Chapter Text
She teleports down to the huge doors, plinth and orb for the copy of Rowena floating behind her, Rowena's H3 walking beside it. A proper orb and H3 not just a Parallel Existence, as while the Rowena attached to her soul can connect to it, she needs this copy to be independent. There's actually a couple Earth Dragons down in the chamber right before it. Probably having come down on Güliedistodiez's orders to protect the door after she killed her mother, who was in charge of its protection previously.
They sure as hell aren't stupid though, so they don't try to fight her even as she approaches the doors with the floating setup for a copy of Rowena, as well as an upset Kieron, Selina, and Ethelyn trailing in her wake, the Dragons more than capable of realizing she's out of their league and that's without touching on the fact she's been acknowledged as a friend by Güliedistodiez. It's presumably why they call him, if how quickly he teleports in as well is any indication, tense as a straining rope, “Shiraori, what are you doing down here?”
She glances back at him as she forces the huge doors to open quickly, “Fixing something that should have been dealt with a long time ago.”
She summons her scythe and Güliedistodiez steps forward, face grave, “Shiraori! You can't-!”
She doesn't let him get any further than that before she makes some thread and wraps up him and the Earth Dragons, which had half risen from their laying positions.
As she'd stepped forward and forced the door open with magic, barriers appeared between herself and Sariel, who suddenly speaks up, “Irregularity detected. Outside interface confirmed. Activating defense mechanism.”
Power gathers around Sariel, taking on twelve shadowy forms. These things aren't alive in any capacity though. She's pretty sure they're essentially echoes or recreations of previous powerful people. But they aren't alive now. So she has no reason to not use Decomposition on all twelve of them without hesitation.
Whatever Sariel had been about to say as the System's mouthpiece, it cuts off and changes, “Backup defense mechanism activating.”
She catches a telepathic signal going out, worldwide from the looks of it, part of it spoken out loud by the limp and blank faced woman strung up by lines and magic circles of MA energy inside, “Detecting danger to top System administrator. Code red emergency protocol activating.”
The telepathic part is both the same words as well as a deluge of scenes, as fast as possible while still being understandable about the short version of the real events that lead to the current situation rather than the twisted version Wakaba had come up with for the ‘Taboo level 10’ or ‘Demon Lord’ info dump.
It's fast enough that if she was someone else genuinely in a rush, the barriers would certainly have bought enough time, both for them and for the next part, which Sariel once more dully speaks aloud, "Engaging emergency teleport of top one hundred strongest fighters small enough to fit without overcrowding and hindering one another in System core room(1) for System defense.”
Too bad for Sariel, while they show up looking rearing and ready to throw down, more than a few recognize her immediately and blanch at even attempting to fight her. Not that they even get a chance to, given she wraps them up in thread as well.
And they wouldn't have even gotten here in time to save Sariel if she'd been in a rush, given the fact it's all too easy to walk forward uninterrupted by the barriers with a fog of her Azathoth Skill surrounding her, eating them up as she casually walks forward.
Once she's in front of Sariel, she pulls her scythe back to swing, ignoring the desperate shouts behind her as she gathers MA energy around the blade.
And promptly cuts through and wraps up the MA strings and glyphs trapping Sariel, who falls forward to be caught by a quickly moving Kieron. Sariel remains blank and limp and while it's much, much weaker, she can feel she's actually still connected as the System's top administrator. And is still broadcasting to people outside of the chamber what's going on inside for some reason. Once they're out of the way, much to the quiet confusion of those behind her wrapped in her threads, she floats the plinth and orb into the spot Sariel had been and sets the plinth down, though the orb stays floating above it of course.
Once it's in place, she swings her scythe the other way, using magic to untangle the MA wires and glyphs that had been tightly wrapped around its end and connecting them to Rowena. A glitchy semi-transparent box opens, with staticky changing text before it suddenly snaps into order at the same time that Sariel, still limp and vacant up until this point suddenly sucks in a sharp breath as her eyes blow wide and the empty thousand yard stare disappears in the wake of surprise as Rowena announces, “System administration takeover complete. System overhaul in progress… System overhaul complete.”
