“So, what was the cost of their arrogance,” I asked, trying to ignore the fact that I had detected another Divine spark in the room, though I had no idea about the exact location. The confirmation about the existence of the gods —not to mention a tale of war between the mortals and immortals— was revolutionary enough to earn my full attention.
“Yeah, humans got arrogant, big surprise,” she murmured, giving a statement that would have surprised me if I hadn’t already discovered her true identity. “The Eternals decided that since they were able to banish one of the strongest demonic gods from the material plane, they thought that they could replicate the feat. They started to target the other gods…”
“And I’m going to take a wild guess and say that gods didn’t appreciate that,” I said mockingly.
“No, they did not, especially when they decided to weaponize the leftover divinity from the destruction of the Avatar and the Divine war began,” she continued, struggling to keep her tone even, but unable to keep a small hint of emotion infecting her tone, a certain wistfulness, leading me to take a wild guess that she wasn’t actually lived through the war. It was more of an instinctual guess than anything concrete, but at this point, I had learned to trust my instincts on the subject of female emotions.
The more important topic, however, was to decide how much I needed to fake. I could have acted as I knew about her historical facts like I knew about the mysterious organization, but there was one big problem in that. There were too many opportunities for her to slip an inaccurate statement to test me. One wrong nod would be enough to unravel my utter lack of historical knowledge.
“Interesting, and how does the System link to that,” I asked, not hiding my curiosity, basically admitting that I knew little about history. Also, I knew that doing so would have lessened the weight of my own organization greatly, but that was not all bad. If she reduced the threat level of my imaginary organization, she might push harder to recruit me. And as much as I was afraid of being
“You don’t know?” she asked, though, at this point, I was familiar enough with her fake voice to recognize the fakeness of her surprise. Apparently, she was already suspecting the limited nature of my knowledge.
“Not particularly, no,” I answered. “My organization is not really keen on the history, more focused on protecting our little corner of the world from meddling busybodies like the Eternals, and a few other small groups,” I said. Technically, it was the truth. We, as in me and the girls, were trying to protect our little corner, Silver Spires, from the busybodies that fell under the flag of Eternals and Necromancers.
“I see,” she said, but this time, her voice smoothed out a bit. “And have you thought about my offer? I can give you power.”
I decided to accept, and started adding another small detail to my fake soul space. A copy of the Companion Node that I gifted to the girls, but one that was around twenty percent completion. My words, however, differed. “I have, but unfortunately, I need to say no?”
“What, why?” she gasped, this time, her shock completely genuine. Apparently, she was thinking that after all the effort I had put in, it was a done deal.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m willing to fight at the same side with you. Between undead hordes and monster hordes, the enemy is clearly evil,” I said, but then, I paused as I gestured my surroundings. “But I’m not sure just how better are you, soaked in darkness. We both know that the nature of magic usage is not a one-way road. Being soaked in darkness for who knows how long, how could I be sure that you’re any better than the liches that sieging the school. How can I be sure that there’s not another lich under your robes.”
She said nothing for a moment, thinking my words, while I committed fully on my bluff. I made a show of gathering my mana, purest I could manage, fire elemental mashed with a generous serving of life magic, essentially the bane of undead, not only selling my hatred against undead, but it was also the most similar magic I could cast similar to light magic, at least in terms of the sensation.
Of course, the whole point of my fake standoff relied on the fact that I had learned about her true identity, something even Titania wasn’t aware of. I was essentially positioning myself as everything that stood against the undead and the fake personality she had created to hide her true identity. I had one objective.
To force her to reveal her true face to gain my alliance.
It wasn’t that I wanted to see her beautiful face rather than her cloaked body. While that would have been fun, the knowledge that what lay underneath those robes, while she thought that I knew nothing about the truth of it, had its own warped thrill.
She had been hiding her face for almost two centuries —at least— from everyone —possibly except a few select people, but even that was not a certainty. I wanted her to reveal her true nature before speaking, because it would break a comfortable layer of subterfuge she had been relying on for centuries, making it much easier to take at least partial control of our discussions.
“Are you sure you want to make that decision just because of my darkness,” she said, the darkness suddenly intensifying, the aura slamming against me like a rabid monster, enough to scare me if I hadn’t known that she was pushing her limits to handle the darkness just to intimidate me.
My face stiffened as I flared my purest life energy against her aura, actively burning mana rather than just yielding it.
[-315 Mana]
If she had been an undead like her cover was alluding to, she might have reacted to that as an actual attack. Instead, she stood motionless as I pushed back the darkness to a degree that I started stirring the Divine Spark of Darkness once more. It was angry.
She must have realized that reaction as well, because the pressure disappeared immediately, and the life energy filled the room, her body as the only exception as her robes created an impenetrable barrier for it. It was easy to assume that her robe was reinforced against pure energies to protect her. Luckily, I knew that it was just to hide her true nature.
I slowly let my implied attack go, relaxing once more as she stood motionless, no doubt thinking how to handle my sudden hard stance. Just to push her even more out of balance, I once again leaned back and crossed my legs. “Do you have any tea?” I suddenly asked.
“What?” she gasped in shock, not even using her raspy fake tone properly, but I didn’t act like I noticed that.
