AN: Yo, a few notes for everybody before we start.
1: This is the LAST chapter with large background content being introduced. Everything after this chapter is meetings with various characters from canon, potion creation, auctions, and action stuff. I think with this last one, we're set for a while.
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2: This OG chapter was fookin massive, holy hell, it was a pain in my ass to edit. Chapter 5 and 6 in the OLD version were around 30K long split between the two, with 5 having close to 20K. not even mentioning the portions of chap 4 I cut off. With the helpful advice of my beta, I've decided to keep the fight scene and family time for chap 5 and leave the potion stuff and flashback to the meeting with the king for chapter 6.
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3: I figured I should mention I'm working on things as I go along, so I don't got a stockpile. No actual release schedule, but I'll try to keep working on things every day.
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4: I never thought I'd have to say this on the fanfiction community, but please keep any xenophobic human supremacist comments to yourself. I think that falls under the whole 'don't rave or rant uselessly' request I made. 'Magi Mari,' I saw your recent reviews on the OLD version and you should stop here as this chapter is focused heavily on the snake family. As long as a being has intelligence, it can be hated or loved in equal measure. Please do not insinuate what I can or cannot write in my own story. Plus, this is Fairy Tail; out of all places to give me shit for writing magical creatures into a family, it's the one show where Dragons raised kids as their own children? Where the MC had a talking cat as a partner/son/brother? Natsu's goal in life was to find his 'father' for years.
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5: Ignoring that, a guest reviewer asked about a spell that could be aimed at making potions take instant effect. While that thought crossed my mind at one point, it didn't feel right. This chapter will introduce a few new ways for potions to be used besides actually drinking them or applying them topically in some cases.
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6: Finally, I take all requests for potion ideas, magic tool ideas, and possible character ideas for characters who could be crossed over into FT seamlessly, like what I once did with Revy the Ink Mage.
Just keep idea's within the world's limits. And no giving Dante more magic styles or permanent abilities or something. If it's a temp potion effect, or something permanent that has a downside used over a long period of time, it's fair game.
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"Somebody speaking."
'Somebody thinking.'
{Telepathy}
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, or any other anime/novel/manga/fanfic that I may use.
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Chapter 5: Taking A Stroll
It was a few days after the previous incident when Dante stepped outside his house for another morning routine.
Virgo had calmed down by the time he returned and handed her a bundle of freshly picked flowers. The twitch of her lips as she called him a fool and rolled her eyes while trying not to smile was exactly what he was looking for. A lot of affection, some gentle lovemaking, and the promised massage followed by a home-cooked meal finished off the day on a positive note as the two snuggled in with their bodies glued together under their sheets and slept in peace.
The times the two were legitimately mad at the other could be counted on a single hand, and those times were settled by first giving the other space and then having a calm discussion to deal with things and not let them fester, followed by make-up sex. Most things ended in sex at some point between the two, but they never let anything truly come between them and be ignored. They were in for the long haul and had no plans to slow down.
Dressed in nothing but black sweatpants with wrappings around his wrists, ankles, and shins, Dante stretched out with satisfying cracks and pops before getting into a runner's stance at the edge of the clearing. It was currently a Friday, and Friday meant a long run through his territory, followed by checking up on particular residents. 'That is if they don't find me first.'
Dante looked up at the overcast sky a final time before tying a band around his eyes, casting his vision into darkness. A deep breath of crisp forest air filled his lungs, and the sound of bird song and distant roars of beasts filled his ears.
And then the darkness faded as he opened himself to the world fully. The thick ethernano encompassed his world like a fog of multicolored lights, everything in his range pulsing with life and energy. One by one, trees came into shape, the earth below him, the blades of grass, the thick roots spreading like a maze of formations below and above ground.
Everything breathed in ethernano, circulated it through their forms, and each lit up in his mana sense with distinct imagery beyond the physical form.
This was how he trained his mana sense, pushing it farther out of his body with every attempt and seeing the world in the true magical sense it existed in.
And then he moved. Calculations flew through his mind like a machine as his feet cracked the earth around him in his lunge beyond the edge of his clearing. The nearest tree's trunk grew in size to his sense as he timed his movements to where he knew the bark existed.
His body spun through the air to land on an angle against the trunk and lunged again in a different direction, keeping his momentum as he bounced from one tree to another without touching the ground or using his hands.
Faster and faster, he moved, twisting, twirling, and cracking bark as he sped up like the world's largest pinball among a forest of pins waiting to bounce him away. His bare feet left only the barest of traces along the bark as he controlled his body to an extremely fine degree.
Various root structures looking like glowing lasers of energy to his sense giving him increasingly more complex challenges as his body maneuvered through them without bleeding off momentum.
The world was alive, and he was moving with it in a way only those deeply connected to the energy of the world could. He breathed in tune with the ethernano, his mana sung in his pathways, and his soul was free as he pushed his physical form to its limits.
The various effects of slow-growth potions pumped through his veins as they were stimulated to push his body beyond mortal physical limitations.
The wind screamed in his ears, and using nothing but pure muscle, he was over two miles away from his home and still speeding up within minutes. The faster he moved, the quicker he had to calculate and take action.
After thirty minutes, he was panting and slick with sweat, his heart pounding like a drum and his limbs feeling like lead, and yet he kept pushing, aiming for a complete circuit to the edge of the redwood tree ecosystem before coming right back.
Unfortunately, his environment wasn't interested in his workout routine, and nature stepped in to remind him where he was.
At the border of the redwood ecosystem, just as he came into the range of the dense foliage of a neighboring tropical jungle ecosystem, the sound of the wind whistling reached his ears as a boulder the size of his body came soaring toward him.
There was no initial sign, he was between trees, and it came from a direction his physical sight wouldn't notice, and yet in his heightened state, his body moved as he saw. Time slowed as a burst of burner flames left his right foot, altering his path and spinning him through the air to bend his body like a gymnast around the boulder, seeing every crack and grain of its internal ethernano it passed inches from his face.
The second of slowed perception passed, and he was forced to spin as a massive boom rang through the woods as the boulder smashed into a tree, the wind pressure blowing him farther off course. His feet touched down for the first time in thirty minutes as he dug his feet through the bare earth, leaving trails of dust as his momentum was bled off. Not a single sign of injury prevalent on his form from digging straight through dozens of feet of earth.
A beat of silence rang through the woods as his blindfold was removed to reveal cold blue eyes frosted over, glowing with the mana he was pumping into his sense organs as he crouched in the dust cloud and locked onto a growing form.
"ROOARRR!" An explosive shout rocketed through the clearing, blowing the dust cloud away as Dante's ears were momentarily deafened.
His gaze didn't falter as he stared down at the new arrival. A primate standing over four and a half meters tall with six appendages, two legs, and four arms. Green teal fur covered the rippling muscles spread over its ape-like body.