Semi-transparent blue boxes pop up in front of everyone there, and undoubtedly everyone else worldwide as well, “Welcome to version 2.0 of the System. The menu can be called up by focusing on a desire for it.” She sees the box gain an image of a menu example before the ‘?’ button blinks a bit, “The help button can be found here. You can select it by pressing on it, or by focusing your desire.” The help button is clicked and the option up top reading ‘changes’ flashes, “Changes to the System are all listed here.”
Voice numb with shock, Güliedistodiez speaks behind her, “You-... You managed to save Sariel?”
She glances back as she unweaves her threads, letting them fall to the floor now that they aren't likely to get in her way, “Mm. You can take Sariel and leave.”
Julius, previously staring at Sariel, who was staring at her hands as she slowly opened and closed them in shock, looks up quickly, “You’ can? You aren't leaving as well?”
She waves him off as she does some last minute mental checks, “There's some more things I need to do, Julius.”
That seems to snap Sariel out of her daze, “What are you doing now? I was entrusted with the safekeeping of this planet, I need to know!”
She rolls her eyes, “Nothing more harmful then what I did to you, despite what you may have thought I was doing when you sent out that warning.”
Sariel flushes slightly, “That was an automatic alarm response programmed in, set off by you approaching me with a weapon.”
She shrugs, “Regardless, there's no reason for you to be here. Especially since, while unlikely, it may be dangerous.”
Sariel's face grows stubborn, “I insist on staying.”
She rolls her eyes, “Whatever. Rowena, you can go ahead and shut that broadcast off. People know I didn't kill her and she's still here because she refused to leave. I'm not responsible if something goes wrong and she gets hurt.”
She isn't even Rowena, but the connections from the telepathic broadcast are so loud in their nearly unanimous agreement on also insisting on wanting to know what she's doing that she picks up on them herself. She's not surprised in the slightest by the hesitant question in Rowena's voice given that, “Creator…”
She rolls her eyes again, “Whatever. I have more important things to do.”
Having already measured the best distance to make sure she doesn't damage Rowena but is still close, since she has zero clue what her condition will be after and she knows there will be one last thing to do that will require her to be close, she backs up just enough to swing her scythe into the ground, using it as a conduit. Immediately beginning the spell she'd put together.
While she's at it, to try and skew things in her favor, she layers as many Fortification spells over her being as she can. On all levels of it. Her physical body, her Spiritual body, her Astral body/Eidos, her Heart Core, and even her ego. Every single one of them gets at least a half dozen layered Fortification spells on them strengthening their make. She'd had to get creative with applying it to her Heart Core and ego though. If she'd just Fortified them, they'd have been unable to move. Which would've meant no thoughts or sensations or memories made.
It burns even with her two different pain nullification Skills and Heresy Nullification, all that raw difficult to control power coursing through her, but there's really nothing to be done about that. All she can do is focus on controlling it with Rowena's help and getting the job done.
Well, that and looping the copy of Velgrynd's old Raguel Sub-Skill Charity to boost its own power before applying that power boost to Fortuna anyway. Any of her attempts to apply the looped Charity's boost to make the lacking power hadn't gotten her anywhere but more visions tormenting Selina. It didn't mean it wasn't useful in general though.
At minimum, it can help tip things in her favor even more. Especially since she was no longer using it to try and come up with close to eighty-six billion times more power then she actually had that the twenty quintillion for the planet was. She was just using it to increase her chances of surviving being the conduit for so much more power than she herself possessed, rather than be crushed into non-existence under its weight.
When it starts burning though, she uses an Occlumency pin on using Decomposition to deny Kieron's For Richer or Poorer Sub-Skill. She has no clue if this will negatively impact her power levels, but if it does, she's not going to let Kieron and Selina share that burden due to his Lord of Vows, Yue Lao Ultimate Skill.
