NOVEL NEXT Sabbatical – Chapter 235: Why Is That Here?
Aperio tilted her head at the group of mortals flying around one of the many skyscrapers dotted around the city, unsure if they were fighting one another or playing. They did seem to be enjoying themselves, so it couldn't be that bad.
"So," Caethya began, her love also tracking the flying mortals, "spotted any crimes in progress?"
"A few," the All-Mother replied. "But I am much more intrigued by the various beasts they have here." She gestured towards the east with a wing. "They appear to have been affected by the rise in mana as well. Much to the dismay of the local populace, it would seem."
"Do they need help?"
"Probably." A wave of her hand split reality apart, creating a tear through which a large, hastily erected fence was visible. "Some of the beasts there do look more than a little threatening."
At this particular location, the thing seemingly causing the most trouble for the locals was something that stood twice the height of an average mortal, sported glowing red eyes and giant claws, and vaguely resembled a bear. For one reason or another, the System had labelled it a 'Mammoth Dropbear'. Aperio couldn't claim to know why it would do such a thing. It was big, and looked sort of bearlike, so that was two parts of the name that made sense, but she seriously doubted that something that large would be able to drop on anyone. And even then, it looks more like a giant Koala…
"I say we go and help them out," Caethya said as she began walking towards the portal, doing her best to pull Aperio with her.
The All-Mother hesitated for a moment before she let herself be dragged along. "Do we pretend to struggle against it, or should I simply punch it?"
"As much as I would love to see you defeat that thing with a slap, I think we should at least struggle a bit. Maybe get, like, a cut or two."
Aperio furrowed her brows at the words. "I have to disappoint you. That beast is not strong enough to injure me no matter how hard it tries, and I will not wound myself on its behalf."
"That's fine," her love replied as the two of them crossed through the threshold of the tear Aperio had made. "I'll just act enough for the both of us."
Reality mended itself behind them without making a sound, and seemingly without alerting the mortals fighting the beasts either. The All-Mother wasn't really surprised at that, as the weapons the people of Earth used were annoyingly loud for how little effect they had. She would have thought that they'd have figured out quickly enough that the bullets had next to no effect on the Dropbear, but they just kept on shooting.
Their barrage was joined by the occasional fireball, lightning strike, or other offensive magic, but it all didn't really seem to phase the monster. That is, not until another mortal carrying a giant hammer appeared in front of the beast and introduced the Dropbear's head to his weapon.
"Aww," Caethya mumbled as the monster slumped over with most of its skull caved in. "At least they got some people that are a bit stronger."
"Not by all that much," Aperio replied, her voice causing quite a few of the mortals to turn and look at them. They couldn't understand her of course, but as she had not bothered to hold back all that much, the power contained within every word was seemingly enough to get their attention. "You could have erased that monster just by looking at it."
"Could I?" Her love looked up at Aperio, unbothered by the steadily increasing amount of mortal attention. "I know I could have easily killed it, but just looking at it? Can't say I have ever done that. How would you even do that?"
"You simply wish for it to die," the All-Mother replied with a shrug.
She knew her love was capable of it, even if the Demigoddess herself seemed to not believe that. Caethya could quite literally move the very world they were on if she set her mind to it. Perhaps we should have a fight. She would learn a lot.
"If another one comes by, I can try," her love replied. "But I somehow doubt that I can do that."
"You can," Aperio said with a smile. She extended one of her wings slightly, loosely draping it around her love before she turned her attention to the mortals in front of them; the one that had beaten the Dropbear in particular. "But I think we should address our audience for now."
"Hello," Caethya said, offering the crowd a wave. "We have come to help, but it would seem that the bear problem has been solved already." The Demigoddess stood on her toes for a moment to better look over the crowd and into the distance. "For now, at least."
"That's nice and all, but where did you two come from?" the Dropbear-defeating mortal asked. "I'm pretty sure I would have noticed you when I came here."
"We did just arrive here," Aperio replied, a small smirk spreading across her face as the man tensed up. "And it is entirely reasonable to not notice the portal I made. I did not want it to be noticed, after all."
"Are you the same lady that was on the TV a few weeks ago?" an elderly man asked, his voice hoarse enough that the All-Mother considered fixing it for the briefest of moments. "The one from the United States."
"That was me yes, but I am not from there," she replied with a small nod and a slight twitch of her ears. "Is that of any significance?"
"Only in so far that it means your teleportation thing doesn't care about distance," the Dropbear slayer said.
"I can only teleport to places I have seen before," Aperio said with a small shrug. That she could see everything was left unsaid.
Before anyone else could speak, the All-Mother pointed towards an approaching group of monsters with her free wing. "It would seem there are more beasts to fight."
There were quite a few beasts the All-Mother found intriguing here. They were certainly more appealing than dealing with the group of mortals that was beginning to look entirely too eager to pepper her with annoying questions or begin to worship her as the Goddess she actually was.
She could see a few more Mammoth Dropbears, but those were the most boring part. What really held her interest was an animal that only moved in large hops and seemed to have blades made of bones for arms. Quite the weird evolution. Hands are much more practical.
The bulk of the approaching opponents, however, were a variety of oversized snakes and spiders that the All-Mother found to be displeasing to look at, as well as some more dogs. The System seemed to love making dog-like monsters for mortals to fight. Perhaps she had some unconscious gripe with the fact that most mortals got along so well with their fluffy companions.
The other evolution that stood out in the pack to the All-Mother came in the form of birds flying above. They weren't any larger than their regular variants, and didn't look more dangerous than usual, but Aperio could feel the mana flowing through their little bodies. Those birds were up to something, and it likely wouldn't be pleasant for the mortals.
