Onna grit her teeth. “Is that not your purpose?”
“No,” I said flatly. “Well, partially. Half of me wants that, half of me doesn’t. But that’s still no reason to drag you other here. If I wanted you dead, I’d have done it at the Fort.”
“Then… why are we here?”
“I did say I was going for a walk, and that I needed someone to accompany me,” I explained. “You and I needed to have a long conversation.”
She stared at me with a stink eye. “Over what?”
“You’re a soulborn.”
“What of it?”
I allowed my shoulders to rise and fall. “Morbid curiosity. How did you die?”
“Starving. Alone. Shivering in the snow-capped peaks of the Takumian Winterlands and cursing my own stupidity.”
She had my attention immediately. I’d assumed her transformation into a Yuki-Onna had something to do with how she died, but I didn’t expect the sheer bitterness of her tone. With my right hand, I conjured myself an armrest in the forest, and with my left, I conjured one for her as well.
I sat, crossing my legs and staring. “Go on.”
It was with great reluctance that seven-fingers sat, staring at me cautiously “Of what import is my past life to you?”
“Morbid curiosity,” I said. “Also, you’re the only nightmare in Fort Zyvar who spoke up against me. I should be annoyed, angry even, but instead I’m intrigued. Where does that defiant streak come from? Do you have a history of opposing kings and monarchs?”
She flinched, ever so slightly. “No – not oppose – but…”
I leaned back into my chair. “Start from the beginning. Do you remember your name, before you became a nightmare?”
“No.”
“Do you remember who you were?”
“…A Takumian.”
“I heard from Erzili that Takumians are rare to find.”
“We’re not rare,” she snapped. “The Royal Family simply isolates Takum from the rest of the world because they’re afraid of outside influence challenging their authority. The same family has ruled for generations, and no one questions it. No one questions how things are done, how they could be done better. No one even questions how the Royal Family is filled with incestuous degenerates.”
Bingo. I leaned forward. “Start, from the beginning.”
I was supposed to be busy, training, grinding, and getting experience points, but there was knowledge to be had here. More than knowledge, there was power, lying dormant in Onna. Her cryokinesis was something I possessed, but I knew that if we were of the same Tier and strength, my version would not hold a candle to hers.
“I was born beautiful, my first mistake.” She began. “The King of Takum was known to find beautiful orphans. Pick them up from the streets. Dress them. Robe them. Teach them. Groom them from young till they were “ripe” and then summon them to his bedchambers, whispering soft words into their ears about how they would be Queen.”
She laughed bitterly. “Foolish little me, I believed it. I fell for all the lies, the snake gave. At first, I never questioned it. Things changed when the King’s little brother entered my room one night, ordering me to strip. I sent him away. I complained – but it was pointless. The King believed in ‘sharing.’ He told me, that it was common in the Royal Family. To keep their blood strong and connection to the Visitor deep, they occasionally did such things.”
She shuddered. A feat that brought me a small amount of surprise. “The King’s brother. His cousin. His uncle. His nephew. Even his niece and aunt. Sometimes one at a time. Sometimes in groups. I understood then that I was a fool. I was there to be a toy. A plaything for the Royal Family. A distraction. And so, I tried to escape. My second mistake. If only I had –” she stopped abruptly.
“If only you had?”
“Why… am I even telling you any of this? What possessed me to begin to bare my heart –” Her eyes locked upon me, understanding slowly dawning. “This… this is [Muliebrity]. This is… Leader Erzili’s ability!”
I sighed, shaking my head. “Darn. You noticed.”
[Muliebrity] was Erzili’s Epithet Skill. A rather nifty thing, even though it was nowhere near as versatile or useful as my [Duality] or [Gatekeeper]. Erzili’s ability was subtle in the manner it worked, slowly turning enemies into allies as one would spill their true unfiltered thoughts and opinions from their heart without regard. As Erzili was my minion, I had access to all of her skills, and I discovered, to my surprise, this included Epithet Skills.
“You – you charlatan!”
She roared, charging directly at me with a blast of cold. I laughed. Even if I didn’t have my tungsten armor, it was pointless. I watched the trees around us crackle and snap from the frost. The ground froze a thousand times over, blades of grass immortalized in crystals, a veritable snowstorm of all-consuming cold, taking the forest around me and ending anything that moved or lived.
The blast of cold ended. I rose my right hand over my mouth as if to yawn. She stood, panting, staring, baffled and bewildered.
“H-how?”
I stood from my earthen throne, walking forward, dusting off the remnants of frost from my armor. I towered over her, easily, and, brought my right foot forward, straight into her stomach. She folded in half like a chair, eyes bulging as she vomited and coughed up slushy ice.
“Now, now, seven-fingers, I should take an arm and a leg for you daring to attack me, but as I am feeling generous, I’ll simply let that hit suffice.”
In the brief hours we’d been walking, I spent it using [Ice Manipulation] on myself over and over again, doing so subtly enough that she never noticed. There was a new item on my list of immunities: [Frost Damage Immunity.]
Due to my Genocidal title, each time I killed a member of a species, I got better at killing a member of that species, and
