Chapter 607: Senjutsu.
Victor was sitting in a cave with his eyes closed; he had an upright posture with his legs bent comfortably.
"This place is what we call 'Mother Earth's blood veins' or Ley lines if you prefer."
"The energy that circulates throughout the planet passes through here."
"Feel that energy around you, and try to pull that energy into your body-." Haruna stopped talking and opened her eyes wide as she felt the surrounding energy build up around Victor.
'So much energy!?'
"Strange... This energy seems quite familiar for some reason..." Victor spoke in a neutral tone that contained nostalgia.
Getting lost in the intoxicating sensation he was feeling in his body, Victor didn't notice what was going on around him.
The energy contained in that cavern was coming towards him like a son meeting his father after many years without contact.
The entire place was covered in a light green energy, and the 'energy' of life was entering Victor's body more densely than it was with Haruna.
'How is he not collapsing with so much energy?' Haruna couldn't understand the sight in front of her.
'Where? ... Where did I feel this energy before? What does this feel like?' Victor asked himself.
Falling deep into his own thoughts, he found himself in front of a tree that had blood-red leaves.
'Roxanne... Oh, I understand now... I don't need to 'steal' this energy from Earth... I already have it.'
Suddenly the green energy of life disappeared completely, and the flow returned to the cave as if nothing had happened.
"Huh!? He stopped absorbing it? Why?" Haruna's questions were answered with what happened next.
Pure red energy began to emanate from Victor's body.
'This is... Senjutsu! But it's completely different from mine! This energy is filled with murderous intent!' Haruna couldn't understand anything anymore.
It was clear to her that the energy Victor was using right now was Senjutsu, but this energy had the heavy feeling of pure killing intent and 'blood'. For a moment, it was as if Haruna was looking into a sea of blood.
But... Despite being so different, the feeling was the same. The energy wasn't evil or anything like that; it still had a bit of 'nature', and 'life'.
'This is weird! What is this!?' Haruna was utterly lost and speechless.
'... Why do I feel this energy is weaker than the Senjutsu I'm used to?'
While Haruna was going through an internal crisis due to not understanding anything, Victor was taken aback by a sudden voice in his head.
[Master!? you are finally using my energy actively!!] Roxanne's excited voice resounded throughout Victor's existence.
Victor screwed up his face a little, [Did you already know I could use this?]
[Umu? Of course! You could have used my energy right from the start! Remember that my soul is connected to yours, and I am nurturing your existence! You are my 'planet'! Hehehe~]
[... Why didn't you ever say I could use this?]
[I mean... Wasn't that obvious?] She answered in a sincere tone.
[Huh...?]
[Well, I thought Master knew from the beginning. When you used progenitor form, you always used some of my energy in your attacks, so I never questioned it. After all, I thought you already knew.]
"..." Victor felt like facepalming now.
[... So it was a lack of communication?]
[I think so... Anyway! Now that you're using my energy, we can better sync up! Try, try!]
[Sync up? Huh?]
[Umu, remember that the world tree feeds an entire planet. Without us, life cannot exist on the planet! Now, think about it, I'm 'feeding' passively, but we've never 'synchronized' before. After all, unlike a planet that has no consciousness, and I can do that without needing permission, Master needs to try to 'synchronize' with me !]
[How do I do this?]
[Only think about joining me! I'll do the rest!]
[Okay...]
Victor began to think about joining with Roxanne and felt Roxanne's 'existence' enter his mind.
'This feeling is like that time... That time I merged with Adonis...'
Suddenly, a wave of feelings and memories invaded Victor's being.
[Is this... Your memories?]
[We are synchronizing for the first time, and because of that, we are experiencing all the events of each other's existence. It's a passive process.]
"Ugh." Victor felt his whole body begin to ache.
[... Master!?]
[I'm fine, I just felt my whole body hurt like never before.] Victor felt like every inch of his body was being ripped into thousands of pieces. The only reason he didn't scream was that he went through something similar in Scathach's training, even though in that training, he never felt as much pain as he did now.
He felt it wasn't a physical pain but an existential pain... Like his soul was being attacked or something.
[This is normal, even though I'm young, I am a higher existence than you.]
Victor was a progenitor, the beginning of an entire race.
Roxanne was a world tree, the beginning of life for an entire planet; the two were beyond compare.
[In normal cases, if I did that, the person would disappear from existence.]
