Speaking of corpses, I was suddenly reminded of what Mo Na said before. Not too long ago, she told me that summoning magicks required a corpse as a medium; in that case, didn’t we have three perfectly serviceable corpses right now?
“Sweetie, do you think you’re able to summon a few undead from these corpses?”
“Mama’s overthinking things.” She rolled her eyes at me: “Demonic Fire Igneous Giants are part elemental so they aren’t strictly flesh creatures either. It’s impossible to turn them into mediums for summoning.”
“Is that so, that’s a shame then.” I hopped onto the largest giant and drew forth Shadowfang, a weapon which I hadn’t unsheathed since coming here, and stabbed it into the giant’s chest cavity. As always, its sharpness never ceased to amaze or frighten me for that matter. Even a Five-stars giant’s hide stood no chance against its razor sharpness. With one smooth motion, I was able to penetrate the rocky exterior and with another slash, widen the wound.
Because of its unique viscosity and the prone position the giant was in when I sliced it open, the blood didn’t come bursting out like a fountain. Instead, it laid there quietly in the giant’s body, no longer flowing about like before; it almost looked like a pool of still blood…no, perhaps a pool of still lava would be more apt.
Even now, I was able to feel a degree of warmth from within; ‘it must’ve been scorching hot just moments ago…’
Slightly curious, I reached forth to touch the lava-like blood in order to check its warmth. However, the moment my fingers came into contact with the fluid, the blood immediately rushed forth and wrapped itself around my fingers before continuing up my arm… ‘What’s going on here, didn’t I just touch it a little?! Why is it running up my body like some kind of living creature…’
“MAMA…” Realizing my strange condition as well, Mo Na immediately yelled out to me but unfortunately for her, my body was completely covered in the viscous fluid by now; let alone hear her clearly, my face wasn’t even discernible at all. On my side, it felt like my body was immersed in some kind of strange fluid…or perhaps I had fallen into its body…those were the only two possibilities I could think of.
My consciousness began to fade as if I was falling asleep… ‘Exactly what is going on here?! What’s happening to my body, I can’t seem to find anything at all…time seems to be flowing slowly as well or maybe it’s going so fast…either way, I can’t feel a thing.’ Finally, after an indeterminate amount of time, I heard a voice calling out to me.
“Mama…mama…*weep*…mama…” I could vaguely hear the cries of a little girl in the background; it sounded a little like Mo Na’s… My eyes slowly opened up and I found myself in an unfamiliar surrounding as if I was in kind of strange stone cave. Beside me sat Mo Na, crying and terribly shaken up as her tears flowed down unabated.
‘Oh, this isn’t a cave, it’s the belly of that giant…I remember now, I was testing out the warmth of that giant’s blood when I must’ve fallen into the giant’s body by accident…at least I think that’s what happened.’
“Mama…you’re awake.” Seeing my eyes open, Mo Na wiped dry her tears before giving me a relieved smile. “Mo Na thought that you weren’t going to wake up anymore…Mo Na was scared…”
“What do you mean won’t wake up anymore…” I gently flicked her on the head and upon seeing her fake a pained expression, I couldn’t help but break into a huge grin: “Sweetie, you look so comical right now, Papa likes you like that.”
“Bad Mama, after all the worrying Mo Na did for Mama, the first thing Mama does is bully Mo Na. Hmph!”
As she said that, she pouted and faced away from me in what had to be the most adorable display of anger ever. Seeing that, I hurriedly tried to placate her.
A good while later, she finally forgave me. However, the words she said next truly shocked me: “Mama, you ate that entire giant, Mo Na didn’t even get to touch the blood…”
“…”
‘I ate that entire giant by myself? Exactly how am I not bursting at the seams right now? That thing is even able to take on a Warhorse elder! A Six-stars!’
‘And I consumed that entire thing? Did I evolve?’
I quickly gave my body a quick look through and found, to my dismay, that nothing had changed… ‘Did all that energy get swallowed up by some dog or something? Hold on…I seem to remember a certain glutton…don’t tell me, Ferti’nier ate it all again, didn’t she…’
“Little Brother seems to have gotten smarter since we last met, he even remembered this one. You won’t mind that this one had a little snack, right?”
‘That teasing voice, and the way it communicated with me telepathically…there’s no mistaking it, it’s Ferti’nier…’
“Ohh~Little Brother still remembers this one then, this one is so happy~”
‘By the way, what’s with that display just now? That wasn’t just a nibble or two anymore, you ate the whole blasted giant! At least leave some scraps for my daughter or something.’
