Chapter 13: Merging the Bodies
'How the fuck am I going to have sex with a pussy that I can probably fit inside?'
That thought continued repeating itself as I stared up at Helena. The giant owl woman was still kneeling, which left her almost five times my height, while her enormous feather-covered breasts rested heavily against her stomach. Her molten-gold eyes remained glazed over from Puppet of Lust, but unlike Vera, there was still a frightening amount of magical power radiating from her.
One of my parallel minds immediately began designing a platform that would let me climb inside her without falling.
I mentally told it to stop wasting time.
It responded by adding padded handles, anchoring runes, and a small ladder.
'Fine. Save the design for later, but focus on something useful for now. We still have a Kingdom to destroy.'
The four smaller women were gathered around Helena's legs, waiting for me to give them an order. Erica and Jasmine were almost identical fox women, although one had silver fur while the other had golden fur. Lola was an extremely busty white rabbit woman with long ears, while Hannah was a short Hell Mouse whose breasts looked large enough to make her fall forward every time she took a step.
"Go inside the fortress and find Zaric. You will follow any order he gives you unless it contradicts one of mine," I ordered, pointing toward the fortress behind me.
"Yes, Mistress," five beautifully dumb voices responded at once.
Helena stood, blocking a large portion of the blood-red sky with her massive wings. Erica, Jasmine, Lola, and Hannah grabbed onto the feathers covering her calves before the giant owl woman began walking toward the fortress.
Each of Helena's footsteps made the ground tremble.
'Damn. Her ass is almost as large as my bedroom.'
I watched them leave for another minute before opening my inventory and taking out the SS-Ranked Runic Mythril Spear. All of the challenge requirements, except killing ten thousand sentient beings and destroying an entire Kingdom, had finally been completed.
Now, I only needed Zaric to finish evacuating our people from Vask.
One Day Later
"Mistress, the evacuation has been completed," Zaric said as he entered my workshop. "The final merchant caravan crossed the border three hours ago. None of your subjects, spies, merchants, servants, or prospective citizens remain within the Kingdom of Vask. The Floating Eyes and Ash Rats are the only exceptions."
I looked away from the newest version of the platform one of my parallel minds had designed.
It now possessed a ladder, padded gripping handles, several anchoring straps, a breathing enchantment, and a group of space-expansion runes intended to keep Helena's insides from accidentally crushing me.
'That might actually work.'
I mentally stored the design inside the appropriately named Questionable Engineering section of my Mind Palace before giving Zaric my full attention.
"What about the Ash Rat beneath the palace?"
"It has entered the lower levels. One of the Floating Eyes is following it and can provide a visual connection whenever you are ready."
"Perfect."
I stood and lifted the spear from my workbench.
The instant my hand touched the weapon, it reacted to my magic. Lightning crawled across the polished Mythril shaft while the Gravity Runes distorted the air surrounding the spearhead. Black-and-blue flames flickered between the microscopic runes before being pulled back into the weapon.
The Necrotic Magic and Phantom Fire compressed inside the spear had continued growing since I created it. Apparently, storing a magical weapon capable of destroying a Kingdom inside a workshop connected to a fortress filled with infernal and necrotic energy wasn't the best way to keep it stable.
The entire weapon was practically vibrating with the need to be used.
"Let's go outside," I said. "I don't want to destroy my own fortress while activating this thing."
"That would be unfortunate," Zaric agreed, a slight smirk appearing on his face.
We traveled several miles beyond the city walls.
Hundreds of undead and infernal workers stopped what they were doing and bowed as I passed. The more intelligent summons noticed the spear in my hand and immediately began moving everyone away from the direction I was heading.
Smart.
By the time we reached a barren hill overlooking the distant plains, every worker, soldier, and summoned creature had retreated at least half a mile.
"Far enough?" Zaric asked.
I examined the spear.
"Probably."
Zaric raised one hand and connected my vision to the Floating Eye following the Ash Rat.
A large viewing window formed in front of me.
The Ash Rat was crawling through a dark stone tunnel beneath the royal palace. Hundreds of enchanted pipes covered the walls and ceiling, carrying magical energy through the palace and into the capital's ward network.
Each pipe possessed several identification runes linking it directly to the Vaskian crown.
It was exactly what I needed.
The rat continued forward until it reached a large underground chamber filled with metal tables, cages, partially dissected bodies, and alchemical equipment. An older human man was standing over a massive glass container while feverishly writing something into an open book.
Inside the container floated one of the most fucked-up creatures I had ever seen.
Its upper body resembled a pale human woman, while its lower half belonged to a giant black spider. Two pairs of mismatched wings grew from its back, one feathered and the other leathery. A reptilian tail floated behind it, and several small animal heads grew along its spine.
One of the heads appeared to be conscious.
It silently opened and closed its mouth against the glass.
"Huh. That's fucked up," I muttered.
The alchemist looked exhausted but incredibly proud of himself as he walked around the container, checking the runes carved into its base.
I briefly considered stealing the creature. It was horrible to look at, but the combination of incompatible body parts suggested that whoever created it possessed some rather impressive knowledge of flesh crafting and magical biology.
Unfortunately, the Ash Rat had already entered a ventilation shaft leading toward the Kingdom's central ward chamber.
"Maybe I'll investigate whatever that thing was after the explosion."
Zaric looked at the spear in my hand before glancing back at the creature.
"I do not believe there will be anything left to investigate, Mistress."
"Probably not," I said with a grin.
The Ash Rat continued through the ventilation system for several minutes before emerging into an enormous underground chamber.
The Kingdom's Heartstone stood in the center.
It was a twenty-foot-tall crystal covered in thousands of glowing runes, with magical threads extending from it in every direction. Some of those threads were as thin as hair, while others were thicker than my arm.
