The villainess shall be mine

The whole castle was about to crumble, and I could feel the ground trembling periodically as cracks formed on the huge pillars.

"Liu, Zax… Where are they?"

I needed to act without wasting any more time.

For a while now, I felt like everything would be fine, and with my power, I felt like there was nothing that could restrain me.

But suddenly, I somehow returned to my usual self, feeling doubts and anxiety once again.

I began to wonder if there was a meaning in my actions and I didn't like it. Somehow, I felt like I became weak once again.

"Liu, Zax!"

After searching for them throughout the whole place, I found Liu and Zax lying next to each other between huge rocks which were probably the remnants of one of the broken pillars.

The two rocks had weird shapes, protecting Zax and Liu from the falling debris from the ceiling.

As soon as I saw them, I activated my power and wielded the black plasma sword in my hand.

"Show yourself!" I shouted, but there was no suspect movement in the surrounding at least within a radius of twenty meters or so around me. I felt like my power got an upgrade after I absorbed the power from Verte inside my body.

'Still, am I imagining things? Maybe Zax brought Liu here before passing out again but how come I didn't notice them?' I wondered.

'Was I too focused on the fight? However, it felt like only fifteen minutes had passed, or did I miss something.'

Also, there was that idea or should I say a theory that I had come up with after imagining multiple scenarios which made me believe that my reincarnation was not a pure coincidence and someone was manipulating the course of things, leading me to reconsider that guy's words.

'Not fearing the loss of someone huh…' I looked at Liu once again as these thoughts.

Anyway, it was not the time to be thinking about that. After the boss died, I predicted that the monsters would invade the place and I had to bring Liu and Zax out of there before that happened.

"Huh? I didn't expect to find this here. Did Zax bring it here with her too? So why is not next to her but next to Liu?" I said, looking at Cristal's core.

I took Cristal's core and placed it in between the two sword handles, then the nanoparticles began to fuse with the core. 'Where are my fingers though?'

My fingers were nowhere to be seen and it seemed like they disintegrated into nanoparticles too, giving me the ability to control every nanoparticle forming the sword handles. "So this is the power of creation, huh? Not only does it give me the ability to create everything that I can imagine but it can also act autonomously and adjust the little details that I should be able to think about but missed during the process of creation."

With this power, the things that I would be able to do were limitless. A shame that my body couldn't even activate it under normal circumstances.

[Activatiom of the system.]

[System activated successfully.]

[I am delighted to see you again, master.]

I was a bit happy to hear Cristal's voice again. "Can you scan the area and look for the closest portal? I kinda accidentally disintegrated the purple stone."

[…]

"What is the meaning of this silence?"

[Who are you?]

"Huh?"

[You don't look like the person you were just a while ago. What year are we?]

"This is not the time for that."

After that, Cristal left to inspect the area.

I was now confronted with a tricky situation where I needed to decide if I would absorb the fragment or give it to Liu.

If I absorbed the tree fragment then I would be able to create another ability similar to that guy's but I didn't know how much time it would take for me to be able to gather the right conditions to open the gate of my soul. Every time I absorbed the power of a tree fragment, my body would get an upgrade and I can use the power of creation.

When I thought about it that way, everything that happened during my coming of age ceremony made sense. The fact that I had already gone beyond the gate of soul at that time and the fact that I was able to fly. However, since my body was still too weak back then, this power remained temporary.

Thus, I didn't know what would happen if I immediately absorbed the power of another fragment without strengthening my body to be able to adapt to the change, knowing that it would impose another burden on my body and my mind.

But for sure, I wouldn't be able to do that immediately because if something were to go wrong, then it would put my life and others in danger.

The problem was that I didn't know how much time Liu had left. 'What if she dies before I can create that ability? In the first place, how much time do I need, and how powerful my body should get to be able to control the third ability?'

On the other hand, Liu was at most a level 8 gift holder so she would be able to absorb the power of the Tree fragment. I didn't know how it worked for other people but I believe it would save her life at least for now. The problem was if I did that, then I wouldn't be able to take back the tree of life unless she died and I didn't know when I would be able to get my hand on a fragment again.

For some reason, it felt like my thinking process was quicker than usual but still, it didn't change the fact that I had doubts in my mind. 'I felt like everything was easy earlier…'

I know that I shouldn't be hesitating but there were too many things that I needed to take into consideration. 'If I choose to save Liu, in what kind of way this decision would affect my future and the future of the world? But if I choose to take the risk to wait but then she dies, would I be happy with that? What if I create an ability to bring her back?'

Moreover, what kind of relation Liu and I would even maintain after this? What was Liu for me?

"What the hell am I even thinking?" I remembered that guy's words. "If I were to be in Liu's place, I would have loved it if she choose me over the world. Such selfishness, I will probably need to work my body millions of times harder to make up for this…" I said and manifested my spiritual form.

I poured some of my life force into the tree fragment and then it glowed and was about to turn into light particles but before it entered my body, I used my spiritual form to stab Liu in the heart, inserting the fragment inside of her.

"Mm? Nothing is happening? Did it fail?" I frowned, after all, I was not sure of anything and I didn't even know what exactly my spiritual form was and it was all speculation.

"Guh!"

"Liu!"

Liu's body trembled violently and white drool came out of her mouth.

"What is this? It wasn't like this when I absorbed Verte's power," I said, realizing that I missed something extremely obvious.

After that, Liu stopped trembling but nothing else happened.

I put my finger on her neck and I could feel a weak pulse but she wasn't waking up and her body didn't revert to normal.

"Roaaar!"

I could hear monsters wandering around as if they were now free to do what they wanted.

[Master, the monsters are still fighting against each other so now is the time to get out of here. I found a portal but it's still a little bit far from here.]

Cristal came back and made her report.

I didn't expect the monsters to begin fighting against each other but I guessed that some of the powerful monsters were trying to assert their dominance.

"Turn into an armor and protect Liu, I will carry Zax," I said and took Zax in my arm, then I put her on my back. She was very light so my movement shouldn't be hindered, or so I thought.

However, Liu's body trembled again and steam came out of it as if something was happening to her flesh.

"Cristal, activate the recovery mode. It was just a prototype but it may help stabilize her condition," I said.

[Roger.]

"Now let's go before it's too late!"

I needed to bring Liu back to her friend as fast as possible and I decided to give the fragment to her. Logically speaking I should be prioritizing the fate of the world but as a human, as a man, I thought that not gambling on her life was a good choice because no one wanted that.