Hornet Aftermath

You set down Camilla against a tree, with her seemingly ****. You plop down next to her, using polymorph so you can rest against the tree without any discomfort. You take out a loaf of bread and a waterskin, taking your time to consume it as you let your mana regenerate. The wounds are much less than you expected, but much more than you had experienced the previous day. Did I develop some kind of tolerance or something? I should be completely out of it right now...

You feel a shifting next to you, and your brunette companion's head lands on your shoulder. It feels nice, but considering the situation, it's not quite the 'girlfriend sleeping on her boyfriend' thing you'd hoped would eventually happen in your old life. Turning your attention back to Camilla's wounds, you note that her chest seems completely fine, just having some scar tissue, and the same is true for the nasty slash the queen had given her. Her armor though, is completely ruined. You aren't a smith, but you doubt there's much of the chestplate that's salvageable after all this damage.

Looking at your 'rewards' for killing the hornet queen, you're not too impressed. The quality of the sword and shield are low, being made of natural materials like wood and leaves and no iron or steel. However, the lightness of them both seems to draw you in, as it's odd that they seem so durable while maintaining their lightweight feel. Is it magic? What am I thinking, of course it's magic. You think of keeping the sword to yourself and giving the shield to Camilla to use, so she doesn't have to keep breaking the mundane wooden ones. It'd be a bit unfair to make her keep using the dingy swords, but in RPGs, that's normally how splitting loot would go: just give the stuff to the players that can use it as evenly as you can and sell the rest. Would there be a place to sell these in Riverbend? I'd have to check.

Having rested up for a bit, you're worried that Camilla hasn't woken up, yet. To be fair, she nearly died...or maybe did die. You check her pulse, giving a sigh of relief when you feel it. She's still breathing too, so that's good. You relax against the tree, feeling far more exhausted than you'd been the past couple days. Maybe it'd be good to have...a little...nap...

You awaken in the starry nightscape, a bit surprised, since it's nowhere near nighttime.

"Awawawa! What did you do?!" You look around, recognizing the annoyed voice of Ariel, before remembering that you couldn't see the other two the last time you talked to them.

"I...don't think I know what you're talking about..."

"Why did you attempt to give an Angelic Protection blessing to someone? Last I checked, you're not an actual angel!"

"She was dying! I needed to do something! Have you ever had your heart utterly destroyed?"

"No, but that's not the point! You could have killed her with what you did if she hadn't already been dead!"

Your heart stops. You gulp. "Sh-she was already dead?" The world seems to stop, not that there's much around you anyway.

"Lucky you, you acted quickly enough to avoid the need for resurrection to bring her back. Even luckier, you killed a hornet queen so the gods can consider your little overstep as a reward for doing a good job. But don't do this again, okay? Blessings aren't supposed to be handed out willy-nilly, and I won't be able to protect you if you keep bringing people back from the dead!"

You look down, viewing the world of Ruyanei beneath you. "Thanks, Ariel..." You take a deep breath, trying to will yourself to wake up.

"Hey, wait! I'm not do-"

You're still tired when you wake up, as if you'd barely gotten any sleep at all. You're still in a lot of pain too, particularly in your chest. Gazing skyward, you notice that not much time has passed; it's just before noon. You gaze to the side, your sleeping body greeting you...

. . .

You blink. What? You glance down at 'yourself', finding that 'you' are wearing Camilla's destroyed armor. You turn back to your body, activating God's Eye to maybe figure out what's going on. You haven't used it on yourself before, but your stats are pretty similar to what they had been when you checked the night before, other than a huge amount of experience that's been gained due to your actions at the hornet hive.

One thing that confuses you though, is a status effect, which you should be immune to normally: Nephilim's Oversight. It's weird, since you know the nephilim should be you. Am I 'overseeing' Camilla right now?

You feel 'your' head shake, completely outside your control. "What even is that? I've never been able to do that before..." 'Your' mouth moves on its own. "And...how did he heal me so much? I thought for sure I'd be dead with a blow like that..." 'Your' hand goes to rest on 'your' heart as 'you' let out a sigh.

This has to be Camilla, right? But can she hear my thoughts?

