Maxine stood within the cave in the shadow world examining her body from head to toe with the help from one of her ravens. She did this once a week to give herself peace of mind that no physical changes occured due to her Twelve-Headed Hydra King bloodline like it did with Guan. So far she hasn't found any real big changes other than most of her body hair had fallen out. She was left with only some hair between her legs and the hair on her head. Fortunately, that was the only change she noticed ,but she dreaded transforming into the Shadow Lord form. She has been putting off checking it for quite some time since she was afraid that all of the physical changes that she was supposed to undergo were transfered over to her Shadow Lord form. She was afraid that she would have to watch herself turn into a humaniod abomination with an absurd number of limbs.
Unfortunately, Maxine was pressed for time. She had less than twenty minutes before breakfast starts and shortly after that her sparring matches. So she needed to know all of her capabilities since she had been planning to unveil her ability to transform into the Shadow Lord form during one of her matches. But she would do it only if it was required to win. Afterall, Joshua's Shadow Lord form hadn't gotten that much attention from the Shadow Lords. It was as if they didn't even care. Still she was hoping that if they saw a corrupted version of the Shadow Lord form that they would leave her alone. It would be proof that her bloodline is no longer pure enough for her to be a Shadow Queen canidate.
Maxine closed her eyes for a moment to prepare herself for whatever might happen and began her transformation. After it finished, she checked herself out and found some minor changes to her Shadow Lord form. She had two more opaline jewels appearing on her body. One was between her breasts and it was almost sitting evenly with her essence core. The other was just below her navel.
She examined those two jewels with her spiritual sense and found out that the one between her breasts was exclusively drawing in essence, but the one at her navel wasn't doing anything. She guessed that it was dormant. She checked the opaline jewel on her forehead to see if there were any changes and found it was only absorbing mana rather than the essence it was absorbing in the past.
Before she could process what it all meant, her body was starting to change again as she noticed that her height was rapidly increasing. Damn it! I knew this was coming. Please don't let me grow additional heads or any other extra limbs. ANYTHING but that!
Maxine quickly looked at her hands while hoping that she wasn't going to be looking at them from multiple perspectives and saw that her fingernails were changing into claws that appeared to have venom tracks. She waited for her transformation to finish and to her relief, no additional heads appeared. But something else became a very concerning. She felt a wieght on her lower back. She twisted her neck to look over her shoulder to find that she had serpentine tail covered in tiny scales was forming where her back met her butt. It was a little over five feet long. Which was convienent since it was the same length as the tail of her draconic essence armor.
She checked the rest of her body to find scales covered almost every inch of her skin except where she had hair. It was very upsetting, but still better than having extra heads. Well, I did say anything. Anyways, this form will require me to modify some very elastic clothing for my spar with those two if I intend to show off this form. I don't want to end up naked infront of everyone. Now how tall am I right now? Too big of a difference in height could really mess with my sense of balance.
She looked at herself with her raven to determine just how much taller she was than before. Based on what her raven observed, she was roughly four inches taller than before. Shit, I'm as tall as Maxwell in this state and this added height and weight has completely thrown off my sense of balance. Oh, well. It is just a matter of training to get used to this form. I hope it has improved my physical prowess considerably. Otherwise this will be a useless transformation. Fortunately for me, it only takes a minute or two to find out.
She formed her essence armor to maintain her modesty in the off chance a villager was nearby and walked outside of the cave to lift up the five hundred pound boulder she uses for her morning exercises. It felt like it weighed half of what it did before. She put it back down and did a quick speed test using a stop watch. After running for a few hundred feet she checked the time. It appears that my physical strength and speed have doubled. That will be useful if I need brute strength. I wonder what else I have gained. Hmm, maybe I should check to see if I can spit acid. I remember reading it somewhere that hydras can do that.
She walked back inside of the cave as she scan her mouth thoroughly for any kind of new glands using her spiritual sense and found what she was looking for. There were a series of new glands in her jaw and cheeks. She opened her mouth and tried to unleash an acid spray. Unfortunately she had no idea how. After about two minutes of experimenting by tensing certain muscles in her face, she finally managed to spray some acid onto the cave walls. Which caused them to immediately liquify into a greyish goo.
"Hmm, what a nasty ability you have there," Hellen said approvingly via spiritual sense, "I doubt very few opponents would expect it something like that during a clash. Although higher level fights rarely have opponents that physically close to one another." The sudden sound startled Maxine and she quickly undid her transformation.
