Story: I'm a Daemon, so what?
Disclaimer: I do not own the original setting.
Chapter 161: Sea of the Afterlife
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- Lucian (Brightest Fragment of Brilliant Light) -
He gazed at each of his fellow Rulers as they all gathered to discuss the consequences of the meeting with Felix.
He still was not quite used to his new state. He was one of the strongest Rulers, and yet he still felt that he was far superior to his former self. Not so much that he could swat his former self, but enough to feel a difference.
He was beginning to understand where the inherent arrogance that both Ashborn and Antares carried came from.
"What is the plan?" The Illustrious Fragment of Brilliant Light asked.
"I believe it is simple. We sent scouting parties to the Chaos World to verify Felix's words first." The Radiant Fragment of Brilliant Light responded. "I do not believe he has a reason to lie. As you all must have felt he is far above us. He has no need for such a thing."
Lucian found himself nodding. "I agree. For a moment when he… named me, as he called it, I shared a faint connection with him, and through that I could feel how insignificant any resistance from us would be against him. It seems his nature is to be cooperative, but should he be pushed, we will not be able to handle him."
"And of the vessels?" The Glimmering Fragment of Brilliant Light asked.
"We inform them of everything now. Have them group together as well. With the Monarchs in an unprecedented situation, they may resort to assassinations to weaken us on Earth." Lucian responded.
They continued to discuss their plans amongst one another. At some point the subject of their… creator was broached, but the Radiant Fragment of Brilliant Light was unable to answer when asked what exactly Felix did with their creator's body.
All he could say was that it was transported into another dimension.
None of them particularly cared for their creator any longer, but most of them still held a detached curiosity about him, which spurred on their questions.
In the end, it was decided to inform their vessels of the complete truth behind everything. Thus far, only Go Gunhee knew the total truth and Thomos Andre knew mere hints of the truth, but it was time to bring them all into the fold.
They would also begin to group their vessels together in case of a surprise attack as well. They would be better protected if they were able to assist each other in battle.
As it was, he and his fellow Rulers believed the most likely time for an attack would be at the conference the Humans were holding. Most of their vessels would be distracted at that time and could be taken care of one at a time and in quick succession due to their close proximity.
- Felix -
I hummed lightly as I took a step, only to feel a crunch beneath my feet. We had just arrived in the Sea of The Afterlife.
The moment we entered this dimension, I could feel an odd suctioning force from the dimension itself as some of my life force was drained. I could shut the connection off to prevent any of my life force from being taken, but I could tell it was the dimension itself draining it, and at a non-fatal rate too.
It only seemed like a price to be paid for venturing into this dimension as a living being, so I wouldn't make a fuss over it. Not to mention I wasn't exactly sure what would happen if I did that. For all I know, this realm would just overreact and try to get rid of us.
It wasn't that the dimension was alive, it simply seemed to be some natural Law of this dimension that the living had to pay via their lifeforce to remain here. Certain dimensions had rules like that. For example, the Cardinal World rejected most Spiritual Lifeforms without physical vessels. Eventually, those lifeforms would be kicked out of the Cardinal World.
It had been a day since my meeting with the Rulers in which I profited an incredible amount. It was practically like stealing candy from a baby, except the baby got another, smaller candy back.
The body of the Absolute Being, the Cup of Reincarnation, as well as all the interesting information they handed me.
I was already working on using Adapter to see if I could use the Cup of Reincarnation to adapt to more time hax since the majority of Othinus' computational power was tied up at the moment.
I didn't use Adapter a whole lot for a few reasons, but this was not a time to be skimpy. Adapter would permanently drain a certain amount of my soul energy upon a successful adaptation. It just wasn't worth it for most things I've encountered up to this point since a lot of what I can adapt to, I can easily deal with without the adaptation.
Time shenanigans were something I could also deal with to a certain extent; I just liked being safe with it since it was one of the strongest elements out there.
It would take me longer to properly analyze the Cup of Reincarnation and see if I could use it to adapt to other temporal-related phenomena, but it was worth it. Even if it didn't work out, it would still be good practice for me.
