The earthquake soon stopped, but it was soon followed by roars of the monsters from the Dungeon which was heard even on the surface. Due to this sudden occurrence, the Guild immediately issued an emergency response that evacuated all normal people from the vicinity of the Tower of Babel.
The Adventurers within the Dungeon also came rushing out due to this strange event and although none of them were attacked or came across a monster party, the Guild still called out to the Loki, Freya and Ganesha Familias to surround and scout the Dungeon.
"This is really strange... It's not that long ago when the monsters started rampaging and now it's happening again? Did the Dungeon go through some unknown changes?" Shakti asked herself while running with her response team.
On the way, she saw Allen Fromel and the Gulliver Brothers rushing through the crowd on her right side while Bete Loga, Ais Wallenstein, Tiona, and Tione Hiryute came rushing in from her left side as all of them arrived at the entrance of the Dungeon.
But as soon as they arrived, the cry of the monsters stopped and everything went quiet inside of the Dungeon. With these three Familias in the lead, they would investigate and guard the Dungeon for a whole day without discovering anything.
On the Hearth Manor's side, the moment the monster's cry stopped, the girls looked around, only to discover the changes in the little Dragon girl now called Tanis, with Ophis making a satisfied face while Kisuke was smirking while looking at them.
"W-what just happened?" asked Irina.
Kisuke stood up and said, "Nothing major~ Just Ophis-chan making a new friend~"
"If the Dungeon shakes every time someone makes a friend, then the world would end!" Hestia retorted.
But Kisuke just shook her off and said, "Well, no matter. It'll be up to you what to do with her since I'll be leaving again soon."
With a deep frown, Hestia asked, "Where are you going this time and what are you going to do?"
"There are some developments on Yoruichi and Kuroka's side so they asked me to come."
"Can't take it easy, huh," Artemis commented with a wry smile.
"There's just that much that needs to be done. Though after this, let's hang out again and play somewhere~"
"Then that's a promise!" Hestia smiled widely.
Koneko suddenly appeared at his side before tugging his shirt and asking, "Kisuke-senpai. Are you going to leave right away?"
Patting her head, Kisuke answered, "Not right away. I still have to check on Medusa's condition so I'll stay for dinner."
"Then I'll prepare the dinner for tonight," Akeno proposed.
"I'll help you out~!" Irina added.
Grabbing Claire, Ophis and Tanis, Serafall put forward, "We're going to take a long nice bath~!" Before leaving the room with the kids.
Sona looked around for a moment before deciding, "Looks like those who are free can do some investigation regarding Tanis. Let's split up and gather some information. There are bound to be some sort of rumors regarding the talking monsters. Be careful, though. We know some Adventurers are targeting Tanis and we might have come under their radar after this encounter, so steer clear from suspicious individuals for now."
"I can transform into a cat so I can investigate suspicious places," Koneko said as she raised her hand.
"I can't do anything complicated so I'll just loiter around the Guild," Aika added.
Sona nodded and said, "I'll use illusion magic to gather information from intel hubs disguised as pubs," she then looked towards Hestia and Artemis, "What about you, Hestia-sama, Artemis-sama?"
Hestia and Artemis looked at each other before the former said, "Guess I'll go ask Hephaestus about it?"
"If that's the case, then I'll arrange a meeting with Miach and Takemikazuchi. Maybe they know something?"
"Alright. Let's leave now so we can return for dinner later. Don't be late."
.
.
.
While walking through the streets, going towards the underground hideout, Kisuke asked Medusa, "How are you feeling these days?"
"I'm fine, but the strange feeling that I can't describe still hasn't disappeared. It used to be occasional bursts of this feeling, but after I took the medicine that you sent, it became a constant thing. Can you tell me what's this?"
"Those medicines aren't cures nor are they there to alleviate your symptoms. In the first place, you don't have any illnesses that need to be cured. I gave you these things to stabilize you after diagnosing your condition. But for further detail, I'll leave it out for now until we're done. I have a surprise prepared for you, but if the conditions are right, there are multiple ones, so look forward to it."
Medusa was curious and confused but decided not to ask any further, "Okay. Just please be gentle."
Kisuke's mouth twitched and said, "Don't make it sound like I'm about to do something rough to you."
Chuckling, Medusa continued, "I don't mind if you do, though. And by the way, this offer is only available for you~"
After spending her time with everyone, Medusa had become bolder and bolder. A change that made Kisuke feel complicated, 'I will certainly miss that shy bookworm.'
