WIEDERGEBURT Act III: Chapter 65

After the battle against Leviathan, I was discovered unconscious by a worried Lorelei, who’d apparently gone out after I didn’t return for several days. According to her, I had been found washed up on one of the islands in this archipelago.

My body had been pretty battered, which I expected. Not only had I fought against an S-rank Demon Beast, but I had also been crushed by an entire sea’s worth of water. I think it was more miraculous that I was alive at all. However, my body had been heavily refined and enhanced by alchemy pills, so I was admittedly a lot more durable than most. That must have been why I survived.

The Merfolk were overjoyed when I told them that I had slain Leviathan. The entire group had celebrated for most of the week. They had also forced me to join them in their celebration, though I tried my best not to get involved with them too much. I didn’t plan on staying here.

At my request, the Merfolk found the Leviathan corpse and brought it to me, which took almost ten days. The Leviathan corpse was huge. It must have been about as large as the smallest island on this archipelago. Even after they had hauled it onto the shore, the creature’s massive frame was only about a tenth visible, while the rest was located underwater.

I didn’t let that bother me as I began the process of salvaging its body for usable ingredients and parts. With the help of the Merfolk, I was able to strip the beast of its skin, claimed its monster core, cleaned its bones, and gained a lot of meat. The process itself took about a month because of how large this Demon Beast was.

Most of the processed meat and bones were not going to me. My storage ring didn’t have enough space and I couldn’t carry all that back to the continent with me. I took only the monster core, some of its ribs, a few strips of hide, and one of its eyes. However, its eye was about the same size as me and its ribs were two to three times bigger than me. I had to use my water element to process the eye into a liquid form. The ribs I ground down into a powder that I placed in multiple bottles. Both of these ingredients would be incredibly useful when I was refining pills.

The day after the Leviathan was broken down, I informed King Neptune that I would be leaving and asked if he could tell me the location of the Six-Headed Water Serpent. My plan was to immediately go after the Demon Beast, then head back to the continent and refine my second Yin-Yang Spiritual Enhancement Pill.

“Why don’t you stay for the night and celebrate with us before you go?” asked King Neptune. “You’ll want to be well-rested for your journey anyway, correct? Use this chance to relax before you move on again.”

“Well...”

I was hesitant to stay. Not only was I no longer what I would call a people person, but there was a very big reason for me not to stay—and she was hiding behind her father.

Lorelei was staring at me with a worried expression and a fierce blush. She’d been gazing at me this way for quite a while now. Whenever she thought I wasn’t looking, her eyes would turn toward me and that blush would spread across her pale cheeks.

I wasn’t stupid. It might have been a long time since I’d really interacted with people until meeting her and the other Merfolk, but I was at least smart enough to recognize when someone had feelings for me.

The problem was that I didn’t feel the same way. I didn’t love this girl. She was a nice person, and I think she had a lot going for her, and I would even recognize her beauty, but I didn’t love her. She wasn’t Kari. Out of all the people I had known, the only person who’d worked her way into my heart after Kari passed on was the mysterious cloaked women who saved me.

What’s more, I had my own goals to accomplish. I was going to kill the Great Overlord of the Seventh Plain, and then I was going to find a nice spot where I could slowly pass on. This world didn’t have anything I wanted. A world without Kari was not a world I cared to live in. That was why I planned on dying after I killed the Great Overlord of the Seventh Plain.

Still…

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to spend one more night,” I said with a sigh.

“You hear that!” King Neptune said as he turned to the rest of his people, all of whom were bobbing in the water as I stood on the shore. “We’re having another party tonight!”

“OOOSSSSSUUUUU!!!”

A great cheer went up. I sighed again.

Preparations for the party began immediately after I agreed to stay. It was quite interesting to see how the Merfolk prepared their food. Despite being aquatic creatures, they had a similar pallet to my own, and the meat they ate needed to be cooked. However, they didn’t grill or bake food like I did. Instead, they used their unique water manipulation abilities to steam the food. They put any food they had inside of large clams, closed them up, and then boiled the water inside until it became steam to thoroughly cook the food that way.

It was very impressive.

