“So…what do we need to talk about?” Lia asked.
“You and Rose.” Amelia said. “It seems you finally decided to make things official.”
“We…did, yes.” Lia said warily.
“Congratulations.” Amelia replied. “Just…keep in mind that you’re not bound by society’s stuffy morals anymore.”
Lia blinked in surprise. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that monogamy is boring.” Amelia said. “And, if you want, you can keep your options open.”
“I…see.” Lia said. “I’ll do that, then.” She didn’t have any intentions of actually keeping her options open, but sometimes, in the moment, it was best to just go along with what Amelia said.
“Good. Now, before I send you to go talk with your family, I believe you have yet to check your Skills after your battle with Skarde. It would be prudent to do that now, so you know exactly what you’re capable of if things go south.”
Lia nodded. “Thanks for reminding me. Give me a sec and I’ll do that.” She had waved away the windows that she had received that battle in all of the excitement, so she had to open her Skills menu and check manually.
Since the last time she had checked, she had received quite a few upgrades, and not all of them were even related to the battle. The majority of those were rather boring; Analysis, Battle Commander, Blood Money, Dimensional Storage, Magic Multicast, Mental Magic Boost, Motion Blur, Rest, and Silent Steps had all jumped one or more levels, but only offered increases in efficiency or power, no new functionality.
Active Camouflage, Night Vision, Presence Detection, and Spiderclimb had all reached maximum level and were ready for evolution. She decided to hold off on evolving Active Camouflage, since there was apparently an evolution that would combine it, Motion Blur, and Silent steps, and combined evolutions were generally quite powerful, but the others were a bit more difficult.
First, there was Night Vision.
The following evolution options are available for Night Vision: Heat Vision: |
Enhanced Night Vision was tempting, but in the end, she decided to go for Heat Vision. It had a few downsides, most notably not being able to easily distinguish between different types of objects, but it provided her with an extra option for detecting things that she wouldn’t have otherwise.
Heat Vision |
Level 1: 0/1000 EXP |
Heat Vision allows the user to switch between two modes of vision. The first retains the base Night Vision functionality (150 meters of colored vision), while the second allows the user to expend Stamina to visibly see the temperatures of objects up to Night Vision’s range, providing a highly-effective means of spotting living beings that is not affected by standard invisibility. |
Up next was Presence Detection.
The following evolution options are available for Presence Detection: Smart Presence Detection: |
That one was pretty easy; the last few times she had tried to use Presence Detection, it always locked on to Rose or Bella, so she had given up on using it for anything but leveling itself up. So, she picked Smart Presence Detection.
Smart Presence Detection |
Level 1: 0/1000 EXP |
Allows the user to sense the presence of beings that meet a certain criteria within a range. |
Which left Spiderclimb.
The following evolution options are available for Spiderclimb: Air Stepper: |
That decision was quite a bit more difficult. Air Stepper sounded like the better option, but she was also expecting to get something similar from air magic, so there was a chance it ended up being redundant. It also cost “a hefty amount of Stamina”, so it wasn’t likely to be something she could spam, either. Cling Master, on the other hand, had no perceivable downsides, even if its effects were somewhat underwhelming.
Eventually, she decided to go with Air Stepper in the hopes that the Stamina cost wouldn’t be too prohibitive, and that it would evolve into something better.
Air Stepper |
Level 1: 0/1000 EXP |
Allows the user to stick to walls and ceilings with a 200% increase in grip strength, as well as create handholds and footholds in the air. |
And, to her surprise, both Swarm Progenitor and Humanoid Transformation had leveled up. Humanoid Transformation gave the rather simple benefit of allowing her to change her clothing when she transformed, and allowed her to change clothes whenever she wanted without incurring a time penalty.
And Swarm Progenitor provided a conversion manager that was much the same as its evolution manager; she could set a race as “low priority”, and, as long as she had looked at the conversion options for at least one member of that race, they would be automatically converted into foot soldiers, drones, and the like, provided there was both enough modeling wax, and something capable of making the conversion.
Finally, she had received one new Skill during her battle.
