If I had to put the feeling into strong words, it was as if I had swallowed the sun.




''Ahhhhhhhh!


　Scream. I scream. I scream.

　It's hot. Hot. Hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot...!

　His whole body is on fire.

　The whole body is covered with hot oil.

　Bones, the bones, are on fire. Flesh, the flesh, is boiling.

　All the blood in my body is turning into boiling water, running at high speed from head to toe.



　If it doesn't, it will burst.

　I'm bursting like a water balloon pinched by needles.

　This heat boiling inside your body.

　I need to release this power that's raging inside my body.

　If I don't release this power even for a second, Mikenkuu's body will turn into a piece of meat and scatter to the four winds!



　Scream, scream, scream.

　I know. I know how. I may not know why, but I do.

　How to release your power. How to give form to your power.

　I know for certain the power of this illusion in my body!



"We are like one and the same source.



　The power that had been raging in disorder is given a directionality.

　In the outstretched hand, the raging power, like a torrent, is bundled together into a black glow.

　Thin and long.

　Sharp and strong.



''--shinsoo excitation (reiki).



　It is a fierce black treasure sword. The manifestation of the sun-eating eclipse.

　In the age of mythology, he slaughtered the seventeen gods of war and is the strongest and oldest species of illusion.

　The name is--


'Eat it all up, Soul Etaaaaah!



　At that moment, a flash of blackness that swallowed even the light of the stars covered the cave.



◆ ◆ ◆



　How long did it take for the moonlight to come overhead again?

　The black flash faded and I was standing alone in the cave, breathing hard and gasping.

　Yes, I was standing.

　Both of my legs, which should have been eaten by the maggots, had regenerated down to the tips of my fingers and toes.

　It was the same with both arms, and the right arm that should have been torn off and devoured had also been restored.

　It was a strange sensation to see an arm that had been torn off once move as it was intended.



　And that arm is clenched tightly around a sword.

　The sword, which is dyed black from the tip of the handle to the brim, as if the darkness of night had been kneaded together, was surprisingly comfortable in the hand.

　The blade is also black. However, the blade was the color of blood that dripped down.



　I stared at the blade.

　An intimidating feeling that tingles and makes my skin tingle.

　A sense of elation that sends shivers down my spine.

　........The memory remains. So I know what this is.

　No, even if I had no memory, I would have understood it by instinct.

　That this is my mind's clothing.


''.........Soul Eater, the soul-eating dragon, huh?


　There was no voice to respond to my tweeting. But as if to congratulate me for having mastered the mind attire, the black sword reflected the moonlight in a small gleam.

　The fact that the gleam was the color of venomous fresh blood is a charming thing.


　Suddenly, something moved in his vision.

　I saw that a maggot the size of a child's head was trying desperately to get away from me.

　If you look closely, you can see the same type of fleeing bugs buzzing here and there.

　The group that had been battling against my body seems to have disappeared with the black flash, but there are still a lot of maggots living in this cave.

　If they all attacked together, they would be a serious threat, but the other side didn't seem to have any intention of doing so.

　I'm sure they instinctively understand that they can't do it. Or perhaps they simply don't have any offensive power against an outside enemy that isn't paralyzed.


'A creature that lays a lot of eggs is that much more targeted by foreign enemies--or is it?


　It reminds me of a characteristic of the creature that Lunamaria told me about when it was.

　She said that the reason it lays so many eggs is because no individual can survive to adulthood unless it lays that many eggs, or something like that.

　When I think about it, the Lord of the Flies, who lays thousands of eggs, may have a hard time in the natural world.


When the fly king returns to find all his children wiped out after all that hard work, he must be very sad!


　A bouncy laugh falls out of my mouth.

　If I hadn't been caught by the Lord of the Flies, I wouldn't have been able to dress in my mind. In a sense, I'm a benefactor. No, I'm a benefactor?

　Well, it doesn't matter either way.

　With all the gratitude and rage that comes from the bottom of my heart, I'm going to beat every single one of his kids to death now.

　If it's true, I should think of a way out of here or something, but that'll have to wait until later.

　The despair I felt earlier hasn't faded yet. The fear of being eaten alive is still fresh in my mind.

　That's why the feeling of revenge was so special. It's a pity that you can't hear the words of the fleeing bugs. Let's start with the one nearest to us!


All right.


　The moment I cut the larger polyps, a strange sound leaked out of my mouth.

　If there were people here, I am sure they would have laughed with their stomachs in their hands. That's how silly the voice was.

　Hey, what was that?　The moment I cut it off, a hell of a sensation ran through my body!　Like, yeah, I mean, like when you used to console yourself with this...


What was that all about?


　I was surprised, but that didn't change what I was going to do. I set my sights on the next maggot and swung my black sword down again.


''Mmph!''


　I was able to keep the strange noises down more than I did earlier because of my anticipation.

　What's a maggot doing in death?　There's nothing real harmful about it, though.


　I turn it off.


Hm!


　Off.


Huh.


　A poke.


"Hmm, okay.


　Poke.


"Much.


　I'm going to cut this off.


I'm getting used to it.


　After a few repetitions, I got used to the pleasant sensation.

　Suddenly it occurred to me to step on a small maggot with my foot and crush it, but I discouraged myself. It is indeed hard to step on it with bare feet.

　You may be told what you're talking about when you chewed to death with your mouth as hard as you could.


Okay, that's it.


　I grabbed a handful of stones and tried to crush them with it.

　But it didn't give me that pleasant sensation. To be sure, I crushed another five or so of a different size, but the result was the same.

　The next time I killed them with the black sword, the pleasant sensation returned.


'It's not like the maggots are doing anything in death. Is this a mind-dressing ability?


　So it's not so bad, I guess.

　Unfortunately, there are no instructions for use, so we can only find out how to use it and its effects by groping for it.

　For now, the first thing to do is to take revenge on the maggots who devoured people so much.

　I cut up the bugs I see, one after the other, humming to myself.

　Thirty minutes, an hour, an hour and a half, two hours.

　No matter how long it goes on, I never get tired of it. I never get tired of it.

　Then, when I had cut about 300 fish, I felt a strong shock to my body.




　I felt a strong shock to my body. It was a different sensation from anything I had ever felt before.

　It was as if I was washing my body from the inside out. Or as if my body was being rebuilt from scratch, a strange sensation.

　It was a sensation I had never experienced before in my life.

　I have a premonition, and I open my mouth.





　A shaky voice checked the level.

　Then, there was a number displayed there that I had never seen before.

　''Two.''

　It is indeed marked as such. A level that has never been raised before has certainly been raised!



"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!



　A gut punch popped out of my mouth.

　Then I'm sure of it. My mind-dressing increases the efficiency of acquiring experience value - no, this is not at that level.

　The mind suit is taking away something more than experience value. That is the root of life, which should be called the soul. Just like the name "soul-eating".

　My level, which had never risen before, has risen. I'm sure that the one soul that my mind suit took away was comparable to the 100 experience points other adventurers had gained.

　No, not even a hundred. It's not even a hundred, it's a thousand, maybe even ten thousand. Anyway, it would be safe to say that he would gain a wonderfully high level of experience.

　The pleasant sensation you've been feeling for a while now must be a kind of overreaction of your body and mind to the experience you've gained. My vessel (body) is being surprised by the sudden pouring of pure experience value into it.


'If only it turned out that way!'


　I look around with glazed eyes. Those maggots are still stirring everywhere.

　With this, there's no shortage of people to cut.

　Now, let the experience gaining begin!