Arpious of the Planes

Thank god she's okay…

"What can I do to prove that it's the real me," I ask everybody present and didn't resist at all because I didn't have much strength in the first place.

"Let her go," Homura says with a voice colder than ice.

"Are you sure? What if she attacks you again?" Reyna responds, and it seems she's worrying more about me rather than Homura as she keeps shifting her eyes back to me to make sure I wasn't hurt.

"Nah, now that I look closer, she's definitely back to her original personality," Kumo says, crouching down next to me and staring into my eyes.

Everybody looks towards Aika, but it seems she didn't have a side, so my old friends let me get up as I dusted off the dirt from my dress.

"If you want to say something, say it now," Homura says while crossing her arms, reminding me of when my mother used to scold me.

When did I get so reminiscent…

"I'm sorry for my actions," I apologize, bowing deeply towards Homura, whose stern face turned into a smile.

"Well, I'm not going to forgive you just yet," Homura says with a smile that clearly showed her lewd intentions, but I didn't have the energy to react as I immediately dropped to the ground.

I managed to stay on my knees, but the mental fatigue was definitely hitting me, so my eyelids grew heavier with each passing second.

"Homura, I think you should forgive her. It wasn't really her anyway," Aika speaks up.

There was a pause before Homura opened her mouth once again after sighing.

"*sigh*... Fine, but just this once-"

"Nah, it was me. What you saw was definitely me," I say without even looking up, just hanging my head in shame.

A heavy silence befell the air around us, and my eyelids grew too heavy, causing me to fall asleep.

…

[Day 83]

A house was burning… A house burned in front of my eyes as an overwhelming sadness washed over me while I tightly gripped the book in my hand.

Tears flowed from my eyes, and no matter how many times I wiped them away, they wouldn't stop, so I let them go. I bawled my eyes out in front of the burning house, which had 2 screaming female voices.

"Why me…" I mutter before fainting.

…

"*gasp* HUFF HUFF HUFF HUFF,"

I instantly sat up from my bed, and heavy breathing was all I could do as I spaced out and gripped my temples.

A throbbing sensation ran through my brain like a train without breaks, causing me to grit my teeth as I jumped out of bed, ignoring my wives, who were awoken by my sudden quick movements.

HUFF HUFF HUFF HUFF

Walking through my hallway, I saw no maids, no knights, nobody as I made my way towards the top of the castle, where I looked over my kingdom while basking in the moonlight.

Some houses were still alight by Glow Stones, creating a calming sensation as my eyes slowly closed.

But as soon as I closed them, even more, images flashed through my mind of one girl and one woman burning.

They were screaming in pain as they begged for help while I just stood in front of them, too scared to move and too scared to talk.

"Shit, fell asleep again," I mutter as I jolted my head from my fetal position, which I took on the grassy hill.

Tup Tup Tup

Somebody suddenly appeared behind me, and as I was still sleepy, I didn't even notice them until they began to speak.

"Are you okay?" I hear a warm voice say.

Turning around, I saw Treyni, who had a warm smile that made my heart clench. And without any hesitation, or as if my body moved on its own, I hugged Treyni before crying into her shoulder.

"It's okay. It's okay. The bad things will pass over soon, and if you don't feel like telling us what happened yesterday, you don't have to," Treyni says.

"O-okay," I mutter with a warm feeling rising within me.

…

(Somewhere Inside Arpious POV)

"Another one of us has passed,"

"Indeed. We should probably start making moves now; otherwise, all of us are going to disappear, or one of us will survive who will then need to build our power back up again,"

"I agree… Also, why did Depression teach Arpious how to use Hermes? Forbidden Magic isn't something to be used lightly as it will attract the attention of the great spirits the more you use it,"

"Yeah, if she can accomplish something great with Forbidden Magic, then she'll draw even more attention which will eventually lead to the Overlords and hopefully not the Sovereign Spirits finding out about our survival,"

