Doevm stood there, dumbfounded. "Is that it?" he asked. He thought for a moment and shook his head. 'No, this is exactly like her,' he thought. 'She is just an observer after all. She wanted to have a sneak peak. She did not wish to be spoiled, or so I assume.' He took a few more seconds to ponder other angles, but in the end his ability to predict a person's actions conceded to Maker's infallible insanity. Just as he was about to call out to the others, Maker's voice filled the room, making his body tense once again.
"I wonder why you don't destroy my daughter's army yourself. Just use magic…" Maker's words drifted away like a fading afterthought. Compared to the physical punishment she had unleashed onto Doevm, that single sentence carried with it a harsh truth which not even life essence could not heal, because it was a valid question.
Doevm acknowledged that his new life without relying on magic had entered an awkward phase the moment he stepped foot in Draken capital. His enemies became too strong to face without magic, lest he lose his friends, his "weaknesses". They had stripped his stubbornness away, and the Acrin Magic Academy only catalyzed his regression. Stepping into the gods' game, the foundation of Doevm's new life crumbled before his very eyes.
A knock at the door distracted Doevm from his thoughts as Elero asked, "Are you finished jerking off in there or what?"
Doevm sighed. "Enter."
Frey and Elero both walked in and shamelessly searched for any clues as to what Doevm was doing all alone.
Frey found the blood easily enough. "What happened?" he asked.
"I just had a chat with Maker," Doevm did not deny what happened. His voice came out strained. He might have healed using life essence but it left him too exhausted to even get up.
Frey and Elero shared a look filled with mixed emotions. While they comprehended Maker's existence, they did not understand what it meant or what exactly she was in relation to them. Doevm had tried to explain it again, but in the end they trusted what they saw, and what they saw, after Doevm alone walked into an empty room, was their friend, pale and shaking, not but two feet from a puddle of his own blood.
Elero tried not to look at Doevm like he was crazy, asking, "Are you ok? Why can't we meet this Maker person and talk to her instead?"
"You'd have to ask her," Doevm shrugged. "I need to rest for a while. Watch my body."
"What about the others?" Elero asked too late.
Doevm's body fell onto the lumpy bed while his soul ascended into a world of immaterial. He "gazed" at his friends in his soul-state, stunned.
Frey's soul was easy to distinguish from Elero's. One was like a burning star while the other… Doevm frowned despite not currently having a face. Elero's soul radiated a soft, holy glow similar to the Goddess. Doevm didn't have time to get a good look as his soulmagic was still low from training with Maximus Draken.
The invisible, black thread connecting Doevm to Thomas remained in the immaterial realm of souls. Doevm followed it down an estimated hundred or so feet to Thomas's soul at the other end. He wasn't far, and next to him was another soul which likely belonged to Olpi. Doevm returned to his body and sat up, immediately looking to his left.
Elero let go of Doevm's cheek with an awkward chuckle. "I was checking if you were alive."
Doevm stared at her and rubbed his cheek. Her radiant soul was fresh in his mind, but she seemed fine, for the moment… "Thomas and Olpi are outside," he said.
Elero cocked her head to the side. "How do you know? Magic?"
Doevm felt an invisible dagger stab at his heart. "I'll tell you when you get back."
Elero nodded and left, returning to the doorway a few minutes later with a bright smile. She was out of breath and clutching her stomach. She could barely speak through her own laughter, "Y-y-you guys have got to see this."
"What is it?" Frey asked.
A loud thud came from the first story and the bar grew silent. Elero's eyes teared up as she leaned against the wall. A second thud approached the base of the staircase. "Just…just look at him," Elero's voice squeaked out before another round of high pitched laughter took over.
"It's not funny," the familiar voice of Olpi came from the left of the doorway, near the stairs. "He's having trouble. Can you help him up?"
"You're right. You're right," Elero said. She took several deep breaths, looked down, then fell back into a fit of hysterical laughter.
"Can you help?" Olpi sounded indignant.
"It's ok Olpi, I've got it," Thomas's voice replied.
A third thud creaked the wood at the base of the stairs.
"If you break anything, you'll have to pay for it," the old barkeep's voice drifted around the doorway.
Frey and Doevm exchanged a look, and Frey got up to check it out. After he joined Elero in the doorway, his face distorted. "Who are you?" he asked.
"You don't recognize me?" Thomas's voice replied.
Frey's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "No. No you're not."
Elero nodded vehemently. "Yes it is!"
Thomas's gigantic figure ballooned into the doorway. Compared to a week ago, he was just as tall, and four times as wide. but Doevm wasn't surprised. On the contrary, he stared at Thomas's double chin with high expectations. "Well done," he said.
Thomas's blue eyes and blonde hair were stretched and inflated just like his limbs and torso. His luxury clothes could barely hold the gelatinous flesh anymore. The floor creaked in protest at his every move. Through a tremendous amount of effort, they shoved him through the doorway.
Olpi was close behind. She appeared the same as Elero and Frey - bloody, sweaty, and pale. Even in her sorry state she still helped Thomas in a dignified manner, however even she couldn't help asking Doevm, "Why did you make an Undead that grows through such ridiculous means?"
Doevm looked up at Thomas's chubby face and said. "Because they're the strongest."
"Everything I eat makes me fatter. I don't feel strong. I want to throw up. Is that weird?" Thomas complained while holding his stomach.
Elero finally recovered as she pulled herself to her feet. "I want to throw up as well. Oh I haven't laughed that hard in a while."
Doevm shook his head. "Thomas, you need to burn off the fat first. Everything you absorbed will remain." He shifted his gaze towards Olpi. "And how did your training go?"
Olpi stepped into the room and presented an aquatic humanoid in her palms, who waved at everyone in the room with a smile. "Perfect. I tried to make it listen to me at first, but I think it's better if we cooperate."
Despite their progress, Doevm's expression was grim. "We'll need everything we can get to survive next week," he said.
"What's happening next week?" Thomas asked.
"An army will invade."
Silence weighed heavily in the room.
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