For the second time in as many days, Lilith was lying down on a bed while Kali prepared to make the new Parallel. There were a couple of differences this time; everyone, save for her parents, Kirdin, Judy, Raphael, and Alex were absent, and Kali had, for some reason, shown up wearing a stereotypical surgeon’s outfit, complete with long blue gloves and a mask.

When asked, she had just said that she thought it would lighten the mood. Lilith wasn’t sure why Kali thought the mood needed to be lightened, but she had to admit that it worked. She was distracted enough that she only barely thought about what she had chosen to do, instead of feeling nervous about it like she had with Eve.

“Please count down from 10.” Kali said, having finished whatever her preparations were.

“10…”

---

The unnamed Parallel mentally yawned as her consciousness winked into existence. Morning, everyone. She said, looking through Lilith’s eyes at the assembled people. She was relieved to notice that she properly recognized everyone there. It hadn’t occurred to her previously that there was the possibility of there being an issue with her memory upon creation, but she was glad to see that wasn’t the case.

But just like she hadn’t thought about that issue, she was sure there were many others she also hadn’t thought of. And, to fix that, she needed to survey everything, which required her to extract herself from the situation at hand.

You can call me Nuwa. She told everyone. I’m going to be in the dungeon core from now on, working on getting everything here up to snuff. If you need me, just ask. I’m sure at some point I’ll get the capability to see everything that’s going on in the dungeon, but until then just contact me via telepathy.

And before anyone had a chance to say anything, she sent herself into the dungeon core avatar, choosing it as her main body and creating another avatar now that the slot had been freed up. She piloted that into Kali’s house, parking it on the bed and returning back to her own body.

Mae, when things have settled down, let Kali know that I’ve left the spare avatar on her bed and ask her to find a place for it in her house. It’ll be safest there.

Got it.

With that settled, she began to look over the dungeon’s current state of affairs. Or, she would have, had Lilith not interrupted her.

Um, hey, I think you might need a little more introduction than that. There are a couple of questions people have and you’re not exactly hooked up to everything yet.

Nuwa gave an internal sigh, but acquiesced. Orders were orders, after all. I’m back. You guys needed something?

“Is our training going to be affected at all?” Kirdin asked, a worried expression on his face.

Shouldn’t be. I’ll try to keep any modifications made to the training areas to times when people aren’t using them.

“And, when you say see everything going on in the dungeon, do you mean…everything, at the same time? Because I think people might want some…alone time.” Jessica asked, blushing.

“I can answer that!” Kali chirped. “I thought that something like this might come up, so I made sure there would be a way to exclude areas from dungeon sight unless something important happens in there. You’re fine.”

I’ll make sure everyone’s private rooms are excluded. Nuwa assured them. Anything else?

“Do we have to worry about waking you up in the night or anything?” Alex asked, “I wouldn’t want to accidentally do that just because I’m not used to you being able to see and hear everything in here.”

Will I even need to sleep? Nuwa asked Kali.

“You won’t require sleep but you’re capable of it.” Kali informed, “You might feel tired at times, but that should be all mental fatigue. Feel free to take a nap, though, it’ll probably help, and it will disable your dungeon senses unless something important happens, much like with the thing I mentioned earlier.”

What qualifies as important?

“You set the criteria for that. It’s a pretty flexible tool, so give it a look once you unlock it.”

I’ll make sure to do that. Any other questions? I’ve got work to do, so please speak up now if you have any, I would prefer not to be interrupted soon after starting.

There was an awkward pause while everyone thought about that. Eventually, Mike spoke up. “You sure you don’t want to wait a bit before jumping into work? Just while you say hi and formally introduce yourself to everyone?”

If she was the sole pilot of the body, she would have shaken her head. No, that can wait. I’d prefer to get this place into some semblance of a working order now, so it can start gaining resources by itself. Once that’s done, I can come officially say hi.

“Um, alright, I guess.” Mike responded.

Would it be alright if I waited to hook you up into our senses until you have full dungeon sight? That might require some extra tinkering and I don’t want to put effort into it when I’ll have to redo everything anyway. Mae asked.

Yeah, that’s fine. It’d just be a distraction anyway. Now, any more questions? Going once…going twice…alright, I’m out of here. See you all once this place isn’t so poorly managed. And with that she went back to her own body and actually began to look over the state of the dungeon.

It was even more of a mess than she was expecting. She hadn’t really given any cohesive thought to anything when adding features to the dungeon, and the result was a mishmash of things that only sometimes worked together properly.

So, with an inner sigh, she began her work.

---

Jessica gripped her spouses’ hands tightly, emotions a turbulent mix of excitement and apprehension. She had said yes to Siph’s proposal last night, and while she was confident then, she was less confident now that the time had come. She was, in a sense, discarding her humanity. That was a big leap, but…it was for the best. What kind of mother would she be if she couldn’t even begin to help keep her daughter safe? What kind of wife was she if she was unable to truly understand her wife?

