Chapter 118 - Two Fateful Choices

Azula was always a little creeped out by her firebending teachers, Lo and Li. Even though they claimed to be nonbenders, they seemed to know everything there was to know about the element. They also had a tendency to speak in riddles and always laced their words with double meanings.

She still wouldn't have known who they were if it weren't for recognizing the innate arrogance in their eyes that she herself also used to have. The kind of eyes that look at the world as if it is their ant farm. Reconciling these E-cup hourglass-shaped milfs with the old hunchbacked elderly ladies of her past was a bit of a challenge, but the adrenaline did it for her.

What clicked for her was when she quickly realized that they disappeared around the same time as Lord Zata. Intelligence suggested that the grannies unfortunately died in the chaos of war somehow, but now she had strong suspicions that they were the reason that Lord Zata was dragonified and the reason he knew Nuwa planned everything. She holds this suspicion because of how covetingly they are looking at her son. Gritting her teeth, she spits out, "Sensei Lo and Li.."

Li replies with her regal mannerism, "Now, now Azula. We do not mean any harm. You should be happy to see us again."

Giggling, Lo adds rhetorically, "Isn't this a wonderful reunion!"

'How the fuck am I supposed to relax?!' Azula stares at them as if she could bore a hole through their skulls with her eyes. Attempting to compose herself, she states, "As long as you do not touch Tulen, I can stay calm."

Li casually remarks, "It's quite impressive that a weapon like you could love after all we've taught you."

With a distinct feeling that they are testing her limits, Azula ignores her outwardly, while fuming inside. "Just tell me what you are doing here."

Lo explains, "We only wanted to see you. To check if you're doing well after experiencing such a tragic loss. We didn't expect to see such a remarkable artificial womb formation!"

Narrowing her eyes, Azula realizes that they do not know that Nuwa isn't actually dead. She manages to conceal her emotions from their sharp senses by rapidly following up, "I don't believe that for a second. Why did you disguise yourself as old ladies? What are you doing here? What do you want with Tulen?"

Li strokes her hand on the crib and states, "All your questions can be answered if you come with us for a long trip, but I cannot imagine you following us voluntarily. How about this for a compromise? We'll give you 17 years to raise your children undisturbed. In return, you'll follow us without resistance when we come to retrieve you."

Confused by the request to follow them and shocked at the middle ground they offer her, Azula falls into thought. 'They need me for some purpose, probably for the battle potential of my Phoenix dao. I can't imagine what sort of situation they wouldn't be able to handle with their strength. Maybe it is in other worlds like Nuwa had told me about.'

Lo provides some incentives, "We won't be stingy this time. We can teach you to harness your power and become much stronger than you are now.."

That seals the deal for Azula. One of her anxieties is that Nuwa will be far stronger than her by the time they meet again and she will feel the need to worship her like she did when near Nuwavatar. She doesn't want that. She wants to love Nuwa as an equal even if she can never outdo her in bed. Azula looks up and says with excitement, "Deal."

Lo and Li look at each other. They believe her excitement to gain power is so she can eventually use her Phoenix dao to return Nuwa back to life. Li then says curiously, "You know bringing an Outsider like Nuwa back from the dead is impossible no matter how strong you become, right?"

Azula's breath hitches and she makes a misleading excuse, "I don't have any false hopes about that. I just want to be able to protect Tulen and our other baby to the best of my ability. If you can teach me more, then I'll follow you at that time."

In reality, the sincerity in Li's statement relieved Azula since she could sense they really did want to have a good relationship with her, unlike back when they were training her into a psychotic weapon. That means they aren't picking her up to send on a suicide mission down the line. Furthermore, with how quickly they made the offer, it seems like 17 years is no big deal for them. She has no idea how old they are given that their former old age was a mere disguise, but she imagines that they are much older than her.

What she does not understand is why they dragonified Lord Zata and why they sent him after Nuwa. From how they look at Tulen, they must not have expected this to happen. There's also no way they'd know all of Nuwa's powers when neither Azula or Nuwa herself understood all of her powers.

Lo pulls out a book from seemingly nowhere, drops it on the bed, and says, "Since you're being so cooperative, here's something to get you started. Memorize this and then destroy it. If we see anyone other than you utilizing the techniques in this book, we will have to kill them. Have a lovely time!"

They begin to leave and Li emphasizes over her shoulder, "There will be no escape 17 years from now, so don't get any ideas."

Azula grunts and acts like she's reluctant, "I know. Let me mourn in peace, would you?" Her acting is nowhere near as great as Nuwa, so Lo and Li feel like something is up, but they don't know what. They still leave without pressing further though, so after a few minutes of them being out of sight, Azula's face lights up with a big smile. She can raise her children to a suitable age and then get stronger to keep up with Nuwa!

Feeling her grief retreat momentarily, she takes the chance to destroy Nuwa's body. The bombshell body has too many special properties and the last thing she wants is someone like Lo and Li with more knowledge than her using it as ingredients for something. She assumes they used dragon corpses when they dragonified Lord Zata. She kneels down and digests Nuwa's body to replenish her muscle. An hour later, Nuwa's body is fully digested and Azula's whole body is recovered, but now she's extremely horny. "Fuck me!"

~ ~ ~

[System] directs Nuwa's soul through the omniverse soulscape towards an appropriately powerful Record that would prove a challenge, but with no Soul Tier 4 beings. It wants a world that is only slightly stronger on average than the Avatar Record. In fact, the Avatar Record has stronger beings in the Spirit Realm, but Nuwa never had to encounter them in an antagonistic sense. For that reason, [System] is dissatisfied.

