The voice was reverberating directly in my head and heart. It was the goddess. I felt a mysterious weight pressing down on my shoulders…
And then I started to gradually lose mana.
“Ooohh? A Battle Spirit clad in a garment of water?”
“Is he someone belonging to the twelve distinguished families?”
“I thought the huge black beast might be a guardian, but…”
“But, he’s not wearing an army uniform.”
“Rather than that, where is this place…? The trees growing here…I’ve never seen those types before…”
The people close to Rollodeen commented as they pleased. Apparently they haven’t grasped grasp that they’re currently in a different world.
And then Rollodeen lifted her upper body, trying to look up at the water goddess. She imposingly stood on her two hind paws.
“Nn, nyaa～,” she meowed.
Lifting one of her front paws, she revealed her pad.
She repeatedly lifted and lowered her front paws as if asking, 『Want to receive my paw seal nya~?』. To me it looked like nothing more than cute cat antics, but…my partner was currently in her huge divine beast form. Thus, it obviously scared the people she had rescued.
But, I understood through my senses. This <Call of the Water Goddess> should be an ability that’s influenced by battle…
“――Do not fret, Divine Beast who received Sadeyula and Gaia’s blessing. I am no more than an illusion.”
The goddess had apparently read Rollodeen’s feelings.
『Let me answer your question. Just as you thought, <Call of the Water Goddess> is originally an ability that causes an illusion of me to clad a weapon. This time I have used it as a water call. And I projected my own illusion by using the water in the area and the majority of the mana activated by you』
I comprehended from Water Goddess Akreshys’s voice. I was looking up above my head. The wheat-colored sun shone through the transparent garment, beautifully illuminating her inner thighs. I had no bad intentions in looking. It was just that I was looking up to her from right below.
I’m a guy, too. So I ended up staring at the deepest place between her pretty legs, her crotch. It had a color reminiscent of water. Its shape was rather small, and she wore extremely refined panties which were adorned with frills and highly artistic strings. Seeing how she’s a water goddess, I guess you can call those godly panties.
Her clothes were similar to Helme’s, but the coloring was slightly different.
『Hmm, an indecent stare…』
Oh shit!
I quickly shifted my eyes to Rollodeen.
“Nn.”
Has Rollodeen realized?
She immediately unleashed a divine beast punch, cutting at air.
『…Forgive me, Water Goddess-sama. I am indebted to you. But, Helme has…』
In the meantime, Helme was about to become a single cluster as if imitating a crystal while glowing. Her Yellow Water Ribbon crest had surfaced as well.
Does this mean it’s related to <Sage Art – Understanding of the Yellow Water Ribbon>?
『Did she absorb a part of the demi-goddess?』
『Indeed. In order to protect me』
『The demi-goddess might have been weakened, but absorbing a goddess was unreasonable even for your brave kin』
Me trusting in her defensive capabilities also played a role, but I guess it was my mistake.
『…Yes. I’m going to be more careful from now on. Are you going to return Helme to her previous state?』
『Be more careful? Helme, who used to be my kin, is now your bloodkin. It’s her duty to protect you. Or to be more precise, the Helme over there is evolving. It’ll take time, but I think she will return to normal eventually』
Eh? This is the process of her evolving?
『How long is it going to take?』
『In mortal time, it’ll require a millennium』
…Thousand years. I’d hate to be separated from Helme for such a long time. Rollo is my partner, but Helme is also dear to me as a partner. For a goddess, such a long time might be no more than a blink of an eye, though.
『I’d like her to recover quickly. Is that possible?』
『It’d be impossible for an ordinary person. But, it might be possible for you』
So it might be possible for me, huh?
『Please tell me the method by all means』
『Very well. First, soak Helme in the lake over there and expand your sage art across the vicinity while pouring your mana into her. Next, invoke 《Water Cure》 after stimulating it with your mana. Then, if you can successfully remove the scum of the demi-goddess that’s probably clinging to Helme’s core…Helme should recover. Lastly, at the moment when you have retrieved all of the scum, she’s going to spit out the demi-goddess’s part…supposedly. This would be the proof of it having succeeded. But, the extreme difficulty…』
『――Okay, then I’ll get to it at once』
It had a nuance of me not really wanting to hear the last part of what the goddess wanted to say, but I didn’t care.
For starters, I touched the metallic cross next to my right eye, booting up the Kaleidoscope. The metallic device, which would pass on the energy into my eyeball, deployed. It possessed a surface similar to a highly-efficient, intelligent glass. The attachment near my temple transformed into a 卍 just as always.
Frames were added to my existing visual field, and the resolution was enhanced as well. I scanned the wriggling Helme cluster.
―――――――――――――――――
？？？？？High Form？？A00
Brain Waves: Immeasurable
Bod: Immeasurable
Gender: Immeasurable
Overall Physical Strength: Immeasurable
Elenium Integration: 99809？？？
Weapons: Immeasurable
―――――――――――――――――
It was bugged. I scanned the cluster, but the dense mana was so heavily overlapping that it looked like a natural mosaic. I could barely understand that it was a wriggling being.
