Chapter 139: Ophis’ Help

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Ravens' Fort, South of Norway

October 1880

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The light generated by Erik's transportation magic circle dimmed revealing him and Ophis. As the blue motes of light faded, Erik walked to the door and opened it.

"Come on, Ophis. I will put some snacks together for us to eat before dinner."

Erik said to the Infinity Dragon and walked inside the house. Ophis, who was looking very adorable with her new Chobits-like headphones that in reality were sound-mufflers, followed after Erik, walking close behind the man. As they reached the kitchen, Erik walked to the table and took a sit. Ophis, not knowing what to do, just stood in place next to him.

"Take a seat, Ophis, I will 'prepare' something for us."

Erik said and waved his hand. All around the kitchen, things started to happen at the same time. Plates and tea sets started to float from the cabinets and land on the table. Over the oven, a teapot started to whistle because of the hot water. Ophis, unfazed by the display of magic, did as it was told and took a sit on the chair over Erik's side. Unfortunately, the Dragon of Infinity's body was a little low from the table due to its height. Seeing that, Erik snapped his fingers.

*snap*

As the snap occurred, the chair's legs where Ophis was sitting grew some good centimeters, raising the height of Ophis to the table and letting the Dragon of Infinity in a perfect position to enjoy the items on the table. Nodding his head in approval and seeing that the water was ready, Erik again snapped his fingers.

*snap*

With that snap, a lot of different snacks started to appear all over the table. There were cookies, croissants, baked pastries, fried pastries, and even a strawberry cake. Since white sugar was already invented, Erik's repertoires of sweet things that he could create/cook had increased by a lot to the delight of his wives and Selena's tea party group. Erik then served the tea for the two of them and slowly sipped the hot infusion, letting out a 'humm' of approval to the flavor of it.

"Hmmm…"

But it was then that Erik noticed that Ophis was not drinking or eating anything. The Dragon of Infinity was just looking at everything on the table, probably without knowing what to do next.

"Do you want me to choose some things for you to eat?"

Erik asked Ophis, trying to help the 'little girl'. Ophis then looked at Erik with her still present apathetic-looking face, but if one paid close attention, one could notice that there was something different on it from before. And it was not the Chobits-like headphones on its head. It was like a weight had been lifted from Ophis's shoulders and it could finally relax again. Erik concluded that it was the effect of having its silence back after hundreds of years of constant noise hearing.

"I don't need to eat food."

Ophis replied to Erik.

"But you can eat them, right?"

Erik asked and Ophis nodded its head in confirmation.

"And your humanoid body does have tasting buddies, right?"

Erik asked again and Ophis nodded its head again in confirmation.

"Then you must eat something. Human cuisine is one of the things that evolved into the right path."

Erik said and started to float some different assortment of snacks to his and Ophis' plates. The Dragon of Infinity observed everything with attention. Especially at Erik, who took a vanilla-flavored cookie that had a lot of chocolate chips in it and took a bite. Ophis had seen others eating before, but the items served were vastly different from the ones on its plate. Following Erik's lead, the Dragon of Inifinity took a cookie from its plate and took a small bite from it. Immediately, Ophis's eyes widened a little as the train of flavors hammed on her. The Dragon of Infinity then took another look at the rest of the cookie in its hands and started devouring it with gusto a second later. Erik looked at it with a smile on his face and went back to eat.

Some minutes later, Selena walks into the kitchen to see Erik having tea together with a little girl.

"Hey, Erik. Who is the guest?"

Selena said, greeting and asking Erik while taking a seat on the table.

"Hey, babe. This is Ophis."

Erik replied and waved his hand to magically serve some tea to Selena too, who froze in her place with the hand that was reaching to the plate of some pastries. Seconds later, Selena slowly returned her movements and took the pastries to her plate.

"Erik, I must have gotten cursed or something. I could swear that I heard you saying that the little girl happily devouring a cookie is Ophis."

Selena said to Erik, who took a sip of his tea before replying.

"Yes, it is its name."

Erik replied with a small smile on his face. Selena then slowly turned to look at her husband's face.

"Ophis? As in the Dragon of Infinity, Ophis?"

Selena asked Erik, who nodded his head.

"Yes."

Erik replied to Selena while serving a slice of cake for him and Ophis.

"And please, do tell me, husband, how come is the top two power in this Universe happily devouring cookies in our home?"

Selena asked Erik.

