Chapter 47 Illusion World
Sitting beside Ethan, Remora became stunned as she 'saw' a rectangle of bright golden color appear in front of Ethan. It was so bright that it stung her eyes, even her protective eye mask couldn't stop the bright light from harming her.
The burning pain was too much and brought bad memories making Remora cry out in pain, "Ethan, stop what you are doing. It-it's so painful!"
Ethan frowned and closed the system screen. Remora's chest heaved as she gasped for breath. Just a few seconds, and she felt a pain that she never wanted to experience again. It scared her.
Ethan asked, "Are you fine? This gave you pain?" Saying so, he made the screen appear again and Remora gasped, her hand tightly grasping Ethan.
"Bastard," she cursed. From the corner of his eyes, Ethan saw the driver sneaking looks through the rear window so he closed the screen. He was only testing and wouldn't do it again.
Still he came, held her hand and gently rubbed it. He softly requested, "Remora, you have seen I have many abilities. Can you keep it a secret between us? I have a few things that help me use my abilities from long range too."
Remora felt dread and horror sitting beside this madman. What should she do? He was clearly threatening her. Ethan continued, "I just don't want people to trouble me over stuff like these. Can't you help me with this? We are dealing with the same issue after all, so we should be helping each other.."
She felt her body and spirit lighten and a sense of pleasure that made her mind light washed over her. She bit her lips and whispered. "D-don't do it."
"This heals you, no?"
"I-it also makes me horny. Please, Ethan stop~." She felt a surge of shame as she realized the driver was watching them. Ethan had a way of getting under her skin, making her feel things she didn't want to feel.
It was humiliating to admit, but she found his touch irresistible. She couldn't even blame the strange phenomenon that had affected her in the past; this was all her own desire.
Ethan stopped using the soul link and leaned back. He asked her to tell about the illusion world, how she made connections with it and anything she knew.
Remora felt confused. Still, she was going to answer when Ethan added, "Oh and our soul resides in this 'illusion world'?"
"Ahh…" Remora started to think deeply about this. She had actually thought about this many times before. She muttered, "I named that space inside of people as an illusion world because they weren't real or at least I couldn't see the spiritual energy. It felt more like a projection. I am not a hundred percent sure, but it is possible for the soul to be there."
Remora then hesitantly asked, "But if it is really there, won't it be dangerous for…"
Ethan sneered, "For you to enter again? Remora, you are a goddamn special cop. Stop being a loser. And I am not giving you a choice. Even if you get infected again, I'll just fuck you again."
Remora pursed her lips. Worse could happen but she seemed to have no choice. She wasn't sure if he really had long range ability but so far things he had done were not normal, so him having long range stuff was highly possible.
To think that someone was playing psychologically with her. He was right, she was a loser and if not for her unique ability she didn't deserve to be in mystic control division… to be liked by Avery.
She took a deep breath to calm herself down and told him about the illusion world.
After he listened to her, Ethan blinked and said, "Then isn't 'Heart Lake' a better name instead of an illusion world?"
"... ah. I didn't think of it."
"... seriously? No one else suggested this name?"
Remora pursed her lips and didn't say anything. He was the first one she was telling things in detail. Even to the leader she only told her interpretation.
So basically, according to Remora, the illusion world or heart lake was as important as a person's soul. A person lived only when their soul existed. Heart lake appeared to look like a never ending lake inside a dimension in the heart. It was also where the heart demon was born.
Heart demons didn't have a fixed shape. A heart demon could be a rock, a blade of grass, a familiar person, a stranger, an enemy, an animal, a monster… or even things like darkness, the rising sun, or the bright moon.
In addition, the heart demon would target the weak points of a person. In short, if a person was afraid of something, the heart demon would transform into that thing and pester them. It was basically the projection of their deep rooted troubles.
According to Remora, most people of course didn't know that such a thing existed and affected their psychology. So in short, heart lake was a projection of a person's heart and personality, just in a more abstract way.
When a child was born, heart lake was in, black its purest and clearest form. And with passing time, changes appeared in it depending on the person's personality and the path one walked on.
These changes could either strengthen the heart demon or the willpower—that also had different forms in the heart lake—or both.
One's personality didn't change unless something life changing incident happened. So his ever-changing heart lake only showed how much he was affected by 'that'.
***
Status:
[Name: Ethan Chase] | [Title: Heir ] | [Level: 25]
[Current State: Chaotic Thoughts]
『Health: (60/100) [x 3]』
『Arcane Points: (100/100) [x 3]』
『Stress: (100/100)』
『Charm: (100/100)』
『Special Points: 1000』
『Fragments of Obsidian used: (210/??)』
[Stats:]
『Strength: 19 (+17.5) [x 3]』|『Agility: 9 (x 3) [x 10]』|『S. Stamina: 20 (+20)』
『Health RR: 4.2 [x 3]』|『 Arcane RR: 73 (x5) [x 3]』|『IQ: 125 』