I woke up to the smell of sweet, sweet breakfast and realized just how famished I was. I eyed the heavenly goodness laid out on a neat little cloth on the ground before me, already picturing how good they must taste.
"Good morning, sleepyhead," Vespera purred in my ear.
I smiled at her. We weren't actively sharing senses and memories anymore, each back to their own mind for the time being. I also noticed that she and Elyra had cleaned up and that Zery was still missing.
Elyra, my little angel, followed my gaze and shrugged. "She has not shown up yet," she said as she sat near me and began to eat what looked like a really tasty cinnamon roll. "I am sure she will, however. No matter what a certain troublemaker demon says."
Vespera also took position but rather than sitting near me, she sat opposite me. I wondered why, but then noticed the smirk on her face as she parted her legs slowly. My jaw went slightly slack when I saw that she wasn't wearing anything down there.
"Eyes up, spacer boy," she said. Then, as if nothing was wrong, she asked Calyx to join in next to her and pass her something that really looked like butter but was actually made out of the tree's sap.
I gulped, and pretended all was right.
"For the record," the demon said. "Which, by the way, is an expression that makes no sense. What record are we talking about?"
Elyra frowned as she thought about it despite her best attempt not to. Even though she knew Vespera was only spewing nonsense, she couldn't help it! "I suppose our memories are a sort of record, given that we can freely browse each other's recollection of events when we leverage the bond," she said.
Vespera looked shocked. "Wow, it's actually not a bad explanation," she said. "And you look super cute when you're all lost in thought."
The angel in question blushed and looked away. "What were you saying, before you derailed the conversation?"
"Ah yes, I was saying that for the record, I never claimed that Zery won't be back. I'm just saying we don't know how long her disappearances are."
"I am simply confident she will be back soon," Elyra said. "I cannot explain it, though."
"Are you…" Vespera said theatrically. "Trusting a gut feeling? Oh my oh my! What a twist! That's sooo unscientific of you!"
"Shutuuuup," the angel whined. "Stop!"
I smiled. We were sharing a nice breakfast together, teasing each other and having fun. Even Calyx looked more at ease than he ever did around us, especially if we took into account the recent events concerning him and the tree. Moments like these really made everything worth it. The risks, the close calls, the pain and the suffering, and the effort. It made everything worth it.
After breakfast, we tried to experiment with merging our magics. As predicted, it was anything but easy. At a certain point, we realized that using [Aspect Manifestation] helped smooth out the process, acting a little bit like a crutch, but even with it the task was nothing short of monumental.
Replicating what we did while emotional and in the heat of the moment was nigh impossible. After several hours and many, many curses (most of which were from Vespera), we managed to merge the magics for a whopping half a second before the whole thing blew up in our faces.
We didn't get hurt, but the already wrecked lab got another good pounding and the machines weren't looking good at all.
We paid them less than zero mind, however, because the System had something to say about our success.
Class Skill level up!
[Aspect Manifestation] 1 → 2
Your bond deepens.
Class level up!
[Bound to the Fallen] Level 5 → 6
+30 Vit, +25 Str
+1 Class skill point.
Insufficient Energy.
We looked at each other. Then at the core at the far side of the room.
"Go!" Vespera yelled, pushing me to my feet. "Now! We don't have any other source of energy!"
I scrambled towards the core and put a hand against it. I prompted the System, which immediately accepted the new source of energy and drew from the massive demonic core, making it dim noticeably.
1 Class Skill point available.
[Bound to the Fallen] Class Skills available:
Rejection of Fate
Anchor of the Mundane
Orbital Strike
"Aaaand we are back to this," the demon said with an overexaggerated sigh. "Once again, Sol and I have to be all grown-ups and give up the orbital strike."
"In exchange for a life saving ability?" Elyra grumbled, even though she knew that Vespera was being childish on purpose. "I would say yes, would you not?"
"Of course, it's a no-brainer," the demon said with a shrug. "I don't have to like it, though. I like smart people, you see, not no-brains. That's why I'm with you and Sol."
She flicked her tongue at us as I made the selection. And, just like that, the skill was back in my status. It might have felt like a waste but, I literally cheated death. And let me tell you, even though I don't remember how it went the first time around because I was asleep, I know for a fact I didn't like dying.
"You better," Elyra said, looking at the floor. "I am going to kill you if you die."
"Totally," Vespera said. "And I'm going to resurrect you and kill you again. You hear us? You can't die. Forbidden verboten."
"Ver-what?" I asked, stunned. What they said was very cute, but the last word took me for a spin.
"I think it's an old demonic language?"
