Country of Champions 30

Seeing mutant abilities and magic firing up, Orison unhurriedly added, "Check your spiritual seat, Mr. Lacquer. I'm using someone's attempt to set me up and discredit my mentor to provide another, far more rare supplement."

Orison chuckled and thought to himself about a certain daytime talk show host's catch phrase. "Check under your damn seat, gentlemen... Because I got something for ya!"

"Show me... Now or I'll blow up your house," Mr Firebrand said.

"Help yourself. It's in the basement... Mr Lacquer, if you know some way to make it stronger or more efficient, be my guest." The young mage opened the pantry door.

A wave of relatively pure spirit essence spilled out before radially spreading and sinking into the floor. Unable to maintain, the sudden burst of spirit strengthening knocked Mr Firebrand out cold. Fortunately, Mr. Lacquer could see what was going on from where they were standing or he would have went full on battle mage mode as soon as that happened.

"That circle inlay has been here for at least five years. I'd like to study it and what you've done to turn what should have been a huge disaster into a huge boon instead," Mr Lacquer said.

"Feel free but this is a Black Ouroboros, Deep Blue Pisces event. You're only allowed to share your findings with a Triumvirate member, their cabinet secretary or designated adjunct" the young mage added.

Mr Lacquer thought about it and said, "Should I stay to help with your visitors first?"

Orison shook his head. "Get to looking before you lose some of your portion to someone else. The devils are going to stop sending fodder soon and then it's all about who's closer and more primed to receive."

The older mage closed the pantry door behind him, not willing to waste a moment or an opportunity, either one. A few minutes later, six Planar Response personnel with T3 patches on their uniform came storming in yelling and barking out orders in an intentionally confusing manner. Only, they found a room full of sleeping people aside from Orison.

Before they could lay hands on him, they looked at the touch screen held up by his fingers that was pointing at them, showing a scowling Jacques face. "Does the patch on your uniform say 'T One of Three' or T3!? How dare you yell at me!"

The team lead stepped forward and said, "Sir, your student is suspected of possessing undeclared and untaxed resources. We've been tasked with search and seizure. There is also an anonymous tip off that Mr Cantrip is a devil devotee."

Orison snorted and said, "That's funny. From where I'm sitting, two of your team members are possessed and the team leader bears a a devil's devotee MARK!"

Before anyone could stop him, the team leader opened fire on Orison while yelling, "He's possessed!"

Three team members joined him but three things rapidly became apparent. The first was that their bullets were passing through everything. The second was that two of those three that had joined in had collapsed to the floor, shadowy imps attempting to cling on to them as they were forcefully pulled out. The third was that their B-class team leader had a glowing mark shining through his uniform.

Orison said, "Once the devils are completely removed. Feel free to escort your two other members and report directly to Triumvir LeStrange. Use the secret tunnels. This is a Black Ouroboros, Deep Blue Pisces event."

Before they had a chance to ask Jacques questions or inquire about the team leader, Gravat stepped into the house and said, "Get going!"

As the team leader stood paralyzed, Orison's spirit bottle formation, attempting to 'pull the devil out' while the mark attempted to consume the team leader's essence to keep him from being captured and questioned, the blue skinned man pulled out a chain and wrapped the man up.

Glaring at Orison fiercely, Gravat said, "We only have around five to ten minutes to finish what I came for."

For a brief second, the house phased back into reality fully before Orison reactivated the massive and decades old circle deep underground. It had been used to move the property to Avalon and left there as a secret emergency escape magic transport. The young mage could only imagine how many people could fit inside it but it took five motes just to prime it for a little partial phasing.

Orison sighed and said, "Close the door. A message was sent to LeStrange along with a recording of certain events. Once we partially phase back out, no one will be messing with us for hours even if there were nukes blowing up in front of the house."

Gravat looked confused. "I don't understand this here but not really here crap but I doubt you explaining it is going to help. Let's just get MY thing over with."

The young mage shouted to the back of the house, "Stag, quit perving on Janet while you pretend to be asleep. It's time for work now."

Taking the box Gravat handed over, Orison ignored the instinctual urge to assault the blue man while dodging the jerky backhanded swipe Gravat threw. Afterwards, he stored the box in the ruby ring on Gan's finger before checking his room. The children were gone.

On his bed were four feathers and the scent of a sweet herbal cigar. Smiling and wishing the family well, he stored away the downy gifts left for him along with the unused supplements. Once his bed had been prepared, with a twist of will, Orison knocked out Gravat with an extra strong surge of essence enrichment as soon as he got the blue man to his room.

Bringing Adena's unconscious form in as well, Orison closed the door. A little over two hours later, Stag came out to grab Gan and bring him in. By the third hour, Adena had been placed back where she had originally been, the only difference about her, a streak of cobalt blue in her restored to sunflower yellow hair.

Restored to sanity, a bottle of Devil's Tongue rolling empty onto the floor, Orison looked up to see Stag gawking at him in horrified wonder. He disentangled himself from the three foot doll of a woman he was mutually grappling and cleaned off the gory mess on his bed. Both of them looked over to the baby wrapped in a blanket with involuntary cold eyes.

