"...L-love..."

"Kuhh... nevertheless..."

Kuro groaned as he shook his head to clear off his cloudy mind.

"I don't approve of such fanatical methods, White..."

His eyes lit up, revealing pure disgust. Part of White's thoughts began to flow into him, as he started to understand what his counterpart had planned with Soma using the still active, Mind Projection.

"Tch... to what end..."

Cracking his fingers one by one, he bit his lips so hard that it started to bleed.

"Master...?!"

"...Since when..."

Did he expect me... to bring out Lestia's ability too...? Back when I was forced to a corner, had he redirected me to the hidden appraisal effect of the aspect...? Since... when did he do all that...? When we were taking turns in the memory world? Then... ...he was trying to use the only opening I had left him with... the Mind Projection that I had invoked from Soma earlier...!!!

...The death... was faked...? How... Slime Veil...?! Did he expect me to use it too...? Because... it contained Intangible Control...!!! A skill, to remove Soma's own physical presence for a fraction of a second. Then she took the time to heal herself up with restoration items...!

For once, Kuro began to feel fear, rather than newly formed respect, out of White. His expectations were fully blown out of the water for the first time. Much like Lestia, he had never once lost. Not on the psychological struggle against the two conflicting personalities.

Kuro himself had mentioned it before, they were never together in this to play house. In essence, both of them were struggling to take control of the body. But because White had such a handicap, Kuro had assumed the status quo until he found out a way to make sense of their current predicament.

Kuro was afraid of White.

Even in this state, he was considered flawed. He couldn't remember things when his mind overloads with stress, he would never accumulate his experience long enough to matter.

Now, Kuro was beginning to think about the future growth of White as an individual, if White continued to absorb Kuro's values like a sponge without interference?

Would he be needed in the future? Would he no longer cease to exist?

His mind began to turn.

...For what purpose? Just to get that woman to reveal her true thoughts? Is that it? Just for this? ...That bastard... he placed all he had... his existence on the line, just for that?! Don't fuck with me!

But Soma interrupted his thoughts, unable to wait for Kuro to come to an understanding of White's plan.

instead of answering his earlier question, she playfully sidestepped it.

"Huhu, that doesn't matter~ I've already made an agreement with you, even if you haven't realized it yet~"

"I... did?!"

"That's right~ In exchange for talking~ With~ That obtuse woman, you've agreed to let. Me. Take in, some amount of blood~ Really... this slave contract is so troublesome, I can't attack you if you have your troublesome ability active..."

"Hu-huh, blood?! What fo-!!!"

Soma tackled him down, licking her lips fervently in a feverish daze. She was in a cowgirl position on top of Kuro, stradling and squirming her waist around affectionately.

"Why are you trying to escape, Master~? Are you trying to break your promise~? Huhuhu, even if you are, there is no escape~ As long as the promise holds valid, the contract won't work on me anymore~"

"Like I said... it's not meeee...!!!"

Soma pushed her knee up in between his crotch, as her eyes turned purplish red. Dark miasma started to exude out of her shoulders, forming something slowly with the dark matter.

"Huhu~ You're panicking, you're panicking~ Ahhh, it's unbearable... that look on your face... it's giving me the chillssss~ I don't mind this kind of play too, Master~"

"This woman is insane!!! Get off me! Get... off!!! H-how are you so strong... ...Hey, Lestia... you're enlightened already right...? How about you help me out he-yaauuuuu!!!!!!"

"..."

Was this really... the duo that I saw... earlier...?

Lestia was dumbfounded, as she looked at the two who had seemingly acted out of character all of a sudden.

She knew that White's personality would be the timid one, but this seemed to be... a mix of both...? All of her tension was suddenly lost, even though the Abomination was still in full view behind her. She could stil sense it regenerating its lost flesh with a large amount of healing with clerical abilities.

She reconsidered Soma's words about her Master never panicking.

Kuro was now dragged into Soma's pace all of a sudden ever since she'd thrown him out of his rhythm. More specifically, it was White who had finally shown that he had outgrown Kuro, who had not expected to be schemed against. He made use of the gap that Kuro had left behind. A channel which he had so desperately taught White to use, to scheme, to doubt and survive with anything he had.

That was how everything started with the seemingly tacit agreement that had appeared out of nowhere that chained Kuro down with Soma right now. He was even fooled by her death, thinking that the plan was to bring her to the Soul Forest once more.

But unbeknownst to him, no one soul can enter the Soul Forest more than once. White was an exception because they possessed two in a body, but otherwise, Soma had already expended her first death upon leaving Earth and reincarnated into the world of Parvula. This was truly, a close call. Soma would have had lost her life for nothing if White had not intervened with this plan.

"Ghhh!!!"

A sharp pain entered his brain, and endorphins started to release itself into his bloodstream to counteract the pain he was feeling. It came from the right side of his neck, it was being bitten on. He felt a large amount of blood leaving his body.