Victor felt a chill run down his spine.
[Hmm? No need to fear, Master! As the progenitor of vampires, your soul is massive ~. You can contain my existence easily! And as time passes, I will nurture your soul to make my home even more comfortable! Hehehe~]
Victor didn't know what to say when he saw that Roxanne was treating his body like her 'home'.
Minutes passed, and the two were still seeing each other's lives. In a simple to understand way, Roxanne's life was quite... monotonous.
For as long as she could remember, she had always been in that forest where he first found her, and the only emotions in her life were loneliness, sadness, joy, anger, fear, and happiness.
Joy when Big Guy was created, and she didn't have to be alone anymore, thus removing her loneliness.
Anger and a little fear when other beings entered their territory trying to hunt Big Guy. In one of these memories, even Scathach was present, although the woman just beat the gorilla and left him aside.
Existential fear when Vlad appeared in front of her for the first time with greedy eyes, fear when a group of beings appeared in front of her.
'That old man knew about Roxanne, huh... He probably wanted to do something similar to what happened to me?' Victor thought and continued to feel Roxanne's emotions.
She felt happiness, curiosity, and joy when she met Victor for the first time.
Unlike Roxanne's 'monotonous' life, Victor's life was more troubled mainly because of his 'disease', a disease caused by a rare blood called RH Null Blood.
She felt it all, the humiliation he felt when Luan Davis, his former bully, beat him, the helplessness of realizing how weak he was to help his mother.
The happiness he had in being with his childhood friends, the feeling of belonging to a 'place' when he met Leona, a girl who looked just like him.
All of Victor's experiences from when he was a baby to the present were felt by Roxanne.
Roxanne, who was in Victor's soul world, opened her eyes and looked at Alter Victor.
"I see… This is who my Master really is." She felt like she knew Victor even better now. She felt their connection grow stronger and become so close to each other that it was like they were the same being but, at the same time, separate.
She felt that she knew Victor even better than he did. After all, she saw memories that lay dormant in the deepest corners of Victor's being.
When beings grew up and matured, they tended to forget useless things, and only important events were stored, and the rest were hidden; this was a normal process.
If you ask a person; Hey, do you remember clearly what you did when you were 3 years old?
Most people will say they don't know or just say important events that happened.
But with Roxanne acting as a medium, she could access the deepest parts of Victor if she wanted to. But she couldn't change anything, and she could only bring up memories that Victor once forgot.
It was like she was a 'guide' to Victor's memories.
"That's how it is to synchronize..." It was a feeling like she was finally complete; it was intoxicating.
"I've always wondered what that energy was that we use from time to time, so that was your 'senjutsu', huh."
"Hmm, this is my energy. Energy I would have used to power a planet, but now I am feeding my beloved husband."
"I see… So that green energy is."
"Yes, the energy of the world tree of planet Earth."
"Because she's older, that energy is much denser than mine... And to think my husband needed another bitch to understand how to use my energy." Roxanne snorted jealously.
"Not wanting to defend the other me, but you didn't say anything."
"I thought you knew!"
"Why don't you try vocalizing when something important happens? Remaining silent does not help anyone."
"Ugh…you're right. I'll do that from now on."
Victor appeared next to Alter Victor.
"This place has changed a lot..." Victor looked around at what was a big red forest, he looked at the giant tree on the horizon, and then he looked at Roxanne:
"Weren't you at Nightingale?" Victor asked.
"I'm still in Nightingale. Properly speaking, only my projection is there. Remember, my main body is here; that giant tree is the real 'me'."
"I see. What now?"
"Huh?"
"I can use your Senjutsu."
"Yes," Roxanne nodded.
"… And?" Victor asked.
"Create new techniques?"
"...…"
"Do not look at me like that." Roxanne pouted, "Originally, my energy wasn't used for personal purposes. It was meant to power a planet."
"… So, trial and error again, huh."
"Yes." Roxanne nodded.
"Ugh."
"Hey, at least now that you can use my energy, you can use your inner vitality too."
"The so-called 'Ki', right? As that fox said… Although it would be counter-productive for you to use your vitality, after all, you have me here, just use 'Senjutsu' and ignore 'Ki'."
"I feel that our situation is not the same as Haruna's…" Victor muttered.
From what he understood, Haruna attracted nature's energy, [Senjutsu], and stored it in her body. That way, she could use her vitality [Ki] to produce techniques.
