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The blackness adhering to the old man began to dissipate, and the silence that overtook the snowy field was deafening. I gulped having already seen the changes to his stats. I had expected a cambion like the other humans, but it seemed my new Fallen Dominion type was influencing the evolutions in a new direction.
The newborn Fallen Nephilim was revealed then. He had grown several inches, though much of that gained height was likely just due to his new perfect posture. His revitalized frame was now also home to a thick layer of twitching muscle. It wasn’t the inflated bodybuilder look by any means, it was a real prime Van Damme physique. His wrinkled and saggy exterior was long gone, replaced with skin so smooth that it looked like a bronze statue. The whites of his eyes were now the velvet black of the night sky, and his irises were the color of bright red wine. His bulbous nose and huge earlobes were now sculpted to a perfection I didn’t know existed. A thick mane of golden hair now flowed down to his shoulders with a single stray black lock hanging down in front of his left eye.
I let out a tiny groan. I don’t know what Jaik looked like in his youth, but there was no denying what I was looking at now. This was objectively the best looking person I had ever seen. I gave a silent apology to all the hearts that would soon pine for this man.
“I can’t believe it!” His voice and expressions were still exactly as they had been, and I could see him fishing around his mouth with his tongue for some reason. “My teeth all came back! I want a tough, bloody steak!” He exclaimed as he did a little dance.
He still moved his body deliberately and carefully like an old man too. I chuckled in amusement, and a tiny bit of relief. Maybe not as many hearts would need an apology as I thought.
Jaik stopped and closed his eyes, darting them about beneath his lids as though reading. When his eyes opened, a pair of glorious wings appeared on his back. The right wing was of pure white feathers, and the left was inverted to be pure black. Add some more edgy asymmetry to those good looks.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“May I?” He looked at me and asked permission.
I nodded, and following a careful crouch he leaped into the sky to a roaring cheer from the gathered crowd. He showed NONE of the fear or apprehension about flying I had gone through. He rolled and tumbled, banked and dove like a falcon. I realized how bad I was at flying in that moment. I still take off and land like a commercial airline and sweat when I run into stray gusts of wind.
He touched down a moment later with a wide grin on his face, and tears on his cheeks.
“Pretty overwhelming isn’t it?” I asked him with a smile of my own. “Believe it or not, I ditched a pretty beat up body myself not long ago.”
“It is. But there’s something else.” Jaik collected himself as he answered. “I can feel them all.” His next cryptic sentence caught me off guard and I took a second to think.
“Your slimes?” I took an educated guess based on the Slime Affinity thing.
“Not just my slimes. All of the slimes. Look.” He pointed to the distant edge of Gnollwood.
Sure enough, with my elevated senses I caught the movement at the treeline. I sucked in a breath so sharp it whistled on the way in.
“There must be thousands!” I exclaimed.
“Seven thousand, two hundred and sixteen.” Jaik confirmed from behind and above me as he began to fly toward the bouncing and undulating blue wave.
“Two minutes folks, Sorry for the delay!” I apologized to the assembled crowd and flew after Jaik.
“This is just from the immediate area.” Jaik said in amazement. “Since you exterminated the monsters, the slime population here has exploded.”
“How do you know that?” I asked, though it was obviously true.
“They told me.” He said easily as he descended to the ground before the coming tide.
I wanted to ask more questions but decided to just watch.
Jaik began to grow and change suddenly. His transformation covered him clothes and all much like my Fallen Dominion and Fire Titan forms. He remained humanoid, but seemed to be composed of blue slime so dark it was nearly black. A huge skeleton could be seen through the opaque stuff, complete with a great skull with two long sweeping horns protruding from the brow. Overall he was around ten feet tall with a weight i couldn’t begin to guess.
The first slimes began to reach him, and they bumped into him affectionately before disappearing into his great body. As they added themselves to his mass, he slowly grew and became less humanoid. Soon his skeleton was simply suspended in the body of an enormous but normally shaped dark slime. The last one of this group finally disappeared with a punctuating bloop and I patiently waited to see what came next. A horizontal line appeared on the side of the slime the skull was facing and I could see the jaw move up and down. Inexplicably, a voice was produced but it sounded nothing like old Jaik, or anything else I had ever heard for that matter. It rattled my bones and sent my heart pounding like it wanted out of my chest.
“We... slime...god. Eat. EAT!” That was a chilling little sentence fragment, and the blob rolled toward me a tiny bit.
The self proclaimed slime god shuddered and distorted then, and began to shrink in on itself. Then just as quickly as it had happened, Jaik stood back in his regular new nephilim body.
