“What the…”
Baphomet gawked at the endless garden; full of pulsing green vines, trees, flowers, and even graceful-looking wild animals. The air was filled with energy and lights of different colors floated around.
The sky and the clouds were replaced by an immeasurably vast ocean that held within it what seemed to be hundreds of stars as well as a very large emerald sun.
From time to time, ‘below’ the water’s surface, a humongous figure could be seen sticking its head out before diving in again. The gigantic beast was intimidating enough to make one imagine it could swallow a planet as a whole.
On top of that, Baphomet couldn’t ignore the seemingly immeasurable serpent that was literally lying down on some weird looking clouds to sleep.
“Rak-Loyra, Jormungand; the Divine Beasts…” Baphomet whispered. He had lived long enough to hear about them; not to mention that his father was one of them.
As the goat demon was trying to recover his mind, he heard a sound of wagging wings and looked toward the source.
It came from a magnificent beast that resembled a sky dragon. The creature had two pairs of feathered white wings, another layer of feathers on the rest of its body, and a final layer of scales over its belly.
Baphomet frowned. “This energy; I recognize you. Weren’t you Origin?”
Deva let out a soft growl of approval and flew away. She then looked back for a second and hinted toward a certain direction with her blue eyes.
“Hm?” Baphomet exclaimed in confusion and turned around to see what he had his back turned to for all this time. “…Seriously?”
Arima said ‘mansion’. This certainly could be called a mansion if you were ready to not nit-pick about it. The whole building was bigger than any existing castle. The exterior looked like an intricate fusion between a very high-tech house with a predominant presence of stained glass and a very refined monumental edifice with granite pillars and statues.
The overall structure of the house was quite geometrical and it was interesting to note that one of the ‘cut’, separated flat roofs, was currently used by Deva to sleep. Her place on the house seemed so natural that it felt it was made for her. Which wasn’t incorrect.
Baphomet stared at the front door which was large enough to welcome even him. The walls around it were made out of pearl-white granite that had been engraved with diverse patterns going from a simple one like a flower to a majestic dragon. All symmetrical.
Baphomet also didn’t fail to notice that everything had been enchanted to the very limit. There were even some materials that he couldn’t recognize. The wood used was definitely not normal, the granite even less, and the glass seemed to be tougher than mithril.
The demon even felt somewhat pressured by the ‘aura’ the mansion exuded.
“Oh? We have a guest?”
A raspy voice sounded as someone opened the door. Baphomet almost choked when he saw who it was. He couldn’t believe his eyes.
“What the hell are you doing… dad?”
Sebasfiel, in his butler attire, opened his eyes wide. He blinked as he scrutinized Baphomet. He then started laughing. A laugh that caused Jorga to wake up and Apana to stick his head out of the ocean to look at him.
“So, he revived you in the end, huh? Son,” Sebasfiel uttered and laughed again.
Baphomet groaned and his father finally began to calm.
“Ahem, sorry. I got carried away. Glad to see you alive.”
“Is that the first thing you have to say to your son after six thousand years?” Baphomet scowled and Sebasfiel restrained himself from laughing again.
“Both of us know that we’re not that intimate,” the butler said and smiled with a solemn expression for the first time in a long while. “But, I truly am glad to see you alive.”
Baphomet appeared to be surprised by his father’s tone and grunted in response.
“So? Can you tell me what’s going on?”
“What? Isn’t it obvious? Didn’t Arima tell you we’re building his house? We’re currently assisting Lady Layla. You can come too to give a hand. Well, although it’s pretty much done now,” the old man said and then realized something.
“Oh, but before that, perhaps you may want to take on another form. Let’s say that you’re quite ‘intimidating’ on top of being too big, you would risk messing things inside. And, believe me, you don’t want to see Lady Layla angry.”
Baphomet frowned, evidently confused about how someone could be scary for someone like his old man. “What do you mean?”
Sebasfiel shivered as he thought about it. “A few days ago; she ordered us to go fetch some Uyzre, the Stone of Life’s Origin. It took us around twenty hours to find some. When we came back, we were quite exhausted, to say the least. It was Sir Malum that was carrying the stone. You see; that thing is heavy. Very heavy. Perhaps heavier than several galaxies combined. Sir Malum was getting annoyed by the weight and was about to let it go at the cost of messing the soil around the house a bit.”
“Then, a light instantly burst out of nowhere and Lady Layla was already glaring at Malum before he could even do anything,” the butler shuddered again. “After that, I was too horrified to watch so I averted my eyes to not look whilst Sir Malum cried in anguish. Believe me, son, that man is stronger than me by far. Just think about that.”
Baphomet was inevitably surprised to hear that and stared at his trembling father. “Alright. But that was his fault for trying to drop the stone…”
Oddly, Sebasfiel started shaking his head. “Wait, I’m not finished. Did you know? Since we started the construction, not a single mistake was made. Do you know why?”
“…why?”
“Because Lady Layla would predict the mistake before it could even be made and would severely punish the one who was about to make the mistake. Mark my words, was about. They were not punished for something they did, they were punished for something they were about to do. Imagine how scary that is.”
Baphomet blankly stared at the old man and sighed. “I got it,” he uttered and casually cast a magic on him. His body shrunk and adopted a more humane look. His legs were still goat-like and he still possessed horns, but the rest of his body was the one of a regular human. He had rectangular pupils and his black hair was so long it reached his knees.
“Enough?”
“Plenty,” Sebasfiel nodded and proceeded to look at something behind Baphomet. “You were quick,” he said.
Baphomet’s eyes widened as he turned around to see Arima followed by Baba Yaga and Loren. Apana who was swimming in the ocean emitted a cry of happiness when he saw him and Jorga similarly acknowledged his presence before going back to sleep with a yawn.
“Yes, it was a small trip anyway,” Arima replied to Sebasfiel as Loren next to him started inspecting the plants of the soul realm.
“…This is incredible,” the newly appointed gardener remarked as he brushed the leaf of a plant with his fingers. “These plants are filled with life, energy, and even Laws. This is the first time I’ve seen so many gathered in one place.”
Loren appeared to be more fascinated by one single leaf than by the rest of the landscape. Baba Yaga was severely affected though. The moment she stepped inside the soul realm her expression froze.
Arima glanced at the two and shrugged. He left Loren and Baba Yaga to their antics before walking toward the entrance.
“Follow me, Baphomet,” he said and the goat demon raised an eyebrow before complying.
Sebasfiel smiled and opened the door for the two to come in. When he entered, Baphomet’s expression twitched as his eyes slowly rolled upward. He could only see the roof after fully tilting his head backward.
The roof was at least thirty meters high and on top of that, it was also made out of glass, carved glass, that seemed to be impermeable to the heat generated by the light coming from the stars and the emerald sun outside.
