The Greatest Sin is weakness
Shortly after they talked, Both Neph and Starry walked to the ancient obelisks hovering in the distance, conversing about what had happened. Neph told him about how after she had descended in his body, she had made sure that both of the monsters suffered immensely before death. She then talked about how she had saved seph and how they had crash landed near the top of the world summit. She mentioned that although Seph was injured she should still be able to climb the mountain dragging his unconscious body along. Nephim also explained that her consciousness had been transported to a different maze-like realm when he had started fighting the disgusting abominations. It had taken her a while, but she eventually found her way out, only to be greeted by the sight of him on death's door, worried she had saved him and that's how they had gotten up to this point.
When Starry asked Nephim about what had happened minutes prior in the water, she refused to answer him. Starry, quickly realizing that he shouldnt pry deeper, talked again, this time about what she had said earlier.
"You were worried about me?" Starry quietly asked.
"So what if I was worried?! You were about to die!" She yelled, a hint of embarrassment and rage coloring her expression.
"Neph. I was worried about you too. From the moment you didn't answer I knew something was wrong."
Nephim's cheeks turned red, but she quickly turned away to gaze into the distance before Starry could see. The rest of the walk was made in complete silence.
As Stary and Neph reached the obelisks , Starry called forth the prestige to show him his list of names and his soul fragment count. Contrary to both of their expectations, they had obtained an inferior rare name and a superior uncommon name, as well as one core soul fragment and ten outer soul fragments. Although both the names were relatively useless they still had a purpose.
"Nephim. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"That we forget both of these names right now, and use the core soul fragment to upgrade Nola?"
"They grow up so fast." Starry said, proudly.
"Hey. What's that supposed to mean? You know I'm hundreds of years older than you. Besides I'm not the one who was just crying like a baby hugging a girl he had just seen for the first time."
"Well Neph, it's not everyday you get to see a beautiful fairy with perfect shoulders to cry on."
"Stop calling me beautiful. It isn't fair." she muttered quietly.
"Hm? What'd you say?"
"Nothing."
Starry promptly clicked the "forget" option on both of his useless names, netting him 20 outer soul fragments and one core soul fragment. He then used one of the soul fragments to upgrade one of Nola's evolvable attributes, "spirit manifestation". Upon upgrading, the description for spirit manifestation was available, so he clicked to open it.
**Spirit manifestation
Description: Allows the Spirit residing within the blade to exit the weapon and affect the physical world remotely. Currently only the owner of [Nola] may perceive the [Juvenile Fairy Queen Nephim] residing within the sword.
Spirit manifestation level is currently at:
Non-activated(Zero-power), User perceivable only, All Perceivable, Attention Drawing(Full power), Remote Separation(125% power).
Apparently at this level of 'User Perceivable only', when Starless spoke to Neph, no one would be able to perceive him doing it. Simply put, they would only see an illusion or rather a false reality that they could perceive of him doing absolutely nothing, but in reality he would be conversing with Nephim.
"Look at that! It says separation! Do you think if we max out this spirit manifestation attribute that I can leave this sword for good?"
"Neph. Even if you can leave Nola for good, it'll be a long while before I get the required core soul fragments for you to even be able to do that. Just the next spirit manifestation upgrade costs 10 core soul fragments and one hundred outer soul fragments."
"Gods forbid a Fairy dream about leaving a cursed sword."
No sooner than Neph had finished saying those words had the soul sea shook. Neph and Starry stumbled about before crashing into each other and holding each other for stability. The world only stopped shaking after about a minute had passed.
Quickly letting go of each other, they both looked around as if to pinpoint the source of the disturbance, to no avail.
They both sat down next to each other, gazing into the distance.
"Starry. I think it's time."
"Time for what?"
"Time to exit your soul sea and return back to Seph. I'm sure she must miss you by now."
"Just a few more hours. My physical body is bruised and battered after those fights."
"Stop being such a crybaby. Seph needs you."
"Fine. But only because I don't want to be a burden to Seph."
Starry gave Nephim one last look before exiting his soul sea.
Not a second after he exited the soul sea an extremely intense pain permeated throughout his body. The pain was so intense that his mind was unable to formulate stable thoughts. Opening his eyes he noticed that Seph was stumbling about in front of him, slowly dragging him across the floor on a makeshift stretcher up the world summit.
Starry quickly lost consciousness and returned back to his soul sea. He looked up, only to see and hear Nephim's beautiful figure hunched over, dying of laughter. She quickly stopped laughing upon seeing him but barely managed to hold in her laughter.
Starry promptly fell on the floor, silently clutching his head, clearly in extremely intense pain.
"Oops. I forgot about the backlash of using Aura in a weak human body. Sorry Starry. Really. I'll make it up to you."
Gritting his teeth he looked up and responded "Maybe it would have been better for me to die earlier. I can't take much more of this."
"Ugh. Fine. Come here. Oops! Forgot you can't walk!" Nephim said, again, dying of laughter.
Starry slowly stood up, although unnaturally fast for the pain he was enduring. Upon fully standing up, he summoned Nola and proceeded to stab himself in the gut, twisting the blade. He spat up blood and fell flat on his face, Nola slipping out of his hands and rolling away on the invisible surface separating them from the dark sea.
"Starry?! What are you doing?!"
