While Mumbler was having his inner struggles, the grand elder and five others were already having a heated discussion.
"I don't like it!" Elder Sonor said while raising his voice, "I feel like something has gone wrong. And even if he is a demon lord, we can't trust him! Or rather especially because he is a demon lord we can not trust him!"
"What do you know?" Elder Agnes retorted, "You only know how to poke the others with your sword. Now it is obvious that the reason why there was almost no reaction from fetus for the first four months is that the demon lord has longer incubation period and must be carried for thirteen months. Thirteen! The sacred number! We should have thought of it ourselves. Thank god … or rather thank the demon lord we did not make a terrible mistake."
"From what I see, thirteen is just a number like any other." Elder Ernest jumped in, "I am more worried that we prepared for this event for over a dozen years and spent enormous amount of resources. I don't think our treasury can keep up with such expenses. Remember, we still have frozen a lot of resources to develop him after the birth ..."
Elder Jan interrupted him, "You know, I usually don't see eye to eye with elder Agnes, but this time I just have to agree with her. Only two of us have really seen the development of this fetus and I must say, it is almost bordering with a natural wonder. If we would not guard it, elder Agnes might really just pluck it out and add it to her collection of fetuses." He looked over at elder Agnes who was nodding her head, "But I agree with elder Ernest as well. The amount of invested resources is huge. And for what it's worth – we are almost out of herbal ingredients for the strengthening baths. We did plan only for nine months of pregnancy after all ... but I think there is a way."
The grand elder was in deep thought, "Elder Jan, lets hear your ideas first. May be we can formulate a plan after that."
"We have to look at what did we plan to do for the next four months after the child is born." Elder Jan was over hundred years old and had a mountain of experience. His main field was alchemy and he was used in dealing with difficult problems, "Our plan was to resume strengthening his elemental resistances as well as Qi pathways. Apart from that we wanted to slowly educate him, like teaching how to speak, breathing and physical exercises."
Elder Jan looked at the others, spread his hands wide and laughed, "You see where I am going with it? We can still do all of that almost without spending an extra coin. Grand elder and elder Sonor can strengthen his Qi pathways while he is still in the womb. It won't be as exhausting as the pathway clearing. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think with your Qi control a couple of hours a day for two, maximum three months his Qi pathways would be almost as strong and wide as those of a Qi practitioners in early, may be even middle stages. Imagine what will become of them when he grows up, even if he does not practice at all! Working on Qi pathways for an unborn child is revolutionary and has never been done before! And you won't even need any beast cores to compensate your Qi expenditure – the natural replenishment will suffice this time."
He was excited and talked really fast, so he stopped for a moment to catch his breath.
"Regarding the elemental resistances, we are mostly done with the poison already, but the heat and cold resistances can be built during the first year after birth. That means, even if we subtract these four months, we still have a plenty of time left. And we don't need to talk about education. The intelligence level of this demon lord is remarkable – he already understands us and we are able to communicate. This unexpected gain outweighs the four months of setback multiple times. What we should do, in fact, is to increase the amount of information we can provide although we can not be hundred percent confident he wants or likes to hear a particular subject. Also we should never forget that he is still a fetus and will mostly sleep, so big part of the reading would be a wasted time. And the time of any of us, elders, is way too valuable therefore we should get some apprentices do that."
"So, you mean everything is fine besides the two obvious problems?" The grand elder interrupted the unending tide of words.
"Most definitely" Elder Jan nodded, "The first problem I will solve myself. Give me a week and I will figure out how to keep the 'vessel's' body from exploding during the next four months. Also, we don't need to perform strengthening baths for fetus anymore. The amount of medicine his body has absorbed should last for five or six months. Don't you agree, elder Agnes?" He saw her nodding and then continued, "But the second problem can only be solved by elder Dinnar."
"I know what all of you are thinking." Elder Dinnar waved him off, "But just because he will be born four months later will not increase his soul resistance. Even if it was two years later I am confident in the seal we created. The strength of the soul's resistance does not correlate with age, it depends on the type of soul. I am confident we can seal any demon lord with this scroll."
"Great!" The grand elder finally felt relief. It seemed that this prolonged pregnancy was blessing in disguise, "Elder Jan, please calculate and rearrange the baths as well as produce some more of those supplement potions – we still have to keep the vessel alive and in one piece. Elder Agnes, please continue to monitor the child's development. If you want to continue reading to him, feel free to do so. But ... I don't want your apprentices near him! I trust your willpower but not theirs. Ask elder Silvio later to appoint two reliable people to follow your orders during the next four months."
