(A/N: My Editor decided to get some holiday and all his edits are on his main computer. I waited for some time...but apparently, when he goes on holiday he goes for quite some time... so here is a non-edited chapter... you can find the rest on my Discord.)
Athena looked at the town she just arrived. It was around twice as big as the one she was before. And to no surprise, everyone in this town spoke the primary language.
It felt like day and night. The town has old some of the buildings are several hundred years old, the Gothic and Baroque styles dominated the Christian Churches.
Not that it mattered much to the Goddess as the amount of magic interference in here no Angels can't even descend properly.
The space lock in place will send them flying to neighbouring countries killing from recoil alone. Well, most of the angels... only some of the strongest will survive like the Seraphs… probably...
Honestly, she doesn't want to test the space lock in this place. She had never seen one this big before. No supernatural will choose something like this instead of teleportation!
'I can sense a high amount of magic in the south from here. From the looks of it, there are several spots with excess magic flow.
Most likely facilities hidden under powerful barriers. One of them should he the docks for that monstrosity.'
Athena thought about the massive magic signature just flying over not far from her location just a day before. Meaning that it flew towards somewhere south.
The brown-haired Goddess dearly hopes it's not her fault that the thing was flying towards her Pantheon!
Honestly, she was quite terrified of this development… thankfully... or not… she once again was notified by that man that their game is continuing and that the airship is not flying to Greece.
The Goddess of Wisdom doesn't know how to feel about the whole idea that she is being watched like some animal in a cage…
Well, she can only gnash her teeth and quickly find him because of this feeling...is very embarrassing and annoying.
She quickly pulled out a map and cross-referenced with the magic in those directions she is feeling. It's quite difficult as it's like she was in a mountainous area where all mountains are big and only a selected few of them are slightly taller…
Now she needs to figure it out.
'Hmm...I see… so, that how it is… there is a town in that direction around 73 kilometres which has excess magic flowing… or two areas… most likely the key facilities…
And conveniently… its has 'girl' in its name! That man! He used that riddle to mess with me!' Athena growled that he messed with her. However, it lasted for a short amount of time before she calmed down. She can't be pissed off against someone who erased Tepes faction and has an army of robots and most likely clones...
She needs to be calm and with a clear mind against someone like that.
Eventually, she realised that this trip will be quite quick because it's on the highway this way. She is finally hit the main roadway of this small nation.
Arriving there at midnight is not wise. She still has no idea who the guy is. Meaning that she can still waste time looking for him specifically.
So, the Goddess of Wisdom decided… to catch the earliest morning bus possible to that place.
She is still baffled that there exist places which have an even higher saturation of magic than as it is…
She can feel the difference even 70 kilometres away!
Such thing is absurd… the man is either insane or he can produce magic from thin air…
For a second she had thoughtful look… her mind working overtime thinking on this…
Her eyes widened to a large degree she nearly dropped her glasses. Because she just realised something absurd…
'Perpetual energy? This… explains alot… like the majority of his things… The speed of his faction's progression, the army, the robots… one can build all that with endless energy… but… such output… how can he do it?' Now that Athena realised this she is even more curious. Hell, she is ready to seduce for such information!
~~~~~~The Garage~~~~~~
Marcus was lazily sitting on his couch and watching Athena. More specifically, her facial expressions.
"It would seem she realised our location. If I was a betting man, then she will be here tomorrow," Marcus said while stroking the hair of his beautiful pet. At the moment they were the only two in the garage. The rest of the maids are working. His devils are busy… well, Atalanta is working too. She is half maid half pet.
"I am more shocked how a Goddess is reduced to a mere human in this place." The Huntress said with a sigh. She is baffled by what she saw. Athena herself taking buses? Atalanta can understand that the senses are muffled in this place because of the enormous amount of magic in the air. But why she is not flying?
"Don't look surprised. I have pulled her out of her element. She is adapting. If you have not noticed she started paying attention to road signs and using proper directions. Before this, she was wandering around aimlessly." Marcus said that with entertained tone.
The lion girl's eyes slightly widened as she realised that it was the truth! She was far too baffled to realise that before!
"You are right… interesting…" She said with a nod. Honestly, Atalanta doesn't have high respect for Athena. Well, yes she respects the Goddess of Wisdom like any God. But beyond that?
The blonde beauty believes Athena is far too arrogant and… nerdy as they say nowadays? The woman believes in the mind far more than her body. Even though she is Goddess Warfare.
Far too many times, the Lion Girl saw the woman just sitting there and telling how better she would have done. And how better her tactics would have been. Honestly, the Huntress just wanted to punch her in the face.
