Godslayer Lysette: Chapter 234

Chapter 234: Mirette’s Reemergence

Lysette and Mirae stood on the foothills overlooking Ciricu at dawn on the morning following their betrothal.  The early morning sun brought with it a warm breeze streaming down the northern slopes of the Spire Mountains, and that warmth in turn brought a sense of urgency to unlock the power contained within their new engagement bands.

Lysette clasped her fiancé’s hand, interweaving their fingers together and thinking back to the time when the two of them first merged.  Remembering every sensation, every thought, every feeling and desire that she had at the moment where the two of them first became as one.  That feeling of powerlessness, watching Saffron and Karchek fight at a level still beyond either of their capabilities.  That shared feeling of wanting more than anything to have the power to do something to help.  Of being willing to sacrifice every barrier that separated the two in the pursuit of something— someone— greater than either of them on their own.

“Lysette, my fiancée.”  Mirae radiated the brightest smile Lysette had ever seen at projecting those words.  “Are you ready?”

Lysette nodded as the two closed their eyes and linked their minds together.  But instead of letting the outside world fade away and emerging into their soulspace, instead Lysette focused her mind entirely on Mirae.  She listened to their breaths and matched them perfectly.  Then she felt their heartbeat pulsing through their skin.  It was a little faster than her own, and so she tensed her muscles a bit to again synchronize her body with her love’s.

The two opened a mental connection, but rather than using it to talk telepathically, instead they both allowed the barrier to dissolve completely.  Lysette allowed all of her thoughts, all of her desires and wishes and even her demonic urges pass through to Mirae.  For the briefest of moments, Mirae tensed as well, as though they were a predator seeking their next meal.  But they quickly overcame the urges Lysette had shared with them, and flooded her mind with so many images.

Images of the two of them kissing and hugging and holding one another and sometimes engaged in even more enjoyable activities.  And those were joined by plenty of other images of the wedding Mirae had undoubtedly been thinking about for weeks if not for months.  Of themself walking down the aisle in a suit of silver and white and standing next to Lysette with her golden locks and a dress blacker than pure darkness itself.  Of holding her in a princess carry, spinning around and around without a care in the world.  And even some nebulous future ideas of a not-so-quiet life trying to raise a deific child together.

A pull came from Lysette’s ring as their minds grew closer and closer together, followed by a flash of bright light that outshined the world.  Feelings of skin touching the outside world and flesh itself grew hazy and mutable as any difference between Lysette and Mirae ceased to exist.

Mirette stood up from where they had been two beings a moment ago and surveyed the area around them.  The people of Ciricu seemed not to have noticed their return, with a single exception as Serrena touched down a few feet away.

“So, your gambit worked, you two,” Serrena said.  “I know you had mentioned taking this form before, but it’s still something incredible to actually see such a fusion with my own eyes.”

“Two?” Mirette asked.  “You mean those two.”  They shook their head and extended their hand.  “Apologies.  I am Mirette.  It’s nice to meet you, Serrena.”

“Nice to meet you too, I suppose?  Would you do me the honor of a sparring match, Mirette?”

Mirette shook their head.  “Your strength as it is now is insufficient for a proper sparring match.  Though, I believe you will require a demonstration to that effect.”  Mirette bowed slightly.  “You may attack at your ready.”

Serrena gritted her teeth as she charged at Mirette, who sat there looking quizzically as the Demigoddess of Ambition crawled toward them.  Her first kick, a low sweeping kick, was easily dodged.  The second, a slow jab with her left arm, was an obvious feint that Mirette simply ignored.  And the third was a haymaker aimed directly at Mirette’s chest, but one easily deflected with but a single finger, and repelled with enough force to send Serrena flying.

To her credit, Serrena recovered before even hitting the ground, suspending herself in midair with a plume of flames, then rocketing herself toward Mirette even faster than the first time.  Waves of shimmering heat radiated off her as she approached, but even that raging inferno was powerless as Mirette lowered the temperature around them near to the lower limit.

Serrena’s attack broke on contact with Mirette’s cryonic aura, and she was forced to retreat as Mirette continued with their attack, summoning shards of ice around Serrena and forcing her into a series of tactical retreats.  All in vain, of course.  A single teleport later and Mirette was right behind Serrena, holding a blade of ice to her throat.

“As I said, Serrena, this is not a battle.  Merely a demonstration of the gap between our strength.”

Serrena gritted her teeth and forced her way out of Mirette’s grip as they dispelled their aura and dissolved the shards of ice that continued to litter their temporary battlefield.

“I don’t care how strong you are or what the gap in power between us is currently, Mirette.  I will close that gap.  And I will find a way to defeat you.”

Mirette nodded.  “I know you will, which is part of why I goaded you into this demonstration.  But this form, for all of its strength, is not without weaknesses either.”

“What weaknesses?”