All in all, Aperio did not quite understand why any of these animals would have chosen to evolve in this way, but she did not really expect monsters to make smart decisions when the System offered them power. If she was honest with herself, she had also not really considered how the return of magic would influence the non-sapient life on the planet. Animals and plants existed on Verenier just fine without descending into System-assisted monster territory, so she had simply assumed the same would be true for Earth. Perhaps that had been a bit naive.
"I'm going to fight that Kangaroo Predator," Caethya said with a bit more enthusiasm than Aperio would have expected. "Swords for arms is something I'll have to try for myself."
The All-Mother raised a brow at her love's words but didn't comment on it. Instead, she removed her wing from Caethya and took a step towards the approaching hoard of monsters. She had found her target as well. And it appeared out of nowhere too… Most intriguing.
Caethya followed Aperio's gaze, her eyes slightly widening as they landed on what looked like a misshapen attempt at making a Dragon. It towered over the other monsters, easily taller than many of the buildings in the city behind them.
What it lacked in looks, however, it seemingly made up in power as her [Identify] told her the 'Desert Dweller' was at level eight-hundred. Much higher than she would have thought any beast on Earth to be. There was also something else about it that she couldn't quite place. A small… anomaly, for lack of a better term, that floated nearby. Aperio will take care of it. Whatever it is.
Her love might appear grumpy and unapproachable to some, but Caethya knew better. Aperio was a person just like anyone else. She had wants and desires, dislikes, and an unreasonable amount of self-doubt. That had gotten better lately, but there was a long way to go before her love realised just how amazing she actually was. One step at a time, though.
Caethya had felt a similar way about herself for a good long while too, and she did not have to deal with the knowledge that her will was quite literally the law of the universe, nor did she live the life of a slave for what she wagered was easily over twenty-five years. Guessing how old Aperio was was a futile thing, but the Demigoddess liked to default to however old her love was when she returned to her Godly self. Otherwise I would have to go with 'older than all of existence' and that just seems odd.
"That one is all yours," she said in the language of their people, smiling slightly as Aperio balled a hand into a fist and Caethya felt herself be pulled towards it for the briefest of moments. "But maybe don't create gravitational anomalies by clenching your hand."
"I am annoyed at my lack of foresight," Aperio replied. "I should have seen something like this coming." Her love let out a long sigh and shook her head. "I guess I will have to look all over and nudge them away for now. The last wave of mortals to get the System is strong, but they are not ready for this."
"But that one you will fight?" Caethya asked.
"Yes."
"Remember to struggle a bit."
The Demigoddess had to do her best to suppress the giggle that wanted to come out at seeing Aperio's face. Her love really did not like pretending to be weaker than she was, and the slight annoyance that was so clearly written on her face was adorable as far as Caethya was concerned.
"I will not fake wounds," Aperio said. "They can simply believe I have supernatural regeneration."
"I mean, you do. It's just that you never need it unless you injure yourself." Caethya ran her hand over Aperio's arm in hopes that her touch would be calming. "Just try to enjoy yourself a bit. The mortals here are more crafty than you think, they'll figure out ways to defend themselves."
"Perhaps," the All-Mother replied, the flecks of silver in her eyes somehow glowing as she looked at Caethya. "But it is still my responsibility to give them an adequate challenge, not doom them to death. They might get to live again and again, but for now they will not be able to remember their past lives." Aperio looked back at the approaching monsters. "It does not help that the different versions of this world all share this newfound problem…"
"I'm sorry for interrupting," the man that had managed to kill the lone Mammoth Dropbear began, "but would either of you happen to have a plan on how to deal with that overgrown lizard?"
"Aperio will take care of it," Caethya said, a smile playing across her face despite her best efforts to hide it. "You don't have to worry about a thing."
"I will deal with the Desert Dweller," her love confirmed. "You may busy yourself with the other beasts. I would offer you a word of warning, but I am sure you are quite aware of how dangerous many of these monsters are to you."
"I am," the man replied. "Though I would argue that they are less dangerous now than they were before. Poison resistance is very helpful."
"You say that like we weren't resistant to that shit before," the elderly man said with a laugh that quickly turned into a cough. "We lived here without these powers or even electricity. We'll be fine."
"People also lived in caves with sticks and stones and were fine," Aperio said. "That does not mean that it was an easy life, however."
“A life’s a life,” the man replied with a shrug. “I’d rather have a bad one than none at all.”
Caethya could feel the air around them grow still and cold. She stepped up next to her love, placing her hand in the small of Aperio’s back and trying to mentally whisper a few words of reassurance. She knew that the All-Mother would not do anything to the mortal, but there was always the chance that she might loosen her grip on her power a little too much for a brief moment. That could easily kill a mortal, and Caethya knew that her love would not forgive herself for that.
“You should not speak on matters you know nothing about,” Aperio eventually said, a bit of her mana flowing around Caethya for a moment before her love wrapped a wing around the Demigoddess and took her hand into her own. “You may think of yourself as old and wise, but you are not.”
The All-Mother did not speak further, instead offering a deluge of emotions that flooded Caethya’s mind as soon as she allowed it. There was anger and confusion at her oversight. Annoyance at the mortal and his view on life was also present, as well as a peculiar note of calm that the Demigoddess herself could not quite place. Perhaps that was how Aperio felt about her, because Caethya was certain that the measure of calm the All-Mother carried with her stemmed from none other than her feelings of love.
With a gentle squeeze of her hand and a slight rustle of her wings, Aperio vanished from Caethya’s side. The warmth of her love was replaced with a stiff breeze and the roar of an angry beast that was about to face its maker.
