As everyone gathered at the front of HQ, Tiamat and Bahamut were grumbling about having their promised bath time interrupted.
Then a woman stepped out backed by four clearly mentally broken men.
The woman's presence inspired an immediate response from Lillim, Faylorna, Kyubi, Bahamut and Tiamat. All of them began to partially shift into their true forms, ready to go all-out from the start if something happened.
"I come in peace!" She shouted, though her tone sounded mostly broken as well.
The defiant woman Carl remembered shouting in Plutinas' defence was a shell of how she had seemed just that morning.
"Relax everyone, I think I know why she is here.... Are you okay? You seem injured." Carl asked with enough genuine concern to relieve everyone's growing concern about the hatred he had been harbouring for quite some time.
"Of- Yes, I'm fine, thank you for your concern... I am here to deliver the two who interfered in your relationship, I was also told by the greatest of us to bring those that instructed them to do so in the first place."
Klaire moved over as the portal crackled shut, coming to a stop next to Faylorna and whispering something, then after a small amount of grumbling she replied with "Fine... I guess that will be a punishment in its own right..."
"Thank you for bringing them, though I have decided I should only punish the two who gave the order. I'll let fear be a lesson to the other two."
The woman dragged the younger two, Matthew and James, off to one side.
"Not that I would regardless, but as heir to clan Bashe, I will leave no heartbreak unpunished." For the first time in her life, Klaire howled with lethal intent, tearing their souls out violently as she opened a portal to Faylorn.
She held the souls in place for a moment as the blacked bone of countless banshee arms reached for them, clawing their souls before Klaire released them and they were forever lost to the hunger of the wailing witches of Faylorn.
As the portal closed, Klaire picked up the bodies of the two men she had just sentenced to the harrowing life of a soulless vessel. She dragged them by the collars to the two who were standing in fear, held in place only by presence of the woman accompanying them.
"They won't awaken until their souls are full consumed, a week or two usually. You won't need to worry about nursing them, but if they aren't kept cool, they will start to prematurely decompose. You two can be in charge of making sure they wake up, making sure you all know what happens to those giving orders to get between us." Klaire dumped the two burdens that weighed her down.
"Sorry you came so far for such a menial task. It seems a shame to send you home so quickly, but Lugarian heat won't be kind to them."
"Why not just kill them? Marsian, Jupiterran and our leader are determined to form an alliance, killing them wouldn't make a difference."
"Not sure what you mean by "wouldn't make a difference". Of course it would, killing people doesn't change things, it ends things. I want things to change, if you want them to end, just shout Margo as loud as you can and leave everyone else out of it." Carl replied.
"I don't want to have to kill anyone either, I will if it comes to it; but if I have a way to make people understand the suffering they cause, I'd rather give them that second chance."
"Contrary to what you lot seem to think, the hybrids I know are generally more humane than the humans I do. I'm ready to try talking again as soon as you are, you can pass the meeting point along to my mum Leanna. I'll refrain from portalling over unless I have to, I hope his arm was able to be reattached by the way, I was worried the cauterisation might make that difficult."
"It did, but we aren't immortals for nothing, it takes something special to truly hurt one of us... Is there any chance I can ask you to reconsider, taking a portion of his soul?"
"Unfortunately not, I wanted to put it to use before I let my sentimentality get the best of me. Come on out Tiamutael." As Carl spoke the chimera he had made for himself appeared.
A brief while ago...
Carl stood in the makeshift alleyway, formed by the two dozen long enclosures that spanned either side of him, Carl had an epiphany.
'I wonder if I can activate multiple Neo Primordias simultaneously...' The thought was suddenly interrupted.
As Carl spoke to Noah and listened to him talk about branching into aquatic species, the possibilities grew immensely and with it, the desire to see if multiple creations was a possibility became more and more profound.
"You guys better go wait elsewhere, I'm gonna do some experimentation, don't want you guys getting swiped at if something goes wrong. Just get safe then open all enclosures."
"You're mental, you know that right, mental." Gillian had laughed, with Noah, though they knew that worst case scenario Carl would just evade and merge the more passive ones.
When the enclosures opened Carl was surprised at how easy it was to do, even without his aura the animals seemed focused on being his friend and trying to get closer. The only danger was actually them attacking each other to get through the crowd.
