Chapter 160 - Hero's Descendant (3)
Chapter 160 - Hero's Descendant (3)
"Currently, the human realm isn't in a good situation. I know that. However, nothing good will come from rushing forward. I'm not simply saying this to ensure the continuation of your line. I think both of you need to leave behind a place where you can return to."
"A place where we can return to······."
Maetel's eyes were still twinkling with stars. However, it was wrong to think that she was earnestly listening to Promes' words. She was merely fixated on one thought.
It was the thought of making a baby with Artpe!
"Yes. I also think that is a must!"
"As your father, it does make me feel a bit uncomfortable when you are jumping in with open arms….."
"Right? As expected, isn't it too early?"
"No. I'm not saying that."
Shit! This ahjussi can't make up his mind!
Anyways, Artpe had to get out of this mad house!
"Wait a moment! I have a suggestion! It is very important for the hero to continue his line. However, wouldn't it be more important to make a progeny between a hero and a holy priestess!"
"Mmm!?"
"When the heck did you come in here, Vadinet!"
Her timing couldn't be any worse! The person that could make this situation more complicated had appeared!
"I don't think a hero on hero pairing is the right way to go. From what I've read from old stories, I believe there is a better case to be made for a hero and holy priestess pairing!"
"Stop pairing me off with everyone!"
"Holy Priestess-nim, please give us some more stew!"
"Hurry up and take her!"
"The stew isn't important right now!"
Vadinet refused to retreat. She was rooted in place like a steel beam. Artpe was surrounded by Maetel, Vadinet and Promes. He wondered how he could get out of this situation. He didn't think he could solve this problem by dodging them.
That meant…..
"Roa!"
[Nyaa!]
"Oooh-ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
"What the hell did you do"
The answer was to create a mess in an entirely different direction! Artpe threw the Evil Heart towards Roa. While Maetel was marking Artpe, her grip on Roa had loosened. She immediately jumped out of Maetel's grasp, and she chomped down on the Evil Heart!
[Nyaa? Nyaa nyaa? Nyaa nyaa nyaa?]
'Eat? I'm really going to eat it. I can eat it?'
Her large eyes were sparkling. Artpe looked like an archmage about to drop a Meteor spell on an enemy nation. His face hardened. He nodded his head as he yelled out his words.
"Finish it!"
[Nyaa-ahhhhhhhhhh!]
She swallowed the Evil Heart!
"Oooooo-ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
"We are ruined! You crazy bastard! Our efforts for the past couple hundred years went down the drain!"
"You didn't want to go into the metaphorical grave of life, so you plan on putting all of us in a real grave, you bastard!"
Everyone was flustered, and they distanced themselves from Roa. While they were doing so, Artpe took out his magic tome, and he let his staff float into the air.
"You guys don't have to be so worried."
"How can we not worry!"
Artpe hadn't mindlessly fed the Evil Heart to Roa. Roa had already eaten an Evil Heart before. It was an item akin to the source of Demonic energy, yet Roa was able to make it her own. When Artpe acquired the second Evil Heart, he hadn't given it to Roa, because he wanted to see if the second Evil Heart differed from the first one.
It didn't take him too long to make the assessment. When his assessment was about to end, his solo life had been about to come to an end! It was an extremely unfortunate situation!
[Nyaa nyaa nyaa-ooh nyaa, nyaa-ee-ooh nyaa nyaa.]
"I killed all the nearby monsters first, because I wanted to prevent the Evil Heart from becoming unmanageable. I even prepared the magic tome, so the probability of failure is zero! Basically, I made all my moves for this very moment."
"You just wanted to get out of the current situation! You are reverse-engineering your explanation after you made the mess!?"
This was why he hated adults that were quick on the uptake!
This was why he ignored the old hag's words. He acted as if he hadn't heard her words.
On the other hand, it was true that Artpe had been preparing for this moment. He had made preparations since Roa had eaten the first Evil Heart. However, he never expected to be put in a situation where he would have to voluntarily feed the other Evil Heart to Roa!
[Nyaa nyaa nyaa nyaa nyaa nyaa nyaa!]
The Demonic energy, which had completely melted into Roa's body, activated when it met its other half. Roa's eyes widened as she activated her own Mana. She desperately tried to digest the Demonic energy.
Artpe monitored her progress as he activated his magic tome. Vadinet gave up on stamping her mark on Artpe for now. She also prepared her skill.
Maetel pouted.
"So you really hate the idea of it, Artpe. I'm hurt."
"I just think it is too early!"
[Nyaa! Nyaa-ah! Nyaa-ahhhhhhh-oooooooh-ahhhhhhhhhhhh!]
It was hard to tell if Roa was screaming or roaring. Her pitch kept getting higher. No one inside the temple was thinking about marriage or progenies. Everyone was nervous as they prepared for battle.
In the end, luminescent purple Mana was emitted from Roa's body.
"······."
"Artpe······?"
"Mmm."
Artpe was monitoring Roa's change in real time using his Read All Creation ability. There was a subtle change to his expression. He looked as if he was having trouble expressing his emotions. In the end, he closed his magic tome.
"This is the second time this has happened."
"Second time?"
Maetel tilted her head in a cute manner as she asked him a question. He put on kind smile as he pointed towards Roa, who was surrounded by purple colored Mana. It was quite strange. The light was expanding. To be precise, Roa was surrounded by light, and her form was expanding.
"I'm talking about this being the second time when someone connected to me acquired an Innate ability."
"I thought Roa already had an Innate ability! Isn't that why she's able to eat Demonic energy!?"
"That is a Race Characteristic."
"What the hell? Isn't that a cheat!?"
He couldn't focus his eyes on Roa, but it wasn't too difficult to read her information.
