Chapter 16: Progress

(This chapter was uploaded on Saturday 27/April/2024 2:30 PM, timezone GMT+3)

('1), ('2), ('3), etc. means that there is some explaining for the thing in the notes at the end of the chapter.

"..." small moment of silence

"Talking"

[Dialogue] (What language it is: Accent if necessary)

"He-" Someone was interrupted.

'Thinking'

{Skills' names, chanting, spell keys and spells' names}

(PoV)

(Flashback)

Don't shy from commenting on typos and/or inconsistencies. That and/or suggesting a modification to certain things that didn't make sense to you.

I hope you enjoy reading this chapter.

(Line Break)

"I'm sorry, my Clea. I will reflect on my actions today" Nephelont apologized again. They were now back in their room with Eucleia tightly clutching him in her embrace. She was still mentally shaken by what transpired a few hours prior. 

She kept silent and tightened her embrace. 

"Bunbun, you may not remember it" Eucleia felt bitter at the memory she was bringing up. "But you were always curious about what my eye looked like under the eyepatch" She said in a small voice while a hand gravitated towards her covered right eye, indicative of her fear. 

"You could keep it on if you want. I will wait until you are comfortable with it" Nephelont did not want to pressure her into it. He could see it in her trembling left eye, an insecurity. He did not know why, but it felt like one. 

Eucleia was moved by what he said, remembering something that he told her years ago. The words, the tone of voice and the expression on his face, they were all almost identical to back then. 

"I felt guilty for hiding it away from you when you loved me unconditionally. I was always thinking, 'How would he have reacted to such a hideous eye?'" Eucleia's voice trembled. "I always felt like I wronged you for the last six years" She whimpered with her left eye closed. "The guilt ate me alive when I thought I could not let you see it anymore" Eucleia started crying into Nephelont's shoulder. He returned her embrace without saying a word. He patted her back softly as she cried, reassuring her that he was there this time around. 

After some time, Eucleia's sobs were under her control again. She separated from Nephelont to wipe her tears from around her puffy eyes. Nephelont saw her removing her eyepatch and promptly closed his eyes. 

"..." Nephelont hesitated in the worst way possible. He wanted to call her name but did not know how. Does he call her 'Clea'? Or call her his? Maybe her actual name would be better now? He did not know for sure. He opted for what was the 'usual', which luckily soothed her soul. 

"My Clea, I could have seen your right eye by accident" Nephelont said with a jittery, unsure tone. 

"Then it would have been no accident" Eucleia replied while putting her hands on his shoulders. She was waiting for him to finally have a look and wanted to hear his opinion. She herself was unsure of all of this. It was just that she did not want to live with that ugly feeling she had for years, the feeling of misleading her good-natured husband into believing that she was a beautiful woman without showing him all of herself. 

Nephelont slowly and hesitantly opened his mismatched eyes to look at Eucleia's right eye, to try and assure her that she was not any less beautiful with it shown. 

What he finally laid his eyes on made him go pale as a sheet of paper. It shocked him beyond his wildest imagination. It made his face twist uncomfortably. He stretched his left hand to touch it while Eucleia was now squeezing her eyes shot. She was expecting the worst after seeing his face. She expected to be left alone. 

What Nephelont was looking at was an eye surrounded by black, pulsating veins. The eye itself was no better, being a black sclera covered in multi-colored, flashing dots. As for the iris, it was a needle-like sword with a hole in the pommel, a thread going into the hole. Both needle-sword and thread had no set color, going back and forth between every color the human eye could recognize, slowly, as if color was seeping into a puddle inside the iris until it filled it bit by bit. 

When Nephelont's fingers reached her right eye, Eucleia flinched and removed her hands from his shoulders. She was about to leave, to cry her heart out and never appear in his presence again so as not to disgust him with her ugly eye. 

But her attempt to run away ended as soon as it began. Nephelont held her fleeing hands and pulled her back to him. He embraced her from behind with his arms around her shoulders. 

"It doesn't hurt, does it?" Nephelont asked her in worry. What he saw made him worried that she might be in perpetual pain from birth. 

"It... does not..." Eucleia did not know how to react. She was not focused enough to notice the worry in his voice. 