She wants to do the same for the For Better Or Worse Sub-Skill as well, she doesn't want to take on some of whatever damage she experiences to try to lessen the burden on her, but they'd made her promise that no matter what happened, she wouldn't. They've known for a while what she was going to do was risky after all. They refused to let her stop them from trying to help in whatever way they can, even if it's just taking some of her injuries onto themselves.
Besides, they'd sort of shoved the way she refused to use Regrowth on herself after that car crash that sent them to become Rimuru, Diablo, and Ema at her. How she couldn't bear to live without them, and rather firmly making it clear the sentiment went both ways.
She's pretty sure that given the fact magic comes from the soul, if she shuts down For Richer or Poorer whatever happens won't affect their souls though.
If her soul breaks, it should only be her soul. It was also for such a just-in-case she'd spoken to Veldora and Velgrynd and temporarily broken her soul corridors to them, causing them to go back to existing entirely on their own power rather than their souls being tucked inside of Azathoth, and borrowing the amount of power they should have from her.
Maybe it's underhanded and sneaky to do that behind their backs, and they'll come to hate her if she's right and they reincarnate, but…
She can accept that, if it's the price to protect her soulmates.
At first, he has no clue what his mom is doing as she lights up and starts releasing an insane amount of magic. He supposes he's not the only one, because after a beat that transparent box that reminds him of the group chat function of his, Hyrince, and Yaana's bracelets that's apparently how the new System works pops up again unannounced, “In light of global demand for answers and in conjunction with a right to know as it has to do with your planet, would you like to receive a telepathic vision of what's happening?”
He's never agreed to anything so fast in his life. His hand doesn't even have a chance to twitch to the ‘Yes’ button before it picks up on his desire, much like some of the other stuff his mom has given him, since it unsurprisingly has the same function.
And just like that, while his own field of view doesn't disappear it becomes distant and hazy as he starts seeing things from the… new System administrator's -Rowena's- perspective, or two rather. He can sense and see exactly what his mom is doing and the impact of it. He senses that energy flowing out of her and down through her scythe into the earth and spreading far and wide, and as it ripples out, life becomes so less unstable, more like a proper castle instead of a teetering house of cards.
As the wave of energy passes over the wastelands, he can see and feel as she completely disintegrates a few other facilities like that one in the desert she told Mister Güliedistodiez about. A couple still operational were on the edges of where the living areas meet wasteland, the vast majority still there, but powered down.
But it sweeps out further, and further, and before he knows it, he's seeing the light expand past that dome Ariel had shown him once and new land itself begins to be woven into existence from it.
He's also watching as trees and plants burst out of both the new ground and old ground that was wastelands just moments ago start reclaiming them even as the dead part of the ocean -really anything beyond a ring past the parts of the continents he's familiar with- start to regain life of their own. But at the same time… he can still see his mom.
More specifically, he can see what it's costing her to do this. He's horrified to see the crucible her very soul is being put through channeling that much energy all at once, the cracks starting to form in it, slowly spiderwebbing out as she channels and gives more and more.
He wants so desperately to help, but there's nothing he can do. Some Hero he is. His mom is doing what she's always done from those stories Kieron and Selina have told her so much of, have shown him with his Pensieve Crystal, usually behind his mom's back, not because it's a secret, but because she gets all worked up about them getting the wrong idea if they think highly of her and constantly argues and tries to downplay it.
He knows full well from those that she's always been like this, always done stuff like this, but maybe it was just because she's never had to face down such a difficult problem, but while it doesn't surprise him given what kind of woman she is, he's honestly a bit horrified at the personal cost to herself for this, that she's pushing forward anyway.
Some part of him is adamant that it's what it means to be a Hero, to do what needs to be done regardless of the cost to oneself, but it's another thing entirely to see it happen right in front of his eyes to the woman who's become a second mom to him.
