56 A Chat at the Crow Bar

Hey Everyone!

It's been a few months since I've posted a chapter, and I just want you all to know that the story is NOT DEAD! 

On a less pleasant note: I'm officially putting MGQE on Hiatus until I can get a good amount of inspiration for it again. My brain just hasn't been giving me the good stuff for this particular story, so I have to do this. Don't worry, though! I never truly abandon a story idea! Worst case scenario is that this story gets a re-vamp to make it better!

Anyway…

!No Htiw Eht Yrots

~~~

{Later That Evening}

After the disappointing conclusion to the match between Kevin and Alma Elma, the newly-crowned Champion of the Colosseum was invited back to the castle by the Queen to receive the reward. Just as she had claimed, it was a green gem in the shape of an orb, just like the ones he'd gotten from the Pyramid and the bandits.

As expected, Alice still refused to tell him what the hell the orbs were supposed to do in the first place, but the loot goblin he tried to keep buried deep inside his soul wouldn't let him just get rid of them. It wasn't as if they were taking up a lot of space, anyway, especially with the literally bottomless backpack he had, so he just slipped the green orb into the Bag of Holding and promptly forgot about it.

The Queen also profusely thanked him for actually winning the tournament with physical might, rather than sexual prowess, and told him that he would be welcome in the Grand Noah Castle any time he returned to the city. Considering that she was the first of the human royalty he'd encountered who hadn't done anything to make him lose respect for them or want to wipe out their entire family line, he told her that he might take her up on that offer.

On the way out of the castle, Alice let out a yawn as she stretched her arms out above her head. "Mmmm…that was certainly a long day," she said with a hum as her joints audibly popped. "I'm exhausted."

Kevin stopped and stared at her with a raised eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"What?"

"I was the one who was put through four rounds of a tournament, the third of which actually had me fighting for my life. You, on the other hand, were in the stands stuffing your face. Did you eat so much that you feel a food coma coming on, or something?"

She shot a glare back at him. "No, you stupid fox. I instead had to expend half of my magical reserves in that third round to keep two panicking Spirits from killing everyone in the audience as they tried to break the barrier separating them from you."

Feelings of regret and guilt immediately enveloped the boy. Not his own, though, but that of said Spirits who were still keeping their essence wrapped around their shared soul. They didn't mean to endanger the surrounding humans and monsters, but having been cut off from him after weeks of constantly feeling his presence in their minds was so heart-wrenchingly terrifying that they couldn't think of anything else but getting back to him. Even Sylph was reduced to communicating only with feelings instead of words at that point.

Needless to say, it may be a few hours, or days, before they were comfortable with manifesting in a physical form again, let alone moving away from his body when they did so.

"Fair enough," the boy conceded with a nod.

Smirking at her victory, Alice started slithering ahead again. "So, I'm guessing that we'll be heading to the inn now and setting out in the morning?"

"Eh," Kevin began, tilting his head to the side. "Yes to the latter, no to the former. I have someone I gotta meet at the edge of the city, so you can head back without me."

Using the logical deduction skills that had been hammered into her skull by her various tutors growing up, it didn't take her long to think of who he might be meeting up with. "Are you sure you'll be okay?" she asked, a hint of actual concern slipping into her tone.

"Don't worry," he waved her off. "From what I understand, he only wants to talk."

"...fine. But if anything goes wrong, send me a telepathic message. Alright?"

"Okay, Mom," he teased her.

There was a joke she could make about him calling her 'Mommy' some other time, but she held it back for the moment. Instead, she gave him a light slap on the back of his head before slithering away.

{Ten Minutes Later – The Crow Bar}

It didn't take long for the tennager to find the bar he was looking for. It wasn't as well-decorated as the Mermaid Bars he'd been in, but what it lacked in aesthetics, it made up for in atmosphere. Everything from the lighting, to the lone bartender cleaning glasses behind the bar, to the fact that there were no monsters inside bothering every random man who walked through the door, all eased the tension he didn't even know he was feeling when opening the door.

"Over here!" a voice called out, drawing his gaze to the corner of the room where Draco was leaning back in his chair. The man was still wearing the same set of clothes, which now showed a plethora of scuffs, wrinkles, and holes that were likely a result of their battle from earlier that day.

Making his way over, Kevin pulled out a chair and sat across the table from the disguised Chaos God. "So…" he began. "You're one of the ones the Being said were coming to see me?"

"Yeah," the man nodded. "As your System probably already told you, I'm Draco the Glitched. Chaos God of Matter and Energy. Nice to meet ya."

Kevin snorted. "Yeah,'matter and energy' really does sum up the shit you pulled."

"Yeah, my powers can get pretty chaotic when I let them run free," Draco stated with a small smile. "Almost makes the curse I was stuck with worth it."

