“So how do we deal with it?”
“Umm... You could warn the spirits in advance so they aren’t surprised when it happens? Or you could just make them your servants, you know? You have divinity and all.”
That was right. The Sand Spirit I met in Sandora said something to that effect. That spirits were subservient to the power of the gods.
“Well, you aren’t exactly a full god yet or anything, you know? There’ll be some spirits that would take more convincing than others.”
“So... how do I go about making spirits obey me?”
“There are countless methods, you know?
“Method 1! Persuasion!
“You gotta talk it out with the spirits and make them see your side of things, you know? It’s a good, calm way out! Love and peace, you know?
“Method 2! Beat the crap outta them!
“Show them that they can’t hope to match up to a god! Bully them into submission, you know? Might makes right! Search and destroy, you know?
And that’s it.”
“That’s two methods! You said there were countless ones! Gaaah!”
So I have to talk or use force? This ain’t right!
“Method three... Blackmail...”
“What...”
“Figure out their weakness, you know? That won’t really make them obedient, though. They’ll probably resist you and be upset. You gotta think about it like you’re the new boss at a company, you know? Some employees will listen, while others will be more difficult. If you have the time, you can talk to them one by one and solve their issues, but if you don’t have time, then...”
“Then it’s method two...”
I need to take the search and destroy route? No way, any company doing that would go under! That’d be past shady dealings and going straight into criminal activity. I can’t do this! This metaphor doesn’t even really work!
“What’s the problem with method two? Didn’t you use that exact method to subdue Kohaku and the others?”
... Wasn’t that different? No... I guess it wasn’t, huh.
“If the spirit ends up being agreeable, then you can just leave them alone, you know? If the spirit is less agreeable, then just overpower it and it’ll obey. Spirits are pretty honest like that.” Really? They won’t hate me? I don’t exactly want to be known as a spirit bully or anything. Is it really gonna be like an old TV drama where the two people disagreeing have a fistfight then come to a heartfelt understanding? I don’t buy it.
“For now all I need to do is go to the spirit realm, right?”
“That’s right, you know? When you approach the spirit, tell them that you’re the upcoming patron of this world and that they should listen to you even if it’s a little annoying, you know? After that, the spirits will probably divide into two groups, the ones who say “Sure!” and the ones who say “Heck no!” Then you just need to destroy the latter group, you know?” ...Destroy? I don’t wanna kill them! Sis, please don’t be so overdramatic.
Well, I do remember hearing that spirits couldn’t strictly die and would eventually come back, so... I guess I don’t need to hold back? I’d rather this went peacefully, though... The whole peace and love thing sounds nice.
But I’m pretty used to things not going how I want them to, so...
Guess it’s time for some old-fashioned searching and destroying.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Grooowraaauuugh!”
The giant Minotaur-like spirit staggered backward after I landed a solid punch on his snout.
He was either a spirit of copper or zinc, I couldn’t remember. After I’d landed in the spirit realm and done exactly as Karen told me, they did just about what Karen expected. They split into two camps that either liked me or hated me. The ones that liked me were all like “Okay! We’ll work with you!” while the ones that didn’t like me were all like “Grr! Why would we obey someone like you, huh?!”
And that’s how I came to be having a (fist-based) conversation with the rebellious spirits.
I activated my Apotheosis so I wouldn’t get worn out, but they were surprisingly resilient. For example, this copper or zinc guy that I’d just beaten was a specific type of metal, and if you went up the chain of command he and his cohorts were dependents of the Stone Spirit.
I figured that if I could just get the Stone Spirit to join my side, then everyone in his family tree would be on my side as well.
But I was wrong. Even though I’d converted him to my side, they still fought back.
They just came up to me yelling stuff like “It doesn’t matter if you convinced stone-bro! We’re more than enough for a puny god like you!”, and then when I beat one of them they were just like “Huh? Think you’re hot shit cause you beat the Tin Spirit?! He was the weakest one of us!” It was annoying as heck.
