“We’re helping too.” Mike said, glancing down at everyone else. All of the adults had gathered for a strategy meeting, and they looked so…small. He wasn’t quite used to his new stature yet, but this meeting was just solidifying his reasons for accepting the transformation.

“That’s right.” Jessica agreed. “We’re not powerless anymore.”

“Absolutely not.” Siph said forcefully, putting a hand on one of Mike’s front legs. “You’re still new to your bodies, and you’re overestimating your strength because you’ve never had any real fights. You’ll be more a hinderance than a help. Furthermore, I doubt we’ll be fighting an army, we’re most likely going to be contending with a small group of the best of the best. I saw Winston fight once, you wouldn’t last a minute. I wouldn’t last a minute. His raw specs are higher than ours, so the only one that could reasonably brute force him is Lilith.”

Kirdin nodded. “And if our hunch is right and Titania is going to somehow use this opportunity Elenoa’s made for her, that’s another person you really can’t deal with.”

“The idea is that we hopefully won’t have to fight Winston.” Carmen interjected. “He is being mind controlled, and if he runs into Lilith or I we can just wipe that away, and he’ll probably stop attacking, right?”

“That’s right.” Kali said. “When he isn’t under the spell, he doesn’t exactly agree with the way Elenoa’s doing things right now. He wants out and is counting on Lilith to help. I can’t guarantee that he won’t be knocked out by the backlash of such a long-running, deeply imbedded contract being broken, but at the least he won’t be an issue if Lilith and Carmen have a couple of seconds to concentrate on breaking his contract.”

“But we can’t be sure that we’d be able to do that before he could do damage to any of you.” Lilith said soothingly. “Sorry, this really isn’t something that anyone else is equipped to handle. Only other Perfect Chimeras really have a shot without extensively planning an ambush, huge numbers, or something else to even the odds and we don’t have the luxury of any of those.”

If you guys were willing to stay in the dungeon and constantly convert your Mana to DP, then I could do something about the numbers. Nuwa said. The other Parallels, she added, almost as an afterthought, not the rest of you. The rest of you are basically doing that anyway.

Mike hadn’t spent much time with this new facet of his daughter. He was still grappling with the whole “Perfect Chimera” thing and “my son is now my daughter” bit, and even if Familial Bond had made the transition easy for that last part, he hadn’t quite come to terms with the first.

It really wasn’t easy remembering that his daughter was now some near-mythical creature that could likely slaughter everyone present with a thought. Even if her appearance was different, her personality had remained the same as it had ever been, so his thinking kept settling back into the “she’s my daughter and it’s my job to protect her” mode he had always had. Well, it had been his son, earlier in Lilith’s life, but that wasn’t the point.

The point was that his daughter was changing rapidly as a person (as people?) and he wasn’t sure how to handle that. He longed to just step in and pull her out of this situation that she had been thrust into through no fault of her own, but he couldn’t. So, the best he could do, at least until his wife and father-in-law had deemed him ready, was to give advice.

“She makes a point.” He told Lilith. “I’m not exactly sure how the whole dungeon thing works, but if you can make disposable backup then you should go for it.”

“I can’t do that, dad. I can’t respond to any intimidation or my position is ruined. I have to go about business as normal.”

He sighed. “I know, but I would still feel better if you did. At the very least, can you put that Mana to work while you’re here?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I can.”

“Look, all that’s not really the problem here.” Vithi said. “The problem is that sword of hers. You all saw what it did to Winston, if she gets nicked by that the fight’s over. All the Parallels go poof, her combat abilities are greatly reduced, and she’s probably going to be knocked out. And if anyone else gets hit by it, the same applies. Anyone with a material weakness is going to be badly injured, and even if you don’t have one it’s probably going to cut just as well as a regular sword.”

Right, that. Kali had shown them all the video that had been sent when Winston had been hit by the sword, and it hadn’t been pretty. “She can just disable any of the sword’s wielders with a Geas, right?” He asked, “Make them throw it away or give it to her or something.”