The largest connections led toward the capital's walls, royal palace, military district, and central temple. Smaller threads spread outward, connecting the Heartstone to noble estates, forts, mines, roads, towns, and protected villages.
It wasn't merely powering the capital.
It was connected to nearly everything beneath the Vaskian crown's authority.
I knew the Kingdom's wards were connected to the Heartstone, but I hadn't realized the network reached this far. Still, I wasn't too worried about it. The farther a ward was from its power source, the weaker the connection should become.
At worst, I figured the spear would destroy the capital, burn through some nearby farms and estates, and maybe knock out a few forts.
More than enough to complete the challenge.
The Ash Rat climbed onto the crystal and pressed both skeletal paws against its surface.
"System, copy the Heartstone's magical frequency and transfer it into the spear."
|Notice: Scanning the Vaskian Royal Heartstone.|
|Notice: The magical frequency of the Vaskian Royal Ward Network has been copied.|
|Notice: The frequency has been transferred to the SS-Ranked Runic Mythril Spear.|
|Notice: The weapon will now recognize all structures, individuals, defensive systems, territories, and magical constructs registered beneath the authority of the Kingdom of Vask as components of a single target.|
The runes covering the spear flared.
The weapon shifted in my hand, turning several degrees toward the distant Kingdom.
The Tracking Runes had found their target.
"Would you like the Floating Eyes to retreat?" Zaric asked.
"Keep one several miles beyond the border so we can watch what happens. The others can remain inside the capital. I can always summon more."
"As you command."
I tightened my grip around the spear and pulled my arm backward.
The Gravity Runes activated first, reducing the spear's effective weight until it felt like I was holding a feather. Lightning gathered around my body, lifting my silver hair while the stone beneath my feet began to crack.
Three of my parallel minds took control of the weapon's enchantments.
The first focused on the Lightning Runes.
The second maintained the Gravity Runes.
The third ensured the Soul and Tracking Runes remained locked onto the Heartstone's frequency.
The fourth mind continued working on the platform for Helena.
'Seriously?'
'This requires very little attention.'
'Fine.'
"Should I retreat?" Zaric asked as a storm of magical energy formed around me.
"Probably."
Zaric teleported several hundred feet away without another word.
I poured the rest of my available magic into the spear.
|-138,932,091 MP|
The Necrotic Magic sealed inside it pulsed like a diseased heart. Phantom Fire leaked between the runes, burning black and blue across the spearhead before being pulled into the weapon again.
The air grew so dense with magical pressure that the ground surrounding me began to sink.
The stone beneath my feet cracked apart.
Dust and loose rocks rose into the air.
Lightning spread across the sky, forming a swirling storm directly above me.
"Goodbye, Vask."
I threw the spear.
For less than a second, there was absolute silence.
Then the air exploded.
The weapon leaving my hand created a massive crater beneath my feet. A deafening boom spread across the plains while the spear vanished into the sky, leaving behind a glowing line of lightning and warped space.
The shockwave tore trees from the ground and flattened everything within several hundred feet.
|Notice: Your SS-Ranked Runic Mythril Spear has surpassed Mach 10.|
|Notice: Mach 20.|
|Notice: Mach 40.|
|Notice: Mach 75.|
"Holy fuck," I whispered.
One of the Floating Eyes positioned outside Vask turned toward the sky.
It caught one glimpse of the approaching light before the hypersonic winds following the spear ripped it apart.
|Notice: One of your Floating Eyes has been destroyed.|
Luckily, I had several others.
I immediately transferred my vision into one of the Floating Eyes hovering above the capital.
The spear crossed seventy-two miles in only a few seconds.
Vask's outer wards activated before the weapon reached the city. Seven enormous layers of golden light formed over the capital, reinforced by thousands of smaller defensive arrays.
The spear struck the first barrier.
It didn't slow down.
The golden shield shattered outward, sending magical fragments across the sky. The second and third barriers collapsed less than a second later. The remaining wards attempted to redirect the weapon, but the Soul Runes recognized every barrier as part of the target.
Instead of resisting the spear, the capital's defenses gave it additional paths toward the Heartstone.
The weapon tore through the royal palace, passed through several layers of enchanted stone, and struck the crystal beneath it.
The image froze.
For one heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then black-and-blue Phantom Fire erupted from beneath the palace.
The fire expanded so quickly that most people inside the capital probably never understood what was happening. The royal palace disappeared first, followed by the surrounding noble estates, military compounds, and central temple.
Stone turned to ash.
Metal melted.
Enchanted glass exploded.
The city walls collapsed into pools of glowing liquid.
The Heartstone attempted to resist the attack.
That was a mistake.
The spear's Soul Runes attached themselves to the Heartstone's magical frequency. The Lightning Runes then forced the Phantom Fire into every magical thread connected to the royal ward network.
Thousands of black-and-blue lines spread outward from the capital.
At first, that was exactly what I had expected. The palace wards ignited, followed by the walls, the military district, and some of the noble estates surrounding the city.
Then the lines kept going.
They shot past the city walls and disappeared into the countryside.
"What the fuck?"
More pathways lit up farther away. Some split apart into dozens of smaller connections, while others formed thick glowing lines that raced toward the horizon faster than the Floating Eye could properly follow.
The flames weren't weakening.
They were spreading.
The Heartstone wasn't just connected to a few nearby forts and estates. The Royal Mana Network stretched through the entire fucking Kingdom, and every ward node the fire reached helped push it farther.
The spear's Soul Runes had classified the network as one target.
Apparently, the magic didn't give a shit how large that target was.
Every royal fortress ignited.
Every noble estate registered beneath the crown ignited.
Every connected city, town, village, temple, mine, watchtower, military outpost, protected road, and warded farm ignited.
