A group of four people entered the room, three girls and one boy. I could tell from their auras that they were a strong group, but one of them had such a familiar aura. Suddenly, I felt a wave of nausea and disgust.
Yes, another 'Otherworlder.' Those who were blessed with cheating powers and had their asses raised to the stars. I bet they're thinking, 'Yay, it's my isekai adventure! I'll make a harem and kick the demon king's ass!'
"Disgusting." I muttered, lost in thought, when the otherworlder suddenly ran towards me to attack.
And one of the girls said, "Ah, there's Noah-sama... Come on, girls! For the hero!" and they all started attacking. 'How lovely.'
I signaled Nymph and she began attacking from a distance, and our 'hero' easily cut down every root that came his way. Thanks to his sword and blessing, he had truly cheating powers.
But the situation was not the same for the others. One of the roots caught the short girl by the leg, and the thorns killed her before the wizard could cast a spell.
The hero seemed very angry, and Ifrit said to me, "I want to teach this boy a lesson!" and disappeared in an instant!
Seconds later, Ifrit appeared behind the hero and created a massive explosion!
'This Ifrit... What kind of monster has she caught?' Ifrit was truly a monster. She disappeared again and this time breathed fire on the girl who used a long sword.
'She seems to be having fun.'
Then a magic circle appeared under the feet of the wizard at the back and disappeared all of a sudden. After that, Ifrit fell to her knees and cursed in a way that would deafen anyone's ears, seeing that Ifrit was in a difficult situation, Nymph grabbed her by the leg to help and wrapped her with her roots.
Then the hero's ring and the wizard girl glowed and disappeared all of a sudden, "Damn sons of bitches!" I shouted, but wait, your comrades are in my hands.
But first, we need to help Ifrit, the situation is critical. I went to Ifrit, but she gestured me to stop with her hand.
"What's your problem, Ifrit!" I shouted, our fire power will decrease significantly if we lose her.
"M-Master, I'm sorry but my time has run out..." she said, and after waiting for a while, she continued her sentence. "The hero's sword... It deals a lethal blow to monsters, and it's impossible to heal..."
Her chest was heaving, but blood was still flowing from her back, "This son of a bitch... Heroes!"
The anger that I had suppressed inside me surfaced again, and this time it didn't intend to subside, 'They attacked me because of the excommunication incident, kicked me out of the city, I had to live like a rat, and then Aulë died. Now it's Ifrit, this hero, and demi-gods. All of you...'
"YOU MUST DIE!!" There was no reaction, but Ifrit seemed to understand her pain.
"Master, can Nymph leave the room for a second?" she asked, but I quickly took Nymph out as she didn't have much time.
"Master, look. I'll be frank. I remember what Lif did that day, how I got infected with the mushrooms, and everything that happened since then." she stopped to gauge my reaction, but when she realized that I was listening intently, she continued with a slight smile. "These mushrooms are a strange thing, a foreign will flows within them, and your own will flows out."
"That foreign will is trying to erase your control. Be careful. The time I spent with you was more enjoyable than the hundreds of years I spent in this rotten dungeon. And these mushrooms... You have memories of the pain, helplessness, and loneliness that death brought you. Please don't worry too much..." she didn't finish her sentence before taking her last breath. After she died, her body disappeared in flames, leaving only "fire" on the ground.
Yes, fire. It continued to burn but never went out.
"..." I picked it up, and it didn't harm me. In fact, a few seconds later, it penetrated my body through my skin and disappeared.
I stood up and signaled for Nymph to come over.
"Master... You're crying."
"Hmm?" I wiped my eyes with my hand and realized tears were streaming down my cheeks. I guess the emotions I've been hiding all along are coming out now.
"Yes... I am crying."
I waited for it to end, but it was like a waterfall. It wouldn't stop, and this time I felt the pain of losing my companion forever.
Hours later, I had finally calmed down and my tear ducts had dried up. "Is it rational to feel this attached to someone I just met?" I thought to myself, but there was no room for logic here. I examined my body, but there was no visible change from the fever. Suddenly, I had the urge to examine my soul, which felt like it was in a deep sleep.