"That's good, then. As long as it doesn't hurt, then it's fine. And if you ask current me's opinion, your eye is a beautiful sight to behold" Nephelont said as he slowly removed his hold on her to let her free. He did not want to force her to stay if she did not want to. 

"Nephelont..." Eucleia's eyes watered, distorting her vision, as she called Nephelont by his name instead of the nickname she usually preferred. She fell with him on the bed as she cried another time for the day. Although this time, it was a cry of relief. She was now free of her past guilt. And to top it off, her husband was more than just okay after having a look at her right eye. He even loved and praised its appearance, not before making sure it did not hurt her. The nuance in the order as to which he did things made her love for him grow a level higher. 

Eucleia let her emotions loose for once in a long while and cried like a little girl. That lasted until it was dark outside. 

"Bunbun, can you teach me how to change my body's size?" Eucleia asked shyly. She was shying away from meeting Nephelont's gaze after her display. 

"Cute" was all that existed inside of Nephelont's mind a few seconds after seeing Eucleia looking away with a little blush on her. 

"Bunbun! Focus!" She slapped him on the chest playfully. It was not strong enough to have any effect on him this time. 

"Right, changing your body's size" Nephelont repeated and thought about it. He asked Allen for help after not finding a clear answer for her question. 

'The method is to spread your mind around your body and make sure that it spread equally all around it. Then make sure to keep its shape and compress that mind into the size you wanted. If you could not keep up the shape, you might get nigh permanent deformities' Allen gave a clear answer for him to say. 

After saying it to Eucleia, she was able to do it slowly after a few hours. 

"Why did you ask, though?" Nephelont asked as he averted his eyes. Now that she shrunk in size, her clothes were very loose on her. One of her shoulders was exposed through the neck opening of her shirt, with a bit of her bust about to peak out, though still well-hidden from sight. 

"I... simply wanted you to hug me as we slept. It has been over a decade since the last time you could give me one" Eucleia fidgeted while saying that with a higher pitch to her voice. 

"... Come here" Nephelont said after he closed his eyes and laid on his back. 

*GRooOOoWWwllL* But, to Eucleia's misfortune, her stomach roared a mighty growl of hunger. She was a ball of flames as Nephelont wanted to laugh but managed to hold it in. 

"Should we go eat dinner?" Eucleia held Nephelont's hand as she helped him up and off the bed. 

Now that she stood beside him, he would have been a head taller than her in his human form. It made her blush as she hugged his arm and walked with him toward the door. Before her arm could reach the door, however, Nephelont halted in his steps. 

"What about your eye? Are you gonna be okay walking around like that?" Nephelont did not want to hear people whispering negatively about her eye. The thought of it enraged him for some reason. 

"As long as you still love me, other people's opinions do not matter" Eucleia said while bashfully hiding her face from his view. 

"Cute" This time, Nephelont intentionally said it out loud. He wanted to witness her reaction. 

"That would not work, Bunbun. I have built resistance to your compliments over the years" Although Eucleia said that she was not resisting his compliment well. She was fidgeting again. 

"And what about our clothes?" Nephelont reminded her, still in his dragon form. 

"OH!" Eucleia's head exploded in a blush. She was a woman who refused to show up in her pajamas or in inappropriate clothes, which her currently oversized and loose pajamas are. The idea of walking around in her current attire was almost forgotten until Nephelont reminded her of it. 

In a matter of minutes, Eucleia miraculously made clothes for both of them, adjusted to her new height. 

"Wow! Just how fast are you?" Nephelont whistled in amazement. 

"I was actually being careful. If I wanted, I could have been quicker" Eucleia smiled at him. She was taking it lightly since this has been the case since forever. 

Nephelont's clothes were the same, except that now they had different embroidery. It displayed a golden rabbit with mismatched golden and rubellite eyes jumping, stretching his little paws towards the radiant sun. Right beside the golden, and evidently bigger, rabbit, there was a smaller, red rabbit with rubellite eyes that did the same, while another big rabbit and three other small rabbits were watching the duo, one of the three little rabbits hiding behind the big rabbit timidly. 

