Minutes later, Lunara opened her eyes, looking at an unfamiliar blurry ceiling. This wasn't the skulls and bones of her dark castle in the abyss, she couldn't sll the rancid scent of rot and ash. Silence, not a single soul is crying, screaming, or weeping outside.
She sat up, rubbing her eyes as mories quickly flooded her mind. She wasn't recovering from a normal injury, but having her whole body recreated. It takes ti to fully wake up.
After a second of adjusting to this new body, her vision finally cleared out. Blood rushed into her veins, and she could feel warmth spreading across her whole body.
The pale figure watching her from across the room said in a quiet tone, "That looks decent." Lunara's new body seems to have co out as expected and without any defect.
"Good morning, or should I say, good afternoon. An hour had passed since you'd been rushed here. Do you rember ?" The pale night smiled as she was sitting backward on a wooden chair, looking at Lunara with a grin.
Transferring mories from a brain to the soul, and then to the brain of a new body is a daunting task. The person going through it would feel worse and be even more confused than a drunk person who got knocked out with a punch to the face and woke up in a foreign land.
Lunara's face paled in fear, instinctively, she could tell that the woman before her was a stronger demon than her. To her, this felt like getting knocked out in a street brawl, and then waking up in an interrogation room with a fully ard soldier glaring at her. "Wait! The pale night!" She crawled back on her bed, trying to get as much distance away, but the wall didn't allow her, stubbornly staying firm behind her back.
"It's not the pale night. Now, it's Mother for you." The pale night smiled, she had a new daughter now. "How does your body feel? I took so liberty and did so adjustnts to make it a bit better." A mother gives her children the best she could.
Strangely, Lunara could feel a sudden sense of peace and tranquility washing over her head. The pale night's words were both calming and soothing, reminding her of her late dead mother. She couldn't help but feel assured to be beside her, while her mind scread that she should be scared.
Lunara clenched her fist and extended her legs, "Yeah, sothing feels off." Pushing her fear to the back of her head, she could indeed feel that her body was lighter and more rigid. Like how a human can feel the limit of his speed while sprinting at full speed, a demon as powerful as her could feel the limit of her power at all tis. That limiter had now vanished.
Unlike before, this body she is now hasn't reached its full potential.
"I changed the location of so veins and optimized your magic circuit and lungs. But your power had dropped to half what it was before since this body had grown inside for just an hour." The pale night pointed at Lunara. Growing too fast must've had its cost, and getting reborn would always require so rehabilitation afterward since the muscle mory would fade away. "Now you've got a better body and higher potential, it shouldn't take you long to surpass your past self."
The ability to give demons and people alike a second roll at their genetic lottery was the power that made the mother of all demons a feared and respected being.
"And what's the catch?" Lunara glared at her. Everything has a price, and that price would be paid one way or another. "I'm grateful for the help, and I know you were called by that woman with many tails. But demons never do sothing for free, what's your price?"
The pale night cracked a smile, "You catch on quick." She stood, pushed the chair away with her foot, and approached Lunara, "I gave birth to your current body, so call mother, mom is better, and mommy if you don't mind would be the best." The faint smile showing behind her veil felt both calming and disturbing, each of those words must have a different aning and feeling for the pale night.
"If anyone tried to attack my womb, I'll call upon you and my other children to fight and protect it." The pale night's layer is a massive mass of writhing flesh, blood, and bones, a titanic and defenseless womb that gives birth to countless demons. It needs protection, and the children are the ones supposed to protect it.
"I also want to be able to use your layer as a safe passageway and put a non-aggression treaty between and you. Of course, I'll offer you services that I'm capable of, like giving new bodies to your generals or army if I had the power." This ans that Lunara and her demons would protect any demon making its way through her layer that is heading in or out of the pale night's layer.
In the abyss, and especially the lower layers, murder is common. Those with power are free to do whatever they want, and they often abuse that power.
"We should have this in a written contract." Lunara leaned back, "Sorry Mother, but that's how all demons should act. Like devils, we only trust in written contracts." This would allow Lunara and her generals to review the contract and dispute any potential loopholes.
