56 Hopeless Situation

Even though spiritual strength has its advantages and uses, when it comes to scanning or reading any information James habitually uses his Soul organ Moneta's soul. Because in terms of speed, efficiency and user friendliness if Spiritual strength is considered as 4G network then the Soul organ can be considered as 7G network.

Even though both Spiritual Strength and Soul network are both part of James Spiritual strength and Soul organ are on different levels in terms of everything as Soul power is higher level power than spiritual strength. And also the soul organ seems to have an instinct more like consciousness of the system which can cater to James needs and specification perfectly. Therefore James preferred to use Soul argan to scan the Totem. Thanks to which he was alert of the hidden danger in the Totem through the prompts alerts on the status.

[ Ding! Host used Moneta's Fork on 'Elemental Totem' ]

[ Ding! Moneta's Fork connected with ' Elemental Totem']

[ Alert! A harmful Inscription detected ' Soul slave Inscription ' ]

[ Warning! Requesting host not to use spiritual strength to scan Elemental Totem, Using spiritual strength on Elemental totem will lead to Host being attacked by ' Soul slave Inscription ']

Being saved from a huge conspiracy James gave out a long sigh, if he had used the spiritual strength on the totem then he would be enslaved by ' Soul Slave Inscription '.

James then started to think why would there be an inscription like Soul Slave Inscription inside a Totem, Since totems are scared for barbarians they will not dare to so, then who?

The second person James doubted was obviously Sukehime it was her who gave him the totem. But James did not understand why Sukehime would choose such an underhanded method to deal with him clearly with her prowess; she can easily enslave with the back of her palm.

Then James got curious and checked the rest of the totem to see if they were also trap set for him to fall in by using his Soul organ on them one by one,

[ Ding! Host used Moneta's Fork on Animal Totem' ]

[ Ding! Moneta's Fork connected with ' Animal Totem']

[ Alert! A harmful Inscription detected ' Soul slave Inscription ' ]

[ Warning! Requesting host not to use spiritual strength to scan Animal Totem, Using spiritual strength on Animal totem will lead to Host being attacked by ' Soul slave Inscription ']

[ Ding! Host used Moneta's Fork on Teacher Totem' ]

[ Ding! Moneta's Fork connected with ' Teacher Totem']

[ Alert! A harmful Inscription detected ' Soul slave Inscription ' ]

[ Warning! Requesting host not to use spiritual strength to scan Teacher Totem, Using spiritual strength on Teacher totem will lead to Host being attacked by ' Soul slave Inscription ']

[ Ding! Host used Moneta's Fork on 'Healer Totem' ]

[ Ding! Moneta's Fork connected with ' Healer Totem']

[ Alert! A harmful Inscription detected ' Soul slave Inscription ' ]

[ Warning! Requesting host not to use spiritual strength to scan Healer Totem, Using spiritual strength on Healer totem will lead to Host being attacked by ' Soul slave Inscription ']

Seeing that all the four of the totems were rigged to trap his soul James sucked in a deep breath, Obviously it has to be Sukehime be she had to have scanned this Totems with her spiritual strength for her research, It is impossible for someone as powerful as her to not notice a high level Soul Slave Inscription hidden inside the all four totems.

This proved that this Soul slave inscription was left by Sukehime to entrap James soul. As James was thanking heavens for his luck, suddenly his back became wet with cold sweat thinking whether the rest of the team were all also targeted by Sukehime or is it Just him.

Thinking of this possibility every hair on James body stood up in horror. But when he used Moneta's fork on Janet's Jade slip the soul organ did not alert him of any hidden traps or maybe they were targeted using another method, after all asides from him the rest of the team all have visited Tsukihime all alone in the wagon. Who knows what she has done with this innocent team member of his once they were all alone in the wagon.

To confirm his theory James decided to conduct an experiment, that is to use his Soul Organ to check the soul of Ava who is next to him.