(AN: Yeah, I seem to have forgotten to mention Agni's eye color in the 2nd chapter. Hers are the same rubellite Nephelont inherited from Bell. It was passed down to her) 

"Does it have to do with your divinity?" Nephelont wondered aloud. 

"When I was reviving, my domains changed. While I previously had the sole domain of glory, now, affected by my pregnancy at the time, I acquired one of domestic skills. The iris in my right eye was a sword until then, where it changed into a needle-blade. Uncle Henryk called it Nail Needle of Hornet. But when I asked who Hornet was, he said something about copyrights and some other nonsense" Eucleia explained to her Bunbun as she dragged him by the hand she was hugging closely. 

(Disclaimer: This is a reference to the game known as "Hollow Knight". All credit for the game goes to Team Cherry. I own nothing of what exists within the game)

Eucleia opened the door only to have her suspicions come true. She found Agni eavesdropping on them with Clementina. Augustus was coming on his way, marching with audible stomping and a demonic grimace on his face, his intent to stop the two. He was late. As for Thumper, all knew he was doing the usual; getting pampered by Meteria and Alfia. He received a bit more pampering than the other three because he behaved much like Nephelont did in his childhood, and presumably Bell as well. 

The three children froze at the sight of their mother. 

"HOW DID YOU LEARN TO CHANGE SIZES BEFORE ME? DID YOU CHEAT AND ASK DAD TO TEACH YOU?!" Agni was throwing a tantrum. 

'And THAT was what you decided to focus on?' Augustus kept his blank gaze at his mother's right eye. He did not feel anything special seeing it, nothing deterring him. 

Clementina was now gushing at her mother's choice of action. Going around while locking arms after such talks just like that looked like the most romantic thing ever to her. 

"Sisters, you should not have been eavesdropping on our parents" Augustus reprimanded his sisters. "Congratulations, mother" His words warmed Eucleia's heart. She caught him in a hug, one that he almost managed to escape. He did not want to be treated like a child, even though he appreciated the affection when it was given. 

"Mother, when are we moving?" Augustus asked, frustrated by Agni and Clementina stifling their laughter at his current predicament. 

"Come here, you little grump!" Nephelont surprised Augustus by scooping him up and onto his right shoulder, as Eucleia chose to occupy the left arm. 

"Can I walk on my own?" Augustus asked with a pleading tone. Nephelont did not know what Augustus was pleading for. 

"Can't I carry my son on my shoulder since I'm finally here for him?" Nephelont retorted as he did not wait for the answer. He and Eucleia started walking with their daughters in tow. 

Much to Nephelont's displeasure, some of the familia members displayed their visible disgust at the sight of Eucleia's aberrant eye. And for just as much, Eucleia ignored their presence and walked on as if they did not exist in that corridor, proudly showing her eye for the world to see what she now came to treasure. 

They reached the mess hall, where Hephaestus's grin almost split her face in half. She was just as happy as her one and only child was. She had Clementina sit on her lap as she handfed her. Agni was too stubborn and proud to have someone handfeed her, so she merely sat beside her grandmother and ate on her own. Augustus was sitting beside his father, who started discussing knowledge about their race with his son. The others started quieting down as they wanted to know of any news they did not know about this family of dragons. 

"So, you only knew of your ability to redirect light and the ability to transform between human and dragon forms? What about breathing fire?" Nephelont asked in curiosity. 

"Oh! I burnt a few things that way!" Agni cheered, not caring about her brother's reaction. Augustus's memory of that day was still present, the emotions he felt that day still clear. 

"Mind you, if burning the entire mansion, including the food storage and the armory, is anything that could classify as 'few'" He was secretly still bitter with her for burning the golden rabbit his mother had sewn for him at the age of one. 

"How did that even happen?" Nephelont was flabbergasted by the fact that nobody stopped the fire before it devoured the whole mansion. 

"Well, we were on an expedition, with only our servants and some miscellaneous members staying behind" Bell interjected, explaining it from his memory. "Agni was too active and elusive for them to catch, and it was her first day breathing fire. She did not control it much as a result. And when we returned, we saw a heap of ashes and burnt equipment that was unusable anymore scrambled together. A 2-year-old joyfully laughing Agni was sitting by where the entrance should have been" Bell glared at his granddaughter playfully, to which she giggled nervously. She remembered that she also burnt his book of hero stories, the only copy in the world at the time. It was rewritten from Bell's memory sometime later. 

