Near Barringstone [Westibule mountain chain], local time [1793.11.09]
Aisha’s weapon bounced back before reaching the woman, but her battle cry didn’t end as she stepped closer.
Gru was vibrating intensively – his own fight happening on the Soul-side.
Zeph had problems with taking out his gun. The constant, intense feedback from Gru and the vibrations made his hands shake uncontrollably. He took a step back, his Veil fluttering behind him like a candle in the wind, pushed away by an invisible force.
‘Thief! Murderer! Coward!’ hollered Gru, smacking, grappling, entwining the fleeting enemy. The impression of hundreds of appendages fighting for control, even as the Soul was being rendered asunder, was nauseous. ‘No escape! Mine! MINE!’
Zeph heard a horrific, ethereal scream at the edge of his senses. The woman’s Soul screeched in such unimaginable pain that he felt as if the vicinity was trembling along with it. Uncontrollable tears started rolling down his cheeks, his jaw clenched with such a force he expected some of his teeth to burst.
Aisha was two steps away from Xim, pushing through the barrier and gripping her weapon horizontally – shaft first, like a spear.
Just as he finally took his gun out, the flow of the fight changed. His Veil was no longer pushed back, and a cold shiver run down his back, his hair stood on end.
Before Gru could even warn them, he moved behind Aisha in quick few steps – she has moved directly in front of him after the first attack. Just as she was thrusting, he pushed the back of her weapon to the side with his right elbow, placed the hand on her hip, and gripped her shoulder with his left hand. Finally, he placed his leg to her left and spun with his whole body.
His left arm protested, but he managed to rotate them both in time, placing himself between the two women while spending unprecedented amounts of Will to keep his Mana in place and to strengthen his only ethereal defense – the ‘Will shielding’.
The creature retaliated at that moment.
All of his Will-Mana evaporated in an instant, enhancing his grasp on Mana-Z, as something pushed through his Veil.
It wasn’t enough.
The Phleya resisted for but a second, before Zeph screamed as an unknown, intangible force hit his body, his Soul fracturing from the impact.
The ‘Will shielding’ trembled and ‘cracked’ from the sudden Soul damage it was now linked to, further depleting his Will. He blacked out and screamed again, this time not physically – his cry reverberating through his very Soul and Will.
It was a scream of unholy pain. It was a scream of unbridled rage.
‘To protect myself from such harm ever again…’—resounded the memory—‘To not deplete my Will ever again…’—flooding his unconsciousness, as fragments of his Soul flaked away.
His Will, abiding by the resolve set in the past, conglomerated around the memory, distorting his Soul in gigantic waves. It flooded into it, fluctuated all the way down into his body, and finally found its goal by reaching the brain Energy Enhancements engraved inside.
The ‘Lesser Metabolic enhancement’ reacted. Gru resonated, roaring.
Empathy Enhancement activated, and for a moment his body could see. Memory Enhancement flared up, trying to reach the lost fragments of his Soul.
Every part fell into place and a wave of Will and Will-Mana expanded outwards, as if in slow motion. From his brain, from his body, from his Soul, from his internal Mana, and from Gru.
The intangible force was pushed back and ravaged; the fleeting Soul pieces linked to and forced to come back; Gru’s grip on the infected Soul tightened; the shield reformed anew.
It all happened in but a moment, yet Zeph perceived every fleeting moment of it happening.
At least until his consciousness returned to his body.
Warning! [Medium] [Will] [Depletion] detected!
By reflex, he straightened his posture, continuing the two-person pirouette, but unable to orient himself in the brief second.
But Aisha could. After being yanked away from the barrier and hearing his short scream right after, she knew what had happened to Zeph.
She prepared to finish the maneuver by herself and changed the awkward movement of her back-to-front weapon into a powerful attack by spinning it vertically into the proper position and going with the momentum.
She could feel her Veil snapping in place, the barrier was gone.
Just as she was about to dig her right foot into the ground to finish the turning, she felt Zeph’s grip tighten on her shoulder.
She smiled, surprised, and used the additional counterbalance to place her foot further away, allowing the weapon to slide along her hands for a second to increase the force of the attack.
Her weapon connected with a second, much weaker barrier, close to the woman’s body, but the force was enough to break through.
Xim’s body spasmed backward unnaturally, almost completely dodging the attack, but breaking its own spine in the process. The loud crunch was doubled by the sound of the lower jaw breaking apart from the glancing blow.
