Chapter 55: Dark Blades Pt 2

Today was the start of year three hundred for Lucilla. At least she thinks it has been that long since she lost track sometime after year thirty. A vague feeling of another year passing would overcome her every so often, and that feeling increased in intensity for every century. So, while she didn't have a strong grasp on how much time passed, she had a light understanding.

"That's why today we're going have you separate your weapon once more." Ovana said after a while.

"Really?" Lucilla said paying attention again. Ovana had been talking for a while, but she wasn't really saying anything important until the end in the monster woman's opinion.

Ovana already knew Lucilla was only partially paying attention to her, but she didn't really care. She turned to face the obsidian plains below, rivers of poison weaving between the glossy black hills. She could see some hideous beast only found here roaming them, drinking from the rivers to relive their thirst. The Goddess frowned and wondered why a creature would need that many legs and feet if it wasn't going to use most of them.

"I'll make sure you aren't disturbed. Go ahead and try reforming your twin blades again." Ovana said, giving the monster woman some instruction on how she would possibly attempt such a thing.

Lucill sat cross-legged on the ground; her scythe placed awkwardly in her lap. Laying her palms atop the bladed part of her weapon, the silver haired woman closed her crimson eyes in concentration. She focused on spreading her divinity through her blade. This caused the miasma inside the weapon to be purge and cleansed as a side effect.

Lucilla was slightly annoyed by this since that was three hundred years' worth of miasma being erased, but there wasn't a lot she could do about that. Purging her wondering thoughts, the silver haired woman brought her attention back to her scythe. She didn't really know how to procced exactly even with Ovana's advice. So instead of immediately trying to split the weapon in two, she compressed the weapon into a single bar of Demonic Steel.

The large bar floated above Lucilla's palms. The woman then moved her hands apart, splitting the bar in two. This simple process took over twenty minutes already, and the crimsoned eyed woman began to sweat from the effort. She wasn't close to being tired yet, but she could already foresee how exhausted she'll be later. That didn't stop her and she procced onto the next step.

For the next few hours Ovana observed the Crimsoned eyed woman silently, only speaking up if her charge was about to make a major mistake. Slowly but surely the scythe turned into twin dark blades once more. The dark blades with a purple edge matching Lucilla far more than a scythe much to Ovana's dismay. Perhaps some time in the future Lucilla would look the part of a proper reaper.

'Looks like their presence has grown stronger.' Ovana noted staring at the twin blades.

Crimson eyes studied the short swords in her lap, her fingers running down the metal blade, carefully inspecting it. With a satisfied nod Lucilla looked up from her weapons. Her expression was in its usual scowl, but Ovana could feel pride coming from the woman as she stared in her direction.

"Good job Lucilla. Looks like you've gotten a handle on controlling Celestial Energy." Ovana praised.

"... Thanks." Lucilla said drenched in sweat and out of breath. She stood up from her spot on the ground, mud still sticking to her cloths. She was slightly envious of how Ovana seem incapable of getting dirty.

"You honestly progressed slightly faster than I thought. I figured it would take you four hundred years to get to this point." Ovana continued, genuinely giving the monster woman praise. "You managed to progress a hundred years faster than expected."

"You're still far from being called a master, but you should be able to reach that point fairly easy." Concluded the Goddess.

It was unfortunate, but the hero was still far more capable of using Divinity compared to Lucilla. The monster woman couldn't help but find this extremely unfair. She had spent three hundred years training her body just to be able to properly use Celestial energy without dying. Why was it that some random person from another world was given power so freely? From what the rumors said about these summoned hero's, none of their different worlds had magic.

Standing up Lucilla took in the familiar landscape below. She might not be as powerful as Jason, but that didn't mean she was far off from his current strength. Having already crossed blades with him once she knew that while she couldn't beat him in a fair fight, he wouldn't be able to kill her easily either. So long as she focused on defense. She wasn't going to make the same mistake again. Fully aware of her own short comings now, Lucilla reaffirmed her resolve in her heart.

-- -- --

"Well then." Ovana said after a while. "How about I give you a bit more of my blessing? This time it'll be a bit from my role as the soul Goddess."

Ovana taped Lucilla on the forehead, causing a light blue light to surround the girl for a moment before fading away. Once again, the woman didn't feel that different, but if she focused, she could feel something etched into her soul. She could probably figure out what she was given by just testing thing out, but why do that when she Ovana was here to answer all her questions?

"What exactly did you do to me?" Lucilla asked curious.

"I gave you two things. Wings of a raven and increased your efficiency when it came to absorbing soul energy."

"Your blessings are fairly tamed." Lucilla noted, she didn't really get any combat type blessings.

"Yes, well I have to take in account what your body can handle since you'll essentially be receiving the power of two powerful Celestials." Explained Ovana, "Plus I was told to keep your progress as slow as possible. I was basically instructed in holding back as many blessings as possible."

This wasn't the first time her Goddess alluded to the fact there was something or someone above her. She couldn't tell if it was a subordinate and boss thing, or fear of something much more powerful than their self. What could be more powerful than a Celestial? Lucilla didn't want to know, and so she didn't ask.

"Why did you give me wings? What does that have to do with you being a Soul Goddess?"

"Other than ravens being an animal that represents me? Nothing." She shrugged. "I chose ravens as my animal, just like how my sister chose crows. We all have an animal we chose to represent us."

"I see." Lucilla responded half paying attention. She was attempting to use these wings Ovana gave her. There was nothing on her back currently so that meant she had to make them appear somehow.

'Maybe it's like shapeshifting?' Lucilla thought as she attempted to shapeshift wings onto her back.

To her surprise something did end up happening. While similar to shapeshifting, it felt slightly different from it, including the fact she was growing two extra limbs she didn't have previously. The wings formed much faster than Lucilla expected, and they strained against her clothes for a few seconds before tearing through them. On her back two large black wings revealed themselves.

She slowly spread her wings wide, letting then stretch out as she got used to them. Each wing individually ended up being slightly over a meter long when fully open, presenting and imposing image. The dim red light of the area seemed to absorb into the black feathers, contrasting against Lucilla's silver hair which reflected any light that hit it. Once she finished stretching out her wings, she let them fold in and partially wrap them around herself. The feeling was similar to loosely draping a blanket over one's shoulders.

"... So, can I fly with these?"

Ovana smirked. "How about we find out?"