He struggling just to hold back the desperate sobs, forget the tears since that's already a lost cause, when Rowena's voice speaks to him as another box pops up and he desperately wipes at his eyes to try and make it out.
On it, there was a partial listing of his mom's Skills, and the Sub-Skill Faithful's Fortification that's listed under a Skill she hadn't had the last time he used Appraisal on her is blinking with a brief description of the Skill underneath that he reads even as he listens to Rowena, “If you want to help, believe. Believe in her with every fiber of your being.”
He squeezes his eyes shut as he forces himself to ignore the steadily expanding light and land in the visions the System was showing him and focus absolutely everything on believing in his mom. He's not entirely sure how that Skill works, but he feels like he joins Miss Selina, Mister Kieron, and Miss Ethelyn, like stepping into a church they were waiting in already, and he can sense others beginning to join them in believing in his mom.
Some of them he recognizes instinctively. His mother, father, brothers, and older sister that already married and moved. Lord Leigar, Sword King(2) Largis, and Mister Ronandt from Renxandt. Mister Balto, Mister Agner, and Mister Razraz from Nefas including the Goblin tribe that his mom recruited to help with some of their problems in return for someplace safer to live and stuff.
It wasn't just them either. He's not sure if Miss Rowena meant to or if it was some sort of side effect of the System nodes his mom had spread in that other world, but he senses people that feel like Mister Benimaru, Mister Hakuro, Miss Shuna, Mister Kaijin, Mister Garm, Mister Dord, Mister Myrd, and Miss Testarossa. Lord Masayuki, Lady Velgrynd. Mister Guy, Miss Velzard that he'd met closer to dinner during the Labyrinth grand opening.
Veldora who's very much enthusiastically taken to being his emotionally adopted older brother practically from day one, even if he didn't really realize it until after he'd accidentally called Shiraori Mom for the first time. He hasn't had a chance to meet her, but he's heard of her and he'd like to think that strangely old yet simultaneously young presence close to Veldora is Milim.
There are far more people he doesn't know or at least feel familiar than he does. It's actually kind of dizzying. Both in the sheer mass of individual people swarming around whatever sense he's feeling them with and the fact he can feel so many people.
He almost feels like he's drowning in sensation since the people he feels aren't just- just vague outlines or something its- Its the sense of silk and the smell of roses from his mother, the smell of the high end alcohols his father indulges in, the smell of the parchment Cylis is so frequently buried under as he works so hard to deserve being the Crown Prince and take care of their people, the impish breeze from running and playing that hides Leston's serious whispers, and the smell of travel dust that can't hide the lavender scent that always seems to cling to his older sister Leiresia's letters.
It's the scent of oils used to take care of armors and weapons that feels like Lord Leigar, the previous Sword King. It's the sound of a knife cutting through paper from Sword King Largis, still a Sword King, but always so buried under paperwork from what little he saw. That scent of old scrolls and magic that feels like Ronandt.
Yet more parchment smell with a sort of exhaustion that feels years old and like he's still trying to catch up on all the lost sleep of Balto. The paper, and ink, and more armor and weapon maintenance oil of Agner. Metal that smells hot from the forge even though he knows it's not and the feel of magic dancing across his skin from Razraz.
An endless and unstoppable heat from Benimaru. The clash of metal and the feel of correction until it's perfected from Hakuro. More silks, but also herbs and spices from Shuna. The heat of a forge being worked around him by others and the sound of shuffling papers as he reviews orders from Mister Kaijin. The heat of another forge and the banging of working the armor made from Hihi'irokane and his mom's own scales from Garm. The feel of measuring tapes getting his sizing for his under armor and other clothes he and Miss Shuna were making from Dord. The attentive silence of Myrd as he listened to his mom explain the detailing she wants him to work out for the others to put on his clothes, armor, and weapon. The terrifying powerful but contained presence and hidden behind lady-like manners of Testarossa.
