A Tale of One Deviant (Book One)

Chapter 99: Cut Loose

My shoulder felt a nudge, I could tell even while being outside my body. I was too numb to move, looking down at the lady's consciousness. Normally, it would be her soul right now and she would simply be manifesting inside her own soul, but I stupidly just realized that wasn't the case.

     The soul guardian was meant to protect the soul, the consciousness, the heart, the memories, everything in here, from outside influences. If a dark emotion closed over the heart, it was left susceptible to anything bad that might want to infect it. A manifestation like a ghost, miasma, anything that was part of the darkness of this world and a malady for one's true self. The soul guardians shield the soul from such things, and now that it was gone, this lady shouldn't just be broken.

     Her soul should be flooded with all sorts of things lurking in the darkness, and she should be the closest thing to a Demon a human could be. It should house horrors and be constantly disturbed, broken, and pounded on by other things that wanted "in."

     It should not be this peaceful and quiet.

     Drew and I need to get out of here. Something dire and evil was going on, and even if he was an, er, arrogant idiot, he was an arrogant-...that was changing into a better person. If he encountered something bad while I was in here, that progress could stop and he would be scarred horribly in his memory.

     I jerked my consciousness out of her soul when I was nudged strongly, and then rose from the ground where I'd been left.

     Shaken from what I had just seen and experienced, it took me a few seconds to orient myself.

     When I looked up, I saw that Drew was being choked out for the second time today, but this time by someone other than me. He was held high in the air, higher than even I had held him, by a bear beastkin. It was three times my width, one and a half times my height, and with arms as thick and wide as Knight's hourglass hips.

     "Help!" The lady turned to me, coughing on the ground from where she'd presumably been slammed down. There was a black mark forming on her cheek, and her lips had a bit of blood escaping. She had crawled over from a crack in the stone ground, pushing on my shoulder with all the strength she could muster.

    How did she know I could do something?

     Don't answer that. That's a rhetorical question.

     Even if you have a bit of strength, if the other party lets their aura leak out, you can gauge how far they are above you or below. Someone too far below you in strength won't be able to gauge your strength, and if you're exceptionally high and choose not to hide it, you can make people avoid and fear you just by walking past them. Basically, even normies who can't sense anything will be able to at least know fear for you. Or respect. Respect is okay.

     I let out my aura, which in this case was my anger, all in one go. She shied away when I glowed golden, closing her eyes from the intensity. I didn't care if she saw me change right now, she wouldn't remember once I got to her already messed up memory.

     The man wouldn't have to worry about me erasing his memory, because once I was done with him, he wouldn't be able to remember anything. Much less would he ever live to tell any of his tales...

     The light faded, and in that place Knight appeared.

    I threw a ribbon out like a rope in front of me, wrapping around the upper arm of the hand holding Drew up. It tightened around his arm until the muscle was crushed and it went limp, the man roaring exactly like a grizzly as he dropped Drew. I reached forward and caught the boy, laying him down next to the woman out of harm's way. I shifted his body on his side so he could breathe and not choke should he spit something up, then commanded the ribbon to go even tighter after I saw the deep bruises already forming on his neck.