The hall of the ‘mansion’ appeared to be the living room, which was, incidentally, gargantuan. To give a comparison, the room had more surface than any sports field on Earth.
Within it, there were many, many kinds of decorations and furniture. Fancy sofas, chairs, tables, gorgeous looking pottery, paintings, ornamental weapons; modern technology such as TVs, electric chandeliers…
But that definitely wasn’t the most striking thing. In fact, there were actually some very big objects ‘placed’ in this living room. To be exact, they were hanging from the glass roof.
Those objects numbered a total of twelve. They were all things that you would not expect to see in a house. First of all, there was a full reconstruction of Tyrannosaurus Rex’s skeleton. Then there was an old model airplane from Earth, an embellished Eion system, and other valuable pieces of history.
There was even a small crystal-like tree in the center of the room. Arima had personally gone to the Spirit Realm to take a seed from the Spiritual Tree to plant it. The one he had now in his home didn’t have any kind of power compared to the original, but it was the most beautiful ‘piece of art’ you could ever find.
“…Hey,” Baphomet’s mouth twitched as he spoke. “This is going too far… I didn’t see you as a pompous wealthy man who liked grand decorations. This place is a freaking museum already and we’re still in the living room.”
Arima laughed lightly and nonchalantly made his way toward one of the couches and sat down. He laid his back and looked up whilst putting a lollipop in his mouth. He grinned.
“To be fair, none of this was my idea. Perhaps it was my fault though. I shouldn’t have said ‘I kinda want to build a house here’ while I was next to Layla.”
Sebasfiel snickered. “Indeed, Lady Layla was quite thrilled about this whole affair from the beginning until the end. Baphomet, you seriously can’t even imagine how far this went. The house’s size you can estimate from the outside is merely about one-thousandth of its real one. And it was just because of us doing our best to hold her back.”
“Apart from this main room, there’s a massive training ground, a library containing already more books than I could ever read in my life, a tremendously big pool, a legendary-class kitchen, hundreds of rooms, an underground full of fixed spatial gates to anywhere in Existence… and I could go on like this for hours. And I will not forget to mention that this entire house has the functionality to shrink, from an external perceptive of course, and teleport itself anywhere the owner wishes.”
The old butler laughed and Baphomet sighed as he sat down on a couch in front of Arima.
“I’m lost…” He grumbled and stared at Arima. “What the hell happened after that war? You’re certainly not human anymore, or even something remotely close to a mortal.”
Arima snorted. “Well, a lot.”
“Oh, Sir, I will tell everyone you’re back,” Sebasfiel stated and disappeared.
Baphomet glanced at where his father was a second ago and turned back toward Arima. “I honestly wonder how you got my old man to work so diligently as a butler for you.”
Arima chortled. “He offered it himself. He said something like ‘since you are Miss Ahura’s brother, you are effectively as much as a master than she is to me’ then became my butler.”
“What? You have a sister? Wait, more importantly, you said Ahura? Ahura Mazda?”
Arima laughed once again at Baphomet’s bemused reaction and waved his hand. “Let’s keep the story for another day.”
“Yaay! Arima is back!”
“He is.”
Two voices then resounded as two children entered the living room whilst holding hands. One was a blond girl and the other was a black-haired boy. The two were evidently twins and seemed to be around twelve years old.
The one who first exclaimed Arima’s name was the very energetic sounding girl. She wore a gold and silver dress and her complementing golden eyes were very cute. She was smiling brightly as she approached Arima.
The second, slightly monotonous voice originated from the boy. His dark red daunting eyes and deadpan expression looked a bit like Malum but in contrast, the boy was a lot more innocent looking and his eyes weren’t really sharp, just uninterested and tired. Opposite to his apparent sister, he wore black and red attire.
The two children ran toward Arima and jumped on him without any warning. Arima sighed and shook his head. He grabbed them from the arms and made them sit next to him, one on each side.
“What were you doing, Azizos, Arsu?”
“We were helping Layla finish the amusement park!” The little girl, named Azizos, replied and Baphomet almost choked when he heard ‘amusement park’.
“Hm, we were. She said we could take a break and that there would be a surprise in the living room,” Arsu complemented with his mildly indifferent tone.
“Yeah, she must have seen my arrival. Well, I was gone for only a few days. I had to go check something in the Spiritual Realm and I paid a visit to The Slanderer before fetching Baphomet and those two.”
Arima pointed at the entrance with his thumb when he said the last part. Azizos and Arsu tilted their heads and spotted the dumbfounded Baba Yaga, and the mystified Loren as he gazed at the miniature Spiritual Tree.
Baphomet mused as he stared at the twins in front of him. “Arima, are they your kids?” He asked and Arima contemplated.
“Well, in a sense, they’re my kids. But not in the way you’re thinking,” he responded as he patted both the children on their heads. “They are my ‘creations’ to be exact.”
“Don’t tell me…”
“Yes, they’re the sentient version of my twin guns.”
“I don’t even know if I should make a comeback on that…”
“There’s no point; so, don’t. Anyway, these two are actually both stronger than you individually you know? And since they stayed even longer than Karma bound to my soul, they’re very powerful at the moment. Arsu’s bullets will track you to the end of time if necessary until you’re hit while Azizos’ bullets would literally pierce space-time as they attack you. Together, they form a scary combination.”
Baphomet quivered as he realized the threat of those two young-looking siblings.
“Oh, so you brought the goat guy already?”
Someone else arrived through one of the doors located at some sort of intermediary second floor. His casual tone and low-pitched voice pointed to one person. Malum walked toward the small group and took a seat.
“Malum…” Baba Yaga muttered. If she wasn’t wrong, it was the name of the man who was about to be the father of Shakti’s child. She curiously took a look at his features. A tall and muscular body, white hair and purple eyes. His facial features were very close to Arima’s but at the same time, they looked completely different simply because of their respective personalities.
“Hm?” Malum felt the look and finally noticed the old witch’s presence. “Hey, Arima, why is she here?”
“Well, she will be our head maid from now on.”
“Head maid? Why do we need something like that now? That old man is already doing his job as a butler to perfection.”
“Take a guess,” Arima chuckled. “I thought it was a good idea to recruit someone else to assist Shakti in raising your child, don’t you think so?”
Malum clicked his tongue and looked away. “So, you noticed.”
“Of course. Though Layla most likely learned about it before it even happened.”
“Yeah, I got enough occasions to taste her future-sight. You don’t know how many times she got angry at me for something I didn’t do.”
“‘Yet’,” Arima added and Malum groaned.
“Oh? Are we having a group chat?” Night joined the conversation as he and Karma entered from the front door.
“It looks like it,” Karma commented and waved her hand at one of the tables in the room. It was moved by an invisible force before stopping between the two couches everyone was sitting on. She then took out many different kinds of aperitives and snacks and put them on the table.
