As Elise began her training, on the opposite side of the globe from Jelor, a woman in a black dress sat on the balcony of an inn, watching the nightlife below. It was quite a bit different from what she usually saw. Different people, different styles, different sounds. But the smell was the same. The smell of life. And blood.

    said a voice in her head.

    “Shut up,” muttered Rayna.

    “I said, shut up, monster.”

    “I’m not your daughter.”

    Before the voice could respond again, the door opened behind her, and a young woman emerged. She had pitch black hair and eyes that were almost as dark, and a face that betrayed no hint of emotion.

    “My Lady,” she said bowing. “I have spoken with the innkeeper. We can stay here for a month. We will not be disturbed.”

    “Good work, Violet,” said Rayna, smiling. “Why don’t you go have a bit of fun? You are free for the night.”

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    “Thank you, my Lady.”

    Violet bowed again, then left, closing the balcony door behind her.

    “I’m not adding any more Flowers to my Garden.”

    “No, want me to.”

    “We are the same.”

    “You are my greatest curse.”

    “No.”

    “No!”

    She abruptly stood up and went inside, putting the woman in green out of her sight. It didn’t help. Her mind kept turning back to her, unbidden. She look good in red. And she would be her first flower from the new continent.

    she told herself.

    She changed into a new dress, one more appropriate for the local styles, then put on some shoes, and went toward the door. As she reached toward the handle, her arm was trembling.

    She shouldn’t have been doing this. She was supposed to lay low. She had incurred a grudge with Irylax. She couldn’t be making a commotion, even if she was tens of thousands of miles away. And yet, there were some things she just couldn’t resist.

    “Please,” she breathed, her lip quivering.

    She shivered, then told her System Assistant to show her her Divinity Quest. As far as she knew, hers was unique. It was only 2 words.

    [ Divinity Quest: Break free ]

    [ Reward: Ascend to godhood ]

    she told herself.

    “...Just one,” she said.

    “You seriously used your real name? Are you retarded?”

    “Hey, I was flustered!” said Nigel, glaring at the kitsune across the table from him. “You would have done the same too!”

    “Maybe if I was lobotomized,” she scoffed.

    “That’s enough Erin.”

    Both siblings quieted and turned their attention to their adoptive father. Even after reaching the 8th tier, they still had not figured out exactly what he was. All they knew was that he was powerful and that, despite his appearance, he wasn’t human.

    “You said she was an aetherborn?” he asked.

    “Yes,” said Nigel, nodding. “Undoubtedly.”

    “Hmm,” said the older man. “How unusual.”

    “Well, it has been a while since the last one,” said Erin. “We were due for one anyway.”

    “What I am about to tell you cannot leave this room. Do you understand?”

    “Yes, Father,” said the two changelings, sitting up straighter in their chairs.

    “She is not the only aetherborn.”

    “What?!” said Erin.

    “No shit,” said Nigel. “Two aetherborn at once? That hasn’t happened since the Void Chasm, right?”

    “Correct,” said Father, nodding. “But it’s more than two.”

    “WHAT?!” said Erin, much louder this time.

    “How many?” asked Nigel.

    “This one you’ve met brings the total up to five. So far.”

    “So far??” asked Erin. “You think there will be more?”

    “To my knowledge, there have never been more than three at once, let alone five,” explained Father. “This is already unprecedented, so there is no reason to believe it will not become more so.”

    “So where are the others?” asked Nigel.

    “Only one other is on this continent, and unfortunately, they appeared right in the heart of Jelor. The kingdom snatched them up immediately, and has kept them top secret. The other three known ones are… elsewhere. I can''t say any more.”

    “I’m going to go visit the Jelorian one,” said Nigel.

    “You will not!” said Father, his voice echoing with power.

    “Why not?” Nigel whined.

    “You are grounded.”

    “What?”

    “Freddy visited earlier. He said you interfered with an Ostra mission.”

    “Well, I was just-”

    “And more importantly, that aetherborn you met is important to him somehow.”

    “How was I supposed to-?”

    “It doesn’t matter. You also went out without my permission to mess with Ostra while Freddy was already angry at us for Enya’s teleportation scroll pranks. I’m not going to risk it. You’re grounded for a year.”

    “This isn’t fair!” wailed Nigel.

    “Ha!” said Erin. “Loser. Daddy, can I go play with the aetherborn?”

    “Of course, dear,” said Father, his tone softening. “But could you wait at least a day for things to settle down first?”

    “Okay!”

    “How come she gets to go out?” complained Nigel.

    “Because unlike you, she covers her tracks properly.”

    “Look on the bright side!” said Erin smugly. “At least you won’t be alone. Enya can keep you company.”

    “Shut up,” grumbled Nigel.

    “Maybe you two grounded losers can knock some sense into each other.”

    “That’s enough, Erin,” said Father. “You two can leave. And Erin, please check on Enya to make sure she hasn’t been making more of those silly things.”

    “Okay, Daddy,” said Erin, hopping to her feet, her tails twitching.