“A cup of tea? At least a glass of water? Offering refreshments is a part of being a good hostess, you know. You might not feel the need to consume anything, but it doesn’t apply to us poor living.”
“I … see,” she murmured, this time, her voice properly fake-scary. “If I’m understanding correctly, your whole objection comes from my nature as undead.”
“Well, either that, or a mage seeped in darkness,” I quickly jumped, like I was trying to plug a loophole. “Your status as technically alive wouldn’t change a lot, a living mind clouded with darkness is not too different from the rotten brain of an undead.”
The silence stretched once more. Then, she stood up as the room filled with the anticipation of power, hovering like a dark shadow as she walked around her desk, standing in front of me, but this time, it was not the suffocating sense of darkness. It wasn’t the pure light I had watched her use either. The most accurate description would be the sensation just before the storm, thick and suffocating, replicating the calm before the storm, like she was giving me one last chance before evaporating me from the face of the earth.
I had to admit, it was an amazing ploy, one that would have made me retreat under any other circumstances. Instead, I raised my fist, and started gathering life energy, confident that it wouldn’t trigger a panic reaction from her.
What kind of angel would be scared of pure mana of life, after all.
She confirmed that decision by stretching our standoff, trying to unbalance me as much as possible before the big reveal. “One last chance,” she said with a nightmare-fuel voice.
I just smirked, but it wasn’t my flirty smile. No, that smirk conveyed my desire to live, but also my determination to never bow to anyone else. Unlike my previous expressions, it wasn’t a fake one. Since the first taste of power, I strived for my independence, and no amount of fake necromancer tricks could convince me to abandon my freedom.
Not even a sexy angel could… I was free, now and forever.
My dark smirk seemed to convince her about my determination, because she reached to her hood, and with a flick, she threw it back. Two beautiful wings burst open behind at the same time, shining with a thick wave of pure energy, similar to Titania’s light magic, yet at the same time, utterly different.
Her pure magic filled the room, even infusing my magic, but surprisingly, not invading my soul space, not even the fake one.
“How about now?” she asked, the fake raspy tone abandoned in favor of her beautiful melodic voice, one that would have left me in awe and trigger my desire to worship…
“Wow,” I murmured like I was dazed, and she stood confident, assuming that her amazing reveal was enough to guarantee my surrender. I smirked at her once more, but it wasn’t the previous one that declared my undying will. No, it was my best flirty smirk, enhanced by the full weight of my charisma. “You’re so cute.”
I would forever cherish the memory of her expression sliding from perfect confidence into a stammering mess, a sudden blush covering her cheeks. On the range of expressions she had expected, being flirted was clearly not a part of it. “W-what?” she stammered as her beautiful eyes widened, displaying their beautiful yet ethereal silver color, matching her wings.
Though, with her face blushing like a schoolgirl, she looked significantly less ethereal, even compared to her naked state.
I stood up, slowly reached and caressed her chin softly, and pulled back while she flinched in shock. “Well, you’re cute,” I repeated, not bothering the amused warmth in my voice. I wasn’t planning to push her that much, but also, I wasn’t expecting my flirting to work that effectively. The best I expected was a momentary flush which I could convert into a small advantage, not a complete collapse like an innocent girl kept away from people by an over-protective family. “I wasn’t expecting to find such a cute angel underneath those robes, color me surprised.”
“I…” she started, only to fade into silence, too flustered to say anything.
“You, what?” I said as I stood just a foot away from her, enjoying her moment of shy silence far more than I should have. After days of trying to get a handle on her, breaking her through flirting definitely wasn’t what I had been expecting. I decided to push her even more. “So, why don’t you get rid of that ugly robe and we can continue our discussion,” I said as I took a step back and took a seat.
“W-what?” she stammered once more, trying to process my words.
“Well, since you’re an angel, I expect you have more thematically appropriate clothes under that ugly black robe. Just finish your reveal and we can continue our very important discussion,” I said. “Unless you’re going commando and have nothing under that robe,” I added, making sure that it came across as a dismissive joke.
She said nothing, or more accurately, she couldn’t say anything, too busy trying to replicate a ripening apple as a blush covered her face while her shocking magical display came to a stop suddenly. She took a step back and stumbled over her desk. She didn’t fall, but not because of her legs. She actually flapped her wings gently to prevent herself from falling. She just looked at me, shocked.
“Okay, I wasn’t expecting you to be going commando, how naughty of you?” I said while she sat on her desk, a dazed expression on her face. “So, since we solved the issue of you being a necromancer, should we continue to discuss the terms of an alliance.” My smirk widened even further. “I vote for a close one…”
[Level: 30 Experience: 447193 / 465000
Strength: 41 Charisma: 53
Precision: 35 Perception: 37
Agility: 35 Manipulation: 40
Speed: 34 Intelligence: 44
Endurance: 34 Wisdom: 46
HP: 5370 / 5370 Mana: 6600 / 6600 ]
SKILLS
Master Melee [100/100]
Master Tantric [100/100]
Master Biomancy [100/100]
Master Elemental [100/100]
Master Arcana [100/100]
Master Subterfuge [97/100]
Expert Speech [70/75]
Advanced Craft [50/50]
PERKS
Mana Regeneration
Skill Share
Empowerment (1/1)
Teleportation
COMPANIONS
[Cornelia - Level 21/25]
[Helga - Level 17/21]