“Night and I are returning from a trip to Fiarosezten. Layla asked us to go buy as many ingredients as we could. Going from the most basic meat to the essence of a phantasma. Enjoy this.”
Baba Yaga and Loren finally made their way to sit with everyone. “Fiarosezten?” The old woman inquired puzzled.
“It’s a galaxy,” Arima answered whilst slicing a cake after he had finished his lollipop. “It is the largest, most influential and powerful trading center of this Reality,” he explained as he tasted the sweet cake.
Baba Yaga’s eyes widened in astonishment and before she could say anything else, Karma abruptly exclaimed, “Ah! Right! Arima, you’ll never believe what we found on the way.”
Arima tilted his head in confusion and Karma grinned as she pointed at Night next to her. He directed his eyes toward his soul beast and finally noticed something.
There was a small creature perched on Night’s shoulder. It had small and almost cute claws. His tiny pair of wings wagged from time to time, and his golden scales shined with the light coming from the chandeliers and the emerald sun.
It was undoubtedly a baby dragon. But for some reason, the dragon had a very arrogant and aggravated look on his face that Arima didn’t fail to recognize.
The corners of his mouth gradually crept upward. “Hey, been a while,” he greeted the dragon as he did his best to restrain his laughter.
Night and Karma weren’t an exception and were clearly amused by the situation much to everyone else’s confusion except Malum who snickered.
The golden dragon snarled. “Don’t laugh. You better not laugh, you hear me?!”
His warning only seemed to fuel Arima’s urge to laugh but he managed to calm himself down and forced a cough. “I’m not laughing,” he uttered but then couldn’t hold it back anymore and let out a snort afterward.
“YOU ARE!” The small dragon roared but his body appeared to have been drained of its life force and his voice wasn’t really threatening or loud. This was also the reason why Arima took some time to notice him.
Just after the dragon’s shout, another person entered the living room/museum. Everyone turned toward him. The newcomer was a golden-haired boy who seemed to be around ten or eleven years old.
“Hey Gilga,” Arima waved his hand and Gilgamesh nodded as he focused on the golden dragon. The reason was that the small creature was fiercely glaring at him.
“You! I can sense my Gold Dragon within your soul! Give it back to me!”
Gilgamesh was confused as to why the baby dragon was angry at him. “Um… what gold dragon?”
“Listen, kid. That artifact is a statue of gold that I made by splitting my soul. And I can feel it within you. Now give it back.”
Gilgamesh was even more confused now but the dragon continued glaring at him.
Baphomet raised his hand with a deadpan expression. “Can someone explain to me what’s going on?”
Arima chuckled and captured the attention of both Gilgamesh and the golden dragon.
“Well, you see. This situation is quite fascinating, to be honest. Gilgamesh is the wealthiest King that rebelled against the Gods. And then you have,” Arima pointed at the dragon who scoffed back at him. “The greediest dragon who dared to steal from the Gods, Fafnir.”
When Arima revealed the dragon’s name, everyone exclaimed in shock and surprise.
Arima smiled and continued, “It was Layla who sealed Fafnir away after our fight. Malum, who was using my body at the time, used Babylon’s theory to get rid of the Gold Dragon he’s referring to. So, it naturally ended up in Gilgamesh’s ‘Treasury’, straight from Fafnir’s ‘Vault’.”
“Now that I think about it, these two have very similar abilities.”
“Don’t compare me to that brat,” Fafnir sneered and Gilgamesh furrowed his eyebrows.
Arima laughed. “I don’t think you’re in a good position to say that. You expended half of your possessions to trigger the Eye of Discord back then, then Jorga swallowed the Nibelungen Gold, and finally, you lost all of your life force while being sealed by the First White Art. You’re the weakest here by far.”
Fafnir groaned but couldn’t say anything back. Truthfully, Fafnir wasn’t weak. In fact, if he had not been defeated by Arima just after he exited his millennium-long slumber within Fantasia’s core, he would have easily become a Guardian-level powerhouse. And with the curse of the Nibelungen Gold, he would have been able to always revive stronger than before.
“By the way, how did you find him? He should have been sealed for a lot longer normally,” Arima asked Karma.
“Actually, we found him whilst sealed. The ‘cocoon’ he was trapped in was being auctioned at Fiarosezten. So, we bought it and Night undid the seal after making sure Fafnir was weakened enough.”
“I see,” Arima nodded and looked toward the pouting dragon. “Fafnir,”
“Ah? What? Do you wanna seal me again?”
“No. Frankly, I don’t think you’re that evil if we omit the fact that you want to steal all the gold of the world and take revenge against the gods. You’re just a pretty straightforward fellow I guess,” Arima flatly said and everyone smiled wryly while Fafnir stared at him with a puzzled look.
“What are you getting at?”
“Simple. Be a good boy and I may ask Jorga to give you back Nibelungen Gold.”
“…I guess it’s reasonable but I don’t like how you said that.”
“Just promise you won’t unfairly kill and harm people for your greed and I’ll forgive you and spare you from being tortured in Kymestuos.”
“Kymestuos?”
“My Hell.”
“…” Fafnir fell silent. He appeared to be seriously considering it. “I can promise... but I want you to allow me to steal from deserving assholes at least.”
“If by assholes you mean criminals, sure. I’ll even hire you in that case.”
“Hire me?”
“Yes. I will nominate you ‘Warden of Kymestuos’ along with Chulainn Kerberos that I already named ‘Hound of Kymestuos’.”
“Hmm, what are my perks?”
“I will give you strength and you will be allowed to oversee prisoners and take their possessions for yourself if you want. Considering Kymestuos is connected to every Reality, you will basically have boundless wealth.”
“I ACCEPT!” Fafnir’s voice has most likely never been as enthusiast as this in his entire life.
Arima grinned. “Then, I welcome you, Warden. You’ll also act as my treasurer since you love gold that much.”
Malum snorted. “This freak has really nothing else except gold in his head.”
“Call me however you want. My belief is that gold and wealth are the apexes of life. That’s who I am, and that’s what I am,” the small dragon stated pridefully.
“Keep your drive for gold under control though, Fafnir-chan,” a gentle feminine voice resounded.
“‘-chan’? That human honorific?” Fafnir raised an eyebrow. “Who dares to call me like that?” He turned around and froze as he was faced with the half-mischievous and half-amused smile of Layla. Following behind her were Aergia, Ahura, Evangeline, and Shakti.
“Little girl…” Fafnir grunted. “Seems you’ve gone a long way since you’ve sealed me, huh?”
“I sure did, Fafnir-chan.”
“Stop calling me like that.”
“Why? For some reason, I felt like it would suit you at perfection in that form. I wasn’t wrong in the slightest.”
“Hmph, mock me as much as you want. Once I get my powers back, I’ll return to be the mightiest Pure Blood Gilded Dragon.”