    “And Nigel,” the changeling flinched as he stood up as well. “Don’t even think about stealing one of Enya’s scrolls to leave.”

    “...”

    “Nigel…”

    “Yes, Father.”

    The changeling and the kitsune left the room, the kitsune strutting happily and the changeling with his head down.

    “Dumbass,” said Erin before blinking out of existence.

    Nigel glanced around to make sure he was alone, then straightened his back and put on a smile.

    Father had locked down the house to keep him inside, but that wouldn’t stop him. There were other ways of leaving. Father had only forbidden him from one of Enya’s scrolls. He didn’t say anything about them.

    It had been a couple days since the Ostra meeting, and it was finally happening. Alice was evolving.

    She was in her hole within Walter’s cave again, after having dug it out a bit further. Walter helped hide her a bit by packing the dirt bank around the hole, hiding it from the sight of any opportunistic birds, not that it really mattered, since he was personally guarding her evolution himself.

    It had been about an hour since she started, and Walter was in an endless cycle of pacing back and forth, laying down and trying to relax, and howling and firing warning shots at any birds that even got remotely close. He didn’t fully understand why he was so restless. Obviously, he didn’t want to get punished, so he had to make sure she survived the evolution process, or else Freddy would be angry. However, during her first evolution, he didn’t feel like this. He was a bit nervous, sure, but he was able to lay down the whole time, growling away any potential threats without moving a muscle.

    As he entered his eighth round of pacing, he thought of the possibilities of what she might evolve into. Her last evolution had been into some kind of carnivorous, wolfish rabbit. Would she go further that way? Just become a stronger version of herself? That would be nice. Walter would like it if she became more wolfish. Or perhaps she would add some ice magic.

    He really hoped she didn’t follow in the other rabbit’s footsteps. Though then again, if Alice could fly, that might make it easier for her to hunt with him. She would probably be able to keep up better, at least. And even if she did evolve like that, she wasn’t the other rabbit. She was Alice. Walter could just train her to be better than the other rabbit. Yes, that was a good idea. Freddy might have been protecting the evil rabbit, but Walter could at least make a superior version.

    “Look!” he imagined himself saying to the evil one. “It is you, but better!”

    And then Alice would bite the other rabbit’s head off and everyone would be happy.

    Walter chuckled at his own imagination, then realized that he had stopped pacing in his distraction, and redoubled his efforts. Nothing was going to even get close under his watch.

    At one point, a bird descended a few hundred feet closer, probably trying to see what Walter was defending so diligently. Walter shot an icicle at it, and though it missed, it was enough to make the bird ascend back up to its perch higher on the mountain.

    An hour later, Walter heard the faint sounds of combat far in the distance. It sounded like the dwarves had run into another pack of direwolves. Walter kept an eye in the direction of the combat for a little while until it faded away and disappeared before he relaxed slightly.

    An hour after that. Freddy appeared. Walter, not expecting this, immediately fired an icicle at the golden-haired man. The icicle froze in midair right in front of Freddy’s face, which was still smiling.

    “Good evening, Walter,” said Freddy, stepping to the side before the icicle continued on its path, punching a hole straight through a tree and embedding itself two feet deep into the one behind it.

    “Freddy,” growled Walter.

    “Hey,” said Freddy. “Watch your tone.”

    Walter glared a bit longer before his tail went between his legs and his ears flattened against his head.

    “Sorry,” he muttered.

    “Good boy,” said Freddy. “Now, I hear Alice is evolving again. May I take a look?”

    “Where you hear that?” asked Walter.

    “It’s a figure of speech. I placed a mark on her, so I can sense what she’s doing. I would have come as soon as she started, but I was caught up in some business elsewhere. May I see her?”

    “...Alright,” grumbled Walter, stepping aside to let Freddy by.

    Freddy walked forward, his feet not quite touching the ground, and when he reached the dirt bank, the packed earth parted, letting him step through on flat ground. Walter followed close behind, leaning his massive head over the bank, watching as Freddy crouched down in front of the hole while still smiling. Walter felt his heart rate begin to spike, though he didn’t know why. Freddy wasn’t a threat. He had given Alice to him. Yet, having anyone so close to Alice when she was so vulnerable made him nervous.

    “Her cocoon is quite a bit larger this time,” commented Freddy. “I am quite curious to see what she will become. What about you, Walter? Are you excited?”

    “...No,” Walter lied.

    “It’s almost like being a parent. Seeing your child grow up before your very eyes, turning from a helpless little whelp into something greater. Quite fulfilling, no?”

    Walter didn’t respond.

    “I raised a child once,” continued Freddy. “Mine was a human though. It was in the early days when I had just evolved to be able to have a human form. I was curious about what life as a human was like, and more specifically, life as a parent. I had never understood why humans would settle down like they so often do. I had watched countless powerful hunters and knights and mages give up on progressing their classes further in favor of having children, and every time, I always had one question: why?

