CHAPTER 193: CHAPTER 192: REMODELLING

"I refuse, he has plenty to apologise for himself, we all do. Our lives are just countless transgressions piled one upon another.To make matters worse, we had the audacity to contemplate "The human problem", all the while we neglected to see that they were an example of what should have strived for.

I think we were blind, I don’t think they were born from nothing, I think the origin laws were disgusted by us and our eternal conflicts and petty grudges, so they created a species that had a foul nature they constantly tried to outpace.

They did terrible things, but in the end they had the decency to look back and ask the question we never thought to."

"Which is?"

"Why did I do that?..." Kyubi looked at Klaire and remembered their admissions to each other when they sought to change. "...I don’t think it’s a mere coincidence a human was the first to show us the origin laws, I think it was a necessity."

"I think you may be right, if that one had shown his power, we would have either run or rallied against him. It’s only because a creature as weak as a human had them, that the others were curious enough to observe, it sounds as though even Nergal is changing slowly."

Kyubi beamed with pride in her loves and her friends. "They really are an incredible species when they want to be, even diluted, their ability to acknowledge their faults, grow from their failures and be better than they were... It’s simply divine."

Bakunawa observed everything, a sense of shame falling upon him, he realised that Carl and the others had already defeated him in something far more significant than the meaningless challenge he proposed.

He asked Kyubi if he should call off the challenge and accept his demise and she chuckled and told him not to. It was a surprise to him still and he asked why, Kyubi explaining that he was likely using the time to prepare for the act of taking a life and making him feel even more ashamed in the process.

"I’ve proposed a truly terrible thing for him haven’t I, preparing to take a life? Have any of us ever needed to prepare to take a life, or have we always simply killed because it was our right?"

"The latter unfortunately, I’m no different, I slaughtered countless humans in my wrath and madness. I’ll spend the rest of eternity atoning for it in any way I can, in someways I envy your ability to die and be reborn, but I admire your willingness to. Anyway, apologies Bakunawa, but I simply refuse to completely miss out on sleeping alongside her."

With those final words, Kyubi transformed into her celestial fox form and cuddled with Klaire, who suddenly swapped out her arms to embrace the larger form. A sight that both amused Bakunawa and made jealousy burn within him, a fire that he used to motivate himself to endure death for the purpose of being reborn.

Hours passed and Kyubi and Klaire awoke and retrieved supplies from their armlets to get breakfast started, the smell of cooking enough to tempt the others from their slumber.

"How long has it actually been on Haven?"

"Not even a day yet, we are out of the time flow by quite a margin. At this rate you will all be fully developed by the time to return." Kyubi chuckled, the thought of the children’s reactions amusing her.

When they were done eating, Blanc laid back on the floor, then turned to Bukanawa and sighed.

"Just once I wish you would look at me and sigh with such contentment." Sophie teased him, which started a whole other level of conversation about what the hell is going on with Blanc and her and also why that bothered her, but not the fact he held Grenda’s hand.

"He does it a lot..." Grenda admitted. "...Honestly I thought it was creepy at first, but I realised it only happens when someone tries to give him a nudge toward Sophie. He panics and always grabs the wrong hand."

"How often does he get nudged?" Scylla asked, pitying Sophie’s predicament a little bit.

"A lot, we go to see Lydia every morning and the moment she saw how the trigger worked, she started pulling it every single chance she had." Sophie explained.

"Ahh, right, forgot about that. Congrats Klaire, now you and Carl have someone to empathise with you about that photo."

"That was her!?"

"Allegedly..." Klaire narrowed her eyes, still a bit annoyed about the fact she could never prove it. "...Unfortunately that pervy old woman is good at covering her tracks."

"Well, I hope we find proof soon, I’d love to know who to thank. From what I’ve heard, you two would have probably never gotten together if it weren’t for that." Kyubi said.

"True, but it was still bad because everyone thought we were related back then."

"Why?" Grenda asked, more than a bit interested by the rather surprising development.

"We called each other’s parents "Auntie" for a start, then there is the whole fact he has Bashe clan hair and complexion." Klaire said bitterly.

