A burst of fire came from my left side, I created a shield that was three times bigger than the previous one.

Covering all of us who were behind this splash of molten flame, but the two men who had only minor injuries around the stomach and some part of their legs still seemed to be trying to get up, considering their regeneration abilities in sync with how strong they really were at the moment. That they are still holding up those swords as if they really have a chance of winning…

So as before their second step echoed across the ground, I fired two more black bullets that I created spinning right next to my shoulders.

The target this time is the necks of those people…

After all, they won't die just because of it… That even with their throats pierced, a single breath laced with blood, would still hold their lives until their regeneration had finished its job.

I'm actually more sorry for the man who I gave a little curse on his hand back there. As he must be in a lot of pain right now.

But at least… “Just stay there…”

An absolute order from me to not only the two of them, but to everyone whose faces are currently far below mine…

~~~~~

Everything seemed a lot darker than it should have been when the flames finally came to a complete stop… That’s when I let go of the giant non-elemental shield form, since it was blocking my view of the last man standing from all of my enemies. That guy…

“Albert…”

“You don't want to kill them?”

“Huh? Oh… Nah… No, because I want to show you how it feels to lose to someone who is cutely… Strangely much weaker than yourself.”

But he was confused by the sentence I just used…

Well, actually…

Yeah. Me too…

~~~~~

But here’s the plan…

I'll lure him to focus too much on the fight and then outwit him so I can run away…

Right…

That’s the only way left for me…

Swinging my left hand upwards while the movement itself released numerous black spikes that shot towards Albert, the man didn't even have the slightest intention of blocking it. He preferred to just tilt his head and swing his body to dodge.

But from this, I understand that Albert's magic doesn't have any defensive abilities. So…

A voice of someone suddenly stopped me from talking to myself in my own mind.

“Hey… What’s that?” It said.

I think it’s Albert’s…

His finger pointed to something around my neck. “What's with those glowing cracks?” Again Albert asked me about…

The second stage of my countercurse, the one on my left hand that has even spread all the way to my neck.

It must be from that giant non-elemental shield.

Yeah… After all, the thing that I previously created was far too strong and wide for me with my current number of souls…

But it was because I knew that Albert’s attack back there was also way much stronger than any flames he had previously emitted!

And to be honest about this second stage…

I didn't even notice it myself…

Meaning I'll just be ending much sooner than I could ever have anticipated…

So I started the impromptu tactics.

~~~~~

Jumping suddenly, Albert's eyes followed how high I was in the air, as I created some non-elemental plate, a footing as a foothold to lunge at him from above.

Following his own anticipation, Albert’s rage of fire came warning me to back off… But I know that that searing pain will be nothing, compared to my current own curse that already felt like it was pulling my soul out of its own sanity.

That’s why I ignored all the bursts, my sword lunged with my eyes closed so my vision wouldn't be burned by the embers…

Albert dodged my attack after I got out of the lump of fire.

The second strike I launched, he took two steps back.

And my third attack, as my last strike he managed to stop by tightly holding my right elbow, screeching upwards.

My speed is still far below his, eh?

Suddenly a fiery blow came hitting my right rib which was wide open… Not only were the bones cracked, but I could also feel the heat spread through my chest…

At least I didn't get thrown by that punch… Because I held his hand which had previously blocked my elbow, I gave the curse to the surface of his skin, he winced as he swung his arms as hard as he could.

Turns out in the end, I really was thrown by his own raw power again…

~~~~~

“What the fuck is this!?”

While Albert was questioning what the black mark was on his hand, I created three black spikes that were spinning as fast as it could, that also traveling at the fastest speed my head could think of…

Even though only a few inches from his chest and stomach left, even at that time Albert didn't know there was an attack coming, when it almost managed to reach the surface of the cloth of his uniform, Albert was still able to move as fast as my eyes couldn't catch, dodging to the left without being hurt at all…

But at least I know that his movement reflexes just now, didn't come entirely from his own consciousness…

He was frightened by the pain of my own curse, that he was just so much more afraid of getting more than that.

