Eve woke me up with breakfast in bed the next morning. "Sorry, what time is it? I didn't mean to oversleep."
"Don't be silly, it's my fault anyway. You were already exhausted then I forced you to do all that. It isn't late anyway, just a bit after dawn." She smiled before crawling into bed next to me. "After you get a wing massage, then we can go train."
"I thought I was supposed to pamper you, not the other way around."
"Close, we're supposed to fulfil each other's needs and you fulfilled mine perfectly last night. Now eat up and get dressed quick."
"I thought you said it wasn't that late?"
"It isn't but I'm starting to get tempted not to let you go out today. Seriously, I need you to figure out some method of keeping me distracted. Use good-brain Adam to stop sex-brain Eve, that woman is a monster."
"Video games, yoga with the girls, got it."
"Whatever you think will work."
I laughed at the image of what I was about to turn my wife into, then ate my breakfast while Eve eyed me like I was hers. "Good grief woman, have some toast and yes, I do know that isn't what you want."
I was starting to learn true fear for the state of pregnancy, friends in past eras had warned me of course, but I doubted any mortal could possess such an appetite let alone survive sating it.
I ate my breakfast quickly then, kept Eve at arm's length whilst I got dressed. In the end I doused her with water magic. "ADAM!.. Actually that's much better, thank you. Keep that one on standby."
"Err, let's go quick, I don't think I can use that too often." I turned to leave quickly before she remembered the effect seeing her soaked had on me.
When we got to the cabin the girls and ladies were already warming up. "Fala, why are you joining in today, need exercise?"
"Yeah, it's healthy and I need physical stamina, even the operation on you wore me out and frayed my nerves and that was over quickly. I need to work on my body too."
"Of course, if you want Fala. Well as you all know, we are going to work on layering divine aura defensively and I guess physical stamina. Since draining divinity will leave you unconscious and none of us have any idea what your limits are, we'll start with a sparring session."
"Whose fighting who then boss?" Babylon asked while edging closer to Layeara to avoid fighting either of the children or gods.
"You will all be fighting me... Duh. Without magic or divinity none of you stand a chance against me. Don't believe me? Ask Eve about the thing that killed me."
"He isn't wrong, even boosted as much as possible my eyes couldn't keep up. Even if he is overly smug about it..." Eve glared with an expression that suggested she understood my smugness as much as she hated it.
"Fine, but, well, not to be rude, b-" I sighed and interrupted Babylon.
"Don't worry, I encased you in a barrier already, it only stops contact though, you'll feel every hit. I'm considerate like that." I grinned as I stretched. "Don't wait on me, attack when you're ready."
Eve wasted no time with an absolutely pathetic kick. "Look I know I'm bad at this just don't hit the belly okay? It's occupied at the moment in case you forgot."
"Of course I didn't, already put a barrier up over you to, you won't take any damage though so you'll need to get used to taking a hit after the birth. Okay that just felt wrong to say." With that I punched her in the head, cringing at the action. "Eve, you okay?"
"Yeah, I didn't feel a thing. Feel free to hit me. Yeah, I see what you mean."
As Eve mumbled Layaera swooped in with a round house kick, which I dodged with a yawn. "Ladies, I'm honestly getting a little offended and concerned. Think up a plan, then give it your all, you haven't the skill to do less than try to kill me."
Next up was Quatal and Babylon came at me with a flurry of attacks. "Hahaha, I know you're both young but this is child's play. Especially you little mortal."
"Dont treat me like a kid!" At her words I raised a hand and made her flinch, then grabbed, span and threw her into Quatal.
"Stop, this was stupid. I'm sorry but it's pointless, none of you have martial ability to challenge me and I just can't bring myself to hurt any of you."
"No, you're right. You weren't joking about that skill and you were limiting yourself to normal human levels, if not below average." Layaera admitted. "I see what Kriel means by technique. Why not just use physical enhancement on us?"