"And one more thing." The grand elder turned especially serious, "It concerns the security of this project as well as the future of all of us. I want you to control yourselves and the people around you. Don't let slip out anything that might reveal our plans to the demon lord. Elder Sonor is right to be suspicious. Demons, especially the higher demons, are said to be treacherous and devious beings. We have yet to see a live one on this continent, therefore we will trust him only when the seal is active."
From that day on Nick's life was like in paradise … except he was trapped, some people wanted to enslave him and others – to kill. Other than that – everything was great. As he got more proficient in the new language, which, by the way he decided to call 'Freakish' in the honor of all the freaks around him, he got more of his 'audio lessons'.
He learned bits about the geography of this world, flora and fauna, learned about the traditions and mythology. Of course, Nick missed a lot of things because of his sleeping needs, but he knew he will fill in the blanks once he'll get out.
It was noticeable that the freaks were avoiding some subjects and he did not mind this as well. He already knew the main dangers and was already working on a plan. He got an idea from when freak-apprentice was reading some old myths of this world. For it to work he needed to exercise all his senses and his body as well. He was not sure about the chances for the plan to succeed, but it was not like he had any other choice.
The two old and strong freaks helped Nick a lot. He learned that one of them was the big boss of this place called 'the grand elder' and the second one was mini boss 'elder Sonor'. Apparently they were infusing his body with a power they called Qi. The concept was similar to what Nick had seen in the Chinese literature. The difference was that here they did not have or did not use any chakras and had only one Dantian. He still remembered that back on Earth the eastern tradition described people having three Dantians, but that was esoteric concept anyway without any empirical proofs.
While the two old freaks were giving Nick power-ups, he felt his senses, or at least hearing, becoming sharper, body stronger and the brain working more effectively. It seemed that even his inner organs were strengthened manyfold, or at least he hoped so. According to what the old freaks explained Nick, they were circulating this Qi stuff in his extremities and organs, also filling his lungs with a gas-like Qi substance, sometimes imitating a slow breathing.
The power of his lungs was crucial to Nick's plan. He was confident that after the birth he would grow at explosive rate since these people obviously have pumped him up with a ton of weird steroids. And, since they thought he was some sort of a demon, he might as well use that to his advantage.
Elder Jan quickly solved the 'vessel's' problem. He changed the bath content and schedule, developed a new paste to apply to the 'vessel' and, of course, produced batches of potions to keep the 'vessel' alive and fetus healthy. The consumption of the nourishing potions did increase with Nick's growth, but these were only nourishing and not supplementary or enhancing mixtures.
Thus four months passed in a blink of an eye. One beautiful morning the grand elder to his big surprise and satisfaction got Nick's, or as he thought – the demon lord's confirmation, that he will be ready to be born in three days. In fact, it was actually Nick's initiative.
When he was an intern at children's hospital two years ago, he did spend a week working with newborn babies. He knew how small and fragile they were, but compared to those little things, Nick was already in size of a calf, or at least that's how he felt.
Three days later the long awaited event was finally about to happen.
The place was the same, the participants were the same. Except all the parties were much more nervous, each for their own reasons. And the poor woman, who everyone called a 'vessel', with a deathly white-blueish skin, lied on the altar, all bloated up. Her facial features were gone long ago. If it was on Earth, she could be easily accepted as artificial surrogate equipment, but thankfully her soul would be finally free in few minutes.
Elders were chanting again standing on their usual spots and elder Dinnar was holding the dazzling sealing scroll in front of him with shaky hands.
The grand elder was next to the altar. After looking around, he nodded and loudly called out, "Demon lord! Are you ready to come to this world?"
Nick, although nervous, gave a confirmation kick, 'Hurry up, I still have my big entrance to make!'
The grand elder raised his left hand and strands of white mist started to swirl around it. He gently placed the palm on the 'vessel's' bloated body.
Nick felt how the magical Qi power was starting to run through his body, his extremities, his inner organs and finally gathered in his lungs.
'Thank you.' Nick smirked inwardly, 'I was betting on this.'
The grand elder raised his right index finger. A half inch long sharp white Qi blade was formed at the fingertip. He made a dexterous cut at the bottom of the belly from left to right, and then another very quick one from lover pelvis up to the chest, almost till the neck. Blood and innards sprayed around the altar and on the grand elder's robe and face, but he didn't even blink. He quickly grabbed Nick's oversized body which, besides blood, was also covered in amniotic fluid and vernix. He held it up with the left hand supporting Nick's head and cut the cord with his right.
And thus, the young man who was once known for his many speed records, was born after thirteen months of pregnancy, setting another record, but not a speed record this time.