I don't know how many times I had used Soul Projection to let my soul delve into the Side Realm to view the 'Aberration,' but I finally felt like I had some grasp of what I was seeing. The red barrier was essentially a concentration of red mana formed due to the opposition/rejection from the natural mana in the world. However, my experiment by sending some ghosts to the other side as an experiment proved natural mana still existed on the other side.

  That was an important discovery as it meant that it was possible for most 'living' creatures to survive on the other side. While there were some exceptions, almost all existences in this world required natural mana in their souls to survive. Once they 'Awakened,' their soul no longer passively accepted natural mana from the world but began to actively refine it and personalize it for use. That was the source of the mana used by all low and mid tier existences, and it was also why areas of high mana concentration increased the chances of there being more 'Awakened'

existences.

  Undead creatures were a little different due to the magical rules established by the Side Realm. They tended to refine natural mana into death mana to stabilize their souls. While naturally occurring undead had no trouble doing this, low level, undead summons required a constant stream of death mana from their summoner due to the artificial nature of their birth. Only when they reached mid tier did my summons' souls become strong, independent minded, and durable enough to maintain their own existence by just refining natural mana.

  So, finding out that all of my summons could still be self sufficient on the other side of the barrier was very important, It meant that I didn't have to completely power their existences. A few dozen low tier summons were nothing, but if I had to constantly provide all the mana for my mid tier summons, it would be a significant drain on mana in a hostile environment.

  Looking at the red barrier, I readied myself for what was to come. Behind me were all my mid tier summons except for one of the Wraith Spores that I had left to guard its living cousin. They all reluctantly fidgeted as their nervousness and repulsion to the barrier clearly flowed through their links to me, but I wasn't planning on backing off. I had already delayed long enough dilly dallying, and sometimes taking action was necessary instead of just planning and thinking. After a quick glance behind me, I plunged into the red barrier, steeling my will against the hate, anger, and hunger that suddenly encompassed me.

  The barrier reluctantly parted before me, reforming as I passed. It took a few seconds, but eventually I was through, though not without feeling like I had been scrubbed by sandpaper made with every negative emotion I could think of. If I had a mouth and digestive system, I would have probably puked up my guts, but even in my undead state, I was forced to stand still for a while bringing my soul and emotions under control.

  My summons that came through fared no better, as their violent nature overwhelmed my control for a moment, and they almost ripped into one another. However, just as they had their claws and tentacles locked on one another, I yanked back on their restraints. Slith and Bas went back to their usual selves pretty quickly, but the Wraith Spores took some extra convincing before they settled down, considering they were probably the stupidest of my summons.

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  Looking around at the world behind the barrier, I realized the images my ghosts had sent me had done a disservice to how distorted everything was. There were still significant portions of the fortress that seemed to be intact and crystallized in blue, but large, pulsing veins of almost organic looking, red crystal covered every surface of the hallway like space. Like in some bizarre scene from a horror movie, the red veins slowly moved, constantly digging into and out of the blue crystalline surfaces that they had parasitized, eventually connecting up to the red barrier that I had passed through. They were not alone as I also noticed strands of black covering the red malignancy almost like restraints.

  The lighting in the hall was surprisingly a dim yellow spilling from protrusions of red crystal in the walls and ceiling, making the bizarre scene even more confusing. That was not all, as in some places, the red crystallization seemed to have stopped forming whatever it was trying to create, leaving odd shapes and formations scattered throughout the hallway. Truthfully, 'incomplete' was the best word I could use to describe my surroundings. It was like the builder and architect had both been high on psychedelics as they jointly screwed up a massive project.

  As I and my summons made my way forward, the red crystal veins continued to avoid us, leaving a faint trace of hate in their retreat. However, we finally encountered something that not did treat us like pariahs. Instead, its desire to devour us was plenty obvious as our first adversary scrambled up the walls and onto the ceiling like a roach on steroids before pouncing towards me with its bony jaws wide open.

  Almost immediately, Slith grabbed it with his tentacles, restraining the creature in a tight grip. A quick order from me, and the creature was brought in front of me, struggling to break free. Honestly, I was not sure what the hell I was looking at. Nothing in Neduzar's memories matched the malformed thing growling and snapping at me. It was about the size of one of my former skeleton summons and even had a bony structure similar to the summons.

  However, that was were all the similarities ended. Its red tinted 'bones' seemed to be the same as the 'living' crystalline veins surrounding me, though the dimensions of the bones seemed completely off. Worse yet, the 'bones' were covered in mounds and protrusions of the same red mana crystallization, almost like they were interrupted in the middle of forming something. The skull was maybe the most disturbing, as it looked like some child's scribble of a human face given life. If I had to guess, the creature looked like some failed imitation of a skeleton soldier that had formed the core of Neduzar's undead legions.

  That wasn't all, as the fire burning in the malformed creature's ribcage was red. That didn't mean anything, of course, as the color of soul fires varied like hair color did. However, as close as the creature was to me, there was something completely off from the feeling I got from it. For one thing, I could not establish a stable mind link to this undead looking creature. However, the hate and rage that I could sense pouring out of its soul was strong enough for me to feel the irregularity of its soul.

  Taking a chance, I let my soul delve into the Side Realm briefly. The world around me quickly switched to a messy swirl of blue, red, and black. However, in front of me, I saw the mana composition of the creature's soul. It wasn't black like an undead's, blue like any other creature, or even white like some holy creature. It was a dull crimson, but shockingly, it had strands of red mana connecting it to the veins of red mana on the floor, walls, and ceiling.