Dante spat out some dirt that got in his mouth as he stared at the beast. "Tch, a Troll Kong. You ruined my time, dick." The beast roared in response, and Dante released the pressure of his mana reserves, letting its weight hang in the air as he pushed his emotional annoyance into the mana, broadcasting his emotions over the ethernano in the air and letting the beast know what kind of fight it was picking.
Mana sang through his limbs as they were reinforced, and the two stared off for a beat before a second Troll Kong came out of the foliage of the jungle. Dante clicked his tongue and retrieved his personal weapon from his Requip space, feeling its weight settle on his wrist. "At least now it's a fair fight."
Troll Kongs, not to be confused with the Wrath Vulcans that originally lived in the Redwood forest, were the apex predator of the neighboring jungle ecosystem, living in packs, and they hated Dante and his 'security measures' that called the redwoods home. Their magic allowed them to increase gravity in a sphere around them, and their bodies were a result of years under that pressure. A tenacious and annoying beast that could cause untold destruction if they lived outside a Danger Zone.
The two apes beat their chest with resounding booms that shook the canopies around them as Dante loaded a potion into his personal weapon.
Shimmering dull gray chain links clinked gently against their bounds. A dark-gray gauntlet covered his left forearm, idly clinking with tightly wrapped chains around his forearms in a brace.
His gift from the celestial Spirit King, given for great services done for their realm and a sign of friendship. A free chance to commission any weapon from the immortal smiths of the celestial realm.
Virgo hounded him for weeks before he gave in and accepted the gift, not wanting to be appreciated for doing something he would give in a heartbeat.
The weapon was a joint project between Dante, Virgo, and two master spirit smiths. A product made mainly of mithril, a fantasy metal used more for channeling mana and flexibility than durability. The ore was forged into a gauntlet outfitted with five chain tips, one connected to each finger of his left hand. Each finger chain tip was enchanted with a different effect and heavily reliant on Dante himself.
"ROAR!" One of the apes broke the standoff and charged, its six limbs pushing it forward at speeds unexpected for its bulk, as the second one ripped out a boulder and hefted it to throw.
The moment the first moved, so too did Dante. His right hand flashed with a palm-sized magic circle as plumes of heavy parasitic fog obscured his form just as his left hand flicked, launching a chain tip connected to mana construct chains with punishing force to the side as it extended its reach to wrap around a redwood with an application of telekinesis before pulling him away rapidly from the ape's gravitational field to swing around the trunk and up onto a branch a dozen meters off the ground.
His form vanished from their view just as the boulder from the second ape was launched into the fog while the first ape smashed straight into the fog, smashing the ground trying to find him, unknowingly covering its entire body with the mana-eating fog. The chain links rapidly retracted back into his gauntlet and slotted itself in its launcher under his pointer finger. The mana-constructed chain returning the mana spent to form it.
The gauntlet itself had simple enchantments from self-cleaning, resizing, and increased durability. But it had a single additional one for launching out any of the five chain tips controlled by flexing his fingers. The pointer finger held a chain meant for grappling as it extended for as much mana as supplied in whatever direction launched to be grabbed by Dante's telekinetic grasp. The chain being formed with his mana allows for direct real-time manipulation using telekinesis.
Dante learned long ago how annoying it was to get through a Troll Kong's muscles, with or without the damn gravity magic, and didn't bother trying to get through its hide with fire or water spells. He stared down at the rampaging Troll Kong beneath him, still trying to find him among the fog, and released even more fog from his palm to drop down onto its head, using its own gravity against it and blinding the beast as the fog stuck to its face. 'Tank this you durable fucker.'
A boulder smashed into the spot he just stood as his application of fog gave him away, cracking the wood of the branch with splintering force. He kicked off into the air, releasing a burst of flames from his feet to launch him to the side, extending his pointer finger chain again to launch him in a new direction as more debris followed the first rock.
The second ape was picking up everything around it and launching them with all the force of cannonballs thrown by a five-meter tall and two-ton weighing monkey who never skipped leg day.
Dante pinballed through the trees, using fire and chain alike to maneuver around the ammunition coming his way to gain ground on the second ape. Once in range, his right pointer finger pointed up as a pillar of burner flames appeared directly beneath the second ape, launching condensed fire directly up into its face. It didn't so much as injure the beast as blind it and send it into a moment of panic as all animals fear fire on an instinctual level.
From the distance he was at, his flames couldn't be charged enough to make a strong enough impact, but that wasn't his goal. All he needed was a moment of free space to channel all his momentum forward.
The ape still stumbling and grabbing its face as Dante spun like a top through the air, extending a small ball on a chain connected to his thumb finger, watching it gain momentum as the force transferred to the small metallic bead that glowed with the dense mana fueling its enchantment, its weight rapidly increasing with each spin.
With a final burst of fire pushing the force of his body even harder and a guttural roar of his own, the chain didn't so much as whistle as it flew through the air but scream as it fell to land on the beast's head. The bead was tiny, barely the size of a fingertip, but the second it touched down, the ape's roars were silenced as its head was pulped with an almighty crack of its skull ringing far and wide, spraying blood and brain matter through the air like a fountain.
The thumb finger held a weight enchantment. The tiny bead made of pure adamantium had an enchantment to increase or decrease its weight by how much mana was put into it. It took over a year, and numerous injuries, including almost ripping his arms off on multiple occasions, for Dante to master the control necessary to safely use such a feature as tons of weight could be channeled into the tiny ball.
Due to the same weight enchantment, he couldn't extend the chain far as the mana to extend it conflicted with the mana fueling the enchantment, meaning he had to be within a specific range to land a hit in the first place.
It wasn't pure muscle strength that allowed him to be safe, but the extremely delicate muscle and mana control to act exactly how he needed to when he wanted to. The moment the bead landed, Dante yanked on the chain and pulled out the mana from his thumb chain before the weight could pull on him where it would tear his arms from its sockets, letting the ape corpse take the brunt of things as he bled off his momentum, using tiny bursts of fire to slow his descent.
He landed on the balls of his feet without a sound on a tree branch just as the beast's corpse fell to the earth and shook the ground with the weight of its corpse, his thumb chain rapidly retracting while losing weight. His blood sang with adrenaline as he panted from the exertions, his tongue coming out to lick his cheek where a stray line of blood from the beast had sprayed on him.
The entire event since he first cast his fog till that point lasted only three minutes, with the majority of that time being him maneuvering through the trees dodging projectiles. As Dante grew stronger and faced more and more powerful magical beasts, the actual fights grew shorter, with everyone moving faster and magic taken into effect.
But that wasn't the only thing that changed as he grew. Where many mages with combat-focused magics found their bodies naturally becoming more durable, Dante was forced to do things by hand and potion. His durability, instincts, and entire fighting style were birthed through conflict. He willingly threw himself into the forge to refine himself, one injury and magical beast corpse after another.
