Usually, death aura appears like a mist, but this felt almost solidified, as if the mist had thickened into something far more tangible. Suddenly, a strange, haunting melody echoed from deep within, a low, hellish hum that seemed to pull anyone who heard it closer to the depths of the underworld.
In the pitch-black cave, where even ordinary people couldn't see their own hands, a haunting melody suddenly filled the air. The sound was like a series of sorrowful cries that sent chills down anyone's spine.
If it weren't for the eerie setting, this dark sonata might have been considered a masterpiece, after all, it was composed by the Demon King himself, known for creating music with incredible power and beauty. Yet, no one wanted to enjoy it; the atmosphere was too oppressive.
"That's... the sound of a harp," Pyon said, ears perked as he listened carefully.
Larry muttered under his breath, "The Dark Sonata has four parts, I've already got the violin chapter, so this must be the harp chapter. But what's the cost and reward this time? The flute chapter costs your health but grants special abilities. The violin chapter takes your soul but gives you strength. What about the harp?"
He glanced at the nearby skeleton, covered in deathly energy, and recalled the white bones he had found earlier. A vague thought struck him: much like before, the music stirred a strong desire to die.
The dark, deadly thoughts seemed to take form, twisting into strange notes that floated through the air. The weight of these death aura was suffocating, just looking at them made it hard to breathe. Suddenly, a figure leapt out from Larry's shadow. Its dark purple-black aura was even stronger than the oppressive death aura.
But Pyon and Satotz didn't panic; instead, they looked relieved. It was Gengar, the familiar presence from Solvren Ruin. They all knew Gengar could consume death aura. As expected, Gengar turned his back to them and opened his bloodied mouth, swallowing the swirling death aura with ease.
A flash of light flickered across those scarlet eyes, and soon, the swirling Death Aura in the air twisted together like a whirlpool. These intertwined death aura spiraled toward Gengar's mouth, forming a constant stream of buffet.
But Gengar wasn't just absorbing the death aura right in front of him; he was also drawing in the death aura lingering around the scattered bones nearby. As he fed, Gengar's experience steadily increased.
Thanks to Gengar blocking all the death aura, Pyon and the others finally breathed a sigh of relief. This was the most dangerous part of the Dark Sonata, and being able to block these death aura made the situation much less threatening. But Larry wasn't so sure. Standing before the violin chapter, he felt this Dark Sonata was far more complicated than it seemed.
What made him most uneasy were the skeletons littered across the ground. The cave they had entered wasn't just filled with monster bones; there were remains scattered everywhere. It was clear this was a place where many creatures had died.
By noticing subtle details, Larry could tell their time of death: some bones were quite old, carrying strong death aura, while others had only recently turned to dust. Near one set lay the corpse of what looked like a spotted mole. It didn't have many death aura attached yet, but as its flesh and blood were consumed by these death energies, more thoughts began to gather. Most likely, it had died shortly before teleporting here.
Larry had deliberately left the death wish on this corpse to observe it closely. The most fascinating part was watching the death aura devour flesh and blood. Mindfulness, the life energy radiating from the body, is closely tied to the physical self, so it wasn't entirely strange that death aura could consume flesh and blood. But Larry sensed there was more to it.
The speed at which the flesh disappeared was unnaturally fast, and the parts being consumed glowed with a strange white light. From what he'd seen before, the flesh and blood of those affected by the violin chapter and the cicada didn't get devoured like this; maybe it was a unique effect of the harp passage.
"Did you find anything?" The two nearby noticed Larry fixated on the mole's corpse and couldn't help but ask.
Countless Death Aura swirled like maggots, ravenously gnawing at Mole's body, numbing his scalp with their frenzy. Within moments, these dark thoughts consumed the last fragments of flesh and blood, leaving behind nothing but a bare skeleton.
Larry's eyes narrowed as if sensing something unusual, and he stared intently at the remains. To his surprise, a strange form began to emerge from Mole's body, a ghostly figure that resembled Mole's living appearance, but it hovered unnaturally in mid-air, glowing faintly with an eerie green light. In the dim surroundings, an unsettling feeling crept over them all.
"Is that... a soul?" Pyon whispered, his face shifting with a mix of awe and fear.
The pale green glow cast strange shadows across the three observers, making the scene even more surreal. It was only then that Larry truly grasped the meaning behind the "payment" and "reward" of this Harp chapter: you sacrifice your body and, in return, gain your soul in a new form. Essentially, you pay the price of having your physical body devoured and receive the reward of existing as a soul.
This revelation reminded Larry of Hanzo's nen ability from earlier in the story. On the Black Whale ship, Hanzo used a nen technique called the "clone technique," which allowed him to create a perfect copy of himself, a soul clone to which his consciousness could transfer.
This clone could move freely and even travel through space. Though called a clone, it was essentially a manifestation of his soul leaving his body. The concept of the soul was not unfamiliar in the Hunter x Hunter world; for instance, Jade sold his soul to a devil in exchange for the power of resurrection.
What surprised Larry was how the Harp's exchange mirrored but also inverted the Violin's: where the Violin grants physical power at the cost of the soul, the Harp does the opposite, granting soul power while sacrificing the physical body. This made him wonder about the remaining chapters, what about the Piano?
Could it be the reverse of the Flute's effect, trading special abilities for health? The answer remained unknown. Just as Larry pondered these possibilities, Mole's soul made a new movement, drawing their attention once again.
The mole's soul looked completely lost, staring around with a blank expression. A few people could tell it was self-aware and capable of controlling itself, but that control couldn't last forever.
Suddenly, the death aura clinging to the mole's bones surged up and took over its soul. It seemed like the soul wanted to scream, but it couldn't make a sound. It all happened in an instant. By the time Pyon and Satotz realized what was going on, the mole's soul was fully under the control of the death aura. Its eyes, once lively, now showed only a cold, numb emptiness.
"Has it been taken over?" someone asked.
"If so, is it going to attack us next?" Larry wondered aloud.