"Because I can't let you take them on like that. You can't defeat them in a conventional way no matter how powerful you are. You will just get swarmed in the end," The girl said in a concerned tone, clearly not wanting him to rush out there.
Viktor closed his eyes as he took another deep breath since he couldn't understand why but he was finding it very hard to calm down the impulse of rushing towards those evil spirits and tearing them apart.
He couldn't remember the last time he felt such bloodthirst that was almost making him go crazy.
He also found the words of the girl hard to believe but still felt that there was truth to it and asked with gritted teeth, "What is this place? And why can't I get rid of these so-called evil spirits?"
The girl sighed and said, "This is the Naraka Realm. The purgatory for the souls of the dead or hell or whatever you want to call it. I am sure you get the idea. Come inside the cave. You will feel better."
Viktor sighed as he followed her into the dark cave that didn't look much big on the inside nor too long. But still, inside, he felt as if his chest got lighter and the previous stifling sensation in his body reduced by a small margin, while the discomfort in his mind was too small for him to notice.
Still, he felt it strange that the myths about heaven and hell he had learned about all these years as stories had some truths to it. It sounded so surreal he wouldn't have believed it if it weren't for the fact that he was stuck here.
"But how did I get here? And why does this place look similar to a place on earth, especially in the past? And what do you mean by a Realm?" Viktor was getting increasingly confused since he didn't feel like he got teleported from earth to some other place.
"It could be a different planet or dimension. But this place is a different dimension that exists on the same plane as our earth. It's just like how a coin has two sides. All this time, you have been living on one side of it where all the living reside while the other side is hidden where only the dead are supposed to enter, though only the ones who have committed evil acts or major crimes usually come here," The girl explained.
She then continued, "But in reality, this is not the true Naraka Realm. Since this place resembles our earth, it is only a small extension of the Naraka Realm or a bridge for the souls to move on to the real Naraka Realm. That's why we could say that right now, we are on one of the Naraka Bridges out of countless others."
"Then how do I get out of here?" Viktor asked with a slight grimace as he again started to feel some kind of discomfort within his body though not to the point of being unbearable.
"You have to destroy the one who forcibly brought you here," She then noticed how Viktor was trying to suppress his discomfort and continued, "I am sure you must not be feeling good. It is because of this place. The longer you stay here, the more agonizing it could become. But you have time since you are not an ordinary human but a supernatural being. That's why we have to carefully but quickly get rid of the mastermind behind this, and they must be inside the burning mansion you saw before. That's why I didn't want you to waste your time fighting that army of evil spirits. But for now, we have no choice but to wait till that army of evil spirits disperse," The girl said in a tone of urgency.
"But...who brought me here and why?" Viktor now felt that everything that just happened might have something to do with him. But the thing that puzzled him was who it could be and why now.
"It could be anyone from that time. Someone whom you killed as General Raoul and they knew your background as well, to provoke you by showing the sight of the destroyed village, the battlefield, the mansion, everything. I never got to know because I escaped before I could see who was orchestrating all this," The girl said in a pained tone.
Viktor squinted his eyes, "Wait a minute...you said this place was for dead sinners. Then if you are not really an evil spirit trying to fool me, how are you here?"
Viktor didn't dare to let this girl's beautiful voice and ethereal looks stop him from thinking logically, especially when he was stuck in this situation.
"I understand if you find it hard to trust what I am saying. But if I really wanted to lie, I would not have told you that this place was for sinners only. Still, why do you think I was in the Wailing Hills?"
"You were one of the people who got killed in my village?" Viktor asked in a tone of realization, thinking that she got bound to this place because of certain reasons. At the same time, he tried to brush up on his old memories to see if he remembered any children of her age with the same voice and appearance as her.
But since it had been a long time and how those times were not pleasant for him, it was hard for him to even remember the faces of the children that lived with him in the village. He then thought that it was pointless since the voice of the girl before him sounded ethereal, unlike a human.
"Yes. But I know what you are thinking, and it's not true. While I died, I was sad and angry, yes. But I had no malevolent emotions or any evil intentions that could make my soul get stuck in this hell. All I wanted was….nevermind....Anyway, my soul was supposed to pass on to the Land of Nirvana, which is like heaven, a resting place for the souls that lived an honest life. But I was stuck here and had to endure every second in this tortuous place."
"It's like how you can't die but continue to suffer, both body and soul. And soon enough, I lost all my human appearance and turned into something horrendous you wouldn't dare to imagine. That's what happens to every being who gets sent here, human or not. And the worst part was how our people were continuously getting tortured by the Abominable Fiend, which is the name we coined for the mastermind who imprisoned us in that mansion."
She continued in a woeful tone that didn't suit a girl with a childlike appearance like hers, "Some couldn't endure it anymore and turned into vengeful spirits, only to get enslaved by that fiend. And that's why I need your help to kill that field so that you can get out of this place while the remaining ones will be at peace at last."
Viktor continued to look at her and asked with a narrowed gaze, "You said you were imprisoned along with others and had your human appearance change into something else. Then how come you are roaming about, have the ability to teleport me over such a long distance and your appearance...no...forget about that."
"Because I was saved by a powerful being. I know this sounds ridiculous, and I don't know who that being was, but they rescued my soul from this place and left behind a remnant of my soul with the mission that I should wait for you and then guide you when the time comes. So what you are seeing is not my soul but just a remnant of my consciousness. My soul has already ascended from this place with the help of that savior, and all this time, I have been hiding away from that fiend and also the Fujo Clan since they might mistake me for an evil spirit. They really loathe evil spirits or anything evil and would do anything to destroy them to keep the world safe," The girl said in a cautious tone.
Viktor's lips parted as he realized why Ayana and the others seemed strange and had extraordinary abilities that a human possibly couldn't have. But the last thing he expected was them to be a guardian clan of sorts that warded off evil. And in a way, he couldn't help but appreciate the fact that they were protecting the real world from behind the scenes.
At the same time, he wondered how powerful the Fujo Clan truly was to keep their activities hidden from the public eye for all these years and their true background.
But he found her story of a supposedly powerful being rescuing slightly far-fetched for a lot of reasons.
So he asked, "If as you said, that powerful being rescued your soul. Why did they just rescue only you and not the others? No....the more important question is, why did they not finish off this Abominable Fiend if they had the power to rescue you right under the noses of all these evil spirits?"