Fairy makes a spirited plea.

[Note from neo_kenka: I'm going to post secondary character sheets just once below the regular sheet at the bottom of this post, just to bookmark where some miscellaneous effects are at this time and also to keep track of just how out-of-control his regen has become. I won't be posting this again for quite some time given how obnoxious they would get if I kept putting them up.]

<You can't be serious.>

<You think I'd trust you with more power?>

<I... Well I didn't think this was possible before!> John paused at that. <I've already been by your side for a few of these fights and I never got squat, even while you just kept getting stronger. Plus you never let me eat human souls, spiteful cur that you are.>

<That's... weird, right? I mean, your sheets don't even have progress bars or any indication of how to-> John's spoken thoughts froze as he pulled up Fairy's sheet, only to now see a tiny, violet bar under her name, a bar that surely wasn't there until he unlocked the training pit. She had no experience for the next level, or so the number under the bar reported, but that violet frame was filled with a pale yellow bar striped with white. He pressed on it, and earned a pop-up for his curiosity.

Minion XP bar: records the current experience level of a minion (generally requires less than the summoner). Purple bar indicates training points converted into experience points by the summoner. Yellow/White bar indicates the monster's combat training that has yet to be converted. Only experience can level up a minion.

Fairy had indeed seen enough action to level... but without his help, her progress was as frozen as it had seemed from the start. <You want me to make you level 12 then? Why would a foul-mouthed fairy be more useful than a loyal, badass plant-dog?>

<Surely you jest? Humans cannot possibly be this- fine. You want me to compete with shrubbery, I will! Let me head over there; I demand to make my case in person!> John released her from the psychosphere duty, and a bolt of fairy dust followed her as she dove through the air. A tired, noiseless sigh came from the cleric spirit as it added a trail of pixie jizz to its list of clean-up chores. She appeared before John, fixing her dress as she came near. "First of all, you ungrateful smear of smegma," she started, earning everyone's attention, "I'm a fairy AND a demon! I've forgotten more than you'll ever know, and I know plenty more than I'll ever forget! I've got magic- and that magic will only get better, I bet, the way yours does when these bullshit numbers go up!"

"You haven't addressed the whole issue about you corrupting my mother and one of your fellow minions. Why would I trust you with that?"

"You- I'm already your ****! If you don't want me to be me, then you just have to order it, you inane exhalation of cunt crust!" She seemed on the verge of tears despite the harshness of her words, and John was left confused by her conflicting emotions. "We... my kind... just want power. You've already stolen any chance at that... any chance at all at fulfilling my true calling by obviously thinking I shouldn't just go about my business and eat my natural prey."

"My heart goes out for you, truly."

"Master, please! You want me to be a glorified operator? I can't say no... but this might be my-" She sobbed, twisting John as he tried to add up her sorrow to the naked greed and lust for power. "-This might be my only chance at getting strong enough to kill you... and I can't lie to you, because you told me not to, and I can't even hide how much I hate you and want you dead... and I can't act on that, so just let me have this! PLEASE!" Fairy fell to the floor, crying sparkling tears as she landed, her wings falling around her like a cape without a breeze. It was an ugly honesty from a demon.

"Was... that supposed to sell me on giving you power?"

"It's all I can do..."

Captain Woofroot neared the fallen, depressed Fairy... and gave her a happy, full-body lick, the first today that did anything but excite her. "Arf! Arf!"

"You want it bad enough," John sighed, eyeing her as she took to the air, cursing,"but I need someone who's going to fight for me... and for those I care about."

"I will!"

"But you want to kill me and-"

"Desperately-! I mean, look!" She hovered ever higher, pointing accusingly at the others as she spoke. "The glory whore will fight for you because she has ****!"

Alysha raised an eyebrow, but didn't waste words.

"The fat one just wants your cock!"

"Excuse me?" Tita huffed. "I'll have you know-"

"The new bottom boy next door does, too, and yeah, that's my fault? But I don't think he ever really wanted to live after you cuckolded him so hard he became your ****!"

Thumalk sneezed in the armoury, and rubbed his nose with a confused expression.

"The stupid plant spirit doesn't know any better so it just loves you by default!"

"Arf!"

John followed along, sighing as she continued to yell. "But none of them feel as strongly as I do. I hate you! No one will ever serve or adore or love you as much as I despise you, and if I stay weak... if I keep being in this pathetic stasis of self... if I just keep watching your back shrink as you march towards an Abyssal horizon..." Her voice cracked and her heart ached as she declared her truest fear: "I'll never get to kill you! So please, acknowledge my drive, see that no one will give it their all like I do, no one will want anything as much as I want to impress you, to keep others from killing you, to take your power and eventually kill you with it when at last, somehow, someday, I'm free enough to do so!" Her body began to glow with a soft, violet light. "That's why you should give this to me! That's why you should keep giving me power! I'll always earn it, I'll always deserve it, and I'll keep fighting with more determination than anyone else because I HATE YOU SO FUCKING-"

Fairy has leveled up.

