“Guhh… you… came back… ...how-”
Lestia grunted in annoyance from the surprise attack, even if she couldn’t feel the pain. Drips of herself spilled onto the ground, shrivelled up quickly and evaporated into the air.
Full restoration of her slime arms would require a few seconds to finish; the biological repairing properties of a slime did not happen instantly. Soon enough, her arms started to regenerate through the properties of a Slime. More specifically, it was the ‘flesh’ portion of her arms that were starting to reform; The skeletal structure of her arms still remained intact after Soma had performed clean slices on both of them with Lightspeed Thrust.
Because the Origin created it and seared itself onto the bones, it was inseparable from the individual until the body perishes from reaching 0 HP.
“-Answer my question.”
“...Love?”
Cut short of her question rudely, Lestia’s eyes that were originally fixated on the unconscious White, moved to Soma’s line of sight.
“...What do you mean… love? Of course I have experienced it, are you trying to mock me...?!”
The Silvain Worm slithered around Lestia insidiously, as if drawn to the purplish miasma that has begun to leak out of her like steam escaping from a kettle with boiling water.
“...And a short fuse too, we’re just too identical aren’t we. I wonder sometimes, is Master into this kind of sick hobby of collecting women with murderous impulses…”
“...Even for a human's standards, you talk too much... you don't know any-”
“-Seems like we’ve inherited all the bad parts in our lives huh… An earthling turned into a slime… How can someone like you, possibly hope to experience love as a monster...?”
“!!!”
“Ahhh… your expression… looks like you’re in the dark huh… that we, as slaves to Master, can hear each other’s thoughts? ...On that note, ...I don’t like you treating Master like an object which you can just... simply discard once you've had your fill.
...You sure are a bitch huh, always getting tired of every guy you meet so easily. Someone like you, don’t understand love at all. Ahhh, ahhh, you don’t have to answer after all, you’re just a self-centered, stuck up bitch aren’t you?”
“Khh!!! Silence!"
Lestia talked in a low voice.
Soma’s words hit a nerve, and Lestia’s anger caused her body to react to it unconsciously. Her arms sharpened again, and a few tentacles started to protrude out of her body. This kind of reaction, had been trained out of her in the torture room while she had experienced pain with the body double of an elf. Since her senses of pain continued to be tested day after day, there were countless of times when she really wanted to succumb to her murderous urges.
She had left her skeletons to hold off the Abomination, but it seemed that time was running out. Lestia estimated that there was probably onto about two minutes left to retrieve White. Soma didn’t seem to cooperate at all, then there was only one option left.
“Enough of this charade… I don’t care what relationship you have with him, but if you’re still going to get in my way, I’ll just have to snatch him back by force…!!!”
Words were no longer necessary. Every moment she saw White with Soma, the murky feeling within her mind became blacker. She would convey this sense of impatience through her actions. Her eyes glinted ice blue, emitting a large wave of killing intent strong enough to freeze a normal person without Mental Resistance in their place.
Much like the Undead Miasma LV3, the Passive Skill: Intimidation that was currently in effect, had been created by Lestia unconsciously as well.
Even through her anger, Lestia was still clear-minded enough to know the implications of a close-combat battle with Soma again without her Immortality.
She knew that Soma was a dangerous threat with her Demonic Blade Bloodwell that had seemingly no openings to its infallible strength… and much more so when her HP and MP had been fully restored. It seemed to have been refilled after Soma had ‘returned from death’.
Thus, she opted to use something she had just gotten her hands on.
“Summon: Defense Boost! Summon: Attack Boost! Battlecry! Battle Roar! Battle Spirit! ...Slime Veil…!!!”
----------------------------------------
Lestia had expended almost all of her MP for her available arsenal of support skills; there were still the Banner Skills of the War Maiden class that she could not afford to use due to its high consumption rate of 1,000 individually. Holy Spirit, which tripled the buff effects of a Commander-type class like a War Maiden could not be used as well due to mana inefficiencies as it costed 4,000 MP as well, while her total mana pool was only 4,200. That was her weakness, she couldn't keep up these skills like Soma could, without having time to drink her recovery items.
Lestia's suit of jewellery-adorned armor, Snowfall, did not trigger, even though the nature of Active Skills that created buff effects, would turn into Passive ones for a set duration of time after a successful activation. It was because the bonus would only apply to the wielder. Thus, the same applied to her Sword- The Imperial Arm: Harmony's Passive: Blessing of a Holy Elemental.
----------------------------------------
-Various hues of color from the buff skills covered L'althukul like a rainbow.