Nymph had been staring at me without saying a word for hours, as if she hadn't lost her companion. "Yes, they are just bodies without a soul," she said.
But the situation must be different for Ifrit. "Why was she different from the others?" I still don't know the answer.
I turned my head and saw the two human bodies in the cell. I gathered them in a corner and began to examine them.
One of them had been pierced all over with thorns, so much so that most of the body, except for the main parts, was "punctured." I turned my head to the other one and saw that it had been burned all over, except for the legs!
I touched the girl's face and noticed that it was still warm. My heart filled with longing again, but I quickly shook my head. Getting too attached would only harm me.
I had tried spreading mushroom spores on them, but it didn't do much. The mushrooms grew, but there was no movement in their bodies.
"Could it be because their souls have scattered?" The answer was probably yes! The basic principle of these mushrooms was to enter a newly dead body, absorb its soul, and take control.
But can they do this to a body without a soul? The answer is no! I want to try something else.
Since I had full control over the mushrooms and their basic principle was to store soul and life energy, could I technically transfer my own soul to another body?
Even if the answer is yes, it's too risky to do. After all, this is my last chance, and I need to make the most of it... No, I have to.
I don't know how much time has passed, but the bodies had already decayed when Lif arrived, and she didn't mourn the death of Ifrit. There was only a subtle change in expression on Succubus, but she didn't show much emotion.
I tried to perform a soul transfer with some subjects, but it was always unsuccessful. They either went insane mentally or their bodies rejected the new soul.
I wonder... do we need some kind of support? Perhaps if they don't take it directly, they might accept it if it's something familiar.
So, I haven't tried fusing two souls yet. Fortunately, I still have some subjects left.
I took someone's soul and injected it into a mushroom that could hold it! Strangely, the two souls initially rejected each other, but as they were squeezed by the pressure of the mushroom, they became more and more compressed until they were the size of a pea, and their outer boundaries burst, mixing together.
Then I finished the compression process, and even though it was slightly smaller than its original size, it looked like a stronger soul. I injected it into the body of the strongest subject whose souls I had merged, and... it moved!
It stood up, and as soon as it touched the ground, it was evident that its body was overflowing with power that it couldn't control.
"Okay, we can merge souls, but... what about memories? A soul is a memory... Wait a minute!"
"If memories and everything else are neural connections, then souls cannot contain memories. So, technically, if we transfer to another body, we become completely 'that person'!"
To test this, I prepared a very simple device with 8 options and 8 attempts. I showed the responses and the shape that subject 1 needed to make in advance.
Technically, even by mistake, the probability of doing it is very low. After showing the order that subject 1 needed to make, I took the soul and injected it into the body of subject 2.
And I didn't touch it, didn't tell it what to do, nor anything else. But in a strange way, it went to the marked places as if it knew what to do and came back.
Sitting on the ground with my hand on my chin, "My argument was wrong... Then memory is stored in the soul at the same time."
I didn't take a break from my own education while conducting these experiments, and my little soul awakened and changed its appearance significantly.
"You... You've grown a bit," a soul about 20 cm tall with all its features and almost resembling a fairy in my palm!
It seems to understand what I said, and because it realized I was praising it, it lifted its nose a little and began to boast about itself.
The main lines of the little soul, the aura it emits, and the clothes it wears are reddish. I was touched because it reminded me of Ifrit, and tears fell from my cheeks again.
The little soul seems to have understood the sudden change and tried to comfort me.
After calming down, when I looked a little more carefully at the main lines of the soul, it was an undeniable fact that it really resembled Ifrit... It even resembled it a bit too much, even to the extent that it couldn't be a coincidence...
"Hey, did you absorb that flame that entered my body?" I pulled her cheeks a little harshly, but she just looked up into the air because she couldn't find any words to say.
"Look, if you were going to take it, you could have just asked." she shook her head apologetically, and I continued to examine her. Her limbs were covered with fire like Ifrit, and her tail was made of pure flame.
The clothes she wore were really beautiful, and her breasts were as large as Ifrit's. Her mana level was very high, I wonder if this little soul has an abnormal growth rate?
She nodded as if she understood what I said, and indeed, she has an abnormal growth rate.