Black-and-blue flames spread through the Kingdom like veins lighting up beneath someone's skin.
"Holy shit," I whispered as another massive branch of Phantom Fire disappeared over the horizon. "It is going through the entire fucking Kingdom."
I had expected the capital to be erased.
I had expected some nearby farms and estates to get caught in the attack.
I had not expected Vask's own magical defense system to spread my magic into every major settlement and warded territory it controlled.
Then the Necrotic Magic activated.
A black-and-green wave expanded outward from every burning ward stone. Trees withered instantly. Rivers turned black, fish floating to their surfaces as the water became saturated with death energy.
Every living creature touched by the wave collapsed as its life force was ripped away.
The final enchantment activated a moment later.
Gravity.
The royal palace, capital, and surrounding land were dragged inward toward the Heartstone. Buildings broke apart and vanished into the expanding gravitational field. Streets folded over themselves while enormous sections of the city were pulled underground.
The Floating Eye survived long enough to show me the entire capital collapsing into an enormous black crater.
Then the viewing window went dark.
|Notice: Your Floating Eye has been destroyed.|
"Well…" I slowly lowered my hands. "That went a lot farther than I expected."
Zaric teleported back beside me and stared toward the distant horizon, where faint flashes of black-and-blue light could still be seen.
"Mistress, did you intend for the attack to spread through the entire Kingdom?"
"No. I expected the capital, the surrounding estates, and maybe some nearby farms to be destroyed. I knew the wards were connected, but I assumed the magic would weaken the farther it got from the Heartstone."
Another flash appeared against the horizon.
I grinned.
"Not that I'm complaining."
A massive wall of golden windows appeared in front of me.
|Notice: Your attack has propagated through the entire Vaskian Royal Mana Network.|
|The network connected the capital to 13 additional cities, 86 towns, 419 villages, 74 military fortresses, 3,812 noble estates, 11,406 warded farms, and thousands of roads, mines, temples, monster ranches, and protected wilderness zones.|
|All beings registered beneath the authority of the Vaskian Crown were recognized as part of the spear's designated target.|
|The Necrotic Magic released by the spear has also killed all unregistered living creatures of F-Rank or higher within range of a connected Mana pathway or ward node.|
I stared at the window.
Then I stared toward the horizon.
"Oh."
The capital hadn't just been connected to some nearby settlements.
The Heartstone had been woven into nearly every important piece of magical infrastructure inside Vask. When the spear forced Phantom Fire and Necrotic Magic into those pathways, it hadn't weakened as it traveled.
The Kingdom's wards had carried and amplified it.
I had accidentally turned Vask's entire magical defense system into one enormous extermination array.
That was significantly more destruction than I had planned.
It was also extremely efficient.
More windows appeared.
|Notice: You have killed 3,961,563 sentient beings.|
|Sentient Kill Breakdown by Location:|
|Vaskian Capital: 83,761.|
|Thirteen Connected Cities: 1,286,418.|
|Eighty-Six Connected Towns: 978,504.|
|Villages, Fortresses, Estates, Temples, Mines, Farms, and Other Registered Territories: 1,612,880.|
|Sentient Kill Breakdown by Race:|
|Humans: 2,841,772.|
|Beastkin: 498,203.|
|Elves: 282,415.|
|Dwarves: 94,118.|
|Goblins: 83,706.|
|Orcs: 57,940.|
|Demons: 21,883.|
|Centaurs: 18,442.|
|Independent Spirits: 14,561.|
|Dryads: 11,806.|
|Other Sapient Humanoid Races: 9,402.|
|Sapient Magical Beasts: 27,314.|
|Vaskian Crown Chimera: 1.|
|Notice: You have killed 18,037,310 nonsapient magical creatures of F-Rank or higher.|
|Magical Creature Kill Breakdown:|
|F-Rank Creatures: 9,840,000.|
|E-Rank Creatures: 4,620,000.|
|D-Rank Creatures: 2,160,000.|
|C-Rank Creatures: 981,000.|
|B-Rank Creatures: 347,000.|
|A-Rank Creatures: 82,400.|
|S-Rank Creatures: 6,870.|
|SS-Rank Creatures: 39.|
|SSS-Rank Creatures: 1.|
|Examples of exterminated magical creatures include Horned Rabbits, Ember Foxes, Razor Boars, Ironhorn Deer, Frost Wolves, Mana Bears, Thunderbirds, Wyverns, Chimera variants, Royal Griffins, and numerous region-specific magical species.|
|Total Confirmed Kills: 21,998,873.|
"Holy fucking shit."
I had expected maybe a few hundred thousand deaths if the attack spread outside the capital.
I had not expected nearly twenty-two million people and magical creatures to drop dead because Vask's rulers had decided to connect half the fucking country to one giant crystal.
The Kingdom's ward network had apparently been much larger and more integrated than Zaric or I realized. Even remote farms, noble estates, monster ranches, protected forests, and mines had maintained connections to the Heartstone.
Those connections had protected them for centuries.
Then I came along and turned every single one of them into a doorway for Necrotic Magic and Phantom Fire.