And she had to admit that a part of her was really looking forward to this. The past couple of months had been a dream come true for her; she was finally able to prove the existence of something more to her husband, and then explore it together with him. And when Siph had come along, things had just got even better. Now, she was diving further into the supernatural and drawing closer to her spouses at the same time. It was everything she could have wished for and much, much more.

Those thoughts helped keep the anxiety at bay. She gave Mike’s hand a reassuring squeeze, leaning over and giving him a peck on the cheek. “It’ll be fine.” She told him, smiling slightly to try and appear confident. “They said it’ll be a month tops before we learn humanization. As long as we work hard, we can be back to these forms in no time.”

“I know…it just feels weird, you know? Like I’ll be…different after this, but not in a normal way.”

Jessica squeezed his hand again. “Lilith went through an even bigger change and she’s still the same as ever. It’s just your nerves talking.”

Siph hugged the both of them tightly. “As much as it pains me to admit it, it makes me really happy that the two of you are willing to do this. I have so many things I want to do with you now that you guys will have bodies capable of doing them. Not that I haven’t enjoyed the past few months more than I ever dreamed possible, I just…”

Mike pulled her a little closer. “Don’t worry, we understand. We’re excited to try things with you too.”

The hug lasted a moment longer before Carmen cleared her throat and the three separated. “Do you have any requests as to what type of dragon you want to be? Mama’s acidic, but that doesn’t mean you two have to be.”

“I’ve always liked the snow, so is there some sort of ice option?” Jessica asked.

“Yeah, I can handle that. Dad?”

“Um…if I say earth or ground would I still get wings?”

Carmen laughed. “Yes, you will. I take it that’s what you want?”

Mike nodded. “Yeah.”

Carmen motioned to the large empty space in the middle of the room. “Whoever’s first, please step up.”

Jessica looked to her husband. “I’m fine going first or second.”

“I think I’ll find it easier if you go first.”

“If you want, I could put you both to sleep right now, and wake you up when it’s done.” Carmen offered. “It would be quick and easy, and you wouldn’t have to worry about waiting.”

“That sounds nice.” Mike said.

“Agreed.”

Carmen snapped her fingers, and everything went black.

---

When she awoke, she felt better than she had in years. Her body responded just a touch faster and moved like it weighed almost nothing. There were none of the residual aches or pains she had grown used to ignoring, and she felt like she had enough energy to run for miles. She stretched her legs and yawned, a small puff of cold air escaping her jaws. She stood, giving her wings room to air out and enjoying the breeze they caused.

And it was around then that she remembered what had just happened. There was a moment of surprise as she realized that she was able to move like she’d been born in this body, but that was quickly written off as just a perk of Carmen’s magic. She twisted her head and gave her new body a look; she was just slightly smaller than Siph’s dragon form and covered in beautiful white scales that twinkled in the light, much like fresh snow did.

Shuffling to her side drew her attention, and she glanced over to see a handsome brown dragon looking her over. He was, if she had to estimate, barely larger than Siph’s dragon form, and his scales had a luster to them that reminded her of polished rock.

There was a cracking sound as a drop of ice hit the floor, and she realized a moment too late that she had started drooling at the sight of him. Her mind was racing, thinking of all the new avenues that this opened up for their night life, but she forcibly stopped herself. She couldn’t pounce on him yet – her daughter was here, and she had work to get to. They could have fun times after the day was over.

“You two look great.” Siph breathed, entering the room from a dragon-sized door behind them. She was already in her dragon form and was followed by Kirdin, also in his dragon form. Jessica wasn’t exactly sure how, but even ignoring the two’s size difference, she was easily able to tell them apart. Was it the face, or the slight color difference with their scales or…?

She was interrupted by Kirdin letting loose a happy laugh. “Nice work, Carmen. Alright, you two come with me, I told Carmen we’d get you to learn humanization before the month was through and I intend to stick to my word. That means we’re going to have a bit of a boot camp to get you up to snuff, so there’s no time to waste!”

He turned and marched back through the door, not giving them any time to react.

Carmen, looking much smaller than Jessica expected, motioned for them to follow him. “It’s best you get started. Nuwa’s whipped up some training areas on the surface, and the faster you get used to your new bodies, the better. You’re kinda freezing the area around you, mom.”

She hadn’t even noticed, but Carmen was right. Frost was forming on any surfaces near her, including Carmen’s clothes. If she was capable of it, she was sure she’d be blushing, but fortunately it didn’t look like dragons could blush. “Sorry, sweetie. I’ll get it under control.”

Carmen gave a dismissive wave. “Need I remind you that I’m more resistant to cold than you are? If it doesn’t bother you, there’s no way it could bother me. I can just change clothes as soon as we’re done.”

“I’m not…doing anything, right?” Mike asked nervously.

Carmen laughed. “You’re fine. But, seriously, you better hurry if you want to catch up to grandpa. He’ll probably give you a mouthful if you’re late.”

