Chapter 8: Field Trip (4)

~8.4~

*****

Around the time Kye and company detected the threat, Alethea and the others arrived at Northern Forest. What they saw from the air was a forest of giant trees so sturdy that buildings were built on them. The entire city was suspended among the trees. The ground below was completely natural, save for the four paths going through from outside. Elevators were mounted along the paths to allow passage from the ground to the city. The surrounding land was mostly fields with the occasional regular-sized forests and small towns.

“Quite the view,” Alethea said while standing at the edge of the balcony in their hotel room. Michelle and Doran were staying next door, but had no intention to actually do that. Both wanted to stay with Kye and Alethea. She turned around and smiled, causing both redheads’ hearts to race. “Isn’t it?”

Michelle was staring intently at Alethea so intently that Doran waved her hand in front of her face and got no reaction.

“Michelle?”

“I am having very immoral thoughts right now.”

Alethea smirked and reached for the collar of her shirt. She dragged it down just enough to show off her cleavage to the redheads. “Yeah?”

“Girl, you are really pushing it.”

Alethea giggled and let go of her collar. “Heh. I remember the last life we had together, the last time we had sex... hehe.” She shook her head rapidly, then clapped both of her cheeks. “I better stop before I get horny, too.”

Michelle was still staring, but now with a raised eyebrow. “You already are, don’t even lie. Can we just ignore the part where our mortal families would get upset if we got down and dirty?”

“Heh. Yeah. Wouldn’t that be nice?” Alethea sighed. “Maybe we can fudge the rules a bit after our business here is wrapped up.”

“And now you’re giving me hope.”

Alethea and Doran exchanged glances and giggles. Alethea abruptly stopped laughing, and a single tear fell down her face as she slowly walked toward the bathroom.

“What’s wrong?”

“Male biology.”

She almost closed when Doran’s hand stopped it. “Shall I join you and we talk a bit, love? I might have some helpful words.”

Alethea slowly nodded and let her come in as well.

*****

“Fia?” Kye said. She gasped and clasped a hand over her mouth. Why did I call her that?

Alfia turned and smiled briefly before unsheathing her odachi. She showed no outward signs of mana usage. There was none clinging to her body, none on her blade, and she gave off almost no indication that she was wielding any.

But she was.

She was channeling a monstrous amount of aether that dwarfed that of the elder royals to such a degree that none of them could ever hope to compete. The onlookers had trouble discerning it otherwise, but felt the immense mass of aether swarming within Alfia. Kye knew why. Alfia was wielding white aether so adeptly that none of it escaped her body without her allowing it.

Moments later, the beast that came out of the rift appeared. It had jumped from where it landed under the rift several miles away to the clearing they were standing in. It landed and eyed Kye.

“YOU,” was all it said.

Alfia sighed. “You poor warped soul. Eli, you understand what these things are, correct?”

Kye nodded hesitantly. “I am appalled by it.” Her eyes were glowing as she peered into the beast, looking at its very soul. “It’s in such pain. Please kill it without damaging the soul. I’ll send it off myself.”

Alfia shook her head. “No need. I can-”

“I will send it off myself,” Kye repeated. She gave Alfia no room to argue. The white-haired girl smiled and nodded.

Alfia readied her blade and stared down the beast. “You can’t have her. Your fate now is to be purified and returned to stars.”

The beast ignored her and charged at Kye. The blonde princess didn’t budge an inch or show any fear. She trusted Alfia, and that trust was well placed. The beast didn’t move more than a few feet. A fast wave of mana cut the air in front of the beast, causing it to stop in its tracks.

“Wrong target. You’ll never touch her so long as I am here. Come.”

A strange look fell across the beast’s face. It’s distorted, but clearly demonic, features displayed a mix of curiosity and confusion. “You?”

“Me.”

Before the beast could move another muscle, Alfia vanished from its sight. To her, everything around her moved slowly, as if time had slowed down. She ran up to the beast, then kicked it into the sky with a loud crack and boom sound. Kye, Liliana, and Aliana could see her movements, but each know immediately that those movements were far beyond what any mortal was capable of.

But the humanoid demon beast was resilient. Despite how powerful Alfia’s kick had been, it survived, meaning she only put enough force into it to launch it into the sky. But that survival would not last long.

“<<Blade of Judgment>>.”

Alfia gripped her blade with her left hand and loosed an enormous wave of white aether from it. The beast could do nothing. The sword wave consumed it and flew far into the sky beyond, where it eventually dissipated out of harm’s way, leaving the beast’s soul behind that was visible to only Kye and Alfia. Kye teleported to it and encased it with white aether. Even within, it couldn’t be seen by others. Kye clasped her hands together. “May the goddess show grace upon this warped soul.”

But the soul was resisting her.

Without the massive spell she had cast when she fought the S-rank beast a few months prior, she didn’t have the power to handle it.

“Use me,” came Astraia’s voice. The blade on her hip was Hikarimaru, the weapon form of Astraia Atlantis. “Use me to channel the power you need.”

Without a word, Kye drew the katana and chanted, “<<Awaken>>.” Soul weapons could synchronize with their wielder, and their own output used in conjunction with the wielder’s. An awakening could only be performed if the wielder and weapon were bonded, which allowed the wielder to draw upon the weapon’s mana, and the weapon to draw upon the wielder’s. Kye’s capacity dwarfed Astraia’s, but her output wasn’t anywhere near Astraia’s due to her young body.

The awakening allowed her to work around that. Kye could channel her own mana through both of them. While her body could only handle a small amount, relatively speaking, she could send her mana through their soul-corridor and wield much more of it through Hikarimaru. Astraia’s output was second to few. Hers was comparable to Astarte and inferior only to Atalante and Allison within the Atlantis Empire.

Now wielding mana comparable to what she wielded during her fight a few months ago, Kye was able to overwhelm the warped soul. “You poor thing. You were warped well beyond your capacity. Your existence as a beast could only be described as a living hell. I give my oath that I will find those responsible for this atrocity and end this. Go now. Be purified by the goddess’s grace and live on in your next life without this pain.”

Kye willed Hikarimaru to transform into a pair of bracelets. Kye clapped her hands together and slowly pulled them apart, revealed a mass of white aether that shone with such radiance that it could not be mistaken for either mana or aether. She wielded the true form of mana. Aether was short for Aetherial Mana. What was known as simply “mana” was short for Diluted Mana. What Kye was wielding was known to exist by few.

Alfia watched in both awe and with pride. Radiance!

Those who knew of it called it Radiance, for its appearance. It was as if there were stars within the very mana she wielded.

Alfia grinned big at the sight. That’s my Eli! Nothing can hold back your instincts, little sister. No matter how much your past is bound, your instincts will never be dulled.

“<<Serenity>>.”

The spell she cast was not assisted by the system, yet she wielded it flawlessly. Her Radiance completely engulfed the soul, and a few moments later, faded away. The soul was gone, sent to the goddess.

*****

Revision 12-9-2023