As the first rays of starlight passed through the cracks in between the Yellow mountains, they began to enliven the middle layer.
"Oh…"
Waking up from his slumber due to the dictation of his circadian rhythm, Ran rubbed the gunk out of his eyes. He could hear the abruptness of the liveliness of the neighborhood as well as a few days of light pass overhead of his tent.
With his vision still a little blurry, he got up, yet suddenly, he saw how crowded his tent was.
"What the," he exclaimed. Why were there two hairless apes sleeping in his tent? And why were they hugging his legs!? Especially this Queenie over here that drooled all over it; since when were they comfortable enough with each other to sleep in the same space? Especially the drooling; isn't that only something you do after spending years building a relationship with someone? Oh and let's not even mention how he was only in his heart-printed undies right now.
Furthermore… ouch!
As if someone was stabbing him with pins and needles, he looked to his right, only to discover his other leg was as purple as Fluffy's fur—as in almost black! This damn bastard (Ann) had used her vice-like grip once again and practically almost suffocated his leg to death. Yet, he felt like crying because despite using his full strength, he couldn't pry her arms off of him.
Only after holding some snacks up to her nose, enticing her to subconsciously eat them, did it satisfy her unconscious body to the point her grappling of his leg softened enough to rid herself off him.
Feeling his blood begin to rush into his leg, he then wiped the drool off his other leg and got up. He woke up Fluffy and the both of them exited the tent. He didn't plan on waking up the two of them, and especially Ann, as punishment for barging into his tent, though he didn't actually mind all that much.
And when they got out, they saw a motionless Bob sitting on a log next to a mostly burnt out bonfire. Since he was motionless even after they came out, and because they couldn't directly see his face, they just assumed he was napping. As such, they could only tiptoe around the melting snow so as to avoid waking him up.
Sitting on a fairly large log of wood, Ran began to brush Fluffy's fur, as usual in the mornings, but because they slept in separate spaces while in Angleford, Fluffy no longer enjoyed that privilege. Now though, she demanded it from him with a quiet stare from her big yellow eyes. Of course, Ran wasn't going to refuse and luckily he always carried a few spare brushes and mirrors, though they don't work too well getting to a cat's undercoat.
And yet, surprisingly enough, after taking care of her fur, Fluffy demonstrated her thoughts of reciprocation! This was surprising as she rarely wants to do such a thing… which was typical cat behavior.
It was strange, Ran felt, having Fluffy brush his hair. Let me tell you though, despite only being a paw and some beans, they were very dexterous in the way they held and used the brush.
However, what was even stranger was the fact that periodically, Fluffy would have the tendency to lick his hair. Due to the properties of hair, especially its ability to absorb and retain nutrients, vitamins… drugs, etc, they would also tend to carry at least an order of magnitude more soul juice than the rest of the body.
In other words, Ran's hair smelled a lot like cherry blossoms; most of the aroma that radiated off of him could be said to come from his hair, especially since there's so much of it. As such, Fluffy couldn't help but try to cleanse his hair of the smell, though it wasn't like she particularly disliked it.
After a while, Fluffy, to get deep into his thick and luscious, and I mean absolutely stunning hair, she had to part it, only to reveal a small black bump on the base of Ran's neck.
"This? Oh, it's just a birthmark," he said nonchalantly. He hardly ever notices it since it was covered by his hair and only occasionally would it itch a little. Indeed, the only unusual thing about it was it's almost perfectly circular shape with an indent in the middle—similar to a ring.
The both of them passed a few minutes relaxing like this until they were stopped by the sound of a snow crunching. Looking towards the source of the sound, they realized that Bob's body had turned and was now facing them. It was quiet, no one spoke for a few seconds and the atmosphere seemed to constipate.
"Congrats to the both of you for your breakthroughs."
The tone was a bit slow and sleepy but it was enough to return the air to normalcy. Hearing the familiar voice, Ran sighed in relief.
"You really creeped me out for a while. Would it kill you to take off that hood every once in a while?"
After asking this question, the surroundings seemed to quiet once again. Even Fluffy stopped purring and combing his hair. In the end, another few seconds passed by before Bob answered.
