I gaze at the child who looks back at me curiously. Both of us are quiet before he turns and shouts for his mom. This snaps me out of my surprise and I half wonder if his mom is Gloria. A few moments later my question is answered when a woman with green hair steps out of the area past the nave and calls out to him.
"Henry, what are you doing-" She says as she looks at him only stopping when she sees me. I smile and wave. This woman is not Gloria. She's pretty and smiles at me curiously, but she's not Gloria.
"Hi there. The chapel is closed, I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience." She says, apologetically and I let out a quiet laugh.
"Uhh I'm actually here to say hi to Gloria. She's an old friend. My name is Lalo, I stayed here for a week a few years ago." I tell the woman and her eyes widen.
"Oh my, are you THE Lalo? Amara's champion?" She asks, and I flash her a winning smile before nodding. She immediately lets me in, and I shut the door behind me.
"I'm Gloria's sister in law, my name is Stella. She's in the kitchen, but come, come, she'll be ecstatic to see you." Stella tells me, and I step in after her. We walk to a familiar kitchen and Gloria, her back turned, begins to speak.
"Stella, who was at the door?" She is about to say more when she turns and spots me. She huffs in annoyance and turns back around, surprising both Stella and myself. Stella looks at me curiously and I shrug my shoulders, equally as mystified by this.
"Wow Gloria. Uh… What did I do?" I ask, and she straightens up as she responds.
"You didn't write me any letters and disappeared!" She replies, angrily. This confuses me, because I very decidedly did write her letters, but I never got any responses. I explain this to her and she looks at me curiously. She studies me, scrutinizes me, and I can feel her skepticism. The skepticism is sensible, but I am telling the truth and after a few moments she relents, acknowledging that if nothing else I believe my remarks.
"I see… That's strange." She admits, before telling me she waited for my letters. I can hear the truth in her words, and I can see it in the look of sadness in her eyes.
"That actually explains a lot," She tells me, with a smile. "I'm glad that you came back to visit." She admits as she begins to serve dinner. I recognize the food, it's a recipe I taught her.
"I feel bad about this but I don't think I have enough for anyone else." She says as she studies the portions. I laugh and tell her I ate already. This is something she doesn't believe, I can see the skepticism written on her face and in her eyes, but she doesn't question it. I get to watch her and her sister in law, and Henry, who they reveal to be Stella's son, eat, all while answering questions about my journey in this world. Henry and Stella eventually go to bed leaving Gloria and I alone.
I quietly, and telekinetically, clean the dishes that my friends, old and new alike, ate off of. Gloria watches me, quietly taking in the sight of me hard at work again. I sense a familiar smile, one I saw a lot of during my initial few days here, on her lips.
"I missed you, you know. I should have known you'd do big things, become a big shot, by the way you adapted so easily to being here." She tells me as I finish cleaning a plate. I laugh.
"Ah yes, such a big shot. I convinced Lauren Rodgers to donate a few more golden trumpets to the church than she did the week before." I remark, recalling a specific old lady that we tended to while I was working with Gloria. Golden trumpets are this kingdom's currency. It was such a silly name that the first time I heard it I actually laughed out loud. She laughs before doing an impression of the woman that is uncannily good.
"You should be a comedian," I tell her after I finish laughing. She flashes me a happy smile. For several minutes we relax and enjoy each other's company, reminded of the week we spent together almost a decade ago basically to the day. I have less then two days left in this world. In these kinds of moments it's nice to go back to the place the adventure began.
Gloria and I sit in her kitchen for hours and she eventually begins to get tired. When she does I take her to her room, scooping her up in my arms and walking to the space near where I once slept. I gently deposit her in bed and watch as she smiles at me. She flashes me a sleepy grin, and I let her rest, slipping back out of the room nearly invisibly before sitting down in the nave.
I allow the time to pass as I wonder where I'll be going next. The hours pass slowly as I reflect on my overall status.
In this world I collected a variety of "Tales". I stuck to Genesis' tale as my equipped one, due to my propensity to do things like make golems, but I familiarized myself with the stories of Amara and a variety of other gods. My ability to equip tales has recently gained a buff and upgraded such that I can use two, but I've had little reason to add a second tale to my active arsenal. Beyond that last year I gained the ability to create and maintain two simultaneous bits of Chameleon-created backstory that can amplify my skills.
My other abilities have improved as well, though in some cases to noticeably lesser degrees. I've become a better fighter and student, gaining buffs to my learning speed and lately seeing an enhancement to the power of my beams even if I use them against people of the same gender as me.
In terms of the goal I've made; becoming a desire entity, this jump has skyrocketed my progress towards that goal. I kept my harem relatively small this jump, but the essences that I have now, coupled with even my bardic abilities (nevermind the perks directly keyed to the adult essence jump) have pushed me in the direction I was seeking. There are now three distinctive classes of perks I need to get before I begin to make real moves in the direction I want to go in terms of vertical levels of power.
