169 Change In Body And Soul

"Incarnations… of my bloodlines," Elizabeth said to herself after gaining the wherewithal to think.

"More or less, that's what we are. Only, for some reason, I'm still me… Meaning, I'm not an incarnation, but a very tiny fragment of my true soul resides within you instead of my bloodline's incarnation."

"I see… Well, it's good that both of you could talk as I'd very much like to know why you've been altering my emotions." Though she had a lot she wanted to ask the original Elizabeth, this was the most pressing issue she had to sort out.

"Why?! Cause they're our emotions! How could I not get flustered when you push away my love!" The original Elizabeth finally seemed to have grown serious.

"Your love? For whom? Aren't you supposed to be a goddess who's climbed up the martial ladder in heaven? How could anyone in a dimension as lowbrow and spiritually inert as Earth manage to get on your good side, never mind your love?!" It was as if Elizabeth learned that Hitler himself had been hiding a jewish mistress in spite of his actions.

"Who? We both know who. As for why? Well, it has to do with how I ended up here in the first place. See, I wasn't supposed to make out of Heaven in the first place… Those heartless bastards sent me to my death after taking my cultivation and casting me to the void, but my love… He took the plunge into the abyss with me. While you've taken my body, 'he's' harbored my love's soul."

"Y-you're talking about Sun, right?" With a look of shock, Elizabeth couldn't fathom how peculiar this whole situation was. As Persephone's chosen, she had taken the original Elizabeth's body and apparently her soul and by her side, in an ever-convenient fashion, Sun took in the soul of the original Elizabeth's lover.

"The kid's just like a younger version of him! Sure he may be a little soft now, but in the future with both our help and my love, I'm sure he'll turn out just as capable as my love, if not more so!"

…

After talking a while longer with both her doppelgangers, Elizabeth came to understand more about them as well as their "use" for the time being. The three settled on names for each other and before Elizabeth left her Soul Land, she took a quick look at her status for [Soul Variation.]

[Skills

Name: Soul Variation

Grade: Low-tier Spirit Grade

Description: Function both as a bloodline enhancer and a berserking skill for the soul, this skill is one of the key reasons for why the Seraphs are hailed as supreme champions of the soul.

Principle Effect: Activation of the skill instantly increase your soul's capacity by 50% for every Embryonic Vessel of Seraph in your possession. Can only be sustained for up to a maximum of three minutes before injuries to the soul start manifesting.

Primary Vessel's Effect: ???

Secondary Vessel's Effect: While in the Spirit and Mortal Realms, the user may temporarily increase their Affinity for Death by one tier. Ancient Godslayer Fiend abilities double in this state and the option to trade places with your Ancient Fiend Incarnation becomes available.]

"Mhmm..." Belle, the nickname Elizabeth had for the original Elizabeth, didn't have the effects of her Vessel specified which left Elizabeth somewhat unsure. But, because Lisa, her Ancient Fiend's Incarnation, had extremely useful abilities as a Vessel, she didn't mind. Waving them a goodbye, Elizabeth could hear Belle say, "Bye-bye Ellie," as she returned to the world outside her soul.

Now, after calming down from all the stimulation she received in the past couple of minutes, Elizabeth took out her spoils from the Smithing Event of the Wushi tournament and got to crafting. Though it was uncommon to be dealt a serious blow to the soul for integrating a Seraph Bloodline, because both of Elizabeth's special bloodlines were much stronger than the Commander Tier Belle earlier mentioned, she still managed to recover from all the damage to her Soul Land in as much time as integrating with a regular Seraph Bloodline would yield. Thus, with the issues in her soul resolved and a couple new guns to play around with, Eilzabeth pulled out the spoils of becoming Smithing Champion of the Martial Society with the idea to create some more ammunition.

[Status

Name: Blazing Spirit Forge

Grade: Low-tier Spirit Grade

Description: Though not the best Spirit Grade Forge for its Tier, one can expect this forge to be able to create even High-tier Spirit Grade armaments without much trouble

Effect: As all the pieces of this forge were made with a Fire Spirit Stone Metal Alloy, after heating the furnace, 50% less energy is required to keep the temperature. This effect is capped at 1 Million degrees Centigrade, thereafter, the furnace may start to melt.

Skills

Name: Cold Fire Forging

Grade: Mid-tier Spirit Grade

Description: An unusual method of forging that uses Ice or Water energies in conjunction with fire to create armaments. Though, it can not create true Cold Flames — As the user possess —This method, allows those with Ice or Water Affinity the next best thing.]

