The mind and the soul both contain memories and you yourself. But if the mind is destroyed the soul can persist for a while.

Some spiritual skills and spiritual arts rely on this characteristic of the soul to display otherworldly abilities like body possession or memory transfer.

These powerful abilities would mean nothing however if the soul was destroyed. Your body and mind would be left as a husk.

This is why demonic, psychic or dream attacks were the most dangerous.

‘This should be a dream attack.’

The movement of time slowed down in this half-asleep state. Jae’s face contorted into a scrunched up paper ball as the light from the explosion of her ceramic skill contoured the frightened edges of her face.

The Cilae man still had a serious fighting expression, not even having the time to realize the danger he was in.

Izo would probably click his tongue and shake his head if he could. This was his own fault. He knew the possible meaning of the blip earlier and underestimated it. He even wound up forgetting about it all together.

‘Either a coma or death.’

This type of attack was near instant and they won’t be teleported fast enough when hit. Their spirituality would protect them still but a 5% chance of death wasn’t anything to joke with. People had won lotteries with a ridiculous 0.0000000715% odds of winning.

With him this close to the epicented, Izo had as good of a chance escaping this if he had steel cuffs chaining him directly to a wall with no room to gather momentum.

‘At least, Jae wouldn’t be able to clear it for now too. The battle resumes once we wake up next week it seems.’

Suddenly, a large spiritual power came from Jae. Feelings of frustration and sadness enveloped her in a whirlwind and then lacerated the spiritual power that was threatening to envelop her.

‘Ah, the #1 can still attack. Is that her new spiritual art?’

No one had seen her practice any of the three basic arts so of course rumors abound of her training a different art. This outburst of power reeked of emotion and it seemed to magnify it thus connecting her mind, body and soul through her intense feeling.

‘Rage? Honor maybe sacrifice.’

The two spiritual forces battled for dominance. One wanting to consume the other, the other having needles that could pierce the blanketting force.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

‘Is she attacking? Ah, a retreat. Wise.’

Jae maneuvered her physical body out of the range of the spider and thus its hold over her would weaken. All spiritual attacks weaken with distance even dream ones. A natural inclination of spirituality to become nothing once more or as Sun Hee calls an inert particle over time.

This smart move would enable her to wait the attack's duration then slay the drained spider.

‘This is her win huh.’

Unless something unexpected happened.

Izo felt the vice grip on his soul loosen as Jae got the spider to focus its power on her.

‘A dream attack huh.’

It just so happened that Izo was practicing Dream State Consciousness diligently since he got it. This spider’s power was magnitudes greater than him but it allowed him to at least flounder like a fish. Sometimes this desperate spasm would get it back to water and sometimes farther inland.

He moved his body like it was rusty and he was submerged in the bottom of a pool. The hatch of the Lasrain opened and he fell towards the acid strewn ground. As he was doing this however, Izo was communicating with his Concealed Trout soul, hoping beyond reason that he would suddenly have an epiphany on knowing how to use it to affect the monster.

However, no matter how hard he willed something, anything to happen, it simply didn’t respond at all.

‘I’ve been too happy recently anyway.’

Sun Hee, Sung Soo, Petro, Jae, Svana, Nabih and others have been too kind to him. A bright future of an explorer with fame and money didn’t really suit him. Just like in the dream before coming to the Nexus, Izo was fated to be a businessman in a cold home as a stranger to his wife and child.

‘Maybe, this has all been just a long and vivid dream. Though I admit this has been a lot more visually stunning with a greater storyline than my former nightmares.’

He had the urge to clap in celebration to thank his brain for such a happy dream. So, he did as the spider changed its focus to Izo. He felt its furious will clamped down once more but unlike before where he still retained his senses, Izo’s mind became devoid of thought.

Before that however the last thing that cross his mind was.

‘I haven’t managed to pay back my debt. I hate disappointing others.’

A magnetic sound shrieked in fury then a violent vibration rocked the air itself. His soul cracked and fractured then Izo lost his consciousness.