“Gotta say, when I asked if you could arrange this, I wasn’t expecting so many elementals to gather too,” Ben said to Thera by his side, his girlfriend politely trying to not let on that she was hoping he’d fail so he’d have no excuse to go off to get himself killed, even if she’d still set up his request of gather as many spirits in the world as she could.
“It looks like they like me more than I thought. When I asked the spirits around, the elementals nearby offered to join too, and I guess word got around. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many in one place before.”
“Ha, elemental princess is going to have a great ring to it.”
“Say that again and I’ll fight you. I am a friend of elementals, says so in my titles and everything. Absolutely not their princess.”
“Don’t be so harsh, sweetheart,” Abrus said at her side. “It’s good to be loved, it means you’ll have people in your corner if you need them, and the mana-based are all rather potent allies.”
“I can be friends and allies with them without needing them to devote themselves to me, thank you very much.”
Ben almost said it seemed too late for that but chose to hold his tongue in the end. Within that field were hundreds of thousands of elementals, millions of spirits, and all but two of the great spirits, waiting to help him specifically at Thera’s request. Vividus and Nox had both specifically not been invited considering that Mora had come with them, but other than that, it felt like a world-changing level of power, all confined to a single field.
And as absolutely horrifying as it is that she was able to gather this much power in one place, time to see if this will work.
“Alright, well I’m ready if everyone else is. Thera?”
“Got it,” she nodded before calling out with both her voice and mana. “Everyone, could you all squeeze in here as close as possible? We’re about to start.”
With her request being met with immediate movement, Ben found that they’d given him room to spare when it came to the limits of connect, with the only ones who really needed the space being great spirits like Abrus who held a form they didn’t want to give up. With everyone centered around Thera though, using her own dense mana she was spewing out to let them take advantage of her presence, Ben did exactly what he’d intended when he asked her to organize that. He reached out with his soul and, all at once, connected to the millions of individuals within his range, all in an attempt to push himself over the edge.
And got nothing for it. He wasn’t sure if it was even really putting any strain on connect but he knew it wasn’t putting any on his mind either. A crowd like that was easy to deal with, and while it might have been experience for both skills, bringing him a bit closer to the awakening he hoped for, it wasn’t enough to make the difference he craved.
Yeah, he sighed to himself. Knew that wasn’t going to work, but I’m still disappointed. God, I really just need this win.
Considering that getting it is part of my overall goal of saving this stupid world, I actually kind of do. Ugh, whatever. I’ll go for a couple more minutes and then call it to an end.
With those minutes not bringing any change either, eventually Ben had to accept it and let out a sigh before speaking up.
“Okay, well, thanks for coming everyone, really appreciate it but now I’ll let you all get back to your business. There’s nothing else to do here.”
“No luck then?” Thera asked despite the obviousness of it. With no flash of mana, it was clear he hadn’t gained a new third-tier awakening, but he still hung his head.
“Not even a new level or a single new skill to go with it. I’d just been linked to more minds than someone might ever touch at once again, some of them being exceptionally powerful too, mind you, and I got nothing for it. Ugh, how am I ever going to make this work?”
“Well, if you’re done then you can worry about that while we head home so-”
“Ah, Thera?” Her father interrupted. “While I and the other originals are going to use this small gathering to talk to the new great spirits, would you mind stopping in to see your mother instead of sneaking off through the other gate you keep in the city?”
“... Why?” She asked through narrowed eyes, instantly suspicious in a way that left her father shaking his head.
“Because she misses her daughter, obviously.”
Still, Thera kept her doubts, her gaze eventually falling on the child she’d brought with her before getting a flash of understanding.
“She wants to see Mora again, doesn’t she?”
A guess that instantly had her father looking guilty, the great spirit caught, even if he did his best to cover it. “Ah, well I won’t deny that since you’ve spent your life making it clear you don’t want children, she’s rather excited to have a grandchild of sorts and would appreciate it if you brought him by more, she does want to see you and Ben as well and she’s just been working so hard, she’d really appreciate it.”
Sighing, she looked over at Mora, wanting to see what he would say since he was sure to bear the brunt of the succubus queen’s affection, with the boy shrugging.