"Well… It all started when some of the three entitled idiots sent someone to attack me again…"

Erik said and started to tell Selena what had happened before his day and how it ended with Ophis having tea with him in their home.

"... Then, after I managed to help Ophis get back its silence, I invited it to eat some snacks. Now the 'why Ophis is happily eating a cookie', that would be because it didn't try other things yet since it didn't need to eat."

Erik said to Selena, finishing his explanation. He then looked at Ophis and took a small fork in his hand.

"Ophis, here. The next sweet you eat like this."

Erik said, getting the attention of the Infinity Dragon, picking a piece of the cake with his fork and eating it slowly. Ophis looked at Erik's movements with attention and when he finished, it looked for the fork, that was by the plate's side, took it in its hand, and ate a piece of cake with it. Slowly, Ophis chewed the cake and savored the sweetness of it. And, after giving it a little nod of approval, started to eat the cake with gusto too.

Selena watched the scene with wide eyes. Then she just shrugged at it and started to have her tea too while thinking that this was probably one of the most outrageous scenes that she had ever seen. Soon, the three were joined by Joan and Calypso, who had reactions that were very similar to Selena's. The Dragon of Infinity filling her face with sweets surely was not something that they would see every day.

–

But who could say that they would be wrong about that? After that day, Ophis became a constant guest at Erik's home. The 'little girl' would come every day to have tea with the family. That is when it didn't decide to spend the day following Erik around. Because of that, Erik decided to take a break from his constant trips to the offices and started to research ways to search for empty dimensions. Luckily for him, when Ophis understood what he was trying to do after Erik explained it, it grabbed Erik's coat with its little hand and suddenly teleported them from the place.

When Erik's vision returned, he saw that he was in a different place. The ground around him was covered by green-blueish grass. Some hundred meters away, Erik could see a forest made of tall trees and, if his senses were not tricking him now, there would be a huge body of water nearby.

"What is this place, Ophis?"

Erik asked the Dragon of Infinity while still looking around.

"Empty dimension. Found it when I was looking for a silent place."

Ophis replied to Erik, who nodded his head in understanding.

"And why you are showing me this?"

Erik asked again, already imagining Ophis's answer, And he was not disappointed.

"You said that you were looking for an empty dimension to live. I thought that this one would be a good choice."

Ophis said to Erik. The Dragon of Infinity was having a wonderful time in the last months and decided that it wanted to help Erik too.

"It is an excellent choice if what I see and sense is any sign of it."

Erik said and turned to Ophis.

"Thank you, Ophis."

Erik said and kneeled in front of the Dragon of Infinity, and, in an impulsive move, pulled it to a hug, letting go after some seconds. With a big smile on his face, Erik then took flight after casting a flight spell to look around the dimension a little more. Ophis stood in place, rooted, due to Erik's sudden move. It didn't know what had just happened but knew from its past observations that it had just been hugged. An act that was only shown to people that one considered close.

'Does that mean that we are close?... But what does 'close' means?'

Ophis thought to itself. The Infinity Dragon could have been alive for eons but when the subject was socializing with others it didn't have any experience since most would be too afraid to even talk with it. Erik had been one of the first ones who were not afraid of it. The feeling that Ophis got when it was together with Erik was… refreshing.

'Maybe that's why so many females stay around him?'

Ophis thought to itself again. It had noticed that in Erik's family he was the only male but it didn't link anything to it, after all, in nature it was common for a strong male to attract a lot of females.

Back to Erik, the man was looking around the place with a very animated look on his face. The place was perfect. It had a very well-developed flora together with a good basic fauna too. Erik just needed to know what was the size of this dimension, and for that, he would need to concentrate a lot. Deciding to do it now, Erik landed on the ground and took a sit on top of a flat piece of stone that he had conjured. He closed his eyes and started to concentrate on his senses, expanding them to the max that he could. Some minutes later, Erik opened his eyes again. On his face was a look of disbelief. This planet, which was a dimension of its own, was half the size of Earth and it was rich with resources to sustain life. It was a mystery why no other faction or pantheon had not taken it for themselves. If they would transport some people to this place and teach them their religion, they would have a constant source of faith to strengthen themselves. What Erik didn't know was that this was exactly what a God had in mind to do some thousands of years ago. That was why the flora and fauna of the dimension were so much in the balance. Unfortunately, the God who had initiated the project perished before he could start to 'colonize' the dimension. Well, good for Erik then. He now had a dimension to call it home and ideas for projects were popping at high speed on his head.

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