Chapter 24 - Return Home and Tenka's Evolution
Sam P.O.V.
I would love to say something cliché like nice breath of fresh air, but truthfully the underground sanctuary was fun. Ammit and I are actually a bit despondent as we trudge out through the long, winding tunnel.
The transition from the golden, magical atmosphere of Ari's domain, back to the rocky reality of the surface, feels like waking up from a really good dream, a few hours too early.
However, our mood lifts the moment we break the surface.
Red is waiting there. He is pacing back and forth, with the nervous energy of a caged predator. Beside him stands Elnora. She looks as calm and composed as ever, a stark contrast to the wolf.
Ammit's eyes widen. She clutches my ear, peering at the Red wolf with curiosity. I decide to rip the bandage off quickly, knowing this will be awkward...
"Hey, Red," I call out, stepping fully into the light. "This is Ammit, my daughter. Sorry to make you wait. I hope you didn't get too bored?"
Red freezes mid-pace. He stares at me, then at the little creature perched on my shoulder. His jaw literally drops.
"Your... daughter?" Red stammers, his eyes bulging. "So I wasn't th... AAARG!"
Elnora appears beside him in a blur. She drives a sharp elbow into his ribs, effectively cutting off whatever stupidity was about to come out of his mouth.
"Who is the mother?" Elnora asks, her voice dripping with sweet, dangerous curiosity. She smiles warmly at the little girl on my shoulder. "Hello dear. My name is Elnora, but just call me Granny."
True to her nature, Ammit doesn't say much. She just offers a shy hum and buries her face in my hair, looking absolutely adorable.
"Her mother...?" I putting on my most innocent, genuine smile. "She is a very powerful monster that tried to eat me while I evolved."
Silence stretches between us. The wind whistles through the rocks.
"So... no sex?" Red groan, rubbing his ribs. He catches my glare and holds up his hands defensively. "Don't look at me like that! You won't hide this from me, right?"
"Tsk. No sex," I mutter, rolling my eyes.
This is turning stupidly awkward. Luckily, Ammit doesn't seem to care much about the biological logistics of her existence.
"Well, we should get going, right?" Red and I say at the exact same time.
The awkwardness pops like a soap bubble.
"Hehehe. Yep, let's go buddy," I say.
As Red prepares to move, I notice something different about him. It isn't a physical change I can put my finger on immediately, but his aura feels denser. He feels heavier in the spirit realm. Maybe he matured a bit while I was gone? He certainly has enough confidence now to look at Elnora with a raised eyebrow, which is usually a death wish. She just maintains her perfect poker face.
Red shifts into his wolf form. Before we climb up, he finally gains a bit of approval from Ammit. He demonstrates his size-changing ability. He shrinks down to a pup and then billows out to the size of a minivan.
"Cool" Ammit's eyes sparkle. She puffs out her cheeks, determined not to be outdone. She concentrates hard, her little face turning red. Pfffff!
She transforms into a giant, pink ball with a black stub of hair on top.
It is completely useless tactically, but it is so funny that I laugh until my sides hurt. Ammit, annoyed by my lack of reverence, kicks me in the calf....
We bid farewell to "Mom" Elnora, but she hands me a pit, a seed from her main tree, to plant in the village. It feels heavy and warm in my pocket.
After a nice coaxing session, for the vexed Ammit, involving a piggyback ride and some tunes on the flute, we mount up on Red. We traverse the rugged landscape, the wind whipping through my long hair.
With Red's speed, we reach the outskirts of the village in only a few hours.
To make a proper impression on my people, I have Red charge up the plateau. We need to make an entrance.
"Aouuuuuu!" Red howls, his voice echoing off the canyon walls.
Hehehe.
There are only a few people outside at this time of day, but the howl does the trick. One figure in particular moves with a speed that defies logic. She runs like a bat out of hellscape, launches herself into the air, jumps on top of Red, and tackles me into a hug that nearly knocks me off the wolf.
Salaba was very worried...
The second figure is standing near the center of the clearing. She doesn't run. She just stands there, her emerald eyes tearing up with pure, unadulterated happiness. It warms my heart instantly.
We slide down from Red's back. I ignore everything else. I ignore the gathering crowd. I ignore the noise. My eyes are locked on Tenka.
