Chapter 4: Knock-off Cthulhu vs 7th Apostle and contract complete

Standing amidst the sea of insects, Ray who activated True Body Descent holding the Holy Moonlight Sword which glow in its ethereal green light while coated by purplish black aura of eldritch energy having a standoff with 7th Apostle of the Devourer Ba'al Zebub.

The aura released by Ray's transformation causes the nearby insects to screech in madness before attacking anything on sight. The insects that died have their corpses turn into twisted eldritch horror then join the frenzy.

Reinhard saw this visibly sweating slightly since the power used by Ray is similar to the witch factor of the witches. The witch factors grants authority and similar to divinity, divinity are conceptual rank or title given by something like world will or gained through certain conditions which enable authority to manifest and used by its owner.

(Note: This explanation is based on an explanation I read about divinity from the Nasuverse is granted by Tiamat or Gaia's physical avatar which gave birth to gods during world creation.

Also the xianxia or other novels where mc ascend to godhood by gaining power to form divine core like cultivator)

Then another authority manifested in the form of the moon like previously when he used his sword to split the White Whale in half. The moon appears directly above Ray, showering him with moon energy and granting him buff.

While on the other side of the battlefield, the hunters are suddenly surrounded by energy which is the effect of [Hunt] which enhances the hunter's overall stats, enabling them to perform 20% better under the effect.

"Charge! God is here with us tonight!"

"For our god!"

"For our Great One's glory!"

The hunters affiliated with Healing Church release various warcry, praising Ray their true god while leading the charge to break the stalemate that has been ongoing for a while.

The members of the Choir use Choir Bell to heal those that are afflicted with debuffs from the eldritch aura permeating the surrounding area, centered on Ray.

The other hunters belonging to other covenants also release warcry but most of them are related to promised compensation and weirdly, few of them are about visiting certain pub waitress.

The hunters' overwhelming efficiency manages to push back the insect swarm. The transformed insect also helped as they form a line, prevent new batch of insects from reaching the people under the tree base.

…

Ray initiated the first move by sending slash after slash of sword slashes using the Holy Moonlight Sword which empowered by the moon above him, the wave of ethereal sword slash crashed against the barrier made of insects which disintegrate the barrier and its surrounding.

The barrier then reforms within seconds by an endless cannon fodder insect that the Apostle creates almost endlessly. The White Whale carcasses provide material for the Apostle to continue creating insects non stop.

The deciding factor of this battle of attrition is either Apostle ran out of material first or Ray's own limit to support the authority and True Body Descent.

The Whale carcasses had shrunk immensely to around 40% of its original size while Ray was only able to sustain for another 10 minutes.

Ray curses himself for not having a finishing move which can help him end the battle immediately if he had.

The way Ray uses his power now is like using raw strength to punch a tree instead of using chainsaw or axe to cut it down inside. He lacks finesse in manipulating his power. If he spends some time visiting the hub archive to read some introduction level magic or buy skill, Ray is probably able to increase his damage output by 20-30% instead of using raw mana to smack his opponent.

Even simple magic like mana sword slash which he bastardized that belongs to magic swordsman skill set can increase the magic efficiency by 150% that increases total damage by half!

If he has a finishing move while using the mana he is wasting right now, he can probably create a new landmark for the Lugnica kingdom.

The barrage of sword slash starts to leave its mark as the insect barrier thinning out. Suddenly the Apostle releases the barrier before a ripple in space appears as grotesque giant worms with mouths filled with rows of razor sharp teeth appear from the ripple, then followed by van sized crimson coloured praying mantis whose limb looks like a scythe.

The new insects are unmatched by the eldritch creature as they easily flatten or dice the creature. Their body is also way more sturdier as none of the creatures are able to even leave a scratch on the insects body.

"Behold! The creation of my god, created using a superior material from the world he devoured. Hatch inside the body of heroes and heroines to create these superior insects."

The Apostle introduces the new insects while laughing loudly or screeching. Then an even bigger armoured spider exits the ripple before it vanishes.

The Apostle fused into the massive armoured spider, becoming an arachne. The fusion covered the Apostle's weakness of lacking speed, dexterity and health, turning itself into a walking tank.

Ray's attack only manages to graze the carapace of the spider without much damage. The only way to attack him now is either an unprotected part or piercing its carapace.

Ray dashes closer into melee range before bashing his sword against the carapace which manages to nick the carapace slightly before the carapace restores itself. Ray then tried piercing the spider from below with a stabbing attack before overloading his mana causing it to detonate, causing a chunk of flesh to tear off its body.

Ray's fast attacks however stopped by two dozen crimson mantis ganging up on Ray trying to prevent him from attacking the Apostle.

Ray loosened his limit on the absorbing eldritch energy then used it to turn the phantom tentacles to turn physical before they attack the mantis. Holding them in death grip as the eldritch energy corrupts them.