The feeling of being way over his head but determined to do his absolute best from Masayuki. The endless gratitude towards Shiraori and boundless devotion towards Masayuki, as wrapped up in an iron grip on an uncontrollable blaze from Velgrynd. The sheer power that dwarfs even Miss Testarossa, but mischievous teasing he's come to associate with Guy. A biting endless void of cold that feels like it seeps into your very soul and generally laid back energy of Velzard. The whimsical ever changing winds and random energetic lightning of Veldora. And of course, that old wisdom that's fighting with childish whims that he thinks is Milim from what he's been told about her.
And that's just from the people he knows or at least thinks he recognizes in Milim's case. Every single person in this press of presences has their own scents or sound or tastes or impressions. It's totally fair that it's dizzying. He doesn't let it really distract him from focusing on believing with everything he can in his mom though. Doing his utmost to tune it out and ignore it, because it's the least he can do to help his mom when he can't do anything else to help.
He opens his eyes and almost collapses as he breathes a reflexive sigh of relief as he sees the wave of energy meet itself in a closing circle on the other side of the planet, if only because it means his mom will be fine. She didn't have to give too much to fix things.
The relief is short lived.
Rather than stepping back, she pours even more energy in, both in general and in pushing the energy she'd engulfed the planet in down. Between his own hazy district awareness and Miss Rowena's, it feels like an echo chamber when Selina speaks up, “That's enough Shiraori, you've done it. You fixed it. That's enough.”
His mom doesn't even falter, “I'm not done.”
Kieron's voice is equally as strained as hers had been, “Love, your soul will break at this rate.”
His mom shakes her head, “So be it then.”
Kieron chokes desperately, “Xiǎolóng!”
Kieron doesn't say anything more though as he clenches his fists. His mom had continued working even as the exchange happened, but he honestly doesn't know what she's doing. He can feel her pushing the energy down and into lines, and setting it up so the energy will bubble up and spread out like a spring, but… Miss Rowena's voice echoes in his mind, “Lay lines. Veins of energy to feed the planet, as your own feed your body blood.”
Even as it crosses his mind, and he hears Kieron and Selina cry out desperately for his mom to stop already as they dart forward to grab onto her and try to pull her away, and while she's quiet in her strain, Ethelyn moves forward just as quickly to help them, utterly ignoring the way the waves of magic are burning their skin, a pattern starts to emerge in the ley lines and he realizes she's laying them down in an intricate maze of interlocking runes and magic circles.
While he can't help but be amazed at it, even then, it's hardly more than a distant second to the mounting horror of what's happening to his mom. As the last one is laid and his mom moves to activate them, Miss Rowena's voice echoes again, “A protection against too much power being drawn from them as a whole so they never dip beneath the minimum to keep the cycle for regeneration going. As well as…” His vision suddenly zooms out until he's gazing at the orb of his planet as a bubble suddenly engulfs it, “keeping anyone who would try to steal it away.”
Finally, finally his mom stops, but… her soul is a frail, weak thing, looking less like a fire or an orb of glass or something in between like the rest of theirs that he can barely make out on the peripheral and with so many cracks it looks more like a ball of sand someone packed into an orb which was itself cracked and holding on by a thread. Her physical state honestly isn't much better as she falls back into Kieron's arms.
He starts his mom turns her gaze to him weakly, “‘m sorry. Can't stand. Take me to Rowena?”
Kieron's face pinches, “You've done enough Shiraori.”
His mom blinks tiredly even as the cracks building on her skin and flaking pieces off like embers of a campfire continue spreading, “I need to hand over control of the wards. They'll fall when I die otherwise. ‘nd then that was all for nothin’.”
He purses his lips, but moves to lift her. Except his mom wasn't wrong about the danger and Kieron's burnt arm, previously holding her upper body, gives out and turns to ash at that. Even as he lurches forward, Güliedistodiez catches her before he can take a step, “Easy!” He glances at Kieron, “I've got Shiraori.”