"He attempted to screw us both over in various ways, Stag, but now he's a clean soul with a new life. Please, please tell me your weird substitution ability worked properly," Orison said with a small sense of non-intuition inspired dread.

Stag said, "Without a single hitch. I was somewhat surprised that I could do it with a woman's egg too. I highly doubt what I witnessed was pure chaos that just somehow turned out exactly the way you wanted. I know you don't want to talk much about it but I would really like some kind of explanation as repayment for being forced to watch that interesting but insane exchange."

The young mage said, "That lilliputian tyrant in my bed is Gravat's original form before she screwed up using a vial of fantasia trying to make herself 'the perfect man'. The most ridiculous thing about it is that she did it out of vanity. I suppose she could be forgiven based off of how young she was at the time. The rest of the story will have to wait for now."

Stag shook his head and said, "Can you at least explain why the vial of fantasia didn't fully work? And what am I supposed to do with the rest of this bottle of 'Long *ss Night'?"

Orison took it and placed it into the ruby ring right next to the box. "The original creator of your world split and imbued their essence into two races. Switching from the Popolo race she was born as to whatever the other one's called, she accidentally awoke the spiritual bloodline that was dormant in her. That consumed too much of the potion's power and made the transition incomplete. Physically, she was a male blue giant person but she wasn't on a deeper level. She turned herself into a mule... In more ways than one."

As the young mage stirred Mr Firebrand enough to hand the baby to him, Stag asked, "What were those brews exactly?"

Answering Stag's spoken question, he addressed the confusion present in Mr Firebrand as well. "Devil's Tongue strengthens the spiritual seat from outside intrusion but while it's working, the person who took it is little more than an animal with most of their higher brain function dormant while the drink does its thing. Long A** Night is a brew that provides concentrated nourishment while it accelerates biological aging.

"Before you get too riled up with whatever you're imagining, Mr Firebrand, the only thing that was directly touched on your daughter was what nature makes her shed on a monthly basis and her hand, BY a hand. The boy you're holding is your biological grandson. The surrogate mother wishes to remain anonymous and the father no longer exists. Suffice it to say, every advantage you wanted your grandchild to have, he has."

The man stood up with vengeance burning in his eyes as he said, "To say you went too far is an understatement that words can't even cover. If there is anything, and I mean anything, wrong with this child or my daughter, I will see you rot in the filthiest pit the Irregulars have to offer."

Orison said dully, "The fiance that you picked out for Adena is in Triumvirate custody being interrogated on where he got his devil mark, among other things."

His eyes blazed with spiritual potency as he added. "That place you just imagined for me, dig about six feet deeper and that's where your corpse could be found if you weren't Adena's father. I'm sure your late wife would agree you belong there... Good day, Mr Firebrand. I hope grandparent-hood sees your family line preservation schemes come to a halt before you ruin anymore lives."

The demonic sunflower of a man said, "Save your threats and lectures. Even the patron guardian of Avalon won't change my mind if I want to tear you to pieces."

Orison gave a saintly smile. "I'll pass on the message the next time we speak."

Once Adena's father opened the door, a T3 swat team swarmed the place and the entire situation devolved to an endless litany of statements and testimony that continued until late evening. Fortunately, everyone present was well rested and feeling a natural high that would take weeks to fade away. And once again, the young mage was presented with a long list of generous merits and harsh demerits that almost broke even.

That 'almost' turned into a slight loss when Jacques slipped in a personal defamation of character suit over using his likeness and voice to represent him without his permission. Since one of the largest demerits was already a charge of appropriating the authority of a Triumvir with 'just' but unsanctioned cause, Orison knew it was spite for leaving his mentor out of the spiritual essence buffet. Instead of reading between the lines and 'making things right' with Jacques, the young mage responded by charging him with resource extortion and misappropriation of resources by an instructor for personal use.

With merits and reputation on the line, Jacques folded and withdrew the civil suit. It took realizing that the reclusive Third Triumvir was on board and a message that Orison was willing to drop charges if HE did, however. The young mage also got an ear full.

LeStange said, "Are you trying to humiliate me to death!? So, I got too hot under the collar band. Talk to me first."

Orison laughed menacingly. "When you're angry, you can do what you want and that's okay. But when it's my turn to fire back, you expect me to turn the other cheek and politely talk things out with you while you use your position to brow beat me? Maybe if it was the first time. That's pretty much what I did.

"Have you forgotten that you personally requested that I defend my B-class status way ahead of when I had to? Are we going to pretend that doesn't make me look bad, that we had a falling out or that there's something wrong with me and you want a reason to cancel your mentorship? You're not an adjunct throwing the weight of your boss's name around to get your way anymore.

"You ARE the boss and if I was a typical person of my age, regardless of class, you would have ruined my life! And for what? I'm going to get off of here before I say something you won't be able to forgive and I'll never apologize for."

