Skill requirement forcibly fulfilled. [Mental World], [Mana Eyes Lv. 8], [Parallel Thought Lv. 0] merged into unique skill [Split Soul Autonomy] using [Shard of the Trickster God]. [Shard of the Trickster God] has been consumed

Acquisition requirement fulfilled. [Multi-Cast Lv. 1] acquired

Consumed [Shard of the Trickster God] has been purified from individual’s body by [The Light], [Bearer of Kargryxmor’s Blood], and [Divine Inferno]. Traces will remain

Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Multi-Cast Lv. 1] evolved into [Multi-Cast Lv. 7]. 0 SP remaining

[Battle Frenzy (Minor)] [Music Resonation (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

“Shriiiiiieeeeeeeeh!” A viscous, horrifying bone-crackling roar erupted from the mouth of the giant centipede that burst through the ground and the papal mansion. He crashed onto the ground like a folded piece of paper before his body jerked up, ratting his countless “legs” as bits of his burning “skin” fell off, flying down like hail.

This is the Prince of Envy.

Or, at least, whatever was left of him after his flesh went haywire. Honestly, when I woke up after the [Mental World] clash, my mind was still partially asleep so I wasn’t even sure what I seeing0. I had a terrible headache caused by [Arcane Fever (Minor)], making my vision blurry, and I could feel that my soul was still recovering from the damage the prince dealt to it.

I felt “icky,” as if I hadn’t washed myself for months and allowed the grease and dirt to fester on my dead skin cells. Meanwhile, I felt my innards constantly complain about feeling “heavy” or bloated, almost like indigestion. Unhealthy, unfit, ill; there were so many words I could describe it, but the worst was this constant cold sweat making my back feel like it was being pricked by a million needles.

All of this after I lost my parallel minds. My first companions, my other selves, and my stage crew. They’ve been with me this whole time, wherever I went and would do all they could to support me and keep me alive. I thought they were invincible, they would be with me as long as I was alive, but here I was. An empty, lonely mind with nobody to speak with as I saw the prince transform.

Yes, right, he drank a “Demon’s Grace.” He frantically clawed at his face on the reddened, cooled magma when I woke up, screaming hysterically as he kept repeating “monster, monster, monster” like a mantra. Once he imbibed the black elixir, his skin changed to black before his mana mist began to cover his body, looking for all the world like a giant ball of smog.

He kept screaming in agony before the mist started to form into flesh, resembling his armor at the start of our initial battle. Moments later, his growth accelerated to the point he tripled, quadrupled, no even larger in size as more and more layers of artificial tissues and muscles appeared. Limbs and octopus tentacles began to materialize afterwards, escalating to the point where his original body was hidden inside this “flesh” suit imitating his soul’s final appearance inside the [Mental World].

It was an amalgamation of millions of separately moving parts, squirming and wriggling around as if all of them were living beings. Like the ultimate slime, or maybe it was more accurate to call it like a fusion of a nest of ants, swarming onto themselves to build structures like bridges or ladders. From afar, the prince’s newest form might look like one being, but if you took a closer look, you could see the small cancerous-looking flesh and tiny arms linking together.

This was how this demonkin centipede was created. The first thing he did wasn’t to kill me while I was still recovering but to flee. He charged through the earth as his skin started to burn from the residue magma, bursting through the earth like a volcano explosion.

Flabbergasted, I didn’t know what to do. After all, I was still grieving for myself. Nobody was giving me information or keeping me focused. The clockwork-like teamwork my parallel minds and I developed, to the point it felt seamless as if I had thought of everything, had disappeared with them. I felt so scatterbrained and directionless.

‘H-hey!’

Yet, when I was scrambling on what to do, I heard my voice. I thought, maybe, just maybe, the System trolled me with the messages and none of my parallel minds were actually gone. After all, the System did announce the damage [Mental World] did to our souls would be repaired! That was how the Prince of Envy survived Mom’s awakening.

I thought, no, I hoped none of it was true … Yet what I learned was even more surprising.

