After bathing (and seeing that Voluptua was still battling her inner beliefs and didn't even give me the light of day), I proceeded to get her off the ground after I'd dried off and put on some dry, clean clothes in my bag in the form of a Gigasteel helmet, Majestic Mantel, Steel Gauntlets, Fancy Pants, and Classy Clogs... all of which we made with Krakpot on the way across the seas and making me look like a weirdo, but I didn't care.
"Um... why do you look... different?" she asked.
"Because my old clothes also need a washing, but I don't want to wash them in here," I said.
"I see... you still look nice, though... on the inside," she said, me smiling at that.
"Glad to see you're starting to get it," I smirked as we then exited the bathhouse to see that there were four guards there and that my allies were also there.
"Um... why did you take so long in there?... You didn't do anything, did you?" Marionette asked as I then smiled.
"I'll let the queen explain," I smiled.
"I uh.. tried to seduce him... but he made me realize that it was wrong," she admitted.
"Seduce? You mean you used your succubus powers?" Brunhild asked.
"Yes... I thought I could show my power over him, but he proved he was stronger... he doesn't care about looks, just personality... and told me the truth about what I am," she said.
"What did you dare to call our queen?!" another guard asked angrily as she readied her lance and I noted it was the one that poked me in the back earlier.
"No, he didn't call me anything... I found out what I was on my own... he told me that the things I've been doing are wrong. Hoarding water for only myself... firing Misslei for nothing... trying to seduce him against his will.. it made me realize that... pardon my language... that I've been a very big bitch," she admitted, the guards being surprised at that and the others in my group looking to be just as much.
"Um... wow..." Keira gawked.
"So... what now?" Carly asked.
"I don't need to go to the Plumbed Depths... I think I know what to do now... father wouldn't have wanted me to be like I was... from now on, the bathing chambers are open to all the citizenry. Boys will bathe in the evenings, women in the mornings and afternoon. And I'm going to stop wasting the water on pointless bathing," she said, the guards looking at her in surprise, and Misslei looking to be concerned, holding Drak in her hands.
"Um... I wanted to ask something... is there a type of magic spell to allow his Dryness to be understood?... I want to know why he ran off with the fruit in the first place..." Misslei said, that making my allies think before Veronica gawked.
"Aha, I think I know. I just mastered it two months ago, but I can use the transform spell to turn myself into a lizard and talk to him in his own language!" she smiled.
"Now this is something I just HAVE to see. From what I've heard, transform is the hardest spell in the book!" I smirked, her nodding as she then did a bit of a dance before then casting the spell. And when she did, we gawked at how she was now just the same size as Drak! She then got held up by Pavo, her then speaking to Drak in his own language... and he then chirped back, me feeling hostility to it.
"He's saying that he took the fruit so he could become more like Voluptua..." she translated in English. And after a few more chirps? "And that he's angry at us for denying him that chance... and for making his love feel like crap," she explained.
"Oh, Drakky..." Voluptua said with a small, sad smile. "I know you were looking out for me... but I think that this needed to happen... I need to be a better queen to everyone... it's what father would want... it's what mother would want, too... and if what Drake says is true, you were in grave danger from eating that Fygg. If not for them, then things would've ben much worse," she said, me looking at her with a smile.
Drak then spoke a bit more and Veronica nodded. "He says he still wants Drake to apologize for slapping her and making her cry," he said, Voluptua sighing at that.
"He doesn't need to... I deserved it. And he said he was holding his strength back when he slapped me. If he wanted to, he would've knocked me unconscious," Voluptua sighed, the guards looking at her in surprise.
"R-Really?... But then why did you bleed? Hell, you're still bleeding," said one of the Paladins in the form of Brunhild, who looked exactly as he did in the games, just with the CGI model.
"Oh, that's an easy fix," Veronica said as she turned back to normal in an instant before then casting heal on Voluptua, her wound getting patched in an instant.
"And to answer the question... apparently taking baths for as long and as numerous as I was doing makes your skin very fragile," Voluptua said.
"I uh... I hate to be that girl, but did it really take you this long to realize that? Or have you just been doing nothing this whole time?" Carly asked.
"What are you implying?" Voluptua asked with a raised eyebrow.
"By doing nothing, she means sitting around, sleeping, not lifting a finger or exerting a single muscle for all that time. As in, being slothful," I explained.
"Um... what is slothful?" Voluptua asked.
"It's a very bad sin. One of the 7 deadly sins. Slothfulness means you refuse to do anything for anyone or even yourself. Lazing about and getting nothing done. And it can be either physical slothness, or spiritual slothness. You obviously have spiritual values if you know not to punish Celestrians... but I can tell just by eyeing you that you are definitely the physical version," Pavo said.
