They both appeared inside the hall once again. The light emitted from the walls around them was enough to see the hall clearly.
"Come on, show me"
"System" he willed the system to hand him over the artifact from the system storage. Her eyes sparkled with curiosity. A small light emerged above his hand before transforming itself into a silver oval-shaped object. Although from the outside it looked like an ordinary thing, she could feel an immense amount of energy pulsating from within.
"Is that an egg?" she reached out to touch the artifact in his hand. The thing in his hand wasn't what he expected. At first, it was a black orb and now it just changed its color to silver.
Crack!
Just as Gaya's hand touched the surface of the thing, cracks began to form on its surface.
"It is an egg" Michael confirmed his suspicion, sensing a heartbeat from the thing.
"Ah!"
Suddenly Gaya squealed. He was stunned by her sudden unexpected reaction. Before he could ask her why he too felt intense pain all over his body. It felt like his soul itself screaming in pain for a second. The pain quickly vanished as he saw a tiny head rising from the egg. Soon, another tiny head rose from the egg. They were stunned to see two tiny heads but to their surprise, another head rose. Under their bewildered gazes, the tiny beast completely broke out of the shell. Another shock hit their core as they were not three beasts but the three heads shared one body.
The hand-sized beast shockingly resembled a beast on earth. Not a real living beast but a beast he saw in movies, King Ghidorah. The only different factor was the color of its scales and the eyes. Each head was covered in different color scales. The head in the center had shiny cloud silver scales while one head in the right had pure white scales and the left one had black scales. The head in the center stared at Michael and Gaya with its rather round eyes that somewhat made the beast look cute.
"Give me something to eat, jerk" the white head spoke in a feminine voice to break them out from their daze. The white head sounded like the child version of Gaya.
"Huh?" she was too stunned to get back at the white head.
"They are in a trauma state because this might be the first time they have seen our kind. I cannot find any references to our species in their memories" Michael saw the silver head speak in a calm voice. The blackhead however remained silent. it stared at the hall like it was surveying the surrounding.
"System, what kind of beast is this?"
[It's one of the rarest beings in the universe, a three-headed hydra. The system lacks the necessary information to find how the three-headed hydra egg ended up in this world but the egg has been in a hibernation state for over three thousand years]
"Over three thousand years? Wow"
[The system also found that the three-headed hydra emits the same frequency of energy that has been sucking the Arch energy in the Southern Continent hence the void area]
"Do you think there might be another Hydra sleeping beneath the Southern Continent?"
[Yes the system has already informed the host about the extraterrestrial being consuming the Arch energy. Now it seems like the extraterrestrial being is a Hydra]
He remembered the system's words. It also warned him not to go search for the being until he reached the Immortal Stage.
"Jerk? No, the word is bitch, yeah bitch...Give me something to eat bitch" the white head knarred its teeth at Gaya. She finally came back to her senses.
"Who do you calling bitch, you tiny fuck, I will rip your head off" she flicked the hydra's white head.
"Please stop" the silver head pleaded with both of them but the white head already moved itself to take a bite out of her hand. Fortunately, the neck was not long enough for the white head to get to her hand.
"You don't seem like a normal human in your memories" the blackhead finally opened its mouth, questioning Michael.
"Did you read our memories?"
Michael creased his brows. If the Hydra read his memories, it would know about his previous life on earth. This was too early to trust this beast with his previous life. Until now, only Gaya knew about his origin and he would like to keep it that way.
Luckily blackhead hydra shook its head,
"We didn't read your memoirs but learned the necessary information and skills such as the language, the species in this world, etc"
"System?" He called out the system to check whether it's true or not.
[The system reassures the host that the hydra cannot read one's memories. It could only absorb certain knowledge from the being it first touches after its hatches. In this case, the hydra touched both you and Gaya, so it absorbed the knowledge necessary for its survival from your brains and also...]
The system's voice trailed away,
"There's always something else with you system, I'm not even surprised" he mentally prepared himself to hear what the system's going to say next.
[A hatchling hydra would usually get its knowledge from another hydra, most of the time from its mother. However, if the hatchling hydra touched another species, on top of the necessary knowledge, it would also inherit the personality of the being it touched]
"Let me guess, the hydra inherited both mine and Gaya's personalities"
[huh...kinda] If he could move his body while he was interacting with the system, he would have rubbed his temples. Everything was complex when it came to him. He learned to blame himself rather than the system.
"Hit me with it"
[Each head inherited each of your personalities]
"Wait a minute, there are three heads and there's only two of us" He interrupted the system
[The white head as you may have noticed inherited Gaya's personality. The blackhead inherited the personality of yourself on earth. The silver head inherited Abras's personality]
"Huh?" the system confused Michael. Nothing seemed out of place from the system's previous explanation when it came to Gaya and the white head. He couldn't help wondering how the hell did the silver head inherited Abras's personality when he was not even alive.
[Trust me host, you can't and won't comprehend the process of hydra inheritance] the system sounded somewhat overbearing when it spoke these words like it was an all-knowing person and Michael was a stupid kid
"Then simplify it system"
He tried to remain calm despite the system's attitude,
[Well, hmm] the system went silent for a few seconds before speaking again,
[The hydra inherits the personality from the soul of the being it first touched right?]
"Yes"
[if the hydra had touched Gaya only, the hydra would have inherited only her personality as she has only one soul. But the host happens to have a split soul, one part Abras, one part you. Therefore, when it touched both of you, the inheritance process resulted in the hydra inheriting the personality of Gaya, Abras, and you. Now the three heads are the best and/or worst versions of yourselves]
Michael uttered no words but let everything sink in silence.
[What are you so upset about host? You're extremely lucky to get your hands on a hydra. So quit whining and take the world by storm]
For better or worse, the system lightened his mood.
"Can I make the hydra my pet? Or a subordinate?"
[Yes, you can for a price]
"What price? I didn't pay you when Nightmare became my familiar"
[because it's a dragon and the one in your hand is a Hydra, not to mention of the powerful beings in the entire universe]
He sighed in his heart. After spending his time with the system, he had learned there's no point in arguing with the system when it comes to badass points. Hence, he decided to shut up and pay the price to make the Hydra his familiar, just like Nightmare.
"Are you gonna tell me the price or not?"
[9,999 badass points only] he wanted to slap the system silly when he heard it shamelessly talked like a salesperson.
"Why don't you round up and take 10,000?"
[Cool, will do]
"Wait, what? Fuck" it was too late for him to regret as he saw 10,000 badass points getting reduced, making his total number of badass points to 64,000.
Looking at the number, he could tell it was gradually increasing because of the sect. Since the legend of the Sunrise sect had been growing, the number of badass points he receives per month increased significantly.
For now, he had other things to worry about than the number of badass points.
He came out of the system to see Gaya and the white head looking at each other menacingly while the silver head tried to snuff out the anger fire with them. Looking at the three heads, the system's words made more sense to him. The white head was Gaya, hungry, bad-mouthing, and ill-tempered. The silver head, Abras, kind honest loving personality. Finally the blackhead, cunning, intelligent, shrewd. Looking at the black head's eyes felt like he was looking at himself in the mirror. The blackhead was the Ghost before his soul merged with Abras. Among the three heads, the blackhead, it's was the deadliest, just by looking at its eyes, Michael could tell. After all, it inherited his personality.