"Red hair used to be a lot more widespread, but I guess it is rare these days, unfortunately he was made or at the very least altered by Ishtar and she loved it." Kyubi noted.

"Did you ever meet her?" Klaire asked a bit cautiously.

"I didn’t properly, no. I met her a few times in passing, but I was still young and expected to show her proper respect as her ally’s subordinate."

"Kyubi, I know you won’t appreciate this, but young by celestial fox standards..." Klaire burst into laughter as Kyubi playfully whipped her with her tails.

The conversation came and went and then a few more hours passed and finally they heard a muffled, distorted roar come from the direction of Bakunawa’s head followed by a single uttering from the Moon-Eater.

"And so, it’s time."

When carl finally appeared, his boots had worn away and his feet and hands were bloody, his nails ripped off and he was completely drenched. His hair was matted and sticking to his face and his face was covered in wiry patches of facial hair.

His clothes were torn in several places and stained almost completely red, with a chunk of flesh missing from several spots.

"CARL!..." Kyubi and Klaire shouted as he threw himself down Bakunawa’s head, but he held out a hand to halt them and grab onto the glowing lure sprouting from his forehead and slid down it.

"Bakunawa... I have... Officially... Traversed... Your entire... Body..." Carl stood triumphant just long enough to declare his victory and then collapsed, Klaire and Kyubi catching him in an instant and laying him down.

"How is an immortal so wounded from a mere hike?" Bakunawa asked as he pushed into the lighthouse to examine his conqueror’s wrecked body.

"It seems as though he disabled his healing, his hair doesn’t grow out quickly, he must have been running at full tilt for weeks with a body unable to keep up with the strain." Kyubi’s voice was a mixture of worry, pride and anger, a set of emotions that Klaire was emulating perfectly.

Bakunawa turned to Gillian, then back to Carl. "The strength of weakness is it? What a terrifying force Ishtar created and what a fine master I have found."

"Don’t give her the credit, he could have decided to give up any time things got tough, he’s the one that endured it all and kept pushing forward." Klaire correct in absolute defiance of letting the credit go to anyone but Carl.

"Of course, when he is healed, I will die. make sure he knows I am thankful for the end to my wasted existence and look forward to the day he gives me a second chance."

"We will, do you have anything else to say? Anything you wish you had done? We will make sure the new you sees to it."

"Make sure I talk..."

It was a simple request, but one that carried the wait of eons of regret.

In the end it took three hours for them to heal Carl enough he regained consciousness and the moment he did Kyubi glared at him. "You’re doing it again my love, reactivate your healing and stop fighting mine."

"Sorry..." Carl quickly sacrificed his MP to restore his health and his body stitched itself back together immediately, then he used his creation to fix his clothes and finally activated the realm control panel to reset all the settings.

"Carl, you have defeated me, when you are ready I would like to be done with this life and the countless irredeemable regrets I have with it."

"Of course, I promise it will be quick and I’ll make sure your new incarnation doesn’t have the same regrets..." Carl turned to Klaire and Kyubi. "...Sorry, do you two mind helping me? Attack power still isn’t my strong point."

Klaire and Kyubi gave him a solem nod, then everyone said their goodbyes and Klaire produced her most most destructive single shot weapon, which was apparently a new creation that she came up with using the fine control she learned from Faylorna.

"...This fires a focused form of solar flare. I think it’s best if you go out to sea a bit, we’ll need to defend the building from the heat, but I don’t want to risk a non-lethal shot."

As he swam out to sea, he was half expecting them to use the opportunity to flee, in the end promising that if they did he would kill himself and die in shame.

Klaire mounted the weapon on the balcony, its cumbersome and bulky design stretching more than eight feet over the edge, then lined up her shot. Kyubi erected a barrier and was completely focused on preventing backlash and finally Carl diverted divinity towards both of them while sending his other-self to go and hold onto Bakunawa’s tail ready to synthesise it the instant he could.

To everyone present, it was over in an instant, a bright flash and then nothing but steam as far as the eye could see as the sudden supplementation and water displacement caused a shockwave of a nuclear blast in the gigatons.