by Tj Dixon
“It doesn’t matter. I signed the contract.” I remind Peter.
“I know you did. I had hoped you’d understand, but I suppose you’re right. As long as the contract is in force there’s nothing to worry about.” Peter says.
“So share your mind already.” I tell him.
“There’s no need. This is something you need to learn the hard way. First for the very basics. It’s inefficient but surround a goblin’s soul with your own soul. Then just absorb it. You’ll understand how when you try.” Peter tells me.
“I hate doing things the hard way.” I tell him with a glare but follow his instructions anyway. I expand my soul a bit like during a soul link but this time cover the goblin’s soul. It’s easy to absorb. In fact not absorbing would be harder.
“Now you have to purify the soul. One goblin is no danger, but when you absorb hundreds or even just dozens of goblins all at once there is a risk of corrupting your soul. Doing so would mean becoming a demon rather than a god. It would also mean death for all your miko unless you cut your connections to them first.” Peter tells me.
“Emi would die?” I ask in shock.
“Emi and all your other miko.” Peter tells me.
“I don’t really care about the others.” I say with a shrug.
“That’s one of the reasons you don’t get much power from them.” Peter tells me.
“Telling me that isn’t going to make me start caring.” I say with another shrug.
“I know. For now just focus on the goblin soul. It feels dirty, right?” Peter asks.
“Yes. Filthy.” I agree.
“As long as you can sense the filth you can purify it.” Peter says.
“How?” I ask.
“You need to figure that out yourself.” Peter tells me.
“Hey!” I exclaim angrily.
“If you have time to complain use it to purify the goblin.” Peter tells me.
“Damn you.” I say but turn my focus on the goblin. It really is filthy. I want to clean it as quickly as possible. As I think that I sense the dirt fade. “It’s gone.”
“See, that wasn’t hard, was it?” Peter asks.
“Annoying.” I say shaking my head in frustration.
“Now you need to take most of the power. When it gets hard just eject what is left from your soul.” Peter tells me. I focus on the soul and drain power from it just as if it was a soul link to my miko, except much more forcefully. When it’s almost empty it resists desperately so I eject it.
“So that’s why taking everything is inefficient.” I say.
“Whether good or evil, all life wishes to exist. People may sometimes wish to end their lives, but the soul is the very core of their existence. Their soul will always struggle to exist.” Peter tells me.
“I suppose that makes sense. Why then is it harder to take only part of a human soul?” I ask.
“Because it tastes too good. Once you’ve started you just can’t stop until it’s all gone.” Peter tells me.
“That’s the only reason?” I ask dubiously.
“Yes.” Peter tells me.
“Then I simply can’t accept that I’d be unable to stop. All it would take is enough will power.” I tell him.
“You don’t have to accept it. You just have to keep the contract.” Peter tells me.
“I don’t have much choice about that.” I say.
“Anyway, keep practising. We have a couple of dozen goblins here, but I’ll be working with Juliet so you can have about a dozen of them. Once we’ve finished here I’ll show you how to take this to the next level. A dozen goblin souls isn’t enough to make any real difference. Tens of thousands of goblin souls is an entirely different matter. Even a few hundred would be of some value. Of course the goblins don’t normally wait patiently for you to steal their souls.” Peter tells me.
“If one feels this bad, I hate to think what that many would feel like.” I admit with a shiver.
“We’ll work up to that slowly. For now focus on dealing with one at a time.” Peter tells me.
“I will.” I say and look at a nearby goblin. He stares back at me. He can’t move or talk because he’s chained tightly to the wall and gagged. His skin is green of course and his eyes are red. Right now his eyes clearly show just how terrified he is. If our places were swapped though, he wouldn’t show me any mercy. I don’t intend to show him any. He’s just food.
I reach out with my soul and envelop his. I pay a bit more attention to the goblin this time. Last time I was focused purely on its soul. As I absorb his soul the goblin dies painlessly as if going to sleep. I clean the soul, eat most of it and then release the last part into the air. It floats away as if caught in a breeze. I watch until it floats through the wall.
