บท 75: Family Bonding
Megan/ Marissa looked at me like I had threatened her with a bomb. The kids were floating about looking between the two of us like we had given them the ultimate drama show to watch. "Children... please give Ignatious and I some space. We will be having a chat. Anyone found lacking in their studies will be grounded to the castle for a month." Marissa spoke loudly. The children cleared out faster than a buffalo herd running off a cliff. The room was wider and felt roomier than originally.
"Who are you and what do you want?" She said pointing her trident at me. " You want me to confirm who I am alright..." I thought for a moment. "When we were fifteen you broke into mom's purse and stole her car keys so we could go joyriding. You even took me to an icecream parlor for my favorite vanilla and orange icecream. We never got caught" She didnt even budge. " Fine. What other special detail do you want to confirm my identity?" Her eyes narrowed. "Who sent you?" I shook my head and held the bridge between my eyes. " Vara said my sister was here and that she was her champion so I came looking." Her trident didn't so much as shift at Vara's name.
"And why would she help a land bug find this place?" I looked at her with a eyeroll. " Did she tell you nothing? She lost a bet to Aed and had to help me find my family. So she found you. That's it. I came to meet my sister and maybe see if I could reminisce some old times and feel normal. Isn't that reason enough?" Her eyes stayed hard but she raised her trident so it pointed upward. " What was my favorite color?" She said. Without missing a beat I responded. " Orange or blue depending on what type of clothing you wore. I always thought orange was gaudy and didnt suit you. Later you chose a black and white dress for your graduation because that was all dad would buy for you." Her expression changed slightly.
"What's more... Charlie Pelman said you looked like a walking monstrosity of black and white. And if memory serves you punched him so hard that you cracked his jawbone." I chuckled slightly. Her shoulders began to relax some as I spoke. I spoke of our old home in Canada and what we used to do as kids. I rehearsed from memory up to the events of the boat ride that separated us for the years following. I spoke of my segregation in a hospital bed and the utter disgust, and fear, and mental torture that had followed. My extended families betrayal to my reincarnation and finally our meeting in the castle that we now stood within. My head had originally gone from sitting upright to being hung as I spoke my story.
I heard a soft scrape as the trident tapped on the floor. It was quiet. Awkward even. Until I felt a gentle hug wrap around my head. Just like how my sister once did for me as a child. My knees sank to the floor as the emotions took hold. I wept. I felt the tears warm my eyes but the tears flowed into the water about me. I felt a strange feeling flow across my body. A morphing sensation went across my face even. I was suddenly pulled away and I was staring into the eyes of Marissa. Her eyes were slightly shocked at what she was looking at. I reached up and felt my face. It was skin. A nose and ears. My ears and eyebrows were human. I realized I was me. The me I once was.
"What is this?" I asked in confusion. Marissa's face was one of sadness and a slight smile. "It really is you. Forgive me. I have a skill called soul morph. It allows me to see the truth of the soul laid in a physical way. I know you gave me so much information. But I just had to know. I missed you so much!" She began to weep as She hugged me close and my form was regained. My horns, claws, arms, and tail were now back to their former glory.
After some time we rose and talked further.
"My accident on the boat as it was reported wasn't an accident at all." Marissa said with sadness. My eyes widened. "What!?!" I exclaimed. (One damn bombshell after another it seems) I thought as I rubbed my fore head. " So what exactly are you saying? That it was sabotage?" Marissa turned about to face me. " When I died it was due to a crack in the hull that had quickly grown into a hole. I had tried to swim away but was pulled under with the boat by the undertow. But before we set out on our voyage I checked the boat for any possible problems along with Uncle Martin. Neither of us found any problems." My eyes shifted slightly. "So what you're saying is that either Uncle Martin was lying or it was sabotaged after your check." I said slowly so I didnt mince my words. " Exactly." She said with a matter of fact wave of her finger. "We went into the area of the ocean where there were no coral reefs or rocks so nothing could damage the hull. So all thats left to explain it is sabotage. Our equipment also malfunctioned at the time of the accident too. Now there's only one other person who could have had access to the boat after the check." I face-palmed as I thought about it. "Aunt Clara... She was the one who did it. She was also the one who figured out how to swindle all the money from me after the inheritance was done and I was hospitalized. But... Now what do we do? We can't get revenge... not from here. Not after all we've become." I said in thought as I looked at my hands and then at my sister. "True." She said. " But time works differently here than on earth. It was four years after my death that you died. But for me it was four hundred years before I met you here. And in 6 years time since your arrival. You have done more than I have in four hundred. You ascended to a champion position and mastered four of the six elements. Not to mention the class rating vibe I feel off of you. Calamity Class I believe. Probably on the higher level one by the natural magic output you have. If you can become a god and ascend in the next few years... We can escape and return to the earthly plain for revenge and exact true Karma on those who wronged us. Think about it!" She said as she swam about the room.
