Free Web NovelChapter 291: Like a Nymph
"...U-Urgh, N-Nerina-sensei, my jaw hurts." I murmur to Nerina-sensei after hours of training.
"Yes, yes, it should hurt after that much effort, but can you do it now?" She asks about the fruits of our training; she had been explaining more about my race and what I can do with magic.
"I-I think so." I use a kerchief made of threads to wipe my lips as I decide to show her the "Bloody Lasso" I created using what she taught me.
"Look!" I point at a tree and skillfully fire a thread. The thread cuts a little deep into my finger, staining itself with blood as it pierces through the tree. However, by manipulating the Hikishin in the blood, it expands into spikes, shredding the tree.
"Congratulations, Evelyn. An efficient method for leaving traces of your Hikishin inside your enemies’ bodies, but the amount is small, so it’s not very efficient."
"Ah... really?" I thought I had created something strong, but it seems just the blood from my finger isn’t enough to generate something lethal. After all, the small amount of blood only produced small spikes.
"Yes, it’s pretty weak. However, what matters is that you seem to have understood how to actually manipulate Hikishin, and that’s good."
"I-It was thanks to the practical training you just gave me." I say, a little shy about what we did before I tried this attack.
"Well, use that as a base for what... wait... Evelyn, you can modify your body, can’t you? Your body isn’t fixed to this appearance. But that also means you don’t necessarily need to maintain a connection between your body and the changes, right?" She asks a question that leaves me briefly confused.
"Well, yes...?"
"Evelyn, haven’t you realized? What is your body?" When she asks that with a surprised look, I glance analytically at my own body.
"Flesh?"
"No, not what it’s made of! What is your body?"
"Oh! The core, theoretically?" Because I am a living marionette and a nymph, my body is more of a spiritual thing, but if I had to simplify it, the core would represent my physical body.
"Exactly! Like most nymphs, our bodies aren’t really solid or tangible, so cores are, in summary, our bodies. And the more malleable a nymph’s body is, the more things she can do!"
"Do you understand now?" When she phrases it like that for me to interpret, I try to think about what this has to do with the lessons so far, until something comes to mind. I look at my hands.
"..." And then I look around. With the lesson on domains that Nerina gave me so I could learn to use my domain’s powers outside of my domain, I’ve more or less learned the distance limit where I can shape things.
’Wait...’ I think of something that is visually and indisputably unnatural, and then I try to do it. Nerina and I hear sounds like raindrops, starting slowly and soon growing in number.
But instead of water from the sky, it begins to rain blood. My blood drips onto the sandy beach floor and onto the nearby trees. There are no clouds in the sky, yet blood is generated from my Hikishin.
"N-No way?" I look at Nerina, who gives me a proud smile.
’I can generate material from absolutely nothing using Hikishin and the environment I’m in?’ I always thought I depended on materials to create things, but I never really thought about the fact that my marionette body wasn’t created from random materials, but rather from my own Hikishin.
"It seems, Evelyn, that you can create certain types of materials from your magic in a relatively large area. Blood was an interesting choice; it’s complex, unnatural to see as magic, and above all, it’s a perfect indicator of how much magic you’re expending." She asks while our bodies become bathed in that deep crimson color.
The metallic smell coming from my own blood is so strange and alien. I’m not injured, yet the area around us is filled with my blood on all sides.
"Is it the same thing you did to generate that powerful limb of yours?"
"Pfft, ’powerful limb’? Are you that embarrassed to say the name? But yes, it’s similar, yet different. I don’t generate material from Hikishin; I just shape the water that already exists."
"And if I want more water, I need to use magic, not Hikishin directly." She approaches me as the blood rain begins to stop. The sensation of being covered in blood strangely makes me feel confused.
’I feel like I should be uncomfortable... but... why does it feel so... strange.’ I feel nothing about it, neither good nor bad, just nothing, as if it were normal rain, despite the disturbing sight of a blood rain.
"Nerina, this is really cool and all, but it doesn’t seem very useful in a fight. After all, my blessing still makes me weak." Even if I can create matter from Hikishin, that doesn’t make me stronger.
"True, but it’s still something that can help you, and it’s new. Besides, you don’t necessarily have to use it in a fight. It has many applications. Besides, it all depends on creativity."
"If you create a viscous slime, you can make weak people slip. If you create a kind of sticky sap, you can glue weak beings to the ground. In general, this only works on beings weaker than you, but it’s still useful."
"Especially because you are weak by the standards of someone strong, but you are strong by general standards. Demons, humans, angels, and beast-men—I’d say in combat you could beat 70% of all of them."