I look at Juliet and as I do so she releases a black lightning that eats the souls of six goblins at once. I watch as she purifies and eats the souls. Juliet really was hiding her real powers damn it. To think that annoying little girl was actually this powerful. So annoying.
I quickly move on to the next goblin as Peter lectures Juliet. At least I’m not the only one still learning. I’ll never finish my goblins before she finishes her half. I steal and purify its soul quickly, eat most of it and discard the rest.
“Sor, don’t waste so much. It’s not just about speed. Efficiency is much more important. We are taking lives, even if they are goblin lives.” Peter tells me.
“I thought I ate most of it.” I say.
“You wasted more than you should have. With one it doesn’t really matter but multiply that by tens of thousands and it makes a huge difference.” Peter tells me.
“I’ll be more careful.” I tell him. He then returns his attention to Juliet.
I focus on the next goblin. I steal and purify his soul quickly again, but take a bit more time eating it. Once it starts resisting desperately I discard it. I then move onto the next one and repeat the process. Soon all of my goblins are soulless corpses.
“Let’s hunt some small groups of goblins next.” Peter tells us.
“I’ll deal with most of the enemy.” Juliet says.
“Leave some for Sor though, or she’ll never improve.” Peter says. It just feels so strange being the weakest one here. Strange and annoying.
“Don’t worry, I’ll let Sor have some too.” Juliet says.
“By the time we finish I’ll be the one who has to go easy on you.” I tell Juliet. She looks at me confused.
“Ok.” Juliet says sounding as if she has no idea what I’m talking about. There’s no point arguing. Even though she’s this powerful it seems she really doesn’t understand human emotions. Of course I’m not human anymore, but I still feel human.
“Let’s go.” Peter says and shifts us. Of course I already understand how it works now, but to be shown something about dimensional magic by Peter is humiliating. That was supposed to be the one area that nobody was better at than me.
In front of us there’s a group of a few dozen goblins wearing mouldy leather armour and each holding a sword or spear. Before I can react Juliet has already released her black lightning. It instantly steals the souls of most of the goblins. She purposefully leaves the couple of goblins closest to me.
I reach out with my soul and envelop both of theirs at once. Absorbing their souls is easy but purifying them is much harder than I expected even with just two goblins. It feels like my body and soul are heavy. I manage though and eat their souls, releasing just the very last part.
“Good work both of you.” Peter says condescendingly. Juliet seems happy but I can’t be happy. I only stole the souls of two goblins.
Peter shifts us in front of another group of goblins. I reach out for the souls of three goblins before Juliet can strike with her black lightning. I would aim for more, but if even two is bad I need to gain more experience at this before taking too many souls at once. I quickly absorb their souls. My body and soul feel much heavier this time. I quickly purify the souls and eat as much as I can.
“How did it feel?” Peter asks me as I release the last part of their souls.
“Disgusting as always.” I answer with a shrug.
“But no trouble?” Peter asks.
“None.” I answer.
“Good. Perhaps try a few more next time.” Peter says.
“Fine.” I say although the idea of taking so many at once is a bit intimidating. Of course if I’m aiming to deal with tens of thousands then I can’t just keep adding one goblin at a time.
“Juliet, leave six for Sor next time.” Peter says.
“Ok.” Juliet says happily.
“You’re doing well too. That was definitely more efficient.” Peter tells her.
“It feels better this way.” Juliet says.
“Good.” Peter says and then shifts us again.
There are around twenty goblins but Juliet releases her black lightning leaving just six standing. They charge at us but I envelop and absorb their souls. I feel heavy again but not much different to when I took three at once. That’s a relief. I quickly purify their souls and then eat their souls until just before the point where they would resist desperately. I’m sure I’ve got the right amount so I release them.
