"No peeking lizard" At the moment, inside one of the rooms in Raylene's home, Gaya was carrying Nightmare in her arms while closing his eyes using one hand.
"I'm not peeking" Nightmare lied as he tried to peek through the gap between her fingers yet he couldn't see anything.
"Where's the food bitch?" Nightmare suddenly heard a childish voice.
"Whoa, what is that? Is that what you call a dragon? looks small than I expected"
Nightmare continued to hear the childish voice. It somehow sounded more like Gaya, only childish.
"You ruined a good surprise little shit" He heard Gaya cursing back,
"Who is that?" Nightmare pushed down Gaya's palm with his hands to see a creature with three heads staring at him on the table. Vedora and Nightmare entered into a staring contest as they looked at each other without even moving their heads an inch.
Gaya slowly put Nightmare on the ground. Nightmare started to circle the table cautiously before slowly moving forward towards the hydra.
"I'm Sarba, I guess you're our brother" Nightmare was stunned again to see the silver head talk in the voice of a male child. Besides, the silver head sounded exactly opposite to the white head who reminded Gaya of him.
He then turned his gaze towards the blackhead, expecting it to speak. However, unlike the silver and the white head, the blackhead remained silent.
"Enough circling you overgrown lizard, go fetch me something to eat"
Ignoring Ayag, Nightmare approached the hydra step by step.
Creak!
Suddenly the door creaked open as Nightmare almost plummeted with the table in shock. It was Michael who entered the room. He saw Gaya having a laugh with Nightmare and the Hydra.
"Come here" she pulled him closer wrapping her arm around his. Both of them stood in the room's coroner watching the Hydra and Nightmare. The scene reminded Michael of dogs meeting their cat sibling for the first time. Only Nightmare was the dog and the cat sibling was the Hydra here.
"Hey stop" Ayag growled seeing Nightmare sniffing them. Ayag kept hitting Nightmare on the face with her head.
"Who are they?" Nightmare gently picked them up from the with his hand.
"Drop us or I'll chew your hand off" Ayag tried to wiggle herself out by chewing his hand. But Nightmare barely felt anything.
"That little shit is Ayag, the nice one in the middle is Sarba and the silent blacky is Cain. Together, we call them Vedora. Do you like them?" Gaya asked after introducing them to Nightmare.
Nightmare once again stared at them from top to bottom. Then, to everyone's surprise, his vertical pupils became rounded as he hugged them grinning.
"I love them, they are so cute"
"Eww, stop! '' Ayag started to shout when Nightmare began to shower them with wet kisses. Gaya couldn't stop herself from scoping them off the floor before giving them a warm embrace. She hugged Michael with one hand while hugging the Hydra and Nightmare with another. They looked like a perfectly happy family. Placing a gentle kiss on Gaya's head, Michael willed the system to activate the runic teleportation.
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In a blink of an eye, they appeared in Michael's room in the Abyssal. When they looked at the room, they were startled. The room was spotlessly clean. The bed was made neatly like in high-end hotels. There was not a speck of single dust or broken piece of Spyder on his work table. Even the mirrors he placed on the wall to survey the kingdom were cleaned spotless.
"Welcome Lord Lucifer, Lady Gaya, Master Sarba, Miss Ayag, Master Cain"
Nightmare was yet again startled by the stranger. He bared his teeth threateningly at the Demon butler.
"It's a pleasure to meet you again, Master Nightmare"
"Huh? I never met you before. What are you?" Nightmare was taken back by surprise.
"He's a demon Nightmare. Just like Vedora, he came from another world. The three of you should go have a talk" Michael waved them off and went to his work table.
Gaya saw stacks of crates appear around the table. The room was lit in green after Michael conjured his Alchemy flames.
"Do you need any help?" She came to his side,
"I can manage, you go cultivate. We need to be in our best shape before the tournament starts"
"Alright" Gaya jumped on the bed to cultivate. The Fusion stage bone still had some energy left in it for her to absorb. She flicked her wrist as the femur bone appeared in her hand.