It indeed wasn't an exaggeration to say he would have died hundreds of times without health potions and Virgo watching over him in his earlier days. She had seen his kind, gentle, caring, and loving side when he dealt with her. And she saw the primal, calculative, and wild side when he dealt with threats.
It was addictive to watch. She often found herself mesmerized watching him move like a predator, all lithe, elegant, and deadly. That went double for the fact that she knew that no matter how heated his blood became, she could walk right up to him without a single ounce of danger coming her way.
If his soul contained barbs faced at the world, she would find those barbs surrounding her protectively. Not that she needed protection, but she loved the feeling of being cherished so purely.
But what grew more than anything, more than his style, more than his will, more than his combat lust, more than his calculative mind, more than anything at all, was his instincts. No one spends years in life and death combat, pushed to your edge time and again, watching beast after beast die and cover you in their blood while being torn apart and relying on potions to bounce back, coming out perfectly sane on the other side.
Dante kept a lid on it; he was never at risk of losing control. His will and mind were more than in control in all situations. But in live combat, feeling that risk of losing his life like the edge of a knife hovering close by, he couldn't help but willingly give in to that primal part of him. An almost inhuman hiss wanted to leave his lips in a wild sort of excitement.
The world shook violently as the first Troll Kong found its way over, having torn through the fog sticking to its face and tackling the tree Dante was standing in. He grunted as the weight of the ape's gravity reached him, pushing him toward the ground with punishing force as its bulky body climbed up the tree trunk to reach for him.
With a groan in the back of his throat, Dante kept calm and flipped over the branch with a swing, letting the extra gravity help pull him toward the beast beneath him. Its wrath filled if slightly sagging eyes from the mana drain locked onto him as it roared with fury; its four arms reached out to his falling form with titanic grips to crush him into powder.
Holding a palm out before and behind him, Dante's mana pumped through his arms rapidly, fueling the strongest burner flame he could manage as the flames turned white and blue, extending from his hand in a spike as the very air-popped, burned, and hissed during its passing.
The beast screeched as its hands changed directions to protect its face, and unfortunately for Dante, no matter how hot he could manage to make his flames, they were still made of mana, and mana resistance was a staple of magic creatures. His basic spell formula didn't have the pure power output to do lethal damage to a beast at that level. The incredible heat washed over the ape, leaving burns and singed fur but otherwise not getting through its hide.
Dante knew this, his fire and water spells were more or less useless on beasts of significant size in direct applications, and he didn't count on them to finish the fight. His pointer finger chain extended through the flames, masked by the light, as it latched around the ape's neck. He snapped forward as he tugged on the chain while retracting, pulling him rapidly toward the beast's neck while using the heated palm behind him to propel passed its scorched and blind grasping palms.
Burnt hair and pungent body order assaulted his senses as he swung up and landed on the back of the beast's neck, pressed down by the increased gravity.
Acting rapidly, two finger chains launched outward. The first was his ring finger chain, shaped into an artistically detailed snake-fanged maw, reaching forward to stab into the beast's inner collarbone, injecting a dose of highly concentrated tranquilizing potion into its veins from the potion vials slot in his gauntlet.
The chain was the only one to not be made of chain links, as a thin metallic cable would extend to inject liquids with all the force of a bullet being launched from a chamber. Due to its make-up, it was the only chain unable to extend far from his body, only usable in short range, but it allowed a far easier method of injecting potions passed a mage or magic beast's mana resistance to get to their soft innards.
As the potion entered the beast's bloodstream, the second chain, being his pinky finger chain, extended rapidly with a hooked end to wrap around the beast's neck in loops as he kicked off the ape to land on the nearest redwood trunk, looping the width of the tree to lock the chain against its own weight. And not a moment too soon as two of its massive arms came swinging to smash into its own neck where he stood before.
The beast thrashed as the potion and chain went into effect, losing its grip on the trunk and dangling helplessly.
The pinky chain was the entrapment chain. Made primarily of Etherium on the hooked end, a metal used across all of Ishgar in limited amounts as mana-suppressing manacles to disrupt the mana flow of those who physically touch the metal. Its metallic properties act like a signal jammer for the mana inside the body, not allowing it to flow along pathways to take any solid form.
The metal was only found in tiny amounts, and every kingdom hoarded it for use in manacles for prisoners. And even then, it was hard to produce in large quantities, making only the stronger prisoners worth using it on.
It had one major weakness, which was that the effect could be fought off if the target had too much mana or willpower on the initial contact. It required a target to be drained or exhausted before it could really take effect, and once locked on, it was incredibly difficult to fight off without literally removing the metal from the body.
The ape roared in agony and fury as the annoying ant wouldn't stay still for it to crush like it was used to doing to its foes. It thrashed violently, its four arms desperately searching for him as its eyes were still blinking spots from the extreme heat blast to the face. Its eyes might have been protected from the elements, but its retinas sure weren't resistant to light.
The weight of its movements, plus a slight application of water magic on the tree trunk, made sure it couldn't get a new grip as the chain choked off air and mana from reaching its brain.
Its gravitational field slowly came down as the beast lost consciousness and the tree groaned against the weight of the ape. Its ancient roots being the only thing keeping it upright as the beast's movements slowed.
The combination of the parasitic fog, tranquilizer tearing through its veins, Etherium lodged in its neck, and the force of its own weight hanging it by the neck was rapidly pulling the fight from it.
Dante watched on silently, standing on his own pinky chain where it was wrapped around the tree and looking down at the beast without mercy. He had been dealing with the Troll Kongs for years at this point, and he had long since grown tired of their attacks and efforts for expansion into his territory.
It was a good thing some things liked ape flesh. A shadow flashed through the tree's canopy as scaled and feathered skin launched forward like a missile, fangs latching onto the dying beast's throat and tearing into it with savage grace.
Dante watched on silently with cold analyzing eyes at the gruesome sight, not dropping his guard for a moment as he looked around. He had sensed the snake arrive through his mana sense halfway through the fight. A giant reptilian gaze covered in blood looked up at him from its perch, cold analytical eyes fueled by primal fire matching slitted pupils narrowed into wild intensity hiding inner intelligence.
Predator stared at predator for a long moment as the cold of Dante's gaze receded into warm fondness. Sitting down on his chain casually, he let the tension drop from his shoulders and sighed as he called out. "Oi. Don't eat that you brat, its full of tranqs."
The snake hissed in teenage rebellion as it dove back into its meal without care. Dante rested his head on a fist as he sat crossed-legged and watched on in amusement, looking fondly at one of his 'security measures.'
It took no more than a minute for the snake to freeze mid-bite and lose its grip. A strangled cry of displeasure and confusion left its bloody maw as it fell to the earth below with a boom.
Dante laughed and let himself fall backward off his chain to the hanging corpse, stopping only to detach his hooked pinky chain tip and leave the beast hanging by the detached chain made of mana before dropping to the ground.
