Chapter 321: Thera's Perspective

Chapter 321: Thera's Perspective

Waking up in the morning, she half-heartedly fumbled around the bed before even opening her eyes and realised she was alone, Ben likely having already run off to either play with the archive or work on his magics since he’d finished every book in Viv’s library, meaning Thera would be facing the start of the day by herself.

Hopefully it would be a good one, but her stomach was in knots thinking about it. Her aunt had said that she’d explain the changes going on in Ben by lunch, and as much as she wanted to know what could have possibly taken the great life spirit so long to figure out, the fact that so much time had passed left her in doubt they’d be receiving any good news.

Relax, it will be fine. Viv is probably just absorbed in studying things without even considering the fact that we’re worried. I can’t exactly expect her to be sympathetic.

Still, for as much as she disliked her aunt, she couldn’t deny the fact that the visit had been useful. Getting guidance on such complex life spells was a huge benefit, even if she didn’t plan on using most of them ever again, and it felt like she was actively improving her magic with each day she was there. It felt good.

With that positive frame of mind, she forced herself out of bed to get whatever bit of guidance she still could before it was time to go. As much as she didn’t regret stopping there she wouldn’t stay any longer. She missed her aunt and uncle, she missed being home

Making her way through the empty halls, save for the few homunculi that scurried about, fulfilling whatever task was built into them, the first thing she noticed was just how cold it was. In their week there, the building itself had always been a safeguard against the external chill, the heating being perfect, even despite the fact that her aunt had no need for such a thing, and as she tried to ignore it to go to the room she’d been having most of her lessons she passed the front door, finding it wide open with Vividus standing at its edge.

“Viv, I’m aware you don’t have any flesh to be bothered by this, but most mortals aren’t exactly thrilled with the prospect of spending so much time in freezing weather, don’t tell me you’re having me fight out there again?”

Even if it was hands-on training, it was her least favourite of everything her aunt had made her do by far. The cold would bite at her flesh the entire time, distracting her and splitting her focus from everything else. She’d admit that a desire to go back to the warmth was an excellent motivator to push herself and finish as fast as possible, but it was an experience she wouldn’t be looking back on fondly.

“Oh, I’m well aware. There’s very few races that prefer this climate and even the ones that do don’t usually come this far north, the day-night cycle can be too hard on them. Still, it has its benefits. It lets me work on plenty without being distracted. Anyway child, you really should aim to fix this sleeping problem you have. I thought you’d have woken up a while ago and your pet must be rather cold by now.”

“What?”

She pushed her way past her aunt to see in horror the scene the great life spirit had set up. When she’d been made to fight for practice, it had been a struggle. A dozen beasts designed to do nothing but kill in a land where there was no earth to pull from and being powered by their maker to keep her dark magic from having any real effect, giving her no choice but to use her life spells for her attacks. It had been a challenge then, but it was incomparable now.

Instead of a dozen, she was seeing a hundred standing before her, as if waiting for her to make the first move. Not one of them was natural in appearance. Razor like claws and jagged teeth on all of them and snow-white fur to act as camouflage, each creature towered about her and showed the clearest sign a thing could give that it was properly ensouled instead of just being another group of homunculi, there was a shimmer of mana around them as they prepared for the moment they stopped being restrained to fire off their spells and carry out their violent impulses.

Despite the terror of the prospect of fighting them all though, it was barely a blip in the back of her mind as she focused on the giant behind them. Towering over them all, being at least four stories tall, Thera couldn’t begin to imagine where her aunt had been hiding such a creature. Bipedal like any hominid type, it was covered in a thick, almost sharp-looking fur, as if each strand was really a sabre ready to strike, and four muscular arms to go with it. She could tell it had some sort of magic to it too, even if she wasn’t sure what, but that wasn’t the biggest problem. The problem was Ben, trapped in its hand, looking like he was slowly being crushed as his hair filled with frost. His skin would have been pale and blue from the cold if not for the creature’s grip squeezing the blood to his head while he was trapped there.

“YOU PSYCHOTIC BITCH!” Thera scream. “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?”

In the face of her niece's rage though, the great life spirit was as indifferent as she ever was. “Hopefully motivating you. Your progress is dreadful compared to what it should be, but you’ve shown that you can at least make some for him. I’d get to it by the way, he’s been out there for a while waiting.”

Her immediate instinct was just to murder her, but as much as she wanted to, Thera knew she couldn’t do it. Not from a lack of will or some familial bond, but the knowledge that the difference in power between them was just too great. She’d come here seeking help, but instead she was trapped playing her aunt’s game with Ben’s life on the line, and no way to use any of the magics at her disposal that might be of any use.

Knowing she wouldn’t be able to direct any of that rage to the one who deserved it, she pushed past her aunt with her staff in hand, with the creatures before her treating it like a signal to act as they charged forward, each rushing towards her at a speed her legs would never be able to move, with the ice shaking around them as it was pulled from the ground to fire at her.

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With so much happening at once, a part of her wished she had one of Ben’s ridiculous mind skills to make things easier on her. Her telekinesis was nowhere near good enough to stop the attacks in mid-air, but she strained her mana to fire off a pushing effect in front of her, slowing some of them down and knocking others slightly off her path as she followed it up with her life magic, trying to move it in the same way her aunt had to put down any of the creatures she’d been made to experiment with, overstimulating their brains to make them fry.