Slime Veil compressed everything right at the end upon transferring a large amount of passive skills unto it, returning the motion-sickness inducing colors back to normal. Crackling its pointy skeletal fangs, it trembled slightly as it started to contain and adapt to the power coursing through its entire body.
Health
7,896/7,000 (+1,000)
Mana
900/900
Strength
10,500 (+1,100)(+100)(+300)(+500)(+500)(+1000)
Dexterity
8,700 (+500)
Luck
500 (+500)
Intelligence
500 (+500)
Defense
2,100 (+1,100)(+500)(+500)
Magic Defense
13,050 (+500)(+500)
“Silvain Worm, L'althukul! Appear!”
Hearing its name, the large skeletal centipede revealed its actual size as it rose up completely off the ground, revealing the rest of its half-submerged state. Feeling powerful enough, it started to move once more.
Its body frame extended itself like a subway train, doubled in height with its skeletal fangs covering its worm-infested internals. It looked ready to attack, as an extremely hostile aura revealed itself through the intensive wriggling of the smaller worms in its purplish body.
Despite all of her slow preparations, Soma did not seem to put White down despite the fact that it would clearly inconvenience her during combat. She waited patiently for Lestia to finish, even though the Skeleton wall fending off the Abomination’s flames was going to dry out in less than a minute’s time.
It just seemed like Soma was looking down on Lestia, who had already beaten her twice. Lestia’s face twisted in displeasure as she quickly noticed that gesture, feeling that she was being looked down upon.
She didn’t have too much time left, she needed to leave… but not without White in her possession. She did not know what she would do after she had escaped with him, but that was all she was thinking about in this moment.
She raised her right hand slowly and pointed towards her enemy, commanding her undead worm to attack Soma.
Words were unnecessary for a Summoner that had the ability enhanced from being summoned to this world as heroes. The Monsters that had contracted with Lestia held a strong understanding of their Summoner’s intentions with the Passive Skill: Monster Affinity and would act accordingly through a special form of telepathy between the Summons and the Summoner.
NNURRRAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
Rushing towards Soma who showed various openings while carrying White on her shoulders, the Silvain Worm screeched loudly within the cave and plunged itself towards Soma.
Summon: [Silvain Worm L'althukul] has activated Skull Tormenting LV7.
The System announcement notified Lestia in her head.
Its skull at the front of its centipedal body released a small volume of dark purple fog which quickly solidified itself into a menacing-looking face, resembling a Japanese Oni mask.
Skull Tormenting LV7
[Current LV: 7]
Consumes 800 MP to encase the head of the user with a shell made from the Fog of Death, imbuing the attack with the Dark Attribute, raising 35% Puncture Chance and 40% Critical Chance.
This skill cannot be interrupted, parried or stopped.
Effectiveness increases progressively with level.
With a powerful driving force, L'althukul gathered all of its enchanted physical strength into a headbutt and catapulted towards Soma.
"...!!!"
Soma had not expected it to move this quickly. In a split second, it was already close enough to land a clean hit on her.
In response, Soma quickly used the large frame of Bloodwell’s metal to block the headbutt of L'althukul, but the influence of the ability used by the Silvain Worm nullified the attack value of the Demonic Blade that would otherwise repel any form of physical displacements.
“Ghhh!!!”
Realizing that she could not hold on to it, Soma gave up her grip on Bloodwell and hugged White tightly to use her armor as a shield against the incoming impact. In that split second to decide, Soma had not even flinched in her decision to prioritize her Master’s life over her weapon.
BOOOOMMMM!!!
She was flung to the cave wall, creating a small crater from the impact force. Since she had turned sideways before, her left shoulder took the full brunt of that attack.
Blood spurted out of her mouth as her eyes widened from the impact. But strangely enough, her symptoms from haemophobia were not showing themselves even when she had clearly caught the sight of blood.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
But, even if she had her feeling of pain desensitized, it didn’t mean that the attack stopped hurting. She heard something crack inside her bones, but she didn’t even take care of that first.
In order to stop the Silvain Worm L'althukul from following up, she slammed it away with Bloodwell using her full strength.
As if hitting its head with a baseball bat, L'althukul was blown off a few meters away.
Then she quickly turned to verify the safety of her Master.
When she had saw that nothing had happened to White, Soma heaved a sigh of relief and then habitually checked her Status Window to determine the results of that exchange.
Health 3,300/4000
L'althukul had chunked off a decent portion of Soma’s health.
“Nnghh!!!"
The monster quickly recovered from its dizzy state after being pushed back and rushed forward again, ready to use another round of Skull Tormenting.
Yet, Soma was ready this time. Bloodwell had been blown away from her, but she still called out a Sword Skill.
"Sword Summon!"
