My prey’s skull ended up crushed alongside his horns in between my teeth of steel, sending bits of his squashed brain flying outward as I held onto him tightly enough to completely warp the shape of his chest entirely.

  The lesson on how to get the answers to your questions was very successful. Thus, as a reward, I fed upon his remains until nothing was left of the man-goat, leaving only an empty, poorly decorated room with devil-summoning circles still hidden under the carpet.

  I pulled the stitched-together mess off to get a look, but I frankly wasn’t very interested in such a practice. The one devil this guy had managed to summon had literally run away. This is the problem with summoning beings that have their own agency. They can just decide that it isn’t worth it to help you.

  Much different from my adorable little sisters. Who are not only cute beyond belief, but are also very helpful assistants who wouldn’t just escape at the slightest sign of trouble.

  Anyway… There was no plague to be found here in the end. It seems like the mutations were caused by some random devil this guy had summoned prior to my arrival. This was unfortunate. I might have been able to get closer to, or perhaps even directly acquire a new form.

  Regardless, I turned the room upside down. Soon, I found a hatch hidden underneath the poorly constructed throne. Most of what was hidden down there was just resources intended for creating devil-summoning arrays, which were worthless to me.

  There were just a few bits of steel for me to feast upon alongside some unidentified bones.

  Well… I didn’t really waste my time since I wasn’t doing anything to begin with, but it was safe to say that I was a bit disappointed nonetheless.

  I am back

  Oh? Did you find out what he was talking about? I am fairly certain my soul is pristine and pure.

  Your soul is pretty dark, actually. Like… The bottom of a well that’s been sealed, and it’s on a night with no moon…

  Surely, it simply follows the colour scheme of my gorgeous hair–Which I do not have any of in this form, but you see what I am talking about.

  I do not think he was worried about how dark your soul was, though. This man dealt with devils, so he certainly saw worse than this. I had never noticed since I don’t have easy access to such things and never bothered to check, but… I think it’s best if I just show you

  Nara manifested system panels, just like the time she had shown me what a Goblin Shark was, but this time, it was showing several images of some sort of big bird with a wide wingspan, a long neck covered in thick, mane-like feathers, and with a very crow-like beak.

  In sum, it reminded me of several common birds mixed together and seemingly enlarged to a rather impressive degree, making the whole thing resemble a sort of great avian beast.

  The images showed the same beast every time, but with slight differences that I frankly wasn’t certain I understood. I could tell something was different between some of them, but I was unable to put my finger on what was actually differentiating them.

  Do these shadow-looking birds have something to do with my soul?

  As I spoke, one of the images was enlarged.

  This is your soul. For some reason, it is shaped like a bird and… Seems to somewhat have a mind of its own? Not literally, of course, but it does have behaviour of sorts. I think it’s on the lookout for something…

  …Huh…? Has it… Has it always been shaped like that?

  According to the archives…

  There are archives of my soul?

  …It has indeed always been this way–And yes, there are indeed archives that I can consult. Not the easiest thing in the world, but I am a system, I don’t get tired. It’s just that it takes a little while to get the information

  Several other images were enlarged.

  This odd shape also applies to your other non-corporeal traits–By that, I mean your mind, spirit, and the like. At first, I thought that they were all melded together, and that it was why everything was shaped in the same manner, but it turns out that everything is separate. Somehow, they all just look the exact same

  The behaviour of the birds is also the same regardless of whether it is the soul or something else

  Alright… Does this mean anything? I was never found to have any affinity for those things, even when my parents were calling every specialist available to find me some hidden talent.

  My first instinct was that this was a sign of a strong affinity for a way of power called ‘Soul Beast Manifestation’, a way of power which can be declined into other forms–Just switch ‘soul’ for something else–But it doesn’t seem to be the case

  I’ve never heard of this way of power before, but I would assume the guys who checked me for soul affinities would have noticed something if I were truly talented in it.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Indeed… I couldn’t find anything to point to what this meant, so… I guess the explanation for now is that your non-corporeal traits just have a funny shape? And… Move, for some reason…

  Alright. Thanks for the help, Nara. That’s another forehead kiss to add to the list of things I’ll give you when I can hold you.

  Mmh… What is on that list, exactly?

  Don’t worry about it.

  Anyway! I know why Mister Goat was so freaked out. I guess his eye-thing allowed him to see my soul, and instead of… Whatever a soul is supposed to look like, he saw a giant, pitch-black bird stare back at him. That’s fun.

  There surely is a way to make use of this, but if Nara can’t figure it out, then I sure as well can’t either. I’ll have to experiment and see if something works out.

  I went out of the cavern, running into none of the so-called ‘allies’ the devil lover had mentioned. Just as expected, he had no friends whatsoever, and if he did, they probably left him behind for his poor sense of hygiene… I know goats have a strong smell to them, but I don’t think they are supposed to look so messy still.