"Hmmmmm… I have an idea… How about we use Arpious to start a war that will draw attention away from the people investigating our potential survival as I'm pretty sure that damned Reincarnation one knows that we're alive,"

"That's a wonderful idea, and I'm pretty sure her future will hold thousands of dangerous experiences, so we need to prepare her for that… We should have her travel to the plane below this one… you know the anomaly one,"

"Are you sure? She's most likely going to die, and you know that means our death as well,"

"Well, we have no other way to have her prepare as her mental state right now isn't good due to the side effect of our existence, plus she's way too cocky despite her telling herself that she won't be in the future,"

"Ah, I see why you chose that plane now… So you want to break her down and rebuild her as a stronger and much more beneficial chess piece,"

"Indeed. Fear and overwhelming power are necessary, plus we already found the entrance to the one below… If she can get the [Plane Walker] title when she arrives on the one below us, that would be nice as it will make getting the key much easier,"

"Okay, it's settled. One of us will focus on trying to split us from Arpious's body, while another one will influence her mind as much as possible to try and get her to go to the skeletal system again.

The rest of us will focus on trying to break the seal or at least chip away at it so when the one focusing on splitting us from Arpious is done, we can get the hell out of here and eat Arpious,"

"Why should we eat Arpious when we can use her more?"

"That's true, but instead of a chess piece, she will be more like a wild card as her existence is partly due to us. And with her having her own powers, which she hasn't used much of, and our powers, she will be a dangerous and threatening existence,"

"Alright, so once we get out, we'll pretend to get on her good side as hiding our real thoughts from [Grand Mind Magic] should be easy. And once she's served her purpose, we'll dispose of her as we should've regained our original power by then,"

"Good… Now everyone, move out,"

…

(Arpious POV)

I woke up once again in Treyni's lap as she stroked my hair gracefully.

"It seems you're awake now," Treyni says with a warm smile that made me blush profusely, making me turn over to hide my face.

,m Treyni kept stroking my hair as I tried to calm down my racing heart.

"Love you," Treyni says, making me jolt up and hug Treyni properly.

"I love you too," I mutter before standing up and going back down into my castle, where I took a bath with all of my wives.

I planned my day out while eating breakfast, and the first thing I had was a meeting with Akito, who had now evolved into something new, which made me smile happily.

『Status』

[Name: Akito]

[Race: Vampire]

[Status: Direct Subordinate]

[Level: 12/150]

[HP: 900/900  MP: 900/900  SP: 500/500]

[Strength: 200]

[Defense: 200]

[Magic: 230]

[Speed: 200]

[Luck: 1]

[Charisma: 50]

[Skills: [Slash] [Grand Body Enhancement] [Gust] [Grand Wind Magic] [Grand Blood Healing Magic] [Intense Focus] [Blood Magic] [Enhanced Regeneration] [Vampires Enhanced Senses] [Contortion] [Cut] [Bloodlust Cape] [Forbidden Magic: Dracula] [Summon: Vampiric Bat] [Summon: Dhampir]

[Mastered Weapons: [Spear]

[Titles: [Direct Subordinate] [Party Leader] [Great Commander]

…

"Your stats are much more than mine now," I say as even though his other stats besides magic have 200, that's without his equipment which most likely gives him even more stat buffs.

Akito didn't change much besides his skin turning a clear pale white, he grew slightly taller, his nails grew a bit longer, and finally, his canines had turned into 2 razor-sharp vampire fangs.

"I do not deserve such praise, and I believe your highness is still much stronger than me," Akito says while bowing deeply.

I chuckled a bit before gesturing for one of my maids to bring out a large wooden box that held something that I ordered from Aiso quite a while ago.

"I assume you don't have a soul weapon yet," I say while the maid walks towards Akito.

"I believe true strength comes from only the person and not the weapon, so I try my best to use the weakest weapons I can find," Akito responds humbly.

"Well, eventually, you will need that slight advantage so just in case, take this soul weapon," I say, gesturing for the maid to open the wooden box, which held a beautiful spear just the right size for Akito.