The first set of powers I should try to attain are the powers to give animals and other lifeforms humanoid forms. If I can get this power, through Generic Wizard, Generic Tamer, or some powerful magic jump that'd be really good. The second set of powers I should move to attain after that is the ability to give items a humanoid form. This power is even easier to grab, as a ton of places from A Wizard's Keychain to Generic Enchanter allow it.
The final set of powers, and easily the darkest of the abilities I should probably snag, if I sit down and think impartially is the power to specific people into minions that I can use my desire-based powers on. The lowest level of powers I can do this with is probably the dollmaker essence, which is… grim, but it's an incredibly useful power to have. A nice, final, ace in the hole to keep in one's backpocket against some of the evilest people imaginable and a way to gain powerful things given the way that Dollmaker interacts with powers. Dollmaker is also highly compatible with the powers I already have, like my reactor, as it'd allow me to doll a frightening number of people right away rather than having to train it up.
Of course, depending on the setting, Dollmaker may actually just be something on par with what's already lurking, waiting to be interacted with. I can think of a few NSFW settings where dollmaker is just an evolution of what already lurks out in the world… Such settings would be brutal to survive in for a decade though.
I'm also at the level of power where I could begin to go to non-generics, as I have a full, healthy slate of powers. I suppose a good combo would be a nice generic and non-generic that gives me something new.
Time passes as I consider possible combinations, particularly ones that would be useful in the long term. I enjoy the thought of gaining new ways to turn enemies into allies without murdering them, though my true undeath powers are quite nasty.
I momentarily wonder about something in the hours before dawn breaks and I try to use "Mixer" a little more creatively than I've done in the past. I shut my eyes and envision my hair-eyestalks, causing them to appear and for my vision to show me different angles from which I can peer at my surroundings. This is something I've done before and made pretty regular use of during my time in Generic Monster School but not used all that often during my time in this world. I move my hairstalk until it is angled such that I can see myself and then I mix my human base-form's arms with my current form, delighting me by causing me to sprout an additional pair of limbs beneath my current arms. I silently despawn them and then try to spawn them above my orcish arms. This works and amuses me, before I decide to try various other experiments.
I spend several minutes spawning legs in different places, spawning eyes, and eventually do the obvious thing for someone who aspires to be a desire entity; spawn a second manhood. I don't really have a thing for doing solo double-penetration but it's neat to see that it's an option. I could see it being fun in specific cases, but this is not a cloning power and I'd rather have one of those than this if I'm going to try something like double-penetration. This power could be really interesting when I get truly out there alt-forms, though having two pairs of arms is kind of cool even if they are mismatched.
My friends, old and new alike, wake up early in the morning and I slide into a familiar role. I get up and head to the kitchen, and begin to cook. This is the last full day, from start to finish, in this world. When this day comes to an end I'll have about 10 hours left here. My friends quickly and appreciatively eat a delicious meal and I get to hear Stella explain that she is here with her husband who works at the prison and typically spends nights there. I nod understanding what she's saying as I begin to finish off my own meal.
I accompany Gloria throughout her day and watch as some folks recognize me while others get to learn from Gloria or from their friends that I am Amara's champion. The reactions are amusing to me, and I take this opportunity to spread Amara's teachings, though I don't quite put my full heart into it. People are swayed, both by my celebrity status and by the real belief I have in what I say even if I'm not a zealot, and Gloria easily acquires more donations and promises to attend her next sermon. As the day begins to draw to a close my danger sense faintly goes off and I turn in the direction of the chapel, the source of the change in the music of the world. I'm not surprised when a guard over there spots us and begins to move towards the two of us.
"Lady Gloria, Champion of Amara, someone heard noises coming from the chapel and I was called to investigate. Is there someone staying with you?" He asks causing Gloria to snap to full attention, her eyes wide and alarmed as she tells the guard to accompany her. We dart over to the chapel, guard in tow, and find a window in one of the private rooms busted open, and I put my face to the floor. Everyone looks at me weirdly but when I pick up a scent and run after it, almost sprinting out a little-known side door of the building no one is complaining. I move in the direction of the scent, smelling Stella, suddenly keenly grateful for my admittedly sometimes unpleasant powers.
It takes me a moment to escape the confines of the town and begin to dart down the open plains that surround the settlement. I am following the smell of Stella and hoof prints left behind in the grass. Gloria and the guard mount horses and peel off after me as I make use of my bestial physiology. It takes the lot of us almost fifteen minutes for my friends to not be able to see their home in the distance, and in minutes I can see a hastily constructed camp far from any settlements.
I shout to alert my friend, and the guard with us, and my danger sense goes off just in time for me to see guards standing atop a wall that surrounds the camp. I let out a grim roar as I have to decide between whether or not to unleash my friends, the undead kind specifically, here. It only takes me a moment to decide that that's not the move in this instance, and so when bandit guards detect my speedy mass and begin to fire arrows at me I effortlessly deflect them with a telekinesis cone and charge through the walls they erected to keep someone like me out.
