387
Chapter 387: Side Chapter; A Necromancer's Experiments & Evan's Party Return
Epic of Caterpillar
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The Merfolk Old Ancestor Soul, which was once part of Kireina's 'Inner Realm, Soul World' and then sent in one of Aarae's magic bracelets began to inspect its surroundings.
Although Kireina had sent him into Aarae's bracelet so its soul could boost the magical powers of her son, the Merfolk Old Ancestor's soul had been in a daze.
Being devoured and then resurrected with Kireina's Soul Energy made his mind become a fuss, most of his memories were gone, and its personality had become a little bit twisted. But even then, some of its experiences, magical talent, and insights were still present.
Such experiences combined were enough to restore part of its original personality, but he needed several days of sleep to recover and rearrange the order of its soul, each piece of memory and experience was like a piece of a giant puzzle, and getting them all together so the soul could function normally took a lot of effort.
But now that it was finally conscious, it used its soul to recreate sensitive senses similar to vision and hearing.
The Merfolk Old Ancestor then saw a handsome young man passionately kissing its wearer, Aarae, as the two sat down in the night. After the two lovebirds finished their demonstration of affection, they talked about things such as magic and the delicious food that they were eating.
"What…? What is this? Who are these two?! Ugh! My memories… Who… am I? I… What as I… doing?"
In his conversation with Ervin, Aarae had felt a faint presence on his left arm bracelet, which had been gifted by his mother, but because he was busy with Ervin, he decided to just ignore it.
The Merfolk Old Ancestor memories were fussy, and nothing seemed to come back no matter how hard it tried to remember… giving up, it fell into slumber once again, until Aarae was to infuse MP on his bracelet and wake him up.
Kireina had especially used her intent into the resurrection of the Merfolk Old Ancestor soul, with the intention of 'helping Aarae and forget about the past', so it was highly unlikely that it would ever remember anything of its past unless it could somehow help Aarae. And it was also unlikely that it would ever rebel against him as well, due to its weakened state. Aarae was also someone intelligent, it would immediately alert his mother if something were wrong with his bracelet, which would end on the Merfolk Old Ancestor soul getting eaten a second time.
There was also another item, a Legendary Weapon that contained the copied soul of Athos, the Dragon that is the current Boss in Kireina's Dungeon. After teaching Amiphossia everything it knew about Phantasmal Shapeshifting, he wanted her to teach him anything, like Athos, a Great Ancient Dragon saw Amiphossia as a being wiser than himself.
However, Amiphossia had easily forgotten about him and left him taking care of her Small-sized Dungeon, the Ghost Ruins, which were a small dungeon adjunct to the Empire's Castle.
The Sword was capable of recreating his body but at a smaller size, he was currently training in the small dungeon, eating phantoms and ghost with the only Skill that Amiphossia taught to him, he slowly increased the power of its Soul, which was a mere copy of the original self.
"My Soul may finally increase its Rank to 3…! But I need to eat somethings stronger, the Boss in here won't do anymore… Sigh… To think that I would be reduced to such a weakened state, I wonder how is that 'Wyvern Overlord' handling things like a sword? I heard that he was fascinated with the idea, but now that I realize, it is pain"
However, as Athos was about to take a nap and hope to wake up the next day with higher spirits, Amiphossia and her group of phantoms appeared at the entrance of the small dungeon.
"Ah! My Master! Amiphossia-sama, how was your trip with your mother?" asked Athos.
"Ah! Athos! I almost forgot that you existed… haha, have you gotten stronger? All of the Ghosts with me had increased their Levels and some evolved�� you haven't evolved yet?"
Amiphossia's last question, which was said carefreely seemed to hold a different weight on Athos, who trembled in fear for a nonexistent pressure.
"A-Amiphossia-sama, please forgive me, but I haven't evolved yet! And my soul… it is still Rank 2!" he shouted.
"Huh? O-Okay… calm down, Athos… I was thinking that leaving you here was quite bad, so accompany us from now on if possible!" said Amiphossia, with a cheerful and humble smile. Athos's heart melted to her kindness.
"Y-Yes! I will, I will! I shall follow you to the ends of the Realm, my Lady!" shouted Athos, kneeling, and thanking his 'Master'.
"O-Okay…"
Geraldine, Seishin, Sesshomaru, and Shirohibe did not take lightly the addition of a new rival… but there wasn't any of them that was a 'weapon' so they immediately felt as if they had lost the fight from the beginning.
"Amiphossia-sama, is that what you seek? A weapon?! I am not enough, nya?!" asked Geraldine.
"Geraldine…?"
