Chapter 61 part 1
"Okay, Shupiwe, steady and easy." Salem muttered to himself as he navigated through the forest with a blindfold strapped over his eyes.
Morrigan had dropped him off in the deep part of the forest while he was sleeping, leaving him with a simple instruction: make it out alive. That was it.
It had been two days since the blindfold was placed, forcing Salem to rely on his other senses and his growing connection to Ethernano to find his way. Slowly but surely, he had learned to move through the forest more smoothly. Though he occasionally ran into trees or nearly tripped over roots, he was improving. Large animals appeared, but they weren't aggressive, so they didn't really bother when he jumped up the trees, which was a relief.
Once he felt confident navigating denser terrain, he extended his focus, stretching his Ethernano sensing out to 2.5 kilometers. He picked up on Morrigan's magical signature and bolted toward it.
Suddenly, massive footsteps echoed behind him — a pack of giant hyenas charging in his direction. Salem wasn't in the mood to commit acts of animal cruelty, so he ducked behind a tree and transformed into his bull-ant form, slipping into a crack in the trunk. Moments later, he re-emerged, shifted back to his normal form, and locked back onto Morrigan's signature.
Dashing at 37 km/h, he reached the road in just four minutes, where Morrigan was casually sunbathing atop her car.
She raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised. "Well, one hour forty-five minutes. That was quicker than I expected. I gave you three hours. Did you miss something along the way?"
"What can I say? Exceeding expectations is my… Shit!" Salem cursed mid-trip as he stumbled over a rock and fell on his back.
Morrigan chuckled. "Well, you certainly do exceed… in how ridiculously clumsy you can be."
Salem gritted his teeth and executed a handspring back to his feet. "Shut up. That could've happened to anyone, blindfold or not — especially with these ridiculously heavy brackets on me. Where did you even find these?"
"Magic items like these aren't easy to come by, Junior. But I did need to dig through underground channels to find custom-made ones as most aren't very high in quality and very limited in weight." she replied, tapping the bracelets. "I thought this would be easier given your experience with added weight training with your sword girl?"
"But… didn't you have to make them this heavy? Kagura and I started small and increased the load over time."
"Oh, stop being such a wimp, Junior. Now get up — it's time to test that zone technique of yours."
Salem hesitated. "Okay, but can I at least take this blindfold off? It's been two days."
Morrigan flicked her extending finger in a whip-like motion, lightly slapping his hand. "Ah-ah, Junior. I already told you — to truly master this, you need to deepen your relationship with the world's Ethernano. The only reason you activated it so fast last fight was because your Glacier Wolf form suited the environment. But what if your form isn't compatible?"
She handed him two large frozen burritos, heating one with her magic while chilling a bottle of juice with the other.
"Thanks," he murmured in Chichewa before digging in.
"Well, you can't complain that I don't care for you, darling. But do slow down before—"
Too late — a burrito got stuck in his throat. He quickly drank the juice and, in a display of pure Take-Over ingenuity, transformed his throat into that of a snake, letting the food slide down effortlessly.
"Phew." He patted his chest, taking a deep breath before resuming his meal.
Morrigan scoffed playfully. "Lesson learned, I hope. Passing yourself isn't always wise. But I see your transformations have improved."
"Yeah… but it's still tricky using more than one at the same time." He made mouths appear on his palms — one snake, one cat.
"Remember what I taught you about body transfiguration, Junior. It's all about internal magic control, vision, and the principles of molding. Instead of an element, it's your body itself. Properly mastering this Ethernano-Zone technique will help you… and who knows, maybe one day you'll pull off a fraction of what I can."
She transformed into a sexy young white woman with blonde hair, raising her left palm. Each finger morphed into a tiny head, all humming different tunes.
Salem stared. "How is that so disturbing but… so cool at the same time?"
"Well, it's easy, Junior. I'm just that amazing," she bragged, winking before returning to her usual form. "Also, you should study animals more again. You've gained instinctual understanding of your forms, but there are little traits that could still surprise you. Now, finish your meal — we've got training to continue."
He thought about what she said and she was right, animals both normal and magical have some uniquely weird features both physical and mental which can be useful. But it was a good thing that an additional feature became a full blown pokedex.
After finishing, Salem focused on Ethernano. A 600-meter radius formed around him as he honed the connection Morrigan had emphasized for a quicker synchronization, as a person who has been in fast paced fights he knows how easy it was to get caught lacking. The only reason he did it quickly the first time was because the environment was compatible with his form at the time, and the first time he did it was because the Kistune form basically tripled his ethernano sensing and control but he couldn't use that as a cheat code all the time.
"Ethernano-zone." He muttered and he created a 20 meters radius bubble and began levitating a bit off the ground.
Even though he had a blindfold on he felt like he could see better in his Ethernano-zone radius. He had 360 vision in the radius, was basically seeing the world in the radius through the ethernano in the air and emitting in the ground and trees giving a muti-coloured visual map of the surroundings.
'I feel like a Byakugan user whenever I do this.' He chuckled to himself and remembered the Hyuga clan from the Naruto series.
Now he didn't remember much about the clan except their special eyes but wondered if they go through a form of sensory overload when first activating their byakugan eyes. But as he really thought about it he drew more parallels to sage mode and how the byakugan and sage mode combo would go crazy.
It was a good thing he was used to the heightened senses due to his constant animal shape-shifting with his Take-Over magic.
