A week. It took me a full week to finally achieve a fraction of what I wanted to do. I got bamboozled. The first few hours when trying to achieve the infrared sight I easily managed to stretch the ability of my sight to just barely detect it, but then everything went to shit.

No matter what I tried to do, it all worked against me. Twice I even went blind and had to manually reverse the changes I did to my eyes. It was incredibly frustrating. The thing was, that as I manipulated my body to change in subtle ways, my Soul shifted as well, changing the structure of what my body would naturally regenerate to.

The changes were very subtle and impossible to notice if you weren’t looking for them, but they were enough to pose problems. That was also one of the reasons I paid so much attention to my eyes at the beginning.

It was not widely known, but the assassin, Sicario, knew all about it.

The body could influence the Soul, and the Soul could influence the body. They were connected. As one changed, so would the other. If your Soul was cut, your body would refuse to heal properly. And if your body was cut, over time, that part of the soul would slowly atrophy.

Soul Breaker was a terrifying blade for that reason. No divine medicine could regrow your limbs if they were cut with that. Not unless the Soul was fixed first.

Sicario knew all of that and used it to his advantage. He could shift his Soul ever so slightly, but that was enough to change his outward appearance as well. The face-shifting technique wasn’t that simple, of course, but that was part of a trick to keep it from reverting back in case he lost consciousness.

It was very clever.

And with that knowledge, I managed to keep myself from making a grave mistake that could cripple me for life. The Soul of a person was a delicate thing, and so was the body. While both could sustain damage and recover, not all damage was the same.

Some referred to this change in a person’s Essence, Curse damage. It changed a person on a fundamental level and was the most difficult to deal with and recover from.

I now realized that I had been unknowingly cursed many times before. All those Souls I devoured, while most of them were wiped and fed me without a problem, of those of a higher Realm, small parts remained, and they bonded to mine, cursing me.

But I didn’t see that as a problem. Some might think it would change me for the worse and make me lose my mind, but that didn’t happen. Even the Divine Fragments only helped to strengthen me instead of hurting me.

Perhaps that was the natural ability of the first Curse. The Soul Eater. As a creature that naturally fed on Souls in the depths of space, it had to have resistance to such things. I could only hope that was the case and I wasn’t just incredibly lucky. It would be a real tragedy if I suddenly lost my mind after absorbing the Soul of a Giant Rat or something equally absurd.

Anyway, with a cursed body on my side, after countless experiments and variations, I managed to do it. I could finally see the heat!

It was not perfect and required me to pump my eyes full of Golden Qi, but I could do it. I could detect changes in temperature by sight alone. It wasn’t very useful outside where everything was hot and the air was all wriggly due to heat, but underground, in a cool environment, a person’s heat should stand out more.

And it did.

I often saw a shape moving along the walls of my room from the corner of my eye. It wasn’t perfect though. My control over the technique was lacking, and it still had many weak points. But I was done waiting. I would catch this spy and unmask him. I just needed to lure him to a proper place.

[Come on, Tiny, let’s go train a bit.]

I summoned my golem and exited my room, with the stone construct rumbling right behind me. The spy followed. I didn’t see it, but I knew it did. I could feel its curiosity. What a fool, he was going right into my trap.

I entered the arena and the spy slipped in. I pretended not to notice and walked at a leisurely pace.

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[Tiny, close the door, we don’t want anyone to see us.]

I said that to keep the spy on his toes. To make him curious. Bloody simpleton.

Tiny did as he was ordered and closed the metal doors of the Arena. I didn’t want the spy to just escape at the first sign of trouble.

[It’s a bit hot in here, isn’t it?] I said to nobody in particular. [Sit down, Tiny, we’ll start in a moment.] I then began slowly releasing frigid air from my body. I had the energy to spare, and lowering the temperature in the environment would help me see the heat of my target better.

It was like a shadow moving across the floor. I paid it no mind and just continued releasing cold. Or was I sucking in heat? Meh, who cares.

When I could already see my breath, I considered my job done. The arena was massive, yet I barely used a few percent of my total energy. I needed the rest for the fight with the spy. The freezing environment made it stand out like a sore thumb. It was perfect.

[Alright Tiny, listen up...]

I came closer, keeping my eyes on the golem, but at the same time keeping track of my real target.

We were just meters away. I blinked, and everything slowed down.