I deactivated the Kaleidoscope by touching the attachment once more.
Then I carried Helme to the lake. While soaking the Helme cluster with water from the lake at the shore, I poured mana into it.
At that moment, the cluster absorbed the water around it, instantly turning into a humanoid shape. The humanoid floated up while looking asleep.
I activated <Magic Hand guided by Thought> and placed the crooked mana hand beneath Helme. Helme’s core, a bluish-black orb, was exposed at her chest. It’s the same orb she showed me when we formed a contract.
At the same time, pearl-like water droplets kept trickling down along Helme’s nude body before falling from the mana hand into the lake.
Small, blue butterflies squirmed on the bluish-black orb. This must be the scum the water goddess mentioned…
I deployed my sage art. It allowed me to gain the sensation of being a part of the surroundings, as if having fused with nature, peculiar to a sage body. The mist of my sage art spread out. It slowly crept onward while creating wave patterns on the lake’s surface.
Is it a herald of strong feelings? Though, the mana consumption that feels like it’s twisting my stomach is the same nonetheless…
Different from the usual sage art…the mist looked like a dense blanket of white flames.
After confirming my vicinity, I focused on Helme, strongly believing that I’d heal her.
I clad my whole body in Magic Combat Style without ever having attempted to run my sage arts and Magic Hand guided by Thought at the same time. But, I won’t lose to the vague assimilation with nature.
So as to affirm my own self, I focused on the Magic Shoutaiyin Feijing in order to knead my mana, which was centered beneath my navel, once more. I’ll decide it through my inner strength.
On top of that, I silently cast 《Water Cure》, invoking it. A transparent water globe, which was bigger and shining brighter than usual, manifested in front of my eyes.
The water globe sank into Helme’s body as if melting into it. And then I placed my mana-laden on a butterfly that was coiled around Helme’s core. I carefully grabbed the sticky end of the butterfly and removed it by pulling it up from below.
White, burning hands appeared from within the white mist that had assimilated with me. The hands were covered by countless white flames, looking like they contained a burning, seething steel core within. The hands and my own hands performed a surgery on Helme’s open heart, carefully removing all the stains polluting her core.
The blue butterflies moved their sticky wings. They had multiple legs on their bellies like centipedes.
The hands and I threw away these trash bugs of Golgonshura. The instant the butterflies came in contact with the white flames of the mist around me, they evaporated.
――Alright, most of the cleaning is done.
It was quite a troublesome piece of work. Removing those clinging to the core with tentacles was a major pain.
※Piiing※ <White Flame Sage Hand> skill acquired ※
※Piiing※ Conditions for <White Flame Sage Hand User> met ※ Sage Occupation Class has gone up ※
※Piiing※ Your Class has gone up from <Sage Art Apprentice> to <Sage Hand User of the White Flame> ※
<Sage Hand User of the White Flame>, huh? I reached the next rank after apprentice while being watched by the water goddess. But, it looks like my spear and sage arts won’t fuse yet.
I mean, my combat occupation hasn’t evolved even after I killed Golgonshura. Well, seeing how <Spirit Spear Blood Chain Master> is an extremely rare combat occupation, it won’t go that easily, I suppose. Well, various things might influence it either way.
Combat occupations you can’t acquire unless you get woodworking-based skills should also exist.
Suddenly, Helme’s throat expanded abnormally. The instant her mouth turned into a huge, round hole,
“Guubuuhh――!”
She vomited some kind of object alongside some water. It was an oval gem which lightly floated on the lake without sinking. Its surface had depressions. Countless trenches ran alongside its surface, forming the shapes of small butterflies.
Thereupon, the part of the butterflies, which hadn’t evaporated after being thrown away, headed for that gem. They were moving as vigorously like starving piranhas…
The butterfly successively bit into the gem’s depressions, and furthermore clung to its surface with their legs.
Eventually, the butterflies stopped moving after adopting the same color as the gem. Following that, the butterfly carvings on its surface revived as if the gem was filled with power. Its egg shape didn’t change overly much compared to right after being spat out by Helme. It just lost some of its depressions on the surface, increasing the cleanness of the gem.
I grabbed the gem, pressed it and traced the remaining trenches with my fingers, but nothing happened. I didn’t send any mana into it, since it’d probably trigger something.
This gem was certainly interesting, but first I had to handle the matter with Helme. She was sleeping while floating above the lake.
Her sleeping face is adorable…
I stuffed the gem, which looked like it’d become a key, into my pocket.
『Thank you for always』, I strongly thought while brushing Helme’s hair to the sides. Supporting Helme’s body, I carried her like a knight, before lowering her on the ground.
The grass at the shore was soft, making it a great bed. Helme was snoring lightly.
I wonder whether the surgery succeeded.