"Which is a pretty high standard for the average. So even if you’re not at the top, your strength is still something incredible." She says something accurate. I am very weak, but I guess compared to others who are weaker, I am strong. fгeewebnovёl.com
’70%... so if the world had 10 billion living beings, I would be able to defeat 7 billion out of the 10 billion in a 1v1 fight... I guess that’s incredible?’ I’m not sure what to think about such a random fact that isn’t really concrete or absolute. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
"Anyway, thank you, Nerina-sensei. I made this for you as thanks. It’s an artifact. I don’t remember why I know how to make it, but I still can." I say, handing her a ring.
She takes it with a smile, touching it to her belly which absorbs the ring. Apparently, she can store things in there. How amazing.
’I have several rings.’ I look at my hands again. On them are three rings: one for storage which I discovered has some basic survival items and marionette materials.
Another is a ring I couldn’t take off me no matter what because it always returned to my finger, and the other is so stuck to my finger it doesn’t even move.
"It was nothing, Evelyn. By the way, I brought the gold you wanted to give you as a present." As she says this, an immense hand emerges from the ocean, dropping a small mountain of gold with jewels among the bars and golden coins. Soon the hand dissolves, wetting the sand already soiled with blood.
"Gold!" I run to the gold, which strangely makes me feel an incredible calm. I throw myself onto the mountain of gold, feeling comfortable as my tail curiously rubs against a gold bar.
’She was right...’ Seeing all this gold, I create several "hands" of Hikishin. They float in the air, grabbing the gold and beginning to carry it. The hands are semi-translucent, emitting a faint purple glow as they carry everything.
"Look, Nerina! I can control them easily!" I say, seeking praise while I roll in the gold that is still here. I can move the hands pretty far, so the gold starts being carried over to the side of my house.
"Yes, you really understood how to use this to its fullest. What else can you do?" She asks curiously as I think about what I could do.
"Hehehe..." I look at her, creating translucent and intangible "ghost" copies of myself. It’s just modeled Hikishin, but physically it’s identical to me. Something I never thought I could do.
"Okay, cool, but what’s the use of that?"
"Eh... none? But there must be something I can do! If I can create material, then I can create copies of myself and use them as shields! Or as dolls! Look." I try to use Hikishin to create a new body.
The body solidifies, truly made of flesh, but the naked body collapses onto the ground. And then, like a doll on strings, I control its movements, making it take initially hesitant steps until it comes in front of me.
"Tada!!! A shield!" I get behind her, generating this "flesh shield" that protects me from a blow. It’s not very resistant, but if I make clothes out of threads, they will be indestructible clothes. So this flesh copy will really become a shield.
"Evelyn, sometimes I really get confused by you." Nerina says something strange out of nowhere.
...
...
...
"Evelyn, sometimes I really get confused by you." I say to Evelyn, who looks at me with confusion.
"Why?"
"...Nothing. This copy is really impressive; it looks very realistic." I tell her, ignoring giving her too many answers.
’[She really is strange...]’ Arial speaks to me. Since I didn’t know the Evelyn of the past, I can’t say much, but according to Arial, Evelyn without memories is much "darker" than Evelyn with memories.
For example, this right now. Evelyn with memories would never say she’d use an exact copy of herself as a flesh shield. Not to mention the abilities she invents with the threads, designed to kill quickly, but brutally.
’It seems that due to the lack of memory, Evelyn has been connecting more with her nymph side, which makes her less ethical and more efficient.’ She is thinking like a true nymph, always pondering what is most efficient for killing and surviving.
"Evelyn, I have to leave for now. You can keep training. I’ll be back later, okay? I need to go get that friend I told you about." I’m going to materialize a temporary body for Arial.
"Sure! I’ll see you later! Thank you for the training today, Nerina-sensei!" She gives me a big smile, throwing herself onto the gold and rubbing against it as if it were the most wonderful thing.
’Arial, how much darker does she seem now?’ I question Arial as I enter the seawater and merge with it.
’[Threads bathed in her own blood to wound from the inside, blood rain, and a flesh shield. Without a doubt, she hardly resembles the Evelyn I met. The Evelyn in the past was... cowardly. There’s no other word.]’ Arial answers me honestly.
’That’s good. She’s a nymph. It’s cute seeing her act like a novice.’ This doesn’t even come close to the thoughts I’ve had, with this ability to manifest material that she has.
It’s possible to do terrifying things, like hiding your real powers, pretending to have other nymphs’ domains, using manipulation to create a psychologically demoralizing environment like a sea of blood filled with limbs and bodies.
And the best of all: using this ability to create empty shells that she said she could use as shields, she could simply make several and keep sending them at the enemy.
Not to defeat him, but to create a horrifying bloodbath of dozens to hundreds of bodies that keep advancing even as they are destroyed, creating an illusion of an "Immortal Enemy that ignores pain and fear." Something that is very useful for an Asura like her.
’What a cute little thing. She’s not sadistic, but she’s completely disconnected from the reality of the past.’ This makes me excited. The further she gets from the past, the less chance she has of recovering her memories.
