Three days had past before Maxine realized what she had forgotten, but at this point it was too late for her to do anything about it. Turan had already walked into her hospital room with a broad grin on his face. He was looking at her as if he found the most valueable treasure in the world. The only positive thing that she could think about in this situation is that she was almost fully healed, aside from some soreness.
"Good morning, Ms. Levings," Turan said while grinning widely, "I see a congratulations is in order. You have formed a third core and have officially gotten closer than your predecessors to becoming the Shadow Queen." Wait, there are other requirements? Why weren't they in the book he let me look at? Wait, let me guess. Those little details were on the page that was left out of that fucking book.
"Go to hell, Turan," Maxine said coldly.
"Now why would I do that? I've been ordered to protect you from that Shadow Demon and I shall do exactly that," Turan said without breaking his smile, "But that's only until we give you the final test. If you fail it, you will not see me again or any other Shadow Lord unless you wish to."
"Fine, get on with this final test," Maxine said in annoyance.
Turan shrugged. "I would if I could. At this point, the final test can't be performed until your cores are equal in strength. To do it before would cause inconsistent results," Turan said with a shrug, "But even so I want to thank you."
"What for?" Maxine asked.
"For giving me quite the show," Turan said with a smile, "It's not often that someone lives such a diverse life as yours." Asshole.
"I'm not here to entertain you, Turan," Maxine growled.
"Calm down. I was only following orders and I just wanted to show my appreciation," Turan said as he slowly backed up with his hands up defensively.
"Then show me your appreciation by leaving. Right now," Maxine snarled at him.
"Of course," Turan said as he reached for her hospital room door and looked over his shoulder, "Oh, one last thing that I thought you should know. The elders have decided to observe your sister regardless of how unstable she appears."
"Leave Orianna out of this!" Maxine growled.
"I wish I could, but she has the same bloodline that you do. She might be able to form three cores as well," Turan said with an evil smile. Maxine had to resist the impulse to kill Turan where he stood. She knew that the Shadow Lords would only replace him and that would at most delay them from harrassing Orianna.
"Her mind is too fragile to be this 'shadow queen' of yours," Maxine countered.
"For now, but there is no telling about the strength of her mind in the future. Farewell for now, Maxine," Turan answered before he fled out of her hospital room. If he pulls any of the same shit on Orianna that he put me through, I will kill him. SLOWLY! But not before I castrate him with the dullest implement I can find and force feed him it!
Maxine turned on the TV to see if a comedy was on. She needed to calm down before anyone else came to visit her. Otherwise, she was worried that she would lash out at someone she cares about unjustly.
She had just found something to watch when she felt a very weak spiritual sense brush against her mind. She instantly realized that it was Hellen's spiritual sense and latched onto it. [Mom, you're awake!] Maxine shouted happily via spiritual sense.
[Not so loudly. My mind is still sensitive from syncing up with my new body, but I have to admit. Having flesh again feels amazing. I can feel and see again with my natural senses,] Hellen answered joyously, [Although I had forgotten how unpleasant pain can be. There are still a few exposed nerve endings that have yet to grow skin.]
[Ouch, that does sound bad,] Maxine commented, [But at least you will be up and about in the next few days right?]
[That's true. Although your father may insist that I take a couple weeks to get used to moving around again,] Hellen lamented, [He is right though. It's been over a hundred years since I have walked anywhere, so I may need that time to relearn everything.]
[That makes perfect sense,] Maxine said, [Do you need me to help you and .. erm .. dad?]
[No, sweetie. You don't ... did you just call Guan 'dad'?] Hellen asked happily.
[Yes, is that a problem?] Maxine asked in return.
[No, it's wonderful. This is the first time that I've heard you call him that without needing something from him,] Hellen said happily.
[He's still technically my biological father, even if I don't like it, and he's trying to make me happy,] Maxine admitted more to herself than Hellen, [So, I figured that he deserves a chance.]
[Thank you, Maxine. I will make sure he doesn't waste it,] Hellen said happily and Maxine felt their spiritual connection weaken to the point that it nearly ended, [It seems I have exhausted myself. We will talk more later. Take care, sweetie.]
[Take care, mom,] Maxine said just before their spiritual sense connection was severed. She was happy that she got to talk to Hellen. The joy at hearing from her had greatly diminished her anger at Turan.
After a few minutes, Nina Cervantes came in with the beastkin children in tow and she was blushing fiercely. Maxine was confused for a few moments until Nina started talking, "I heard that earthlings didn't wear as much as we do, but never did I believe that they would reveal so much of their legs and chest. It's scandalous."
"Well it is the month of august and it can grt quite hot this time of year. Just give it a few months and they will start wearing more when it gets cold. Normal humans can't tolerate the cold as well as we can," Maxine said and an mischievious thought crossed her mind, "Just avoid any pools for now. Most swimwear covers less than what you have seen thus far."
