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“Camilla!”
Vlad hugged his sister after realizing she was back to normal.
However, whatever she had become before, he couldn’t quite tell what it was.
It somehow felt like them.
But he didn’t want to believe it.
“What happened over there? What did you let take over your body?!”
“Huh? Wait, you mean little Hollow? He’s a friend!”
“L-Little Hollow?! That thing was most likely some kind of eldritch spirit or abyssal being, I don’t know! Take it out of your body, Camilla!”
“He’s inside of me?!”
Camilla actually didn’t know that part.
“I felt it possessing you, so it must be there!”
“Aaah! I… don’t feel anything though?”
“Huh?”
“I really don’t feel anything; he’s not there, brother… He just vanished.”
“Okay…”
Vlad was confused as hell! Just what was his sister even doing at this point?!
Camilla showed so much talent and promise, but he never thought she could be fooled into becoming the vessel for something abyssal.
“Where did you… Ah, okay, let’s sit down.”
Vlad quickly used Geomancy to fix the ceiling that was destroyed; interestingly enough, the Paladins outside didn’t even come inside the church, perhaps too afraid to enter.
The two siblings sat down over a wooden chair, the long chairs that every church has, and then Vlad patted Camilla’s head.
“You’ve become very strong now, and I’m quite proud, but I really want you to tell me what that was, Camilla.”
“I already told you it’s Little Hollow, brother! He’s just a little guy that I found in that Mindscape, he was invisible to most eyes, but I saw him! And he looked so lonely, so I talked to him.”
“L-Lonely? Nobody could see him? Were there any gods there?”
“Three colorful moons! Were they the moon goddess? They got in the way, so I pushed them away, and they got really scared when Little Hollow showed himself to me, and they ran away.”
“The Goddesses of the Moon… ran away?”
“Yes!”
“…”
Vlad couldn’t even think anymore.
Just what…
Just what was happening?
Why is this game so goddamn weird?!
Now his sister has some sort of weird contract, connection, or friendship with an eldritch entity?!
“Hah, give me a break.”
He sighed, feeling completely exhausted.
“Are you tired, brother? I feel quite strong."
“Ah, let me see your Status, Camilla.”
Vlad looked at his sister’s status, something he hasn’t done since the first days.
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[Name]: [Camilla Von Sange III]
[Titles]: [Iron Blood Empire’s Rejected Princess]
[Blood Core]: [Blood Empowering Realm (Tier 4: Rank 3)]
[Bloodline]: [Lesser Esper Dhampir Bloodline (Tier 3: Rank 1)]
[Esper Mind]: [Mind Awakening Realm (Tier 2: Rank 3)]
[Race]: [Dhampir (Weak Bloodline)]
[Class]: [Hollowed Vampire Esper Princess: ★★★]
[Subclass]: [Friend of The Hollowed: ★★]
[Blood Power]: [15.000]
[Psychic Power] [33.000]
[Strength]: [7.500]
[Arcana]: [22.000]
[Vitality]: [7.500]
[Dexterity]: [12.500]
[Character Background Traits]: [Psychic (Unique Grade)]
[Character Background Flaws]: [Broken Mind (Unique Grade)]
[Racial Skills (5/7)]
[False Immortality (S): Lv3] [Blood Bending (A): Lv4] [Telekinesis (A): Lv9] [Telepathy (A): Lv3] [Bloodthirsty Aura (B): Lv2]
[Class Skills (5/7)]
[Etiquette (C): Lv5] [Princess’ Charm (C): Lv7] [Mind Realm Expansion (S): Lv3] [Psychic Manifestation (A): Lv4] [Hollow Void (SS): Lv1]
[Subclass Skills (2/7)]
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[Mind of Madness (S): Lv1] [Eldritch Call (SS): Lv1]
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She didn’t have as many skills as he had for obvious reasons, as Vlad could gain skills by devouring things but not Camilla.
Nonetheless, she still had a bunch of amazing Skills, all of them unique to her.
Her stats were fairly high, but she clearly didn’t have a strong body… Although it might be equal to his own body strength when his stat debuffs are considered into the equation.