For a moment it seemed like it failed, like nothing happened, and the small part of the creature’s brain that had felt a hint of fear disappeared as it made a noise she could only take as a laugh as she jumped away from it, the staff crumbling to dust in her hands.

It was a creature whose sole purpose was to kill, and it was made to enjoy the act. Having Ben in its hand but forced to resist just crushing him for as long as it could had been as amusing for it as it had been aggravating, but the longer the fight went on the more it could feel that resistance fading as it tried to take a step forward to get its hands on its second victim, only to fail. It couldn’t move its legs, and as it looked down in confusion it could only barely understand why as it saw they’d turned to stone, with its effect slowly growing upward, crawling to its torso as it flailed around in protest and fear, then its lower set of arms, its upper set, and finally making its way to its head as it was frozen in a permanent scream.

As with any time a skill awakened, Thera’s body lit up as it rushed to absorb all of the mana it could now hold from the change, but unlike for a normal person who might have a few hundred in their status, Thera originally had almost three hundred thousand. Not only did the light fail to stop, but all of the creatures around her felt the effects, even her aunt as every bit of ambient mana in the surroundings rushed to her, not letting any of them replenish their reserves as they fired their spells, all while Thera didn’t stop to appreciate the notifications ringing in her head, instead going to attack with the new source of stone at her fingertips.

Feeling the change to her, Thera didn’t worry about her lack of staff as she took the petrified monster apart, using it as she would any other bit of stone and tore it into gravel to be fired into the crowd as she took extra care to gently set Ben to the ground.

In her spite and as the only bit of revenge she could take, she exerted herself in the second after each of Vividus’s monsters had turned to nothing but a red mist, forcing the direction of the attack to change in the last minute to tear through her aunt's house before focusing all she had to healing Ben.

“I’m so sorry I thought it was a good idea to bring you around that fucking maniac,” She said, holding his face as she flooded him with her mana, trying to force his body to warm itself up as she healed the many injuries he’d gained from being squeezed for so long.

All of his ribs were broken and it seemed like his entire body was bruised, but despite that he managed to smile as he coughed out a few words. “I knew you’d save me so it’s all good. Let’s just never ever come back.”

“Agreed.”

“Destroying the house was a little childish of you,” Vividus said offhandedly as she walked up.

“Fuck you.”

“And throwing a temper tantrum will gain you nothing. I got the result I’d hoped for so let’s finish up here,” She said, placing a hand on both of them to heal them quickly. “Although I suppose you’ll need to dig through the wreckage first to find your things.”

Once they’d found their bags, the creature with the space magic that had brought them there came out of hiding, opening a portal back to the life valley where both Ben and Thera wanted nothing more than to leave, only waiting to finally get an answer on what was happening to Ben. They’d put up with far too much to not find out.

“It seems to be a change facilitated by the system, so you don’t have to worry about the organs doing anything negative to him at the very least. Demon bodies are constantly trying to grow and adapt so their very cells feed on the life and death mana they give off to make it happen. I said before when you first gained them that the skill probably came because they were feeding on a small amount of mana, but given the boys' nature they couldn’t actually use the ones they’d been built for. In that sense you could say they’d changed to match him as much as he’s been changed by them, they seem to now be fully satisfied using the non-affinitied mana that fills his body instead of struggling along with it as a lower-class option. As for how they’re changing him though, it seems to be slowly changing his body into a better version of itself, just as a demon’s would, though on a much weaker scale. The lingering information from the demon's organs has fully integrated into your bloodline so at whatever point you stop it looks like the trait will be passed on, but there really is no distinction between what of you is human and what’s demon anymore. Since your race on your card hasn’t changed the system still seems to consider you human despite that so I wouldn’t worry about it personally, though it’s likely that it’s making it easier for that demon soul to possess you so I’d stop with that. Even if you get to the ninth level it shouldn’t really be a problem, though I can’t infer anything if you ever manage to awaken it. Of course, we could preemptively try to dull any effect awakening it would have by adding more animal parts to you. It would have the side benefit of potentially making you significantly more useful.”

“I’m not letting you experiment Ben after you already tried to kill him you bitch!” Thera yelled at her aunt. “Do you only see people for whatever benefit they could give?”

Before she could react, Vividus had her by the face, pulling her in close.

“Yes. You mortals have no idea what’s coming but I’ve watched a world burn already. Make no mistake Thera, you’ve become a little useful at this point, but if weren’t for Abrus being such a bother I’d be happy to turn you into the weapon I know you could be.”

“Turn me into a weapon and the first person I’m pointing myself at is you.”

“I don’t particularly care if I live or die if it means someone having the strength to kill the invaders, so do your best,” The great spirit spoke in a voice filled with condescension, lightly tapping Thera’s cheek before turning and walking away. “Of course, if you ever decide you want to improve yourself then feel free to visit again, I’m sure I could squeeze some more levels out of you before you know it.”

“Not happening,” Thera said back, taking Ben’s hand and storming out of the building before ripping stone from the ground to carry them both to the gate out of the life valley as fast as possible, neither of them wanting to waste a moment there longer.