[Roa]
[Greed Beast]
[Level : 385]
He was familiar with her race called Greed Beast. Since Roa had absorbed an excessive amount of Demonic energy, he wasn't surprised to see that Roa had passed Maetel and Artpe in terms of level. The most important information was displayed at the bottom in a grand fashion.
[Innate Ability : Polymorph]
He had seen this Innate Ability before in the Abyss. It had been a large Dungeon where the first Evil Heart had been put to sleep. Roa had eaten all the Shadows of Sinners within the Dungeon, and Roa had increased her size to fight against the boss.
Artpe had thought she had been using an application of the Demonic energy, but he was wrong. There was a limit to how much Demonic energy she could eat with her small body, so Roa had awakened an Innate ability that allowed her to change her form. She had done it, so she could eat more.
"Amazing. This really is amazing."
"Nyaa-ah."
From within the pillar of light made out of purple Mana, he could hear Roa's voice. For some reason, her voice seemed different than before. In the past, she had used her cat's vocal cords to put Mana into her meows. It allowed her to transmit her voice like telepathy. However, this sounded like…. She sounded like a human trying to meow like a cat.
"Nyaa nyaa-ah."
The fog of Mana started to dissipate. Each human held their weapons up, and they readied their skills. It further enhanced the tension in the temple. Vadinet also started to chant a prayer.
Maetel was the exception. She was firmly gripping the cloth that had been placed on top of the altar. Maetel's insight was second only to Artpe's Read All Creation ability. Her intuition allowed her to have a rough idea as to what was about to occur.
"Nyaa-ah?"
When the fog was completely gone, Maetel used Acceleration to jump on Roa. She removed Roa from everyone's sight. Everyone had their eyes wide open, but everything had occurred so fast! They hadn't seen anything!
"W...what the hell? What's going on? Maetel, are you ok!?"
"Where did Maetel go?! Did she perhap use a teleportation spell?!"
Each human spat out one or two phrases. They all expressed their dismay. Artpe calmly waited for Maetel and Roa to show up once again. He didn't have to wait long.
Soon, Maetel appeared from behind the temple's pillar with Roa. Roa 'walked' out with Maetel.
"······?"
"Why is a demihuman… Wait a moment. Can it be?"
Maetel looked the same as before. However, that wasn't true for Roa.
She had become a humanoid. She was a humanoid possessing black cat ears and three cat tails.
"Nyaa?"
She was standing on her own to feet as she tilted her head. She clearly possessed the body of a grown woman, and a black cloth was wrapped around her body. It was hard to see the outline of her body.
This explained why Maetel had taken the cloth placed atop the altar.
Maetel had no problem exposing her nude body in front of Artpe, but she couldn't stand another woman doing the same thing. This was true even for a Demonic Beast, who had lived her whole life as a cat!
······actually, Maetel had always been guarded towards Roa even though she was a cat. This was why her behavior wasn't out of the ordinary.
"That woman really is that cat from before!?"
"Beautiful….. Ah. That's not it. Was she reborn as an evil being like the Demon King or beings of similar ilk!?"
"No. Her energy is similar to Demonic energy, but it is distinctly different. How can this be? She swallowed the entire Evil Heart, so how?!"
They had guarded the Evil Heart for several hundred years, yet it had been consumed in an instant. The three humans couldn't think straight from the enormous shock they had suffered. Artpe let them be as he spoke to Roa.
"Hey, you dork. You grew your body, because your body was too small to eat all the Demonic energy?"
"Nyaa! Nyaa······ Ah? Ho-ahhhh?"
She was about to let out her familiar meows when she realized her vocal cords allowed her to speak a variety of words.
The temple was filled with humans, and they still had a dumbstruck expressions on their faces. Roa was barely able to vocalize her words, but she was able to express what she wanted to say.
"I used master's body as reference! Nyaa!"
She had made an appropriate decision. Artpe was part of the human race. However, his body wasn't that of a normal human, but he wasn't part of the Demon race either. His body had characteristics that were truly unique.
He could amplify his Mana past normal limits, and his body could accommodate enormous amounts of Mana. His body was also optimized to use many types of Mana all at once. He had a truly miraculous body.
If Roa wanted to fit enormous amount of Mana in a small body, she decided the right move was to mimic Artpe's body. She had arrived at the optimal solution.
"If you were going to do that, why didn't you copy my sex?"
"Sex has nothing to do with body type? Nope! I can't do it! Nyaa-ah!"
Roa couldn't see her own face, but she let out a bright smile when she checked out her body. She gave a definite answer. She had learned Polymorph. She was able to change her body with her Record as a foundation. This was why she wasn't able to change her sex.
Of course, Arpte already knew this.
"Nyaa, nyaa-ah, nyaa-ahhhh. Nyaa nyaa."
"Ughh."
Since she looked similar to Artpe, Roa was extremely beautiful. Even the color of her eyes and hair was the same as him. It was as if Artpe had been turned into a female. Maetel looked very displeased, and it was the same for the others.
"I wanted to avoid the immediate danger, but it feels as if I created more complications for the future? I must be mistaken, right?"
"You aren't mistaken, Artpe-nim! The number of women in your party grew again!"
"No. She's a magical beast, so she's safe! Safe!"
"That is the reason why she is the most dangerous one!"
It seemed Maetel had been stern in her warning. Roa didn't even think about taking off the cloth wrapped around her body. She looked like someone from the middle ages. She took short and quick steps towards Artpe. She tried to go back into his pocket. When she couldn't, she was flustered. Maetel's eyes were burning with fire when Roa kept sticking to Artpe.
"What do I do? Nyaa?"
"Don't ask me about it, you dork······."
Anyways, there was one clear benefit he had gained from all of this.
No one talked about Artpe's future progeny any more.