When I got back from the meeting with the Rulers, I was promptly met by Lalatina who was teasing Megumin, something that had quickly become a pastime for her. In Lalatina's own words, Megumin had a weak defense.
Of course, Megumin didn't take the teasing well. If I didn't arrive, I imagine she would have nuked the room they were in. And it didn't help that Milim was cheering Megumin on in her plan to explode Lalatina away.
I seriously need to do something about that, and I had a feeling I knew just what would work on the likes of Lalatina and Megumin.
Perhaps leaving them all along together wasn't the best idea, but it worked out. At least Milim seemed to be closer to Lalatina and Megumin. Not friends exactly, but closer than what they were beforehand, which was good.
A big reason I wanted Milim to come with me was to explore things a bit. Her whole life she had been trapped in the Cardinal World, a world she could theoretically destroy fairly easily if she wanted to. It was the Superman issue; she was trapped in a world made of cardboard, which was a wild thing to say in regards to the Cardinal World, but it was factual. She literally had to seal herself to 1/10 of her true power, and was still sealed in that state, just because she didn't want to hurt someone by mistake.
So this world would be a nice break for her. Her power was still sealed, and she still had to worry about accidentally slapping someone into nonexistence, but at least she got to have fun and experience new things.
The Cardinal World was the same old for her, something she had already told me in the past. It was why she was so clingy with me. I was one of her first and only friends, a person she had fun with, and she liked having fun most of all.
It made a twisted sort of sense considering her whole history. Even after being born into the largest Empire in the Cardinal World's history, she was essentially shoved into a corner by Rudra and forgotten about until the whole thing with Gaia happened and Milim had her Harvest Festival.
Those weren't Milim's own words, but I could get the picture. Having some backstory on Rudra allowed me to understand why that happened. He was depressed from losing his sister and mentor/brother-in-law, but Milim still suffered from his actions.
So as her "Bestie", it was my job to make sure she had as much fun as possible now that I was here. It was my self-proclaimed mission! Plus, she had done a lot for me. This was something I could do, at the very least.
Hinata and Luminous had both also contacted me shortly after I got back to check in on me, which was nice. They asked how the meeting went and told me what they were up to. Hinata had already made contact with that Japanese S Rank Hunter she liked, and then left her to think about her offer.
Now they're in England, checking up on another person that Hinata thought would fit in her group of Crusaders. Hinata seemed to be the one doing most of the "work", which was about as expected.
Luminous was just along for the ride.
They had mentioned that they'd return in a couple days to go back to the Cardinal World. That was when I'd pick up Rimuru, Veldora, and Ramiris.
I paused as the squelching sound from under my boot was followed by a faint hiss, like air leaking from a corpse. Lifting my foot, I looked at the things I stepped on that I almost forgot about. I saw the writhing form of a plant of some kind. At least that's what it seemed like, except the fact that it had a mouth that was split into four parts with grotesque teeth and grew massively in size.
"Oh." I said out loud. "That's neat, I guess."
"Ooh, what's that?!" Milim said as she stopped by next to me, Gaia also flying around curiously. Gaia was the most affected by this dimension due to his own nature as well as the dimension taking some lifeforce from him when he didn't have nearly as much as us to give.
This dimension was also a spiritual one, similar to the Rulers' realm, so we had to convert our physical bodies and maintain them in spiritual form as well which took energy.
I gently placed a hand on Gaia and "created" some more lifeforce within him through Brahma, Lord of Creation.
"Kyuu!" He flew around me excitedly, his own way of thanking me.
We were now somewhere in the Sea of the Afterlife as Sirka called it. I had promised Milim a "fun trip" for us, and so here we were, not that I was doing this out of pity for her. No, I wanted to spend time with Milim, and exploring neat places together was a good way to do that.
We did that all the time in the past when I was a weak little Daemon Duke, but since I went off and began doing my own thing, we had less time to spend together to goof off.
"I have no clue." I responded to Milim.
