Fessing up his secrets (Citrinas POV)

Citrinas woke up with a start, oddly refreshed despite the darkness outside, the sun yet to rise over the horizon. She tasted a familiar herbal flavor in her mouth while she looked down to see she was wearing her pajamas, a familiar sensation since finding Verdi. Across the corridor she heard Fenri was already up, the hero likely changing out of her pajamas for her usual light leather armor and knives. Copying her, Citrinas went to her dresser and donned her usual outfit, finishing off with her usual coat. She made a quick check, confirming that it was well stocked, the numerous interior pockets filled with a variety of potions, antidotes, and toxins. Taking out her lighter, she popped the bottom out and grabbed a bottle of oil from her night stand, refilling it just as Fenri entered the room.

“Can you at least knock before you enter?” Citrinas asked as Fenri strolled into the room as though she owned the very castle.

“Why? Not like there’s a part of you I haven’t seen, licked, or fucked.” Fenri said before stretching her arms out and cracking her neck. “Also, we should have Verdi going all out on us more often. That was the best sleep I’ve had in my life. Aside from my cunt feeling loose as hell, I feel great.” She said, the hero oddly chipper and upbeat despite being internally rearranged by Verdi’s tentacles the prior night. Though Citrinas didn’t want to admit it, she was equally refreshed, as though her entire body was relaxed.

“We aren’t feeling good because of the sex, it’s because Verdi pumped us with enough healing potions to supply a small army.” Citrinas explained, well acquainted with Verdi’s little tricks to keep them focused. If he really wanted to, he could keep them conscious for the rest of their lives as mindless seedbeds. She rubbed her eyes wearily as she was reminded of just how troublesome her party members were. Verdi always found the most idiotic ways to waste his skills, and Fenri seemed to encourage his insane ideas.

“Pretty sure it was the sex.” Fenri said while cracking her knuckles and then sniffing the air like a dog. She slowly walked to the room’s windows, staring outside while squinting her eyes, the darkness restricting her line of sight. “Speaking of, what is he doing out there?” She said as Citrinas joined her by the window to see what she was staring at. Standing out by the lake they could see a small, shadowy figure they easily recognized as Verdi. He was standing with his hands in his pockets, staring off into the lake, a vast field of ice surrounding him. Frost obscured his figure as the first rays of light ran over the horizon, the sun rising at that moment..

“I think he’s practicing magic.” Citrinas said as Verdi fired off his first spell, proving her words true. Yet, as soon as he fired off his first spell, she could see that something was different, his spellcraft fundamentally different from what he had shown them until now.

She could see vast pillars of ice forming from formulaic magic, each one concise and perfectly calculated only for those very ice pillars to shift into a thousand blooming flowers with instinctive magic, each petal mere microns thin and refracting the rising sunlight in a vast array of colors. In the same second, she could see ice spikes thrust upwards like spears, only to branch out and shape themselves into trees only to have them wilt and disperse across the ground in a mock show of decay, the fluidness seen only in instinctive magic. A third spell came to life as he crafted a flawless statue of Fenri, the ice tinged light brown by mixing in some of the clay and soil from the land. He continuously casted spells in that manner, each one a distinct form with drastically different formulas or fine control to create It was a symphony of spells that combined formulaic magic and instinctive magic in ways no other person could ever hope to match, a skill afforded only to a hybrid like him. It was only when Fenri elbowed her in the ribs that Citrinas snapped out of her trance, her face flushed red as she realized how intently she had been staring at him.

“Fuck’s he doing? Doesn’t he know we’re already awake?” Fenri said, nowhere near as interested in his spellcasting as Citrinas realized how focused he was. Usually they’d wake up to him waiting outside their room or to him cooking breakfast. At that thought she looked around the area, thousands of shards of ice reflecting the rising sun as she realized he’d been practicing for hours, his incredible magic capacity far greater than she had expected. Something was different about him. At that thought, she began counting the delay between formulaic spells, hoping to identify his cast time as he began firing off a volley of ice spikes.

