Mila
Mila, Isaiah, and Aalam had arrived on Earth somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, but there hadn’t been any land anywhere within sight, so they hadn’t known where they were. Isaiah carrying Aalam on his back and Mila by herself then ran in opposite directions, Mila’s high Agility along with her Shadow Stride skill not allowing her to run through the air like Isaiah but at least enabling her to run over water.
Mila had hit land first, arriving on the west coast of Canada, and this had allowed Isaiah to change direction, them having decided to set up camp in Tasmania from the start. Instead of immediately going to see Diana, however, Mila decided to go to each Pillar of Conquest and use one of the leftover Spacetime Sealing Scrolls stolen from the invasion forces on Hira to block any of the invasion forces from sending out people or information for the next fifteen days.
First she traveled to the two active pillars in North America, then the one in Europe, and then the three in Asia, Shadow Stride allowing her to easily get within the 129 meters of the pillars required by the scrolls. Then, instead of running all the way to Antarctica, she used her teleportation token to teleport to the platform Isaiah had set up in Tasmania and ran down from there.
In Antarctica, after sealing the Ice Giant’s pillar as well, she’d then spent a bit more time looking around. From questioning and then killing a few members of each of the other invasion forces, she’d heard the Ice Giants were acting peaceful and most of the other forces didn’t seem to think it normal.
There were forces which would send their young to worlds undergoing apocalypse style integrations and choose to stay out of all conquest activities, just aiming to obtain the benefits of the better cultivation environment, but the Ice Giants weren’t one of them. They were warlike and the merchant union sponsoring the invasion force was known for things like slaughtering entire races to then take and sell their stuff.
Mila had then found a few giant warehouses under the ice filled with ice path water element resources and figured out what they were doing. The Ice Giants weren’t not competing with the other forces and the natives because they wanted to be peaceful. They were doing so because it was profitable.
Even with everyone starting at G rank like normal, the natives on Earth were on average much stronger than usual for E rank worlds undergoing an apocalypse style integration, and the only reason they hadn’t wiped out all the invasion forces within the first year was their own internal bickering. Were the Ice Giants to compete, it was pretty obvious they would lose.
Yet they had an entire continent on an E rank world undergoing the integration process effectively to themselves, so they were strip mining the continent for all it was worth, putting that wealth in warehouses, and would then leave after 2 years, taking all that wealth away with them.
To the human race on Earth, they were actually the biggest threat, as a couple more months of their activities would irreparably alter the elemental balance on Earth for the rest of time. It wouldn’t be a major effect, but it would make cultivating on Earth less efficient than on other E rank planets for all but fire element cultivators.
Were they to be stopped within a few days, however, the damage they’d done would completely disappear over the course of just a few months, and, as this night was the time of a religious festival in their culture, they’d all be gathered in one place, making it the best time to attack them.
“Those giant white furballs.” Diana almost growled after Mila finished her explanation, looking over at Mila from the other head of her two-headed yin spirit currently flying over the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. Then, like Mila had been, she communicated through the paired telepathic communication ring Mila had given her instead of speaking out loud. “Even the Psionics don’t want to damage the planet.”
“And that’s why we’re going to kill all of them tonight.”
Diana didn’t answer for a few seconds and, from her aura, Mila could tell the idea of killing every member of an invasion force still felt wrong to her, but then Diana sighed. “Thus is war. Alright.”
From this statement, Mila could tell a lot about what type of mental growth Diana had been forced to undergo during the last year. She was the leader of a force which had already destroyed three invasions, so she almost certainly wasn’t the same cheerful lawyer Mila had known before her death.
“But we still have a couple hours until we get there.” Diana looked over at her with a serious expression. “So, until we do, let’s have the talk you’ve been avoiding. What are your current intentions toward my brother?”
* * *
Diana
Mila took a couple seconds to answer. Then she started to say a lot of nonsense instead of getting to the main point.
“We’re in kind of a weird situation. Aalam got to choose my race, remember, and he also got to choose my bloodline. My most powerful skills, Telekinesis and Advanced Multi-Mind are both shadowed versions of his, something my second class allows me to do. And, when he advances in race, I can advance to that same race without meeting the requirements. I also get to use any free stats he gains which he can’t use himself, of which there have already been a lot.
“Fundamentally at the moment, I’m a lot like a Warlock from D&D and he is my patron. Were I not to help him to the best of my ability, I would be doing myself a disservice.”
