Approaching the still-unconscious Elias who was lying down on an operating table, Beatrice placed her hand on his forehead.
"Hopefully my intuition is correct, and you are still useful in the future," mumbled Beatrice as she once again began erasing Elias's memories.
Although one could erase someone's memories by eradicating them from the brain, Beatrice, would not feel safe if she merely did that, in fact, Beatrice would prefer killing Elias if her only option was doing something like that.
Instead of that, Beatrice did something else, destroy these memories straight from Elias's soul, hitting two birds with one.
Not only would Beatrice be able to be completely certain that Elias would have none of his memories from his time with her, she would also be able to slowly but surely increase her mastery and understanding of the soul, which was still extremely foreign to her.
In fact, that second benefit was probably the reason why Beatrice even decided to erase the memories of Elias in the first place, after all, he only showed a tiny bit of hesitation when his life was on the line, and even that would disappear as Beatrice became more and more powerful.
But sadly for Elias, the idea of wiping his memories of her appeared in Beatrice's mind, causing him to suffer his current face.
"Elias, wake up," said Beatrice, as she sent a small shockwave through the body of Elias, starting from his forehead.
A moment after that, Elias suddenly opened his eyes.
"Who are yo-,"
Halfway through his sentence, Elias suddenly stopped, as some faint fragments of memories flashed through his mind, this, alongside the aftereffects of the Dark Manipulation spell, caused Elias to suddenly follow the words of his mistress, which he faintly remembered.
'Don't talk unless asked to.'
Seeing this, Beatrice shook her head as she suddenly moved a finger to the back of Elias' neck, causing him to once again fall unconscious.
"It looks like those memories are still there," mumbled Beatrice as she once again made sure that Elias was properly tied to the bed.
...
Unlike manipulating someone's brain, trying to do so with someone's soul is not such a simple process, although in either case, one single mistake could result in the death of your target, the soul is very different from the brain, relying much more on instinct and intuition.
Even trying to do something as simple as to simply destroy someone's memories, not trying to alter them in the slightest, is an extremely difficult process.
Because of this, Beatrice chose the easiest method imaginable to achieve this goal of her, trying to gain experience in the process.
Sanding.
After managing to identify the target's memories, more specifically his most recent ones, Beatrice began slowly but surely sanding them.
Although this might seem counterintuitive, as back when Beatrice had seen her own soul, it was in the form of a fog, this strategy seemingly worked, allowing Beatrice to sand off Elias' memories.
"Perhaps this is why that book did not bother to talk about the shape of the soul," mumbled Beatrice as she carefully used her mind to access Elias's soul.
Some time ago, Beatrice had become slightly curious about the soul, as such, she then read a notebook about it from her teacher's collection.
Sadly though, this notebook was nearly completely useless other than providing one clue on a certain topic, accessing the soul.
Although the author of the book seemed completely mad, Beatrice still paid attention to his words, as there had to be a reason why her teacher had kept it in her collection.
Accessing the soul was extremely easy for Beatrice, unlike what she had expected.
From the book, Beatrice learned that the author, after finding an ancient text, tried to use his mind to sense the soul of a single person, his wife, who he loved dearly.
For three years, the author kept his wife, the person to who he had the greatest connection, and tried to use his mind to discover her soul.
Eventually, the author was able to sense the soul of his wife, but rather sadly, in his excitement, the author accidentally injured the soul of his wife, killing her.
Perhaps this was the reason why the author went mad in the first place, beginning to write complete and utter nonsense in his notebook, not mentioning any details about the shape or feel of the soul.
Thankfully though, Beatrice read his book, and after trying to sense Elias' soul for five minutes, she succeeded.
Although the fact that the author of the book wasn't a mage may have played a part in his slow speed, Beatrice still felt as though her speed was somewhat, unusual.
After all, even though Beatrice did not try to study it in her past life, it seemed as though mages mastering magic that truly affected the soul were extremely rare.
...
As Beatrice gently sanded away at Elias' memories, she couldn't help but fall into thought.
"The soul really is weird," mumbled Beatrice, thinking about the soul, Beatrice had managed to sense souls in three different ways.
A sphere which she could sand.
A mist.
A blob.
"A blob?" mumbled Beatrice, some confusion appearing on her face.
"I better focus on my work, I'm even making up random things," mumbled Beatrice as she turned her attention back to Elias.
...
Pain, pain, pain, pain, pain.
One moment, Elias would become unconscious, regaining consciousness another moment, with only a single thought managing to enter his mind, Pain.
In the next moment, Elias would suddenly faint from the pain, once again repeating the cycle.
Thankfully for him though, as time passed the pain Elias felt slowly began dulling, letting him think more and more.
At the same time, this made Elias' situation somewhat worse in the short run, allowing him to feel his current state.
Right now, when conscious, Elias felt he had been completely skinned alive, sadly, Elias knew that being skinned alive would not be as painful as what he had been feeling at the moment.
Staring at Elias, who was rapidly losing and regaining consciousness, a small smile couldn't help but appear on Beatrice's face.
"It looks like I didn't do as much collateral damage as last time," mumbled Beatrice, satisfied with her improvement speed.