"Somehow, out of everything I thought you might bring back from this invasion… actual angelic soul essence wasn't it."
Tibath eyed me up and down like I was a particularly impressive animal specimen she was planning to study. She was also sporting that slightly twitchy smile I had learned to associate with upcoming mischief.
"Are you sure I can't interest the two of you in my daughter?" she went on. "Group arrangements are rare, as much as actual demonic couples are rare, but they're not unheard of."
Yules sputtered and flushed so hard I thought she'd combust and transform into a brand-new Abyssal flame. I wasn't all that much better myself, if I was being entirely honest. Mia, however, just hummed and stared right back at the Duchess who could, most probably, obliterate us both.
"I'll think about it," the cat demoness declared, only making Yules' state worse.
Not mine, of course. Mia's comment actually managed to knock me out of my embarrassment, because I knew for a fact she'd never share.
She was way too possessive and clingy for that.
"How did we get to this?" I asked, hoping to get things back on track.
"We 'got to this' because you keep showing off one impossibility after another, that's how." Tibath shook her head. "Honestly, that sword of yours? Its value just shot up considerably, let alone its level and inherent worth as a soul blade. I'd warmly recommend never letting someone you can't trust know about it. I'd recommend not telling people you do trust either, but that ship has sailed."
I just stared at my sword. "This ability it's developed, to drain and store soul essence… is it really that rare?"
Amusingly, I felt some annoyance radiating from the blade, like I had besmirched its honor.
"Yes. There's no two ways about it. The answer is just yes. You got exceedingly lucky with the mutations you induced in the blade by upgrading it in the way you did… or maybe your mother did, once upon a time, and you are merely unearthing that particularly ability again."
Before my mind could wander in that direction, a series of impressions from my soul blade cut me off. I felt both approval and denial, followed by frustration when it sensed I couldn't understand.
The next moment shocked me. Instead of broken words that seemed to tax the blade, an actual sentence rang out in my mind:
Your mother's work has bloomed and evolved.
Images assaulted me instantly. A blade, my blade, sinking into a person. Whisking away a fragment of their soul. Tearing it apart, feeding on it, and sending part of the energy into me.
Then another flash, and another vision. Divinity getting forced through the blade, necessitating adjustments, growth, to adapt to this new and potent resource.
Finally, the burning crucible of angelic soul essence. The final adjustments that happened then, allowing for the safe storage of said power so the blade's wielder could properly benefit from it.
Suddenly, I felt a gentle hand rest on my cheek.
"Hayden? Is everything okay?" Mia asked softly.
I blinked confusion out of my eyes, taking in Yules' worried expression and Tibath's obvious amusement. Of course the latter wouldn't be alarmed. She probably knew exactly what had just happened.
"Sorry. The soul blade decided to chime in on our discussion, I guess," I muttered.
I was still oddly thrown off by the entire thing. I had absorbed other people's souls and knowledge, melded my mind with Mia's, and done a couple other morally dubious things that messed with one's mental processes. But this experience was a whole new thing altogether. I'd lived those visions like I was a sword, and that's what was throwing me for a loop.
Let me tell you, I did not think that inanimate objects were supposed to gain sentience. At all. Of course, that particular line of thinking sent angry vibes surging into me from my sword, which, yeah, fair.
That made me wonder, though… How much of my mind did the sword have access to? I knew we had a soul-bond between us, but was it always there in the background? When I trained, when I fought, when I spent time with Mia?
That last one was especially relevant, I felt!
To my frustration, I only got soft amusement from the blade, along with the faintest impression that it didn't care about such things. It was a sword. Whatever silly demons did in their free time didn't matter to it in the slightest.
"Hayden?" Mia's voice snapped me out of the daze once more, forcing me to offer her a sheepish grin.
"Sorry." I glared at my sword, still a little creeped out. "I'm just getting used to the fact that I apparently have a voyeur in the back of my mind."
Mia raised an eyebrow in confusion before what I was saying caught up with her. Then every bit of fur she had poofed out in embarrassment. Somehow, even though she hit me for it, laughing at her did make me feel better.
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"Young love." Tibath sighed dramatically as she motioned towards us. "See, Yules, you could be having this!"
Predictably, Yules did not like that.
"Mother! Can you please stop making things awkward!" The young demoness moved closer to us and gripped our arms in frighteningly powerful hands. "If that's all, we'll go work on their armor now!"
"Now now, wait a moment. You don't know how to handle angelic soul essence, daughter. You'll need my help for this. Don't pout, any of you! Yules will still make your armor. I'll just assist and guide her along. More importantly, once we have that angelic soul essence in a proper container, we have an important question to answer."
"Which is?" I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.
Tibath's smile was all pointy teeth. "Can your sword do the same thing to demonic soul essence?"
I adjusted my armor slightly, enjoying the way the crystal-like structure of the plates caught the light and refracted it. The armor's design was remarkably similar to my last set, but the differences were just as glaringly obvious.
For one, the color of the crystalline plates was a dark black shot through by veins of white that positively radiated power. If you paid particularly close attention, you could see runes swimming within the white lines. They were like the phantoms you sometimes glimpse in the corner of your eye at night, when you're at your most anxious and imbalanced.
