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After Veronica awakened her Spirit Magic into Spiritual Queen Magic, Shade underwent an evolution as a Spirit, and according to Kireina, became "good enough" for what she had planned for him/her.
?
Kireina remembered how many times Shade has said that it wanted to have a physical body, how it wanted to eat food, and to enjoy the many other things that have a physical (and possibly humanoid!) body would bring.
Especially because his love for Veronica had become more than obvious at this point, and Veronica had already reciprocated more than a few times with a few gentle kisses or by touching Shade's tail and wings constantly through her phantom body, creating a slight sense of exhilaration at night.
It was more than obvious at this point that Veronica loved Shade even if he was not even a living being nor unliving, but a Spirit, an ethereal embodiment of a large quantity of Light Attribute Mana which had gained a level of consciousness that it developed over its years of life, which intensified and evolved when it was tamed by Veronica through Spirit Magic.
Shade slowly learned many things in these months, and quickly grew fond of everyone around it.
It even developed a friendship with not only the other Spirits but the many people around Veronica.
Shade wanted to live for eternity at her side, and slowly realized that it developed romantic feelings for the Undead woman…
After some point, it began to envy those with bodies, and had also become a bit jealous of Anna who got to enjoy many things with Veronica through her body… things he desired to feel and do as well.
Shade was not really possessive, it lacked the knowledge of such concept, and it seemed to have accepted Anna as another of Veronica's partners without much of an issue, as he had already developed a friendship with her and her spirits beforehand, and Anna also liked Shade, often calling it cute.
Shade simply wanted to be a bit like her… and also have a body.
And because Shade did not have a concept of gender either, as it did not have one, to begin with, it felt confusing when Kireina asked it "to take the form it felt most comfortable with"… But at the end, Shade took a form that resembled a humanoid girl, as it had noticed that Veronica had an eye for cute girls… so Shade also added the "cute" into it.
But then, at the last moment, it remembered that Veronica often called Shade with male pronouns due to its deep voice tone… so it ended with both genders now.
The ritual that Kireina did was something that she had already done in her original world a few times, when she had found souls that lacked bodies, she had experimented in creating new bodies for them by creating a magic circle and using several materials to form such a body.
And now, she applied such logic to Shade's creation of a physical body, now that she had realized that Shade's existence had become strong enough to sustain such metamorphosis.
In a way, Shade had turned from Spirit into… something completely new.
And soon enough, she even felt the System slowly adapting to her new existence, and her soul was also engraved with the System of Kritias…
Wait, a soul?
Shade always thought that she never had a soul, that she was a mere being made of mana but… he now felt it clearly, this sea of primordial energy…. She had a soul.
A soul, the vessel of her consciousness, filled Shade with the strength she had never felt before.
And as everyone glanced at her in surprise, Veronica hugged her.
Although she was not so warm, it was still a true hug, flesh to flesh… Well, materialized phantom which is similar to flesh to flesh…
Shade instinctively released a warm smile… these were the feelings that brought having a physical body…
An indescribable feeling of happiness took hold of her entire being… the warmth within her new heart began to pump new blood through her blood vessels.
She felt her muscles moving, the bones beneath the muscles, her cartilages, her skin, her hair, her eye, her nose, her tongue, her mouth, her feet, scales, fingers, tail, wings…
Everything… everything was a new experience for Shade… and everything felt more beautiful than before.
She had not comprehended too much before, but now she really understood…
It was beautiful to live.
Shade glanced at the clear blue sky, heard the waves of the ocean hitting Wellerman, the cries of birds flying above in the sky, and the gentle and cold salty breeze of the sea…
A little chill ran through her spine, as she suddenly began to develop embarrassment.
She noticed that everyone always wore clothes, even Veronica, and decided to also ask for them.
"I think I have developed the feeling of embarrassment… Please, give me some clothes," sighed Shade.
"Clothes? Oh right! Sure thing. I actually have a lot of dresses you could try! Aw, Shade, you would look adorable in almost anything!" said Veronica, opening her soul as if it were her closet and taking out several dresses and clothes from it…
One by one, the dresses, pants, shirts, boots, heels, and more began to fall over the floor until Shade was greeted by a large pile of it.
