WIEDERGEBURT Act III: Chapter 66

Immediately after leaving the archipelago, I returned to the cavern and worked on creating the Yin-Yang Spiritual Enhancement Pill for the water element. It took several days. However, I think the amount of time it took was shorter than when I made this pill for the lightning element. If nothing else, creating it at least seemed easier to me.

After creating the pill, I returned to the sea.

Walking down at the bottom of the sea, I manipulated the water around me, forming a bubble that both protected me from the crushing pressure and allowed me to breath underwater. I passed by schools of fish, coral reefs, and even some Demon Beasts. Most Demon Beasts ignored me or stayed far away. The few that attacked me were split in half when I fired water blades at them.

At some point, I reached an area that seemed deep enough for my purposes. The water here was dense. With so much of the water element around me, it would be easy to absorb the Spiritual Power I needed to increase my affinity for this element and enter the Fourth State of Spiritualism.

Sitting with my legs crossed, I took a bottle from my pouch and popped the lid. A strong salty scent filled the air as an aroma containing numerous medicinal elements spread through my bubble. I did my best to ignore the scent as I tipped the jar. A large pill about the size of my palm popped out. It was blue with silvery streaks that looked like rolling waves.

Now that I new what to took expect, I didn’t feel as uncertain when I popped the pill into my mouth, breaking through the shell and allowing the medicinal ingredients to surge down my throat. The taste of salt water was heavy on my tongue. I gulped down the pill and took several deep breaths, readying myself for what was to come.

It started several seconds after I took the pill.

The water around me started to churn, spinning faster and faster as it created a large tornado that surged upward. What was this called? A whirlpool?

I dispelled the bubble since it was no longer needed and stood up, eyeing the increasingly fast spinning water all around me. I had no idea how fast it was going. However, when I looked up, I could see that this whirlpool had broken through the water’s surface several kilometers above me so I could now see the sky. The water spun so fast I was sprayed by hundreds of tiny droplets.

One second passed. Then two seconds went by. After three seconds had passed, the water stopped rotating, then suddenly converged on my location, slamming into me with bone-crushing force. I gritted my teeth to keep from crying out, but it felt like my entire body had been crushed, like my bones were being ground into powder and eroded away with the water.

Then the pain stopped.

I was once again inside of my subconscious.

Already knowing what to do, I traveled over to the nebula that represented my Spiritual Power. When I got there, I turned toward the sphere that was meant to personify my affinity for water. It was the water sphere. The bright blue sphere had rolling waves crashing around on the surface. It looked like a hurricane was brewing across the entire globe.

I traveled over to the sphere, reached out, and placed my hand on its surface.

That was when I gained enlightenment.

Water is a substance composed of the chemical elements Hydrogen and oxygen and existing in gaseous, liquid, and solid states. It is one of the most plentiful and essential of all compounds in the entire world. It has the important ability to dissolve many other substances. This is actually why water is always used as a base for alchemy. It works as a solvent and is essential to all living organisms.

Water brought life. Without water, there would be no life. It was true that the other elements were important, but if you took one of those elements away, life could still survive. However, water was necessary for the survival of every living organism, which was why it was often considered the single most irreplaceable element in existence.

While many people assumed water was weak because it was used primarily for healing, that wasn’t true at all. Water was powerful. It was water that formed canyons and created lakes, water that made plants grow and destroyed port towns. During hurricanes, waves of water crashed down on cities, crushing buildings and sweeping everything caught within its grip out to sea.

As I comprehended the principals of water, my Spiritual Power surged and swelled. A line of water shot from the sphere and flowed into the nebula, which increased in size, until it was nearly six or seven times bigger than before.

I noticed it didn’t increase as much as it did when I had reached the Fourth State of Spiritualism with lightning, but I think that was because this was my second time. Perhaps the increase simply wasn’t as big the second time around.

However, as my power increased, strange clouds formed inside of the nebula. They looked like millions of tiny crystals, which were incredibly beautiful as they reflected light off their surfaces, creating a myriad of rainbow-like colors.

Opening my eyes as I returned to the real world, I spread out my hands as though grasping at something, and the water swirling around me stopped. It froze in place, and not just the water. Everything inside of the water was frozen. The fish, the Demon Beasts, the other animals. It was as if time had become frozen for them. Not only that, but I could feel them, the creatures living inside of this sea. The school of 1,432 fish several kilometers out, the Scylla that had been lurking just a kilometer outside of my whirlpool, and the Demon Island Turtle sixteen kilometers away. I could feel them all.