‘Daughter? Oh~~Little Brother is talking about that little sweetie over there? That child is pretty talented and all…but is it really alright for Little Brother to do that behind Yi Yi’s back?”
‘Oh please, you don’t even know what happened to me…let’s just say that without ‘THAT’, I can’t even if I wanted to—‘
……
“Oh~~I see how it is then, so you’re saying if your ‘thing’ is returned, Little Brother would cheat on her then?”
‘Hey hey hey, don’t put words into my mouth, when did I ever say that I wanted to cheat on someone…’
“Didn’t you just say so right then?”
‘Let’s be clear about something here, before confirming all this fiancee stuff with Yi Yi, I’m not acknowledging this betrothal! We haven’t even gotten married yet, and what do you mean by cheat? Don’t spout nonsense!’
“Is that so? This one thought Little Brother was a little more flexible when it came to such matters.”
‘Stop using that innocent tone to make fun of me already. If you aren’t going to be serious here, I’m ignoring you from now on!”
“…fine, Little Brother is right, this one won’t tease you anymore.” At that, she paused before resuming once more with that same old wily tone of hers: “But since the two of you aren’t related by blood, Little Brother is planning to groom her as a wife then?”
‘HUH?!~%&@(*$…I’m not going to be an On*chichi!’
(TL: Some reference to a ‘mature japanese game’ about stuff)
“What’s an On*ch*ch*? Forget it, even if Little Brother doesn’t say anything, this one can guess what it roughly means…” Sensing that I was about to lose my temper, she quickly diverted the topic: “Mhm, now let’s see where this one is at right now…oh~ isn’t this Purgatory? Little Brother actually broke out of the Prison, not bad, not bad at all.”
‘That’s right, it was tough, but we made it in the end. I wanted to head to Abaddon straight away but due to some reasons, we ended here.’
“Well, it’s fine either way. There’s actually a passageway between the two hells, all you need to do is find it. But for some strange reason, this one still feels that something is off but she can’t figure out why.”
‘Of course you do, this is the Remnants of Sable Radiance.’
“Remnants of Sable Radiance? Err…Little Brother, what are you doing here then?”
‘I just said it was an accident, didn’t I? I didn’t intend to come here either. Still, there’s something I’ve wanted to ask you for a long while now. Since you’ve awaken and all, please answer me seriously.’
“What question? Don’t worry, if it’s Little Brother asking, this one will definitely do her best to answer.”
‘I’ll take your word for it then. So, are you the Devil King of Sable Radiance?’
“You must be joking, this one isn’t that old. If this one’s memory is correct, this one hasn’t even celebrated her 20 001st birthday yet.”
“This one is still very young don’t cha know? Tehee~”
‘What the heck is a 20 000 year old witch acting cute for…even a sage ,like this brother, feels he is old. To pretend to be young at 20 000…Isn’t that skin of yours a little too thick…’
‘Speaking of which, back when that Nightmare Steed tried to consume me, it was you who saved me, I assume…thanks. If it wasn’t for you, I would be dead now, let alone talking about giant blood. I guess that’s why you had to consume that entire giant’s worth of blood…once again, thanks…’
“Thanks are unnecessary, this one was attached to you by Yi Yi in order to be your bodyguard anyway. Besides, our souls are bound together. The last thing this one wants is to be eaten up by some ignorant horse. Thanks aren’t necessary, just remember to help with my bodily needs next time.”
‘I’ll have to pass on that…anyway, we’re talking about serious business here, stop going off course!’
“This one is being serious here, it’s just Little Brother’s mind that’s being dirty here.”
‘What’s all that about bodily needs then…and you call me dirty…’
“It means that I need your help to reconstruct my body, Little Brother is thinking dirty again.’
‘You managed to find an excuse for yourself? Fine…you win.’
“Mama…Mama…Mo Na is talking to you here.” Throughout that mental conversation, I basically stood there in daze in front of Mo Na who was clearly worried sick by now. Concerned, she started to shake me continuously. “Mama, why aren’t you talking to Mo Na?”
“Sweetie, stop shaking, Papa is just doing his daily meditation, that’s all.” For now, I didn’t intend to tell anyone about Ferti’nier, including Mo Na. “Sweetie, let’s go out for now, I don’t know how much time has passed but No.3 and Big 4 should be done by now. Same with Sinmosa’s family as well…I wonder if they’ve evolved to Six-stars.”
Having said that, I didn’t wait for her response before scooping her up into my hands and stepping out of the rocky carcass.