“Woohoo! He did it! Mister Touya does it again!”
“Ahaha, rough ’em up! Kick their butts! You’re so amazing, darling!”
“Serves you right, you big meanie! Show him who’s boss, tough guy!” The spirits who had already pledged allegiance to me cheered loudly as they celebrated my upper hand. For whatever reason, most of the spirits that joined me identified as female, while the ones that went against me identified as male.
Thanks to that distinction, I felt like I just pissed off the guy ones even more... I didn’t exactly feel good punching them out, either way.
There were a few female spirits among the rebellious ones, too. But they were more like rowdy delinquent girls... But still, spirit or not, I found it hard to hit girls, so I did end up pulling a few punches here and there.
And then after I beat them, for whatever reason or other, those defeated girls joined my crew and started cheering for me too.
“Oooh, lord Touyaaa! Go and win!”
“Do your best, sweetie!”
“Mm! I just wanna eat you up!” There were a few weird male spirits that I’d defeated and converted, as well... They were cheering for me... I didn’t exactly want to be their friend, though.
“Come at me next, child!” Another shirtless, musclebound spirit came charging at me. He wore a turban and had Arabian-esque pants on.
“Stormy! You better not fight against Touya!”
“Ghh... Enough outta you! Even if you feel that way, Wind, I can’t just accept him as my boss!” The Wind Spirit, clad in light green, frowned at her subordinate and berated him a little more. It seemed he was the Storm Spirit. He was supposed to listen to the Wind Spirit, but he just wasn’t having it.
“Take this!” The Storm Spirit turned his legs into a swirling vortex as he charged toward me. His fist was sparking with lightning as he raised it, preparing to knock me down. But I simply raised Brunhild and shot him in the head with a divine bullet.
“Ow!” Given that something so powerful only made him say ow, that was a testament to how resilient spirits could be. The bullet was still just hardened rubber, but the divinity I’d clad it in would’ve been enough to obliterate most things.
Either way, his momentum was damaged, allowing me to punch him hard in the side. I’d enhanced it with [Power Rise], too.
“Guuuuh!!” He flew backward and smacked into the Zinc Spirit that I’d defeated earlier.
What a pain all these spirits were. They were so single-minded that I was glad a good chunk of them had just joined my side off the bat.
“Woohoo! You’re the best, Touya! Hey, Stormy! You’re all thunder and no lightning! Give up already!”
The Wind Spirit went after the Storm Spirit and started slapping him about. Hey now... He’s part of your family, right? Be nicer! You’re making the poor guy cry!
There was a hierarchy in the spirit realm, apparently, with the pillar spirits standing at the top. They could be considered the representatives of all the other spirits.
Apparently, the Wind Spirit was one of these pillar spirits, but I had difficulty seeing her as something important. She was about as nonchalant as Karen was.
“Did you think
something weird about me just now, you know?”
“I didn’t.” Karen was watching me fight, and she seemed sharp as ever. I just pretended like she was wrong, didn’t have time to deal with her hassle.
Among the other pillar spirits, there was the Water Spirit, the Light Spirit, and the Earth Spirit. They’d all sided with me.
Interestingly enough, another of the pillar spirits was here. The Dark Spirit. The very same one I’d fought back in Ramissh.
She had revived and assumed her true form. She claimed to have not been in her right mind back during our last encounter.
The funniest thing about it to me was that she, who was once a monstrous beast with several appendages, now took the form of a young girl with black hair and black eyes.
She wore a black one-piece dress and shyly waved over toward me as she sat next to the Light Spirit. Her hair was in a short bob, and she almost looked like she was sitting with her older sister. The Light Spirit had curly, golden hair and a bright smile.
The Dark Spirit that I had fought back in Ramissh had taken that form after being contaminated with thousands of years of negative human emotions.