Sirka was with us as she was pretty much acting as the tour guide for us since she had been to this place before. She was pretty surprised when I first casually created a portal to this place, though. Apparently it's pretty hard to come to the "Sea of The Afterlife" as Sirka called it.
This place was a spiritual universe where the souls of this entire universe ended up after dying. This place was what prevented Ashborn and Jin-Woo from properly reviving individuals who had long since died, as their souls had moved from the living realm to this realm.
The plant's stalks pulsed, swelling grotesquely as it ballooned to the size of a car. Its many mouths snapped open wider with its jagged rows of teeth dripping with some oily secretion, even as Milim and I just watched in curiosity.
Then with a screech, the plant lunged at us, its entire body uncoiling like a spring, aiming to chomp down over the two of us whole.
I'm sure this scene would amuse someone, a big plant trying to eat two True Demon Lords.
I felt a sort of suction force from it as it attempted to suck my Spirit in and drain my lifeforce.
I let its shadow engulf us before I flicked my wrist, causing a ripple of force to erupt outwards.
The Nightmare Bud froze mid-lunge, its swollen stalk splitting apart into neat sections before collapsing.
"Dismantle is always satisfying."
Milim nodded. "Umu!"
All the pieces of the plant began to disintegrate into energy, though I could sense a small spatial disturbance forming in its place. After a moment, the body was gone, but there was a small dimensional crack.
I looked to Sirka who was just watching us for an explanation.
She quickly got the message and explained.
Apparently, this kind of plant was all around the Sea of The Afterlife and called Nightmare Buds, and they are among the most aggressive species in this dimension.
Since this dimension was the home of the World Tree of this universe, which essentially connected the various dimensions of this universe, the Nightmare Buds could occasionally travel between dimensions and suck the souls out of unsuspecting victims.
When Nightmare Buds die, they temporarily leave behind a dimensional crack, which was rather interesting.
"Let's keep going then."
Sirka nodded and continued to lead the way, giving us a tour of the Sea of The Afterlife in the process as well as explaining some random facts about it.
She was acting like the stereotypical tour guide, and was doing a good job at it. Part of me was wondering if she looked up a guide or something on how to do this beforehand, since I doubt she had much experience with this beforehand.
"She did." Othinus chimed in.
That was oddly adorable. I made sure to ignore Othinus' violation of Sirka's privacy. None of us had privacy when she was around, me least of all.
Regarding Othinus, I was able to easily get used to the restricted processing power I could draw from her, since even more of it was now devoted to the other tasks I had given her.
She could always pause the other tasks in a heart beat, so it wasn't like I would be lacking if I really needed the extra oomph, but it was still something to get used to.
But in the end, it was only another challenge to get past. I planned to train a bit to get used to this new minor restriction and maybe grow a bit from the opportunity.
Though it wasn't like I was nerfed a whole lot in the first place. It only took me a moment or two longer to use some abilities and analyze most things, but that was about it for basic things.
Othinus just liked to exaggerate the danger of her being occupied out of worry for me.
As we made our way through the dimension, I continued to think about the mysterious energy within my Infinity Space. It was rather unfortunate, but it had been dominating my thoughts as of late; mostly due to my own curiosity.
It had the potential to be one of the greatest assets I had, on the level of Brahma, Lord of Creation, which thus far had proven to be my most valuable Skill yet, surpassing even Ouroboros, Lord of Infinity in its utility.
Othinus believed that the potential for the energy to form in my Infinity Space was copied over with the Unique Skill: Predator, which was originally Rimuru's Skill.
The question was, why did Rimuru carry that potential? Rimuru did factually have an abnormally strong soul. He held four Ultimate Skills right after his Harvest Festival.
Sure, I had the same situation, but my soul had been strengthened dramatically by consuming the souls of others as well as various other improvements that were made to it over time. And even then, when I held four Ultimate Skills, I was pushing the limit.
I couldn't feel it back then, but Odin, Lord of Cursed Knowledge was holding my soul together with everything she had, and yet Rimuru had no trouble whatsoever.
It really was a mystery.
