{Prologue} Illusion of Memory

"Curtis..."

"Where's the real Ellis."

"..."

A few small exchanges later, Curtis could tell the Forest Sprite was able to tap into Ellis' memory, knowing things that she would otherwise not know at all. And the aristocratic voice of the girl should also be one of it's other victims.

However.

He turned around to look at the Ellis once more. It couldn't be true. He had never known about a record of a Forest Sprite possessing a body; at least not from the limited resources he studied. He knew too little about this creature. The most it should be able to do was to use the dead bodies of their victims.

Why was it so hard to decide? Maybe it's those sparkling eyes, low eyebrow, curled lips. Exactly like Ellis...

"I should just forget about this," Curtis blatantly spoke, wanting to leave the conversation. Since, he hadn't really confirmed weather a Forest Sprite could actually possess a body. On top of that, he had more pressing things to attend to— the whereabouts of the real Ellis.

"Curtis!" Tears started condensing at her eyes. This time, the voice changed into one of a detesting girl.

Both of them stood there. The light orbs surrounding them were bright, but the atmosphere was sullen.

Curtis felt his head heavy.

Could it be the truth? Could a Forest Sprite actually possess someone's body? If so then is this really Ellis? Maybe it's just like the Jesters. Merged consciousness, together with the many other victims. Then how about her soul? It was the tethered elsewhere?

No, it was something else. But he couldn't understand.

"Don't forget—" A tear dripped from her chin. "—me. Please,".

As if a signal, hundreds of Pseudopodia shot from all directions. Green-mustard sublimated into the air. Ear piecing shrieks as thorns were shot out, rupturing the air.

Curtis was left in a daze. He was totally out of it.

A wood piece snapped in the distance, causing Curtis to regain his senses. He had unwittingly undone {Inferno Gyrosphere}.

Then a thought surfaced. It was an unusual one considering the circumstances.

'Save mana.'

Where had he heard this before?

His spell book exploded open. Blue and gold light fused into one. White symbols showered him. A snow flake pattern appeared underneath him, frost swirled from the centre of the motif.

A large spell. Contrary to what he told himself.

{Absolute Zero Field}

Instantly, another two mana crystals at his neck went dim.

With Curtis at the centre, as if the sudden shock wave, the shot out thorny pseudopodia were blown into shards. The weird mustard gas condensed to ice. Everything around the radius of 20 meters were turned into ice. Those within 10 meters shattered into pieces. If it weren't for Curtis pity and doubt, 'that' Ellis would have also broken along with the rest.

Ellis stared dumbfounded. All the connections to the other parts of her plant body, had been severed in an instant.

The whole encirclement became crystal blue. Trees became extravagant white pillars. Leaves fell to the ground in tiny pieces, becoming snow. Ice walls surrounded the place; purple light glistening from inside the humongous ice shards. A cold field devoid of anything but ice.

"Where's the core."

"Yo..you're going for the core?" Ellis startled as she said.

The real Ellis would have not known about a tree having a core, let alone open a plant almanac. This had to be merged consciousness in effect.

"Where is it?" The souls string suddenly felt cold. He should really just stop wasting time here and find out where the string would lead to.

"You're actually going to leave me?"

"Stop it," somehow, Curtis could feel deep emotion well up inside him.

"Curtis, stop! It's pointless! Its not like i can get to you even if I wanted to!" she tapered off as she spoke. Her body had been cut loose from the vine which were now piece of shattered ice. Permafrost patches could be seen covering some parts of her lustrous body.

Curtis twitched.

Say if her body was here and her soul was somewhere else, could that mean she was projecting herself through some third-party medium? Souls can separate from bodies, but once separated they could not remotely control it. To the Ellis in front of him, could that be false? Could bodies be remotely controlled externally? Or was this a trick. Perhaps that body in front was a fraud mimicry. Then, Forest Sprites possess the ability to shape shift?

Wait, why was he questioning so much? What's this talk about souls?

His hesitation and stalling. Was the hallucination inducing gas still getting to him?

{Purify}

Curtis should have thought of this. It was about time he tried a spell to remove the hallucination. A slight verdant green light enveloped him. {Purify} was a spell that removed harmful substances in the body. Sharpening his vision, he glanced at Ellis.

This—wasn't a hallucination.

"It's hard to believe isn't it." Her face was turning pale with a weary voice.

"You can't be the real one." Curtis muttered in disbelief.