James Scooched over next to Ava, Ava did not seem to notice him or just ignore him anyway she did not react to James sitting so close next to her. Then James slowly grabbed Ava's hand which was resting on Trisha's cocoon. Finally Ava reacted and with an annoyed expression she looked at James as if asking 'what's the matter'.

James did not respond to Ava; he just increased his grip on her hand so that she doesn't pull it back. Then Moneta's Fork's cord extended out of James' palm and entered Avas arm and reached to her soul to scan it. James closed his eyes and concentrated to see what the cord saw in Ava's Soul space.

Ava who was annoyed by James suddenly grabbing her arm, after she felt the James's grip tighten on her arm as he closed his eyes, Ava's blushed and her cheek turned pink in shyness but she did not dare to pull her hand back because it was rare for James to be so active in their relationship.

If James heard Ava's current thoughts he would shout 'what relationship? Were we in a relationship? Wait, I seem to be a little confused after being almost killed by you!!!.'

Inside Ava's Soul space where her Soul was located James a huge colorless ball covered in golden mist. It was Ava's soul but there seem's be a Rune chain bound around Ava's . Seeing the colorless ball covered in golden mist bound by Rune Chain James thought 'the colorless ball should be Ava's soul and the Rue Chain should be Sukehime's Soul Slave inscription, then what is this golden mist covering Ava's Soul.'

Soon Prompts started to appear on James Status

[ Ding! Moneta's Soul Connected to Subject Ava]

[ Ding! Scanning Subject Ava's Soul]

[Ding! Scan complete. Do you want to save this data?]

[ Ding! Subject Ava's soul is healthy and blessed by the light.

Subject seems to have a special light based constitution.

Subjects Soul seems to be enslaved by a high level salve inscription 'Soul Slave Inscription']

[ yes/no]

' No'

After going through the prompts James came to know that the golden mist must be related to Ava's special light based constitution. But unfortunately his suspicions were true Sukehime not only tried to enslave him but she tried to enslave the entire team.

Even though James knew what Sukehime did! He did not know why she did so? What was she going to do to them by enslaving their souls? With her strength she could easily enslave them all but why did she use such an underhanded method?

This did not match the description and character sittings of the Sukehime from original works. According to the original works Sukehime despised using underhanded methods and trickery that's why she never lied or liked the people that lied and used trickery.

From what he has seen in Ava's Soul space it looks like the slave soul Inscription has not been activated yet therefore the team was acting normal according to their wills. But once the Inscription is activated the person having the master inscription can easily control them as if controlling puppets no even better.

Knowing that Sukehime was planning something and they were the pawns in her huge schemes James suddenly felt helpless, weak, powerless, frustrated… no matter how much he thought and tried to keep calm and come up with a wayout. it all did not matter as this was a complete checkmate. Sukihime had an absolute strength advantage. The strength gap was too huge, so huge that no amount of smartness could fill it. This made James feel desperate, so desperate that his body turned cold and pale feeling hopelessness.

Ava who was hold James hand also felt the change in James body, she could feel his warm arms turn cold, she did not know what was wrong with him but she knew the feeling that she got from James right now because ever since the team has entered this terror world there has been many encounter's where the team felt powerless, hopeless and desperate.

Therefore Ava could understand what James was feeling right now, she did not know why James was acting like this but she wanted to be there for her friend and then she leaned forward and pulled James into her embrace laying his head on her bountiful bosom she gave him a huge hug and whispered with her angelic voice

' No matter what, I will always be there with you to support and cheer you on. Let's clear this scenario together and go back home with Trisha, triumphant!.'

Ava was no motivational speaker; she was just an average teenager with supernatural strength and unnatural responsibilities for her age. Her words were simple but what she spoke was from her heart not something she rehearsed.

The genuinity and emotions behind her word reached James like a lighthouse to a ship sailing in dark. Even though Ava's word's were not fancy and well put it still did the magic as what she said was 100% truth and from her heart. She would follow James to the pits of tartarus if she had to.