    “I watched a few parents in their homes, and oftentimes, they seemed quite miserable. Children are stupid, messy, needy, incompetent, and generally unpleasant to be around. Whenever I saw parents drinking at taverns, they were always complaining about their spouses or children. It seemed like an all-around miserable experience.

    “I thought that perhaps it was simply not possible to understand for monsters. Or rather, that it was the other side of the spectrum from monsters. We do not have children. We spawn, we fight, and we die. No matter what we do, it doesn’t affect the next generation. On the other hand, if the humanoids don’t reproduce, their species will die out. The ancient Celestials found this out the hard way. In a way, it’s not fair that they have to do that. That they have to give up their own lives to maintain their species’ survival. And in the same way, it’s not fair that we are forced to fight and kill to level up. Whether monster or human, there are upsides and downsides.

    “That explanation made sense to me, and seemed like a reasonable compromise, but I still only understood on an intellectual level. I wanted to comprehend more deeply. So, I killed a family and adopted their newborn daughter. It was only years later that I came to regret that.

    “At first, I still didn’t understand what the humans got out of reproducing. However, as the years went by, and my daughter grew from a helpless infant to a toddler, then an adolescent, then an adult, I got it. Seeing her leave our house and set out into the world on her own, it made sense. I felt fulfilled. Like my life was finally worth something. Like I could die that day and be satisfied knowing that she was out there.”

    Freddy paused for a moment, seemingly lost in nostalgia. Walter didn’t say anything, but for some reason, he was feeling even more nervous.

    “However, that is not the lesson I am currently trying to teach you,” said Freddy after almost a minute. “My daughter went on to become a very fine woman. You may come to learn of her one day. In her prime, she was known as Archmage Anne Jelor, the founder of what is now one of the most powerful nations on this continent. I was very proud of her and everything she did, and nothing made me happier than when she took the time to come visit me again. But all good things must end, and she was no exception.

    “The day she died was the worst day of my life. The thing I had grown so proud of–that had given my life so much meaning–was gone. For a short while, I felt like I would be better off dead.”

    “Freddy…” said Walter.

    He didn’t know why Freddy was saying all this, but his subconscious seemed to have made a connection that his conscious mind hadn’t yet, and that connection filled him with dread.

    “Walter, you are a monster,” said Freddy. “There is no way around that. However, if you want to live a fruitful life, there are things you must come to understand. Things that normal monsters would never have a chance of understanding. And unfortunately, this lesson will come with some pain.”

    Freddy pointed a finger into the hole and a tiny spike of mana shot out. Alice’s cocoon popped like a slime, and her burrow turned into a puddle of orange goop.

    Before he even had time to process what happened, Walter was leaping at Freddy, jaws open wide, ready to bite the man in half. The next thing he knew, he was on his back just outside the cave, with Freddy standing over him, a hand wrapped around his throat. Walter tried to struggle out of the demon’s grasp, but found himself immobile. He tried casting {Ice Spear}, but found his mana refused to listen to him.

    “FREDDY!” he shouted.

    “Do you feel that pain, Walter?”

    “YOU-! EVIL-!”

    “Trust me Walter, this hurts me almost as much as it hurts you,” said Freddy, wiping a tear from his cheek. “But it is necessary.”

    “NO! YOU KILL ALICE!”

    “Yes, I did. I took no joy in it, but it was necessary. What you’re experiencing now is something that very few monsters ever will.”

    “NO!”

    “Yes,” said Freddy, nodding solemnly. “Feel the pain. Experience it. Ingrain it on your soul. And know that whenever you kill, this is the pain you are inflicting on others. When you killed that family in the cabin, this is how the rabbit felt. This is how the family members you didn’t kill felt.”

    “SHUT UP!”

    With a mighty effort, Walter managed to twist his body to the side, wrenching himself free from Freddy’s hand. He stood up and with his mana still not working, he immediately dove at the demon.

    “I KILL YOU!” he screamed.

    Freddy watched him lunge with a melancholic expression, then slipped between Walter’s outstretched paws and brought his hands up to the warg’s throat. He flung Walter in a wide circle, slamming him to the ground. Walter yelped in pain as a loud crack echoed through the clearing, and his back legs went limp.

    “You want to kill me?” asked Freddy. “Good. Now, think how the humans of the family you killed feel. They want to kill you just as much, if not more. And they will be coming to find you soon. I’d rather not see you die so soon, so I’m giving you a way out.”

    “NO!” Walter shouted as he produced a scroll and a bottle of red liquid from midair.

    Walter tried to squirm out of the way, but between Freddy’s otherworldly strength and his broken spine, he couldn’t manage to do more than roar, and Freddy used that opportunity to dump the red liquid down his throat. After only a few seconds, feeling returned to Walter’s back legs, and he began kicking to try to escape. Freddy ignored him and dropped the scroll into Walter’s still-partially-open mouth.

    Walter snapped down instinctually, tearing through the parchment, and he felt mana beginning to trigger.

    “Never forget what happened tonight,” said Freddy.

    Before Walter could respond, the mana exploded outward from the scroll, and his world turned white.