I nodded slowly. "That makes sense. But Once one ascends to godhood there are limits and laws that must be abided by. I can't just do whatever I want on a whim." I replied with a little thought. She nodded a bit. "True. I guess there's a few kinks that need to be figured out along the way. But anyways brother. Tell me what skills you gained when you entered the world." She floated like a pet seal with big watery cute eyes staring at me.
I smiled a little. " A reaper made me into a flame salamander with the Gluttony and Flame Monarch skills." Marissa's eyes widened. "Did you just say Gluttony!? I haven't heard of that skill since before the city sank!" She swam toward a wall with thick books covering it. Each one had a year scrawled onto the spines. (Journals?) She swam to the top and pulled out one. She quickly flipped through the pages till she found what she was looking for. She began tapping the page as she read. " The previous owner of Gluttony was a man by the name of Henry Bartwell. He was able to use skills that no human should be able to use. And it was reported that he could learn skills from whatever he ate. Hence he was called the demon king. Not because he was a demon. But because he ruled over his enemies as no other human could. With claws of a dragon or a breath of poison. Is this a godly gift or a demonic one?" She raised her head from staring at the book and looked at me. "That's what I wrote. I never actually met the man but it's apparent he was strong. Or at least from what I was informed. I used to have a stronger information circle back then. Other records say he was either killed or sealed. Which means somehow his skills were scattered to the corners of the earth." She quickly pulled out another book except this one looked even older and was made of some kind of metal. It squeaked open and she began to read.
"The Demon King is said to hold the power of The Seven Deadly sins..." She paused as she muttered and read further. " Gluttony The All Eating, Pride The All Guarding, Envy The All Knowing, Lust The Luring, Sloth The Curse, Greed The Stealer, and finally Wrath The Berserker. All scattered at the time of the destruction of the Fallen King. Since then lost to time..." She read quietly. The water was filled with an eerie quiet the like I was unaccustomed to.
I grinned a little to ease the discomfort in the chamber. "It's true that I grow based on what I eat. That's why I was able to beat Od." Her eyebrow rose a little. "You? Beat Od? Give me a break." She laughed as she returned her book to the shelf. My face showed confusion. " My informants told me you battled a giant that stood 200 feet tall and was covered in storm clouds right?" I nodded as she ventured through another book. She pulled out a folded piece of paper from between the pages and examined it. " 100 years ago Od was a giant who stood at 1000 feet and not only did he have thunder clouds. But he had meteors circling his head with tornadoes that rampaged across his body. Basically... he was a walking armageddon. Noone has ever managed to get close enough to actually tell us what it looks like inside that monstrous storm. And I imagine time has only made him stronger." She said with a slightly raised brow.
"Then what did I fight!" I almost screamed in confusion. She shrugged. "It's likely that Little Ody got so big he separated into 4 bodies so he could remain around and maintain power. You probably fought his Thunder aspect body. But if you killed it that only makes the other three stronger." She let out a long sigh before putting the note and book back.
"How much stronger?" I asked nervously. She chuckled a little as she turned to face me once again. "His power would divide evenly so hey would each obtain about 20-30% a piece with some of it missing due to you absorbing it. But onto the brighter topics." She floated about the chamber and quickly gathered the books that had been left lying around.
" I have to ask.... What do I call you now!?! Are you Ignatious or my brother Damien?" She said thoughtfully as she once again turned to look at me. I shook my head a little. "I am both. But I suppose for sanity's sake you could call me Ignis so people don't get confused." I shrugged at the thought as it had never really occurred to me until now. Identity crises weren't my thing really. I was what I was.
She rolled her eyes as though my answer was too anticlimactic for her. I slowly swam towards her. "And you apparently go as Marissa if I heard correctly." She hung her head and sighed. "In all honesty I haven't been called by my original name in centuries. Ever since I was hatched I was called Marissa. Not a soul knew my previous name before you showed up. Now my children will have questions." I cocked my head to the side. "Children?" She looked at me like I had grown a second head. " Yes. After a couple hundred years I've had a few children. Many have ventured into the ocean or lost themselves to the dragon form and became the monsters sailors fear." She shook her head slightly.
"So... I guess by spirit they are my nieces and nephews. But I have no connection through blood..." I sighed. Suddenly I heard a soft giggle from behind me. I turned to find a little girl with some octopus or squid tentacles instead of a fish tail. She was the spitting image of her mother from the waist up however. " A Scylla! How long have you been standing there?!?" The little girl beamed. "Long enough to know I have an uncle." She giggled as I roared out a laugh and Marissa face-palmed.
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