The trip back home was without incidents. There was no way it wouldn't be, because I shifted into the ethereal world and traveled there. At the speed of "thought", or something like that. I made it back in a fourth of the time it took to reach the trench.
I had no interest in meeting anything along the way. I couldn't level up and my only prospects were to whittle down and whither into nothingness as I lost a level a month. I should still be glad. I was living on borrowed time. By all means, I should've died there along with the God. Carcinodon would still roam the trench.
But I had hope. Maybe I could game the System and escape my predicament. I mean, there was one easy way out, I just needed to die and reincarnate. But I thought Arista had so many to live, so much to achieve. I didn't want to die although I was willing to give up my life to avenge Rosalinda.
My island and reef shone in the ethereal world. Made of magic, sustained by magic and enchanted to the nines, the island seemed to be made of light. it was a beautiful sight. The reef as well had its own presence. I shifted back into the real world and swam my way back.
I wished nothing more than to laze for a couple days but I needed to see my mother first. I found Queen Eathelin in the cavern, talking to the Heralds.
"Ah, the [God Slayer] returns. With another one of us as a trophy for her grim collection!" Kraken criticized as I came into sight.
"That one was long due, sister," Leviathan rebutted. "Nurha-Boenir was a sadistic degenerate, no better than the monsters that paid him homage."
Mom looked at me with a pained face, "Daughter, what have you done?"
I swam next to the two demigods and the mermaid [Queen]. "Mother, my Queen. I have returned."
Once none of them spoke again, I conjured an illusion of the village of Tambrillia, "This is Tambrillia, part of the Kingdom of Pekothas many ages ago. There a peasant woman by the name of Rosalinda gave birth to a girl with one arm. The child was called Lily. The father, I don't know of, but from what I gathered, he died in the war. Destitute and weakened by childbirth, Rosalinda had to rely on the village's crones.
"One fateful day, a priest of Bundeus visited the village and was brought to her hovel to check the child for any disease. Once he attempted to use Holy magic on her, the magic was absorbed. Furious and eager to rid Yznarian of the intruder, Bundeus smote the whole village."
Eathelin flinched. I kept going.
"Rosalinda survived because she was hugging the child. That child was me. Once in a previous life, ages ago, I was the one-armed Lily. Divine magic didn't and never will work next to me, for weal or woe."
I clenched my fists and ground my teeth.
"The whole pantheon came to see and debate on what to do with the child. Bundeus and his cronies didn't wait for the debate to finish. The former God of Monsters summoned a cockatrice. The mother was turned to stone holding the child in her arms. She was innocent."
I broke into tears. Eathelin hugged me and I sensed more life than I expected. Expecting was the right word.
"I can't believe you killed a God," She mumbled.
"Two to be precise," The squid-demigoddess snarked.
"And not some demigods like sister and I. Bundeus was a major deity and Nurha-Boenir an intermediate one," Waving his draconic head, Leviathan corrected his sister. "But they deserved it. They sought her and harassed the person that is now your daughter at every corner throughout several lifetimes, Queen Eathelin."
"She caused a schism in the Pantheon!" Kraken hissed.
Leviathan turned to face his sister. "And on what side do we stand, sister?"
Tentacles squirmed in the alcove. "Begrudgingly and because our mother ordered, on the winning one."
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
I lifted my head from my mother's bosom and stared at the mollusk demigoddess, intend into setting my metaphorical foot down. I didn't have one.
"You too call me 'Anomaly' behind my back, don't you? Let me state it here, and let it be known by you and all deities and creatures of this world. I had little choice but to come to this world under my patron's terms. I won't name him here for reasons you understand very well, demigods. The other choice was oblivion. I didn't come here to conquer, cause a schism, or make your lives difficult. All grudges you have with me are your own fault for not leaving me alone. There are a thousand arguments I could throw at you, but I won't. Use your own wits."
Then I turned back to face the mermaid [Queen]. "Mom, you are pregnant," I gushed.
She let go of me and backed off. "Am I?"
"I can sense sentient life next to me. Although the child has no soul yet, it is nonetheless alive. In fact..."
I focused my senses and let them reach out. Most of the mermaids in the cavern had calves or fries in their bellies.
