As Leel's words ended, the coyote animated dead — having adapted to its new form — stood firm and, following the instinctive craving for spiritual energy and life, lunged toward Ais's turned back.
But Ais had heard it coming. She stepped sideways and instantly summoned an ice crystal lance, then spun to the right simultaneously. She used the lance like a club and sent the animated dead tumbling across the ground.
She looked at the wide-eyed, stammering Leel with mild exasperation:
"What's there to be startled about? Those sounds of it getting up were so obvious — did you think I couldn't hear them?"
The badly startled Leel had completely lost the composure he'd shown during the earlier dissection of the reanimation process. He scrambled to put distance between himself and the animated dead, too rattled to even respond.
It's not like it was a human corpse. Is this kind of reaction really necessary? Ais, not quite understanding, examined the wolf body — a hole in the head, with pinkish ice and debris still faintly visible. The single unhurried swing she'd given it, not even using Full-Force Strike, had of course done no lasting damage. The wolf stirred briefly, then stood again. The struck area bore a clear dent, and much of the fur had fallen away. The muscles seemed to have lost their elasticity, even though the wolf had only been dead for minutes.
Having Leel's help, Ais had changed the Eye of Secrets activation gesture to two taps of her back teeth — and now quickly turned it on. She saw that the fur lying on the ground had lost all spiritual light, as if it had been shedding for a long time. The animated dead itself radiated a deep black spiritual aura, utterly unlike any living creature.
The animated dead rushed again, trying to bite her, but Ais — faster and more agile — put an ice lance through its right side. Under deliberate restraint, the lance didn't instantly freeze the creature, but close contact with a Witch's ice still slowed it noticeably for a moment. Then she pulled right and the lance tip, not driven deeply, tore a long gash along the right side.
The blood that dripped out was dark and dull — nothing like what a body dead only minutes should produce. In Aura Vision, the blood's spiritual light was almost entirely absent.
But even with a gaping side wound, viscous fluid still seeping from the body, the animated dead felt nothing and charged again — and ran directly into a black flame.
This time the reaction was significant. Though the creature could no longer make any meaningful sound, the way it thrashed and rolled, trying desperately to extinguish the black flame, made it easy to imagine its suffering.
Ais drove the ice lance into the animated dead to pin it, preventing further struggle. Then she waved Leel forward from a distance.
"So you see why there was no need to panic. It's nothing I can't handle immediately."
Leel glanced at the intensifying phantom black flame and said quietly:
"I just couldn't help it. I know an animated dead has no specific fatal weakness — I forgot that for you, Detective Ais, that isn't a problem."
Ais shook her head: "Still — you were too slow to calm down. An animated dead that charges blindly without any evasive ability can be neutralized simply by breaking its legs. And that's something you could potentially do."
"I'm sorry — I embarrassed myself." Leel dropped his head, voice subdued.
Ais smiled and patted his shoulder:
"I'm not saying this to mock you. Just reminding you to stay calm when you encounter things like this in the future. You're only Sequence 9, and it was your first time seeing something like this — a reaction like that is entirely normal. No need to apologize."
"Right. I know." Leel scratched his head, tone back to normal:
"By the way, that was very impressive, Ais. And with that many supernatural abilities — you're already at Sequence 7, aren't you?"
"Guess." Having dispensed those two words, Ais changed the subject:
"By the way, Leel — why do you think the potion comes with a spell like this? What is it meant to be used for?
In combat, it's clearly useless. Anyone at the same Sequence level could probably dispatch this thing in under a second. Outside combat, even with spells that can command animated dead, they can only follow very simple orders — not even useful for carrying cargo at the docks."
Leel didn't fully agree:
"Maybe the potion just wants to emphasize how evil this pathway is? And what if some pathway's potion adds absolutely no combat power — in that case, wouldn't this spell become somewhat useful?"
"Unlikely. The animated dead this spell creates can barely reliably take down a fit, clear-headed ordinary person. There's no way it could trouble an Extraordinary who's advanced two or three times."
While they were still discussing this, both of their intuitions suddenly registered something breaking — and the animated dead went completely still.
Opening Aura Vision quickly, they found, unsurprisingly, that the deep black light around the body was rapidly fading, disappearing completely in moments. The black flame extinguished along with it.
"So the corpse's movement was entirely dependent on that unusual spiritual energy radiating the deep black light."
Ais cleared away the remains while summing up.
"Which means if there were a way to affect spiritual energy, an animated dead's movement would very likely be impaired." Leel also murmured to himself, thinking aloud.
Cleanup done, it was past five o'clock. The two headed back to Leel's home without further delay.
Since the workday hadn't started, Ais had intended to use this time to make a wand from the forest sprite branch — to speed up one of her spells. But she found that while the physical discomfort didn't affect her ability to cast spells or fight, it was disrupting her ability to concentrate on anything that required fine detail.
This has been going on all day — what is happening with me? Finally taking the matter seriously, Ais attempted a divination. The result: she was in perfect health.
Then what is this? Ais thought hard, and eventually landed on a possibility she'd overlooked.
"My period is coming."
After the seventh silent repetition, she looked at the positive result in the mirror. Her face went completely dark.
"What in the — does it have to be this thorough? Couldn't the potion have just skipped this one? If I'm getting periods, that means I can actually have children?!"
Almost a month has passed, come to think of it. Ais had assumed she was adapting well to her new body. She now realized she'd been naive. She'd overlooked something this fundamental to a woman's life.
What do I do? Aside from drinking hot water, I have no idea. She was genuinely panicking. The more pressing problem was that she had absolutely no idea how to even ask anyone for help.
How do I explain to someone that I'm twenty-four years old and this is literally my first period?
Her mind in complete disarray, Ais started pacing the room in agitated circles and couldn't land on any solution. After going round and round, the part of her that had become increasingly despairing couldn't help thinking:
"Should I just tell someone I was still a man a month ago?"
No, no, absolutely not. The more she thought, the more frantic she got. She finally just launched herself at the pillow on the bed and went to work on it with her fists:
"This is all that stupid witch's fault. Stupid cult. Stupid evil god. Stupid gambling addict. And whoever brought me here — you absolute idiot, if I ever get the chance, I'll make every single one of you pay. Otherwise I'll become some greasy middle-aged man's kept woman."
Calm down, calm down. After reducing the pillow to a sad state, Ais recognized that this kind of venting accomplished nothing. She attempted meditation to settle herself.
This was, without question, the most difficult meditation session she'd had yet. After some unknown number of failed attempts, she finally entered the meditative state and brought her mind and body to temporary stillness.
But every time her thoughts drifted toward the period problem, she would inevitably break out of meditation again. So all she could do was use it to empty her mind entirely — and wait until she could genuinely accept the reality of what was coming before allowing herself to think about what to do.
Author's Note (this chapter):
No note from the author for this chapter.
Then you should try the Sequence 6 Schemer for the highest upgrade.