Chat group, people are in Shadow Reality, they just defeated Shadow

Misaka Mikoto was very surprised; she thought Bai Luo only intended to help Esdese transform.

"What are you thinking about?"

Bai Luo gently tapped Misaka's head and said, "In my eyes, you are all the same. Since I'm helping Esdese, of course, I won't forget you."

Magic inheritance can better bring the three girls closer to Bai Luo and deepen their relationship.

Such a good thing, why not do it?

"Also, Chonggong Mio, is it difficult to deal with her?"

Kurumi wanted to say it was difficult, but she thought of Bai Luo's intention in saying this.

With Bai Luo taking action, Chonggong Mio could naturally be destroyed with a wave of his hand.

"Do you understand?"

Seeing Kurumi's reaction, Bai Luo said, "Chonggong Mio is not difficult to deal with; what's difficult is your original plan."

Tokisaki Kurumi wants to travel back in time to change her fate of becoming a spirit and then save everyone.

The biggest difficulty here lies in the condensation of the Twelfth Bullet.

Bai Luo has many abilities, but he can't time travel and change the past.

Even if he possessed similar abilities, it's not certain that he could succeed after changing worlds.

"I understand."

"Then let's see if these demons are strong enough."

The feeling of having someone to rely on is really reassuring for Kurumi: "If their time isn't enough, there are also the prisoners from Esdese's side."

According to Kurumi's calculations, after devouring from the Demon Slayer and Akame ga Kill worlds, the Twelfth Bullet should be almost complete.

"Okay, let's try it."

Bai Luo took Misaka back two steps. Kurumi didn't hesitate and immediately summoned the City of Devouring Time, swallowing the Swamp Demon, who was still cursing, inside.

To accommodate Misaka, Kurumi specially stored the demon in the shadow space before devouring it.

Under the power of the City of Devouring Time, a large amount of blood gushed out from the place where the demon disappeared.

Misaka felt somewhat uncomfortable, but she forced herself to remain calm and didn't show any unseemly behavior, which surprised Bai Luo.

"Do you want me to help you censor it?"

"No need."

Misaka stubbornly refused Bai Luo's suggestion.

She, Misaka Mikoto, would not back down from a mere bloody scene!

"Esdese is right; Mikoto, you have the potential to become a warrior."

After Bai Luo finished speaking, he pointed to the corner of the wall not far away: "If you want to vomit, you can go over there."

"I, I won't..."

Mikoto's face was slightly pale, but she still watched Kurumi devour the demon until the end.

Even though flesh and blood appeared during the process, and the pungent smell of blood filled the air, she still persevered, which impressed Bai Luo.

"Huh?"

Soon, Kurumi let out a soft exclamation, her eyebrows furrowing even more tightly, as if she had encountered an incomprehensible predicament.

"What's wrong?"

"Not as much as I imagined."

Kurumi said, "The demons in this world have very strong vitality. My City of Devouring Time can restrain them, but the time I get doesn't meet my expectations at all."

In short, the time devoured from the demon's body is not proportional to its vitality at all.

It's too different!

"How much did you plunder?"

Bai Luo became interested and began to ask Kurumi about the details of devouring the demon.

"Um..."

Kurumi said, "Basically, it's about the same as the time gained from devouring an ordinary person."

"That's indeed unreasonable!"

Bai Luo shook his head: "The demon's vitality is so much stronger than a human's; it's impossible for it to be only this much."

"What is the principle of your City of Devouring Time devouring time?"

Bai Luo planned to help Kurumi analyze it. Misaka, who had recovered, also wanted to help Kurumi.

She might not be good at other things, but taking tests is Mikoto's strength.

Her esper brain is definitely not just for show!

"Uh..."

However, in response to Bai Luo's question, Kurumi said that she had never thought about it.

After all, very few people would think about why the world's underlying rules are like this.

It's like we all know 1+1 = 2.

As for why?

Simply put, it's a convention. If you ask more, then you're just sick, right?

"You wouldn't have, completely not considered these things, right?"

"I..."

Kurumi couldn't say anything to defend herself and could only lower her head in embarrassment: "I didn't even finish high school before dropping out."

Well, the fact that a certain most evil spirit is a dropout is no longer a secret.

"I'm really impressed by you."