"Congratulations are in order, Your Majesty," Kraken interrupted our moment.
Like wildfire, the rumor the Queen was pregnant with a baby princess spread over all the lagoon and reef.
"Mom, I'm tired. I'm going to the surface above us and rest for a few days. When I return, we must discuss releasing our prisoners. With how many gravid mermaids we have, we can't risk having the others knocked up too. When all these calves and fries are born, we will need to redouble our food production."
She kissed my head, "Go, daughter. Your power will be necessary to move the prisoners back to the continent."
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I was tired and didn't want to meet anyone so I skulked around until I reached the island. Shapeshifting into Silverstreak's form, I walked to the middle of the forest and went to sleep on some king-size bed from my item box. Probably some real King's bed. Truly, I only needed to sleep for less than ten minutes per day to get as much rest as a normal person got for eight hours, but who never overslept in bed? I spent two days there, sleeping and cuddling Nenandil.
When I woke up the second day, the bed was crowded with fairies. They cut and propped the comforter and sheets with sticks and created a shanty town.
"Aww stupid! You woke up the princesses!" A pixie scolded and slapped the spriggan next to him when we woke up.
"Not me! You did it!" The spriggan fought back.
"Yeah, but now they're awake! We don't need to be quiet anymore!" A sylph with butterfly wings cheered and zipped around.
All hell broke loose. As I shook my torpor and looked around, there were bird nests in the bed posters. The gold filigree was scraped and used as decoration in some of the nests. The bed was ruined. I could only sit and laugh.
"Alright, you rascals!" I shouted after my laugh tank emptied. "Court is in session! Petitioners, line up! If you want to live in Mattress City, you must pay taxes! Five pure dewdrops per year!"
"Revolution!" Some smartass pixie shouted from the bed's end. "That's absurd! Five dewdrops are too much!"
The peanut gallery went wild. Nenandil shot a shower of snow around the bed. "SILENCE! The next fairy to speak will get a frozen pussy!"
The first pixie rose his hand. After getting permission to speak from my familiar, he stated, "I don't have a pussy, milady."
Nenandil's smile went feral. "Then I'll carve you one, then freeze it. Any further questions?"
Nobody moved.
"Your [Princess] speaks!" I shouted. "In place of the first year taxes, you fairies are to enchant this bed, mattress, and bedding so it never rots or spoils. Then I'll expand. Of course, a single bed is not enough for all of us. I vow that during my reign every fairy in this island shall have a place on a solid human-built bed."
The fairies cheered.
Yes, it might look stupid for a human, but we were fairies.
We shaped the trees out of the way and I put another three beds next to the main one. Then on a whim, I placed one of the urchin spikes next to the King's bed. The fairies went all "ooh" and "ahh".
"I'll carve this trophy from a mighty monster, and live in this ivory tower!" I declared. "The next noble fairy can have my old sleeping spot."
"A tournament! We should decide everything with a tournament!" The revolutionary pixie suggested.
They talked in hushed voices for a while.
"So shall it be!" Nenandil decided. "We will hold a bardic tournament! The fairies with the best songs shall take spots closer to the [Princess]'s ivory tower!"
"Who is going to be the judges?" Someone shouted.
I scratched my chin. "Hey, Nenandil, they did ask me to summon them once we were on the island, didn't they?" A hard-working fairy's rule number one: When burdened, dump the responsibility on someone else.
> [ Summon Godmothers]
This time all five came. At the sight of the five elemental elders, the fairies went full-on fangirl mode. After a very convoluted meet-and-greet and several failed attempts at explaining what was going on, they agreed to host the tournament.
"We owe you for killing that abomination. But are you sure you want this as your favor?" Doris asked at the end. "We spent some time thinking of blessings to bestow you two."
"I'm sure of it," I nodded. "You can always give me some task or quest to justify the blessings. But right now, I want to create quests for these fairies so they compete in the bardic tournament and level up."
I could give Exp directly to my subjects through the [Grandmaster] Perk from [Royal Order]. And since I knew I had several trillion in the bank which I'd probably never touch, why not level up these fairies? They would be necessary to defend the island.