Chapter 201: Scattering Around to Save the World Once Again
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"So, this is your new sword? It's a beauty," Jasmine checked Caliburn, running a finger through its edges, whistling as blood dripped from her fingers. "Whew~ Fuck. That's so… hot. You have such a hot sword, brat. What's it called?"
"Caliburn, or Collbrande. I call it Caliburn," Aqua said with a chuckle, while he stood behind Ruby and dried her hair with a towel. He didn't know why the girl hadn't dried herself with a spell; she ran here fast, allowing the wind to dry her, but that made her look like a hobo by the time she reached the enclave. She had hurried here thinking it was an emergency, but the battle had already concluded.
So Aqua told her to shower, and now he helped dry her hair. They were in the room where Jasmine and Aqua met earlier, and now a few others of his people were scattered around, but not all. Namely, Yuzuru, Ranefer, and Memmy were here. The latter two were devils, and the former a child, so they weren't attending the meeting that the others were attending with the higher officials of the Elven Forest.
While this village was large, it wasn't the only elven sanctuary, nor the only gathering of race, the Elven Forest was too large for that. A village of dark elves from nearby sent their Chief, a union of all Dryads sent their leader, and likewise, the leaders of many other factions in this forest also attended this.
The Ogre King, the World Serpent, the Jungle Dragon, and many others. They were all in the enclave now, occupying the meeting room, here to meet their creator, the great Goddess, as well as the two foreign Goddesses that came with her; Quetzalcoatl and Ai in her Goddess of Light form. It was a stinky and busy place, and neither Aqua nor his master were overly keen on attending it, that's why they were here.
"Collbrande sounds better, like royalty. How did you get this? It's too good," Jasmine twirled the sword around, slashing the air, and commented. She looked really impressed by it.
"You want it? We can exchange," Aqua said, jokingly, grabbing the sword resting by the bedside. "I've missed holding it- akh!" the sword sent a jolt of pain through his hand and he dropped it.
"...! Are you alright, onii-chan?" Ruby asked in surprise.
Jasmine blinked, as did everyone else in the room. She looked at the sword, and then at Aqua. A scowl formed on her face, "Collbrande is a holy sword too, I can feel it, yet it accepts you. Why is Eldergleam acting up?" She picked up her golden Holy Sword, Eldergleam, and it didn't send any shock. "Huh. Is it perhaps mad at you for abandoning it three hundred years ago?"
"Haha, maybe," Aqua lied. Shit. The sword had only been used by Heros with a capital H. It could sense that he was far from how Holy someone was, and its standards were high. Caliburn accepted him because his history as a hero was engraved in his soul, but the actual sword that he used during those Hero times could recognize that he was far from an ideal Hero. Simply put, it didn't see him as the Hero Seriphoth; to it, he was a different person.
Or perhaps it was even disgusted at his sheer change.
"Sad. Looks like we can't exchange," Jasmine sighed sadly, then turned her head to look at two people in the bed. "By the way, you're still hanging around with demons? That's quite shameless after what happened. There is a little evil black dragon too."
"Hey, I am not evil!" Yuzuru protested. Since she was learning the Path of the Black Flames, she was dated to receive its useless Gold Sign, which was a useless dragon tail that the practitioner received after absorbing a Black Dragon. "A black dragon doesn't mean an evil dragon. Why is black an evil color?"
Such uselessness was one reason I didn't choose this Path, back in the day. However, as a Sage, I managed to twirl the Path a little to manipulate the Gold Sign since I couldn't have a member of my sect be useless. Therefore, when she reached Gold, she not only received a small forearm-sized tail, but she also had black horns popping out of her head, and a pair of small wings that let her fly for a bit. Along with them, she had bright red pupils going along with the theme.
That was when she was at Gold, where these things were basically just for show, now it was even better. Since her Underlord transformation had been completed, she could grow them to be used in a real battle, and also, transform into a full Black Dragon if she was willing to. It was quite the sight.
"The Devils and Demons aren't quite the same, although similar," I decided to introduce the three. "The two blondies are devils, that's Ranefer, and that's Mem-Cho, my girlfriend. The kid is Yuzuru, a human who's walking the path of the black dragon, the little horns, eyes, wings, and tails are from that."
"Girlfriend? Seriously?" Jasmine ignored Yuzuru's topic and shook her head, "You're dating a demon after the last one killed you in your sleep?"
"Well," Aqua shrugged. "Mem is better. Plus, uh, she's half-human, if that helps," he said, and Jasmine loosened her scowling a bit.