It also gave me ideas.

The party was soon underway, and I found myself sitting on a small boulder beside the bay, eating a variety of shellfish that had been steamed alongside numerous types of underwater vegetables. I would admit the flavor was a lot different from anything I’d eaten before. The vegetables had a saltiness that came from being grown under the sea. It mixed in with the shellfish’s fishy flavor. The food had also been steamed with a type of butter, which served to compliment to cuisine.

As I was eating, a pair of eyes hit the back of my head. I sighed.

“Would you like to join me?” I asked.

A soft squeak escaped Lorelei’s mouth as I turned my head and looked at the girl. Her pink hair floated on the water’s surface as she bobbed with the waves. The blush had spread across her cheeks and most of her face now. However, after a moment’s hesitation, she nodded and used her incredible tail to leap out of the water. She landed on the ground, then climbed onto the boulder I was using as a seat.

“Here.”

I held out my hand. Lorelei’s heavily flushed face somehow became an even deeper shade of red as she took my hand, but I ignored it and pulled her up.

As I went back to eating my food, Lorelei stared at me with an expression that made it very hard for me not to grimace. That combination of adoration and longing would have probably made most men cave. However, all I felt was a sense of resignation.

“Are you… really leaving tomorrow?” she finally asked.

“Yes.” I nodded before popping a shrimp into my mouth. After swallowing it, I continued. “The reason I came all the way out here was because I needed to find an S-rank Demon Beast with a water element and the Six-Headed Water Serpent. Once I’ve slain that serpent and salvaged it for parts, I plan on traveling back to the Demon Beast Mountain Range.”

“Why do you need to go back?” she asked.

“Because I have goals I need to accomplish that I can’t accomplish if I stay here.”

“Oh…”

Silence lapsed between us. When I glanced at Lorelei, I found her shoulders had slumped and even those strange, fin-like ears had turned down as though disappointed.

I did feel a little bad about leaving like this, but I also knew that this was for the best.

“It would probably be a good idea if you forgot about me after I leave,” I said.

“H-how can you say that?!” Lorelei asked in shock. “There’s no way I could ever forget about you! You saved my people! Also, I…”

As the girl blushed once more and looked away, I sighed again. Stealing my emotions, I mentally prepared myself to play the villain.

“What you feel for me right now is simply a case of adoration brought about by hero worship. It isn’t real,” I said. “When I leave, you’ll eventually realize that what you felt for me was just a shallow crush. The sooner you realize that, the easier it will be on you.”

“That… why are you saying this? How could you… say something so mean?”

Lorelei looked like I’d just struck her in the face, but I kept a careful lid on my own emotions, merely shrugging my shoulders and continuing to eat. The expression on Lorelei’s face shifted from appalled to anger mixed with betrayal. Tears stung her eyes.

“I never realized you could be so horrible,” she muttered bitterly before jumping back into the water with a splash. I watched her swim away and sighed again. I felt like I’d been sighing a lot lately thanks to that girl.

Silence returned to my spot, but it was only for a moment before King Neptune swam over to me. Unlike his daughter, he used his muscular upper body strength to climb on the boulder himself and sat down beside me. He didn’t say anything at first. I didn’t know if he was waiting for me to speak, or if he was gathering his thoughts, but I also remained silent.

“Thank you for doing that,” he said at last. “I know it must have been difficult.”

I shrugged. “Difficult or not, what I said is also true. I can’t be what Lorelei wants me to be, nor am I the person she seems to think I am. It is better if she does not become anymore involved with me than she already is, especially since I plan on leaving tomorrow.”

“I understand, and I agree. However...” King Neptune turned to me with a small half-smile on his face. “It was still hard, wasn’t it? Being mean to a girl who genuinely cares for you, I mean.”

The only response I gave to King Neptune was to click my tongue and looked away.

***

The days passed by as our group journeyed through the Demon Beast Mountain Range. We traversed numerous locations in our quest to find the ingredients necessary for the Elemental Enlightenment Pill and the Yin-Yang Spiritual Enhancement Pill.