Diana looked over at her, allowing Dioscuri full control over where they were flying. “Alright. Here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to make a contract between us where we both have to be honest for one hour or face pain. Then we’re going to ask each other all the questions we’ve wanted to know and clear the air.”
They were both apprentices of the Yin Yang Sage and, from what she’d gathered so far, Aalam would need Mila at least until he was D rank. Most likely, they’d be working together for years, possibly in the future even measuring in the billions, so it would be good if they could get along.
Mila looked over at her, seemed to think, and then sent her over a contract.
Shadow has sent you a contract request.
Terms:
For one standard hour, neither you nor Shadow can tell a lie
Punishment:
Silent Pain
Do you accept?
Yes/No
Diana’s Omniglot Reader ability activated while Mila was looking at her, the way she was blinking saying ‘There is a hidden clause’ in some language of the universe. So, Diana instantly chose the no option and glared at her fellow apprentice.
“What the hell, Mila? What sort of clause were you going to add?”
“Oh, so you have Omniglot Reader as well?” Mila’s face and aura remained impassive. “I was trying to show off what my skill can do, but I guess you have the right counter. I was just going to add a confidentiality clause.”
Shadow has sent you a contract request.
Terms:
For one standard hour, neither you nor Shadow can tell a lie Any information shared during the next hour must stay confidential and cannot be shared without the explicit permission of the other party
Punishment:
Silent Pain
Do you accept?
Yes/No
“Evil Ancestor, is she telling the truth?” Diana sent to the Sage.
“Can we stop with the Evil Ancestor title?” The Sage still sounded mock annoyed. “I gave your brother knowledge I haven’t even shared with you or Mila and helped him be the first person with the Id uniqueness to ever survive a tutorial. Then I helped him get back to you as soon as physically possible. How is that deserving of being called evil?”
Diana thought about it for a second, fully realizing the Sage had just heavily hinted that Mila had been underplaying the seriousness of Aalam’s berserker uniqueness, and feeling a bit thankful as a result. “Fine, but I’m going to use Mila’s term for you, Nana Xara. Agreed?”
“Sure.” The faked annoyance was gone and the Sage, Nana Xara, was back to her usual chipper self. “But you can’t keep not having sex with eligible bachelors just because I can watch.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“I’ll look away. But you should really get some at some point. You’re obviously suffering from a lot of stress.” Nana Xara then decided to actually answer her initial question. “There is an over 99% chance Mila is telling the truth. Her skill doesn’t have any way to stop you from seeing the real contract after it is established, and I don’t think she wants to kill you.”
“So, you think there’s a one percent chance she wants to kill me?”
“Well, I wanted to kill you for the whole Evil Ancestor thing. She might be more protective of my feelings than you are.”
Diana didn’t even grace that with a response, instead sending a message to Mila. “Sorry, I was chatting with the Evil Ancestor to see if you were trustworthy.”
“I noticed.”
“Alright then.” Diana accepted the contract and then she asked the first question, deciding to try and put Mila off balance. “What was the thing my brother did when you were together that you liked the most?”
Mila looked over at her and raised an eyebrow before looking forward again. “I don’t want to answer that.”
“Oh, right. That’s an option with the rules, isn’t it.” Diana frowned, looked at Mila, and then looked forward again. “How emotionally attached were you to my brother before you were killed?”
Mila took a deep breath and then took a few seconds to answer. “Very. So that statement can’t get around the rules, let me clarify. I loved Aalam, definitely more than anyone else in my life. But, as he pointed out during our first conversation after he exited his berserker state, I didn’t love him enough to tell him I’d been spying on him and stop.
“Have you had any relationships since the integration started?”
Diana felt herself start to smirk. “No. I had two guys pursue me, but both of them reminded me of you, and it was kind of a turn off.”
Mila laughed out loud, and Diana asked her next question. “Have your feelings for Aalam changed since your death and rebirth?”
“Yes. Losing everything, you kind of realize what you had, and I don’t think there’s anyone better out there.” Mila paused for a second. “But I can’t deny a magical powerhouse is a bit more of a turn on than a super scientist.”
“He’s also much better looking.”
“I’m less shallow than you, Di.”
“A person reborn as a succubus will be transformed into her own ideal of beauty,” Nana Xara interjected, and Diana got the impression she’d sent it to the both of them.
“Vanity and shallowness are two different things.” Mila’s face hardened. “Also, if you are going to spy, do so silently.”