While she was cultivating, Michael began to brew potions and concoct pills for the Majestic. He continued to make pills and potions without a rest. Only Azazel accompanied him as Vedora and Nightmare fell asleep while Gaya was still cultivating.
"Lord Lucifer, can I bring you anything to eat or drink? I saw bell berries in the forest"
"This is the eighth time you asked this Azazel. I'm not hungry, the arch energy keeps the body replenished"
He took the last herb from a crate. Although Michael was not hungry, he wanted to eat something or drink a mug full of coffee to chase away the sleepiness. He had been making potions and pills for the last fourteen hours without a break. It took a toll on his body as he was exhausted both mentally and physically.
"But as your faithful butler, it's my duty to keep you in your best shape Lord Lucifer. If I only has a physical body, I would have made you something myself"
"Why don't you try to make the undeads make me something?"
"Absolutely not Lord Lucifer. I won't let those filthy vile creatures defile your food. Making them clean your room and the Abyssal is the highest peak of my tolerance of them"
"Keep an eye on Dular and his experiments. We can't let the Guardians sniff out this place" He ordered Dular. Finally, Michael stretched his muscles yet he didn't stand up. Azazel saw him close his eyes. Azazel thought he had fallen asleep but after five minutes, he opened his eyes again. A black card appeared on the table when he opened his eyes. The card was metallic black, it looked simple yet elegant. On the card's center, one could see a skull embossed. A dragon similar to Nightmare coiled around the skull while the letter 'G' could be seen behind the skull and the dragon.
"What do you think?" Michael asked Azazel.
Azazel moved a bit closer to Michael to see the card clearly.
"It's beautiful, Lord Lucifer. I assume this is the card you're going to give to your allies as Ghost"
"Yep," Michael nodded. He picked up the card from the table, savoring the design. It cost him 50 badass points to design the card. To get 100 cards, he had to spend 4998 badass points. The two points were discounted by the system.
"What do you see?"
Keeping the card in his hand, he asked Azazel,
"The skull is obviously related to your name, Ghost as the skull often represents the dead and ghosts in this world. The dragon is Master Nightmare. As for the G behind the skull, the others might think it represents your name but I think it represents Lady Gaya."
"You're right" Michael expected nothing less from his demon butler. As he said, the skull represented him, the dragon represented Nightmare and the letter G represented Gaya. Except for the people in this room, no one could tell that the G represents Gaya. For others, the letter G was the first letter of Ghost.
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"Here's everything you asked" Long after the sun had risen from the horizon, Gaya entered their room in Abyssal. Michael was still sitting before his work table, brewing potions and connecting pills.
She had never seen him overworking himself like this. He always used to take breaks or train with her but for the last two days, he never even moved away from his work table.
After looking into the space ring Ricky gave it to her, she could tell he's going to be busier than now.
"I also brought something for you to eat" A mug of hot coffee, fried rice and a large piece of strawberry cake appeared on the table. The sweet smell of the coffee made him take a deep breath. His mouth automatically began water seeing the delicious food on the table. Raylene's food always had the tendency to make him feel hungry even when he was not.
"Where's Nightmare and Vedora?" Michael looked around the room before asking,
"They are playing in the dark forest. Do you know Vedora is immune to the fear toxin in the forest?" as she said, she took a bite from the cake.
"It might be because of Vedora's origin. Remind me to check what else Vedora is immune to later" Michael started to eat his food before she finished off like the cake.
More than anything, he wanted the coffee to keep him awake.
"I sent the invitations to all our allies including Kane Family elders and Olivia's father. Let's see whether they accept our invitation to come to the sect"
"They will," Michael said. He did not doubt that. If they didn't capitalize on an opportunity when they see one, they wouldn't be where they are.
After finishing his food, he took a long sip of coffee. He immediately felt refreshed. While drinking, he retrieved everything inside the space ring Ricky gave to Gaya.
"You want anything else?" She asked,
"Just make sure the security has no holes"
"I've already hired the strongest adventure groups from the guild. I'm now going to interview them"
"Good. Before you go, how many Spyders do you think we need to monitor the entire kingdom of Bredia?"
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Finished with the fillers needed for this arc. From the next chapter onwards, we can finally dive into the good stuff!!!!