Layla smiled again and turned toward her husband, “Arima.”
“Hm?”
“Would you please shackle Fafnir-chan’s soul so that he can’t get bigger?”
“Sure,” Arima chuckled and snapped his fingers.
Fafnir couldn’t react in time as he felt his soul being overwritten. “Hey! Arimane!”
“Don’t worry, I made it so your strength won’t be affected.”
“That’s not the point!”
“Sorry, can’t refuse my wife.”
“Damn… stupid…” Fafnir started cursing but then Arima’s words caught up with his train of thought. “Wait, what? Your wife? You’re married? Seriously? To this little girl? Are you crazy?”
Ahura, Shakti, and Evangeline looked at each other and unconsciously glanced at Layla when he said that. They had noticed earlier that her expression hardened when she had heard ‘little girl’. Now that Fafnir had said it for a second time, none of them wanted to stay next to her as she unleashed a torrent of Time magic.
Aergia blinked and yawned. She went to an unoccupied sofa and fell asleep whilst ignoring the sounds of genuine pain and fear that Fafnir was emitting.
Everyone turned a blind eye to the small dragon’s suffering and started chatting again.
“By the way, congratulations Shakti,” Arima said and the future mother blushed. Layla also stopped tormenting Fafnir and left him collapsed on the floor with foam coming out of his mouth.
“Thank you,” she replied and both Evangeline’s and Ahura’s eyes widened.
“Wow… you never told us.”
Shakti bashfully smiled. “Well, it has only been a week.”
Ahura tilted her head and turned toward Malum with a stern look. “Oi,”
He scowled. “What?”
“You better not betray her feelings. Shakti is a lot more than what you deserve. Treasure her. Even if you’re technically my brother as well, I won’t hesitate to cut you apart if you ever hurt her.”
Malum growled and looked away. “I know that already. Shut up.”
Shakti giggled as he watched his reaction. Arima smiled as he brought a cup of tea to his lips, “Since Layla started it… splendid demonstration of a tsundere, Malum.”
Malum’s eyes twitched as his aura rocketed and his right hand turned skeletal. “Do you wanna die, Arima?”
“You can try.”
“Remember where we are? And who I am? I could invade your soul and attempt to consume it from the inside like the old days.”
“Now, now, that would be bad for both us, Skeletor.”
Malum’s aura increased again as the mention of his old nickname. But before he could do anything else, Layla made him stop with her glare. It meant that she ‘saw’ that he would obviously destroy something in the house if he were to continue.
Malum clicked his tongue and retracted his aura. Arima laughed lightly afterward.
“{Poor guy. Victim to your teasing,}” Krynox, who had been silent until now, commented.
“Lively as ever,” a sixteenth person came out from a staircase leading to the underground of the house. It was a horse-sized three-headed-dog.
“Well, with so many people inviting themselves,” Arima looked at the three-headed hound. “It’s bound to be lively, Chulainn.”
“Right,” the Hellhound snickered and sat down near the group.
“Speaking of that, Chulainn,” Layla raised her voice. “You just used one of the underground portals, right? How was it?”
“Perfect. I didn’t feel any discomfort and it was instantaneous. It’s incredible how you managed to link the entire Existence with those. How did you do that?”
“Well, Arima gave me control over his Crosses and I used the emerald neutron star combined with my space-time insights to make them. I also asked Jorga to help a little bit.”
“Hm, say, you’re all saying ‘Jorga’ but who are you talking about?” Baphomet asked.
“{Me,}” a voice was suddenly transmitted to everyone’s minds. “{To help you understand, I’m the big serpent you saw outside.}”
Just after Jorga spoke, a low-pitched cry echoed in their heads. It was quite loud and everyone felt as if a whale was shouting in their ears right next to them.
“{That was Apana, the large whale you saw swimming in the Soul Ocean,}” Jorga explained to Baphomet who nodded dumbfoundedly.
“Oh, right, Arima look at this,” Layla recalled something and she handed a scroll to her husband. “It’s the current map of the house. It will automatically update once something is added.”
Arima grabbed it and unrolled it. He whistled as he inspected the contents. “Honestly though, you went too far.”
“I don’t think so. It shouldn’t be anything less than this for you.”
“Hm-hmm, but… was the amusement park and the artificial beach really necessary?”
“That’s what I told her!!” Aergia shouted as she lifted herself from the couch before falling again, asleep. Everyone looked at her. It appeared that for someone as naturally lazy as her, it had been so traumatizing to work that she even had nightmares about it.
At the same time, Sebasfiel finally returned after finishing to inform everyone. He also brought seven people with him on his teleportation.
One of them was Azes who had come to be acquainted with everyone after Layla had set up the portals. The second one was Flavio and the third guest was surprisingly Lifa along with her small cat, Deki.
As to why Lifa was there; when Layla made the first portal to test its effectiveness, she made it appear right in the middle of the elves’ royal household and Lifa was the one who went through it. As soon as everyone met her, they all got attached to her. Even Malum was obliged to smile in front of her bright cheerfulness.
Two of the remaining people were the married couple; Jin and Evergreen. The reason Jin was there is a no brainer. Jin was essentially Arima’s best friend.
And finally, the last couple was Arister and Ferzia who were officially dating.
“Sir Raylein and Sir Ganesha were not available and didn’t come,” Sebasfiel remarked and Arima nodded, beckoning everyone to sit.
“Well, everyone’s here. Almost. Now, can you guys tell me why did we gather all of a sudden?”
Arima’s question stumped the entire group.
“What? I thought you were the one who told Sebas to gather everyone,” Ahura said.
“Ah,” Sebasfiel exclaimed. “I apologize. I wasn’t asked to do it. I don’t know why but I felt like doing it.”
More than twenty pairs of eyes abruptly stared at him as he laughed awkwardly.
“…well, since we’re all here. Let’s make a toast at least then I’ll guess I’ll give a guided visit of the house,” Layla chuckled and snapped her fingers. A cup appeared in front of everyone. Even in front of the sulking Fafnir. “That is a juice coming from the Spiritual Tree’s fragment over there.”
“Hmm,” Flavio mused as he studied the content of his cup. It was a crystal-like liquid that contained some sort of self-sufficient source of light. It was quite alluring.
Lifa sniffed the cup and her eyes sparkled. “It smells so good.”
“Indeed, I’ve never smelled a better fragrance than this one,” Arister commented and Ferzia nodded.
“Well, it’s not alcohol but I guess it’s not important,” Jin shrugged and Evergreen seemed to be intoxicated by the fragrance. As a dryad, the natural energy contained in her cup was quite overwhelming.
Azes sighed. “Honestly, who’d think that me summoning you into another world would lead to this. The mysteries of life, isn’t it?”
Arima smirked and raised his cup. “Cheers.”
““Cheers!””
Everyone smiled and emptied their cups in one shot.