Our first stop was a cavern located several dozen kilometers from the ruins where we had discovered the giant Warp Gate. The cavern was naturally formed from lava. The mountain they were located beneath had been an active volcano centuries ago. Down in the lowest depths of these caverns lived an S-rank Demon Beast known as Behir. It was a powerful creature with an earth affinity. Like all S-rank Demon Beasts, it had naturally reached the Fourth State of Spiritualism after centuries of life.

We did not go down that far. While I eventually planned on fighting this creature for its monster core, our goal for the trip was life elixir, which was located in a side passage closer to the surface.

Life elixir was a misnomer since it wasn’t actually an elixir, but rather, a spring that had been refined and cultivated over thousands of years. It did not create water like normal springs. Having soaked in the minerals from the earth and been heated from the lava underneath the earth’s surface, the liquid was a natural healing medicine that could cure even grievous injuries. It had the appearance of a naturally made fountain. Bubbling from the center of this fountain was the reddish liquid.

“So this is what we’re looking for?” Kari asked with a curious gleam in her eyes.

“Yes.” I nodded and summoned several bottles from my storage ring. “This is the life elixir, which is a necessary component for the Elemental Enlightenment Pill. We can also use it for other purpose, however. After we jar several samples, the five of us should soak in the spring and absorb the pure medicinal essence of the life elixir. It will further refine our bodies and increase our Spiritual Power.”

“How much of this life elixir do we need?” asked Fay.

“We shouldn’t take too much,” I said as I passed around the bottles. “It is important to only take what we need and leave the rest, so let’s fill twelve bottles worth, then soak in the springs before leaving.”

“This princess wonders what soaking in a life elixir spring will feel like.” Lin was practically quivering with anticipation as she slithered over to the spring, which honestly wasn’t very big. I’d say it was about ten meters in diameter. “She can’t wait to jump in.”

“We’ll have to clean ourselves before we get in,” I warned her. “If we jump in with our bodies dirty like this, we could contaminate the spring.”

“T-this princess knew that,” Lin stuttered.

“Then why does it look like you’re about to jump in right now?” asked Kari.

“S-she was not! This princess was just looking!”

Everyone aside from the pouting Lin had bit of a laugh, but we quickly got to work. After filling up twelve bottles with life elixir, the five of us removed our clothes and helped wash each other off. We made sure to thoroughly clean all the dirt from our bodies. I even took the time to run a wet rag through Kari’s, Fay’s, and Siv’s toes just to make sure we were clean of dirt and did the same for Lin’s scales.

I stepped into the life elixir spring with the others and sat down. The spring felt nothing like a normal spring, or even a mineral bath at the Whiterun Hot Springs Resort. Filled with enough nutrients to be considered a Grade-8 medicinal ingredient, the life elixir felt thick, almost gelatinous, as it seeped into our bodies.

“This feels weird,” Lin muttered as her shoulders squirmed. “It feels like this spring is seeping between my scales.”

“I can actually feel the raw medicinal strength of the spring soaking into my skin,” Fay added with a look of awe. “It reminds me of when I used to take a bath with the Body Forging Pills you made for me, except this spring feels ten or even twenty times stronger.”

Nodding, I said, “the Body Forging Pills are made from common ingredients and cannot even compare to the life elixir.”

As we spoke, I closed my eyes and began actively absorbing the nutrients by creating a sucking force with my Spiritual Power. The girls realized what I was doing, and soon after, all five of us were absorbing the nutrients rapidly. Since the spring wasn’t very big, it didn’t take too long before we absorbed almost all the medicinal properties from the spring.

“Are you sure this was a good idea?” asked Fay after we finished getting dressed.

“You mean absorbing all the nutrients from the spring?” I asked. When she nodded, I smiled and shook my head. “Don’t worry. We only absorbed what was in the pool itself. The actual life elixir is created underneath the spring. The spring will naturally refill itself over time. I only had us not take more than we needed because the life elixir needs to mix with the water of the spring.”

“Oh...” Fay’s eyes lit up in understanding.

“Anyway, we should head out now,” I said.

