Chapter 84 - What Change May Come

I was adrift and floating on top of an endless ocean of darkness and sparkling lights. To me it looked reminiscent of space from earth. My mind was still foggy and could barely comprehend what was going on. I could feel a rush of cold start to flow from my chest and my body was starting to freeze up like ice. 

"What you did was completely stupid. You died you idiot, now what am I gonna do? The only other connection I have is with Sondar but his brand barely produces any energy that I can consume. I'll wither away and die and this world will be devoured by the other gods." 

I heard a familiar voice speak off to my left but my body was to frozen to move. I felt nothing, no pain, no emotions, nothing. I knew something was wrong but I just couldn't think straight.

"Let me give you a refresher than you moron." The familiar voice spoke again slightly before I saw a hand cover my eyes and a flash of green light entered and consumed my sight.

Next thing I see is I'm floating above a Lizardman... Wait, no that's not right. That's a Dragonoid, I could feel the frustration rise up in me as an unknown thought enters my mind. 

I see that the Dragonoid is covered in oozing blood that is rotting away even as I stare down at it, I can see next to the body is a younger looking Dragonoid with black and purple scales, and around it are a bunch of different creatures. One of the creatures stood up from the young one and walked over to the blood covered one and started crying uncontrollably. Their fluffy reddish, whit tail seemed to almost spark with tiny bouts of flame as it swayed with it's owner's emotions. 

I knew this person, I could feel in my heart that this was someone special to me. I just couldn't remember who they were, let alone their name.

"Kitsoma, her name is Kitsoma, and you two were just starting to explore your feelings with one another. Here, I can do this much atleast." The hand from before touched my heart and I felt a slight warmth try to fight against the cold, Just long enough to make it to where I could speak, but nothing else.

"Kits...om...aaa. It....Feels.....Familiar." I finally spoke but only in short bursts. It felt like every letter took longer to say than the last.

"Yes, that's right. Your name is Vexsus, and you just sacrificed your life to save your adoptive daughter, Hannah." This time the voice spoke with a gentler tone than before, almost like a worried mother.

I couldn't move to see the woman's face but I felt the warmth it exuded deep within my very soul. Something told me that this person meant me no harm and in fact was a savior of mine. But besides that one question escaped my lips.

"The blood.... is mine?" I felt like the warmth inside my heart was getting hotter and in return was making it easier to speak. 

"Yes, it is, You used up all of your power to make sure she can live and become stronger to withstand anything this world can throw at her. Your magic took control of those thoughts and the emotions behind it and amplified the magic circles power by ten-fold. But the cost of which is what you see here."

I kept staring at the bloodied body of the Dragonoid as the people circled around it and I could see faces that looked familiar as they sparked something deep within me to life. 

"These people.... are they my family? Did I really die?" I asked with a much easier time speaking than before. I couldn't look away except for when a new voice answered me, this time it was an almost ethereal voice and I could feel the coldness within me start to consume my body once again.

"Yesssss... It is time to go Vexsus..... I promise to guide you welllll." The Ethereal voice spoke with long drawn out words that sent further chills coursing through my body. I was turned around by a hand that felt rather pointy as it laid across my shoulders. 

I was able to look down and what I saw was nothing but bone. Just pure white, bleached bones that make up a hand. I was then face to face with a skeleton head as it's eyes that consisted of intensely burning blue flames stared straight into my soul.

"Do not try to run awayyyy. You are mine nowwww."

"I don't think so you bag o' bones. I was just getting the energy to revive him when you interrupted me you chew toy." The familiar motherly voice from before spoke and I was blinded by a flash of brilliant emerald green light. 

"Howwww!!" The skeleton spoke as it backed away from me which gave me a bigger picture at just what was trying to take me. The skeleton was robed in dark purple with unending darkness inside of the robes almost as if to say that inside the robes was nothing but the end, and that what you see is nothing more than a façade. 

"You were able to surprise me because I was in a hurry and forgot just how fast you soul vultures react to a fresh kill. But now that I'm back you can scurry off to whatever void you crawled out of."

The motherly voice spoke with such authority that I saw the robed skeleton visibly cringe away. It turned towards me for a quick second before dashing away and disappearing into the endless void that stretched beyond your wildest nightmares.

"Thank the creators that I got back in time, can you believe that chew toy actually tried to take away a god's chosen? What insanity is Death Thinking?" 

I could see now the owner of the voice and it was a woman that exuded godly power unlike I've ever felt before. She looked me over once again before smiling sweetly at me.

"It's time to go back now Vexsus. I will try to make this as painless as possible but I cannot promise anything. I only have enough power to send you back but not to protect your soul as it transitions back to the world of the living."

She then reaches towards me and with a flick of her wrist sends a wave of overpowering energy that scours my body and sears it like meat over an extreme fire. I couldn't do anything but silently scream with an open mouth and wide eyes.

"One more thing. Please give me atleast a month before you die again, ok? OH and try and do some things worthy of the name Gluttony. I need more energy for whatever schemes are to come."

The next thing I see is a blur as the unending darkness of what looks like space go zooming past me and I am now racing towards the bloodied and beaten body of mine. It took what felt like forever as the scene of my family kept replaying over and over like an inflight movie that was stuck on loop. 

'Again, I let them down again.' Was all I could think as I willed myself to go faster and try and reach my family to make them stop crying. It hurt so much to see the ones I loved cry over my stupid mistakes. 

The Darkness around me was starting to form more of a tunnel as if leading me in a direct line back to where I belonged. Something inside me was very eager to get back to that battered body and before long the question of what was answered.

As I finally got closer I could start to hear sounds of their cries, and could feel a loud and violent thump on my chest as the scene of the young Dragonoid start to pound on my bodies chest in frustration as tears ran down her face. I could faintly hear words and I could read her lips screaming 'Daddy, Don't Leave Me.' Being repeated over and over again with every slam of her tiny fists. 

I felt the freezing cold that kept me from moving start to thaw and a warmth similar to before started to spread but this time it didn't stop at just my lips. It radiated down towards my legs and out towards my arms, the warmth encompassed all of my body as I got closer to my body.

I soon saw a blinding light off in the distance and soon it got bigger and bigger until it was covered my entire sight but I could not look away until suddenly everything went dark and in an instant I was opening my eyes wide and screaming in pain.

"AHHHHHHHH, MOTHERFUCKER THAT HURRRRTTTTSSSSS!?!?!?!" After taking a few deep and painful breaths I look around me to see nothing but stunned faces that were shocked to see such an expressive looking dead guy. I turned to find who I was most concerned about and in front of me with a wide smile and eyes that were still leaking tears was my daughter. This time she is actually my flesh and blood daughter as I could feel the draconic connection between us told me so.

I took her into my arms and hugged her tightly as I felt her scales on the tip of her shoulders and covering her entire back. I would need to find out just what exactly has changed with her but right now all I could think of was that my baby girl was alive and safe. I didn't care what had to be done in order to save her and the actions I took today proved how far I was willing to go.

I let her go and looked into her eyes as tears started to blur my vision. I took a deep and pained breath again and was rewarded by the sweet breath of life enter my lungs. I was solely focused on Hannah as we both shared a silent moment together as Father and Daughter before I spoke up after stifling a sob.

"Hello...... my daughter."