Chapter 335: Half-Spirit (P-1)

"What do you mean I’m a half-spirit?" Mirian said, completely doubting what she had just heard.

The archer took a half step back on the carpet. She looked at her own hands with great confusion, as if expecting to see something different on her skin.

Helen reacted immediately upon hearing that statement from the Dryad. The swordswoman broke her defensive formation next to Ryan’s throne in the blink of an eye.

She lunged at Mirian with great speed. Helen raised her hands and grabbed the surprised archer by the collar of her shirt.

"What do you mean you’re a spirit?" Helen demanded, raising her voice loudly. "Explain yourself, what the hell is that tree branch talking about?" Helen reproached, referring to the Dryad.

Mirian tried to break free from Helen’s strong grip, but surprise kept her paralyzed.

On the other side of the dais, Chloe and Irina exchanged looks of total bewilderment.

Both women knew of the existence of spirits in this world. Irina grew up in the nation of Geizan surrounded by the forest, and Chloe had knowledge from what she learned in the church.

But despite that knowledge base, they made it clear with their expressions that they had not heard that term before.

"I never read about anything like a half-spirit," Chloe muttered to Irina.

Even for Karol, with all her extensive knowledge of the magical world, this was somewhat incomprehensible and unbelievable. The mage tightened her grip on her staff, trying to make sense of Nadira’s words.

Although Beatrice and Alicia remained in complete silence in their positions. This whole hidden matter was interesting them quite a bit.

Lise, for her part, listened to all the commotion attentively from her spot near the door. But she really didn’t care in the slightest about Mirian’s origin.

Unlike all the humans and demons present in the hall, Lise considered herself too great an existence to pay attention to something like that.

Ryan kept his gaze fixed on Mirian. He watched as the archer struggled a bit with Helen, looking totally lost at the revelation.

She also looked at him for a second with an expression of not understanding anything of what was happening.

’I see that not even she knew it,’ Ryan thought, letting out a slight sigh on his throne.

’And I don’t blame her for her ignorance on this subject. Just a couple of days ago I learned of the real existence of spirits. But what exactly does this imply for her and for us?’ Ryan asked himself, analyzing the possible changes in his group of warriors.

With that in mind, Ryan looked away from Mirian and returned his gaze to William and his group in the center of the hall. Except for the Dryad who maintained a calm smile, all the humans looked very confused.

Alina moved from her spot and complained to William.

"That is impossible," Alina claimed, accusing the Dryad of lying in front of everyone.

"I had already met the heroine Mirian on one occasion in the past. And her power, aside from being that of an S-rank, did not emit anything special or different from us," concluded the heroine of Varvylon, backing her distrust.

William tried to calm Alina, but Iris stepped forward to speak in defense of the spirit.

"Please, listen to her," Iris asked with a nervous voice.

Although Iris looked uncomfortable due to the pressure from Ryan’s girls, she argued in favor of Nadira.

"Even for me, supposedly being a half-spirit, I knew nothing about this until the Dryad contacted me. Even now, it is very hard for me to use the power of the spirits," Iris added, showing her own doubts.

That sincere confession made it very clear to Ryan that none of them had any idea about the subject. If it weren’t for the Dryad’s presence in this place, that matter would have never been mentioned in this meeting.

"Alina, please calm down once and for all," William replied with a conciliatory tone. "Even I am very surprised by this."

The blond looked at Nadira for a second and then looked back at his companion.

"But the Dryad has no reason to lie to us," the human hero reasoned. "So what she says must be true."

"But William..." Alina tried to grumble, refusing to accept that Mirian was anything more than a human.

But the Dryad, so as not to create more confusion and avoid greater chaos, extended her power through the room.

A soft wave of mana rippled across the stone floor, making everyone present focus their attention on her immediately.

"I’m sorry, first let me clarify something," the Dryad said, looking directly at Helen.

Helen maintained her grip on Mirian’s clothes, but turned her head to listen.

"Your friend is a half-spirit, not a spirit as such," Nadira clarified very patiently. "They are very different things."

"So what?" Helen replied with annoyance, letting go of Mirian with a slight push.

The swordswoman crossed her arms over her chest. "Either way, you say very strange things."

"What would be the difference?" Helen asked in a demanding tone.

’I’m also interested in knowing that,’ Ryan thought from his stone seat.

’I mean, Mirian looks like a human from head to toe. And I know her body well enough to notice anything strange about her.’

Cough, cough.

The Dryad faked a cough to clear her throat in front of the group.

She didn’t make that sound because she really needed to, since she didn’t have a physical body as such. She was actually empathizing with human behavior to soften the mood.

"I will just say, for starters, that it is not a common hybridization. It is not like that of a human with a demon, or an elf with a human. It is not like a mixture of different races," Nadira clarified with a soft tone of voice.

To prove her point, she extended both hands in front of her.

Nadira created two spheres of energy that floated calmly over her palms.

Then, the color of the energy quickly changed to blue, orange, and white.

Those spheres stretched and turned into fine lines of glowing energy. The lines of light were as thick as a baby’s arm.

Those magical energies moved through the air and intertwined with each other, forming a colorful rope.

"White represents the human essence," Nadira explained, pointing to the first line.

"Blue represents the power of the system, and orange represents the energy of a spirit," the Dryad continued, showing the perfect union.

"It is possible for a spirit’s energy to live inside a human as if it were their own. We call that a half-spirit," the Dryad revealed, letting the light float in the room. "And for something like that to happen, two conditions must be met."

She took an intentional pause. Nadira remained silent as everyone’s gazes focused on her.

"What conditions?" Ryan asked.