Reviving Meiru Melusine
Jayr POV - Tortus, Sunken Ruins of Melusine - 2013
While everyone is still adjusting to the new set of knowledge that imprinted itself into our minds, a smile forms on my face as I think, 'With this, I have collected 5 of the 7 Age of Gods Magic! Only Evolution and Metamorphosis Magic remain, and I can finally deal with Ehit and return home... Even if only 6 months passed since I have left, I still miss them, Mom, Dad, my grandparents, my sisters, and of course, Saori and Seika... Hell, I have even missed Seika's birthday, I have to work hard to make up for that!'.
While I was thinking that, all of a sudden, as the magic formation's light is slowly fading, a parallelepiped comes out from the floor and approaches us.
It looks like a small altar, and soon it starts to shine faintly, and in the next moment, the light takes the shape of a human form, this is for sure another message left behind by the creator of this Labyrinth just like the others we come across so far.
The human form clearly changes into an outline gradually, and it finally takes the shape of a single woman.
The girl who sits on the altar is wearing something like a white one-piece dress that becomes loose at the end, she is a beautiful woman in her early 20s with wavy emerald-green hair and narrow jade-red eyes, with a slender body along with very voluptuous breasts, and due to her dagon heritage, she has fin-shaped ears, like Myu and her mother Reima.
(Image Here - Meiru Melusine)
She, the same as Oscar, starts to tell us the truth about the Liberators after she introduced herself, she seems to be a gentlewoman, wearing a kind atmosphere even while carrying grief, but while she is talking, I quickly send a signal to Eri to start using her Spirit Magic to see if she can summon her soul from here, to which she nods and starts to work her magic.
After a while, Meiru's message is about to end, "... Please, don't cling to the gods. Don't rely on them. Don't grow accustomed to what's given to you. Struggle on, and grasp what you desire with your own two hands. Decide your own path in life, and walk down it with your own two feet. Remember, no matter how bleak things look, you'll be able to find the answers inside of you. Only you have those answers. Don't be deceived by the gods' honeyed words. Only when you live by your own free will be able you find true happiness. I pray the path you walk will be forever showered in fortune", at the same time, Eri gives me an okay sign, and moving closer she whispers, "I was able to summon her soul and talk to her... She agreed, she can't wait to meet with Miledi again. Now I'm using my magic to keep her soul stable in my shadow dimension".
Hearing that, I nod and look as Meiru Melusine's image vanishes as becomes faint light once again, and immediately after, a small magic formation shines on the altar where she sat a few moments ago, and as the light settles down, in her place there is a small coin where the crest of Melusine is etched.
As Hajime picks up the proof of conquest, Shea moves closer and says, "The number of proofs is four, Hajime-san. With this, we are surely able to challenge the Sea of Trees Labyrinth too. I wonder how Father and the others are doing~?", and as she says this, I can see that she too is missing her family as her eyes are full of longing, meanwhile, Hajime takes the coin and put it into his Treasure Box.
And, just as the proof was put away, the temple begin to rumble, and then, the ocean water of the surroundings suddenly begin to rise, and Hajime already familiar with this says, "Uo!? Tch, forced expulsion, huh? Everyone, hold on!", to which Yue, Kaori, and Shea starts to complain, "...Nn", "Wahwah, it's too unreasonable!", "It's like Raisen Great Labyrinth, no mooore~".
While the Hero Party is stunned by the sudden change, and blindly follows Hajime's instructions, and start to grab each other clothes and take out, and equip the compressed oxygen cylinder, but I have grown bored of getting constantly wet, and before the water reaches us all, I say, "Everyone, quickly rush over here!", then chant, "Porta! (Gate!)", and in front of me, a spherical hole in the space appears where on the other side, it can be clearly seen the familiar shadow of a city floating on the ocean, Erisen.
As the seawater rushes toward us with terrifying force, Hajime's group and the Hero Party do not hesitate and charge inside the Gate I have opened, followed by Eri, Tio, and Freid, and after everyone passed through, I run into the gate without hesitation, as the raging water rush toward me, and once I'm safe on the other side, I cut off the magic powering the Spatial Magic closing the gate behind me just in time as I can sense that the temple is about to be completely flooded as the ceiling opened and made even more water flood the area with even greater force.
Once safe, I let out a sigh and mutter, "And with this, the number of underwater temples collapsing on me raises to 2... I'm starting to see some kind of pattern there...", at the same time, Hajime and the others are grateful for my quick action, then realizing where we are, Hajime and the Hero party decide to go back to Reima's house to rest and recover and ask us if we want to join them, but I shake my head and say that we have another important thing to do and that we will meet directly in front of Reima's house tomorrow.