The extending chain links of his weapon were formed from his mana. He could retract the chain to recover the mana used or break it off and leave the chain until it dissolved when it ran out of mana, but he had to retrieve the chain tips as he couldn't replace them easily. The ape would fall down soon enough on its own.
Dante inserted the detached chain tip back into his gauntlet as he approached the fallen snake and dismissed his weapon, idly noticing that the wrappings around his wrists and ankles had torn off at some point in the seven-minute fight.
Thankfully, his sweatpants were made of tougher material. 'I still remember that time I didn't notice my pants tearing apart during training and had to get stuck in a fight with two normal horny Vulcan's while in the buff.' A shiver went down his spine at the memory.
He filled out wonderfully during puberty, but until he hit fourteen, he was still pretty small. With his hair grown out and softer facial features, the giant lustful apes wouldn't stop staring at his ass.
He wondered for a moment if he was too harsh on those two but shrugged that thought off. 'I explained very thoroughly while trying to kill them that I was a man, it's not my fault they decided I was 'close enough not to matter. Besides, I only left two bodies behind.' The Vulcan community in that area never recovered from the brutal slaughter of a maid who thought her territory was being encroached upon. 'Even now, Virgo gets that unholy look in her eye when someone mentions Vulcans….'
Shaking off those disturbing thoughts, Dante twitched his hand and pulled a syringe out of his Requip space. The snake's eyes widened at the sight of it, and a near-silent hiss of protest rang out while Dante pulled out a potion vial. "Don't be such a baby. Do you want to be paralyzed for the next 8 hours?"
A hiss of approval was all the snake could manage, and Dante's eye twitched. Ignoring the giant baby, he filled the syringe from the vial, loading up the counter drug to his tranquilizer potion, and jabbed the snake in the side between two scales. "Your mother would have my hide if I left you here."
Dante could have used his chain weapon to inject the counter for the tranquilizer, but using an enchanted syringe was easier on the body. Developed originally for children, enchanted syringes were cylinders with extremely sharp needles mostly hidden, and on contact with the body, acted quickly to reach the vein and pull out while stimulating the skin to heal rapidly and close up the hole.
Dante was in the process of weaponizing them for his potions when the gift came from the Celestial Spirit King. In truth, he had half a dozen ways to use his potions in combat, from adding a potion to his water spell, using gas attacks, traps, and even combining some with his fire, but the mithril weapon was simply the most convenient and worked best against mana resistance opponents.
Dante plopped on the ground next to the big snake and leaned back into it with a stretch, pulling out a strawberry-flavored health potion to speed up the recovery of his torn muscles. Heavy exercise and fighting magical creatures was practically a staple of his week, if not day, since he couldn't come out and go wild all the time anymore. Virgo could be downright cruel in dragging him away from some fun life and death fighting to go back to work. 'Stupid maid, god I love her.' He would probably be a much less successful business owner without her.
The health potion he used wasn't because he hurt himself but because, as a potion master, he could liberally use health potions to cheat by speeding up the recovery period of his muscles. The faster he recovered, the faster he could repeat the cycle as his body grew stronger and stronger.
Tossing the little vial back in his Requip space, Dante threw his hands behind his head and ignored the giant twitching snake. Although calling it a 'snake' wasn't the best description to do it justice.
It was a plumed, winged creature with a serpentine body and a length of fifteen feet. A beak that looked like it could poke a hole through metal gleamed menacingly in the sunlight. From head to tail, along its spine and wings, it was covered in azure blue feathers, with its stomach covered in blue reptilian scales, and its wings dark purple feathers.
It was, arguably, not really a snake at all, but Dante didn't sweat the small details.
The beast was an Occamy, a name he found familiar from Harry Potter but didn't have the lore on to recognize. In the current world, Occamy's were a rare but recognized magical creature with the ability to magically alter their size at will up to three times their size at most, and to the size of a teapot at the smallest.
And considering they were fifteen feet long, fully grown, they were pretty intimidating at their full expanded size.
Seeing it hiss pitifully and twitch as the antidote for the paralysis worked through its body, Dante couldn't help but recall the time after the snakebird hatched.
That was, unfortunately, a day Virgo decided to troll him.
Flashback:
"Master, the eggs are hatching." Virgo's calm and low voice rang in the lab while Dante was working.
He turned up from a text he was reading next to a bubbling cauldron. "Hm? That's nice love…." He commented absentmindedly as he was in the middle of a potion brew before his eyes widened in recognition of her words. "Wait…what eggs?" His head snapped up to meet Virgo's impeccable poker face as she approached him and spoke lowly.
"Master…the eggs…they're hatching." She reached forward to take his hand and place it on her naval.
Dante's 'what the fuck' look was priceless as he gazed between his hand and her face rapidly. His mind going on tangents as his face began to pale. "Virgo…when you say 'eggs'…?"
"The eggs are hatching." Her calm voice let nothing out as she watched his face turn various shades of pale and red in silent hilarity. He audibly swallowed and put a shaky free hand on her shoulder before steeling his spine and asking. "Are we pregnant Virgo?"
Virgo's head tilted to the side in the way she knew drove him crazy while keeping her face blank. "I don't see how you would be part of a birthing process master."
Dante almost smashed his head into his desk as he deadpanned at her before taking a deep breath. He knew if he answered that question, the next two hours were going to make him consider throwing her out a window. "Virgo, are you pregnant?" He corrected himself firmly.
She bent forward, mask in place, reaching for his collar, and pulled him down so she could whisper in his ear. "Master…" She added a breathy aspect to her tone, and then she ripped off the band-aid. "The eggs from Everlue's mansion are hatching." Her voice applied the final hit as she released his collar and dusted off his shoulder before turning around and walking away casually.
"Wha…" Dante's mind shut down at the utterly unexpected answer before his face went from pure confusion to dawning realization to extreme annoyance. He turned to his maid only to find her missing from the room with the sound of her running down the stairs in the distance. He knew he just got punked. "VIRGO!" Her clear laughter rang throughout the house for hours after that.
Flashback end.
The way she delivered the news aside, the two ended up watching over the eggs that night as they hatched. The dozen eggs had been temporarily placed in one of the guest rooms in a specially built cradle following instructions from a celestial spirit Virgo had gone to ask advice from.
It took a large influx of mana and the strangest potion recipes Dante had ever heard of to soak the eggs in for a long period of time before they finally reached that point.
From the dozen eggs, six turned out to be Occamy, cracking their shells to reveal pure silver interiors. Tiny little serpents without a single feather coiling around and examining their surroundings with open curiosity. Four of them were females with narrower heads, different scales, and eventual feather patterns. The four girls were troublesome ones that wouldn't sit still and kept clinging to him, wanting to be carried and shown more of the world.
The two boys couldn't be more different. One didn't even bother leaving its egg, too lazy to move from its silver shell, and the other was being doted on by Virgo, soaking up the affection with a happy hiss.