“Yeah, but that’s gotta be plan B.” Kali replied. “They know about that trick, so they’re for sure going to try and waste her usages of it. It works as a contingency, but even with the experience she’s gained in it since the Shift, she can only use it four times a day. To add to that problem, it drains her resources, and she’s only got enough Worship for one or two fight-enders. The rest would have to come straight out of her HP. She’ll probably have to burn at least one of those shots on getting Winston to hold still long enough to free him, and possibly more depending on what else Elenoa’s lined up.”

Kali pulled Lilith closer to her. “On the bright side, the blade isn’t quite as effective on Lilith as Elenoa wants to believe. Don’t get me wrong, it’ll still do a lot of damage and maybe knock her out, but it won’t do anything to the Parallels. Those abilities are mostly eldritch in nature, and that blade really only works on “normal” magic. So, even if she does die, she’ll just be shunted to another avatar, and so long as not all of the avatars are sent away from here, there’s basically nothing Elenoa could do to permanently get rid of Lilith. Even if she did kill all the avatars, Lilith’s a Higher Being, so she’ll just come back eventually.”

“But the goal’s not to die.” Carmen said. “Not even one of us. We’ve got an image to maintain, and we can’t afford to lose at this stage of the game.”

“Well, even if you’re parents aren’t ready yet, you’re not lacking for firepower with the rest of us.” Kirdin said. “With me, Tia, and Siph, as well as Anna’s dogs, we could probably handle anything that’s not Winston or that sword.”

“Why are my dogs on that list? I know they’re tougher than Eve let on, but surely they’re not that strong, right?”

“They’re just the next most powerful thing here.” Eve said hurriedly. “That’s all.”

“Riiight.”

“A-anyway,” Eve said, coughing into her hand, “That won’t be necessary. Lilith, Carmen, Mae, and Isa should be plenty to deal with whatever they’re cooking up. If they’re not, then we’ve got bigger problems. I would help, but we’re keeping me in reserve. Sending more than two visibly distinct versions of us would let people know that there are more than two of us. So, Nuwa and I are going to hold down the fort here.”

“Look, this is all well and good,” Jameson interjected, “but I think our main issue is the fact that Lilith still doesn’t really know how to fight outside of brute forcing things. If I’m understanding the situation correctly, we’ve got time before the trap is put into motion, so surely we can find some way to get her more experience. Mae mentioned she got most of her knowledge on tinkering with the body from Kali, so couldn’t we do the same with fighting techniques?”

Kali tapped her chin. “Theoretically yes, but I’m not sure how helpful it would be in practice. She’d be all stiff, since she hasn’t put that into practice. Plus, her fighting style is going to be different than whatever she’d learn, since she’s rather unique. Still, your idea has merit, I can work on putting together a sort of manual for traditional fighting styles and techniques that she can use as reference.”

Her face lit up, seemingly having thought of something. “Actually, scratch what I said before, since this isn’t knowledge that only I have like with the body modification, I can probably make a sort of virtual reality teaching thing. I’ve got several souls kicking around in my makeshift afterlife that would be thrilled to get some action after so long.”

Mike couldn’t just let that go; that was kind of a big thing to casually mention. “There’s an afterlife?”

“Yes and no.” Kali said with a shrug. “For the most part people are just reincarnated when they die. The more exceptional souls are kept in your classic heaven type place and get some more choice when they’re reincarnated.” For a moment so brief he could have sworn he missed it, Kali’s eyes flicked towards Lilith.

Mike made a mental note to talk with her about that later. “So, what you’re saying is you’ve got history’s finest just sitting around doing nothing, so you’re going to put them to work.”

“Basically. I keep them around for things like this. Only good people, of course. Bad eggs are thrown straight back into a new body with their memories wiped and are rehabilitated. If I do end up reincarnating one of the good ones, I’m as soft as possible on their personality and try and skew luck in their favor. Once I have more Worship, I’m going to implement a better afterlife, so it’s just a holdover for now.”

