Demon Queen Rebirth: I Reincarnated as a Living Armor?!

Chapter 97 - Phantom Form Transformation

-----

After seeing the status window notifying him of his accomplishment, Ervas mind blackened out. ??

His mind should have gone to his dreams, but he felt that he was somewhere else than just dreams.

"Hm?"

He had just learned the techniques he trained so hard to acquire but fell unconscious, and now his consciousness moved him somewhere else than his point of view.

"I guess I fell asleep… but, where am I? Dreams are usually not this vivid," he thought.

Ervas glanced around and found that his body was actually sleeping in the ground.

"…Eh? Is this…?"

He saw Anna slowly getting back up, and Ismene and Amelia rushing towards him.

"Boy, are you okay?" asked Ismene.

"I think he's fine, but he fell asleep the moment he healed me," said Anna.

"Ervas! Ervas! Ervas!" said Amelia as she grabbed Ervas and moved him around.

"Please don't do that, Amelia…" muttered Ervas.

The three girls then were frozen in time.

They glanced at Ervas, the one floating above his real body.

"W-What?! Is that Ervas's g-g-ghosts?!" shouted Ismene as she fell to the ground.

"Eh? Ervas really died?!" shouted Anna with horror.

"How can you do that?" asked Amelia.

Ervas glanced at himself, he was made entirely out of his Phantom and Spectral Soul, wit his appearance as well, even his face and all was the same, there was a thin connection between him and his original body made by his feet.

"I think this is something like what Veronica can do… separating her soul from her main body," said Ervas.

"I-Is that so…? Phew…" said Anna.

"W-Well… Thanks, goddess that you did not die…" said Ismene.

"Ervas, can you do things in that form?" asked Amelia with a cute smile.

"I think I can… this is most likely just an extension of my own Phantom Form and Soul Void Skills… then, Phantom and Soul Materialization should work," said Ervas, as he materialized his phantasmal body and grabbed a rock by extending his arms like noodles.

"Uwah! So awesome, grab me now! Grab me, grab me!" said Amelia.

"Okay," said Ervas with a smile, as he grabbed Amelia with his arms and made it seem as if she was flying around.

"Oh, the great prince! His phantasmal form is so shivering, so fascinating!"

"Oh, great prince, please, grab us as well!"

"And me!"

"Bugooo!"

"Bugygygaya!"

Various Dead Spirits floated around Ervas's phantasmal form as they praised his newfound ability, there were very few intelligent dead spirits, as most of them were of monsters.

It seems like, through the battle against Anna, Ervas awakened his soul potential and became able to do something like an 'out of body experience' that people often say that they had on Earth, where they would fall asleep and have dreams where their souls and consciousness would leave their bodies momentarily and could see themselves sleeping in the bed.

"Could this be related to the Death Attribute? Maybe awakening the charm, the manipulation of created undead and also of golem creation… maybe" thought Ervas. There did not seem to be any 'out of body experience' skill out there, but he remembered that there was something similar to a Death Attribute spell.

[You acquired the [Long-Distance Control; Level 1] Skill!]

"Oh, maybe this skill was somehow related to it? Veronica also had it, I think" said Ervas, as Veronica alter egos talked with him through the Cursed Equipment he was wearing on his main body.

"So you can already do that? You learn very fast!" they said.

"Just like you, aren't I?"

"Well yeah, we are two halves of the same soul, fufu" they laughed.

Ervas wondered if he could ever do things like Veronica, perhaps he could separate his phantom form into many clones?

For now, he tried to create many heads with it, and it worked, though it was difficult. Ismene, Amelia, and Anna glanced at him with a bit of concern as they carried his body back to the tribe.

"A-Are you really okay?" asked Anna.

"Yeah, I think I've awakened something very useful…" said Ervas, as more heads appeared over on his phantom form until he resembled a bunch of grapes.

After Ervas tested many things and met with Veronica's main body and his father, Jason became frightened at first because he thought that Ervas was a ghost and that Anna, Ismene, and Amelia brought his corpse…

"Son?! You're dead?!"

"No, I am fine. My body is sleeping. I think my brain, muscles, and bones were just too exhausted, but I can use my soul to think, talk and do other things as well, so there isn't any problem" said Ervas.

"I-I see… isn't it dangerous? What if you get lost and can't get back to your body though?" asked Jason.

"You got it wrong, Jason. Ervas's soul is still on his body. What happens is that he can extend his soul and creates a perfect copy of his appearance. He's not literally taking his whole soul outside of his body" said Veronica.

"S-So that's how it is, okay… I will calm myself" said Jason while sighing.

"Now that you've managed to do this with your soul, it should also be possible for you to learn Soul Break!" said Veronica.

"I don't know why you are so sure about me learning it, but I've learned many skills thanks to you, so I should try at the very least," said Ervas.

"Soul Break… it sounds like a terrifying power," said Jason.

"It is necessary to fight against Oggoth and deal damage to him if we ever want to get him out of this place and to stop harassing the tribes living in here," said Veronica.

"Could it be possible for us to learn it as well?" wondered Anna.

"I don't think so… Soul Break seems to be related to our natures and special souls. Ervas and I have begun to connect our souls lately, which gave him the ability to learn what I learned as well. So, for him and me, it should be possible, but for the rest… I am not sure, probably not" said Veronica.

"That's a relief, I don't think it would be correct for all of us to begin wielding such a terrifying power…" said Ismene.

"Well, we will help you however we can when the time comes!" said Anna.

"I want meat," said Amelia, completely ignoring the conversation.

"I guess little Amelia didn't care about what we were talking about…" laughed Jason.

"Bilililililili!" said Cthulhu, emerging from within the tent alongside Nyarlathotep shapeshifting as Amelia.

As usual, Nyarlathotep began to share his flesh with the rest so it could be cooked and eaten.

"Obbjbjb"

"Nyarlathotep flesh is very good for recovering calories and vitality," said Ervas, as he dived into his physical body and woke up, he shaped his mouth by infusing his phantom form into it and then materialized it, making it seem like a giant and aberrant jaws, he used them to eat the large amounts of flesh given by the happy and innocent Nyarlathotep. The flesh was quickly digested and absorbed by his body with the immensely fast metabolism of a Demon such as himself.

"Ervas you've gotten a bit bizarre…" muttered Gaia atop Ervas's head.

"Bilililili!"

"Obbjbjb!"

Cthulhu and Nyarlathotep however seemed to delight in Ervas digesting the flesh of Nyarlathotep's otherworldly body.

The night quickly fell and after Ervas finished eating, he went to sleep with Nyarlathotep and Cthulhu, alongside Ivy and the rest of the plants, who would often build him a large bed made of thorny vines and flowers.

[You acquired the [Digestion; Level 1] and [Phantom Form Transformation; Level 1] Skills!]

[The Level of [Rapid Healing; Level 1] has increased!]

-----

<Skill Explanations>

Phantom Form Transformation

A Skill that lets the user transform its flesh into phantom form, becoming semi-transparent.

The user can choose to transform an area or its entire body, its appearance can be seen even to those without Jobs such as Spiritualist or Spirit Mage.

Different from 'Phantom Form', this skill lets the user transform his own physical body into a phantom, meanwhile the Phantom Form skill lets the user control its natural phantom, the white, foggy-like substance that covers anyone's soul.

This skill lets the user not only become a phantom completely but also it lets it mold himself as if he were a slimy and phantasmagoric substance, which can also be materialized and used as limbs.

Ervas unlocked this skill by simply doing this act unknowingly, such ability seems to have developed naturally when he changed Jobs to 'Hollow Life Specter'.