Hyperspeed Thought |
Level 1: 548/1500 EXP |
Hyperspeed thought allows the user to expend Stamina to drastically speed up their thoughts, effectively making the world appear to operate in slow motion. This does not make the user physically faster, however. |
“All done.” Lia said. “Thanks for reminding me.”
“No problem.” Amelia said. “How do you want to go about meeting your family?”
“What time is it over there?”
“Late.” Amelia replied. “Your siblings are currently getting ready for bed, and your father is at the bar. He should be back in about an hour, so if you want to deal with your siblings separately, now’s the time.”
Lia nodded. “Yes, let’s do that. Um…how are we going to keep the monster detectors from going off, though?”
Amelia waved a hand dismissively. “I’m just going to spoof your status. You’re only kind of a monster anyway, so enchantments like that will be easy to fool.”
“And the teleport jammer?”
“Literally child’s play. I’ve been teleporting around the city since I was five.”
“And no one noticed.” Lia said flatly.
“I just made it so my entrance is blocked from people’s minds until they can find a reasonable way I could have come in and then suddenly they think I did that. I’ll be doing the same with you, by the way, so don’t worry about that either.”
“You’re way too good at this.” Lia said, shaking her head in wonder.
“Well, I have lots of practice.” Amelia replied. “Where do you want me to drop you off?”
“The front door to my house, if you would. Give me a second, though, I want to change clothes.” Lia focused for a moment, and suddenly she found herself wearing her old favorite outfit, looking exactly as she had before she had died. “Alright. Send me down. Give me a copy of my key, too, just in case.”
“Good luck! Once you convince them, I’ll just teleport them back here for holding, until we can send you all back to the dungeon together.”
“Thanks, Amelia.”
Amelia waved, there was a lurching, and then Lia was on the steps in front of her house, a key in her hand. True to Amelia’s words, no alarms went off because of the presence of a monster, no one screamed because someone just teleported into the middle of the street, nothing.
Lia took a deep breath, then knocked on the door. There was some shuffling from inside, growing louder as someone approached the door, then…silence. There was a long silence, then, from inside, Lia heard someone shout.
“Maria, are you alright? Who is it?!”
That was…probably Robin, her brother. His voice was deeper than she remembered, but Amelia hadn’t mentioned anyone else being at her house, and the voice did sound like her dad’s, if slightly different, so…yeah, it had to be Robin.
She heard the sound of someone dashing away from the front door, and a cry of alarm from within. Lia sighed and tried the door handle, found it locked, unlocked it with her key, and stepped inside.
It was…much the same as it had been before, if ever so slightly different. The house was less tidy than she remembered it being, and there was the occasional item she didn’t remember, but other than that it was nearly identical to her memories.
She paused, hearing some muffled sniffling from back in the bedrooms, then made her way over. The sniffling came from what had been her old room, now likely repurposed to be someone else’s. The door was shut, so she knocked again. “I’m not going to hurt you.” She said. “I have good news, really! I know it’s hard to believe, but I’m back!”
“Go away, ghost!” Robin shouted. “People don’t come back from the dead!”
“I know, Robin.” Lia said. “But…things changed. Do you remember Amelia? She’s a Hero, and she spent these last years figuring out how to bring me back, and she did!”
“You’re lying!” Robin said. “We’re not going to fall for it! Just leave us alone!”
Lia sighed, and tried to open the door. Something had been thrown in front of it, however, and it wouldn’t budge. “Stand back.” She called. “I’m going to force this open, and I don’t want anyone getting hurt in the process.”
“W-what?!” Robin yelled.
“On the count of three. One…two…three!” Lia said, using earth magic to form a large rock, which she sent hurtling into the door. There was a crash, and the door broke off of its hinges, revealing her sisters huddling in terror on her old bed. In the space in front of where the door had been, a table had been pushed in an attempt to keep her out.
Robin was nowhere in sight, so he was obviously at the side of the door, ready to ambush her as soon as she stepped in. So, she activated Hyperspeed Thought and stepped inside. She heard a whoosh of movement from her left, and she turned and grabbed Robin’s wrist as he was in the process of bringing a steak knife down on her.