To be honest I felt kind of guilty knowing that I’d so mercilessly beaten someone who seemed so innocent now. But even though I did that, she harbored no ill will toward me.
It was possible that when a spirit died and rebirthed itself, the new one didn’t have any memories of its old life. But I dared not ask her.
Even so, seeing her innocently waving at me just made my heart ache. I’m really sorry... Please forgive me. I didn’t know you were such a sweetheart!
“Each and every one of you weaklings is a disappointment! Let me handle this!” A female spirit stepped forward. She had blazing red hair and quite literal sparks of fire in her eyes. She wore similar clothing to the Wind Spirit, but it was cut shorter for ease of movement.
“That’s the Fire Spirit, you know?”
“Oh? A pillar spirit?”
“A pillar spirit.”
Karen was pretty blunt about it. Interesting... The Fire Spirit, eh? Does that mean all the pillar spirits are women?
“Pillar spirits... Or rather, all spirits, go through a several-thousand-year life cycle. In the end, they revive themselves and are reborn. They can become a man or a woman, or even an animal, or something like a dragon, you know? It’s just a coincidence that most of this generation identifies as female. Their personalities and emotions change based on the form they take, as well. That’s how they can get the most varied life experience, you know?” Huh... It’s kinda hard to fight against a girl, though... But I think this one’s the last female enemy.
“Get a load of this!”
The Fire Spirit charged toward me, a loud sound ringing out with each step she took. She was generating explosions beneath her feet, intensifying her own speed with each inch closer to me. Does she have dynamite in her soles or something?! Geez!
“Haaah!”
She raised her hands and called forth several balls of fire. She cared not for her surroundings, reducing it all to a raging sea of flames. I was worried about the cheering spirits behind me, but the Water Spirit had already erected a protective barrier for them.
I flew into the sky of the spirit realm and dodged each of her shots. I didn’t need to cast [Fly] when my Apotheosis was active.
“Don’t think you can run...!” Suddenly, several pillars of flame came billowing up into the air. They then split apart and completely surrounded me, attempting to trap me in a pincer movement.
I quickly turned Brunhild into blade mode and slashed ahead, sending a wave of divinity to disperse the fire.
“How?!”
“How about I get a turn to attack, huh?!” The maximum speed I could reach during my Apotheosis was far faster than [Accel] and [Boost] combined. If I actually used this kind of power back down in the mortal realm, then I’d probably end up collapsing right away and going unconscious for a while... But the spirit realm was closer to the divine realm, so I wasn’t drained as fast.
I moved toward the Fire Spirit in the blink of an eye. I grabbed both of her hands with one of mine, restraining her fully. I then took care not to injure her too badly before sweeping her leg out from under her, then I slammed her body into the ground.
“What?!” I pointed Brunhild’s blade right at her chest. It was over.
“I... I lost...” I pulled up the Fire Spirit by the hand because she’d admitted I was the victor. For some reason, her face was reddish around the cheeks. I wondered if she was ok.
“Y-You’re plenty strong, huh...”
“Hm? I guess so, yeah. I train against a sword demon every day.” Even though I trained with Moroha daily, I didn’t think I was even close to matching up to her ability. She was the god of swords, though... So in terms of technique, I was completely screwed by default. But I felt like in terms of general battle ability she was way above me, too.
“Alright. Who’s next? You guys still want a piece of me?” I threw a few inflammatory comments toward the other rebellious spirits. I figured riling them up would make more of them attack me at once. I wanted it to be over already.
“W-Well... G-Good luck in your fights...! U-Umm... I’ll be cheering for you... Gosh...”
“Hm? Oh, sure.” The Fire Spirit emitted a few deep red flames for some reason and shuffled off awkwardly. I didn’t know what was up with her.
She was completely red-faced up to her ears, and she was emitting a few reddish flames from her head. I wondered if she had a fever or something... It wouldn’t be unusual for the Fire Spirit to have a high body temperature, but she didn’t feel all that heated when I touched her arm.