But this was a two-step process. She didn't use nature's energy directly since she first needed to 'filter' that energy so that it didn't damage her. With enough proficiency, Haruna said she could use Senjutsu directly, despite the fact that it tires the body more.
What happened here was the following: Victor skipped that whole step and went straight to the part where he uses Senjutsu.
... At least, that's how Victor understood his current situation.
"Of course not." Roxanne snorted disdainfully:
"While she's using energy remnants from Earth's world tree, you have your own personal world tree in your soul!"
Victor nodded. 'As expected, I was correct.'
"… And it is because of this unique situation that I am the first to be in, and since I am the first, this is uncharted ground."
"So Haruna can't teach me anything..." Victor gave Roxanne a blank look. He could already imagine the problem he would have in thinking of how to do something useful with this energy.
"...To be fair, this is Haruna's first time using 'Senjutsu' as well, so she couldn't teach you anything anyway."
"......" A hush fell around the group.
Victor visibly sighed, he came here with the intention of training, but he ended up discovering something of himself, and in the end, it turned out that the training was 'easy', but he acquired a new problem.
Since he was the only one he knew in this unique situation, he had to carve out an entire uncharted path by himself.
"Is there at least some passive benefit to having you sync with me?"
"Your body gets stronger passively, and all your stats are passively increased... Oh, you can use my powers too. You don't need Kaguya to act as a go-between."
'Hmm, that's good, but I feel like I'm going to have a lot of trouble regaining control of my body now.'
"What percentage is the passive raise? And what are your powers?" Victor asked.
"Answering in order, I don't know how much the passive increase is, and my powers are similar to yours."
"Oh?"
"I can control the souls I store, control the blood, something Alter Victor can do."
"Well, I am his Progenitor power." Alter Victor shrugged as if it were obvious.
"I can feed on negative feelings and corrupt beings like demons. I can sense the negative intentions of other beings, and this is something you can already do thanks to Aphrodite's love blessing, so this ability should only get more 'complete' and stronger now."
"Now, it will be even more difficult to hide something from me."
"Indeed. I can also control nature. More specifically, I can control the non-sentient 'Life' element."
"Trees, rocks, etc.?"
"Yes, in a simple way to understand, I can 'grow' them and manage them."
"Although I have a better affinity for plants, trees, and all plant life, basically everything 'Green' is under my control. This is an ability every world tree has."
"..." Victor was silent for a few seconds, and then he spoke as he nodded his head:
"Control of plant life." He could see potential in that, technically speaking, he could create his own food now, so his future non-vampire subordinates won't starve.
When Victor went to say something, he heard Alter saying:
"Pfft, Bitch, you're Hashirama now, Hahahaha! I'll call you a tree hugger now!"
Victor gave his counterpart a blank look and replied with a small smile:
"If the tree is as beautiful as my beloved wife, I don't care." He stared at Roxanne.
"...." Roxanne felt her face heat up, and a happy smile appeared.
"Smooth~, as expected of me! Natural playboy, Hahaha~!"
Suddenly Roxanne realized something, "Master, you mustn't!" She spoke with a very serious tone.
"… Huh?" Victor didn't understand anything.
"You must not hug another tree! I'm your only world tree! I will not allow another! I don't want to share space with another bitch!"
"......" Victor really didn't know how to answer that. He wanted to say that it's not easy to find another world tree, they literally are unique species, and there's only one for each planet, and even on the planet, it's difficult to find that tree. After all, they hide by nature.
'Wait, is it actually two? I know that Roxanne has an older sister who is responsible for the 'positivity' of the Nightingale planet.'
"I'll go back now. I need to explain what happened to Haruna. I feel like she's going crazy from so many strange things happening."
"Umu, I will create a shrine for the fairies! If you need me, just say so!"
"Hmm, keep me posted."
"Sir, Yes, Sir!"
Before Victor could disappear, Roxanne hugged Victor and kissed him.
"Hhm!?" Victor was taken aback, but quickly, he hugged the woman and returned the kiss.
Two minutes after their tongues battling, Roxanne pulled away, her face red and her expression seductive, as she licked her lips a little and looked at Victor with dreamy eyes:
"A kiss from your wife for good luck, hehehe~." She laughed as she disappeared.
Victor laughed lovingly. His wife was so cute.
.....