“I don’t mind; she seemed nice when we met, and if it will make her happy, shouldn’t we do it?” he asked, the opposite of what Thera had hoped for and leaving her defeated.
“Fine, we’ll stop in. It probably won’t be too bad.”
Mmh, doubt that, Ben kept to himself, looking at the two and seeing something that she’d grown too used to and that her father hadn’t mentioned, viewing the change as something more akin to how the other great spirits might choose to present themselves to the world than anything significant. That was going to be Pelenia’s first time seeing Mora in the body he’d made for himself.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Knocking on the meeting room they were directed to, they briefly got to see the queen, surrounded by advisors and with an exhausted look in her eye, come to life the moment she spotted the three, her absent daughter making the perfect excuse for a break.
“Everyone, we’ll be putting a pause to things here to stop for lunch.”
“But your majesty,” one spoke up. “We’re in the middle of-”
“Starting our lunch break, yes. Have one of the maids bring your meals up while I see what my family needs.”
Silencing the rest with a look, she walked over and, without a word, scooped Mora up and carried him out of the room, forcing Ben and Thera to follow.
“Really, just perfect timing, you two,” Pelenia said as she led them to the lounge. “Those slave drivers are so hard to convince into stopping meetings partway through unless there’s an excuse.”
“I really feel like you shouldn’t be doing that,” Thera sighed. “Was that anything important?”
“Mmh, just discussions for how we’ll be managing the defense of the main city by the time the third wave reaches its end, assuming by that point the majority of military forces across the world will be wiped out.”
“... Mother, that sounds incredibly important. We’ll go home, so go finish that.”
“Never. Every major and minor government on the planet is having these sorts of discussions by this point and has been having them for centuries before the first wave arrived. A single break is not going to make things any worse,” she told them as they reached the side room, sitting down on a chair while keeping Mora comfortably in her lap as she did, her arms wrapped around him like it was the most natural thing in the world. “Anyway, we have more important things to discuss. Like who this little cutie is and why you didn’t bother bringing my grandson if you were going to visit?”
“What?” Thera asked, only just realizing that her mother hadn’t yet seen Mora’s new body and had no clue what he currently looked like. “Okay, wait, no. Did you really grab a kid not knowing who it was?”
“I know he’s with you and I know he’s positively adorable, that’s good enough. Tell me you adopted a second one and I’m going to be over the moon.”
“Alright, no. That’s Mora. He made a body for himself, same way dad did, it just follows his domain.”
“Hello, grandma,” Mora said politely as he turned his head to look back, remembering what she’d insisted he call her the last time while Pelenia herself froze from the new information, picking him up and turning him to stare at his face for a moment before pulling him into a bigger hug.
“Oh my goodness, I didn’t even recognize you! Gosh, even if you look different, you’re still such a cutie but… wait,” she stopped, seeing exactly what Ben expected to bring the biggest reaction. “How did you make that body?”
“I grew it,” Mora answered honestly, with Thera only beginning to realize what a bad idea letting her mother hear any deeper bit of that answer would be, but was too late to stop it.
“From?” the queen prompted, looking far too interested in the answer in a way that went completely unnoticed by Mora.
“I smooshed some of Thera and Ben’s cells together. It seemed like the best option at the time.”
“Oh, I bet it did,” the queen grinned so wide it seemed the smile was going to split her face, the leader of one of the more powerful nations on that world left practically vibrating in excitement. “Oh, and you really do look just like them too, don’t you? You’ve got a bit of Ben’s frame and nose, along with my daughter’s cheekbones and ears. I guess you take more after Thera, but since her father’s heritage doesn’t look like it came through at all, that means you look like me too.”
She started getting up as she said it, still carrying Mora and walking to the door, only being stopped as her daughter materialized a wall in front of her.
“Mother, where do you think you’re going with him?”
“Hmm? Back to my meeting, of course. Now that I know, I obviously have to show him off to everyone there, don’t you think? The staff too, I need to make sure they can recognize him and know to give him everything he asks for.”
“Yeah, that’s not happening. Either be normal about this or we’re leaving.”