"Not again! Why didn't you remind me?!" Nephelont recognized that voice this time. It was Raya, late again. 

"Not my problem! Especially when you tried to squeeze hunting Goliath for fun into the already tight schedule!" And that was Ludwig behind her, nagging her. 

"Remind me next time! I wanted to be there to welcome my dear elder brother this time around!" Raya shot back at Ludwig, complaining to him. 

"You never learn, do you?!" Ludwig entered while butting heads with Raya. 

"Am I right, brother/dear brother?" Ludwig and Raya pointed at themselves and asked Nephelont for his take on the matter. 

"Just sit down, you two. You will miss the delicious food if you argue any longer" Nephelont told them calmly, only to be surprised by Raya hopping into his lap and asking to be spoiled. Ludwig came in and dragged her out of it before she could corrupt the children's minds with her thoughtless actions. 

Both brother and sister took a brief look at Eucleia's aberrant eye, complimented her, and found their seats. They did that in an attempt not to hurt her feelings concerning her right eye, which succeeded. She appreciated the effort, even though she saw that they were not sure of the compliments they said. They were not looking her straight in the eyes as they uttered them. But, nonetheless, they meant good. 

"So, returning to our VERY important discussion" Augustus's voice cut through the mood mercilessly. His thirst for knowledge concerning his own body was more important to him. 

"Right, that. Well, derived from the ability to reflect light, you could manipulate it to form visual illusions. There is also the fact that you can absorb it and store it as mind" Nephelont did not make that up. He had a talk with Allen about how they never ran out of mind during the duel. Allen told him about the ability to convert light into mind, although it was not perfect. After some time, he would still run out of mind as his body would refuse to convert light into mind anymore. It was not infinite unless a clone was performing it on its own cloned body. 

"What about your spiritual side? Have you had any training there?" Nephelont asked, to which Ais perked up. She was now reminded that she could spend some time with her son, teaching him how to manipulate wind again. 

"I was going to mention that just now. Grandmother Ais taught us how to do that. Although, we only could master the ability to feel each other's presence. We are still trying to learn the other things" Augustus was ashamed by his inability to learn these things before his father came back, now that he was here. Remembering what Nephelont did at the duel, and the sounds that should not have been there, Augustus got excited, saying, "With your display at the arena, we now know that we could still have a chance at it" Augustus's determination was set ablaze. A new door was opened before his mind, and he was going to step a metaphorical foot inside of it. 

'Allen, leave this one to mommy, okay?' Nephelont did not want to disappoint Ais by saying that he could learn things alone. He knew that she was excited to teach him those things anew. Her sparkly eyes did not hide things. 

The door flew off its hinges again. And this time, a mighty predator entered the hall. 

"RABBITS!!!" All those with the surname Cranel hid under the table, trembling in instinctive fear. Unfortunately, it was lost on Nephelont, who forgot this family nightmare. He fell prey to that predator, with his head within her beak. 

"Who?! What?! Why?!" He started panicking, not knowing what was happening to him. 

"FEY! RELEASE THAT RABBIT!" Another voice spread across the hall, reaching the predatory bird. 

"Phew! Henryk was with her this time, thankfully!" Bell felt relieved. It was enough to get him out from under the table. 

"So that's uncle Henryk?" Nephelont said from his place, his head still within Fey's beak. 

"But papa! Fey wants to play with the missing Mr. Rabbit!" Fey protested, still holding onto her 'prey' possessively. 

Fey was a big harpy eagle, retaining her physical traits and shape as a harpy eagle without change. Her size is all that changed about her outer appearance. 

"Fey, he was eating. How upset would you be if I interrupted your meal? And he was probably also talking to his family. How upsetting would it be if your conversation with me was interrupted as well?" Henryk tried to reason with Fey as he stepped closer to her. 

"Fey wants to play! Hmph!" Fey huffed and turned her face away, swaying an emotionally shaken Nephelont with her movement. 

"You leave me no choice! Fey!" Henryk exclaimed before taking a deep breath. 

