I quickly realized what was happening to me.

The pressure I felt, was from an invisible hand getting grip on my soul trying to tear it from my body. I quickly gripped with my soul over the body, using it as an anchor, while at the same time, using devour soul to fight back.

It wasn't enough!

Thankfully space time enchantments of the cell helped me by hindered the process

There was only one more way I could resist this. I had to raise my Soul Awakening.

When I received a part of memories about my meeting with Goddess I started to suspect that the soul isn't limited to this realm. Probably it's similar to how our bodies consist of many cells.

I can feel that my pocket dimension, is actually one of such realms. If I managed to establish a firm connection with the rest of my soul, Soul Awakening level should rise... though that was hardly an option now... not with space time enchantments of the cell hindering me as well.

There must be another way...

Hmm, when I used devour soul on Qin I was able to remake part of his soul into mana, a soul is just another form of energy. Would it be possible to reverse the process? Could I use devour soul to create soul essence to strengthen mine just with mana?

I had to try. While it will affect only a part of my soul that is in this realm, it was my best option at the moment. My body was already overflowing with mana from dungeon, so all I had to do was to put it to good use.

As I did so a lot of mana was wasted without any progress, but from time to time I would succeed, and little by little I could feel my soul getting stronger... bigger. In a way, soul awakening was like body manipulation.

Soul Awakening has reached level 3.

The moment my skill increased, even with space time enchantments in the way, a connection to the rest of my soul started to form.

{...you bitch! Do you really think I will help you, after what you have done to me?! That was...}

More of memory fragments meeting with Goddess reached my mind. Hmm, I really was angry back then... From others standing around me, I realized there are a lot of Champions... was. From Aurora, I already learned that at least half of them are now dead.

Unlike Harbingers, Silver Sword Order wasn't prepared for the failure of their summon and many Champions were hunted down in following days.

{...I have not...} started to object Goddess.

{...spare me your bullshit. Do you think I haven't noticed...} my past self continued to further antagonize her.

Yes, I could see where this was going... Suddenly a new stream of memories started overlapping with old.

{...yes, my Lady...} I said in English.

This was no longer a meeting with Goddess... Are those memories of my life even from before?

I was a maid, attending dutchess in medieval England. I helped her to dress, combed her hair and after she left, started to tidy her chambers. Life as a servant is so boring...

After a bit longer, memories have changed once again.

This time I was a man, a samurai in front lines of the army charging at our enemy. From lingering names in my mind as Kaito, I realized this was The Battle of Yamazaki, a historical event in Japan where Hashiba Hideyoshi has beat Akechi Mitsuhide.

Men fell by my side struck by arrows as I ran, but it didn't hinder my steps and soon blood sprayed over my armor as I cut the hand of a man in front of me. With one more swing, he fell on the ground holding his neck, blood spraying through the gaps of his fingers. One man after another died at my blade and even with a few serious wounds I could feel the thrill overflowing my body...

Memories once again started to change. Soldier, farmer, thief, nurse... a hooker. One fragment after another started showing me of what I once was, and only in half of them, I was a woman.

I know that it's naive to expect otherwise, but somehow I thought that my gender in previous lives should be mostly a female. I can't believe this is so random. I think it's a good thing people normally don't remember their previous lives...

Soul Awakening has reached level 4.

[HmM? CoUlD iT Be YoU ArE StiL AliVe?]

The pressure has lessened and finally, I could feel I was no longer in danger of losing my soul.

[Of course, I am alive!] I shouted back through my soul.

[InTeReStInG...]

Suddenly the space around me distorted and before I could act, a blinding light wrapped my body and the last thing I saw was wide eyes of Phoenix.

Teleportation!

I, of course, tried to resist with my space time magic but when my sight recovered, I realized everything was in vain, even space time enchantments of the cell were of no use.

A large red sun covered one-third of the sky and not a single cloud could be seen on the horizon. Animals, trees, plants... everything around me was made of stone, including the ground I was standing on.

The whole world was dead.

Many humanoid statutes around were frozen in the pose of running. Some on foot, others riding on weird animals. Most of them were looking over their shoulder with a fear on their face. It was evident they knew death is coming and tried to escape... all in vain.