“Perfect, Sor. You seem to have the basics now. Juliet, leave the next group entirely to Sor.” Peter says.
“Ok.” Juliet says. If it was just killing them it would be easy, but the thought of stealing so many souls all at once is a bit intimidating. I’m not going to let Peter or Juliet know that though.
“Good, make it a nice sized group.” I tell Peter.
“Sure.” Peter says and shifts us in front of a group of about fifty goblins. Why did I have to say make it a nice sized group?!
I envelop and absorb all of their souls. My whole body is in pain and feels disgusting. I feel much heavier than before too. I quickly purify the goblin souls and the pain goes away. My body and soul are back to normal but I take a moment to relax before eating just the right amount of each soul. Then I release the last part as usual.
“How did that feel?” Peter asks.
“Fine.” I tell him.
“That’s good. Let’s get Kuro and go hunting properly. Just deal with what you can though. We all need to harvest goblin souls for power so don’t feel you need to take more than you’re ready to.” Peter says and then shifts us back to the temple throne room. Kuroneko is lounging on the throne in cat form. “Kuro, let’s hunt.”
“Took you long enough.” Kuro complains but leaps through the air, adjusts her angle slightly and lands on Peter’s right shoulder. Then she licks Peter’s ear. Damn cat!
“You can choose the targets now. You’re better at it than me.” Peter says.
“I don’t see how you could fail to smell the goblin stench.” Kuroneko says and then shifts us in the middle of an entire goblin army. Peter wasn’t kidding when he was talking about tens of thousands of goblins. I’m not sure how many there are, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there are that many here.
I envelop some of the closer enemies and absorb their souls. I focus on purifying them quickly as Juliet releases her black lightning. I can’t help but shiver as Peter releases his own black lightning though. The army literally falls down dead in an instant. I knew Peter was powerful but this is ridiculous.
“That was the power of a fallen arch angel.” Kuroneko whispers in my ear. “Pray you never find yourself on the wrong side of it.”
I just stand there trembling. I was still entertaining thoughts of fighting Peter one day. How foolish could I have been? I may be a god too, but my power is nothing compared to Peter’s power.
“Kuro?” Peter asks.
“Sorry, that group was a bit small. There weren’t even a thousand goblins. I’ll try to find a better sized group next time.” Kuroneko says.
“It’s fine. We plan to kill all of the empire’s goblins, so we’ll need to deal with the small groups too.” Peter says.
For the first time since my mother’s death I find myself relieved that I’m on this side. I almost pity the enemy. Only almost though. After all, the enemy never showed us any mercy. They can die pathetic deaths. Certainly there’s nothing to fear if we have this power on our side. It’s also the first time I’ve felt like that since my mother died.
Chapter 10 (Multiple)
(Cherry)
Why Aventurine? She didn’t even go on a date with Peter. It’s bad enough to be beaten by my rivals, Hermes and Midori. I don’t really understand what it means to be a miko or even if I would want to be one, but to invite Aventurine and not me hurts. She even ported back with a huge blush on her face.
Is Peter angry at me for some reason? Was Peter just pretending to enjoy our date, or is it because of what happened afterwards? I was angry that he embarrassed me so much right after our date, but I didn’t make a huge issue out of it. Did I do something else to offend him? Or has Peter simply changed and no longer likes me? He did like me, didn’t he?
He has changed physically though, from that lovely cute little boy to a big lizard man with wings, claws and even a tail. His current form seems very noble, but it doesn’t seem suited to being a lover. According to Yu Kii he can change back to human form but it would be dangerous for him to do so right now. Perhaps after the war he’ll take a human form again.
Becoming a miko might make it easier or even be necessary to become his lover and his wife after the war. With two of my rivals, Hermes and Midori, already his miko I would be at a huge disadvantage already. If he has offered Aventurine the honour of being his miko but not me, then surely I have another rival too. Perhaps Aventurine is even the strongest of my rivals.