"Are these pools filled with clear water that has a slightly bluish tint?" Nina asked while her face turned a deeper shade of crimson.
Maxine struggled to keep a straight face as she answered, "Yes, they do. You saw what they were wearing didn't you?"
"Yes," Nina admitted as she lowered her head in shame.
"Don't think about it too much. It just takes some getting used to," Maxine suggested to Nina.
"That it will," Nina agreed and she seemed to remember something, "Oh! The hunt for Zabel Nodd isn't going very far at all. After his visit here, it's like he vanished into thin air, but we know he hasn't left the planet yet. There were no ships spotted leaving the planet. So it's turned into a waiting game." Or he used a shadow portal to go to another planet that he left a spiritual mark on. It's what I would do. He has already proven he's proficient in the use of shadow essence.
"Then we wait and hope he doesn't decide to visit me again. Once was enough," Maxine said.
"I bet," Nina agreed and she paused for a moment before asking, "Is it true that he's a shadow demon?"
"Oh, yeah. I felt his fear aura first hand," Maxine answered, "It was the second worst feeling of fear that I've ever had."
"And what was the first?" Nina asked.
Maxine looked out the window before she answered, "I prefer not to talk about it." She hoped Nina would take the hint and drop the subject. She really didn't want to talk about how Claudia had nearly nearly died when Maxine tried to save her from the russians.
"Alright," Nina said softly, "Do you want me to fetch you anything?"
"No," Maxine said. Silence reigned in the room after that. It seemed that Nina no longer had any thing else to talk about.
Maxine turned on the TV and flipped through the channels until she saw something on the news. There was an on the scene reporter just outside of the Medical Center that she was staying in and she was trying to gain entry into the Medical Center.
"Please, sir. The people need to know what Maxine Levings' current condition is and if she will recover," the reporter asked a stone-faced member of the Kavros clan. I doubt he even speaks english with out little of a reaction he is showing.
"I can answer that," Neesa said as she exited the Medical Center, "Our young miss' injuries have been treated and she should recover soon. As for the specifics, I will not divulge them without her permission."
"May I ask who you are?" the reporter asked.
"I am Neesa, one of our young miss' bodyguards," Neesa answered and slightly touched her face while smiling, "And her friend. If you have any other questions, you will just have to wait for our young miss to get your answers."
Maxine smiled with approval and changed the channel. But the very next news channel that she switched to made her bolt upright in the medical pod. "There is a massive essence beast horde mere minutes away from attacking from across the Missouri River just outside of Jefferson City. The military and local cultivators plan on bottlenecking the essence beasts at the bridge, but due to the sheer size of the essence beast horde, they will be able to at most delay the beasts two or three hours. This will give the police, firefighters and other service members the precious time needed to evacuate thousands," the news anchor said. What?! I won't loose my family again! NOT EVER AGAIN!
Maxine threw the hospital blankets off of her and jumped out of bed. Her muscles protested as a mild ache similar to them simply being over worked, but she ignored it as she retrieved a set of training leathers. It wasn't the best armor, but it was defintely better than not wearing any armor into battle.
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She moved to leave the room she was in and was blocked before leaving. "Young miss, I'm sorry, but I can't let you leave until the healers have confirmed that you are ready to move around," her female guard said, "These are your grandmother's orders."
"Out of my way," Maxine ordered the guard.
"But...," the female guard tried to say but Maxine punched her hard across her jaw. The poor woman was instantly knocked out and Maxine grabbed the woman to prevent her from being sent flying. She didn't want to knock any walls down inside of a hospital due to a guard moving at near super sonic speeds.
Instead of going downstairs, Maxine ran to the roof and there were several members of the Kavros clan standing guard. It wasn't completely unexpected, but it would slow her down if she needed to knock them out as well. Fortunately, she didn't have to as she formed her harpy essence armor and transfered her leather tunic to her dimensional pouch to avoid damaging it.
Before they could move to grab her, Maxine spread the wings of her harpy form and shot into the sky with a powerful flap of her wings. With a couple more flaps of her wings she was several hundred feet in the air and she aligned herself at a glide towards Jefferson City. By vibrating her wings, she was able to rapidly increase to super sonic speeds. It would take her only a handful of minutes to arrive.
When she got within spiritual sense range, she saw just how badly the military and local cultivators were handling the situation. They had hastily erected defenses with no more than six heavy machine guns and only a handful of tanks to act as artillery. But most concerning of all, she didn't see a single Kavros clan member to help bolster their defenses. What the actual fuck are my clansmen doing?! There were over a thousand of my clansmen stationed North america alone. They should have at least one of them here!