Purplish black ooze vomit out by the corrupted mantis as purplish black spot on the mantis. The very tiny fragment of outer god energy in the mantis resisted the corruption but it was futile as the mantis decayed into dripping ooze.

"Impossible! The Undefeated Blood Mantis created by Lord Ba'al. How! They have Lord Ba'al essence… I see… I see, you are the Hub's agents."

No expression is able to be observed as the insect head isn't built for making facial expressions but the angry tone is enough indication to the Apostle's emotion.

"To think I will meet another agent of the Hub. The last time I met your kind resulted in a devastating failure to devour a world. Today I will atone for my failure to my lord."

The Apostle changes to offensive as it actively sends magic and hex while the spider part attacks Ray with its limbs and occasionally spits corrosive venom.

Ray continues to engage in melee attack while dodging with his great agility and quickening. Ray made use of the blind spot of the spider to launch a surprise attack at the spider's joint. Few surprise attacks manage to shatter the leg joint causing the spider to slow down as two rear leg lose its ability to function.

"Your spider only has a strong carapace on the outside but inside is weak." Ray is trying to taunt the Apostle with its weakness, hoping it will slip up.

…

While the two are duking out with each other, Reinhard who has been ignored, finishes his fight with the giant worms which are very slow which he can easily evade without breaking a sweat.

"Your spider only has a strong carapace on the outside but inside is weak."

Reinhard heard Ray's taunt. He observes Ray's attack and realizes that Ray lacks an attack that can penetrate the carapace and is even forced to bash the soft side of the carapace to land an attack.

Reinhard decided to support Ray with an attack to pierce a hole in its defence. He unsheathe the Dragon Sword Reid, creating blinding light that temporarily blind everyone.

He performs the House Astrea sword technique that creates a single beam of light that shatters the armoured spider back carapace revealing the soft flesh inside.

Ray seized the chance and stabbed the soft flesh before detonating a large amount of mana, sending chunks of flesh flying all over the place like a bloated corpse explosion.

"Curse you! To think I will fail the second time. I will return for vengeance!"

The apostle shouted as it creating a portal to escape but was thwarted by Ray who quickened to it before engaging in melee attack.

Ray materializes the Church Cannon and shoots the Apostle to stagger it to make a visceral attack but misses because the robe hides its slim figure which it manages to twist to the side at the very last minute, avoiding the sword stab.

The Apostle then uses Insect Physique to change its arm into sword like limb before doing a desperate attack to get his revenge against Ray that failed his mission.

The Apostle clearly has martial arts ability but Ray, who still has his raw stats boosted by True Body Descent and the [Moon] blessing outclassed the Apostle by at least a dozen times.

Ray then places another well placed shot using the Church Cannon to stagger the Apostle then use the Holy Moonlight Sword to bisects its body in half, causing it to fall to the ground.

"Impossible… I am an Apostle! I cannot fall here… my duty to my lord… Ba'al."

The Apostle then released his final breath and died. Its insect eyes become dull and lifeless.

Like headless chicken, the surviving insects become confused as the chain of command has fallen.

The subjugation force along with the hunters and eldritch creatures do a final push to clear the dwindling insects. Without reservation, they threw out every magic, molotov and magic barrage at the insects to finally secure a victory.

"Yeah!!!"

Everyone cheered loudly as they achieved true victory. The sudden gust of wind swept through the battlefield as if the world itself was announcing their victory against an overwhelming enemy.

The hunters then slowly turn transparent before vanishing as they have already completed their task. The four leaders look at Ray at a distance for the last time before they are sent back into the Bloodborne world.

…

After killing the Apostle, Ray heard several notifications from the system but he became too tired as he disable all the skills. An instant wave of fatigue washed over him, making his breath become laboured. The strain from using the skills slammed him all at once as even opening his eyelids became very difficult.

Then he felt someone catch his fall. He managed to utter a few words before falling asleep from exhaustion. His sword that stabbed to the ground which he forgot to dematerialize, turned into human form to catch his exhausted body and soul.

"To think that I am granted the privilege to see my usually domineering master's in such defenceless form…"

The weapon soul is short and she only manages to hug her master due to the height difference. She continues to hug her master, refusing to let him rest on the wrecked land until Reinhard arrives with two ground dragons.

The trio ride the land dragon towards the subjugation force that are cleaning the battlefield. The trio arrive, causing a second wave of applause and cheer from the people. Reinhard rushes Ray to Felix for check up along the weapon soul in the form of a little girl that refuses to leave a single meter away from her master.

After the check up, Felix detects nothing wrong other than Ray is exhausted after overtaxing his body with large amount of energy. Then people's attention turns to the girl that accompanies Ray by his side.

Other than Reinhard who saw her transformation and able to 'see' her presence know that the girl is the powerful sword that Ray wielded in his battle.

"Who is she? I didn't remember anyone like her joined the subjugation force." Crusch asked the other as she rubbed her chin.

"Is she not part of the Anastasia group? She wears a white robe like them." Subaru added

"Never seen this lady before." Ricardo denied as he shook his head.