Hikari? I gasped as I began to see another silhouette inside my mind. She didn’t look like my dragonewt form like the parallel minds, but was entirely human and had black hair and eyes.

‘I … I don’t know how I’m talking with you, but that is you, right? Hestia?’ she replied.

That was when I remembered the first few System messages I received when I woke up. [Split Soul Autonomy]—it came to be from the remains of [Parallel Thought].

So, I had to ask, What do you feel?

‘… Angry, tired, wanting to go home. Yet, the frustration was keeping me from indulging myself, making me so restless that I can’t even stand still. I want to—’

Destroy the demonkin for killing us ten times over.

‘We share emotions, we share our thoughts, yet, I can still think independently from you. I feel a sense of loyalty, but it’s skin-deep, like a suggestive thought telling me ‘this is what I should do.’ I don’t feel compelled by it in any manner … but I want to.’

Welcome to being a dragon, Hikari. I guess memories alone aren’t enough to help you overcome being a civilian, but now feeling exactly what I feel? That’s the decider.

This dialogue, or monologue, was all I needed to understand what was going on. Hikari inherited my parallel minds’ position through the [Split Soul Autonomy] skill, turning her into my partner-in-crime and allowing her an actual place in my life, instead of being restricted to whenever I entered my soul or dreams.

In addition, I also noticed I couldn’t exactly appraise anything right now, due to my loss of my [Man Eyes]. That couldn’t be it, right? There probably was some condition on this new skill right now, but my brain was still fried. Too hard to think.

Regardless, the two of us knew what we had to do. We glared at the prince escaping from us, and my mind went over to the second System message when I woke up. I had gained [Multi-Cast]. Finally, after almost a year of desperately trying to get it, yet, it was bittersweet.

[Parallel Thoughts] blocked my ability to gain [Multi-Cast] as it was the evolved version … Now that it was gone, the skill became mine …

Envyyyyyyyyy!

Which led us to this moment.

“Shriiiiiieeeeeeeeh!” he kept roaring, but unlike before, his voice was slightly drowned out by my own voice.

“Shining bright, all for your smiles ♫

This is me, my music will rage like fire ♫

Open up! ♫

Listen here! Hoo hoo woah! ♫”

[Aerokinesis]—even without my parallel minds, I could still emulate my songs, and I needed [Slave of my Love] right now to compensate for my [Arcane Fever]. Frankly, I was deathly afraid of the backlash once the song was over, but wanting to get vengeance overpowered my drive to survive.

I needed to kill the Prince of Envy, right the (naughty word) now!

Solar Beam! Symphonie des Feuergottes!

Keeping [Aerokinesis] on, channeling [Solar Beam], while also constructing the magic circle for my fire spells shocked me with how hard it was to multi-task. It made me realize how much I had been relying on my parallel minds …

Yet, when I unleashed my second concentrated beam of solar energy today and the inferno cascaded from the sky, this worry instantly changed into ecstasy. Even without them, their experiences were mine. They were gone, yes, but I knew they were still somewhere in my soul and I wouldn’t embarrass myself in this important moment.

I was still an arcanist! Strip me of my “crutches” but my training with Mom, Master, and my parallel minds would not disappear due to this set back. Let the world see how far I could go without my “chains!”

[Symphonie des Feuergottes (Allegro)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

My scale-dust hadn’t fully recovered yet, so I had to rely on [Tailwind] and [Obsidian Blaze] manipulating my [Symphonie des Feuergottes] flames to continue flying. With [Aerokinesis] playing [Slave to my Love], five of my [Multi-Cast]s were already taken up, leaving me with two available “minds” to cast spells or manipulate an element.

As my waterfall of flames dissipated, the centipede cried out in pain as even more of its body broke off. Like flaming rocks, they crushed the houses of Aureolis city and destroyed the remains of its walls, devastating the city more than anything our raid had done before this.

As I was about to cast my next spells, my attention was drawn to the left as a giant ice serpent crashed against the centipede, pulling its entire body out of the remnants of the papal mansion and pushing it further into the lower city. Seeing this, I turned around, noticing the rest of Aurora and Neill were there.

