You're so warm
So are you.
You know, I'm not an angel here, and you're not just thought.
And we aren't just digitized data either, my dear.
But we are true.
And this elation I feel when we cuddle like this is true.
I love you.
I love you too.
Neph woke up against the log that the three had slept against on the first night. It was morning now, probably around 8 or 9, Neph assumed. The twins had been carried here by Neph and laid against the log. It wasn't unlike the way they were laid on the bed at their creation in the mindscape. Neph had draped a spare mid level cape he had lying around in his inventory over them to keep them warm.
Leaving them aside, he got up slowly as to not disturb them, and walked off. He walked towards the pond where he first had Diyandi put [Wisp Fyre] on. He stepped on it. It was completely solid.
Still? Her emotions being tied to the strength of the wave is truly a thing to behold. This pond is still frozen even though conventional physics should thaw it out. Or maybe the physics were different here.
Neph stood there for a second past a moment. He wondered if the pond's freeze duration had been an enchanted effect. Nevertheless, he got off and started today's endeavors.
The three all possessed Rings Of Sustenance, thus they did not need to eat. Still, Neph felt the day would not properly start without a breakfast. The sleeping was merely out of habit. In truth, Neph didn't know why the twins needed sleep, or slept at all. He just assumed that it was to imitate him. Neph pulled out an object from this inventory.
[Simple Kitchen]. An object that looked like a wooden cube, in which, as the name implies, lies simple ingredients. These include things that are readily available from easy to obtain sources. Eggs, wheat, flour, beef, bacon, you name it. There are higher versions, such as [Extravagant Kitchen] and [Exquisite Kitchen] which had the appearance of a Silver and a Gold box respectively. These higher versions had things like Dragon's Meat, Leviathan Cuts and Orcanus Steak. The difference in the grade of ingredients is that the two higher tiers had to be manually re supplied. This is opposed to the lowest tier, [Simple Kitchen] being able to dispense essentially unlimited simple ingredients.
He put the box down on a nearby rock, but before he could reach inside it for a a few eggs, he heard a voice.
"Lord Neph." He turned around to see Verdandi standing there. As soon as their eyes met, she got on one knee with one hand over her heart.
"I sincerely apologize for my outburst yesterday. I am a fool, and I even harmed Diyandi. I will accept any and all punishment for my transgressions." She spoke in a resolute tone.
Neph was a bit surprised. He had no intentions of punishing her.
"Stand" He said.
"But-"
"I said stand." And so she did. She closed her eyes.
And felt the warm sensation of two arms wrapping around her. One hand on the back of her head, patting. She opened her eyes to see that Neph was no longer next to the [Simple Kitchen], but in front of her.
"What happened yesterday... was along the lines of my predictions. Your actions were simply someone hurt lashing out. I completely forgive you. The actions were not of malice, and even I could tell that you were aiming for Diyandi's wings instead of hurting her. Thus, I do not see it fit to punish someone who is pained." Neph spoke into her ears. They hugged for a moment before Neph pulled away to get back to the [Simple Kitchen]. Verdandi was in silence.
"But-!"
"Silence. There is nothing more to discuss." Neph cut her off.
"If you want to make up for it, then help me cook a good breakfast for her." He said as he turned to the [Simple Kitchen], pulling out a few eggs, a few slices of bacon, and some other small ingredients.
Eh, not enough bacon.
He pulled out a dozen more slices of it. And one stick of butter for good measure. Neph heard Verdandi's sniffing slowly stop behind his back, and then heard footsteps approaching him.
"Can you make drinks?" He asked.
"What kind would you like, Lord Neph?"
"Hmm. Let's have some coffee." He responded. Verdandi too walked over to the rock where [Simple Kitchen] was situated and pulled out some coffee beans.
Neph manifested few kitchen tools out of energy. A black energy cutting board, so he can cut a few slices of bacon down to bite sized squares. He'd always liked it like that. A similar black energy frying pan, and a makeshift cooker. He suspended the pan over the cooker and placed a few logs of wood that Verdandi had blasted apart yesterday under it.
