455 Inner World
"""Soul?"""
Everyone parrotted the words that she said, with Fang attempting to add a few more words.
"You mean you have a soul—?! Owww! Hey, no hitting!"
"Come on, Fang, I know you're smarter than this. What do you think separates Demons from monsters other than the presence of Essence Crystals within their bodies? It's souls!"
It's not that Demons don't have souls, but rather that their souls were solidified into their Essence Crystals. As such, destroying them was equivalent to taking their lives.
"I-I know, and I was just joking! AH, Ember, stop it!"
Ember, with her cheeks puffed up in discontent, continued to lightly pummel Fang's head. Although she wasn't hitting in earnest, as a god-level, her power was not something to joke about. Fang was feeling each hit!
The other three just watched the two's interactions with a warm gaze. As the two oldest tamed monsters by Will, everyone knows that Fang and Ember are the closest to each other among the girls.
Igni, on the other hand, turned pensive after hearing Ember's words.
"... The soul..."
From that one clue, she felt like she had made a great leap toward grasping how to make her own God Kingdom!
After all, she had the [Ignis Faatus], flames that could burn even souls—an attack that she referenced a true Grim Reaper's flames for. As such, Igni had a basic understanding of how the soul works, or where it is located.
She closed her eyes, concentrating on her soul and trying to add energy to it. And, to her surprise, a change occurred.
It was small, but she did create a pocket dimension even without the Space Element!
"I... did it? I did it! Ah!"
Igni cheered but quickly frowned. As soon as she lost her concentration, the small pocket dimension faded like a bubble popping. Although she felt disappointed, she also felt thrilled. After all, she could finally take a step towards reaching the God Level!
"Igni, you..."
Ember, of course, noticed what happened. As one who has mastery of the space element, she wouldn't miss something like someone else making a pocket dimension while inside her kingdom. A faint smile slowly spread wider and wider as she felt genuine joy for Igni finally figuring it out.
"Quick, try again! This time, focus a little bit harder!"
09:59
"R-Right!"
"Did she figure it out?"
"I think she did. I felt a minuscule tremble on the film of space around her for a moment."
One after another, the girls surrounded Igni and watched her intently. She was currently repeating what she did, but this time using more energy than before.
As she focused the energy on her soul, another bubble formed—a pocket dimension that was a little bigger than the last one! This time, she didn't celebrate too early and tried to stabilize it by feeding it more energy. As she did, she could feel the "space" inside the pocket dimension gradually growing. As she was doing this, suddenly, her Domain reacted and started to spread. Everyone was surprised, but quickly moved to protect themselves from it. Although using their domains was the easiest way to counter it, doing so might interrupt Igni's hard work.
As such, they simply spread a barrier around themselves, with Ember protecting Fang and Minerva protecting Hekate, while they continued to watch Igni's attempt with full attention.
"Ugh!"
The domain that was forcefully activated started to get "sucked" into the pocket dimension, along with Igni's energy. This not only caused the dimension to spread even more, but it also caused it to take on an actual shape.
Inside her pocket dimension, energy began to solidify, creating landmasses and other objects. A small world was coming to life slowly but surely.
After a few minutes of grueling concentration, Igni finally succeeded. She managed to create her very own God Kingdom!
"It's a lot smaller than Ember's, but this is my own God Kingdom!"
Igni cheered with a happy smile while wiping the sweat covering her forehead. She actually managed to pull it off with her second try!
"Congrats, Igni! Now, teach me how to do it too!"
Fang was the first to congratulate her, but it seemed like she was in a rush. After all, she was getting left behind by them in terms of progress!
'I need to create my God Kingdom and overtake Igni, becoming Leader's second God-level monster!'
Ember already skipped steps and became the first God-level among them, and Fang doesn't want to lose the second position to Igni!
"It's easy; you just need to gather your energy at the center of your soul!"
Igni explained while raising a finger. However, such a description didn't help Fang one bit... She had no idea where her "soul" was located, after all!
"And where is that located, specifically?"
Similar to Fang, who had no clue at all, Hekate asked. She seemed to be getting over her shyness little by little, but even with only the girls around, she still couldn't assert herself with a loud, audible voice.
Igni furrowed her brows, finding it hard to explain.
"Try... think that your body is present in this plane and another plane. There, at the place where your heart should be, is a small flame. That is your soul."
"Uh..."
Fang tilted her head even further, her ears falling down from Igni's complicated instructions. Minerva seemed to have grasped it from that short additional information, but Hekata was similar to Fang and still puzzled.
Igni scratched her head, trying to think of an easier way to explain it... when Ember did the simplification in her stead.
"Basically, try looking deep inside your hearts. Try to look for a burning flame of life within; that should be your soul... If you can't find it in your heart, try to look for it in your head."
"Mmmmmh..."
Fang understood Ember's words but still couldn't grasp what they meant. Instead of trying to think, she just tried to test it instead. She closed her eyes, trying to focus her senses inside her body, from her head down to her calmly beating heart.
*Thump!* *Thump!* *Thump!*
But even when she focused, she could only listen to her heartbeats.
While she was listening to its relaxing rhythm, her senses slowly went deeper and deeper, until, when she realized it, she was already standing in a dark space. In the middle of it was a large, circular table, with five empty chairs around it.
Seeing this, Fang raised an eyebrow before muttering a single word, mixed with confusion.
"... What?"
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