'Well, at least I definitely completed the ten-thousand-kill requirement.'
|Notice: You have completely erased the capital city of Vask from existence.|
|Notice: The capital of the Kingdom of Vask has been removed from the political and magical maps of this world.|
|Notice: The Kingdom of Vask no longer possesses a functioning government, royal bloodline, military command structure, territorial ward network, or recognized capital.|
|Notice: Every city, town, fortress, village, and recognized territory connected to the Vaskian Royal Mana Network has been destroyed or rendered uninhabitable.|
|Notice: The Kingdom of Vask has been destroyed.|
|Calculating Experience gained from individual kills.|
|Experience gained from sentient beings: 4,951,953,750 XP.|
|Experience gained from F-Rank creatures: 246,000,000 XP.|
|Experience gained from E-Rank creatures: 346,500,000 XP.|
|Experience gained from D-Rank creatures: 540,000,000 XP.|
|Experience gained from C-Rank creatures: 882,900,000 XP.|
|Experience gained from B-Rank creatures: 1,214,500,000 XP.|
|Experience gained from A-Rank creatures: 1,236,000,000 XP.|
|Experience gained from S-Rank creatures: 687,000,000 XP.|
|Experience gained from SS-Rank creatures: 39,000,000 XP.|
|Experience gained from SSS-Rank creatures: 25,000,000 XP.|
|Total Experience gained from kills: 10,168,853,750 XP.|
|Additional Achievement Experience:|
|Erasing the Vaskian Capital: 250,000,000 XP.|
|Destroying All Connected Vaskian Cities and Fortresses: 600,000,000 XP.|
|Collapsing a Kingdom-Wide Mana Network: 750,000,000 XP.|
|Destroying the Royal Family and Central Government: 500,000,000 XP.|
|Completely Destroying the Kingdom of Vask: 2,000,000,000 XP.|
|Causing the Extinction of a Sentient Species: 100,000,000 XP.|
|Total Bonus Experience: 4,200,000,000 XP.|
|Total Experience Gained: 14,368,853,750 XP.|
A tremendous amount of power rushed into my body.
The first few levels felt good.
Then they kept coming.
And coming.
And fucking coming.
|Notice: You have Leveled Up.|
|Notice: You have Leveled Up.|
|Notice: You have Leveled Up.|
Hundreds of notifications became thousands, completely blocking my vision as the System attempted to announce every individual level.
"System, summarize before I go blind!"
The windows collapsed into one enormous golden screen.
|Notice: You have gained 3,692 Levels.|
|Previous Level: 100.|
|Current Level: 3,792.|
|Current XP: 6,973,750/7,583,000.|
|You gain 10 Attribute Points each time you Level Up.|
|You have gained 36,920 Attribute Points.|
|Notice: Parallel Minds has Leveled Up 36 times.|
|Parallel Minds: Level 3/? > Level 39/?.|
|You have gained 36 additional independent thought processes and +3,600 Intelligence.|
|Intelligence: 1,080 > 4,680.|
Pain exploded through my skull as thirty-six new streams of consciousness unfolded inside my Mind Palace.
For several seconds, it felt like someone had filled my skull with dozens of screaming versions of myself, each one trying to think about something different at the same time.
Then everything settled.
Thirty-six new minds waited for instructions.
I assigned ten of them to sort through the System notifications, five to organize my new inventory, five to study what remained of Vask's ward network, five to continue expanding my Mind Palace, and ten to review every spell, rune, and magical skill I possessed.
The final mind immediately started improving the platform intended for Helena.
'Why are you like this?'
'Because the project remains incomplete.'
I couldn't argue with myself, so I let it continue.
Another series of windows appeared.
|Notice: Your overwhelming Luck, Master Artificer Title, Soul Magic, and ownership of the killing weapon have allowed the System to reconstruct and condense recoverable treasures, magical cores, equipment, and resources destroyed during the attack.|
|Recovered treasures have been placed inside your Expanded Inventory.|
|Reward Containers Generated:|
|1 SSS-Ranked Kingdom Erasure Chest.|
|4 SS-Ranked Royal Dominion Chests.|
|18 S-Ranked City Conquest Chests.|
|96 A-Ranked Regional Destruction Chests.|
|640 B-Ranked Settlement Chests.|
|2,400 C-Ranked Resource Chests.|
|Recovered Currency and Trade Materials:|
|117,400,000 Imperial Gold Coins.|
|680,000 Platinum Trade Bars.|
|2,860,000,000 Silver Coins.|
|4,300,000 Obsidian Trade Tokens.|
|Recovered Magical Gems and Cores:|
|2,840,000 assorted E-Rank through A-Ranked Mana Gems.|
|8,420 S-Ranked Royal Mana Gems.|
|413 SS-Ranked Soul Diamonds.|
|1 SSS-Ranked Crownheart Gem.|
|1,968,000 F-Ranked Beast Cores.|
|924,000 E-Ranked Beast Cores.|
|432,000 D-Ranked Beast Cores.|
|196,200 C-Ranked Beast Cores.|
|69,400 B-Ranked Beast Cores.|
|16,480 A-Ranked Beast Cores.|
|1,374 S-Ranked Beast Cores.|
|8 SS-Ranked Beast Cores.|
|1 SSS-Ranked Chimera Genesis Core.|
|Notice: Lower-ranked biological materials have been compressed into 14,882 magically preserved resource crates containing hides, feathers, scales, bones, blood, venom, organs, meat, and alchemical components.|
|Recovered Royal Weapons and Equipment:|
|1 SS-Ranked Greatsword: The King's Oathbreaker.|
|1 SS-Ranked Longbow: The Queen's Grief.|
|1 SS-Ranked Royal Ward Scepter.|
|1 SS-Ranked Crown of Vaskian Dominion.|
|47 S-Ranked Royal and Noble Weapons.|
|3,816 A-Ranked Enchanted Weapons.|
|28,440 B-Ranked Military Weapons.|
|96,712 C-Ranked Military Weapons.|
|118,306 enchanted articles of clothing, armor, jewelry, and ceremonial equipment.|
|Recovered Kingdom Infrastructure:|
|1 SS-Ranked Damaged Kingdom Ward Core.|
|14 S-Ranked Runic City Cores.|
|86 A-Ranked Town Cores.|
|419 B-Ranked Village and Estate Cores.|
|1 SS-Ranked Royal Library Crystal containing 86,412 books.|
|13 S-Ranked Regional Archive Crystals containing 147,880 additional books and records.|
|1 SS-Ranked Royal Alchemy Vault containing 4,812 completed potions, 1,406 potion recipes, 208 alchemical workstations, and 73,000 preserved ingredients.|
|14 S-Ranked City Alchemy Vaults.|
|1 SS-Ranked Dimensional Royal Treasury.|
|6 S-Ranked Monster Breeding and Agricultural Cores.|
|42 A-Ranked Monster Ranch Cores.|
|Recovered Magical Metals and Construction Materials:|
|128,000 bars of enchanted steel.|
|14,600 bars of Mythril.|
|1,270 bars of Soul Silver.|
|390 bars of Orichalcum.|
|32 bars of Royal Star Gold.|
|2,840,000 tons of magically preserved stone, lumber, crystal, metal, and other construction materials.|
|Recovered Artifacts and Miscellaneous Treasures:|
|18,740 magical artifacts ranging from C-Rank to S-Rank.|
|3 S-Ranked Royal Airships.|
|42 A-Ranked Military Airships.|
|1 S-Ranked Royal Mobile Palace.|
|8 S-Ranked Dimensional Storage Vaults.|
|73 A-Ranked Dimensional Storage Items.|
|1 Complete Royal Genealogical and Bloodline Archive.|
|1 Complete Vaskian Map and Mana-Network Blueprint.|
|1 Preserved Soul and Research Archive belonging to Royal Alchemist Davion Kross.|
I slowly read through the list.
