Alia kept careful watch on the cocoon as Lia fiddled with so odd device that Connie had given her. It was half an hour or so after their eting, and it was finally ti for Ira to die. Lia had requested that Alia stay close near the process, just in case sothing went wrong, but knowing Connie, there was no way she would have offered this if she wasn’t totally sure Lia would be safe. Still, Alia appreciated the thought behind it.
“Ready?” Lia asked.
Alia nodded, starting up a couple dozen powerful spells and leaving them just shy of completion. It was a rather large drain on her Mana reserves, and she couldn’t keep it up for more than a minute, but if sothing did go wrong, then Alia wanted to deal with the situation with as much force as possible. “Ready.”
Lia pressed the device into the cocoon, pressed a button, and withdrew her hand. The device sparked, streaks of red lightning enveloping the cocoon for a few monts, and then there was a bright flash, a rush of smoke, and the cocoon was gone, leaving only an awful sll and the already dissipating smoke in its wake.
“I got the experience.” Lia said. “He’s dead.”
“How many levels?” Alia asked.
“Sixty-three.” Lia replied, giving a small whistle. “That’s almost halfway to evolution in terms of level count, but the later levels are always the hardest. And if that’s what I had to do to get to this level…I’m not sure I’m evolving before this war is finished.”
“I’m sure that if the Lord of Monsters shows up in the middle of this, defeating him should get you the rest of the way there.” Alia said. “But I don’t think another evolution will be needed for this war. It’s more the war with Izumi’s ho plane we should be worried about.”
“I guess.” Lia grumbled. “Let’s get back ho and wash up, I really don’t want this sll to stick.”
Alia cast a quick cleaning spell, and the two made their way back through the valley, into the World Tree, and to their ho within. After they did, Lia turned to Alia. “I’d love to have you in with , but that’ll have to wait.” Lia said. “Maybe later, after we’re properly clean, okay? I know the cleaning spell works, it just…doesn’t feel the sa.”
“I’ll hold you to that, you know.” Alia said, smiling slightly.
“Good.” Lia said. “Do you want the master bathroom or the one in the hall?”
“I’ll take the hall.” Alia said. “I don’t really need the space.”
“Are you sure?” Lia said. “I don’t either.”
“I’m sure.” Alia said, already moving towards the hall bathroom. “Now go clean up.”
The two left to their respective showers, and Alia got in, fumbled with the knob for a bit, then began to scrub herself vigorously. The showers in their house had beco quite different since Connie had taken up permanent residence there, as she had revamped them to be more in line with showers in other planes.
It had taken a bit of getting used to, but Alia did have to admit that the showers were far simpler to use and much more comfortable than the ones she was used to. And the skin and hair products Connie had brought were a wonder in and of themselves. They were so…effective, and they didn’t require a huge amount of effort to use, either.
After she finished cleaning herself, she sat back and began to relax, sothing she hadn’t ever done before Connie’s alterations. In fact, she hadn’t taken showers at all until the Urge was removed; her cleaning magic was faster and worked better, and…well, she hadn’t been able to take enjoynt in little things like this with the Urge.
As much as so of the new feelings she had were unpleasant and she would rather go without them, she was glad the Urge was gone. Everything was so much more…vibrant, and she was increasingly coming to realize just how much life she was missing out on because of the Urge. She had only been half a person before, and she hadn’t even known, not really.
She closed her eyes, letting her thoughts wander as the water ran over her. Yes…this was much, much better than her life had been before, and she vowed to never take that for granted. And, if that ant defending it to her dying breath, going against all of the gods and even Jerry himself, then she would. No one would ever take this away from her.
An hour or two later, Alia and Lia were out in the Spine, hunting monsters. Alia had never seen anyone jump sixty levels at once before, and the effects were pretty noticeable. Lia was visibly faster, and monsters that would have taken her four or five hits before now only took two or three.
Alia wasn’t getting too much out of this session, but that was fine. She was more than content to aid Lia in her leveling, so Lia could get out of this little slump faster. She was just about to lure another monster to them when Lia stopped, holding a hand up. “I’m getting a ssage from Rose.” She said. “Apparently we’re needed back at ho, sothing about Alisha and her getting sothing important?”
“Teleporting us back now, then.” Alia said. “Unless you need sothing else here?”
“No, I’m good.” Lia replied.
Alia nodded, using a fair bit of her remaining Mana to teleport them the distance back to the World Tree. Lia led Alia up into the work floor, then to a seemingly random warehouse, where Rose and Alisha were waiting.
