
> New Ability Unlocked: Omni—
Before he could read the rest, a crushing heaviness swept over him. His body sagged. His consciousness flickered like a dying candle.
The world dissolved.
When he opened his eyes again, he was no longer in his room.
He stood in empty darkness — a vast, suffocating void where even the concept of sound felt muted. Only one thing existed before him:
A giant white planet hung suspended in the emptiness.
Cold dread crawled up his spine.
"…Did I enter the other world?" he whispered, though no sound left his mouth.
He touched his throat. Nothing.
No voice.
He tried again, pushing his thoughts outward toward Alex.
A—Alex? Can you hear me?
Silence.
No response. Not even a flicker of presence.
A pulse of fear tightened in his chest.
He activated the All-Seeing Eye, desperate for information.
But the void refused to give anything.
Just as he looked toward the white planet—
ERROR — ERROR
The words stabbed into his mind like spears.
A white-hot pain exploded in his skull.
Soma screamed — though again, no sound left his lips.
His vision blurred violently; it felt as if his head might split open.
He clenched his eyes shut, forcing the skill to close.
When the agony faded, he gasped for breath— or whatever counted as breathing here.
Then he saw it.
At the center of the white planet…
a black vortex churned slowly, expanding and twisting like a monstrous pupil.
The entire planet looked like a colossal eye — and it was staring straight at him.
As its awareness locked onto his presence, a suffocating pressure crushed down from every direction.
His limbs felt like they were wrapped in thousands of unseen hands, gripping tighter and tighter.
His mind screamed.
He tried to fly, tried to invoke the Rune, tried anything—
but in front of that terrifying pressure, nothing worked.
The eye drew closer.
Reality rippled.
A suffocating pressure slammed into him—raw, overwhelming, irresistible.
And then—
Everything ripped into white static.
His consciousness collapsed like a snuffed flame.
---
High above the world, the sky shimmered with a hundred shifting colors.
A luminous woman—nearly twelve feet tall—floated effortlessly through the clouds.
Her long hair drifted like threads of starlight, and her entire body radiated every hue of the spectrum, rolling across her skin like living auroras.
Beneath her feet, the continents stretched endlessly.
Small humanoid creatures—newborn life—moved like tiny ants across the land below.
She watched them with a detached, serene expression, like a goddess observing her own creation.
The wind howled silently around her, ruffling the prismatic light that drifted off her body like mist. It was a perfect, peaceful moment of supremacy.
Until—
*Thump.*
A sharp, searing agony erupted in the center of her chest.
Her eyes went wide. It wasn't a physical wound. It felt deeper, violative—as if someone had gripped her very essence and was tearing it out by the roots. She gasped, clutching her chest, her colossal form trembling in the air.
What… is this?
Before she could comprehend the source of the pain, a golden light pierced through her fingers.
A glowing orb, no larger than a fist, emerged from her chest. It pulsed with a heartbeat of its own, terrifyingly powerful. As it floated free of her body, the pain vanished instantly, replaced by a sudden, overwhelming sense of awe.
The golden sphere pulsed once.
Then it began to grow.
It expanded rapidly, the light swirling and condensing, knitting together matter and energy. Within seconds, limbs formed. Then a torso. Then a face.
The blinding light faded, leaving behind the figure of a seventeen-year-old boy, suspended in midair, as if the sky itself held him gently.
He drifted there, eyes closed, his chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm.
Aurora's gaze locked onto him.
Her radiant aura softened into reverence as she bowed deeply. Her voice, echoing like a grand bell, filled the sky.
> "I welcome the Supreme One."
Soma gasped, his eyes snapping open.
His lungs heaved, greedily sucking in the cold, thin air. Instinctively, his hands flew to his face, then his chest, patting down his body in a frantic search for any abnormality.
He looked around, blinking in confusion. He wasn't in the suffocating white void anymore. He was suspended in the sky, surrounded by clouds and sunlight.
> "Am I… alive?"
He whispered the words, hardly daring to believe them.
*But how?*
His gaze fell upon the giant, glowing woman floating before him. Recognition flashed in his mind. *Aurora.*
The pieces clicked together.
> > "I must have died… in front of that terrifying Eye. And because my soul is linked to Aurora, the 'Soul Corridor' activated on its own and pulled me back."
He looked at his hands again. He had essentially respawned. He had reincarnated through Aurora's soul, using her as an anchor to pull himself back from the brink of absolute erasure.
A wave of relief washed over him, so potent it made his knees weak even without ground beneath them. He had narrowly escaped death.
But then, the memory hit him.
The planet-sized eye. The black vortex. The crushing pressure that had dissolved his consciousness like it was nothing.
A violent shiver ran through his body, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. That wasn't just a creature. That was something else entirely. Something he shouldn't have seen.
He took a deep, trembling breath, forcing his heart rate to slow down. Calm down. You're here now. You're alive.
Aurora, noticing the pale, terrified expression on his face, leaned forward slightly. Concern rippled through her voice.
> "My Lord? Is there an issue?"
Soma opened his mouth to answer, to tell her he was fine—
**BOOOOOOOM!**
A catastrophic explosion shattered the silence.
The sky itself seemed to crack. The shockwave hit them a second later, whipping Soma's hair across his face.
> "What the—?!"
He spun toward the source.
A colossal beam of crimson energy was cutting across the horizon.
It obliterated a distant mountain range in a single instant—stone turning to dust as the beam bored through it like molten lightning.
But it didn't stop.
The beam tore upward, slicing through the atmosphere, screaming into the space—until it struck the Red Moon hanging in the distant sky.
For a heartbeat, everything was silent—
Then the moon erupted.
A massive section of its surface shattered in an explosion of red dust and cosmic debris, half of the celestial body collapsing into drifting fragments.
Soma stared, horror tightening his throat.
The peaceful sky was gone.
Soma stared in disbelief, his breath caught in his throat. The peaceful sky he knew was
gone—
Without wasting even a heartbeat, he launched himself toward the explosion, cutting through the air like a streak of light.
He had to know what kind of existence could unleash a cataclysmic beam like that.