Wilheim stayed silent while Felix was resting near Crusch since he is tired from healing and tending to the wounded from the beginning of the attack to the end non stop.

Crusch sent some suspicious gaze to Reinhard since he looked like he knew something about it but Reinhard chose to ignore and walk away to group up with the royal knight's.

…

Few hours later in the afternoon, Ray woke up feeling something heavy pressing on his chest. He open his eye to find himself in a carriage, resting while people are gathering in the open field discussing something.

With a glance he knew this is the part which Subaru and those left behind along with Wilheim will meet with Julius Juukulius detachment group but this time, the detachment group have few dozen knight in its rank due to them assigned to be part of the group that guard against the witch while the main group fighting the whale.

The detachment group was also assigned to fight against the Witch Cult in Mathers territory later under the order of the Wiseman Council but sadly Reinhard cannot join and he follows the Crusch group back to the capital.

This is part of the plan since Reinhard presence there means that timeline will change and the Sin Archbishop attack on the convoy will be thwarted by Reinhard.

The timeline had changed with the outer god attack anyway. So, might as well help Subaru a little, even if it makes a small difference compared with the suffering ahead of him.

Ray continues his rest while he hugs the heavily blushing weapon soul under the sheet which is a habit he carries from his first life. He likes to hug the assortment of body pillows that he drowns his lifesaving into. The amount he has are enough to open a small art gallery dedicated to his waifu body pillow.

Speaking about waifu, Ray had been thinking of a way to obtain his waifu for real using the hub. His life is incomplete without his waifu after all. His goal is to traverse the multiverse but for what?

What the reason he willing to suicide to meet ROB?

To meet his waifu of course, he dedicated almost 4 year of his life with his favourite game Azur Lane for his beloved shipgirl spending 40% of his monthly wage to oath them and buy their skins.

He will definitely find a way, the battle against the Apostle shows that moment of carelessness can cost his life and he is unwilling to lose his second chance dying somewhere due to the Penalty Contract for failing his Quest.

"I will definitely get you back." Ray made a vow before fell asleep again causing the weapon soul to peek from underneath the sheet.

"Humph, even when he has me by his side, he still thinks about another girl." The weapon soul huffed in jealousy but didn't escape his hug. She instead repricorate his hug before burying her face in his chest.

…

After the discussion finished, the group continued their journey to Mathers territory. The whole trip is uneventful until the convoy suddenly stops in an open space surrounded by trees.

Wilheim walks to the carriage where Ray is resting to wake him up. His arrival is noticed by the weapon soul who are awake when the carriage stops moving.

"Can you wake Ray dono up? We need to ambush one of the archbishops that Subaru dono said to have been hiding in this forest."

Ray, who was listening to the conversation, woke up immediately since he is a light sleeper. Ray simply gave a sign that he agreed and Wilhelm left him to get ready.

Ray stretches his body with a light yawn before looking at the weapon soul who is also looking at him with her green eyes. Ray's body felt heavy from the sleep and too lazy to be bothered by his weapon's soul behaviour simply rubbing her head before signalling her to follow.

"I feel like my limbs are filled with lead, even my back hurts a little."

'Anything new, system?'

Ray asks because he remembers seeing some notifications pop up after killing the Apostle but he ignores it after being very exhausted from the fight. A screen appears, showing Ray the notifications.

---

White Whale had been eliminated successfully.

Unknown influence (7th Apostle) had been eliminated successfully.

All main quests have been completed, conclude the contract to receive reward?

[Yes/No]

…

Exp received cannot be absorbed due to reaching level cap for current rank and stored by Hub for allocation later.

Level cap reached, please reach out for administrator or Hub helper for assistance to increase level cap.

Following item obtained after successfully killing 7th Apostle.

-Magic Core [7th Apostle]

Items drop by sufficiently strong enemies as proof which can be used as trophy or exchange for reward in Hub.

-Robe of Obfuscation Grade B

A robe made from the rare shadow stalker hide, tailored for spell casters which reduce wearer presence when not moving or far away from enemies' sight for.

-Daemon Sealing Amulet

Amulet that uses daemon sealed in it to boost power of hex spell. The daemon needs to be replenished if exhausted.

…

Entity, Nameless (Holy Moonlight Sword), had submitted fully to the user and offered to be soul bound.

Accept?

[Yes/No]

Entity, Nameless (Holy Moonlight Sword), had submitted and caused the effect of (Scroll of Force Obedience) to become null.

---

By the time Ray finished reading the notification, Ray reached the group who were briefing about each other's role. Ray selects no for concluding the contract then briefly scans through the item's descriptions.

Then Ray saw the latter part of the notification. He stares with his eyes widened while alternating between the screen and the girl following beside him.

The girl notices Ray's gaze looking back at him with a smile while expecting more head pat when she shows her head to him. Ray simply confused, although he understood that she had submitted to him but why did that nullify the scroll effect?

