I felt my eyes coming open—a sign that I’d returned from the spirit realm. And I awoke to being lip-locked with an elf. Furuth—well, I guess more accurately, Sylph in Furuth’s body—looked different from how I remembered her. This was especially true for her face. I’d remembered her being a knockout beauty, but now her eyes were white, and her pale features were dirty with tears and snot. Her face also twitched every now and then. Kinda nasty.
As much as I wanted to push her away, I was trying to finish using Conqueror on her right now. I couldn’t stop kissing her, or I risked interrupting this process. I glanced to the side and saw Ariya staring at us as if in a daze from the doorway.
As soon as our eyes met, I could tell she wanted to ask me something, but given the situation I couldn’t really lend her an ear...or rather, my mouth was a little too preoccupied to answer. It felt bad for her to have no context with which to interpret this situation, but I needed her to be patient. With that in mind, I raised my hand and signaled her to wait.
Backtracking a little, I was surprised to learn that Conqueror worked in the spirit realm. I’d kinda only tried it out on a whim, but it seemed to work...a little too well, actually. Things looked like they were getting out of control, though honestly, from my perspective, I still felt firmly in the driver’s seat.
Still, something felt off. I shouldn’t have been able to use Conqueror on living things. Did that mean spirits didn’t count as living things? At the very least, they had souls. If one were to define living things as beings which possessed souls, then it made no sense that I was able to do this.
I had no confidence that I could replicate what I’d just done either. Now, all I was trying to do was prolong the effects of what I’d started in order to hold Sylph down. I had no clue how I’d managed to accomplish this, but I wasn’t about to stop just yet.
Maybe it was because I’d been in the spirit realm that I was able to use Conqueror like this. It was taking a while, though. Ever since I’d returned to reality, I could feel that the speed at which Conqueror was moving had slowed to a crawl. I knew I only needed a little more before it was fully complete, but my progress was struggling to cross the finish line. It was like a download being stuck at ninety-nine point nine-nine percent.
Oh no—Ariya was starting to get pissed. Even if there were no romantic feelings involved, it didn’t change the fact that I’d been sharing a kiss with this person for longer than was comfortable...especially when the other person was twitching like she was.
But finally, after what felt like an eternity, Conqueror was done. I pulled my mouth away and Furuth’s body went limp against me, as if she’d been reduced to a husk. She was fairly heavy and dirty, so I pushed her away across the bed.
“Care to explain?” Ariya asked. Her low voice clearly indicated she was not a happy camper.
However, I wasn’t able to answer her yet—there was something in my mouth. I spit whatever it was out into my palm. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be a black-haired figurine in a black dress, covered in my saliva. Hm? A figurine? It was about the right size, but looked more human than a figurine...not to mention it was alive.
It’d probably be faster to get answers from whatever this thing was, but I had to wait for it to regain consciousness. I pinched the collar of her dress and picked her up, but still there was no response.
“What is that?” Oh no, Ariya’s voice is so cold it’s basically at freezing point. Could you take it easy?! It’s not like I’m a freak who enjoys sticking figurines in his mouth.
“A spirit... I think.”
“A spirit?!”
The thing in my hand that so looked like a figurine was Sylph...or at least, that was my guess. However, thanks to Conqueror, her once silver hair and porcelain skin were dyed black, so it was kinda hard to tell. She didn’t wake up even after I swung her like a pendulum. I was starting to get impatient, so I activated Sexual Prowess and let my fingers do the rest.
“Hyah?!” She screamed as she awoke. “What’s going on...?” She cautiously surveyed the room. When her eyes landed on me, holding her up between my fingers, she froze. “U-Uh, I...I’m so sorry! Please forgive me!”
She was incredibly scared. Had I done something to warrant this extreme of a response? All I’d done was threaten her, use Conqueror, and sexually harass her a little... Oh. Hm.
I waited for Sylph to calm down before asking her to explain the situation... And I also had to wait for Ariya to calm down after she made a fuss about how I’d managed to use Conqueror on a spirit.
“So, basically, you were ordered by god or someone to get close to me and take me out?” I asked.