"Q-Quickly, pick something!" said Veronica, covering her face alongside everyone else so they could give Shade a bit of intimacy.
"Alright… Eehh… huhhh… T-This is harder than I thought… what can even fit me?" wondered Shade, as she began to throw the clothes around until she finally found something "fitting" perhaps.
She simply wore a white-colored shirt and then a black-colored skirt that reached a few centimeters below her thighs.
And she also tried to put on some heels to look a bit taller, but she had a hard time walking with them…
"A-Ah… I am okay now… Y-You can look…" said Shade quite shyly, as everyone glanced at her adorable getup.
"Aw! My little shade looks so cute!" said Veronica, hugging Shade again.
"C-Cute? And do not call me little…" said Shade while pouting, she was still a tsundere.
"But you're small though! Well, not too small, like… Hm… One meter and around 60 centimeters?" asked Anna, as she checked Shade around with her blacksmith eye that was able to discern things such as height very easily.
"That's a very specific height! But I am… happy to be able to speak with a mouth and all now, it feels really… crazy…" said Shade.
"Fufu, you don't have to thank me! …Well, thank me anyways!" said Kireina.
"Ah! Sorry, Kireina. I am really thankful," said Shade, bowing her head to Kireina, as she began to puff her chest pridefully of her masterful arts.
"Well done there," said Ditoyle as she petted Kireina and kissed her.
As Shade saw them kissing, she suddenly felt her heart beating faster and faster…
Kissing… What was that?
It was something that Veronica often did with Anna and also Shade.
She often kissed Shade but Shade was just a giant flying eyeball so she could not kiss her back… but it always felt a tad bit warm and strange.
She really did not understand what was so incredible about it but knew that it had some kind of meaning of love, so she felt embarrassed when she was kissed, nonetheless.
Having Veronica close to her while being snuggled made her feel to want to try it again, even more now that Shade had her own lips.
"Veronica…" asked Shade.
"Yes?" asked Veronica with a gentle smile.
"C-Can I… kiss you?" asked Shade while blushing, her beautiful crimson eye glanced down below shily.
"Kiss?! AHHH! Shade, you are so cute! Yes, come here!" said Veronica, as she grabbed Shade's chin and raised her a bit, approaching her lips towards hers and closing each other in a warm and steamy kiss.
Shade's crimson eye opened a bit as she felt the true sensation of a kiss.
The warmness of someone's else lips, Veronica's breath hitting her mouth's insides, the saliva produced by both of them merging together…
And soon enough, Veronica's own tongue which quickly began to enter her mouth, touching her own…
Shade suddenly separated her lips from Veronica, as she felt suddenly a bit scared…
So this was… a kiss.
The feeling of exhilaration made her heartbeat immensely fast… Shade thought that her chest was about to explode.
"Hahh… That was a nice kiss~" said Veronica with a teasing smile, her eyes seemed deep in love with Shade, so she did not mind giving her any kisses she asked for… rather, she felt happy to oblige.
"Ahh… I-I do not know what to say… my heart is beating very fast… and I am getting all warm… This feeling is strange… am I dying?" asked Shade.
"Eh? No, dummy, you are not dying! You just got excited!" said Veronica.
"Excit…ed?" asked Shade.
"Excited, who wouldn't be? I mean you kissed the girl you like, right?" asked Kireina.
"I-I… Yeah, that's… what it is… I guess…" said Shade while cutely averting his gaze in embarrassment.
"Well, now we finally got the third member in the party~ Nice to see you onboard, we'll eagerly await you tonight in bed, alright?" asked Anna while whispering on Shade's ears.
"W-What…?" asked Shade, although she knew what Anna meant.
"We'll make sure to teach you the ways~!" said Veronica.
Shade didn't know that Veronica and Anna were rather the big perverts deep down…
"I wonder if you could do the same for Gaia, Kireina," said Ervas.
"Oh sure, but she is not ready yet, maybe awaken Spirit Magic too?" asked Kireina.
"I will try later," said Ervas.
"Body! I want plant body!" said Gaia cutely.
"Alright, we'll use plant materials to make your body then," said Ervas as he gently petted Gaia.
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Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m