I waved my hand. The water suddenly parted, splitting apart as though an ax had come down and sliced through it. I walked across the seabed, traveling until I reached the shore. Then I turned to the sea. The water was still parted. Lifting my hand, I waved it again, and the water crashed into each other, converging with a giant splash before reverting back to tranquil waters.

Exhaling a deep breath, I clenched and unclenched my hand. I smiled as I began my march back toward Nevaria.

It was time to keep my last promise to that woman who rescued me.

***

It took over two months instead of the one month I had estimated. There had simply been too many ingredients spaced too far apart for it to take a single month. But we eventually found all of the ingredients I needed to refine the Elemental Enlightenment Pills for Kari, Fay, Lin, and Siv. Of course, I had also made sure to gather enough ingredients for me to make the same pills for my new earth, darkness, and wind affinities.

Since my goal right now was to refine the Elemental Enlightenment Pills, I had made the five of us journey to the old cavern I had lived in with that mysterious woman from my past, though right now it was just Fay and me inside the cave.

Everyone else was outside securing the area and keeping watch for Demon Beasts. That was the excuse I had given when kicking them out, but the truth was that I just wanted silence to work. It had been a long time since I’d made an Elemental Enlightenment Pill. I hadn’t done it since I created one for myself when I gained an affinity for light in my previous life.

Fay was with me, having requested that I let her stay.

“These storage rings truly are incredibly useful,” Fay mumbled as she stared at the storage ring on her index ringer. “I never could have imagined anyone creating something so incredible. Kari is an amazing person, isn’t she?”

“She is,” I agreed. “But so are you.”

Fay smiled. “Thank you, but I wasn’t being self-deprecating.”

“I certainly hope not.”

Fay’s words were likely in response to the table and advanced alchemy set I had summoned from one of my storage rings. It was sitting in the very center of this cave. While the cave itself looked slightly different without all the furniture that it used to have in my previous life, I was still able to recognize it as the place that woman lived.

I wasn’t the only one looking at the cavern with interest. Fay studied the cavern floor, walls, and ceiling with narrowed eyes.

“Is something the matter?” I asked.

“No, I don’t think so.” Fay shook her head.

“Then I’m about to begin.”

“Okay.”

Fay took a few steps back as I filled two 500 mL beakers and two 250 mL flasks with water, then placed a burner disc under each one. As I let the burner discs boil the water, I began preparing the common ingredients.

The flame grass was ground into paste and added into a 500 mL beaker along with cherry bark, barilla, and epsom salt. I stirred it all together and watched as it mixed to create a slightly bubbly red liquid.

Letting the ingredients mix, I cleaned the pestle and mortar, then added my next ingredient—crystal scales. They came from the Crystal Serpent, a B-rank Demon Beast with no elemental affinity. They were a bit rare, but killing just one gave me enough ingredients to create thirteen Elemental Enlightenment Pills. I quickly ground up the scales, then added Fire Drake blood, before mashing it up again to create a paste. That went into another beaker that didn’t have any ingredients. I’d let that sit and congeal before adding it.

As I worked, I quickly zoned out. The world around me seemed to disappear as the scents and sights of the ingredients became my sole focus. A heavy medicinal scent filled the air. It was spicy. I would almost say fiery. Of course, that was because I was creating an Elemental Enlightenment Pill for Fay right now. Her affinity was fire, so naturally, the scent coming from the ingredients would create an intense, fiery smell when mixed.

It didn’t take long before all of the common ingredients were mixed, but that was the easy part. The hard part came next.

Gathering the liv petals, I ground them into a paste with the mortar and pestle. As I used the pestle to mash them up, the liv petals gave off a gentle fragrance that reminded me of changing seasons. It was a relaxing scent.

I scraped the paste into a flask filled with spirit essence, then placed a cork over it to stop any gas from leaking out. After washing the mortar and pestle using my water element, I grabbed the magma seedlings, placed them in the mortar, and prepared to crush them.

“That’s incorrect,” Fay suddenly said.

I was so surprised I nearly jumped in shock. Spinning around, I gazed at the girl with wide eyes. I had completely forgotten she was there!

“E-excuse me?”

“Aren’t you supposed to calcine the asclepius root first?” Fay tilted her head and furrowed her brow. “Then you need to add crush the bezoar before adding drips from the gas created by the liv petals… I think.”

