His voice was soft, without a demon's ferocity, as gentle as a lover's whisper.
Tetsu no Sosuke let out a quiet breath. "What is this place?"
"The Spiritual World." The demon who looked like a boy smiled. "You should be quite familiar with mental attacks by now, but the one you faced before was nothing more than an amateur. What you face now is a true, fully accomplished master of the Spiritual World."
As he spoke, he stood up, flipped over, and landed on the ground.
"You can think of this world as an illusion, because it is built upon reality and exists beyond it."
"But you can also think of this world as real. If you die here, your real-world self will die along with you."
He had barely finished speaking when his head went flying.
Yet his head did not fall. It hovered in midair, blood dripping onto the ground, but he showed no fear at all. He merely smiled and said, "Enjoy your time in this world!"
With that, his head and body vanished together, turning to ash that scattered through the air.
"It was fake..." Tetsu no Sosuke was hardly surprised. He would not believe everything the demon said, but if this really was the Spiritual World, and the demon could control it, why would he reveal his real body here?
What intrigued him more now was this: if he had appeared in this world, where was his actual body?
And what had happened to Shinobu Kocho and the others?
At that thought, he withdrew the Inner Spring, but his inner world remained completely calm, without the slightest intrusion from any outside force.
Tetsu no Sosuke opened his eyes, his expression darkening.
The Spiritual World was not acting from within his mind. This was completely different