Carl managed the simultaneous activation of "Neo Primordia" with little diffulculty, though the burst of notifications was painful and he was blinded by the numerous creation screens.
He put the ones he had a plan for into action and they were created as he worked his way through the menus.
The last two beasts he had created were for Blaine and Noah, when he realised that the beast wouldn't be up for travelling alongside Noah as it was and nor would one of these creatures be able to protect the ultimately defenceless Blain.
That was when he got the idea to create the chimeras, after a bit of thought he realised that their elemental control and general abilities would perfectly compliment Levi's, but without the siren and banishing eye he had no way to make another all-seeing leviathan.
'How much would it cost to just make another from the gene-bank?"
[ SYSTEM NOTICE : COST OF COMPLETE REPLICATION DEPENDS ON YOUR BOND WITH THE FIRST OF THE SPECIES. ]
[ IF THE FIRST OF THE SPECIES IS BENEFITTING FROM YOUR "FATHER" JOB SELECTION, THEN THAT COST WILL BE HALVED. ]
[ IF THE FIRST OF THE SPECIES HAS BECOME AN ORIGIN ENTITY. THEN THAT COST WILL BE HALVED. ]
[ ALL-SEEING LEVIATHAN COST = 5,000 DIV ]
Carl's eyes widened, as a new plan formed. "I'll take three. How much for a gluttonous slimedra?"
[ GLUTTONOUS SLIMEDRA COST = 2,790 DIV ]
"Awesome, can I merge two beasts into a chimera before replication is finalised? It seems mean to bring them to life just to smash them into another existence."
[ REQUEST POSSIBLE. WOULD YOU LIKE TO MERGE THEM NOW? Y/N ]
Carl pumped his fists and thanked his system for the first time, then he merged two of the all-seeing leviathans and kept the other and the gluttonous slimedra as purebreds.
[ SYSTEM NOTICE : ATTEMPTS TO BESTOW REWARDS REQUIRE FURTHER CALCULATION ]
[ IN THE MEAN TIME I CAN OFFER A CHOICE, PLEASE CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING. ]
[ ENLIGHTENED CREATION AND CREATOR CULTIVATION ]
[ LAYERED CHIMERA AND CREATOR CULTIVATION ]
Carl was pretty confident he knew what they meant; Enlightened creation likely meant that all his creations would possess a star, which sounded powerful but incredibly dangerous since it might blend with neo-genesis.
Layered Chimera on the other hand, either expanded chimeras to include more than two pet limit of initial creation or would open up the ability to merge two chimeras.
"Creator cultivation" sounded to him like a change to the way he levelled up, but with analyse and his system growing more and more helpful, e wasn't overly worried.
"I choose "Layered chimera and creator cultivation"... confirm."
Layered chimera was indeed the ability to fuse two chimeras and up to two materials, and Creator cultivation was also as he initially thought, with the unexpected addition of needing to accept level-ups which meant he could maximise his DIV stockpiling.
"So I now grow in level by creating new pets and chimeras and synthesising or banking materials." Carl sighed, then continued. "I guess I can at least thank you for making my favourite ability a way for me to grow as well Ishtar... Thank you."
Then a smile formed across his face and he pulled a few materials from his quickly dwindling stores.
For the first he marked a few new creatures to get them stored, including a drake eagle, an imperial tiger, an earthen hound and a thunder rattle, with Lugarian ram horns the locals had left for them as thanks for their courtesy during the party and the event with Tiamat.
"I'll call this species the Chimera Primordia, but hold finalisation for instant merger."
[ CULTIVATION COMPLETE YOU HAVE GAINED FIVE LEVELS. ]
The second beast was a swamp hound, bone serpent, a life-eating spirit, a nightmare yearling and a living phylactery. All of which were gifts from one of Noah's acquaintances who had not long returned from an "impromptu dive into an undead realm".
"I'll call this species the Orthos Primordia, again, hold for instant merger."
[ CULTIVATION COMPLETE YOU HAVE GAINED FIVE LEVELS. ]
The third was a rock elemental, a spined living-statue, a petrifying vine, an explorers bane and a bond-breaker. These were also creatures that one of Noah's guests gifted him, the story was similar "An impromptu journey into finding out why some questions are better left unanswered."