“Sorry about that.” Jaik apologized. “They’re wild slimes so their manners are still pretty bad. Not to mention they’re very hungry. Though I hate to say it, you should put a premium bounty on the slimes in Gnollwood. With the ecosystem this out of balance they’ll devour all the other animals and eventually eachother. I can’t absorb any others until I get better at controlling them.”
“That’s a terrifying skill.” I said, still calming myself down. “I’ll tell Hurstag to get the word out and triple the slime bounty right away. I gotta get back, feel free to join us or to go get comfortable with your new body as you please.”
“Thanks. I think I’ll retire back to my office for the day. Please do come visit whenever you wish, I’d like to at least treat you to some tea.” Jaik answered.
I shook his hand and waved him off as he took to the sky as though he had been flying since birth.
I returned to my place in front of the bewildered crowd and picked up where I had left off. I addressed Niiya, Tabula, Jade, and Rain. They stood before me with somewhat confused expressions.
A duplicated bauble couldn’t begin to convey my appreciation. I dispelled my wings and gave each of them eye contact in turn.
“Not one bit of this would be possible without you all. I don’t have a gift worthy of your support, but I will search for one with all my might. Until that day just know that I view you as my true family, and value you more than my own life.” I bowed as deeply as I ever had, and a gasp rippled through the crowd. “Let none here doubt where the true power in our little country resides.”
The cheer that erupted was deafening. Apparently these four were already celebrities, and seeing them so acknowledged was just too exciting to contain. I couldn’t quite hold back the tears this time and I quickly wiped my eyes.
Once the applause finally subsided I turned around to look up at Yugal. He cocked his head curiously at my look. I discreetly moved my hand and whispered something and then covered it with a loud address.
“My mighty ally and friend, Yugal. Your aid in defeating The Warlord’s army was instrumental.” I tried to contain my smile as I saw the Blood Gate open behind the giant. “I feared a tiny medal would be lost on a form so great, so I hope you’ll accept this instead.”
A marble colored finger with a dark manicured nail touched Yugal’s shoulder and he flinched in surprise. He turned slowly, already beginning to feel the familiar but utterly impossible presence. The candle of hope he had clutched so dearly, through so much had dwindled to a tiny flame that could scarcely be felt at all.
For the first time in his life, Yugal could not find the strength. He couldn’t finish turning around. The hand that had touched him suddenly gripped his shoulder hard and spun him around. Yugal collapsed to his knees when he saw her. Here was his sister lost to the hells and now inexplicably before him. She was well, healthy, and radiant in the light flowing clothes favored by his southern kin. She dropped down to his level and they embraced in a hug that communicated more than any words could ever hope to.
The moment was so huge (no pun intended) that I didn’t bother wiping the tears away this time. Luckily no one was looking at me. We all waited patiently for the pair to regain their composure, and they finally did a few minutes later. Yugal started to croak out his gratitude and I held up my hands to stop him.
“You should be thanking Saet and Niiya more than me.” I explained. “They suggested and pulled off the contract that brought her home. I just supplied some muscle.”
Yugal looked over to the place Saet stood, and then at Niiya.
“I can never ever repay this deed.” Yugal took a long stride over to Saet, and sat down cross legged before her so that his eyes would be closer to hers. “You have my eternal gratitude, great celestial queen. If you ever have use of me, I will be at your service.” It was a heavy vow, and Saet accepted it with a gracious nod.
Yugal then looked around for Niiya, and a sudden mighty tug on his great red mustache made him smile. She had flown up in her ashen nightmare.
“Cheer up Mr. Yugal!” The girl said in his ear. “It was easy to trick that dumb old demon.”
I laughed out loud. It was a wholesome moment, but thanks to her skill Niiya was partially hidden in a menacing ash cloud. her eyes glowed like golden beacons and gave the impression of a wicked fairy whispering in a man’s ear.
I took a mental picture, and let the celebration carry on. Yugal’s kin from Vortheim joined us then. Two giant servants bearing an enormous table appeared from the Blood Gate. Two more followed, with a whole roasted mountain bison spitted on a pole between them. The parade of giants bearing legendary sized portions of food continued. In total five roasted bison, twelve great kegs of mead, and several platters heaped with fish, mushrooms, and various wild root vegetables tested the durability of the great table. Suddenly we had a giant rager on our hands, and they were quick to invite us all to join in. The gathering of so many different races, and backgrounds celebrated together without restraint.
Tomorrow was a day for politics, seriousness, and war. Tonight we would party among and like true giants.