"PRATA!!" What happened next was a wolf jumping on Fey's back, forcing her to change her playmate to the wolf, rather than Nephelont. She flew out of one open window and disappeared into the night sky with poor Prata. 

"Welcome back, little rabbit" Henryk patted one of Nephelont's shoulders before silently offering him a towel. It was to wipe away Fey's drool. 

"Thank you" Nephelont wiped what he could off of his hair, being assisted by Eucleia. 

"I see you became smaller, Eucleia? And your beautiful face's in full view now?" Henryk was unbothered by her eye as well. If anyone asked him, he would say that it did not make a difference in her total appearance. He already saw Hephaestus's by accident once and it got him to ready himself for what Eucleia's looked. 

'It's actually quite different, like a watered-down version in that it was less scary and disgusting' Henryk thought to himself, not that he was affected by Hephaestus's eye to begin with. 

"Orion/Henryk! You are back!" Two voices were heard. A blue haired woman that reeked of divinity and another silver haired one powerwalked towards Henryk with upset faces. 

"I didn't need to tell you about me coming back. It's a given when my dear nephew's back from an impossible death" Henryk quickly gave excuses to their unasked question. 

"No excuses!" They said in unison before greeting Nephelont and dragging Henryk off and into a place nobody knows. 

Nobody is to know if Bell manages to have a heartfelt talk between him and his son the next morning. That is to forever remain a mystery. 

(Months later) (AN: That was unexpected, eh?) 

"I did it! Mommy!" Nephelont threw himself at Ais childishly. He quickly learned that Ais loved it, even absolutely adored it, when he openly acted affectionately with her. 

'I could sympathize with past Nephelont's attachment to mommy. She's just that good of a mother' Nephelont did not acknowledge the judging look coming from Augustus, who by turn was getting coddled by Eucleia. 

Over the past months, Nephelont imparted everything he knew about his abilities to Eucleia and the kids. It appears that the only difference was his {Draconic Sacrifice}, which reappeared in his new falna. 

Yes, he got a new falna from Hestia. It seems that both of his mysterious skills appeared again. But this time, they were able to see their descriptions. 

(Line Break) 

(AN: This is the status of the past Nephelont, which 'somehow' was preserved until now and through his death and revival) 

Name: Nephelont Cranel 

Familia: Hestia 

Level: 6 

STR: A854 

END: S978 

DEX: S923 

AGI: S999 (AN: You and I both know why this was maxed first) 

MAG: A841 

Abnormal Resistance E 

Stealth A 

Swordsman B 

Spearman B 

Windswept Footwork B 

Reptilian Tongue EX 

('1 will explain things related to his development abilities) 

Magic: 

Ariel 

Skills: 

{Dragon Hearted: 

Able to acquire other dragons' powers upon consumption of a heart or its equivalent. 

Only one power absorbed per dragon species. 

Powers gained: 

- Magic Blue Flames (Amphisbaena) 

- Mighty Roar (Minor) (Wyvern) 

- Fast Gallop (Minor) (Infant Dragon) 

- Enhanced Muscles (Minor) (Green Dragon) 

- Flame Concentration (Minor) (Valgang Dragon)} 

{Draconic Sacrifice: 

Using a sacrificial medium, a thing of equal value could be given.} 

(Line Break) 

As for what Nephelont achieved, it was to cover his whole body with a layer of wind and move while maintaining its form. It was a requirement for {Windswept Footwork B} to activate. 

"So, are we finally ready?" Henryk asked Nephelont, who was getting fawned upon by Ais. Norman was standing there, an evil toothy grin on his face. 

"I guess it's finally time. I managed to make it work while moving, too" Nephelont demonstrated it by jumping and making a few punches to confirm its stability. 

"Now, we wanted to delay this until you had at least A-ranked swordsman and spearman development abilities" Henryk started with a voice that hinted at a lost opportunity. 

"But, you see, we already delayed it for too long once. We'd rather start now than lose that chance another time" Norman completed Henryk's words. He was getting excited to finally see this plan coming to light. 

"But I must ask this first. Why didn't you two try for yourselves?" Nephelont asked both of them, puzzled. He thought that they had the time to try and possibly achieve the feat. 

