As the night falls, the lit bonfire sizzles in front of me. Sitting opposite from me is a lethargic man with sleepy eyes who seems to give up from waking up any time soon. I can’t blame him as the breeze at this time of night is chilly and the warmness from the fire makes the mood for a sleep.
Susanoo and I, Ichirou are currently in the middle of literally nowhere. We don’t have any map and we haven’t seen any town or cities for days. Weirdly enough, none of us needs to eat or drink that much
.
All we see is dry forest and dry land.
I already told Susanoo the story of how I got this spirit tech limbs. He really didn’t react much but when we encounter devils or magical beasts, he told me that it’s incredible how much I become strong.
That compliment means he doesn’t need to move much…
There was one time when he told me this…
“Ichirou…”
“What is it?”
I just thought of a brilliant idea.”
“…tell me…”
“While we travel, just carry… me on your… back… That way… I can… sleep… at the same time… we are traveling… it’s a win-win… situation.”
“Eh?!”
“…”
“You’re just exploiting my strength! What win-win? You are just making me carry you! And if people see us like that, they may misunderstand us!”
I rejected that of course.
Being with Susanoo is more troublesome than I thought.
He occasionally falls asleep and I can’t hold a proper conversation with him. As if, he became much lazier because someone is doing things for him.
And apparently, his basic human desire is abnormal…
While normal human drives take Food then Sex and lastly sleep. Susanoo has it differently such as Sleep, Food and then sex.
But there is one thing that bothers me the most about him. It’s the sudden change in his… aura if you can call it like that…
And tonight, I manage to ask him about it and told me that he will tell me everything…
“Ichirou, first of all, the reason I separated from the party is because Asagao went missing months ago.”
“Eh..?”
“It was Nil’s fault. I started this journey to track her by scent. And now, we ended up in this place. There are a lot of things that happened on my side too.”
“You’re awfully serious now… your sentences aren’t broken.”
“I fought with the arcana of envy, Kran.”
“Kran?! You fought with him?!”
“Yes, he was following me around for months.”
“It seems that guy is everywhere…So, what happened?”
“It was another night like this…”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Susanoo started his story…
……..
……
…
In silent plains surrounded by forest, a lone man stands bathing in the moonlight while looking at my direction.
His feature is a haggard man with heavy lines under his eyes and donned in elven garments and of course, this man is an elf which it can be easily understood by looking at his pointy ears.
“Haa… you bastard… you run around anywhere you pleases knowing I am tailing you.”
“I really don’t care about you…”
“Hmph! Typical arcana magician. Not only you did stop my plan in destroying Hinoki’s beloved city, you also manage to take away her daughter from imminent danger.”
“It was you huh… the one who set that up… everything that’s happening between the elf and dwarf…”
“That Hinoki! Having everything! A good life, a good family who is good looking too, gifted twin daughters to boot! Being the new leader of the elf! Everything… everything… she had everything! It makes me really jealous! And her intellect, what with those weird new things they had?!”
“Who are you…”
“Hmph. Introductions… troublesome… I am Kran, in the order of Arcana Sins, I am the current Arcana of Envy.”
“Envy… I see…”
“I am tired of the game we are playing, ordered by Nil or not, I am going to kill you here. After that, I am going to kill Hinoki and everyone she loves!”
“That… I cannot let you do…I don’t care what you are trying to pull… but… it seems you don’t care whose blood is going to spill… regardless of age and gender…”
“Hmph. Have at you!”
“[Totsuka no Tsurugi!]”
There are no rooms for discussion from the start. As long as his intentions are unfavorable or unlikable, kill.
I rushed at him to get the upper hands at pre-emptive attack. Distorting time and my bodily functions, I put my body to its limit.
As my attack was about to land, he brought out a sword and…
“[Totsuka no Tsurugi – Imitation!]”
CLANG!
He parried my attack with the soul weapon he brought out. The sword he is showcasing is a sword very familiar to me.
“That sword…”
“Oh? You are one of the summoned heroes after all. You are known to the man who wielded this.”
“Yeah… I heard of what happened to him… so… you are the one who killed Ichirou?”
“Indeed. I also have stolen his weapons.”
“Arcana of Envy… I see… your power must be… stealing… weapons and skills…”
“I won’t be telling you any further than that but you are correct.”
“Tsk…”
“…”
“It’s just incredible that your body was able to stay intact after using that…”
“Hmmm? I won’t be telling you anything anymore.”
“Tsk…”
His tight mouthed...
It seems I won’t be able to squeeze information from him.
I was just thinking that our enemies might be boasting type who would grandly announce their shits in front of their foes like a retard. I guess they are cautious too against us.
“[Totsuka no Tsurugi – Imitation!]”
CLANG
“Uhk…”
I was able to block his attack but to use my own skill against me… it surprises me on how abnormal it looks like in different perspective.
It’s like an incoming blur.
I was only able to defend on reflex.
But… that’s not all.
His strength is far stronger than I have anticipated. His control with the skill is on par with me too. And on top of that, he is using some weird body enhancement.
For now, let’s test the water…
I charge at Kran at high speed aiming to cut vital parts of his body.
He also did the same thing.
SLASH
CUT
SLASH
CUT
………
……
…
He is just copying my movements.
I see…
“Your power… you were able to copy everything from me… by just simply following me…”
“Good guess. As long as I envy a person, I can copy their skills…just like yours… You who have great talent… you have a better appearance… and you who have strong power that hasn’t yet reached its full potential. I envied you… and that’s the very reason I was able to copy everything about you!”
“Again… what vile skills you have there… and some pathetic condition to use it…”
“I will make sure to tear your limbs apart, just like what I did to your companion!”
“Try it.”
I said that but I am in a pinch.
I didn’t know a Sin could be this abnormally strong. I somehow wanted to retreat but if he keeps following me, I don’t know what will happen to people we may meet in the way.
What a hassle…
I have to step up my game and deal a decisive blow before everything gets even more heated.
I cast my distortion again as a buffer but this time, I tried to distort it even further to the point of breaking my own body.
Kran also used the same buffer of distortion…!
CLANG!
With a flash, everything ended in a blur as my body lay down.
I lost to him.
…
I manage to land a decisive blow to him… but… how is he standing?
I specifically… decapitated him…
...
Yeah, I know I killed him…
…
My eyes close in resignation... I feel sleepy…
My body… is bleeding… but no pain…
………
……
…
“You can’t die yet.”
Who?
“I can’t let you die at this place.”
Who are you?
Why are you talking inside my mind?
“I am sorry… I intruded inside you when you were called in this world.”
Basically, you possessed me…
“Yes… but I need to… I have things to do…”
What’s your reason?
“My son… no… right now… my daughter is in this time plane too… I need to help her… I need to help my wife too… so I need you… as my vessel… Don’t worry as I won’t take over your body.”
Yeah… you better not… but… I lost…
“I will help you… I will unlock your power… it seems that it requires a certain condition… a certain number of kills… and you have just reached it just now… I will lend you my power to survive.”
That would be a good trade…
Well then… I don’t like lying on a cold uncomfortable ground… and it’s creepy to talk to someone inside my head so let’s end this brief conversation.
Let’s make a comeback.