“Well, that’s a bit of an oversimplification, but yes.” Sylph nodded at my summary of her explanation.
It was clear now that whatever higher power existed here saw me as an enemy. I could barely hide my excitement! It was a little early to be taking on the last boss, though. As I was, I had little to no chance of winning.
“So, can you let go of me already?” Sylph asked. She’d completely recovered from her confusion from before.
“Oh, fine...”
“Thanks. Heh. I’m free again. As long as I’m more cautious, there’s no way I’ll be caught by a human.” Hm, she’s acting very full of herself now.
“H-Huh?” Ariya tried to grab her but grabbed air instead. It was as if Sylph’s body was a hologram. Ariya continued to try to catch her but had no success. All she earned were giggles from Sylph as she watched Ariya struggle.
“You lost the minute you let go of me.”
She was so full of herself, it was starting to get on my nerves. I immediately snatched her out of the air.
“Wha— How?!”
“No clue. Maybe Conqueror has something to do with it.”
She wriggled around in my hand, trying to break free, but eventually gave up when she realized it was pointless.
“You’re almost like a doll when your mouth is closed,” Ariya said, fawning over Sylph now that she’d been captured. Ariya probably liked cute things.
Saying she looks like a doll, though...? That’s the pot calling the kettle black there, Ariya.
“You’re smaller than I remember,” I said.
“This is how big spirits normally are.” Sylph turned her attention to Ariya. “Hey, could you stop petting me now?”
“Oh, sure,” Ariya said, her voice tinged with disappointment.
So, a spirit of this size had taken over an elf. It was probably because we were in the spirit realm that she’d been able to take on the size she’d had before. Given that it was essentially a dreamworld, she could probably take on any appearance she wanted.
Apparently, the title of Spirit Priestess wasn’t for elven priestesses who served spirits, but rather for the spirits who served god as priestesses. This meant that the title of Spirit Priestess was actually Sylph’s and not Furuth’s. She got dragged into this whole thing without even knowing what was going on. Whether it was your first or not, sorry about stealing a kiss from you. I looked down at Furuth with pity, then realized something.
“Did her face change?” I asked.
“Maybe you feel that way because of that horrible expression she’s wearing?”
True, her face was tear-streaked and twisted in agony, but it was her facial structure itself that seemed different to me. Her chest also looked like it’d shrunk.
“Oh—that’s because I possessed her,” Sylph chimed in. “When a high-tier spirit like myself possesses someone, their appearance changes to match mine.”
Now that she mentioned it, combining their faces in my mind produced something that kinda looked like the face of the Furuth I had met.
“That shows you just how beautiful I am,” she said, puffing out her chest with pride.
That kinda pissed me off, so I used Sexual Prowess again and let my fingers do the rest.
Soon, with each stroke of my fingers Sylph was moaning pitifully. This is...kinda fun. I hope this doesn’t awaken anything in me. I was really hoping it wouldn’t, because Ariya was looking at me with disgust on her face. Either way, this was supposed to be a sort of punishment for Sylph, so I kept it up. I turned to Ariya, with Sylph’s moans providing a kind of backing track.
“Oh yeah—did you need something?” I asked, recalling the fact that she’d probably come to my room in order to ask me something.
“Right. I wanted to see how you planned to use the gun.” There was a twinkle of excitement in Ariya’s eyes.
She possessed my knowledge, so to a certain extent, she understood the strength, builds, and history of guns. She had pure curiosity for witnessing what she’d learned about from my knowledge with her own two eyes.
“I would especially like to see how you combine your dark magic with your use of the gun.”
“Well, don’t expect too much. I can’t guarantee any real results.” I already had a feeling that things wouldn’t work the way I expected. There was no reason I couldn’t try, though.
“It’s too late to go out now, so we’ll do some experimentation tomorrow. We can also test out her powers.” I looked down at Sylph with the intention of continuing the conversation with her, but apparently she’d passed out.
“Hmm, maybe I can ‘rouse’ her awake again.”
“Don’t. Seriously,” Ariya said, stopping me with surprising firmness. Apparently, Sexual Prowess was a stronger Skill than I’d expected.