“What the…”
Baphomet gawked at the endless garden; full of pulsing green vines, trees, flowers, and even graceful-looking wild animals. The air was filled with energy and lights of different colors floated around.
The sky and the clouds were replaced by an immeasurably vast ocean that held within it what seemed to be hundreds of stars as well as a very large emerald sun.
From time to time, ‘below’ the water’s surface, a humongous figure could be seen sticking its head out before diving in again. The gigantic beast was intimidating enough to make one imagine it could swallow a planet as a whole.
On top of that, Baphomet couldn’t ignore the seemingly immeasurable serpent that was literally lying down on some weird looking clouds to sleep.
“Rak-Loyra, Jormungand; the Divine Beasts…” Baphomet whispered. He had lived long enough to hear about them; not to mention that his father was one of them.
As the goat demon was trying to recover his mind, he heard a sound of wagging wings and looked toward the source.
It came from a magnificent beast that resembled a sky dragon. The creature had two pairs of feathered white wings, another layer of feathers on the rest of its body, and a final layer of scales over its belly.
Baphomet frowned. “This energy; I recognize you. Weren’t you Origin?”
Deva let out a soft growl of approval and flew away. She then looked back for a second and hinted toward a certain direction with her blue eyes.
“Hm?” Baphomet exclaimed in confusion and turned around to see what he had his back turned to for all this time. “…Seriously?”
Arima said ‘mansion’. This certainly could be called a mansion if you were ready to not nit-pick about it. The whole building was bigger than any existing castle. The exterior looked like an intricate fusion between a very high-tech house with a predominant presence of stained glass and a very refined monumental edifice with granite pillars and statues.
The overall structure of the house was quite geometrical and it was interesting to note that one of the ‘cut’, separated flat roofs, was currently used by Deva to sleep. Her place on the house seemed so natural that it felt it was made for her. Which wasn’t incorrect.
Baphomet stared at the front door which was large enough to welcome even him. The walls around it were made out of pearl-white granite that had been engraved with diverse patterns going from a simple one like a flower to a majestic dragon. All symmetrical.
Baphomet also didn’t fail to notice that everything had been enchanted to the very limit. There were even some materials that he couldn’t recognize. The wood used was definitely not normal, the granite even less, and the glass seemed to be tougher than mithril.
The demon even felt somewhat pressured by the ‘aura’ the mansion exuded.
“Oh? We have a guest?”
A raspy voice sounded as someone opened the door. Baphomet almost choked when he saw who it was. He couldn’t believe his eyes.
“What the hell are you doing… dad?”
Sebasfiel, in his butler attire, opened his eyes wide. He blinked as he scrutinized Baphomet. He then started laughing. A laugh that caused Jorga to wake up and Apana to stick his head out of the ocean to look at him.
“So, he revived you in the end, huh? Son,” Sebasfiel uttered and laughed again.
Baphomet groaned and his father finally began to calm.
“Ahem, sorry. I got carried away. Glad to see you alive.”
“Is that the first thing you have to say to your son after six thousand years?” Baphomet scowled and Sebasfiel restrained himself from laughing again.
“Both of us know that we’re not that intimate,” the butler said and smiled with a solemn expression for the first time in a long while. “But, I truly am glad to see you alive.”
Baphomet appeared to be surprised by his father’s tone and grunted in response.
“So? Can you tell me what’s going on?”
“What? Isn’t it obvious? Didn’t Arima tell you we’re building his house? We’re currently assisting Lady Layla. You can come too to give a hand. Well, although it’s pretty much done now,” the old man said and then realized something.
“Oh, but before that, perhaps you may want to take on another form. Let’s say that you’re quite ‘intimidating’ on top of being too big, you would risk messing things inside. And, believe me, you don’t want to see Lady Layla angry.”
Baphomet frowned, evidently confused about how someone could be scary for someone like his old man. “What do you mean?”
Sebasfiel shivered as he thought about it. “A few days ago; she ordered us to go fetch some Uyzre, the Stone of Life’s Origin. It took us around twenty hours to find some. When we came back, we were quite exhausted, to say the least. It was Sir Malum that was carrying the stone. You see; that thing is heavy. Very heavy. Perhaps heavier than several galaxies combined. Sir Malum was getting annoyed by the weight and was about to let it go at the cost of messing the soil around the house a bit.”
“Then, a light instantly burst out of nowhere and Lady Layla was already glaring at Malum before he could even do anything,” the butler shuddered again. “After that, I was too horrified to watch so I averted my eyes to not look whilst Sir Malum cried in anguish. Believe me, son, that man is stronger than me by far. Just think about that.”
Baphomet was inevitably surprised to hear that and stared at his trembling father. “Alright. But that was his fault for trying to drop the stone…”
Oddly, Sebasfiel started shaking his head. “Wait, I’m not finished. Did you know? Since we started the construction, not a single mistake was made. Do you know why?”
“…why?”
“Because Lady Layla would predict the mistake before it could even be made and would severely punish the one who was about to make the mistake. Mark my words, was about. They were not punished for something they did, they were punished for something they were about to do. Imagine how scary that is.”
Baphomet blankly stared at the old man and sighed. “I got it,” he uttered and casually cast a magic on him. His body shrunk and adopted a more humane look. His legs were still goat-like and he still possessed horns, but the rest of his body was the one of a regular human. He had rectangular pupils and his black hair was so long it reached his knees.
“Enough?”
“Plenty,” Sebasfiel nodded and proceeded to look at something behind Baphomet. “You were quick,” he said.
Baphomet’s eyes widened as he turned around to see Arima followed by Baba Yaga and Loren. Apana who was swimming in the ocean emitted a cry of happiness when he saw him and Jorga similarly acknowledged his presence before going back to sleep with a yawn.
“Yes, it was a small trip anyway,” Arima replied to Sebasfiel as Loren next to him started inspecting the plants of the soul realm.
“…This is incredible,” the newly appointed gardener remarked as he brushed the leaf of a plant with his fingers. “These plants are filled with life, energy, and even Laws. This is the first time I’ve seen so many gathered in one place.”
Loren appeared to be more fascinated by one single leaf than by the rest of the landscape. Baba Yaga was severely affected though. The moment she stepped inside the soul realm her expression froze.
Arima glanced at the two and shrugged. He left Loren and Baba Yaga to their antics before walking toward the entrance.
“Follow me, Baphomet,” he said and the goat demon raised an eyebrow before complying.
Sebasfiel smiled and opened the door for the two to come in. When he entered, Baphomet’s expression twitched as his eyes slowly rolled upward. He could only see the roof after fully tilting his head backward.
The roof was at least thirty meters high and on top of that, it was also made out of glass, carved glass, that seemed to be impermeable to the heat generated by the light coming from the stars and the emerald sun outside.