Dante would be the first to admit he kinda half-assed their names, but Virgo approved them, so he felt justified in taking her down with him when it was pointed out.
The two boys were Azure and Blu. Azure was the one twitching on the ground as well as the one who adored Virgo's affection. He was a mama's boy and prone to acting without thinking, as the previous event proved was still happening.
The four girls were named Teal, Sapphire, Celeste, and Sky.
All six were named various shades of the color blue due to their scales, and it made it easy to differentiate based on which snake had what color. Not even Virgo could complain there.
Occamy tended to be nest-type creatures, and the six kids were happy being stuck together. The fact that they seemed to imprint on Dante and Virgo as their parents and accepted Dante as their pack leader made them very easy to deal with.
At least as babies.
Magical creatures grew quickly, and once the six of them hit their puberty cycle, they were aggravatingly curious children. Dante and Virgo both experienced the horrors of parenthood, having to keep an eye on the troublemakers so they didn't go touch something they weren't supposed to.
You couldn't even lock a door on them as they would shrink to fit under it. Or make pitiful noises if you locked them up until you caved in.
The two parents were both extremely grateful and upset to know it only took a season before the snake birds got big enough to hunt on their own. Not wanting to make them unable to live on their own, the two of them taught the snakes how and where to hunt while they were still weaker, and eventually, they left the nest completely to settle into their own self-made habitats in the redwood forest. Starting a war and sharpening their fangs against the annoying Wrath Vulcans that made the place their home before the couple built their home.
The six of them became one part of Dante's home security system since he taught them where the surveillance lacrima were, and they knew to either deal with intruders on their own or get his attention for help.
Dante couldn't be more proud of the creatures he saw as his own chicks. It didn't matter what the species was; as long as they held intelligence and you raised them with your own hands, teaching them right from wrong, experiencing the joys, horrors, and panic attacks of raising a child, you couldn't stop yourself from feeling like a parent.
Azure stirred beneath him, and Dante suddenly found a reptilian head placed on his lap as his kid gave him a pitiful look. Dante just raised a brow at his son in all but blood before chuckling at his look and scratching him where he liked it best. "And what have we learned today, hm?"
Azure gave a half hiss – half chirp filled with annoyance. Dante could easily translate it without words, having been around them long enough. "No, the lesson isn't about the monkey being bad eating. It's about not stealing other's prey. You never know what kind of poison or venom some creature used. Think before you take a bite next time, alright?"
His son looked away from his eyes in shame as Dante leaned forward to wipe off some blood from a head feather. "Don't be upset. Its ok to learn from a mistake. Don't you want to show your mother how much you've grown?" Azure hissed in pleasure at the idea and nodded its head while shrinking its body to wrap more securely around Dante's form.
Dante just laughed as he lost his back support and had to flip up to his feet. "Promise to do your best and I won't tell your mother about this incident. And don't think you can cheat me; I'll tell your sisters to watch you."
Azure's confident gaze looked away in depression before reluctantly giving a confirming chirp. "Good boy. Come, those damn apes might have screwed up my schedule but it's still Friday, I have work to do and we can see if your mother will spoil you." Dante took to the tree branches as he made his way back with Azure perched on his shoulders enjoying the ride.
Seeing the woods without his blindfold was like traveling through a different world. Instead of a world of glowing neon lights, he saw the natural beauty of the massive, seemingly endless redwood forest in the middle of a fall season. The particular ecosystem experiencing all four seasons at various times of the year.
A few minutes in, Dante paused as he felt something ping on his mana sense and looked down to see a sizeable three-headed snake looking back up at him. It was about nine feet long, all told with emerald-green eyes and red and black scales. He sent a wave its way and shouted down. "Need a lift?"
The new snake hissed in apparent joy before it noticed Azure giving it a smug look from Dante's shoulder and froze. Its three heads zeroed in on the lazy bird, and one head hissed something at the other two before they huffed as one and rushed off into the woods.
Dante smiled wryly at the sight and sat down on the branch while absentmindedly scratching Azure's head. 'I know Eddy and Azure bicker a lot but if he's not coming up here to greet me then I have a good guess whats about to happen.'
His Runespoor sons were much more relaxed than the Occamies personality-wise, but they had their own quirks that made them a different kind of handful.
Of the twelve eggs, three turned out to be Runespoor's. Three-headed snakes, each with their own function, sharing a single body with each controlling a long neck.
The left head was the planner; It decided where the main body went and what to do next.
The middle head was the dreamer; It could spend days lost in glorious imagination fighting gods or eating mountains of food and gave inspiration and purpose to the body.
The right head was the critic; it evaluated the efforts required for the other two heads' ideas with constant irritable hissing. Dante jokingly called it the Karen head. It being highly venomous only made it funnier in his mind.
It was common to find wild Runespoor's with their right head missing, as the other two heads often band together to bite it off when they inevitably snap. The fact that it removed a third of its lifespan with the action seemed worth it to the snake in most cases. It didn't help that the moment Dante read that line in a book, he looked over to see the heads snapping at each other and had a mini parental panic attack.
Dante and Virgo had to work hard, burying their heads in dozens of books on magical creatures, all to keep the baby snakes from developing bad habits that could lead to a future scenario. There was no accurate benchmark for them to check as no one ever left a record of raising a Runespoor before, but since it had been a few years and their kids had all their heads, they considered it a win. They deserved their parents of the year coffee mugs.
The Runespoor kids didn't appreciate the cones they were forced to wear whenever they snapped at each other, but the parents were satisfied with the result.
The three Runespoor's were a comedic bunch, constantly bumbling over each other from the moment of their birth. Dante named them in honor of a cartoon he saw as a kid that he felt was fitting. Ed, Edd, and Eddy.
The three buffoons didn't get into trouble like the Occamy, who were just curious; no, they made trouble for the sake of it because it was fun. It was no surprise they were the first to be told to go find their own home in the woods, but not for the reason most would think.
The three amigos might like making trouble, and they got the wildest idea's in their heads with their teamwork, but they listened to their parents and were quick to apologize. The reason they had to go was because of Ed. Ed was….different from the others.
Different how? Well… 'Oh, speak of the devil.'
Riding high and proud, twenty feet in the air, was Eddy, who had just left, and Dante couldn't help but laugh at the sight before him while Azure rolled his eyes. 'That lazy little tyke.'
Eddy was challenged by Azure and called his brother Ed to give him a lift. Ed was different from his brothers; he was big, very big.
With a length of fifty feet and the width of a truck, Ed was THE beast of these woods.
He was born the same size as the others but, for whatever reason, began growing rapidly like someone hit the fast-forward button on life. On the other side of things, his intelligence seemed to take a hit.
He was just as loyal as the rest, but it took him a while to learn everything that everyone else did. Still, Dante never treated him any differently from his brothers.
