Strawberry Devil in a Fantasy World

"No, you will be able to handle it." Vorte said.

"Aww... I don't want to die again."

"Have faith in yourself."

"Guh... Fine."

In the blink of an eye, before I fully prepared myself, half of my body disappeared. Strictly speaking, I was blown away and blown apart.

"Oof..."

That demon with capped speed moved faster than I could react.

Seriously? Normally you're supposed to give me some time to prepare for a duel. You can't just go pummel someone without a warning! Have some respect for dialogues!

The pain wasn't as debilitating, or rather, I didn't have much of a chance to feel it before my body fully rematerialized itself, clothing and all.

In the next instance, a burst of murder and rage assaulted my mind. Following that was a wave of nausea and pain.

"Ugh... Mind attacks... How do I defend against mind atta-"

Before I even finished asking the question, I lost the right side of my body. And just as quickly, light particles gathered and reformed the missing portions.

"Stop!" I screamed while searching for Juus, the demon. "You bully!"

Barrier, barrier, super barrier please! I don't want to deal with this stupid mindless demon anymore!

I added as much protection to my celestial core as possible. An undamaged core meant I wouldn't suffer soul level damage. After all, demons were capable of interacting with souls and damages were very unwelcomed.

Even while I prayed in my mind, he continued to assault my body. However, as long as my core remained undamaged, my body would continuously rematerialize. Pain wouldn't stop rushing into my head either which when combined with mind attacks, I was at a complete loss.

What made things worse for me was that I was crashing through some of those poisonous strawberries I created earlier. Unfortunately, I wasn't fully immune to the poison so I ended up in a very sorry state.

Oh my gosh Vorte, don't tell me you're a sadist! I need a breather, like now!

After quite some time had passed, and my body including my head blown apart countless times, the onslaught stopped completely.

I took a few deep breath while examining my body's condition.

"I'm... I've made it through? I'm a survivor!? Phew..."

"This isn't the time to rest yet. Look closely."

Vorte pointed to the mangled demon lying flat on a giant red strawberry the size of a gym. It was just a lump of unpleasant thing that didn't quite look right. Furthermore, I could tell he was bleeding everywhere profusely for some reason.

I was kind of upset Vorte didn't even lift a finger to help me out but I couldn't really blame him or anything because he was technically a neutral party in all of this. They were after me and he was just in the way.

"I see... What did you do to him?"

"Nothing. It was all you."

"Huh, what do you mean? I was just a punching bag."

"Not at all. You absorbed all of his mana with each physical contact and now he cannot resurrect immediately with a lack of mana."

I guess it's because of my special barrier...? Well I guess all's fine? My special trait is so strong!

I could see he had zero mana and one health while his buffed stats were slowly decreasing. Though, I did not remember mangling his body. In fact, I should have been the one to look like that mess.

Funny enough, his <luck> stat just zeroed out.

"I didn't attack him. I get why he's losing stats. So, why does he look like he just got thrashed and smashed?"

"It was a side effect."

Side effect of one of his abilities I guess? He sure got ahead of himself without understanding my ability. This demon sure is hotheaded and stupid. Hmm... What to do with him...

It seemed that he couldn't really control himself while in a berserker state and would mindlessly attack his opponent. In this case, I lucked out because of his incompatibility with my trait.

"I won, right?"

"Not yet."

"If left be, he will resurrect with time."

After he said that, I immediately erected my special barrier around the half dead demon. The barrier was set to automatically siphon mana from within to power the barrier.

"Alright, so can you crush his soul? I have no idea how it's exactly done. Since he has the |immortality| trait, I'm assuming he can't die normally?"

Normally, zero mana meant death or similar to death for a non-physical being. The fact it hadn't died likely meant it was a possessed body and the demonic soul was fused with it.

"It is my belief as well. I am unsuited for destroying souls as you probably have noticed."

"Ah, right, you left a few traces of it but I thought you did well. I mean, the |devious| trait and the contract were gone for good. So I think you did a great job."

"A favor was returned. This is as far as I will assist you. Henceforth, I am merely a humble guest of your abode. Do as you wish."

"Don't be like that! Aren't we friends by now? I helped you and you helped me. Please!"

"If you wish, I can provide advises but nothing more. Consider my earlier engagement with them a mere test of my power."

"Fine, be that way! Okay, I'll take advises! At least tell me how you destroyed that small chunk of my soul?"

I had an idea of how I could destroy souls because I just did it earlier. But, I wanted a bit of confirmation before I try that on a dangerous demon. Moreover, in case I succeeded, who could say another demon wouldn't just pop into my subspace for another all out brawl? I had to be sure that I had a way to permanently destroy immortal demons.

"I did not necessarily destroy it. Using my ascended trait, |force|, I negated their bonds, forcing it to dissipate which invalidated the contract and the trait information stored in that portion of your soul."

"Eh? That's it?"

"Indeed."

"So nothing was actually destroyed?"

"Information was destroyed indirectly, and that portion of your soul will take time to regenerate."

Luckily for me, I already collected most of that shattered soul back into myself as energy.

"Oh. Does that mean you can use that technique directly on me even now?"

"Not anymore now that you cannot be directly targeted."

Directly targeted... I guess he could still indirectly target me. If that's the case, I wonder if that mind attack from the demon could only be initiated via physical contact? Probably! Good chance it was! I see, I see!

Since Vorte was unable to actually destroy any souls permanently, then it was up to me to figure something out.

"Alright, I'll destroy this demon. You don't have anything against my decision, do you? I mean, you're about balance. If I kill this demon, would balance of the world be disrupted?" I asked.

"Since he was the aggressor, he may be eliminated. It is only a matter of time before more demons are born into the world."

"Great, thanks! I'll keep the other one alive."

There was another demon hiding somewhere in my subspace anyway. I planned to keep that one alive for interrogation and scientific experimentation. But first, I wanted to do some tests on this demon in front of me. Normal attacks couldn't kill it so this was perfect for practicing soul shattering techniques!

Still, I wonder why they even bother coming into my subspace? The moment I manage to control my new power, I became a winner, hands down. I guess they didn't anticipate Vorte having suddenly became a guardian in my subspace?