Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

Julius was a little hesitant. What did Yanael know about the gem, the Daughter, or how anything related to the Underworld worked? And what was she planning to do by sticking the gem into a corpse?

But Yanael had only asked to be polite. The gem wasn't Julius's. He knew more than the other students, but he didn't have any sway over Yanael. So, she grabbed the gem with him being unable to do anything about it.

She then put it in the hole Ugor had dug out in her chest. She frowned.

The hole was too big, but she could sense some kind of activity coming both from the Daughter's dead flesh and the gem. She looked up and around the room. Her gaze finally settled on Julius.

"Can you call your Mannequin? I need to borrow it." Julius frowned and walked up to the hole. He sensed the same thing Yanael sensed, even if only because of his sensitivity to underworld energy. His eyes widened as he realized what Yanael was trying to do.

He nodded.

"It seems like Manny's lost the trail, anyway. But if we succeed, we won't have to worry about the Dollmaker." Julius closed his eyes and focused on his connection with the Mannequin, asking it to return. The pitch-black Mannequin halted in the middle of a long and straight tunnel before turning around and rushing back to Julius' side.

It took a while for the Mannequin, which wasn't specialized in speed, to make it to the sixth layer, but it was also a being who grew stronger by absorbing underworld energy. And the Mannequin had spent the last two years doing nothing but continuously absorbing underworld energy.

The Mannequin was stronger and better than it was when it fell down to the Underworld with Julius back then. It had also evolved and turned into an Underworld Mannequin.

Julius realized it would be best to inform the others about it before the Mannequin arrived so that they weren't surprised by the familiar that was more like a nightmare now than a Mannequin. It moved quickly and joltingly with its doll joints. It was faceless, pitch-black, and taller than the average human.

If it came running down a dark tunnel, most people would turn tail and run like their lives depended on it.

But the students weren't most people. As they saw and noticed the evolved Mannequin and its improved strength, they were happy for Julius. He had long struggled with having the weakest Mannequin and being the weakest summoner in their group. But now, while he only had one familiar, it was strong enough to contend with the A-rank familiars.

It would be easy for him to grow stronger from here and level up and summon more familiars if he wanted.

The Mannequin strode over to Yanael and Julius before following Julius' order to extend his hand into the Daughter's gaping chest. The Mannequin's arm grew, and its hand wrapped around the gem before expanding until it touched both the gem and the flesh of the Daughter's insides. It pierced into the Daughter's flesh with its wood. Once the entire wound was sealed and there was no air left inside, Yanael severed the Mannequin's wrist with a wave of her hand.

The Mannequin took back his arm without showing any signs of discomfort. Its hand regrew after only a few seconds.

Yanael, Julius, and the Mannequin looked at the Daughter who, while still badly beaten and in a horrible state of disrepair, looked like she was sleeping. Her body had reacted to the gem even when she was dead, and the gem had reacted to her lifeless body.

The reactions just hadn't been strong enough to spark a process or connect the two. Experience exclusive tales on My Virtual Library Empire

But now, the Mannequin had provided a bridge for the gem to extend its power into the Daughter's body and provide it with the energy it needed to spring back to life. It wasn't much. With the latent vitality and strength of the Daughter's body, all it needed was a little kick to get started.

Usually, her heart was in charge of firing her body up and keeping it going regardless of her condition. But after Ugor took her heart and ate it, her weakened body couldn't do anything about it. If she had been in her peak, she could have just made a new heart.

But Ugor hadn't spent centuries weakened and torturing her because a voice in his head told him to be mean to a little girl. He had done it so that once he took her heart, she wouldn't be able to regenerate ever again.

She had even survived without her heart while it was in the Basilisk. Ugor had used her to fuel the Basilisk and strengthen his army further. He had intended to use her to revive the Basilisk, turnt he Basilisk into an udnerworlder, and then seize the heart after the Daughter was weakened and the Basilisk had strengthened the heart with the self-protective properties of reflective petrification.

It would have made him invincible. Instead, he eventually had to settle for just the heart.

It had still made him strong, but it just hadn't been enough to win against the Enhanced anti-udnerworld energy potion.

And now, the gem, which had absorbed the strength of the Daughter's heart when Ugor consumed it, took the place of that heart. It slipped its energy into her body through the wooden bridge from the Mannequin.

The hungry and thirsty body of the Daughter devoured the energy that was a perfect match.

The Daughter and the gem were both representations of the Underworld. They were different kinds of manifestations. The Daughter was the peak of underworlders. She represented the ones who walked the land.

The gem was the physical condensation of the Underworld and a cornerstone of the world. It represented the land that was walked on.

The synergy between the Daughter and the gem was perfect from the beginning, and it was only better after what both of them had gone through, thanks to Ugor. The gem had part of her heart, and the Daughter's understanding and control over underworld energy had reached a new realm after being exposed to the anti-underworld energy potion.

Black tree roots shot out of the Daughter's heart and wrapped her body in a cocoon, pushing out stones and rock shards while straightening her bones, stiching together flesh and skin, and patching up her organs.

Yanael's idea was a success.