Helena had devoured the souls of Naslan’s servants, absorbed their emotions and memories, and using her own abilities, with her own Soul Fragments, sculpted replicas with the same memories and personalities. These pieces of the Soul Reaver, essentially extensions of herself, once again propped up the Specter Race of Naslan.

This "creation" probably couldn’t be considered the original individual, but the Specter Servants had accepted this fact and were willing to continue their eternal servitude to Naslan’s mistress.

Helena had devoured Spiritual Bodies, transforming herself into an exceptional Soul Reaver, using her own Soul Fragments as material to sculpt Naslan’s race.

Everything seemed perfectly harmonious.

There was one exception.

Medusa.

Also a creation of Helena, Lyle’s staff was certain to have exhibited some abnormalities. Medusa’s personality likely also stemmed from a fragment of Helena, yet she had developed a sense of self and feared returning to Helena.

Lyle didn’t think every story would have a fairy-tale ending, he instinctively felt something was missing. Was Alianna hiding something? No, perhaps she herself was unaware.

After integrating so many memories and personalities, who could know what Naslan’s eldest daughter had now become?

"Helena loved us," Alianna’s voice would always arise at the right time, those tranquil eyes as if peering into Lyle’s heart. "Not just bound by oaths, but also by the blood connection."

"We deeply loved each other, even if our forms shattered, beauty faded, and blood dried up, our feelings for each other would never change."

Even human beings changed over time, once familiar friends became strangers, suspicion and doubt cutting the ties between them. For the Naslan sisters, who had endured the test of time, this might have become their only creed, their love for each other.

Lyle realized that Alianna was trying to soothe his secret fear of Helena, exhibiting the liches’ insensitivity but also a girl’s sensitivity. Lyle complied with her, at the very least kept the matter of Medusa deeper within.

Lyle, silent, broke into a smile, embracing Alianna’s waist, feeling the weight and warmth of her pressed against him.

"I’m ready to face Sister Helena’s test again."

Lyle’s spirited attitude brightened her eyes, she regaining her posture, Alianna taking his hand.

"Flattery won’t make sister go easy on you, not even if it’s meant to comfort me. You’re going to look pretty bad soon regardless. Just prepare as usual, dear Lyle."

"He’s going to look even worse," Helena’s sweet voice contained a note of malice, its off-tune strange cadence causing the dancing pair to smile at each other.

This crazy woman.

Lyle cursed inwardly. He could feel that this test was different from the previous ones. The turning point hadn’t arrived yet, but the Helena sculptures surrounding him had already started floating in the air.

In Lyle’s eyes, those stone sculptures seemed to come alive, their eyes tightly shut, but their bodies all turning towards Lyle, the pale plaster statues damnably sweet, especially paired with that crescent-moon-like smile.

Just five more steps.

The oppressive feeling of Magic Power’s allure had already begun to make itself felt in Lyle’s senses, like towering walls, Lyle knew when the time came, these walls would collapse back into a roaring flood, washing his reason into the trash heap.

Lyle felt he could sense that self-satisfied eldest daughter of Naslan, waiting for him to make a fool of himself.

The time had come.

The moment Lyle’s toes tapped the ground, a pink tide had already surged into his mind, diving into the tide where he sensed Helena’s entity before his consciousness was overwhelmed by the fragrance and sweetness.

A colorless, transparent world.

That was a clean world that didn’t exist in reality.

Land of Souls, this was the name that seeped into his consciousness. When Lyle arrived at the Land of Souls, he automatically gleaned such knowledge from the surrounding blankness.

The Land of Souls is the birth and death place of Spiritual Bodies, veiled layer upon layer by the appearances of various desires. Only the souls of steadfast mind and those of the deathly ones, having abandoned everything, can come here.

Here, dying souls are disassembled, newborn souls are arranged at random, memories and personalities are left behind, and as time wears on, they become new raw materials.

A stir rose in Lyle’s heart, as new memories started to burrow into his mind.

These were the marks left by a Soul Master who once roamed this place, much like a guidebook or playbook for beginners.

It started with a welcome to the novice Soul Apprentices to their sacred ground, followed by some cautionary advice for this place, higher knowledge is located in higher areas, and one should explore later if they wish not to have their self erased.

It also covered the reason for undergoing desire testing with Troy, which is a universal operation in the progression of soul studies. Soul Apprentices would undertake tests to resist temptation under the guidance of a mentor; in fact, beneath the desire lies the arranged Gate of Souls, which was precisely why Lyle had come to this place.

To tear through the dazzling layers of desire was to gaze upon the immaculate essence of the soul.

"So it would seem, I passed through Helena’s trap of desire, crossed her Gate of Souls, and arrived here."

Lyle’s Spiritual Body floated lonely in the air, so was the Land of Souls a shared space for all souls, or was it merely Helena’s private domain?

New knowledge immediately took over his mind, as if someone had been listening to his doubts all along.

The Land of Souls is both shared and separate, they affect each other, the key being the power of the administrator themselves.

"In that case, Helena’s power must have reached the point where it can influence the Land of Souls, given that she is a Soul Reaver."

The territory of Soul Reaver Helena belongs to a high-risk area of the Land of Souls, undetectable by lower Spiritual Bodies. But your individual carries the scent of a Soul Reaver, application now considered, access granted.

The domain of the Soul Reaver began to erode the soul space.

A sense of crisis! A deadly sense of crisis emerged, Lyle realized he had been too curious for his own good and now had to confront a high-risk area. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

The Soul Reaver herself.

White, Lyle’s vision filled with a colorless world turned white.

Snowflake-like fragments appeared in the air, those pieces were of plaster, a thin layer drifting slowly downward.

Lyle was incapable of thought, he hovered in the air, staring dumbfounded at the scene unfolding before him.

A sculpture.

An enormous statue as tall as several stories. It was exquisitely crafted, with every edge meticulously finished, lifelike in detail.

It was Helena’s sculpture, the enormous Helena with hands clasped as if in prayer, naked and in perfect proportion.

Those pieces shed from the cheeks and palms of the statue, sprinkling down like snowflakes.

Those were fragments of a Soul Reaver, swirling in the air, transforming into lively Spiritual Bodies, entering the Gates of Souls, heading towards reality.

The statue of the Soul Reaver had no legs, in their place was a tail formed from countless plaster shards. Those shards, on the verge of shattering and returning from behind the gate to the Spirit Realm, reverted to their master.

Lively souls were sculpted by her and ultimately returned to her. The immense serpent tail that fluttered in the air was the greatest symbol of Helena as a leader of her race, representing continuity and growth.

Boundless astonishment shook Lyle’s soul, but he didn’t shatter. His Spiritual Body began to take on a white hue, and its surface also turned to a plaster-like texture.

His Spiritual Body was mutating, preparing to integrate into the cycle of the Soul Reaver.

Blackness, soaked into the eyes of Lyle’s statue, and a force, fierce and overwhelming, cast him out.