Chapter 47
'I wasn't worthy….'
The thought echoed in his mind, the dragon king who offered his very soul for the cause began to believe it was all a dream. He doesn't remember being eaten, he doesn't remember much after he saw the Shadow King open his mouth and the black wisps that followed. But, he hoped that he was going to be reincarnated.
It was a noble dream wasn't it?
Instead, he felt as if he were drifting, confined in a single space, perhaps the stomach walls of the shadow king who consumed him. Now, he waits for the final deed to occur.
Yet it never happened.
He waited, and waited… but at the same time, he felt nourished, he felt energy and strength growing within him, but how? If he was consumed by the Shadow King, his strength would be take wouldn't it?
It didn't make sense.
Still, he waited longer, and longer, until he felt a surge course through him, the desire to move, to stretch and feel. He wanted it more and more as the time passed. Then…
"We have a prince!"
His eyes slowly opened to the world, it was a blur at first, but he eventually began to see clearly. There were shadows everywhere, and yet, why did they call out a prince?
"We have a princess here!"
"And another! The youngest is also a princess!"
"Another Prince here!"
"Hey, did you just wake up?"
Slowly he peered up, he was in the arms of Jima who looked down at him with great care. "How long was I asleep for?" he asked.
Jima laughed aloud. "You were just born, young prince."
"Prince?" he asked. "But, I'm a king!"
He got a laugh out of the Naga once more, who insisted he was a prince. "You must have been the first child to be conceived, no wonder you speak so well!" Jima laughed.
Looking about the room, he saw the Shadow King, passed out on the ground with a massive hole in his stomach, it slowly healed over, not far was the Shadow Lord Garou, his hair appeared to be all over the place, his clothing stretched beyond usage yet he began to recover and slowly came too.
His sights turned back to Jima. "The last child is also a prince," came the voice of Bloodbore. "All are healthy and strong children…"
He froze, only to realize what had happened. "Jima… I'm reborn!"
The Naga froze. "How do you know my name young prince?"
"Jima… it's me!" he protested. "The Dragon king!"
There was silence from the serpent, he looked into his eyes a little more before realizing the truth. "It's true…" he whispered. "It is you!"
"Can you put me down?"
"No, not yet. You have yet to use your legs, you are still recovering and will need to gain your strength…"
Now that he mentioned it, the former king yawned aloud, tried to being born, and yet, he couldn't quite figure out. Of all the creatures he could have been reborn to, why was he granted the honor of being one of the Shadow King's sons?
#
They slept for days.
Amai kept peering into the room and saw Bad and Garou asleep in their bed, yet, not far from them were the five children born to them. Botan kept peering in every so often to see for himself. His smile grew as he saw his siblings starting to move about in their sleep, growing stronger for it each and every day.
The one who woke up first out of all of them was Garou.
In fact, he was up within two days!
He took in the room oddly as Amai peered in, Garou went from child to child, inspecting them and smiled when he saw their faces. "All are healthy," Amai whispered as he came into the room.
A nod came from his brother. "Remarkable isn't it?"
"Even more so that they came out of you and Bad…" Amai paused. "What was it like?"
"Huh? Being in him?" Garou asked, he shrugged his shoulders shortly after. "Nothing really much to say. He kept everyone as comfortable as possible, fed and warmed. He slept well, kept calm which made the kids calm." He then went silent.
Amai smirked as he picked up on the look of his younger brother. "You liked it!"
"What?! No! Of course I didn't!" he protested. "I mean, I didn't do anything in there but eat, sleep, and make sure the kids didn't take too much from him or each other… It's not like I felt safe in there…"
The smile didn't vanish from Amai. "You really did enjoy it, didn't you? Bad had to wait on you hand and foot in a sense!"
"Just shut up!" Garou said with a growl to his voice.
Then one of the kids cried.
The youngest daughter began to grow fussy, Amai saw Garou's heart melt as he rushed to her small crib. He lifted her up and held her against him. "Sssshhh, daddy's here…" he whispered.
She became soothed and fell back asleep in no time, but he continued to hold her.
His eyes then drifted to Bad.
He has yet to wake up once since the children were born. Death said that it took a lot out of him to say the least, not to mention there was a backlash from consuming the dragon. His body was wrecked, from the years he endured, but it was healing slowly. "He will be okay, won't he?" Garou whispered.
"It's Metal Bat. I am sure he has endured worst." Amai insisted.
#
It would be a full week before the kids were up and walking on their own. The oldest out of the five appeared very aware of the world around him. He already knew the shadows by name before they were introduced and he insisted that his name was Magnus.
"Are you an old soul or something?" Garou asked him one day.