“My Queen, it is good to see you.” Alisha said. “I’m pleased to inform you that I have obtained the Title of Gluttony, which should allow to grant you all of my abilities at once.”
Alia frowned internally, reaching out to check Alisha’s psyche. While she was reasonably confident that her conditioning would stand up to a Sin Title, there was no such thing as being too careful, especially given Alisha’s natural personality.
And the more she looked, the more concerned she got. Alisha was…not the sa as she had been before, but it wasn’t in an obvious way. She wasn’t any more seditious than she had been before she got the Title or anything, but there was definitely sothing off about her. Still, Alia felt that just looking into her mind wasn’t giving Alia what she needed, so she began to poke at Alisha’s new Title and Skill, and that finally gave her the full picture.
When she turned her attention back to the situation at hand, Alisha was excitedly reminding Lia of each and every one of the abilities the treasures she was converted with possessed. Alia waited for her to finish, then spoke up. “Alisha, I feel like I should inform you that your Skill is lying to you.”
Alisha froze. “What? How is that possible? The Sin and Virtue Skills aren’t sentient, right?”
“No, but it can’t freely give all the power it steals to anyone. This is going to sound like a bit of a non-sequitur, but would you ever give your power to anyone other than Lia under any circumstance?”
“Absolutely not.” Alisha said imdiately. “I would rather die.”
“Doesn’t that strike you as a little odd?”
Alisha paused. “I…yes, actually.” Alisha admitted. “I distinctly rember thinking that, if I really wanted to use this for myself, I could just…puppet soone’s body, but now the very idea seems repulsive.”
Alia nodded. “As I thought.” She said. “You see, your Skill claims it won’t put a burden on people, but that’s just not true. The only one it won’t ever burden is Lia.”
“Why?” Rose asked.
“Simple.” Alia said. “Lia made herself immune to it ages ago.”
“I did?” Lia said, frowning slightly.
“You did.” Alia confird. “Back when you made it so you kept the abilities of each race you evolved from.”
“I don’t follow.” Lia said. “What does that have to do with this?”
“Think of it like this,” Alia said, “each soul has a limited amount of power it can handle. Souls can grow over ti, but that takes ti, and throwing a bunch of power at a soul all at once will burden it. Lia, however, worked around this by using so of my power, essentially sticking it onto her soul and giving it extra space specifically for exactly the type of power you can steal.
“And, to get back to my earlier question, whoever makes these Skills seems to have modified yours; it gives you an aversion to having anyone but Lia wear you, in essence giving the illusion that the Skill does what it says.”
“It…did say my Skill was altered.” Alisha said thoughtfully. “Perhaps one of the gods did it?”
“I can only assu.” Alia replied. “I have so suspicions, but I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure.”
That was, of course, a lie. Alia was almost completely certain that Connie did this, the bigger question was how. She wasn’t supposed to be able to give freebies to the swarm, and this was a pretty big freebie. “Anyway, the Skill is safe, so I’m going to leave you guys to hash out the details, I’m gonna go get ready for dinner.”
Rose gave her a knowing look. “Alright.” She said. “Lia and I will be around as soon as we finish here.”
Alia hurriedly made her way back to the house, where Connie was already waiting. “You know, sotis having a girlfriend who’s able to see how everything works is a little frustrating.” She said, smiling slightly. “I’m impressed, though, you picked up on that fast.”
Alia shrugged. “I’ve done a lot of research into this topic.” She said. “Initially, I wanted to start Lia at as high a power level as I could, but I soon realized that giving her soul ti to adjust was the better way to go about it. How’d you manage to get that Skill approved, though?”
“Um…don’t tell Lia, but I’ve been overcharging her when she can afford it and putting the extra into a separate fund.” Connie admitted. “Before we started dating, I was going to use it as a rewards program that she could pick things from, but now it’s my gift fund.”
“You’re going to have to explain it to her soti.” Alia pointed out. “She’s going to worry about getting you punished like the Goddess of Law was.”
Connie blinked. “Right. I forgot that she would know to worry about that. Um…yeah, I guess I might as well tell her. You don’t think she’ll be mad, do you?”
“Connie, didn’t she literally haggle the price up the other day?” Alia chuckled. “I’m sure she won’t care.”
“Um, I suppose now is a good ti to ntion that Jerry has been wanting to get you to help him out on a project.” Connie said awkwardly.