"...." Memmy found the situation quite strange, but Aqua pleaded to her to bear with it via telepathy.
"So she's a halfling. Makes sense. Then," she shot a look at Ranefer. "What about this one? I find her similar to the Phoenix Avatar."
"Hello, I am Ranefer Phenex; a Demonic Phoenix," Ranefer waved at her, and Jasmine tightened her grip on her swords.
"What the fuck? It's an enemy," Jasmine looked stunned, wielding both swords. "Brat, call for reinforcements, it's an enemy invasion."
"Stop joking around," Aqua flickered in her forehead, which she dodged, and shrugged. While she was acting like that, she wasn't letting out any killing intent. She was messing with them. "She's an ally. Not all demonic beings are evil, little master. Ranefer saved my life, actually," he lied, although it was true that she did help him heal his injuries faster.
"Yes, that's me~" Ranefer shamelessly took the achievement.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'll trust you, but only because they're your friends," Jasmine said, dropping the swords and crossing her arms. "And I guess it's easier to not hate them since they still look human, even if their energy is demonic. So skin color does matter, damn."
"Why is your master such a racist, Aqua?" Mem couldn't hold it in anymore and pointed a finger at Jasmine, who looked around in surprise as if she couldn't understand who the finger was pointing toward.
Aqua chuckled. I'm glad she's cheering up now. From what Sieran told him, Jasmine was feeling quite down after her Empire fell. Millions died under her protection, and ultimately she fled. She must be feeling like a failure now, where her successor had achieved far more than she had. Yet, she smiled like a star.
His master was much cuter than he realized before.
****
[Third Person Point of View]
"With this, let us conclude the meeting," Sieran tapped the table once and said. She didn't like holding meetings, she always put someone else to do it in her stead, such as the Chief here, or the Battle Princess back in the days. However, she had to admit that this meeting had gone well.
It's not as if this was a trading meeting, there was no deal going on, and the party with the most leverage was the Goddess so there were no issues. It was simply a reaffirmation of the promise that the Hero made earlier. The Goddess thanked her subjects, informing them a little about their incoming plans, and promised that everything was going to be alright, despite the alarming state the world was in.
"Again, my deity," the Jungle Dragon, in a slim humanoid form, covered in vines and greenery, grabbed the Goddess' hand and bowed his forehead against it, "I thank you for meeting us. As agreed, we will help the hero in any way he desires us to. Please tell him to use us well."
"Of course, child," Goddess Galaxara ruffled the Dragon's head, smiling. Dragons were the closest species to Divinity, and even among them, the Forest Dragon was a nature-type dragon, he was able to communicate with the Goddess even without going to a church or anything. To meet the entity he's been talking to for many centuries for the first time, was a special day for him.
The meeting ended after that, and the leaders of Elven Forest returned to their respective areas. A Dryad from the Dryad faction remained behind, apparently, she had something to do with the Hero and requested Sieran to let her meet the Hero once.
Sieran led her and the other guests to where her husband was staying. Husband, huh… That term suddenly made her conscious of something.
"So you're Sieran, right?" One of the women who the Goddess said were equal to her, as in a fellow divinity, walked closer to Sieran and said. She had blonde hair and blue eyes earlier, just like her husband's current appearance, but now she adorned purple hair and pink eyes. Some sort of disguise spell? But it felt so real, though. "I heard a lot about you."
"Ah…"
"My son told me," she said, blinking. "Ah, yes, sorry for the late introduction. You can just call me 'mother-in-law', I'm Ai Hoshino."
"...." Sieran stopped walking for a moment and a second later, she nodded. Hoshino, she said. So she really is his mother. She expected him to have a family when she saw that he had a twin sister, but this was…. uncomfortable. Seriphoth didn't have any parents, he was an orphan, so there were not any uncomfortable situations of meeting his parents. Sieran was too old for this, and yet she felt a little self-conscious. "Nice to meet you."
Ai smiled, beginning to make small talk with her, as they continued walking.
There was another thing. She felt peculiar gazes on her back, especially from that glasses girl, and that pink-haired girl. It wasn't glares of jealousy, but there was certainly something similar in their gazes. Sieran wasn't called the Wise for no reason, she easily understood the situation.
He's always been popular among ladies. Even though he chose four wives, he slept with a lot more. I shouldn't be surprised. That did send her head home, however. Although her husband was back, he wasn't quite what he used to be. He had a… new family now. New lovers, new powers, and a whole new life.
