With a strange expression on his face, he walked over to what was clearly the remains of the Slime Abomination until he was close enough that the smoke was caressing his face.

“This is…” Eridel’s eye twitched. “Haa...~ At least she survived.”

When the smoke finally faded away, what was revealed was not a small ball of slime, but actually a small human child of around 10 years old.

She had pale white skin with a soft silver moon-like hue, long silver hair that reached her waist and sharp black nails.

Eridel blinked.

His eyes scouted every inch of her unclothed body, trying to see if he would feel any kind of sexual attraction but it ended in failure.

‘Hmm. I was slightly worried that my Soulmate would tempt me into pedophilia but I guess not. Well it makes sense. She’s supposed to become the so-called woman of my dreams, not spawn as it. And since every sexual fantasy that I have includes mature woman she’s very clearly not ready yet. For me to not feel lust at this moment is as it should be.’

He could tell that she would definitely grow up to be a great beauty (even despite looking half dead) but it was just that. No sexual attraction of any kind.

Eridel released a small sigh of relief and then smiled. He had known that this would happen but with the Soulmate mechanics becoming a part of the World’s Integral Laws he was a little worried that he would fall victim to peculiar ‘upgrades’. Luckily, that was not the case.

Looking at the fragile girl who looked a few breaths away from death, and then thinking about the giant monstrous Slime that had once pushed the North Continent’s inhabitants to the brink of extinction, Eridel couldn’t help but marvel at the irony.

Technically, the Slime Abomination should have been given a fully matured Enlightened form like everyone else that had come before her. The Crystal Dragon King, Wraith King and Asura had all been blessed with adult Enlightened Forms right away. So why was the Slime Abomination different?

Was it because that deep down in Eridel’s degenerate Core, that this was the type of body that he secretly desired?

No. Of course not.

The real reason why she looked like a child had nothing to do with Eridel and was all to do with what she had done to herself in order to survive. In order to rid herself of the Red Tribulation Light’s harmful unrefined essence, she had essentially destroyed the majority of her own cultivation.

Unlike Enlightened Beings like Humans and Elves, creatures who relied on an Enlightened Form to become humanoid (like Beasts and Monsters) had an appearance that was heavily tied to their cultivation.

Now that the Slime Abomination had fallen into the first Realm of Essence Cultivation, her Enlightened Form reflected that. And it wasn’t just her Enlightened Form either. Before she had transformed, Eridel had seen that her true form had been reduced to 1.6 metres and was completely incomparable to her previously domineering size of 150 metres.

‘Well whatever, what was lost will be regained. But more than that I can actually use this to her advantage. If I temporarily wipe her memories and send her to live off with the Humans, she can live out her ‘childhood’ in relative peace and develop a healthy mind until she’s ready to reclaim what she was.’ Eridel thought as he crouched down to her side, pressed a glowing hand to her forehead and began to heal her Body and Soul.

‘There could be a slight problem with her growing up too fast if she cultivates too fast or growing too slowly if she does the opposite, but with proper seals placed in a timely manner, that wouldn’t matter too much. At least now that she has an Enlightened Form, she can cultivate by absorbing ambient Magical Energy into her body and won’t need to rely on her Devouring abilities or the Slaughter Path of the Monster Race.’

Thinking about it, the Slime Abomination had quite a lot of methods to gain strength, no? Eridel felt a tendril of pride at the thought.

‘Well I suppose it makes sense that only reality-bending freaks like her are worthy of being my Soulmate. Haha~’

1 minute later

The Slime Abomination’s body twitched. Thanks to Eridel’s efforts, her Body and Soul which she might not have ever been able to heal to perfection on her own (due to the insidious nature of the Red Tribulation and the nigh permanent damage it had caused), had been perfectly healed. But that was 17 seconds ago and it was only now that she was stirring.

Eridel could feel the girl’s energy levels abruptly rising and he knew that she would be waking up any moment now.

5 seconds later, the Slime Abomination’s eyes snapped open. And yes, snapped. That was the only way to describe how quickly it was done along with the impact the eyes themselves had when they were revealed.

“Whistle” Eridel whistled in approval.

Her sclera was normal enough, but her Irises and Pupils meshed into one black colour that was so dark that they resembled twin pools of abyss. They sucked in surrounding light and radiated a feeling of hunger and chaos so dense that it had Eridel raising his brows. But instead of moving around crazily like the 2 volatile emotions would suggest, her eyes were completely stable. They moved here and there in apparent confusion but they moved so smoothly and steadily that Eridel had no doubt that this was the influence of her Slime nature at play.

According to his inheritance, most Chaos creatures had eyes that were just as erratic as their energies. They twittered about in every direction like ravenous beasts and were just as ugly. But apparently, the Slime Abomination had not been branded with that particular fault. In fact, Eridel was certain that the Tribulation Essence that she had absorbed and assimilated into her DNA had removed most of the faults that normally came with a Chaos Transformation. Probably a big factor as to why she survived it too.

‘Hmm. The Tribulation Essence had both caused the Chaos Transformation and protected her from it. Wonderful.’ Eridel thought dryly.

But back to the topic of the Slime Abomination’s eyes. Eridel had also noticed that they bore the markings of an Eye of Power; similar to the 10 Evil Eyes on Eridel’s planet. They were basically ineffective at the moment, but Eridel was sure that they would begin to display their secrets once the Slime Abomination gained more power.

But that was quite a while away. Currently, the Slime Abomination was making small wiggles on the floor, unable to control her new humanoid body.