"I see... then I think I need to start getting off of that habit. Going on walks, doing things for myself from time to time, that stuff," she said with a small, confident smile.
"She's gettin' it," Firkle smirked.
"I think that I've learned a lot in just one afternoon than I've ever learned in my whole life... what do you all say to a banquet?" she asked.
"Ooookay... so we go from them slapping you, to you seducing their leader, then feeling bad about yourself, and now you want to throw them a banquet?... Is something up, my queen?" Brunhild asked.
"At ease, Brunhild... you're also going to be joining in on the feast," she said, that immediately making him stiffen before then easing up.
"T-Thanks, your highness," he said politely.
"And Misslei?" The maid looked at the queen with wide eyes. "I think that you're going to be given a higher position. Whenever I'm not around in the palace, you'll be second in command," Voluptua smiled warmly, Misslei literally squealing in excitement before then hugging the queen with Drak still in her grasp, causing the lizard to hug Voluptua as well, which looked cute. "Let's get to it! Chop chop!" she smiled, causing all of us to cheer at the same time.
...
...
...
The feast was very delicious, but especially for Marionnette, who looked to have quite the sweet tooth to her, going after the sweetest of the options and having a good meal before she was full... but we did have to tell her how to eat properly, as she almost choked on her food a good couple times before I taught her a dandy trick.
"Count to 20 while chewing, and then swallow. But not all the food at the same time... imagine it like you're sending down droplets of rain falling down off a leaf," I explained, that being a good enough analogy for her to follow. And after all the food was eaten, we were quite content and had very stuffed bellies. And it wasn't even half past 2 when we finished.
"I do hope you'll come visit Gleeba again in the future, Drake and company," Voluptua smiled at me after the feast.
"We might just have to take you up on that," I smiled, looking at the treasure maps we had gotten from Collapsus and reading through them... and after inspecting all of them, I saw that, indeed, there was one map that was detailed as being near Gleeba, it being to the northwest of the city near an oasis. Not only that, but when Pavo also inspected them, she spoke something incredible.
"This... is very problematic," Pavo said after looking at them.
"Why? What's so wrong about the maps? They could have treasure waiting for us," Marionnette smiled widely. We had already left Gleeba and were trekking back to the boat, killing enemies on the way with a single attack each.
"These maps... I've seen them before... I'm one of the eldest Celestrians out there, being born at the start of the reign of them... and I was told that these maps were linked to Almighty Zenus, the creator of all life in the Protectorate and Observatory... it's set up as a failsafe. Should he ever experience an attack that could kill him, these maps would show the way to the various parts of his being, which he would scatter to these different dens marked on these maps," she said, me whistling at that.
"That sounds very problematic... and there are 12 pieces of him? What are they... and moreover, should we maybe look into it? Maybe go for one of them right off the bat?" I asked, her looking at the papers and seeing that the weakest of them, that being the Lightning Steed, was at the same place as it always was for the starting maps. In the flowerbed next to the entrance of Stornway.
"I think we should at the very least check this out... if the dark lights that emerged from the Protectorate went further than the Observatory... oh, just thinking about it is making me ill... we need to at least see if a piece of the Almighty resides in this den. If it's there, then we'll need to defeat every single one of them across all the 12 dens before he can come back as his own self... and if it's not there... then we'll know that he's safe," she said.
"Sounds serious. We'll help out for sure," Dillon smiled.
"It is very serious. These dark parts of the Almighty were actually bosses in the game, and were in these dens, or grottos, as they were sometimes called. Their names were actually different than on the maps, though. In order of easiest to hardest, their names were Equinox, Nemean, Shogum, Trauminator, Elusid, Sir Sanguinus, Atlas, Hammibal, Fowleye, Excalipurr, Tyrannasaurus Wrecks, and... well, the last one on here is baffling to me, because it was supposed to be something else, but I guess it got changed up," I frowned.
"So what was it supposed to be?" Stella asked.
"Well... a reincarnation of a dragon that we'll meet in the future, but I'm going to keep that quiet for now, since we're not close to being done yet... all I can say is that the final entry on these maps, that being 'Almighty Soul' is probably the final part to Zenus... but for the life of me, I cannot figure out what it might look like!" I frowned.
"Well, before we do anything else, I suggest we go to Stornway with your fancy Zoom spell and get to the first of these dens. Maybe we can find out more after the fact," Keira smiled, me nodding.
"I'll help out if I can, big brother," Firkle said from Marionnette's mouth, me feeling very awkward every time I heard her voice in the former doll's body.
"We really need to find a way to get Firkle her own body as opposed to being in Marionnette, because I just feel so weird with this situation... maybe even separate Drake and Crux, too," Carly frowned.