Then I read it again.
"Okay. Destroying an entire Kingdom is a lot more profitable than I thought."
|Notice: You have gained the Title: Kingdom Ender.|
|Kingdom Ender: You have personally destroyed a recognized Kingdom, annihilated its governing authority, and rendered its claimed territory incapable of supporting its former civilization. Magic directed against Kingdom-scale ward networks, national barriers, and connected territorial defenses is 100% more effective.|
|Notice: You have gained the Title: Capital Eraser.|
|Capital Eraser: You have personally removed a capital city from existence using a single magical attack. Area-of-effect magic used against cities, fortresses, and other large settlements is 50% more powerful.|
|Notice: You have gained the Achievement: One-Woman Siege.|
|One-Woman Siege: You destroyed a capital and its defenses without an army directly participating in the attack. You have gained 1 SS-Ranked Mobile Siege Platform and 20 S-Ranked Siege Golems.|
"Those might be useful when I eventually start building something in the Harry Potter universe."
A different notification appeared in deep crimson.
|Notice: A sentient species recognized by the System has become extinct as a direct result of your actions.|
|Notice: You have gained the Title: Genocide.|
"What the fuck? I killed one chimera. How does that count as genocide?"
|Notice: The Vaskian Crown Chimera was created by Royal Alchemist Davion Kross beneath the royal palace.|
|Notice: The creature possessed a stable soul, a unique magical core, independent thought, and a complete set of reproductive organs capable of producing viable offspring without a mate.|
|Notice: It was therefore recognized as the first member of a new sentient species.|
|Previous Vaskian Crown Chimera Population: 1.|
|Current Vaskian Crown Chimera Population: 0.|
|Percentage of Species Exterminated: 100%.|
|Title requirements have been fulfilled.|
I stared at the window.
"So, technically, if someone creates a new sentient species and I immediately kill it, that counts as genocide?"
|Notice: That is correct.|
"Huh."
That seemed like a System oversight, but I wasn't going to complain about receiving another title.
|Genocide: You have eradicated every known member of a sentient species. You can instinctively recognize whether a target is the final surviving member of its species or bloodline. Damage against the final surviving member of a species is increased by 500%.|
"Well, that's horrifyingly useful."
Before I could dismiss the windows, the Soul Magic inside my body reacted.
Millions of lights appeared in the air around me.
Most were white, although blue, green, red, black, silver, and gold lights were mixed throughout them. The lights continued multiplying until they filled the sky, blocking out the blood-red sun and surrounding me like an enormous galaxy of trapped stars.
Zaric took several steps backward.
"Mistress, the souls of the dead are gathering around you."
"I can see that."
I didn't feel their fear, anger, pain, or memories. They were simply souls that had once belonged to living bodies.
Now, they belonged to me.
|Notice: Queen of the Damned has reacted to your Soul Magic.|
|Notice: Kingdom Ender has reacted to Genocide.|
|Notice: You have personally claimed more than 1,000,000 sentient souls and more than 10,000,000 magical beast souls through a single action.|
|Legendary Title generated.|
|You have gained the Legendary Title: Death's Apostle.|
|Death's Apostle: Death has recognized your authority over those you personally slay or lawfully claim. Souls under your control cannot enter an afterlife unless you release them. You may question, command, reshape, bind, consume, reward, punish, or release any soul within your possession.|
|Notice: You will not passively experience the memories, thoughts, emotions, suffering, or final moments of claimed souls unless you deliberately access them.|
|Notice: A Personal Soul Dimension has been generated.|
|Please name the dimension.|
"Soul Space."
|Notice: Personal Dimension named: Soul Space.|
A doorway opened inside my Mind Palace.
Beyond it was a seemingly endless dark world with a polished silver floor and a sky filled with blue flames. All 21,998,873 souls were pulled toward the doorway, vanishing into the dimension in streams of white and multicolored light.
Inside, they automatically separated into different areas based on sapience, species, magical rank, knowledge, and potential usefulness.
I could sense every soul within Soul Space.
I didn't know their names or memories unless I deliberately focused on them, but I always knew where they were and could pull any one of them to me with a thought.
I selected a random female elf.
Her soul appeared before me, kneeling silently on the silver floor.
Several options instinctively formed within my mind.
I could question her.
Release her.
Feed her to another soul.
Bind her to a weapon.