Seishin and Sesshomaru groaned in sadness, looking at the floor. Shirohibe remained silent, but she seemed rather gloomy.
"W-What is just going on?"
Amiphossia had no idea that everyone here had feelings for her! And it's not like she would ever find out.
Such was the case for another individual, one that would probably never find out what it really was… Megusan's small split soul, which was currently peacefully resting inside its watermelon-sized egg as a Lamia-like fetus.
Redgaria inspected the egg with the help of his assistant, Sapphira Diamantine, the former Champion of Freezing Winter, which was slaughtered by Redgaria's undead in the Athetosea War and then had its body restructured with Dark Arts and its soul put again in a corpse with a Soul Attribute Spell.
She was 'revived' as an undead, and since then it had become a fanatical follower of the Necromancer, making his usually quiet life filled with her harmonious attitude, which he was disgusted by.
Redgaria would have gotten ridden of her if it wasn't for Kireina's direct orders to keep her around him, just to torture him.
"Redgaria-sama is this a reincarnated Demon God?!"
"Petulant ignorant, don't ask questions which answers are obvious… yes, it is. But only a 'part' of it! A small split soul. Kireina devoured the 99% of it… Now scram off! I need to do some experiments… although it is only a small split soul that was reincarnated, this sample is precious!" he said.
"Ooh!"
"With this, I can inspect the structure of the soul of God! And finally, obtain some insights about them, and perhaps find special weaknesses, or their compositions that could help me forge my body into that of a God!" shouted the Necromancer, his almost lifeless eyes gleaming with hope and excitement.
"I see! Let me help!" said Sapphira.
"No! You would help me a lot if you went somewhere else and left me alone for once in your life… death!"
However, as if Sapphira's ears had suddenly become deaf, she grabbed on the egg and watched it with her lifeless blue eyes.
"Uwah! It's so cute and round… I can feel a strange, spicy presence…" she said, as she let the essence of Venom from the split soul of Megusan surround her.
"Agh! Don't grab it, you stupid idiot! You! Carry her somewhere else!"
"Yes, Master"
Redgaria took the egg back and then ordered a Skeleton Knight in its room to grab Sapphira somewhere else.
The Necromancer then sat down on his chair and grabbed on several magic artifacts mostly used for advanced studies of alchemy and science. Although science in Genesis was very undeveloped if compared to Earth's, it compensated with the fact that there were magic and alchemy.
The artifacts surrounded the large white egg, as they began to absorb the purple-colored mist that the egg would produce from time to time. This mist was the 'essence' of Megusan's split soul. Even if it was merely 1% of the original soul, its components and powers were still those of a god, and it naturally leaked a substance capable of poisoning others… however Redgaria and Sapphira and most of the ones that touched the egg either had poison immunity or high resistance.
Such poison was different than Megusan's attacks or soul, and it was just something 'residual' naturally generated. Because of the split soul being so small, its power was weaker than the poison of a small snake.
Redgaria took a large sample of this 'essence' and began to inspect it, while also inspecting the components of the eggshell, and the internal fetus as well, by poking a small needle-like artifact which was incredibly tin. With a syringe, he took out a sample of the fetus's blood.
The Necromancer was capable of grabbing Megusan's soul as it was very weak, but this would end up in the death of the Fetus, which was a precious specimen that Redgaria did not want to risk dying, so he was satisfied with taking a bit of its blood and essence.
"Incredible… even its blood has been mutated by the soul…? Just what components does a God soul have? What kind of living organisms are they?"
Redgaria glanced at the blood cells with the use of a microscope-like artifact created by the Rin Sisters. Alongside the spread of Earth's science and culture, the knowledge about cells, internal organs, and other things was widely spread in the Empire.
Redgaria did have some knowledge about the body and organisms, but never guessed about the existence of cells, which he became fascinated with, using the magic artifacts that imitated Earth's science technology, he inspected countless samples and wrote a dozen of notes about cells and their structures, and how did magic and other supernatural forces in Genesis affect them.
The Necromancer had found out that Megusan's new physical vessel, which he had reincarnated into had changed due to the invasive power of the soul, even if it was but a split piece. The cells had mutated and became like fiendish creatures, they had great vitality and magic energy and several components that Redgaria had not discovered up to this point.
"Could these components be… Divine Energy? But it is only a residual part… although it is solidified in the form of microscopic crystals… I remember Kireina talking about the gods that had talked to her talk about Divine Energy Crystals… could this be something similar?"
As Redgaria kept inspecting and investigating more and more about the secrets of the Gods, Evan and his party were having fun in the festival that was being held in the Dark Moon Empire. He had finished his travels a few days ago and came back to the Empire quite tired.
