V4 Chapter 10: Spirits
And done. That was easy enough. Okay, let me summarise. The elf back in the forest told me half of the story. There were some lies in her story too. Basically, she told me that her mistress (princess) was abducted by some guys and stuff. How did they do it? Apparently, the princess has always wanted to leave the barrier of the world tree and go to the outside world.
Analysing her facial expression, I was able to tell that she was lying but I didn’t really care. I then came here with her, leaving her a bit far away to take care of these guys and that’s about it. I conjure water and wash my hands as I walk towards the princess ‘caged’ in the wooden prison. She flinches and moves back, her back stopped by the other side of the ‘cage’.
“Can you come out?” I ask her.
She looks at me with eyes filled with fear, caution and focus. Well, that does make sense. After all, I did just kill a bunch of people without batting an eye. But if we keep waiting like this, it’ll be annoying. My eyes shine as I use my spirit sense.
Spirit sense. This ability allows me to sense spirit energy. That also includes spirits and souls. Right now, I could see the little guys flying all around the princess. Looking behind me, I could see the souls of the people I’ve just killed. Feeling disgusted, I released an intense bloodlust to the direction of the souls, eradicating them instantly.
The princess starts shaking even more as beads of sweat drip down from her face. Shit, I just scared her even more, didn’t I?
Haah, you suck at this kid, hahaha. Did you even have friends in your past life?
Not really. Well, I did have one but after university we kinda fell off.
I wonder how that friendship went with how indifferent you are.
Shut up. Now what to do? My eyes still shining with a hint of yellow, I look right above the princess, noticing the many low-level nature spirits quivering in their skirts. They have teary eyes and seem like they would cry at any moment.
Am I the bad guy here? Never mind. Since they are nature spirits, it makes it easier, I guess. I released my spirit energy and like a cool breeze, brushed over them. They stop quivering as they beam in happiness, some dancing all around me.
“Y-you guys why are you so happy around him. Be careful,” says Elianora startled.
“Now, would you guys be dears and release her from that. I’d appreciate it.”
Without waiting furthermore, the little guys release their magic encasing the princess. She opens her eyes wide in shock as her heart starts pounding. The moment the wood cage opens fully, she wastes no time as she dashes with all her might.
I have no time for this. I slowly lift my hand as mana gathers on it. Pointing to her direction, I connect with the mana of the environment. With the mana of the environment under my command, it grasps the princess’s body and holds it in place. Yup, she just stands there in her running pose, unable to move. My version of telekinesis.
Waving my hand as if calling her, she is pulled back without any restriction towards me, stopping a few inches from me.
“D-damn it. Let me go! What did you do to control the spirits? Let me go you filthy human.”
Although those spirits obey her, they can never disobey the being that created them. After making a contract with Gaia, I gained control over her spirit energy. This basically mean that when I use nature related spells, they’ll be imbued with her spirit energy, making them stronger. Although this time I simply used her pure spirit energy instead of spells.
After struggling for a while to no avail, I ask.
“Finally done struggling? Believe it or not, I came to rescue you.”
“Hmph, you think I’ll believe that? You can’t hide anything from my ‘eyes’. I see the ‘darkness’ within you. How can something so evil want to rescue me? Heh, are you even human to begin with?” she says mockingly.
Darkness? What is she talking about? Sigh, I don’t really have time to figure this out. With a gesture from my hand, her body straightens up.
“W-what are you up too human? W-whatever you have in that filthy mind of yours, it’s best you not go through with it. My mother will_”
With a flick of my finger, mana clasps her mouth, ridding her of words.
“You talk too much,” I say nonchalantly.
I place my hand on her chest. Immediately her cheeks turn red. She grumbles trying to open her mouth, but nothing comes out.
“This will hurt.”
I inject my spirit energy within her body, specifically her spirit veins (mana veins for humans). A surge of pain jolts up her body like lightning as her eyes turn red. When I activated my spirit sense, I perceived that her spirit veins were blocked by something, which restricted her from using her abilities.
Now, I’m forcefully ejecting out that foreign energy from her body using my own spirit energy which is much more powerful to be restricted by this energy. I gather the foreign energy at her chest. I slowly remove my hand from her chest and as if pulling something, a dark purple liquid flows out of her chest into my hand.
Releasing her from my grasp, I look at the liquid floating on my hand. A potion? Judging from the colour, this was probably being consumed everyday for at least a month or two. Even if she recovered, this would have probably done lasting damage to her abilities. Hmm, I should keep it and analyse it later. Such a potion might be needed to restrain prisoners.
The potion-like substance disappears from my hand into my storage space. As my attention comes back to my current situation, I can only hear silent murmurs. Huh?
And with a shout full of anger, “YOU FUCKING HUMAN! HOW DARE YOU TOUCH A BODY OF A ROYAL WITH YOUR FILTHY HANDS!”
I heard you the first-time woman. Although you were murmuring, my hearing is quite outstanding. After barking those words, she pushes her palm forward, blasting me with a powerful wind strike. The earth is torn and a resounding boom bellows. Blowing the dust with my hand, a look of shock is written within the princess’s face. After all, the wind strike, at close range even, did nothing to me. It didn’t even budge me at all.
She kicks the ground fast, gaining a distance between me and her. She huffs and puffs before her breathing stabilizes. Her eyes shine an emerald hue as the three-leaf clover on her forehead grows in size. Two opaque entities appear behind her.
She’s manifesting her spirits. This is quite dangerous for her. If she pushes herself any further than this, she’ll suffer a backlash. Although the potion was ejected safely from her body, her spirit veins still haven’t fully healed.
“If you keep pushing yourself that much princess, you’ll only harm yourself.”
She doesn’t respond. The only response I get is the outburst of her energy. Now that I’m looking closely, it seems that one of the spirits is a greater spirit and the other one is… a legendary spirit? How the hell did she get her hand on a legendary spirit?
Spirits are categorised as:
Lesser spirits- these spirits are usually found everywhere like mana and magic particles.
Normal spirits- can also be found anywhere and can be contracted with.
Unique spirits- hard to find in the material world. Usually found in special areas.
Greater spirits- reside in the spirit realm and need to be summoned to form a contract with.
Legendary spirits- spirits over the age of ten thousand years and also reside in the spirit realm. Due to their long age, they usually don’t pay attention to the material world.
Spirit kings- the first spirits. Ones that laws of the world would collapse if any of their ‘essence’ would vanish. Also reside in the spirit realm.
To think this girl actually formed a contract with both a greater spirit and a legendary spirit. Although she hasn’t reached the level of being capable of unleashing these two spirits’ full power, once she is able to materialize them fully, she will be unstoppable.
The greater spirit resembles a giant sparrow, having a light green hue all around it. This must be a wind spirit. I guess elves aren’t confined to only form contracts with nature spirits huh. The legendary spirit is that of an eastern dragon. A long dragon, that seems to only have half of its body opaquely materialized, with a strong emerald hue. It’s a nature spirit.
Well, since she seems serious to fight with me. Let’s see what she’s made of.