Send your will into your sea of consciousness.

Shut up! Grr, this stupid crown. I’m going to take it off for now. I can’t afford to be distracted while there’s that many people trying to kill Mrs. Feathers! Mm? I can’t remove the crown…? It’s stuck to my head!?

Send your will into your sea of consciousness.

…I shouldn’t have put this thing on.

“Look out!”

Look out? For what? Ah! A red spear’s flying towards my face! Who threw that!? It’s … that person from the Slaughter Seeking Sect. I think someone called him a slaughter-filled brat…. “You missed, little slaughter boy!” Hmph! Anything to do with slaughter is making me mad right now, and it’s all because of this dumb voice! It’s so grating, like someone scratching a tablet with their nails.

“That’s the quasi-immortal ancestor of the Slaughter Seeking Sect,” Treasure Finder said. “Don’t underestimate him, or you might die.”

Eh? “You care about me?” I was under the impression Treasure Finder hated me. Mm? If I know she hates me, why do I force her to come with me anyway? Because she can’t do anything even if she does hate me! And she’s useful. Mhm. And it’s not like she’s Ilya. Even if Treasure Finder doesn’t like me, I can force her to come with me because I don’t care how she feels. That’s right. I cared about Ilya! I miss the real one…. The fake is nice and all, but she’s just not as squishy since she’s a statue.

“It’s not that I care about you. If you die, I’ll be targeted next—look out!”

Another spear! “Missed me again!” I’ll return fire! “Unrelenting Path of Slaughter: Breaking Madness Blade Strike!” Ah. I missed too. Mm, I thought that would hit him for sure. Well, it still hit the people behind him, so it’s not a complete failure.

That’s right! This is what I was waiting for! Embrace me, your heart of slaughter!

Gah! If it’s not one voice, it’s the other! You shut up too! I’m in the middle of a very tense fight! Another spear! Eh? It’s following my dodge? Then I’ll hit it with my hammer!

“Is your brain only filled with slaughter, you dumb brat?” the old man by the slaughter boy asked. “Aim for the phoenix’s body instead of the woman on top!”

Mm…, if he did that, then … I’d have to crawl down Mrs. Feathers’ body to defend her? But if I do that, then I’ll get close to the water! Which is still rising, by the way. How have those people not drowned yet? They’re miraculously floating on its surface even though their heads should be several feet underwater! I thought flying wasn’t allowed….

“It’s called swimming, Lucia.”

Ilya? “Don’t read my mind!” Wait a minute. “Weren’t you supposed to be down by Mrs. Feathers’ feet, gathering those fish?”

“I caught them all.” Ilya raised up a net. There were like … too many fish inside to count. “I think I caught a quarter of them before they swam away. Your initial burst of despair from encountering water wasn’t enough to keep them attracted when those people over there started dying.”

“Ow!” Mrs. Feathers jumped up, and I nearly fell off of her back! I caught Ilya, and the barkeep caught Treasure Finder and Treasure Finder’s friend. I still don’t know her name. Mm, anyways, the barkeep was stronger than expected. I thought he was supposed to be weak? “Boss! You’ve already dealt with half of them. Let’s fight!”

Half of them? There’s so many that half is still the same as the original number: impossible to count! And from this distance, my attacks aren’t that effective…. I haven’t even killed a single person yet! Don’t believe what Treasure Finder says; people aren’t that fragile. As my attacks travel further, their powers decrease. And from here, there’s only enough for to badly injure someone. Mm. And, even on the off chance that someone did die, I’m still not a murderer. Murder is an unjustified killing. This is self-defense! Self-defense is totally justified. Even if I killed every single last one of those people chasing me, I’d still be a good person.

“Spear of Slaughter, pierce my enemy!”

Yeowch! Why does everything with the name slaughter in it aim straight for my tail!? There’s a red spear stuck in my tail! It went all the way through like a giant piercing! That fucker! I’ll kill him! I’ll fucking murder him! “Mrs. Feathers, turn around, we’re fighting!”

“Absorb!”

Ah!? Something’s being sucked out of my tail! And I can’t pull this spear out! Is it drinking my blood? My qi? Both!? I can’t stop it. I can’t pull it out. At this rate, I won’t have any blood or qi left inside of me! And if that happens…, I’ll die! What do I do? What do I do!? “Ilya! Give me an answer!”

“Cut your tail off.”

What!? Cut my tail off? That defeats the whole purpose of trying to save my tail! “Give me a reasonable answer!”

“Is it not reasonable?”

Wait a minute…. Wasn’t the purpose to save my life and not just my tail? “Wild animals do chew off their own legs to escape from traps….”

“That bone of intelligence really is working,” Ilya said. “It’s the same concept.”

“But don’t the animals die shortly afterwards?”

“Well, if you don’t cut off your tail, all your blood and qi is going to be absorbed anyway, right?”

“That’s true….” Wait a minute. Wait one goddamn minute! “You’re not really a mind reader! How’d you know the spear was sucking out my blood and qi? I’m eighty-percent sure I didn’t say it out loud!” Mm, I’m maybe sixty-percent sure, but I can bluff her to tell me the truth!

“It’s the crown,” Ilya said and pointed at my head. “Didn’t I already tell you that I’m acting as Ilya based on your memories? The crown understands you better than you understand yourself, and it’s transmitting all your thoughts to me.”

…So, you are a mind reader?

“I can only read your mind, but yes.”

“That’s…, I have to get rid of this crown!” First it bothers me with its annoying voice, then it lets Ilya read my mind? That’s not worth how pretty it makes me look! Mm, right now, it’s like the spear that’s stuck in my tail. I can’t take it off. Then … do I cut my head off? No! And I won’t cut my tail off either! But seriously, what do I do? The best thing to do would be to beat up the person controlling the spear, but he’s manipulating the water like an evil sorcerer!

“That’s called treading water.”

I don’t care what it’s called; I still can’t reach him! Alright, teleporting is restricted too. And he can only move so fast…. If I throw something so large that he can’t escape from its range no matter how fast he swims, I’ll get him. Mm, then, I’ll throw this at him!

“…Is that a mountain?”

Why, yes, yes it is, Treasure Finder. I picked it up a long time ago because I was too lazy to cut down the trees on top of it. “Unrelenting Path of Slaughter: Breaking Madness Mountain Strike!”