Shortly After the lance fell apart, the ground began spitting, splitting and rising. "Now girls, remember. You want to the stone to coast down so the flat impacts the surface." With my casual explanation I picked up a stone from my pile and threw it with enough force to create a shock wave.
"Wow Dad, it has to actually lose momentum to skim the surface."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Haven't done this in a while, I'm a bit rusty..." As I defended myself, the water in the far distance erupted upward. "Well at least I made the rainbow." I laughed as it formed.
Then the air was filled with a piercing shriek as the mutated creature burst out, only to be pelted by three stones after they had skimmed along the ground a few times.
"Wow, okay, you girls got any pointers for me?"
"I think the rainbows are nice can you try and make more while we skim rocks?"
"Sure! I'm always happy to stick to my strengths." It was a bizarrely casual day at the beach mixed with a day at the lake. I launched another stone and took out several of things legs, before hitting the water and creating another displacement geyser.
"Wow Adam, they really are pretty rainbows" Celesael whistled. "Try putting some black into it, wonder if you can make a black one."
"Hmmm... Might look at bit ominous alone. Hey Astrael, throw my orb and yours when I say. Celesael, aim about fifteen degrees higher and match my power plus thirty percent, Little One, same but fifteen degrees lower and thirty less, then pick up your orbs after and all three of you throw when I give the go ahead."
They nodded, genuinely enjoying the moment, then I picked up a stone and started imbuing divinity. I then counted down so me and the other two could throw at the same time, each one pierced the mutant monster, shattering legs, tentacles and chunks of its body then impacted the water.
The effect was a triple rainbow, a massive normal one then, then one that absorbed all light, then another, the black layer making the other two seem denser and more profound. "Okay girls, throw." They threw the orbs as the chuckled and after a moment exploded violently.
"What the hell were those things?"
"They were a steel outer shell, filled with oil and a chunk of francium floating around."
"You forgot that stuff is radioactive didn't you?..."
"Yes... It may have a short half-life, but we best purify the area to be safe." I laughed, all four of us remained unmoving though, taking in the unexpected beauty of the triple rainbow, though I was a little bit annoyed with myself by the complete disintegration of the golem.
I used Fala's mana layer idea to be certain but there truly wasn't even an atom of the mana-cancelling crystal left. So we purified the area and set up camp for lunch at the shore.
The girls laughed, chatted, bickered, enjoyed their little remaining time together as triplets. I sat quietly as I grilled them a seafood lunch, letting them speak and enjoy the moment, I felt a deep urge to join them though. "You broke her heart enough to make her do this, don't confuse her by showing up now. We both have sins to live with, I can't believe I nearly abandoned them all just like you did."
"At least you did it for them... You were right you know, if you let them fight that battle, it would have been much worse."
The words came from deep within a sombre echo of one who was feeling the weight of all he had done.
"Dad! We should get moving, we have a lot of ground to cover and Mum won't be happy if we're late."
"We have three days, we are going to scour every inch of this place, but now we have another thing to focus on if you girls are done eating. We need to protect our minds from interference, even Cosmael was affected in the fight that nearly killed me."
"What should we do?"
"Simple, the reason she was affected least, her mind an ears are naturally surrounded by divinity. So we are going to practice, for the rest of the day we will all maintain an extra thick layer of divinity around our ears, then if we can find another we will test our resistance."
"Sounds good... Not enough though, she might figure out how to implement it through light, contact, some manner of making us ingest it or inhale it. Stop underestimating her, she can't even be tracked from the divine realm, it doesn't make sense she is just a mortal. Full body aura layer inside and out, you and the others also need to train until you can hold it indefinitely, but it will be incredibly draining."
She wasn't joking either, I only lasted an hour before falling asleep suddenly, after I woke up they scolded me and told me I needed to train harder and only then did they tell me to focus on ears and head for the time being.
We worked through the night, even just defending my ears and brain I found draining but we eventually found another mutant to test it on. One by one we switched out who was engaging, though I nearly had a panic attack when Little One went for her turn, but it showed that it worked and we suffered no effects from the sound waves.
"I'm just glad she left these for us to find. That is a bit concerning in itself though." Astrael spat, begrudgingly impressed by her abilities.
We then kept going, until we were certain that there were no more within or beneath the wastes. The three girls were treating it like a shopping camping trip, I on the other hand was completely exhausted. My divinity had been completely spent a dozen times over, but at least it was improving my recovery time noticeably.
"Congrats! It only takes you an hour to wake up now. Of course that might just be temporary, your three amazing deva have been generously donating our own divinity to wake you up quicker, so it may increase a little after you return to normal." Astrael declared.
"Thanks, I'd say we should do the same with Eve, bu-"
"-But exhaustion and rejuvination could hurt the baby... Congrats by the way, I was so happy when I felt it." Celesael finished.
"What?" We all replied.
"What?" she mumbled, while pulling a face.
"What? We aren't even certain she is pregnant... What do mean, felt it?" Astrael added
"You know, it's just our omniscience, we can feel life... Can't we?"
"Sister, you absolute idiot! You told us you didn't have a special power all this time because you assumed!" Astrael ranted, clearly something of some significance had happened in the past, but I knew better than to ask.
"What do you mean? Cosmael, back me up here..."
"No! You idiot! You're even more oblivious than Dad! You got so mad because you though he was playing favourites when Astrael was an empath and I got my duality. "It's so unfair" She said! "You two get something to cover your weaknesses, Dad doesn't love me enough!" She said, you kept up that act for ages and made us feel guilty for it all the time."
"Okay girls, that's enough...We oblivious dummies have to stick together. You should be happy, it means she thought you guys were amazing enough to be jealous of. Besides, did either of you ever think to ask her what weakness she wanted help with?"
"Well... No... I don't think I did." Astrael mumbled.
"Me either..." Cosmael agreed.
"She was clearly feeling lonely, she likes being a shut-in, but not alone... How often did either of you two join her?"
"Not often... But she always seemed so happy being a shut-in when we did!"
"Of course I was! You were with me those times!"
"Celesael, don't get carried away either, you clearly never told them and empaths don't like reading people they're close to as a rule. Eve only reads mine ambiently and she only does it to help me feel understood when she does."
"I- I didn't know that..."
"Because you three are siblings and like all siblings you expected the others to know why you're happy and sad and simply forgot to actually talk about it. Now if that is done, thank you for confirming Celesael, it will mean a lot to Eve as well. Oh, yeah! You're going to be one sister short soon enough, that means you two should work on that bond, it will be that much more precious."
The girls looked at each other. "Dad can you go finish up what you were going to do... I wan't to say the letters out loud, get the talking started as a push before I go."
I nodded then hugged them all before leaving.
My final mission was simple. I travelled to the far end of the wastes, then sat cross-legged, then I activated my full divinity and absolute will "I will never break a promise. I etch this into every fibre of my body, fibres which will unravel should their will be defied." The pain was excruciating.
Divinity seeped into every cell, rupturing them, then replacing them with ones that carried that will. I knew of course that it wasn't infallible, but it would take the absolute will of a god to perform this same process in reverse.