Chapter 507: Aerim's Wisdom

“Agh… like I’ve been telling you… it’s not my fault…” I muttered, slowly getting to my feet. “Ah, whatever… you’re not going to believe me anyway.”

“Hmph,” Lin Luo snorted, turning away and refusing to even speak to me.

After being clobbered half-to-death by Lin Luo and Flaria combined (mainly the former in terms of attack power) we finally decided to resume our journey upwards. It was still a long walk, but the good news was, no more attacks came from Aerim beyond that room. I figured Terrarim may have gone and communicated with her somehow since he was quite silent, but I couldn’t be sure.

Slowly but surely, however, we arrived at the very top of the tower, where a single chamber lay, sealed behind double doors. Aerim’s power was in here, according to Terrarim, so there was no where else to go. Taking a deep breath, I stepped closer to the door and pushed them open.

“… Wow.”

To our surprise, what awaited on the other end was not particularly a treasure chest or anything, but in fact the window at the top of the tower. The girls and I slowly made our way over to the edge of the balcony, and glanced out at the beautiful view of clouds and other sky islands in the distance that belonged to the Celestici.

It was beautiful.

“We came here looking for power, but…” Lin Luo sighed and rested her arms on the edge. “… This is pretty nice too.”

“Yeah. Almost nice enough to distract us from noticing the spirit behind us…” I suddenly turned around and narrowed my eyes at the entity sitting on the roof above us. “… Almost.”

“Hehehehe, so you noticed! Good job!” The near-transparent girl—the entity—said with a high-pitched giggle. “Welcome to my home!”

“You’re… Aerim?” Lin Luo asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes. Is there a problem?” The transparent, air-like girl smirked triumphantly.

“Er, no. I just thought a god would look… well, more like a god.”

“Seconded,” I added. “And why do you have a physical form while Terrarim doesn’t?”

“Oh, I’m the air itself! That’s why you can see me. If Terrarim took a physical form, he would become the entire ground! There’d be no point.”

“The air itself…” Mei Gui fell into thought. “Does that also mean you can, for example, shapeshift into certain beings?”

“Oh, yes! You’re a sharp one, little girl!” Aerim praised. “You remember the shrine maiden who spoke to you at Terrarim’s place? Heehee, that was actually me!”

“Wow. That act and your actual personality are so different, I never would’ve thought,” I muttered. “Anyway… you were the one who sent those airblades after us, huh?”

“Yep!” Aerim nodded happily as if this pleased her.

“And… you’re also the one who sent that cricket storm after us too?”

“Yep!”

“Aha! And worst of all, you’re even the one behind making these girls strip and then pinning the blame on me, right?!”

“Nope!”

“…”

This girl…

“P-Please, kiddo, calm down. I know she can be… irritating at times, but she does not mean any harm.”

Oh yeah? Well I sure do mean her harm.

“P-Please, if you seek the immortality…”

Yeah, yeah…

Clearing my throat, I put on my cold facade, immune to any forms of annoyance, and stared the Air Empyrean dead in the eye.

“… Now. Where’s my reward for coming all the way here?”

“Hmph, you’re not worthy,” Aerim said, to my surprise.

“Uh… what?”

“You’re not clever enough! You brute forced your way through every challenge! That’s not clever at all!”

“Now, now, Aerim, settle down…” I heard Terrarim say in my head, and Aerim seemed to hear him as well as she pouted a bit and folded her arms like a little girl, reminding me of Flaria.

“… Fine. Since Terrarim has deemed you worthy and you did rescue him… I’ll give you your due reward. Step closer.”

I did as told, walking towards her until I was directly underneath the edge of the roof her legs were dangling from. Then:

“Lick my foot.”

“… Excuse me?”

“I said, lick my foot. Unless, of course, you don’t want the power…”

At this point, I wasn’t even mad or annoyed anymore. I was genuinely concerned for this girl’s mental health, so I whispered to Terrarim in my head.

“… Oi, bud. Is your friend straight in the head?”