"Precision Razor: [Infernal Slice!]" Neph yelled at the top of his lungs and grazed the wood with a small kitchen knife he manifested. The wood exploded and charred him with black ash.
I think I went a bit overboard. What the hell brain, there was no need to use Blade Techniques on wood of all things. This is not the way to start a fire on wood.
A fit of laughter snapped him out of his mental self scolding. He turned to see Verdandi laughing for the first time since she came to this world. He looked at her in the eye while she was still holding the three coffee drinks she held, and soon they both started laughing again.
"What's happening?" Someone spoke. The Angel and the Arch Demon who were cooking turned to see it was Diyandi.
She had one hand in a fist rubbing her left eye, and her other arm extended up in a groggy rude awakening sort of wake up. Diyandi blinked a few times and spoke.
"Good morning, Father." She said with a smile, the sadness in her eyes were almost not there, considering what had happened yesterday. Hearing father made Neph paused for a second, but it made him smile.
"Heh. I take it you had a good dream?" Neph asked. Realizing what she just said, Diyandi blushed and turned away.
"It's alright, I don't mind you guys calling me that. Viqtoria and I did see you two as kind of our own."
"Our greatest gratitude, Lord Neph." Verdandi spoke, she bowed deeply. Diyandi got up and joined her after a few moments.
"Back to cooking." Neph said. He had to pull out a few more items out of [Simple Kitchen], as the batch he had pulled out earlier was ruined by the explosion. They were on the floor with the grass now. And like last time, he pulled out quite a bit of bacon.
"Let me help you with that, Father." Diyandi said. She utilized a sub-branch of Avatar Of The Titanic Terra's power: Plant Thrall and manipulated a nearby tree into a full blown table. Then she used the earth aspect of the power to raise up a clean stone to create a cooking spot for Neph. In addition, she lit a fire for him.
Seeing this, Neph dispelled the cutting board and the cooker he made himself, and cooked on the new one.
I guess fires should be left to the person with actual fire power, ha.
While cooking, Neph could hear the two sisters behind his back talking. Verdandi was sitting there now, handing a solid glass of ice which contained coffee to Diyandi. He could see that there was an extra glass on the table for him.
It's kinda cool that she can control temperature to such an extent. She's making it so that the heat from the coffee does not melt the ice, but at the same time, makes it so that the ice doesn't feel cold to the touch.
Neph started tuning in to their conversation.
"-I am alright, Verdandi." Diyandi spoke.
"Yes, but what I did was childish, and I apologize. I caused you wounds." Verdandi replied.
"It is nothing, besides, sis, you know I can regenerate extremely fast."
"But-"
"It's fine. And I believe Father... er, Lord Neph shares the same sentiment that what you did was perfectly within reason. Even if a bit despaired." Diyandi said, taking a sip of her coffee.
"I... If you say so, sister." Verdandi spoke softly. She did a quick bow with her head and too sipped her coffee.
Neph let them sit there to enjoy their coffee for a bit. Then he finished up the scrambled eggs and bacon... Well, scrambled eggs and lots of bacon for the three of them, and placed them in front of the twins.
Neph's portion, however, had notably more bacon.
"Thank you for the meal!" Both twins said and bowed, then began consuming it in a graceful haste not unlike those of a queen or an empress who hadn't had breakfast. Neph, on the other hand, just ate messy like he always did.
The three finished up a bit later, and enjoyed another cup of freshly brewed coffee, this time, from Diyandi's [Plant Thrall] instead of [Simple Kitchen]. The taste was noticeably better as this was something controlled and created from magic.
"Well, Lord Neph? What are we to do?" Diyandi asked. Neph was in the middle of a sip of coffee.
"I'm not quite sure yet, but I do believe we need to go back to the village. I did kind of leave the hamster there..." Neph said while trying to hid his face with the glass.
"Oh. But Lord Neph, what are hamsters?" Verdandi asked. Her sister also looked at Neph in a questioning way. Neph, surprised at himself for thinking they'd know of the higher world.
"Well, they're a sort of species present in the world of the Supreme Beings. Some of us kept them as pets. They were about the size of your entire hand at the biggest, and they were quite cute actually."
