Mulan says "So, it worked?"

"Yes, it did. Maybe a bit better than I was expecting."

Mulan says "What do you mean?"

"If I am right, she is pretty close to being a half phoenix. I can't be sure until she wakes up though."

Mulan says "If it is close, then should we do something to push it the rest of the way?"

"I'm not sure. I didn't think to ask her if she was adamant about remaining human or not. I don't want to do something like that against her wishes."

Mulan says "If I understand this process, now would be the only time that we could push it further without complications, right? If that is the case, then I would say we should wake her up and ask her."

"Yes, you are right. Alright, I will wake her."

Lin says "Ugh, it's too early!"

Her reaction makes me laugh, but since it is important I quickly control myself. Then I explain to her what has happened so far and ask her to check her character screen. When she does, it shows that she is not a half phoenix yet, so I ask her what she wants to do.

Before answering, Lin takes a few minutes to check out the changes to her body. Watching her, I realize that she has become even more attractive, which I didn't think was possible. She is very close to being on the same level as the goddesses, which makes me grin.

Lin says "What are you grinning at?!"

"Take a look in the mirror."

Lin gives me a confused look, then she gets up, walks over, and takes a look at the full length mirror. Mulan and I chuckle as we watch her eyes widen and her mouth drop open. Watching her reaction is almost as fun for me as staring at her perfect hourglass figure.

She stares at herself in the mirror for a couple of minutes then moves back to the bed. Once she lays down, she thinks for a few more minutes before she answers me.

Lin says "Let's do it."

"Are you sure? You won't be a human anymore."

Lin says "Yes, I am sure. No matter how my body changes, I will still be me. Besides, I don't really want to be the only human in this crazy family of yours."

"Okay, as long as you are sure."

Lin says "I am. Let's do it."

"First, food."

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Lin says "What? Why?"

"Because the two of us used a ton of energy and Mulan lost a lot of blood. Before we do any more, we need to recover some energy."

Lin says "Oh, okay."

There are no more questions and the three of us have a nice big midnight snack. As soon as we are done eating I put Lin back to sleep with the same spell.

Mulan says "Okay, what do I need to do?"

"You need to give me just the tiniest part of your essence. I will teach you how, but you should know that it is going to hurt."

Mulan says "I don't mind a little pain. Let's do it."

I teach Mulan how to separate a part of her essence and sever it from herself. As soon as I am done explaining, she does it without even a moment's hesitation. I know that it hurts her, but she doesn't show any sign of it and just hands the essence to me.

I immediately take the essence from Mulan and fuse it into Lin's essence. This sets off another, smaller set of changes within Lin's body that I have to control. It takes about an hour for the changes to finish up and by then I am pretty exhausted.

Lin is out cold and isn't going to wake up anytime soon, so I climb into bed with her. Seeing that, Mulan leaves to go sleep with the kids and I cuddle up with Lin. It doesn't take long for me to fall asleep and for once I sleep until morning.

When I wake up in the morning Lin is still asleep and she shows no sign of waking up. I am careful not to disturb her as I get up and head downstairs to have breakfast. While we are eating I tell the kids that they can take the day off and relax.

I plan to let Lin sleep until she wakes up naturally, that will make sure she recovers her energy. Besides, just like the kids, Lin needs to take a day off once in a while. The changes to her body are a more than good enough reason for her to rest for a day.

When we are done eating, I take the kids over to the play area and start a game of tag. Since everyone else is taking the day off, I may as well join them and have some fun. So, I play with the kids for the next few hours until lunch which is when Lin finally wakes up and joins us.

"How are you feeling?"

Lin says "I feel amazing! I can't remember ever feeling this good!"

"So, no regrets? Did it work, are you a half phoenix?"

Lin says "No, no regrets! Yes, it did. My race is now half phoenix!"

"That's great! What kind of benefits did you get?"

Lin says "My fire magic will be much stronger now and I am even immune to fire damage!"

"Which immunity is it? Normal, greater, or perfect?"

Lin says "Just normal as far as I know. What's the difference?"

"With normal immunity you are only immune to normal fire damage. Some special types of fire damage will be able to penetrate it. Also, the higher immunities make it so that fire damage actually heals you."

Lin says "Wow, that must be nice!"

"Yeah, it is. But it is too soon to be sure you will only have normal immunity. It is possible that your immunity will improve as you age and grow stronger. Come to think of it, do you have a core now?!"

Lin says "Uh, I'm not sure. How do I tell?"

While we are eating lunch with the kids, I walk Lin through how to check her core. As I was hoping, she now has a core, meaning she counts as a magical beast. Or at least half of one, it is enough for her to have a core anyway, that is the important part.

To help her out, I start teaching Lin everything I know about cores and the techniques I have learned. If Lin works diligently on her core, the amount of strength she could gain is a little scary. Her magic power is already impressive, with a core backing it up it will become even stronger.

Given time, Lin could actually become stronger than I am, at least as far as magic concerned. Wait, if she gets bonuses to fire magic, just how strong would our joint spell be now? It could already be on the level of destroying a small country with just one cast.

With the crystals, it might be possible for Lin and I to wipe out the entire demon territory. If we did that then there wouldn't even need to be a war, we can just nuke everything. True, the area probably wouldn't be habitable after that, but I can live with that.