'Is the system faulty? And the points wasted, the system didn't even refund the points.'

(The system isn't faulty, please refrain from slandering the system of situation outside of the system's responsibility.)

(The entity, Nameless (Holy Moonlight Sword) had fully submitted everything to the user which showed by its willingness to offer soul binding.)

'Soul binding... I vaguely remember its effect from games but is there any difference?'

(Soul binding is a special feature exclusive to limited beings and items.)

(This soul binding means that this entity willingly surrendered its right to its freedom to use by a rite of binding which involves the user's soul and the entity.)

(User will hold the dominant position of the bond which enables certain effects and impose some of them to the one in the subservient position of the bond.)

While digesting the information, Ray read the effects listed by the system on a screen. While Ray morality isn't exactly good and more likely to be categorised as 'questionable' but he isn't evil as well.

He isn't exactly against having an obedient loli that does whatever he wants. In fact he always dreams of having one like those bastards... harem mc. Now his wish is handed to him with a golden basket, his morality starts to make a fuss in his mind.

'Law and mortality is for the weak right? This isn't earth anymore, no need to follow the rules and morals anymore, right?'

After a long battle between his desire and morality, his desire came on top as the winner as he accepted the soul bound offer. Immediately he felt something foreign latched to his soul which he instinctively knew was the weapon soul.

The girl who is the weapon soul manifestation smiled happily as she hugged her master while nuzzling to his body. Ray simply patted her head while he was distracted by the system.

(User please give a name to the entity Nameless (Holy Moonlight Sword))

"Name? Ugh, I'm bad at picking names. Hmm… Artemis since she looks exactly like Artemis from Danmachi and it suits her theme right? Hunter weapon and related to moon, similar to Artemis' divinity."

"What do you think?" Ray asks the weapon soul that has been latching on him for a while now.

The weapon soul nods her head vigorously, accepting the name her master picked for her. Upon receiving a name, her smile turns brighter and giggles which indicate her happiness.

"Artemis gladly received this wonderful name master had picked for me."

Subaru recognised the name Ray mentioned. He is shocked and sure that Ray are from earth since the name is the name of a Greek goddess from earth.

"That name... Artemis, I recognize that name from earth. Are you from earth too?" Subaru didn't hesitate as he held Ray's arm with both his hands with a serious face.

"..."

"Yes I am from earth…"

"I knew it, we both came from earth." He smiles widely, happy that he isn't the only one earthling stranded in another world.

"So… let's get back to the task at hand. You say that an archbishop is somewhere in this forest and we need to eliminate him?" Ray asked even if he already knew about it to be less suspicious.

"Yea, that's about it. We already have enough people though, you can rest here if you want since the previous battle seems to exhaust you a lot." Subaru added, worry about Ray since he literally passed out from exhaustion after the battle.

Ray simply shrugged, although he is exhausted from the battle, he is still able to fight since his body is literally capable of fighting non stop.

His biology is also different from humans now after his ascension. His race is now similar to a demigod but rather than half god half human, he is half great one half human.

The umbilical cords changed his hunter's body into a semi great one. The great one is a superior race which doesn't require a physical body and is kind of a soul with a physical body. Thus the ascension elevated his soul but his body changed as a side effect of the elevation.

Their superior soul-like body enables them to control physical objects through their will or similar to telekinesis which is an innate gift of their race as a multidimensional being. Telekinesis is their way of interacting with lower dimensions and the physical world.

So, even if his body refuses to move due to exhaustion, he is still able to use his soul to telekinetically move his body. Although his telekinesis is still weak since he didn't actively train or use it yet.

----

Truly a must have ability for every lazy person like this autho…

----

Ahem… anyway. Seeing that Ray didn't want to stay, they let him join the main group that will confront the archbishop. But from the reaction of the group, they probably refrain Ray from fighting.

They then leave a few people to guard the carriages while Wilheim, Felix, Mimi, Tivey, Subaru and Ray split up from the group. They will confront the archbishop while other group will kill the cultist and the archbishop's fingers.

They walk for several minutes before they split again, Subaru will distract the archbishop while others will prepare for a surprise attack.

Wilhelm leaves to the other side of the lair. The short demihuman and Felix hide in the sea of trees facing the entrance. Ray remembered that he had Presence Concealment EX which he kinda forgot half way through the contract.

"Hey, I'm going ahead, don't worry I have an ability to make myself invisible." Ray gave them a heads up before casually walking forward to one of the trees behind Subaru to wait.

Mimi and Tivey look baffled since all the presence of Ray disappeared. His scent, sound, shadow and even mana which were very hard to remove had disappeared like the person called Ray never existed.

Felix that treated Ray however thinks it's normal since when he is treating Ray, he gets a close up look on his body which is very different from any human or even demihuman he had treated before.

Ray simply has too much vitality to be normal and his scar hidden under his attire is baffling that any one with that kind of scar shouldn't even be alive. Felix is talking about bite marks on his left half of the body and many other scars that look like someone smashed or pierced through his body with a lamp post.