"Jesus, mom. Don't scare me like that," Maxine said and once she calmed down she said, "Why haven't you been talking to me much the past few days?"
"I'm sorry, sweetie. I have been chatting with your father at length through that portal you left open to Earth and it has left me rather drained," Hellen said via spiritual senseand instantly her voice became cheerful, "Besides that, your father is very close to being able to revive me."
"And how many times has he said that in the past two years?" Maxine asked skeptically.
"Six times," Hellen said via spiritual sense and her tone shifted to a hopeful one, "But this time, he was able to revive a small animal that was nothing but bones. It completely regenerated stayed alive for nearly a month. He even discovered the reason why it died off at the end and he only needs to run another series of tests before he will be satisfied that it will work on me."
"That's good news," Maxine said happily and was actually looking forward to having a Hellen physically there.
"I can't wait to have a body again," Hellen said eagerly and Maxine spent a full minute smiling before Hellen spoke again, "I saw that you enjoyed your day yesterday with Emily as well as with that boy, Maxwell."
"Yeah, it was great to spend time with Emily," Maxine said with a smile on her lips, "So, I take it you know that I am going to spar with Maxwell and Patrick today?"
"Yes, I do and I am wondering why you didn't at least listen to Maxwell's request," Hellen said, "He appeared to be somewhat desperate for your aide and it would have only cost you a few moments of your time." Hellen was right in the fact he seemd rather desperate. From what she knew, Maxwell should have backed off after being refused once, but yesterday he kept asking her repeatedly. It had to be something important and now that she had calmed down, she felt bad about how she treated him yesterday. She wanted to make it up to him this morning.
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"I was angry at him yesterday," Maxine said, "But after sleeping on it, I realized I was being a bit of a bitch yesterday and I will make it up to him after breakfast."
"Good, now you best head out. I believe breakfast should start in another five minutes and your clone has yet to get dressed," Hellen said. Maxine quickly got herself dressed and her clone into a fresh set of clothes before she switched her focus back to her clone.
She left her bedroom and made her way to the Dining Hall and found that Maxwell and the others were already there eating breakfast. She thought it was odd that they would be up this early until she remembered the time difference was probably messing with thier sleep cycles.
"Good morning," Maxine said to them as she sat down next to Emily.
"Maxine, I'm begging you. Please, I really do need your help," Maxwell said via spiritual sense. And that makes four times he has asked me.
"Can it wait until after breakfast?" Maxine asked via spiritual sense.
"Yes, and thank you," Maxwell said before retracting his spiritual sense.
Maxine was served what looked like slices of ham, but tasted like turkey, with a slice buttered toast and hashbrowns to go with it. Everyone else appeared to be eating a similar breakfast.
Maxine knew that the meat came from an essence beast and the sides came from various essence enriched crops. All of it was used to hasten the rate of cultivation, but for the ambassador, all it would do is improve his overall health.
"This meal looked just like a typical breakfast from Earth. I never knew your clan was so thoughtful in the food arrangements," Ambassador Sutton announced.
"Well, the chefs have been garnering to my tastes since I arrived here," Maxine said, "It's no surprise that grandma suggested that they make your breakfast similar to my own."
"It is still appreciated, miss Kavros" Ambassador Sutton said, "By the way, when should I expect Victoria to awaken? There are still some things I wish to discuss with her." Yeah, I know you want to discuss the future trade terms with her. It won't be much longer before Earth can start defending itself from essence beasts, if Maxwell and Patrick are signs of how strong everyone has gotten.
"It's Levings and grandma should be up In roughly an hour," Maxine said, "She isn't quite the early riser that I am."
"I see. Thank you," Ambassador Sutton said as he continued to eat his breakfast.
Maxine quietly enjoyed her breakfast with Emily and left the Dining Hall to wait for Maxwell to see what he wanted her to do. She waited there for quite some time and began to wonder if he was getting some payback for her making him sweat it out over night, but quickly dismissed that since he seemed quite determined to talk to her. She had waited for half an hour before he finally left the Dining Hall.
"Sorry for the wait," Maxwell said.
"It's alright," Maxine said, "Before you ask me to do anything I have to make something clear. If your request harms anyone in my family, I won't do it."
"It won't," Maxwell said and he seemed to gather his thoughts. He stood there for nearly two minutes before Maxine got really impatient.
"Well?" Maxine asked impatiently.