The woman didn’t scream, as if not feeling any pain. Darkness wiggled around her body, two long claw-like shapes forming at the end of one arm. The barrier was back in full force. Like a Zombie, the woman clawed at Aisha. The movement was blindingly fast, accompanied by the sound of tearing flesh.
But she was ready; her body already steaming furiously. At the last moment, she managed to redirect the momentum of her weapon, blocking the blow with its shaft. Dense foreign Mana zipped along the shaft like a thunderbolt, the same she used at the beginning of the ambush.
The dark conglomeration was dispersed, but the consecutive explosion of strange force shredded their Veils.
Aisha staggered.
Zeph fired.
The barrier was not enough to block the supersonic projectile, it hit straight in the head.
The being screeched in a freakily high tone, the body squirming wildly. The strange force faltered for a second, and it was enough for Aisha.
The axe-side hit it in the shoulder, narrowly missing the neck. Xim’s body was flung away by the force, its left arm flying away.
The blood was everywhere, but the enemy refused to die. A new barrier was formed, black mist populating its vicinity.
While Aisha struggled to keep the pressure on the being, flaring with foreign Mana every time she was attacked by the strange darkness, Zeph finished packing Earth-Mana into the shell’s head, aiming at the creature the whole time.
He used his Willpower to concentrate a huge chunk of his Veil around it and used the new instant construction to repeatedly cast Stiffen on it. He didn’t have delusions that the Spell would hold after firing the shell – the projectile was too small to hold it in the first place – he just wanted to pack it with Mana that would linger inside. The Stiffen Spell not only produced a compatible Earth-Mana, but also sucked his Alloy-Mana in the process.
The previous shot didn’t kill it, but if the creature was pushing away Mana, what would happen if he delivered some directly inside the most important organ, the brain?
As Aisha jumped back from another ethereal attack, he fired again.
The barrel of his pistol exploded and he recoiled back, but the projectile flew true.
The bullet hit the barrier, flashing spectacularly at the contact, and hit Xim’s face just under the eye.
Her head shoot backward as the projectile lodged itself somewhere inside. Zeph was sure the shockwave created by the slow bullet should obliterate the brain but the body still twitched.
Whether it was Mana or the damage, it created an opening. The dark splotches around Xim faded away.
The hammer-side of Aisha’s weapon finally found its target, pulverizing the woman’s head altogether, spraying bits of it in a cone on the ground.
Silence ensued.
She finished the move by taking another turning step and glared at the body for a long second. Then, she looked in Zeph’s direction with respect.
Short-lived respect.
He fell face-first onto the ground after receiving new feedback from Gru. It yanked a part of the Soul away, the one ready to be sent away, leaving the rest to ‘fall’ into the Soul landscape after the Links were cut-off alongside the obliterated brain.
It was baffled by the fact the prolonged contact with the Soul never triggered the ‘Will duel’, as they named it a long time ago when Gru tried to yank a fragment of a Soul from a living Talpa.
Yet, it didn’t want to bother the badly injured Soul any longer, only taking what would normally be taken and breaking the contact, allowing it to fall into the ocean of Souls. The timeless space killed the strange being inside the Soul almost instantly.
Without time, without Links, it could no longer escape.
Zeph rolled to his back, out of breath for some reason. He was still very much confused by all he saw through Gru’s feedback.
“And that,” Aisha started, heaving her weapon to her shoulder, “was Nether-infected, my friend,” she said, wobbling slightly.
Zeph cringed at the chuunibyou density in the air.
“Could you stop playing a badass and explain what just happened?” he asked with resignation, looking at her.
She made a disappointed face but explained nonetheless. “She was lying the whole time. Well… probably most of the time. I have a friend who specializes in external Soul perception. Her description was exactly what Gru has sent,” she said, placing her weapon on the ground and sitting down. She looked mentally spent. She didn’t have any physical wounds, but he was sure something different was damaged.
“Xim was an Internal Soul Specialist. And she blocked my basic lie detection. I would have never noticed if not for that stray… Thought from Gru,” she finished, sighing.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Zeph smiled slightly. Then, he remembered their previous discussion. “So, that’s why you decided to kill her in the end? Wouldn’t that have bad side effects on you, though?” he asked, cringing a little at the hypocrisy of her actions.
