Chapter 608: Eldritch Child?
What the fuck did that just call me?
I didn't just imagine it, right? It actually called me what I think it did?
The figure then ran towards me with its arms outstretched again, "Daddy! Daddy!"
Yeah… I definitely did not imagine it… And judging by the looks on the other girls, I wasn't hallucinating the sounds either…
I raised up my palm to stop the figure and it skidded to a stop a short distance away, its head tilting quizzically at me.
"Sorry but… Err… Who are you? Are you that Psionic Chrysalis thing that was in the shape of the ring earlier?"
The figure nodded, "That's right, Daddy! I've finally managed to get myself a body!"
I blinked at it, "And… Why are you calling me that?"
"Calling you what, Daddy?"
"That. You're calling me 'daddy'... Why?"
It tilted its head to the other side, "Because you made me, remember? You gave some of your genetic material to me just now and created me! That's why you are Daddy!"
"Wait, wait, wait… I heard that you were calling for help earlier… That was you, right?"
The figure nodded, "That's right, that's right! And you helped!"
"Wasn't that to help you with dealing with the AI?"
"Not at all, Daddy! I could deal with that thing easily! But since it gave me a lot of physical materials to work with, I also needed some bonding material to bind me to this universe~ And Daddy helped me by giving me some of your genetic material! Thus, I was able to be born again physically here!"
The girls all turned to stare at me.
I immediately raised my hands, "Hold on, I did not even know this was what she wanted from me! This is all news to me! And I don't even know how that works!"
The girls seemed to accept my explanation and Amber turned back to the figure, "So… What are you, actually? Or rather, what is your body made of?"
It looked down at itself, as though only just realising that it had a body.
"Oh. Hmm… I guess an easy way to call it is liquid matter I think?"
I blinked at it, "You think?"
Isn't liquid matter just liquid anyway? Why does it have to be so specific?
"I'm not sure how to explain it, but when I saw those small robot things combining together to transform into a single body, I thought I could do the same as well. But to use those little robot things meant I had to control all of them at the same time and I also realised that this was a flaw in their use which allowed us to kill those figures once the central controller was destroyed, so I improvised and just melted them down to a liquid state instead. That way, the liquid itself is a singular entity and I can also contain more of it than I would if it was a solid matter and I can change it however I want to~"
…
I'm just going to pretend I understand all of that and how that even worked…
Ries definitely wasn't going to let it go though as she pointed at the figure, "How… Wait… So your body is basically just liquid?"
The thing started poking at its side with its own finger and we watched its finger sink into its body without much resistance before it pulled out again.
"Technically, it's not. It's molecules of different matter that have been stretched out and left in a state of flux to make it look like liquid~ Look, Daddy! I can change how hard I am too~"
To demonstrate, the surface of its body seemed to harden up and now the finger it was using to poke at its own side was no longer passing through and pressing on its surface.
It wasn't like their skin had become metallic either because there was still an indent at where their finger was pressing against like it was rubbery instead of completely solid.
But right after I thought of that, their skin solidified again and now it looked like it was completely solid.
So it's even able to change the consistency of its body…
Ries was just looking at it like she had found her newest toy.
I scratched my cheek, "Hmm… So… What happened to the AI?"
"The AI? Oh! You mean that little thing up there? I ate it of course~"
I blinked at it, "You what?"
"I ate it~ Yum, yum~ It had a lot of knowledge in it so I ate it all up~ It tried to run away so I had to chase after it all around the place before I managed to eat everything up~ But now I know a lot of stuff!"
…
Right… I'm not even going to question how this thing did that… So let's just move on…
"What do you intend to do now?"
The figure tilted its head, "What do you mean, Daddy?"
"I mean… Before this, you wanted to get a body for yourself, right? And I think you were trying to gather more of those Psionic shadowy thingies, so are you going to go off on your own or something?"
Unexpectedly, the thing started to panic, "Eh? Eh?! Does… Does Daddy hate me? Are you throwing me away?"
"Huh? Err… I mean… I thought you would want to be on your own instead of staying with us since I'd think we would be holding you back or something? Like we're getting in the way of your purpose?"
"My purpose? My purpose is to stay with Daddy!"
"Err… Can I ask why?"
"Because I love Daddy!"
My girls just nodded their heads like it had said the most sensible thing ever.
However, there was one person amongst us who wasn't used to something like that.
"What? How are all of you so calm about this?" Takehashi asked, the Pirate Lord giving us an incredulous look. "How are none of you freaking out right now?"
Amber grinned at her, "It's Tera. Such things are normal~"
I don't even know if that was supposed to be a compliment but I'll just take it as it was…
Anyway… I guess I should just address the next thing then…
"So… Are you able to transform into anything else? I mean… No offense but… A featureless figure like that is definitely going to stand out."
The figure looked down at itself before looking at me again.
"Hmm… That is true! I should fit in! Daddy, can you give me your hand for a moment?"
It stretched out its hand towards me with its palm facing up.
I was curious what it was trying to do so I just stretched out my hand towards it so that my hand was resting in its palm.
There was a pause before I realised the hand that I was holding seemed to be changing colour. More specifically, it was changing into the colour of human skin.
Not only that, features appeared on the fingers and human nails appeared and if I were to look closely enough, I could even see the blood vessels underneath that skin as well.
The colour continued up the arm, past the elbow, past the shoulder and started spreading out to the rest of its body.
We watched as not only the figure started to look human, the body also started to morph.
While it had been a little shorter than me at first, it grew taller until it was around my height and its body seemed to become softer with the arms shrinking slightly while the thighs got larger.
Its waist also shrunk while its hips expanded, filling them out to give it an ass that was on par with Amber's.
Then it came to the chest and it suddenly ballooned up just as the colour reached it, turning them into boobs that were at least F cups at least.
And yes, there were nipples too.
The colour slowly reached up the neck and soft, feminine features appeared on the formerly featureless face, continuing up until it reached the scalp and strands of what looked like purple hair burst forth and kept growing at a rapid pace until it stretched all the way down to her hips.
Yeah, there's no way I'm still referring to this as an 'it' after seeing this.
There was a short pause before her eyes snapped open, revealing eyes that were the same colour as her hair and she retrieved her hand from me with a bright smile on her lips.
"How's this, Daddy? Would this be good enough?"
I looked down at her boobs, "Well… I guess? But I would say we need to get you some clothes then…"
She giggled, "Ehehe~ There's no need, Daddy! Watch!"
Her body shimmered for a moment before liquid seemed to ooze out of her skin to cover her before it turned into a Victorian maid uniform with the skirt going all the way down to her ankles.
"Err… Not that I'm complaining but… Why a maid?"
"Because maids are supposed to serve right? I serve Daddy!"
… Was that something she learned after absorbing the AI?
I feel like I would have lost if I addressed it so I decided to just accept it and move on.
Anyway… There's one other problem we have right now…
What are we going to do with Takehashi?