Karen simply stared at me and looked frustrated for some reason. She let out a sigh and started muttering.
“...It might be because of your divinity stemming from the highest tier of godhood, but you really are a natural ladykiller... I fear for the future, you know?”
“What are you talking about? I’m not a killer...”
What does she mean? I try to avoid fatalities whenever I can!
I sighed quietly and turned back to the other spirits, before suddenly realizing that they were directing raw killing intent in my direction. Wait, what?! Did my insult just now work or something?
“You piece of shit...! You took away our precious fire!”
“I-I’m so jealous! What the hell?! I’m so damn jealous! First, you run off with Dark, and now you want Fire to yourself, too?!”
“Today I will kill a god!”
“Even if you took away the flame of our Fire Spirit, the embers of envy in my soul are heating up!” Huh? What...? Why are they crying? Wait... Why are their tears red?! Spirits are so damn weird!
“Death to the enemy!”
“Chaaaarge!” The remaining spirits all cried out in rage, and what sounded like misery, before charging toward me. Why are you crying?! What did I do?! A short while later, the spirits were scattered across the battlefield. They were completely defeated.
For some reason, I felt guilty... It was almost like I was the villain here for whatever reason.
“Hgh... I have no regrets... Even if I knew we’d lose, I still had to stand and fight for what was right...”
“The embers of my envy will never fade... Someday we’ll get that bastard... Someday...”
“Ahh... Th-The Dark Spirit is such a hottie... Unf...” A few of them were muttering things I really preferred to just ignore.
The Light Spirit stepped forward from the crowd and looked over to me. She raised her hand into the air and began speaking loudly.
“We, the pillar spirits declare our recognition of the celestial spirit king, Mochizuki Touya. It is our hope that he will guide us well into the future.” The Water, Earth, Fire, Wind, and Dark Spirits raised their hands into the air and joined the spirit of light in their pledge.
And with that, the issue with the spirits was resolved. It ended up getting pretty rowdy, but it was all over
now.
Even so, I couldn’t help but wonder if there wasn’t a better way...
◇ ◇ ◇
“So what’s the deal with Ancient Spirit Magic, exactly?” I sat around in the glimmering spirit realm and asked the pillar spirits a question.
We were having a small tea party. I’d pulled a table and chairs out of [Storage], along with some tea and snacks.
It was kind of a weird sensation, since the spirit realm didn’t actually have a ground or anything, so we were floating but not at the same time. It was even weirder because the Storm Spirit I’d beaten up earlier had totally rolled around as if hitting the ground when I knocked him over. I didn’t understand the rules at all.
“You know? That whole Ancient Spirit Magic thing?” Belfast’s court magician, Charlotte, was researching that if I recalled correctly. I hadn’t gone to visit her in a while, though.
“That is magic forged through contracts. We lend our powers to those who bind a contract with us. But the proper way to form those contracts is no longer around in the mortal realm. It would appear that our language, the Ancient Spirit Script, has also been lost.”
“There were times when our spiritual dependents could be called out by mistake, but none of the people down there actually understood enough to see what they were messing with. In the end, they just kept asking for power, and nobody managed to form a proper contract.” The Fire and Light Spirits answered my question.
It seemed that that to contract with a spirit, you needed to form a mutual arrangement. You were borrowing power from them, after all. Which meant you had to see them as equals.
It was different from summoning a beast, as well. Spirits were allowed to break the contract if they were unsatisfied. If they were asked to do something they didn’t want to do, they were also allowed to refuse.
If summoned beasts were like employees or laborers, then spirits were more like friends. If you treated your friends like workers, then they’d obviously get fed up with you and leave.
Then again, if you kept pushing your employees they’d probably get upset with you as well.
“So I guess I should start spreading a more spirit-friendly agenda, huh? I guess I should talk about how spirits are equal to humanity.”
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 14 Page 11