So, this current situation… is… how should she put it? A guilty pleasure?
The situation now is reversed. All she does is just sit around watches how Athena is reduced to a human adventurer and has to navigate through unfamiliar lands.
There is a certain amount of satisfaction for the lion girl.
"Indeed… tell me my pet did you enjoy the hunt in the Entertainment Dome?" Marcus asked her. The question made her refocus on things happening now. She can guess that he is...looking for something. Testing her? Atalanta doesn't know for a moment how to answer that? Should she just tell him that she enjoyed immensely the whole hunt in a primal place like the ancient world?
"Don't be guarded like that. I want to hear if you enjoyed it?" He asked her while extra gently stroking her hair. His actions made her experience goosebumps through her whole body. This was… heavenly, and his tender actions make her extremely hard to resist him.
The lion girl eventually caves in and decided to tell him.
"Yes. It was like nothing I have experienced before. The vegetation was so different! There was not a single leaf-based tree! Only small bushes had those! Then the dinosaurs themselves! There were countless amount of them! From extremely small to even bigger than a bus! They were not even the biggest issue as the heat! It felt like we were in the deepest parts of the Sahara!
What baffled me was this was not even 100% realism! As if Aurora did full-on realism then we would have to much oxygen! meaning it could make people heads spin.
And then…" The girl had a somewhat dreamy look.
"The moon… the moon was so big… it truly felt like we were on a different planet altogether!" She said the last part with quite a bit of awe and excitement just remembering the sight.
Marcus listened attentively. He honestly didn't experiment that much with the Realitus technomancy. Towards what Atalanta and what the group of maids did. He preferred sci-fi stuff and bringing fictional characters to life. But, what the lion girl did was different. She went nearly full realism on the Dinosaur era which had alot of different factors. Like much smaller anoint of oxygen in the air...
For a second he thought. Should he tell her what he is planning to do in nearby future?
"I see… so you truly liked what you saw? You know… I can tell you something I didn't tell anyone yet."
He got her curiosity peaked quite a bit when said the second half.
"Oh? And you going to tell it to me?" The Blonde turned her head towards him and looked with raised eyebrow.
"Something I came up with yesterday. Did some basic math in class for it." He said with a shrug mentioning this.
Honestly, Atalanta is baffled and wonders what people would think when someone like Marcus is attending classes and doing some crazy calculations which most likely going to lead to some crazy inventions.
Her gut feeling is telling her that!
"And what did this...math lead to?" Atalanta cautiously asked him. She is preparing for something crazy at the moment.
"Time travel."
"I see…"
"..."
"..."
A few moments later she finally processed what he said.
"And? Is it possible? Assuming you want to travel some distant past or… ancient times?" Atalanta asked curiously. This was no longer some sci-fi movie some of the younger hunters used to watch on free time and she had to babysit them…
Nope, after seeing the craziness of this place. It's not some pipe dream thing…
"Theoretically, I have an idea how it's going to work. But, again, I need someone who can use time-based magic. I already have quite large mastery over space magic and things related to speed." Marcus explained to her, as those two things are large factors for time travel.
The lion girl slowly nodded. She has no clue about the whole magic stuff. All of her experience comes from using Artemis divine energy...which she can't use anymore…
This means that she lost the majority of her power…
This made her think that she needs to find a different way of getting power… first thing which came to her mind is her Master helping her out in this. Honestly, he was the one who make her powerless in the first place… mostly, she did the seducing… well, seducing is a strong word. As she doesn't truly know how to seduce properly…
"I see… I suppose now you need to find someone who can teach you time magic?" She asked him curiously. Atalanta wants to know how he is going to move from here, and how it's related to their previous conversation.
"Thankfully, it's not difficult to get one who can help me with this," Marcus said with a smile, as his hand returned to her hair. The inventor enjoys this very much. Honestly, him provoking Artemis like this nearly a year ago is truly one of the best things he did.
"Truly? I thought such magic is rare…" The blonde huntress was a little bit shocked to hear that he already has a solution to this. While trying to ignore his hand at the same time.
"It is rare. That's why I will be summoning the next Head of Agares family."
Hearing that made Atalanta have look of realisation. The devil pillar has such magic! And Marcus is the second coming of Solomon… The lion girl even forgot for some time that Marcus is the successor of that man…
His inventions and creations bury that…
"That means you will be summoning and binding a pillar. Which will cause some stir…" The huntress reasoned with him. She has no idea how this works… but what if he summons the devil when she is in the middle of a meeting?
"Don't worry. I will prepare accordingly. You should just relax and watch things happen." He said that with a smirk which made Atalanta slowly nod at him.
