Chapter 126: Chapter 121: A Skill’s Lies

Amelia kept careful watch on the cocoon as Lia fiddled with some odd device that Connie had given her. It was half an hour or so after their meeting, and it was finally time for Ira to die. Lia had requested that Amelia stay close near the process, just in case something went wrong, but knowing Connie, there was no way she would have offered this if she wasn’t totally sure Lia would be safe. Still, Amelia appreciated the thought behind it.

“Ready?” Lia asked.

Amelia nodded, starting up a couple dozen powerful spells and leaving them just shy of completion. It was a rather large drain on her Mana reserves, and she couldn’t keep it up for more than a minute, but if something did go wrong, then Amelia wanted to deal with the situation with as much force as possible. “Ready.”

Lia pressed the device into the cocoon, pressed a button, and withdrew her hand. The device sparked, streaks of red lightning enveloping the cocoon for a few moments, and then there was a bright flash, a rush of smoke, and the cocoon was gone, leaving only an awful smell and the already dissipating smoke in its wake.

“I got the experience.” Lia said. “He’s dead.”

“How many levels?” Amelia asked.

“Sixty-three.” Lia replied, giving a small whistle. “That’s almost halfway to evolution in terms of level count, but the later levels are always the hardest. And if that’s what I had to do to get to this level…I’m not sure I’m evolving before this war is finished.”

“I’m sure that if the Lord of Monsters shows up in the middle of this, defeating him should get you the rest of the way there.” Amelia said. “But I don’t think another evolution will be needed for this war. It’s more the war with Izumi’s home plane we should be worried about.”

“I guess.” Lia grumbled. “Let’s get back home and wash up, I really don’t want this smell to stick.”

Amelia cast a quick cleaning spell, and the two made their way back through the valley, into the World Tree, and to their home within. After they did, Lia turned to Amelia. “I’d love to have you in with me, but that’ll have to wait.” Lia said. “Maybe later, after we’re properly clean, okay? I know the cleaning spell works, it just…doesn’t feel the same.”

“I’ll hold you to that, you know.” Amelia said, smiling slightly.

“Good.” Lia said. “Do you want the master bathroom or the one in the hall?”

“I’ll take the hall.” Amelia said. “I don’t really need the space.”

“Are you sure?” Lia said. “I don’t either.”

“I’m sure.” Amelia said, already moving towards the hall bathroom. “Now go clean up.”

The two left to their respective showers, and Amelia got in, fumbled with the knob for a bit, then began to scrub herself vigorously. The showers in their house had become quite different since Connie had taken up permanent residence there, as she had revamped them to be more in line with showers in other planes.

It had taken a bit of getting used to, but Amelia did have to admit that the showers were far simpler to use and much more comfortable than the ones she was used to. And the skin and hair products Connie had brought were a wonder in and of themselves. They were so…effective, and they didn’t require a huge amount of effort to use, either.

After she finished cleaning herself, she sat back and began to relax, something she hadn’t ever done before Connie’s alterations. In fact, she hadn’t taken showers at all until the Urge was removed; her cleaning magic was faster and worked better, and…well, she hadn’t been able to take enjoyment in little things like this with the Urge.

As much as some of the new feelings she had were unpleasant and she would rather go without them, she was glad the Urge was gone. Everything was so much more…vibrant, and she was increasingly coming to realize just how much life she was missing out on because of the Urge. She had only been half a person before, and she hadn’t even known, not really.

She closed her eyes, letting her thoughts wander as the water ran over her. Yes…this was much, much better than her life had been before, and she vowed to never take that for granted. And, if that meant defending it to her dying breath, going against all of the gods and even Jerry himself, then she would. No one would ever take this away from her.

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An hour or two later, Amelia and Lia were out in the Spine, hunting monsters. Amelia had never seen anyone jump sixty levels at once before, and the effects were pretty noticeable. Lia was visibly faster, and monsters that would have taken her four or five hits before now only took two or three.

Amelia wasn’t getting too much out of this session, but that was fine. She was more than content to aid Lia in her leveling, so Lia could get out of this little slump faster. She was just about to lure another monster to them when Lia stopped, holding a hand up. “I’m getting a message from Rose.” She said. “Apparently we’re needed back at home, something about Alisha and her getting something important?”

“Teleporting us back now, then.” Amelia said. “Unless you need something else here?”

“No, I’m good.” Lia replied.