Fairy has leveled up.

Fairy has leveled up.

Fairy has leveled up.

Fairy has leveled up.

Fairy has leveled up.

Fairy has leveled up.

Fairy has leveled up.

Fairy's body began to glow bright enough to finally catch her attention, and she gave one last, wide-eyed look at John before a brilliant purple orb of fire, nearly five feet across and mere inches from John's face, consumed her whole.

Fairy is evolving!

John stared silently with a smile. He didn't have the mind to make Pokémon jokes or even to wonder what other forms his summons might take in the future. He just wanted a powerful ally, no, a powerful soldier... and the flames cleared to reveal at least one more of them for his retinue.

Fairy (fae daemonica) has become Fairy (greater fae daemonica)!

The Barbie-sized armor/dress and boots fluttered in the air and continued their lazy fall... until it landed quietly in an almost human-sized hand. "What... is... this...?"

Fairy slowly lowered herself to the ground, one dainty foot after the other, each no larger than a human child's. John's eyes traveled up her new length, only three feet in height but shaped like an adult woman, a shape almost identical to her old form before save that her pubic mound, once hairless, now sported a tall, neatly-splitting row of fur that traveled up, split just under her navel, and wrapped around the outsides of her barely-B-cup breasts to then fade into the back of the pixie-cut hair atop her head. Her hair, a bright crimson, now sported two tiny black horns near the top of her forehead, each bending upwards and back in cute little curves. Her eyes were more human now, with a crystal blue iris in the left and a red so dark as to almost be black in the right. Slowly her eyes drifted up from the dress to meet her Master's gaze, and black lips parted to show off grinning, perfect human teeth. She stretched to appreciate her new form with a soft, familiar groan, and her new, massive wings flapped behind her in translucent red and black swirls. She took flight, the wings now so rapid as to form the illusion of eyes to any who looked upon her. "I could rut you to **** with how happy you've made me, cockspittle."

"I don't need to rut, Fairy," John calmly replied, admiring her new, naked form, "I need people who can fight. I need power."

Fairy and Tita both heard it... and to hear it in person, with their minds intact, was distinct enough to rock them to their cores as they realized what they heard there in those three, determined words. Tita stroked the water, staring at nothing with a frown. Fairy's heart skipped a beat, and for a terrifying, awful moment... she felt something like love. "Then I'll give it to you... but I still hate you, you know!"

"I don't care. We have work to do." John opened her status screen while she looked away, trying to steady herself mid-flight.

Fairy
Lvl 12 Greater Fae Daemonica
hp 250/250
mp 556/556
str 8, agi 20, end 10, int 27, wis 16, cha 25, lib 16
Skills: blink lvl2, charm person lvl3, disguise self, faerie fire lvl4, hellfireball lvl3, instant dungeon lvl10, invisibility lvl6, mana blast lvl5, mana bolt lvl12, meditation lvl7, mirror image lvl3, move lvl5, sandman's slumber lvl3, theft lvl6
Qualities: alluring, flight, fey, noble, tainted

John reviewed her new qualities and spells, forming rough tactics in his mind for the near-unknowable battle to come. As much as he knew, he still wished he knew more... and knew how Gorbachev might threaten them, if the man wasn't grossly overestimating her. Satisfied with her new speed and size, Fairy landed, and toyed with her furry sex and her breasts as she waited for John's attention. She was to be upstaged as Alysha lifted herself out of the pool and stalked, dripping and naked, towards her husband. "Are you not satisfied yet, John Newman? You promised to restore me... to undo this..." Her hand rubbed the swell in her abdomen. "... abomination."

"I don't have time-"

"You have time, John Newman. You need power? You know I have it. But I cannot do combat with this body, not in this state." John considered her words. She was right... and at 133 children growing inside of her, the final tally per her status screen, there were probably 30 or less ovums in total to acquire. His summon spell still allowed two summons at a time, he had enough regen to not even feel having to cast the acquisitions...

"It should take three minutes or so," he guessed, "so we must leave right after."

She nodded, her mask nearly breaking from relief. "Thank you, John Newman."

"Let's make this quick, then." John unloaded his inventory, making a note to pick through the various implements for anything he could make use of before, and prepared to have his inventory filled with embryos in stasis. If we get out of this alive... I mean, Tricia wouldn't be mad if I impregnated an Abyss monster, right? Wait, what if it's illegal or-

Acquisition failed. Removal of targeted object would inflict harm on the subject holding it.

John blinked at the message. He focused again on her belly, aiming a random acquisition at her naked form, hoping it would grab whatever could be grabbed given that she was completely naked-

Target has nothing valid to acquire.