For a few seconds, all I could do was star at Fay like she suddenly sprouted a second head, but as the girl flushed heavily under my gaze, I went over what she said and realized she was right. I had gotten the mixing of ingredients out of order. It seemed my memory of how the refining process went was slightly fuzzy.

“You’re right,” I said with a grimace. Shaking my head, I placed the magma seedlings away, grabbed the asclepius root, and began calcining it on a large heating pan. A loud sizzling sound soon echoed within the cavern as the scent of burning plant filled the air. As I did this, I glanced at Fay. “I’m a bit off time because of my mistake. Would you mind helping me refine this pill?”

“Y-you want me to help?” Fay squawked for a moment, but she quickly shook her head and walked over. “Of course I’ll help.”

The two of us worked in silence. However, our work was almost perfectly coordinated. We didn’t get in each other’s way as we went about the task of refining the Elemental Enlightenment Pill, moving around each other as if we had eyes in the back of our heads, handing each other the ingredients we needed without having to be asked, and finishing a step in the refining process if we noticed the other was busy. What would have taken six hours to refine only took a grand total of about three thanks to our teamwork.

However, as we worked, a strange feeling in my chest caused my heart to flutter. I tried to ignore it, but the feeling persisted.

***

It took four days for me and Fay to refine all the pills we needed. During that time, the two of us only stopped refining to eat, sleep, relieve ourselves, and bathe. We practically worked day and night to create every Elemental Affinity Pill. While it was difficult, I think our hard work paid off in dividends.

Kari, Lin, and Siv only entered the cavern periodically during this time to make sure we were doing okay; it seemed they didn’t want us overworking ourselves. Kari had forced us to rest several times when she felt we’d been working too hard. Even Lin had bossed us around, stating we weren’t paying enough attention to her. The only one who didn’t stop us was Siv, but she was so shy and timid that I couldn’t see her trying to make us rest even if she wanted to.

They were probably grateful when we announced that we were done.

“We’ve made all the necessary pills for each of you to reach the Third State of Spiritualism with your elements,” I said. “I’d like us to train here for a bit so we can all reach this state. After that, we’ll be ready to move onto the Morkdypt Ravine.”

The girls were sitting together on the futon Kari had brought out from the storage ring containing our camping equipment. Kari had crossed her legs, which flapped up and down like butterfly wings as she listened to me. Lin was lounging like an indulgent queen. On the other hand, Siv had stretched her legs out and was curling her toes. Fortunately, all of them were at least listening to me.

Fay and I handed out the pills to the girls. Lin received pills for the Earth and Darkness elements. She had the most pills since she also had affinities for the most elements of the four. Siv was given one pill for the wind element. Likewise, Kari and Fay were each given a pill for the light and fire elements respectively.

“I know you’ve already reached the Third State of Spiritualism, but this pill will help you get more in tune with your element,” I told Kari as I placed the pill in her palm.

“I understand.” Kari smiled up at me. “Don’t worry. I’ll work just as hard as everyone else.”

“I know you will.”

Once all of us had our pills, Fay and I sat down on the futon with them and crossed out legs. I looked at the pills I had. One of them was an earthen-colored pill, another was blacker than the night sky, and the last one was completely clear. The Elemental Enlightenment Pills were the size of my palm, making them look too large to swallow.

As I looked back up, I saw that Lin had not hesitated to pop the earth Elemental Enlightenment Pill into her mouth. Her eyes slowly fluttered shut as she sank into her subconscious. I wondered how long it would take her to find her Spiritual Core.

Kari, Lin, and Siv also popped their pills into their mouths. Siv had already reached the Third State of Spiritualism, but using the pill to reach her subconscious would help build a stronger foundation with her element, which was why I had given her and Kari a pill.

Seeing that the girls were already beginning their training, I didn’t hesitate to placed the dark black pill inside of my mouth, crushing the shell with my teeth and allowing the medicinal ingredients to flow down my throat.

My consciousnesses soon faded. The world around me turned black. When I opened my eyes, I found myself once more before my Spiritual Core. It was getting a lot easier to reach this place. I guess I’d been here so many times now that my mind subconsciously brought me here.

The nebula looked the same as the last time I had seen it, and floating around the nebula were the numerous spheres that represented the elements I had an affinity for. There was the yellow lightning sphere, the blue water sphere, the black darkness sphere, the brown earth sphere, the dull light sphere, the equally dull fire sphere, and the softly glowing green wind sphere. These seven spheres orbited the nebula.