“What are you doing?” Fenri asked, Citrinas’ time keeping confusing her as she pointed to the endlessly growing number of ice spikes.

“I’m counting the time between spells. They’re more rapid than usual.” She explained as Fenri squinted her eyes, finally noticing how far his spellcraft had improved.

“So he’s gotten better at magic. Not surprised considering how often he’s had to use it.” Fenri noted, crossing her arms and shrugging as Citrinas shook her head.

“Usually Verdi can multicast spells since he has 2 monster cores, but he usually has a 10 second delay between spells if he’s firing one at a time with a cast time of 30 seconds. This is a constant stream of attacks with a 3 second delay. That kind of improvement is impossible overnight.” Citrinas said while trying to study Verdi for the secret behind his enhanced cast time. For some odd reason, when they were practicing magic together without any stress, Verdi’s cast time was at the level of a mid-tier mage of 30 seconds. When in combat, his spell cast times were cut to 8 to 10 seconds, placing him at Citrinas’ level in calculations. He’d always deny it, but Citrinas could tell he was using some kind of trick to speed up calculation. Suddenly, Fenri snarled like a wolf as she reached to her belt, pulling a knife out and opening the window.

“That little son of a bitch.” She said, somehow grasping the secret behind Verdi’s accelerated cast time as the blade entered his back and emerged from his chest, nailing his heart with ease. Instantly, his spells stopped as Verdi looked down, baffled at the rapidly growing red stain in his shirt and the blade in his chest. As his focus shifted away from the lake, he turned around as Fenri scooped Citrinas up in a princess carry.

“Fenri, what are yo-AAAAAAAH!” Citrinas screamed as she leapt from the window, landing flat on her feet before sprinting to a startled Verdi as he tried to pull the knife from his back. Even from a distance they could hear him cursing in nearly 8 different languages, his brain incapable of finding a language to properly vocalize his anger.

“FENRI! YOU FUCKING WHORE! I JUST FINISHED CLEANING AND PATCHING THIS SHIRT! I’LL HAVE YOUR ASS FOR THIS!” He shouted, the blood staining his shirt instantly freezing only for him to curse louder as his crippling weakness to ice magic reared its ugly head once more. Pulling the knife from his back, Verdi used magic to freeze the blood and removed it from his shirt. The second his clothes were cleaned as Fenri grasped him by the shirt and lifted him up with one arm, holding him like a mother cat would her kitten.

“You little prick! Have you been holding back this entire time!?” She asked as Verdi looked at her then glanced away awkwardly, going from furious to sheepish and submissive in a single breath.

“Okay, I admit, maybe I wasn’t going all out on you in the bedroom, but I didn’t think Citrinas would tell you about the things we’ve done together and I thought you'd be creeped out if I cracked out the really weird stuff day one.” He said as Fenri’s already intense fury reached new heights.

“Wait. Were you still holding back last night?” Fenri asked as Verdi laughed nervously.

“Look, the stuff I’ve done with Citrinas weirded even me out. It felt insanely good, but it was weird as hell, and I thought you’d be weirded out too.” He admitted as Fenri snatched him by the shirt and lifted him up with one hand. She leaned forward as though she were ready to kiss him, only to hold him eye level as Verdi gulped nervously.

“Listen here you little jackass. If you hold back again tonight, I’m gonna kill you and fuck the body.” She threatened while holding him closer. “Do I make myself clear?” She asked as Verdi nodded slowly, his face a mix of excitement tinged with fear as she set him back on the ground.

“Okay. No more holding back. You have my word, I’ll give you the Citrinas treatment tonight.” He vowed as Citrinas turned red from embarrassment and anger at naming his most debauched moves after her.

“She was asking about your spellcasting, not sex! Why are you casting so quickly!?” Citrinas clarified as Verdi looked at the massive ice constructs dismissively, treating the vast constructs with the same callousness one would treat a grain of sand in a desert.