"I will… does this means the time travel thing will be added to the car?" As the lion girl asked her gaze went to the side where the car is.
The vehicle is partially disassembled. Marcus was taking a break from his work and spending time with her and watching Athena progress.
"Indeed! It will be like from Back to the Future. Honestly, the amount of stuff one can invent just looking at movies is enormous. One of the reasons why I like watching them." The quite a happy tone confirmed her suspicion.
"Isn't it quite dangerous to change the past like this? I might be clueless about much of magic but even I know about the butterfly effect."
While she does not doubt that Marcus could eventually discover time travel. What about the side effects of time travel?
*Sigh*
"It's not as cut and dry. While if we go to ancient Greece and I kidnap Helen the war of Troy would not happen and the history would severely change…"
Atalanta looked at him as if he is a weirdo...
"What? I wanna see what the whole fuss is about her!" Marcus eye-rolled at her. Seriously! He wants to see what caused one of the greatest wars in the Bronze Age! This chick should be hot for this thing to happen!
"But… if we go somewhere around… 63 million years ago. Then much we do won't going to be relevant." He said with a shrug.
"...it won't? How come?"
"The asteroid will hit the Earth regardless, that's the difference in scales. We can do some things on Earth's surface like hunting or collecting the DNA of the dinosaurs. But none of these actions will affect the asteroid. Because it's in space. However, if I were to go to space in that period and do some crazy stuff then it completely different thing. As my action could derail the impact and dinosaurs could survive and humans would never take over."
Her eyes widened, starting to think from this kind of angle.
"There are multiple periods in history where we can visit and we won't going to affect much of this. Earth went through several great extinctions. Most of them are from geothermal events…"
"Volcanoes?" She asked with realisation as she remembered stories about Pompey...
"Indeed. More precisely super volcanoes cause ice age for tens of years. This caused the extinction of nearly 95% of all lifeforms on the planet's surface. While seas fared much better around 80%." Marcus explained to her.
"That's why my darling. Your dream can become reality." The teen tenderly said that to her as he stroked her cheek.
Atalanta that moment realised that… she will be able to experience the real deal…
"I see…" As she said that she changed her position sitting in his lap. She turned to the side and now she was facing him. There was a certain smile on her face that Marcus could not understand.
She wrapped her hands around him and pulled herself more into him. Her tail was moving from side to side. At the moment she was very sexy…
"While it will be entertaining… when you did your things to me I lost all my powers. At the moment I am only as good as a very experienced human hunter. And on top of that, I am ageing as well."
When she said that Marcus' eyes for a second changed Atalanta's reaction to that was a little bit stiff. She didn't expect him to flip like that. For a second she felt a presence in her head.
It was like… she was scanned from top to bottom. Unfamiliar energy washed her over.
"You are right. This needs fixing. Immediately."
The lion girl quickly gulped down nervously. Honestly, she did not expect him to react like that!
Her ageing only returned regularly according to Goddess Artemis… meaning that she is only in her early twenties!
"T-There is no need for such haste! I-I won't be dying any time soon!" Atalanta quickly clarified! She only wanted to get a properly working bow!
"Hmm. Doesn't matter. You need fixing up. Let's go." As Marcus said that his hands went on her firm backside and got up from his couch.
The lion girl quickly wrapped herself around him. This was embarrassing! She can walk herself! But, the teen ignored this and took her downstairs where the station for him maglev is.
Once he was there the train arrived and he boarded it to his Base.
The best part of this is that he has around 10 minutes to cuddle with his lovable and sexy pet.
By the time they were in The Base, he didn't want to leave the maglev because the kissing was building up… however, fixing Atalanta's lifespan is a priority. Honestly, by this point, he should fix all his girls because regular humans are quite fragile…
So, he quickly to Atalanta's embarrassment took her to the Genetic wing of his Base. He went to the main control consoles. Which was something similar to the doctor's office and a lab. Everything was white and looked like it was done from plastic…
Marcus has based the Genetic wing on Stars Wars and the race which likes cloning animals and people, the Kaminoans.
Making Atalanta slightly weirded out by the amount of whiteness there is in this place.
Thankfully, she can finally sigh a relief because the teen inventor finally let her down! As he took his seat and three holographic screens appeared. Forming a downside 'U' around Marcus.
"Right… let's see…" The black-haired teen used his psionic interface to skim through the menus before selecting Atalanta's DNA.
Soon enough he showed a… naked image of the feline beauty… the lithe beauty's body 3d image was spinning around in her full size.
