Sworded Affair

Chapter 161: 2 Become 1

The Heavenly Jade Mirror changed its shape, shifting for the first time into something other than spherical. An exact copy of Emma’s armour greeted her, minus the limitations in colour palette that was no fault of its own. The copy knelt, hands across its knees, and bared its neck to her: a clear and unquestionable gesture of submission, used by knights since antiquity in the presence of their sovereign. Emma called Epitaph to her hand, happy to oblige in a spot of theatre. Pressing her blade down against her copycat’s shoulder, all it took was a quick flick of the wrist to take its head off at the neck.

[500 EXP gained for defeating the Heavenly Jade Mirror.

500 EXP gained for convincing a copy of yourself to give up its life. That’s messed up.

Soul capture successful!

Duplicate added to No Pal of Mine.

Your Sacrifice (1 oz) is stored.

You may use Your Sacrifice in the creation of a single candle.

The result will be powerful, unexpected, and enduring.

Proceed with caution.]

“That’s messed up,” Emma echoed, deciding then and there to leave that particular item in her inventory for the time being.

The duplicate had been in line with her expectations, given Edith’s earlier speech about her reflection copying her own mannerisms and personality. Receiving unique loot for her Chandler class was not: sure, she’d used that body out briefly to lay down the facts of life, but it hadn’t participated in combat beyond that.

[It was a powerful creation, possessing nearly limitless potential that scaled with the threat of its opponent. Not for long, without a sufficient power source, but it could have stalled even me for a few minutes, in life. Quite frankly, the only reason a stronger sect didn’t seize this from the Azure Horizon Sect, was their reluctance to deploy it against anything short of an existential threat. That was their downfall, in the end. Too many safeguards, too many requirements for activation. The Pavilion Master died before he could release it on that fateful night, as a consequence, I don’t believe it ever saw battle before today.]

“What a waste,” Emma shook her head. “If you’ve got power, use it to get more. Why bother hoarding it for a day that might never come?”

[A lesson more of my descendants could stand to learn. Instead, many die with full coffers and even fuller storage items, leaving behind wasted potential and court cases over their inheritance. Such folly…

WARNING: This Dungeon is unstable, and will collapse if unbeaten in 13 hours, 4 minutes.]

The dungeon timer pinged again, reminding Emma of her impending doom, and that this was probably not the best place to have a chat. Another doorway had opened up, silent and sudden, to the point where she questioned whether it had existed before her attention turned its way. The other side was bright, obscuring any details and enough to make her wary on that basis alone.

[Ephemera (Toggle: ON)

[Null Zone (Toggle: ON)]

Making sure her safeguards were active, Emma crossed the floor and headed into the breach.

—

1247

It wasn’t an easy thing, defying the heavenly tribulation. Heaven was fair, calibrating the strength of its test to always be difficult for a cultivator’s realm, but not impossible to overcome. Heaven was also short tempered, and took very poorly any attempt to undermine the sanctity of its test. Accordingly, when Edith seized control of Sectmaster Horizon’s body, consuming every scrap of his soul, what greeted her new vessel was decidedly not a test fit for a Nascent Soul. Three bolts of lightning fell, each with the weight of the world behind them.

“Threefold Revival? You honour me.”

The first bolt reached her a tenth of the second later, stripping her body of mana. Both her lungs collapsed, her left arm fell limp, and her right leg disintegrated below the knee.

“Really? Such serious injuries, and you just pieced yourself back together with your will and suppressed the after effects. Surely a sectmaster could afford proper healing: unless you were too worried to show any weakness?”

Edith continued to castigate her body’s previous inhabitant, balancing on one leg as she spat vitriol. Sparks of lightning flickered as she transferred her consciousness to the first bolt’s remnants, binding it to her body’s brain as a rudimentary artificial intelligence, one that could survive even devoid of mana. Her tirade continued until the second bolt landed seconds later, invisible to her remaining senses, and wiped her mind clean. Her every memory, from birth amidst the cradle of mankind until that final moment, gone in an instant.

[ERROR. Cognitive capacity below acceptable thresholds.

Reloading from save file: 2734.]

Edith regained herself, even her crippled body restored to the peak of human performance. It didn’t matter that her System wouldn’t be complete for another millennium, her deeds and divinity echoing into the distant past.

“Just the last bolt still to go,” Edith smiled, even as she began to draw upon the threads that bound all users of the System. “This one’s a bit dangerous, so I can’t afford to be purely reactive. A bit wasteful, perhaps, but the heiress agreed to my deal. The deaths of all who opposed her, and the unification of Sweden’s magical community in her name, in return for her life when it ended. She never specified it had to be her ruling Sweden, however.”

[Administrator order: Soul overlay established.]

The final bolt landed, striking the first soul it found in the target body and burning it out of existence.

“Note to self, create a convincing replacement for the heiress within the next hundred years, then have it buried in an obvious magical ruin somewhere near Lapland. Have it dug up after the Second World War and placed in a museum, then spread rumours of its magical properties to her maidservant. That should do it.”

[Note created. Reminder set for 1312.]

With the tribulation complete, Edith regained access to the mana around her. Absently, she dug into the river of souls, fishing up a few pieces of the Sectmaster’s soul, enough to provide a challenge suitable for a weak Core Formation expert.

“That’ll do. Now, to clean this up before Emma arrives.”

—

5 seconds before the apocalypse.

[Administrator order: Soul overlay established.]

Princess Astaroth didn’t even have time to scream as her soul dissolved, leaving an empty shell to slump to the floor. Her butler did, however, have enough time for a single shocked gasp, before Stockholm, too, went up in smoke.