(Note 1: Idk how to describe but basically the damage like being smashed into paste by cleric beast, smashed by tombstone by Gascoigne or tore open by orphan of Kos placenta sword)

(Note 2: Any death that causes his death will leave a scar and most of them hit around his body which is hidden by the attire he always wore. He also never opened his attire from start to end of Bloodborne to now… he never knew he had scars.)

Ray continues to watch as Subaru ends up taunting the archbishop of Sloth who activates his authority of Unseen Hands in which multiple shadow like hands appear from his back and the hands have similar colour to the eldritch energy that Ray uses.

When the Unseen Hands attack Subaru, Mimi and Tivey jump out of the trees to release a shockwave attack to the lair entrance to cut off the reinforcement and kill the cultist inside.

Artemis appeared in her one handed sword form then Ray cut off the hands, trying to make some contribution to the fight. Later Wilheim jumped down from the top of the lair to slash the archbishop in half.

But one might ask, how can Ray see the Unseen Hands which only Subaru should be able to see?

Well the simple answer is insight go brrrrr. Long answer is his high insight enables his 'eye' to perceive and peer through illusions and things that normally is hidden from the eyes of the masses.

With the archbishop killed easily, they depart back to the carriage after exploding the archbishop's corpse just to make sure the dead stay dead.

Everyone gathered up at the carriage to report their missions. The other group that went to clean up the cultist and archbishop's fingers reported that they successfully snuff out the other bases that the cultist occupied.

While they are talking with the addition of Ricardo who suddenly appeared out of nowhere, a sudden malicious presence is sensed by a few people who are surprised since they are sure that they killed all the cultists.

"Everyone get down!" Julius shouted

Without any time to respond, multiple Unseen Hands appear from the forest before grabbing a few mercenaries of the Anastasia group. Everyone else is surprised by the invisible attack that manages to catch a few people.

Ray immediately pulls out a repeating pistol and Artemis swiftly attacks the Unseen Hands to release the captured people. After a slash and several rapid shots, all the Unseen Hands vanished but few more appeared this time and one of them caught Subaru's legs then dragged him away through the gaps between trees into the forest.

Julius, Mimi and Tivey tried to pursue the dragged Subaru but cultists appeared from the ground, stopping their attempts to save Subaru. They easily killed the cultists but more of them appeared trying to stall time.

After killing a few dozen of them, the cultists finally stop appearing and they quickly rush into the forest led by Julius.

"This way! I left a spirit inside him and its direction is this way." Julius declared.

They run for almost a minute before they arrive at a pond where they see Subaru stuck to the tree by Unseen Hands. The finger which currently housed the archbishop of Sloth is under attack by a red spirit before the Unseen Hands destroy the surrounding area trying to attack the spirit.

Mimi, Tivey and Wilheim who arrived first swiftly kill the finger before it blabber something about his brain is trembling. The finger dropped to the ground with its face still retaining the look of madness while its eyes opened wide.

Julius and Felix reach the scene after the finger has already been killed.

"So, is this the real body of the archbishop?" Felix asked.

"No, it doesn't matter which is real or fake." Julius replies to Felix's question.

"There are multiple people within the cult that can represent the archbishop of Sloth?" Wilheim added.

"Or the entire cultist's finger can represent the sin of Sloth." Julius replies again while inspecting the corpse of the possessed cultist.

Everyone returns to the main group while Subaru mutters under his breath. " I… bring you all into this." He is angry about involving them in his selfish request and even lets a few be killed even after saying that he is going to win this fight without anyone dying.

…

While everyone had left, Ray who stayed silent throughout the fight and conversation went and inspected the dead body of the finger. He suspected that the soul of the archbishop of Sloth still lingered around and he wanted to try killing it.

"As suspected, the soul did linger around but only the thread of its trail. The real soul is already far away and looking in the direction… It's the village." Ray deducted as he inspected the clue.

Later Ray regrouped with the rest of the people who were ready to depart. The carriage is ready to move on along with the mercenaries and soldiers acting as escort.

"Where have you been Ray?" Subaru asked seemingly excitedly and in high spirits which contrasted his previous mood.

"Nothing, just make sure there is no remnant of cultists." Ray evades the question before entering the nearest carriage.

The convoy now started moving again, Ray who now is alone in the cargo carriage summoned Artemis to accompany him until they arrived.

A sword materialized now looks beautiful and in pristine condition unlike the first time he summoned the sword which looked very worn and covered in dirty rag bandage.

The blade of the sword is metallic silver with golden green gloss from Primordial Mithril Uru alloy which replaced its original material. Then the inert magic vein adorned the blade which would light up when Ray channeled mana or energy through it.

The part above the guard to the mid part of the blade that previously warped with rag now has the engraving that looks similar to the engraving of the enlarged form of the sword.

