Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

Chapter 333: Clue

Alex stood over the siren with his grip wrapped tightly around Virtue's Edge.

Just moments ago, he had completely deprived her of her last chance to counter attack.

He had sliced her last remaining arm off, leaving her as just a shadow of her former self.

The only remaining limb she had left was her leg, but it was debatable on whether that could be called 'intact' after Alex's fierce stomp…

Now though, his blade hovered just millimetres away from her chest, ready to pierce her heart at any time.

Her arm lay just a few feet away from her, cruelly placed so it was constantly in her peripheral vision no matter how much she wanted to look away.

Alex didn't know if such psychological tactics would work on a beast like her, but it was a negligible amount of effort he put in anyway.

She was no longer a threat, unable to manipulate the water anymore or even defend herself.

"Goodbye."

But just as Alex was about to drive his sword through her chest, putting an end to the fight and her life for good, the siren's body shimmered.

Before his eyes, her grotesque and monstrous form began to fade, replaced by the ethereal, almost delicate figure he had first encountered by the river.

The transformation was so sudden, so unexpected, that Alex hesitated.

"WAIT! PLEASE!"

But he was almost startled when he heard a soft, delicate voice eek out with desperation and fear.

He essentially froze.

'The siren could speak!? Since when!?'

Alex was quite literally befuddled.

He hadn't expected the siren to have that high of an iq or be able to speak, since well, she was a beast after all.

The only other beast he knew of that could speak was the white tiger, but that was a Divine beast!

This siren was only a B tier Mutant, nothing like the divine tiger that briefly even communicated with him.

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But that was through telepathy, this was the first time he had actually heard one verbally speak, let alone plead for mercy.

Did beasts even know what mercy was?

But there she was, looking up with wide, terrified eyes, her entire demeanour transformed form a malicious predator to vulnerable prey.

"Why should I spare you? You clearly wouldn't have offered the same mercy to me."

But Alex wasn't going to be swayed from her vulnerable appearance and terrified expression.

He was tricked by almost the same thing upon their first meeting, in fact he knew that the siren's entire method was to trick lecherous men and kill them.

The same trick wouldn't work twice on him.

The siren didn't answer right away, instead she seemed to struggle to find the words, as if speaking was somewhat difficult for her.

"I… I didn't want this." She finally whispered, her voice trembling.

"I was… forced to attack you. None of us want to attack you humans, but if we don't, we'll be severely punished!"

The answer Alex received though was confusing.

"What do you mean by 'us'? Or that you were forced to attack me? Speak up quickly or I won't be so merciful."

This was the first time Alex was hearing about anything like this.

He could only further press her for more answers to sate his curiosity.

"Yes… us beasts are forced to attack any human we sense, no matter if we want to or not. There is this voice… inside my head that sways and coerces us to attack, taking over our own minds and filling us with rage we would otherwise not feel unless we were in peril…"

'Wait what?'

While he had gained more answers like he wanted, it only filled him with more questions.

'That would explain why beasts always attack on site, no matter what… But something still doesn't add up?'

Alex's eyes narrowed as he listened to the siren's trembling words.

He didn't trust her words yet, if anything he was about 50% of the way there.

"What do you mean a voice? Who's controlling you?"

He pressed her to answer even more, even pushing his sword into her skin, slightly drawing blood.

"I- I don't know! The voice never revealed its identity to me, and my mind is manipulated to not question anything it says!"

Alex listened intently, carefully considering every bit of information she was giving him.

'Could it be the System? Only the System would have the kind of power to coerce every single beast in existence…'

But his own speculations scared him a little.

The idea that perhaps the strongest entity in existence was behind this manipulation was a terrifying thought that he would rather not have to consider.

If that were the case, then it was clear that it was pinning the beasts against all the other sentient races.

In fact, now that Alex thought about it, he couldn't believe how he didn't consider such a thing earlier.

He already knew that the System was pinning the different sentient races against each other, so it made perfect sense that it would be the one behind the beast's irrational actions!

'She might actually be telling me the truth…'

It was only about now that Alex actually started trusting her words.

Alex considered her words, while carefully observing her.

He could see the terror in her eyes, and while he still held his doubts, he chose to believe her… for now.

As there were still more pressing matters at hand.

"Where am I?"

Alex asked, practically demanding an answer from her.

While his tension had eased a little, he wasn't stupid enough to remove his sword from the chest of a person who had just tried to kill him barely 5 minutes ago.

"And have you seen another human woman around here?"

The siren's eyes lit up when she realised Alex had changed the topic.

She knew he placed even a tiny amount of trust in her words for him to start asking about his real reason for being there.

"We are in the skylands. This place we are on right now is just one floating island out of countless others." She answered his first question.

Then she hesitated, frowning a little as if she was trying to recall any relevant details.

"I don't know about this island, but the last time I communicated with my friend, a siren from another floating island, she mentioned an encounter with a human woman…"

You could hear a pin drop it was so silent after the siren said this.

Alex almost wanted to threaten her even further to determine if she was telling the truth or not.

If it were true, this was the first time since he had started searching that Alex had obtained any information at all about Mira's whereabouts!