He lifts her gently, then moves over to the floating orb and his mom weakly lifts her hand and places it onto it. There's another thankfully miniscule flicker of magic, before he feels as a weight passes from her to Miss Rowena.
Once it has, his mom drops her hand, blinking slowly as the weight of it dropping pulls it off to shatter into dust on the floor. She slowly turns her head back to Kieron and Selina as Güliedistodiez doesn't hesitate to take her back and gently settle her with them where they start fussing over her with teary eyes.
Rowena's H3 looks pained, “Creator… Well, I guess- I guess now we know why Selina kept having visions of your soul being destroyed before you adjusted the plan repeatedly…”
His mom blinks at her tiredly and Rowena's gaze drops as she lets out a shaky breath as she pushes hair back behind her ears with trembling hands, “Honestly… the power for the lay lines building a planet covering ward isn't even worth noting compared to the cost of repairing the planet itself.”
She looks back up with pinched brows, “I'd like to remind you, Creator, that your own Existence Value is a little more than two hundred thirty-three million. The restoration of the planet took twenty quintillion Existence Values worth of power.”
She laughs though it's not happy, “Mostly just putting into perspective what I mean when I say the rest was worth hardly a thought, since that only took about thirteen billion. You know, just a measly sixty-five billionths of the power it took to restore the planet is all. Not that that couldn't have destroyed you all on its own and it's only miniscule in comparison to said planet restoration… Still though Creator, I understand why you wanted to put those protections in place, but did you really have to do something so risky? The job was technically done.”
His mom smiles lightly, “Was it though? When this planet has already had those who learned how to use it and where there may be some sort of record left somewhere? Where this universe has multiple species that tap into it naturally and may not be kind enough to leave the place livable for the natives if they come across it?”
Rowena flinches slightly and bites her lip, but lowers her head with no response. A moment later, probably having only kept it running so they'd all know how things ended, he's vaguely aware of another of those boxes popping up, “Disconnect from vision?”
He absently answers in the affirmative, since he's physically already present and doesn't need help understanding what's happening with the magic anymore. Going back to just his physical eyes means he can't see his mom's soul anymore, but honestly just her physical appearance is heartbreaking enough that even if it may be blasphemous given she was only in that state to begin with from saving their world, he can't help but feel relieved not to see it anymore.
He's absently aware of Güliedistodiez taking a respectful step back after he's sure Kieron and Selina have his mom secure, expression as solemn and sad as Julius feels. Especially when his mom, who seems to be struggling just to focus, mumbles out, “‘m tried.
Kieron, who was propping her upper body up with his legs as he presses the side of his face to her head, roughly behind and above an ear, “Just rest love. We're reincarnators. It doesn't matter if this life can't continue, but you aren't allowed to destroy your soul. That's mine and Selina's. Our bond says so.”
He can't help the almost hysterical laugh that bubbles out at that, drawing their gazes to him and he almost hesitantly steps forward, wishing desperately that he could cling to his mom -well, his second emotionally adopted mom technically- but not wanting to risk speeding up her physical breakdown. She smiles at him weakly as she lifts the one hand she still has towards him and he doesn't hesitate to practically fling himself towards her even if he's careful not to impact her.
She cards her fingers through his hair in that way that's become so familiar and he leans into it almost desperately, his hands coming up to gently cling to her own hand, “Oh, don't look at me like that Julius. I have Dimension Leap in case you're forgetting. I'll be back my Little Hero.”
He drops his gaze to the floor, “If anyone is the Hero, it's you.”
She huffs a weak laugh. And he doesn't know if she's just too weak to see it, or if Miss Rowena purposely excluded her, but a pop-up suddenly appears before him, “A Petition has been submitted by ten percent of planet. Agree or disagree with petition to acknowledge Shiraori with her own unique Title?”
He hardly flicks a glance at it before using his desire to select ‘agree’, unwilling to let go of the hand that he can feel breaking apart before he absolutely has to.