“Mirae and Lysette are separate beings.  And the world— this system, they called it— wants them to remain as such.  The strength of their bond helps them overcome the world’s desire.  The rings I wear also lower the energy required to maintain this body.  But I still require massive amounts of stamina and Essence just to move or think.  Passive Cultivation is far from sufficient to do more than reduce the torrent by a mere trickle.”

“How long do you have?” Serrena asked.

“With a day of Cultivation from both of them, I can maintain this body for about… five minutes?  Maybe six?  An hour would buy me a scant fifteen seconds at the most.  And already the fatigue is setting in.”

“So, how strong are you, exactly?  As strong as Saffron?”

“I do not know for certain.  The only time I ever met her, I was far weaker than she.  And neither Lysette nor Mirae were capable of measuring her true abilities”  Mirette turned to the south and began scanning with their left eye.  “Let’s see.  Over where Domark is, I sense twelve intense powers.  If I am to assume Saffron is the strongest of the twelve, then no, I am not quite on her level.  Probably weaker by some fifteen to twenty percent.”

She turned to the southeast.  “One in that direction, though something around it obscures my vision.  Its strength is comparable to my own.”

A bit more to the east.  “Six large powers in that direction.  Five of them are nothing special, but the sixth is stronger than Saffron.”

Back to the north, toward Seliora.  “Seven large powers in that direction.  The strongest among them is a bit weaker than Saffron, but still stronger than I am.”

“Well, that certainly isn’t reassuring.  But I suppose it’s better that we know and acknowledge exactly what we’re dealing with so we can prepare accordingly.”

Mirette nodded.  They glowed a bright white as their form split back up into Lysette and Mirae.  Still holding hands, still grinning like smitten schoolchildren, an eye of each looking at the ring on both their and their partner’s hand.

“How are you two feeling?” Serrena asked.

“About as tired as Mirette said we would be,” Mirae said.

“Doesn’t that strike you as strange?” Serrena said.  “Getting tired, that is.  Even I feel fatigue when I go all out for long periods of time, despite none of us needing sleep on a night-to-night basis.”

“Perhaps it would be better to think of it as ‘dormancy’ instead of ‘sleep’?” Lysette said.  “Demigods are not wholly biological beings, so it makes sense that we don’t need sleep like humans do.  But perhaps when we overuse our abilities, we tap into that same force that we depend on to sustain ourselves.”

“So, Divine Essence?” Serrena asked.  “If what Solanna said about Omnia’s system is all true, then that’s the missing piece.  We rely on it as food to sustain ourselves, and when we overuse it, our bodies instinctively shut down to prevent ourselves from running out.  And then, once Omnia’s system has supplied us with more, we awaken.”

“Maybe?” Mirae said.  “I don’t feel like I’m using Divine Essence when I fight.  Honestly, I don’t really even know how to measure how much I have at any given time.  One would think that we should be able to intuit that through this system, but–”

“The only experience I have is when I fought Asterion’s will for control of the teleportation glyph,” Lysette said.  “At that time, I felt like energy was absolutely exploding out of me.  My senses were sharper than ever, my thoughts were moving faster, and I had an overwhelming sense of confidence that I could do exactly what everyone was praying for me to do.  To claim this glyph and rescue our friends from their icy tomb.

“One thing that’s definitely true is that we can’t store more Divine Essence than some maximum amount.  I suspect we’ll have to build our connections to our Domain and our number of followers to increase that amount.  Of course, that’s just… divine intuition?”

“So, we’ll trust but verify,” Serrena said.  “Okay, maybe not very much of the first, and a lot more testing and verification to do.”

“Hey!” Lysette said.

“You just said it was a hunch.  And if we’re going to beat someone stronger than even Mirette, we’re going to need a lot more than hunches and speculation.  Besides, Mirette showed me just how far I still have to go, and I can’t just rest on my laurels if I want to reach my true Ambitions.”

Serrena marched off, while Lysette and Mirae sat down on the foothills and looked up at the cloudless midmorning sky, their hands still firmly clasped together as they had been all morning.

“How’s your other body handling the recharge time?” Mirae asked.  “I could feel it– you– us?  Still hard to wrap my head around it.  But I could feel that body as part of us when we were Mirette.”

“About as well as this one.  Conveniently, I’m still confined to the infirmary until tomorrow morning.  Something about wanting to monitor me for any diseases I might have caught in the ruins.  Though I think they think I’m going to try something, and they want a couple of days to figure out what it is.”

“I mean, they’re not wrong.”

Lysette laughed.  “I suppose they aren’t.  So, what do you want to do now?”

“I’m not up for anything too intensive right now.”  Mirae tilted their adorable head.  “How about we go pay Jules and Katie a visit?”

“That sounds like a good idea.”

“Also, Lyse?”

“Yes, Mirae love?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too, Mirae.  Forever and always.”

Chapter 233: https://www.patreon.com/posts/113620671

Table of Contents: https://www.patreon.com/posts/101896170

Chapter 235: https://www.patreon.com/posts/113770326