Pinnacle of the Dragon Mountain

After a while, the Slime Abomination finally broke the silence.

"...Are you… happy?" she asked in a tentative manner, causing Eridel to widen his eyes.

"...Why do you ask?"

"I can feel it… I think."

Although Eridel had expected it, to hear it voiced that his emotions were now privy to another being was something else.

'This is the life now I suppose.' Eridel thought with an odd mixture of emotions.

Technically, he could block his emotions from his Soulmate if he so wished, something that other Soulmate pairs on the planet would be able to do if they became proficient enough. But… The feeling of sharing emotions with somebody you could trust (or rather should be able trust) was a novel experience that he found himself wanting to explore.

Either way, he was going to seal her memories and when he did so he would have to block the entire Soulmate link from her end. Having this moment now should be fine.

"Well, to put it simply, we are each other's other half; Soulmates." Eridel didn't mind being a bit truthful now since she would soon lose recollection of the event.

"...What does that mean?"

'She's losing her fear.' Eridel thought with interest. He hadn't directly ensured it but by numerous functions coming into play, Soulmates normally had an intrinsic sense of trust for one another. It was a very weightless emotion, but at times, it could influence subconscious thoughts.

This along with her Anomaly Soul and the many other things she had gained in the last 30 minutes (Chaos, Gluttony, 4th Realm, Human form, Soulmate bond) must be causing her curiosity to slowly override her fear.

For an insignificant moment, Eridel almost replied: 'it means that I will always take care of you.' A saturated line that he had used many times in the past with various levels of success, mostly positive. But in this context, not only would it have sounded disingenuous, but it would have caused her to remember all the contrary actions he had done to her in the past.

Funny though, since this would have been the only time he'd have said the line without it being a complete lie.

He opted for a different approach. "It means that we're important to each other. Our Souls are tied-" Oop, her face squeezed at that. It was quite cute. "-together by Fate and it allows us to sense each other's emotions and enhance each other's powers."

"How? Why?" she responded with scepticism heavy in her voice.

Likely, to her, the concept of the ethereal thing called a Soul being 'tied' with another was just too dubious. She had only recently gained a Soul so her knowledge of what they were and what they could do was next to nothing, it wasn't surprising.

"I do not quite know." Lol. "-But that is what the heavens have chosen for us."

'Forgive me for lying my dear, but right now, even if I wanted to be truthful, you're a bit too stupid to understand.' Eridel thought.

"...You think I'm a fool, don't you?" The Slime Abomination asked with slight heat in her voice. "But what you do not know is that I have the memo- I have lived a very long time and I have accumulated knowledge from all over the Continent. What you are explaining… This so-called Soulmate thing… I have never ever seen it before in my entire life. You really-"

Eridel clicked his fingers and her eyes immediately closed as she fell unconscious. But before she dropped to the ground, he instantly flashed to her side and caught her by her shoulders.

'How annoying.' He thought with amusement.

Initially, he had wanted to talk with his Soulmate to see how it would feel. After all, this was his Soulmate. And unlike his first one he could actually talk to this one. But clearly, she wasn't ready yet. Their minds were in no way compatible and if he stayed here, he would have to be answering questions from dawn till dusk.

But he wasn't worried in the slightest. This was her after JUST obtaining a Soul, so the fact that they were even able to talk in the first place was already a miracle. Other millennial old bastards who untimely found their Soulmates at a young age wouldn't be as lucky as Eridel.

Still though, he didn't want to have to keep answering such questions so he decided to hasten his plans. It was time to take the Slime Abomination to the human settlement where she would spend the next couple decades or so.

'But first…' Eridel thought as his hands began to glow with a golden light. 'I need to place a few seals. Ah, now that I think about it. I can also make that little girl adopt my Soulmate so that she can not only give her protection, but also teach her Magic. I guess I'll have to make another Grimoire then.'

…

[Central Continent, West Forest, Dragon Mountain]

(2 Months Later, Still Year 172)

At the highest peak of the Dragon Mountain, the peak where the Crystal Dragon King lived, a Dragon covered in golden scales peered out of the entrance of the cave and gazed at the starry sky.

Obviously, this was not the purple crystal scaled Dragon King that should have been there. This was Gaia, the only living Creation Dragon on the planet and even more impressively, the Eridius World's goddess of Creation.

Clearly, the Dragon Mountains highest peak had changed owners. But it wasn't a surprise. All of the Dragons on the planet, even the Eastern Divine Dragons, held this Dragon goddess with the highest regard. Even the other races on the continent greatly respected and/or feared her as they gradually understood what it meant to be a god, even if they knew that she was a 'fallen' one. It would have been weirder if she HADN'T been gifted the Dragon Mountain's highest peak.

Currently, this Golden Dragon that had raised to such a revered status in such a short time and claimed the pinnacle of the Dragon Mountain was peacefully resting as she revolved the Faith Energy within her body, converting it into Divine Energy as she thought about all the things that she witnessed since her revival.