Nephim quickly rushed over, kicking Nola away before using her arms to wrap Starless in a headlock.
Upon realizing he was no longer able to cut himself, Starless quickly began trying to pry Nephim's arms off of him. Though the weakness of his flesh could never compare to that of a tier six ranked being.
A disgusting smile painted his face, his face contorting disgustingly.
"I never expected this one to have an asura-ranked fairy queen guarding his soul sea. This is truly unlucky for me. However this might be a good chance to consolidate my position. Sorry Fairy girl, you need to die!"
"How arrogant." "To think that a mere transcendent soul devourer could ever hope to contend with me. I'll send you to hell with the rest of your disgusting kind!" Nephim yelled, summoning a small silver knife.
"The soul blade?! How do you have that?! That weapon was destroyed long ago!"
"For the rest of eternity you shall have to contemplate your choice! Die!" Nephim yelled as she stabbed the small silver knife into Starless's body. His face quickly lost its color as his eyes turned gray, indifference coloring his expression. Nephim quickly let go of Starry as she stood up to inspect his body, invoking a name related to healing to heal his injuries.
Not a second after she had stabbed Starry, a middle aged man wearing a crown of thorns exuding a boundless status appeared, seemingly out of thin air. Space and time seemed to flow slower around him, this was something that only considerably strong divine ranked individuals could subconsciously accomplish.
"Little Fairy. I thank you for saving my beloved child."
"Who are you?" Nephim asked, fear coloring her expression as the person that stood in front of her released a status much superior to hers.
"I am The Progenitor. Before all, I am." "Perhaps that shall answer your question, little one."
Nephim quickly averted her gaze from the man's already extremely foggy face. She looked instead upon his feet, reverently. She quickly submitted to his status and fell to her knees.
"So it is the Esteemed Lord Progenitor. This mere fairy does not dare claim credit for saving your child." She said, a hint of reverence in her tone.
"No need to be humble, little fairy. However, I am going to need that little blade. This is something that is rejected by the world. It has no place within this world nor the others."
Nephim quickly retrieved the small silver blade from her pocket and held it up to The Progenitor. Without even moving, the blade disappeared from her hands and reappeared in The Progenitor's hands. He then quickly stored it inside of his coat.
"I thank you for your cooperation with this matter. Regarding the relinquishment of this blade, I of course shall not take it without equal compensation. Choose, little one."
Three items appeared floating in front of The Progenitor. They blended in so much with the world, it seemed as if they were always there. This was a by-product of the high exertion of will upon the world, to the point where the very substance of existence completely submitted itself to The Progenitor.
Upon seeing the three items, Nephim couldn't help but feel excited. These three items likely could rival the worth of an entire universe.
One was a small orb, colored white. Its description was that it would immediately promote one to Faux-saint rank, though they would permanently be stuck at this rank. This wasn't exactly a drawback though, as the amount of "gods" that had reached Faux-Saint rank and had then broken through and conquered the last trial could be counted on two hands.
The next item was a small iridescent colored egg. Its description was that contained within the egg were from three to five dragons. This item was also extremely precious, as Dragons were born with five virtues--At Transcendent rank, and had the potential to grow into Divine beings, though most capped out at faux-saint. Faux-Saint wasn't a rank to be trifled with though, as it stood between Asura and Divine. Even though The difference between Faux-Saint and Divine rank was like the difference between heaven and earth, Asura and Faux-Saint rank both shared the same virtue-rank, but the difference between them was even more vast than the difference between Faux-Saint and Divine.
The last item was a small vial, containing five drops of blood. The description of the vial was that it contained the diluted bloodline of The Progenitor. It was diluted with the royal bloodline of the fairies, dragons, dwarves, demons, and the first gods. This item was incomparably precious, even when compared to the other three items.
Nephim took about ten minutes to decide which item was worth more than the rest, ending on the vial of the diluted bloodline of The Progenitor. Even when compared to the immediate promotion to Faux-Saint or even owning multiple divine ranked dragons, it still was worth many more times than both of them combined. The reason for this was because The Progenitor was a cosmic being of unparalleled proportions. There were only three Progenitors known throughout the course of all history, though they all referred to themselves as "I am." All three Progenitors possessed the power to wipe out entire planets simply with a thought. Even Divine-ranked beings could not afford to casually provoke The Progenitor as the consequences would likely be unimaginable.
The Progenitors were shrouded by mystery, but it was a known theory that they had created existence itself.
"If Lord Progenitor would be so benevolent as to grant these gifts to this mere fairy, I choose to accept your bloodline."
"A good choice. If you would allow this one to trouble you with guarding this human, I would be very grateful."
The Progenitor then handed the small vial to Nephim.
"Of course Esteemed Lord Progenitor. Your wish is my command."
"Ah! I almost forgot. Hand this to the boy when he wakes up."
The progenitor then handed a small figure depicting a man sitting on a throne. He then disappeared, again appearing as if he was never there in the first place. Nephim quickly breathed out a sigh of relief and stood back up, her legs still weak from the extremely oppressive status the man released.
'Just who are you Starry?'
Nephim thought as she slowly trudged over to where Starry was lying unconscious. She then picked his unconscious body up before falling down with Starless's body resting on top of her.
"Ugh. Why do you have to be so heavy? I'm too tired for this." Nephim quietly said, closing her eyes and dozing off.