Dante watched in awe as his blond underling began to shine with a faint yellow color. This had been his goal all along. He wanted to see how fast they could teach someone Soul Manifestation, but it was still quite the shock to see him achieve it so early.

'Volcan, are you seeing this?'

[Yes. I am in the process of collecting data.]

An idea occurred to Dante just then, and he turned to Riot, holding a finger to his mouth, telling the big guy to keep his silence. Immediately after, Dante equipped his oni mask and activated Silent Breath. With his presence completely erased, he approached Oliver, closing the distance so Volcan could get a better reading on what was happening.

[This is… fascinating…]

'Let me see.'

Volcan changed the setting of Absolute Awareness, adding soul data to the information injected into Dante's brain. The world turned into a black and white mess, appearing like two copies of the same photo, with each one having the inverted colors of the other. The version that resembled a chalk drawing on a blackboard represented the physical world, while the one that appeared like a marker drawing on a whiteboard represented the astral plane.

Dante hadn't attempted this in a while and was starting to forget the mental anguish it caused because of that. The human brain wasn't built for such a task. If not for the custom filter Volcan had built, maintaining his consciousness would have been the first challenge he would have had to overcome before he could even attempt to understand what he was seeing. Even now, he could barely keep his ability active.

Seeing opposite versions of the same photo at the same time shouldn't have been possible, but he was somehow doing it. Gritting his teeth, Dante did everything in his power to try to glean some insight into what was happening with Oliver. He enhanced his perception to the max, hoping to buy himself as much time as possible. Same as when he had tried it on Riot, nothing seemed to make sense to him, but as he continued to observe, he began to notice something odd.

The black lines that represented the soul were usually contained within the white line. Soul manifestation, as the name suggests, manifests one's soul into the physical world. One would expect the black lines to overlap with the white ones, or maybe overtake them, seeping out of the vessel that usually contained them, but the lines weren't moving, or so Dante thought at first.

The longer he observed, the more he began to notice. The line does indeed change placement. What made it difficult to grasp was that the black lines turned white whenever they overlapped with the white ones. In other words, they take on a physical property much like that of the vessel they were contained in.

'This is…'

"GAHH!!!"

With a sharp gasp, Oliver snapped back to reality as if he had just woken up from a nightmare. The light he emitted instantly dimmed, and sweat poured out of every pore in his body, soaking him instantly.

"W-w-where!!? W-what?"

He whipped his head left and right, confusion painting his expression. He seemed to notice the cage he was in and Riot looking at him, which finally allowed him to remember where he was.

"H-huh? Did I… Did I fall asleep?"

Riot's smile turned blank for a second, then he burst out laughing. That only added to the blonde one's confusion, but what he heard next sent chills down his spine.

"Say that again, and I'm gonna kick your ass."

Looking up, Oliver found himself under Dante's disgusted gaze. It felt like the latter was about to spit on him at any moment, but all he did was click his tongue and walk away.

"Damn it. This is why I hate geniuses."

"Yeah, this sets the bar so high you're starting to look normal." Riot turned to the blonde one with a grin. "Good job, kid. You just made us look like talentless losers."

Failing to understand what the big guy was talking about, Oliver blinked a few times, then turned to Dante, giving him the same oblivious look. Dante paid him no mind and addressed the wall of muscles, feeling like he would snap if he tried to play along with the blond one.

"You said the first time is the most difficult, right?"

Riot crossed his arms and observed the sitting Oliver.

"Yup. He should be able to do it instinctively now. Though it might be a while before he could actually use it."

"A while, huh?"

Looking down at his blonde underling, Dante found himself doubting it would take that long.

"Go on. Try it again."

"Um… try what?" Oliver asked.

It was clear from the start that he was the kind of genius who would struggle with explaining how he does what he does, so Dante never expected to be taught anything groundbreaking by him. He just needed him to learn the ability so he could observe how it happened.

After a few more tries, Oliver was able to manifest his soul one more time. Doing it consciously was still a big challenge, but that was nothing practice couldn't solve. Dante didn't get anything from the second time, and in a way, the same could be said about the first. The insight he gleaned from observing his blond underling only pointed him to something he had known from the start: the truth behind Soul Manifestation.

The reason he failed to figure it out by observing Riot was that the big guy had perfected his use of the ability, or brought it to a level where it became natural to him. Unlike him, Oliver's control over the process was still shaky, unstable, and easily disturbed. That unstable nature gave Dante the hint he needed to finally understand.

[The soul takes on physical properties?] Volcan said. [But… that does not make any sense…]

According to his resident AI, the data they gathered suggested no such thing. Even while manifested, the soul still had the same properties as when it was contained, meaning no drastic transformations happened, and yet there is no other explanation.

Soul Manifestation grants a physical form to one's soul, allowing it to interact with the physical world. It was so obvious, and yet he failed to grasp it until now.

'I… I think I get it now…'