The Alpha Chimera instinctively knew what that gesture meant, but it quickly kept itself from raging; its intelligence wasn't to be underestimated, as it was nearly S-rank in power and intelligence. The reason it managed to keep its cool was its instincts for sensing danger. This little human boy was far stronger than all of those who had attacked it previously combined, and then some!
Seran had a dark smirk on his face as he declared, "I'm more than happy to simply crush you right now, but that's not in my nature. I will give you four choices. First choice: surrender now and you will be given a quick death. Second choice: surrender, and accept me as your master. Third choice: fight, and die proudly. Or the fourth choice: fight, and I will throw you into a horde of undead so numerous that you will undoubtedly die." Considering his overwhelming power, he certainly had no need to be lenient, but that is not his way. He also snapped his fingers to trigger the translation spell he'd used on the Golden Crows. "Tell me your answer."
One of the adventurers shouted angrily, "Oi! What are you doing!? That's almost an S-rank calamity! Those things are capable of wiping countries off the map in one go! Just kill it!"
The Alpha Chimera growled at the adventurer, but Seran ignored them and said, "I recommend that you choose the second option, as I am a very lenient master. At most, I'd just let you have an area all to yourself, and all you'd have to do is protect my home in an emergency. Cruelty is not in my blood, except when dealing with extreme criminals."
The Alpha Chimera's six eyes stared at Seran deeply, mostly with hostility as it growled in a bassy masculine voice, "You expect me to submit myself to a human? A child at that?" Unsurprisingly, the adventurers were astounded that the Alpha Chimera could speak, but Seran explained via telepathy that it was part of a spell he'd made.
"No, I don't expect you to. I hope that you do. There's a difference between the two. I'm also the only being in existence that can change your entire existence without breaking your soul. Just so you know, I've already brought the Golden Crows back from extinction. If I can do that, surely I can do something with a chimera, right?" Seran had a big smile on his face, which was widened further when June confirmed his words, as she'd visited Greenwood Town twice in the past few months.
The mention of such things caused the look of hostility to lessen just a little, hesitation filling in what space had opened up. As it had three minds, it had to debate with itself for a very long time before the lion head spoke, as it seemed to be the leader of the three, "... What kind of things can you do..?"
"Ah, I have a single question for you then: Would you three like to have your own separate bodies?"
This stumped the Alpha Chimera enough for it to sit down heavily, cracking the earth more than its paw had. A long time of silence passed, again, then the lion said, "... We do... but at the same time, we don't... We've been together for too long..."
"I know, it's a difficult question. However, I can give the three of you a blessing each. All 3 of you will have your own bodies, but you will still be capable of recombining into an Alpha Chimera whenever you want. You've been family for such a long time, separating you completely would be cruel." He put one hand on his heart and the other pointed to the heavens with two fingers, "With the heavens as my witness, I will fulfill the terms of our contract, or I shall be struck down by heavenly wrath. I also swear this upon my name, as the world's strongest demigod."
While heavenly oaths didn't have the same meaning for magical beasts as it did for other creatures, the severity was still the same. As such, it stopped to contemplate again before all three heads said in unison, "We agree."
Seran stretched his body a little, "Alright, this might feel a bit weird, but it won't hurt a bit." He then began to cast dozens of smaller spells, each of which formed into a symbol that floated around in a circle between him and the Alpha Chimera. One symbol for each spell, the white-haired boy cast nearly 500 spells before he got the exact combination he wanted. When he did, he slapped his palms together, with all of the symbols colliding together to form one massive Taiji diagram under the Alpha Chimera, "With this, I will also be changing your species when combined to a whole new one." He spread his hands again as he shouted, "[Beast God Art: Chimera's Three Souls]!"
The most obvious change began with the body, as the snake tail began to swell and extend into a long python bigger than two school buses before becoming separated from the main body. The main body then began to warp in the middle, with the dragon half taking the form of a large Lesser Dragon, and the lion gaining its own separate body the same size as the dragon. What happened spiritually, however, was the single powerful soul of the Alpha Chimera began to shift and warp until each gained their own separate soul, except they could still combine together. The amount of mana required to cast such an insanely powerful and unique spell was beyond what anyone could expect of mortals, along with the extreme precision necessary to do all of the splitting, physical and spiritual, without causing harm to any of them in the process.
Seran staggered just a little before making sure that the spell had indeed imprinted the three as his contracted beasts. Now, he had three new contracted beasts, each of which had an interesting thing written under their 'Race' spot. He pointed at each of them in turn and calmly said, first to the lion, "Leo," to the snake, "Ophiuchus," and the dragon, "Draco." With that, their information changed in the pop-ups:
--
Name: Leo
Race: Sun Lion (Chimera)
Classification: S
Level: 201
Innate Ability: [Solar Flare], [Chimera Fusion]
--
--
Name: Ophiuchus
Race: Quake Python (Chimera)
Classification: S
Level: 201
Innate Ability: [Earthquake], [Chimera Fusion]
--
--
Name: Draco
Race: Lesser Thunder Dragon (Chimera)
Classification: S
Level: 201
Innate Ability: [Thunderstorm], [Chimera Fusion]
--
"Cool, all done. You can take your time and get used to your new bodies. You can use your Chimera Fusion ability to recombine whenever you want." Seran said, "Ah, and I apologize for my earlier gesture. I was testing your intellect and if you could control your emotions." The trio didn't seem to notice his apology, though, since they were busy bouncing like children with new toys.
Upon being returned to the ground and having the barrier removed, Theodore nearly rushed over and asked, "How in blazes did you do that?"
Seran just smiled and shrugged, "What, make them my contracted beasts? It's pretty easy, you know. By becoming my contracted beasts, they were given a chance to become much more powerful and retain most of their freedom. Win-win, as they say."