Now he knew whose magic caused more suffering…

~~~~~

Albert finally showed another expression besides anger… The expression of fear…

Even though my previous attack was just some non-elemental objects without the slightest bit of curse, he was scared to death as he thought that the reflex that came from his cowardice had actually saved his own life.

Albert stood frozen in front of me, holding tightly to his cursed hand, looking at me as if he wanted to scream "Don’t!"

Okay, Daniel… Use his fear as much as possible!

~~~~~

The city was starting to look empty, but the helicopters of the news reporters seemed to be a big problem for us.

Running with swords at the side, we battled over who was the most daring.

Dozens of sparks from the two swords after one magic blast to another, each glass of the building beside us shattered every time we approached.

Every time I used the mist form to dodge the sword attacks that I couldn't dodge, Albert always jumped away cautiously.

But it also contradicts my intention of preventing us from being too far apart, because Albert's magic is a type of magic that is very advantageous in long-range combat.

And once that happened, even my mist form wouldn't be able to protect me from his fire elemental based attacks.

I also don't know how much more I can use my curse magic before I reach the third stage, the final counter-curse stage that will permanently affect my physique, a stage that even Elis herself had never entered before…

But I'm at least feeling a little bit calmer…

In reality, I was just herding Albert who was in a defensive position where he was bad at it, towards the street where we previously fought at the beginning of the story. There is a manhole that has been buried by the ruins of some building caused by Albert's own power that I can use to escape using my mist form.

If my memory serves me right, then the place should be somewhere near here…

So I played the sword with only my right hand, while my left hand seemed to be preparing some kind of magic attack.

For that, Albert was starting to look worried…

When he backed away, that’s where I created a bunch of non-elemental powder particles that were shaped just like my black smoke.

Identical to when I used my own mist form skill, a fake form that moved as if it was running to the right and jumped up to attack Albert from the side, while at the same time changing my own form as the real mist form, pooling in the disguise of a shadow.

When Albert was too focused and worried about the fake smoke that was approaching him, I slipped through the gaps in the concrete debris that had piled up right under the manhole, a manhole that I also pierced through it’s tiny holes.

~~~~~

I returned to my original form as before…

Fell down, where I lay there hugging myself for a few seconds then convinced this mind of mine, ready to get back up.

~~~~~

When I was walking along the receding stream side of the sewers, with Elis’ ability, I looked up at the surface of the dark ceiling to pay attention to where the man's soul is now…

Albert’s… Ended up running in the opposite direction in search of my whereabouts without the slightest hint…

Without knowing anything of how I could just disappear back there.

Right after I felt him getting even further away from my position, I walked slowly, leaving this place through under the ground of this city…

But…

I don't feel any calmer at all, because...

Now’s the time for the most painful part of my plan…

I gritted my teeth as I released this soul strength effect from my entire body… The pain that I had endured for such a long time, which should have been felt to be doubled, was now four or even five times more painful than I ever anticipated.

Maybe it's just my feelings, just exaggerating, but after all… It's understandable if I actually feel so…

Probably because the second stage of my counter-curse is much more than the previous one? Or because I haven't used this power in such a long time?

Well… I actually don't really know the truth, but…

“Yeah, it hurts… And it fucking hurts a lot…”

I meant to kneel down, but my back just couldn't hold the shaking itself much longer. So that I just lay here unconscious, my eyes closed for the umpteenth time.

~~~~~

Was I expecting for that girl's signature scent to waft through my nose when I woke up? Well... Perhaps?

Yeah, actually if I have to be honest… Of course I hope so.

But no shit, that was too much for me to ask for…

~~~~~

Somehow I managed… To force myself to wake up not too long after I fell unconscious. By my estimation, only twenty-four hours. I guess that was pretty quick, considering how much magic I had to pay for beforehand.

I was afraid that Edward would find out where I was right now. So I thought that I really have to keep moving…

“I'm sure all of those whom I've taught a lesson… Feel very resentful of themselves right now because they're too sure of what they think I actually am before our fight yesterday...”