“?!"
Lestia had not expected Soma to be able to procure swords like this at all. But she had not noticed what Soma did within a split second. The Sword Skills of Sword Mages require them to wield a genuine sword after all.
Soma had reached her hands inside of her Item Pouch as if she had rehearsed this many times as an adventurer. She retrieved one of the two Serrated Steel Two-Handed Swords in her inventory that she had kept as a spare in case something like this happened. She knew the exact location where she had placed it in, thus the movement seemed almost seamless for her to transition into another skill-
Additionally, it didn’t require Bloodwell to activate Soma's Sword Skills at all; they had already been honed and ingrained in her mind through books and tedious training, way before she had gotten her hands on the demonic blade.
“-Cross-slash!”
Using the spare sword and the sword she had summoned, Soma dual-wielded and sliced apart a few of the worm’s legs. Immediately attempting to displace the monster away as she didn't want to leave the small opening from the exhaustion animation of Cross-slash, Soma immediately used another skill.
“Breakmoon!”
It wasn’t as effective as she had hoped it to be, but the worm shrieked in pain and got repulsed a meter away.
“Ghh!!! Don’t let up! Kill her!!!”
Lestia was looking upon this scene in frustration. Soma held too many tricks with her Sword Skills; So long as she possessed enough MP, it started to seem nearly impossible to defeat her.
NNURRRAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
L'althukul screeched in response to its Summoner's burst of emotions. The Silvain Worm skidded to a halt from the knockback effect of Breakmoon and whipped around, screeching continuously in pain as it did so.
But it didn’t get another chance to use its skills again.
Realizing that she could not go easy on it, Soma used her Sword Skills in succession to interrupt it.
“Breakmoon! Breakmoon! Breakmoon! Breakmoon!”
NNRYYUUUAAAAARRRRRAHHHHH!!!!!
L'althukul lost a few more legs as they exploded from the skill. Black liquid oozed out of its body, and it became apparent that it was suffering from unfavourable exchanges without even getting close a second time. Soma's cautious methods against a Summoner had been ingrained in her during one of her expeditions to clear out a group of disruptive bandits along the merchant roads. They too, had a Summon as their frontline.
“Kuhhh!!! ...Return...!”
Lestia realized that her summon wasn’t enough to take out Soma after all. She would just send it to its death if she ordered it to continue fighting the Sword Mage in front of her.
Weakened, L'althukul slithered back quickly to Lestia’s side and burrowed half of its body into the ground to recover itself.
Health 2,133/7,000
Lestia's twisted logic valued monsters over humans after all, and she had already treated the undead as one of her friends; she wouldn’t order them to do anything suicidal if it didn’t serve a purpose.
She was sadistic, but not towards the undead.
More importantly, she definitely could not let her final Undead monster die. It was the most durable one, and the only one she could control freely at the moment that could keep the drawback of her Origin from occuring.
Lestia eyed Soma irritatedly. Things always seemed to never go according to plan whenever she appeared.
“...Urgh…!!! Then... I’ll do it myself!!! Harden Skin!!!”
Lestia moved forward and broke into a run, even though it was painfully slow in Soma’s eyes.
...Within a few exchanges, Lestia was quickly beaten down to the ground again.
But she didn’t give up, as L'althukul stayed burrowed, unable to provide assistance to its Summoner.
It was just an extremely unfavourable match-up against the weaknesses of a Summoner; being extremely dependent on the number of monsters and creatures that could fight in their place. After all, Soma could defeat any monster as long as they did not outnumber her and keep her from assessing the battlefield with a clear head.
...This is my... fight...
She thought obstinately. Lestia's behaviour had changed again.
Lestia got up again and tried to return a blow, only to fall down again.
And again.
Even Soma’s initial killing intent had waned by now. Her opponent wasn’t anything special without her immortality and her skeletons. She had used all of them to delay the inevitable, the sounds of the explosions were getting louder as the wall became thinner.
...Lestia eventually stopped trying after the 5th try.
She knelt onto the ground, with both her hands clutching it helplessly.
A tear fell down to the ground.
“...Why… why won’t you die… why… why are you taking… why are you taking him away...”
She had no more ways to fight Soma anymore.
She was going to run out of time, and then… she had to run away alone… again…
This was going to be, her first loss.
Lestia was frustrated at her own helplessness. She could not do anything for herself, even after obtaining this much power from others. She had consumed humans, and monsters alike to get to this point, and yet… her final obstacle seemed to be undaunted by everything she did.
...And then, Soma walked forward slowly as she carried White along behind her right shoulder. Opening her mouth, she spoke calmly, unbefitting of her initially crazed disposition.