With her nifty new Spirit Forge and the convenient Cold Fire Forging method that she picked up from the Hall of Treasures, Elizabeth used some of the metals she won for becoming Smithing Demon to refine into alloys and others were turned directly into bullets. With her Peak Phase King Stage energy reserves and Bad-tier Ice and Fire Affinities, she began the process of mastering Cold Fire Forging as it would be the precursor to her Cold Flames Forging.

Sadly, Elizabeth no longer progressed like the cheat she had been behaving as. Cold Fire Forging was a Spirit Grade technique and her pitiful Bad Tier Affinities just weren't cutting it. Fortunately, she had recently completed her fifth Main Quest and there just so happened to be an option to get two Good-tier Elemental Affinity Stones at her disposal. There were three if she counted the reward she had yet to claim for reaching Level 20 as well, but since she only knew — and more importantly, didn't plan to learn more than — two elemental energy types, it was probable that the reward for that Quest would be either the Spirit Forging Crystal or the Mediocre Affinity Stone for Yin or Death.

So, without thinking twice, Elizabeth materialized two souljade Stones to carry out the trials put forth to bring her Fire and Ice Affinities to Good Tier. She took a deep breath and hoped she wouldn't suffer too much before she bit the bullet and activated the Good Tier Fire Affinity Stone. What followed was but a moment in real life, but almost a month to Elizabeth's soul as she meditated through a sea of blazing flames to raise her Affinity from Bad to Mediocre and finally into Good Tier.

Fortunately, she didn't suffer as much as the [Basic Flames Control Sutra] and her already existing affinity for fire dispelled most of the burning she would have felt and her Grandmist reinforced soul tanked the rest without so much as feeling an itch. In fact, she quite liked the peaceful month of meditation that augmented her Fire Affinity. It was a kind of pleasure, her status as a Godslayer Fiend barred her from experiencing. The idea that she would momentarily return to the "peaceful" — or perhaps harmless — world of the Good Tier Ice Affinity Stone was even looked forward to.

Taking another deep breath, Elizabeth activated the stone that had yet to start disintegrating and for another month she was thrust into a world of frozen blight. Plunged into temperatures that could sustain liquid nitrogen and frigid winds that could cut, Elizabeth's only two sources of meditation came from the technique she helped Jane fix — the same one that almost turned her into a human furnace — and the Godking's Book of Ice and Fire. With the passages from Jane's method only taking her up to the peak of Mediocre tier, it gave her enough inspiration and understanding of Ice to take the final step with the Godking's method.

So, while two months worth of time passed in Elizabeth's mind, in reality less than a second had elapsed as the two used up Souljade Stones still held the majority of their form in Elizabeth's hands. However, now that Good Tier Fire Affinity was accomplished, Elizabeth's eyes only had to sparkle lightly for a fiendish flame to completely dispose of the Souljade Stones. Thereafter, a bit of Space Magic was used to blow what may have remained for the Affinity Stones away through Elizabeth's open window. Suddenly, Elizabeth's body caught up to the Good Tier Affinity she had achieved for Fire and Ice and a couple prompts from her status functions consumed all that she could see.

[Innate Skills

Name: Fire Affinity

*New) Tier: Good-tier

Description: No longer bound by the constraints of Mortal Realm Tier Affinities, with Good Tier Affinity, your ability to manipulate Fire is leagues greater than it was with a mere Mediocre Tier Affinity. Generating Fire-type Magic — or True Qi, upon entering the Spirit Realm — from Inner Strength is also dozens times easier and fire-type spells and skills are less demanding on your energy reserves.

Current Effect: Cultivation of energy remains unimpeded until Level 50. Low-Mid Spirit Grade Fire-type buffs are 100% more potent.

*New) Name: Blaze Spirit Body

Description: Attaining Good Tier Fire Affinity has integrated Fire Magic and Inner Strength into your Seamless Magic Connection.

Current Effect: Now, even outside the bounds of the Spirit Realm, you'll be able to channel Fire-type True Qi as a Spirit Realm cultivator would. Meaning, cultivation by an area dense in Fire-type True Qi will be countless times easier. The user's body becomes highly resistant to fire, even if unassisted by energy. All Fire Type techniques are both easier to learn and countless times more potent than they ever could be with a Mortal Realm Tier Affinity.

Ice Affinity

*New) Tier: Good-tier

*New) Crystal Spirit Body

Description: Attaining Good Tier Ice Affinity has integrated Ice Magic and Inner Strength into your Seamless Magic Connection.

Current Effect: Now, even outside the bounds of the Spirit Realm, you'll be able to channel Ice-type True Qi as a Spirit Realm cultivator would. Meaning, cultivation by an area dense in Ice-type True Qi will be countless times easier. The user's body becomes highly resistant to coldness, even if unassisted by energy. All Ice Type techniques are both easier to learn and countless times more potent than they ever could be with a Mortal Realm Tier Affinity.]