She hadn’t, however, been expecting his strength. She had always beat him in fights when they both were little, but he was going through puberty, and it showed. She struggled with him for a moment, but, eventually, overpowered him. Her Strength was likely higher than his, and he hadn’t yet completed puberty, so she was able to throw him onto the ground, forcing him to drop the knife.
She kicked the knife away, then pinned him down like she always used to. After a moment of struggle, she deactivated Hyperspeed Thought and gave Robin her customary poke to the nose, then got off. “I’m serious. I’m not going to hurt you.” She said. “It’s me!”
“Is it really?” Her youngest sister, Olivia, said.
“It-it can’t be!” Maria, the second-oldest in the family, said, tears in her eyes. “People don’t just come back!”
“I know.” Lia said. “But like I said, things are different. Amelia’s a Hero, and she figured it out. And…I got mom back, too. She’s still regaining her memories, but we can be together again!”
“Why should we believe you?!” Robin said. “Why shouldn’t we call for the guards right now?!”
“Because it’s true.” Lia said. “Maria, you must have noticed that things didn’t always…add up. That any time things started to look like you were going to be homeless or something really bad would happen, that it just…went away.”
Maria hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Did…you do that?”
Lia shook her head. “No, I was dead. Amelia did that, because she knew I was going to be coming back. She wanted to make sure my family was safe.”
“But…how are you and mom just supposed to come back?” Maria asked. “Everyone knows you’re dead!”
Lia sighed. “That’s…the issue.” She said. “We’re…not going to, not exactly. I’m…well, I’m going to be completely honest with you guys, I’m not humanoid anymore. I’m a sort of hybrid between a monster and a person, and mom is too.”
“But you…look normal, and the alarms didn’t go off!” Olivia protested.
“I look normal, but I’m not. I can only keep this form for three hours every day. And Amelia made it so I wouldn’t set off the alarms, which is why they’re not going off. My “true” form is…well, a fox. You’ll see it after we’re done here. Anyway…I’m going to be taking over the world. I’m the Queen of what we call the swarm.
“Eventually, everyone’s going to be like mom and I are, and I wanted to come to you guys first. I don’t want you guys to be used as hostages or even to fight against me, so…please, come with me. I promise I can bring you to a better life than the one you have right now, where all six of us can be happy and together again.”
“No, I–” Robin began, but he was cut off as Olivia spoke.
“I’ll do it.” She said in a small voice. “I’ll go with you.”
Their other siblings gasped. “Olivia, you can’t!” Robin said. “We can’t trust her!”
“But…but I want to.” She said. “I don’t like how things are. Ever since Lia died, things got really bad. I don’t care if it’s a trap, I just…I just want to see mom and Lia again.”
Lia spread her arms out. “Come here.” She said. “Let me snuggle you.”
Olivia attempted to wriggle out of Maria’s grasp, but Maria held firm. “I’m sorry, Olivia.” Maria said. “It’s too dangerous.”
Lia sighed. “I was afraid you’d say that.” She said. “But…if you’re not going to come willingly, I’m going to have to take you by force. Please don’t make me do that, I really don’t want to, but…it’s for your own good, really!”
Robin grit his teeth and lunged for the knife, but Lia was faster, snatching it away before he could reach it. She sighed again, and snapped her fingers, casting a quick spell that put him to sleep.
Lia looked back up at her sisters. “Please?” She asked. “I promise everything will work out. If…if I wanted to hurt you, I would have already, see?” She said, waving the knife before tossing it to the side.
Maria slumped. “I…guess we don’t have much of a choice, huh?”
“Sorry.” Lia said. “Amelia’s gonna take you three to a safe place while I deal with papa.”
“He’s going to be drunk, you know.” Maria said. “It’s not going to be pretty.”
“I can handle him.” Lia said. “I may look the same, but I’m a lot stronger than I used to be. You three just relax and let your big sister take care of it, alright?”
Olivia nodded shyly, and then the three kids were gone. I got them. Amelia’s voice rang out in Lia’s mind. And I managed to get your dad sent back to your place. He should be here in a couple of minutes.
Lia nodded, and made her way down to the living room to wait.
Beyond this is the full list of Skills and Titles Lia has, as taken directly from my documentation. It isn’t required reading for the story by any means, and is just here as a refresher for people who want that.
