What had hatched from the egg, was a curious little humanoid creature, and at the moment, it sat in what remained of the bottom half of its destroyed egg.
A pair of white hot horns sat on its large forehead, contrasting its reddish black skin. Matching its lack of a hairline, were two large yellow eyes that seemed to have flaming snake-like pupils, and to match them in turn, was a very wide mouth just above its chin.
Its dwarfish torso looked mostly human, though its scales could already be seen, stained with colourless goo from the innards of the egg.
The creature took a steady look at Yuyui and wore a big smile... or it could have just been a prep gesture before it ate her, it was impossible to know for sure.
"Aaaaaaaaaw!" Yuyui scooped up the little thing and started playing with it.
A hiccup infested coo crawled from its mouth as Yuyui tossed it up and caught it.
Timmit remained frozen.
What did he just witness?
He was sure...
Wait, he was right!
The pathetic leather armour Yuyui had been wearing... was wearing, was meeting its end along with her flesh which festered with boils, blood and a horrendous smell on the ground!
And yet, in another location a short distance away, another Yuyui was happily playing with the newly born creature.
Timmit turned to Replicus and flapped his way to him.
"What evil is this, Bright Storm?! I saw her die! What devils are you making on my island! Tell me! Tell me!" he screamed.
Replicus brushed him away.
"Relax. It's just part of her set of powers. She can't die. Well, she can, but also... It's complicated, alright? And I didn't make her," he tried to explain only to find his expositing abilities suffering terribly from complication.
Timmit stopped his hysterical outrage.
"And here I thought the real wonder was going to be what would come out of the egg."
"Well, you weren't exactly wrong," Replicus said as he turned to the other egg, which was still shaking vehemently, but still yet to show signs of breaking.
A long while back, when he first arrived in Genhuis City, Skullius had taken his first mission as an exclusive mercenary to take care of a blue Cluster that was haunting a popular tourist site. There, he had met the Fire Breeders, and their Cluster General who had a Legendary grade throne onto which two eggs were imbedded.
That throne, which was called the Kindling Heath, was the same one which sat in the lowest floor of the Honing Fortress, and its most unique ability was to draw nearby essences towards the one who sat on it, so that they could absorb them faster.
This was why Replicus had the walls behind the throne removed, so that the chaotic essences on the stout mountain would be easily drawn in by the Kindling Heath.
As for the eggs on the throne, Replicus had used the first. By using [Unbound] on it, he managed to attain the Chubby Remnant Child of Polarity, whose beneficial and not so beneficial properties had taken their course already.
These two eggs in Timmit's possession, were the rest.
Replicus had made a pact with Timmit – rather recently – to have the stork keep them safe while providing them with as much pure mana as he could before they hatched.
And unsurprisingly, Timmit was very good at the job and didn't particularly mind.
However...
"That other egg..." Timmit said while eyeing the larger, blue one. "You said it was stranger than the other, but Bright Storm... while it's moving now, I haven't been able to feel the thing inside it. What kind of creature is it?"
Replicus sighed.
His will to exposit failed him again. How would he go about explaining the concept behind it?
Luckily, Yuyui came rushing in to intercept the conversation, the little new-born creature in hand.
"Master! This thing is adorable! It's so cute! What are you going to do with it? You aren't going to... eat it, are you?" Yuyui's streak of excitement ended with the last word to her sentence. Her eyes narrowed severely too, accusingly even.
Timmit turned his head to Replicus, his beak gaping.
"EAT IT?!" he was once again appalled.
"It was just ONE TIME!" Replicus finally exploded for the first time in a while.
He was guilty of eating a 'living' child, but in his defence, the child was meant to be eaten!
Well, at least according to the guidance field.
It was a consumable, dammit!
After doing everything in his power to defend his half-baked morality, Replicus turned serious and addressed Yuyui who looked like she would literally die on a hill for the somewhat cute little creature.
"At first I was going to use that thing for some experimentation, but I changed my mind a few weeks ago. I already got the answers I wanted," he said.
"Then... what do you want it for now?" Yuyui asked with pursed lips. Even the little scaled creature which had been climbing on my arm while burping sparks of orange-pink turned its attention to Replicus, as wondering its fate too.
"Well, rather than a main course, like last time, I was going to have it for dessert, but..."
"Master!" Yuyui screamed.
Replicus emitted a hollow laugh. His joke didn't land. It had been a while since he found something funny.
"Alright, alright. It's for you."
...!
Yuyui was taken aback.
Even Timmit was a little surprised. Though, he imagined it must have been a little obvious – if he thought at all like a human, that was.
"W-what?" Yuyui asked.
"Yes, it's yours. My reasoning now differs a little from what I had in mind back when I decided, but it's all the same. You still haven't made a decision about what we discussed before, and that's fine. But if you do choose to leave, you can have this little guy as a companion. I gave him a little enhancements before he hatched. He's strong... probably Tier 4 already. He will be fit enough to protect you."
Yuyui froze.
Right.
She had been told to make a choice.
She had almost forgotten amidst the crazy around her right now.
All of sudden, she looked at the little creature that now stared at her with unwavering attention, differently.
Why did this feel like... like...
"This isn't replacing Ferex. Like I said. He's my responsibility. I'll get him back as soon as I find him. It's not a sin for you to accept that," Replicus said once again, reading Yuyui's emotions like a book.
The thoughts and memories he had drawn from many bandits with [Basic Evil Sanction] back then helped with time, as he processed them all that was.
Yuyui didn't give a reply.
She couldn't.
Her inner war grew intense. She hugged the little thing while keeping her eyes on Replicus.
The Penetrator on the other hand, had moved on from discussing this.
He expelled something from a spatial storage ring nearly indiscernible from the colour of his phalanxes.
The look of it threw Timmit off, and he felt slightly threatened.
"What is that?" he asked cautiously.
Replicus turned to him. His sockets flashed brightly.
"Well, let's just say it's a leash of sorts," he replied.
"Unlike the easy hatching with the first egg, my little unborn Apostle in that one... will likely need restraining. Best to prepare before it's too late."
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