"Woah! Is that the tree you were talking about!" Milim yelled as she pointed.
"Indeed, that is the World Tree." Sirka responded, not quite able to hide the wonder in her own voice.
"It does look kinda like the one in Sarion!" Milim commented as she hopped forward over a stream of weird black water.
Yet another sign of the Absolute Being blatantly copying Veldanava. I respected it, though. Why design something yourself when someone else had a perfectly good design already?
Sirka paused and stared at the stream of black water Milim hopped over. "That is the inky black sea that is associated with this dimension." She shared. In her own words, it was a soul sucking ocean that was a naturally occurring part of this dimension.
Sirka continued to guide us closer to the World Tree, all while telling us a bit more about the place.
Looking to the side, all I could see was essentially a vast expanse of nothingness. This dimension, according to Sirka, was mostly just a blank slate. Some creatures dwelled here and some souls were floating around. The World Tree was about the only special thing about this dimension, which was a bit of a let down.
But at least the World Tree and its "Guardian" should be a bit interesting, and some of the creatures that we were coming across were giving me ideas for The Dungeon as well.
We came across many other denizens of this dimension, all of them were death-aligned in some way, shape, or form. Some sucked vitality, others tried to suck our souls out, others tried to just plain murder us.
The World Tree itself was absolutely massive. Bigger than Sarion's World Tree, in fact. Though that was likely due to the differing roles of both trees.
The World Tree in the Cardinal World was a divine artifact, one meant to reinforce the world and filter all the energy in the atmosphere so the very atmosphere didn't become toxic to humans. From what I knew, this World Tree was meant to serve as a nexus point for every single dimension in this universe.
Completely different roles.
We finally reached the roots of the World Tree, which was the entire reason I wanted to visit this dimension. I was curious about it. That and where the souls of the dead went from when I first saw some souls passing on.
Though calling them "roots" felt like an understatement. Each one was the size of a mountain and was twisting and curling into all directions almost endlessly. The roots weren't passive, either. Occasionally they pulsed faintly, almost making the tree seem alive, which it probably was to a certain extent.
Nearby souls were drawn into the roots as well, and the faint energy the tree released was incredibly thick.
"Woah…" Milim whispered, eyes wide as she leaned forward. "It's like the tree is… drinking the souls!"
"Not just drinking them." Sirka corrected with that lecturing tone she had been adopting ever since we got here. "The World Tree purifies them. From these, the fruits of reincarnation are born… or were, back when the Absolute Being was alive."
I looked upwards and gazed past the legion of branches until I finally spotted a couple of hanging fruits that were radiating a small amount of aura.
"Those must be some Angels for the Rulers army. A shame that they'll never see use."
Milim looked where I was looking and nodded.
"In the past, whenever the tides would turn to the Monarchs' favor, the Absolute Being would come here to release new Angels from the fruits, balancing the tides once more, and the same can be said for the other side. When the Rulers gained too much ground, the Absolute Being would release the monsters being born within the tree's roots."
Sirka kept leading us along the spiraling ridges of the root. She shared that due to the shifting nature of this dimension, from time to time some branches connected to other dimensions, and for lack of a better word, "blessed" the beings it came across.
The deeper we went, the heavier the curse of death grew. Even though I was suppressing it, I could feel the drain increase with every step I took. Milim didn't seem bothered though, and neither was I. I did have to keep a steady hand on Gaia to keep feeding some more life force.
Gaia was far from being as strong as he was as the Chaos Dragon; he needed all the help that he could get. That version of him had like 20,000,000 EP.
We stopped when the entire root system curved inward, forming what looked like an archway of black wood. At its center was a tear in space, an oval-shaped distortion.
"That leads to the trunk." Sirka shared. "It will not remain open long. And beyond lies the guardian."
I raised an eyebrow. "Nidhogg, right?"
Sirka nodded. "The Eight-Headed Serpent. The test of succession for the Monarchs. If you plan to see the World Tree's core, you will need to pass its trial."
Milim's grin widened in anticipation. "Ooooh, a big monster fight! Finally!"