---

Elenoa hummed happily as she put the sword away in Baern’s workshop. She had just finished the final test, and it was exceeding her expectations. After all the feedback Winston had given her, the thing had been able to make him pass out after just a couple of nicks, so the new girl certainly wouldn’t be able to stand up to it.

The whole multiple bodies thing would be troublesome, but Elenoa was confident there would be a way around that. Winston could probably temporarily sever their connection, and then once the main body was alone, that was it. All she’d have to do was get a couple of grazes in and she’d have free reign to deliver a coup de grâce.

She would have to array enough sufficiently powerful subordinates to make Lilith waste those…command things, but that wasn’t a problem. The girl likely only knew how to brute-force her way past things and given some time Elenoa would be able to procure some people who wouldn’t go down so easily.

The main issue was the unknowns about her abilities. She had asked Tunem to present all knowledge of her abilities to the Council, but he was constantly giving some excuse as to why he couldn’t do that. First it was that she seemed immune to normal methods to check someone’s Skills, and then it was that it would take time to compile records on what she had while she attended his little school.

That was fine. He couldn’t stall forever, and she was sure that with a few promises, likely to about that child of his, he’d come around. If they couldn’t figure out a workaround to her “immunity” then they’d just have to leave room in the plan for unknowns. If she had to, she could probably get Isa to help, though that might require giving the woman concessions she didn’t really want to give.

And Baern had already begun to get started on another tank. He gave an estimation of about two months for each if he worked on them on the side. Surely with two Perfect Chimeras, four or five tanks, and whatever other assorted forces Elenoa could find, Lilith wouldn’t be able to do anything. If she intended to lord herself over everyone using brute force, Elenoa would just have to teach her why that would never work.

The door opened and a servant came in, walking over to Baern and whispering something to him.

Baern’s face hardened. “We’ve got company.” He said, “I might be needing your help if this goes sour.”

Elenoa frowned. While Baern had been focusing his efforts on making things lately, he was still an incredibly competent warrior. “Who’s here?”

“Titania herself.”

Elenoa’s frown deepened. That never meant anything good. The queen of the faeries didn’t just drop by for a visit, and she was particularly difficult to work with. Elenoa and Baern made their way down to the guest room, where they were greeted by the sight of a beautiful woman lounging on one of the couches, drinking what appeared to be tea.

She set down her cup and gave the two a radiant smile. “Thank you ever so much for allowing me into your abode. How has your day been? Made any great strides in technology lately?”

Elenoa crossed her arms. “Enough with the fake friendliness.” She said, “What do you know and, more importantly, what do you want?”

Titania laughed and crossed her legs, leaning forward and adopting a more businesslike posture. “I do have to keep up appearances, but it is nice to let my guard down around…kindred spirits.”

Baern frowned and opened his mouth, but Elenoa silenced him with a wave of her hand. He was never very good with diplomacy, and Titania was clearly trying to get at something. “I’m afraid I don’t quite understand what you mean.” Elenoa replied, putting on her best poker face. “It flatters me to hear that you think we are similar, but I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve the honor.” It hurt to debase herself like that, but that sort of speech was necessary when dealing with Titania. Even if Titania probably knew that it was only lip service, it still never hurt to butter her up.

“Well, it would seem that word of leaps in technology spreads fast. Why, I do believe that most people in power have received a report on the clinical trials of some of the cutting edge tools being developed here.”

Elenoa grit her teeth. She was hoping the airhead and her little minion would have been too busy to pay attention to her over the last while, but it would appear that her hopes were in vain. It didn’t matter too much, though; the fact still remained that the weapon would decimate either of the two in a confrontation, and there was little they could do about it, as protected as it was. She still didn’t fully buy this “administrator” nonsense, and she had yet to be completely proven wrong.

Yes, it was a fact that the nature of the world had changed, but that didn’t mean that the airhead couldn’t have found out about it somehow and made plans for the change. That felt far more likely than her being some sort of a god. What self-respecting deity would allow themselves to be any less than the highest authority in whatever circles they moved in? Why bother with all the subtlety of taking a position on the Council? Why not just enact the changes right away and force everyone to fall in line using divine power?

But she was getting distracted from the topic at hand. “It appears that there are eyes everywhere.” She said, carefully watching Titania’s response.

Titania nodded. “Why, I myself have been feeling like I’m being constantly watched, lately. Might I ask if Baern has been experiencing a similar phenomenon?”

Elenoa silenced him again. “I have checked and he, fortunately, has not. I might not be able to rid myself of the sensation, but I am reasonably confident that he has no such issue.”

“Wonderful.” Titania said, smiling darkly. “Why don’t I have him meet with one of my subordinates? I’m sure there’s a lot we could help each other with. I think that we’ve been dealing with a rather similar pest problem, and my understanding is that you’ve made a rather powerful pesticide. I believe I might be able to help see that it is safely deployed.”

Elenoa gave a smile back. “A wonderful idea. Let’s set something up, shall we?”