“Got it.” Nana Xara sent over the sound of a zipper being zipped and she didn’t speak again for the rest of the conversation.
Mila then asked her next question. “How do you see me?”
“I hated you quite a bit for a while, even after I learned you’d died.” Diana’s voice over the telepathy took on a more serious tone. “But then I met your grandfather and it kind of put things in perspective. You’re a lot like him, an excellent liar and yet extremely loyal at the same time.
“I think you’re someone who doesn’t want to be alone and who doesn’t want power, but, at the same time, you thrive on bringing order to chaos, which makes you a good match for Aalam, someone who naturally generates sources of power—be it inventions in the old world or, if I know my brother, wondrous artifacts and new spells in the new one—yet has little desire to actually do anything with them and so leaves only chaos in his wake. He needs someone like you in his life to keep him from getting himself killed or accidentally starting a nuclear war, and I wouldn’t be against you getting together again if he ever wants to.”
Even while she’d been stealing from him, Mila’s presence had greatly boosted Aalam’s productivity, helping with a lot of the small things like household chores and correspondence with business partners so Aalam could purely focus on what he was best at. And, for the bigger things, like contracts with companies, while Diana had been his lawyer, Mila had been much better at understanding the true worth of Aalam’s inventions, having a much better feel of what the companies he worked with would be willing to spend.
Purely from a monetary standpoint, having Mila around had been a huge boon, and that wasn’t even accounting for how happy her brother had been, while Diana had always gotten the sense Mila was really happy as well, something she was now sure hadn’t been faked.
“But you’re definitely also really damaged and I would recommend talking to someone other than our teacher, as she’s a lot like you, only with billions of years of more baggage.”
“I’d advise looping in Mr. Davies and talking to him. That man is a lot like you and your grandfather, only far more stable.”
Mila nodded, and with Diana’s Perception stat it was easy to see tears start to form in her eyes. So, when asking her next question, Diana made it less serious. “Okay, so that Isaiah guy. He’s really hot. What’s his story?”
Please only read at https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/48991/shadow-of-the-soul-king and https://www.scribblehub.com/series/461729/shadow-of-the-soul-king/. It is free and anywhere else this story has been stolen.
Mila
Mila, Isaiah, and Aalam had arrived on Earth somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, but there hadn’t been any land anywhere within sight, so they hadn’t known where they were. Isaiah carrying Aalam on his back and Mila by herself then ran in opposite directions, Mila’s high Agility along with her Shadow Stride skill not allowing her to run through the air like Isaiah but at least enabling her to run over water.
Mila had hit land first, arriving on the west coast of Canada, and this had allowed Isaiah to change direction, them having decided to set up camp in Tasmania from the start. Instead of immediately going to see Diana, however, Mila decided to go to each Pillar of Conquest and use one of the leftover Spacetime Sealing Scrolls stolen from the invasion forces on Hira to block any of the invasion forces from sending out people or information for the next fifteen days.
First she traveled to the two active pillars in North America, then the one in Europe, and then the three in Asia, Shadow Stride allowing her to easily get within the 129 meters of the pillars required by the scrolls. Then, instead of running all the way to Antarctica, she used her teleportation token to teleport to the platform Isaiah had set up in Tasmania and ran down from there.
In Antarctica, after sealing the Ice Giant’s pillar as well, she’d then spent a bit more time looking around. From questioning and then killing a few members of each of the other invasion forces, she’d heard the Ice Giants were acting peaceful and most of the other forces didn’t seem to think it normal.
There were forces which would send their young to worlds undergoing apocalypse style integrations and choose to stay out of all conquest activities, just aiming to obtain the benefits of the better cultivation environment, but the Ice Giants weren’t one of them. They were warlike and the merchant union sponsoring the invasion force was known for things like slaughtering entire races to then take and sell their stuff.
Mila had then found a few giant warehouses under the ice filled with ice path water element resources and figured out what they were doing. The Ice Giants weren’t not competing with the other forces and the natives because they wanted to be peaceful. They were doing so because it was profitable.
Even with everyone starting at G rank like normal, the natives on Earth were on average much stronger than usual for E rank worlds undergoing an apocalypse style integration, and the only reason they hadn’t wiped out all the invasion forces within the first year was their own internal bickering. Were the Ice Giants to compete, it was pretty obvious they would lose.