"The problem is, we tried and never succeeded in replicating that fighting style" Henryk whined with a hand covering his face. 

"We tried really hard, little guy. And every time we tried, we either messed up the sword part of this or the spear part. And for the development abilities, we already had to take on other abilities to survive back then" Norman added. 

"And then came you, a person who was excited to fight in a 'cool way'" Henryk teased Nephelont about his dark past, even though it was not that dark. 

"Well, I guess it's better to learn it than to regret not learning it later. Especially since I already have the building blocks for it" Nephelont sighed and stood up, Ais's immersion in his long, flowing hair broken. She was left feeling empty until Bell came. She locked her laser sights on him and pounced, filling her hands with his hair as she gave him yet another lap pillow, all the while he was trying to convince her not to do it in front of people. 

"Refreshments!" Hestia came with refreshment for her and her friends' children. She normally left the task for a familia member, but she felt like visiting them this time with something in her hands. 

After resting for a bit, we could see Henryk and Norman showing Nephelont certain spear and sword moves and asking him to replicate them. Once he succeeds, he is taught the next move. A few days later, we could see Nephelont carrying a spear under his left arm and a far-eastern sword, a katana, in his right hand. He was told to try and fight in accordance with the esoteric texts left behind by some guy called Isshin. 

(AN: This a reference to how "Ashina Isshin, Sword Saint", the final boss of Sekiro, fought using both a spear and a sword. No, Nephelont does not get the semi-auto flintlock) 

Eucleia cheered Nephelont on from the sidelines, which boosted his progress more than he was willing to admit. 

In the spare time, Nephelont made the effort to get closer to his children. 

'When did I start calling them my children so easily?' Nephelont asked himself, almost berating himself while doing so. 

(Flashback) 

'Allen, answer me honestly. You have past Nephelont's memories, right?' Nephelont asked Allen while he was in the bathtub. He was lost in thought to pay much attention to what Eucleia was doing with him, not that she was doing anything other than rubbing his back for him. 

'Yes, physical body. We shall start with the reason why we held off telling you until now. It was because your mind may not have handled it well' Allen answered in their usually monotone collective voice. 

They then continued, 'As for your question, yes, we do hold pieces of past Nephelont's memories scattered between us. We, including you, were all one with him after all. As you are the only one affected by emotions, we were planning to show it to you slowly through a series of dreams, spread over years, to lessen the load on your mind. Forgive us, physical body' 

'Then do so. I will choose to believe in you, all of you' And ever since then, Nephelont requested to see more of those dreams each night. It hastened the process, and his mind was able to handle it without a major shift in his personality occurring. 

One thing Eucleia missed, however, was that Nephelont started blushing less and less in response to her actions. It made her feel relieved as well when some of the old Nephelont's traits were resurfacing little by little. 

(End of Flashback) 

Sometimes, Nephelont read some scientific books with Augustus and did some very 'harmless' experiments that definitely would not have triggered Eucleia should she have known of them. She absolutely would never have flew into a fit of pure, unadulterated rage over those experiments of theirs. 

Some other times, Nephelont read Clementina a book about a romantic story and lulled her to sleep. Others he played with Agni, which consisted mostly of pranking others and having fun, maybe trying to prank each other sometimes. 

Then there was Thumper. He was the hardest to get closer to. Nephelont's thoughts boiled down to play-hunting with him. It miraculously worked when the hunting ended in a warm and soft cuddle. 

Of course, Nephelont found a way to involve training them in their abilities during their interactions without them getting bored or annoyed. 

Finally, he managed to defeat Hephaestus, goddess of the forge, with his mere hair. Not a single scissor she made could cut more than 2 of his hairs before getting its edges eaten away. The defeated goddess stopped trying to preserve her husband's health. Welf was wilting by the time she admitted defeat, which made it all the more important to give him rest. 

'You may have won the battle, but I will win the war' Welf's instincts told him to avoid a flaming Hephaestus, lest he burn in her determination. 

As a result of their inability to cut Nephelont's hair, they resorted to braiding it and slinging it over and around his shoulders. It reduced the amount of hair anyone could step on because of how long it was. They kept the braid loose so as not to harm the braided hair. 

