Chapter 133: Soulmates Part 1

"..." Three days have passed since the two Nios reached the third floor of hell, and they found a pretty intuitive way to keep themselves warm without turning into blocks of ice by using biology to do it.

As expected, at some point they would both fall asleep at the same time, and Nioh had an idea to overcome the problem. Since Nioh knows far more about dragons than Nio does, she came up with the solution this time.

It showed how good their teamwork is despite the fights, and the solution was extremely simple: both of them strip completely naked and embrace each other.

As counterintuitive as taking their clothes off seems, dragons have a very different thermal exchange than other living beings. When Nio and Nioh leave the warm environment and keep their bare skin exposed and touching each other, the heat exchange between their bodies concentrates on whichever one releases more heat into the environment and absorbs it.

Which means that instead of the cold being the main thing affected by the heat, Nio and Nioh’s bodies start exchanging heat between themselves, reducing heat loss as much as possible. It isn’t perfect, and they always wake up cold, but it works to keep them from freezing.

When they wake up, they just put their clothes back on and go back to digging a tunnel with fire magic that works a little better in the thermally insulated environment.

"You know, I didn’t want to be the one to bring this up, but for some reason we’ve been kissing too much and having too much physical contact lately," Nioh says with a frustrated tone.

"I already noticed." Despite everything, all those contacts had reasons behind them, so Nio deliberately ignored it.

"This is really weird, you know!? Even more so because we’re the same being—"

"Nioh, stop complaining. All of this has been helping us, don’t you agree? Besides, I’m not very happy about having to sleep naked and hugging you. My skin burns when I wake up from the contact with the ice."

"I know, I’m just saying that—"

"I already know! Stop talking, it’s embarrassing..." Nio tries as hard as she can to avoid this subject because it touches on her current sexuality.

"Let’s focus on the tunnel. Our ideas worked and that’s totally the only thing that matters. We can only hope we’ll be able to sense the door to the fourth floor."

"...You’re not interested in me, Nio?" Nioh questions Nio, making her stop firing flames at the ice.

"What the hell are you talking about, Nioh?"

"I-I don’t know!! It’s just weird, okay? Don’t you think I’m an attractive woman? You kiss me and hug me without even showing a reaction!" While Nio tries to avoid the subject, Nioh feels offended as a woman by Nio’s lack of reaction.

As a proud dragon, to Nioh, the fact that Nio doesn’t react is as if she were insufficient in Nio’s eyes.

"I just don’t have interest, that’s all. Besides, we’re the same being. Are you saying you like kissing me?" Nio asks mockingly, going back to heating the ice, but she doesn’t see Nioh blushing.

"So you like men, Nio?"

"O-Of course not!! Where the hell did you get that! I’m hetero—" Nio stops talking.

"I mean... I like women." Nio doesn’t quite know how to define herself, since being hetero would mean she likes men considering her current body.

"Stop asking those damn questions, Nioh. I like women, but I have no interest in any of that right now! I have better things to do than think about girls."

"I have a revenge against Yomo and Haruna!! And I have to kill Typhon, and also take back my palace!! And take over the world!!"

"...Nio..."

"What is it now?" Nio starts extending the hole downward when she hears the winds above and realizes they were climbing a mountain.

"You’re cute."

"Hahaha what the hell was that?" Nio looks back, staring at Nioh.

"You’re quite adorable and feminine too, and you let out pleasant moans."

"Are you trying to offend me?"

"Just stating facts. I just stopped to realize that you have no idea how much your gender changed everything, do you?"

"...What are you talking about?" Nio stops generating flames and leans against the ice, looking at Nioh, who uses water magic to seal the tunnel and reduce air circulation.

"A-After talking to you here, I-I realized you kind of ignored a lot of things... and... I think I should be more honest, so you have my side too..."

"...Go on." Nio pays close attention.

"Souls specifically don’t have gender, but gender influences compatibility between souls. In the game that the humans from your world created, compatibility was important. If you had been a girl from the start, or I had been a man from the start, we wouldn’t have any connection."

"...?"

"What I mean by that is that even if you ignore that your gender was switched, it was switched, and there’s a reason for it. Wouldn’t you like to know that being a girl now is something that has a purpose?"

"..."

"Don’t you think it’s strange how you don’t feel dysphoria or some other weird psychological symptom?"

"Well..."

"You’re feminine, Nio. Your gestures, your way of speaking, and while you were laying an egg your moans were pleasant like a girl’s. Where did that come from?"

"...Tsk..."

"We’re more compatible than you imagine. That’s why we’ve lived together since I was born. I never really cared that you were a man in your world, and I already knew you’d be a girl when you found me."

"Your physical form molded itself to mine because my soul was stronger, full of magic, and my body was the bridge between us... but look at you now, you died... and you have my appearance." Nio looks at her hands.

"Wait..." Nio realizes for the first time that even in hell she’s still a girl, except in hell the true form of the soul is what manifests.

Nio should have had her "real" masculine physical appearance, not Nioh’s physical appearance, since Nioh’s appearance was only from her physical body.

"I think we’re soulmates, Nio."

"...Ehhw." Nio makes a sound as if she’s about to vomit in mockery, which Nioh finds offensive.

"Pathetic humans who don’t understand anything! A soulmate isn’t someone you love, you idiot. They’re two identical souls, literally. The body doesn’t mold perfectly to the soul, and souls don’t have gender, so soulmates can have different genders or be of different races."

"That’s why you look like me, because my soul is stronger, so yours molded itself to mine."

"Okay, and what am I supposed to take from that?!" Nio rolls her eyes.

"I’m just trying to make you accept your feminine side. It could be useful."

"Useful?"

"Yes... I’ll tell you why..." Nioh grabs Nio, holding her throat and pinning her against the ice, her nails digging into Nio’s throat, letting a few drops of blood trickle down.

"!!!"