“Oh that? I grew 6 more monster cores.” He answered casually, his words incomprehensible as Citrinas shook her head.

“You can’t just grow a monster core on command. That’s like saying you can grow another head on command.” She said as he scratched his neck nervously. Upon seeing that response Citrinas couldn't help but feel dread knowing that he was going to give her a massive headache.

“... Well, technically, I didn’t grow them, I regenerated them. I’ve always had 8 monster cores.” Verdi answered sheepishly, as though he were admitting some shameful secret. Citrinas looked at him, looking for signs that he was joking or messing with her.

“To start with!? How did you somehow lose 6 monster cores!? They’re organs!” She exclaimed, only to realize that retaining organs was an active challenge for Verdi. “Actually, how are you not dead? Losing a monster core should kill you!” Citrinas blurted out, every word out of Verdi’s mouth completely at odds with the rules of biology. She wanted to think he was just misunderstanding something or he was insane, but she also knew that conventional laws of science didn’t apply to him.

“Wouldn’t the other cores compensate if you broke one of them?” Verdi asked as Fenri spoke up, the hero far more experienced fighting larger monsters than anyone else in their group.

“Nah. Destroy one core, and you’ll kill a monster instantly even if he has multiple cores. Kinda weird since it’s instant too.” Fenri said with a shrug as Verdi shrugged.

“Anyway I guess I’m special. If you destroy my monster core, I’ll… Maybe I should just show you.” He said, holding his right hand up as Fenri and Citrinas watched him focus intently on it. They saw no change in him, yet he seemed content as he bit his thumb and formed an ice blade. Citrinas flinched as he stabbed into his forearm, cutting open to display a small translucent gem the size of a walnut within his arm. A soft blue light emanated from it the second it was exposed to light, the orb undoubtedly a monster core. “If I crystallize a monster core in say a limb, cut off the limb, then feed it-”

“What do you mean crystallize a monster core!? That’s not how organs work! Also, how do you even have that in your arm!? That should be either in your heart or head!” Citrinas exclaimed, his body even more incomprehensible than she thought. She’d seen him get dismembered on a regular basis, and that arm was quite literally grown the day before. There was no way he should have a core there. Plus, there was the fact that he had a core in his arm instead of his brain or heart like a normal monster. Even Fenri seemed perturbed as Verdi let the wound regenerate, hiding his core only to cut the arm off with a flick of the wrist.

“Oh, so you know how verdure monsters don’t have vitals?” He asked, holding his dismembered arm with his left hand as fresh skin grew over the stump he cut off the limb.

“Right.” Citrinas said while looking at the ground, unable to look at him fiddle with his missing limb without feeling sick to her stomach.

“Well, that’s cause the monster core’s dispersed through their entire bodies, but with some focus we can crystallize them.” He explained casually, finally solving the mystery of Verdure reproduction. Unlike most other monsters, Verdures did not impregnate other species or even humans to reproduce. New Verdure monsters just seemed to pop out of the ground like normal plants. There were theories on their reproduction, but Verdi had a conclusive answer to that mystery.

“Anyway, if you feed a chunk of flesh with a concentrated monster core in it.” Verdi continued while holding the dismembered limb up, waiting for Fenri as she looked excited. Pulling out a knife, she stabbed Verdi in the stomach while holding her other hand beneath the severed limb’s stump.

“Inventory.” She said as Verdi’s stomach was forcibly pumped with nutrients. At the same time, a pile of raw meat and bones formed right next to the stump arm that rose up to her waist. Instead of remaining dormant like most of Verdi’s dismembered limbs, the severed arm greedily devoured the pile of flesh like a wildfire. First a shoulder formed, then a torso. As the head grew in Citrinas and Fenri looked away, the sight far too grotesque for either of them to continue. In the blink of an eye, they heard Verdi clear his voice before speaking up.