Even though his health had increased to 5,000 as Kuro, it still felt as if Soma's action was taking a large amount of his lifespan. Soma who was stuck to him like glue, was relishing in the large quantity of blood supplied into her throat. She was sucking the liquid up with an intoxicated look on her face. It was as if... she had become a vampire. The miasma around her shoulders did make out to be roughly the shape of a pair of wings...?

Kuro could no longer converse with Soma in this state, the only way to snap her out of this was to administer a shock. Losing consciousness fast from sleepiness, again, Kuro tried to steady himself for his reactive move to this situation.

...If that's the case... then I'll make use of this too...!

Aspect of a Ruler

The proof of absolute dictatorship.

By exchanging body matter in between two individuals, the target of the user will automatically be subject to the judgement of the Ritual of Dominion.

Ritual of Dominion - If the target does not possess a unique trait or class, the ritual will fail and cannot be performed again.

If the ritual has successfully completed, the target will be bound to a contract of the user and become a Rank 3 Slave. (Obedience and influence effects apply based on the rank of control) The title: Mentally Slaved will also be obtained.

If a slave possess a unique trait, the user can invoke the Sigil to determine their Origin Roots. (Cooldown: 500 seconds) [AVAILABLE]

This slave contract is dispelled upon death of any affected slaves.

"...Invoke... Sigil...!"

"?!!!"

While stacking herself on top of him, a Sigil appeared in between the two.

...And the Sword of Bloodwell which was blown far away by Lestia earlier...

started to shine.

"!!! Ahhgghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Soma started to squirm, unable to keep her fangs in Kuro's neck. Unable to bear the sudden pain, she quickly let go of her grip and got up in a kneeling position. Her eyes dilated and glowed orange-red like a traffic light, flickering in between normalcy and a look of insanity. Soma was scratching her entire body like crazy.

Even her Numbed Body Sense LV-4 was not enough to stop the pain flowing through her entire body.

"Auhghghghhhhhhhhhhhh-"

"?!" "!!! Th-that... woman... she...!!!"

But something different occured.

Soma... was turning... a little blue.

Kuro narrowed her eyes as he tried to stabilize himself from getting his own blood drained out in volumes. From his hazy vision, he could see Soma beginning to cling onto his legs desperately. There was blood leaking out of the pores of her body; her entire body was beginning to cover itself with a layer of blood.

But the blood was tinted dark blue, something abnormal for a normal human.

Unless... Soma had already...

At this time, more than 20 seconds had already passed and Kuro had recovered slightly, enough to see what was going on with Soma. But Lestia was the first to speak up.

“Your… blood…”

"Why is your blood... blue?! ...The voice said only monsters with a high rank would bleed blue...!!! You..."

... A dark blue liquid in place of red-colored blood.

She had not noticed earlier from Soma's injuries because it was obscured by the shadows since she had been blown away from the center of the space in this cave, where the moonlight was shining through a hole in the ceiling. But now, it was clear that she had been bleeding blue from the start.

"Mon...ster...?"

Hearing this from Lestia, Kuro began to worry a little. Even though he had activated the appraisal sequence to stop Soma from sucking all of his blood successfully, he also wanted to take the opportunity to gain some new abilities to defeat the Abomination. But...

But a normal Origin Appraisal for everyone so far including him, only lasted about 10 seconds...

...Soma had been taking far longer than he had initially anticipated.

She still did not show signs of finishing the appraisal, as pain continued coursing through her... evident from her horrified expression. Kuro knew the extremities of pain, so he was grimacing at the fact that Soma had been taking it on for so long. Even if her desensitized senses were reducing that feeling, he knew it would turn anyone insane if it continued even longer than it should have.

What the... did it... fail?!

Hesitating, Kuro turned towards the Abomination to judge the amount of time he had left. Soma was the only one who had the ability left to repel the creature, but she was now placed in an unstable state thanks to him.

The Abomination was close to completing its regeneration process.

"Tch... Status Check."

Name E̷̪̙̝͂̌̐̉̕n̷̢̠̺̼̍͋͘̕ţ̸̛̇͂͝r̸͖͕̝̗̓ǒ̷̱͆͝ṗ̷̘̩̗́͜͝y̵̪͒̈́͌̾͘ͅ Level 84 Rank 8 Race H̶͇̘́̏u̵̦̿̔͑͑̆m̵̜͓̌ǎ̸̡̗̪̼̖n̸̨̰̮̓́̄ Gender H̶u̸m̵a̷n̵:̶I̸D̸:̷E̸l̴f̶.̷N̴o̷t̸.̶c̸o̸h̸e̸s̶i̵v̵e̸.̷e̵r̷r̵o̶r̶ Occupation Adventurer, Villager, Knight, Knight Captain Alignment Chaos Class Flame Wizard, Berserker, Cleric, Swordsman, Archer Health 355,378/356,788 ̶[̵I̴P̴C̷o̶m̵p̵r̴o̸m̸i̷s̸e̸d̷]̵ Mana 199,980/239,980 ̶[̵I̴P̴C̷o̶m̵p̵r̴o̸m̸i̷s̸e̸d̷]̵ Strength 70,002 Dexterity 10,511 Luck 20,200 Intelligence 14,584 Defense 67,100 Magic Defense 65,340 Traits H̶u̸m̵a̷n̵:̶I̸D̸:̷E̸l̴f̶.̷N̴o̷t̸.̶c̸o̸h̸e̸s̶i̵v̵e̸.̷e̵r̷r̵o̶r̶ Titles H̶u̸m̵a̷n̵:̶I̸D̸:̷E̸l̴f̶.̷N̴o̷t̸.̶c̸o̸h̸e̸s̶i̵v̵e̸.̷e̵r̷r̵o̶r̶ Passive Skills