He was trying to teach his younger siblings to catch up to his standards of learning, Magnus was born as a 10 year old due to the time he was stuck in Bad. He paused from his lessons in teaching the younger siblings as he turned to Garou.
"With all due respect, I am. In fact, I am certain that this family grew because of me." He said in a matter of fact tone.
"Huh?" Garou muttered in great confusion.
His son rolled his eyes. "I am the former dragon King, Dragon King Magnus!" he said proudly. "I gave my very soul to King Bad so he could have a family… I never imagined so many would come from my own living essence…."
"Uh…"
"Lord Garou, he speaks the truth," came the voice of Jima. "He is indeed reincarnated as your son… Strange, he has taken more of your resemblance than that of the King…"
Magnus as he has claims to be has hair like Garou, except his hair appears almost solid like horns and was black like Bad's. His hair also arched oddly and was rather pointed at the top. But he speaks as if he has lived a thousand years or so.
"Now, younger siblings, we must work on your vocabulary!" he announced.
"Caberry?" the youngest brother asked as he started to stick his foot into his mouth.
Garou snickered. "Don't force them, they will learn eventually…"
"This is quite vexing, when I had siblings we were all at the same intellect…"
"Kid…"
"MAGNUS!"
"Sorry… Magnus… you need to understand. You were the first one born out of the five… you aged faster than them, you were in your farther longer…"
He sneered at the notion. "Dear God, he is your child…" whispered Amai.
"No one asked you!" Garou snapped back.
"What the hell is with the racket?"
The room froze. Bad wondered in as he looked about the place. He froze for a moment as his eyes came upon five new faces. They all stared back at him with great wonder until the oldest daughter approached him. She appeared to be 8 years old but she knew who he was. "Daddy!" as her arms wrapped around his leg.
The others came running, clamoring over Bad. Garou snickered from afar as he held the youngest who was now reaching out for Bad. "Wow… you guys are all looking nice and strong! I'm… I'm glad…" he said as tears began to form in his eyes.
However he paused as he saw the oldest appear distant. "Hey bud, what's wrong?"
He glared at Bad, it was then Bad himself was taken aback. "Shit, you got what you wanted huh?" he asked and smirked.
Magnus's glare dropped, he looked to Bad as the tears formed in his eyes. He rushed at him and wrapped his arms around him! "I didn't think… I'm so sorry!" he wept.
"Whoa, what are you being sorry for?"
"I didn't know what consuming me would do to you… I didn't know it would force you to have so many children… I didn't think this through!"
Bad snickered as he shuffled himself along until he could sit on the ground with the kids. From there, they clamored over him. He kept Magnus close and laughed. "It was awkward I'll give you that, but at the same time… rewarding… look at all of you… look at our family! Auntie Zenko must be thrilled!"
"She's been doing her fair share of child rearing I can vouch for that," said Amai. "Strict bed time, made sure they ate healthy…. Kept Garou in line…"
"Speaking of Zenko…"
"Out with Botan for the day, he promised to take her shopping… by the way. Our son looks as old as we do now!" said Garou.
"Damn!"
"Also, don't you have something coming up that needs to be take care of?" Garou asked with a grin on his lips.
Bad smiled back. "Yeah, we do… Jima…"
"Lord Garou already informed us… rest assured my King, we are more than ready for battle. This demi god has insulted our King!" he said in a seething tone. Even an angry hiss escaped out of him. "Insults to our royal court will NOT STAND!"
"Whoa… so I ain't the only one pumped for this huh?" Bad asked.
"What's pumped daddy?" the youngest daughter asked.
"Excited, father is excited," said Magnus.
"Yeah, daddy is going to fight a mean man who made fun of daddy for looking big and fat when I was carrying you and your siblings in my belly."
She paused and took a moment to think over his words. "Why would someone be rude to you for doing that?" she asked.
"People judge others by how they look," Amai explained. "This particular person thought your daddy was weak since he looked soft and squishy. But he's not anymore, nor was weak even when carrying you. Your daddy is very strong."
Her eyes widened. "Can we watch daddy!?"
"No, no violence!" he insisted.
"Get over yourself," Garou scolded. "You are telling me straight up that our daughters won't be exposed to violence considering whom they come from?" he demanded.
Bad sneered to the news. "I don't want them to see it all the time and thinking it's okay!" he snapped back.
"I have to agree with Father Garou on this," said Magnus.
Bad froze. "You're not a dragon king anymore, you are my son!" he protested.
Magnus pouted. "Be that as it may, I retain a lot from my past life, just so you are aware of it…"
"This one is going to be interesting…" snickered Amai.
"Yeah, you get to babysit them!" Bad snapped back.
"I would be mindful of your words Uncle Amai… I know things about you as well…"
"Yeah, that one is so yours," Bad said to Garou.