“I can make another body.” He said, his voice doubled in volume as they looked back to find Verdi standing next to what appeared to be his twin. They were identical, down to the last detail save for one of them being stark naked and the other being clothed. “Eyes up here.” Both Verdis said in unison as Fenri pointed an accusatory finger to the original Verdi.

“Hey, when I had this idea you called me stupid!” She exclaimed angrily as both Verdis shrugged.

“I called YOU stupid. I NEVER said your plan was stupid.” His copy answered as Fenri walked around Verdi’s copy, studying him carefully as though she were appraising livestock.

“So what happens when one of you croaks?” She asked, poking his doppelganger with curiosity, only to have her hand swatted away by him.

“The other body goes comatose and regenerates the lost cores.” Verdi answered as Citrinas frowned, realizing why he was always willing to risk his life. She felt a wave of relief as she finally understood the reason behind his callousness. He quite literally was risking nothing when he was close to ****. If he died he’d just regenerate in another body. Wait.

“We’ve been traveling with your double this entire time, haven’t we?” Citrinas asked as Verdi shook his head.

“It's not a double, it's a replica. I feel and control everything my other body feels no matter where it is.” Verdi snapped back, his body far more alien than Citrinas had anticipated. She idly thought about the uses for instant message transmission between his bodies, only for Fenri to grab the naked Verdi by the shoulder and glare at him.

“So you're saying when we fought you were holding back?” She snarled, her question only met with silence from him. “I want a rematch!”

“Fuck that, you’re still the scariest thing I've fought in this messed up world! You make Evangeline and Bell seem pleasant in comparison!” Verdi’s copy snapped back as his clothed counterpart backed away from the irate hero. Rather than stab him like everyone expected, she flashed a toothy smile and kissed him lovingly on the cheek.

“You sly bastard. You always know the perfect thing to get me hot and bothered.” She said, her ego sated at his “compliment”. Before either Verdi could react, she reached forward and cupped his naked copy's balls while giving him a French kiss, her tongue probing his mouth as his cocks emerged from his body, blood filling them in an instant. An audible rip was heard next to them as the original Verdi cursed, trying and failing to take his pants off before his erections grew to full mast, the phantom sensation of Fenri’s hand hitting just as hard.

“Dammit! Warn a guy before you do that! Now I gotta fix my pants too!” Both of them exclaimed while frantically trying and failing to hide their erect cocks. Rather than mock him for his indecency, Fenri licked her lips, looking at both Verdis like they were a pair of rabbits for dinner as she eyed all 4 cocks. A thick bead of precum formed at all 4 of their cocks, the tentacles studding them writhing as if sensing Fenri’s lust.

“Oh, this is gonna be fun.” She said while reaching down to stroke both Verdi's cocks.

“How exactly are you excited for 4 cocks? Last night I fucked you with 2 dozen tentacles!” Verdi reminded as Fenri rolled her eyes, continuing to stroke him as she spoke.

“Licking your tongue and licking a tentacle are two different things for me. Sometimes I wanna be romantic.” She explained as Citrinas let out a groan.

“He just cut off a hand and grew a separate body that he can communicate with no matter the location. Instead of asking him how that’s even possible, your first instinct was sex?” Citrinas asked in disbelief, watching Fenri just accept the odd turn of events without hesitation. Verdi was quite literally spitting in the face of all rules of biology and a variety of other sciences. Rather than focus on the uses for his abilities or ask him how that was even possible, she was interested in using him for sex.

“Look Princess, in the past month I watched him turn himself into a dildo, fuse to my crotch to turn me into a dickgirl, turn into a 50 ton forest of tentacles to rearrange my insides, and give me an 8 foot long tongue studded with clits. There is quite literally nothing he can do to surprise me at this point.” Fenri said as the original Verdi coughed awkwardly into his hand.