“You have our aide, Lady Hestia!” Tasianna shouted as the rest of my allies jumped into action, dashing over to the prince.

“Nooooo!” One of them, though, was a pink-haired demonkin woman—the Prince of Lust, if I remembered correctly. She attempted to pursue the others, but a giant pillar of ice instantly appeared around her, freezing her in it like a prison.

“Kneel!” A thunderous command erupted from behind me before the ice pillar shattered back into a cloud of sparkling ice dust. Instead of continuing her pursuit, the Prince of Lust fell onto her knees and puked.

I turned around, acknowledging this familiar aura, only to realize Mom was there! In her dragonewt form, yes, but she was already here despite only just waking up? Goodness, how fast was she, when her [Room] exit was all the way back in Elyonda? Crossing from Yeos to Aureolis would be like traveling from Texas to Florida, or something similar. At least a two hour flight.

“Do what you must, my hatchling!” Mom said, her voice amplified with [Aerokinesis]. “Do not worry about the repercussions of your arcane corruption. Mom will keep you safe, my precious daughter. Until I must collect your debt for asking me a favor, you have free rein; ‘play’ around however much you want!”

I smiled despite knowing that, once this was over, I had to go with her to Kargryx to meet the rest of my draconic family. It was fine; this was a small price to pay for settling such a major ordeal for Aurena. Knowing I had the backing of a rank SS dragon, I directed my fury back at the Prince of Envy, knowing fully well as long as she was here, nothing could go wrong!

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

As such, I activated [Flash Fire], dashing over to the centipede as it was about to throw Tasianna’s ice serpent off himself. With [Drakonian Sunlight Edge] concentrating the residue solar energy into my tail, I slashed at the centipede’s head with [Hellblade Edge], decapitating it before I incinerated the cut off part with [Hellflame Breath].

Meanwhile, from behind me, Saori and her wolves began shooting [Dark Tendrils] onto his countless limbs to immobilize him first before using mana threads to tie him up properly. With him unable to dodge, Grimnir began free firing concentrated blasts of mana, blowing up portions of his body and leaving it thin enough for Vifi to cleanly slice off with her spear.

Sadly, although they were burnt into crips, unless you completely reduce the “flesh” into ashes, they would regrow, with some of them even transforming into various creatures, including frogs! After all, this wasn’t him healing, this simply creating more bits of flesh with the prince’s mana, yet I couldn’t understand how he was controlling his cut off bits from afar. Did they count as golems?

Even if they were, I couldn’t tell what was going on, as my lack of [Mana Eyes] meant I couldn’t inspect if there was a mana link at all. In fact, lacking the skill also meant I couldn’t pinpoint the prince in the blob of the centipede. His flesh counted as one giant signal on [Detection Sensor]. I didn’t want to brute force this, but we had no other way.

[“Ellaine, you’re up!”] Saori shouted.

Luckily, I wasn’t the only one able to destroy the flesh golems. Ellaine, with [Flesh Absorption], could simply absorb everything through her skin and use them to restore her health and mana. Even if there was demonic energy inside them, Klea most likely could handle everything for her, especially seeing how she was in her [Assimilation] form.

In fact, this strategy was so effective that Ellaine could combo [Flesh Strings] with [Flesh Absorption] to efficiently remove every bit of cast off flesh by slinging around the ruined city. This left the rest of us to destroy the prince—my older half-sister among them.

[“Sis, I need you to find the prince! I can’t do it with [Mana Eyes] right now, ”] I called out.

In her kirin-dragon form, she neighed before she jumped onto the centipede. [“Ha, asking for something this easy? No problem!”]

Her dragon paths quickly covered the entire centipede before my sister called everybody to take cover as she caused the mana to surge, creating a purple lightning explosion that laid waste to the centipede’s entire body. Grimnir and I burned two-thirds of the flying flesh into dust while Ellaine handled the rest.