The hall of the ‘mansion’ appeared to be the living room, which was, incidentally, gargantuan. To give a comparison, the room had more surface than any sports field on Earth.
Within it, there were many, many kinds of decorations and furniture. Fancy sofas, chairs, tables, gorgeous looking pottery, paintings, ornamental weapons; modern technology such as TVs, electric chandeliers…
But that definitely wasn’t the most striking thing. In fact, there were actually some very big objects ‘placed’ in this living room. To be exact, they were hanging from the glass roof.
Those objects numbered a total of twelve. They were all things that you would not expect to see in a house. First of all, there was a full reconstruction of Tyrannosaurus Rex’s skeleton. Then there was an old model airplane from Earth, an embellished Eion system, and other valuable pieces of history.
There was even a small crystal-like tree in the center of the room. Arima had personally gone to the Spirit Realm to take a seed from the Spiritual Tree to plant it. The one he had now in his home didn’t have any kind of power compared to the original, but it was the most beautiful ‘piece of art’ you could ever find.
“…Hey,” Baphomet’s mouth twitched as he spoke. “This is going too far… I didn’t see you as a pompous wealthy man who liked grand decorations. This place is a freaking museum already and we’re still in the living room.”
Arima laughed lightly and nonchalantly made his way toward one of the couches and sat down. He laid his back and looked up whilst putting a lollipop in his mouth. He grinned.
“To be fair, none of this was my idea. Perhaps it was my fault though. I shouldn’t have said ‘I kinda want to build a house here’ while I was next to Layla.”
Sebasfiel snickered. “Indeed, Lady Layla was quite thrilled about this whole affair from the beginning until the end. Baphomet, you seriously can’t even imagine how far this went. The house’s size you can estimate from the outside is merely about one-thousandth of its real one. And it was just because of us doing our best to hold her back.”
“Apart from this main room, there’s a massive training ground, a library containing already more books than I could ever read in my life, a tremendously big pool, a legendary-class kitchen, hundreds of rooms, an underground full of fixed spatial gates to anywhere in Existence… and I could go on like this for hours. And I will not forget to mention that this entire house has the functionality to shrink, from an external perceptive of course, and teleport itself anywhere the owner wishes.”
The old butler laughed and Baphomet sighed as he sat down on a couch in front of Arima.
“I’m lost…” He grumbled and stared at Arima. “What the hell happened after that war? You’re certainly not human anymore, or even something remotely close to a mortal.”
Arima snorted. “Well, a lot.”
“Oh, Sir, I will tell everyone you’re back,” Sebasfiel stated and disappeared.
Baphomet glanced at where his father was a second ago and turned back toward Arima. “I honestly wonder how you got my old man to work so diligently as a butler for you.”
Arima chortled. “He offered it himself. He said something like ‘since you are Miss Ahura’s brother, you are effectively as much as a master than she is to me’ then became my butler.”
“What? You have a sister? Wait, more importantly, you said Ahura? Ahura Mazda?”
Arima laughed once again at Baphomet’s bemused reaction and waved his hand. “Let’s keep the story for another day.”
“Yaay! Arima is back!”
“He is.”
Two voices then resounded as two children entered the living room whilst holding hands. One was a blond girl and the other was a black-haired boy. The two were evidently twins and seemed to be around twelve years old.
The one who first exclaimed Arima’s name was the very energetic sounding girl. She wore a gold and silver dress and her complementing golden eyes were very cute. She was smiling brightly as she approached Arima.
The second, slightly monotonous voice originated from the boy. His dark red daunting eyes and deadpan expression looked a bit like Malum but in contrast, the boy was a lot more innocent looking and his eyes weren’t really sharp, just uninterested and tired. Opposite to his apparent sister, he wore black and red attire.
The two children ran toward Arima and jumped on him without any warning. Arima sighed and shook his head. He grabbed them from the arms and made them sit next to him, one on each side.
“What were you doing, Azizos, Arsu?”
“We were helping Layla finish the amusement park!” The little girl, named Azizos, replied and Baphomet almost choked when he heard ‘amusement park’.
“Hm, we were. She said we could take a break and that there would be a surprise in the living room,” Arsu complemented with his mildly indifferent tone.
“Yeah, she must have seen my arrival. Well, I was gone for only a few days. I had to go check something in the Spiritual Realm and I paid a visit to The Slanderer before fetching Baphomet and those two.”
Arima pointed at the entrance with his thumb when he said the last part. Azizos and Arsu tilted their heads and spotted the dumbfounded Baba Yaga, and the mystified Loren as he gazed at the miniature Spiritual Tree.
Baphomet mused as he stared at the twins in front of him. “Arima, are they your kids?” He asked and Arima contemplated.
“Well, in a sense, they’re my kids. But not in the way you’re thinking,” he responded as he patted both the children on their heads. “They are my ‘creations’ to be exact.”
“Don’t tell me…”
“Yes, they’re the sentient version of my twin guns.”
“I don’t even know if I should make a comeback on that…”
“There’s no point; so, don’t. Anyway, these two are actually both stronger than you individually you know? And since they stayed even longer than Karma bound to my soul, they’re very powerful at the moment. Arsu’s bullets will track you to the end of time if necessary until you’re hit while Azizos’ bullets would literally pierce space-time as they attack you. Together, they form a scary combination.”
Baphomet quivered as he realized the threat of those two young-looking siblings.
“Oh, so you brought the goat guy already?”
Someone else arrived through one of the doors located at some sort of intermediary second floor. His casual tone and low-pitched voice pointed to one person. Malum walked toward the small group and took a seat.
“Malum…” Baba Yaga muttered. If she wasn’t wrong, it was the name of the man who was about to be the father of Shakti’s child. She curiously took a look at his features. A tall and muscular body, white hair and purple eyes. His facial features were very close to Arima’s but at the same time, they looked completely different simply because of their respective personalities.
“Hm?” Malum felt the look and finally noticed the old witch’s presence. “Hey, Arima, why is she here?”
“Well, she will be our head maid from now on.”
“Head maid? Why do we need something like that now? That old man is already doing his job as a butler to perfection.”
“Take a guess,” Arima chuckled. “I thought it was a good idea to recruit someone else to assist Shakti in raising your child, don’t you think so?”
Malum clicked his tongue and looked away. “So, you noticed.”
“Of course. Though Layla most likely learned about it before it even happened.”
“Yeah, I got enough occasions to taste her future-sight. You don’t know how many times she got angry at me for something I didn’t do.”
“‘Yet’,” Arima added and Malum groaned.
“Oh? Are we having a group chat?” Night joined the conversation as he and Karma entered from the front door.
“It looks like it,” Karma commented and waved her hand at one of the tables in the room. It was moved by an invisible force before stopping between the two couches everyone was sitting on. She then took out many different kinds of aperitives and snacks and put them on the table.