"Oh, sorry. I got lost in my thoughts there for a second," Maxwell said, "If you had a sister would you do anything to help her?"
"What's with that question? Of course, I would help her, but the fact remains that I don't have a sister," Maxine said, but she didn't like where this conversation was going.
"I think it's easier if you tell her," Maxwell appeared to say more to himself than to her.
"Hello," a voice nearly identical to her own resounded in her head via spiritual sense in the next instant. Oh, god. Guan, you crazy bastard. You actually did it.
"Hello," Maxine said uncertianly via spiritual sense just in case her fears were wrong, "What is it that you need from me? But before that, what should I call you? It would be too confusing for everyone if we use the same name."
"Good point. You can call me Orianna for now," the other Maxine said via spiritual sense, "As for what I want, you should already know that. Afterall we are essentially the same person."
"You're right. I do know what you want, but we need to talk to grandma before I can do anything. There are a few things we need to prepare in advance," Maxine said calmly via spiritual sense, but in truth, she felt that something was terribly wrong with this whole situation. She seems far too reasonable to be the same crazy bitch that tortured Patrick for god knows how long. Not to mention the other stuff she did. It's making it hard for me to believe that it's really her.
"Why do you need to talk with her? And what do you need to prepare? It would only take you a few hours to help me," Orianna said via spiritual sense.
"Don't you think grandma and everyone else would find it a bit odd that I suddenly had a twin sister walking around? And what do we do about clothes and other necessities? I know you can use my clothes, but that won't do for very long. Grandma wouldn't allow it," Maxine retorted via spiritual sense, "If we don't talk to her first and get things ready, it will only cause problems later."
"I never considered those things," Orianna said via spiritual sense.
"Good," Hellen said happily via spiritual sense as she suddenly entered the conversation, "And don't worry, I have already informed mother what is going on. She will have some arrangements for Orianna after Maxine's sparring session with Maxwell and Patrick." Huh? That was too easy. I know grandma spoils me and trusts Hellen a lot, but I thought there would be some resistance at the appearance of an alternate timeline version of myself. It makes me wonder what Hellen told her.
"Who is that?" Maxwell asked via spiritual sense.
"Are ... are you my real mother?" Orianna asked cautiously via spiritual sense at the same time Maxwell asked his question and Hellen answered lovingly, "Yes, my beloved daughter."
"Why?! Why did you and father abandon me and leave me with those... people?!" Orianna asked angrily and Maxine instantly felt sympathy for Orianna.
"I didn't have a choice in that matter," Hellen answered sadly, "My body has been dead for over one hundred years. You will have to ask your father. I don't know his specific reasons, but it must have had something to do with ensuring that you were never found."
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but there will be plenty of time for us to settle these things after I create a new body for you," Maxine said apologetically, "Maxwell doesn't exactly have a lot of time. He has already been gone more than long enough to relieve his bladder."
"You're right," Orianna answered, "I just wanted to know."
"I felt the same way when I found out how Guan was my real father," Maxine said, "But that doesn't mean I will keep you in the dark. Once you have a nice fleshy body again, I will fill you in on why this shit happened to us." She is way too clear headed for me to understand what's going on with her. Now that I think about it, she has essentially been sharing a body with a man that is in clearly love with her and not me. He just sees her through me. I guess it's possible that situation could have reformed her.
"Thank you," Orianna said via spiritual sense, "Maxwell, you have been so kind to me since I awoke last year. Is there anything I can do for you as repayment?" I definitely do not want to know what he will ask her as repayment. Mine and Maxwell's personalities have deviated enough that I am not confident that I won't hit him as soon as I hear it. Time to bail.
"Well, I will leave you two to talk this out privately," Maxine said via spiritual sense to avoid that particular conversation as she started to walk to her room and reminded Maxwell, "Don't forget about our sparring match." She was somewhat hesitant to make a new body for Orianna, but she didn't know how much longer Maxwell's body could take housing Orianna's soul before it started to rot. Just because his body was special didn't mean it wouldn't be affected by the presence of an additional soul within it. She really didn't want her original family to go through watching Maxwell die like that for any reason. The upside to helping her is that there shouldn't be any problems for Orianna's soul to bind to a clone. Afterall, it's technically her clone too. On that note, it's probably a good idea to make a clone for her that doesn't have an essence core just in case she is just acting nice to get a body, but for grandma's, Maxwell's and Hellen's sake, I really hope that she isn't.