A Villainess Should Be Strong

When Estelle woke up, she was still caught in a daze, at a loss on what to do. Estelle yawned, rubbing her eyes to eliminate her sleepiness. She usually took periodical rests, around two hours every now and then.

Training, thinking, sleeping. Those three activities were the only ones she performed ever since she got into the Eterna. It was simply because other duties weren't necessary.

The Eterna was strange.

There was no barrier or boundary that separated the ground and the ceiling. There was also no concept of gravity, but Estelle didn't constantly float.

She was able to keep her footing and stay in place in the middle of nothing. The realm of nothingness, she had gotten used to the living conditions, but she still wasn't able to fathom everything.

Well, this specific characteristic was only one of many strange qualities, so it wouldn't be that much of a shocker.

Estelle waited as she continued fiddling with her magic. Her life was so mundane here. There was no excitement.

Well, she felt excitement when she managed to breakthrough her bottlenecks. However, it was only for a short while because the doom that elapsed behind it would always haunt her.

She was waiting for the Ruler's arrival. Because she couldn't do much without the being's existence.

After waiting for quite a while, the Ruler's voice fell onto her ears.

She immediately perked up.

"Hello," Awkwardly greeting the being, she stopped her listless fiddling and paid attention to the Ruler.

"Hello there, child," The Ruler replied.

"So, uh.. I did the thing.. right?" Estelle

"Yes, you did," The Ruler chucked. "Why are you acting so unsure? And why are you referring of the incident as 'the thing'?"

"Well-! Who knows, I might've done something wrong," Estelle pouted at the Ruler's playful mockery.

Not minding Estelle's complaints, the Ruler began its instructions.

"The next thing that you should do is training your Creation Magic," The Ruler said, sighing at something unknown to Estelle. The sigh was abrupt and out of nowhere.

Taking in the Ruler's words, Estelle raised a brow in confusion.

"...My Creation Magic? Directly? Wouldn't that affect my soul power?"

The constant knowledge was that using her Creation Magic would impact the soul count higher than using pure mana and the element of nothingness. Estelle dreaded her digits dropping, so she was reluctant to use her Creation Magic unless absolutely necessary.

Especially now that her soul count was starting to lower down pretty heavily, won't she be at risk? She wanted to preserve her digits.

The Ruler then soothed her worries.

"It's fine. As long as you use the power in the right way, you'll be fine," The Ruler said.

[The right way?]

"But my Creation Magic is dominant," Estelle argued.

"Yes, but Eterna will turn that around," The Ruler laughed.

"..How does that work?" Estelle frowned. Her experience inside the Eterna didn't depict something like that. Her Creation Magic still harmed her, and the nothingness did less harm.

But since the Creation Magic was dominant, wouldn't it still harm her?

Eterna was indeed strange. So strange that she was distraught.

Estelle was a bit apprehensive at the start, but if there was a tendency to be pointed out from her journey in Eterna, it would be her unconditional trust towards the Ruler.

The Ruler was her best guide- her light inside the Eterna.

Estelle ended up acquiescing to the plan. She trusted the being more than herself in the Eterna. The Eterna was the being's space.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Estelle was still terrified deep down. Being thrown into an unknown space, with no physical objects or living things to see except for herself would spook anybody.

Estelle naturally wanted to go back home as soon as she could. The only reason why she hadn't panicked as much is because she was capable to digest the matter better than most people.

No matter how she tried to put it aside, Eterna was a place that she wished to avoid.

However, she was also starting to get irked. Irked by the whole situation.

Estelle took a deep sigh. Everything was so depressing. Why was she caught in this mess?

How vexing.

"How exactly can I use my Creation Magic?" Estelle sighed and decided to ask. She would follow up with the Ruler's plans.

"Hmm.. Show me the combination process first. My senses told me that you succeeded, but I need to see it in action before I can say anything," The Ruler thought for a moment and said.

The senses it referred to was a vibration that occurred when Estelle successfully made the combination complete. The one that made the being rush without much thought.

Estelle rubbed her palms together, preparing herself for this hearty exercise right after waking up.

The process was taxing, but she could bear it now.

"Alright, here goes!" Estelle took a deep breath before getting into her position. Estelle slowly closed her eyes, mustering up her concentration and going through the same phases she went through previously.

She channeled her mana, successfully combined it with the element of nothingness, and went on to mix it with her Creation Magic.

This time, the process was much smoother. Estelle herself was taken aback by the difference.

When she delved into the process, she was fully bracing for any pain that might come with it like the trials when she tried combining. However, the pain was now nonexistent, much to Estelle's happiness.

And before she achieved the final enlightenment, she needed hours to even begin the mixing procedure. However, it was now smoothly going without any blockage at all.

The blockage that once made her fail three times was gone. Her connections were sailing without any distractions.

In the end, Estelle managed to reproduce her result in less than an hour.

"Here... it is," Estelle managed to direct her mixture as a small, concentrated ball of power.

The combination was actually a form of another power. The enlightenment brought effects to Estelle's magic, but the real product of the combination was this strange element.

It was a bizarre mixture. It was not as stable as any other thing Estelle could wield, but it was now able to stand by itself. Estelle didn't have to waste much time trying to maintain it.

"..Well, I can say that you've indeed succeeded. Congratulations for achieving this," The Ruler said, acknowledging Estelle's result.

"It was nothing much. Wielding the nothingness took much longer," Estelle recalled the time she wasted ten days for her first progression.

She was elated at how smoothly the rest went by.

"Well that was because you don't possess the element. It's your first time coming in contact with it, right? It would be unnatural if you took a short time," The Ruler pointed out.

Estelle shrugged, finding either way discomforting. She still wasn't satisfied.

"You had to draw out the element of nothingness from yourself before, correct? Where was it concentrated at?" The Ruler brought the topic up.

"..My hands... and my head," Estelle answered. "There were also lingering elements around my limbs, but it was much lesser,"

"Those places you just mentioned, why do you think they contain the element of nothingness?"

"Because they're losing soul power?"

That was the logical explanation she could think of.

"Hmm.. It's not exactly that. It is true that nothingness is overtaking those places because of the soul power factor, but you're not losing the power from there. Ultimately, you lose soul power from, well, if it wasn't obvious- your soul!"

"Yes.. and?" Estelle tilted her head, not getting the Ruler's point.

"Your soul is essentially your core. Because you're losing soul power, your body can't keep up. Nothingness is beginning to take over, waiting slowly until your value drops down to 0,"

Estelle gulped, fearing the thing. She was afraid of dying inside here. Much more than dying in the Surface.

It was because no one would know that she had died. The Ruler told her that her unconscious body would fall into a coma state while she was in here, but that meant that her family and acquaintances might have to see her alive yet not realize that she has been dead inside the Eterna.

She was afraid of it. Afraid of disappearing before she could inform any other guy.

"So, your next task would be to convert the nothingness inside you to your Creation Magic. Create yourself. Your soul power, replenish it back to the point where you won't contain any nothingness at all, and you shall be returned to the Surface because Eterna would reject you," The Ruler announced, making Estelle shocked at the proclamation.

Her Creation Magic was able to replenish soul power? Restore nothingness? Was it really that convenient? 

Hell, wouldn't that invalidate her previous worries? 

If she could restore her soul power, then she would be able to maintain life inside the Eterna, even.

If so.. Wouldn't that mean there was something she could do?

Ideas revolved around her head. On what she could do, and how it'd impact her and the others.

Especially the Ruler and its realm.