It seems odd that Rin didn’t become his miko though. Is she no longer a rival? According to Yu Kii, Rin is in the temple but I haven’t seen her yet. Apparently Rin, her mother, Asuna’s little sister, Yu Kii and Haru Kii are doing some important alchemy work. Yu Kii does come to see us every now and again though, unlike the others. Asuna has been to see her sister too but only when Yu Kii accompanied her.
We’re not allowed to wander freely around the temple because it belongs to the Kuroneko so we can’t go to see Rin. Unlike Asuna we don’t have a good enough reason to ask Yu Kii to take us with her either. Like Yu Kii, Hermes and Midori though, Rin can go wherever she likes. It wouldn’t hurt Rin to come by and say hello to us, would it?
Even if we’re still rivals we are her friends and most of the club weren’t romantically interested in Peter even when he was human. They liked and respected him, even idolised him, but that’s all. With the whole lizard man issue now anyone who was only half hearted will almost certainly lose any romantic interest. So not coming by to see us seems a bit cold, just like Rin’s favourite magic.
It was a huge relief though when Yu Kii let me know my mother was safe not that long ago and hopefully still is. Since mother survived the initial invasion by the empire I’m confident I will see her again. Not that I can be sure, but it seems much more likely than it did when I was back in the academy.
I probably seem ungrateful worrying about my love life when Peter just saved all our lives. That doesn’t stop me worrying though. In the academy I was scared for my life but now we are under Peter’s protection I feel safe. I can’t imagine anywhere safer.
The war should be over soon too. With Peter having killed the emperor and confident that he can kill Azrael I can’t imagine the war lasting much longer. When it does end I can see mother again. Where will we live though? I can’t imagine Contractia would be happy to have another nation sharing one of their major worlds even if it is an ally. Perhaps we’ll return to the Kuroneko’s land. If we do does that mean we won’t be able to see mother?
I chose to join Peter and I would make the same decision again without a second thought. Even if he isn’t human anymore he is still Peter and Peter is the boy, or perhaps man now, that I love.
Back in the academy I found myself worrying more for Peter than for my own mother. That’s how much he means t
o me. Of course I worried for my mother every day too. It was close whether it was Peter or my mother that I worried most about. I love my mother too. She means the world to me, but so does Peter. That’s why it hurts. That’s why my heart aches that I haven’t even had a chance to talk to Peter yet.
“Stop worrying.” Sherry tells me with her hand on my left shoulder.
“Why did I have to fall in love with a god?” I ask.
“At least he’s alive. You didn’t even know that until recently.” Sherry reminds me.
“I know that, but… Neko? …? Am I seeing things or is Neko wearing a miko outfit?” I ask Sherry in pure shock.
“He said yes, nya!” Neko exclaims in glee. “Peter let me become his miko, nya!”
“Congratulations.” Aventurine answers sounding a little annoyed at her friend. Aventurine unlike Neko is still wearing her uniform from the academy. Aventurine may have been offered a chance to become a miko but Neko has actually become one.
“You said you didn’t mind.” Neko reminds her friend.
“I don’t mind.” Aventurine says, but she sounds a bit like how I feel. Jealous.
“Neko!” Sherry calls out.
“Cherry?” Neko asks.
“I’m Sherry. So how did you become Peter’s miko?” Sherry asks.
“I can’t explain it. It was wonderful and scary. Like heaven and hell.” Neko explains.
“But how did you get Peter to agree?” Sherry asks.
“I just asked to become his miko. He said yes and that it would help a lot. The more miko he has the stronger he gets.” Neko answers.
“So why hasn’t he asked all of us to become his miko?” Sherry asks.
“It’s big.” Neko answers.
“What’s big?” Sherry asks.
“Becoming a miko.” Neko answers.
“I don’t understand.” Sherry says.
“You can’t understand just with words.” Neko says.
“So if I wanted to become his miko would I need Peter to explain what it really meant?” Sherry asks.
“Yes.” Neko says.