“...I know. I know how it feels like. To lose him. To lose Master…”
Her current calm demeanor seemed as if her previous actions were a lie. Her emotions were altered like a switch, almost inhumane-like.
The sounds of explosions and the searing of flames continued to fill the surroundings.
“It would drive people like us crazy. But still..”
She paused for a brief moment.
“...But still… your ideals of love… your misconception of that genuine feeling, that makes us human… they aren’t stable enough. Your ‘crazy’ is very much different from mine… because you have, nothing to compel your love to.”
“...You don’t know what you want, you cannot commit to something as serious as love… yet you want to be human…? Don't fuck with me...!!! This is, the difference between you and me. You will never come close to understanding anything close to love-”
----------------------------------------
Another loud explosion interrupted the two, but they still faced each other like that, uncaring.
The skeletons have finally expended themselves. The graveyard slowly faded away, returning the setting back to the dull colors of the cave.
The Abomination roared triumphantly, with Ichiyo as its voice.
----------------------------------------
"...Love manifests itself in the strangest of ways...giving you an peculiarly unhealthy obsession over someone... wanting to stay close to them and wanting them to be happy… yet not wanting anyone else to share that connection so you could monopolize them… That way, the loneliness that had crept up unknowingly into one's heart would be quelled-"
“...!!”
Lestia did not understand why Soma was telling all this to her, but she felt the insides of her heart tremble a little. Something started to re-ignite the ice inside of her.
She could suddenly see flashing images of Soma’s past inside of her mind, like an old recording of everything she had experienced throughout both of her lifetimes. Lestia was experiencing the linked consciousness shared by Soma, the connection between slaves bound by the Aspect of a Ruler.
“But Master was different from everyone else I'd met… Master had accepted me. ...He pushed me beyond my fears, or rather, forced me to submit to them by depending on him. He made me realize that all I needed to do, was to stick close to him… I would suffer for the rest of my life, being dependent of Master to reciprocate my feelings and feed off his goodwill, just like a parasite…”
But Soma's logic was flawed. Lestia knew that wasn't salvation.
“...Then... that isn't...”
“So what if I still have regrets left behind?!"
"!!!"
Soma's sudden aggressive stance from her loud voice shocked her.
"I am a selfish, ugly… black-hearted woman. But I’m fine with it. The one who reached out to me first, was Master. Even if it was a coincidence that we had met on that day, I don’t regret a single thing.
...If all of my suffering were experienced just to lead me to Master’s embrace, then I would endure it again and again and again just to see him once more.
I am… no longer trapped in the past. I am no longer afraid of it. I can continue to walk forward now.”
“The… past…”
“I’ve been freed, because I choose to believe in Master."
It took a few seconds for the Abomination to navigate through the dust clouds it had created from all the explosions, but it had easily found its original targets with its passive senses.
“All I can do, is to stay by his side and support him. I will shoulder the burden with him, and become someone useful to him to keep by his side at all times… what about you? What do you even live for?”
“...I…”
Soma pointed at the creature behind Lestia, and she followed its direction and saw its malformed body, cursing anything and everything. It was born with a curse. Even now, Lestia could not look at it closely. She could still see her classmates buried within the Abomination. She could not face them properly.
She wasn’t strong enough alone to beat it.
It was now blasting out a large number of flaming hands’ towards them without the interference of meatshields in Lestia’s disposal anymore. They were about to be incinerated into ashes, just like the fate of those skeletons.
But then it was interrupted with a chantless Sword Field and Blade Whirlwind into a Blade Current. Their effects were weaker, but Soma spent a larger amount to compensate for it.
----------------------------------------
The intrinsic nature of a Sword Mage allowed one to tune the amount of mana spent for each Sword Skill, supplementing their effectiveness accordingly. It was such a mechanic that encouraged Sword Mages to always implement some specific mana-dependent Sword Skills like Blade Whirlwind and Blade Current into the many combo variants that would cost a large amount of MP, although it would not be as potent.
----------------------------------------
In one go, a little over 10,000 MP was spent on that defense. It had repelled all of the projectiles. All of them, that were imbued with Ichiyo's obsession for flame swords. As the current dispersed itself back onto the body of the Abomination, it flinched backwards because of the millions of cuts it was receiving from the redirection of such a lethal and mana-imbued combination of Sword Skills. It was more than sufficient enough to destroy a Rank 6 monster without a trace, but the Abomination had a thick HP bar and ridiculous amounts of stats that prevented it from being sliced apart completely.
Its skin that were torn off just started to heal themselves rapidly, but it had stopped momentarily again. The Abomination was just like a heavy tank boss creature, which didn't have good gap closers and would always get interrupted from high amounts of damage or walls of expendable HP bars.
