Sounds of slashing echoed in every direction. Souta's group was cleaning the floor on the 45th floor. The monster here wasn't that much different from the 40th floor. The only difference was their numbers.
Souta suddenly stopped moving and grabbed his chest. His heart was beating wildly as if it was about to burst out of his chest. He was losing control of himself and he could understand why.
He killed millions of people in the war against the empire. His bloodlust reached its peak and he could also hear the grievance of the souls that he killed. He could even see the pain in their face.
It's wasn't easy to remove his bloodlust. Even Alice and the rest noticed his bloodlust.
'Damn, it's getting hard to control it.' Souta cursed inwardly.
'That's why I said that you should rest for a while. Stop forcing yourself or else you would cause a monster tide in this world. Even Yuko, Yenxa, and Doranjan would be affected if you got consumed by your desire to kill.' Saya said to him.
'But I...' Souta wanted to say something but Saya stopped him.
'There are many factors that are causing you to become like this. Aside from killing people and accumulating bloodlust, my energy is also one of the factors. My powers. Remember that I'm a cursed sword and my past wielders lost themselves and became a mindless killing machine.' Saya continued to explain. 'My energy is fueling your monster instincts so I suggested that you should stop using me for a while. You're not physically exhausted by mentally exhausted it will become a weakness of yours and soon you will not be able to control it. That's why you should rest your mind for a while. Think nothing and enjoy a peaceful life.'
'Damn! That's so wasteful of time...' Souta replied to her with an angry expression.
'Oh, something came into my mind. Ufufu!' Saya chuckled.
'What is it?' Souta asked.
Then, he felt a huge force invaded his whole body. He was caught off guard and he saw Saya's figure in his head. It was so sudden that he didn't have a time to raise his guard.
'Fuck! Saya! What are you doing?!' He roared inside him and he tried to fight back but it was futile. Saya completely swallowed his consciousness and she didn't even let him recover.
After a while, the expression on Souta's face turned back to normal. He looked at his hands and muttered, "It's been a while since I've controlled this body. I'm afraid that he will not let me do this that's why I forced myself in."
The one who's controlling Souta's body was Saya. "Souta" closed his eyes and went deeper into his inner consciousness.
Saya saw Souta's figure was curling up like a baby inside a mother's womb. His expression was peaceful and calm.
"You should rest here for a while. I will not let you end up just like my past wielders. I will hold tightly onto the last bit of humanity that you have and prevent you from being consumed by your desire. I will protect you in my own way even if you don't like it."
Saya said before she exited Souta's consciousness. Her only problem was that how she hid the fact that she was the one controlling Souta's body. She was sure that the others would notice it especially Yuko who knew Souta.
"This is a problem..."
Souta said and his body flashed. His ten shadows scattered around in every direction and in just a few minutes, he located Isabella's position.
When he landed on the ground, Isabella noticed him and she approached Souta. She just finished fighting some monsters and she was quite tired.
"Souta, is there something?" Isabella tilted her head as she found it strange that Souta was looking around with a wary expression.
"I'm not Souta. It's me, Saya." He said and he began to explain what's happening. "Souta wouldn't listen to me at all. So I had to do this to prevent him from being consumed by his urges. He is mentally unstable as the burden that he is carrying is greater than you can ever imagine."
Ever since she met him. She felt that Souta was afraid of something. Sometimes when he was sleeping, she would see tears poured out of his eyes while trembling. He was under pressure and he wouldn't let anyone see it on his face. He wanted to grow stronger as fast as possible as if he was scared of something.
Isabella grew silent when she heard Saya's words. After a while, she looked up and said, "I see... So he is currently resting?"
"His mind that is," Saya replied.
"I didn't know anything about Souta. I just see him as a strong man that isn't afraid of anything. But I just realized that maybe he's always thinking about the calamity that the god of hunt mentioned." Isabella said in a low voice.
"I always said that he should take a rest. Forgot about all the fighting and killings just take a rest but he didn't heed my warning." Saya said. "That's why I need you to help me hide the fact that I'm the one who's controlling this body, not Souta."
"I will help but... how could you hide it from the people that know him for a long time? I'm sure that they will notice it easily." Isabella asked.
"That's why I'm going down first on the deeper floors and I will just use Souta's doppelganger to message you. And then you're the one who will pass the message to the others." Saya paused and she added, "Let's hold onto this plan for a while. I just hope that Souta will recover before they found out."
"Okay." Isabella nodded with a worried expression.
After that, Saya immediately left and went to the deeper floors.
The plan to continue to clear every floor continue but something changed. Souta went to the deeper floors alone without saying anything to them except for Isabella. Everyone found it weird but they didn't ask questions as they continued to clean the floors. But Isabella and Saya knew that it wasn't going to last long. If Souta didn't appear to them for a long time then they will begin to question Isabella. They will notice it sooner or later.
...
In the Great World Imperium...
Bryan was walking around the streets. He was going to Lanny corp to get some money for himself. The Lanny corp was one of the sponsors of the Dark Oculus Legion. They provided the core members of the legion money every month. Even though Souta was gone, the contract was still active and some of the members of the legion were from the corporation.
"Lumilia didn't even give some money. Luckily, I kept my some money in Lanny corp. Oho~ I'm quite smart."
He said to himself while feeling proud. The "some money" that he said were several hundreds of platinum coins. It was a huge amount of money but each of the core members of the legion was rich from all the third stage monsters that they subjugated in the past.
At this moment, Lumilia and Lynn were meeting the nobles that Alea introduced to them. It was boring and he couldn't even understand what they were talking about. So he decided to go to the branch of Lanny corp in this empire.
"So boring... If Souta is here then I could probably fight him and test my strength but Lumilia and Lynn... Ugh! It's bad."
Bryan muttered to himself while looking at the stalls around him. He wanted to buy some delicious meals for himself once he got his money.
Hmph!
Suddenly, he stopped moving as he turned his head on the narrow alley. The alley was dark even though it was noon but his gaze pierced through the darkness and saw a girl full of bruises was running out of something.
He went towards the alley and have a clear look at the girl. The girl looked like she was in her early twenties. She had brown skin and pink color hair. Her eyes were brown and she had two small antennas sticking out of her forehead.
The girl was breathing heavily and beads of sweat were dripping out of her body. When she saw Bryan blocking her way, she shouted, "Please, move out of the way! I need to escape!"
"Oh?"
Bryan raised his eyebrows as he looked behind the girl. He saw two people chasing after her and he easily guessed their power levels.
"I'll help you..."
He grabbed the wrist of the girl and his other hand blurred out sending shockwaves to the two people that were chasing her.
Bang! Bang!
The two people flew away and crashed on the walls. They instantly lost their consciousness.
"Oops! Damn! I couldn't control myself. Lumilia said that I shouldn't create trouble but does this one counts?"
Bryan then looked at the girl. He was sure that he held himself back and didn't create too much commotion by sending those two away.