“We’re getting off-topic.” Alex said. “It really isn’t sitting right with me just sitting here and doing nothing while Lilith is out working. Surely there’s something we can do to help, right?”

“You all could be mission control.” Carmen offered. “I’m sure there’s a way we could broadcast what’s going on to you, and you could just respond via telepathy.”

“I can handle the broadcast.” Kali said. “And, if you all don’t mind taking a detour from your regular Class progression, I can point you towards Classes that have long-lasting buff effects that could help Lilith out.”

“Don’t feel pressured.” Lilith said. “That’s a lot of effort to go through, and you don’t have to do that, just the thought is enough, really. You all haven’t been preparing like I have, so don’t feel bad. This is outside of what you could reasonably be expected to handle.”

“Look,” Judy said, “Academically, we get that. That doesn’t stop it from feeling bad. You know you’d be wanting to help in this situation too.”

Lilith scratched the back of her head. “Yeah, I know it’s frustrating, but I really feel like putting in all that effort just for something you’re not planning to use long-term is a huge waste. In the long-run, you’ll be more helpful if you properly take the time to train yourself.”

The conversation didn’t really go anywhere after that. Without knowledge of what exactly Elenoa was planning, there wasn’t much planning they could do. The extent of the preparations they made was the training they talked about before and the promise that someone would constantly be monitoring Elenoa, with regular checkups on Titania as well.

He wanted to ask Kali about the eye movement he had notices as soon as the meeting finished, but his wives and Kirdin dragged him away for a training session as soon as they finished, so he was out of luck.

But that could wait. He was just as eager as they to train, not only to regain his human form, but to attain the strength necessary to be helpful to his family. And, as he had recently grown fond of telling himself, that took time; time he wished wasn’t feeling more and more like a precious commodity.

After the meeting, Judy pulled Kali aside. “Hey, can I ask a presumptuous question?”

“Presume away!”

“Could I…learn from you? Like an apprentice? Not for any administrator stuff, but magic. I realize I’m probably never going to be a fighting force that could stand up to the dragons or Lilith, but I thought that maybe I could be helpful in other ways, like starting an information network.”

Kali gave her a gentle smile. “I’d be more than happy to teach you. Most of my time nowadays is spent just watching the big players of the world and making sure nothing drastic is happening, and that doesn’t take too much attention, so it’s no big deal.”

Judy gave a small sigh of relief. “One other question, while I’m being all bold.”

Kali smirked. “I like bold. Keep going.”

“Do you really think Lilith can handle this on her own? She’s knowingly walking into a trap.”

Kali nodded. “Yes, I do. While I’m not going to spill details, since Lilith is more than capable of finding those out herself, I highly doubt the forces they’ve assembled will be sufficient. She has the unique advantage of having been able to tailor her abilities to suit her needs and work together as well as possible, something that they don’t have. Winston in particular is still retroactively paying for all the Skills he received from his Racial Class before the Shift, so while he has many more than Lilith, they’re not as cohesive. And, Lilith’s got raw stats that’s he’s only barely starting to catch up to.”

She shrugged. “I could go on, but I won’t. It’s a waste of both of our time. Suffice it to say that I believe in her. Any other questions while you’re being all forward?”

“Nothing yet. The beginnings of a few questions, sure, but I’ll ask those when I know what to ask.”

“Alright then. Come with me, we’re going to start your training now.” Kali said, suddenly all business. “I’m not going to make it easy on you. You want to be able to help Lilith as much as possible, and I want her to have a good support network. It benefits no one if I’m soft on you, so I won’t be, at least not while we’re interacting for training. Follow me.”  She turned on her heel and strode off, Judy following close behind.

“Where to? Don’t you need to make that thing for Lilith?”