Everyone else agreed, and we left the cavern to begin traveling west. Our next goal was the valley where the liv petals were located. It took about five days to reach on foot. We managed to make it fairly quickly thanks to my Spiritual Perception, which I had increased the range of thanks to soaking in the life elixir.

Liv petals were bright red blossoms that were the same size as a young child of about three or four.  They were a Grade-6 medicinal ingredient, so they were decently rare. However, whenever they grew anywhere, they did so in fields, so if you were lucky enough to stumble across one, then it meant you had stumbled across several dozen or even several hundred.

These liv petals were guarded by an A-rank Demon Beast with a light affinity—Lysbjørn, a giant, bear-like creature that was about seven heads taller than us. It was covered from head to toe in thick, yellow fur. A muzzle full of sharp teeth and glowing white eyes made it seem like a vicious yet divine entity. The claws on its hands were bright white as though they had absorbed and stored sunlight.

Our group stood at the edge of its perception, hiding within the treeline just outside the entrance to the valley. We were sitting in a circle as Kari discussed our plan of action.

“Eryk, what sort of abilities does the Lysbjørn have?”

“Aside from its incredible brute strength, it can fire massive beams of light from its mouth, which have the power to incinerate a person on the spot. Its claws can also release light-based Spiritual Attacks. When it swipes its claws, four crescent blades of light will shoot out. Both are long-range attacks. Those are the only two powers it possesses, fortunately,” I explained.

“I believe we should draw the Lysbjørn away from the liv petals,” Fay said. “It would be bad if we fought it here and they ended up being destroyed.”

“I agree with you.” Nodding, Kari thought for a moment before making a plan. “Since I have a light affinity, I should be able to block its attacks. I will confront it, draw its attention, and then lead it away from the liv petals. I want Lin and Fay to lie in wait and ambush the creature after I’ve drawn it out. Lin will use her earth element to trap its movements, and then Fay will use her fire element to finish it off.”

“What if it withstands my attack?” asked Fay.

“Then I’ll finish it off,” Kari said, to which Fay nodded in acceptance.

“Should I help?” asked Siv.

Kari hummed in thought before slowly shaking her head. “I’d like you to be our backup. If the situation gets out of hand, or if the Lysbjørn proves to be too strong for us, I’ll be relying on you to step in and take care of it, but I would like to see if we can do this ourselves.” Siv nodded to show that she understand. Kari turned to me. “In the meantime, you can grab the liv petals.”

“Leave that to me,” I said. “You girls be careful, okay?”

“Don’t worry. We will,” Kari said, giving me a confident smile.

***

Kari took several calming breaths as she hid behind a large rock at the edge of the valley. With her heart thundering in her chest like a battering ram, she peered around the rock and looked down at the Lysbjørn. It was just sitting there. She’d been observing it for several minutes, and all it seemed to do was sit, lay down, and lounge. From her observations, it didn’t seem very dangerous.

But it was still an A-rank Demon Beast.

After taking a moment to mentally prepare herself, Kari leapt out from behind the rock, gathered her Spiritual Power, and thrust her weapon forward. Since she had reached the Third State of Spiritualism, she no longer needed to use movements and dances to create Spiritual Techniques. She could manipulate the element directly.

A large beam of white energy lanced out of her ranseur, seared the atmosphere as it crossed the distance between her and the Lysbjørn, and struck the Demon Beast in the side.

A loud roar resounded around the valley as the Lysbjørn fell to the ground with a heavy thud. An explosion of light and energy caused a brilliant flare to light up, nearly blinding Kari, who quickly used her own affinity for light to shield her eyes. She watched as the Lysbjørn stood up and turned toward her. Its glowing white eyes were filled with rage at being attacked.

“GROAR!!!”

As the Lysbjørn charged toward her on all fours, Kari turned around and began running, leaving the valley behind and traveling toward the ambush point. She rushed past trees. Loud crashing behind her told Kari that her enemy was not even bothering to run around the trees. It slammed into them, felling trees left and right as it chased after her.

The ambush point was just past the small sea of trees. It was at the bottom of a small ravine, which was covered in shadows and earth, which would help enhance Lin’s powers. That was why they had chosen it. As she ran through the ravine, she looked at a ledge located halfway between the top and bottom, where Fay, Lin, and Siv were standing.

