For the next few hours, Nicholas slept… Yes, he actually slept.
There was nothing he could do about the problem of his soul, so there was no point thinking too much about it.
He had learned long ago that worrying about things he couldn't change was a waste of energy.
When he awakened, he spent his time thinking.
Who was the best person to help him with the issue of his soul?
He couldn't let just anyone fumble around with his soul especially if there was something special about it and that was the most likely case.
He also didn't want some powerful person finding out his secret.
While Vale human versus Vale human was frowned upon, it still happened. Frequently. Human greed was universal, and power made people blind to consequences and even helped them ignore it.
He had a perfect target to help him.
Livia… The Soul Witch.
She was one of the minor antagonists the protagonist had faced early on in the original story.
She was an anti-humanity figure, driven by everything she had suffered at the hands of other humans, even people that were supposed to protect her.
Currently, she was most likely a slave in the Capital City of the Central Monarch.
Her ability, 'Soul Split', allowed her to directly split people's souls into several pieces, while it was not the best fit for battle the devastation it could create was something else.
By the time she fought the main characters, she hadn't reached her full potential but as stated before creativity helped show case power beyond grade and rank.
And Livia was creative, one of her go-to-move was to pull out souls then stuffed them into torture drones that tortured the souls while simultaneously using them as power sources.
Other times, she simply ripped the souls in ways that made them blow up with resulting explosion dealing both physical and soul damage simultaneously.
Of course, Nicholas did not want her to tear his soul apart.
Even though he wanted to find the other Nicholas—the original owner of this body—he simply wanted to wake him up or something. Not rip him apart.
Ripping the previous Nicholas's soul apart might directly lead to him losing his Adapt ability.
Something he did not want.
But there was just one problem… There was no way to control her.
While having slaves was frowned upon and technically human rights did exist. If you were powerful enough, or had enough connections, you could basically ignore them.
One such person was Livia's master.
He had bought her the moment he laid eyes on her then he did all manner of things to her. Rape, torture, humiliation, think of it he did it.
She experienced the full catalogue of human cruelty in less than a month she spent with him.
Livia escaped several times and ran for help from different people, she even went to the Security Bureau, but they always returned her to her master to curry favour from him.
For everyone involved it was all sunshine and rainbows… Until the day she awakened.
Everyone connected to her pain understood true horror.
While lustful and cruel, her master had taken precautions to make sure she never broke free from his control the moment he bought her.
Unfortunately, the precautions he took were worthless before her Soul Talent.
He had enslaved her with a Soul Contract, and a soul contract linked two souls together through a soul thread.
While Soul Contracts did not take up Soul Slots, they connected souls through metaphysical threads simply called Soul Thread.
Normally, to break a contract, you had to forcefully snap it and depending on your power, it could be easy. It could be hard.
But with her ability? She could simply cut that thread using her Soul Ability like it was a pair of sharp scissors.
Her ability's main effect allowed her to split souls, but the sub-effects included being able to see them, touch them, hold them, move them… and do the same to anything closely related to souls.
Her master most likely didn't even feel it when she cut the thread linking them.
But he definitely felt it when she grabbed his soul and violently ripped it out of his body so she could torture him forever.
However, since she didn't have much experience with souls, his soul spontaneously combusted. It sent him to an agonizing death although it ended relatively quickly.
She proceeded to slaughter everyone in the household from his wives, his children, loyal attendants to even the smallest babies.
However, she did let the other slaves go… And there, her legend began.
But she did not stop there… She visited everyone she had gone to for help.
Their fates were worse than her previous master's, since she was now more skilled, she was able to rip their soul from their bodies intact and torture them for a very long time.
Eventually, with the number of dead bodies—Including the Security Bureau Officers— she left in her wake, the Central Regional Security Bureau sent a tactical team after her.
She wasted them.
But then she was forced to run to the Shattered Realm, where she was later hunted down by the main characters for her sins against humanity.
Most of her backstory was visualized by the protagonist when he copied her ability and used it to question the souls around for answers.
One of them was one of the souls of the people that had returned her to her previous master… Although he had run mad by then.
Nicholas's best option was to play the white knight. Rescue her, free her and gain her trust but that would only work before she was sold to the city official.
Unless he would have to assassinate a city official.
He could definitely plan something, but it would take far too much time and effort.
Inevitably, though, he would have to do it… He couldn't think of any other person that would help him.
Everyone else with soul-related abilities was either affiliated with someone powerful or someone he didn't trust.
'I guess it is settled then.' He though as he closed his eyes and dozed off.
And suddenly, he was awakened by a notification from the truck.
[Mutant detected]
Nicholas's eyes snapped open and focused on the truck's interface that flickered to life, showing a video feed of the surrounding area.
'Finally, something to take my mind off this… I hope it is just as fun as before.'