Godslayer Lysette: Chapter 201

Chapter 201: The Demigoddess's Trial

Lysette took two long and deep breaths as she emerged out of the caverns and back on the peaks of the Spire Mountains, one with each of her bodies.  The feedback of having both of her and Karchek’s body standing side by side was still disconcerting, but she was learning to adapt.  Still a long way to go, but she already had an idea of how she could advance on that front.

But first, she wanted to talk with Mirae.  It didn’t take more than a minute to pick out their presence back in Ciricu, and opening a mental link between the two was as easy as using her personally-developed, but shorter ranged version.

“Mirae?  Am I interrupting something?”

“Lyse?  Is that you?  Oh, thank heavens!  I’ve been worried about you since you didn’t message me yesterday!”

“I–”  Lysette sighed.  “I have no excuses.  I should have contacted you and let you know that I’m okay.  I’m sorry, and I accept whatever recompense you ask of me.”

“Then you should head back right away.  I need to work out some of the stress you’ve left me.  Or more accurately, you’re going to relieve me of a lot of pent-up tension.”

“I understand and look forward to that.”  Lysette sprouted wings with both of her bodies and took to the skies.  “Though, I won’t be coming back alone.”

“You have ten seconds to rephrase that, Lyse.”  Their tone was as icy as their techniques.

“I went back where we fought Karchek.  I wasn’t sure exactly what I’d find there, but–”

“Five seconds.”

“Things happened, and I’m now using Karchek’s body as my avatar.  No other people with me, and certainly nothing that would interfere with my complete and unmitigated Devotion toward my lover.”

Mirae’s tone grew warm.  “A good answer.  I’ll be waiting.”  They messaged those last words with a coy voice and sing-song cadence.

Lysette dove off the peaks and rode the foehn along the northern slopes of the Spire Mountains.  Despite the warmth of the midday sun and the warm-ish wind at her backs, the scenery in front of her was a tapestry of white as far as she could see.  The westerly gust that whipped up from the coast only confirmed that this winter was in full swing and a massive snowstorm had whipped through the area at some point over the previous two days.

It was beautiful, yes, but it probably meant yet more delays with all of her projects.  The canal being the most notable among them, but also gradually introducing Cultivation to the other villagers.  The one good thing is that it was less likely Terea was going to attack while conditions were poor.  But if— as Lysette suspected— Thosse’s Godslayer was Terea’s true ruler, there was no telling what they might try in the name of their god.

She redoubled her speed as she began veering eastward, but she was still noticeably slowed by Karchek’s body.  It simply couldn’t handle moving as quickly as she was used to due to the limited Essence it contained.  She considered teleportation, but she wasn’t sure if there was going to be another uncomfortable feedback loop between her two bodies during the jump.  And even that was discounting the fact that her maximum distance was perhaps fifteen miles, less than a quarter of the remaining distance.

Instead, she closed Karchek’s eyes and wrapped her arms around her avatar’s body, dispelling its wings in the process.  Yet more discomfort followed from the feedback sensations of simultaneously touching and being touched at the same time, discomfort enough that Lysette’s vision spun a bit.  But she pushed through the queasy sensation, grateful for being unable to expel her nonexistent meals, as well as the lack of all of the other bodily functions that accompanied being a physical being.

After about twenty minutes of acclimating to the feedback, she doubled her speed, barreling down toward Ciricu as quickly as she could manage.  Despite their sounding upbeat, Lysette was still fearful for what might happen if she arrived too late to sate Mirae’s anxieties.

The journey was an unremarkable one, lasting just shy of an hour before she reached the village outskirts.  During her final approach, she flew low, just below the tops of the trees.  It was an opportunity to get more experience using her plant animation abilities in quick succession after losing a strand of her consciousness to pilot her avatar.  That, and she wasn’t yet ready to be spotted by Serrena and Rayleigh, who were training together in their usual place in the foothills.