"It's like you read my mind, Carly... so what about the boat?" I asked.
"It'll be safe where it's at currently, trust me," Marionnette said, me smirking at that. I then cast Zoom, us then going to the entrance of Stornway before we then followed the map for the Lightning Steed, finding the entry underneath one of the bushes near the flowerbed, me then removing the foliage with the sword so we could go inside.
"Be careful, we don't know what we'll find in this place," I warned, us then going down the steps and proceeding through the labyrinthian maze within. On the way, we found some tough enemies like the Expload, Weakon Beakons, and a couple Canniboxes disguising themselves as treasure chests, but after taking each of them out, as well as an antagonistic Metal Slime, we managed to get up to levels 15 for all of our different classes, which made us very tough, especially after upgrading our skills into the different skill trees. Marionnette and Firkle got more fisticuffs skills and got tension strengths, while the others got even more strengths for their respective preferred vocations and preferred weaponry. As for me and Crux, we got more strengths in the swordplay and some more into the mage's special powers, just because we were learning all the spells for all the different classes, which meant we needed more MP for future use.
We then finally descended to the 4th floor, us feeling a bit of tension in the air as we moved forward, going to the center arena... before we heard a loud whinnying out of nowhere. And afterwards, we gawked at how the giant dark horse emerged from a blast of lightning, it then clicking its hooves against the ground, creating small sparks of electricity.
"Oh... flap..." Stella gulped.
"You... you are mortal scum, are you not?" the steed asked, me being surprised that it could talk to us and knew what we were.
"Yes. And you are the feet of the Almighty Zenus, right?" I asked, him then snorting at me saying that.
"Very astute, for a mortal. How do you know that?" he asked.
"Because I'm not just a mortal. I'm part Celestrian, same with Pavo," I said, the horse then looking at me and glaring.
"How dare you claim to be Celestrains! I shall show you fear as I race across your corpses!" the horse shouted as we then got ready.
"Sorry, Zenus, but we're going to save you from this madness!" I shouted as we then proceeded to attack the giant horse with our own skills, us outspeeding it and doing major damage with our attacks! In total from our strengths, we managed to demolish the giant horse's health to the point that it was limping on its front left leg, as that was what got hurt the most! As for damage numbers? 1630. Meaning he only had a single hit of HP left. He then attacked with a powerful lightning attack, which stung all of us before I then looked at the giant steed with seriousness.
"Why are you even bothering to fight us? You need to snap out of it!" I said to him.
"I do not bend to the whim... of mortals," he growled at me.
"You say that, but what would your little girl say?" Stella asked, that making him gasp.
"Y-You... I... I remember you," Equinox gawked as it looked at Stella, her looking surprised.
"You do?... You remember me?" she asked.
"Yes... the meaner side of Celestria... you are Stella..." he said, that making the group of us surprised. "I... I must apologize... I did not recognize you in my madness..." he said before then reverting his large body into a small ball of lightning that became condensed. "Take my essence... once combined with the rest of them, I can finally reform as who I was prior... I only ask that you let me see my beloved daughter once more..." he said before then giving the essence to Stella, which surprised the little fairy as she then looked at us.
"Soooo... you want to explain what that was all about, little miss fairy goddess?" Crux asked, her frowning at me.
"I uh... no, I don't... but I know I have to now, or you'll keep bugging me about it," she sighed. "I'll tell you all, but I think we should get to the Quester's Rest first. It's almost nightfall... I'll explain over dinner," she said, me nodding at that as we then exited the grotto via Evac, before then going back into Stornway.
We got to the Quester's Rest to see that Erinn was working quite well and that business was booming, which I expected.
"Oh, Drake and friends! What brings you here?" Erinn asked with a smile.
"Well, we just beat a very tough enemy right next to Stornway, hidden in a secret cave... and we wanted to have dinner and a bed for the night," I smiled.
"If you pay 30 gold coins, I'll accept that," she smirked, us then doing so before we then got some food delivered to our table, which Stella then started to talk.
"Okay, since no one else can see me, I'll explain it to you and you don't ask anything until we get to the room for bedtime," she said, us nodding. "Here goes... tss... I'm not really a true fairy. I'm the sister of the goddess Celestria, us both being the daughters of the Almighty Zenus," she said, the group of us looking surprised, but not saying anything. "Back in the Gittish Empire is when we were born, around 320 years ago... back then, we were merged as one being known as Stellestria. We were the ones who created the House of Gitt to be the cruelest thing ever... and then, only after a single year of reigning and after we made the Gortress, father attacked us and separated us into two beings. Celestria was favored for being the positive side, while I was given the short end of the stick, being the more malevolent side. I was banished from father's side and was given the duty of the Starflight Express, having to listen to Fatguts for nearly 300 years. And during that time, I never once got a meeting with daddy again... that is, until we fought that horse monster... it knew who I was because it was the feet of my father... I need to say more things, but I have to wait until we're asleep... I'll tell you the rest of the tale when we go to sleep tonight," she said, us nodding.