“Yes, but I’m going to be giving you your first homework assignment before I start.” Kali led her to the core room of Lilith’s dungeon, and then through that portal and into Kali’s own house. Judy had only been in there once or twice, as she had never really had a reason to. Kali had allowed the portal to let everyone in, but Kali’s house was treated much the same way everyone else’s private rooms were treated, so the only people who were in there regularly were Kali and the Parallels.

Kali led Judy down a hallway Judy was sure wasn’t there the last time she was in the place, walking past row after row of doors, finally stopping at one that looked identical to the rest. She opened the door and ushered Judy inside, quietly closing the door behind them.

In front of them was a spacious library, easily as big as any Judy had ever seen. The ceiling was at least 20 feet, each bookshelf spanning that entire height. It had no discernable lighting source but was ever so slightly dim. Not enough to make it too dark to navigate, but enough to make it feel as if the bookshelves were pressing in, each aisle its own little world. And, to top it all off, there was a barely perceptible hint of dustiness to the place. A whiff of it here and there, the occasional particle flitting around at the edge of her vision.

“Welcome to my room of knowledge.” Kali said grandly. “This here is where I keep all administrative records, as well as books that catch my personal interest. I don’t have the time to manually make any of the records or put any of what’s in here away, nor do I have the time to find any specific book.” She walked over to a small desk near the door and patted a rather hefty tome. “So, I use this bad boy. Tap a book to it or use a knowledge transference spell and it’ll put the book away or add a new one to the library. Open it and think about what you want, and it’ll point you to where you need to be. Or, if you feel like you need it now, it’ll bring the book right to you.”

She gestured to the bookshelves in front of them. “I recommend going and finding it, though. When you get to the right shelf the book will be wherever’s closest to eye level for you, and the library isn’t as big as it may seem. It changes size to be however large you feel like you need at the time, so it’s a nice way to stretch your legs and change up your thought process a little.”

She began to walk into the shelves, motioning for Judy to follow. “After you find the book just wander around a bit and you’ll find yourself in the reading area. It’ll have another copy of that book up front, for you to put away and get directions from as needed. When you feel like it’s time to leave, put the book away and wander through the shelves, you’ll end up at the entrance in no time.”

They were soon in a dusty side room, where a few extremely comfortable looking couches and chairs were arranged around a small table. To the side was another desk with a large tome, although this time the tome was accompanied by a small globe.

Kali placed her hand on the globe. “This little guy lets you change the ambiance of the room. I’ve got the library looking like this because I like the whole ‘mystic secrets’ feel, but that doesn’t mean I don’t need a change of pace from time to time.” The globe glowed, and the room changed.

The library remained present behind them, but the other walls fell away, replaced by strong-looking glass that rose up in a dome around them, leaving them in an almost igloo-like structure. Outside the glass laid a breathtaking mountain vista, overlooking untouched nature as far as the eye could see.

The orb glowed again, signaling another change. The glass igloo remained, but the surroundings warped to the middle of the jungle. Another flash, and they were in a large cavern. Kali cycled through a few more environments before settling on the beach.

She noted, while they flipped through various locales, that she could vaguely hear the outside. It was just barely on the edge of her hearing, and she was confident that if she stopped paying attention it would soon just turn into soothing background noise.

Kali grinned, taking in Judy’s stunned expression. “I haven’t even shown you the good stuff yet. I’ll give you a taste now, but you’ve got to earn the rights to use it by impressing me with your work.” Kali turned her attention back to the globe, and the area outside once again changed, landing them deep in what Judy could only assume was the ocean.

Although there was an odd tinge to the water that suggested it should be pitch-black, she could see clearly for quite some distance. Alien-looking fish flitted about, all swimming away from the blind spot where the entrance to the library was.

Then, a large…thing swam over the room. It was larger than any living creature Judy had ever seen by several orders of magnitude. It dwarfed even the dragons, and she imagined that, were they to be side-by-side, a dragon next to it would look about as small as a human did next to a dragon.