Worst of all, this wasn't even his only new life. Although he didn't tell her the number of times he reincarnated, he did agree that he had lived multiple lives between these two.
Sieran wasn't sure how she felt about this… No, she felt fine. She could endure the change, she was just happy he was back. What she feared was the reaction of one wife in particular. Although Sieran wasn't lustful by nature, she could understand why other individuals were. There was also the fact that he never knew that he could return, so finding other partners was not odd. Sieran understood him.
However, she doubted Princess Elara would understand.
That woman was more depressed than a log, more suicidal than anyone Sieran had met in her long life. How would that woman feel seeing her man return from the graves, happy with other women, while she had been rotting in her throne for three hundred years, looking after his Dukedom, and refusing the advance of a thousand men for the sake of loyalty?
Haaah, Sieran let out a sigh, hoping for the best, and leading the guests to meet Seriphoth. I guess he's 'Aqua' to them. So this is how long three hundred years really is, huh?
****
"Aqua~" The big group entered the chamber where Aqua was in, and Ai rushed in to hug him. Ending the hug short, she looked at the dark-skinned woman beside him. "Oh. Aren't you going to introduce us to one another?"
"Uh, yes, sure," Aqua stopped playing with Ruby's hair, which was now a braid for some reason and looked at the dark-skinned mature woman. "Everyone, this is Jasmine bint Alimah Al-Qadir. Since the first day I picked up the holy sword, her beautiful voice has pestered me for decades even in my sleep. She is my Swordsmanship Master."
A silence exchanged unfolded between Ai and Jasmine, and among the others in the room as well. Jasmine smiled and waved at everyone, "Hi~" Her eyes lingered on Goddess Galaxara and then at Quetzalcoatl. "Looks like the old lady bought some freaky powerful people after she fled." Her eyes landed back on Ai, "You too. When you were blonde earlier you smelled funny powerful, although now I guess it's more physical. What's the deal?"
"Hey, that's my mother," Aqua introduced Ai, and Jasmine whistled.
"Wow, a competitor. They say mentors are the 2nd parent, but since you were a stupid orphan, I can be said to be your first parent. Now there is another. I feel threatened." Jasmine said, and Ai held herself back from scowling. That was one thing that got on her nerves, some lady who tried to replace her.
"Stop acting up, we need to discuss bigger stuff," Aqua said, clapping his hands. The claps calmed the sound in the room, and he approached the window to sit on the railing.
"Indeed, my child. We're here for your decision as well," Galaxara said, and Aqua looked outside, it was noon now, and twin suns were lighting up the sky bright. It was such a nostalgic sight that he wanted to stare at them in totality.
Yet, he had to turn his head back to the room to speak. "Initially, I planned to divide ourselves into two teams. I'm making that three now. Erebia is nearest to the North Pole, and it has fallen. The nations near it are falling next. Unlike the South, where the demons are only at the borders, the North is constantly under attack. I think you, my Goddess, should go there. You should take Auriel, Kalawarna, and Asia with you. That's Group 1. Head to the Kingdom of Khormavia, it's currently under a large attack."
He continued explaining, followed by Group 2: Quetzalcoatl, Memmy, Shoko, and Yuzuru should be a part of this. The two Imperial kids should join this, as guides if anything. "You guys will be heading to the Kingdom of Dinionia, near the borders of the Dynasty of Cania. The Saintess is somewhere around there, I heard."
Group 3: Ai, Ruby, Tsubasa, Rafener, Xenovia, Irina, and Hero Jasmine. It was a group of powerhouses, and as suited for powerhouses, they'd be going somewhere dangerous. "Go to the frontlines of the Erebian Empire. We're reclaiming it in three days."
As for Aqua himself?
Everyone was curious about which team he would be joining.
"I would stay in Thyranais for a while," he said, his voice slow. "I need to make sure the Phoenix doesn't attack here when our forces are elsewhere. At the same time… I have someone I need to meet."
Princess Elara, his very first love. While the Demoness was his first wife, he had fallen for the princess first. Everyone would have trouble answering who loved him more, back in the day, but it wasn't the Princess who murdered him in his sleep, so the answer had become clear by that time.
After three hundred years, these days, she was rumored to be sitting on her throne alone, as everyone she knew had long passed away. She spent her days drinking away while staring at the ceiling, with sleepless eyes and a heart full of pain, she was lonelier than any human in this world. Naturally, Aqua wanted to visit her as soon as he could.
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