"Yes."
"Huh; well, I should've figured."
Indeed, where Bob is from, not wearing this black robe would be the same as directly killing himself. In fact, the very robe he's wearing is actually the clothing his enemies, the emerald grass tribe, wore. Not just him, his entire clan wears the clothing of their enemies. It was just another way to camouflage themselves in a place with little to no light.
"Anyway, what do you want to eat—" Ran wanted to ask, before he got rudely interrupted by Fluffy's meddling. Clearly, she wanted to eat.
"Okay okay I get it! But if we keep eating fish, you'll bore everyone. And we'll run out of it too!"
He lightly scolded her while simultaneously patting her head and soon enough, racks with fish stabbed through 'em were being roasted on the open fire. With the smell wafting out, the two remaining sleepers would quickly wake up and eat. Ann, of course, acted as if nothing happened though Queenie seemed a little flustered in comparison.
After all, back home, her room was several times bigger than that small tent. Not only that, she also had to sleep in close proximity with other people, which was… a new experience to say the least. Most of all, it was a young man's tent as well, though Ran's heart-printed underwear seemed to take away some of the so-called friction between sexes. So much for that arc, am I right?
Anyways, after eating, rather than leaving right away, Ran suggested something else.
"I want to test out my power now that I've ranked up," he explained, especially towards Ann considering everyone else is already below him in rank.
In reality, he really just wanted to test out two things. One was the extent of which he could steal someone else's juice, and the other was just to test the reliability of his skill, soul avatar.
Ann, on the other hand, was surprised on the outside by his question, but was shocked on the inside by the quickness of his growth. She had been in the game for years and only recently reached rank-5, but it had been less than half a year since Ran started and yet, here he is.
"Are you sure? I won't go easy on you, you know…"
Ann smiled at him, as if in expectation, but Ran didn't like where this was going.
He gulped a little and felt some of his face muscles twitch.
"What, no! There's… no need. I just want to—"
However, before he could even finish his sentence, he let out a tear as he saw Ann disappear right in front of him.
With little time to respond, he could only activate his sigil and stop all movement within his barrier briefly. Immediately, all the small wildlife stopped moving and even the rest were frozen for a second. The worst being Fluffy who had been frozen midway through scarfing down an entire fish.
At the same time, the momentum was transferred into the environment, kicking up the snow around them like a light fog.
However, Ran felt even colder than the snow as he felt a familiar presence behind him. And sure enough, looking behind himself, the first thing that came into his view was actually a shoe. If Ann was slightly better, or if Ran was slightly slower, on the scale of milliseconds, then he could only imagine the horrors his posterior would experience if that shoe landed.
Seeing the glowing shoe filled with power, Ran couldn't help but gulp what felt like a pound of saliva. It felt more and more that Ann held back less and less after finding out he could heal himself. This would-be kick probably would have been enough to blow him a new one.
But he was still too nervous from the current predicament, so he stepped back a few steps.
"Jeez, this is not what I meant when I said 'I want to test out my power'! What do you think I am, suicidal?"
Only after saying those words did the raised leg lower and Ran was able to relax.
"Oh? What did you mean?"
Ann, on the other hand, was completely chill and was simply confused. If he didn't want to fight, why phrase it in such a way?
Of course, it was all my doing, but still…
"I just wanted to try something, that's all I wanted."
He was practically pleading with her, but she still didn't get the whole picture.
"So… what do you want to try then," she asked curiously. She knew that whatever it was, it would probably surprise her a bit.
"Hold out your hand."
Seeing the request was simple, she had no qualms accomplishing it.
"What now?"
"Gather some soul juice onto your palm."
Ann did as told and gathered a ball of white soul juice onto her palm, holding it out for him.
"Perfect."
The next second, Ran activated his sigil and focused on the radiant ball on Ann's palm. At first, there seemed to be no reaction, but after a few short moments, Ann began to feel… something.
On the outside, it merely appeared as if a pink-blue ray of light burst out from the ball, but the inside was even more special. To Ann, it felt as if something had suddenly invaded her innermost space—her mind.
She could feel what seemed to be multiples of eyes… seeing. They slowly brought down an invisible and seemingly insurmountable pressure, such that it felt like a mountain was weighing on her.
Of course, at first, this was nothing; in this world, as long as you're strong enough, a mountain is merely the beginning. Now, this is less physical and more about the mind, but it was still within the range Ann could handle.
That was, at least, until the entities made their move.
Without warning, she could sense that a part of her mind, namely a piece of what was imparted to her ball of light, was suddenly marked and quickly sealed away.
With her connection cut off from the piece, she couldn't tell what exactly happened next, but she could sense it to a certain extent. The
She could still feel that it was familiar, but after it was marked and sealed, it underwent a change that simultaneously estranged it from her.
She could no longer reestablish a connection with a former piece of her mind—this set Ann off. As in she was frightened beyond belief. Despite being a rank ahead of Ran, no matter how she utilized her will, she couldn't unseal what she had lost. In fact, the more she struggled the worse the backlash and the worse the pressure from the seal and the entity.
At one point while trying to fight the seal to break it, she felt something abruptly descend upon her like she was holding onto an entire planet. Outside, her entire body shuddered vigorously and her face briefly turned red, as if she was about to burst and spew blood everywhere.
The pressure was continuous and overbearing, and so she could not help but turn her mind to it's source.
Above her, what appeared to be a gigantic singular eye simply stared at her. It's features were blurry, but it's iris appeared to be as black as an abyss and there also seemed to be no pupil.
However this single action made Ann shrink her proverbial neck and almost kneel, as if she was facing a deity. Funny thing was, the eye was practically identical to what the so-called seal looked like. Crazier yet, the longer she against the seal, the more the eye would stare and apply mountainous upon mountainous pressure; only when she stopped fighting it did it disappear, leaving her to quickly get her bearings.
Clearly, this was no longer an issue of ranks and or wills, but rather was completely on another level—the very principles of the laws of the universes themselves. Once it was marked and sealed, there was no defying it's dictation.
Worse yet, despite the part she lost completing the change brought about by the seal, it still clung tightly to the rest of her mind.
It was as if chains wrapped around her mind, restricting the fluidity of its function.
And yet, all of this could be said to have happened within the first second of the experiment.
Once that pink-blue ray emerged from the light ball, multiple others immediately followed suit. Luckily, this wasn't as bad as it might seem for Ann.
After all, once she stopped being aggressive towards the seal, it backed off and there was no pressure from it specifically. This, in fact, made it easier on her; rather, instead of hitting the seal directly, she targeted the piece it has control over. This was, of course, mainly a battle of minds—we know exactly where Ran stands on this.
Ann, who was rank-5, was on a fundamentally different level compared to Ran's, who was rank-6. Her quality, which is the part in question, is multiple times… better?
How do I put it? It's sort of like different resolutions. Like, 1080p is alright I guess, but compared to 2k? 4k? I think you get the point.
It simply overwhelmed him like a boot squashing a cockroach to a pulp.
However, this is a story and it's main protagonist, for now, is Ran. And what kind of main character would he be if he simply let Ann bulldoze over him?
But… How about this? Let's stay on topic. When there's one roach, there's… what?
An infestation!
See, I knew you guys were smart. Go ahead and give yourself a pat on the back for trying so hard.
But this is exactly it; as we all know, Ran's strong suit wasn't in the quality of his soul, but rather in the quantity!
At the very least, without revealing entirely, Ran could hold multiple times more soul juice than Ann. Not only that, her mind was incomparable to his. After all, he has a world in there.
In other words, speaking from experience, it was like trying to stomp out a group of roaches. No matter how many you kill, some will get away and they always seem to multiply out of nowhere.
If Ann could clobber five pieces that were sealed, then he could convert sixty at the same time.
Obviously, this method wasn't unstoppable. For one, we already know what happens when one's mind is spread out—its overall strength becomes weaker.
Two, no matter what, quality cannot be ignored. For each piece of the light ball, Ran would have to allocate more and more of his mind, meaning the pieces he could convert become less and less and happen slower and slower.
Everything will find it's balance; it's equilibrium.
And we see this play out exactly.
By the time he could annex around twenty percent of the light ball, Ann's superior quality easily created a blockade. Ran was so weak and slow by this point that he couldn't get away with getting more pieces.
With twenty percent of the light ball converted, she could no longer use the ball for any of its potential functions. The only thing left for it would be to simply self-destruct, ruining Ran's part as well. Ran could also self-destruct his part, effectively destroying her majority piece if she still wanted to try something.
In reality though, once the stalemate was reached, the conclusion was set.
…
Outside, this little experiment had caught their attention.
Once everyone saw that the pinkish-blue splotch on the white ball didn't grow anymore, as well as seeing the slight amount of perspiration on Ran's face, they knew it was over.
They determined that he had lost, considering the goal was to completely transfer the ball to his side. However, only Ann and Ran knew that the result would be the same no matter who made a move—the ball would explode.
"Are you okay? You looked awful for a second there."
After the both of them retrieved their wills, the ball disintegrated and was absorbed by the ground.
"Hmm? You calling me ugly?"
Alarmed, Ran immediately retreated a few steps.
"What!? Of course no—"
Before he could finish, Ann had already put her firm and callous hand on his shoulder, making him gulp yet again.
A second of silence ensued, that was until someone went into a fit of laughter.
"Pfft! Haha, Ran, lighten up a little will ya? I was only joking. You actually find me beautiful, right?"
After Ann spoke, there was once again silence. Once it seemed to pursue for a little too long, Ran could feel her hand on his shoulder tighten and he could even hear his bones squeak in pain. Finally, he could no longer hold it.
"Alright, yes! Yes, you're beautiful okay!?"
Once the words came out of his mouth, the entire scene once again went quiet. Everyone except Ran and Ann, who were used to it, had their faces go red. It was as if the mirror neurons in their brains went off as they all felt embarrassed. They could no longer look at the two of them and looked away in their own respective directions.
However, despite appeasing her, her hand was still holding onto him. But, upon seeing that her face was serious, he didn't try to do a comeback.
"Listen…"
"Y-yes?"
Rather than continuing her little stunt, she decided to change the subject entirely, opting to share what it was that she experienced.
She was deeply shocked by everything she had encountered that it simply could not go untold.
"An eye, you said?"
"Mhm," she responded, though she didn't have the best of faces as she pursed her lips.
Ran, on the other hand, was merely confused. Not only did he not know of any singular eye, as none appeared within his memory, but he was also perplexed by the seemingly increasing number of eye imagery.
Maybe the eye was the so-called "window to the soul", or so he thought.
However, besides the fact that the eye was somehow able to suppress Ann in such a manner which was kind of crazy to think about, he was actually more surprised by the mechanism in which his sigil, Parry, appeared to work.
It just seemed to be so counterintuitive. Wasn't a counterattack supposed to use their own attack against them?
Why then did he take their attacks and make them his own? At that point, wouldn't it not be a counterattack as it was no longer their attack?
Clearly, something was off, but the most important piece of information, time and time again, always seemed to escape from his grasp.
Because of this, despite all the weird shit he could catalog, he could not make heads nor tails of it all.
Like, what was he supposed with all this information Ann had dumped on his lap?
The fuck was with this eye and why was it so powerful!? However, he would not know for quite some time.
He could only catalog this as well, and hope that the crucial information he needs to piece everything together would come sooner rather than later.
As for everyone else, they didn't know jack shit so their ears could not properly digest what they had heard. Of course, they still knew Ran was a freak—I mean… weird.
"So… you don't know anything right," Ann asked.
, to which Ran just shook his head. In fact, it could be said that Ann was just as invested in this investigation as Ran was, at least emotionally.
However, Ran moved on and suddenly smiled.
"Well, there's no use in speaking about useless things. But, I still have one more thing I want to try. Will you help me?"
He looked at Ann, but his hands were rubbing each other, quite mischievously which unsettled Ann a bit.
She had enough of a scare as it is, how can she deal with what he would dish out next?