She has changed a lot in only two months. She is taller than in my memory. But it is her forehead that draws the eye. It is even prettier now, adorned with a new feature. She has a third eye. It isn't a gross, fleshy thing, but a mystical marking with a spiral and feathers, glowing almost kaleidoscopically with shifting colors.
We draw close. My awareness tells me that Ammit is walking right next to me, clutching the leather of my pants leg, but I need to greet my future wife first.
Once we are a meter apart, I don't stop. I close the gap and pull her into a hug.
The moment we touch, the dam breaks. Her tears fall freely, soaking the red fur of my cloak. Ammit, sensing the overwhelming emotion, decides to help. She wraps her arms and her prehensile hair around both of us, binding us together in a group hug.
Right. She can lift the mood...
"Sniff... Who is she?" Tenka asks, her voice thick with emotion, looking down at the little limpet attached to us.
"Tenka, this is Ammit," I say softly, wiping a tear from Tenka's cheek. "She is our daughter now. The truth is... I was attacked in my mindscape. The thing that attacked me left a piece behind. I used a piece of myself as payment to help her become... better. She is a Spectral Devourer. Its the name I gave the thing..."
Tenka blinks, processing the title.
"She doesn't need a world-devourer for a mother," I continue. "She needs a real one. If you are up to it."
I glance at the woman still clinging to my side. "I will also ask Salaba to help, if you want. She has the right personality."
Salaba, who was vibrating with relief just to hear her name in our first conversation, beams at Tenka and I. She is terrifyingly clingy right now. I think she is scared of being left alone again. She is a sweet person, the second closest to me in this world.
I look back at Tenka who is still smaller than me... Being tall seems to be a less desirable trait here among the locals. Men apparently hate having women taller than them, or so I am told. Maybe that is why Salaba connects with me. We are both socially accepted but inherently awkward, living in the margins of society rather than fully in it. Her disposition makes her seem distant, even when she cares deeply. Nobody takes the time to really know her, except for noticing her motherly traits, and for Tenka, her cold logic now.
Tenka and I have taken care of Salaba ourselves, treating her as an equal. We also care for the whole tribe. That shared responsibility binds us. But us three fall in the same category.
I turn to my people, who have now gathered in a semi-circle. They are looking at me with awe. My appearance has likely changed too. My tattoos are glowing faintly with the internal heat of the energy, and the scars on my forearms are pulsing with power.
"I will gather everyone tomorrow afternoon for a good chat!" I announce, "For now, we rest."
....
With the greetings and catching up done, I take Ammit, Tenka, and Sal, to visit the village and talk.
Walking through the settlement, I have to admit that this place is amazing. The tribe adapted to my style instantly. And by style, I mean construction, tailoring, and even basic tools. They have upgraded everything they could. I see sturdy seams on the leather clothing worn by the hard-working people. It is far better than the crude grass robes they used before.
However, they seem to misunderstand some of the stuff.
I spot a garden where someone has planted seeds directly into solid rock. I sigh. We need to work on agriculture.
Then we pass the bathing area. They built a huge, open-air bathroom. No walls. No partitions. You can see... everybody's everything.
I shiver involuntarily, thinking I am the only men here. I definitely need to fix that.
"Do they have soap?" I mutter to myself. "I wonder what they use!?"
All in all, though, it is a nice place. There is enough room for around 500 people on the small plateau if we keep the same layout fashion. I find it aesthetically pleasing that all the cabins are orderly placed. There are no fences, no roads, and not much sense of propriety. It is a design that is more people oriented, than property oriented.
I will need to segregate the industrial and scholar places for the future, I note mentally. I don't want pollution to hinder the children and people.
For now, the homes are square cabins made of stacked wood logs with screen meshes as windows. I never needed more than light covers to sleep at night since there are no seasons here. At least, not changing fast enough to be noticed. It is like the boiling frog analogy. The temperature shifts so slowly you adapt without realizing it.
Some of the cabins, mine included, have two stories and are a bit larger than the others. Berth, the strong pig of the village, must have brought back huge logs for them.
Inside, there are no walls, which saves space but kills privacy. Only one place has a flat stone designated for cooking so they don't burn the house down. They don't know how to cut stones yet, and honestly, they don't cook much either. Only my generals ate lots of meat. Unless they started to do it more while I was away...