"I don't think it's going to be that much fun, Milim."
Milim pouted. "Mou! It's no fun being so strong!"
I rolled my eyes, though a small smile tugged at the corner of my lips. According to Sirka, Nidhogg wasn't just a normal monster; it was the World Tree's instinct to defend itself and had been nourished on the energy the World Tree releases for who knows how long.
Realistically, it should be decently strong, but I doubted it. If the Monarchs were able to take off one of its heads to claim their seats, and then get away safely, then it wouldn't be a problem for us to bypass entirely.
I looked up at the massive form of the tree once again. I could feel space acting super oddly around the higher portions of the trunk. It was hard to explain.
"The trunk of the World Tree stretches widely throughout the universe." Sirka shared.
"Ah, I see."
So each spatial fluctuation I felt was likely due to it intersecting with another dimension. It was quite the creation in that case.
"If you would like, the material of the World Tree is also highly coveted. I am sure you can find some use for it." Sirka said as she held up a small leaf.
"Don't mind if I do." I said as I quickly hopped around, grabbing loose branches and leaves. Sirka shared that the "loose" branches actually represented an already "dead" dimension, so I didn't feel bad taking them.
They were quite good materials as well. A single branch could easily be fashioned into some sort of God Grade equipment in the right hands. The material was of a slightly lower grade than the World Tree in the Cardinal World.
After collecting some branches and leaves, we returned back to the root of the tree.
"Alright then." I exhaled, flexing my hand as energy coiled at my fingertips. "Let's go say hi to the guardian, then."
Milim practically bounced with excitement, while Sirka seemed to be rather nervous, but she followed along nonetheless.
As we passed the archway, I could feel space shifting as we were transported to a different place, one that seemed to be stationed within the World Tree itself.
In the center of the room I could spot Nidhogg's rather large serpentine body.
Eight massive heads rose from its coiled body, its fanged maws dripping a liquid that seemed rather similar to the water that we found in this dimension. It basically looked like a large Hydra.
It was about twice as strong as the average Saint as well, though I'd hoped it would be stronger seeing as it was related to this universe's World Tree which was far stronger.
I could also feel the lifeforce draining effect amplify once we arrived in this room. At this point, I had sucked Gaia into my Infinity Space for the moment while we dealt with Nildhogg.
Milim's eyes sparkled. "Yessss! Big boss fight time!"
The most interesting thing about Nidhogg was confirming what his place in the Monarch succession ritual was. In a few of his heads, I could feel a powerful energy, one that aligned with each of the three Monarchs, besides the Frost Monarch, I had killed, the demon Monarch, and the one Monarch that Hinata had killed, whereas the rest of the heads lacked this energy.
One of Nidhogg's heads lunged at us with speeds that were rather impressive for something of its size as its Aura began to press down on us.
I barely bothered to move. A flick of my wrist and a ripple of force rolled out from Dismantle, neatly slicing the serpent's jawline open without even slowing my stride. I had to bake in quite a lot of energy into that Dismantle, so it was certainly durable, as dragons-like creatures tended to be.
Though I was back to my "nerfed" down form.
I watched as the head reared back, ichor spilling everywhere as it cried out.
Milim giggled. "My turn!"
Before the second head even finished lunging, Milim blurred forward, one punch sending it sailing backward like a kite. The force of the impact rippled across the dimension, almost dispersing some souls as well as a host of other creatures that dwelled here if I didn't create a barrier in time.
"Nice form." I said, giving Milim a thumbs up.
"Hehe, thanks!"
Two more heads lunged at once, though they seemed far more hesitant now. As the lunged closer, I created the same chains made from space that I used on Megumin and bound the two heads in place.
With a simple squeeze of the chains, both heads were destroyed.
The remaining four heads hesitated. Their massive eyes flicked between Milim and me, clearly re-evaluating the wisdom of continuing.
Milim pouted. "Aww, don't run away! I was just getting warmed up!"
The serpent hissed again, but it was different now as it was slowly backing away. Before long, it was completely out of sight.
"What a smart lizard." I mused.