She had a lot of psychic skills, which made sense as this was her biggest Trait, and this Trait’s Flaw was also perhaps what made her…
Have a Broken Mind, a mind that even didn’t falter to become the friend of an eldritch monstrosity hiding behind the veils of reality, apparently.
“Hollow Void…” Vlad thought. “I don’t want to find out what that does, but it sounds strong… SS Rank too?! Damn.”
But that wasn’t everything; her two only subclass skills were the craziest of the bunch.
“Mind of Madness…” muttered Vlad. “Camilla, do you know what this Skill does?”
“Huh? Nothing; it seems to be passive,” said Camilla. “A-Am I mad?”
“I… Of course not, it just means you’re just mad at being strong,” nodded Vlad, patting her head. “But this Eldritch Call one? Is this how you’ll… call your friend?”
“I can use it if you want, and we both find out!” Camilla smiled innocently.
“Uh, please don’t; let’s leave it at that for now,” sighed Vlad. “And… Hm?”
Suddenly, the door of the church opened, and as Chris showed up, he had logged in to the game just a minute ago and followed Vlad through the mini map to where he was.
“Hey! You two look a bit scared… what happened?” He wondered, flying towards the two and kissing Vlad’s forehead before sitting on his legs. "Do you feel a bit stronger? Your muscles can be felt now, and you aren’t all flabby! Haha!”
“Uh yeah, a lot happened,” said Vlad. “I got a new skeleton and… Wait no, that’s not the right order of things…”
He explained to Chris what had happened so far, including the Trial he had to go through, which Chris found completely unfair and nightmarish.
“A-Am I going to go through the same thing?!” He cried. “No way! I prefer to just not fucking get a Rank Up at that point.”
“Come on, you’ll have to get it,” said Vlad. “And I bet it won’t be that bad; just try it.”
“You can do it, Chris,” Camilla nodded. “It’s not hard!”
"Camilla, you haven’t even gone through the trial yet…” Chris sighed. “Uuh, okay, fine… I hope it’s not too bad.”
Chris touched the Class Stone, as his mind was sucked into a new space.
And the area was… rather different than what Vlad had told him it would be or what he saw.
There weren’t floating stones and giant, lugubrious ruins or castles.
Not at all!
The only thing he saw was a beautiful rainforest, a bounty of life and greenery, gigantic trees, grass, flowers, everything.
The sky was blue, and there was a sun too, which he kind of missed within the game!
It felt warm and right at home.
“What the hell? This place’s nice… and there’s no void beneath my feet where I could fall and die or something,” he said, looking around. “It’s kind of nice~”
The incubus floated around; just being there made him feel right at home for some reason; perhaps it was his repressed Fairy Half.
“It stinks that I even made a contract with a spirit, and even that wasn’t enough!” he complained, crossing his arms. “What do I have to do to awaken my damn fairy powers? Being just an incubus is lame as hell!”
As he complained to himself, he noticed new notifications.
Ding!
[You have entered the Second Class and Subclass Rank Up Trial!]
[You find yourself within a beautiful, enchanted rainforest, a representation of one of your Origins. In this Trial, you have to explore, investigate, and help its inhabitants earn points.]
[Every time you find an inhabitant, they might need your help in one way or another. And by doing things for them, they might bless you with points and something else perhaps.]
[Once you’ve helped enough, you will be given choices for your Path based on your actions and those you’ve helped.]
[And don’t worry, your perception of time within this mindscape is much faster, so not much time will truly pass within this area of accelerated thought processing.]
[However, you don’t have a whole day! Finish this within 5 hours.]
“Wait, for real?! It’s really different than Paul’s!” Chris said, nodding. “This is weird though; do I really have to help little fairies and stuff? That’s so sweet though!”
“Hmm, indeed, it is quite endearing, but I approve of this trial; it is one that’ll incentive your good heart.”
“Uwaaack!”
Chris panicked in horror. Jumping away from the voice that spoke behind him, she noticed a phantasmal figure made of light.
His divine and handsome appearance, his delicate and slender body, and his big, white feathered wings…
Without a doubt, this was the Heavenly Emperor again!
“Would you calm down a little, my reincarnation? I have not come here to scare you,” he sighed, facepalming. “I simply realized I was able to manifest my will like this, which is convenient.”