Once the tour is done, we stand in front of our new cabin. It is bigger than the others, boasting a second story and a few beds.
Salaba hesitates at the threshold.
I grab her hand and pull her in, not even asking. "You live here too, Sal."
Tenka nods in approval. She really likes Salaba. After all, she owes Sal her life, and they didn't talk much before. Since coming back here, they have been busy all the time holding the fort down. Plus, Ammit is there, looking up at Sal with her shining, black and blue puppy eyes.
They already love each other.
Hehehe. Nice one, I think. Ammit needs that motherly feeling, too. Something that I am incapable of giving her.
So once we get in, I stick Ammit to Sal, like a piece of Velcro. While the little Spectral Devourer is distracted, I act like a thief and steal my Tenka away.
Of course, there is only a thin veil separating the bed area from the rest of the room, so this is useless for real privacy. They laugh at my antics anyway.
When we get a bit out of sight behind the veil, Sal is blushing hard. Ammit puts her hand on Sal's cheek to check her temperature, tilting her head cutely.
Chuckle.
(Reader note: Wait for the next chapter for the naughty scene. We have medical work to do first.)
Meanwhile, I am not doing what they thought I would. Sadly.
I need to check Tenka's status.
Up close, beneath the happiness of the reunion, she seems drained and powerless.
While we catch up, I found out that Barabas's soul is in there, along with Gary. It is a crowded house inside her mindscape. I would not send her to battle in this state.
Sigh...
She tells me everything she went through during my absence, and I recount my bizarre adventures to her. She pauses, looking at me with disbelief, when I tell her about my mother and the giant castle underground, almost tempted to check my temperature.
Cough...
Luckily for her, the solution to her energy problem is easy and even beneficial. Sadly, we can't do it here in the crowded cabin. But I know the best place.
"Come with me," I whisper.
We leave the cabin and head toward the edge of the plateau. Besides the village, there are a bunch of waterfalls cascading into the depths. I grab some sturdy ropes, and we climb down the ravine.
We go to the base of the biggest waterfall. This isn't the kind you train under like a monk in a movie. This is the kind where you die if you set foot under it, squished flat under tons of crashing water. The spray alone soaks us within seconds, matting my fur cloak heavy.
I sit with her on a large, flat rock, as close as possible to the raging waters without getting crushed. We take a moment to admire the view and feel the raw power of nature vibrating through the stone.
"Okay," I say, rubbing my hands together. "Get ready."
The difficult part is using my power. I need to view inside her body to see what the shell of my egg, has done to her internal mana flow.
Since my power is currently like a bunch of hair mixed with a rush-hour traffic jam, using it requires extreme focus.
I have to move it slowly, carefully bypassing the "dams" in my own rivers. Training like this would usually be detrimental, but for a diagnostic, it works.
I place my hand on her back.
After enduring the rush of information bloating my brain, I get a picture in my mind.
Nothing too bad, I think, wiping sweat from my brow.
I am already perspiring from the effort. It is like trying to operate an oversensitive organ that is simultaneously too numb to cope and control itself. Khonsu, now Amy used to handle this part for me. Doing it by myself now is barely enough. Facing Beno in that state would be suicide.
Still, I can pass a fixed amount of power through my arms.
"Lie down," I instruct gently.
She complies, trusting me completely. I take a deep breath in. With both hands, I begin to massage her shoulders and back, circulating my power into her body. I can't see the flow visually, but it is not necessary for this part. I can feel the blockages, the drained reservoirs where the other souls are leeching energy.
I try to let my power unwrap. I let it slowly extend outside my body, blending into the rocks, the water, and the air around us.
A lot comes out, but strangely, I don't feel tired one bit, even if I felt like I had very little in me. I am not forcing it to do things. It is more like I am coaxing the passing power to shift from my hands to the environment. My eyes are closed, so I don't see what is happening around us.
I don't see the pebbles hovering around us, defying gravity. I don't see the moss glowing with a vibrant, unnatural green. I don't see the water of the massive falls bending slightly, curving toward us as if curious.
It feels great. It is like being stuck in a car for days and finally stepping out to stretch your limbs. The energy flows from me, through her, and into the world, creating a circuit that hums with potential.