About half a mile from where the incendiary pair were training together, Lysette willed Karchek’s body down to the surface and had it begin to meditate and do a little Cultivation while she teleported her main body to her cottage home, where Mirae was pacing about in their bedroom.

“Lysette?” they said.  “You took your time getting here!”

“I know.  And I’m sorry.  It’s not an excuse, but it’s still taking time getting adjusted to having two different bodies.  I couldn’t fly here as quickly as I would have liked, and I wasn’t sure how teleportation would work with the feedback loops that come with having multiple bodies in close proximity to one another–”

Mirae wrapped their arms around Lysette’s waist and shut her up with a long and passionate kiss.  “Then you need to figure that out, love.  Right now, your partner has needs.”

Lysette nodded as Mirae dragged her into the bed.

As Lysette’s main body was preoccupied, her avatar stood up and watched Serrena and Rayleigh from afar.  Without the Scrying Stone embedded in her main body’s left eye, it wasn’t possible to immediately identify how much Essence the two of them had gained in the past three days.  However, just watching Rayleigh’s fluid movements as she honed her close-quarters combat techniques confirmed that she’d make an excellent sparring partner.

“Serrena?  Apologies for interrupting the two of you during your training.”

“Is something the matter?  I was under the impression that you weren’t going to be back for a while.”

“I actually just returned, and I’d like to borrow your protegee for a sparring session.”

“I must admit my hesitancy.  If you were able to pull a win against me out of your ass, why do you think sparring with Rayleigh would be a suitable use of her time?”

“Because I have a new body to test out, and I think it’s about as strong as she is.”

“Oh.  That Cultivator over there is you then.”  Serrena pointed toward where Lysette’s avatar was watching.  “I was wondering who that was.”

Lysette emerged from where her avatar stood and waved at the pair.  As she did, Rayleigh paused her technique and turned to Serrena with a bemused expression.

“Do I need to take care of this interloper?” she asked.

Serrena shook her head.  “Lyse was actually just asking me if you’d like to spar with her.”

“Not sure I can defeat her, but that won’t stop me from trying!”  Rayleigh slammed her fists into one another and gritted her teeth, definitely taking even more out of her goddess’s battle lust.  “Um…  Is she going to show up soon?”

“She’s right there, apparently.”

“Serrena, did Lyse learn some sort of Light-based illusion technique to disguise her appearance?  Because it’s either that or she somehow got a new body.”

“Apparently, she actually did get a new body.  And she seems to think you’d make a good match for it… or her or…  Whatever.  In any case, I think it’s time for you to fight an opponent all-out.”

“So, where’s your original body?” Rayleigh asked.

“Back with Mirae.  I figure I need to practice fighting while distracted to help me acclimate to the ‘two bodies’ thing.”

“Lyse, no one here needs to know about your… debauchery.” Serrena scoffed.  “Rayleigh, please demonstrate why it’s a fool who doesn’t take her opponent seriously.”

Rayleigh charged at Lysette with speed boosted yet further by the wind pushing her forward.  Meanwhile, Lysette molded the snow at her feet into a collection of ice shards which she launched like a cannon.  Despite Lysette’s attempts, Rayleigh was hardly slowed down by the initial assault, closing the fifty-yard gap between them in just under three seconds.

She kicked up a tornado to occlude the fist aimed directly at Lysette’s face.  Lysette closed her eyes and concentrated on her aurasight to evade the attack, as well as the follow-up clumps of dirt hurtling toward her from behind.  A sidestep, a twist of her neck, followed by raising her right hand to block Rayleigh’s roundhouse kick aimed at her neck.  Throughout it all, Lysette was unable to do more than evade.  But she was slowly acclimating to having only a single consciousness within her avatar to process information and react.

Rayleigh came at her even more aggressively in the second clash, launching fist after fist at Lysette’s torso in rapid succession.  She blocked each of them with her palms, then encased herself in a wall of ice to deflect the roaring tempests which followed.