Morrigan's visual was a bit weird though as it was a purple aura which somewhat took the shape of her body but it was more stretchy and flexible, their seemed to be chains wrapping around her heart for some reason. He just summed it up to Morrigan being weird as usual.
"Alright no need to show off junior remember Junior keep it small we are focusing on maintenance not range." Morrigan coached while also carefully observing the technique. This level of ethernano control will not cease to impress her especially for someone as young as him.
"So do you think you can move around with it?"
"Yeah I think so?" He thought back to the black-clover anime when Yuno first activated his mana-zone in his fight against that elf leader. He was basically flying in the sky at mach/light speeds, he didn't know how fast that universe was.
He began to walk around a little bit and the zone radius did follow him smoothly, so he gave Morrigan a thumbs up for confirmation.
Morrigan began to do some little stretches. "Hmm well let's truly give this a small test run shall we?"
In an instant she vanished from her spot, but once she entered Salem's radius he easily tracked her movements. She threw a strong punch but he turned with it, catching her forearm and letting her momentum carry past him. His elbow snapped into her ribs, sharp and precise. Immediately, he drove a low kick into her shin, aiming to unbalance her and break her rhythm.
Morrigan grunted but smiled.
She twisted her arm free with a practiced flick and retaliated with a sharp knee aimed at his midsection. Salem reacted instinctively, ducking low and sliding under her center of gravity. Using his shorter height to his advantage, he hooked her leg in a low sweep while driving his shoulder forward, attempting to topple her.
Morrigan, however, planted her feet firmly. The impact traveled straight back into Salem, the force of her stance and balance countering his momentum. He skidded back but managed to stay on his feet, muscles straining as he absorbed the shock.
While he picked up on her again but his muscles were still in minor paralysis and couldn't react as she grabbed his collar, winked at him and smashed her forehead into his face.
'She did not have to do all that.'
Salem staggered back, rolling with instinctive grace. He countered immediately: a throat feint, straight punch, elbow, knee — all flowing like water, each strike aimed for efficiency. Morrigan blocked, parried, and twisted, stepping inside his guard to land a short punch to his sternum. He flew backward, scraping across the forest floor.
He rolled to a crouch, exhaling sharply, the Ethernano-Zone flickering slightly under the strain. Morrigan advanced, graceful and controlled.
"You've applied some admirable pressure, Junior," she said, a smirk tugging at her lips. "Yet, alas, there is still a long road ahead."
She lunged. Salem dropped low, hooking her leg and twisting his hips to throw her off balance. Fully committed, he attempted a decisive takedown. Morrigan tilted, selling the move — then reversed it in a single fluid motion.
He was thrown over her shoulder, hitting the ground hard. Instinctively, he tucked his chin and rolled, coming up ready to attack again.
Straight punch. Low kick. Elbow. He forced her backward for the first time in the spar. Morrigan's eyes gleamed.
"There it is."
She met him head-on. Fists collided, shockwaves cracking through the air. She slipped his punch and countered with three precise strikes: ribs, shoulder, jaw. Pain radiated through him, but he pushed through, ducking another swing, landing two rapid punches to her stomach, and aiming for the face.
Morrigan caught his fist mid-swing, landing a devastating knee to his gut, followed by a kick that sent him soaring. He activated the Ethernano-Zone mid-air, halting himself, but she entered his radius again, swinging a kick toward his back. He blocked, yet the follow-up was brutal: a double hammer-fist to the neck that propelled him toward the forest floor.
The impact was catastrophic. Dirt and stone erupted; the forest trembled. He landed in a crater, chest heaving, the Ethernano-Zone collapsing under the force.
Salem groaned, dust and sweat covering him. Something pressed into his chest — Morrigan's arm blade.
"Test complete. Results? Satisfying," she said, standing at the edge of the crater. "You adapt quickly, use your size well, and maintain that trick of yours under pressure."
Salem rubbed his neck, still aching. "Damn… that hit to the neck... Were you actually trying to break it?"
"Oh, stop whining, Junior. You survived, didn't you?" She snapped her fingers, and his blindfold vanished.
Finally adjusting to the sunlight, he noticed her watching him, an unreadable expression.
"What?" She didn't answer, just stretching her arm, grabbing him then yanking him to her and placing his head on her boobs. "YO! WHAT THE HELL!?" He yelped his face red.
"I never noticed how green your eyes are. They really do match mine perfectly." She chuckled softly.
He gave her a look of confusion as this was just completely random."Okay seriously what's wrong?"
"Like I told you nothing is wrong with me." She let go of him and brought out her car. "Now come on, we're burning daylight. We need to go to Crocus to meet with my contact for our treasure hunting."
"And we can't just fly there because…?
She opened the driver's seat. "Because we got time plus I just love driving. Don't pretend that you don't like the feeling of the road."
Salem threw him up with a little grin. "Guilty." He turned into an owl flying past her and turning back to normal on the driver seat. "So wh…" He stopped when his phone's notification went off so he decided to check up on the situation and it was the Behemoth icon.
"Anomaly situation?" asked Morrigan
"Yep."He simply nodded.
She rolled her eyes, smiling, smoke curling from her mouth. "Buckle up, Junior. And tell me where it is."
--XX--
Author note
Yo guys sorry the chapter come out so late I was supposed to send it 2 days ago but I their was a network problem in my area and things just went back to normal.
Anyway for the next chapter Morrigan and Salem are going to meet the infamous Crime Sorciére.
(Also here is a definitive look for Morrigan when or at least what she chooses to look like now)
Finally don't be afraid to drop your comments, reviews and power stones.