I can feel my body clearly up to a first "gate." in my throat I feel this won't be the last obstacle I face. My power around the throat area, which represents the Self and acts as my main gate, is uncoiling instead of being packed in a tangled jam.
However, the rest of my body is still packed in tight bundles, like high-tension cables wound too tight. I seem to not have enough energy in me to uncoil them properly, but also found how to correct my current situation.
This is not what I came here to do with her, but it is good to know.
I don't sense it visually, but I imagine the natural energy gently entering Tenka's body, from all around us. My power imitates my coaxing, a projection of my will and thoughts. This time, it is tougher and needs more control than simply blasting my power out.
I open my eyes and see the effects of the energy gathered here, at the bottom of this ravine. I can see a mirage shimmering in the air, like heat rising off hot tarmac on a summer day.
Tenka seems to have gained back her colors. Her skin is flushing with health, so I let my power flow back inside me. The mirage twists the environment a bit, distorting the light, then after a millisecond of absolute stillness, time restarts. The suspended pebbles fall back to the wet stone, and the crashing water resumes its course.
Interesting....
Tenka witnesses this. She realizes what I am now. Before she can spiral into more thoughts about the disparity between us, I grab her hand and squeeze it.
"It is your turn to power up now!" I say.
With a smirk, I put my forehead against hers. I close my eyes, concentrating on my mindscape to bridge the connection between us. It feels like I am looking through the window of a cabin. A very small, cramped cabin inside her head.
"Hey guys, ready to come out?" I project.
"Chippers," Gary chirps instantly.
"Thank the old God! You're finally here," Barabas groans. "Not that I hate your little girlfriend or anything, it is just too cramped in here. The only thing to do is talk with her, so we got pretty close."
"Chippers," Gary agrees.
"Yeah," Barabas sighs. "I got pretty depressed, but thanks to her, I have some hope. She believes in you a lot, little bro."
"Well, the door is open," I tell them. "You just have to step in. Let her rest her mind."
"Just a sec," Barabas says, his tone shifting to serious. "I need to remind her of a few things so another disaster doesn't happen..."
We spend a moment explaining things to remember and to do, or not do, because she is on the verge of evolution. Once they leave her and she loses the burden of hosting two extra souls, she will surely evolve.
When Barabas is great at sorting this, so we plan her evolution properly. Unlike my own chaotic ascension, hers will be structured.
From what I saw and was told, I feel like the mindscape summons energies, vacuuming them hard from as far as the other side of the universe. This makes the body adapt forcibly.
If you survive it, you evolve.
My own power, which was vast for my age, was comparable to a thirty-meter giant, filled with power, all shrunk down and stuffed into my human teenager sized body... Of course it is different, since I am one one third human....
Since I could not grow that tall in the egg, my power is fucked up. I am one-third human, one-third dryad, and one-third insect, plus all kinds of universal laws composing my body's cells. It is not uniform. The shrinking makes my power channels clogged, like a piping system dealing with too much pressure.
While I unpacked my power earlier, I could see the chin, neck, shoulders, and arms unwrapping and unclogging themselves, but the arms are just partially restored.
I am also still absorbing the ambient natural energy at a regular pace. I am being packed by pressure from both the inside and outside of my body. It is slowly awakening the rest of my gates and inner selves. I could just wait...
Khonsu, Bes, Amy...
I can feel my body clearly now, mapped out in a way I never truly understood before. The blockage isn't just a "tangled jam" of power; it is a complex web of connections between my Gates, and right now, half the lights are off.
I focus inward, using my own power to illuminate the system. It creates a diagram of light along my spine, revealing the hierarchy of my soul.
First and second are the Root Gate, the Muladhara, at the base of my spine. It glows a deep, angry red.
Bes sits here in the first, connected physically to Ammit. He is awake and very active. He is the gatekeeper of my vitality and lust, but he is also holding back the repressed rage trickling down from the Solar Plexus. He anchors me to the physical world, managing my hidden desires and the raw drive to survive.
Third is the Gut (spanning the Sacral and Solar Plexus).
This is Ammit's domain. My "daughter," the Spectral Devourer, is anchored here, wide awake. She is the engine of consumption, the beast that processes energy. But I notice a thin, almost invisible silver thread running from her, shooting straight up through my core, bypassing everything else to connect to the very top.
Fourth is the Heart Gate, the Anahata. Green and pink.
