The Revenge of the Soul Eater

--What is your goal?

Wisteria said, and asked me why I helped her.

I responded to this question without hesitation.

"I'm interested in what you call a demon,

Are you interested?

'Yeah, I'm interested. That's why I kept you alive to listen. If you ask me what the purpose is, that's what it's all about.

Hearing this, Wisteria faintly raised her eyebrows and repeated the question.

'You didn't think it was dangerous, did you?

"I see no reason to fear an ungoverned anima, no matter how strong they are.

''........Anima. You mentioned those words earlier.

Yeah. We think it's probably the same thing as a demon, as you call it.

Wisteria is listening to our words with a serious expression. The face that has lost the face of the demon god is so beautiful that you can't help but gaze at it.

I'm sure you'll be able to find out more about this in the future. And yet the flesh of the chest and waist is rich - I saw a bit of it earlier - I had to be careful not to give rise to any evil thoughts.

As expected, I couldn't let my eyes crawl over her breasts and hips in this situation.

The next time Wisteria opened her mouth to see if her efforts had paid off, there was no hint of disgust on her face.

'You said there was no reason to fear an ungoverned anima,' she said. And that you believe that anima and evil spirits are the same thing. So, does that mean you can control evil spirits as well?

Perhaps you can. Of course, it depends on the efforts of the user.

"....Efforts, huh? Ever since I was possessed by the evil spirit, I tried every possible way to exorcise it. I risked my life to do so. But what you couldn't achieve, Sola, can you achieve?

That kind of Wisteria's voice was heavy.

I'm sure that Wisteria has been struggling so hard to fight the demon gods that live inside of her that she doesn't even know she's saying that. I'm not going to be able to exorcise the demon gods, and at last I was on the verge of perishing in a strange foreign land.

It's understandable that the unacquainted me would find it hard to believe that it's up to me to make a difference through my efforts.

However, I believe that the direction of our efforts is the problem with this.

The anima is the other self that lives in the heart, in the depths of the soul. It is the naked true nature that cannot be cheated or deceived in any way.

That demon is not a demon that crawled out of the abyss, but rather the half of Wisteria. Since she is not possessed, she can't be exorcised.

In a sense, it's only natural that Wisteria's efforts to exorcise the evil spirit were not fruitful.

I spent a lot of time explaining those things to the Wisteria. Along the way, I would also tell her about my own experiences and Onigashima.

I don't think it was something that Wisteria could easily nod her head in agreement with, "Yes, I see," but after all, I have a track record of defeating evil spirits. No matter how suspicious she was, Wisteria was forced to turn a deaf ear.

In order to persuade her, I pulled out my mind gear once again.

In the end, the Wisteria finally accepted our explanation, and it was worth it, I should say. However, it seemed hard to admit that that demon god was his true nature, but this is to be expected.

When Wisteria finished listening to the story, she opened her mouth to groan.

''Anima - achieving attunement with the same source being and manifesting the other self as an armor. That's the deepest part of the Illusionary Itto style, the mind-dressing. If the evil spirit (demon) is the same source being (anima) as Sora says, then that means I must be in tune with that demon god,

''Yeah. Otherwise, I don't think I'd be able to govern that demon god.

Sympathetic to demons...?

The silver-haired elf looked like he was going to get his head in his hands now. Well, it's not unreasonable to say that you should be in tune with the things you've always thought of as the root of all evil.

But I didn't mean to suggest that you should tune in to whatever it is that you want.

Attuning is to make the user's way of being superimposed on the anima. There is no doubt about this.

The problem was that even though the word "anima" could be summed up in one word, their personalities varied. There might be vicious anima that would eat their hosts and even attack the people around them.

Against such anima, it was necessary for the user to not only step up to them, but also to make them step up to them. Otherwise, the ferociousness of the anima will manifest itself as the ferociousness of the user.

Needless to say, this was a difficult task. The reason why the mind-dressing was so powerful was because the power of the same source being (anima) was so powerful. The difficulty of getting that powerful homogenous being (anima) to follow you is beyond description.

In particular, the Wisteria's Anima clearly expresses its hostile intent to its user. It would be no mean feat to make it obey. Normally, before the Wisteria could make the Anima obey the Wisteria, the Anima would end up hijacking the Wisteria. Just like last night.

That's where I come in.

