In the Jura Forest's Northwest region, there was a purple-haired young man with a party of three across from him.
"Uhhh, Guys… Can you do something about… That." Ellen, turned her head away.
"Don't ask me, the dude is huge, Gido?" Kaval shrugged his shoulders.
"… Well, I do have spares..." A sigh escaped Gido's mouth as he reached into his bag, and got a set of adventurer's clothes, before handing them to the purple-haired young man.
He now had light adventurer clothes as equipment, as he put them on.
"This fits pretty well, thanks." His words came with a slight smile as he just finished dressing up.
"Ya, sure… You did help us out, and it's just a spare pair." Gido despite his words could stand cautiously ready, he was shaky.
"Now, who are you, and what exactly were you doing here… Naked? I mean, what kind of training does that?" Kaval skittishly asked.
"Yeah! You're like really strong, and I never heard of anyone like you… That Art you used was something else!" Popping her head out from behind the guys, Ellen spoke with curious enthusiasm.
'She talks similarly to her… Reckless too trusting, but I guess in the end, I was the real fool.' He narrowed his eyes at her, before shaking it off.
As those questions flew at him, thoughts began running.
'The Kaval Party, Minor characters in the grand scheme of things. You could say that Ellen, being a princess, is notable, and she is quite good-looking… Well, that's not the point. Right now, I'll tell them the same lie as before, and keep it simple.' His accelerated thoughts, flashed through before any time could pass.
"Hmmm, my friends call me, OC, I guess. As for my previous state, as I said, I was training in the Art she just praised, and it shredded my clothes… I'm not an adventurer or anything yet, so there wouldn't be much to hear about. I'm traveling and training, no big affiliations." He crossed his arms carrying a laxed demeanor.
"That's actually impressive, I never heard of that Art either, Aerial Spiral Fist, was it? Powerful stuff. I'm Gido by the way." Gido rubbed his goatee as he nodded his head.
"Kaval here, we're the Kaval party, coming back from a dangerous quest our boss shoved on us! To investigate the Veldora Cave! I thought we might die!" Kaval sighed but didn't move from barring Ellen even as he complained.
"Hmph! It was crazy! We got there, and it was empty! How did a massive monster disappear like that? It's super creepy! Oh, and I'm Ellen." Ellen narrowed her eyes shuddering just thinking about it.
'Yeah, I'm well aware, eaten by a slime. So Rimuru is out there, and the timeline seems to be around the first volume, and considering the system said I'm near Blumund, so it matches up. I should get back to acquiring skills, Arts, and later magic. I'm hungry and tired right now, though, let's use their help to solve that, and maybe learn a few things.' His mind kept working fast.
"So the rumors that 3 months ago the Storm Dragon vanished are true? Interesting, so that dangerous True Dragon is somewhere out there." He raised an eyebrow.
"Yup! It's a real pickle, the monsters in Jura are starting to go all kinds of wild now, that the big bad dragon went on vacation." Ellen nodded and sighed sounding almost defeated.
"Ahem! Anyway, thanks again for giving us a hand, I think we should get ready to set camp and spend the night. I'm too tired for this." Kaval interjected as the circles around his eyes built up.
"Good luck with the training… Just try not to destroy another set of clothes, it's scary enough to be chased by monsters, we don't need to add that to the list." Gido said with a weak smile.
'It's uncomfortable to be around her… For some reason, something says 'Stay Away'… So strong… It's probably the hunger and tiredness talking…' He shook the odd thought away.
"Wait!… I'm out of food, do you guys have any to spare?" He forced a smile, though the words felt heavy to say.
Again, the party looked at each other.
"Come along with us then, we could use someone strong like you, makes the night here easier to get through. You can't bunch up in training so much that you forget to eat." Ellen smiled at him, an almost overly friendly invitation as she extended her hand to him.
The other two looked at each other and could only quietly accept it with awkward smiles.
To the purple-haired young man however, a montage of passed moment flashed through his mind, his mind, like he was stuck in a movie about his first life.
Multiple times just like Ellen did now, Sasha had been the one to make sure he ate, back then he would get so focused that hours would go by before he noticed at least before he gave up, it was the case.
He wasn't in Jura, instead he was back in his secret base, as the image of her overlapped with the reality he should be seeing, but can't.
"You can't lock yourself in your room and study so much that you forget to eat." The image of the past came up, as Sasha extended her hand to him, a smile not too different from the one before him right now.
'Why?! Why is she here? I want to leave you behind!… Out of everyone on earth, there was one person I believed in with all my heart, and yet… This is how it ended... It can't keep going on! Leave me alone!' A fractured mind recoiled and lashed out.
"No! Stop it! You crazy women! Get out of my head!" Taking a step back, he yelled holding his own head.
Seeing this caused the party to stiffen up again.
'I need to end it, once and for all.' His pink eyes glowed as his aura flared with intensity.
Kaval reached for the handle of his sword, over his shoulder, while Gido went to grab his daggers.
"Hey dude! Relax! I wouldn't mess with us, we're a top-tier B rank party, that direworlf thing was a mishap, I have take on 20 of those on a good day!" Kaval said with cold sweat.
"Yeah! You won't see it coming when we get serious." Gido's expression was fully serious as he focused.