I felt Golden Qi flood through my Meridians, empowering every single cell in my body. Claws grew from my fingers and my skin gained a golden sheen. I slowly turned my head toward the glowing shape of a human and grinned.

I can see you!

Golden light flashed around my foot, keeping it perfectly still and preventing it from slipping. My muscles tensed and bulged, ready to blow. Like a compressed spring being released, I shot forward, my hands outstretched, aiming for a bloody hug.

Thorns grew from my hands and chest as I fully intended to collide with the spy at full speed. It was a perfect plan! Inescapable! Yet I missed.

The thing noticed me and moved just millimeters out of my reach. I stomped on the ground and shifted my entire body weight as my ankle strained to hold. The bastard was clearly surprised as I turned on the spot and swiped at him. He pulled back, but we were about evenly matched in speed.

A tiny scratch formed on his forearm before he pulled back enough. But I didn’t let go. I was aggression incarnate! Flames of hell spilling into the world. Not literally though. I needed the place nice and cool.

I heard a muffled groan as drops of blood sprayed from the wound, but that was about it. I saw a golden barrier shimmer into a layer of armor and cover my opponent’s hands.

Bastard!

The element of surprise was gone, but I didn’t give up. As long as I could see it, there was hope.

[Tiny! Guard the door! Don’t let anyone through it!] I roared while pursuing the spy in the opposite direction. That slippery eel evaded my attacks quite well, but it was only a matter of time. I chased enough opponents in my time to know how to catch them.

With a decisive jump, I closed the distance and swiped at him again.

A barrier formed between us, blocking my attacks. However, it was hastily made and shattered after my full body slammed into it. Despite only lasting for a split second, it was enough to break him out of my grasp. I groaned as I dropped lower to the ground and gripped golden handholds to propel myself forward.

Two Spirit Swords flew out of my pouches and I wrapped them with powerful threads of Telekinetic powers.

[Surrender now and you will not be harmed!] I shouted while flying at the invisible spy. I meant it. If he cooperated willingly, torture wouldn’t be needed. If he didn’t, however...

“Don’t make me laugh.” Came a weirdly distorted voice. “As if a kid like you could catch me. Get your puny blades away from me before you cut yourself.”

[Oh, yeah?!]

He was looking down on my two flying swords. But how about six?!

I wrapped another four Spirit Swords in Telekinesis and shot them at the bastard. They were coming from the side while I rushed straight.

My feet, tapping the golden steps, produced forces strong enough to break stone, and accelerated my body at G’s high enough to flatten a normal human into a pancake. Especially when rapidly changing direction. I had to make sure to keep myself parallel to the ground, otherwise, I would go shooting into the ceiling with one wrong move.

“Pathetic.”

A small sphere suddenly appeared before me and exploded in my face, releasing a cloud of pink mist. It all happened so suddenly I took a full breath of it, and the intense smell and taste made me lose my concentration for an instant so I tripped and went tumbling on the ground.

[Bah!] I spat out the nasty stuff and wiped my face. Everything was painted with that awful pink dust.

[Why strawberry?! And it’s not even the good kind!]

“Hahaha. So predictable.” Came the distorted laugh. “What you just inhaled was a powerful neurotoxin, so you should be losing the ability to move any time now.”

The bastard appeared a few meters away, having abandoned the invisibility. It was a figure clad entirely in black, with only a tiny slit for the eyes. “Don’t worry, it’s not going to kill you, but I will have to mess with your mind a bit. The fact that you managed to discover me will not go unnoticed.”

[What the fuck do you mean?! You bastard spied on me, and it’s my fault I saw you?! What kind of bullshit…] I began feeling a tingling sensation in my throat and it began spreading through the rest of my body so I had to stop talking.

“Only a select few are allowed to know the existence of the Midnight Order, not to mention Master wouldn’t be pleased if he learned I was discovered… You have only yourself to blame for being so perceptive.”

I collapsed to the ground, my muscles spasming.

“Don’t worry, I’ll just examine your memories and remove myself from them.” The bastard then reached toward my head with his hand full of weird, dangerous energy. “I’m not going to lie, this is going to hurt.”

[Yeah, you bet it will.]

My body flashed with power and was immediately set ablaze as poison disappeared like smoke in the wind.

“What?!”

[Burn!]