Hardly a second later, another pop-up follows, “Shiraori has been granted the Title ‘Eternal Hero.”
His mom clearly got that pop-up as well, given she frowns at the box, “Oh, now that's not fair to anyone. It places so much weight of expectations on people with Hero Titles.”
He bites his lip, not even bothering to engage in what he knows will be a losing fight against the tears streaking down his face, “Given there shouldn't be any circumstances like this again, it's not like we'll be expected to live up to that, but if future Hero's feel pressured to live up to the legacy you made today in what way they can then good. M-Maybe it'll make sure they don't forget what it means to be a Hero. What they need to strive to exemplify. N-Not the,” He has to bite back another sob at the next bit of what he wants to say, “d-dying part necessarily, though a Hero should be pre-prepaired to do so if-if they have to, but…”
“Even if they struggle to figure out what it actually means to be a Hero, maybe it'll keep them on the path, if only since they won't be able to afford to conduct themselves as the ‘Hero’ in a way that spits on your actions and the legacy of today. Maybe it'll keep them from failing in their duty.” His voice cracks on his next word, “But I do mean the legacy of today. Not you. I'm-” He bites back a sob, “I'm h-holding you to your promise that you'll be back!”
His mom laughs weakly as her hand finally starts breaking apart in his own and slipping through his fingers like sand and he has to bite back another heaving sob, “When did you get so demanding you little brat? And so little faith too. I said I'd be back.”
He heaves in a desperate breath as his hands, now empty, cling to her shirt as though he can hold her here longer if he just tries hard enough, “Not- Not lacking faith, thanks. R-Rude of you to accuse me of it.”
She lets out another weak laugh, dropping back and down dangerously as the area across her lower ribs seems to shatter like brittle charcoal with the movement of her laugh and Kieron darts a hand out to catch what's left of her torso with his remaining arm before she can break on the floor, even if just that impact takes a hand width off of what's remaining along the bottom ‘corner’ of her torso he catches. He lifts his leg to gently reposition her so the bottom of her broken torso is resting on it before gently holding onto her with his hand on her upper ribs in case she starts to fall due to a break again.
She shakes her head weakly, her neck splintering with the motion and sending his heart straight to his throat at the idea her head may break off even as she idly watches where her body is flaking away with every breath, “Not much time left in this life. That's okay though, like I said, I can always come back. …Well, after my soul recovers anyway. That did so much damage to it I have even less power available then a regular non magically active human. The average Existence Value of one is one thousand, I have, mm, maybe about half that? Not exactly five hundred per say, but in that ballpark…”
He swallows thickly, “Is- Is that why you're b-breaking down? I mean, if it is, how are you- how are you supposed to recover?”
She huffs another laugh, losing a shoulder to the motion, “No, that's not the reason. That's the physical damage of channeling so much power from Nihility Collapse. Technically, a Full Potion could've fixed it if it was a bit less extensive and permeated so much of this body, but.”
She shrugs, losing the other shoulder to the motion and parts of her chest, her voice going weaker, likely from said chest parts being lost, it probably cracked her lungs, “This body is too steeped in Nihility Collapses power for even multiple Full Potions to heal. Suppose it's a good thing I pulled any Skills attached to my physical body down deeper into my Heart Core so I wouldn't lose them if I couldn't absorb my previous body like I did this time.”
Her gaze drifts to Ethelyn, Kieron, and Selina, “I'd say it's a shame we'd lose the Hihi'irokane bone frames and all that you guys absorbed from your old bodies to strengthen these ones since I never found a way to incorporate it into a Skill or something to tug down into your own Heart Cores, but you have Parallel Existences around. They're perfect copies, so you'll easily be able to merge with one instead of just canceling it to absorb the benefits of it.”
He snorts a weak laugh of his own, “P-Probably for the b-best anyway, isn't it? That you won't be able to absorb this body I mean. If- If the problem with this body is its t-to steeped in Nihility C-Collapses power, then if you ab-absorbed it, w-wouldn't you absorb that too?”
