”Thea Draven.”
Thea seemed mesmerized by her new name and couldn’t help but mutter it out loud.
“Thea..”
“Ah! She spoke!” Mira cried.
Seemingly feeling like she’d made some sort of mistake, she quickly covered her mouth and looked at Exedra with trembling eyes.
“Oh so you finally speak.” Exedra patted her head softly and offered her half of the cookie back.
“Don’t worry, no one is going to punish you if you talk ,my daughter. You can be as loud as you want, or as silent and I will treat you all the same.” Exedra knew her history so he felt it was crucial to reassure her.
The girl seemingly relaxed at his words and hesitantly spoke again.
“Thank you for my name..father.”
Now that she’d spoken a full sentence both Mira and Exedra could hear it clearly.
Thea’s voice was gentle and timid like that of a field mouse.
While she seemed to have some awkwardness about calling him father, that was to be expected and Exedra knew she’d get more comfortable with time.
Suddenly he sensed a sort of connection forming and smiled when he realized what it was.
“Do my daughters want to see something exciting?”
The girls looked at each other before nodding furiously.
Without another word, Exedra scooped both of them up into his arms and took several large steps back.
Thea looked slightly flustered to have been picked up so suddenly meanwhile Mira seemed to be right at home in her father’s embrace.
“You girls ready?”
“Yea!”
Thea only nodded shyly.
Without waiting for anything further, Exedra gave a single mental command.
‘Grow.’
Suddenly, the seed that Exedra planted into the ground trembled furiously.
The seed split apart and began to grow rapidly. As it pushed its stem through the earth, it was also simultaneously sowing its roots deeper and deeper underground.
The girls watched in abject fascination as a small black sprout peeked above the soil and did not stop growing.
Soon the ground trembled as the small black plant became a towering weeping willow tree with bright red leaves and black bark.
“Pretty..” Thea muttered.
“I’ve never seen a tree like that before!” Mira was completely captivated.
‘Now that I think about it… I don’t think willow trees exist in this world.’ Exedra just willed the tree to take the shape of the tree he was the most fond of.
“You girls haven’t seen anything yet.” Exedra whispered excitedly.
What came next was something that most would only see in a fever dream.
The night sky became a beautiful medley of blue, purple and a faint red.
The stars became even more pronounced and seemed to gleam with a vibrant luster.
Exedra was not certain that this would work either but it seemed that the tree could indeed replicate things from his old world.
In this case, he had chosen to model the sky after a depiction he’d remembered from a video game.
The result was a beautifully captivating picture that transcended reality.
“”It’s amazing.”” Both daughters muttered at the same time.
Exedra felt a mild sense of accomplishment from the praise of his daughters.
The group suddenly felt multiple approaching footsteps.
They looked behind them to see Exedra’s wives and Audrina.
“Mommies! Look what daddy did!” Mira could help but show off the massive tree her father had grown as well as how he’d literally changed the sky above them.
“Honey.. your arm!” Lisa was the first to notice that Exedra’s arm was as good as new.
“How is that possible?”
“Do you have a high level healing spell too?”𝑜𝑣𝔩xt.𝗇t
“Where did that tree come from?”
“What happened to the sky?”
They threw question after question at him, leaving him unsure about how he should explain his miraculous new abilities this time.
“Ah well…”
Exedra suddenly stopped when he felt dozens more beings approaching and looked up to see the… Rabisu?
While he could sense it was them, they looked nothing like the 8 foot demons he’d witnessed earlier.
They were now far more human like with dark grey skin and black eyes with red scalera.
It would’ve been easy to mistake them for humans if not for those characteristics and the fleshy wings still behind their backs.
Before he could ask what they were doing here, they kneeled in front of him and one of the three leaders spoke.
“We greet the lord and his family. The Rabisu have come to pay respects to the birth of the mother tree.” The demons seemed to have learned to speak more fluently as well.
At the mention of their name, Audrina shivered and held in her breath.
An action that did not escape Exedra’s gaze mind you.
He gingerly placed his girls down and instructed them to go toward their mothers with a smile.
Mira happily obliged and ran directly into Valerie’s arms.
Thea was a bit more unenthusiastic as she shyly stood beside Lailah. Luckily, the witch seemed to sense her nervousness and she took her hand.
Seeing that his family was together, Exedra stepped forward towards his kneeling army.
“What has happened to you?”
“We do not evolve in the same manner as you my lord, our evolution comes through the feasting of our enemies. Our bodies were designed to absorb and amplify the strengths of those we devour.”
‘So that’s what grandmother meant when she said she’d give them the ability to grow.’
‘Analyze.’
[???]
[Status : Calm
[Race : Rabisu
[ Age : 10,000,000
[ Times Evolved : 0
[ Health : 100,000
[ Strength : 27,521
[ Endurance : 26,018
[ Agility : 28,100
[ Mana : 35,227
Exedra checked and while the other two leaders had similar stats, the rest were slightly inferior.
“I offer you a gift to mark the occasion my lord.” The Rabisu pulled out a bright red heart that was coursing with power.
The dragon knew instinctively that it belonged to the angel that’d nearly killed him.
He accepted the gift and put it away, out of the sight of his children.
“You don’t have names?” Exedra asked the demon.
“No my lord we don’t.”
Truthfully Exedra was fine with not knowing the names of the lower demons but for the leading three it was very inconvenient.
“Absalom, Hakon, and Stheno.”
“You are the leaders of my army so at the very least you should have names.”
Absalom was the tall muscular demon in the center who’d done all the talking from the beginning.
Hakon was another male demon kneeling silently next to him.
Stheno was the name of the only woman leader among the demons. She had quite a charming appearance and looked to be of the same temperament as the rest.
“””We gratefully accept your names.””” They bowed even deeper.
[You have named your first demons!
– You have now unlocked the subordinates menu!
Exedra briefly glanced at the message from the system and made a mental note to check it out later.
“Go, pay your respects as you wish.”
“””Thank you, Lord Abbadon.””” The leaders spoke in unison before they rose from the ground once more.
“Värcolac!” Absalom roared.
At his command all of the Rabisu sprouted their wings and flew up into the sky.
They circled the tree countless times and could be heard humming an ancient song.
Exedra wasn’t sure if it was because he was a demon or not but he found their unholy chorus to be the most beautiful sound imaginable.
“Husband…” Bekka began.
“I know.” He already knew what she intended to ask.
He turned around and stared at each of the women in his life. “I owe you all some answers huh?”
The girls all nodded furiously as if they couldn’t wait for this day to come.
A bitter smile broke out across his face.
Their patience was truly commendable, he had kept them in the dark for far too long.
“Well I should start by saying this, everything I am about to tell you is the truth no matter how unbelievable it may seem.” He warned.
It was finally time to tell his family everything.
About his rebirth, his miraculous powers and even his system.
They’d earned atleast that much.