She wasn’t able to get a good look before the room changed back to the beach, Kali flashing her a mischievous smile. “And before you ask, no, that’s not a projection. Those were all actual places I took you to. This thing can make you an invisible observer in all manner of places, provided they’re nowhere that invades people’s privacy. There’s a different room for that. But you’re not going to get to use it, because that’s cheating and defeats the point of being my apprentice.”

Kali thumped the tome next to her again. “So, your first homework assignment is to pick out another Racial Class. They’re an administrative detail and are automatically updated, so this place has every detail on every single one of them. Consider it a hands-on exercise in learning to narrow down the results you get to what you want.”

“You’re going to have Lilith transform me?” Judy asked, somewhat warily.

“No.” Kali said, smiling. “I’m going to do you one better and just give it to you. That means that nothing is off-limits, save umbrella Racial Classes like Perfect Chimera, or special ones like Higher Being. You’ll get stronger faster with a second Racial Class, and you won’t even have to get rid of your human form. It’s the best of both worlds. Your job is to pick out the one that you feel is best suited to the role you want to play. Take your time, too. It’s a big decision, and you’ll have to defend your choice to me. To give you a sense of scale, I’m ready for this to take days, maybe even a couple of weeks. I’ll check in on your progress a few times a day, bring you food, and tell you when it’s time to quit for the day. You’ll know how to use the orb and book as soon as you touch them, and if you have to use the bathroom just wander off, you’ll find it. Now, I have a thing to make, so I’ll leave you to it. Happy hunting!”

And with that, Kali left, fading into the bookshelves. Judy eyed the tome, a nervous excitement welling up within her. If knowledge was power, then she’d just been handed the keys to one of the world’s largest armories, and she intended to use those keys.

Fighterman481

I wasn't sure about making the first part of this chapter a Mike PoV, but it just felt...right, so I did. He probably sounds like a broken record, but the poor man just feels so confused and out of his depth and he can't really even help shield his family at all because he doesn't have the strength to do so and that hurts.

And really, there had to be a meeting, but...nothing concrete has been set out on Elenoa's side, aside from the tanks and the sword. There just isn't enough information to make any counter-plans yet.

I hope the reason that Lilith has to walk into a trap is clear to everyone. I think I mentioned it in previous chapters, but it's an abuse of power to just walk in and preemptively shut things down. Lilith technically doesn't have any evidence that would allow her to do that. Then she has to dismantle all the key players, and Elenoa, Winston, and Titania are extremely likely to be active participants in the trap, so it kind of requires walking into it to do anything about it.

And she can't just say no when the trap is ready to be sprung and Elenoa is provoking her. She has to maintain an image as someone who can't be messed with, and ignoring a threat like that this early in the game is counterproductive.

This is also the first I've mentioned the afterlife in the main story itself. I may have said something in an author's note, not sure. I decided reincarnation would be the cheapest option for Kali, since there would be no upkeep of an afterlife, which would likely be a plane unto itself. But, it's handy to have a bunch of history's finest if you need something they could help out with like...being teachers. And also some companionship that can be talked to about administrator things. What does being "dead" matter to the person who can decide whether or not you're dead?

Well, Kali can't just full-on bring someone back from the dead, not if they've been dead for a long time. That costs a lot of Worship. Best you can really do is reincarnate and try and preserve their personality as much as possible. That's kind of dicey, though. Their memories go kaput and it's not anywhere close to easy or perfect. So, it's generally not worth it when the main reason you're keeping them around is their knowledge and the companionship they give.

I mentioned to someone that I had plans for Judy and wasn't exactly sure what. This ended up being what. I do like where it ended up going, though, and I feel like it's somewhat fitting.

The library reading room is actually an extension of a fantasy of mine that I had in middle school. A domed city that was able to transport itself anywhere and allow you to just look at nature's splendor. I hadn't thought about it in years, and it dredged itself up from the deepest recesses of my mind and said hello.

That's all for today. Next time we'll be getting into Lilith's training, as well as some other stuff, so look forward to it!

And, as always, thanks for reading!