This is the center. It embodies Me, but the whole of me, us. I can feel traces of everyone else here. Bes's passion, Ammit's personality, even the echo of the others sleeping. It is the meeting place, the hub of empathy where our collective consciousness bleeds together. It is where I feel for them, and they feel through me.
Fifth is the Throat Gate, the Vishuddha. Azure blue.
This is my main command center right now. The "I speak." The Self. It is uncoiled and free, allowing me to analyze this. Internally, this one gate is enough for me to hold the reins, but I can feel that for real-world awareness, I am going to need to expand. I need to bridge the gap to the other gates, to truly manifest my power outside.
sixth is the Third Eye, the Ajna. Indigo.
Amy rests here. She isn't a spirit in the traditional sense; she is more comparable to an organic Artificial Intelligence governing my subconscious brain. She doesn't live emotions the way I do; she processes them at insane speeds, turning feelings into data.
But right now, the lights are dim. She is sleeping, rebooting after the trauma. That explains why my processing speed feels sluggish and why I have to manually focus on things she would usually automate.
Seventh is the Crown Gate, the Sahasrara, at the pinnacle. Violet.
Khonsu should resides here, but it is currently closed and I know why... He remains in the bamboo house with Amy.
No wonder I feel impulsive. I am running on pure gut and heart right now.
This is not what I was here for, but it is good to know. I don't sense it visually, but I imagine the natural energy gently entering Tenka's body...
...
I shake off the introspection. I need to focus on Tenka. I tailor the energy flow to maximize her potential without killing her in the process.
Barabas and Gary become ethereal and flash in my mind. I can see the birdhouse structure inside her blur into a spiral of colors, matching the mark on her forehead, as I disconnect.
I know what is going to happen, so I retreat about a hundred meters, taking cover behind a massive boulder. The rest is entirely up to her.
Her body starts absorbing natural and elemental energies through her forehead. This is unlike me. I had my gonads and other gates explode, apparently. I sweat at the thought. Luckily I was unconscious for that part.
I can feel the natural energy rushing past me like a physical breeze. You can't see it, but feeling it like this, wild and not controlled by me, is a novelty.
It lets me tune my perception, even if I still have a huge headache from the diagnostic I ran earlier. The only thing working properly right now is my arms. Maybe my mouth?
So, this is what happened to me?
("Haaaa this is awesome! Finally, FREEDOM!") Barabas yells in my head.
("SHUT UP. Don't wake up the residents! Except you Gary, you can sing all you want.")
("Chippers.")
("Sorry about that,") Barabas apologizes. ("Just wait and watch. It is far from over.")
("I bet, since it took me two months...")
A vortex forms above Tenka's head. It spins violently. More and more water gets trapped in it until the whole waterfall doesn't reach the riverbed anymore. The cascading water reaches the vortex and disappears, fragmented and sent directly into Tenka's body as pure energy. Water contains pretty much everything an organism needs to live and more. Especially natural, unfiltered water like this.
Some water comes from underneath, seeping through the rocks, and forms a ball around her. The water from underground brings a bunch of roots with it. They dip inside the liquid sphere, bringing vitality from the earth itself. Tenka's hair grows rapidly, floating in the suspension, and connects to the roots.
I feel the wall of the ravine shake as more roots burst out of the stone to touch the ball.
"MOM! W.T.F!" I shout.
She appears in her classic whirlwind of leaves, materializing next to me.
"This is not my doing, son," Elnora says calmly, crossing her arms. "It is your little girlfriend who did something. Relax. It does not seem dangerous for her, at least. Those trees, however... I don't know what will happen to them."
"The trees, huh..." I scoff. "Sorry about this, but fuck the trees as long as she is fine. How many trees can a human grow in his or her life?"
Elnora actually pauses. She really seems to consider what I said.
Which proves she values a plant as much as a human... I am lucky that she took a 'sane' interest in me. Shiver...
"Seems like what you said holds merit," Elnora concedes. "Besides, don't worry. They are under her control. I could feel it, so I came fast, and then you called me. You don't hesitate to call me Mom now?"
"Like you are not already spying on me," I say dryly. "Yeah, I am pretty strange, so having a strange mom is normal. Chuckle."
