Chapter 184 - Soul Confusion

I decided to put the black dragon head armguard onto my left arm, the one that wasn't holding onto the stake. It was surprisingly easy to put on, though the teeth were concerningly close to my hands.

Though I didn't know exactly how to use this, there was a slight feeling that gave me some confidence that I would know how to use it in the first place.

With that, I took off my glasses, leaving the layer with dragons and reappearing in the forest.

My location upon reappearing was a little off to the side, but still very close.

The three objects noticed I had arrived.

The piece of paper immediately spoke.

"Did you find anything?"

I tilted my head to the side.

"So apparently, the dragons consider me their king. They also gave me this armguard, which they said could collect souls."

The necklace trembled.

"Eh? You... you're going to collect us?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"What? No. But with this thing I can collect the souls from before and maybe that would be able to fix your bodies."

The piece of paper crumpled slightly.

"Ah, then why don't you catch that soul right in front of us?"

I tried to look with my blindspot.

"Where exactly?"

The piece of paper moved.

"Just below where I am standing right now."

Looking at that spot with my blindspot, I did indeed see a shadowy figure. It was relatively humanoid and looked like a kid sitting down with its arms wrapped around its knees. It appeared to be dozing off, resting its head on its legs.

Without complete confidence, I reached out with my left hand towards the shadowy figure. Suddenly, the armguard expanded greatly, lunging past my hand in the form of a giant dragon head.

The shadowy figure jolted awake, but it could only get up to its feet before it was swallowed whole by the dragon head.

It gradually pulled back. I could feel that it was still struggling from here, however, that was quickly weakening. In just a few moments, there was no more movement. The dragon head gradually retracted, but the mouth was still closed.

The piece of paper sucked in a cold breath.

"That... that was scary."

The necklace seemed to be in agreement.

"Be careful with that thing!"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Ok, ok!"

I could feel some kind of strange energy surrounding my hand. It was a very silky sensation. In a certain sense, it was like touching a thick mist that had become tangible. Yet, it also somewhat felt like water, but more gentle.

...What was I supposed to do?

Right as I thought about trying something, I felt the energy seep into my body through my hand. The energy was so gentle before, but...

I fell to my knees from the shock.

It wasn't necessarily painful, but it messed up my mind. Countless signals fired off, almost like I was experiencing the life of two people at once. There was mild pain from my hand, like it was being electrified. On top of that, it trembled violently while my muscles were being locked up.

I grit my teeth.

"What the..."

The piece of paper seemed confused.

"What are you doing?"

The necklace trembled.

"Did something happen?"

Blood rushed to my head as well as my now bloodshot eyes. I forced out words between clenched teeth.

"For some reason... I'm absorbing the soul right now."

I uncontrollably spasmed, making several cracking sounds. My vision had gotten a little blurry, but I could still make out the changes in my vision as they were fairly drastic.

They flickered in and out of my vision, but I saw the shadowy figures in the distance, the souls. As for the trees, they also seemed to be moving. Sometimes away from me and sometimes closer.

It quickly became apparent to me that I was transitioning through the layers.

"Haha, it seems that I'm already progressing to the place you guys are at."

The piece of paper hummed.

"Oh really? Wait... what is..."

The necklace seemed shocked for some reason.

"Eh? My eyes don't seem to be working properly."

Before I could ask them what they were talking about, the energy of the soul had spread throughout my entire body, after which I began vibrating.

The visions of the shadows gradually stabilized as did the location of the trees.

As for my body, it seemed to be going through some sort of drastic change, like it was undergoing metamorphosis. Everything began to feel lighter, like I was a feather drifting up with the wind.

My vision only spanned to the tips of my fingers, but I could see that they were transforming into something else.

...A familiar black ash.

Eventually, it was done.

The piece of paper gasped.

"What? How is this possible?"

The necklace seemed to be in more shock.

"This... is it really not my vision?"

I rubbed the side of my head with a bit of confusion.

"What are you guys talking about? I feel you must be overreacting"

Then, my jaw dropped.

My hand was made of many tiny flakes of black ash, which wasn't too surprising to me. However, there was... another hand.

I jumped up and looked back towards my initial position.

To see another version of me.

That version of me also had a stake and armguard on, though they were made out of black ash as well.

My immediate reaction was that it was a threat, thus I prepared to stab it with my stake. However, before I acted, the black figure scratched the back of its head and tilted its head to the side slightly.

"Um... Hello?"

My eyes nearly burst out of my sockets.

"What? You can talk?"

The black figure didn't seem to be that concerned.

"Yeah, why?"

I coughed violently.

"Are you... me?"

The black figure shrugged its shoulders.

"From my perspective, it seems like you are me."

I then turned to the three objects, about to ask a question. However, my jaw dropped once again.

Because I didn't see three objects, but three people.

"What the? When do you guys become humans!"

The black figure turned to them.

"Oh, you're right! When did that happen?"

A middle-aged man with a clean-shaven face raised his eyebrow.

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

The black figure pointed a finger.

"You're Noah?"

Noah nodded.

"Um... Obviously. I have just been standing here the entire time. Why are you so shocked now?

He was wearing a black robe, fitting his short black hair. His face was rather smooth while his jawline was pretty sharp. It made him seem younger, but the way he looked with his eyes showed that he had been through a lot.

I pointed towards Amy.

"You don't look anything like before either!"

Amy tilted her head to the side with a bit of confusion.

"You've been looking at me this entire time and nothing has changed. Is something the matter?"

She was a young woman, with long blonde hair that reached her waist. She had bright blue eyes and a rather gentle looking face. Her slender arms were cradling... a baby.

That baby was rather familiar to me, covered in several large gashes.

The baby was looking at me rather curiously, clearly with piqued interest.

I cleared my throat.

"Before... I only saw you guys as varying objects."

The black figure spoke up.

"But now, you look like actual people."

Noah blinked a few times.

"Really? I always saw myself as this."

Amy nodded.

"Exactly! It seems you two... one? Or is it two halves? I don't know. Anyway, you seemed to have been unable to actually see us then."

Noah sighed.

"If anything, the thing you two should be questioning is how you suddenly split apart!" 

I looked towards the black figure and it looked back at me.

"Uh..."

"Uh..."

Honestly, I didn't trust the black figure, and it too did not seem to trust me. Suddenly, an idea came to me. I promptly raised a finger.

"Honestly, I don't believe that you are me. But to prove it, we can take turns in recounting what had happened to us before."

The black figure nodded.

"Ah, that makes sense. It would have to be me that remembered everything that happened in our lives. After all, nobody else remembers."

My eyebrow twitched. Well, it seemed like it knew about the fact I came back to life several times.

"Anyways, I will start. The first time I was summoned, I was all confused with no memories. After deciding not to join the others in exploring the palace, I went into the village. From there I wandered until it was late, got caught as a slave, then died while trying to escape."

The black figure pointed at me.

"You forgot about Mark and the rock paper scissors match."

I blinked a few times.

"Well, I'm not going to recount literally every single detail. It's your turn now!"