She ran past the trio above her, then spun around and twirled her ranseur around her body as though she was preparing to make a stand. The Lysbjørn continued rushing toward her. It didn’t seem to care about anything but killing the person who had injured it.

It never saw the girls above it.

“GWOAR?!”

A surprised sounding roar escaped its mouth as the earth suddenly rose around it on all sides, trapping the creature. It struggled to break free, but then shadows latched onto its body as well, further hampering its ability to move.

Kari thought they had trapped it pretty well, and that Fay would be able to take care of it now, but then the creature seemed to bulge under the constraints. Alarm bells flashed through Kari’s mind seconds before light gathered in its mouth. The Lysbjørn was going to fire off one of those light beams Eryk had mentioned!

Barely a second before it fired off the beam, Kari gathered Spiritual Power into the tip of her weapon and swung it. At that exact moment, the beam shot forth and slammed into her ranseur. The attack was so powerful that Kari skidded along the ground. However, she also managed to slice straight through the beam of light, which separated into two halves, striking the cliff walls on either side of her and detonating with an explosive power that pushed at her back.

Since their initial plan was obviously not going to work, Fay dropped down from above. She spun her body like a top to gather Spiritual Power into her fist. Fire gathered around her right hand, quickly taking the shape of a giant dragon head, which she slammed on top of the Lysbjørn’s skull. The Flame Dragon Fist seemed to roar as it struck the Demon Beast, engulfing it in flames so hot that sweat broke out on Kari’s skin.

Fay had her Spiritual Aura activated to protect her from the heat. After pushing her fist into the Lysbjørn’s head as hard as she could, the redhead used the resulting momentum to shove herself into a flip and landed on the ground behind the Lysbjørn.

As the Lysbjørn struggled to put out the flames on its fur, Lin slithered down from above, landed on the ground, and launched herself at the Demon Beast like a coiled spring. Dark purple claws extended from her nails. They were at least several dozen centimeters long. Without a moment’s hesitation, she swung her claws at the still on fire Lysbjørn. Her claws easily sliced through its flesh, tearing away chunks of skin and splitting its body open like an overripe fruit.

Blood gushed from the Lysbjørn’s wounds as it roared in agony and anger. It tried to swipe at Lin, but Fay used the Flash Step to move between them and raised her gauntlet covered hands to protect herself.

She may have underestimated the Demon Beast’s strength. Despite being injured, the attack was strong enough to send her flying backward, though she was able to flip her body around and land on her feet.

As she skidded across the ground, Kari used the Flash Step to appear before the Lysbjørn and attacked it with her light-infused ranseur. She thrust her weapon forward, seeking to penetrate the Demon Beast’s flesh, but the creature was far more nimble than she gave it credit for. It used its claws to knock her weapon away and moved back to gain distance. Not only did it have a surprisingly nimble body, but it had an instinctual sense of tactics.

That was troublesome.

While it backed up, it had completely forgotten about Lin, who stamped her tail against the ground and manipulated the earth to rise behind it. She only raised it a bit, just enough to trip their opponent up. The Lysbjørn struck the raised earth with the back of its foot and fell onto its back with an earth-shaking crash.

Kari and Fay used that moment to attack. They leapt into the air, boosted their height with the Jump Step, and descended toward the Lysbjørn. The creature raised its clawed arms in an attempt to block them both. However, Kari used the light element in conjunction with her ranseur to knock back its claw strikes. She spun her ranseur around, meeting claw with blade and keeping its hands occupied.

It didn’t even get the chance to see Fay, much less stop her.

Fay descended just a little behind Kari. Her fists were tucked into her torso and powerful blue flames were encasing her hands, creating heat waves that distorted the air. The burning scent of ozone filled Kari’s nose as she continued to keep the Lysbjørn’s hands occupied. While she did this, Fay finally descended and thrust both fists at the Demon Beast’s head.