“A-Ah, okay… So you’re the guy, the guy inside of me…” Chris said.
“I am not inside of you; I am the lingering will of your previous life,” said the Heavenly Emperor. “Please don’t treat me like some sort of stranger; we are one and the same!”
“No way I’m the same as you, dude!” Chris said. “But you’re handsome.”
“Why, thank you,” nodded the Heavenly Emperor. “But that was weird; it is as if I called myself handsome; don’t do that again.”
“Agh, whatever,” Chris groaned. “Let’s get going… This place’s pretty, at least! Kinda refreshing from the usual lugubrious gothic hellscape that’s Obscuritas.”
“Yes indeed, it is a nice-looking place,” the Heavenly Emperor smiled. “It reminds me of the Verdant Rainforest in Murim.”
“The what… Ah!”
As Chris flew around the rainforest, moving plants to pass through, he noticed something—a little creature walking around the ground, lurking and glancing at him from afar.
His eyes didn’t lie to him; it was some sort of gnome.
“Holy shit, gnomes!” He flew towards him, but the gnome panicked, running away from him. “Wait a second, bro! Don’t run awayyyyy! I want to help you!”
“I don’t need the help of a demon! Get away from this forest!”
The gnome, no bigger than forty centimeters, jumped inside a hole and disappeared.
“W-What the hell was that?! Are they really going to be scared of me?!” Chris complained. “Dammit! Now what do I do?!”
“Hmm…”
The Heavenly Emperor rubbed his chin, thinking about a solution.
“Well, can you use your Magic right now? Illusion and whatnot?”
“Uuh, yeah!”
Chris noticed that he could use skills and magic as usual.
“Good, then let me help you give you a new makeover, my dear.”
“E-Eh?”
Using a combination of Illusion Magic and the giant leaves, flowers, and roots hanging around everywhere, the Heavenly Emperor helped Chris do a complete makeover!
“Hmm! Much better now! How adorable!”
Chris hair had become pink-colored, long, and silky.
His eyes turned golden-colored.
His horns disappeared, covered with a crown of roots, flowers, and fruits.
His clothes were also taken away, and he was now wearing a dress made of giant green leaves, roots, and many colorful flowers.
His wings had also been hidden, wrapped around vines, roots, branches, and flowers.
He now resembled a beautiful fairy or fae of some kind!
“T-The hell is this?!”
Of course, Chris didn’t like it one bit.
“It’s wonderful; with this appearance you’ll be able to mix well with the forest folk,” nodded the Heavenly Emperor, smiling pleased while clapping. “So cute! You truly can pass as a girl now! Even your voice is sweet and feminine.”
“W-What?! I am manly!” Chris cried. “Well… uh, a bit right?”
“…”
“RIGHT?!”
“Anyways, let’s go find someone else then!”
“You’re evading the question, you bastard!”
Like that, as time went by, Chris wandered around the beautiful rainforest and its wonderful views.
He passed right next to a huge waterfall, a large garden of giant flowers, a forest with big trees that had massive apples, and so on.
Until eventually, he stumbled into someone.
“Uugh… Sniff…”
It resembled a small moth-like fairy boy, no bigger than the gnome from earlier, with fluffy white hair and big black eyes, alongside transparent white wings.
“H-Hi… Are you ok?”
Chris approached slowly; the moth fairy boy noticed him but wasn’t scared.
“A-Ah… Are you a big sis?”
“Uuh… S-Sure!”
“I have never seen you around…”
“Anyways, what’s gotten into you that you’re crying?”
“Uhh… I… I’m lost…”
“You’re lost?”
"Yeah, I came from the village, but then I played hide and seek with friends and ended… I ended up getting lost! And my wing is damaged… I can’t fly back home, sniff…”
“Oh, but that’s easy; let me hitch you a ride!”
“A ride? What do you mean—UWAAAHHH!”
The boy screamed in horror and surprise as Chris grabbed him and flew into the skies high above the entire rainforest.
“So where’s your village?”
“UUAAAAHHHHH!”
The boy, however, was too scared to even talk!
“Oh my, your lack of manners is staggering, my reincarnation…”
The Heavenly Emperor couldn’t help but make snarky remarks.
“Shut up!”
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