"I think it is German," Elyra deadpanned.
Vespera laughed. "That's the same thing, sweetie."
"How do you even know about German?" I asked.
Neither of the two had a satisfying answer to that. Before, they could chalk up anything strange to either their old memories or my memories, but I never learned German after the language was officially deprecated in, what, 2300 or something, for being too clunky.
"Problem for another day," the demon declared. "Right now, I'm curious about your status. We gained two levels rather quickly, did we not? Let's see what we got!"
I opened the status for all to see. The only two stats that got significant boosts were, of course, Strength and Vitality, which reached 140 and 175 respectively.
"Crazy numbers," the demon said.
Even though we had nothing to compare them to, they really did seem crazy. We saw people in the city and workers roaming around, and had tried to observe them. While it was hard to quantify magic, the same couldn't be said for physical stats. I mean, seeing someone leap over a boulder or destroy a monster with a single swing gives some rather telling information and, while we saw some interesting feats of superhuman strength, they were still within the realm of… very strong, or very fast, or very tough.
Me? Two levels ago, I was already stronger and then most we had seen. Not faster, but definitely stronger than the common rabble. And most workers around Perseverance's End were common rabble, low E-ranks like me. The stronger workers, what few of them we saw, went further out because they had less issues running back or hiding in case of tides.
Anyway, now that I leveled up we'd have to test things.
"Later," Elyra said.
Vespera looked at her with a scowl. "Whaddya mean later? Don't you want to see Sol shirtless doing squats with a huge boulder on his back? 'Cause I do!"
"I want to try merging our magics again, now that the bond has deepened and [Aspect Manifestation] has leveled up. Do you not?"
The demon sighed. "Alas, the angel is always infuriatingly reasonable."
We sat down and tried again. It wasn't easy by any means, but we were all surprised to learn that it was indeed easier than before.
We held hands, closed our eyes, and felt the resonance of each other's magic. We didn't even need to step into the deeper states of the bond before something happened, and grey fire enveloped me. [Aspect Manifestation] was already active, but the level up had changed nothing about it at first glance.
The skill flared, and the fire became a brilliant silver. Now something was different. Not only the silver color. Specks of black, red, azure and gold appeared in the flames, small and barely noticeable, but definitely there. The fire licked the horns I had chosen to manifest, coating them and changing them from the stubby short nubs I had to long, curled and complex horns worthy of a powerful demon.
Vespera ooh'd in awe, but the changes did not stop. The fire morphed, moving like a viscous liquid, forming two sets of wings and a tail.
"N-nephilim," Elyra muttered, as shocked and awed as Vespera.
But even this was not the end. The fire flickered, clearly losing power, but still tried to make more features. They were blurry and unfocused, impossible to tell what they were supposed to look like, but they were there and they covered every part of my body, creating new limbs and appendages, more than I could count.
Then the whole thing collapsed, and the fire returned to its original dull grey before evaporating into thin air.
Class Skill level up!
[Aspect Manifestation] 2 → 3
"Sol I…" the demon began.
"…we have no words, Sol, our love," Elyra finished.
"I do," I said, grinning. "This is fucking awesome! And the looks on your faces!"
They smiled warmly at me. "It was a sight to behold," Vespera said softly. "It really was."
Elyra nodded her agreement. "I do hope to see it again, Sol. I know it is not easy and it will require a lot of trial and error, but—"
"I want it too," I said. "Hells and heavens, if I could snap my fingers and transform into a Nephilim right now I'd do it without hesitation. For you."
"Heh," the demon chuckled, but I saw that her cheeks were flushed. "We love you as you are, silly."
"We do not want you to change for our sake, Sol," Elyra added.
"Well," I shrugged. "It would be hot and exciting, though, wouldn't it? And suppose it's reversible? Maybe a state I can choose to be in if we merge magics and use the skill? I mean, why not?"
Vespera was licking her lips without even noticing. "Why not indeed…" she muttered, thoughts clearly very much in the gutter. She was so loud in her thinking that Elyra was blushing, and even I was feeling some of the heat.
Why not indeed… I thought to myself. Why not indeed.
◈◈◈
Status: Sol Nightguard
General Level 6
[Bound to the Fallen] Level 6
Str: 140
Dex: 15
Vit: 175
Int: 15
Wis: 15
General Skills:
[Matter Reclamation] 3
[Heavy Load Bearing] 2
[Navigational Ping] 2
Class Skills:
[Resonance Castling] 1
[Paradoxical Mending] 1
[Triumvirate's Armory] 1
[Aspect Manifestation] 3
[Rejection of Fate] 1