The twins were wide eyed with amazement.
"That aside, what should we do in this world? We are plenty powerful, judging from yesterday's battles. I guess we can make money or something." Neph asked. In truth, he did think of going home. But he did not want to, nor did he know how to. His family was doing fine without him in their lives before. And the thing was... Viqtoria was no longer there.
"I think... I think we should try to be good." Someone said.
"Hm." Neph looked at Diyandi. The three silently agreed. After all, those were the words of their "mother".
"I see. I had a similar thought. And I do hope you two forgive me for yesterday... I did not want to keep such a huge secret from you two." Neph said, lowering his head. The twins started explaining why they were thankful and happy but he cut them off.
"But how do we go about being 'good?"
"Well, there were people being opressed like we saw. And there are more children potentially in danger like the two we rescued yesterday." Verdandi responded.
Neph did think of that. He didn't know how to help them though. He was happy though, that he felt he made the right choice in telling them about Viqtoria.
"Well, there are many things uncertain at the moment. I believe we should gather information. Let's head back to the village." Neph said, and the twins nodded. They all stood up respectively and activated their flight skills.
Verdandi and Diyandi with [True Manifest Wings], creating a set of beautiful feathered wings that looked ephemeral. And Neph with Aspect Of The Arch Devil: [Fallen Heathen Wings].
The villagers, still going about cleaning the razed village were staring at the giant beast that the mysterious Warrior In White and the Two Angels had left in the village. They had sumrised that it was to protect them, and so, it kept their minds at ease. The reason they were staring though, was that the thing was laid on its back sleeping, snoring quite loudly.
Braucur Emmot was quite proud of his daughter. She had put that thing to sleep with a bit of convincing. He was also quite thankful for the Warrior In White and the Angels, perhaps more than anyone else in this village. Because they had saved his daughter.
The rumbling in the village came to a halt as three figures descended from the sky onto the village center.
Ha! Speak of the devil, but I guess angels appeared this time. Braucur thought
The rest of the village ran over to greet their saviors and still thanked them for yesterday. The man that had a mask on did not seem to have it on anymore. They could see that the man leading the two Angels with mismatched eyes were about the same age as them. He possessed handsome features, a look that was a mix of Caucasian and Chinese, but his features were just short of being described as "sharp".
It did unnerve the villagers to see that their savior's eyes were so... black. Not that Neph's eyes were completely black, no. But his irises were so black, onyx-like obsidian that one could lose their souls to the depths. Still, it exhuberted a certain silent kindness, and they did not hesitate to approach and thank him. Braucur saw a sort of flicker within the darkness of those eyes. Something tells him that the man who possessed those eyes were looking for something.
Neph was a bit uncomfortable, being in the middle of all of these people. He was never used to this kind of attention, so he just looked around to find the village chief. But Neph's eyes met a man who was standing in the middle of the crowd. He was above average in height, and had a muscular build. A bit more than Neph's, actually, but much older. Neph assumed an age figure of around 40 to 45. The man with features that seemed wearily youthful stepped forward and introduced himself to Neph.
"Greetings, Neph Savior-sama. I am Braucur Emmot, and I am the father of the two girls that you saved yesterday. From the bottom of my heart, I sincerely thank you with all of my heart and soul!" The man knelt at these words. The crowd around slowly began to quiet as they had sensed this heartfelt moment.
"Ah... Uh, please, stand up. It's quite alright." Neph spoke in a light tone. The man stood up but still held and expression of gratitude.
"If there is any-"
"Father!" Someone yelled. Two figures shorter than most of the adults in the crowd that had formed around Neph and the Twins rushed past the commotion to their father. The two smaller girls hugged their father from behind. The smallest one, Neph could accurately guessed around 9 or 10, stepped forward and spoke.
"Savior-sama! Thank you!" She almost yelled this. Neph was a bit taken aback, but he just leaned forward and patted her head with a smile. A hand reached out from behind Neph's back and handed the smaller child a flower which glowed a faint, rose pink. Neph turned around to see it was Diyandi.
