-『CHAPTER 06』-

« Heiress of the House of Novaldein »
— Velestina von Novaldein —

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I stood by silently as this creature before me threw its temper around like a petulant child. We're only inches apart but an invisible barrier akin to a large sheet of standing glass completely protects me from the attacks this creature launched on my direction.

I just idly watched as this formless being do all sorts of things like exploding itself or launching an array of magic towards my direction but in the end it was all futile. 

I make the rules here within this mindspace and if I strongly believe that barrier cannot be broken then it won't be broken no matter the attacks it endured.

Eventually, it finally stop struggling and merely pointed its four eyes at me as the situation devolved into a tense staring match. 

For the next five minutes, neither this creature nor I have move an inch at all and I was slowly loosing my patience. 

Time is of the essence and I don't know if I would really die within three days but I have the feeling that Goddess is intentionally making things hard for me. 

That whimsical deity was the one who had sent this being into me in the first place so this whole 'three days and you die' fiasco is probably also planned by her. That whole other warning about Apostles and whatnots sounds entirely dubious as well so I didn't give it much thought.

I'll worry about it once I already found a way to counteract my supposed death within three days.

In any case, that female telepath claimed to be the goddess of death and if this was true then I wouldn't really expect her to care for my life no matter how much I seemed to amuse her. 

Ugh, I hate this. 

It's like I'm some hapless experimental animal and that deity was some mad scholar, probing and testing me up until I finally couldn't handle it anymore and die. 

Whatever her aim is, one certain fact is that I'm now stuck in this dilemma. This corrosion wouldn't fix itself without my intervention and I have to think of some way to make this entity cooperate with me for the sake of our survival. 

I began thinking of what to say before heaving a long sigh. 

"Okay...we might've met under wrong circumstances but we have to settle our differences at a later date for there's a more pressing situation at hand that I cannot fix alone..." I then inadvertently bit my lips so hard it almost bled before adding, "...and I may need your help in solving this problem."

Silence.

I tried my best to show my sincerity but this four-eyed being just simply ignored it. This kind of immature behavior is what annoys me the most so I finally let loose my pent up emotions and brusquely blurted, 

"Listen here you cockeyed fool, I just talked to that damnable Goddess which helped you reincarnate into my body and guessed what she said~" I enunciated every word in a tone laced with sarcasm before throwing my hands up in the air. "That divine minx out of nowhere just revealed that we'll going to die! Great isn't it? We apparently only have three days to live! How wonderful, is it not?"

I then sneered before crossing my arms. 

[ ...What? What's going on, explain it to me in details. ]

Oh at last, you finally decide taking eh? 

I wanted to continue my tirade but the logical side of my brain had decided to step in and reminded me to calm my nerve down. 

I spent a couple of seconds regulating my breathing before proceeding along to summarized for this creature the gist of my conversation with its two-faced benefactor. 

It tried to be concise and on point as much as possible but I still can't help but add a few curses aimed at that minx in between my explanations. 

By the end of it, this entity just stood there digesting what I said. It didn't showed any reactions for at least a minute but then it finally moved and mentally said, 

[ This corrosion that you speak of must've been the aftereffects of the friction between our souls. This wouldn't have happened if I had successfully reincarnated into your body since your soul will fuse with mine after the assimilation process making us a single entity but then you decided to resist instead so now we're stuck in this dilemma wherein two souls are competing for dominance. 

I'm not sure of it since its my first time being inside a corporeal vessel but a mortal body surely cannot contain two active souls for a long time. Our souls will simply continue to clash until either of it breaks completely apart. That being said, we won't die if you complete the assimilation process, it'll only take a few hours and— ]

"—Are there any options besides fusing our souls into one?"  I swiftly interjected. 

Internally I breathe out a sigh of relief since I now have this 'last resort' that I could use but I absolutely won't implement this option unless I have no other choices left. 

Who knows what might happen if I let my soul fuse with this formless entity and to gamble using my life with such uncertainty is a risk I definitely want to avoid at all cost. 

I could discern a little bit of irritation from this four-eyed being but then the feeling just simply disappeared.

[ ...It's purely theoretical but we could also release a portion of our respective soul essence then mix it together and transfer it on a new vessel. Doing this method would weaken our souls but it would also lower the 'size' of it making it theoretically possible for two souls to be contained within one body...the problem with this method is that we still need a special embryo since this isn't a natural conception. My soul's essence is entirely different from you mortals so a normal embryo will just die so what I need is a genetic nuclei of any being with powerful lifeforce as the basis for a new vessel.  ] 

Silence. 

I blinked my eyes in a rather foolish manner.

Outwardly I feigned that I comprehended what it said but internally, I was completely clueless as to what this creature is babbling on about.

All this soul theory is way beyond me since I've never really dabbled in the study of the soul. Alas, my confusion must had showed upon my face for this creature once again spoke and dryly stated—

[ —Basically you need to get pregnant. ]

Silence. 

I closed my eyes and massage my temples before opening it once again and asking, "...Excuse me, I must have misheard it but could you say that again?" 

[ The other method is pregnancy. Souls can only leave the mortal body either through death or the creation of life. New souls are created through the mixture of the spiritual essence of its parents so what I am suggesting is that we create a life in your womb and diffuse some of our essence into a special fetus. ]

Silence.

...What?

I wanted to digest this information but my mind just kept refusing to comply. Its as if my brain's automatically filtering and treating the suggestion of this creature as pure garbage and I would be polluting my mind by digesting such filth.

Nevertheless, the word 'Pregnant' kept stoll reverberating all throughout my mind. It echoed so loud that I too ended up also shouting it out outwardly to my surroundings.

"Pregnant!?" I once again repeated as my voice gained a higher decibels. "Are you seriously suggesting that you want me to do some hanky panky with some guy within three days to knock me up?"

The creature gave me a weird look before replying, [ I don't know what this 'hanky panky' is but as I said earlier, a normal human embryo wouldn't survive the influx of essense that I'm transferring to it so the main problem of this method is finding a genetic nuclei of a being that have a very strong lifeforce. It doesn't need to be human per se but any being that has near limitless lifespan could be used. ]

I thinned my lips as I resisted the urge to curse out loud. 

So basically my options  if I don't want to die is to either fuse with this four-eyed being or experience an immaculate conception.

To say that I felt rather indignant would be a total understatement.

I've faced a lot of trials in the past but by far this is the most ridiculous one's I've come across in my life.

Heavens.

Currently I am stuck at a ship sailing through the oceans so where the hell would I even find a damned being within three days that have strong lifeforce in the middle of nowhere?

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