The pale night smiled with a nod, "I would've whopped you had you agreed just verbally. I'm your mother now, I don't want you falling into a stupid agreent."
"I don't need you to teach that." Lunara giggled, but she imdiately shut up as Arad suddenly jolted on his bed, sitting up with a stern face and tensed muscles. She and the pale night stared at him for a second, and his glowing purple eyes turned to glare at Lunara, burning with a disturbing purple fla of pure rage and distrust.
He clenched his left fist, and magic started gathering inside it. The wind started getting pulled through the window like a storm and the two won cried, "Wait! Stop this!" Lunara waved her hands. Arad woke up and chose violence, in his mind, the fight still hadn't ended. He could only see Lunara, and feel the itch to get his fist to kiss her brain.
"Calm down." Hati appeared standing behind Arad and tapped him on the head with her long fan, "The fight is over. Take a second to get reoriented." She sighed, putting her hand over his fist and trying to block his magic as he might ss up the room, her daughters wouldn't be happy to have more work.
Arad is a dragon, and dragons are aggressive by nature. He loses consciousness while still focused on nothing but killing Lunara, now that he wakes up, his mind isn't disoriented one bit, it still carries the sa will and focuses only on finding and finishing Lunara. This rigid ntality is what allows dragons to be able to fight right after waking up no matter what their ntal condition is.
Right now, Arad couldn't even notice the night mother sitting beside Lunara, that's how much he was focusing on killing that demonic rabbit demon lord.
With Hati behind him and her hand on his fist, Arad looked at the room with one eye like a chaleon. One eye remained focused on Lunara while the other inspected his surroundings. Hati cringed at the sight, she didn't know he could do that. Even Arad himself didn't know, he never needed to look at two different things before, so he never tried to move each eye independently.
In reality, he didn't have that ability before. Vasilissa had noticed that most of the injuries Arad sustained were the result of kicks and that he might've been able to avoid them had he been able to look in different directions and notice the charging enemy. She used her power to separate the nerves of his eyes, allowing him to control each one separately.
Lunara wasn't the only one who got potential upgrades. Vasilissa probably didn't want to get outdone by that pale grandma demon.
His vision finally stopped focusing on Lunara alone. "This...We're back at your house?" His left eye looked back as he talked with Hati while still keeping one eye on Lunara, ready to
strike in a fraction of a second.
"She isn't dangerous anymore. The training has ended, it's ti for you to rest for tomorrow's training." She walked past him and sat beside the pale night, "For now, she'll be living in my house, at least until she's ready to get back to her domain in the abyss."
Arad's brain instantly kicked into high gears. His wives are in this house, she wants to kill them to keep him for herself. This is dangerous...And if Lunara can't go back to the abyss now, probably the fight weakened her enough, this is the pri ti to kill her and solve the
problem.
At night, he'll shove a fist up her chest and rip her heart out. But for now, he must act normal.
"I'm not letting her stay here." Arad said, still keeping his glare at Lunara. But he leaned back and put one leg on the bed. He didn't want to ntion that his wives were around, giving the demon any information might prove dangerous. He should be against her staying here, so he'll argue. They must not figure out what he's planning.
"Rember, she and the other demons were called to train you. So demons might be a bit crazy, but they mostly keep to themselves unless they are triggered." Hati explained, trying to calm Arad down a bit, he's a reasonable dragon and should understand once everything is fully explained. "Everything will be fine." The pale night added with a gentle smile. None of them had any idea that Arad was already planning to kill Lunara. If Alcott was here, he would have figured out Arad's plan, but alas, those two won aren't experts in dealing with dragons and their sches.
"He triggers ...in different ways." Lunara looked at Arad with a smug smile, rubbing her thighs and Hati sighed, "We're trying to help here...care to remain silent for a bit." She wasn't helping her case, only making it worse.
As they were talking, the door opened and Mira walked inside, with a sweaty body and a large smile. "Arad! Co, I got sothing ready!" She said, barely breathing as she rushed in in excitent. "Your weapon, I want you to test it." She said with a proud smile, grabbing him by the arm, and trying to pull him back.
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