John was too sharp now to not immediately begin exploring the implications, the forecasts, the consequences of his misgivings about what he could or could not do about his pregnant lovers or summons. He reached every possibility still left open, and such drained the color from his face, though Alysha couldn't know what it meant. He his lips parted, trembling, as he whispered. "Oh..."

"'Oh'? What do you mean, 'oh'?"

What the Hell...? Why isn't it OK now? It's only been effectively a day tops, even less probably! John racked his brain for answers: he took one out of Vanessa over six hours after knocking her up, and one (well, six) out of Alysha shortly after... and John realized one key missing piece of information. "How... how does a normal elven pregnancy go?"

Alysha's bubbling mixture of rage and misery kept her silent, so Tita answered first. "We bear the seed until a child is planted, my Master! Once planted, they quickly enter their first true phase, multiplying in size until they're just larger than a thumb, and then attach to our inner-selves so thoroughly in flesh as to become one... or many as one, in our case," she giggled, rubbing her prestigious growth. "From there, they do not grow physically for several years, usually six, and instead slowly absorb our values, virtues, and magical or physical gifts based on the sex of the child. For roughly a year thereafter they finally resume growth until they are birthed, sometimes a few in turn... why, it may take decades for me to realize all of your heirs, though this is no complaint, my love, I promise!"

Alysha, after calming herself, added her voice to the explanation. "The same goes for my kind, John Newman, with the exception that our clutches never reach such horrifying numbers as you've shown possible by hers."

A cold wind that didn't exist sent chills down John's spine. Wide-eyed and cold, he rubbed the bridge of his nose as he contemplated how stuck he was. "So once it's... attached, probably by an umbilical cable if you elves have those... it would technically count as some kind of damage... so... holy shit." John looked to Tita, and attempted, and failed, to acquire any of her thousands of young as well.

No no, noooo no no no no... I'm... I'm not actually ready to be a dad, this was... just supposed to be useful, for mana discounts, this is... John racked his brain, contemplating any other chance his seed escaped somewhere it wasn't meant to, any other creature or woman he might have left impregnated.

"Ahem," came a small, impatient voice. John turned to Fairy. She was still naked, and now he understood why as she held up, pinched between her fingers, the diminutive dress she once wore. "I'm going to need armor if we're going to battle. Armor that fits."

John welcomed the distraction. "You can stretch it or something with fairy magic, right?"

"Into a nipple pasty, sure. Into one nipple pasty, maybe with some scotch tape, you dimwit. Unlock the crafting room already and make me some proper armor!"

"You think I-"

Alysha interrupted John's retort, her voice hinting at her impatience. "You cannot leave me like this, John Newman. Of all the cruelties you've laid upon my life... no, to bear human spawn would be too great... please, John Newman."

Tita sighed happily as she rested in the water, seemingly talking to herself. "Indeed... I hope the Master takes hers away. I am already bearing his true heirs, and we certainly don't need the spawn of some wretched dark sow."

"I will doom you and your spawn, witch-!"

"I've got work to do, we'll figure this out later!" The lot of them turned to see John quickly walking away and towards the Forge, Fairy skipping after him. She wavered and giggled as she appreciated her new size, and watched as John finished opening the eastern wing with a wave of his hand. Alysha, barely able to contain her shaking rage, stormed back into the temple entrance, anything to not look upon any of her worst enemies anymore.

THE FORGE unlocked!

PRAETORIUM MILES unlocked!

The bricks vanished in the same way as the training pit for the Forge, revealing a rustic, medieval workshop for all manner of construction. The eastern hall, meanwhile, was a different beast: the wall of massive bricks sunk into the earth as if by some unseen mechanism, raining dust and making the lone cleric spirit quietly cry at its ever-growing list of chores. Beyond, more doorways sealed by bricks waited... but John was too close to leveling up again, and too low on time to burn. He would review them later, he decided; for now, he had to work with the promised chest within the Forge, found adjacent to the door and looking like nothing more than a simple iron box.

Magical item: crafting hopper. Has inventory space equal to 100 per temple level. Materials in the hopper are considered for all crafting recipes considered within the Forge, but cannot otherwise be moved or removed except by the summoner himself.

Craft is now lvl9!
Craft: Two new tiers of magical items are now available for crafting. Craft can now Infuse.
Infuse: infuse a material or object directly with essence, the effect dictated by the amount of essence used. Requires cash and experience.

John was relieved to finally off-load most of what came to rest in his static inventory. Two windows appeared, one for the hopper and one for his own inventory, and reviewed the sum total of all he held. Hundreds of crafting options appeared before him... and so many of them not even overlapping thanks to his bounty of materials and Artificer gear. He set himself to work, scrolling through the catalog offered by craft to find what he thought could best the three potent enemies he would soon face.