Place her into a new body.
Convert her into an undead or summon.
Reshape her soul.
Or weave her into an object.
"Can I sew her soul into clothing?"
|Notice: Your Soul Magic and Sewing Life Skill make this possible.|
"Awesome."
I returned the elf to Soul Space and closed the doorway inside my Mind Palace. I would have plenty of time to explore the dimension after returning to the Harry Potter universe.
A new series of golden windows appeared.
|Notice: All requirements for the Alternate SS-Ranked Challenge have been completed.|
|Completed Requirements:|
|Bind 5 additional Thralls of Lord Class or higher.|
|Develop the territory into a bustling city with 3 surrounding towns.|
|Kill 10,000 sentient beings.|
|Destroy an entire Kingdom using only magic.|
|Calculating Challenge Rewards.|
|Notice: Performance significantly exceeded the minimum Challenge requirements.|
|You have gained 3 Legendary Lottery Tickets.|
|Current Legendary Lottery Tickets: 5.|
|You have gained 5,000 Attribute Points.|
|Current Unspent Attribute Points: 41,920.|
|You have gained 1 SSS-Ranked World Transfer Claim.|
|You have gained the Legendary Skill: Soul Weaver.|
|Soul Weaver: You may manipulate souls as though they were physical cloth. Souls may be repaired, separated, merged, reshaped, sewn into objects, placed into bodies, or woven into magical constructs.|
|You have gained 1 World Challenge Completion Chest.|
|You have gained 1 Random Primordial Bloodline Evolution.|
"That is a lot of rewards."
The most important one was the World Transfer Claim.
I immediately opened its description.
|SSS-Ranked World Transfer Claim: Select one object, item, structure, or fixed magical construct from this world to transport with you when returning to your original universe.|
"Well, that's obvious. I choose the Necromancer Fortress."
The fortress contained my laboratory, bedroom, workshops, library, Soul Forge, stored materials, magical equipment, and most of the treasure I had collected.
There was no way I was choosing anything else.
|Notice: SS-Ranked Necromancer Fortress selected.|
|The Fortress and all permanently connected rooms, enchantments, fixed furniture, internal spatial expansions, stored materials, and inventory will be transferred.|
|All summons, Thralls, subjects, descendants, and other beings marked as belonging to your Dominion may be transferred while inside the Fortress.|
|During World Transfer, the Necromancer Fortress will temporarily be stored within Soul Space.|
|Would you like to begin the transfer?|
|Yes/No|
"Not yet. I need to move everything else into the fortress before we leave."
|Notice: Understood.|
|State that you are ready to return when all preparations are complete.|
I dismissed the windows before turning toward Zaric.
"Gather all of my subjects and move them into the fortress. Transfer everything that can be moved. Empty every warehouse, storage room, mine, farm, workshop, and treasury. We are leaving this world."
Zaric merely raised one eyebrow before bowing.
"Yes, Mistress."
(7 Hours Later)
"Mistress, all preparations have been completed."
Zaric knelt before me outside the fortress. Behind him, the city was nearly empty. The streets that had once been crowded with undead workers, infernal creatures, merchants, soldiers, and other residents were completely silent.
"All of your subjects are inside the fortress," he continued. "The Bone Workers and laborers emptied the warehouses and transferred everything they could carry. Almost all usable black marble has been extracted from the mine and placed into storage. The workshops, farms, military outposts, and town treasuries have also been emptied."
"What about the farm core?"
"Vera successfully extracted the farmhouse core and brought it inside. Her System informed her that it merged with an unused section of the fortress and created a new internal agricultural domain."
A golden notification appeared.
|Notice: A-Ranked Anthropomorphic Farm Core has successfully merged with the SS-Ranked Necromancer Fortress.|
|Foreign magical environments detected: Necrotic Magic, Infernal Magic, Phantom Fire, Soul Magic, and High-Density Spatial Magic.|
|Farm Core evolution initiated.|
|All compatible A-Ranked livestock species have evolved into SS-Ranked Undead and Infernal livestock variants.|
|The Agricultural Domain is now permanently connected to the Necromancer Fortress.|
"Nice."
I had no idea what the livestock had evolved into, but that could wait until after we arrived.
"Everything else is ready?" I asked.
"Yes, Mistress. Vera, Lindsey, your Thralls, all intelligent summons, every registered subject, and every resource we could gather are within the fortress."
Lindsey.
The name produced the same distant sense of responsibility it always had. She was inside, safe and protected by the Flesh Mimic and Hellhound Mistresses.
That was enough.
For now.
"Good. Head inside. The next time I see you, it will be in another world."
Zaric rose and bowed.
"Yes, Mistress."
He entered the fortress, and the enormous doors closed behind him.
I stood alone in the silent city for several seconds.
The fortress, the people, and the resources inside it represented everything I had built during the challenge. The abandoned city and towns would probably be claimed by whoever survived the collapse of Vask, although the surrounding kingdoms would have to be incredibly stupid to approach a city filled with abandoned necromantic wards.
They probably would.
Humans have an amazing ability to ignore obvious danger whenever money or power is involved.
I opened the System window.
"System, I am ready to go home."
|Notice: Understood.|
|Notice: Before returning, you must determine what will happen to your two bodies.|
|Option 1: Maintain your Half-Succubus Witch body and Succubus Lich Queen body as separate transformation states.|
|Option 2: Permanently merge both bodies. All compatible skills, bloodlines, racial traits, titles, affinities, perks, and magical abilities will be combined into a new body.|
"I choose to merge them."