Camilla glances to your sleeping body, before staring back down at her own and putting a hand on her stomach. "I guess he deserves to be called your dad now, huh little guy?" You'd almost forgotten that she was pregnant with your kids. The moment is a bit ruined when Camilla twists over and barfs onto the grass beside her. "Of course that's your response..." She wipes her mouth. "You're already a little shit..." With a glance, Camilla recognizes the food bag on the other side of you, and moves to reach it, accidentally putting a hefty amount of pressure on your crotch and waking you up.

It's disorienting, opening your eyes from sleep when 'you' were just awake, but it's also amusing to see Camilla's 'deer in headlights' look, especially when her hand is still between your legs. "If you wanted to wake me up with that, you have my blessing." You chuckle, looking her in the eye with a smirk.

She looks flustered before getting angry with you and putting as much weight as she can on your member as she takes the food bag. "...asshole..." She begins wolfing down some fruit that you don't recognize, drinking plenty of water, too.

"Ow, for one." You readjust yourself to let your penis breath a bit. "For two, you feeling okay?" You use God's Eye on her, quickly skimming to the parts you realize are different. Nephilic Protection? Sounds like Angelic Protection, so using my feather must have helped at least a bit.

"Yer doin tha thi ahain, aren you?" She swallows, clearing up her voice. "You're looking at me like you're reading something, and you did the same thing yesterday."

"Uh...you're very perceptive... One of the blessings I got when I came here is called God's Eye. I can use it to view the stats of anyone, including their race, classes, experience, and how they feel about me at the time." You notice her emotions toward you change, as 'Upset' is now alongside 'Infatuated' and 'Thankful'. "Aaand, now you're upset with me..."

"Oh, you're very perceptive..." She dryly replies before taking a drink. "Anyway, what's so different about me today that you need to check again?"

"Uh..." How do I even put this... "I may have done something arguably dumb when you were...knocked out, let's say. I was trying to figure out if it did anything." Taking a look again at Nephilic Protection, you read it aloud for her benefit. "Your heart has been fused with a nephilim's feather. You gain 100% light and dark power. Any healing spells cast by you heal the target, regardless of their race, and any healing done to you by a nephilim doubles in strength. Also, gain access to the... Nephilim's Acolyte class?" You glance through her sheet again, only now noticing that she has a level in the new class. "Well, let's see what this is..." Your jaw drops as you begin to read. That explains the past five minutes...

"What is it?" She pauses her eating as she glares at you.

"Well, you're getting a bit of magic...but there's a bit of a drawback..." You gulp. "Apparently, I'm allowed to possess you once a day, and you gain access to some of my abilities when I do so...like earlier when 'you' used God's Eye on me." You drop the visual of her sheet.

An awkward silence fills the air before Camilla shakes her head, chuckling. "You're full of surprises, aren't you Dusk?"

"Apparently..." You awkwardly chuckle with her.

She sighs. "Alright. There's nothing we can do about it right now..." She gathers up the scraps of food as she looks at the queen's shield and sword. "You get the sword. I'll take the shield." She doffs her wooden shield that has a giant hole in it, picking up the queen's shield in front of you. "They're not as good as actual metal, but we don't have proper metal for our weapons." She flexes her fingers with the leafy wooden shield on her arm and rolls and twists it a few times.

"So, now that we're not in immediate danger, you got a particular reason for insisting to go in there when we were clearly unprepared?" You take the queen's stinger-like longsword, trying to find a way to attach it to your belt.

"They were a threat to Riverbend and if we had waited, we would have lost one of our better fighters. Besides, this gives us more privacy so you can let loose." Camilla gives you a fake smile as she stands.

"We both know that's a lie, Cap." You push yourself off the ground. "But I'm not gonna pry like you did yesterday." You smirk teasingly as you revert to your true form, your wings and horns springing forth. "You ready?"

Hey guys! The first unofficially official poll is now completely closed! Wonderful timing, amiright? Anyway, now that the first 'arc' is done, based on the results of the poll, for some reason or other in-universe, the Hornet Empress will make an appearance relatively soon! I've got another mini-arc before that already lined up, but for now, you know what to look forward to. The next poll won't be for a while, but you can expect one within the next couple weeks or so.

Another thing is that now that the first arc is done, I may update more slowly. I've still got a few chapters written in advance, so for now, it will still be a daily upload. I'll let you guys know if I start to lag behind, but I'll always try to keep at least a little ahead of the upload schedule!