The tree he stood on groaned loudly as Ed started wrapping around the trunk to climb up and reach him. 'These trees are scary strong; I know how much that big boy weighs.'
Like any good father, he carried his children for a time and spoiled them, but Ed grew too fast, and unfortunately, he didn't seem to get the memo that Dante couldn't handle his weight.
On one side, he had some serious motivational endurance training running away when a young minivan-sized Ed wanted to ride his shoulders, and on the other side, Dante may or may not have developed a phobia for being crushed by large moving things.
Ed's giant left head was the first to reach him and gently rub up against his side, much to Azure's annoyance.
His hiss was strong enough to vibrate his body just from proximity. 'I'm just thankful I managed to develop those constitution potions or that could have been quite lethal.'
Once Ed's playful attitude started being a genuine concern, Dante's life was being put at risk, and Virgo had to step in. Her petite body contained a giant's durability and strength from years upon years of studying earth magic.
Dante was forced to experiment in his lab and ended up creating a potion he named 'PPP' or Pay Pain to Play. It was a pain in the ass to make, and it caused incredible pain for small results. But the potion could be continuously used without side effects and gradually increase the durability of his skin, bones, organs, and muscles. Like a slow growth into dragon slayer territory but using his own potions magic to make it possible, with numerous requirements being needed to make it usable. It was not fun, but it was progress, and Ed didn't have to feel like his father was avoiding him.
The things a parent goes through for their kids.
"Hey big guy, did Eddy pull you along again?" Ed hissed in confirmation, and Dante laughed while scratching under his giant chin to make him happy before the center and left heads approached him from the other side of the tree. Eddy was hissing angrily on Ed's center head, much to Dante and Azure's amusement. "Don't yell at Ed, Eddy. You're the one who chose to ride on the center head because you thought it looked cooler."
Eddy hissed in displeasure but still slid down Ed's head to approach him and wrap around him affectionately.
Azure and Ed greeted each other casually while Eddy tried to get his attention. Thanks to being raised in the same home, all of his kids got along well, even with the mixed species. They all recognized each other as a nest under Dante and Virgo as the alphas. The redwood forest was their territory, and they spread out to cover each side for security.
Dante jokingly named the ecosystem the 'Snakes Den,' but it didn't have the same ring to it as the redwood forest. No magical beast enters the woods without getting through one of the nest.
Of the three remaining eggs, two hatched a pair of female snakes with black scales, blue eyes, sharp horns, and blue gems growing out of their foreheads. The girls were Horned Serpents, and they were fiercely intelligent. Virgo named them Iris and Jade rather than Dante's idea of Onyx and Ebony. To be fair, the girls chose her names over his, so he let it go.
Both girls were down to earth, very calm, always watching, and their love for the family was unquestioned. Dante was sure they were the second most protective of the den.
The gems on their foreheads gave them access to invisibility and flight magic, and they were able to emit a low musical warning tone for danger that could ring throughout the woods to reach everyone at once. Thanks to that, they lived in the lake at the edge of the woods, bordering the ecosystems leading further inward into the Mirage Mountains.
Dante came to learn an essential lesson about when threats were simply beyond him while living in the Danger Zone, and as Gildarts had once said and simplified, it's best not to head toward the center of the mountain range. At least until he had a qualitative change in power.
The Occamy inhabit the tree tops, the Runespoor's the land, and the Horned Serpents in the only large water source. These eleven were the physical security features of Dante's territory, and only their big brother stood apart.
The final and eldest child lived in the tallest redwood in the forest. A behemoth of a tree reaching five hundred feet into the air, head and shoulders above the rest. A giant wind-attributed eagle had lived at the top until it was defeated by his eldest child after three days of battle.
Dante was a proud father that day, hearing his son's victory screech. His name was Ray, and as the big brother of the siblings, he watched over the nest from on high, acting as a deterrent to keep the more extreme beasts beyond Dante's current abilities away whenever they popped up.
Dante would be the first to admit he wasn't exactly expecting to be a parent anytime soon, but he learned the joys of it in time, and the snakes were self-sufficient and powerful. Not to mention that outside of bringing him pieces of magic creatures that entered the forest, they each shed pieces with the seasons that are valuable ingredients for potions.
All three species besides the eldest gave blood and shed scales. The big baby was too 'cool' for such things.
The Runespoor's additionally gave him venom and unfertile eggs they create through mana and spit out. Gross but high-vitality ingredients.
The Horner Serpents gave shards that fell off their horns, and once every other year, they shed their gems to be replaced with new stronger ones.
The Occamy gave feathers and saliva. Their saliva contained dozens of uses in various potion recipes as a binding agent. And their feathers make the best pillows Dante had ever felt. Virgo occasionally took batches of the shed feathers to the spirit world, where she traded some of them to a spirit who likes making cloth items out of interesting materials.
It's never a security issue since Virgo never revealed any personal or essential information about him. But he never ordered her to stay away from any of her friends, often encouraging her to spend time with them in the celestial world, although she rarely ever leaves his side, even on her days off. On such days he clears his own schedule, and the two relax and banter to their heart's content.
Their bond had grown over the years, changing with their emotions, and the contract that bound them had a few critical effects during that time.
Dante had given permission for Virgo to take from his mana whenever it wasn't in use. He saw no reason why not to, seeing as it refilled on its own and most of it was never used during the day. He considered it making practical use of a resource.
Apparently, that was his ignorance speaking at the time as he didn't know the risks. Virgo had explained in great detail how no being gives access to their core to others. Being connected to a core was having a backdoor access past all defenses. You could do virtually anything with such control of a magical being, becoming the toy to another's whims. True-born demons apparently hid their true names due to their names being said back doors in their physiology.
The Celestial contract was supposed to be a bridge with gates on both sides, but Dante's actions had removed his own gate, giving of himself freely to Virgo.
He didn't regret it, but Virgo had gone to great lengths to emphasize the risks so he wouldn't do something stupid like that again. There was a legitimate risk of damaging his core if the drain wasn't appropriately controlled as well, although a generous use of potions went a long way toward using the experience to strengthen his core. Something that the majority of mages had no way of doing besides natural aging. It was expensive, but no monetary cost was worth more than improving himself.
The effects, however, were apparent in Dante's growth. A mage's mana pool grows with usage, and every second of every day, Dante was funneling at least 30% of his mana pool into the bond. It was much less when they first started out, but as his mana pool grew, he increased the drain more and more until Virgo finally put her foot down.
She was upset as it was, seeing as it was anathema to the celestial bond's purpose, and the second he tried giving her more mana without giving her an order, she shut him down hard. There was a fine line between what she considered a wonderful punishment and what she wouldn't stand for.
Dante was currently mid-S-class in pure reserves, and that was with a 30% constant drain that he learned to ignore.
Virgo also heavily benefited from the result as her pocket dimension grew dramatically with the influx of mana. 70% of the mana she received was paid as tax to the celestial realm, and the other 30% went to her own domain and energy pool. She had a massive nest egg she could use to spend without taking anything from Dante in case of emergencies, which he thought was already a benefit on its own.