She laughs weakly again, Kieron having to adjust her a bit more as she loses about two ribs worth of her lower torso from that, her voice breathy as she undoubtedly loses more of her lungs, “Sure, but technically I could shuffle the negative stuff into an Isolation area so it wouldn't harm me. It's a moot point anyway though.”
He leans forward desperately as she loses another rib or two of her torso, “When-! When will you be back?!”
She laughs as quiet as a whisper, her voice barely audible, “Oh Julius, you silly boy. You technically saw that I have to put in time coordinates when I went back to Jura-Tempest before my own body could hit the floor. I'll be back before you can even leave the System core. Hate to break it to you all thinking this is some dramatic farewell or that you'll be waiting for years, but it's more just-”
She doesn't get to finish before the cracks that have been spreading finally take her and she turns to dust right before his eyes. He turns frantically towards Selina, Kieron, and Ethelyn, but they disappear a heartbeat later.
Sung Jin-Ji is smiling tiredly. Not that it's unusual. She's always tired for reasons she doesn't understand and no doctor her concerned parents had taken her to had been able to figure out.
Currently she was kinda sitting on Jae-Min's leg, her own on either side where its knee is hooked over the top of the monkey bars as he dangles upside down, his hands tucked behind his head as he jokes with his younger twin sister, Jae-Hui who's leaning against the pole planted in the ground leading up to the one she's sitting on.
Their other close friend, Ha-Eun was sorta sitting on his other leg next to her, mouth tucked behind her hand to hide her amused giggling as she watches the siblings.
And then it very quickly proves to likely be a good thing they're kinda sitting on Jae-Min's legs.
Maybe he'd have been able to react in time and use some of his abilities, but he goes kinda slack as the memories slam in like a tidal wave.
Her hands tighten instinctively from where she's bracing her tired slump holding onto it on either side of her legs, even as Ha-Eun tips into her and grabs her arm desperately as her angle starts to slide her past her back. Below them Jae-Hui sways like someone spun her too much too fast on a merry-go-round, a hand reaching up to press her fingers against her forehead as her eyes go wide.
Below her as the memories fade and the vague, unfocused background noise that the world became while she was bombarded by memories, Jae-Min sucks in a sharp breath. She hardly has time to blink tiredly at the world before he's suddenly forcing his untrained six year old body to perform an upside down crunch without even grabbing the bar to try to assist and kissing her straight on the lips hard. By hard she just means the pressure not how he's kissing her.
Still though, even if it's little more than a lip to lip press and nothing more, the strength may not technically be triggering the block nor be inherent crossing the line, but it feels like a bit much given their physical ages. Which is why she gives him a playful shove that does little more than pushes him back maybe half a foot before bringing her hand up between their faces as his own hands come up to grab the monkey bars, probably so he doesn't have to deal with the awkward crunch with his untrained body, “Jae-Min! Behave!”
He laughs in complete and total relief as his eyes greedily drink her face in even as he tries to playfully duck around her hand, “Never!”
Apparently Ha-Eun agrees with his assessment, since she tilts her face towards her to place her own hard kiss to her lips. She pulls away with a laugh, “You two are impossible!”
None of them acknowledge the fact that it's just because the last time they had their memories and saw her, she was literally breaking apart in their arms, as they both keep dodging around her hands to kiss her more, hard enough to be skirting the edge of decency in her opinion.
She supposes she should just be grateful at the fact that the Rowena copy she left behind had already agreed to use Decomposition on her soulmates and sister-in-law after her death at their request so they didn't have to outlive her however long it would've taken their own bodies to break down.
Not that she wants to think about that right now, too much pain dealt to her soulmates, too close to what she imagines happened in Chronoa's echo timeline from what was said about what happened and their soulmate marks. Right now, she's perfectly happy to just indulge in being alive and her soulmates playfully trying to snatch admittedly desperate kisses while she tries to fend them off.