Amelia nodded, using a fair bit of her remaining Mana to teleport them the distance back to the World Tree. Lia led Amelia up into the work floor, then to a seemingly random warehouse, where Rose and Alisha were waiting.

“My Queen, it is good to see you.” Alisha said. “I’m pleased to inform you that I have obtained the Title of Gluttony, which should allow me to grant you all of my abilities at once.”

Amelia frowned internally, reaching out to check Alisha’s psyche. While she was reasonably confident that her conditioning would stand up to a Sin Title, there was no such thing as being too careful, especially given Alisha’s natural personality.

And the more she looked, the more concerned she got. Alisha was…not the same as she had been before, but it wasn’t in an obvious way. She wasn’t any more seditious than she had been before she got the Title or anything, but there was definitely something off about her. Still, Amelia felt that just looking into her mind wasn’t giving Amelia what she needed, so she began to poke at Alisha’s new Title and Skill, and that finally gave her the full picture.

When she turned her attention back to the situation at hand, Alisha was excitedly reminding Lia of each and every one of the abilities the treasures she was converted with possessed. Amelia waited for her to finish, then spoke up. “Alisha, I feel like I should inform you that your Skill is lying to you.”

Alisha froze. “What? How is that possible? The Sin and Virtue Skills aren’t sentient, right?”

“No, but it can’t freely give all the power it steals to anyone. This is going to sound like a bit of a non-sequitur, but would you ever give your power to anyone other than Lia under any circumstance?”

“Absolutely not.” Alisha said immediately. “I would rather die.”

“Doesn’t that strike you as a little odd?”

Alisha paused. “I…yes, actually.” Alisha admitted. “I distinctly remember thinking that, if I really wanted to use this for myself, I could just…puppet someone’s body, but now the very idea seems repulsive.”

Amelia nodded. “As I thought.” She said. “You see, your Skill claims it won’t put a burden on people, but that’s just not true. The only one it won’t ever burden is Lia.”

“Why?” Rose asked.

“Simple.” Amelia said. “Lia made herself immune to it ages ago.”

“I did?” Lia said, frowning slightly.

“You did.” Amelia confirmed. “Back when you made it so you kept the abilities of each race you evolved from.”

“I don’t follow.” Lia said. “What does that have to do with this?”

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“Think of it like this,” Amelia said, “each soul has a limited amount of power it can handle. Souls can grow over time, but that takes time, and throwing a bunch of power at a soul all at once will burden it. Lia, however, worked around this by using some of my power, essentially sticking it onto her soul and giving it extra space specifically for exactly the type of power you can steal.

“And, to get back to my earlier question, whoever makes these Skills seems to have modified yours; it gives you an aversion to having anyone but Lia wear you, in essence giving the illusion that the Skill does what it says.”

“It…did say my Skill was altered.” Alisha said thoughtfully. “Perhaps one of the gods did it?”

“I can only assume.” Amelia replied. “I have some suspicions, but I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure.”

That was, of course, a lie. Amelia was almost completely certain that Connie did this, the bigger question was how. She wasn’t supposed to be able to give freebies to the swarm, and this was a pretty big freebie. “Anyway, the Skill is safe, so I’m going to leave you guys to hash out the details, I’m gonna go get ready for dinner.”

Rose gave her a knowing look. “Alright.” She said. “Lia and I will be around as soon as we finish here.”

Amelia hurriedly made her way back to the house, where Connie was already waiting. “You know, sometimes having a girlfriend who’s able to see how everything works is a little frustrating.” She said, smiling slightly. “I’m impressed, though, you picked up on that fast.”

Amelia shrugged. “I’ve done a lot of research into this topic.” She said. “Initially, I wanted to start Lia at as high a power level as I could, but I soon realized that giving her soul time to adjust was the better way to go about it. How’d you manage to get that Skill approved, though?”

“Um…don’t tell Lia, but I’ve been overcharging her when she can afford it and putting the extra into a separate fund.” Connie admitted. “Before we started dating, I was going to use it as a rewards program that she could pick things from, but now it’s my gift fund.”

“You’re going to have to explain it to her sometime.” Amelia pointed out. “She’s going to worry about getting you punished like the Goddess of Law was.”

Connie blinked. “Right. I forgot that she would know to worry about that. Um…yeah, I guess I might as well tell her. You don’t think she’ll be mad, do you?”

“Connie, didn’t she literally haggle the price up the other day?” Amelia chuckled. “I’m sure she won’t care.”

“Um, I suppose now is a good time to mention that Jerry has been wanting me to get you to help him out on a project.” Connie said awkwardly.

