"Do you wish to leave me already?" Edirup asked with a haughty expression, tilting her head so her long dark hair with red streaks fell across one shoulder.
"I would have to at some point," my croaky voice responded.
I was getting used to it now, the jagged mouth forming easily on my grey surface. "But don't worry, I will always return to visit."
"Hmph," she threw her face to the side, crossing her arms under the red jacket. "That is, if you meet me here again..."
Huh? What does that mean?
I asked her and she explained that she was not like a normal spirit or being:
She was a god in a way.
The essence of her seal wasn't just to keep her locked up; it was designed to create a way to get this specific Edirup killed.
One of the enchantments was making her lose magic for no reason at all.
Those released threads of magic were what had been making the shoggoths here multiply slowly over the centuries, and why I was already at Level A strength as a newborn monster.
The air around the throne carried a constant faint hum of leaking energy, visible now through my mana perception as thin dark wisps drifting from her form toward the writhing siblings on the floor.
"I have been managing," she explained, one clawed toe tapping against the floor. "But I will soon run out of energy and die. Then I will be reborn outside this seal, but as another Edirup."
She will still know she WAS this Edirup, but will suffer a personality shift.
The new version would carry all the memories, yet her core character would change.
Next to no one can truly kill a god; they always come back.
But the champion had been smart enough to use the gods' own rebirth ability against her.
Edirup's "immune system" would not allow her to be reborn inside a magic-sucking seal, so the process would force her to die — effectively suicide — so she could reform outside.
Which would kill THIS Edirup, the one who loved chaos and fun, and replace her with some other Edirup.
When I asked if that solved anything if she just went on rampaging again, she answered with a distant look in her golden-starred eyes.
"I remember my former days," her deep feminine voice grew reminiscent as she stared toward the cavern wall. "I was killed by the Dragon God of Crimson while protecting a human girl. That time, I seemed to have harbored a love for the human race. I was extremely prideful as always, but when it came to humans, I softened up."
But THIS Edirup thinks that was incredibly stupid and dumb.
The former one and this one shared the same memories, but not the same character.
Only the Chaos Spirits of Anger, Gluttony, and Greed were known to be extremely violent and prone to destroying lives on a whim.
This Edirup and her thirst for fun and destruction was a unique one.
Kill her, and you'd have your calm, prideful goddess back.
"Is... there no way to stop you from dying?" I asked.
My voice bubbled and vibrated like a purring lion as a new mouth formed lower on my blob.
"Oh...? Is my child worried about his mother?" She flashed a fang at me in a sharp grin, but the slight sadness lingered in the way her golden stars dimmed for a moment.
Edirup... might be the lonely one, not the loner she presents herself to be.
"There is no way that I can fathom," Edirup finally answered, leaning back on the throne so her horns caught the crystal light. "The enchantments are numerous. The human champion was insane, and all my analysis leads to a pit."
Not to mention, I have to find a way to leave this place too.
I rolled over to the invisible door again, stretching a part of my body toward it like a freaky tentacle.
The grey flesh extended smoothly, golden eyes dotting the length as it reached forward.
I touched the barrier and felt the surface ripple under the contact, pushing back with steady, gel-like resistance that made my extended part quiver.
Let me think with my brain now... if I had any brain, actually.
But... why?
Why was this wall repelling me?
Because the enchantments see me as Edirup herself?
How does magic work here, even? Law-given spells?
If that is the case, then I could pass if I wasn't detected as Edirup, wouldn't I?
{Affirmative: the individual Shirogane Shogo is essentially unnamed, and still carrying a heavy emphasis on the chaos spirit.}
Oh? So if I can get named, my essence will become something independent and separate from everything else?
{Indeed. You shall become a named monster and will be seen as an independent being, far removed from Edirup.}
Let's try it right now and see what happens!
I slithered back to Edirup quickly.