In the end, Kisuke chose to not reply, making Medusa a bit disappointed. Nevertheless, she already expected this so she didn't mind it very much. She already noticed that the first step with Kisuke is always hard and even became harder as the number of women who had already crossed the line with him increased. Even then, she won't be giving up anytime soon, not for several eons, at least.
Arriving at their destination, Kisuke's laboratory, Kisuke asked Medusa to enter the pod in front of her after taking off all of her clothing.
Medusa quietly followed his instructions. She didn't even have the time to blush as she saw the seriousness of Kisuke's expression, concluding that this operation is of paramount importance.
Before closing the pod, Kisuke added, "Medusa. No matter what happens, please trust me and don't resist."
In response, Medusa smiled gently at him, "This life could be said yours. If I couldn't trust you, then I could trust no one."
With a wry smile, Kisuke retorted, "Your life is yours and no one else's. The same with your decisions, it should be yours and only yours."
Covering her mouth and giggling, Medusa replied, "I knew you would say that, so please let me say this. Please take care of me... If possible, forever."
"If you intended to hang out with me for that long, then I couldn't possibly refuse someone like you. With that said, I'll ask you to take care of me in the future too, and maybe some other people."
Medusa was stunned for a moment before gleefully smiling, "That's the best I could hope for."
Nothing else was needed to say for now so Kisuke closed the pod and started the operation to return her to her physical body.
With her new body, the promised bright future also awaited the pseudo Goddess that was wronged for several millennia for being in a certain type of situation which she had no control over.
Author's Note:
H-hello everyone~!
It's has been a while... Really a while...
Well, I do have a good reason, though.
I caught the very bad cough that locked me in a medical facility that lasted for a few weeks, if you know what I mean.
I manage to stay alive, thankfully, and had fully recovered (except for some minor discomforts here and there).
I should have been able to post even way before this, but after I got out, my family decided to move... due to reasons... mainly human-to-human interactions... And I've been very busy until now.
Anyway, that didn't mean I didn't do anything. Although not much, I managed to write a few chapters.
For now, I'll be slowly posting them throughout a day or two.
I think there are around 17-18 chapters in the queue so please look forward to it~!
Editors:
28th00: Medusa-chan gets her body, Phis-chama gets a ‘friend’(read: apostle? Aika is no longer alone in that regard!) and so does Claire! Serafall gets one more kid to look after and baby… Sera seems to enjoy this far too much, but I assume she loves kids because of her species if nothing else.
A few hours later, Kisuke sighed in relief as he peered into the transparent cultivation pod. Inside it was a blue liquid that could sustain life and floating in it was Medusa in her previous form, "Looks like it's a success. But from here on, the next couple of things will just be speculations."
Waiting for a few more minutes, Kisuke drained the liquid from the pod and caught Medusa, before placing her on a bed and putting a blanket over top of her.
Since it'll take an hour more for Medusa's body and soul to stabilize, Kisuke started cleaning up while taking note of her vitals.
After the wait, Medusa slowly opened her eyes and immediately recalled the extreme discomfort she had when the Mana that composed her body started disintegrating. Soon after, she noticed a big change in her body.
The change was so big that her drowsiness instantly disappeared as she hurriedly stood up to look at her arms. Clenching and unclenching her fist, Medusa finally figured out what had happened, "F-flesh and blood!?"
"Yep~ But for now, you should wear some clothes. It's really distracting," from the side, Kisuke's frivolous voice sounded.
Medusa looked at him with a dumbfounded expression and saw him handing over a robe. She looked down and saw her mature body without a single covering. Although she'd already prepared herself, she still couldn't help getting embarrassed.
With a blushing face, Medusa grabbed the blanket with her right hand and the robe Kisuke offered with her left hand, "T-thank you."
Kisuke waited for her to get dressed before adding, "After that, please do control your Magic Power... Your eyes have become extremely potent in your current state. It's getting harder to move."
Since she still wasn't used to her new body, she thought that the Mana being consumed was still for her to maintain her body, "Why didn't you say that earlier!" Medusa retorted as she tried to control her beautiful gem-like purple eyes.
However, due to her excessively powerful eyes, Medusa failed to even cut off the flow of Magic Power, "Please wait. I'm going to cast my 'Breaker Gorgon'. I can't control it now that I have my real eyes."
"No need. I just asked you to control it to see if you could at least mitigate its effects," Kisuke then took out a pair of glasses and handed it over to Medusa, "These are your pair of glasses but I enhanced its sealing effect to adjust with your eyes."