The walls shatter when I hurl myself through them, causing several figures to panic and shout. I immediately and instantly ice several of the men in the medium-sized but, against normal people, well-defended camp. Arrows thud into my back but I ignore them other than to outstretch a hand, flex it backwards, and fire off a series of disintegration rays in the direction of the shots.
I focus my nose and sniff the air, smelling Stella nearby and spotting a small tent-like attempt at creating a shelter on the far end of the camp. She's in there. I let out a grim laugh as the sound of hooves crashing against the grass of the plains begins to get closer.
"It's the champion! Take him down!" One of the distant bandit-like members of what might be the last enclave of the art-suppressors roars. I allow my hair to become monstrous eyestalks and focus one on him. He is immediately telekinetically pulled into the air and brought hurtling towards me. I turn my actual eyes on some of the bandits running to confront me and kill them with a single focused application of a death cone before the bandit who spoke reaches me. I pull him out of midair and snap his neck with a single monstrous blow. I then drop him as my friends reach the edge of the camp and dismount their horses.
Gloria's first move in the fight is significant, she spots bandits trying to rally behind me and with a fierce flick of her wrist causes a number of vines to streak forward, erupting from the ground, and tackling the bandits. The guard with us is no slouch either and charges forward fearlessly, fury blazing in his gaze as he draws a sword and begins to go blow for blow with bandits.
"Bandits! Kidnapping those people was a mistake." I roar, my voice filling with primal, orcish fury. As I am about to attack again a figure appears on the other side of the camp and levels a crossbow at me. He fires a single well-aimed arrow at me and smirks. I fire an even better aimed disintegration ray at it, which collides with the arrow and seems to ignite something in the arrow even as it falls apart. An explosion rocks the middle of the camp, obscuring my view of the place, and Gloria moves behind me. I hear the faint sounds of movement in the distance and two knives suddenly cut through the smoke. I tank them, allowing them to hit my thick orcish chest.
"Ha! Got him." A voice says through the chaos of the smoke. I ignore the knives and fire rays through the smoke, streaking in the direction of the sounds of laughter. A laugh is cut short as a man is turned to stone and someone cries out in surprise when they get hit by a paralysis ray.
"No, you didn't." I growl, purposefully projecting my voice to ensure my enemies can hear me. I hear footfalls race in the direction of the tent-like structure and I flex my fingers and fire a series of nearly invisible rays in the direction where the footfalls are moving. My beams slice through smoke, creating holes from which I can peer through and see what's behind the smoke. They also collide with more people, this time killing folks outright.
I telekinetically dismantle the tent and fling the materials used to make it in the direction of some of the last footfalls. Stella and her son are bound and gagged but unharmed in the area the rushed attempt at a tent was shielding from view.
I sprint over to them just in time to intercept the figure who fired an exploding arrow at me, he is partially covered in flung debris, and he growls as he closes his fists. I note that he has iron knuckledusters on right before his fists streak out towards me.
He lashes out at me, moving with striking speed and nailing me in the face more than once but I am a tank, and don't feel pain, so as he's focused on hitting me I use "Mixer" to generate a new arm jutting out of my stomach, armed with my orcish weapon and stab him with it. He spits blood but continues to lash out at me, striking me like a man possessed. I hit the man with a shifted conal ability and smack him with paralysis. Sword still in his chest, he falls; alive but paralyzed. I take a hand and put it over my head before healing myself using magic. After a few repeat casts of a simple, low-cost healing spell, I desummon my third hand and pull my sword out of the bandit's chest. Blood begins to leak out of him but he remains alive and paralyzed.
I distantly hear the sound of more chaos as Gloria continues to use plant magic to devastate this camp and the sound of sword-on-sword battle as the guard who came with us fights the last few bandits. They lack teamwork skills and so he skillfully puts them down even as I free Stella and her son. My natural healing factor kicks in as the combat comes to a close, with several bandits brutally impaled by magically manipulated earth or bludgeoned to death by powerful vines. Other bandits are turned to stone or simply lying dead due to death rays. Several bandits have had their throats slit by skillful sword strikes or have been cut so many times they've bled out.
I note the location of the camp on a map held by the guard, and guide all of us back home, carrying Henry on my back and holding Stella bridal-style. The rest of the day is spent with paperwork in the wake of the kidnapping attempt.
When everyone goes to bed they're all exhausted, which is completely reasonable. I thank the guard who helped us and give him a casual reward of a year's pay, as well as a blessing of good luck though he doesn't know about that one. Partway through the next morning my surroundings blur and kaleidoscope once more, and as they do I say a silent farewell to this world, curious as to where I'll go next and annoyed by the fact that a skilled foe attacked right at the end of the jump, disrupting my desire to rest peacefully with the first friend I made in this world.
A/N: I normally like to start with a preview of the next world BUT I'm actually not fully sure where we're going next. I've done several different builds for a range of settings and am trying to see where I think the next, best location would be. One way or another, the next chapter will be followed by a build post and by changing the title and all of that.