Intangible Control LV MAX, Acidic Body Control LV MAX, Skill Absorption LV MAX, Monster Evolution LVMAX, Slime's Sense LV MAX, Mental Resistance LV5, Abnormal Status Nullification LV2, Hunter's Perception LV4, Triple Attribute Blessing of a Queen, Worldly Language Comprehension, Taming Mastery LV MAX, Monster Affinity LV5, Animal Affinity LV5, Unlimited Flames Conjuring LV MAX, Heat Resistance LV MAX, Flame Shroud LV MAX, Weapon Appraisal LV1, Sword Mastery LV MAX, Presence Awareness LV2, Status Awareness LV2, Battle Stance Correction LV MAX, Mana Angel LV MAX, Life Essence LV5, Mana Condensation LV5, Axe Mastery LV MAX, Club Mastery LV MAX, Hammer Mastery LV MAX, Battle Stance Correction LV1

Active Skills

Status Check, Alchemy, Clone Life, Slime Guard, Slime Veil, Harden Skin, Raise Skeleton: Unit / Elite / Knight / Archer / Lord, Mind Drain, Raise Ghoul: Unit, Raise Goblin: Unit, Bloodcurdle, Bone Shield, Whiplash, Induce Passiveness, Summon: Defense Boost, Summon: Attack Boost, Spirit Summoning, Fireball, Fire Blast, Fire Pillar, Flame Vortex , Imbue Element, Fire Shield, Breakmoon, Cutting Edge, Sword Lunge, Cross-slash, Harden Sword, Lightspeed Thrust, Flow Acceleration, Advanced Heal, Heal, Lesser Heal, Lesser Revive, Duality Status Cure, Dispel, Lightwings, Enrage Blood, Circle Swing, Moonshatter, Earth Smash, Flow Acceleration, Axe Acceleration, Breakmoon, Battlecry, Battle Roar, Durability Break, Party Connect: Telepathy

Foreign Elements

Alchemic Reconstruction of Slime Veil

"Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal! Heal!"

Arakawa Yanagi's voice repeated itself within the creature like a broken recorder. Her lifeless voice made Lestia flinch slightly.

"! Ugh..."

"Fuck... it's already close to full recovery...!!!"

Soma was still shrivelling in pain.

"Masterrrrrrrrrrrrrr, wwwwwwwwwwwwwhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttttttttttt is happeningggggggggggggggggggggg tooo meeeeeeeee........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The blue blood had spilled all over the ground, causing it to sizzle and melt as if being doused with a torrent of acid. Yet, Soma still remained her figure, without being disfigured. But it was unclear what her current condition was still, Kuro had never seen something like this.

Not waiting for them, the Abomination had finally recovered. It had solidified itself once more after restoring all of its lost health and mana.

It had taken the humanoid and enlarged form of Sakurai Shun before his death, and had turned its skin pale red. A thick black aura was covering it.

Enrage Blood.

Shun's Berserker skill that gave a sharp boost of 5000 to all stats for 30 seconds.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

A terrifying scream came from its mouth.

As if it was releasing all of its grief and anger from being betrayed. It was emitting an impure form of Enrage Blood. The Abomination's arms turned those parts of its skin into two large axes. It was reading the memories of Shun's combat experience, and replicating his stance.

"Soma, get a grip! Soma!"

"H-hey... we need to... run!!!"

"Fuck that!"

Kuro pushed away Lestia's arms which were attempting to grab hold of his to escape. Even now, she still had her summoned worm within a meter's range. She had been confused earlier from the sudden turn of events, but Lestia would still fall back to her escape plan if things turned awry.

But Kuro was aggravated at this.

"I'm not leaving...!!! After everything that guy'd did... ...I can't back down now, are you trying to make me lose face?!!! I am, the one in control, he's not controlling me...!!!"

"Mas..."

"Tell me...!"

"!"

Lestia was shocked at Kuro's sudden desperate plea. His face was indifferent, but she had learnt to differenciate the subtle changes in his expressions over the short period of time they'd stuck together.

Right now, Kuro was experiencing fear.

A fear of loss.

The impending danger of an enraged Abomination, and Soma's weird condition.

Infected by Kuro's expression, Lestia's chest tightened again and she had begun to feel... panic as well.