Chapter 134: Soulmates Part 2

"...Urgh!" Nio tries to fight back, grabbing Nioh’s hands to push her away, but Nioh holds her down hard against the ice. Nioh slides her thigh between Nio’s legs so she can’t kick while she leans her face in closer.

"?" A golden cross forms in the pupil of Nio’s right eye, casting a faint golden glow that shimmers in the dimness of this ice tunnel, while Nioh’s left eye gains a white cross in the exact same style as Nio’s.

"..." Nio stops struggling as knowledge floods into her mind, as if she’d always had it — until their experiences become hers. When Nioh finishes, she releases Nio, who gasps and touches her neck.

"Okay... that... that is insane," Nio murmurs as the cross flickers softly and fades from her gaze.

"That’s the perk of being soulmates. We can transfer our memories to each other. You can even transfer magic. I just taught you a few spells I know you don’t have," Nioh says, touching her own neck because she felt the pain of being grabbed.

One of the advantages of "soulmates" is that they can transfer certain things between each other. Nioh didn’t know they were soulmates until both of them came to hell and Nio kept having a female body identical to Nioh’s.

"Did you really need to grab my throat?" Nio asks as she analyzes the memories she received — which aren’t many, because there’s a limit to what can be sent and how much can be sent at once.

"I had to. That way I could see if I could feel your pain. One more proof that we’re soulmates. Plus, it requires spiritual contact to do this, and since we’re two souls, just touching you was enough."

"...Divine Magic..." Nio murmurs, seeing the knowledge that Nioh felt obligated to pass on to her. A new type of magic. In the game there were only five types — low, medium, and high-level magic, plus racial and special magic. In reality, though, there are more types, and divine magic stands above every class Nio knows.

"If you always knew about this type of magic, why didn’t you tell me before?" Nio says, her tone critical.

"Because I couldn’t teach you in the context we were in, and these spells burn through a lot of mana. We also didn’t have time. But now that I’ve found out we’re soulmates, I don’t need to teach you. I can just shove this knowledge and experience deep into your soul by force."

"Okay... and why didn’t you give me your memories about Typhon?!"

"Nio, are you an idiot? I have more than hundreds of millennia of existence. You think your fragile brain can handle receiving that many memories? Not to mention you’d feel all the pain from those memories at once. You want to go insane?" Nioh says, clearly irritated.

"I’d rather not go crazy," Nio mutters, somewhat disappointed, as the wounds on her neck close up.

"..." Nio bites her lips, feeling a bit of the bitterness of Nioh’s emotions, which were sent along with everything else she received.

"Fuck... you really are a piece of work, Nioh... haaa..." Nio looks up at the ice while releasing a small wave of flames to keep the place warm.

"Why are you cursing at me?"

"...Just... it’s kind of your fault I’m a girl... but whatever. I really am being forced to accept a lot of really shitty things about my life because of you."

"Because when you passed me your memories and experience, your feelings at the moment came along too. And honestly, they’re pretty intense things that force me to see your side more deeply."

"I’m thinking about a lot of things right now, Nioh... like the fact that I died a virgin, that I never had a girlfriend, that I’m married to two girls, and that one of them is a lunatic who wants to destroy everything I have, and the other is a brat."

"Hey! Who are you calling a brat?!" Nioh gets offended, while Nio finally realizes just how young Nioh actually is.

Nio always thought Nioh was really old — like a wise, arrogant elder who never ages. But the reality is harsher. Nioh is absurdly young among dragons, not just in terms of lifespan, but physically and mentally.

Nio always thought that the fact Nioh had a body and mentality between 18–26 years old meant she was at that level compared to humans. But in reality, it’s as if Nioh had the mental age of 18–26 for a human who can live 5,000 years.

It means that Nioh’s hundreds of thousands of years of life are literally her childhood, and she only recently left adolescence to become an adult. Basically, Nioh is a dragon going through puberty in human terms, which is why her attitude and body aren’t perfectly responsible and mature.

"Long-lived beings really are absurd..." Nio feels a little better knowing Nioh isn’t as big a deal as she imagined.

"I feel like you’re thinking thousands of offensive things about me, Nio!" Nio looks at her reflection in the ice before looking at Nioh.

"Hey Nioh, let’s have sex?"

"W-What?" Nioh blushes at Nio’s absurd request.

"What the hell do you think you’re saying? You want me to kill you, Nio!?"

"We’re in hell. You can’t die. And I’m just accepting that I’m a girl. But accepting that doesn’t mean I have to like a man’s dick. I still like girls. And honestly, I’m kind of sad thinking I died a virgin."

"You know, where I came from there was this joke that after 40, a man became a wizard if he was still a virgin. And ironically, I am a wizard, and I died around that age!!!"

"So since I’m in hell and I’m a girl, I at least want to have sex with a pretty girl. And you, Nioh, are really pretty and cute. I kind of didn’t react before because I thought you were super old."

"It would’ve been like a really old granny. But fuck, you’re younger than me in practical terms!! Like 20 years younger than me!"

"..." Nioh stares at Nio with contempt. Deep contempt.

"I see... so you were that kind of man... no wonder you ended up in hell. How despicable. Honestly, it’s disgusting."

"Hey, hey!! It’s not like that!! I don’t like girls way younger than me — don’t get me wrong. It’s just that I also don’t like a girl being older than me!" Nio prefers a middle ground of 5–10 years of difference, because Nio wanted to meet someone one day and die before the person she loved.

"...I just... I just wanted to die well before whoever I loved. Like... I wouldn’t want to see someone I love die, so I always preferred younger girls. So much so that when I was a teenager, I completely ignored girls precisely because they were all underage."

"And I only started being interested in girls when I was 30, and I was into girls who were 25. But the thing is, once you get older, things get complicated. Besides, I’m not that old!! I was around 39–40 when the game ended!!" Nio tries to explain herself so she doesn’t sound like she liked girls who were too young.

"Oh... That... is actually kind of cute..." Nioh ends up finding that wish cute, but in reality it’s also really selfish, because it means Nio would rather someone she loves suffer with her death than have to suffer with the death of someone she loves.

Even Nio’s physical preference in a partner was shaped by her own selfishness.

"Haa... Fine, Nio. I’ll let you feel a woman’s body, only because I’m interested in doing it with someone who isn’t Typhon. The way you’re such a cowardly little virgin, I doubt there’d be any other woman besides me and Typhon who’d let you touch them anyway!" Nioh says it arrogantly.

Without imagining that, in truth, Nio was good at flirting, and as a man she was also relatively well taken care of physically. But "he" was so addicted to the game that he just never got a girlfriend because he never actually tried to start a relationship.