The years of being a willing mana battery for the Celestial Realm resulted in the Celestial King considering him a true friend to the realm, and hence the gift. The Celestial Realm had been entering a golden period with the massive infusion of mana Dante had been feeding it. They had thousands of silver keys spread across the globe giving tiny drops of mana every time the spirit was used, and the gold keys supplied buckets, but it was nothing compared to the river called Dante, as he gave all the time rather than only when Virgo was given an order.
Dante honestly didn't care as much for the celestial realm himself. He cared because Virgo cared, and as far as he was concerned, the spirit king tried to gift him for giving of himself to the woman he loved. He rejected it for months before Virgo convinced him to accept and stop being a fool. Although, the heart in her eyes as she said it labeled him as her fool.
As the Celestial Realm grew increasingly vibrant, more spirits were born, and with the king being the only one who knew where all the mana was coming from, Dante was able to keep his anonymity. Although occasionally, a crate full of celestial energy infused herbs and liquors would find its way into Virgo's realm and further into Dante and Virgo's home.
The kind king was a bro through and through. He was apparently discussing the benefits of making new standard contracts for spirits to be paid by time rather than use, but that was for the zodiacs to collectively decide.
The thoughts of Virgo made Dante smile mischievously as a thought hit him. While keeping an eye on his kids as they play fought, he poked his mental connection to his lady. {Hey love, you busy?}
A feeling of amusement transferred back immediately. {My, My, is my cruel master not done with his poor maid yet? Didn't you just finish ravishing me this morning?}
Dante rolled his eyes and matched her feelings, sending them back with a feeling of love. {Where is this poor maid? Did we have another employee somewhere?}
He could feel her pout over the connection. {Fine, be that way. What do you need, my love?}
{If you're not busy, hop over, I have something interesting here.}
A trace of curiosity and wariness in tune was sent back. {Did a new beast enter the woods?}
Dante chuckled and shook his head even if she couldn't see it. {Nope, I dealt with some more Troll Kongs earlier, but I found something you might find interesting. No more spoilers.}
The projection of her rolling her eyes was clear as she responded. {I'll be right over master; let me finish repairing the broken window.}
Dante winced at that, having been the one to accidentally break said window when a potion experiment decided it wanted to take the cauldron with it in a shrapnel explosion. {Right, sorry about that, babe. You sure you don't want me to fix it?}
A feeling of wry amusement came back. {I think we both know who we want fixing our home, my love}.
Another wince came from him at that jab. So what if he was shit with carpenter projects. At least he had his potions. And he made drool-inducing liquid drinks and foods. {Take your time, love}.
Her tinkling laughter was his only response as she pulled back, and Dante was left with the kids fighting over his shoulders. He deadpanned at what had escalated while he was distracted. "Oi! I'm not a jungle gym damn it."
It was ten minutes and much wrestling later when a magic circle bloomed a few feet away, and Virgo popped out. The magic seemingly knew the safest place within a few feet from his body to deposit her. Unfortunately for her, the kids knew what that flash meant and acted before she could process her surroundings. "EEP!"
Azure and Ed had abandoned their poor father in a heartbeat to tackle wrap/hug their mother. 'Traitors, abandoning me for their mother without hesitation.' Virgo's adorable squeak made it worth it in his eyes, but his point was there.
The only holdout was Eddy, his loving son stuck with his father through thick and thin. Dante felt proud for all of three seconds before realizing the snake wrapped around him was trying to use his body like a puppet to get closer to his mother. The pride died a horrible death inside him. 'You lazy snake!'
"Ah, young master Azure, young master Ed, it's good to see you." Her words seemed formal, but the loving look and head pats she gave them sent a different message. Dante obliged his son and walked closer, meeting Virgo's gaze as he did so and smiled. "Did you just eep?"
She flushed heavily for a moment but gamely tried to keep her poker face. "I did no such thing." Ed moved his massive head to allow him into the hug circle. "Oh? Are you calling your master a liar Virgo~?" His smile only grew as he wrapped around his woman.
Her eyes had dilated slightly at the tone of his voice. "If…if I am?" He placed his forehead against her own and stared into her eyes. "Then I would have to punish you, wouldn't I?" Her gaze became clouded as her cheeks flushed, and Dante used that moment to strike. With a nod toward his sons, he stepped hard on the ground and vanished from the spot, having jumped above Ed's giant head, just as Azure, Eddy, and Ed wrapped around their mother in a tight hug and clambered for attention.
Virgo snapped out of it then and looked around, seeing herself wrapped in three layers of scales and feathers, and sighed as her deadpan eyes met Dante's amusement-filled ones. "I will have my revenge."
Ed's left head pulled her off the branch and dropped her on his center head, severing her connection to the tree where she could use her magic to escape. Dante just laughed loudly in response and jumped onto the right head. "Head home son." Ed hissed in confirmation and started moving in that direction while Eddy and Azure monopolized her focus.
She could still break away with a reinforcement of celestial energy, but she would never harm the kids by doing that. Dante knew that and took the opportunity to rile her up and tease her while she couldn't physically or verbally respond.
The whole way home, the sexual innuendos only she would understand kept coming, and by the heated glares she kept sending his way, he knew he would pay for them. Despite her openness to sex and its various forms, she wasn't an exhibitionist. She might love to tease and make jokes in public, and she adored making problems for him, but she would never be overly sexual in front of others. She took her maid duties seriously and wouldn't demean either of them by acting like a hussy' in public as she likes to call it. She would dutifully bottle things up until they were alone and only then do her absolute best to break his hips with her own. Although if she could get away with something without being seen, she wasn't beneath having some fun.
The way home was swamped with ambushes from more of the nest as they noticed their parents and came to say hi.
Sky, Blu, and Celeste from the Occamies clambered around, mostly sticking to Dante as Virgo was preoccupied. Dante was just thankful his girls were thoughtful enough to shrink down before doing so, unlike the boys.
Iris, the Horned Serpent, flew up to land on Ed's head, circling up around Virgo with a happy musical hiss.
And Edd appeared from…somewhere, riding Ed's free head as if he were always there.
The only ones missing were Sapphire, Teal, Jade, and Ray. His girls were far more responsible than his sons, and even in these moments, they rotated a few on security just in case. And Ray was the standoffish big brother who never rejected affection but never sought it out like the big soft-hearted lug he was.
Only Virgo's head was visible through the scales and feathers as she spoke like this was an everyday occurrence. "I guess we're having a picnic outside today."
Dante nodded from his own preoccupied seat. "I think we still have that giant Unicorn Boar meat in the cold storage, I'll grab it if you heat up the grill." Virgo hummed in agreement from her side.