“Sorry I never told you guys. Admittedly, I didn’t trust you guys at first, and by the time I actually trusted you to say it, it felt kind of weird to just walk up and say “hey, I’m actually a quarter of my true self and I kind of left the rest of my body in a remote tundra”.” He admitted, both bodies looking at the ground, visibly ashamed. Looking to Fenri to study her expression, Citrinas tried to understand why he looked so guilty for hiding this from them. To her relief Fenri was just as puzzled as her, Verdi's actions making complete sense. Having a spare body and hiding it from everyone would be logical. If anything, she couldn’t help but wonder why his past self would discard such a vital ability and leave himself ****.

“Eh, your personal life is your personal life. I’m just glad you were never in any real danger when we fought.” Fenri said as both Verdis glared at her. Both of them opened their mouths, only for the original Verdi to speak while his copy remained silent.

“Fuck you, that still hurt like shit! Also, when you knocked me out, both my bodies were comatose! I was wolf food for 2 weeks! I honestly came close to dying!” He snapped angrily as Citrinas raised an eyebrow. Wolf food?

“Where were you storing your other body before this?” She asked, the copy of Verdi continuing to bicker with Fenri while the original answered her question.

“Oh, I left it in my dungeon.” Citrinas blinked a few times in silence, just waiting for him to say he was joking or that he was lying. Sadly, she’d gotten better at reading Verdi’s expressions, and she could tell he was telling the truth. She felt her heart thumping in her chest as she opened her mouth, forcing herself to speak.

“... Y-you have a dungeon?” She asked, stumbling over her own words as he casually dropped the single most world shattering news in her life. A new verdure dungeon situated at the border of her country, and Verdi had control over the monsters that spawned in them. They could set up a lab in the dungeon and have infinite reagents without fear of being attacked. It was a discovery of the millenia! If she’d known he had a dungeon she might have never even bothered leaving the tundra.

“Yeah… So, uh, I think the elves know about my dungeon since they found me, but they were nice enough to stay silent.” Verdi explained as Citrinas groaned, baffled at how Verdi was cunning enough to hide his abilities yet naive enough to think elves wouldn’t be after his dungeon. They were probably looking for some ancient treaty or historical pretense to seize the territory.

“What else have you not told me?” Citrinas asked as Verdi took a step back while raising his hands up.

“Nothing! That’s it!” Verdi exclaimed as he tried to get Citrinas to calm down. Her body felt flushed as she thought of the time wasted not building a road to his dungeon. They could begin exporting reagents for processing. No, they could just build the lab in his dungeon since his minions would be obedient to him.

“Hah… When this is over, we’re going back to my hometown and having a road built to your dungeon. Also, you should leave one of your bodies in my Domain for safe keeping. I think your past self realized how dangerous it is to be comatose in a tundra if you spent 2 weeks being eaten alive by wolves.” She said as Verdi scratched his neck, the original visibly nervous while his doppelganger continued to banter with Fenri.

“I was actually going to stay in one piece for the next few days.” He said, likely trying to avoid offending her as Citrinas thought back to the early days of their journey.

“Don’t worry, you have my word, nobody outside of Fenri will be allowed in my Domain from now on. Elmeria, Tomoko, and everyone else is banned. Your backup body will be safe.” She said, understanding Verdi’s apprehension in keeping his fail safe in her hands. Dragging him into a carriage with Elmeria and Tomoko was one of the stupidest things she’d done, and she had no hesitation in admitting it. The only reason she even dragged him out of the Domain was because she’d forgotten he wasn’t human.

“It’s not that. I think I’m stronger when I’m completely whole.” Verdi said while pointing to the numerous ice spikes he had created, each one mastercrafted despite how rapidly he had casted them.

“Is it really that much?” She asked as Verdi nodded.

“Splitting up is a bit disorienting. My cast time for one monster core is about 30 seconds. When I'm in one piece, It’s 15 seconds. Plus, I think my ice magic is harder and faster.” He explained as Citrinas stared quietly at him, his origins becoming even stranger. Hybridization had given him nothing but weaknesses. His Blessing outright crippled him. His one ability left him weakened. Despite that, he’d been capable of facing down the most dangerous entities in the world like The Collecter and The Artist. He was undoubtedly a powerful hero in his first life, and brilliant enough to have changed the very nature of society during his era. At the very least he should have been famous for his alchemy knowledge.