After Hajime's group and the Hero Party went their way, I open the portal to my Soulbound Territory and invite everyone to walk inside, of course, Eri is already quite familiar with this space, while Freid only came in here once when I used my Cosmo to heal his injuries after our fight, but for Tio, this is the first time that she came here, and she can't help but look around in surprise as she says, "Ohhh! What is this strange space? It doesn't look like something made by magic... In fact, it almost feels like this one is in a totally different world...".
Then she closes her eyes to feel her surroundings even more clearly and mutters, "Uhm... This one can clearly still feel the presence of mana in the air, but I also feel another kind of strange energy... It encompasses everything... It feels powerful and mythical but also somewhat natural like it is meant to always be there... How peculiar...", and then, I start to explain to Tio about my Soulbound Territory, and I also tell her some info about the energy she felt, Cosmo, and the fact that this is the energy I'm most accustomed to since I trained to use it since I was a child.
Hearing that Tio, with shock and surprise on her face, Tio asks, "Waait! That means that if Master uses this Cosmo, he becomes even more powerful!?", and to her question, I simply smile and decide to flex a little, so I start to burn my Cosmo, which causes Tio to exclaims, "Master!? Your eyes!!?", and as a bright blue aura envelopes my body, I explain while putting pressure on her and Freid as I notice that he is also curious to know the answer to that question, "This is the basic mastery that a Saint can have over Cosmo. At this level, we are stronger than a normal human, and can easily destroy a boulder more than twice our size with our bare hands and move at the speed of sound".
And indeed, a pressure of this level is negligible for Frei and Tio that can be said are at the top of the current world, then I burn my Cosmo even more, and as the aura grows in intensity I explain, "This is what happens when a Saint master his 6th Sense, our Cosmo burns more fiercely and gives us even more power and control, allowing us to easily destroy a small continent or even the whole world if so we desire, of course, that depends on the power of the Saint in question, it also allow us to move a supersonic speed, this is generally the level of a Silver Saint...", and I already notice that Tio and Freid are already feeling a little strain under this pressure.
Even I tap into my 7th Sense and allow my Cosmo to explode once more with strength that is untold times more powerful than before, at the same time, the aura that surrounds my body turns golden, and Tio and Freid start to buckle under the pressure I'm releasing, and continue my demonstration, "This is the power of a Saint who awakened and mastered his 7th Sense, at this level, a Saint can destroy a galaxy and is also able to move and attack at the speed of light...", I also notice that Freid started to use Limit Break, and Tio transformed into her Dragon form, to fight off my pressure, but even so they are quickly unable to withstand it and crash on the ground.
Seeing this I stop putting pressure on them, but I continue my explanation, "And after mastering the 7th Sense, if a Saint finds himself or herself really close to death, he or she can also awaken the 8th Sense, giving them the power to fight the rules imposed by the Gods or even the Universe itself... And of course, a Saint who has awakened his 8th Sense has the power to destroy an entire Universe, as his every blow can have the same amount of power as the Big Bang, the explosion that can give birth to a Universe...".
I finish my explanation and stop burning my Cosmo, and as my aura fades away, I notice that the Crateris Cloth, is now standing next to me, and with a smile, I put my hand on it and say, "Don't worry partner, soon we'll fight together again, I have almost everything ready for it...", to which the Cloth answer by shaking a little, clearly excited about the news I just gave it.
Then I notice, that while Freid, recovered and got up, Tio is still sitting on the ground while heavily panting with her head lowered, but the next moment, she raise her head, and I notice a deep blush on her face as she says, "Aaah... M-Master~ Aaaah... Amazing~ Feeling your immense power caused this one to get w-", but soon Eri hits Tio on her head again with her staff yelling, "Ero-Dragon this isn't the time for that!!", then she points her staff at me and adds, "And Jayr, we have someone to resurrect, and we don't have much time left, my Mana isn't as immense as yours yet, so do not spend so much time flexing! I know that you are awesome, it is one of the reasons I love you".
Scratching my cheek in embarrassment, I say, "You are right... Sorry...", then I decide to finally start with the main reason why we are here and add, "Now please bring out Meiru's Soul, so that I can use Dark Resurrection to reform her body", Eri nods and from her shadow, she summon Meiru Melusine's soul, I can easily see that it is in some kind of stasis-like state, as she is floating completely still with her eyes closed, and I can also sense Eri's magic power surrounding the soul as it keeps it stable.
Without hesitation, I start to once again burn my Cosmo, and put my hand on the soul's shoulder, then I quickly start to use the Dark Resurrection technique to reform her body using her soul's memories as the base.
The effect of the technique is instantaneous, but very gross to look at, as right now, I see her body quickly forming, starting with the main internal organs, the first to be formed is the heart, then from it the circulatory system, then, all the other organ connected to it, after that, the brain and the nervous system start to form, followed by the skeleton, and after the skeleton, the muscles and the secondary organs, while it takes a while to describe, the whole process didn't take more than a few seconds to do all this.