I turned my gaze back toward the trunk of the World Tree. Now that the guardian was dealt with, the scale of the thing really sank in.
There really were a lot of incredible things in this multiverse. Sirka was still blankly staring at the place Nidhogg was.
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"Leaving soon, right?" I asked Hinata as I led her to another dimension.
She had returned from her trip a day ago, seemingly having already met those she believed would work well under her.
"Mhmm." Hinata responded with a shy nod. Something was clearly still up with her, but I didn't want to pry.
"It's been a while since we did this."
Hinata surprisingly went out of her way to ask me for help. Not for upgrading her Skills or anything as she wanted to progress that on the merits of her own spirit. She instead asked for me to teach her some stuff and answer a few of her questions, and seeing as I had time to kill, I agreed.
We wouldn't be sparring today as that wasn't needed though.
We quickly went through the same old motions. Hinata didn't have questions about her swordsmanship or anything directly combat related. What she wanted was my perspective on a few of her ideas.
Before that, I made sure she had spiritron manipulation down, and she did. Spiritron manipulation was the first step to being an Ultimate level fighter in all aspects rather than just relying on a Skill.
There were multiple particles present in the multiverse; magicules and its equivalents, spiritrons which made up magicules, and then Information Particles which made up everything, and each particle was progressively smaller than the last. The closer the particle was to an Information Particle, the more potent it essentially was.
The smaller the particle you could control, the more combat potential one eventually had. My goal was to eventually be able to rewrite Infons in real-time instead of only in the Suspended World.
It was far easier in the Suspended World due to the lack of information. In the Suspended World, nothing was actually happening in the world due to Time being stopped, so manipulating Information Particles wasn't as complex.
But in the real world where an uncountable number of things were happening in one moment, it became far more complex to rewrite Information Particles.
I could sorta do it, but only to a pretty minute extent at this point, but I was working on improving it. And even then, I could only do the smallest of manipulations. I couldn't change the essence of what something was by rewriting its Infons yet.
Now that Hinata had spiritron manipulation down, I planned to bring up Information Particles to her, as well as Luminous.
I wasn't sure if Luminous was aware of them, but if she wasn't, she could use the information too. Luminous was smart, so once she put her mind to it, she probably wouldn't take too long to have it down.
She was trying to create an Art that would be able to handle all or at least most of her foes; something similar to my own Hollow Purple, which was my trump card.
She had a few good ideas, and all of them were feasible. The only reason she hadn't yet succeeded was because of her own lack of control. It still hadn't been long since she became a True Hero, and she became a Divine Human only a little bit before that, so her control was far from ideal. So I just suggested for her to stop focusing on developing a trump card, and working on fixing her control.
She could use Fortuna as a crutch to maintain some of her control, but that wouldn't be enough for things like what she wanted.
Hinata had been making use of her abilities rather well so far, especially Usurper, despite it only being a Unique Skill. As a Unique Skill, Usurper's primary usefulness didn't come from its ability to steal a Skill, but from the ability to peek into her opponent's kit.
That's how she learned the Skill names of her opponents so easily. And with the name, it was much easier to learn what the Skill did due to the large record of more commonly found Skills.
Usurper, in general, had four situations: a success in which Hinata managed to steal her opponent's Skill, a fail in which she failed to steal her opponent's Skill, a not applicable in which her opponents are too weak for her to steal from, though Hinata has found a way to bypass this restriction, and then the final situation is in which it is blocked.
Even if it fails to steal her opponent's Skill, she would still get the name of her opponent's Skills at the very least, which was a large advantage. The value of information was not to be underestimated.
I continued to give her my own feedback on what she was planning for a little while.
"Thank you for the help, Felix." Hinata said with a small smile.
"It's no problem. You are still my student."
Hinata slowly nodded. "Nn." After a moment, she continued. "I did have a question about something else as well."
I raised a brow. "Oh?"
"It was this odd thing I sensed when your partner was reworking my Nemesis, Lord of Retribution. I could sense some particle in my soul being almost rearranged. It's hard to describe, but I was wondering if you knew anything about it?"