"Simple. Physical enhancement is great, except it stops your body from developing and that's why everyone but non-magic tradesmen are slight. I keep telling you, magic sucks if you use it as a crutch instead of in addition to."
With that I adjusted training, by which I mean I went and fetched Valo to train them, since she was a martial artist and also a woman who could fight them without the guilt factor.
"How will you train though?"
"I'm gonna go fight Crackers."
"You did not name that monster "Crackers" for real did you?"
I didn't answer, they knew I did, when I got to the cage though I realised something. The beast wasn't acting trapped or anything negative it was observing, watching and listening.
"Hello there Sil..." I laughed as I approached and it jerked its head toward me. "Sorry to tell you this, but you left your cards unattended and I peeked at your hand. Not to say I'm a hundred percent sure you can hear me right now, but if you are you should know." I stretched and then walked into the cage.
The beast eyed me cautiously, growling but holding back. "On our wedding day, I promised the origin, The white and The black, that nothing would tear Eve and I apart. Then you went and made me break a promise with your crystal toys that you left out for me to clean up. So I had to do something drastic, I made it so that if anything separates us I'll die." I then laughed and made the beast flinch, even as it trembled with fury.
"That's right, you separate Eve and I by any meaningful degree, that promise will be broken and I'll die. Kill her, I die, kidnap her I die, hell even if you simply changed who she was it might trigger it. Hahahaha. Sometimes I'm glad I don't think ahead with things like that, it means I never expected to have the perfect card to play either."
As I continued to laugh, the monkey half began pounding the ground and howling. "The best part though, my vows also included my children present and future, my friends and chosen family, this nation and its allies. Hahahahaha... Now stop. Don't be hasty you spiteful little psycho, stop and think things through. Do anything drastic, we drag the Origin Wyrms, who will all come just to keep my daughter's Auntie Kuronovus happy, The mountain, who represents the consciousness of the very earth and you die."
I sighed, genuinely, deeply. "Let's not throw toys out of prams, instead I want you to do what you do and scheme and plot. You might think up a way to restart the game if you stay hidden. Act rashly though and I'll destroy the game board. Oh and Sinfree, if you're there, I already told Kriel and your master that I'm going to kill you, carry a note with your will and I'll see it fulfilled."
With the one-sided chat and potential psychological warfare concluded I coated my body in dense divinity, enhanced my body to the max the punched out Crackers' core. I then healed the wound.
Without the enhanced core sustaining it Cracker's was left mostly powerless and without its elemental attributes. It shrank down becoming the same size as Quatal, standing at about five feet tall and its fur changed to an ordinary sky blue colour rather than the electric blue that produced its own glow.
'Eve, sorry to interrupt." I started via telepathy until she acknowledged. 'When I got here the beast was acting strangely, I think it was connected to Sil. Don't worry she shouldn't be able to get here, this dimension is still encompassed by The Black that makes up the night sky.'
'Okay, did you kill the monster?'
"No, I destroyed its Crackers' core and he shrunk down, he's surprisingly adorable like this. No challenge for me though. Your choice, I can enhance him enough to be the girls' training partner or I can enhance him enough to be the ladies' and yours. Either way, it will take about three days for him to evolve.'
'Gonna regret asking this, but why not your's?'
'I'm skilled enough quite frankly, I'm going to focus on divinity control and capacity.'
'Then prep him for the girls, the grown ups are a long way from facing Valo as equals already, then I'll ask Parcella. About the name though?'
'Oh no, sorry.... You're... Breaking up...' I sighed, then started work on the new core.
A work of art if I do say so myself. A triple layered fusible core, rather than just give it lightning like it had before I chose a layer of fire and wind, with enough black divine energy to flush whatever Sil would be left in its system out.
The beauty of this triple layered core is that it would be able to use fire and wind separately or combine them with its divinity as well, it would also learn how to condense fire and wind into raw lightning and reclaim a fraction of its old power in time.
I then spruced up the cage and left Crackers' to rest, putting an illusion barrier enchantment on the cage so it couldn't see or hear anything beyond the bars.