As the beasts fell to the ground, dead to the last, the trio left the carnage to approach the ‘newborn’. He was still fiddling with the clothing he had been given, but he was farther along the path of altering the gear than he had been beforehand.

“Not done yet?” Lyrhea asked.

“No, your Highness. I apologize for being so inept.”

The words ‘your highness’ threw Lyrhea for a loop.

“Excuse me, but why did you call me ‘your highness’?”

The more reptilian Lyrhean looked up from his work with a look of shock and horror on his face.

“Pardon my words, your majesty. I meant no disrespect.”

Now it was ‘your majesty’. Lyrhea didn’t quite understand what was going on until it finally dawned on her.

“Oh, dear god…” she grumbled. “Don’t tell me this is how things will be from now on…”

[“Better get used to it.”] the voice of the Primordial Serpent filled her head. [“That is my will in action. I identify as female, and you are female, so….”]

“And how the flying fuck do you know if I identify as female?!” Lyrhea roared in anger. She did identify as female, but damn if she wasn’t going to try and put her foot down somewhere. She didn’t sign up to be some kind of ruler of a despotic matriarchy!

That shit was for cringy smut and bad fiction, not real life! Equality was better than any gender or orientation or anything else gaining dominance in her eyes!

[“Cope.”] replied the countless-headed snake the size of a planet. [“Just accept the position you’ve been put into, and if you want it to change you better end up powerful enough to make me change it. And if you can’t do that, then cope.”]

Lyrhea pinched the bridge of her nose between two fingers as she closed her eyes and sighed.

“Fine. Fuck it, I’ll find some way around your bullshi-!”

She was smashed to the ground as her God’s will flooded her and she felt the tell-tale fear and terror of her deity pressing its fury down on her form.

[“Do respect proper decorum, mortal.”] the big-ass snake hissed into her ear. [“Or I may have to put you in your place a few more times. And a few more violent times at that.”]

The pressure vanished, and Lyrhea got up as her seemingly bipolar God’s presence faded away.

“Mother, what was that?” asked Luxnilae.

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Lyrhea merely shook her head and grumbled a reply.

“Our Patron God is about as likely to be a total dude-bro as she is to be a sadistic bitch, and she seems liable to flip between the two at the drop of a hat and for no reason that I can perceive.” she shot a concerned glance to every other member of her race. “Be careful.”

Looks were shared from all, and after a bit of silence and contemplation of their position in the hierarchy, Lyrhea addressed the currently nameless male Lyrhean.

“And you,” she said not with hostility but with more of a calm, yet authoritative voice. “As I am not yet a true ruler, I will not have you call me ‘your majesty’, or ‘your highness’, or any such thing. I am the first, but I am no queen, princess, royal, noble, or any such thing. Not yet, anyway. Find some other way of referring to me, please, and nothing so grandiose.”

The nameless guy with more reptilian features than a ‘normal’ Lyrhean stammered and acted flustered, so Lyrhea put a hand on his shoulder and calmed him down.

“Look, you did nothing wrong. Just chill out, and relax. You don’t need to feel like you have to walk on eggshells, here.”

“Y-yes… Great Mother..?”

Lyrhea couldn’t tell if her face had shifted, but if it had her countenance had at least not shown disappointment or anger.

“Well, that works, I suppose.”

‘Great Mother’ was, at least to her, a whole hell of a lot better than some regal bullshit like ‘your highness’ or ‘your majesty’. Sure, the idea of being a queen or some such position was definitely appealing, but she wasn’t so much of a narcissist to view herself as deserving of such a title when there were literally only 3 true Lyrheans and one lesser Lyrhean.

For her to call herself a queen and only rule 3 people, and no territory was just absurd. She didn’t need to have that kind of ass-kissing, brown-nosing, sycophantic nonsense right now.

“Right, well, we need more people anyway.” Lyrhea said suddenly, trying to change the subject.

“Yes, Mother.” Luxnilae affirmed. “Shall we find more snakes and people to be eaten by said snakes?”

Lyrhean made a kind of half-whine noise to express her apprehension about that course of action. “I don’t know. We should probably save that for later. As much as I want to get through this bullshit tutorial, we need more hands on deck, and while you two are powerful, you are also massive targets and require a lot of luck to be made.”

Frosrahsa chuckled and crossed her arms. “So, we need more cannon fodder?”

“That is…” Lyrhea tilted her head before accepting. “an interesting way of putting it, but yes, we do. All the elites in the world will mean nothing if that bitch comes after me, or rather, us… We need a wall of bodies to stop her, not precious elites that are heavy investments.”

The still nameless male bowed. “I will gladly forfeit my life to serve your glory, Great Mother.”

Lyrhea sighed and facepalmed. She would have to work on these new ones if that was how they’d be going forward….

“Plus,” Lyrhea added, trying to alleviate the issue posed by the brown noser. “we have no idea if the ones made by that method can become like us if they level up or rank up or whatnot.”

She turned to the newbie and he looked up.

“Have you ever killed, like, a dozen or so high-level mobs?” she asked, putting on a Robbie Rotten impression.

“No.” the new lesser Lyrhean replied.

Lyrhea smiled finishing her impersonation with the immortal line. “Would you like to?”