"You… pervert…" She said that with an eye roll. And some blush too…
"You think? You are using the same thing to seduce and get things you want from me. Anyway, your hair allowed me to rebuild your image. So, I saw you naked nearly a year ago." He said with a grin making her blush more and there is some annoyance on her face now. She is not used to such… pervy talk…
"Maybe… let's just get this over with…" She said with a sigh. Atalanta knows it's pointless to argue with someone who can pull out something from a thin air on her.
"Sure…"
He quickly went over through her DNA adding things and altering them. The only thing the lion girl can understand is that he is moving some sort of ball from the structure. Removing and adding something… it's all strange to her… way above anything she can understand.
"Did you ever try to use Senjutsu or Touki?" Marcus asked as he looked through her DNA. He already knows it like the back of his hand and some of it has been used to advance his DNA.
"No...not that I can remember. However, I remember trying to learn it…" She said with a thoughtful look. Trying ro recall things from a distant past.
"Hmm, that's because your affinity for Touki is quite low. While Senjutsu would be impossible."
"Why? I thought… because I am similar to Yokai I could learn it?" She pointed at her ear and tail…
"No. Your body is that of a Demi-human. Half lion and half-human. But, you originally were human. So, your soul is that of a human.
This means that you still have sometimes discomforts with your tailor your feline ears."
Her eyes slightly widened and she had knowing look. As if she remembered something.
"Now that I have Sephiroth Graal and have a full understanding of souls I can see certain things when it comes to bodies and souls," Marcus explained to her.
Atalanta slowly nodded. So, that journey to Romania was quite important from the looks of things. It even going to help her with things she never knew she needed!
"That's interesting… so what kind of changes my body will go through?" Now with much more interest, she asked him.
"Well, since you are my maid and my pet. Something I will take pride in. So, I am giving the same treatment as Quinella. The base package of 'perfect' human. This means, quite high adaptation, eternal youth, you will going to have access to magic, touki, psionic energy as well as base power.
I am going to add some natural sense to these energies for you. So, that you wouldn't need to spend time learning them from grounds up.
From your lion side, you will inherit more of a natural sense for fighting. Most importantly your sides will mould into one much more."
The lion girl attentively listened to his explanations.
"What is base strength you mentioned?" She asked curiously as she has no idea what is the definition of base power.
"This originated from Artemis DNA meaning that one genome is altered to be close to where Artemis is. In simple terms, you will be around Ultimate class. Since the class is very broad it can be at Serafall level or be higher than that."
"Does this means you can make it stronger if you get… For example Zeus or one of the Primordials DNA?" Atalanta asked with slightly widened eyes as she is trying to understand how this DNA altering works.
"Not quite. It's more like map-making. While it helps somewhat to improve the strength if we get Primordial God's DNA, we still need to adjust and fit with the human body."
She nodded hearing that… It sorta makes sense but doesn't explain it all…
"The difference between a deity and a human is that gods were crafted to be 'perfect', while humans are still part of evolution and are heavily impacted by the surroundings." Marcus that moment showed human strand and Artemis strand.
"Just by looking at this, you can see that one is shaped in a certain way while the other is not so… like comparing an architectural marvel while the other one is a natural wonder."
When the inventor explained it like that Atalanta instantly understood what he means.
"This… means one is easy to… change? While the other not so much?" The lion girl said with a frown, this is not something she is familiar with but she is trying to understand what he is telling her.
"Yes. the natural grounds can be used to build something in an architectural sense. While with DNA which already build, not so much. As it's already there. For example, my DNA already has a 'building' so changing into something different is almost impossible because it's very specific. Unless I am to switch bodies.
Which… sounds gross in a sense." Marcus slightly grimaced thinking of changing bodies...he likes himself quite a bit and there is no point to switch…
"I see… now I understand this better…even through you explained in such…" She for a second blushed since he needed to dumb down for her.
"Simple way? Don't mention it. I know this is new stuff for you so tried to say in a way that we would be on the same page."
Atalanta slightly smiled when he said that, she wanted to say 'dumbed down' but he either saw it and saved her or simply glossed over.
Either way, she appreciated that.
"Since you got it down. Your DNA is in a middle with this. As you were human and turned into a lion and then became demi-human… you could say it's like a beach? You can build only on one side while the other is much harder which can impact it as a whole."
Marcus explained with a thoughtful look. Which made Atalanta understand that there is… a balance of some sort?
"We will go with the human side of upgrades. As I said before you will get the same stuff Quinella got. Followed some smoothing out with the lion part." As he said that he showed a picture of upgraded Atalanta.
The lion girl just deadpanned at him.
"The only difference I see is that you made my breasts a couple sizes bigger…" She said with a little bit annoyed tone.