I had planned on merging the bodies from the moment the System first mentioned the possibility. Maintaining them as separate forms could be useful, but combining my Primordial Nundu bloodline, Ley Line connection, Lich immortality, full Succubus bloodline, and every form of magic I possessed was too good to ignore.
|Notice: You possess 1 SSS-Ranked Evolution Card.|
|Would you like to use the Evolution Card to strengthen and stabilize the merger?|
"Yes."
|Confirmation required.|
|The merger will occur within the space between worlds.|
|The process is irreversible.|
|Y/N|
"Yes."
Golden runes surrounded me.
The Necromancer Fortress began to glow with green fire. The massive structure folded inward, shrinking without breaking until it became a sphere of burning energy small enough to fit inside my hand.
The sphere entered my chest and vanished into Soul Space.
A moment later, the city disappeared.
I found myself floating in an endless expanse of white light.
It was completely different from the Abyss.
The Abyss had been a total absence of everything: no light, sound, sensation, direction, or time. This place was filled with so much light and magic that I couldn't see anything else.
My original body appeared in front of me.
The Half-Succubus Witch possessed pale skin, long white hair, golden eyes, curved black horns, and large red-tinted wings. She looked alive, warm, and overflowing with the magic of the Class 5 Ley Line.
My Lich Queen body appeared beside her.
Greyish-white skin covered her taller frame. Her hair was silver, her eyes glowed red, and Necrotic and Soul Magic flowed around her like a funeral shroud.
Both bodies began dissolving.
|Beginning Body Merger.|
|Half-Succubus Witch Bloodline detected.|
|Full-Blooded Succubus Bloodline detected.|
|Bloodline compatibility confirmed.|
|Merging Succubus Bloodlines.|
|Primordial Nundu Bloodline detected.|
|Succubus Lich Queen Bloodline detected.|
|Warning: Two Primordial-Class Bloodlines have been detected.|
|Warning: Standard species template cannot safely contain both bloodlines.|
|Activating SSS-Ranked Evolution Card.|
|Random Primordial Bloodline Evolution reward detected.|
|Combining Evolution effects.|
|Creating new species template.|
My soul was ripped out of both bodies.
"AHHHHHHHHH!"
Every part of me was torn apart and inspected.
My magic, memories, skills, perks, titles, instincts, bloodlines, and even parts of my personality separated into thousands of glowing spheres around me.
The Primordial Nundu bloodline appeared as an enormous black cat surrounded by poisonous green mist. Its eyes glowed with ancient intelligence, and every breath released enough poison to kill entire armies.
The Succubus Lich Queen bloodline appeared as a horned woman wearing a crown of bones and blue fire. Thousands of ghostly hands reached from the darkness beneath her while trapped souls circled her body.
The two images lunged toward each other.
|Primordial Nundu poison adaptation integrated.|
|Primordial Nundu regeneration integrated.|
|Succubus Lich Queen phylactery-based immortality integrated.|
|Conflict detected.|
|Primordial life-based regeneration cannot fully coexist with standard undead soul anchoring.|
|Reconstructing immortality mechanism.|
My phylactery appeared inside the void.
It was a black crystal that had apparently been hidden inside the magical core of my Lich Queen body. Thousands of microscopic runes covered its surface, each one anchoring a portion of my soul.
The crystal shattered.
For one terrifying moment, I thought the System had just destroyed the thing keeping me alive.
Instead, every fragment was pulled into my soul and merged with the Primordial Nundu bloodline.
Poison, Necrotic Magic, Soul Magic, Hellfire, and Phantom Fire twisted together, forming an entirely new core.
|Phylactery consumed.|
|Primordial Soul Core created.|
|Your soul is permanently anchored to your Primordial Bloodlines, physical body, Soul Space, Devil Queen's Dominion, and claimed Class 5 Ley Line.|
|As long as your Primordial Soul Core, either Primordial Bloodline, Soul Space, Dominion, or Ley Line connection remains intact, complete death is impossible.|
"Well, that's fucking overpowered," I gasped.
|Merging Magical Bloodlines.|
|Phantom Fire Magic has become Bloodline Family Magic.|
|Hellfire Magic has become Bloodline Family Magic.|
|Necrotic Magic has become Bloodline Family Magic.|
|Soul Magic has become Bloodline Family Magic.|
|Summoning Magic has become Bloodline Family Magic.|
|Lightning Magic has become Bloodline Family Magic.|
|Ice Magic has become Bloodline Family Magic.|
|Gravity Magic has become Bloodline Family Magic.|
|Elemental Magic has become Bloodline Family Magic.|
|Rune Affinity has become Bloodline Family Magic.|
|Ley Line Sorcery has become Bloodline Family Magic.|
|All future biological descendants will possess the potential to inherit these magical bloodlines.|
Lindsey flashed through my mind.
She had already inherited part of my Devil bloodline.
Whatever I had just become would probably affect her as well.
Before I could ask, my new bones began forming.
Muscles wrapped around them, followed by organs, skin, hair, horns, wings, claws, and everything else needed to create my new body.
Pain burned through every part of my soul as the System constructed something that had never existed before.
|New Species Created.|
|Race: Primordial Devil Queen of Lust.|
|Classification: Primordial Infernal Soul Entity.|
|Rank: Uncalculated.|
|Primary Title: Death's Apostle.|
|Unique Bloodline Skill gained: Devil Queen's Dominion.|
|Devil Queen's Dominion: Thralls, descendants, servants, summons, undead, and claimed souls may be marked as belonging to your Dominion. Marked beings gain increased resistance against hostile mental, spiritual, and magical control. You may always sense the general condition and location of marked beings unless blocked by a higher-ranked power.|
|Legendary Skill Soul Weaver has become a Bloodline Skill.|
|Warning: Merging two Primordial Bloodlines has exceeded the limitations of your current level structure.|
|Previous Succubus Lich Queen Level: 3,792.|
|Previous Half-Succubus Witch Level: 202.|
|Existing levels are incompatible with the new species.|
|Resetting Current Level to 0.|
|Recalculating Attribute and XP requirements.|
|No accumulated power, statistics, magic, skills, perks, titles, or unspent Attribute Points will be lost.|
|Unspent Attribute Points retained: 41,920.|
|Current Level: 0.|
|New XP requirement unavailable until racial stabilization is complete.|
"Fantastic. I'm somehow more powerful than before and also Level fucking zero."