"Since they're all earth elemental lifeforms, maybe I should name it after Gaia, I never did think of a way to properly honour the gift she gave and I love my pets, so maybe that's the best way for me to do it at least. I'll call this species Gaia's variety and hold for layered chimera."
[ CULTIVATION COMPLETE YOU HAVE GAINED FIVE LEVELS. ]
The final creatures present, which he hadn't already banked, were ones that he didn't know anything about and wanted to learn more of...
"What the hell? I'll roll the dice and honour my Loki with this one as thanks for the mask. I'll call this one Loki's mischief, full randomisation. Merge group one with three and two with four, then merge those two into a chimera, but don't finalise."
"Gillian! Can you go and get Tia and Bahamut for me please."
When they came outside, Carl had all the beasts stay put...
"How can we help?"
"I wanted permission before I did something... I'm entering a battle I'm little more than an insect in, I want to merge a member of Aldra and Omedra's respective species, then merge them with a new creation I only have to finalise. I didn't want to merge your two flames without express permission though, it seemed incredibly disrespectful."
"Absolutely not. I thank you and respect you for asking, but no. My omni-flame is my apex and my pride is already threatened by Omedra."
Bahamut seized the opportunity to try and display a more amicable side. "Truthfully, it doesn't sit well with me either. After being bested by you twice however, denying you feels like petty spite, so if you can somehow beat Tiamat's legendary stubbornness then you have my permission." He smiles, certain in Tiamat's steadfast stubbornness.
"Deal! Great-Auntie Tia, if you say yes I'll swear to never use Lillim's favour to help with boring stuff, build an embassy in your realm at a place of your choice with an all you can use hot spring that's dragon sized to your specifications and call this five favours in one."
Tiamat made her couterpart nervous the moment she grinned at the title "Great-Aunt Tia" but when she recomposed herself before Carl had stopped, he found his hope renewed and then shattered when she spoke. "Call it ten and deal my adorable great-nephew."
"Deal! Thank you both so much. Unless it's life or death, name the place and I'll build the bath immediately after today. Thank you both so much! I hope this one makes you both proud."
Carl asked how much it would be to create one each of his dragons and the figure nearly gave him a heart attack.
[ COST TO REPLICATE PLATINUM-PRIMORDIA DRAGON 29,000 ]
[ COST TO REPLICATE OMNI-CHROMATIC PRIMORIDA DRAGON 29,000 ]
"Damn... As a thank you, you can stay here for the birth but I need to do some stockpiling and levelling up to even afford this."
Carl set to work, as the two dragon gods waited patiently, concerned briefly when he put himself on the edge of death to make the most of his stockpiling, before breathing a sigh of relief when he miraculously recovered with the level up.
"Right, good to go."
"Are you sure, you looked half dead a second ago. You don't need to rest?"
"Nope, I'm good and not stupid enough to annoy Klaire that badly." He laughed, though he didn't feel them with confidence.
Finally he pulled the piece of Plutinas' soul and the feathers that they had got permission to use as materials.
Then he completed the chimera, that was now standing before everyone for the first time.
It hadn't been hiding in a way like any of the other pets did, not camouflage, not perception erasure or poltergeist material... This one could simply move into the space between realms.
It's general shape was the same as Aldra and Omedra's, except its wings which were made of Aldra's platinum ice, trimmed with Omedra's true omni-flame and celestial feathers that matched its scales.
Its scales followed Omedra's and Tiamat's pattern, were now included platinum in the mix and also now possessed the elemental infusion of Tiamat's.
It stood at the same height as Aldra and Omedra, and was male like Aldra, the biggest difference with its height was that this dragon was far less mature and had much more growing to do than they still had.
"How can I help Dad?"
"Sorry bud, our guest Lady Venusiah just asked about that material I used in you. I wanted her to see what it was used for."
Tiamutael's eyes narrowed, it could sense the stark contrast between her values and the factions, but he didn't want to make his dad look bad.
"And what do you think of me Lady Venusiah?"
The lady in question was almost gibbering, her aura shook with distress. "If you had a creature like this why didn't you bring it this morning? You would have made even Plutinas silent..." She spoke, revealing her growing understanding of Carl's worth.