Dogs on a Broken Leash

Well, in the end, the battle with the demon was anticlimactic.

It had ended the same way as in the novel with  Nephis using her dormant ability, [Soul Flame] to purge its body.

And the five of us were sitting under the soul-devouring tree.

Cassia had not yet had her dream about the soul-devouring tree.

And so as we sat there and ate the fruits of the tree, Isaac quickly realized he was the only one that seemed unaffected by its mental abilities.

'No, I am affected but..'

It seems that Isaac's flaw allowed him to remember that the soul-devouring was trying to manipulate his mind.

He was under the mind hex of the soul-devouring tree, but at the same time to his immortal mind, he could remember that he was under a hex to begin with.

'Should I tell them'

Isaac was currently in a dilemma.

He could tell them about the mind hex and with their minds still not completely under its influence, they could escape by creating a boat like the original.

But then Sunny would not be able to get blood weave.

Granted, he could always take the partial lineage for himself.

But after thinking about it for a while, he quickly gave up on the idea.

In truth, Sunny needed the boost much more than he currently did.

Of course, he could always re-create the effects of blood weave using his dormant ability.

But then again, why focus on his blood when he can just reinforce his entire body all at once?

Speaking about his dormant ability.

Isaac had finally found the limitations of it.

He could only use sacrifice once.

Of course, he could always release the sacrifice and put on a new one, but he can never put more than one on himself.

Slightly disappointed Isaac.

But thinking about it once more if he didn't have a limit and how much he could sacrifice, he would truly be overpowered just by being a sleeper.

"I guess everything has limits"

Isaac had also noticed another limitation of his dormant ability.

His strength could not be amplified higher than that of a titan of his rank.

Or at least after fighting multiple nightmare creatures while under the effects of the soul-devouring tree.

The way he had found out was quite simple.

He took on Caster's flaw for only a few moments.

But even with taking it for a few seconds, he had aged at least a year and a half.

The others didn't notice he did.

But in those few seconds where he held Caster's flaw, felt an overwhelming amount of power, but at the same time, he felt the limits.

He killed an awakened monster in the brief second he had used Caster's flaw.

Moving on from his inner monologue about his dormant ability, Isaac had begun to inspect the status of all the cohort members.

Sunny was talking to Cassia as they creepily spoke of the soul-devouring tree and how good the fruits were.

Nephis constantly looking at the distance supposedly the bright Castle was located.

And the most surprising of them all was Electra who seemed other than himself somewhat unaffected by the soul of devouring trees influence.

He already had many theories regarding what could affect her and what couldn't.

May call him heartless, but Isaac had learned a finger two from Batman and it's that you must always have a contingency plan.

That's why, in the brief time that he knew her he made sure to find out any weakness he could find.

There were a few.

But there were three that were the most prevalent.

One of them was that when she used the flames of her body, her body seemed to grow smaller.

It took time for her body to regrow to full size.

How he had unveiled this weakness was quite simple.

While they were fighting some nightmare creatures to defend the devouring tree tree had been pierced right through the chest with a sharp scythe-like appendage of a nightmare creature.

Her body immediately began to retract in size, but she didn't die after a while. The flames for the body seemed to grow back to its original size.

Knowing this world's logic, she most likely passively soul essence to regenerate the flames that make up her body.

And as a sleeper, one does not have that much essence within their cores.

So it would be safe if I somehow dealt enough damage to the point she lost all her essence. She would immediately vanish.

The second weakness that I discovered was that surprisingly enough she was one, but could also become many.

What I mean by this is that if you were to cut off her arm her senses would both reflect from her arm and the greater body.

As such, if I sliced into multiple parts, her mental facilities should be spread out far enough that I could extinguish one of them without much resistance.

The third and final, if not, the most debilitating flaw that she had was her inability to use memories.

It was to the point that she couldn't even obtain memories. In her "words" memory. It would immediately burn away, and the spell would count it as destroyed.

This also gave way to a new theory. That her soul was also on fire just like her body.

Both of them were flames as such to attack her is equivalent to her physical and spiritual body.

From her reactions, though it seems she doesn't feel pain whenever her flame body is attacked pierced, or cut.

In her "words," it's uncomfortable, making her feel itchy all over.

But other than that, there are no negative effects.

'I am a bad friend'

Isaac watched as the cohort began to come together and get along as you watched from the outside.

Isaac smiled.

With the knowledge that he currently had manipulating the future to achieve his goals within this world was nothing but a piece of cake.