“Night and I are returning from a trip to Fiarosezten. Layla asked us to go buy as many ingredients as we could. Going from the most basic meat to the essence of a phantasma. Enjoy this.”
Baba Yaga and Loren finally made their way to sit with everyone. “Fiarosezten?” The old woman inquired puzzled.
“It’s a galaxy,” Arima answered whilst slicing a cake after he had finished his lollipop. “It is the largest, most influential and powerful trading center of this Reality,” he explained as he tasted the sweet cake.
Baba Yaga’s eyes widened in astonishment and before she could say anything else, Karma abruptly exclaimed, “Ah! Right! Arima, you’ll never believe what we found on the way.”
Arima tilted his head in confusion and Karma grinned as she pointed at Night next to her. He directed his eyes toward his soul beast and finally noticed something.
There was a small creature perched on Night’s shoulder. It had small and almost cute claws. His tiny pair of wings wagged from time to time, and his golden scales shined with the light coming from the chandeliers and the emerald sun.
It was undoubtedly a baby dragon. But for some reason, the dragon had a very arrogant and aggravated look on his face that Arima didn’t fail to recognize.
The corners of his mouth gradually crept upward. “Hey, been a while,” he greeted the dragon as he did his best to restrain his laughter.
Night and Karma weren’t an exception and were clearly amused by the situation much to everyone else’s confusion except Malum who snickered.
The golden dragon snarled. “Don’t laugh. You better not laugh, you hear me?!”
His warning only seemed to fuel Arima’s urge to laugh but he managed to calm himself down and forced a cough. “I’m not laughing,” he uttered but then couldn’t hold it back anymore and let out a snort afterward.
“YOU ARE!” The small dragon roared but his body appeared to have been drained of its life force and his voice wasn’t really threatening or loud. This was also the reason why Arima took some time to notice him.
Just after the dragon’s shout, another person entered the living room/museum. Everyone turned toward him. The newcomer was a golden-haired boy who seemed to be around ten or eleven years old.
“Hey Gilga,” Arima waved his hand and Gilgamesh nodded as he focused on the golden dragon. The reason was that the small creature was fiercely glaring at him.
“You! I can sense my Gold Dragon within your soul! Give it back to me!”
Gilgamesh was confused as to why the baby dragon was angry at him. “Um… what gold dragon?”
“Listen, kid. That artifact is a statue of gold that I made by splitting my soul. And I can feel it within you. Now give it back.”
Gilgamesh was even more confused now but the dragon continued glaring at him.
Baphomet raised his hand with a deadpan expression. “Can someone explain to me what’s going on?”
Arima chuckled and captured the attention of both Gilgamesh and the golden dragon.
“Well, you see. This situation is quite fascinating, to be honest. Gilgamesh is the wealthiest King that rebelled against the Gods. And then you have,” Arima pointed at the dragon who scoffed back at him. “The greediest dragon who dared to steal from the Gods, Fafnir.”
When Arima revealed the dragon’s name, everyone exclaimed in shock and surprise.
Arima smiled and continued, “It was Layla who sealed Fafnir away after our fight. Malum, who was using my body at the time, used Babylon’s theory to get rid of the Gold Dragon he’s referring to. So, it naturally ended up in Gilgamesh’s ‘Treasury’, straight from Fafnir’s ‘Vault’.”
“Now that I think about it, these two have very similar abilities.”
“Don’t compare me to that brat,” Fafnir sneered and Gilgamesh furrowed his eyebrows.
Arima laughed. “I don’t think you’re in a good position to say that. You expended half of your possessions to trigger the Eye of Discord back then, then Jorga swallowed the Nibelungen Gold, and finally, you lost all of your life force while being sealed by the First White Art. You’re the weakest here by far.”
Fafnir groaned but couldn’t say anything back. Truthfully, Fafnir wasn’t weak. In fact, if he had not been defeated by Arima just after he exited his millennium-long slumber within Fantasia’s core, he would have easily become a Guardian-level powerhouse. And with the curse of the Nibelungen Gold, he would have been able to always revive stronger than before.
“By the way, how did you find him? He should have been sealed for a lot longer normally,” Arima asked Karma.
“Actually, we found him whilst sealed. The ‘cocoon’ he was trapped in was being auctioned at Fiarosezten. So, we bought it and Night undid the seal after making sure Fafnir was weakened enough.”
“I see,” Arima nodded and looked toward the pouting dragon. “Fafnir,”
“Ah? What? Do you wanna seal me again?”
“No. Frankly, I don’t think you’re that evil if we omit the fact that you want to steal all the gold of the world and take revenge against the gods. You’re just a pretty straightforward fellow I guess,” Arima flatly said and everyone smiled wryly while Fafnir stared at him with a puzzled look.
“What are you getting at?”
“Simple. Be a good boy and I may ask Jorga to give you back Nibelungen Gold.”
“…I guess it’s reasonable but I don’t like how you said that.”
“Just promise you won’t unfairly kill and harm people for your greed and I’ll forgive you and spare you from being tortured in Kymestuos.”
“Kymestuos?”
“My Hell.”
“…” Fafnir fell silent. He appeared to be seriously considering it. “I can promise... but I want you to allow me to steal from deserving assholes at least.”
“If by assholes you mean criminals, sure. I’ll even hire you in that case.”
“Hire me?”
“Yes. I will nominate you ‘Warden of Kymestuos’ along with Chulainn Kerberos that I already named ‘Hound of Kymestuos’.”
“Hmm, what are my perks?”
“I will give you strength and you will be allowed to oversee prisoners and take their possessions for yourself if you want. Considering Kymestuos is connected to every Reality, you will basically have boundless wealth.”
“I ACCEPT!” Fafnir’s voice has most likely never been as enthusiast as this in his entire life.
Arima grinned. “Then, I welcome you, Warden. You’ll also act as my treasurer since you love gold that much.”
Malum snorted. “This freak has really nothing else except gold in his head.”
“Call me however you want. My belief is that gold and wealth are the apexes of life. That’s who I am, and that’s what I am,” the small dragon stated pridefully.
“Keep your drive for gold under control though, Fafnir-chan,” a gentle feminine voice resounded.
“‘-chan’? That human honorific?” Fafnir raised an eyebrow. “Who dares to call me like that?” He turned around and froze as he was faced with the half-mischievous and half-amused smile of Layla. Following behind her were Aergia, Ahura, Evangeline, and Shakti.
“Little girl…” Fafnir grunted. “Seems you’ve gone a long way since you’ve sealed me, huh?”
“I sure did, Fafnir-chan.”
“Stop calling me like that.”
“Why? For some reason, I felt like it would suit you at perfection in that form. I wasn’t wrong in the slightest.”
“Hmph, mock me as much as you want. Once I get my powers back, I’ll return to be the mightiest Pure Blood Gilded Dragon.”