With a tug of my will, I floated over to the darkness sphere. I reached out with my hand and touched the sphere. As I did, I let the feelings of darkness envelop my body. It was almost comforting. This darkness did not feel cold or make me lonely. I embraced this darkness and allowed it to expand my awareness of the element.

Darkness was not inherently good or evil. While many people feared darkness, the truth was that darkness was merely the absence of light. During the night, darkness enveloped the land, allowing creatures who could not deal with the light of day a chance to emerge from their homes and hunt for food. The night had a life of its own, and it was thanks to the darkness that these creatures could come out like that.

As I floated beside the orb and contemplated what the darkness element embodied, my Spiritual Core expanded to twice its previous size. This expansion wasn’t as impressive as when I reached the Fourth State of Spiritualism in my previous life. However, that was to be expected. The difference between the third and fourth states was like the difference between heaven and earth. It was impossible to compare. That said, my spiritual growth had been pretty stagnant recently, so I was very grateful for the increased power.

After comprehending what I could of the darkness element, I could feel that my body was slowly changing. Something was happening to me outside. When I opened my eyes, I looked down and saw that my body had become covered in darkness—no, I had transformed into darkness. I raised my hands and stared at them, then reached down and watched as my hand merged with my own shadow. Within the shadow, I could sense darkness and more shadows. In fact, because I was so close to Kari, Lin, Fay, and Siv, my shadow was intersecting with theirs, and I could feel their shadows through that connection. If I wanted to, I could easily travel into their shadow and hide there using Shadow Walking.

So this was the darkness element? It was outstanding. With my control over this element, I would become even more formidable than before.

I pulled my hand back and retracted the darkness element, pulling it into my body, which allowed me to revert to flesh and blood. As I did, Lin’s eyes suddenly snapped wide open as her torso jolted into an upright position. Her body looked oddly brown… like the color of her skin and scales had suddenly changed. She blinked several times as her body reverted back to normal. Her eyes darted to and fro as if she was searching for something, but then she took a shuddering breath as her shoulder slumped.

“Lin, how was it?” I asked.

“Darling?”

Lin crawled over to me, her long snake tail trailing behind her, and sat herself on my lap. Her warm, soft butt pressed against my crotch, but she didn’t wiggle it against me like she normally did. She wrapped arms around my neck and placed her head on my shoulder. In response, I held her close, rubbing my hands against her sides and enjoying the shift from skin to scales.

“Is everything okay?” I asked, changing the question.

“Everything is fine. This princess is fine.” Lin nuzzled her nose against my shoulder and flicked out her tongue. “That pill did what you said it would… but the inside of this princess’s consciousness is strange.”

I felt my curiosity piqued. “How so?”

“After taking the pill, this princess found herself in a long and narrow tunnel,” Lin began to explain. “This tunnel branched off in several directions. This princess traveled down the tunnel for a really long time, searching through all the different passages before finally discovering a large cavern with a really big underground lake.”

“An underground lake, huh? Interesting.” I reached up and began caressing Lin’s ear. Soft hissing noises emerged from her mouth as her tail thumped against the ground. “I’ve heard that everyone’s Spiritual Core looks different. Our minds are all different, so we interpret our subconcious differently. Mine looks like a vast and empty space with a nebula orbited by spheres floating at its center. Anyway, please continue.”

Lin nodded and continued talking.

“The lake was surrounded by five big fire pots. Two of them were already lit up. One of the fires was pure black and the other was brown.” Those sounded like the darkness and earth elements. “The other three weren’t lit, but two of them had embers burning inside of them. This princess didn’t get to see what colors they were because she was pulled over to the brown one.”

“That’s probably because you had taken an Elemental Enlightenment Pill for the earth element,” I said. However, her words struck me as odd.

We had discovered through some experimentation that Lin could also use my elements with a limited degree of success. Her affinity with lightning and water was not strong, however. She had about the same strength with them as someone who had reached the First State of Spiritualism.

Lin said there were three unlit fire pots, but she should have only received the lightning and water elements from me… unless she had also gained the wind element through my shared connection with Siv. Could that be it? I’d have to study this more later.

Lin didn’t say anything about that, but she did keep speaking.

“This princess wasn’t sure what to do for a while, but then she decided to stick her tail inside of the brown fire. When she did, it was like she had suddenly become encased in stone. No, it was like she had turned to stone. She felt the earth surrounding her and learned what it means to become one with the earth. It was like this princess’s awareness had suddenly expanded. It was a very weird feeling.”