So why didn’t anyone know him?

Why didn’t anyone know about his divine patron?

“Is it really worth risking your life?” She asked, returning to the problem at hand as Verdi shrugged.

“Past me destroyed the primary body and didn’t tell you guys about this ability. I think he wanted me at full power for whatever’s coming, and he didn’t want you to worry. I’m only telling you because I think he’s a prick, and hiding stuff from you two isn’t fair. You trust me with your lives, I should trust you too.” He said as Citrinas bit her lip, a pang of guilt from sabotaging his note hitting her. Suddenly, her blood ran cold as she thought back to the note.

Destroy all proof of your existence and go straight to the Apollyon Gates.

If he were split up, then entering the Appolyon Gates would do nothing to seal him away permanently. The only way to make sure he stayed locked up was if all the cores were in his body at the same time. If she hadn’t sabotaged the note, Verdi might have kept his regenerated monster cores hidden from them. Her previous guilt was washed away as she put on a brave face, hoping to keep him from making the worst mistake of his life and throwing his very soul away in that hell dimension.

“Maybe your past self wanted to move your monster cores into my Domain.” She said, trying to act casual as Verdi shrugged.

“I dunno. At least for the next 2 days, I’ll stay whole. Past me said we were in for the fight of our lives, and I think it’s better if I’m at full power. After that, I’ll think about it.” He said dismissively. “Besides, we’ve got Evangeline and Bell on our side. Worst case scenario, cut off my hand and feed. I’ll regrow from that. As long as my monster cores aren’t crystallized, I’ll regenerate.” He added, his logic impeccable as Citrinas bit her lip, unable to argue with him. Regardless, 2 days was a short time. As long as they got over the next fight, things would be fine.

“O-okay. If you insist.” She said, her voice tinged with worry before looking him in the eye.

“Something wrong?” He asked, avoiding her gaze for once as she bit her lip, not knowing what she wanted to say.

“Nothing.” She conceded before biting her lip. “Just, I want you to know we want you by our side.” She said as Verdi blinked several times, the alchemist taken aback as he found nothing to say to her. Even his second body went silent, causing Fenri to frown and snap her fingers to get his attention. It seemed he really did share sensations with all his bodies.

“Don’t worry, when this is all over, we can go find a place, work in a lab together, and go from there.” He said as his second body finished the conversation he was having with Fenri. Without further fanfare, his second body walked to the original, the pair ready to fuse back together The original Verdi held his hand up, focusing as he used status effect on his copy. Instantly, a large dildo formed midair, his copy transforming in the blink of an eye as Verdi caught it. As soon he grasped his double, it seemed to melt into his hand the texture akin to putty as it oozed into him. Eventually, there wasn't a trace of his double left, the body easily reabsorbed back into him as Verdi made a fist.

“Huh. Can't believe that worked.” Verdi said while flexing his hand and firing 9 ice spikes out.

“What do you mean you can't believe it worked?” Fenri asked.

“I don't do this often, Fenri. I honestly was kind of afraid I'd have to eat or burn the double to get the core back.” Verdi explained as he stretched his arms, the rising sun behind him as he beckoned to them. “Come on, let's go see if the radars picked up your sister.” He said as Citrinas nodded, opening up her Domain and leaving through the glowing portal.

“Just two days. Wait two days, and it’ll be fine.” Citrinas told herself. Logically, she knew she was worrying over nothing. Verdi was a tough mage, and in Olskroya he was quite formidable. The odds of him dying were low to zero considering he had to be killed on a cellular level to stay down. Furthermore, Apollyon Gate keys were rare and hidden away in secure treasure vaults to ensure only the most heinous criminals were sealed away. All she had to do was wait out the next two days and they’d be fine.