Snap back to reality.

You open your eyes to the hard floor against your back, though the warmth of the nearby fire feels nice. Beside you is Vivi, who sits in a meditative pose. Her eyes look down upon you as she notices you awaken. Perhaps concerned by your confusion, she places a comforting hand on your shoulder. It admittedly does feel good to see her smile as you ease back into the waking world. With a groan, you pull yourself up to sit beside her.

"That was one of the strangest sensations I've felt, but it's probably concerning that I don't know if it's the strangest," you say.

"Yeah. I knew you could handle it."

"So did you see what I was seeing, or how did that work?"

"No. I hardly know what you were shown, besides a basic idea. I was focusing on memories specifically to guide you, though I was sitting here while you rested. I admit, at first, I sorta accidentally let you hit the floor harder than I meant. I should have had a spell ready for that."

"Explains why my head is kinda sore."

"I'm sorry I've kept all this from you."

"I don't except everyone here to give me their life story, Vivi. And I'm sorry you went through so much. I saw your father. Your mother. I know how long you've lived. Oh yeah, and I saw a random prank you did. The disappearing towel trick is pretty funny. They just didn't appreciate it."

"I know!" she shouts and quickly stands to her feet in triumph. "That's what I said, but the memory probably thought it was important to show due to some kind of internalized envy or the importance of Breiah's character being the most like his daughter. I say it showed you because it was funny."

You stand up to join her. "So we're in agreement that Elok Daven and Breiah are effectively continuing his work."

"Probably." She scratches her chin. "I think Breiah is basically using Elok as her own experiment, just like my father did with my mother, or did with us. She wanted to make him the ultimate Demon King. So if he was a human and had no ability to use mana or anything, she probably helped him move bodies. Once in the form of an elf from Abso, he became an artificer, and the two of them were able to work together, which doubled their productivity."

"She was the one who kidnapped me to begin with. It was her who I remember seeing the most."

"And now, thanks to her findings along with his own skills, Elok has a new ultimate lifeform type body, but they didn't even need to resort to augmenting someone's birth. It was a brand new body all together, and his mind or soul or whatever was implanted into it."

"It sounds like this new body is basically a combination of the elf one he was using for all those years, and his original human one."

"Reminds me of my father. He was half-Earthling, half-not."

"That makes sense... Remember why William and I were chosen to begin with? It had to be people from Earth. Their bodies were like blank slates or something. Elok said something along those lines. So maybe putting them together is the perfect combination?"

"Perhaps."

You look her over. "So, Vivi. That makes you kinda like, quarter Earthling, huh? That's kinda cool if you think about it. I mean, five hundred years ago... It's wild to think about that. So your grandfather would have been from like, the late Renaissance or something. The funny thing is that period of time is more similar to this world than what Earth eventually became. A lot of fantasy stories for some reason take place in the Middle Ages or going into the Renaissance when it comes to technology and stuff."

"I'd love to see Earth sometime, Kyle. It sounds remarkable. But I have a feeling Breiah may feel the same. While my father wasn't all that interested in going there directly, it sounds like Elok's end goal is to travel back there and take it for himself."

"A blend of his power with modern technology is definitely not what we want. I doubt Earth would have any reasonable reaction to some kind of all powerful sorcerer showing up. Most wouldn't believe it, nobody would have the means to stop it, and people would probably draw a lot of porn of him online."

"You have to understand I don't know half of what you're talking about when you go off about your home, but I do kinda appreciate you being so open with me."

"I feel like that's a lot less intimate than drinking a potion out of my mouth."

She crosses her arms and blushes. Though she looks away, she smiles wide as she does. "That's definitely not the most intimate thing you could have brought up to compare."

You snicker and plant your hands on your hips. "Should we head back?"

She shakes her head. "Not yet. I'd like to stay here for a little while if that's okay." She then slips off her tall, cat-themed boots to reveal long black socks. She sits down beside the fire and pulls in her legs, either not caring that doing so with such a short skirt very easily reveals the orange beneath, or not realizing. Either way, she pulls each sock down off her feet to then wiggle her toes as they come free. Lastly, she removes her hat. After tossing it aside, she brings her fingertips back through her hair with a long, relaxed sigh, as if a layer of stress has risen off her body.

With your hands in your pockets, you stand nearby and stare into the flickering fire. A rack still sits inside, though nearby on a table is the cauldron used earlier. There's something peaceful about the sound of an opened flame. The glow is warm and inviting, and you can feel the heat against the skin of your hands and face.

"I can't believe that because of my memories, you saw Breiah naked. You'll have to tell her the next time you see her," Vivi says with a grin.

"Lucky me. Though not as lucky as the servant guy."

She giggles. "He definitely acted differently around her for awhile."