Yet they had an entire continent on an E rank world undergoing the integration process effectively to themselves, so they were strip mining the continent for all it was worth, putting that wealth in warehouses, and would then leave after 2 years, taking all that wealth away with them.
To the human race on Earth, they were actually the biggest threat, as a couple more months of their activities would irreparably alter the elemental balance on Earth for the rest of time. It wouldn’t be a major effect, but it would make cultivating on Earth less efficient than on other E rank planets for all but fire element cultivators.
Were they to be stopped within a few days, however, the damage they’d done would completely disappear over the course of just a few months, and, as this night was the time of a religious festival in their culture, they’d all be gathered in one place, making it the best time to attack them.
“Those giant white furballs.” Diana almost growled after Mila finished her explanation, looking over at Mila from the other head of her two-headed yin spirit currently flying over the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. Then, like Mila had been, she communicated through the paired telepathic communication ring Mila had given her instead of speaking out loud. “Even the Psionics don’t want to damage the planet.”
“And that’s why we’re going to kill all of them tonight.”
Diana didn’t answer for a few seconds and, from her aura, Mila could tell the idea of killing every member of an invasion force still felt wrong to her, but then Diana sighed. “Thus is war. Alright.”
From this statement, Mila could tell a lot about what type of mental growth Diana had been forced to undergo during the last year. She was the leader of a force which had already destroyed three invasions, so she almost certainly wasn’t the same cheerful lawyer Mila had known before her death.
“But we still have a couple hours until we get there.” Diana looked over at her with a serious expression. “So, until we do, let’s have the talk you’ve been avoiding. What are your current intentions toward my brother?”
* * *
Diana
Mila took a couple seconds to answer. Then she started to say a lot of nonsense instead of getting to the main point.
“We’re in kind of a weird situation. Aalam got to choose my race, remember, and he also got to choose my bloodline. My most powerful skills, Telekinesis and Advanced Multi-Mind are both shadowed versions of his, something my second class allows me to do. And, when he advances in race, I can advance to that same race without meeting the requirements. I also get to use any free stats he gains which he can’t use himself, of which there have already been a lot.
“Fundamentally at the moment, I’m a lot like a Warlock from D&D and he is my patron. Were I not to help him to the best of my ability, I would be doing myself a disservice.”
Diana looked over at her, allowing Dioscuri full control over where they were flying. “Alright. Here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to make a contract between us where we both have to be honest for one hour or face pain. Then we’re going to ask each other all the questions we’ve wanted to know and clear the air.”
They were both apprentices of the Yin Yang Sage and, from what she’d gathered so far, Aalam would need Mila at least until he was D rank. Most likely, they’d be working together for years, possibly in the future even measuring in the billions, so it would be good if they could get along.
Mila looked over at her, seemed to think, and then sent her over a contract.
Shadow has sent you a contract request.
Terms:
For one standard hour, neither you nor Shadow can tell a lie
Punishment:
Silent Pain
Do you accept?
Yes/No
Diana’s Omniglot Reader ability activated while Mila was looking at her, the way she was blinking saying ‘There is a hidden clause’ in some language of the universe. So, Diana instantly chose the no option and glared at her fellow apprentice.
“What the hell, Mila? What sort of clause were you going to add?”
“Oh, so you have Omniglot Reader as well?” Mila’s face and aura remained impassive. “I was trying to show off what my skill can do, but I guess you have the right counter. I was just going to add a confidentiality clause.”
Shadow has sent you a contract request.
Terms:
For one standard hour, neither you nor Shadow can tell a lie Any information shared during the next hour must stay confidential and cannot be shared without the explicit permission of the other party
Punishment:
Silent Pain
Do you accept?
Yes/No
“Evil Ancestor, is she telling the truth?” Diana sent to the Sage.
“Can we stop with the Evil Ancestor title?” The Sage still sounded mock annoyed. “I gave your brother knowledge I haven’t even shared with you or Mila and helped him be the first person with the Id uniqueness to ever survive a tutorial. Then I helped him get back to you as soon as physically possible. How is that deserving of being called evil?”
Diana thought about it for a second, fully realizing the Sage had just heavily hinted that Mila had been underplaying the seriousness of Aalam’s berserker uniqueness, and feeling a bit thankful as a result. “Fine, but I’m going to use Mila’s term for you, Nana Xara. Agreed?”
