First Day (Part 4)

"Tsk, I might have overestimated her soul strength." Inna looked at the woman who was unconscious. Her breathing was ragged, but she was alive, albeit barely.

The students remained shocked to their core. They just witnessed this woman decimate their teacher in combat. Leon muttered a soft "What" to himself. Draven's jaw was wide open, and Ember watched speechless. The rest of the class wasn't any better off either.

Inna reached down and placed her hand on the woman's chest. It seemed as time itself unwound as Ms. Sersk gasped and the blood on the floor re-entered her body. Afterwards, she jolted upwards, entirely stunned.

"Careful, don't move too much. Lyris' abilities can be finicky. Give it about ten minutes before you start moving around." Inna seemed genuinely apologetic as she spoke. "Apologies for that. I should have just read your soul strength. It was an oversight on my end." Ms. Sersk sat back down with an awestruck look on her face.

Inna strode over to the shattered safety barrier and began reconstructing it using a spell. it took her roughly ten minutes to complete it, and when it was done, the protective barrier had black veins of energy coursing through them. Inna smiled at her work. "This should be much much stronger than the previous one."

Once Ms. Sersk had recovered, she spoke to Inna. "What was that? Your arm turned into a tentacle..?"

"Transmogrification. It's a difficult one to master. If it goes wrong, you can...well, lose your appendages; permanently."

Ms. Sersk looked at her oddly. Inwardly, she knew that what Inna said made sense, but if that was her soul power, where did the sword come from? How was her strength so monstrous? Things weren't adding up, and Inna noted that look on her face. She had seen it plenty of times, of course.

"It would be easiest for you if you just stopped wondering. Stamp out your curiosities." She was now speaking to the class as a whole. "I'm a mystery, I always have been. Don't worry though, I won't interfere in class lessons, at least not unless I have to. You can continue learning at your own pace and eventually grow stronger." As she finished her speech, Inna sat down at her bench and relaxed. She was much more relaxed now.

.....

The remainder of combat class had mostly covered maneuverability techniques. Inna watched with a somewhat serious expression. 'I don't recognize any of these moves, but the world setup seems the same, or at least eerily similar. Strange..how long was I gone for..? Perhaps Persephone has some information. I'll summon her tonight.'

When the class ended, everyone began heading towards the cafeteria for dinner. Tomorrow would start their orientation and introduction into the various electives that could give them a specialization.

.....

Inna went directly to her room and shut her door after locking it. She began to draw a large sigil on the ground. Once she had finished, she sliced her palm and bled onto the sigil. "Oh Angel of the 61st division, head of love, and conqueror of lust, head my summons and appear before me." With a flash of golden light, a blonde haired woman suddenly sprung into existence. As she rose her head, massive pure white angelic wings extended from her back, and the golden halo atop her head spun and floated softly.

Her voice was soft and welcoming, warm like a lover's kiss. "Who su-" Her voice abruptly cut off as she saw the woman before her. Multiple emotions flashed within her eyes. Hatred, confusion, and finally annoyance. Her soft and warm tone was long gone. "Inna, what do you want from me?"

"Oh, Persephone, can't I just want to see an old friend? Is that illegal" Inna's tone was playful.

"Old friend? Tch. Bitch, you threw me off the Tower of Babel." Persephone could feel the anger and annoyance rising from her stomach.

"Yeah, I did do that, didn't I? Well, you were fighting alongside those fucking bozos in the 60th Angel Commandment, what else was I supposed to do. Besides, I helped you kill Lust, that more than makes up for it." Inna replied in a mocking tone.

The anger and frustration exploded from Persephone. "You consumed her soul! I didn't even gain anything from it! I wanted your help so that I could become stronger, and instead you fucked me!" Her rage was spilling out and Inna decided she should stop messing with her. After all, a pissed off angel could make one hell of a mess.

"If you help me out. I'll owe you a favors." Inna's voice cut off Persephone's rage-rant and she paused.

"On your word as an eldritch being?" She asked with an accusatory glare.

"On my word as an eldritch being, I will owe you a favor." Inna replied as she extended her hand for a handshake.

Persephone grabbed her hand and shook it. (A bit too forcefully, but Inna didn't even notice that detail.)

"So, what is it the great eldritch one needs from me?" Persephone asked.

"A multiverse map, and the current location of my planet, as well as the time-line number and information about what happened after my death last time." Inna replied.

"Hmm, most of that is fine, but a multiverse map? Don't you already have one? Fuck, you probably have multiple."

Inna responded, exasperated. "Yes, but I want a current one. I believe I've been dead longer than normal, and I'd like to understand why."

Persephone nodded as a face of realization struck her. "Ahh, I see. well, give me a day or two and I'll have your items. As for the favor, we'll talk about that later." She chuckled and vanished with a bright flash of light.

.....

Inna was glad she answered. Naturally, she could just tear through the fabric of the multiverse and find the information and items herself, but doing so would raise alarms and cause a commotion among the gods overseeing the world, and Inna wanted to remain unseen for as long as possible. If any of them had already seen Inna, it'll for sure take a lot of convincing to persuade them she isn't a problem. She quite likes to kill, but murdering gods is a very tedious task.

As for Persephone? Inna wasn't worried about her telling anyone. When higher beings give out favors, it is almost always followed up on. It's not as if some higher entity enforces them, but an untrustworthy higher being is usually ostracised, and typically forced into Hell, or the Void. As strong as Inna was, she wasn't all powerful. Immortal, and pretty much unkillable, sure, but theres no chance she would win against an army...well, two armies made up of gods. Inna was also a being of her word, she had yet to go back on her word. Once she gave it, it was followed through on. Granting Persephone a favor was an acceptable loss, and she had pretty much already decided she would give one up.

.....

Ember entered the dorm room as Inna stepped out of her room, a large white feather in her hand. It turned black when she touched the white tips. Inna looked up. "I'm going to take a shower, unless you want one first." The feather turned to ash as she closed her fist around it.

Ember stared wide eyed as Inna entered the bathroom. She and her friends, Leon, Draven and Juno, had talked about Inna and how peculiar she was. None of them had any ideas about her origin, nor anything of the sort, but Ember had one idea that was so farfetched, she was sure no one would believe her. She had the idea that Inna was a secretly monster.

When monster's gain a certain level of soul strength, they gain intelligence. It's only a wild theory Ember has, but what if it went a step further, and monsters could gain a humanoid form. This made sense to Ember. Her mind began racing 'She must be some kind of sea creature. When her arm turned into a tentacle, it looked so natural. Her explanation of transmogrification also adds up. She could just transmogrify herself to look like a human! The sword could also just exist inside of her, as in the space it occupied her body in was entirely magic and the actual "her" was around it, holding it in place?' Ember had fully convinced herself that Inna was some kind of squid monster. She was so caught up in her delusion that she didn't move once, nor did she see Inna exit the bathroom.

Inna saw Ember staring at the bathroom. Her first thought was: 'Is she gay?' Her second was: 'maybe, but I think she's having some weird thoughts.' Inna decided to walk up to her, she was wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around her chest and came down to just above her knees.

Ember snapped out of her thoughts from the tiny bit of pain coming from her forehead. She was confused at first, but it appeared that Inna had merely flicked her. Ember's face began heating up when she saw what Inna was wearing. 'I..Inna is so tall..She's gorgeous too, a tall older woman...' As her thoughts began to run, Ember's face began heating up and a blush ran across her cheeks. Inna noted Ember's red face and thought 'Ah, so she is gay.' Chuckling softly to herself, Inna left Ember dazed in the common room as she re entered her bedroom and climbed into bed. She didn't need to sleep persay, but it always felt great to do so.