Despite being snakes capable of eating raw meat, they were still magical creatures and could enjoy cooked meat without an issue. One never truly experiences the feeling of being a grilling chef until they have felt at least a dozen hungry eyes burning into their back telling them to hurry up. And a single Runespoor has six eyes, let alone all three.
Dante silently accepted his fate with a sigh and got to work.
Two hours later, a group of happy giant snakes were saying their goodbyes before heading back into the woods. "Make sure you bring Jade her share, she would be sad if she missed out." Iris nodded her large head at Dante and gave him a final wrapping hug with her jeweled head resting against his hair before taking off with her package into the air. It was always visually pleasing to watch a Horned Serpent slither through the air.
Iris was the last to leave as the others had taken the portions to the missing siblings and gone back to their own nests in the woods. A portion for Ray had vanished mid-way through the cookout, Dante never forgot to include him even if he 'seemed' to not be present.
Watching them all go, Dante couldn't help but chuckle at the absurdity of his life. 'I knew there was some protagonist shit going on when I grabbed a dozen special eggs from Everlue, but I didn't expect things to turn out this way.'
After the eggs hatched, Dante put out an APB on his network, searching for clues as to where the eggs came from. While some of them could be found in the surrounding nations, Horned Serpents and Ray were not native to Ishgar at all. It took months before a trail came through, tracing back to a black market seller.
The information 'retrieved' from the seller was that the eggs were smuggled out of the main continent the Ishgar peninsula was connected to on the easternmost border where the Pengrande kingdom lay.
A desperate group of bandits led by a group of three S-class dark mages had gone searching for treasure, and only a single S-class returned with a bare five other bandits remaining. No one knew how they got in or out of the chokepoint the Pengrande kingdom had on the only connecting path, but when they returned, they were on the run.
Three dozen eggs were pawned off in batches before the survivors found a small town to lay low in, only for the said town to be burned to ash two days later with not a single survivor.
The eggs were seen as a bad omen and traveled through the underworld market for months, reaching all corners of Ishgar with owners mysteriously going missing alongside the eggs. Something was hunting them down, and all anyone could tell was that it didn't look human based on the remains they found.
In the end, the seller who sold it to Everlue had been desperate to get rid of them and told hundreds of lies for the man to buy them. Everlue didn't know a thing, according to Virgo, and just locked them away in his vault as a visual piece. The fact the vault sealed away the scent and mana trail of the eggs was probably his only saving grace.
The seller wouldn't remember ever having a visit from Dante and Virgo thanks to a few potions, and the two erased any trail of them searching for information just in case it was an organization behind the disappearances. Dante knew non-human groups like Tartarus existed and didn't want to take chances.
The years passed, and nothing came out of it, but Dante was unsure if it were due to the chaser's end, or if it was due to the eggs hatching inside a Danger Zone. An area dense with mana and polluted with mana signatures of thousands of magical creatures.
He shook his head with a sigh while drying his hands on a towel. 'No point in thinking about it; I already have my feelers out there; if nothing pops up, I can only react when it comes.' A gut feeling told him it would be 'when' and not 'if.'
Dante came up behind Virgo, who was using magic to assist in cleaning the large pile of dishes, and wrapped his arms around her while kissing the side of her head. "That was nice huh?"
She smiled warmly and leaned back into him with a sigh of pleasure. "It was. I'm glad we got to see them; we've been busy lately."
"Mn, we should schedule a day for family time." His slight possessive hold when holding her as he said family sent a tingle down Virgo's spine. She turned her head up to kiss his neck before reaching his lips as he looked down. Her eyes shined with love as she pulled back. "We should."
The two held their loving embrace for a moment longer in the ambiance of the late afternoon before Virgo tapped his leg and jerked her chin toward the house. "Enough, I need to finish, and you need to do the work you were supposed to do today."
Dante sent her a pitiful look. "Do I have to?" She snorted and slapped his chest playfully. "Don't fish for pity my love, it's unbecoming. Now shoo, I'm busy."
His look faded as he chuckled and, feeling like teasing the woman, picked her up and spun her around with a quick kiss before dodging her halfhearted swipe of an earthen hand to swat him away. "Love you babe." He lifted all the clean dishes with telekinesis and carried them into the house under Virgo's exasperated fond look.
Just because she told him to leave the chores to her didn't mean he would. But he really was procrastinating on getting to work. He took a quick shower to rinse off the sweat, dried blood from the apes, and whatever else was stuck to him before throwing on a loose kimono-style shirt and heading to his lab.
It was time to get to work.
Chapter end.
Next Chapter: The Job and Meeting The King.
AN: Thoughts? I pushed the flashback till the next chapter so I could make it all one chapter.
Response to Reviews:
Diabolos Aides – Glad your enjoying. Always more Virgo.
Frecklejosh – Thanks man. Its not as fun as free writing but the result is satisfying.
Trixuny – I know about the clock guy. He was actually super useful but its not my style to use an existing silver key like that. I'll leave that one for Lucy. If someone thinks up an idea for an original silver key, I could think about incorporating it. As for overwhelming dragons, I would definitely say yes. The way I set things up, if the zodiacs could fight in a realm where they could really let loose without being restricted on Earthland, they could unleash godly levels of celestial energy. Don't quote me on the 'godly' part, I never set up any power scale for how things would stand.
Sammy12346 – LOL. When you put it like that, they are in a manner of speaking. They are Soul-Mates. Get it? *bum bum tss*
ProfesorGoblitz – The MC will take inspiration for potions from anything I can come up with lol. I haven't played that many games myself, so I'm reliant on google searches, fan ideas, and my own creativity to make shit up. And never doubt Dante's willingness to dive into hell if the potion is worth it lol. No harm on feeling the cringe. I purposefully wrote that kind of romance because I fell in love with Virgo's character so much.
UnknowingGodz – Thanks for the support!
shinigami101505 – Thank you, reviews like yours always help the motivation
Isshion – Thanks, the magic system took a bit to get right but I'm happy with how it turned out. And never enough Virgo.
Ariathedog – thank you! I'm glad my intention came through to make it flow better. I gave Dante too many powers the first time and I felt annoyed doing it. I wrote the story years ago when I was still a fresh writer and knowing less about how to do what I wanted to do. Not that I know a lot now, but its better than before.
Netveiwer - Never played Elden ring. I checked it out and its an interesting idea but it seems more useful for fun joke scenes then practical use. No gun magic. I had the choice of making his personal weapons guns, but I chose chains instead as both a tribute to Virgo, because Virgo could actually help him learn to wield them, and because I was tired of guns or swords. I also used guns in a different story I wrote in the same time period.
Kyo – I'm glad your enjoying the rewrite. The world building, as your probably noticed in this chapter again, is my favorite part. I've tried writing more direct content before right from the start, and it pisses me off cuz I see so many plot holes. Unless it's a straight crack fic, I just can't do it lol. I need the foundation.
Zant – you know my thoughts already.
Guests – Thanks for the reviews.
