{HUMAN!}

'.....huh?'

{You have done well!}

"....."

{Ah, yes. It probably doesn't make sense, but I'm the actual Thunder lion's consciousness.}

I heard a strange rough voice coming through to me, while no one could have spoken within 100m from this area, my enhanced perception could at least say that.

But if it was actually the Thunder lion, who seemed to be dead, yet, I couldn't absorb his blood essence, then it sounded a bit reasonable.

"I supposedly just killed you, yet you are saying 'you have done well'?!"

{Well, it is true that I'm on death's door, but If you didn't kill me then, my fate would have been much worse than death.}

"Eh...."

It probably had something to do with that dark mist. However, I still feigned ignorance to get the most of this opportunity and get more information on this matter.

After all, all the beasts that were surrounded by that dark mist wanted to kill me for some reason, and I wanted to know that reason.

{There is no need to try this strategy with me, human brat. You could have just asked me straightly, I don't have that much time left anyway, so I will be quick.}

'Ah!'

I was seen through this easily, I truly lacked experience in several fields. Alas.....

{My body was being used as a puppet while the consciousness form that I'm in now was being tortured in agony, It had all started about 3 months ago…..}

Thump!

That was basically the time I entered into the 'Lost realm', and seeing what happened so far, it was unlikely to be a coincidence.....

{Black lumps of mist, or what we called dark clouds. Started appearing throughout the forest, it appeared in smaller numbers at firs, but their numbers were increasing by the day.}

{It was still fine then, as we didn't think that it held much threat. However, what we didn't expect for it to be a type of possession parasite.}

{Countless residents of the forest were controlled by the dark clouds, as they started wreaking havoc in some parts of the forest. As such, I and my followers (Lightning beasts) took that matter to our hands after discussing that matter with the Azure wolf}

{We were going to just do a clean sweep with the help of the wolves, but as to avoid even more victims falling for the dark clouds, we, the possessors of the lightning attribute were the best choice to deal with the malevolent dark clouds.}

{Lightning originally had the effect of deterring evil, and after giving it a try, we were able to cleanse the possessed using that inherent ability of our attribute…..}

{However, we were too naive! We simply walked into a disguised trap. As we cleansed more dark clouds, small amounts of dark mist accumulated inside our bodies. We just ignored that pitiful amount, thinking that it would be easy to cleanse once the purge was done, but that was simply the reason for our doom!}

{Gradually, we lost our ability to control our bodies becoming mere possessed beasts like the earlier victims we were trying to save!}

{As I tried using lightning to cleanse it from my body, all that brought me was mental agony while the dark clouds gained specific immunity towards my lightning}

{As I played my last card, by suppressing myself for a long slumber, it only lead to my complete mental exhaustion and loss of control, followed by my rampage, and lastly killing my own comrade the Azure wolf...}

A moment of silence took place as I pondered about that tragic story, I somewhat understood why the Thunder lion preferred death.

"I see..."

{Not quite the talkative type are you? Well, since I have satisfied your curiosity. Would you care to make a trade with this lion on his deathbed?}