Chapter 121 - Nicole, Undine

"What did you say? And what's Causality index?"

Nicole asked her with a curious tone, she could not hear some of the earlier parts of the woman's statement, also the term 'causality index' caught her attention too.

However the woman just smiled and patted her head before changing the topic blatantly.

[You should advance for now, it would put you in a better mood and those little critters would also be happier.]

Nicole looked around her to see small floating creatures of various shapes and sizes.

Some were animal shaped, some were humanoid, and some were a mix of the two.

However, one thing they had in common, was that they were all visibly saddened.

These creatures, were spirits. 

A race closely related to Nature.

They were wilful, carefree and playful existences, though this mostly applied to the lower ranked ones.

Spirits could cause disaster or blessing depending on their moods.

Whenever spirits take a liking to someone, they gather round the person and end up affecting the surrounding area, depending on the number of spirits that gathered around them.

There could be blessings of nature like good crop yield or good weather or good health for the individuals in the area.

However, this only applied if the one they took interest in was in a good mood.

If they were not, the lower ranked spirits who were more susceptible to the emotions of the one they liked would begin to feel the same emotions as that person.

The surrounding areas, would be affected based on that.

The current dark storm clouds that were gathering around the Count's Villa was an example of this.

The lower ranked water spirits that always gathered around Nicole, sensed her dampening mood and were influenced accordingly.

This, was reflected in the current weather situation.

As for the woman who was hugging Nicole, she was a lot less affected as she was very capable of controlling her emotions perfectly.

That was expected, after all, unlike the lower ranked spirits that experienced various mood swings daily, she was a higher ranked spirit.

A Great water spirit, an Undine.

The known ranks of spirits were as follows;

Low rank

Mid rank 

High Rank

Great Spirit 

Spirit Ruler – The rulers were further subdivided into ranks of Lords, Kings and emperors.

This put the undine at the second highest rank of spirits.

She was a great spirit of the water attribute, one who was drawn to Nicole due to the latter's exceptionally high affinity for the water element, or so she said.

Eventually, she took a liking to Nicole as a whole and began staying around her like this.

She had a name other than 'undine', what all great water spirits were called but she had not given that name to Nicole and just insisted on being called Undine.

She only planned to reveal her name to Nicole when the latter was strong enough to enter a contract with her.

Of course, this would take a long while.

Nicole didn't know this, but the water spirit she was interacting with was just a small fragment of the great spirit itself.

The real thing was multiple realms above the current Nicole but she would only discover that later.

As Undine was giving Nicole a few tips on how to use her water manipulation abilities better, she suddenly stiffened before disappearing abruptly, leaving behind a few words.

[Be right back]

◇　◇　◇

To understand the reason for Undine's sudden disappearance, we have to backtrack to a few minutes ago when the Count was busy dealing with the issues that came with the new properties he just acquired.

"The factory on that star system with a dying star, we have to relocate it and contact the Entity in charge of the solar aspect."

"Yes, my lord."

The count's aides were assisting him in sorting out the new property when they suddenly felt chills down their spines.

The count's aura of slaughter, began pouring out of his body, scaring all the aides in the office.

Even the butler who had served the count for decades, had never seen him do such a thing without warning.

He dropped the tabs he was holding on his desk and stood up immediately.

Turning his head toward the western side of the villa, the look on his face turned grave.

[Authority of Slaughter: Cage of Slaughter]

Activating his authority, scared his aides shitless. Some even passed out due to their fear and the oppressive aura that surrounded the entire planet.

'Cage of Slaughter' was an ability possessed by those proficient in the law of slaughter from the mid rank and above.

It was a domain ability, one that weakened all others caught within and strengthened the caster.

It also had the effect of preventing those caught within from escaping, provided their strength was not above that of the caster.

The reason he used such an ability, was because of what he just sensed.

Nicole's room was in the western part of the villa, and he sensed and absurd amount of energy, an amount Nicole should definitely not have coming from there.

'The same as last night.'

Deciding not to delay the matter anymore, he was about to scan the entire villa for the source when he heard a grunt of pain.

"Ugh!"

It was then he realised that his unrestrained aura was pouring out towards his aides and they were definitely not enjoying it.

"Ah..."

He deactivated the authority instantly and helped the fallen men to their feet while apologizing repeatedly.

"Argh...M-my l-ord. Is-is there perhaps a problem?"

The butler finally managed to ask after getting to his feet, the other aides who were strong enough to not pass out also turned their curious gazes towards him.

Seeing the curious look on the butler's face, the count couldn't bring himself to say that he had lost control of himself and activated his authority because he sensed energy gathering in his daughter's room.

"Umm..."

While he was thinking of a way to phrase his answer, the butler decomposed himself and spoke.

"If it is a matter that regards your attention, you can proceed to handle it, the meetings for the day can be postponed too."

"Ah...good idea."

The count ran out of the office immediately, however he backtracked a few seconds later and spoke to the butler.

"Tell them that they have the day off when the wake up."

With those words he ran over to Nicole's room.

Seeing the count run off, the butler sighed to himself before suddenly remembering something he noticed when the count released his aura.

'The lord is at the intermediate stage now.'

Meanwhile, the intermediate stage mid-tier deity realm count, finally remembered he could teleport and snapped his fingers. 

Space attribute mana wrapped around him as he disappeared from that spot and reappeared in front of Nicole's room.

"Thank goodness I restricted its effects."

As the one who casted the cage of slaughter, he could select certain individuals who the effects of the cage should not work on.

His daughter Nicole, was one of them.

As such, Nicole had no idea about the thousands of people just outside the count's Villa that suddenly passed out due to the oppressive aura that came down on them.

She also did not know of the few drifters who had their spatial magic cancelled because of the authority, or the space crafts that nearly crashed as they were on the boundary of the range of the cage the count casted.

She was peacefully attempting to advance to the grandmaster realm in her room.

As for Undine, she would have been caught by the cage, if not for the counts initial reaction.

Before he activated the authority, he temporarily lost control of his aura, which was noticed by Undine.

His gaze also locked on to the area, causing her to stiffen involuntarily as the power of his gaze was far higher than what the body she was using could resist.

This was why the count was sure there was someone or something in the area, which led to the action of using the cage of slaughter.

However, at the last moment, Undine teleported away, a few seconds faster than the cage could surround the entire planet.

Count Harper walked into his daughter's room after knocking on the door silently, seeing her attempting to advance to the grandmaster realm.

He smiled to himself while thinking about whether he should throw a party to showcase how much of a genius his daughter was.

He quietly walked over to the couch opposite the one Nicole was seated on, erasing his presence and watching over her calmly.

He noticed the tens of water spirits that scurried to the edges of the room upon his appearance but said nothing about them.

'They are all low rank spirits, all of them combined could not generate that amount of mana.

There was some other spirit here, and it was most likely the one i sensed last night.

It seems to be avoiding me for some reason.'

Of course, Undine was avoiding the count because he would have definitely realised she was not just any random great spirit but he didn't need to know that.