"Cough... don't blame this old lady for having a little harmless fun," she says with a wink. "And once you make many grandkids, you will train ten percent of them to plant trees."
"Tsk... I realized I am losing some things along the way in this world. Things called dignity and privacy," I grumble. "Heck, you probably know more about me than I know about myself. Now you plan my love life?"
"My son, we don't even know ourselves," she replies, her tone turning philosophical. "How can you say I know more about you than yourself? I only feel close to you and want to be closer. That is why I brought you here. I expect nothing of you, but I did let those women live there for you. Otherwise, they would not live in my forest. Those men made the task easy too."
"What about the demons?" I ask.
"Nah. I don't care," she shrugs. "They make good plant food. That was Lydi's idea. Ari's sister. Ari was in on it, of course. But I know these fairies. I know their stupid training regiment and the stupid stunts they pull all the time. They are a funny race though. I miss Lydi. She was fun. And the only one who became... Sorry. This I can't share. They will tell you themselves."
"Think she is still alive after twenty years?" I ask, looking at my glowing tattoos.
"Yeah. I am sure she is being tortured to corrupt her," Elnora says, her voice heavy. "They must try to make her commit atrocities and be sent to hell. Otherwise, she would have reincarnated as a fairy again fast. They skip the line and go straight to the fairies' domain, to which they are bound. I believe in her. She would not do any wrong. Which makes me sad that she endured all this time. I just hope she is not treated too bad... Sigh..."
While we talk, the beautiful ball of water hovers in the background. Roots snake out of the cliff walls, absorbing energy from the earth to feed it. The water even comes from the sky, condensing from the mist, containing atmospheric energy too.
I watch closely. I feel it is missing something.
Fire and Lightning are missing from the elements. And Ice from the seasons. Since fire and ice are practically the same thermodynamically...
"Barabas," I project. "How much can you help with casting the fire chains? Since they use soul power, it should be fine, right?"
("I don't know about what you will feel,") Barabas replies tentatively. ("But I can guide the power you send to the chains.")
"Good enough. Make sure to keep it to my arms. We just wrap one chain around the vortex when I say so. Gary, you can also use my other hand's available power to get a patch of snow and phase it in the middle, near her body. Both of you, I give you the power you need. Just focus on staying alive and well."
I get closer to the swirling sphere. I am surprised! My power doesn't get sucked in, not even one bit. They said that they were weakened when they came near me back then. It is like my power has a personality now and only belongs to me. It makes me smile.
Elnora is right. We don't even know ourselves.
I thrust my right arm forward. A chain of magma-like fire erupts from my skin. It wraps around the ball, making steam rise instantly. The heat joins the vortex over her ball of water and roots, generating intense friction like storm clouds.
"Now, Gary!"
Gary dumps some snow which he picked from a parallel dimension where this place is a winter wonderland. It costs me an insane amount of power to bridge that gap. Ammit, still hiding in my gut gate, and I both grit our teeth and sweat profusely, and my left arm feel really cold, but our goal is accomplished.
The snow cools the water connected to the ground. Contrasting with the hot clouds forming around the sphere, it generates massive sparks lightning. They arc into the ball, completing her evolution requirements.
The energy gathered whirls and enters her third eye. Her two normal eyes snap open wide as she wakes up with the sparks hitting her.
Once the energy is done entering her, she stops floating. Gravity reasserts itself, and she falls.
I disappear from my spot and run to catch her bridal style, before she hits the rocks.
She is still processing her current body and mind, her eyes unfocused, so I process carrying her toward the ravine side to climb out.
"Wait, Sam," Elnora calls out.
"What is up?" I ask, turning back.
"Take this."
She hands me a small pouch containing some pills.
"They are to make sure you don't make her pregnant just yet," Elnora says bluntly. "Once the pit you planted is large enough, then they can do without them. Otherwise, they would become sick and maybe die. Your body is a lot stronger than theirs."
I blush furiously at the implications, looking from the pills to the unconscious woman in my arms. Death by... never mind. I take the pills. I definitely don't want to kill Tenka.
"Thanks, Mom," I mutter.
"You're welcome!" she chirps happily.
Looking at the sheer cliff and the unfocused Tenka in my arms, I flex my feet. Sharp claws burst from between my toes. I crouch low, then launch myself at the wall, running vertically up the cliff face toward home.