Kotori watched as the man in front of her froze. In another world it would seem almost funny, the hulking figure of Hectaire was standing with not a single movement coming out of his body.

In fact, it was even difficult to see if he was breathing, at all. It looked as if someone had pressed the pause button on a T.V. remote and not Hectaire was stuck in that position.

Seeing that Hectaire was currently frozen in place Kotori quickly ran over to bleeding Deliah.

Kotori quickly created a flute with Hikari to heal the wound with [Gourmet]. Still, Kotori could only accelerate the healing of a wound using a person’s own vitality, if someone did not even have enough vitality to heal the wound her ability would be useless.

The gash on Delia’s chest was deep, and Kotori could see exposed organs from it. Shockingly the girl still appeared to be alive. Panting with sweat on her face.

Not wasting any time, Kotori began to blow on Hikari and attempt to heal Deliah’s wounds. The elf’s face only began to get paler as flesh began to knit together and close the wound.

Still, that was not enough it was likely Deliah had internal injuries, that would take even more effort to fix it was only a few seconds of this before Kotori realized the nature of her task.

[She’s too weak…] Kotori thought looking at the girl in front of her.

From the start, Deliah had never trained in any sort of combat and thus has a low physical sturdiness from the beginning, coupled with the fact that much of her blood had been siphoned for the purpose of Hectaire’s potions and the fact that she took a full blow from Hectaire, Kotori didn’t feel like it was possible to save the girl.

Kotori slowly pulled the flute from her mouth and knelt down next to the girl, laying her in her lap. Despite being physically younger than Deliah, Kotori still felt a sense of obligation to the girl.

She didn’t have any intentions of her getting caught in the crossfire and wanted her to simply move on after Kotori had won the queen’s trials.

[This is… too cruel] Kotori thought as she looked at the girl.

Deliah’s lips quivered and she could see each breath was becoming strained. Despite that, Deliah still had a thin smile on her face.

“It’s okay… I enjoyed having tea with you at least” She whispered.

Kotori felt herself gritting her teeth at the girl’s statement.

“Don’t you feel any resentment?” Kotori thought.

Deliah only gently smiled in response.

“There’s nothing to resent, this is the way things were meant to be, I’ve lived longer than I should’ve already,” she said, as the light began to fade from her eyes.

[No, this is not enough, you deserved better than that.] Kotori thought as she closed the girl's eyes before she realize something.

Delia’s “soul” was lingering for longer than she expected.

A person’s soul was similar in a way to a gumball surrounded by cotton candy. The cotton candy was the accumulated experience, memories, and power that a person had gained over their lifetime, and the “gumball” was the true essence of a soul.

Deliah’s soul remained even though the cotton candy had dissipated.

[I have Authority right? Is this enough?]

Kotori felt herself grabbing the soul in front of her, there was a slight tug on the soul like something was trying to pull it away.

[I won’t let you, at least I don’t want you to meet that unpleasant] Kotori thought.

This “tug” was likely the soul’s natural urge to leave for the afterlife.

While it wasn’t difficult to hold the soul still it still took some amount of mental energy. Kotori kept looking for something to tether the soul only to realize that everything was simply too weak.

[This isn’t going to work] Kotori thought frowning.

[Wait? Can I do this?]

Kotori kept trying to tether Deliah's soul to an object, but since the objects were alive nor tethered to the world it was like trying to tie a known around thin air.

Kotori looped a small strand of mana from her soul around Delia’s soul.

[That should do it] She thought. It seemed like Deliah's soul was now firmly attached to her and was no longer moving.

“[Soulbond] with entity established, breaking away from Celestine’s system, privileges now authorized by Kotori” A voice called out.

The soul that Kotori had bound to herself had begun to glow, and Kotori could feel a steady stream of energy leaving her body. It was a shocking amount, enough that edges of her vision grew dark.

In front of her, she began to see a wavering image that began to form and eventually solidify.

“Deliah!” Kotori called out in relief as she looked at the girl in front her.

The girl only looked confused

“Deliah? Who’s that?"

Kitsura

it's been a good day today, got an interview offer and I also started querying agents. Going to see how much I can blitz write for the rest of the week since I want to get back in form.

 

On a side note... if any of you are secretly literary agents pls DM me I'm desperate :(