The sword glows in ethereal green light before a girl appears in its place. The girl's eyes closed and a rhythmic breath pattern, she appeared to be sleeping when Ray summoned her and Ray didn't want to disturb her sleep.

Ray then kills time by inspecting his most used ranged weapons like Blunderbuss, Repeating Pistol, Evelyn and Church Cannon. When it's the turn for Church Cannon, he took it out from his inventory and put it down with an audible thud on the carriage.

"Eh… Um… Oh hello master." Artemis who woke up by the noise looked around slightly confused before greets Ray when she sees him.

Artemis still looked sleepy when she greeted Ray. That makes him wonder if the weapon soul even needs sleep. Since sleep is a biological requirement of living beings, does a magic sword count as one?

After realising that he got sidetracked, he remembers that he got a question for Artemis which is another reason he summoned her.

The method Betelgeuse is kind of immortal, his immortality is by swapping bodies upon death. It's real body is the soul that is attached to the fingers which are present among the cultists. Ray wonders if there is a way to damage the soul to prevent it from taking over another finger.

Looking at Artemis who was fully awake now, Ray asked his questions hoping that she would answer for him since she is technically an old being since the Pthumerian era or even older from her discovery by Ludwig.

"Hm… master actually doesn't even need Artemis help, as the innate gifts of a great one race include psychic abilities like Telekinesis, Telepathy and many more." Artemis explains with the air of a great teacher.

"Great ones are actually a third dimensional race that evolved to higher dimensions during their course of existence due to reasons forgotten even by the oldest great one, your adoptive father." Ray was baffled and intrigued at the same time of the history of his current race.

"Evolution causes the great one to abandon their physical body which is cumbersome to maintain in higher dimensions where the spiritual form is more ergonomic. However, having no physical body means they are unable to interact with physical material."

"Thus their evolution forces them to create and adopt psychic abilities which now already inscribe to your dna or rather, your spiritual dna." Artemis finally finished her explanation.

"I see… but how is that related to attacking Betelgeuse's soul?"

Ray pointed out that Artemis had yet to give him his answer. Artemis held her chin up, assuming the thinking posture.

"Master should be familiar with spiritual interference with Telepathy right… then to explain it. That is an attack that involves overloading your will through a spiritual channel."

Ray looks more confused which isn't surprising for him since he is a bit slow to catch up even after joining the Hub and increasing his stats. If his base brain power is low, even if doubled, it will still be below average.

"If a master has high mastery in psychic manipulation, the master can shred a soul easily and attack to soul is indefensible unless the enemy also has psychic abilities or special defence equipment."

"Wouldn't that be overpowered, able to shred souls with ease. I can sweep through any enemy with such ability." Ray is excited as he just realized he landed on a jackpot during race change.

"But master, psychic abilities are fueled by spiritual energy and to wield it, the wielder also needs strong will to manipulate the spiritual energy into whatever the wielder requires."

Upon hearing the requirements, Ray instantly deflated and lied on the carriage wall. Ray is familiar with psychic abilities from multiple media like novels, games and comics that he consumed. It is his favourite ability type due to its versatility, coolness and undeniably its potential.

Imagine having psychic manipulation strong enough to bend reality into whatever he needs, create blackhole through sheer willpower or recreate cool attacks like Gilgamesh.

"I see, how to obtain psychic manipulation then? I didn't obtain any new skills after the race change."

"Artemis can guide master through a psychic arcane spell for master to get a feel of psychic manipulation. Please use Artemis as catalyst since master isn't proficient enough to use just willpower to activate the spell."

Artemis starts to guide Ray step by step to activate the arcane spell. Ray holds Artemis one handed sword mode before following Artemis through the chant. When they finish chanting, the spell activates and a small portion of space in front of him visibly contorts and compresses before returning to normal.

"That master is a low level arcane spell compress. Normally using arcane spells require material and foci as catalyst but master is able to cast it due to innate gift and Artemis substitute as catalyst. The magnitude of the spell also increases at least twice than normal."

While listening to the explanation, a system notification popped up. The notification informs Ray that he just obtained a new skill.

Basic Psychic Manipulation LV 1/100

Psychic ability is an ability to use one's own will to impose changes upon anything. An ability which is rarely obtained due to its potential. Depending on the condition, anything can be manipulated, including reality.

The description looks very strong but after Ray notices several hidden details, he deduces that it will be a laborious effort to get it strong. Which is okay since nothing good can fall into his hand without putting effort.

After getting the skill, Ray continues to grind the level as high as possible using Artemis who happily helps his endeavour. In fact she makes Ray promise to keep using her as a catalyst instead of replacing her saying it's her duty as his weapon.

While Ray is engrossed in grinding his skill level which reached level 3, the convoy suddenly stopped. He looks out of the carriage to see everyone to be dazed as if daydreaming. He also smells a weird floral scent which is very unpleasant with its sickly sweet smell.

"You! How are you unaffected by the illusion?" A person wearing white robe with a hint of pink shouted in disbelief from the tall grass."

'Master! They are affected by illusion.'