(One certain morning) 

"Huh? My daughter, why are you frozen?" Hephaestus noticed the sudden shift in the mood between Nephelont and Eucleia. Once she looked in their eyes, she found her answer. They both went out of control. 

"THAT SHOULD BE COMING A FEW MONTHS LATER! WHY IS IT COMING NOW OF ALL TIMES?!" Welf snapped into action as he talked, opening the nearest window wide. 

Without further notice, Nephelont flew out of the open window, followed closely by Eucleia. 

"Sigh~!" Hephaestus sighed, exasperated by what she had just witnessed. "I might see another litter of grandchildren running around by next year" She readied herself for the cuteness overflow that might happen a year later. It took the fleeing couple a week to come back, with Eucleia deciding to carry the children in her womb again, even though she felt that she could lay eggs. She reasoned that she did not want them to feel neglected compared to their older siblings. 

And just like that, a few years passed. 

(AN: Was this even more of an unexpected turn? Well, things needed to move a bit faster) 

(9 years after Nephelont's revival) 

During those years, Nephelont got to know both his maternal and paternal grandparents, with him already knowing Meteria since she stayed behind inside Orario. Albert, being the family man he was, spent a lot of time with Nephelont. He was not the only one, though. Aria missed her cute grandson and did just as Ais does most of the time. She jumped Nephelont and cuddled him affectionately. He was her cute and very huggable rabbit-like grandson. 

Thomas and Angelica came to visit and profusely apologized for what happened and for how they were responsible for Eucleia's protection that day, how everything that happened that day could have been prevented had they noticed the difference in Ferdinand's behavior. Nephelont told them that there was no forgiveness for what he already forgot. He welcomed them again as friends, ones he was getting introduced to for the second time in his life. 

And now, we can see Nephelont playing with the younger bunch of his oversized children when Augustus came and stood by the doorframe, waving a book in his hand. 

"And here we end today's game, kids! Your elder brother and I have a few things we need to do!" Nephelont informed the five younger children with a cheerful smile. 

"But dad! We want to play more!" Whined the youngest. It seems like Nephelont's presence and his spoiling them prevented them from mentally over-growing their age. They behaved like the 8-year-olds that they were. 

"Ignis, you should play with Agni for today. I reckon she's hiding somewhere, trying to get the jump on me and scare me. How about you try scaring her instead?" Nephelont suggested while rubbing Ignis's head, with her cutely closing one of her eyes, cuing into his hand. 

She was lit ablaze with determination. She did as she was taught by hiding her appearance with light refraction and then blocking her spiritual connection to others. The other 4 of her twins followed suit. They all had beef to settle with Agni. She was one crafty prankster of an older sister. 

"Now, Gust, what about this book?" Nephelont asked his son as he watched the little blurs of energy speeding away, searching for their older sister to play with her. 

"This book, you see, should not have even been in the library. I stumbled upon it in a section where no book was missing from its place" Augustus hummed with a hand put on his mouth in thought. "The more interesting part is when I asked the librarian-" 

"Let me guess, it was a book not even other librarians knew anything about" Nephelont threw the most random thing that came to mind. 

"You nailed it pretty well, father" Augustus was amazed by how his father just haphazardly guessed it out. 

In the background, we could see Agni trying to pry a bunch of little angry dragons off of her scales, spewing fire into the heavens in a mighty effort to struggle free from them. 

"Now, should we see what the book's contents are? We might be able to glimpse something off of its contents. Maybe it has something worth researching?" Augustus invited Nephelont to sit beside him and read the book. 

"Why are the sections for both the shield and the sword blank, though?" Augustus thought about it deeply along with Nephelont. 

'This ominously reminds me of a story Henryk read me as a bed-time story. Although he got rightfully punished when he accidentally taught me to call that redhead "Bitch" and her father "Trash"' Nephelont felt a great sense of dread, as if something will happen to him soon but he never knew what until it was late. Neither of the father-son pair knew that this book, titled "The Records of the Four Holy Weapons", would whisk them away and off into another world. 

Later, Eucleia would be devastated when she senses that Nephelont disappeared, even more so when she senses that he was not alone.

