People exploded! Those exploding people woke up the people who I hadn’t finished capturing yet! Is that my fault? The Despairing Blade is supposed to make people sad, but I don’t remember it ever reaching the point of people blowing themselves up because of it. Sure, a few people jumped off of boats in the sky one or two times, but that doesn’t…. Mm, let’s just forget about that for now. The important thing is capturing the loot bags before they escape! Since I followed Ilya’s instructions and defeated all the troublesome-looking people while they were despairing, the rest of the people are running away now that their leaders are gone.

Hmmm, these people weren’t that important anyway. The leaders should’ve had the best stuff, and I already caught them, so … should I even bother with the rest? Let’s see…, I got a small pouch full of interspacial rings. It’s … not enough! Chase! Ah? Wait a minute. “I should listen to Ilya more. Despairing Blade!” Eh? For some reason, I thought I heard Ilya slapping herself on the forehead…, but it must’ve been my imagination. Ilya speaks through Baldie’s collar, and Baldie is pretty far away. Mm, why doesn’t my divine sense work anymore? I probably didn’t eat enough of the meat inside the cooking pot. It was definitely the meat. Gah, I still don’t know where the pot went!

Anyways, with these people in despair again, I don’t have to worry about them getting away. Some of them are even crawling towards me, telling me to put them out of their misery. …That’s a bit weird. I’m just going to take their stuff, gently hit them on their heads to knock them out, and I’ll tie them together. Alright. There’s not a whole lot of them left. At this rate, I’ll be done in time to make dinner for Sophia! I hope she’s watching; I’m no coward! Hmph, it’s all Ilya’s fault for mentioning it in the first place.

Bang!

Ah!? People are exploding again! Stop running, damnit! “Despairing—”

“Stop!”

“—Blade…?” Stop? “Why do you want me to stop? I’m following your advice!” Ilya’s the one who told me to use more techniques in the first place, and now she wants me to stop?

“Every time you use your Despairing Blade, Sophia starts crying.”

“What? I’m—”

My Despairing Blade is hurting Sophia!? “Ilya! Why didn’t you say so earlier!?” I already did it twice, and I almost did it again just now! “She didn’t explode herself or anything, right!?”

“No, she’s fine. Just stop using your Despairing Blade,” Ilya said. “It hurts your allies too.”

“But you’re the one who told me to use it, damnit!” Gah, those people are running away now. Do I really have to chase them all by myself and catch them one by one? Don’t I have other techniques I can use, some that won’t harm Sophia? Uh, I have Tides of Blood, but that’s not really used to catch people…. Ah! I still have my ultimate technique! “Heart Devil Apparition! Come out, my wormies!”

…

…

…

“Wormies?” What’s going on? I know I haven’t used this technique in a really, really long time, but I’m pretty sure I’m circulating my qi the right way. Pretty sure…. Uh, hello? “Heart Devil Apparition!” Mm, nothing’s coming out. That’s weird…. Ah! Wait a minute. I summoned a whole bunch of them a really long time ago and completely forgot about them. I think they were going around terrorizing sects or something…. I never called them back. Could that be why I can’t summon anymore? But that doesn’t make any sense! I’m sure I planted plenty of heart devils after I summoned them; I should have enough heart devil wormies inside of me to make more. “Ilya! Where’s Softie? I think my technique is broken, and I need her help!” Mm, normally I’d ask Ilya, but Softie already knows this technique. She should know what’s wrong!

“What’s wrong, Lucia?”

Okay. Maybe Softie isn’t the right person to ask. “Gah! Holy crap! Baldie, don’t sneak up on me like that!”

“…I didn’t sneak up on you.” Baldie was looking at me with a blank expression. “I thought you knew I was here. Don’t you talk to Principal Pentorn through the choker on my neck? How did you think you were communicating with her?”

…I thought a part of her resided in my head somewhere. It certainly feels that way. “Ahem. Ilya, my Heart Devil Apparition isn’t working! Help.”

“What am I? Customer service?” Ilya asked something strange that I didn’t really understand. Was she going to help me or not? “Yes, yes, Sophia, I can fix her. Alright, Lucia, what do you mean it doesn’t work? You don’t have the qi for it?”

“I have plenty of qi.” Mhm, I do. I use up some qi everything I use the Despairing Blade, but I had enough qi to do another one. “I might’ve forgot how to do the technique. Like, I don’t know if I’m circulating my qi the right way!”

“I have a copy of the Heart Devil Apparition technique right here. I’m going to convert the jade slip it’s in into one where I can put your mind inside with a drop of blood, okay?”

Uh…. “Will that help?”

“Just hold on.”

“Okay.” How long did I have to hold on for? If Ilya’s going to put the technique in a jade slip, doesn’t that mean I’ll have to…? Ah! Everything is dark! There’s a green light floating in front of me. Ilya should’ve warned me before sticking me inside of this thing! I’ll quickly touch the floating light…. Yeowch! Mm? That didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would…, but I’m still going to eat some painkillers. Ah. I remember how to do the technique now! “Heart Devil Apparition! Come out, come out!”

Hmm? These two predators made of heart devils are ugly as heck! One of them has a super-scarred face, and the other one is bald! It has no fur on any part of its body! Ah? They remind me of some people…. “Scarry and Baldie?” Why do my apparitions look like them? I’m not scared of them at all! Well…. “Go! Catch those people!”