'Illusion? Why am I not affected?' Ray ask through his spiritual connection with Artemis.

'Do master forgot that he has very high insight. Master is immune to illusion since the master's insight actively unravels the falsehood and shows the truth of the world view from the master's eyes.'

'Artemis think master is quite dumb with intelligence and wisdom stats that high.' Artemis bluntly added that Ray surprisingly was not angry.

'I get that a lot.' Ray impassively replies.

(Note: Talking through spiritual connection is very fast since no delay by rate of information transfer. The information is sent to their mind directly.)

Ray activates his Presence Concealment before trying to apprehend the Ram who created the illusion. He took out a throwing knife which was laced with paralyzing poison before moving closer to the grass.

He saw Ram who looked around warily looking for the person who vanished from all her senses. Ray walked up to a spot that gave him a clear view to the wary Ram before throwing the knife strong enough to lodge into her left shoulder.

"Kuh, where is he!" Ram exclaimed as she pulled out the knife.

The cloak Ram wears reduces the depth the knife is pierced. However the potent paralyzing poison had already entered her bloodstream, her movement became sluggish and laboured as she tried to resist the capture by her enemy.

Ray caught her and carried her closer to the others which were released from the illusion as the caster no longer sustains the spell.

"What happened… I remember being choked by vines… Wait! Ram? Ray, what did you do?" Subaru who just released from illusion saw Ram with bloodied shoulder quickly demand answer from Ray.

"She is the spell caster that traps everyone in illusion. Don't worry, I didn't kill her, I just hit her with paralyzing poison." Ray quickly explains, afraid that Subaru thinks he killed Ram.

Felix and Julius who just returned after checking on everyone excluding Wilhelm who are on guard for another attack. Felix checks on Ram with his water magic and confirms she isn't in a life threatening condition.

"Ne Ne Ray kyun, what poison did you use? I have never seen such potent yet harmless effects other than the paralyzing effect." Felix asked curiously as he removed the poison from Rem.

"A specialty from my place." Ray answers vaguely before focusing on Ram who regained her body functions.

"Kill me, I refuse to accept such disgrace." She said with determination. Ray pulled out his Blunderbuss jokingly and aimed at her. The other who saw this immediately stopped Ray, Wilhelm is the fastest to react and gently pushed Ray's hand.

"Wait Ray dono, she is a maid serving under Lord Mathers, perhaps there is misunderstanding." Wilhelm tried to dissuade Ray who he assumed wanted to kill Ram.

"No need to worry, I was joking. I didn't sense any killing intent from her. The rest didn't look amusing from Ray's joke.

Ray lifts his hand in surrender before returning to the carriage to wait for them to continue moving towards the village. While waiting, he continues to train his Psychic Manipulation.

…

After almost an hour, the convoy finally reached the village. The villagers look confused by the arrival of convoys. The convoys stopped at the centre of the village surrounding the well.

They assembled the villagers, merchants and the people that just arrived. The villagers looked worried about the sudden arrival of the armed group, they suspected something bad had just occurred and the rumours about the Witch Cult lurking didn't help at all.

Subaru tried to calm down the people but backfired immediately as they started to blame Emilia for attracting the attention of the Witch Cult. Subaru then started to lose hope but Felix cheered him up with some motivational words.

Meanwhile Ray manages to level up his new skill to level 5. He starts looking around, finding the soul trail left by Betelgeuse to mark up then snuff them out in one go.

'Artemis, can you detect the finger that hid among the merchant?'

'I can detect but I have limited range since they are able to hide the magic signature very well.'

After checking up on every merchant, Ray informs Wilheim and Julius of his findings. They thanked him and assembled the fake merchant. After that, Ray walks up to one of the brown haired merchants with a faded green shirt who is busy giving orders to a group of 'fake merchants'.

Ray walks up to the man when the fakes leave. The man seemed to flinch for a split second before acting normal. The man is the one that the soul trail ends on.

"Hey, can you show me where your carriage is? I'm told to inspect the merchandise to make sure it follows the list." Ray asks while acting normal.

The man nodded after giving Ray a suspicious look. Ray is trying to find his carriage which has a Fire Stone which they are going to use as an explosive.

The man leads him to a carriage which has Subaru and Felix who seem to be… flirting? The man gets annoyed before climbing up the carriage. Felix laughs off his reprimand and walks to the man before using his magic to paralyze the man.

"Wait, Felix don't wake him up yet, he is the archbishop. I can see the trail of the archbishop soul leading to this guy here. Go tell Wilheim and Julius to kill off the fingers. I'll take care of this."

Ray promptly tells Felix to inform Wilhelm and Julius to execute the fingers. Ray is going to trap the archbishop's soul here until all the fingers are executed so that Betelgeuse cannot swap bodies.

This is to prevent chaos and deal with the Witch Cult in one swoop. Since the archbishop cannot swap bodies unless the current body is killed. He also didn't forget to force Subaru to wear the earrings for his plan to work.