(End of Chapter)

'1:

Here, as promised above, I will explain what the development abilities do or explain their rank.

Abnormal Resistance E: It is rank E since Nephelont ingested many different types of poison and subjected himself to every curse he could get his hands on to raise it before. Just a tidbit of information, if he received the poison from Frederick's poison from chapter 2, he would have been able to live through it until it was completely extracted from his body days later.

Stealth A: He picked this one to prank others and to sneak up on monsters unnoticed. Its rank kept rising as he used it. He was an unrepentant prankster and the peak of laziness. Keyword, was. He may or may not be anymore.

Swordsman & Spearman B: As stated, Henryk and Norman wanted to be weebs to their hearts' contents. Unfortunately, they were not able to. They vented that by forcefully teaching him how to use both a sword and a spear. He liked it, liking the 'cool' stories they told him about Isshin's might when wielding both, and continued receiving that training willingly. That is why he was using a spear in his adventure days and why he instinctively made a crude wooden spear for no apparent reason. The familiarity called him to do it and he responded unknowingly.

Windswept Footwork B He picked that up when he found it during his rank-up from level 5 to level 6. As stated above, he needs to keep a filament of wind on his body at all times. The more form-fitted it was, the more efficient the development ability will be. It mainly allows him to move faster. Otherwise, it also allows him to utilize his weapons to a better degree. His nature as a partial wind spirit forced it to start at rank G. The rest was his own work, or his past self's work at least. What he did was re-master the ability within the first months he spent in the mansion.

Reptilian Tongue EX: This is given by his {Dragon Hearted} skill. The development ability is of a unique nature. It maxes out whenever a species that counts as a reptilian or is related acquires it. It simply makes him able to understand what others of appropriate races say. Of course, it did not activate on the dinosaur-type monsters as he did not have a falna to make use of the development ability at the time.

(Line Break)

Hello there, and welcome to the chapter notes. But before proceeding any further, I want your feedback. Do you want shorter chapters? Or is this length okay? This chapter is something at the start of +6k words.

What some of you might have guessed, it was not just Isshin's fighting style, which included lightning reversal art, Henryk and Norman went the extra mile of teaching him all that he could learn of the esoteric texts of "Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice". He would go around hitting people with kicks and punches like the monks of Senpou Temple. Of course, he had to learn them on the course of 8 years, just to barely get the skills before he was teleported. And while he got the skills, he needs to use them often to start actually getting them to the ir perfected forms. He cannot magically perform a perfect Ichimonji just by reading some random esoteric text and spending some mystic skill points.

Yes, Bell's plan to spend time with Nephelont around that table the next morning will remain a mystery just like the narrator said. Sorry, the narrator does not want you to know that part. But hey, you now know that Albert, Ais's father, and Aria, the great wind spirit and Ais's mother, are here to spend some time with their long-lost grandchild.

Get this! Albert's soul almost left his body when he found out that Nephelont got back to life! He spent a few days of sprinting from one corner of the continent to the other to reach Orario! And the funniest part was that he was out on a trip he and Aria wanted to use to spend some time alone together!

Moving from that, Angelica and Thomas came back. But out of guilt, they still felt some awkwardness and spent less time with him than before. The wound that marred their previous relationship has yet to heal or disappear. It would have had he not teleported out.

Now, for why I chose this instead of my original destination, One Piece. You see, there was just no feasible way to take him out of that world. If something dangerous got close to his general direction? Smited by Eucleia's arcanum, disregarding the rules imposed on its use.

There was no way death takes him out of that world. And do not even mention old age. That stuff is old talk and would have taken over 9 centuries to crawl its way to him. Yeah, over 900 years of life expectancy.

My solution? Summoning. I searched through the list of worlds I wanted him to be sent into. And among them, this was the best way I could find to drag him out of DanMachi. From there, he will travel between worlds to find a way back to DanMachi, where a whole new story will take place.

A problem occurred while I was writing the initial chapters of his adventure within the world of the rising of the shield hero. I got absorbed and wrote up to chapter 19 before noticing myself. 

I want to ask you, do you want me to upload them even though they may leave you hanging to some extent?

Have a great time until then, ladies and gentlemen.