In the next world, [System] wants Nuwa to have to fight those strong Soul Tier 2 beings with whatever methods she can. Direct battle, wits, courage, deception, or all of the above. It wants Nuwa to grow through battle at the knife's edge. It doesn't matter if she dies since she can simply try again in a different Record.

Suddenly, [System] finds that Nuwa's soul has been enveloped by a domain so tightly that it cannot move. That's not supposed to happen. [System] looks around and senses nothing. Domains of powerful individuals are usually clearly outlined to let others know not to intrude. They also would not hunt for weaklings like Nuwa in the soulscape when there are millions of white dot-like souls floating, tumbling, and dashing all over the place in a random fashion. The worst part is that Nuwa's soul is the only one that's been frozen. Every other soul is still on the move.

This particular powerhouse is a true oddity that enjoys soaking his soul in the soulscape without enforcing the boundaries of his domain. It happened to awaken upon sensing something unusual in its vicinity. In fact, it only wakes up when it senses something interesting is happening. Otherwise, it would remain slumbering.

A massive soul resembling a black hole with a purple eye reveals itself in front of the [System]-controlled soul of Nuwa. [System] panics as it senses that it has been captured by a genuine Soul Tier 5 being.

[System] is able to assert far greater power than Nuwa can when it takes control of her body. It is even confident of escaping from a Soul Tier 4 being if it decides to capture Nuwa's soul indefinitely. Nuwa is meant to die repeatedly and grow stronger. Capture for longer than spiritually necessary for a breakthrough is contrary to its objective.

For Nuwa to have drawn the attention of a Tier 5 powerhouse, there's a definite possibility that the [System]'s objective would fail. This is the exact reason it avoids stronger Records until Nuwa herself is stronger. The only thing [System] can do is go along with whatever the Eye wants and hopefully, if it ever lets go of its soul force chokehold on Nuwa's soul, employ desperate escape maneuvers at the opportune time.

The Eye transmitted, "Hello, strange one. Why do you have a pesky thing suppressing you? Here, I turned it off. Good. Respond."

Nuwa wakes up in the soulscape feeling extremely confused. 'Shouldn't I be in a womb by now? WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING?!'

The Eye once again transmits a message, but Nuwa isn't able to interpret it as well as [System] can. It's garbled to her due to her inexperience with the soulscape. "Kshhlo. Rxp0nde."

Sensing her inability to interpret the message, the Eye brings her into its Record, where it is no longer an massive Eye, but a massive eldritch statue with its overall form having three eyes and two arms. There's also a long chain of strange bodies attached onto it, draped over its shoulder, stretching down to form a large pile of bodies which extend into a pool of black substance emitting purple ripples each time it moves.

When it speaks, it speaks with all of the mouths on all of its bodies, including those attached to it, even the ones that seem too disfigured to speak, causing its voice to resemble a cacophony of voices echoing off of.. nothing. "My name is Primordial Chaos, but the few who still remember me know me as Chaos. I have an interest in you, deathwalker. You remind me of the Goddess Nyx, with whom I formerly had a connection. I now offer you a choice, a most generous proposal, will you be born to the Chthonians or the Olympians? Take note that I have suppressed that pesky thing attached to you with a curse, therefore, you will not be able to access its power for the 18 years that my curse persists."

Nuwa looks into the distance and sees nothing but distant stars atop an ocean of black substance that extends infinitely in all directions. At first, she didn't even realize there was an ocean there because it was entirely black stillwater reflecting the stars above, until the purple ripples caused by Chaos' movement kept moving on and on into the distance. She's in a greek-style pantheonic hall floating upon the ocean. Her first reaction is to ask the [System] what is going on. When she tries to contact it, she finds that it is unresponsive. Panicking slightly, she checks in her soul and sees that the entire locked area where the [System] resides is shrouded by the black-purplish substance.

'Okay. I think I'm in trouble. This entity is stronger than the [System].'

Then Nuwa looks down and sees that she has no body, which is probably the most disconcerting thing that she has ever felt. She's a white dot like all the other souls she saw back in the soulscape.

'Alright, OK. I can handle this. It's just a body. No big deal. Deep breaths.. Never mind, I have no body to breathe with. Let's stick to thinking about mom's chocolate chip cookies to calm down.'

"Deathwalker, I have all the time in the world, but that too is limited. Is it not?"

Nuwa pauses and thinks, 'That.. is a very strange way of telling me to hurry up.'

'Alright, according to this oddly magnificent monstrosity that calls itself Chaos, I am being given a choice, with an attached curse? Oh, the curse has already been applied. The [System] is on time-out. That's not good. Don't I get my E-Nuwa powers from there? Hold up, Chthonians or Olympians? That means my parents will be gods! Cool! Well, I guess I'll pick Chthonian, since Zues was a shitty guy in all the fan-fics I've read.'

"Erm, Sir Chaos. I'd like to choose the Chthonians, please." replies Nuwa.

Chaos looks at Nuwa with all of its eyes and says, "This should be interesting." before whisking her soul into the Underworld.

(A/N: Welp, [System] got rekt. Last chapter in the Avatar Arc. Hades Arc (Supergiant Games) starts in the next chapter. Hype! :D)

(A/N: https://discord.gg/VD3C2BFPAu)