“I have my own methods to deal with that,” she said seriously. “She just happened to hit all of the major ‘kill me’ points at that moment… Anyway,” she changed the topic, “she had only a Netherling inside, but was close enough to level 100 for it to forcefully metamorphose when I threatened her life. If not for Gru… I have mixed feelings about his methods, but nonetheless, her Soul survived,” she said with a fire flickering in her eyes. “That is enough for me. I wouldn’t be able to accomplish even that much by myself.”
They were silent for a few minutes, both of them replaying the short fight in their minds. Only the sounds of quiet nibbling coming from the direction of their horse kept them company. It somehow survived, tied to a tree some ways away. From the fire, only embers remained.
“You know,” she quietly started speaking, “whatever you did when it attacked, it was impressive. Really impressive,” she said, nodding in respect.
He felt embarrassed a little, it was a thing he did in the spur of the moment – nothing he could reproduce, or deserving to be called a feat. But that reminded him, he had a few System notifications waiting for his attention. “Thanks… I will check my Interface really fast, I think it’s related to exactly that… Are we proceeding with the plan?” he asked, sitting up.
“Yes, but hurry up. The sun will rise in about six hours,” she said, standing up and walking to the dead body. A new dead body.
I think the Empathy EE is starting to influence me as well, he thought, analyzing his own emotions. The fact that he burst out crying in the middle of the fight…
Let’s ignore it for now, he decided.
He opened his notifications.
You have killed the [Morphing Netherling]! You have gained 70 000 [UP]!
You assisted in preventing a [Soul] obliteration! You have gained 120 000 [UP]!
Congratulations! You have gained 3 [Greater Willpower]!
You have gained 1.6% [Will, type: H1] [Soul contamination]!
Congratulations! [General Skills] leveled up:
[Survival] is now [T1][L72]. (+21)
[Extended Empathy: Feedback stimuli] is now [T2][L10]. (+4)
[Will] is now [T2][L65]. (+4)
[Will contamination] is now [T1][L61]. (+6)
[Will manipulation] is now [T2][L72]. (+11)
[Will-Powered Mana manipulation] is now [T2][L59]. (+5)
[Will-Powered Soul manipulation] is now [T2][L15]. (+13)
[Will-Powered Soul perception] is now [T2][L62]. (+13)
[Soul] is now [T1][L59]. (+15)
Conditions met! [General Skills] unlocked new [Advanced properties]!
Congratulations! You used your [External Mana] enough for us to create basic statistics for it.
Calculations complete! Integration of one [Skill], two [Energy Enhancements], and [Magicule] [Will, type: H1] simulated successfully!
Two possible methods exist, choose one:
* Collapse [Enhanced empathy], [Enhanced past-life memory reading], and [Lesser Metabolic enhancement] [Spell] into specialized [Brain/Body/Soul Energy Enhancement]:
[Persistent Form]
This [Energy Enhancement] is [First of its kind]!
This [Enhancement] is [Expanding] in nature!
Warning! Requires [Magicule] [Will, type: H1] to function!
Warning! Active functionality depletes [Will]!
* Extend [Will Shielding] onto [Enhanced empathy] and [Enhanced past-life memory reading], integrating [Lesser Metabolic enhancement] [Spell] as intermediary for the body, to create [Will/Soul/Body Energy Enhancement]:
[Willforce Morphon]
This [Will Enhancement] is [First of its type] and [First of its kind]!
This [Enhancement] is [Growing] in nature!
Warning! This [Enhancement] is in [Experimental] phase!
Warning! This [Enhancement] constantly depletes [Will]!
Warning! [Enhanced empathy] and [Enhanced past-life memory reading] functionality will be replaced. New functionality requires active use of [Will]!
Uh, huh… I would have never thought one fight can bring so many changes… he thought idly while reading the list. The System finally finished calculating, but what the heck is this? I don’t have time to ‘read’ all of it right now!
He scanned the Advanced Mana Properties. Not seeing anything meaningful in the statistics, he minimized the window permanently. He already had a good grasp on the practical range of his idle Veil – the 2 meters he had right now didn’t change much from the time he started his adventure with Mana. Those statistics would be useful in the future when the distances started reaching 10 meters and above. It would be most useful in more… strategic situations.
“Aisha, do we expect more Netherlings? Or whatever the grown version is called?” he asked, looking at her.