Kireina had sent him to conquer several small-scale dungeons with the rest of the humans who made his original team. Such dungeons were easy to conquer… but they were too many small dungeons, which covered the entirety of the Vast Plains.
Kireina had given him a special artifact infused with the 'Automatic Dungeon Mapping' Skill, so he could gather information about each dungeon through this artifact, and then give it to Kireina. She had planned on quickly conquering and then stealing such dungeons but sent Evan and his group to do a small reconnaissance while beating every single Boss.
Evan's party had consisted of the ones who were originally part of his party, except Lilith and Charlotte, who have become Kireina's wives and were constantly with her.
The Human Amazoness Makesia and the Human Dual Swordsman Armand Nash, with the addition of demi-humans such as Roneth, the Wind Wyvernoid, a race similar to the Dragonoid, who was originally a slave rescued by Kireina, a pair of werewolf twins and three Cait Sith.
However, the moment that Evan and his group arrived in the city, they had found that almost every Human had changed completely, they had suddenly mutated and evolved into Chaos Humans, and each one had a different appearance, varying in sizes, strengths, colors, and powers.
"Since when can Humans evolve…?" thought Evan, as he saw several of his former acquittances change their appearances, some gained long spider legs in their backs, others became muscular as their skin turned red or blue, and others gained a third eye or had only one…
Evan had grown not to discriminate against others because of their appearances long ago, as he had a girlfriend and soon to be a wife who was a Lamia, a Giant Phantasmal Lamia, Amiphossia, who was also the eldest daughter of Kireina, the Empire's Empress.
He felt himself a little bit excluded from such events, but this quickly changed when Makesia, Armand and he evolved into Chaos Humans as well, while obtaining the blessing of Kireina…
And now Evan had changed slightly, becoming a rare Spirit-type and Slime-type Chaos Human… his appearance had mostly remained the same, but the abilities he had to shapeshift his body after being saved by Kireina's Slime Clones (as they fused with him to replace important internal organs) had increased, he was now aware that he could just become a mass of slime… but was horrified to even try something like that. Aside from this, his appearance becomes paler and his blonde hair became shinier while gaining a small yellow tattoo on his forehead.
"You should be proud of your evolution, Evan! I wish I could extend my arms like tentacles and play around with the girls in the brothel like that… buhihi" said Armand, the Black Haired Dual Swordsman who had become a Demon-type (Succubi) and Wolf Type Chaos Human, he had gained small horns on his forehead, alongside wolf-like ears and a tail. Since then, his character had become even wilder than before.
"Your evolution is a rare one, boy! Be prouder that you've evolved! It is another way to help us reach the pinnacle of warriors! I can't wait to show Jorogumo and Erathe about my evolution! Also, I've heard that there is a new fiery fighter named Oga in here. There is a lot of fun to have!" roared Makesia, the former Amazoness Adventurer, who was exiled from her tribe because of her weakness. Now she had become stronger through training and hardships, and with Kireina's blessing, she evolved into an Oni-type Chaos Human. Her skin had turned bright blue, her long brown hair became white and her eyes turned crimson red, she had now a large bleu horn in the middle of her forehead. Her overall musculature had increased exponentially, and her size was now above two meters. She liked to pat Evan and call him 'boy' and usually saw him as a little brother.
"I'm glad that you two are enjoying yourselves… But it is really freaking me out that my body can change so much! Why am I the only one that finds this weird? Sigh… But I do appreciate the power granted; I suppose… Oh? Amiphossia!"
As Evan lamented his changes, which were barely noticeable by the common eye, Amiphossia came to his sight, she was accompanied by her group of ghosts and a floating sword… Athos.
"Aah~! Evan-Kun!" shouted Amiphossia, as she flew towards Evan and crushed him with a tight hug. The force of her charge made Evan become a Slime, surprising Amiphossia.
"Oh? You can become a Slime now?"
"Ugh… Y-Yes… Long story short, I became a Chaos Human, a Slime-type Chaos Human…"
"I see! That's amazing! Now I can squeeze you all I want!" said Amiphossia as she squeezed Evan, just as she said she would do.
Geraldine and the rest of Amiphossia's ghosts glanced at the scene with jealously.
"So this is the famous Evan…!" roared Geraldine, baring her feline fangs.
"Grr…" (Seishin)
"Growl!" (Sesshomaru)
"Ah… He's quite handsome, I suppose…" muttered Shirohibe.
"Oh, that must be the boy destined to become a Hero… how interesting… A Hero and the daughter of a Demon are boyfriends? Who would had thought?" said Athos.