Reborn As A Dragon Girl With A System

When Angelica got to the opposite shore, she did not gain any attention this time as everyone was staring at the words written in magic up in the air. The words were a single question. "Why do you wish to become the Ghost Empress?"

Angelica looked at the words and tilted her head. "Because the soul is what binds us to the plane of existence. Without the soul, the body of which we once had would have been nothing but an empty shell. To become the Ghost Empress is one who stands above all when it comes to knowledge of the soul. As such, I can firmly say I have such knowledge. As to why I wish to become the Ghost Empress? That's simple. To kill the goddess of life and capture her soul."

All the female souls around her all looked at Angelica with eyes wide. They wondered where this lunatic came from. Who would answer their question in such a way!? Slowly the female souls' lips curled up into mocking smiles. But this did not last long as a light suddenly shined down on to Angelica. "You have passed the third round."

"Mmm… But, Jeana here is with me. She is not taking the test but needs to be by my side." Angelica said as she resisted the light's suction. When the female souls heard Angelica's words, they all felt like laughing. Who would say such a thing after passing the third test? But their laughs were stifled when the light expanded to engulf Jeana too, and then could only watch on as the two were sucked up into the light. 

"What the hell just happened!?" One female soul yelled out. She then quickly turned to give the same answer as Angelica, but when she looked at the question, the question had changed! Not only that, the question now asked why they were stupid! Who would want to answer such a question!?

As the light dimmed and Angelica found herself in a dark room with Jeana standing to her side. This room only had a handful of people in it. The light was dim, and the thing producing that light was the words on the ceiling. "Make this room bright without lighting anything."

Angelica frowned as she read the words. "So simple?" Angelica muttered as she looked up at the words and said a single word: "Shine." The words on the ceiling suddenly grew brighter and brighter until the entire room was fully lit up, allowing everyone to see that the room itself was nothing more than a small white room. Two lights shot down from the ceiling and sucked both Angelica and Jeana up. Angelica did not even need to say anything this time. 

After the fourth test, Angelica continued answering the questions or figuring out the riddles. Room after room, she quickly passed. Until finally, on the twentieth trial, Angelica was standing in the halls of a palace. Jeana's gaze was wide as she looked around as if looking at the scenery nostalgically. "Empress, this is the Ghost Empress palace, the Palace of Souls."

"Mmm..." Angelica hummed as she looked around. There were no words on a ceiling this time, just the ghostly walls and pillars that had runes and other images carved into them. 

"I see you have finally made it." A voice filled the palace hall. It was a gentle voice of a woman.

"This..." Jeana's voice trembled when she heard that voice. It was the voice of the first and only Ghost Empress!

"Hehe… I see you are doing well, Jeana. Your insight is good for you to be following this little girl." A figure of a young woman wearing a long white dress appeared in the room. She had a smile upon her face as she looked at Angelica and Jeana. "Angelica. A girl born and raised by the goddess of death herself. Someone, most fitting to be the next Ghost Empress. Even more so as you are not actually dead, this makes me a little envious. But my time has long been up, and after waiting for many, many years for there to be someone to take my place, I can finally reincarnate. I only have this fraction of my soul left after all..." 

As souls stay in the realm of the dead, the soul itself will begin to slowly lose its power. Take a wisp, for example. They would only be able to hold their form for a few thousand years at most before dispersing and becoming energy for the soul plants. A soul's strength was determined by their life. Unless they are merged with a body again to make them a lich, they will eventually disappear unless they are being given a source of power to draw from. This would have been Lysairth's fate if she had not met Kana. Eventually, she would have faded away. 

"So you are the first and only Ghost Empress?" Angelica asked.

"Yes. It is strange, though. At the time when I first died and came to this place, I never once ever thought of being the ruler. But the soul fascinated me. I found the way souls worked to be truly intriguing. So I ended up spending many, many years sitting in the library being stared at by Jeana here. But the more I learned, the more I fell in love with the knowledge of souls until finally, I was able to understand that there was a kind of power that resonated with the soul. It was word magic. Magic that could control the will of souls to do your bidding. Of course, one would need knowledge and the mental strength to be able to use such an ability. But I was able to. And because of that I was able to become the first Ghost Empress." The first Ghost Empress explained.

"Then I must ask, are you the creator of the book of the dead?" Angelica had been wondering if the first Ghost Empress had created the book of the dead or not.