"That is unexpected." Othinus mused in my head. "I did not believe her computational and analytical power would be enough to sense me restructuring the Information Particles of her Skill."
'Don't underestimate Hinata. She may be a bit of a klutz, but she is more impressive than she might seem.'
"What you sensed there was the movement of the Information Particles in your soul."
Hinata blinked in confusion. "Information Particles? What's that?"
I went on to explain what exactly Information Particles were to Hinata. Now that she had spiritron manipulation down for the most part, it was about time she focused on the next particle she should learn to manipulate.
Without being able to manipulate Information Particles, one couldn't be considered at the "top tiers" of the Cardinal World.
I didn't know how many others could manipulate Information Particles, but I imagined there were quite a few of them out there, and Hinata ought to be prepared if she were to ever face one in battle.
As she was now, someone who can use Suspended World would demolish her, or even someone who just knows how to manipulate Information Particles, but not capable of casting Suspended World due to the enhanced understanding a manipulator of Infons has.
To say Hinata was shocked to hear about a whole other plane to combat would be an understatement.
"S-Something like that exists?"
"Mhmm. If you can't manipulate Infons, then you're what I call "time stop fodder". I was waiting to bring them up to you for after you master controlling spiritrons. I plan to tell Luminous about them too, if she doesn't already know about them. Perhaps you two can work together. I know she has some of Twilight Valentine's old notes. Maybe they have some hints for you to work off of."
I couldn't just tell her how to manipulate Information Particles, even if I transferred my own experience directly into her soul, it still likely wouldn't work. Each person has their own unique way of manipulating Information Particles and the information that makes them up.
My way wouldn't work for Hinata, and vice versa.
That made it so that the most I could do was tell others about Information Particles and hope they got it down.
Arcueid, Megumin, and Lalatina already knew about it, and were in the process of learning how to manipulate them, while Saeko, Raiden and Kurumi not informed yet as splitting their focus would only hurt them now.
"I… I see. I was not expecting that." Hinata said honestly.
"I'm sure it's surprising but I have faith you'll manage."
It probably would come off as a shock if you worked your ass off to become super strong, only to find out that against someone who could use Suspended World, your strength didn't matter if you couldn't perceive and manipulate Information Particles yourself.
In fact, I imagine it would be soul crushing to many, but Hinata didn't get as far as she had by giving up. I was confident that after the initial shock faded, she would move on and take the information in stride, all while trying to improve.
It was something I actually really admired about Hinata, her capacity to not give up in the face of adversary.
"I don't think there is a whole lot more I know at this point that I could teach you, at least things that would be relevant to you."
I had a whole host of information on a bunch of different aspects of combat, most of which I never made use of due to not fitting my own combat style, and most of what I knew that would help Hinata, she already knew.
Hinata nodded, a small smile on her face. "Am I graduating then?" She asked with an amused smile.
I scoffed. "Not yet. You need to learn how to manipulate Information Particles before I grant you that honor."
Hinata rolled her eyes. "Of course, master something that according to you, only four people know how to do."
Chloe, Guy, Milim, and Velzard were the only ones I was able to confirm when it came to moving in Suspended World, though there had to be more out there.
"Eh, take it as my vote of confidence in you."
Hinata nodded. "I will, and thank you, Felix."
I waved her off. "Yeah, yeah."
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Author's Note:
Sup everyone, back with another chapter of Daemon. This one is the fun little "playdate" with Milim that I've been alluding to. Tried to keep it nice and short since there wasn't a whole lot going on, more or less just exploration, was more there for the sake of Milim and showing that she wasn't "abandoned".
Then we get the first Hinata training session in a long while! It's probably one of the last ones she'll get as well. After learning how to manipulate infons, she'll pretty much be on her own when it comes to advancing her craft, but I do have some plans for her.
Anyways, thanks for reading, peace!
Thanks to @Salante and @Flowerman for beta'ing this chapter.
Last bit of editing -Omnax
Support me if you want to read ahead on pat reon *.com* / theogbasilisk