“Nobody expects Nether intruders,” she said with mirth, hauling Xim’s gear. He snickered hearing the almost-familiar phrase. “This one was a stray, the chances we will run into another one are as high as they always were.”
“Ummm… let’s go then. I will ask questions along the way,” he decided immediately.
Aisha put the last of their haul on the cart and wordlessly walked up to him. Then she turned and crouched, holding her weapon in both hands behind her back.
~~
To be carried on a piggyback was slightly humiliating. Only slightly.
In the two hours of travel, he had a lot to do. But first came the questions.
“Now that we are comfortable,” he started, relaxed, “let’s talk about what I saw in the Interface.”
She snorted. “Yes, sure, jockey… I will answer you between my heavy breaths,” she said loudly, panting a little. He had to give it to her, no horse would be able to move with such speed. Well, no Earth’s horse. If he didn’t have his mouth near her ear, they would have problems communicating – the howling of the wind obscuring all other sounds.
“What is the difference between Expanding and Growing Enhancements?” he asked, ignoring her previous jab.
She looked back at him in surprise, almost crashing into a tree as the result. After stabilizing their trajectory again, she answered with a smile.
“You already have one of those?! Ha! Godspeed, I heard they are impossible to master!” she exclaimed and took a few deep breaths. “Expanding means linear growth alongside the space it has… Growing means you can refine it by mastering its parts… Both can evolve at some point,” she finished, slowing slightly to keep her breath even.
“And what ‘experimental phrase’ means?” he continued.
“That it’s new and untested. You will be the lab rake, Ha!” she laughed a little, before breathing deeply. “But it’s usually more attuned to your unique characteristics, and grants more rewards.”
Oho, that would be the way in an emergency, then. But… “How long does it take to consolidate and expand a group anyway?”
“Just ask your Interface to prepare an emergency activation,” she said, reading his mind. “You really should read from your Interface first, though,” she finished, step-jumping out of the road into the forest. They were already one-fourth of the way back, only after 20 minutes.
She slowed down considerably, making sure to not go on the collision course with any of the trees. Her enchanted lamp was illuminating the bare minimum up ahead.
After Zeph found the indicated option in the Interface, giving Aisha some breath for a moment, he returned to his questioning.
“So, what are ya using Mer… Hydrargyrum for, anyway?” If his diagnosis was right, it had to do with the newly-exposed vein. It’s just that his theory didn’t make much sense yet.
“Enchanting, material extracting, ornaments… and something with Alchemy, I suppose?... I am not a craftsman, you know?!” she raised her voice at the end as she barely missed a small tree. “Let me concentrate, maybe? If you don’t want to have a face full of wood?!” she snapped.
“Okay, okay. Last question! What Spells do we need? I am not sure what you can do…” he placatingly asked.
“Everything you are proficient with. Besides that?... Sound muffling, air cleansing, visual camouflage, scanning, and something quiet to attack... Don’t you dare to take Shaman Spells, we need the fast ones! Now, shut up and let me drive!”
He smirked at the strange Rui word at the end but didn’t comment.
For the next half an hour, he perused the list of Class Matrices, choosing six new Tier 1 Spells and all of the ones he already knew. He also remembered the useful ones, just in case.
[https://i.imgur.com/ViZyIqg.jpg]
The list contained only three Tier 2 Spells, but they took too much of the Matrix Space to even be considered. The costs seemed quite consistent between the Tiers, though. Well, except for the Spells he created himself. He tried to remember to ask about it, too.
No Skills besides Spells were worth it right now. He only had 10 between his Class and Profession, either way.
As they galloped through the woods, one last burning question floated to the forefront of his mind. He decided it was important enough for him to distract his trusty steed.
“Are all Warrior Priestesses so freakily strong?” he asked impudently.
She snickered. “Heh, you wish! I just have some years on all of you, younglings!”
Younglings… Don’t tell me she is older than… He paused, recalling all of their conversations and adding the years she mentioned. Oh, shit! came the realization. Isn’t she at least eighty? he thought, looking at her body with wide eyes from his vantage point.
Holy… Granny, what the fuck?!
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Interface (only new Spells are colored in Blue):
[https://i.imgur.com/Df0qpwO.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/ViZyIqg.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/5z5oxKU.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/D3C5qqf.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/5DwBAVf.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/18bOsE0.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/8GgkYSn.jpg]
[https://i.imgur.com/nnXLL0S.jpg]