“What on earth should I do?”
Late at night, in the servants’ quarters on the first floor of the castle.
Lying on the bed, Vielle stared at the ceiling above, subconsciously touching the spot where she’d been bitten earlier.
For an ordinary person, it might have been just a slight sting, but with her heightened senses, Vielle felt constant pain.
Thinking back to what the other person had done to her before…
“Uuuuu!!”
The goddess girl instinctively grabbed the pillow under her head and hugged it tightly, rolling back and forth on the bed.
Her frantic behavior even scared the little black cat sleeping nearby, making it scamper a bit farther away.
“That bastard, to treat me like that! She deserves to fall face-first in the mud! Pervert! Idiot! Sadist!!”
Her petite figure suddenly sat up on her knees, and she started punching the pillow in front of her with her tiny fists in a pointless outburst.
“Die! Die die die! You hateful wicked woman!!”
“Mm…uuuu~”
In the end, after pounding the pillow to exhaustion, she collapsed weakly onto the bed, her little butt sticking up, face buried in the pillow, squirming…looking both bizarre and utterly defeated.
“Meow~”
The little black cat seemed very curious about its master’s sudden antics, so it jumped onto the bed and gently licked Vielle’s reddened ear with its tiny tongue.
“Uuu!!”
Already on edge, the goddess girl jumped up instantly, scooping the bewildered little black cat into her arms.
“You…you’re bullying me too!” she complained indignantly, then pressed the little black cat down onto the bed, rubbing her face over its slightly warm little belly.
“Idiot idiot idiot idiot!!”
“Meow~”
She kept saying this, though it was unclear whether she was scolding the cat or a certain someone else who was also lying awake somewhere…
“Achoo!”
Ireya rubbed her nose and frowned as she looked toward the window.
Before starting her experiment, she shut the window and drew the curtains.
The uses of wandering souls…were many and varied.
Powerful souls with self-awareness could be given undead bodies so they could display the skills they had in life.
Even soulless spirits could be used like this, but undead created that way could only serve as cannon fodder.
As for herself…the four wandering souls she had now were obviously the lowest rank, almost entirely devoid of soul energy— mere small fry among small fry.
Even if such spirits found a strong body, they couldn’t control it, acting only like beasts in reckless, fearless charges.
“So…what about using the energy of these souls to strengthen my body?”
Physical training and reinforcement weren’t things that happened overnight.
Even if she started training now, it would take at least three months to see initial results.
In a year…it probably wouldn’t improve much.
So using soul energy to strengthen herself was a pretty good shortcut.
“Alright, let’s give it a try. Only an idiot wouldn’t take a shortcut.”
Muttering under her breath, Ireya placed the darkened parchment on the table, black mist once again swirling over her hands.
Whoosh—!
In the next second, Ireya’s left hand formed a claw and actually reached straight into the parchment!
As if there was a hole inside the parchment and table that shouldn’t exist.
【Awoooo—!!】
As Ireya pulled out a semi-transparent blue orb, the surrounding temperature instantly dropped again, accompanied by the silent screams of the undead.
It seemed being grabbed like this was very painful.
Ireya’s lips curled into a faint smile…
For some reason, hearing the despairing wails of the innocent soul gave her a kind of thrill…and satisfaction.
She even wanted to keep squeezing this soul longer to hear even more delightful cries…
No!
She shouldn’t be having such thoughts now.
Meaningless thoughts…
“Come…become my power…”
Whoosh!!
Her hand slowly clenched, and the light blue soul began to tremble violently…
Pop!
In the next second, like a flame being snuffed out, soul fragments scattered, floating into the air.
At the same time, a faint blue light traced along Ireya’s entire left arm…
Crack crack crack…
As the soul’s power poured in, the lady’s finger joints let out a series of crisp noises!
In an instant, her delicate, petite hand was forced larger by suddenly growing bones, veins bulging!
Overall, it was about three times the size of her original hand, her nails turning black and becoming extremely sharp…
If before, Ireya’s slender hands could only grasp half an apple, now her left hand could easily grasp an adult’s head.
“Hiss…ugh!!”
But along with the mutation came pain.
Bones, skin, blood vessels…every part of her left arm hurt, as if countless supports were propping up her skin and bones, forcefully swelling her entire arm!
“Ah… ah!!”
Whoosh!!
Ireya endured the pain and suddenly swung her clawed left hand!
Rip—!!
The wallpaper and wood paneling on the side wall were instantly shredded with four gashes, exposing the bluish stone structure underneath.
And though Ireya’s claws had slight chips at the tips, oozing a bit of blood, they quickly recovered on their own.
“Huff…huff!”
Crack crack crack…
As Ireya willed it, the bones in her left hand gave off crisp sounds and gradually returned to normal, once again becoming her own slender, delicate hand.
“Looks like…using magic to strengthen…the body…isn’t quite…that easy…”
Truly worthy of being necromantic magic — it was indeed a forbidden art built upon evil and pain.
Although she thought this in her heart, and had endured tremendous agony, Ireya still pulled out another wisp of a wandering soul and attached it to her right hand.
In this way, if danger arose, both her hands could be reinforced.
At a critical moment, she could deal a surprise, fatal blow to her enemies!
Compared to something like that, the pain in her arms was insignificant.
“Not bad…with this at least…I have some ability to protect myself.”
Whoosh…
The moment the blue fluctuations on her arms disappeared, Ireya’s peripheral vision suddenly caught something in the corner of her room — it seemed like a pitch-black human figure was standing there.
“Huh?!”
She was slightly stunned and focused her gaze on that spot once more.
But…there was nothing there.
“This…”
She quickly walked to that corner and carefully looked it over from top to bottom.
Sure enough…there was nothing at all.
Not even dust — the place was spotless.
“Was…that just an illusion caused by the pain? How embarrassing…”
She rubbed her head, planning to wash up…then get a good night’s sleep.
Knock knock knock…
At the same time, on the same third floor, the door to a certain room was being knocked upon.
Whoosh…
Inside the soft, large bed, behind pure white gauzy curtains, a noble lady slowly opened her eyes and sat up.
Those blue eyes held not a trace of sleepiness, but were instead remarkably clear and calm.
“Come in.” spoke Lady Shudlian.
Yet there was no movement at the door.
Instead, by the lady’s bedside, a pure black shadow rose up…
The shadow gradually took shape, as if a whole person was stepping out from it — eerie, chilling, and frightening.
It was the shy maid with the crystal glasses who served the castle, Amisa Ritali.
“Madam, it seems…the young lady has already become a transcendent.”
“What?”
Lady Shudlian was slightly stunned.
Then her blue eyes widened as she looked toward the person by her bed.
“What did you say!? Who guided her into it? Which high being or vassal’s material was used?”