"What… What do you want from us?"
Lily asked while remaining on her knees. Wilder and Ketsu had both followed her example. Wilder was the most scared looking at the devil in front of him. After all, he was greatly affected by Tuan's soul sense.
Wilder could feel subconsciously that Tuan was no human. Or at least not the normal human he was appearing to be.
Tuan looked at the trio kneeling in front of him with a blank look on his face. Most of what happened after his second sign of awakening became a blur to him. So he was still processing those feelings in his mind.
"Hm? What can you offer me? Just hand over the Titus point and get kicked out of the competition peacefully."
After completing his thoughts, Tuan spoke. Lily looked at her raid partners when she heard Tuan talk about their retirement from the competition so casually. Both Wilder and Ketsu nodded their heads. They felt inherent fear towards Tuan because of the residual effect of his soul sense still fresh on their souls.
Plus, Tuan's existence had become too special for his soul sense to be categorized as normal. Plus, soul sense awakening was already rare, to begin with. His half-blood powers and Sins series abilities had inadvertently affected his soul sense as well.
So while Wilder and Ketsu feared Tuan thinking that he would be extremely dangerous if he were angered by them, Lily felt an unnatural pull towards him. There was a nagging voice in her head telling her to approach him with a fresh start. The assassin also found it weird that she didn't feel anger towards the fire-element ranker despite him slapping her ass so hard and treating her so badly.
But before Lily's team could commit to her exit from the competition, someone else spoke to Tuan in his mind.
'I like your plan to end the tournament the way you want, Tuan. I think you should include them in that plan.'
Alephee spoke to the butcher while activating Sedated Perception once again. The latter observed that she was getting more involved in his matter by the day. One of the reasons was that her soul recovery status was better than before.
But the butcher also felt that Alphee was trying to speed up his plans. As if the goals he wanted to achieve in this timeline weren't all that significant to her. So she was helping him in her own way to achieve them and be done with them once and for all.
The butcher thought that her level would always be characterized by that mindset. So he didn't bother making his thoughts known to Alephee and responded to her regarding the topic she had raised.
'What do you mean?'
Alephee clarified.
'Those three have been affected by your soul sense the way you had been affected by Eliza's. But they are not like you. So the level of fear they feel towards you is greater and more profound than what you had been feeling towards Eliza.
What I mean to say is you can ask them anything and they'll obey you within these few weeks until the residual effects of your soul sense get washed off. Even if they want to betray you, their subconscious mind will prevent them from doing so.
This is the power of the soul sense. Your soul sense. Soul branding will resonate with your wishes, causing those affected to bend to your will as a result. Unless they have a soul strong enough to resist the resonance that is.
Controlling others with a soul sense also had its adverse effects. So Eliza didn't dare to do something like that with you. But I don't think you need to worry about that.'
Alephee knew Tuan knew almost nothing about the soul sense. So she clarified a few things for him. The latter looked at the three opponents with keen eyes before asking Alephee another question.
'Power of the soul sense, you say? Do the powers of soul sense differ? Do they vary with each ranker?'
Alephee didn't take long to answer Tuan's question.
'The analytical powers of the soul sense are the same for all rankers. It's how they affect the world and people that makes them different. Your soul sense, for example, is influenced by your Sins series abilities currently.'
Alephee said and paused for a bit. This allowed Tuan to connect dots and look at Lily's team in a completely different light. The former continued soon afterward.
'Eren, you have to understand the fact that not everybody can awaken their soul sense. Some rankers can step into Sage rank and still not have the necessary qualifications to awaken their soul sense. A person's soul has nothing to do with their mana core or the state of their body.
So when anybody awakens their soul sense, every aspect of it represents who they are and what they seek in their life. That's what enables them to affect the world and people around them through their soul sense.'
The butcher decided to trust Alephee's instructions and changed the demands he had from Lily's team.
"Hm. None of you would be able to win the tournament. That holds true even if you leave the game now or are allowed to stay. I hope that much is clear for all of you.
Still, staying in the game and receiving secondary gits shouldn't sound too bad to you either. What do you say?"
Tuan said with a light smile on her face. Lily was confused by what he was trying to say. She raised her query.
"What do you mean by that, Tuan?"
Tuan's light smile turned into an evil grin before he explained to them what he expected from them. To his surprise, he didn't have to tempt or scare the trio much.
***********************
Lily's team agreed to Tuan's conditions unanimously without raising any sort of opposition. Although they wore disgruntled expressions on their faces, nobody dared to defy any of his wishes.
Lily asked Tuan what he had done to them. The latter smiled cunningly and said it was part of the effect his strategically placed array had brought forth. He also told them that the effect was illusion-spell based and hence temporary, lest they get swallowed up by negative feelings while suffering from the residual effects of his soul sense and become a nuisance for him instead.
Even though Lily found his reason to be not sitting right with her, the fact that she didn't know about the arrays and her weird emotional state when it came to Tuan prevented her from cross-questioning Tuan.
The butcher couldn't help but smile at the convenience of his soul sense setting off right when he was in the middle of a battle. Then he dismissed the trio after instructing them to stay in touch.
Tuan talked with Kat while hurrying to the safe area, finalizing the finer details. The latter also listened to his arrangements with keen interest as if he was her de-facto raid leader. The duo was preparing for the showdown that was approaching all of the rankers.
Needless to say, the remaining days of the competition were going to be interesting for competitors and their viewers alike.