They sat in companionable silence for a few seconds, before the Chaos God continued. "Usually Naaaaa would be the first one to come by and fill in the blanks that the Being didn't feel were important enough to tell you itself, since most of the interactions between members of the Pantheon are below its notice. But, since he's currently working on an assignment and my reincarnation was similar enough to yours, I was chosen to go first."

Kevin raised an eyebrow. "Were you sent to a world filled with rape-obsessed monsters too?"

"Yeah, I was. In case you don't remember, the Being likes to use certain themes when reincarnating Abominations like us, usually relating to how we lived our first lifes. Well, I was reincarnated before he started doing that; back when he had a few wheels to spin that decided what the power, punishment, and universe we'd be sent to.

"I got the power to control and transform any matter or energy in my immediate area into any other form of matter or energy," he explained. "It was, and is to this day, amazingly overpowered. But, as with all things, it had a…an…a downcast? No, that's not the word. Damn it, it was right on the tip of my tongue!"

"Downside?" Kevin suggested.

"Yes! That's the word I was looking for. Downside! The downside to my power, that came as the punishment, is that my body randomly shifts to different compositions at random intervals. Now, don't get me wrong, it's still amazing, but I feel immense amounts of pain whenever certain body parts don't react well to one another. For example, my blood is currently composed entirely from liquid nitrogen, but my veins and arteries are made of paper. The injuries caused by the conflicting anatomy heal automatically, but my entire existence is a living hell of physical pain."

That…sounded incredibly rough to deal with. Kevin didn't even want to imagine the nightmare Draco must've had to go through in order to adjust to the varying levels of pain. His outburst earlier that day, and the explanation of it being caused by his blood being transformed into mercury, made a lot more sense now that the boy had more context. The fact that the Chaos God was capable of being so casual with him right now, and showing no signs of the torment he was likely experiencing, said a lot about the mental fortitude he'd likely built up over the years.

"From what I've seen, you got the same thing, but on an emotional and psychological level," the man continued, taking a swig from a mug that had been left untouched until that point. "And while we could spend the next few hours debating which is worse, I don't think either of us really care about comparing pain as if it's a competition. Right?"

Kevin bobbed his head in agreement. "Amen to that. Suffering isn't a competition. Although, I gotta ask: what was the world you were sent to?"

"Monster Girl Encyclopedia," Draco answered. "Somewhat similar to this world, only there actually were gods that existed and supported humanity, and unlike with you, the girls of that world left me the hell alone. Especially early on, when I had absolutely no control over my body whatsoever and could accidentally poison them, blind them, or kill them with nothing but my fucked up anatomy."

"I would call you a lucky bastard, but surprisingly, I wouldn't want to trade places with you," the teenager commented.

"I'll drink to that," the man laughed in agreement, downing the rest of his mug in one go directly afterward. "Barkeep! Another round over here! And something softer for the kid."

Considering the fact that he'd never had alcohol in either of his lives, and had seen the kind of idiocy people got up to under its effects, he didn't put up an argument. Though, watching the Chaos God drink got him curious. "Does that even do anything for you?"

"Any other time, the answer would be no," Draco grumbled, his discontent with this fact so obvious a blind man could see it. "I usually have to bribe Niku to make me a few bottles of Divine Tier whisky in order to get even a slight buzz. In my true form, only drinks that have a conceptual aspect have even a sliver of a chance of getting me drunk. But, when I'm visiting an aspiring demigod and am sealed in a more mortal form, I can get totally wasted if I really put my mind to it."

"...helps dull the pain?"

"Like you wouldn't believe. And unlike this -" he gestured to the new mug being set down in front of him. "- mediocre alcohol, Niku's brews have the added effect of not giving hangovers."

Taking a swig of the orange juice that was provided for him, Kevin raised an eyebrow. "I'm guessing Niku is another one of our 'brothers?'"

"Yeah. You'll meet him eventually. Out of all of the members of the Pantheon, he's one of the most bearable. Sure, he often complains about his curse not allowing him to eat any of the food he makes, but the marvels he can cook up can start wars."

The more Kevin heard about the Chaos Pantheon, the more interested he was becoming. "Anyone I should be particularly wary of when they show up?"

"Nah, all of us are pretty chill for the most part. Sure, madness runs in the family, but after going through our own journeys and character arcs, almost all of us have come back around to being somewhat normal," the man said with an easygoing smile.

"Any reason why you said 'almost all of you?'"

Just like that, the smile was replaced with an expression of pure irritation. "Yeah. The Cat."

"I think I remember the update from the Being mentioning a cat," Kevin hummed, trying to think back to a few days ago. "Something about kicking its teeth in?"

"Sounds rational to me," Draco nodded. "While you're at it, stab both of his eyes out for me. The little bastard deserves it."

"...what the fuck did this guy do to deserve so much hate from you?"