Ending the video call, the young mage stewed on all the extra complications this go round was trying to saddle him with. He was almost grateful when Stag interrupted him to ask about what they were going to do about the Popolo version of Gravat upstairs. There was nothing to do. They had to wait for her to get up on her own since Aurora didn't send anyone for her.

Stag said, "Alright, explain how the whole thing between Adena and Gravat went."

Sighing, the young mage spilled. "A soul that's strong or lucky enough can survive being fragmented. Those fragments are still part of each other. If they meet back up later but haven't changed much, they'll be drawn and try to fuse together. The dominant piece determines which body becomes the vessel. Reality will attempt to 'auto correct' as well.

"In this case, I used that knowledge to make low dimension nonsense work in my favor. You saw what part I played and I don't want the details but with your substitutions, blue man Gravat was the father, shorty female Gravat played the surrogate mother and Adena was the egg donor. When Adena touched Gravat, they should have fused entirely but both of their souls were 'full' already from freshly squeezed devil juice. So, instead of fusing, they shared.

"Adena was still the dominant soul. So, she got 'reality' custody of the baby born in this world. And THIS is were things get tricky. I magically forced the conception and the brew is what allowed little baby Herne to be born but the seed was still technically sterile until that transfer happened.

"Now, inside the ring on Gan's finger is the rest of Gravat's legacy on ice. Because Gan has a special kind of field around himself, only part of reality's 'auto correct' worked on it... That's right. I'm about ninety percent sure that there is 'live' blue man Gravat stuff in that box. Worse case scenario, it's Popolo Gravat but at least it's not an egg. Absolute weirdest possible is it's male Adena stuff but if Gan's field was only capable of protecting it to that low of a degree or reality favored Adena THAT much, I'm almost certain it would have turned into an egg or two instead."

Right about the time he was finished satisfying that part of Stag's curiosity, along came a more youthful and exuberant Janet to flirt with the green haired man but Orison stopped her. "I have a proposition for you."

Janet looked at him knowingly and said, "Sweetie, I just don't think that would be right. I'm flattered and-"

Orison withheld the desire to laugh in her face and said, "I didn't mean that kind of proposition... Well, maybe it is but not for me. I wonder if you'd be interested in baby trapping a certain Triumvir's adjunct. Are you familiar with the name Gravat?

"Please don't get me wrong. If you were planning on being strait laced and giving a go at nine to five life or pursuing higher education wi-"

Janet smiled and quickly said, "Seriously, if it's not going to get me in trouble, please pin a gold cockroach badge on my dirty girl scout sash."

Orison went and got the box out of the ruby ring and handed it to Janet. "Have at it. Oh, if you want to make it super fast and painless, take the rest of this bottle of booze with you. Don't drink any until after you're finished using the kit though."

A bit later, Janet said from the bathroom, "This is legit!?"

Orison said, "Yup. A generous portion of his estate is already secured to the purpose of providing for a child."

A little later, she came out and said, "Where do I rest at?"

The young mage said, "Just take my room. Push the little gal over if she's hogging the bed."

After Janet had swigged the rest of the bottle down and settled in for a nap, Stag looked at Orison and said, "You're a little screwed up."

Orison replied, "No, I'm saving her life. She got her youthful swagger back and she would have been on her same tricks. With this, she gets a nest egg for twenty years and no more roaching opportunities because they max out at four fathers. The one she nearly ruined her life on still counts.

"Come on, last time you played midwife. So, I'll do it this time," the young mage said as he coaxed Stag into watching the 'miracle of life' happen in fast forward once again.

***

Gravat came to with a wide eyed start at the sound of twin screams. She realized that she was in a dirty bed, splattered with the after birth of miracles. For a moment, she was disoriented and thought that Orison hadn't kept his word but then she noticed there was a pretty but slightly pale woman laying on the bed with her.

A powerful presence in the room made Gravat look to the door where Aurora stood. Two assistants carried off Janet and the lightly blue skinned twins, stepping over the battered and bruised bodies of Stag and Orison. The matronly radiant older woman gave Gravat a gentle smile as she walked over and bent down to be at eye level.

"The beautiful truth that was Gravat is dead. I will mourn its passing... What should I call the equally as beautiful truth that sits before me?" Aurora crooned soothingly.

Not knowing exactly why, the small woman cried brokenheartedly, then said, "I was called Gavati. It's been so long, it's almost all I know of myself... of this, this truth... No, wait. Pelenel was my playmate servant. He was my best friend. Why would I forget that?... Why would I forget that I was the last heir of Sek? When I took the vial to hide my identity from the invaders, something went wrong."

Aurora gave her a compassionate, watery eyed smile before hugging her and said, "Then come with me and I'll help you find more of your truth."

Gavati looked at Orison and Aurora added, "He's going to be keeping himself busy for awhile. I'll make sure that you get your chance to ask him whatever you need to and I'll make sure they are his truths or I'll beat him up again."

The small woman laughed and walked out with the motherly goddess-like figure.