My new body finished forming.
I was taller than either of my previous bodies, with snow-white skin covering a body that was both powerfully muscular and excessively feminine. Thick thighs, wide hips, a tightly defined stomach, and breasts larger than they had been in either previous form gave me proportions that looked almost impossible.
Long silver-white hair flowed down my back between two enormous black wings. They were much larger than my original wings and probably stretched more than twenty feet from tip to tip when fully extended.
Two curved black horns rose from my head. My ears had become long and pointed, my fingers ended in black claws, and my eyes glowed with intense cyan-blue light surrounded by faint pink energy.
A reflective screen appeared in front of me.
I looked like a demonic warrior queen designed by someone who had decided that muscular, beautiful, terrifying, and excessively busty should all be applied at the same time.
"Damn. I look fucking amazing."
Then another notification appeared.
|Notice: The emotional limitations caused by the Succubus Lich Queen racial template are incompatible with your new living Primordial Soul Core.|
|Artificial Lich-based emotional suppression is being removed.|
|Full emotional range is being restored.|
Something inside me changed.
It wasn't painful.
It was worse.
Emotions returned all at once.
Not just happiness, love, or compassion. Anger, fear, disgust, loneliness, amusement, protectiveness, grief, lust, and everything else the Lich Queen template had suppressed rushed back into me.
The Kingdom I had destroyed remained nothing more than a destroyed Kingdom.
I understood that 3,961,563 sentient beings and more than eighteen million magical creatures had died because of me. I could understand the size of that number a little better now that my emotions were back, but I didn't suddenly collapse while screaming about all the innocent lives I had taken.
They were strangers from another world.
Killing them had completed my challenge.
Their souls belonged to me, and I could release them whenever I wanted.
I probably wouldn't.
I didn't suddenly feel disgusted by what I had done to Vera, either. She was my Thrall. She belonged to me, and although I could now understand that she had once been an independent person, I had no desire to undo what I had done.
My morality hadn't suddenly transformed.
I wasn't a hero.
However, humans no longer seemed like insects, tools, or short-lived collections of meat and magic. They were still a much weaker species, but they were people again.
People I might speak to.
Work with.
Befriend.
Maybe even care about.
They were also technically a food source if I needed one.
That fact didn't bother me any more than eating animals had bothered me in my previous life.
Then I felt Lindsey through Devil Queen's Dominion.
She was inside the fortress, sleeping peacefully while the Flesh Mimic held her. Her heart was beating. Her breathing was steady. The two Hellhound Mistresses were positioned near the nursery entrance while several wards surrounded the room.
Safe.
My daughter was safe.
The thought hit me harder than the body merger.
For the first time since she had been born, Lindsey wasn't merely a powerful descendant or a responsibility I needed to keep alive.
She was my daughter.
My baby.
A tiny, helpless girl who had inherited my blood, who depended on me, and who I had barely held because the Lich Queen body had stripped away the emotions I should have felt.
I remembered standing beside her crib and waiting for something to happen.
Now it did.
Love, protectiveness, relief, and a painful amount of guilt crashed through me. Not guilt for the destroyed Kingdom or the millions of souls inside Soul Space.
Guilt for Lindsey.
A horrible realization followed.
If the fortress hadn't been useful, my Lich Queen mind might have left it behind.
I might have returned to the Harry Potter universe and abandoned my own daughter because I hadn't cared enough to remember her.
The thought made something cold and violent twist through my chest.
"No."
My wings spread instinctively, filling the white void.
I would never leave her behind.
I would never allow anyone to take her from me.
Anyone who tried would discover exactly why the System had named me Death's Apostle.
A shaky breath escaped my mouth.
"Thank fuck I brought everyone."
The Necromancer Fortress remained safely stored inside Soul Space. Lindsey, Vera, Zaric, my Thralls, and every one of my subjects had made it through the transfer.
I hadn't failed her.
More importantly, I still had time to become her mother instead of merely the creature responsible for her birth.
A final notification appeared.
|Notice: Your new race is undergoing stabilization.|
|Notice: Your Primordial Soul Core is producing magical pressure far beyond the safe tolerance of your previous location.|
|Notice: Direct transportation to the Forbidden Forest has been denied.|
I stared at the window.
"Why?"
|Notice: Your original arrival point is near Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.|
|Your current uncontrolled magical aura could damage the surrounding Class 4 Ley Lines, destabilize Hogwarts's developing wards, kill nearby magical creatures, and potentially destroy the castle.|
|This would violate the Observer Challenge and cause severe damage to the protected timeline.|
'Yeah. That makes sense.'
I had just become a Level Zero species powerful enough that the System couldn't calculate my racial rank. Accidentally appearing beside Hogwarts and vaporizing half of Scotland would probably count as interfering with the timeline.
"Where are you sending me?"
|Notice: Searching for a suitable stabilization location.|
|Requirements: Extreme isolation, minimal sentient population, sufficient environmental durability, and access to a Class 5 Ley Line.|
|Location identified.|
|Destination: Arctic Tundra.|
|Specific arrival point: The North Pole.|
I stared at the notification.
"You're sending a Primordial Devil Queen of Lust to the fucking North Pole?"
|Notice: That is correct.|
"WHAT THE FUCK!"
Thanks, everyone, for not giving up on me. I have definitely changed the storyline. But I didn't drop it like I said I would 15 hours ago, so that's good.