Medusa received the glasses and immediately put them on. In an instant, her glowing eyes dimmed and the effects of her petrification disappeared, "Thank you... But how were you able to reconstruct my body? As far as I know, nothing was left of my original body. Did you construct this from nothing?"
"Of course not. That would only create unnecessary problems for you. I got lucky and got a hold of your eye which was apparently being traded. In addition to that, Athena gave me a few drops of your blood and some extracted Divine Powers that she intended to use for research. After all, your existence is technically a miracle," replied Kisuke.
"With just that? You really are amazing... With your ability, those Gods would be swarming at you with all sorts of requests."
"Too bad for them, I don't accept any requests and only do things out of my own self interest and necessity. But seriously, though, your eyes are much more amazing than I had initially thought. I had assumed that the most complicated thing I'd handle for a long time was Souls and Dragons but I never thought that your eyes would give me a headache."
Medusa put her hand on her face and asked, "Are they really that special?"
"They are. Instead of operating on logical Magic, they actually use a concept as a law changer. In other words, your petrification is a unique ability that projects its own idea 'petrification' to the real world that can't be easily replicated through Magic. Due to that uniqueness, there's actually no other way to block it aside from using greater energy to resist it. At least 3 times of what you're using at full power."
"And finally, I'm sure as hell that I wouldn't be able to reconstruct your eyes if I was not able to get hold of the original... Even if I had your full body intact and analyzed how your eyes work with your Mana manifested body."
If those from the Sereitei heard of this, especially Mayuri, they would be shocked at his claims. Of course, Medusa didn't know of his reputation and just accepted his words as her eyes were a bit more special than the rest.
Medusa looked down at her body again and said, "...Couldn't you make me smaller?"
"I could but thanks to the unexpected complexity of the reconstruction, I could only reconstruct your body as the last form it took just to be safe. Since you also have Ophis's power within your Divine Core, I had to add a bit of her blood into your body to properly contain it, adding to the complexity."
Although Medusa was extremely grateful for what Kisuke had done for her, the fact that her 'ideal' form was lost in the process, disappointed her.
Kisuke guessed what she's thinking and added with a smile, "Don't get too down. Since you have Ophis's power and blood within you, it also means you also have some if not very limited access to her abilities, especially her ability to take any form. In your case, the most you can do with sufficient practice is change the apparent 'age' of your body."
Medusa's eyes gleamed in excitement, "I'll do my hardest!"
"But before that, you'll have to deal with what's to come first... any moment now."
Medusa tilted her in confusion at Kisuke's mysterious words, "What's going to hap...pen?... ?!?"
All of a sudden, the Divine Power from her Divine Core burst out, covering the entire room, "What's happening!?" Medusa held her chest as she alarmingly asked Kisuke.
But the latter just smiled and said, "It wasn't just your blood and Divine Power that I got from Athena, but also two other extracted Divine Powers."
"W-what?" Before Medusa could fully understand what he meant, however, she suddenly heard a yawn in her head.
This yawn caused Medusa to freeze in place as her distant memory resurfaced and recalled the owner of that voice, "...S-Stheno...-neesama?" She muttered the name of her older sister.
From the depths of her consciousness, the voice replied with a touch of lethargicness, "Hmmm? Medusa?"
Hearing that, tears started falling from Medusa's eyes as she yelled in extreme delight, "Stheno-neesama!!!"
At that point, another voice resounded, "Hmmmph~! *yawn*. What is it? So noisy."
Although the second voice was almost the same as the first one, Medusa instantly identified it, "Euryale-neesama!!!"
"Geez... So noisy. Do you really have to shout every time? My ears are ringing," Stheno complained while making noises as if she's stretching.
"...I'm still tired so I'm going back to sleep. Wake me up when the breakfast is ready," the carefree Euryale, on the other hand, wanted to go back to blissful rest.
"This isn't the time to be joking around, Euryale-neesama!!!" Medusa raised her voice even further.
While all of this was happening, Kisuke quietly exited the room to give them some time alone. The first proper reunion of the sisters after several eons, he doesn't want to disturb it.
Editors:
28th00: Ah, her ‘ideal’ form is a loli. Gotcha. Considering the alarming number of lolis around her (oppai ones includes, like Serafall, Hestia and… Shirone?), it might not be far off. She gets to meet her sisters, one more on the path of resurrection! Wait, doesn’t she have a Falna? How’s this gonna work?