“No.” Alia said. “Our deal said I wouldn’t help until later, so I don’t see any reason to help now.”
Connie sighed. “Yeah, I told him you’d say that.” She said. “But he told that it was, quote ‘a project that would help Rose out’. I don’t know if that changes the math for you on this.”
Alia frowned. “It’s tempting, but I really need to know what this project is first.”
“I thought so.” Connie replied, taking out a thin rectangular object from her pocket and pressing on the bottom of one side. The side she pressed on lit up, and Connie began to tap away at that side, leaving Alia to watch curiously.
“What are you doing?” Alia asked. “What’s that thing?”
“It’s called a phone, and I’m contacting Jerry.” Connie said. “It’s a communication tool from other planes. Ask Izumi about it, I think she still has one on her person if you want to look at it. Fair warning, it’s useless unless whoever you’re talking to has one as well.”
She finished tapping on the phone, and after a few monts it buzzed. She looked at it for a mont, then nodded. “Alright, I’ve gotten permission to tell you what’s up. He’s trying to replicate Blood Money, and he intends to make Rose the first recipient.”
“He could just give it to our enemies after Rose.” Alia pointed out. “We’re working fine with just one person using it now.”
Connie shook her head. “I doubt he will.” She said. “Blood Money is just another form of Worship, and giving that to anyone who isn’t a God is risky business.”
“Then it should be risky business to give it to Rose.” Alia said flatly. “I’m not convinced.”
The air shifted slightly, and Jerry appeared next to Connie. “Rose and Lia are exceptions.” He said. “To be perfectly blunt, with the way you have structured the swarm, we will have to work under the assumption that they will receive Worship sooner or later, and I will have to give them many of the sa modifications I gave you.
“Them aside, I will only be giving the capability to earn Blood Money to the gods, and, if it’s at the current efficiency, they will receive only a small benefit from that. For your purposes, however, it should effectively double your purchasing power, and I believe that is a worthy trade.”
“And why are you coming to with this?” Alia asked distrustfully. “This seems more than a little suspicious when you’ve put all these rules on the gods about not helping us for free.”
“Because you are the one who created Blood Money in the first place.” Jerry said patiently. “And, try as I have been, I have had little success in recreating it. And this service is not free in the slightest; it will be compensation for the labor you provide in helping figure this out.”
“It shouldn’t be that hard a problem.” Alia said confidently. “I did it once before, how hard could it be to do it again?”
“That’s the kind of confidence I like to see, but I think you’ll find it significantly harder to replicate than you believe.” Jerry replied, smiling wryly. “If it was as simple as doing exactly what you did to Lia, I would have replicated it a long ti ago. I simply ask for four hours of your ti every week, ti in which you will be completely unbound and focused entirely on helping give Rose Blood Money.
“In return, I swear that Rose will be the only mortal on my planes to receive Blood Money, and that Blood Money the gods earn will not be used against you. Are these acceptable terms?”
Alia deliberated on that for a mont. Being able to be completely unbound for four hours a week was a tempting prospect, and she was capable of multitasking during them.
“To be clear, I will not allow you to use this period of unbound ti for anything not directly relating to giving Rose Blood Money. However…I suppose that, at the very least, should you be successful, I will loosen the restriction on your Worship; I will allow you usage of as much of it as Lia and Rose are able to use via Blood Money.”
Alia shrugged. “Can’t really bla for considering it.” She said. “Our position is precarious, and four hours of my ti is very precious at the mont. Perhaps you could loosen my restriction now, on the basis that I am providing four hours per week to you when reasonable?”
“When reasonable?” Jerry asked, raising an eyebrow.
“If I am locked in a large-scale battle for a week, I don’t think it’s viable to give any amount of my ti.” She said. “Like I said, my ti is very precious at the mont, and if I was out when the enemy decides to make a decisive strike, it could well shape the course of this entire conflict.”
Jerry thought on that for a mont. “I suppose that is acceptable.” He said. “You may co work with in one-hour incrents whenever you have free ti, starting tomorrow. Whenever you wish to do your work, just contact Connie and I will pick you up. Should you miss any week where you are not otherwise engaged at all tis, I will revoke this benefit until such ti as I see fit.”
“Very well.” Alia said. “I’ll make so ti tomorrow.”
“Excellent. I’ll take my leave now, have a good evening.” And with that, Jerry was gone, leaving Alia alone with Connie.
“So…” Alia began, “need any help with dinner?”
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