Simply put, whenever the Demon God tries to hijack the Wisteria, I can hurt it and take away its power. If I do this, the God of Evil will run into the Wisteria to regain its power. If I repeat this, the Wisteria will be able to challenge the God of Evil without any time limit.

That's what I suggested to the Wisteria.

If the Wisteria's soul couldn't take it anymore, I'll kill her and the Demon God. I added that to the list.

I remembered my previous conversation with Ilia, who had been affected by Hydra's deadly poison, and I said this, but it seemed to have tugged at Wisteria's heartstrings, and the silver-haired elf bowed his head deeply, his eyes glazing over.

Thus, Wisteria was to act with me.

◆ ◆ ◆

I then left Wisteria in the mountains and returned to Belka once, bringing only Lunamaria back with me.

I chose Lunamaria because she is of the same clan as Wisteria and because I wanted to hear the opinion of a wise man regarding Wisteria. Another reason was that Lunamaria was the one who was most similar to Wisteria in style.

In other words, he had the Wisteria bring a replacement for her to wear for the time being. There was no way she was going to return to Belka with only her robe on. And last night's incident will definitely cause a stir.

By the way, Lunamaria, when I sneaked back to the temple, she was waiting for me, ready to leave at any time - in my room.

She had linked last night's commotion to my absence, apparently anticipating my return to take care of things. There was also a replacement tunic in my luggage, and when I found out about it, I seriously considered the possibility that Lunamaria had awakened to the ability of foresight (future vision).

........Well, Sparrow and Ilaria were with me, so it would have been easy for them to predict my actions without any future vision, though.

Anyway, I headed to Wisteria's with Lunamaria. On the way, I also learned the legend about the brown-skinned and silver-haired elves.

It is said that long ago in the days of the gods, there was a tribe of elves who gained great power by selling their souls to demons. These rebels betrayed their own people and bared their fangs to the world.

In exchange for their power, the elves lost their white skin and golden hair.

The elves call their former compatriots fallen elves - dark elves - with hatred and loathing, and they fiercely fight with each other.

At the end of a battle so fierce that it changed the shape of the continent, the Dark Elves perished along with their demons and disappeared from the world altogether.......such was the legend.

Lunamaria had learned this from the elders in her hometown.

Incidentally, as the explanation of "disappeared completely from the world", not only Lunamaria, but even Lunamaria's parents and grandfather's generation had never seen a dark elf in person. Even to the long-lived elves, the dark elves must be a part of a fairy tale.

In fact, the first time she met Wisteria, Lunamaria did not show any hostility towards her dark-skinned compatriot. Rather, she seemed to be intrigued by learning about the evil spirits (daemons).

Once, Lunamaria speculated on the relationship between the Tongue Being (anima) and the Dragon Hole. She speculated that anima do not reside in humans who have mastered the illusionary way of life, but rather in those who have been transformed by the dragon cave.

The existence of evil spirits (daemons) and the abyss that Wisteria talks about could be collateral evidence to reinforce this theory of Lunamaria. It seemed to excite Lunamaria.

Wisteria, on the other hand, and like Lunamaria, this one, too, was surprised at her compatriot, who had a different skin and hair color, but did not turn her hostility on him.

Wisteria recognized herself as an ordinary elf, and this was the same for the elves in Andorra. Of course, he didn't even use a designation such as fallen (dark). If you ask them, they didn't even know that there was a country outside of Andorra outside of the desert until just a few days ago, so it can be said that there was no soil in which to direct hostility towards their brethren outside.

Wisteria politely responded to Lunamaria's questions, but also showed a willingness to ask her own questions about matters that interested her.

If the stories of these two men were scrutinized and compiled into a book, it might be possible to write a major work that would be recorded in golden letters in the history of the continent.

If not, Andorra's existence is an insight into the mysteries of the Golden Empire (Imperium). My fame as an adventurer will no doubt increase with the publication of this.

Well, I'm not going to do that.

From what Wisteria has told me, Andorra has completely cut off contact with the outside world. If humans visit, they will only be turned away at the door. Or worse, they'll be chased away by force.

My goal is the Horn of Behemoth, not the discovery of the Golden Empire (Imperium) or the friendship between humans and dark elves.

If I can't or won't bear the responsibility for the discovery, then it is one thing to pretend that the discovery never happened.

I've been thinking about this as I returned to Belka with the two of them.

--It's not the same race (elves), but the different races are the ones who hate the dark elves, I had no way of knowing at this time.