Felix and Subaru immediately rush towards Wilhelm and Julius after a nod of agreement. Then Ray broke the layer of the carriage floor to find a sack hidden underneath which had the Fire Stone. He put it away in his inventory to easily deal with the explosives.

Ray then dragged the archbishop with him to the rest of them at the east side of the village, executing the fingers. He saw mercenaries and soldiers trying to diffuse the commotion that grew due to them suddenly executing those fake merchants.

"Please don't panic, they are Witch Cultists hiding among the merchants." Julius trying to explain the situation which helped when suddenly cultists with purple red robes appear when the first one is being executed.

The sudden appearance panic but still manageable since the mercenaries and soldiers are prepared for this to happen. They effectively suppressed the appearing cultists.

Wilhelm with his sword easily killed a dozen cultists in mere seconds while Julius with his swordsmanship killed those that escaped the mercenaries and soldiers encirclement.

When Ray arrived, he threw the archbishop towards Julius before telling him about it.

"He is right Julius, I confirmed it when I touched his body. He has weird magic implanted inside like those fingers and Ray kyun says that he is able to sense the archbishop's soul inside." Felix explains to clear their doubt.

"Oh I didn't expect everything to run smoothly like this." Subaru exclaimed, unaware of his fate to be possessed. At least he wears the earrings which are crucial for saving him later.

When everyone agreed, Wilhelm cut off the archbishop's head with his sword. Everyone visibly relaxed when the archbishop was eliminated.

Ray is able to see the ghostly figure emerge from the former archbishop's body, the transfers are fast enough that Ray didn't have an opportunity to cast his spell. He tried to avoid the worst case scenario by killing it quickly but like he is feared off, the possessing is fast.

Subaru immediately ran into the forest when Betelgeuse possessed his body. But before he reached the forest, Ray already shot Subaru with his Blunderbuss, knocking him a few feets away from the impact.

Everyone was surprised and stunned when they saw Ray kill Subaru with his weapon. Ray then quickly cast the arcane spell, Compress. Ray chanted spells while holding 1H Artemis with the blade pointing downward.

When the spell is completed, the space where Betelgeuse's soul is floating, contorts and compresses, the soul is twisted and mangled like a chewed gum, shrieking in agony before dissipating.

Ray instantly greeted with a few notifications, one of which confirmed that Betelgeuse had truly died. Before he could celebrate, he felt two swords pointing at his back while Felix rushed to Subaru to check his wounds which are nonexistent now since the revival also healed all existing wounds.

"Why did you kill him!" Julius furiously demanded an answer from Ray while Wilheim didn't seem to be angry.

"Killing of the archbishop of Sloth that possessed Subaru's body." Ray answered nonchalantly which further angered Julius.

Ray quickened forward before facing Julius and Wilheim while holding Artemis in his hand. Wilheim notices that Subaru is awake while Felix is checking up on him, so Wilheim sheathed his sword which surprised Julius.

"What happened… I feel like I just got run over by a truck… then I heard someone talking about resurrection." Subaru clutch his head feeling dizzy as the aftereffects of resurrection.

Ray then opened his system interface to quickly submit his contract to avoid explaining.

–––––

[Contract]

World: Re:Zero

Status: Completed

Description: Due to interference by an unknown party, the current timeline of Re:Zero was altered and The White Whale the mabeast is empowered by the unknown party resulting in deviation of story when the attack on The White Whale failed regardless of method or attempt cause Subaru to stuck in a never-ending loop The Witch of Envy, Satella who posted the contract will provide support during the duration of the contract.

Main Quest

-Assist Subaru's group to eliminate The White Whale (1/1)

Reward: Skill Gem (Presence Concealment EX)

-Investigate and eliminate remnants of the unknown influence.(1/1)

Reward: 500k HP(Hub Points)

Side Quest

-Assist in clean up of witch cultists after defeating White Whale (1/1)

Reward: System Function (Lottery)

-Join one of the candidate camp (0/1)

Reward: Character Summon Gem (Re:Zero)

-Don't join any candidate camp (1/1)

Reward: Character Summon Gem (Re:Zero)

-Remain unknown to the candidate until the fight with White Whale begins (0/1)

Reward: ???

-Prevent Archbishop of Sloth from possessing Subaru (1/1)

Reward: Active Unit Slot +1

•The contract maker provides user with [Presence Concealment EX] temporarily for the duration of the contract.

–––––

(Conclude Contract? Yes/No)

Yes

The space shattered like a glass before Ray got sucked into it, leaving everyone shocked. Even the dizzy Subaru became surprised since he knew what was happening to the space.

'This is space magic right!'

——————

AN: Finally I'm finished on Re:Zero world. Next I wanna make some interaction from Hub and find a way to explain new functions that Ray will get and also improve his psychic power with some secondary skills. I also want to decide his 'build' which will include psychic power, spell caster and also retain his hunter like fighting style.

Thanks for reading.