I may indeed be a coward because I can only laugh now and not right in front of them in person… But still I laugh even more.

Stepping as if I was still able to think positively, I subconsciously called the girl's name several times until I finally found a light at the end of this sewer.

Walk out into the sunshine, just a dirty beach in the slums of this town…

“Ellie… No. Wait… I mean, yeah! I have to find a way to contact Ellie…”

I checked everything that was in my every pocket, there was nothing useful apart from…

“Fuck…”

My strength retaining bracelet is missing from where I previously kept it…

“Ahhh…” I dropped myself with the sadness that I exaggerated, I whined as my feet kicked the dust, alternately left and right.

And then forty minutes just passed, doing nothing but sitting in front of this stretch of beach sand full of trash… Lazy even just to think about what to do next.

But… If only the flow of this world had not turned chaotic when Elis and his friends came to possess everyone… Maybe then, I'll be the one with the healing abilities that Ellie has just like now… Right? Yeah, that power sounds quite peaceful…

I should be the one, after all…

The god of forgiveness…

“I totally don't understand how this world actually works…”

I don't know why all of a sudden I bring up that discussion again and again…

But it's true that I don't really understand how this world works.

Like… Why now my soul's seeing eyes are catching something strange around these mysterious plant roots that creep out from the surface of this beach sand?

Wow… Wait…

“Ew! What the fuck!?”

The roots are moving just like... Caterpillars!

And I can feel there's a soul within these roots…

The soul of a human being. No.

The soul of a great carrier?!

One end of the root of the plant moved to touch my index finger which now was being covered by the curse of my own suffering magic. And just like how if any of the living touched my curse, it would feel something painful.

So that’s why the roots stopped moving, and went back deep into the sand…

Even though I'm too lazy to stand up, I'm back against my own will and intend to do something to prevent… Another something that I don't want from happening.

These roots have a soul in them, meaning this is some kind of magic technique from a great carrier. “Maybe he's an enemy!”

Wait…

“I'll use a bit of Elis' memories for this.”

There were three possibilities, three great carriers who could control something just like the roots of this plant. Only depending on whether this is really a plant or not…

I forgot their names and powers…

And instead I remember their faces when they didn't come down to this world yet, which means that the information is completely irrelevant.

Either I'm the only one who's been forgetful since birth, or Elis is also a forgetful person, so if we unite two forgetful people into one person, we'll only grow senile.

Wait…

Is that really how it works?

Isn't it just the opposite?

~~~~~

“Ah!” Maybe because back there one end of it touched my curse and was in pain because of the same thing, the soul aura of the many roots that apparently spread almost in every underground in this place actually constricted and pulled itself away, forming an empty circle which is only from my own position.

Looks like they don't want to touch me anymore…

~~~~~

I turned my head to spread my gaze around…

If I focused enough on looking, it seemed that all the soul auras within the roots had indeed formed some kind of scattering pattern that had a single central point somewhere around this city.

But I'm still confused whether the great carrier this time is my enemy or not. I'm also confused about whether to find the center of the branching of these roots, or run away from it.

Run away from it?

I'm literally at the end of the city, all that's left is just a stretch of the ocean!

Where am I supposed to run to?!

Also… There are only two souls in all the roots of this plant. Meaning whoever they are, they’ve never killed before.

And if they were really working with Edward, they should have found me long ago while I was unconscious for a whole day…

“Should I meet this great carrier? No? Well…”

As long as they haven't killed before, there's a chance that they're still sane and will side with me. So even if reality doesn't match my expectations, I still have a chance to change the outcome, correct?

~~~~~

Walking while keeping my eyes wide open to observe the soul's thin aura, I purposely thought of only good things that might happen in the future so that the pain of this curse could be diverted.

Am I not anticipating enough?

Meh… Whatever…

I actually can't think clearly with my current condition though… Which is funny, that I'm aware of that and I'm still thinking about things that are much less clear-cut.

Someone who is very self-aware, but remains a reckless person because he is too self-conscious about the exact same thing…

~~~~~