As we did so, the blackboard-scratching screech of the prince kept us stunned for a second before more flesh formed around him, this time creating large sheets of skin, instead of limbs. With the appearance of five giant, bendable petals, at first I thought his newest form was a giant flower, but that was just half of the truth, as instead of a pistil—the middle of a flower—there was a large gaping hole. His form was that of a rafflesia.

As large as a stadium, he imitated the rafflesia’s signature putrid smell that gave the plant the “corpse flower” nickname, forcing Tasianna to cast [Air Shield] around us and manually manipulate them with her [Aerokinesis] to prevent us from “dying” from the rotten flesh stench. Vines sprouted from the ground, attempting to fend us off, while its roots slowly transported himself away from us. It was clear he had no intention of winning this, he only wanted to delay us or, more likely, just flee with his life.

Slow as it was, it was no match to my constant [Hellflame Breath], scorching every bit of the plant armor. The prince was forced to constantly abandon its body parts and regrow them, causing an attrition battle between us. However, unlike last time we fought, I had friends around.

While I handled one side, Grimnir began using his blasthammer’s flamethrower function to burn the other side while Ellaine and Tasianna’s ice golems kept the vines from hitting him. Meanwhile, Saori, her wolf pack, and the wyvern twins contained the plant’s movement within the already destroyed portion of the city, avoiding more collateral damage.

While all of us kept this up, Vifi and Neill were evading the vines entirely and directing their attention to the rafflesia’s main body, and once they got close enough, they unleashed a combo attack.

Vifi roared as she materialized her lightning warhammer and slammed it down on the main body with [Voltaic Red: Rumbling Crash]. The smack summoned a red lightning from the sky, creating a plasma ball around the plant that unleashed multiple lightning strikes all at once, keeping the plant from fleeing any further.

Stunned, this left the prince at the mercy of my sister’s fully powered mana blast.

“Kriiark klish garfinik!” she roared as her purple neon-glowing scales became brighter than usual, to the point she looked like a sun lamp. Purple electricity surged around her horn, creating a ball of pulsating mana that imitated the plasma ball Vifi created.

For a split second, the mana ball vanished into thin air as her body stopped glowing, before everything reappeared with an ear-bursting explosion. [Dragon Paths Maxima: Tyrant’s Will], exploded from her horn like [Freikugel], except, instead of an all-piercing laser beam, it was a humongous unstable beam that constantly caused miniature explosions around it as it reached up to the sky.

Thankfully, sis directed her attack upwards, otherwise everything around us would have just disappeared. That was only an assumption, admittedly, but considering the evidence—the fact the entire rafflesia plant had flat out disappeared—I couldn’t deny it. Sadly, accounting for the city meant Sis missed her target. The prince was still alive after all that.

Yet, he wasn’t in the position to fight back. Lying on his face, the prince’s body had changed significantly from before, and not due to a transformation but rather from his enfeebled body getting worse. Only skin and bones now, the demonkin looked more like a preserved mummy with how wrinkly his body was than a living being. Thankfully, his baggy priest robes hid most of himself, but it was enough for me to understand his circumstance.

That Demon’s Grace is a real issue.

“Is it finally over?” Ellaine asked as she fell onto her knees, breathing heavily. She then pulled out a dragorade from her belt, trying to drink it, only to realize it was empty. Her other drinks and potions were used up as well.

Considering the length of this raid, it was only to be expected, and the same seemed to apply to Vifi and Tasianna. Finally, it was over … I might have declared, if this wasn’t a Prince of Sin.

The moment I landed on the ground, I felt something squeezing around my stomach; fortunately, before I could react to it, an ice pillar appeared right before me, blocking the wind attack from the Prince of Pride perfectly. Chilling everything around it, the ice pillar suddenly rattled before a wall of ice shot to my right, crushing through the pavement and demolishing any and all houses in its way as it chased after my attacker.

“As I said, my daughter is ‘playing.’ You have had your chance; now, be silence before I decide to—”

‘Hestia!’ Hikari called me. ‘I-I see it! Watch out!’