Soon, standing in front of me is Meiru's completely naked body, and without hesitation, and take a blanket I prepared before and cover the body with it then gently lay it on the ground, and start to check on it, and feeling the slow steady pulse of her heart I nod with a smile, then I turn to Eri and say, "Eri, now it is your turn! Bind Meiru's soul to her body, it shouldn't be difficult as there won't be any kind of rejection, as this is indeed her own body...".
Eri nods and starts to use her Spirit Magic to completely bind the soul with the body, and soon the body starts shining in a dark light for a few seconds, at the same time, I notice that Eri is heavily sweating and panting hard, and sense her magic power level drastically fall, a clear sign that such operation isn't as easy as I thought, 'I should have realized this... We are basically reviving someone that died thousands of years ago basically going against one of the basic rules of the Universe, even if the preparation for it is perfect, and we are using her own body, the cost for it isn't something that an average person can withstand... If this goes on, even Eri with her more than above capacity, and various skills she gained from her puppet to increase her recovery speed and capacity, will still be drained to death!'.
So I walk next to her and put my hand on her back, and without hesitation, I inject my magic power into Eri, and so with my support, the process is able to continue, and the light surrounding Meiru's body is shining more and more brightly, until it becomes so bright that I'm forced to close my eyes, at the same time, I feel my magic power sharply fall until I'm left with only 5% of it, but luckily I feel that the magic is now complete, and successful, as the light enveloping her body is slowly fading.
Then I feel Eri's body leaning powerlessly on mine, completely exhausted by what she has just done, but from her light breath and what I can feel from her body touching mine, she is fine, she is only asleep and she just needs some rest, so I take her in a princess carry, and kissing her forehead, I say, "Thank you for your hard work...", and see a smile forming unconsciously on her face, as she responds to my touch even in her sleep.
After that, I move close to Meiru, followed by Freid and Tio, who curiously asks while looking at the body of one of the Liberator laying on the ground as her bountiful chest slowly rise and fall along with her breath, "Did it work?", but I do not have to say anything, as the answer to her question quickly reveals itself.
Soon, Meiru's eyes start to flutter, a clear sign that she is about to wake up, and the next moment, her eyes suddenly open wide, and she sits ups making the blanket covering her body fall, once again exposing her huge chest, but she ignores that, and she looks at her hands in amazement as she moves them, then she touches her body and mutters, "Amazing, this feels exactly how I remember, this is indeed my body...", then she turns her head and looks at us with her jade red eyes that remind me a little those of Yue, probable because she is a Dagon-Vampire hybrid.
She gets up, again ignoring the blanket on her body, but this time, I use my telekinesis to warp her body in it covering that inviting sight, she notices what just happened but doesn't seems to care too much, she just holds the blanket with her hand and lightly bowing her head, she says, "Thank you for reviving me and giving me the chance to once again reunite with my friends and fight against the mad god".
Then she raises her head and introduces herself, "Now, let me introduce myself properly. My name is Meiru Melusine, one of the Liberators, an Age of God Magic User, and a Pirate Captain, nice to meet you", to which I simply do the same, "Pleasure to meet you. My name is Jayr Pucci, someone from a different Universe that came to this one to learn about magic and help as many people as possible", then Tio does the same and says, "This one name is Tio Klaus, a Dragonman seeking to destroy the god Ehit", followed by Freid, "And I'm Freid Bragwa, Supreme Commander of the Demon Army of Garland, who realized the truth behind the war and my race suffering and decided to fight against the God I once worshipped to protect my race... and the many innocent that suffered from their play".
Hearing that Meiru nods with a smile on her face, then she looks at Eri in my arms and asks with slight worry in her tone, "And she is the one that summoned my soul... Eri, is that right? Is she fine?", to which I nod and reply, "Yeah, she is only exhausted, a night of rest and she will be as good as new", then she looks around and asks, "So where are we now? This place doesn't feel like anything from Tortus...", and so I quickly explain to her about my Soulbound Territory, and after that, she looks at Tio and says, "You slightly reminds me of a friend of mine somehow... Anyway, can you tell me what has happened since I died...".
After saying that, Meiru pulled Tio away to find a place to chat undisturbed, and soon after that, Freid, that doesn't have anything else to do, asks to go outside so that he can take care of Uranos and his other familiars.
Once Freid is gone, I go inside the Athena's Bidoof and gently lay Eri on the bed of my cabin to let her rest and recover, looking at her state I mutter, "For sure we have to be careful when we revive someone, even with my help the strain on Eri is greater than expected...", then I once again check on Eri and make sure that everything is alright, and after a very throughout inspection, I realize with relief that she is truly fine, and is only mentally and physically exhausted, something that I can easily fix, with a little of Cosmo, a massage and some rest.
