Lips were pried open, tongues intertwined, and saliva mixed together.
Before Ophis had time to process the strangely intimate sensation, she felt an immense amount of divine power flooding her body along with the saliva and Ereshkigal's weapon that had pierced her.
Ophis recognized the power almost immediately. It was the power of God known as Death.
Knowing that pure death would have a limited effect on Ophis, Ereshkigal had chosen to "induce" her death.
First, she would make Ophis desire death, then make her believe she was truly dead, and finally, her body would die along with her soul.
Ophis didn't care if her body died, but once her soul was dead, the body was useless even if it remained alive.
Being kissed while being tempted by death was an extremely strange experience for Ophis, making her vision grow hazy.
The two struggled like this for several seconds, with Ereshkigal pinning Ophis down.
Ophis did not resist or use her energy to fight against the overwhelming sense of death. At first, Ereshkigal thought that Ophis couldn't resist because of the death power, so she kept transferring more of it into Ophis's body. However, as time went on, Ereshkigal realized something was amiss.
The death that should have been unstoppable began to be resisted—not by Ophis's own energy, but by the power of "life," which was completely opposed to the nature of death.
'Impossible!'
Ereshkigal's eyes widened in disbelief. She was almost certain that the original Ophis couldn't use such power. The power was so incompatible with her that even a brief encounter would reveal it easily. But Ereshkigal had never felt this from the original Ophis.
Did the other party have some special method of hiding this power?
Or maybe...
An answer flashed through Ereshkigal's mind, one she could scarcely believe.
While Ereshkigal was lost in thought, she naturally stopped moving due to her shock. Ophis, who was pinned down, looked at her with curiosity before casually pushing her away.
"You… you…"
Being pushed away, Ereshkigal reacted.
"You, you turned my death into life!?"
Though the answer seemed outrageous, it lingered in Ereshkigal's mind.
Is this really the case?
If so... isn't that cheating!?
Phew!
A familiar voice suddenly reached Ereshkigal's ears.
She looked down in confusion.
The weapon she had stabbed into Ophis's chest was now embedded in her own abdomen. Ophis, holding the weapon, tilted her head and looked at her.
"you..."
Ereshkigal opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a fist growing larger in front of her eyes.
Bang!
[Well, that experience just now seemed a bit too exciting for you. Now that I think about it, I'm still a little excited, just like raising a daughter for a long time…]
"Pray."
[Um?]
"Shut up."
[Yes!]
After looking at Ereshkigal, who was now fainted on the ground, Ophis found a vacant spot and sat down.
Ereshkigal was correct. Ophis had indeed used her innate ability to transform Ereshkigal's 'death' into 'life' in this desperate situation.
The principle was not complicated. Whether induced or direct, death's essence is the same. But for Ouroboros, death is nearly equivalent to rebirth, making such a transformation almost easy once you understand the trick.
Of course, this was mainly because Ereshkigal had no control over the energy injected into Ophis's body in such a situation and could only let it run its course, preventing death from becoming too aggressive.
It was similar to the principle of replenishing magic, except that Ereshkigal had asked Ophis to replenish not pure magic power but the power of death.
Although Ophis quickly figured out and applied the method of turning death into life, she chose to remain in her original state.
It wasn't because she was curious and wanted to experience the kissing sensation more... though that was a small part of it.
The bigger factor was that the rare opportunity to have the god of the underworld personally infuse death into her body pushed Ophis's "self-reference" to the extreme.
Absorbing beneficial external information into one's own circulation—that's the function of self-reference.
Ereshkigal's intense infusion of death power was like skipping the step of reading the external world and directly integrating those deaths into her own cycle. Ophis used this to easily convert death into life.
[Although just a few seconds of magical replenishment… or rather, a few seconds of energy fusion can't make you an expert on death and life, it does deepen your understanding of these powers. If you encounter such abilities in the future, you'll be able to develop a considerable resistance.]
"Um."
While casually responding to Qi's summary, Ophis bound Ereshkigal with the Heaven's Chain.
Opening her palm, a mini magic circle appeared and aimed at Ereshkigal.
Then, in the moonless night, a purple light flashed.
"Ahem…wait wait, this is too much. Using artillery fire to wake me up? Isn't this blasphemy? This is blasphemy!? And what on earth is this chain? Tying up a god like me!? This is unacceptable!? This is absolutely unforgivable, hahaha—"
After being hit by another mini magic cannon, Ereshkigal finally calmed down.
"I ask, you answer."
Putting away the magic circle, Ophis said calmly.
"Hmm... Looks like I was really caught. Seriously, I must not let my foolish sister know about this... But what the hell is that ability of yours? It's too much of a cheat, isn't it? It's definitely cheating!?"
Ereshkigal glanced at the Heavenly Chains binding her and the various weapons behind Ophis, ready to be used. She sighed, as if resigning herself to her fate.
"Ask whatever you want. I can guess that the most important thing for you right now is information about the Three Goddesses Alliance, right?"
"Yes, I need information about your identity, purpose, and why you showed up."
After hearing Ophis's question, Ereshkigal twisted a few times in midair. With Ophis's tacit consent to loosen the chains, she adjusted herself to a more comfortable position before speaking again.
"Well... Although I wasn't in the underworld during the battle and my body didn't even belong to me, preventing me from exerting my full strength, and the whole process was inexplicable, I lost. As a reward from the goddess to encourage heroes, I will share some news within my allowed scope."