A massive pillar of blue fire erupted immediately after her strike, growing larger by the second, until it had reached a height of at least several dozen meters. The heat was so intense that the area around them became sweltering hot. Even the ground underneath the Lysbjørn turned red and began bubbling as it melted.

Kari and Fay leapt back to get some distance, and to avoid getting burned. Lin slithered over to join them while Siv flew down from above and landed at their side.

At that moment, the pillar finally died down and revealed the grizzled remains of the Lysbjørn. Now headless, its body had turned black from the heat. It looked like its insides had been charred. The bubbling magma had also created a small pool, which its body was sinking into.

More than the sight, the scent was quite putrid. The smell of burnt fur and flesh filled Kari’s nose and made her want to gag. She wish she’d thought to bring a cloth covered in perfume that she could stick up her nose during moments like this, but the thought had sadly not occurred to her until just now.

“That was a little harder than I thought it would be, but we did it.” Kari smiled at her companions. “I think we work great together.”

“We do make a good team,” Fay allowed with a small smile.

“That much is obvious.” Lin crossed her arms and nodded. “With this princess helping you two out, it was only a matter of time before that monster fell.”

“Indeed,” Kari said with an amused smile. “We couldn’t have accomplished anything without Lin.”

“Why does that smile make it look like you are indulging this princess in some make believe fantasy?” asked a suspicious Lin with narrowed eyes.

“No reason,” Kari replied airily.

While Lin looked both sulky and happy at being teased, Fay gestured toward the Demon Beast. “What should we do with this? It would be a shame to let its remains rot, but I’m not sure we can salvage parts from it unless we can do something about the lava.”

“I can help you with that,” Siv said.

The dragon girl stepped forward and summoned a breeze that washed over the ground and cooled the magma until it dried. Then she walked up to it. However, after taking a glance at the grotesque remains, she quickly walked back over to them and looked at Fay, her face green. The redhead correctly interpreted the girl’s plea and turned to Lin.

“Can you use the earth element to dig the Lysbjørn out of the ground now that the earth has hardened?”

“Leave it to this princess! She’ll have that beast out quicker than you can say Demon Beast!”

Lin manipulated the earth to crumble away from the Lysbjørn and created a raised platform that made it easier for Fay to study the beast. Kari wanted to offer her help, but the keen eye at which Fay observed the Demon Beast made her hold her tongue.

Fay soon produced a carving knife from her storage ring, which she used to begin cutting away at the Lysbjørn’s body. She first peeled back the skin, revealing the blackened insides, then began slowly carving through its muscles and fat.

Siv turned around and rushed behind a rock. Puking sounds emerged from behind it seconds later. Kari understood how she felt. She was also feeling queasy watching this, but she was strangely entranced by how skilled Fay was at reducing the Demon Beast to usable parts.

“The flesh and hide are unsalveagable,” Fay said as she finished separating the Lysbjørn into flesh, meat, bones, and organs. “However, the claws, teeth, and monster core are still good. I also managed to contain a vial of blood, which we can use to create the Elemental Enlightenment Pill for the light element.”

“You’re really good at salvaging Demon Beasts,” Kari said in awe.

Fay’s cheeks turned a little red as she shrugged. “Eryk and I believe that I had picked up this skill in my previous life.”

“Oh. That would make sense.” Kari nodded as Fay sealed up the usable remains inside a storage ring. “Since we finished up here, we should head back to the valley. I’m pretty sure Eryk is also done with his task.”

“You’re probably right,” Fay agreed.

With a nod to each other, they went over to Siv, who was still sadly dry heaving, and helped the poor dragon girl to her feet. They washed her hair because she’d gotten some vomit on it and helped clean her face. Fay also gently apologized for being so brutal on the Demon Beast. She believed it was her fault Siv had ended up like this, but their companion shook her head.

“Do not worry. I must… get used to this,” Siv said.

“I would rather you not have to,” Fay sighed, “but I guess you bring up a good point.”

While they were helping the dragon girl, Lin crossed her arms and pouted at the group.

“Are you three going to get a move on, or should this princess leave without you?”

“We’re coming!” Kari said.

After helping Siv to her feet, the three girls caught up with Lin and made their way back toward the valley of liv petals.