Layla smiled again and turned toward her husband, “Arima.”
“Hm?”
“Would you please shackle Fafnir-chan’s soul so that he can’t get bigger?”
“Sure,” Arima chuckled and snapped his fingers.
Fafnir couldn’t react in time as he felt his soul being overwritten. “Hey! Arimane!”
“Don’t worry, I made it so your strength won’t be affected.”
“That’s not the point!”
“Sorry, can’t refuse my wife.”
“Damn… stupid…” Fafnir started cursing but then Arima’s words caught up with his train of thought. “Wait, what? Your wife? You’re married? Seriously? To this little girl? Are you crazy?”
Ahura, Shakti, and Evangeline looked at each other and unconsciously glanced at Layla when he said that. They had noticed earlier that her expression hardened when she had heard ‘little girl’. Now that Fafnir had said it for a second time, none of them wanted to stay next to her as she unleashed a torrent of Time magic.
Aergia blinked and yawned. She went to an unoccupied sofa and fell asleep whilst ignoring the sounds of genuine pain and fear that Fafnir was emitting.
Everyone turned a blind eye to the small dragon’s suffering and started chatting again.
“By the way, congratulations Shakti,” Arima said and the future mother blushed. Layla also stopped tormenting Fafnir and left him collapsed on the floor with foam coming out of his mouth.
“Thank you,” she replied and both Evangeline’s and Ahura’s eyes widened.
“Wow… you never told us.”
Shakti bashfully smiled. “Well, it has only been a week.”
Ahura tilted her head and turned toward Malum with a stern look. “Oi,”
He scowled. “What?”
“You better not betray her feelings. Shakti is a lot more than what you deserve. Treasure her. Even if you’re technically my brother as well, I won’t hesitate to cut you apart if you ever hurt her.”
Malum growled and looked away. “I know that already. Shut up.”
Shakti giggled as he watched his reaction. Arima smiled as he brought a cup of tea to his lips, “Since Layla started it… splendid demonstration of a tsundere, Malum.”
Malum’s eyes twitched as his aura rocketed and his right hand turned skeletal. “Do you wanna die, Arima?”
“You can try.”
“Remember where we are? And who I am? I could invade your soul and attempt to consume it from the inside like the old days.”
“Now, now, that would be bad for both us, Skeletor.”
Malum’s aura increased again as the mention of his old nickname. But before he could do anything else, Layla made him stop with her glare. It meant that she ‘saw’ that he would obviously destroy something in the house if he were to continue.
Malum clicked his tongue and retracted his aura. Arima laughed lightly afterward.
“{Poor guy. Victim to your teasing,}” Krynox, who had been silent until now, commented.
“Lively as ever,” a sixteenth person came out from a staircase leading to the underground of the house. It was a horse-sized three-headed-dog.
“Well, with so many people inviting themselves,” Arima looked at the three-headed hound. “It’s bound to be lively, Chulainn.”
“Right,” the Hellhound snickered and sat down near the group.
“Speaking of that, Chulainn,” Layla raised her voice. “You just used one of the underground portals, right? How was it?”
“Perfect. I didn’t feel any discomfort and it was instantaneous. It’s incredible how you managed to link the entire Existence with those. How did you do that?”
“Well, Arima gave me control over his Crosses and I used the emerald neutron star combined with my space-time insights to make them. I also asked Jorga to help a little bit.”
“Hm, say, you’re all saying ‘Jorga’ but who are you talking about?” Baphomet asked.
“{Me,}” a voice was suddenly transmitted to everyone’s minds. “{To help you understand, I’m the big serpent you saw outside.}”
Just after Jorga spoke, a low-pitched cry echoed in their heads. It was quite loud and everyone felt as if a whale was shouting in their ears right next to them.
“{That was Apana, the large whale you saw swimming in the Soul Ocean,}” Jorga explained to Baphomet who nodded dumbfoundedly.
“Oh, right, Arima look at this,” Layla recalled something and she handed a scroll to her husband. “It’s the current map of the house. It will automatically update once something is added.”
Arima grabbed it and unrolled it. He whistled as he inspected the contents. “Honestly though, you went too far.”
“I don’t think so. It shouldn’t be anything less than this for you.”
“Hm-hmm, but… was the amusement park and the artificial beach really necessary?”
“That’s what I told her!!” Aergia shouted as she lifted herself from the couch before falling again, asleep. Everyone looked at her. It appeared that for someone as naturally lazy as her, it had been so traumatizing to work that she even had nightmares about it.
At the same time, Sebasfiel finally returned after finishing to inform everyone. He also brought seven people with him on his teleportation.
One of them was Azes who had come to be acquainted with everyone after Layla had set up the portals. The second one was Flavio and the third guest was surprisingly Lifa along with her small cat, Deki.
As to why Lifa was there; when Layla made the first portal to test its effectiveness, she made it appear right in the middle of the elves’ royal household and Lifa was the one who went through it. As soon as everyone met her, they all got attached to her. Even Malum was obliged to smile in front of her bright cheerfulness.
Two of the remaining people were the married couple; Jin and Evergreen. The reason Jin was there is a no brainer. Jin was essentially Arima’s best friend.
And finally, the last couple was Arister and Ferzia who were officially dating.
“Sir Raylein and Sir Ganesha were not available and didn’t come,” Sebasfiel remarked and Arima nodded, beckoning everyone to sit.
“Well, everyone’s here. Almost. Now, can you guys tell me why did we gather all of a sudden?”
Arima’s question stumped the entire group.
“What? I thought you were the one who told Sebas to gather everyone,” Ahura said.
“Ah,” Sebasfiel exclaimed. “I apologize. I wasn’t asked to do it. I don’t know why but I felt like doing it.”
More than twenty pairs of eyes abruptly stared at him as he laughed awkwardly.
“…well, since we’re all here. Let’s make a toast at least then I’ll guess I’ll give a guided visit of the house,” Layla chuckled and snapped her fingers. A cup appeared in front of everyone. Even in front of the sulking Fafnir. “That is a juice coming from the Spiritual Tree’s fragment over there.”
“Hmm,” Flavio mused as he studied the content of his cup. It was a crystal-like liquid that contained some sort of self-sufficient source of light. It was quite alluring.
Lifa sniffed the cup and her eyes sparkled. “It smells so good.”
“Indeed, I’ve never smelled a better fragrance than this one,” Arister commented and Ferzia nodded.
“Well, it’s not alcohol but I guess it’s not important,” Jin shrugged and Evergreen seemed to be intoxicated by the fragrance. As a dryad, the natural energy contained in her cup was quite overwhelming.
Azes sighed. “Honestly, who’d think that me summoning you into another world would lead to this. The mysteries of life, isn’t it?”
Arima smirked and raised his cup. “Cheers.”
““Cheers!””
Everyone smiled and emptied their cups in one shot.