She wanted to yell at them thoroughly for such an oversight, but she would have to do it later. She needed to assess where she could do the most good and she had the perfect viewpoint to do just that. I won't do anyone any good by being on the bridge. I havn't been briefed on how they intend to defend it and I may end up just getting in the way. The best use of my strength would be to take out the leaders of this essence beast horde. One of this size would definitely have more than one and once they are down, the horde should disperse. Now where are they?
Maxine scan over tens of thousands of essence beasts that comprised the essence beast horde and found two Granite-Hide Lions, a Terror Bear and an Iron Shell Tortoise. All of them were literately a step away from silver stage, but they weren't the ones that had her concerned. It was a silver colored bear in the middle of those four.
That silver colored bear was nearly half the size of the Terror Bear, and it's strength was silver stage rank eight. In the previous timeline, there had been no silver stage beasts to contend with let alone one so powerful. What's going on here? The timeline shouldn't have diverged that much! Fuck! This is going to be a hard fight, especially since I'm forced to use only essence, but I should still be able to manage. I won't be able to even use a third of my full strength with these limitations. I just can't risk contaminating Earth with yet another form of cultivation energy by using either mana or ki. It's bad enough with just essence. I mean I could try to keep either of those energies from leaking out by creating a special shield in my skin to prevent that, but there is no way I can maintain that level of mental strain for long. I will just see how using draconic essence armor with my battleform holds up first before resorting to that.
Regardless, she wasn't going to take anything for granted with this strange looking bear. Instantly she decided to go all out right from the beginning and transformed into her battleform. She didn't have time to test out how much battle power it had in correlation to it's cultivation level without people getting killed.
Maxine immediately dived at the powerful essence beasts and summoned over one hundred of her Shadow Wolves to deal with the peak iron stage beasts while she battled the strange silver bear. Halfway through her descent she switched her harpy essence armor for her draconic essence armor. It barely formed before she was about to collide with the silver bear.
It looked like it would be an easy kill, but at the last possible moment, the bear casually dodged out of the way. WHAT?! Bears don't have that kind of agility! Her claws collided with the ground and caused a dust cloud to erupt from the point of impact. Unfortunately due to her restricting herself, she saw the blow coming through the dust cloud, but wasn't able to avoid it before getting hit in the ribs.
She was thrown by the force of the blow and slammed into one of the Granite-Hide Lions. The beast's side caved in from the force of the impact as both of them were hurled through the air. She was still wondering what had hit her when they both skidded to a stop. She looked up and saw a smug look on the Silver Bear's face. Jesus, that thing packs a punch! This thing is definitely a high grade beast. It's definitely a good thing I decided to use my draconic essence armor. Otherwise I would need another trip to the Medical Center again instead of a set of bruised ribs.
"Foolish creature, I don't know what you are, but it's time you realized that we bears are the mightest creatures on this planet," the silver bear spoke with surprising fluency.
"Bears are strong, but not the strongest. That title solely belongs to dragons," Maxine retorted, "You're far stronger than I yet you barely even scratched my scales. I guess I need to stop playing around."
"You? A dragon?" the silver bear mocked Maxine, "Hardly. You smell of those weak humans."
"And you smell of dung. No one's perfect," Maxine insulted right back which enraged the silver bear and it charged at her wit ha roar.
Maxine was easily able to follow it's charging speed and dodged out of the way while lashing out into it's side with her tail. Her tail strike barely managed to penetrate the silver bear's fur and left a small wound on it's side. High defense, high hitting power and fast close combat speed. I need to fight this thing at a distance or from the air. Fighting it on the ground has me at a disadvantage anyways.
Maxine quickly leapt into the air and took flight before the silver bear could turn around. She flew a short distance and turned around to breath fire down on the Silver bear. But, it had taken flight as well. She felt confused for only a moment before realizing that as a silver stage beast it had the capacity for flight. Fuck! At least, it can't attack at a distance.
As if to disprove her, the Silver Bear opened it's mouth and unleashed an energy blast out of it's maw. Maxine hastily dodged it by flapping her right wing powerfully and putting herself into a momentary barrel roll before leveling out. I think I better stop pointing out abilities this beast shouldn't have before I fuck myself over.
Maxine accelerated rapidly at the Silver Bear as it charged up another energy blast in it's mouth. Fine. If you want to fight with breath attacks, let's do this! Each of her draconic teeth was charged with a Crescent Moon Blitz and she was going to unleash it close enough that it couldn't be dodged. The Silver Bear seemed to have the same idea as Maxine as it unleashed it's attack at the same time that Maxine did.
The Silver Bear's attack exploded when their two attacks collided and thus nuetralized Maxine's attack. Unfortunately, the shockwave knocked Maxine out of the air. Fuck! It seems that I can't beat this thing without using my other energies. I need time to prepare to avoid leaking any mana or ki into the atomasphere. The drop to the ground should be time enough.