“I don’t think it’s fair to ask anyone to be normal about this,” her mother pouted before sitting back down, still not letting go of Mora. “But fine, I suppose I can contain myself, so long as Ben provides me with a family portrait of you all, that is.”
With a plain look his way, Ben materialized a small photo of himself, Thera, and Mora before turning it Pelenia’s way, getting to see her eyes light up for it.
“Oh, one of him and myself as well.”
“Mom, seriously?” Thera sighed. “I think we’re just gonna go.”
“Oh, don’t be like that. I didn’t get any pictures of you until your adult life, I don’t want to miss out on getting all of the ones of him I can while I can. Now Ben, stay in your future mother-in-law’s good books, would you?”
“Yeah, it’s easy enough,” he gave in, materializing another of just those two and left Thera’s mother looking satisfied.
“Good,” the queen nodded. “In that case, how are all of you? How’s my silly sister too, I suppose?”
“We’re good and she’s good,” Thera answered, a bit more willing now that her mother looked like she’d calmed down. “Although aunty Sonya isn’t home too often now. She travels for healing a fair bit, and I think she also spends a lot of nights wherever uncle Falk is staying at. He doesn’t come home more than every couple of weeks by this point.”
“Mmh, I suppose godhood is keeping the old ape busy,” she muttered, her focus moving to Ben. “Does your own have you the same?”
“Oh no, I’m actually fairly sure the gods want to get as little use out of me as possible. The problem for them is that I’m just so gosh darn handy, sometimes they have no choice but to accept and pay me.”
“Ha, glad to hear you're making the most of it. And then what about the family on my end? Surely there’s some exciting gossip you’re interested in asking about.”
“Nope,” Thera told her, knowing where her mother was going and wanting no answer to it.
“Boo, I’m telling you anyway. It seems Bloom might end up enjoying quite the love-life.”
“I really, really don’t want to hear about this,” Thera tried again, getting no mercy as her mother went on.
“After you spoke to us, we tried to talk to him as delicately about it as we could, but he’s grown quite a fondness for the dryads working those fields,” she chuckled. “He says they’re friends and seems to mean it, but at least we’ve made him aware that they might want something more and that hasn’t stopped him from visiting every day.”
“We don’t need to know.”
“Well, I personally think it will be exciting if he has a few dozen children,” Pelenia laughed. “Do you think they’ll all be daughters? He may choose to look male, but since he’s genderless, I’d be surprised if that trait passes down.”
“Agreed,” Ben added, still feeling his own touch of interest on the topic that drove Thera to nudge his arm.
“Ben, it’s bad enough when you’re being a researcher about this sort of thing by yourself, I don’t need you discussing the matter with my mother.”
“What’s the problem?” Pelenia asked. “Thera, sweetheart, you were the only half-spirit for so long. I’m personally thrilled to see more come into the world. One hundred years from now, they’ll be the closest people you can relate to and besides, they’ll be family. I’m sure there’ll be some unique challenges to being a half-spirit that you could help guide them through as they get older.”
“Unless any other great spirit falls in love with a race that holds a passive magic, I’m pretty sure they won’t have anything like the issues I went through.”
“You say that now but in a couple more years, your father and I will be giving you more siblings than you can handle,” Pelenia laughed, seeming all too genuine in the statement, even if it carried the larger implication that it would only be happening if the world was still around for it to happen. “But even beyond the passive magic issue, that’s not like it’s the only thing you’ll be able to help guide them through. It’s still a bit early to be certain, but it already seems like Seren is going to have the same issues with his light magic that you had with your earth growing up, for him and any other half spirits that come along in the next decade or so, you’ll be a valuable teacher. You know the tricks for getting past it and growing to the point you can call yourself one of the more powerful people on the planet, that will be plenty for any other kids who come along. Don’t you think things might have been easier if you had a role model to look up to while you were growing up?”
“I think this conversation has taken a weird turn,” she muttered. “Exactly how many kids are you planning on having if it’s going to be more than I can handle?”
“Enough that I’m going to need you available to babysit for at least the next thirty years. Since there’s going to be a big age difference, it’s important to be around to develop a healthy relationship with your siblings, don’t you think?”