Skills (As this is straight up copy/pasted from my docs, and the values there are “as of the last time I touched this Skill”, and more for helping me estimate things than anything else, the EXP values given are not entirely accurate to what they are at this point. In “reality”, they are almost all going to be higher than this.):
A Cornered Rat |
Level 1: 0/1000 EXP |
Instills the need to fight and survive into a target. |
Active Camouflage |
Level 10: 0/0 EXP |
Helps the user stay hidden. |
Air Stepper |
Level 1: 0/1000 EXP |
Allows the user to stick to walls and ceilings with a 200% increase in grip strength, as well as create handholds and footholds in the air. |
Analysis |
Level 6: 350/800 EXP |
Helps the user draw conclusions on a situation. |
Battle Commander |
Level 5: 1000/3000 EXP |
Battle Commander provides bonuses to all friendly creatures within range while they are engaged in battle. |
Blood Money |
Level 6: 1100/2400 EXP |
When killing or converting an enemy, a portion of their life force is converted into currency to be used in the Dimension of Discounts. |
Dimension of Discounts |
Level 3: 0/600 EXP |
Opens a portal to the Dimension of Discounts, a store where the stored life force of enemies can be spent to buy items. |
Dimensional Search Engine |
Level 1: 430/500 EXP |
Allows the user to search through dimensions they create in order to find objects. |
Dimensional Storage |
Level 5: 800/3000 EXP |
Gives an extradimensional space to store items. |
Gnawing Hunger |
Level 2: 0/2000 EXP |
Induces overwhelming hunger in a target. |
Heat Vision |
Level 1: 0/1000 EXP |
Heat Vision allows the user to switch between two modes of vision. The first retains the base Night Vision functionality (150 meters of colored vision), while the second allows the user to expend Stamina to visibly see the temperatures of objects up to Night Vision’s range, providing a highly-effective means of spotting living beings that is not affected by standard invisibility. |
Humanoid Transformation |
Level 2: 0/2000 EXP |
Humanoid Transformation allows the user to transform into almost any humanoid they can think of, provided that humanoid follows the biological rules of the species it is pretending to be. |
Hyperspeed Thought |
Level 1: 548/1500 EXP |
Hyperspeed thought allows the user to expend Stamina to drastically speed up their thoughts, effectively making the world appear to operate in slow motion. This does not make the user physically faster, however. |
Magic Multicast |
Level 3: 1500/3000 EXP |
Magic Multicast allows the user to cast multiple spells near simultaneously. This is limited by the number of extra brains or processing centers the user has (currently 11), with more complicated spells using more brains or processing centers than simpler spells. |
Magic Multitarget (Mental) |
Level 3: 1305/3000 EXP |
Magic Multitarget (Mental) allows mental magic that targets a single creature or a number of specific creatures to target more creatures, up to the number of extra brains or processing centers the user has (currently 11). |
Mindspike |
Level 5: 0/1,200 EXP |
Allows you to apply psychic damage when you use magical effects that target an opponent’s mind. |
Mental Magic Boost |
Level 5: 300/2,400 EXP |
Increases the effectiveness of mental magic and Skills that involve mental magic. |
Motion Blur |
Level 6: 120/1400 EXP |
When the user is moving fast, blurs the user’s shape. This Skill may be activated or deactivated at will. |
Power Attack |
Level 5: 0/500 EXP |
You may perform a powerful strike for 10 Stamina. |
Prey’s Panic |
Level 1: 0/1000 EXP |
Induces the fear of being predated into a target. |
Rest |
Level 3: 0/300 EXP |
Increases your resource regeneration while you are asleep. |
Rubber Band Regeneration |
Level 3: 0/1500 EXP |
Rubber Band Regeneration increases your resource (HP/Mana/Stamina) regeneration based on how much of that resource you are missing. |
Silent Steps |
Level 9: 120/1800 EXP |
Muffles the user’s steps, allowing them to sneak easier. The passive effects of this Skill may be activated or deactivated at will. |
Smart Presence Detection |
Level 1: 0/1000 EXP |
Allows the user to sense the presence of beings that meet a certain criteria within a range. |
Swarm Progenitor |
Level 4: 3500/5000 EXP |
Swarm Progenitor provides the wielder all the required tools to run their very own swarm! |
Venomous Bite |
Level 4: 394/500 EXP |
Applies venom to your bite attacks. |
Titles (Note, some of these were only mentioned “on-camera” and not actually given a full window, but I have one for them anyway in my docs, so…here they are lol):