Misaka Mikoto was speechless. Helpless, she could only turn to Bai Luo, hoping that he could see something.

"Kurumi's power comes from Zafkiel."

"And Zafkiel is a Sephirah of the Kabbalah Tree of Life system."

However, what kind of existence Zafkiel is, not to mention Kurumi, even Chonggong Mio herself probably doesn't know.

"Knowing what it is, but not knowing why."

Bai Luo: "Angels, to you spirits, are like skills under a shortcut key."

Kurumi only knows that the ability of the City of Devouring Time can devour other people's time.

But Kurumi has never understood where this time comes from.

"You can't be like this in the future, Kurumi."

"Yeah."

Kurumi humbly accepted Bai Luo's criticism.

"According to the current situation, there is no obvious difference between the time from a demon with a lifespan of thousands of years and the time from an ordinary person."

How long can demons live?

Even Muzan Kibutsuji himself might not know the answer to this question.

The only thing that can be certain is that demons are not truly immortal.

Even Muzan Kibutsuji also has the concept of aging for 9,000 years.

"From this, it can be seen that the time you plunder does not come from other people's lifespans."

"If it's not lifespan, where does the time come from?"

Misaka Mikoto was very interested in this. She was building hypotheses to filter out the most likely guesses.

"That depends on Zafkiel."

Bai Luo said, "Perhaps in our eyes, lifespan is equal to time, but in the cognition of angels (Zafkiel), the two are not equal."

"Thinking about it carefully, it seems that's indeed the case."

Kurumi said, "If it were simply about living for a long time, I wouldn't need to choose humans. Wouldn't it be easier to absorb the time of trees and plants?"

However, the truth is that Kurumi had already tried it.

The time spirit energy that plants can provide to Kurumi is negligible.

She also tried to devour the time of animals, but the results were equally unsatisfactory.

The time in animals is far greater than in plants, but compared to humans, it is still far too different.

Originally, Kurumi didn't understand the intricacies of this and only thought that humans could provide her with spirit energy to replenish her reserves of time.

"Is that guy still alive?"

"He still has a breath left!"

"Let him out; I'll give him a blood transfusion."

Bai Luo naturally wasn't going to give the Swamp Demon his blood. He was using the power of life he obtained from Alpha.

The Swamp Demon couldn't die so easily.

Bai Luo also planned to do several more tests on him.

So, next, Bai Luo and Kurumi conducted a large number of experiments on the Swamp Demon, including recovery speed, resistance to blows, resistance to heat and cold, etc.

Under Bai Luo's command, Kurumi could be said to have tortured the Swamp Demon half to death.

In response, not to mention Kurumi and Bai Luo, even Misaka didn't have any sympathy.

Because just now, Bai Luo had extracted from the Swamp Demon's mind the memories of him hunting innocent girls.

Those girls, just past their teenage years, many already engaged and about to enter the halls of marriage, ended their lives that should have had unlimited futures because of this guy's greed.

The most excessive thing was that the Swamp Demon even regarded the most exquisite ornaments on their bodies as capital to flaunt his achievements.

In Misaka's view, such a guy wouldn't be punished enough even if he died a hundred times.

"Have you found the reason?"

"Yeah."

Bai Luo: "If I'm not mistaken, the factor influencing the amount of time Kurumi plunders should be the soul."

"The soul?"

"It's actually the soul?!"

Bai Luo's words stunned both girls, and then they suddenly understood.

Yes, if the amount of time Kurumi absorbs has nothing to do with vitality and lifespan.

Then comparing plants, animals, and humans, isn't it obvious what the difference is?

Wisdom and self-awareness.

And in more mysterious terms, it's the soul.

Plants have no soul. Insects, in reincarnation theory, may have the same amount of soul as humans, but in reality, this is impossible.

"Wait a minute, does the soul really exist?"

Kurumi quickly accepted Bai Luo's statement, but Misaka was a little hesitant.

Coming from the science side, she couldn't accept things like ghosts and spirits very well.

"It's hard to say about other worlds, but this world definitely has them."

Bai Luo: "Alright, Kurumi, completely devour him; this guy is useless now."

"Yeah, then I'll strengthen my power."

It must be said that the demon's vitality was really tenacious. It took Kurumi several minutes to completely devour the Swamp Demon.

"Thank you."