“Becoming one with your element is always an unusual sensation at first,” I agreed. “So you did it? You reached the Third State of Spiritualism?”

“Heh heh. What do you think?”

Disentangling herself from me, Lin slithered a few meters away, then turned around and grinned. As she did, her body slowly turned brown, starting from the bottom and slowly traveling up. It was more than just a color change, however. As her body changed color, the texture and quality of her skin also changed. It looked like she had transformed into mud or sand.

Once this change had taken place, Lin sank into the ground. I almost thought she was Shadow Walking at first. Then I noticed the ground was rippling like a lake when you threw a rock into it and realized she was doing something altogether different. It was like she had merged with the earth.

Lin soon disappeared. I activated Spiritual Perception, trying to locate her, and I eventually did. She was right underneath me. The moment I found her, Lin’s tail suddenly emerged from the ground and tapped me on the shoulder before quickly traveling back into the ground. Lin emerged again seconds later. Then she transformed back into her normal, dark-skinned self.

The moment her body turned into flesh and blood, she slithered back onto my lap and hugged my neck again.

“This princess has done an excellent job, right? She reached the Third State of Spiritualism before anyone else and has become stronger than ever.”

“You have indeed,” I agreed.

“Then you should praise this princess a lot. This princess deserves—no, this princess demands you praise her.”

I almost snorted at how demanding Lin was being, but it wasn’t like this was an unusual occurrence. When Lin first started to manage the Nevarian Braves with me, she had demanded I praise her as well, and when she successfully did something for the first time, she would always demand I praise her even more.

And honestly, I didn’t mind giving it to her.

“You did an amazing job, Lin.” I held her tight and pressed my cheek against her soft black tresses. “You’re incredible. I love you so much.”

“Hee hee.”

Lin’s tail began thumping harder on the ground as she pressed herself against me. I chortled a little as I pressed my lips to her forehead.

Some time after Lin emerged from her subconscious, Siv also opened her eyes. Unlike Lin, no significant changes happened to Siv, but that was because she had already reached the Third State of Spiritualism. Even so, when I checked her through Spiritual Perception, I saw that the “flame” representing her Spiritual Power had become much denser and more potent. She’d obviously become a lot more intimate with her element.

Kari woke up after Siv. The only one who remained was Fay.

I asked about their experiences while they were inside of their subconscious. Kari said that her subconscious looked a sky that never reached the ground. In the center of this vast and endless sky was a single cloud surrounded by different several tornadoes. Only one of the tornadoes had color, a golden one that obviously represented her light element. The others were undoubtedly the inactive lightning and water elements from me.

Siv’s experience was similar, but unlike Kari and her vast sky, Siv’s subconscious was made up of whirlwinds that created numerous paths like tunnels. At the very center of these myriad paths was her Spiritual Core, which took on the shape of an ethereal dragon surrounded by stars. Like Lin, there were five stars. The green wind star was the only one active, but the yellow lightning star and blue water star had been glowing. That meant she should be able to activate them if she traveled into her subconscious again.

After Siv finished her explanation, an intense heat suddenly billowed from where Fay was sitting. The four of us turned to look at the redhead, who had transformed into a bonfire of orange, red, and blue flames. So intense was this heat that all of us began to sweat and even panic a little when we thought our futon might combust. However, despite the sweltering heat that made an uncomfortable sweat soak my clothes, the flames did not burn a single thing. It was like they had been perfectly contained.

A few minutes after her body burst into flames, Fay returned to normal, blinking several times as she looked down at her hands in awe. She turned her head toward us. Her bright green eyes were shining as a smile lit up her face.

“I did it,” she breathed out excitedly. “I reached the Third State of Spiritualism!”

“This princess knew you could do it.” Lin placed her hands on her hips, thrust out her chest, and laughed.

“I’m so happy for you, Fay.” Kari reached out and grabbed Fay’s hands, her bright smile matching the redhead’s. “We’re growing stronger day by day! Pretty soon, no one in Nevaria will be able to match us!”

“Yes.” Fay’s joy was understated, but the smile on her face was still quite wide.

I looked at the remaining Elemental Enlightenment Pills I had, then at the girls surrounding me. They were all chatting now, except for the quiet Siv who merely watched them with a smile, and I couldn’t help but feel like their joy was infectious.

I’d let them relax for a bit before we began training again. Once all of us had reached the Third State of Spiritualism with all the elements we had affinities for, we would travel to the Morkdypt Ravine.