A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 313: Soul Searching

Chapter 313: Soul Searching

As I searched through the outer layer of Asty’s Soul shell as I’m calling it, which is just her body, but even after several minutes of intense and vigorous searching, I found nothing.

When my search yielded no results, I retracted my Soul from the tip of her tail all the way back into her skull, as I could faintly see and vaguely feel that there was somewhere here to go deeper within this cocoon.

It took a minute to find it, but eventually I managed to do so, delving deeper into the mess of Asty’s Soul Cocoon.

But withing this second layer, which felt larger than the on I just explored, causing me to basically start possessing Asty myself with how much of my own soul I was pouring into her.

Both our bodies were fine, as I had laid back on the bed, still cradling her body in my arms as I continued kissing her forehead, not that I needed to now, as I had established a connection that wouldn’t get cut off anytime soon.

Ash was also okay, maybe hungry and tired, but she would do just fine, she did survive that long in the desert with presumably nothing after all.

Regardless of how she did that, I should also be fine for a while, even if I am growing more tired by the second from using my Soul in such an extensive and fatiguing manner.

But even if I was to faint, I would just get up and continue to try again and again each time I would wake up. Even if it kills me, I will succeed. I can’t fail. I just can’t.

Shaking my soul body to try and keep myself invigorated to some extent, I continued searching, but doing it manually was getting more and more tiring the more of my soul left my body.

I needed a new way of doing this, and fast, or else I wouldn’t be able to do this quickly or efficiently, leading to failure.

The only way I could think of to do that though was to plunge my soul fully into Asty’s soul cocoon and leave my body defenceless, which is obviously bad, as it might undo the spells that I’ve set up.

On the other hand, it could also just go into instinct mode and sustain them it automatically whilst I’m gone.

I would hope it’s the latter because I don’t know if I can keep up what I’m doing currently, it’s just too draining on my soul.

With that in mind, I started to squeeze my own soul out of my own body and compress it down as it entered Asty’s to make exploring a lot easier.

I just hope that my body automatically keeps the spells going whilst I’m gone.

And at some point, I felt the connection from my body suddenly snap. It was still there, I could still feel the presence of my body, but it felt like a rope that had been torn down to just a few strings of fibres.

Again, still there, but it felt distant and vague. Especially now that I was down here in the second layer of Asty’s soul cocoon.

Not to mention I also felt myself less exhausted as well, the toll on my soul lessening. It was still there, but it felt like it was taking less energy and focus to do this now.

That was good but I couldn’t help but feel like there was an underlying issue that would crop up if I stayed like this for too long.

Maybe my connection with my body would be permanently severed or I would just end up possessing this body and in turn, destroying Asty’s soul in the process. Though that seems like a bit of a stretch given that the evil spirit took up residence here.

Anyways, I then began looking around a bit more for a period of time that I couldn’t quite establish, but found nothing, even in this second layer.

I was learning a lot about the soul from this though. It was really fascinating on how this cocoon was structured.

The outer layer represented the body and acted as a natural barrier to the soul. But this second layer acted like some sort of core, where the soul actually resided.

Although our souls looked like our physical forms most times, except for mine which didn’t because my soul had evolved.

But they usually take on the same form as our physical one, which is why the outer cocoon covers our body.

This second layer however, was different, in the sense that it embodiment the truest essence of the soul, or so I assumed.

To be quite frank, that was just a baseless assumption I had come to make after a while of exploring this seemingly empty space.

And it was also rather inefficient still. Sure, I wasn’t getting as tired, but it was still taking a long time, and I don’t know what would happen to me if I were to pass out in here or something worse.

What worse could be? I don’t know, and I don’t really want to find out if it can be avoided.

That said, I still needed to figure out a way to search through all of this better. Search faster, make it easier and less taxing on myself.

’But how? What can I do to hasten things up without sending me into a slumber?’ I thought as my body drifted in this desolate and empty space.

’I guess I could always just spread my senses out like a wave or a pulse of some sort. But how do I do that?’ I now had an idea of what to do, just not how to actually do it.

I tried many different things over the next while, still no idea how much time had passed as time itself felt murky in this place, but nothing really worked, and I was beginning to get extremely tired.

’How am I supposed to do this? I can’t exactly spread or expand my soul in a way that I could like I would with Mana, so how am I supposed to do this...’

Before I knew it, I had accidentally fallen asleep like this thinking and panicking about how I was going to do this. It seems that I had overworked my mind to the point where I didn’t realise I was too exhausted.

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The moment my conscience next woke up I was immediately alert. Looking around I found myself in a dark space. Not a murky or wispy place like that of the cocoons I was just in, but a place that looked familiar.

It had the same feeling as the space in which Nachash and Ouroboros resided. A sub-soul space of sorts that wasn’t actually part of the soul. Still no idea what exactly it’s called.

But why was I here though? In this space, and where were those two. And I suppose the God would be here also.

’Unless...’

I frantically stared to look around, for anything, anyone. And I saw it, off in the distance, I could see the faint glowing hum of what I think to be a soul.

I double checked by looking all around me, in every direction and confirming that it was the only thing in sight besides myself before I tried going over to it.

Keyword being "tried" as I didn’t have as easy a time at this. I don’t know why as it should just be as easy as me willing myself to move, similar to what I was doing before inside the cocoons, but it was clearly ineffective here.

’I know that this place is different from the Soul Cocoons, but I didn’t realise it was that different to the point where I can’t move.’

’Actually, how did I even know to move in there in the first place? I also don’t seem to remember ever moving when I was in my own... This place. Yeah, let’s go with that for now.’

Thoughts aside though, I should figure out how to move already, or else I might accidentally wake up and not be able to come back here again.

I don’t know what brought me here, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to replicate it again, so I have to figure out how to move or else...

Shaking my head, a determined look drew across my face as my soul eyes focused and my brows steeled themselves.

The first thing that I tried to move was mimic swimming motions. There wasn’t water here, but who knows? Maybe it’ll work?

After a few minutes of trying though, I couldn’t really feel much of a difference. It felt like I was moving, but I didn’t have any indication of how far I might have actually moved if I actually did.

Still, I kept on trying and swimming towards that spec of light, and as I did so, I kept on thinking of what I could do to maybe speed myself up, even if only a little.

But I couldn’t think of anything, so I just kept on swimming, swinging my arms in an arc and wiggling my tail as I looked ahead towards that light.

I’m sure there was an easier way to be doing this, I just haven’t thought of it yet.