"That might look so. All I did I have added Artemis perfect middle strand here.
You received her blessing when you haven't finished maturing. That effect your body as a whole especially after the whole lion part when it was thrown into the mix."
The beauty just groaned internally, even now, he perfectly explained why she will have bigger breasts! This is nuts!
"Fine! Whatever! Let's get this over with!" She just wanted to get a new bow! Instead, she will receive a body upgrade? How did this derail like this!
Marcus just shrugged at her and mentally pressed a few things on the windows. The math and test were done on the three original DNA a long time ago. So, there is no excess waiting or anything like that is needed.
The data he got from Sephiroth Graal even smooths out all the changes to one's DNA… it's like… magic version of Google on Life and Souls…
Adding magic to the mix makes quite a bit of difference in angles one can go. However, something extreme like… for example making a Vampire and Werewolf half-blood from a simple vampire is not possible… without repercussions that is…
Marcus did remember that Lucifer dude turned Vampires into evil dragons. This is possible but that's was an extremely crude override of all DNA. That insane devil removed all stops which erased whatever vampire there was in and used their DNA as a base to override.
In the end, what he said to Atalanta was true. He can't truly go blindly with Sephiroth Graal's abilities. He needs to map out other DNA stuff first. If he wants to mess with Atalanta's Feline side.
However, what he has is enough to smooth her soul and body. After this...she will be most likely the first proper Demi-human… not related to Yokai in the whole world.
Marcus of course doesn't count all the weird creatures all the pantheons around the world have. For him, it's all about catgirls or any other girls and as far as he knows only Yokai have those.
"Go in that chamber and lay down on that bed." He motioned for her to enter one of the Bio-chambers prepared for DNA alterations.
The lion girl nodded and quickly walked over there and laid down. She was quite a bit nervous, the beauty is pushing her nervousness down with a strong front.
Not that it mattered to Marcus as he saw through it.
"Relax, I was the first one to try these. The ones which were done to me were much more difficult compared to yours. I didn't have Sephiroth Graal at that time." He explained with a smile. Making her a little bit more relieved.
Seeing that she was a little bit better Marcus started the process.
Soon enough the Bio-Chamber was filled with chemical gases.
The teen made sure everything is smoothly operating before checking some other stuff on the holographic screen.
What he wanted to see is his connection to the soul.
When his body was altered his soul was not touched. So, with data from Sephiroth Graal, he can now check at himself from a different angle.
The result was… his soul barely changed. While his body was that of one of the strongest beings in the world… a simple soul rend would most likely kill him quite easily…
This was not good… at all…
He needed a second to process that before starting to fix this issue…
Which was not that difficult… after calming down he simply did the same thing he did to Atalanta…
Smoothing out soul to the body. With a couple of mental presses on the console, another Bio-Chamber was prepared for him as well.
Unlike for Atalanta, his session will be quite a short one.
~~~
The first thing Marcus felt was that he was dressed in slacks instead of a suit… he did feel a little bit weird when he finished his first-ever DNA altering session.
At that time he thought that it was normal? That this 'tightness' he felt was because he just went through a genetic alteration session.
Turns out it was not it… because now he felt quite… comfortable to himself. His soul has adjusted to his body. And he felt at ease.
Once he left his Bio-chamber he observed Atalanta's one which was still in progress. A quickly mental check on her vitals showed that she was fine and there were minimal changes to them.
He did see a small increase in energy consumption. This is most likely related to the fact that the Bio-Chamber is adding mass to her body. In other words, the body is slightly getting altered.
This was quite satisfying to the teen who will have a more sexy lion girl to enjoy.
While the beauty was in her Bio Chamber Marcus looked around. Now that his soul… has adapted to his strength. He could feel more…
Like he could feel where Is Artemis… and where is Athena… it's like his soul mass increased and now he can… feel other souls?
Since he can feel easily Gods around him. Meaning that their 'mass' are big… can they sense this too?
'No… I think not? Artemis didn't sense Athena she was quite shocked when she saw her on the tv screen.' The black-haired teen inventor remembered the reaction of Artemis when she saw Athena.
'This means they don't sense the 'weight' of soul? Strange… hmm… I need to talk about this with a powerful being…' For a second he frowned. Thinking for a bit more and simply waiting for Atalanta to leave the Bio-Chamber.
'There should be more to these souls things. Spiritual pressure? Hmm, that's Bleach stuff… what was that One Piece thing? Conquerors Haki? Hmm… then that… Soul Crush thing… well… pity I don't have on someone to test this…'
As Marcus was thinking about this he finally heard the sound of Bio-Chamber finishing the alterations.