Huh? ‘See?’ What do you mean you see something? I looked around the area, noticing nor sending anything weird. Aside from Mom taking care of the princes for us and Vifi and Neill approaching the incapacitated Prince of Envy, nothing was going on. In fact, I was about to release the built up solar energy since the fight was about to end.

‘No, please, listen to me!’ she demanded, although quite meekly. ‘The prince! There is something going towards his heart, I think. It doesn’t resemble any of the elemental colors, or even blue like mana.’

W-what do you mean—

‘Wait! Wait, the System just gave me a heads-up. Here, I’ll transfer my vision to you.’

Vision? What do—Huh?

As I was about to question her, my vision suddenly changed into a familiar sight. Blue particles clouded my vision to the point it looked like everything was covered in fog with streaks of cyan, especially above me where a strong concentration of it could be seen. The figure there was undoubtedly my Mom. This was definitely [Mana Eyes].

Although, there was a stark difference to it though. Unlike when I used it, it always overwhelmed my senses and brain if my parallel minds weren’t removing most of the redundant information, leaving everything blurred like looking through some glasses. Yet, I could see everything perfectly. It was so vivid.

‘Below, the demonkin. Quick, what is that?’ Hikari ordered and I obliged, only to see a … color?

A translucent pink that continued turning a ghastly purple at one moment only to switch to an endless “black.” A gloomy … seductive black, like the mesmerizing starry skies that—

‘Hestia, i-it’s looking at us, right?’

Correct. This wasn’t a “color,” this was an eye. The reason why the color kept changing was because three different individuals were looking at us.

[“I***********et?”] A buzzing suddenly entered my head.

“Yes …” the demonkin said, almost in reply to what I heard. “Oh, Edjurl Gods, my soul and those close to me. I sacrifice them all in an offering with my blood in line. Release me of this torture and grant me one final wish—kill her.”

[“Accepted.”]

The god-hating demonkin that gave me an entire speech about how he wanted to get rid of the gods and how he wanted my help to do so was gone. The betrayal he felt against that Gel’Glariri god affected his sanity, yet I guess having Mom crush his soul must have deteriorated it even further.

What exactly happened here? I didn’t know, but I knew well enough that this ass wanted to kill me so much, he sacrificed himself for it. In the end, he didn’t hate the gods, he just hated me. He despised me. He just used the god excuse to hide the fact he was a wimp and coward, terrified of a little girl going through her own emotional issues.

“—stia!” Somebody shouted but my eyes were locked to the sky as I saw it rumbling. Yes, the very night sky and its star began to wobble like pudding and rattle like a broken TV screen. Black static appeared before I saw something slice right through it.

“Gods!” The prince screamed before Neill shot a [Freikugel] through his head and used the beam to slice the rest of his body.

[“I got the experience! He’s dead!”] she cried, yet those words couldn’t calm me down.

Looking at me stare at the sky, everybody else followed my gaze, also spottinging what I was seeing right now. The sky was split open like a layer of onion, as another sky revealed itself behind it. It was blue like the morning light but, instead of white clouds, they were all red with scaly avian beasts flying high.

In the next moment, something resembling a black skeleton’s hand appeared. With its index finger, it pointed at me before it swung its hand to the side.

Shit! [My Darkest Thoughts!]

“Staring out the window while it rains ♫

No one here to talk, silence is all I have ♫

So I delved into my thoughts and wondered, “What if?”♫”

[Arcane Fever (Major)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

Arrghhhhhh!

I screamed internally as I felt something ruptured in my back before a massive explosion pushed me onto the ground. I looked back, noticing both of my wings severed from my back. At the same time, I noticed mana began to clot around my left hind leg, causing it to bloat up like a balloon.

Shit, shit!

Yet, I didn’t stop myself ‘cause something was telling me to do this. An instinct that was beyond my usual gut feeling. It felt like something in my soul was compelling me to do at the risk of my life.

As energy began to gather around the skeleton’s finger, I unleashed my solar energy into the sky, targeting the skeleton as it threw the energy at me like a lightning. But before either of them clashed, the energy suddenly dissipated around the entire city, forming a barrier almost similar to [Sanctuary]. When [Solar Beam]’s overdrive mode stopped and I forced all my active spells and songs to stop, a new voice appeared.

