The silent river wound like a silver serpent through a tunnel of time and space, connecting the two ends of life and death.
[The Great River of Souls]
This was a dimensional structure corresponding to reality, like a wondrous mirror reflecting the countless forms of the real world while intertwining them with the vivid colors of illusory dreams.
Countless lost souls gathered here like glittering stars.
They drifted slowly along the river, glowing with a faint yet tenacious light, as though searching for their own path and final resting place.
The expressions on their faces were frozen in place. Some looked like lambs lost in the fog, bewildered and helpless.
Others resembled prisoners tormented by pain, struggling desperately.
Still others were like candle flames flickering in a gale, on the verge of being snuffed out.
Yet all of them had gathered here, forming this vast ocean of souls and silently recounting the joys and sorrows, meetings and partings, and endless vicissitudes of the mortal world.
Countless phantoms of bygone days drifted slowly across the river's surface like strips of film, each fragment carrying a gripping story.
A giant dragon that seemed to be fast asleep drifted with the current.
There was no sense of time.
His consciousness seemed to have entered a strange state.
Apart from the magic constantly draining away like grains of sand through an hourglass, reminding him that he still existed, everything else seemed frozen in that single moment.
Who knew how much time had passed...
The sound of a body stretching broke the silence. His scattered thoughts began to gather, and the giant dragon slowly opened his eyes.
"Was the experiment a success...?"
Naohara murmured.
Crack!
A fissure appeared in the space before him. In the next instant, it grew wider and wider.
He seized the rift with both claws and forcefully pulled it apart with his razor-sharp talons.
Crack~
Once the fissure had been torn open wide enough to pass through, Naohara cast one final glance at the River of Souls before disappearing into it.
A long while later, a faint sigh of relief seemed to echo through the distance.
...
Nazarick, Ninth Floor, the Throne Room.
A faint sense of unfamiliarity quietly washed over him, but the fleeting sensation vanished like smoke the very next second, as though it had never existed at all.
By then, Naohara had already shifted into his Dragonoid form and was leisurely reclining against the throne that symbolized supreme authority.
Three years had passed without leaving the slightest trace of time on him.
After all, by the Dragon Race's unique perception of time, three years amounted to little more than a short nap.
"There really are more and more mysteries."
Naohara thought to himself.
Over the past three years, he had resolved many of the doubts that had once lingered in his mind. At the same time, however, just as many new questions had emerged.
The most striking of them concerned the abnormalities within the River of Souls.
This vast world could roughly be divided into two interconnected, cyclical subsystems: the River of Souls and the Earth Veins.
The River of Souls was the final destination of souls after death, while the Earth Veins were where the life force of the dead accumulated.
The True Dragon Lords drawing souls from the River of Souls was not nearly as serious as Naohara had originally imagined.
It was like having a tiny mosquito draw a little blood. There might be some slight discomfort, but it would not cause any significant harm. At most, the body would become somewhat weakened.
The life force within the Earth Veins could make up for that negligible loss, much like an anemic person taking a tonic to quickly recover their strength.
What truly puzzled Naohara was the reincarnation system of the River of Souls.
The river had not stopped flowing, but the range of that flow was extremely limited.
If the River of Souls were compared to a hollow cup, then reincarnation would be the process of water flowing from top to bottom. Yet the current situation was more like someone had blocked the original outlet, leaving the water with nowhere to go but to accumulate until it overflowed the cup.
More importantly, he had not found the souls of the Eight Greed Kings.
He had not even found the soul of a single True Dragon Lord.
That... was extremely abnormal.
New souls could be born from old souls, but that did not mean the old souls simply vanished without a trace.
In truth, what separated from them was merely the energy contained within the soul. The concept of the soul itself continued to exist stubbornly and could still be resurrected through magic.
Only souls mercilessly consumed by Wild Magic would completely dissipate from the world and cease to exist.
[Come to think of it, though, that isn't necessarily a bad thing.]
[At least I won't be trapped in endless boredom in that unimaginably distant future.]
Exploring realms no one had ever set foot in and unraveling mysteries hidden beneath layers of fog. Wasn't there immense enjoyment to be found in that?
Curiosity was like a wondrous key, quietly unlocking a treasury of emotional value.
Just as the people of his first life had never tried to hide their desire to explore the starry sky.
Every step that brought them closer to the stars was itself a reward for exploration.
"Does the difference between interesting and boring really matter that much?"
The question suddenly surfaced in his mind.
"Original, haven't you noticed that your thoughts are gradually becoming calmer and more composed? Would the person you are now still lose himself in those dreamlike illusions...?"
Dreaming?
The word passed quietly through his mind.
Ever since entering this mysterious New World, the frequency of his dreams really had been declining.
Thinking about it carefully, dreams were ultimately nothing more than various illusory scenes appearing in the consciousness because the brain's inhibitory processes had failed to become completely active during sleep.
If he truly wanted to, he could weave whatever dream he desired at any time.
But was there really any need?
Naohara raised his head and looked ahead.
Another version of himself was slowly walking toward him.
"Did the old me really pay attention to things like this?"
With that thought, Naohara rose to his feet and gave himself a big hug.
Quite literally, he was looking back on the past and embracing the future.
"Long time no see, Original. Though you've probably been peeking through my memories this whole time."
Naraku shoved Naohara away in disgust. Hugging himself just felt strange.
Compared to this, he would much rather hug a beautiful girl.
"Normally, I don't do that. I only share some of your emotions. Of course, this time was an exception."
Naohara was quite serious about privacy.
Although the young man before him was merely a manifestation of his own thoughts, Naohara could still put himself in the other's position.
Since he himself disliked the feeling of being watched, the other naturally would not enjoy it either.
"Fine, fine. You're the original, so whatever you say goes. Who knows what you've actually been doing?"
Naraku shrugged, still muttering complaints under his breath.
Despite what he said, however, deep down he did trust Naohara's words to a certain extent.
After all, Naraku was merely a materialized existence formed from human blood, a single thought, and a consciousness. He had never possessed a soul of his own, so there was simply no reason for the original to lie to him.
The relationship between the two was much like that between a complex, sophisticated router and all kinds of electronic devices. The latter had to rely on the former in order to connect to the network.
To prevent them from eventually ending up like the Deep Darkness Dragon Lord and turning against each other, the original really had been exceptionally cautious.
At that thought, a small sense of pride rose within Naraku.
Hmm. As expected of me!
"All right, enough chit-chat. I still have lessons to prepare, so let's get started."
After indulging in that thought for a moment, Naraku turned to the matter at hand.
The difference between a genius and an ordinary person could be bridged by the Doctor of Truth.
Next, he would help the original become a genius.