There were runes lurking within the bluish material too, I knew, But they were far better hidden and more subtle in their effects.
What amused me most, however, was the way people stopped and stared when they caught sight of me. It wasn't a conscious decision at all. Archdemons and under were far more affected than nobles, but it seemed to have a limited effect even on some of the higher-level demons.
More than a few people had sent me irritated glares when they got caught up in the magic woven into my armor. I only felt better and better about the quality of Yules' work every time it happened.
Though… I was considerably confused about why angelic soul essence was such an effective booster for charm magic. Not that I wouldn't keep my mouth shut, of course. I just thanked my lucky stars that Tibath's curiosity about what her daughter might be able to create had led to her turning over materials I could never have afforded on my own.
As it was, my funds were pretty much wiped out until I got my next legion pay, and both Mia and I owed money to Tibath on top of that. Not as much money as we would have owed if we hadn't shared half the angelic soul essence with her, but still.
Did I regret the expense? Not in the slightest.
The armor's defenses, its passive protection field that stuck close to my skin, its durability, its self-repair enchantment, and the Daze enchantment were all more than worth it. It was my humble estimation that Glaustro himself would have to put some serious effort into even cracking the mana shell that hummed ever so slightly around me.
Of course, this was already dipping my toes into enchantments that couldn't continue functioning on their own without manual recharging, but at least the armor had a mana pool built into it that let me save up some power ahead of time. Every little bit of mana counted in a serious fight, and I was immensely grateful to Tibath for guiding Yules through the process of establishing an item-bound mana pool.
Plus, as a cherry on top, Mia looked amazing in her set of armor.
It was identical to mine, of course, but it adjusted to her body in a way that both subtly accented her figure and made her look like a lean, mean, killing machine. Was it odd that I found that attractive? Maybe a little. But I was a demon, so… hey.
Tibath's little experiment had born fruit, too. My sword could, in fact, damage a demon and store their soul essence.
Not a major game-changer, because I could already devour the soul of a demon if I killed them in the Abyss. According to Tibath, though, it was a nice feature. If I used the blade on my enemies, I could either absorb their power directly or use it in crafting, brewing, enchanting… any number of projects.
After all, even if I could provide my own demonic soul essence for such endeavors, I wouldn't want to do so very often for fear of truly damaging my soul, the way it had been damaged by my resurrection. Since that healing had required a lot of typically rare resources… yeah, it wasn't a good idea to indulge in that particular aspect of crafting.
Regardless, I had my new armor, and everything else was behind us now. The chats with Tibath and Yules, the harried process of recruitment, and even an unfortunately short visit to Breskwor. Ironically, we'd have more time to visit Breskwor once the invasion we were leading really kicked off, but all the stuff we needed to oversee in the meantime really kept us busy.
Also behind us was an argument between Glaustro and me-and-Mia, though the tension still crackled in the air.
Our colonel had requested an admittedly simple thing from the two of us: that we separate and lead the invasion in two different regions. We… didn't react well to that. Our rejection of his orders, perhaps a little more forceful than it needed to be, left Glaustro snappy and irritable with us.
It didn't help that he'd tried to push the issue. Mia's response had been, well…
"We like you, you have our loyalty, but remember that we're not bound to follow you, Glaustro," the cat demoness had hissed, looking like someone had stepped on her tail.
The fact that she was clutching my hand so hard it hurt was something I'd declined to comment on. I'd just nodded along stoically.
Glaustro's face had briefly fallen. A look of hurt had settled over his features. But that was wiped away a second later, replaced by understanding and then grouchiness.
The moment lingered in my memory, just as I knew it lingered in Mia's and Glaustro's, too.
Really, the one I felt the worst for was Bronwynn. The poor guy's expression while watching us argue was almost amusing enough to laugh about. In hindsight, of course. It wasn't the most tasteful of comparisons, perhaps, but he really did remind me of a parent watching their significant other quarrel with their children.
That was two days ago, though.
What was happening at the moment was a little more significant. We were about to get our very first glimpse of the world we would be invading shortly.
"Is everyone ready?" Glaustro asked one final time, his eyes panning over the relatively small section of our brand new army.
It was only Mia, me, and two thousand regular demonic soldiers that would be crossing over, for the time being. Apparently, for all the general's dramatics back when I was taking part in my first ever invasion, mortal recruits were not sent in before everyone else.
That honor belonged to a small initial group meant to set some things up and identify the best invasion port for mortals.
Glaustro completed his final scan and nodded. "Good. In that case…"
His words trailed off, transitioning into a chant. Pinpricks raced across my skin as mana batteries set up by the legion were drained away, and the veil of space tore aside like wet tissue.
Our first glimpse of the foreign world was uninspiring. A long, empty, grassy plain. It would have been disappointing too, if not for what we could see in the far distance.
A city.
A very familiar-looking city.
Breath fled my lungs completely as I beheld the skyscrapers and cars, streaming in and out of the urban setting. We were looking at a city in the world half my soul came from.
… the non-Hayden half.