Conqueror of Death |
You have died and lived to tell the tale. Your life signature becomes undetectable by effects that only search for living or undead creatures, though you may still be sensed by effects that sense both. Provides immunity to instant-kill effects, and any blow that would bring you to 0 HP instead brings you to 1 if you had more than 1 HP. |
Ratbane |
You have slaughtered many rats in a short period of time. You deal 1.2x damage to all rat-like enemies. |
Enlightener |
You have managed to grant sapience to a non-sapient creature, qualifying it for a soul. All creatures you grant sapience will be considered as “high priority” for receiving souls, and will receive one the moment a new soul is available. Additionally, this title doubles the power of your light-based abilities and halves their cost. As a Special Title, the effects of Enlightener are always active. |
Favored of the Gods |
This Title marks one whose actions are approved of by the gods. This Title doubles all experience gain, but should at any point the holder knowingly do something frowned upon by the gods, this Title is removed. As a Special Title, the effects of Favored of the Gods are always active. |
Preservationist |
You have, through force of will, forced the system to make an exception for you and allow you to keep race-specific benefits after evolution. As a Special Title, the effects of Preservationist are always active. |
One Monster in a Trench Coat |
This Title marks a monster that has successfully managed to pass itself off as a sapient being. This Title increases Mental Fortitude by a moderate amount. |
Foxbane |
You have killed many fox-type monsters in a short period of time. You deal 1.2x damage to all fox-like monsters. |
Money Monster |
This Title marks a monster that negotiated using coin. This Title increases Mental Fortitude by a moderate amount. |
Pious Monster |
This Title marks a monster that has formally worshiped the gods. This Title increases Mental Fortitude by a large amount. |
The Negotiator |
This Title marks a monster that has used means other than violence or fleeing to extract itself from a situation. This Title increases Mental Fortitude by a moderate amount. |
I feel bad for Amelia, she's trying to compromise so Lia will accept her as well, but it's not working out.
Kinda the same. Like Amelia is definitely somewhat obsessive but from what has been seen so far she doesn't to have gone off the deep end yet. More....messing around in the shallows it seems like. So hopefully things do work out for her in the end. With either lia eventually going poly and accepting Amelia's feelings or her finding someone else who does actually reciprocate them.
@therandompers Gonna be honest? The way this is all set up I don’t think Lia is going to be able to say no. Now Amelia isn’t going to force anything but I’d bet she has some kind of racial scheme in mind like pheromones to get Lias attention. While she’s left a LOT up to chance this is just a step below resurrecting her love so I imagine she’s got several dozen contingency’s
If you look at this chapter from the other side, then it would be a typical horror story.
well if robin is joining the swarm she will only have sisters and her dad will become a mother..........3 sisters 2 moms yeah?
Ohh, so thats the naming sheme
The whole world is going to be female and they are going to hate it. Oh, they can't because that everlasting loyalty. Imagine terror you would feel when you are scooped down in city which is under siege by the swarm and you know what fate awaits you when city falls. Fait worse than normal slavery. Lia surely is Demon Lord here. Just makes me wonder does hero appear to stop her at someday.
@RavenWolf She's literally the creation of the Hero and is endorsed by the Gods, your argument is invalid.
@DemonLordShadowheart
That assumes administrators and gods and heroes are by definition good, but that's impossible as good and evil are by definition subjective not objective. There's no question that the loss of independence and free will are viewed as horrific outcomes to a great number of people. If not most people. The argument is not invalid at all.
However as the administrator of her universe endorses Lia, the only possible 'hero' that might show up to stop her in the 'post game' would have to come from a different universe with a different administrator. So it is unlikely to be a possibility unless Lia attempts to conquer other universes. Something that would certainly lead to multiple universes teaming up against her to prevent Lia becoming THE god of everything.