But Lestia was unable to see that. She still saw it as a reminder of her failure and impotence in saving even a single friend. Her body trembled even now.
"See, even now. You still cannot let go of the past. You will never move forward like this."
Lestia knew what Soma was implying. She was not ready to face them yet. Even now, her mind was in turmoil from losing Inaho. From the injustice she'd always felt bottling up inside of her. She had no way to release these emotions, until now-
Lestia finally snapped from the questions forced upon her.
“Past... past... past... It's not easy!!! Breaking free of the past?! How?! Are you saying... that thing can be defeated...? ...It’s… it’s… impossible!!!-”
“-It isn’t possible because you’re doing everything alone. That is probably why you've been grasping at straws from the very beginning. You wanted help, didn't you. But then, Why do you cling to Master without any reason?"
"It's not without reason...!!! I-"
"Then answer me again. Have you truly… fallen in love with Master?”
“...I… I… too…”
Lestia gripped the hems of her skirt under her armor. She felt as if the answer was almost at the tip of her tongue, but she didn't know what was the last thing that still binded her.
“I… I c…”
Lestia stuttered continuously.
Soma sighed, her eyes drifting somewhere else.
“...All along, Master just wanted you to overcome it. Overcome this monster… that you’ve created. Something inside of your head. It is a nightmare, waiting to be erased.”
Lestia's frustrations peaked again, as she felt Soma was continuously trying to imply that she "Understood White more than you".
"...You... talk as if he had planned everything! But he was clearly in a panic earlier?! He's not a pillar you can count on-"
Lestia was getting desperate here. She couldn't fathom the relationship Soma had with White. Why was Soma so trusting towards her Master? That contradicted with everything she had saw ever since she had been compelled to receive... her Origin.
"...Panic you say? ...Haha, just to let you in on something. Master will never panic. He will feel fear, just like a normal person. But he will never panic, because once he's regained a sense of understanding about his situation, he will adapt. He will plan. You are underestimating Master too much, that's why you're thinking everything is still about you, even now."
"Eh?"
"I'm jealous really. For Master to go to such lengths, just to save one person. I wish he'd just left you alone, I wish I was the only one who would receive this kind of attention... but I can't control Master's heart."
Soma looked at White who was still being carried over her shoulder.
"What... what are you talking about..."
Lestia was perplexed.
She could not comprehend anything Soma had said to her. It was as if...
...Everything was planned out by White. But it was... impossible right?
He was still unconscious...
...?
Soma smiled unconcernedly to no one in particular and let down White from her shoulders and made him stand on his own feet.
"Really... I can't get used to this kind of feeling... this mellow... feeling... Master... you'll take responsibility right? You... smell so good... You'll let me have a taste right... Master...~?"
Seeing that it was finally time to reveal the answer, Soma moved her mouth closer to White's nape. Her mouth opened, revealing a set of teeth with the edges seemingly sharper than before.
"..."
"Well then, here I go~"
Then. Lestia noticed a subtle change in White's expression as Soma moved forward in an attempt to bite his neck. It turned into a grimace. He slowly opened his eyes.
And then without hesitation at all, the boy quickly pushed Soma aside and regained his balance. His eyes slowly opened, revealing his left eye that had been seared with a red sigil, glowing brightly.
"Enough, you lusty vampire. I'm beginning to feel like this was a mistake after all..."
"...Che~"
"?! M-ma...
...M...master…”
Lestia unconsciously called him “Master” again, unable to come to terms with this strange feeling inside of her chest.
Was... was he awake... all along...? Did he hear... everything...?
After shaking his head a few times groggily to wear off his drowsiness, Kuro turned to look at Lestia, face to face.
Strangely, she awkwardly moved her head away, unable to maintain eye contact with him.
?! Why did I… look away...
Lestia couldn’t understand why she had done that. The feeling in her chest was getting tighter as she quickly became increasingly conscious of him. It was squeezing her heart, an indescribable sense of displacement was suffocating and choking her, making her head turn all foggy inside.
She shouldn't have a heart rate, but it felt like there was a tinge of expectations held by her.
What... is wrong with me...?
Kuro's eyes narrowed, and placed his hands on her shoulders, startling Lestia.
"K-kyaa!!"
"-Nothing is wrong with you. It's a normal feeling."
"N-normal...?"
Lestia's face flushed red instantly as they held eye contact again. She hadn't even noticed that Kuro had just preemptively answered her thoughts.
"That's right. It's a human emotion called love. Have you noticed? Your Monster Instinct had already stopped increasing its value."