She probably grew that from [Seedling Creation]
The crowd erupted into an applause not unlike when they had saved the two children. Neph turned to their father.
"Well, Sir Braucur, may I ask where the Village Chief is?"
"Ah, I could sort of sense that you were looking for him. No doubt some more questions. I believe he is-" Braucur was interrupted.
"Ah, Neph-sam... Neph-dono!" An old man yelled out.
"Please, come this way."
The three strangers to the village and the Emmot family started in the Chief's direction. The crowd dissipated, but they retained their happy mood.
The six people met up with the Chief, and as they could not fit in the Chief's house comfortably, they all stood outside. Feeling a bit awkward, Neph asked Diyandi to conjure up seats with her Earth Avatar's [Terra Form].
The seven people sat, and the Chief's wife went to make drinks. Diyandi prepared a similar seat for her when she got back, as well as a table in the middle of the circle of seats.
"Neph-dono, again, thank you for saving us." The Chief began.
"It's alright. I have a question though." Neph responded.
"I mean no disrespect by this, Chief, but you weren't as knowledgable as I had hoped. I also forgot to ask Gazef about the world yesterday, seeing as I was not around here and I felt that would take too much time. I was wondering if there was a profession that let me travel around and learn by experience."
"Ah. Don't worry, I know what you mean Neph-dono. I've lived around these parts for most of my life, it's only natural to not be able to answer questions about the intricacies of the wider world. As for your question..." The Chief trailed off.
"It seems like you're describing Adventurers." Braucur responded. Neph looked at him, and Braucur seemed to feel like he needed to continue.
"Adventurer are people who use their strength and talents to accomplish a variety of tasks for people who request them. These include things like monster hunting, herb gathering, and protection services just to name a few."
"And how does one become an Adventurer?" Verdandi asked. She responded for Neph, and he was a bit happy about it.
"There are Adventurer's Guilds around most of the cities big enough. I believe the closest one would be E-Rantel." The Chief spoke. Neph looked at Braucur. But it was not him that spoke.
"If it you need to, then I can show you the way to E-Rantel." The elder sister said.
"My name is Enri, Savior-Sama." She added.
"Nice to meet you, Enri, my name is Nephilentines. Just Neph will do. It's a long name." He extended a hand for her to shake. She took it.
"Are you sure you want to go? I know the way as well." Braucur, Enri's father asked.
"It's fine father. Besides, I have to meet with a friend of mine there. I'm sure Lord Neph's strength will keep me safe." She spoke.
"Well, I guess that settles it. We'll be heading to E-Rantel." Neph rose up and did a slight bow. The twins echoed this, and soon the other four people, or rather, five, did the same.
"My, leaving already?" The Chief's wife asked. She held a plate with cups for all of the people present here.
"Ah, my sincere apologies, Madam." Neph said, he gently took a glass from the plate and drank it.
"Thank you." Neph added, and turned to go to the giant hamster. Who slept to the left side of the village's center.
"Wake up." Neph poked at it.
"Ahhh, what?... Oh Master! You came back for me!" The giant furry thing rose up and went to hug Neph, or tried to, with its small arms. It was more laying on him, since it was so large.
"My bad for leaving you. Can you take someone on your back?" Neph asked.
"Yes, will it be you, Master?" The creature asked.
"No, it will be her." Neph made Enri stand in front.
"I see, very well. I just hope she can hang on."
"I-I'll try my best!" Enri almost yelled.
Neph and the twins activated their Wings and began to rise up as Enri climbed slowly onto the Creature's back.
"Master! Please wait!" The creature spoke.
"You haven't given me a name yet!" It was that had made Neph realized he hadn't.
"I see. Well... From now on, your name will be Hamster!" Neph blurted out... He didn't quit think that through. It's kinda odd to name someone the name of their species.
"Ah, I seem to-"
"Thank you Master! Hamster will serve you gladly!" Hamster said.
Neph sighed. The four people and one giant Hamster turned back and waved farewell.
Neph let Hamster begin first as he led the directions with Enri, and a moment after the three winged figures followed them as well, departing for the city of E-Rantel.