"Not just me. Everyone in the entire Chaos Pantheon has a bone to pick with the Cat. Take the most annoying, unbearable person that you've ever met, give them immortality, and multiply all of that by the ability to be ANYWHERE and EVERY-WHEN, and you have a fraction of how annoying that fucker is."

All Kevin had to do was think of his own Sylveon form, and a chill ran down his spine at imagining someone even worse than that. "Any suggestions for dealing with him?"

"Never take your eyes off of him. That's how he regenerates. The longer you stare, the more he suffers," the Chaos God replied with a sadistic grin…before wincing. "Aaaaand there go my intestines, turning into uranium again. Fuck."

After that, they continued talking for another hour. Draco obviously avoided giving away too much information on the members of the Chaos Pantheon who'd be paying him visits, but dropped hints here and there. According to him, only one more would be showing up during the boy's stay in the Noah Region, and it was of the female members.

"Just…avoid mentioning her lack of the correct parts," the man warned. "Unless you want her to drown you."

By the time he left the bar, Kevin was both anticipating and dreading the future encounters with his new family.

{A few hours later – The Dream Room}

When Ilias entered her favorite teenage abomination's dreams that night, she wasn't surprised in the slightest to find her two sisters stuck to him like glue. After having her own scrying pool's window pushed out of the arena the moment the barrier went up, and taking into consideration that the tool was capable of phasing through the most powerful seals in the history of the world, she had an idea of how completely cut-off the two were from him.

Seeing Gnome latched onto his chest like a koala, and Sylph tangling herself in his hair to the point where even a slight movement would tug on his scalp, gave the self-proclaimed goddess an even better idea of how hard it had been on them. She was pretty sure her own reaction would've been even worse, had her soul been bound to his as well.

"So," she began, drawing his eyes to her. "I'd say your day looked pretty interesting."

"Yeah…you could definitely say that," the boy nodded. "Didn't think my first encounter with a Chaos God would be that…intense."

Ilias still hadn't been informed of the full details behind Kevin's reincarnation, but she had been given broad strokes. She knew that he was beholden to the whims of a Being whose level of power made her and her sisters look like children playing in a sandbox, and had been told that some of the gods under the Being would be visiting him. Although, knowing that gods more powerful than her existed, and seeing one transform a battlefield into a patchwork quilt of madness, were two completely different things.

"Did you listen in on my conversation with him at the bar?" the Eevee asked.

She shook her head. "I wasn't able to. He somehow completely blocked my remote scrying."

"Well, most of what we talked about isn't really relevant for the moment," he shrugged. "What is important, though, is that he told me I'd be meeting another Chaos God before leaving the Noah Region. No idea when, or where, but apparently it's a 'she,' and she'll have the ability to try drowning me."

The Light Spirit made a mental note to keep an eye on Draco after leaving the dream and looking for whatever Chaos God would replace him after he left. From what they knew, only one could be present in the world at a time, so the moment he disappeared, she'd need to start searching for the new one.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, just enjoying each other's company and the atmosphere of the room, before Kevin spoke up again. "Any suggestion for where I should be heading in the morning?"

"Hm," the winged woman hummed, stroking her chin in contemplation. "I'd personally suggest heading to Plansect Village. That backwards lamia freak didn't mention anything in Yamatai that was really worth prioritizing it over you unlocking your Bug Type form and raising the power of your Leafeon form."

The boy considered it for a moment, then smirked. "And this has nothing to do with you wanting to keep Alice away from tasting new food for just a few more days?"

"Oh, it absolutely does," she stated proudly.

"Are you ever going to forgive her for ruining your birthday?"

"Maybe when I finally get revenge. Let's see how SHE likes having her special day ruined," the woman grumbled.

Kevin actually laughed at that. It had taken a few weeks, but Ilias had gradually overcome her intense hatred of Alice. Sure, she still held a grudge for the 'birthday Incident,' but it was more of a 'you fuck me up, I fuck you up' scenario instead of a 'you're descended from my bitch of a sister! Prepare to die!' thing.

Speaking of which, she was actually doing a lot better these days when outside the Dream Room. Her bouts of madness and homicidal thoughts were coming about less and less, she was able to think with greater clarity, and her desire to imprison Kevin and never let him go had…somewhat subsided. She was by no means cured of her insanity, but if this progress kept up, it would likely only be a few more weeks or months before she was stable enough to meet Kevin in person and safely perform the True Bonding Ritual with him.

Just thinking about it made her heart beat faster. After seeing how close Sylph and Gnome became with him after their own rituals, even though they hadn't even met prior to the events, she constantly felt the desire to have what they had. She could be patient, but the black hole that became of her heart after millenia of isolation begged to be filled. The visits to the Dream Room were nice, but she knew deep down that they couldn't possibly compare with the intimacy of a full bond.

Not for the first time, she found herself wishing that her recovery would speed the hell up