There were also some ways to manipulate any soul.
Alvin, aged and bald-headed, walked slowly and coldly toward his slave companion writhing on the ground in great agony, screaming, holding a small, broken mirror in his hand. Inside the mirror was a violently churning black sea.
He stood before his slave companion, Teyat, and cast a cold, dark gaze down upon him. Then, suddenly, with all his strength, he swiftly pressed the sole of his left foot onto Teyat's head, who was screaming in pain on the ground.
As Alvin's foot pressed down on Teyat's bloodied face, his head twisted to the left, and the force kept his head immobile due to the intense pressure.
Teyat's eyes, filled with thin red veins and blood, trembled as they remained fixed to the left, quivering from the pain.
Yet, despite the torture-induced pain, whether consciously or unconsciously, though his head remained still, Teyat's body convulsed like a writhing snake in agony.
Poor Teyat, with his voice choked by pain, could only let out muffled cries, as blood continued to flow from his face like a small stream.
And after a while, he had already begun to step into the stage of losing his mind from the pain, heading toward death.
Whether he wanted to or not.
Alvin, with his foot planted on his slave companion's face, managed to hold him somewhat steady, preventing him from writhing too much, though Teyat still squirmed on his back.
He placed his foot on the face of his fellow slave because he was about to bring the soul mirror in his hand to the center of Teyat's chest, to capture his soul and offer it to the unknown being that granted his master the blessing of the soul. For this reason, Alvin performed these cruel yet unintended actions to offer Teyat's soul to that unknown entity.
Alvin bent down to bring the small soul mirror, containing the black sea or something else within it, to Teyat's chest, holding the mirror close but not letting it touch his chest.
Suddenly, something moved inside the mirror, where the black sea violently churned.
The black sea gathered together, taking the form of a cylinder, and from the end of that black cylindrical sea, at the same width and length, a hand made of the black waters emerged, still connected to the sea.
Alvin pressed the final button to complete the task.
•
Teyat, whose head was turned to the left because of Alvin's foot pressing down on the left side of his face, was screaming in pain with a muffled, pitiful voice, unaware of the fate that awaited him.
The only thing he felt deep within his being at this moment was pain.
As Alvin was about to bring the mirror to Teyat's chest to perform the final step, his eyes suddenly widened with fear and panic.
Because what he saw was a thin, red line coming from the eyes of his bloodied slave companion, whose face was turned to the left under his foot.
This thin red line wasn't hot, nor did it evoke the sense of fear that came from the aura of the eyes of those bandits who had been stealthily killed in the cave.
It looked straight, empty, and powerless.
However, the reason Alvin's eyes widened in fear was not the thin red lines coming from Teyat's eyes.
Even though Teyat's soul had been reborn, despite being the child of a god and thus powerful, it was not stronger than the King of Bandits.
Teyat's soul had neither received a blessing nor had it hosted any other special attributes. Yes, he had lived hundreds of lives and gained experience.
But the reason a soul continuously lives through experiences is to maintain its existence in this universe.
And that was all there was to it.
There was nothing more or less to this system. If you could endure, you continued. No extra power was given to your soul, nor was any taken away.
Teyat's soul had reincarnated hundreds of times because he had lived through experiences to the fullest in his lives.
Pain, joy, hatred, sadness, and similar feelings had been experienced to their core, and so he existed, died, and was reborn hundreds of times in the universe.
And yes, Teyat couldn't use his powers because Alvin's soul was stronger than Teyat's, so for a while, he had imprisoned his fellow slave's powers, preventing him from using the inheritance tied to his soul.
But it was only for a while.
The reason Alvin was frightened was that, in this soul battle, Teyat's newly reborn and nearly empty soul had almost gained the upper hand.
Alvin realized this when he saw the thin red lines coming from Teyat's eyes, a sign of one of the techniques of the Dark Legacy, called the 'Aura of Darkness.'
Yes, Alvin could still imprison and suppress Teyat's powers by manipulating his soul, but only with great difficulty. But soon, his control over Teyat's powers was starting to slip. That was why the thin red lines appeared when Teyat's soul began to exert itself.
The two souls were engaged in an intense battle, trying to overpower one another.
A soul refusing to disappear entirely, and another soul trying to imprison it with all its might...