Chapter 255: The Demon King's Invitation

"How did you get out?"

Oboro asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

According to all available information about the Dark Continent, no soul-based life form like "Bones" had ever been documented outside its borders. The subhuman species such as the gatekeepers were known, but nothing like this skeleton existed in the records.

The gas life form E of the Five Catastrophes was similar to a soul species, but even that was probably just a parasitic microorganism with special properties that could spread and reproduce.

This skeleton was something completely different, a human whose flesh and blood had been stripped away, but whose soul remained intact. It possessed distinctly human qualities, something that should only exist 'inside the door'.

"Subhuman race? Descendants of the Demon Kingbloodline?" The skeleton tilted its skull, the fluctuations of its soul showing genuine confusion.

Suddenly, the skeleton's soul began to sing. Two balls of soul fire ignited in its empty eye sockets, burning with ancient power.

In Misty's eyes, the soul notes floating in the air became attached to an extremely terrifying will. Some notes jumped and rearranged themselves, forming a completely new five-line score that made the beautiful music sound more silky and pleasant.

Then, without warning, flames erupted over Oboro's body. His limbs were instantly charred black, the silk robes offering no protection against this overwhelming force.

An ordinary Nen user would never perceive this soul energy. They would only see a human suddenly lose blood and energy, their bodies charred and shrunken, before dying without explanation.

The terrifying soul energy pulsed with an oppressive pressure.

"Hmm, is this the original melody of the Dark Sonata? Impressive," Oboro murmured as the flames consumed him. "It's a soul-related method, but even I can be affected. It seems that the power sequence the Demon King was promoted to is on the same upgrade line as mine."

The flames surrounding his body suddenly changed to a sickly green color as his chanting abruptly stopped.

Boom!

The soul-burning fire exploded outward, revealing a face that resembled a skull, but was even more hideous and evil than Thresh's appearance.

In an instant, Oboro broke free from the influence and constraints of the "music" and materialized right in front of the skeleton.

Thresh stared at the two clusters of soulfire in the skull's eye sockets with his terrifying green eyes. He smiled maliciously, "After all, you're not a demon king, you're still lacking in your own right."

"But I am grateful for your presence. You've helped me tremendously."

As he spoke, the chain of the gray lamp wrapped around the skeleton's black-robed spine like a snake and began to tighten. Oboro held the other end of the chain in his hand, a hanging, sickle-shaped giant axe materializing in his grasp.

"If there's a chance, I'll find him in person and enjoy the Dark Sonata with him."

With these words, he swung the massive axe and struck the skeleton's skull. Instead of shattering the bones, the axe blade pierced through the skeleton and touched the target's soul fire.

Immediately, scenes flooded into Oboro's mind as he read the skeleton's soul memory, unlocking the secrets of this unknown world.

In the rotating scenes, he saw many people inside what appeared to be a magnificent castle. The structure looked like a carefully excavated underground space, filled with exquisite buildings and various human tools arranged with meticulous precision.

The scene shifted and 'he' found himself in a large hall. A blurry figure sat on a raised platform in the center.

Throughout the room, women with bare breasts, wearing translucent gauze, danced to haunting music. Others drank scarlet liquid from ornate cups. Not all present were human, but every face showed either infatuation or madness, a vision of 'demons dancing wildly'.

Oboro, like a "spectator" displaced by time and space, watched with detached interest.

He turned his head to a high platform where a naked child with white wings was playing a harp. The child appeared holy yet discordant, a seemingly intoxicated beauty lay beside the child, "serving" him in a way that created a jarring contrast.

Looking to the other side, Oboro saw a creature playing a violin. As it played, it manipulated some form of energy to twist a human's body through the air like dough, squeezing out the victim's life essence until streams of blood flowed into wine glasses on the table below.

Most of the species in the hall retained some human appearance and characteristics, unlike the strange and bizarre life forms Oboro had encountered before.

These are all highly intelligent life forms with extraordinary powers," he suddenly realized.

There were humans present, but they existed only as servants, objects to be sacrificed and played with for entertainment.