  Also, goats are supposed to be cute. He was not cute at all. Therefore, he deserved death.

  Mmh… Which direction did I come from again?

  Once I got back to the now utterly empty village, I made sure not to backtrack and went back to travelling. I did not stumble upon any secret meeting or other peculiar scenes. I simply kept going until I reached a much sparser forest, eventually finding myself in open, wavy plains reminiscent of the Great Plains in the mindscape, only much less adapted for running.

  Although far from flat, it still allowed me to see far and wide across the horizon, and in the distance I spotted a large city built in the middle of a humongous lake–I think this was big enough to be called an inland ocean.

  The water was clear and sparkling as sunlight fell upon it.

  This is gorgeous, but… Wouldn’t it take literal days to travel across those absurdly long bridges?

  Although a real work of art, the city did not exactly seem merchant-friendly. Carriages would have to travel for an impressively long period of time upon the bridges to get to the city, and considering that the city was only surrounded by much smaller villages, the merchants coming here wouldn’t be coming from next door either.

  Trade was part of the lifeblood of any big city or even town. I had been in charge of my parents’s business for several years, so I had experience in this domain. Unless you were some elf who lived in the forest with at most a few dozen more elves, you could hardly have a self-sustaining community.

  As I approached, however, I got my answer as a huge creature suddenly flew out from behind the high walls, carrying supplies on its back as well as anywhere else on its body that could be occupied without obstructing its flight or ability to land.

  Well, this explains that, I suppose…

  That thing is honestly enormous beyond belief… There is no way it was just hanging around on the ground without causing a problem, is there? They surely have more than one transporter like this, too.

  It didn’t look like a dragon, but it didn’t have any feathers either. What was that thing exactly?

  Looks like a very big Quetzalcoatlus to me

  Is that what this is called?

  Yes

  I thought that was a snake.

  The name is inspired by the serpent deity

  …It’s obviously not a snake, though?

  Weird names are to be expected when things are named by whoever got their foot in the door first

  That’s why I hate intellectuals, easily the most idiotic people of all.

  Anyway… How could I get inside of this city… Or at least, how could I make sure some people bring ‘Remember Me?’ in with them? At the moment, my main objective was rather straightforward: I wanted to become stronger.

  If I want to comfortably get my hands on my brother, I’ll need all the power I can get. At the moment, unlocking the ‘Nightmare Form’ seems like the best course of action. Even in its reduced state, it had proven incredibly useful.

  Once the form was properly acquired, I would definitely gain access to greater control over the nightmare trials, and probably even become capable of many more things–Sneaky things.

  Of course, cooking up new curses was now part of the course, but I needed to get my hands on new ingredients–Not just esoteric or special ones, but the basic stuff as well. Inside a city, I should be able to check out a bunch of shops for them.

  I probably wouldn’t be finding any curses or spirits to snack on, though. Unless they have poorly operated graveyards with communal graves, that is.

  Mmh… Surely, some carriages do end up using these bridges, right? If I can board one and hide in it using my ‘Plush Form’, then getting inside the city should be rather simple… After all, even if the gate guards end up searching the carriage, will they really think much of what they would be perceiving as a harmless little plush?

  I hadn’t felt any of the active ‘Remember Me?’ being dispelled so far, so the felines and bovine should still be over at that town. They shouldn’t be showing up here, at least, not too quickly.

  The plan was simple: Get in, spread my curse and nightmares all over the city as quickly as possible, break into a few shops to gain new ingredients, and then get out of here, probably by reenacting my escape from Tolten–By jumping off the wall, into the lake.

  That last part, though… I was doubtful that the lake wasn’t filled to the brim with aquatic creatures. If so, it would easily get troublesome for me. I wasn’t nearly as agile in water as I was on dry land.

  Also, as thick-skinned as I may be, watery depths were definitely nerve-wracking to be in. None of my forms could swim either. My knightly form had the right body shape for it, but was still way too heavy to float.

  I guess taking a carriage out of the city would be for the best. I would rather not have to discuss with some abominable creatures of the deep.

  Wait. I almost forgot! Silly me. I just need to leave a plush outside to get out whenever I want to.

  Not that Nara wouldn’t have reminded me in two seconds hadn’t I remembered on my own…

  On this note, I went back to the wooded area and hid two plushes in case one of them was somehow torn to shreds for some reason… I hid one up in a tree, and buried the other in a shallow hole, covering it with sticks and rocks.

  Now, I just needed to wait for a merchant’s caravan to pass by–Or maybe not, I could feel the pull of a final trial upon me.

  The pull was… Stronger than usual, for some reason…

  I don’t know if I have a bad or good feeling about this.