But her defenses were short-lived.  A single jumping kick shattered the barrier, sending crystalline shards flying in every direction.  Lysette suffered a few superficial wounds which were already regenerating, but she ignored their pain as she dodged Rayleigh’s kick and grabbed her by the ankle.  She flung Serrena’s disciple into the ground, but Rayleigh absorbed the impact with a cushion of compressed air.

As Rayleigh’s hands touched down upon the frozen ground, she kicked her legs forward with added wind at her back.  Despite her attempts to anchor herself with a block of ice around her ankles, Lysette was lifted up by the powerful updraft.  And soon after, the winds changed direction, sending her groundbound.  But just as Rayleigh absorbed the impact of her being slammed into the ground, so too did Lysette grow a bed of grass for herself to the same effect.

Lysette used the brief window while Rayleigh returned to her feet to animate a tree sentry, which marched toward the pair of them and loosed a shard of branches toward the young Wind Cultivator.  Rayleigh easily deflected those attacks, but in the quarter-second while her air shield dissipated, Lysette launched a punch square in her stomach.

Rayleigh dodged backward, suffering only a small cut along her side.  She winced, and Lysette used the opportunity to close in.  Raising two walls of ice on either side of them, Lysette charged Rayleigh once more.  And she kept summoning walls of ice and bark alike to further restrict Raleigh’s movements.  Finally, just as Lysette was about to land a knockout punch, Rayleigh took to the air, panting quite heavily.

Lysette’s avatar was nearing its limit, but she pressed the initiative, leaping up after her and sprouting her wings to chase after Rayleigh.  But when she got within half a yard of her opponent, Lysette’s entire being— both bodies— tensed and shuddered at once.

Lysette tried to focus her avatar away from Mirae’s distraction and on the fight, but it was too late.  Rayleigh noticed the momentary distraction and concentrated her full might into an immense downburst.  The impact pummeled Lysette square in the back and sent her falling chest-first into the ground, with Rayleigh drawing a pair of thin air blades on either side of Lysette’s neck.

She smirked.  “Welp.  It was a good fight, but it looks like I win this one.”

Lysette coughed, but no blood came out despite her expectations.  The avatar, it seemed, was more a shell animated by her will and Essence than an actual living being.  Somehow different from her main body.  She sat up and extended her hand toward Rayleigh.

“Excuses or not, you won fair and square.  Well done, Rayleigh.”  She turned to Serrena.  “And nice job training her.  Whatever training you’re putting her through is definitely working.”

Serrena smiled.  “Do you want the rest of the afternoon away from training?”

Rayleigh shook her head.  “A brief break for a late lunch, then joint Cultivation with you later, Serrena?”

“As you will.”

Rayleigh nodded and jogged into town.  As Serrena helped Lysette back to her feet, the two demigoddesses paused for a moment.

“I saw that too, you know.  You let her win, didn’t you?”

“Not really ‘let her’ win?  More that I had an unexpected feedback loop between this body and my main one.  That was part of the reason I wanted to do this fight in the first place.  Get an idea of how exactly to fight with my avatar while my main body is preoccupied.”

“So, what exactly happened?”

“You just told me you didn’t want to hear about Mirae’s and my debauchery.  Or is this you changing your mind?”

Serrena’s face turned flame red.  “Ahem.”  It turned back to a more normal color just as quickly.

“An– Anyway, it’s hard to believe that the two of us and Mirae had to go all out just to hold our own against Zarielle’s avatar.”  Serrena sighed and looked up to the sky.  “It’s just… a little frustrating how far we still have to go to reach our goals.”

“If anyone can do it, it’ll be you, Serrena.”

“Damn right you are, Lyse.  Still a bit awkward seeing you looking like… this.”

“I had to rush back with my main body to quell Mirae before they got too temperamental.”

“Well, I’ll leave that problem to you two.  I’m going to do a bit of Cultivating while Rayleigh eats lunch.”

“Sounds like a plan.  See you around.”

Chapter 200: https://www.patreon.com/posts/111625038

Table of Contents: https://www.patreon.com/posts/table-of-101896170

Chapter 202: https://www.patreon.com/posts/112051717