"Whoa! Guys! Calm down! Look at him, does that look like attacking to you?… We can for sure talk about this out, we just need to reach him." Disregarding their guard, Ellen walked to him and reached out with her hand.
"Wait! Ellen, that's dangerous!" Kaval yelled.
While Gido moved closer to be next to her.
"Oh guys, don't be so dramatic, he's harmles-" Before she could finish her sentence, her neck was grabbed.
"Stay away from me! You maniacal bitch! Enough! I can't forgive you! I want to! I really do, but you're dying!" Each word left his mouth with furious hateful intent that overwhelmed his aura, and pushed the other two away the moment they tried to jump in.
[Warning: External interference detected! Initating defense measures!]
"Arrhhh! Stop!.. Please Stop!" Ellen was barely able to let her voice out plead, scratching, and kicking to no avail.
[Notice: Utilizing Mental Attack Resistance to build a defense.]
[Failure.]
[Notice: Interference has bypassed conventional means using the Soul Corridor, activating Infinite Talent, and Unlimited Potential to adapt using Mental Attack Resistance as the blueprint. Activating Conceptual Analysis on interference.]
[Success.]
[Notice: Tolerance skill: Mental Attack Resistance has evolved into Mental Attack Nullification.]
[Mental Attack Nullification: Is a Nullification-type skill that completely negates effects of mind control, mind reading, and such. All damage done to the mind and spiritual body is canceled.]
At that exact moment, it snapped, and he let go of Ellen. She coughed as she held her throat, rubbing as her body trembled.
'My mind is clear... The Fog… Ever since then, when I first gave up, it was when the fog started. Her… She did it, from the start it was her fault, she has to die, she will die.' His eyes widened as he came back to his senses and stopped letting out an intense aura.
"I'm sorry…" He sighed knowing full well that it would not help.
Ellen crawled away from him, eyes widened as she rushed to get up and put distance from him before turning around with her staff pointed at him.
'Yeah, you should hate me… I almost killed you, and for what? A lunatic? In that case, am I not one too?… What do I do? I'm me now, I think… But how do I know I won't... I guess I was never a good person. I should feel terrible, but most of all, I'm mad, at that crazy woman.' He gripped his fist for a bit before forcing a sigh to escape and shaking his head.
The other two quickly got up now that the aura was not putting them down, standing with her.
Immediately both of them removed rings they had on, keeping them.
[Warning: Individual 'Kaval' has more than tripled his EP from 4,500 to 14,000. Individual 'Gido' has also increased from 3,800 to 12,500 EP. Their rank has increased from B to A. Caution is advised, their combined EP is 26,500, which is lower than the direwolf pack, but effectively more dangerous as their individual strength is enough to contend in combat.]
"Stay back! I don't know what kind of crazy you are, but if you don't back down right now, we'll be forced to get serious." Kaval spoke with cold sweat knowing full well that it would barely help, they were simply outmatched, yet he was fully ready to try, his weapon drawn out by now.
A silent Gido stood next to him, his daggers out.
'This is where things typically reach a point of no return, but that would be pointless right now. I have been manipulated for far too long, longer than I understand, but now I have a way to sever those threads. I have to grow stronger, strong enough that I'll never be controlled ever again. With my own hands, I will kill Sasha.' He had a sober expression on his face.
"I was suffering from a mind attack." He explained.
"Heh, mighty convenient! You seem pretty in control, I don't know." Kaval kept looking for openings, but found none.
"He did get weird for a second there… That was definitely not normal. Ellen?" Gido took another step closer to her, as he asked.
"I… I don't feel anything… Why?… Are you lying?" She looked conflicted but magicules still began to build up in her staff, she was preparing a spell.
"That's understandable after what I did. I'll leave then." The purple-haired young man began walking away
Not for a second did they let their guard down.
Kaval was ready to attack, but part of him knew that would be pointless, dangerous, his job wasn't to kill this guy, it was to protect her, and he already failed enough in doing so.
Gido was on the defensive, waiting for any movement that would require a reaction.
If they attacked him now, it would not be an easy fight, not only were they not full strength after fighting suppressed all day, the opponent was not one that would allow them to make mistakes.
In cases as such, where death was a prominent possibility a likely outcome, only a fool would take the first step without thinking.
It was not long before he left them behind.
"Princess?! Are you alright?!" Kaval turned to check on Ellen, who was still shaking.
"He's gone… Please use healing magic on yourself instead, you can let off the attack magic." Gido sighed in relief, but his sober expression did not let up, he was paying attention to the surroundings, even now.
__________________________________________
Later deeper into the forest, after being separated from the Kaval party, the young man found himself still hungry, and tired until the moonlit sky.
Tired and hungry, but for the first time in years, fully himself.
'After that, it's clear that she's somewhere in this world… Just what I needed. For now, I should hunt and then train. There's a lot of work ahead if I want to build something for myself.' He sighed to himself.
[Notice: Individuals 'Kaval', and 'Gido' have now powered down back to their suppressed state, 4,500 EP, and 3,800 EP respectively. Would you like to keep track of them? Y/N]
"No, for now, let's hunt. Put great Devourer to use. There will be time reconcile later, when things have calmed down, and if it comes to it, I'll deal with the consequences." He sighed once again, before moving on to hunt.
The world awaited, and the shadows of the past loomed.