I tried to use teleportation to get back, but I quickly realized that it was futile. While I had no idea where I am, my link with dungeon core allowed to pinpoint the destination. Sadly, even with all mana I have stored inside my dimension, there was not enough of it. I needed at least eight times more of what I have at the moment...

My attention was drawn to giant statues not far from me. They were nearly four meters high and something about them looked unnatural. They gave me a feeling as if they will start moving at any moment.

*crack*

The moment I made a step closer to them I realized I have a problem...

I looked with a frown at my naked body as pieces of stone fell to the ground... just a moment ago those were my clothes. They have turned into a stone and my movement just now broke them apart.

It seems that even now, this world constantly turns everything into a stone... except me. I could probably summon spare clothes from my dimension, but they will meet the same fate. Unlike my body, clothes don't have petrification resistance.

Petrification resistance...

I quickly started to grow my hair longer, while at the same time used mana and body manipulation to weave them into a fabric for my new clothes. At first, I made only underwears and crop top to cover my body, but when noticed no immediate danger, continued to grow the top into a long tunic. Vertical cuts starting from hips at the sides gave me a freedom of movement.

I suddenly stopped what I was doing when giant statues I previously wanted to check started to move. Golems? Two of them had a humanoid form, a massive right hand and two, average size on the left. Other four looked like some sort of crabs.

It wasn't their appearance that was bothering me earlier. I realized that each golem had a soul trapped inside them.

They moved a bit further from me and started lining up in a circle. I felt a distortion in the space, and soon a giant creature appeared in the center. Its aura alone made my instincts scream to flee and its appearance didn't help to discourage that in the slightest.

It was at least twenty meters tall. A large head in the shape of a whale with carapace armor was one-third of its entire body. It had eight crystal eyes, three of them at each side of the head, and two on the forehead, one above another.

Jaws were full of sharp teeth and two, a bit smaller heads reminding snakes with many teeth, wiggled at the sides of its lower jaw. They reminded a thick version of elephant tusks... only alive.

The torso looked like a centipede, if we removed its legs that is. It had six long hands with joints in at least four places and sharp claws at the end. At its back, there were eight long tentacle-like snakes with an eyeless head at the end of each.

They were thick, hundreds of meters long and acted as its legs. They touched the ground at their midsection, while heads with the rest of their body were elevated above the ground and looked as if some giant snakes that decided to travel near the creature.

Save for those tentacle-snake things on the back, it had no legs, the torso ended up with a metal pyramid, up side down, attached to its bottom. Red lightning was constantly launching from it at the ground.

"WeLcOmE tO My WoRld, MoRtaL!" it spoke to me using most of its mouths at the same time. This was the first time it did so using sound and not the soul. Should I be surprised it used language from the world I just left?

"Mardeal?!" I tried to guess its identity.

That was the only name of a god I knew save for Evelyn.

"HoW DaRe yOU To CoMpaRE Me To ThaT UgLy ThiNG?!" it shouted in anger.

No? This might be good news. After my interference with Harbingers, there is no doubt I would be considered his enemy.

I always wondered why Gods don't interfere with Champions or Harbingers directly. If they have similar power to this thing, it would be easy to deal with all of them... something tells me that they can't. What would be the point of summoning them if they can take care of their problems on their own?

"Then what are you?! Some sort of God? What do you want from me?" I asked further.

"A GoD? No. I aM No LoNgeR a GoD. YoU CaN CaLL Me LikE ThE ReSt, ThE DeViL."

Great.

"What exactly is that you want from me?! Why have you abducted me from my world?"

"At FirSt, I WanTeD YouR SouL..."

Well, that was hardly a surprise, and after one more look at golems who were now walking away, I think I have an idea what he needed it for.

"...BuT NoW I Am JusT CuRioUs, NoT MaNy CaN SuRvive my gaze..." as it was saying this, its body started to change and shrink, and soon looked just like a cat beastkin.

Same clothes, same hair color, and face very similar to mine. It was as if I looked at my twin brother. If I was suddenly turned into a man, I am sure I would look just like this.

"...I am very interested if you are just as strong as the last one." he said while looking at me.

"What do you mean?" I asked with dread.

I have already activated my thought acceleration anticipating the fight.

"Oh, that's very simple, I will test your strength... personally." he answered with a smile and slowly started to approach me, golems still kept walking away to make space for us.