Maxine plummeted towards the ground, but as she did, she was putting all of her constructs in standby mode to free up as much of her mental abilities as possible. Before she was even halfway to the ground, she split her focus into twelve parts. One for her main body, another to monitor control the flow of energies from her portals, four parts of her mind were dedicated to containing the energies within her body and the rest were dedicated completely to combat.
In this state, she already deduced that she no longer needed her draconic essence armor and reverted it back to normal essence armor to conserve energy. She had wasted enough energy as it was. I need to make this quick. I can only keep my energies contained inside my body for a only a minute while using them. That severely limits what I can do. Can't use ranged attacks at all, so it will be a full on slugfest.
"I thought you said you were a dragon," the Silver Bear said as it landed.
"I never said that I was. You just assumed that I was one," Maxine answered.
"Fair enough," the Silver Bear said calmly, "So, will you submit or do I have to kill you?"
"Neither. I'm going to show you my full strength," Maxine answered, "After that, I will slap you around for a few seconds before killing you."
"You can't be serious?" the Silver Bear laughed uproarously, "I've been dominating this whole fight! You don't stand a chance against me."
"Believe it or not. I'm still going to destroy you," Maxine said resolutely before taking a deep breath in and went into combat mode the next.
She kicked off the ground violently as she charged at the Silver Bear. She saw it's expression slacken for a moment before it tried to dodge out of the way, but it was far too slow at this point. Maxine's physical abilities were far above it's own.
As soon as she was in striking range, she lashed out with her claws at the thin fur on it's face. It didn't matter how powerful this beast's defenses were if she managed to get some of her venom in it's veins. Her claws dug down to the bone on the Silver Bear's face as she slashed across it's face.
Maxine jumped back as the Silver Bear retaliated with a vicious swing of it's paw, but it hit nothing but air. She smiled to herself as she danced around the Silver Bear staying just out of reach and watched while her venom slowly took effect. It worked far more slowly than it did on humans. In fact, it took nearly half a minute before the Silver Bear started to wobble on it's feet. Hmm, essence beasts have higher tolerances to poison than humans do. I need reference that for later.
Just before her time limit was up, the Silver Bear collasped onto the ground. Maxine didn't waste a moment and stopped using Mana and Ki to empower her body. Although having three types of energy was beneficial to her strength and physical durability, they gave her the most boost when she was actively using them to fight.
She watched the Silver Bear for another full minute before sending out her spiritual sense to check it's heartbeat. It was still alive. It must think that I'm going to come closer to finish it off and take me down with it. I'm not falling for that old trick. I will just wait for it's heart to stop.
After another minute, the Silver Bear finally said something, "You have won, but don't get too high on yourself. The Golden Bear King will avenge me!" After those words left it's snout, it sounded it's death rattle as it's heart stopped.
Maxine wasn't happy that she had to win a fight by relying on a poison, but there was no helping it. She wasn't able to fight it without contaminating Earth with other forms of essence.
She looked over towards the bridge and saw that the horde of essence beasts was beginning to scatter. It was as if they knew that their leader had been slain. However it was happening far too slowly for her tastes and she reached out with her spiritual sens to just infront of the defenders on the bridge. She created a dozen small portals and brought her Shadow Wolves out through them.
With a thought, all of the Shadow Wolves that she summoned attacked the essence beasts on the bridge. Only a few of those beasts were able to fight back against her wolves. Unfortunately, the defenders on the bridge didn't figure out that her Shadow Wolves were there to help right away and severely damaged several of her wolves. I would think that they would realize that my wolves are there to help when the first thing they did after appearing was attack the essence beasts.
After storing the Silver Bear's corpse in her dimensional pouch, Maxine sighed and began walking towards the bridge. By the time she reached the bridge, the essence beasts had finally finished scattering and she realized how much her body hated her recent physical activity. Every muscle she had ached.
As a few soldiers with a reporter just behind them approached her, Maxine sent her Shadow Wolves back to the shadow world with a wave of her hand. The soldiers seemed to be unnerved by that, but didn't stop their approach.
"I thought the Kavros Clan wasn't going to come to our aid," the highest ranking soldier said. Maxine glanced at his rank to note that he was a captain.
"Oh? I will have to yell at them later," Maxine commented.
Before the captain could say anything else the reporter shoved a microphone into Maxine's face and asked, "Excuse me, but could you answer the question on mind of the viewers at home?"
Maxine ignored the reporter and answered the captain, "I came here on my own initiative and to thank you for your service."
"Thank you on both counts, ma'am," the captain said respectfully, "Can I have your name?"
"Maxine Levings," Maxine answered as she reverted back to her base form, "Now I best get back. My bodyguards are going to be furious with me." She opened up a portal back to her hospital room and leapt into it.
Unfortunately, the moment she got into her room, she felt a set of angry glares on her back. She winced and turned around to see both Emily and Nina glaring at her. Well time for me to get chewed out. I hope Emily is wlling to listen after she yells at me.