"Hahaha..." she laughed bitterly. "If you want to know where the core is, it's right here", she pointed at the left side of her chest. A fist-sized pulsing bump was seen underneath her skin, just beside where she pointed it was her alluring, amorous cleavage. Anyone who saw this would have to look at it, twice!

"And your soul?"

"It's at a faraway place."

Probing. Curtis knew that Ellis had not idea {Soul Bind} had been casted on her. So the way she said it was just, vague. She was just a few meters from his location

"Fine. That settles it. I'll shatter that core and come find you," Curtis blurted something odd. It felt like another part of himself was speaking.

"How? You've already tried for years!"

Another cold tug was felt from the soul string. This wasn't the soft sweet gentle feeling anymore. It was a genuine freezing feeling.

Curtis, was in deep confusion.

Why did he say that and—

Years?

Curtis clench his open fist.

With all the frost around him, there were no longer any projections or projectiles that could get to him. The vines around the core had also been cut, which meant the core had no links to it's other 'arms' anymore.

"Return to me," Ellis looked on with plea. The child-like voice sounded incredibly sincere. Curtis stiffened, what did she mean?

Curtis couldn't stand it. Something inside him snapped.

"I'm sorry. If it comes down to the worst. I'll take responsibility," another phase entered his head, "Please wait for me."

"What are you doing!? Wait, no! Please!"

{Fire}

Curtis had to made a choice. He wanted to stop hearing those crazy lies.

A deep throbbing pain could be felt in the chasms of his heavy heart. Flames swirled around her, condensing bright and brighter. Not another yell was let out when the entire body disappeared before him. The floor became ash, the water when melted from the snow wasn't even able to reduce the scorch. A few mellow particles sank down in the air—the broken core.

This was for the best. Wasn't it?

"I miss you," a serene voice sounded inside his head in a whisper. Before the world turn deathly silent.

Curtis cramped his forehead. His stomach churned at his precipitate decision.

A part of him wanted to know why he was so mad, the other part—

If this was truly Ellis, he would have made the biggest mistake in his life. A calamity for him; To kill his beloved by his own hands.

Just when he thought he may have made a wrong choice.

A tug was felt from the soul string, growing colder. Curtis gawked in astonishment. He should have felt a blistering heat before the connection severed yet, this wasn't what he expected.

Ellis was safe.

Curtis rushed towards the direction of the tug.

He ended up close to a human sized egg-capsule. A cocoon half-way dug into the soil. Shrouded in ice, it was fortunate that it laid more than 50 meters away from the initial blast of absolute zero.

Examining it closely, a frozen stems and roots budding into multiple other branches wrapped around it. Most of them were concentrated around the edges, while the odd ones looked to have merged with the cuticular layer of the cocoon. Some as thick as his arm.

The frost covering the surface was rubbed away with his hands. Underneath it wasn't the mentioned transparent window where one could see the prey trapped inside. It was a greenish-peach coating, totally opaque.

The soul string said that her soul was here, specifically.

Face the fact. There was nothing more.

Splash~

Liquid that felt as cold as ice flowed out. It wasn't sticky, emitting a sweet smell. Curtis' clothes were drenched in the liquid that came spurting out like a fire hose. Fortunately, he was able to resist the chill.

And inside was Ellis. Not just her soul, but her entire body. She still had her pink coat on, an adventurer dress worn underneath.

Her face was pale, her breathing was slow. Some of her loose disorderly hair stuck to her cheeks. Curtis was relieved.

If Ellis was fine, then why was there this unresolved feeling inside his heart? It had to be the after-effect of the hallucinogen. It had to be...

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Curtis brought Ellis back to camp. On the way, he warmed her body with a fire attribute spell. Relighting the campfire and using water magic to dry her clothes along with his, a listless smile spread across his face.

If it weren't for Ellis' coaxing before this, he would have probably not been as fortunate. {Soul String} was the ultimatum here. But he knew many thing could have gone wrong if it weren't for that, he was really lucky. Though, this wasn't the first time he had experienced such a situation.

Saving Ellis and looking at her sleeping, Curtis thought it was rather cute. Coming so close to death yet still possessing such a carefree expression, he thought everything would be fine so as long as it remained like that.

Except that, it didn't feel too right.

Curtis sat down and felt a hard object in his pocket.

Then a thought resurfaced.

A whole new piece of land.

And,

A red crystal.