So I turn her body around and start to massage her while slowly infusing my Cosmo into her body, I start by lightly kneading the shoulders, then after a few minutes, I move my hand down to her back, focusing on the zone around her spine to make sure that the Cosmo I infuse is distributed evenly throughout her body, and after that, I take care of her limbs one at time.
After I'm done with the massage, I leave a peacefully sleeping Eri on the bed and decide to do some of the things that are in my mind for a while now, so first I move toward the Treant Orchard, the area I and Eri build to plant the Treants from the Orcus Great Labyrinth, to check on them, as I noticed some curious changes in them.
Standing in front of the Treant Orchard, I quickly notice the first change, first of all, there are many more Treant than before, at first there were only around 20 of them, but now they are well over 50 of course most of them are still saplings, but that isn't only change, they aren't as aggressive as when we first planted them here, at that time we needed to use Eri's puppet to control them, and when we got close to them they always attacked us, but now I'm standing right in the middle of them, and they don't have any intention of attacking me, in fact, they are welcoming me, presenting their fruits, while the younger ones lightly sway their branches.
But that isn't the only change, and as I put my hand on the trunk of the biggest one, I confirm my suspicion and mutter, "As I thought, they have Cosmo!", indeed, every single Treant in the orchard is imbued of Cosmo like every living being in my home Universe, and not only that, but they also retain their magic power, and more surprisingly, I now can clearly feel that they are truly part of my Soulbond Territory, moreover, I'm not even sure if I can categorize them as monsters anymore, as even their soul changed, and I can clearly feel that they gained a semblance of sentience.
Feeling all this, I continue to mutter, "It is like... They are evolving from a Monster Race to become a new sentient race belonging to my Soulbond Territory... the change is slow, but it is clearly there... in fact, what jumpstarted this change was the increase in the level of my Blessing, before dealing with Maoshi, the Treants were still the same number as before, it is after that event that Cosmo merged with their being and their numbers started to increase as well...".
Realizing all this, I caress the trunk of this Treant and say, "I don't know if you can already understand me, but all I can say is welcome into this world, I truly hope that you will have happy and fulfilling lives...", in response to my words, the branches of this Treants start to slightly and slowly move, with the rustling leaves producing a calming sound, and soon after, all the other Treants in the orchard follows, creating a charming and natural symphony.
Done with checking on the evolving Treants, I move toward the Unigate, to check the last thing on my list, the Seed of Culture, that I gained, I can easily recognize it, but I admit that the shape surprise me quite a bit, it is a floating glowing disc, in fact, it reminds me of a game or anime disc, on it there is Hajime's image as he points his gun with the title Arifureta, 'Really this is the Seed of Culture... A game/anime disc? Has this anything to do with my surname? A Jojo reference even here!?'.
While holding the disk, a sigh that threatens to come out of my mouth, I move closer to Seed of Culture, and put my hand on it to further study it, and immediately a new set of information appears in my mind, 'Ooh! Just as Culture said, with this I can go to the Arifureta Universe whenever I want, and can also "install" the Arifureta Universe into my Soulbound Territory when it grows to a size that can accommodate it, and can also alert me of the invasion of other Champions... but not only this, I can summon to my Soulbound Territory any person I want, of course, they have to agree to the summon, but this means that no matter what Universe I find myself in, I can summon all my allies of the Arifureta Universe if I need it...'.
Looking at the Disc in my hand I continue to think, 'I have to admit that the advantages that the Seed of Culture gives me are really astonishing, only the fact that I can summon helpers from other Universes gives me an advantage against the others Champions, especially if they do not expect this, but even so I cannot underestimate them, if Culture's Blessing gives me so many advantages, then the Blessing of the other champions can do the same...'.
Done with that, I decide to check on Tio and Meiru, only to find Tio looking at a sleeping Meiru with a stunned and worried expression, so I move closer and quietly ask, "Tio, is everything alright?", she looks at me, and replies, "Master, while this one was telling miss Melusine the history of our world, all of the sudden, she fell asleep... Is she okay? Did something go wrong with resurrection?", hearing that, I grow worried and move closer to check on her, but just as I'm about to touch her body to check her condition she wakes up and says, "So did that boring story finally end?".
Seeing our confused faces, Meiru realizes what is going on and calmly explains with a laugh, "Hahaha! Do not worry, I can easily sleep on command, as well as wake up whenever something I find boring is over...", and hearing that, I think, 'She sleeps when something is boring even if you are talking to her, she is a pirate, now she only needs to be obsessed with meat and I have a female version of Luffy here...'.