“No.” Amelia said. “Our deal said I wouldn’t help until later, so I don’t see any reason to help now.”

Connie sighed. “Yeah, I told him you’d say that.” She said. “But he told me that it was, quote ‘a project that would help Rose out’. I don’t know if that changes the math for you on this.”

Amelia frowned. “It’s tempting, but I really need to know what this project is first.”

“I thought so.” Connie replied, taking out a thin rectangular object from her pocket and pressing on the bottom of one side. The side she pressed on lit up, and Connie began to tap away at that side, leaving Amelia to watch curiously.

“What are you doing?” Amelia asked. “What’s that thing?”

“It’s called a phone, and I’m contacting Jerry.” Connie said. “It’s a communication tool from other planes. Ask Izumi about it, I think she still has one on her person if you want to look at it. Fair warning, it’s useless unless whoever you’re talking to has one as well.”

She finished tapping on the phone, and after a few moments it buzzed. She looked at it for a moment, then nodded. “Alright, I’ve gotten permission to tell you what’s up. He’s trying to replicate Blood Money, and he intends to make Rose the first recipient.”

“He could just give it to our enemies after Rose.” Amelia pointed out. “We’re working fine with just one person using it now.”

Connie shook her head. “I doubt he will.” She said. “Blood Money is just another form of Worship, and giving that to anyone who isn’t a God is risky business.”

“Then it should be risky business to give it to Rose.” Amelia said flatly. “I’m not convinced.”

The air shifted slightly, and Jerry appeared next to Connie. “Rose and Lia are exceptions.” He said. “To be perfectly blunt, with the way you have structured the swarm, we will have to work under the assumption that they will receive Worship sooner or later, and I will have to give them many of the same modifications I gave you.

“Them aside, I will only be giving the capability to earn Blood Money to the gods, and, if it’s at the current efficiency, they will receive only a small benefit from that. For your purposes, however, it should effectively double your purchasing power, and I believe that is a worthy trade.”

“And why are you coming to me with this?” Amelia asked distrustfully. “This seems more than a little suspicious when you’ve put all these rules on the gods about not helping us for free.”

“Because you are the one who created Blood Money in the first place.” Jerry said patiently. “And, try as I have been, I have had little success in recreating it. And this service is not free in the slightest; it will be compensation for the labor you provide in helping me figure this out.”

“It shouldn’t be that hard a problem.” Amelia said confidently. “I did it once before, how hard could it be to do it again?”

“That’s the kind of confidence I like to see, but I think you’ll find it significantly harder to replicate than you believe.” Jerry replied, smiling wryly. “If it was as simple as doing exactly what you did to Lia, I would have replicated it a long time ago. I simply ask for four hours of your time every week, time in which you will be completely unbound and focused entirely on helping me give Rose Blood Money.

“In return, I swear that Rose will be the only mortal on my planes to receive Blood Money, and that Blood Money the gods earn will not be used against you. Are these acceptable terms?”

Amelia deliberated on that for a moment. Being able to be completely unbound for four hours a week was a tempting prospect, and she was capable of multitasking during them.

“To be clear, I will not allow you to use this period of unbound time for anything not directly relating to giving Rose Blood Money. However…I suppose that, at the very least, should you be successful, I will loosen the restriction on your Worship; I will allow you usage of as much of it as Lia and Rose are able to use via Blood Money.”

Amelia shrugged. “Can’t really blame me for considering it.” She said. “Our position is precarious, and four hours of my time is very precious at the moment. Perhaps you could loosen my restriction now, on the basis that I am providing four hours per week to you when reasonable?”

“When reasonable?” Jerry asked, raising an eyebrow.

“If I am locked in a large-scale battle for a week, I don’t think it’s viable to give any amount of my time.” She said. “Like I said, my time is very precious at the moment, and if I was out when the enemy decides to make a decisive strike, it could well shape the course of this entire conflict.”

Jerry thought on that for a moment. “I suppose that is acceptable.” He said. “You may come work with me in one-hour increments whenever you have free time, starting tomorrow. Whenever you wish to do your work, just contact Connie and I will pick you up. Should you miss any week where you are not otherwise engaged at all times, I will revoke this benefit until such time as I see fit.”

“Very well.” Amelia said. “I’ll make some time tomorrow.”

“Excellent. I’ll take my leave now, have a good evening.” And with that, Jerry was gone, leaving Amelia alone with Connie.

“So…” Amelia began, “need any help with dinner?”