"So…."
Eren tried to sum things up.
"You are now nearly immortal. You don't have to eat or sleep. And in exchange, you won't get to have kids or cast spells normally. Sounds like a good deal to me."
Eren said and smirked at Alephee. Alephee had a smile of her own before replying.
"I was immortal before I occupied this Homunculus body, Eren. This is actually a downgrade for me. To be honest, being turned into a homunculus was not something I wanted. This is only a necessity so that I can guide you better.
After all, my existence is tied to you. And I'd have to prepare you if I ever want to get back to the place I belong."
Alephee's voice was serious and sounded more like resolve. She stopped walking and turned toward Eren. Then she began levitating about five meters in the air from the ground.
Alephee flew over the surface of the lake while maintaining eye contact with Eren. She stopped advancing after creating some distance between herself and the duo.
'As for the restrictions placed on the homunculi, some of them don't apply to me. Let me show you something special."
Alephee raised her arms in response. She moved her fingers as if playing zither on the formless cords stretched in front of her.
"Perfect Paradox!"
Alephee cast the soul spell. She wanted to refrain from using soul spells. But this was something she had to do.
At that moment, Eren felt that something was wrong with his mana core. He felt like something was trying to pull him out of his body. As if his mana core was also trying to metamorphose into something else.
To Eren's surprise and horror, Eren saw his ethereal mana core getting pulled out of his body. He looked at Alephee with his horrified expression only to receive her next words in response.
"Hehe. It's not what you think, Eren. Try to access your own mana core."
Alephee said while beckoning the new mana core to fly towards her with her raised hand. Meanwhile, Eren found relief in knowing that his mana core was perfectly safe inside him.
Alephee guided the newly created mana core toward her. When it reached halfway, Alephee stopped moving it before spreading both her arms wide open.
As a result, the ethereal mana core that seemed to have been based on Eren's expanded dramatically. The mana core now had a diameter of about 50 meters, without casting any form of shadow on the sparkling lake water.
While spinning around to itself, the mana core drank massive amounts of mana from its surroundings. The surface of the mana core started illuminating, revealing the existence of various runes placed on it.
Alephee waved her hands and some more runes were being added to the surface of the mana core. She seemed extremely concentrated on her current task. With her powers, she had created a cube-shaped energy barrier that isolated her and the mana core from the rest of her surroundings.
Soon, the mana core started shrinking as it took more mana from the surroundings. Alephee waved her hands from time to time, causing the runes on the mana core to light up.
When the mana core had a diameter of about 10 meters, Alephee took a long breath. After biting her index finger, she snapped her fingers together. A few drops of her blood landed on the mana core. And as a result, it started shrinking rapidly.
Soon the mana core reduced its dimensions by a lot, turning into a sphere that was about an inch in diameter. Alephee gestured with her hands and the mana core disappeared into her body.
Alephee didn't just stop here. She cast her spells again. The nodes and artificial pathways for mana that had been created in her body lit up so brightly they could be seen through her skin in broad daylight.
Alephee gritted her teeth before using some unknown means to re-forge her artificial mana circuits. Her body turned ethereal until only her mana circuits and her mana core was visible.
The artificial mana circuits started getting complicated while the mana core started spinning around itself. Soon, it resembled the mana circuits of an Adept-ranked entity. Yet, there were some distinct differences.
Only when she was done did Alephee's body become visible. She started panting heavily after she was done with the process. It seemed like she was having a hard time breathing. As if she had forgotten the feelings of exhaustion and fatigue.
Eren hadn't felt any mana pulse all this while. But he kept looking at Alephee keenly. He knew that he was witnessing a portion of Alephee's true powers.
His soul sense was telling him that something massive and unnatural was happening at this time. Alephee was trying to overcome one of the restrictions placed on her homunculus body with her powers.
Kirin seemed fascinated by everything that was happening in front of her. She didn't have her soul sense like Eren. So she felt absolutely nothing.
However, her monster instincts were telling her that this was not the norm. This was not something a typical homunculus could do even with their seemingly limitless years of experience.
Alephee snapped her fingers once again and the cube-shaped energy barrier in front of her vanished. She flew back to the lakeshore when she was done.
A small earthquake was felt when she touched the ground, creating waves and waves or ripples on the lake's water. The ripples seemed to originate from her feet, which were a bit submerged in the water.
Eren felt an overwhelming presence wash over him when Alehee took her next step. In the next moment, however, everything returned to normal.
"You… you have turned yourself into an Adept ranker. Same as me!"
Eren couldn't help exclaiming after seeing the changes that had happened to Alephee. She didn't feel any different from any typical ranker at all.
What's more? Eren felt like Alephee had copied his ranking status entirely without belonging to the same close combat expert class.
Alephee smiled in response before speaking up.
"Hehe. Told you not to compare me with your typical Sage's typical minions."
