Meanwhile, Bloed looked at that scene and twitched his lips.
"Is that like the two of you met?" Elwha looked at Bloed with a teasing smile. "You are such a playboy."
"… I'm sure that it was slightly different back then."
"Really? But that girl doesn't seem to think that." Elwha laughed softly and looked at the scene. At some point, the boy had lifted the girl in his arms and carried her away. "You don't need to worry too much. It's almost impossible to remember the past exactly as it happened, thus, people usually fill the blank parts to their convenience. The fact that her mind filled it this way means she likes you very much."
"… Perhaps, but I'm going to die of embarrassment right now." Bloed smiled bitterly.
Inwardly, though, he thought it felt nice.
"Heh. Right, Mr. Bloed, why is your friend's hair red? If I'm not wrong, it was black in the real world."
"… Things happened and now it's like this." Bloed said off-handedly, trying to play it off.
Fortunately, Elwha did not seem to mind it much and she did not insist on the topic.
"However, this is good." Elwha suddenly said.
"Huh?"
"This girl, the fact one of her most important memories is something like this is good. It means her mental state is alright, so there is less danger of her suffering any issue after this end."
"Is it so? That is good then." Bloed said and looked at Liu Ying for a few seconds more. He and Elwha then left her memories and continued their way.
Once more, they appeared in the convoluted chaos belonging to the soul world.
Unable to say right from left or up from down, the pair chose a random route to try to find the core. Bloed was not sure if going like this would work, but Elwha explained that in this kind of convoluted world, you would go deeper as long as you intended to go deeper, no matter which direction you chose.
Fortunately, the group did not meet any 'Nightmare', as Elwha called them, in the way. Thus, besides the dizzying scenery, the pair did not run into any problem.
Before long, they arrived in front of another door.
Just like the last time, Bloed and Elwha looked at each other before opening it and going inside.
But as soon as they entered, they discovered this memory was completely different than Liu Ying's.
They appeared in a training-camp-like place, filled with dead bodies and blood flowing everywhere.
And in the middle of that place, a young man was stabbing a dagger into the belly of another man.
"F-Fred…? W-Why? W-We were friends…" The man being stabbed asked with an astonished look.
The young man called Fred did not reply. Instead, he twisted his dagger and cut upwards, killing the other man.
Then, he pulled the dagger back, and the dead body of his friend collapsed on the ground, bleeding out slowly.
At that point, the young man raised his head and looked at the sky, with tears filling his eyes.
"This is…"
"Probably someone of the Church of Slaughter," Elwha replied with an expression of disgust. "I heard they gather hundreds of children in some places and train them for years. Then, on the last day, they force them to kill each other, and the last one is chosen as an elite of the Church of Slaughter."
Bloed wrinkled his brows.
"That is sick…"
"I think the same," Elwha said and started to walk. "Let's go, I don't want to spend another second here."
"Wait a moment," Bloed said and walked towards the young man.
And that moment, the young man looked back towards him.
And as soon as his eyes met Bloed, he brandished his dagger and pounced towards him, reaching in front of Bloed in an instant!
"Careful!" Elwha cried out in panic when she noticed the danger.
To his surprise, though, Bloed was completely calm.
In fact, although he was slightly surprised when the young man attacked him, it did not matter.
If he was right, the current him did not need to fear this kind of enemy.
Extending his hand, Bloed called out to the powers sleeping inside his calculation zone.
Then, as though answering to him, a destructive presence erupted from his body.
The next second, the young man froze.
And his body turned into dust and disappeared.
"As expected, I can use it here," Bloed muttered to himself. "Is it due to the psychic energy of the Heart of the Forest, or perhaps is it because it's an ability I can use in [Overdrive] so I can use it in this imaginary world too? But it's strange… Even if it's a dream, I felt the ESP ability in my calculation zone activating. This should not be possible."
After all, the reason he could not activate [Molecular Disintegration] was due to his lack of calculation capacity. It was not something he should be able to change even if he was in an imaginary world.
However, [Molecular Disintegration] was being activated. It was not that the soul world imitated its activation, but that it was truly activated.
It was as though something in this world was making up for his lack of calculation capacity.
Bloed was confused, but before Bloed could reach an answer, the world around him started to crumble, quickly turning into the convoluted chaos usual of the soul world.
At that moment, Bloed realized that Elwha was looking at him with an expression of astonishment.
"W-What was that?"
"Mm?"
"You… Did you erase his soul? No, that is impossible… Then, why…"
"Miss Elwha?"
"Huh? Oh, sorry, I was thinking about something." Elwha waved her hands awkwardly and played it off.
Bloed furrowed his brows, but he did not insist. He did not want to explain to her about [Molecular Disintegration] anyway.
However, Bloed soon noticed something strange.
Elwha had become wary of him.
No, wary was not the right word. The right word was afraid.
She glanced at him on several occasions, moving her gaze away as soon as Bloed turned towards her, as though afraid of him noticing her glances.
It happened several times, at the point that Bloed was becoming tired of it.
Furthermore, she consciously or unconsciously was keeping a certain distance from him she had not been keeping before.
Obviously, Bloed's use of [Molecular Disintegration] had shocked her more than Bloed thought.
Even so, it did not affect their search for the core of the soul world. Just like before, they moved through the convoluted and chaotic world, trying to move forward.
But not much after they left the memories of the young man belonging to the Church of Slaughter, the first obstacle in their search appeared.
In front of Bloed and Elwha, tens of grotesque figures took shape from nothing, rushing towards them with expressions of hunger and bloodthirstiness.
"Nightmares!" Elwha cried out in panic and took out her bow. "Damn it! Why are so many of them!?"
But in the next instant, her eyes opened wide.
Because Bloed extended his hands–
*Swoosh!*
And everything in front of him turned into dust.
...
P4TRE0N: patr-eon.com/aidnovels