This voice! Aurena!

What? What sorta plot twist is this!

[“I see … the gods!”]

I snapped my eyes around as I heard Mom’s voice, only to see a massive shadow appearing above me. Mom’s full dragon form was out on display, with her bulky frame easily dwarfing the entire city. She landed on the barrier protecting me from the weird lightning from the skeleton hand before all her scales began to glow.

[“Begone, deity of demons. This world is not yours to conquer.”]

Arck! I winced as I felt ice surround my bloated leg, causing the pain around it to numb, despite the ice not being cold? Was this Mom’s?

“Lady Hestia!” Tasianna cried, but Neill stopped her.

[“That’s Melloxtressa’s magic. Don’t,”] she announced. [“Sis, I think I know exactly what that is, so listen closely, all right? And stay calm.”]

Say that first! I scolded her in my head but my attention was occupied by the fact the ice kept covering more of my body, to the point over half of it was imprisoned.

[“As the strongest silver dragon, she is also the strongest ice mage in the world, meaning the ice she’s encasing you in will not kill you. However, if I’m guessing correctly, this is probably a hibernation magic amongst the ice dragon,”] Neill explained. [“Ice dragon hatchlings usually have a hard time surviving when the temperature is too cold, as their bodies and scales require time to adapt to it. As such, their mothers and fathers learn to encase their young in their ice to keep them safe, and most importantly, to help them sleep. It doesn’t feel cold, right?”]

I nodded.

[“Then I’m correct. It’s just the right temperature for the hatchling, and in your case, your mother’s attempt to save you from your rampaging arcane fever. She’s numbing your body to the constant pain as the ice is used as a conduit to diffuse the arcane corruption out of your body and into the crystal. It’ll preserve you, but you most likely will fall asleep. So … don’t grow up too fast, all right! I’ll meet you back in Kargryx with all our siblings, all right? Stay safe and … I love you, little sis! This was a massive success!”]

Neill!

At the same time as she said that, Mom suddenly unleashed a concentrated ice beam into the sky, knocking the black skeleton hand out of the way and stopping its lightning magic. It swerved around, trying to fix its trajectory, but Mom was more stubborn, buying just enough time as water began to fly into the air like a hundred waterjet cutters.

They then formed something similar to a woman’s hand about the same size as the skeleton. A sword then formed, letting the hand wield it.

With a single swing, the water sword cleaved right through the skeleton hand before the water arm shoved the blade into the gap, causing something like a nuke to explode in the background of the bluish sky. Just as the mushroom cloud was about to seep into our world, a black smoke began to gather around the gap, covering it all up before it disappeared.

The sky was restored, as if nothing had happened … unless you looked at the evidence left behind. The black lightning the skeleton hand had shot out had sundered the earth, leaving large scars behind that I could see some of it from here. How deep were they? It was a question I wanted answered, but in my current situation, it probably would be impossible.

I looked at the sky once more to see the water arm grant the remains of the skeleton before absorbing all of it. Was that really a god? Were Plesia and Marsven actually revealing their existence just now? For everybody to see?

Aurena’s voice appeared once again.

Ahhh … true, I thought as I realized the ice had already covered everything but my head.

[“W-wait, hold on, what do you mean? Hestia!”] Saori called but it was too late. The moment the ice covered my head, everything stood still to me.

Sound, sight, smell, touch, and taste … Everything froze in time for me. Only my thoughts and the worried mumblings of Hikari proved to me that I wasn’t dead. This wasn’t how I wanted to say farewell to my friends, but Mom and Sis could handle that for me.

Good work with surviving, everybody.

We won.

I will see you soon.

Yet, it wasn’t a complete victory. Akasht, Manager Mind, #2, #3, #4, and all my other parallel minds. I dedicate this night to my memories with you, and may you all rest in peace.

How I wish I could celebrate with all of you. Farewell … my friends.