Chapter 3567: Manohar’s Gift (part 2) |
"I believe you." Marth sighed. "And if you knew Krisha Manohar like I did, the idea of him sleeping with a woman and walking away would sound as ridiculous as it does to me. He had countless suitors and ignored them all.
"If a woman were capable of catching his attention, he would have been obvious about it, like he did with Elina." Lith grimaced at the memory while his mother blushed. "On top of that, he was too scared of his mother to hide the existence of a grandchild from her."
"Manohar was an insane genius obsessed with himself and his research, but he was a good friend. He would have never backstabbed me and even if he had, he would have rubbed it in my face.
"Manohar never lied and had no care for the feelings of other people. He did everything he wanted and laughed in your face about it."
"That's so true." Lith and Jirni said.
"We even performed a Blood Resonance spell." Ryssa said. "Multiple times, actually. The result is always the same. Duke and I are Dhiral's parents."
"Lith, you are an expert in life forces." Marth said. "What is your opinion on this?"
"Expert is a strong word." Lith pondered the situation. "Wait here a minute, I'll bring you a real expert."
He walked away and soon returned with a beautiful woman with flaming red hair and emerald green eyes.
The couple's jaws hit the floor and stayed there while the Mother walked to examine the baby boy and then returned to study the parents' life forces as well.
"Baba Yaga?" Marth tensed up when she took his hand and checked his life force and energy signature. "That Baba Yaga? The Mother of all Undead?"
"The white core of immortality?" Ryssa too snapped out of her reverie only when the Mother touched her, afraid of being turned into an undead.
"In the flesh, my dear." Baba Yaga replied. "In my line of work, I'm always interested in hybrids. I befriended Lith after Elysia was born."
Explaining her relationship with Solus was too long and complicated, so Baba Yaga opted for a simpler lie.
"Well, what's the response?" Lith asked.
"The baby is definitely yours." The Mother said while looking at Ryssa and Marth. There is no doubt that his life force is born from a combination of your own. Yet that doesn't mean that the late Manohar didn't pull a fast one."
"How?" Marth was still shocked but seeing a light at the end of the tunnel gave him the strength to overcome it.
"If it were me, I'd tamper with the life force of the parents." Baba Yaga replied. "Modify it to resemble mine. It's an almost impossible task but Manohar performed the impossible as a hobby."
"How would it work, exactly?" Ryssa asked.
"If Manohar had identified the part of his life force that gave him his genius, he might have stimulated it in you two." The Mother said. "You are too old for your brain to change but your children would have no such problem.
"The procedure would be long and hard, though. The more differences between Manohar and his subject, the longer it would take him. The ideal candidate should be a blood relative."
"Manohar was an only child and 100% asshole, I mean human." Marth said. "Are you telling me he did something to me?"
"I kept away from him as you instructed." Ryssa shrugged. "I never drank or ate anything he offered me and you know he wasn't big on physical contact."
"I knew it!" Marth stomped his foot. "The bastard used me as his test subject. We spent so much time together there's no telling when it happened."
"If it happened." Baba Yaga pointed out. "Your friend was indeed a genius but I'm also quite talented. I didn't notice any alteration in your life force or your boy's. Either Manohar has nothing to do with this or he restructured your life force in its entirety."
"And how do we know for sure?" Ryssa asked.
"I need to study Manohar's closest kin." Baba Yaga tormented her chin. "Even if their talent is nothing alike, there are bound to be similarities I can identify."
"But, Manohar is dead!" Marth said. "His mother is dead and so is his father. As far as I know, he has no living relatives."
"Then we'll never know." Baba Yaga shrugged while Marth and Ryssa groaned. "I'm sorry."
"Lith, why did you Hush this area?" Kamila rushed to him with a worried expression. "I've been calling you for five minutes now. Don't you see what's happening?"
She pointed his finger at the children. Manohar the Second was growing slides, swings, and small castles from the park's vegetation.
"Don't worry, Kami. Duke says that Dhiral is very smart for his age. There's nothing wrong with that." Lith said.
"Yes, there is." Ryssa was flabbergasted. "How did he go from a bonsai-figurine to complex buildings in five minutes?"
"Who cares about that?" Kamila snarled at the Dryad. "I meant Elysia!"
Lith focused his gaze on the baby girl and noticed that the shadows surrounding her weren't shadows at all. They were small Demons in the shape of butterflies, puppies, and small animals like squirrels and birds.
"Fuck me sideways, no!" Lith went pale and Blinked to Elysia's side.
"What's the problem with that?" Marth asked, noticing Lith's worry as he knelt at the baby's level. "It's no mystery that Elysia is a Tiamat. We all knew she would summon her own Demons sooner or later."
"You don't understand." Kamila shook her head while biting her nails. "Summoning Demons is not like raising undead or crafting golems. Every time Lith calls upon a dead soul, he experiences the pain and regrets that caused them to stay behind.
"Elysia is just a baby. She shouldn't witness that part of life. It might scar her forever."
"Good gods!" Marth said. "I'm so sorry Kamila. I had no idea."
Meanwhile, Lith used the Dragon scales to assess Elysia's feelings.
'Let's hope I can also use our bond to lessen her burden before she gets traumatized.' He thought, noticing his daughter's sad expression. 'What the?'
Luckily for Lith, Elysia lacked the magical strength to conjure a complex soul and the mental capacity to understand feelings beyond her age. While playing with Dhiral, she had felt the loneliness and desire to play of the weak souls around her.
A caterpillar whose cocoon had been stomped before it could turn into a butterfly. A stillborn puppy who had never experienced its mother's love. Small birds who had fallen from their nests before they could learn how to fly.
What kept them from moving on was the regret for their untapped potential, for the lives that had been cut off abruptly before or right after they started.
Elisya felt sad for them and used her powers to grant them their wishes. In its shadow form, the caterpillar was a beautiful butterfly that could finally dance between flowers and taste their sweet nectar.
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