“Sure.” The faked annoyance was gone and the Sage, Nana Xara, was back to her usual chipper self. “But you can’t keep not having sex with eligible bachelors just because I can watch.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“I’ll look away. But you should really get some at some point. You’re obviously suffering from a lot of stress.” Nana Xara then decided to actually answer her initial question. “There is an over 99% chance Mila is telling the truth. Her skill doesn’t have any way to stop you from seeing the real contract after it is established, and I don’t think she wants to kill you.”
“So, you think there’s a one percent chance she wants to kill me?”
“Well, I wanted to kill you for the whole Evil Ancestor thing. She might be more protective of my feelings than you are.”
Diana didn’t even grace that with a response, instead sending a message to Mila. “Sorry, I was chatting with the Evil Ancestor to see if you were trustworthy.”
“I noticed.”
“Alright then.” Diana accepted the contract and then she asked the first question, deciding to try and put Mila off balance. “What was the thing my brother did when you were together that you liked the most?”
Mila looked over at her and raised an eyebrow before looking forward again. “I don’t want to answer that.”
“Oh, right. That’s an option with the rules, isn’t it.” Diana frowned, looked at Mila, and then looked forward again. “How emotionally attached were you to my brother before you were killed?”
Mila took a deep breath and then took a few seconds to answer. “Very. So that statement can’t get around the rules, let me clarify. I loved Aalam, definitely more than anyone else in my life. But, as he pointed out during our first conversation after he exited his berserker state, I didn’t love him enough to tell him I’d been spying on him and stop.
“Have you had any relationships since the integration started?”
Diana felt herself start to smirk. “No. I had two guys pursue me, but both of them reminded me of you, and it was kind of a turn off.”
Mila laughed out loud, and Diana asked her next question. “Have your feelings for Aalam changed since your death and rebirth?”
“Yes. Losing everything, you kind of realize what you had, and I don’t think there’s anyone better out there.” Mila paused for a second. “But I can’t deny a magical powerhouse is a bit more of a turn on than a super scientist.”
“He’s also much better looking.”
“I’m less shallow than you, Di.”
“A person reborn as a succubus will be transformed into her own ideal of beauty,” Nana Xara interjected, and Diana got the impression she’d sent it to the both of them.
“Vanity and shallowness are two different things.” Mila’s face hardened. “Also, if you are going to spy, do so silently.”
“Got it.” Nana Xara sent over the sound of a zipper being zipped and she didn’t speak again for the rest of the conversation.
Mila then asked her next question. “How do you see me?”
“I hated you quite a bit for a while, even after I learned you’d died.” Diana’s voice over the telepathy took on a more serious tone. “But then I met your grandfather and it kind of put things in perspective. You’re a lot like him, an excellent liar and yet extremely loyal at the same time.
“I think you’re someone who doesn’t want to be alone and who doesn’t want power, but, at the same time, you thrive on bringing order to chaos, which makes you a good match for Aalam, someone who naturally generates sources of power—be it inventions in the old world or, if I know my brother, wondrous artifacts and new spells in the new one—yet has little desire to actually do anything with them and so leaves only chaos in his wake. He needs someone like you in his life to keep him from getting himself killed or accidentally starting a nuclear war, and I wouldn’t be against you getting together again if he ever wants to.”
Even while she’d been stealing from him, Mila’s presence had greatly boosted Aalam’s productivity, helping with a lot of the small things like household chores and correspondence with business partners so Aalam could purely focus on what he was best at. And, for the bigger things, like contracts with companies, while Diana had been his lawyer, Mila had been much better at understanding the true worth of Aalam’s inventions, having a much better feel of what the companies he worked with would be willing to spend.
Purely from a monetary standpoint, having Mila around had been a huge boon, and that wasn’t even accounting for how happy her brother had been, while Diana had always gotten the sense Mila was really happy as well, something she was now sure hadn’t been faked.
“But you’re definitely also really damaged and I would recommend talking to someone other than our teacher, as she’s a lot like you, only with billions of years of more baggage.”
“I’d advise looping in Mr. Davies and talking to him. That man is a lot like you and your grandfather, only far more stable.”
Mila nodded, and with Diana’s Perception stat it was easy to see tears start to form in her eyes. So, when asking her next question, Diana made it less serious. “Okay, so that Isaiah guy. He’s really hot. What’s his story?”
Please only read at https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/48991/shadow-of-the-soul-king and https://www.scribblehub.com/series/461729/shadow-of-the-soul-king/. It is free and anywhere else this story has been stolen.