Eventually, Oboro's gaze settled on the blurry shadow sitting on a throne in the center of the hall. He knew instinctively that this being was the Demon King. But its true appearance remained hidden from his vision.

The moment Oboro's eyes met those of the demon king, all images in the hall froze, as if someone had pressed pause. The music stopped abruptly.

"Humans" The shadow wavered, apparently sensing the intrusion of Oboro, the uninvited guest. It sighed, "The poor fellow who climbed back onto the shore from that island in the lake."

The mockery in her tone was unmistakable. Oboro did not react.

Suddenly, the Demon King's arm reached out from the shadows and opened a large hand with sharp black nails. "You have been chosen. Come, become my servant."

Only because the Demon King wanted it, Oboro was able to see part of his limbs. Without that concession, he would be unable to perceive the Demon King's true form, even within this soul-created memory.

"Is he so powerful that he can control everything related to the soul?" Oboro stroked his chin thoughtfully, ignoring the devil's invitation.

This encounter transcended the normal rules of time and space.

"Or, as a higher life form, has your understanding and control of the origin of energy reached a transcendent level? Not just a single soul, but all energy?" Oboro murmured, looking directly at the Demon King. "Very powerful, looking down on me from a higher level. Even through a soul medium, you know everything about me immediately. Your understanding of the soul is purer than mine. I still have to rely on my ability to search for soul fragments, you just looked and knew everything.

"You are very special, you come from a parallel world that has evolved out of time and space. Your soul has a different taste."

The demon king drew his arm back into the shadows. Though Oboro did not give a direct answer, his rejection was clear.

"So you're not attracted to me because of my soul ability, but because of my identity as a time traveler," Oboro raised his eyebrows. "In other words, do you have a way to travel to other worlds?"

"Or is there a power on this continent that can break the isolation between dimensions?"

The devil remained silent.

Exploring soul memories had its own dangers. If Oboro lacked his special abilities, the Dark Sonata played earlier might have destroyed him. It was precisely because his soul possessed enough power that the Demon King couldn't harm him through the medium of "memory" alone.

After all, this wasn't the original body, only a fragment, a remnant of power.

Before Oboro could push any further, the scene before him vanished, replaced by another memory from the skeleton's past. The Demon King had actively "chased" him away.

This new vision depicted a high-mountain tribe, where humans lived in peaceful coexistence with species from the Dark Continent. Both sides supported each other, with the humans caring for the giant creatures while the creatures helped the tribe resist external threats.

Oboro noticed some humans with strange appearances that showed signs of bestiality. These creatures that coexisted with humans all possessed a certain level of intelligence and gentle temperament.

Basically, humans retained their characteristic of seeking protection from powerful beings, even if the relationship wasn't as direct as master and servant.

"No wonder you asked if I was human In this land, what distinguishes races is not appearance, but the form of power," Oboro realized.

Two inescapable factors came into play: evolution and reproduction.

Humans evolved and changed here. They weren't special, just another link in the ecological chain. Having existed in the Dark Continent for generations, their inevitable combination with other species had created "new life". Reproduction in the Dark Continent was not as simple as in the human world. Life forms reproduced in all sorts of strange ways: asexually, without a medium, and humans could potentially be infected by spores or microorganisms during a simple walk, resulting in "mutated genes".

Strictly speaking, the ant king Meruem fell into this category, born after the queen ant consumed humans. This method of genetic mating and reproduction defied common understanding.

Alluka of the Zoldyck family also qualified.

All represented humanity's quest for innovation and change through combination with other species.

"No wonder there are subhuman races and magical beasts, such as the vicious fox family that led Gon and the others to the chairman of the Hunters' Association, which explains their origin."

"So the human world on the island in the lake consists of pure humans without any blood contamination."

With this realization, Oboro left the memory fragments and returned to reality.

Being of pure blood also meant lacking the most basic genes for evolution, which was an absolute weakness in this world.

With Thresh's face still manifested, Oboro opened his mouth slightly and inhaled the soul fire burning in the skeleton's eyes, absorbing it like gas.

"The soul has weakened, hmph."

Oboro returned to his original appearance, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly.