Soul and Oki walked through the forest, stepping on branches as they made their way to the centre of the woodlands. The sounds of the branches snapping soon became non-existent, even though they were stepping on them as they walked. Soul tried to speak to Oki, but neither Oki nor himself could hear his voice. Soul stopped, lifting up his palm as he tried to talk to Oki. However, to Oki, it just looked like Soul was moving his mouth without saying anything. Soul sighed, trying to remember how he could talk to people without needing his voice.
Soul shot back through the memories of Aaron as a skeleton, specifically on that planet where people contracted monsters to fight for them. Aaron had used Boundless Telekinesis to project his voice out into the open or even into the minds of specific people so that they could hear him. If he established a connection between his and Oki's minds, they might be able to talk. Soul put his Corrupted, pointed index finger on Oki's head, using that as the point of contact he needed.
{Boundless Messageway Created between (S0UL) and (OKI)}
"Hey! Oki! Are you there?" Soul asked, using his mind to talk to the child. "Soul? What the hell happened?" Oki asked in a confused voice. "I'm not moving my mouth, yet I can hear you. How is that?"
"Well, I'm using one of my abilities to talk to you directly through our minds. It appears that we have become deaf to the world around us. I can't figure out why, though." Soul responded. "However, we aren't going to figure out anything by just standing here, so we should keep moving forward. We just have to keep our eyes out for anything unnatural. " Soul explained before walking ahead, not waiting for Soul to follow because he knew that he would.
The pair walked along through the eerily quiet woodlands for the next five minutes, engaging in small talk to keep themselves from growing bores. However, after five minutes, they reached a pathway. It was made of dirt, but it apparently led both out and into the forest. "So, should we keep walking along this path?" Soul asked Oki. "I mean, if it'll get us to the centre faster, then sure. After all, we want to find some people to add to our ranks in the city." Oki responded, not moving his mouth. He wanted to see what was at the end of the pathway.
They began walking along the pathway as if it was their guide, hoping to find some kind of civilisation in this place. After all, if there was a Beastwoman here, who talked about forest Spirits, so maybe there would be some kind of Dryad-esque race that lived in these woodlands. "So, what do you expect us to find here, Oki?" Soul asked Oki, wondering what kind of response he'd get. "Oh, well, I've found this huge monster that's following behind us if you want to try and take it down," Oki informed Soul, causing him to turn around, staring up at a centipede-like monster covered in black and red shadows. Almost like it was cursed.
Soul picked up Oki, jumping out the way from the incoming centipede. The centipede crashed into the ground, dragging up dust as it moved, the lack of sound scaring him even more than the monster. Soul smiled, realising that this was his chance to showcase that beasts like this could actually understand people, given the right circumstances. Soul stood still, putting his hands into the air as Oki got out of his grasp. "Listen! We're not going to fight you! We just want to pass through here without causing any trouble, so if you wouldn't mind leaving us alone, we'll go on our way, and nobody has to get hurt!" Soul exclaimed without hearing his voice, the monster taking what he said into account. At least, it seemed to understand. The centipede moved away, walking in the opposite direction that it came from, leaving Soul and Oki to walk away without any damage.
"Well, that was rather easy, wasn't it?" Soul asked Oki. Oki was looking at him with a surprised look in his eyes. "honestly, I didn't think you could do it, considering how big it was, but well done. You've subdued a monster without fighting." Oki responded, taking the lead on the path. Soul walked behind Oki, beginning to talk with him. "So, did you find that somewhat entertaining?" Soul asked, unable to listen to anything else. He was starting to hear his own imaginary organs. However, that was interrupted when he felt an object pierce through his chest. Soul looked down and quickly watched his head get liberated from his body. However, this act of pain released whatever was making him deaf, and he immediately became able to hear again.
"Well, fuck you too, centipede." Soul swore at the monster, turning his entire body into corrupted flesh before collecting it and remaking his body as it was lifted into the air by the jaws of the centipede. Soul unsheathed Tsuyukgiri, the metal blade shining in the sunlight. He swung it at the monster, making sure that he used all of the force that he could. Soul watched as the centipede let out a scream of pain, meaning that he had hit him. However, Oki couldn't hear a thing. Oki ran towards the centipede, planning on hitting it so it'd let Soul go. "Oki! Don't be an idiot! I'll take care of this!" Soul yelled at him through the mental channel they had created, but Oki wasn't listening. He kicked the monster in its side, causing it to fall over. It didn't let go of Soul, but what it DID do was attack Oki using the back half of its body as it fell, sending him into a tree, cracking both the tree and Oki's spine. "Oki!" Soul yelled, an emotion bubbling up within him.
A mix of anger and sadness. That's how Soul described the emotion that he was feeling. Soul used Boundless Corruption to create a spike out from his back, piercing through the brain of the centipede. He didn't want to do that, but he didn't care. He fell to the ground, prising himself from the monster's mouth, and ran over to Oki. Shards of wood were poking through his chest, the tree stabbing him in the worst way possible. There was a millimetre wide spike stabbed directly through his heart. "Fuck!" Soul yelled as he realised what was going on. He tried to use Boundless Telekinesis to heal it, but he only got this message in return.
{Object obstructing reversal. You need to remove the objects (10)}
Soul went to pull the pieces of wood splinters out, but that's when he realised something. If he pulled the splinter from his heart out, he'd die. "Oki. If I had known that this would happen, I wouldn't have brought you here. I'm honestly sorry." Soul apologised to the slowly dying Oki. Oki couldn't respond, his body growing slowly colder. Cracks appeared on Soul's hand, the pink essence beneath the black skin showing itself. As Soul looked down at the dying child, a pink drop of the essence from his hand fell down onto Oki's chest, and a powerful burst of energy emitted from the child.
{You have successfully obtained emotions. You can now grant people the power to truly live through Corruption.}