“I assure you, she is. She just has somewhat of a god complex, and wants people to revere her as such. I cannot really convince her at this point, so…”

“… Alright. Alright, fine,” I said, grabbing her bare foot by the heel and bringing it closer to my face. Despite being transparent and made literally out of air, it felt just like a real foot, but didn’t have any particular smell. It was… air, after all.

Then, as Aerim smirked smugly, thinking she had won, I smiled like a devil and brought my other hand closer to the sole of her foot.

And in the next moment-

“A-AHHAHAHAHA! W-Wait, what are you doi- HAHAHA!”

“Give me the power, or I won’t stop!” I grinned devilishly and kept tickling the bottom of her feet, and the once-god could do little to resist in her powered down form.

“W-Wait, nooo! Terrarim, save me! AHAHAHAHA!”

“Hm, you seem like you are having fun,” Terrarim noted. “Good, good.”

“U-Ugh, you traitor! HAHAHAH- F-Fine! I’ll give you it, so stop!”

“… Hmph.”

At last, I let go of her foot, and Aerim let out a couple of deep breaths as she struggled to stop panting.

“Now, give me the power.”

“Ugh, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!” She yelled through grit teeth. “I hate you, but I said I’d give it to you, so I will…!”

She held out her hand, in which a spark of light was being held, and I took it from her.

“Eat that,” she said. “It’ll give you the power, and also connect you to me.”

“… This isn’t some prank again, is it? If I find out this is actually bird shit or something, I’m going to tickle you to death.”

“E-Eek! O-Okay, uh, wrong one, take this one!” She suddenly said frightfully, taking back the one she just gave me and handing me a different spark of light.

“…” I stared at her as if to say ‘Pathetic’, and before popping it into my mouth, I checked in with Terrarim.

“This is safe, correct?”

“Yes. You need not worry. She is telling the truth this time.”

“If I find out you’re working together with her to prank me, I’m going to make sure to send both of you to eternal sleep, and I mean the truly eternal kind.”

“Y-Yes. Trust me, it is safe.”

“… Hm.”

After some hesitation, I finally popped the spark of light into my mouth and swallowed it. It tasted like absolutely nothing, and I felt no particular change in my body.

“So? What was the power?” I asked, and Aerim pointed at Mei Gui.

“Look at her, burn her appearance into your mind, then say in your heart: ‘I am (insert her name here)’.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Oh… is this going where I think it’s going? Well, no matter…

I turned to Mei Gui just as told, and she stared back into my eyes. Like two lovebirds, we looked deeply into each other’s irises, and once I had her entire flawless appearance and profile memorized in my mind, I closed my eyes and chanted in my heart:

I am Mei Gui.

The change took place immediately. I felt my body first turning invisible, then shrinking, then slowly gaining a new form as I morphed into the appearance of Mei Gui.

“… Master…?” Mei Gui blinked in surprise at the mirror version of herself now in front of me, and I blinked back.

“Uh, hey. Oh, wow, even my voice has changed. Oh, wait, I can even summon her spear? So I can use her other powers too… this is awesome.”

“Woah, they look identical!” Flaria exclaimed excitedly, and Lin Luo nodded in approval.

“… Mm. This can be useful tactically.”

I smiled. “I agree. With the power to Shapeshift without any cost like this, many missions can be made far easier, be it for decoy, spying, or simply pretending to be someone else. But in any case… how do I turn back?”

Silence.

“Uh… hello? Aerim?”

“U-Um, the art isn’t perfected yet, so I actually don’t know…”

“… You’re kidding me, right?”

“Um… no?”

“… Terrarim, I am on the verge of strangling your friend.”

“H-Hold it!” Terrarim cried in my head. “You will not stay in that form forever… probably. Nothing lasts forever—there has to be a time limit on how long you can stay transformed for, especially since the powers of us Empyreans are far from what they used to be. I believe as long as you give it some time, you should eventually revert to your old self…”

“Probably, huh?” I muttered. “And if I don’t turn back, Aerim, I’ll tickle you until you tell me a solution that works.”

“E-Eek!”