After eating, we had almost no questions as we went to sleep, the only one being if she was different than she was in the past.
"Yes, I'm much better off after that ordeal. Having to get ordered around by Fatguts and being forced to spread the word of the Almighty and the Celestrians to the mortals via writing messages, it was enough to make me less mean," she said.
"No less sassy, though," Veronica smirked.
"Well, you got me there," she smirked as we then finally went to sleep...
...
When I was asleep... I found myself in a dream similar to the dream sequences of the first Pokemon Mystery Dungeon... with me sitting in place and seeing a person appear in front of me, that being Stella.
"You want to learn something important, Drake?" she asked, me smiling at her.
"What would that be?" I asked.
"W-Well... I already knew who you were before I even met you..." she said, me raising an eyebrow. "And no, neither I nor Celestria brought you here... all I can gather is that you didn't come here from another reality... you came from the past. Really, REALLY far from the past," she said, me then looking at her with a double-take.
"What?... You're joking, right?" I asked, her shaking her head no. "Then why is technology so basic... why does everything look like the game's graphics?... And how far in the future are we?" I gawked.
"In order asked... no, I'm not joking. Technology is basic because of a war years ago between humans all over, Zenus wiped those humans out before making a new batch after making the world start over from scratch, and they didn't have anything more than the inventions that they had during the medieval times. Everything looks like the game's graphics because... well, when I sensed your arrival and saw your thoughts, I changed your perception to make it more... easy on the eyes? I could change it if you don't mind," she said.
"Please do..." I frowned. She then snapped her fingers and I saw she looked more realistic in an instant, her looking... even cuter for some reason. "And as for how far in the future we are?... 5000 years, give or take a few... and the war that made daddy destroy humanity the first time took place 3000 years ago, in the year 5289 AD. He didn't really do much to destroy the humans, since they were in the single digits when he killed the rest of them. That's how war-torn the world was and why he remade the planet," she said, me gulping.
"So... does that mean that everyone I knew in the past... I'll never see them again?" I asked.
"Tsk, yeah... you were the only one brought here and sensed you were getting lonely, so I asked Celestria to bring in a couple more family members from your world to this one... but her powers are more limited in her current state, as I'm sure you know, so she could only manage to send the souls into the bodies of people the moment they could be inhabited, those being Carly in Catarrhina and Firkle in Marionnette," she explained.
"Why didn't you say anything before this?" I asked.
"Think about it. Do you really think you'd believe me when we first met? I know for a fact how mortals work. You would've never believed me unless I earned your trust, first," she said, me frowning.
"I hate that you're right... but if you and Celestria didn't bring me here, then who did?" I asked.
"I don't know. All I know is that it had to be someone stronger than us to have sent you into a Celestrian's body. My bet is on daddy, before he got attacked, but I can't pinpoint who it was... the only way to find out for sure is to get everything done here and ask him yourself. Once he's back to normal, he should be able to know. He is omnipotent, after all," she smirked.
"Yet he couldn't dodge an attack shot from the Protectorate?" I frowned.
"I said omnipotent, not bright. He probably thought he'd be able to take a hit, but he was proven wrong," she smirked at me with a small giggle.
"Sounds like he's a piece of work," I frowned.
"He is, for sure. But he's also my daddy and I want him back so I can hug him at least one more time... so please, I ask you to get strong enough to follow through to the end. I swear that I'll find a way to send you to your own timeline after we do so," she said, me smiling and shaking my head. "You... don't want to go back?" she asked.
"I do, don't get me wrong... but I've kinda gotten used to this place. It's more adventurous and most of the folks are very nice... and I have a wife and two girlfriends on my side now... back home, I was in the middle of an outbreak that made everyone miserable or horrible, so I want to stay here. Sure, risk of death might be higher, but not with healing magics up the wazoo... so long as I can do one more thing," I said, her smiling at me.
"What would that be?" she asked with a smirk.
"Well... maybe you and me... y'know?" I asked, her frowning at me.
"You're really gonna try this, aren't ya?" she asked, me nodding. "I'll allow it, but only after the Fyggs are collected. I don't know what all is gonna happen, but I will reciprocate when you gather the last two Fyggs," she said, me smirking and nodding at that.
"Thanks," I smirked at her... and then, I woke up.