Rebirth of the Nephilim

“Are you sure about this?”

Kerr shrugged dismissively as she stuffed a second pair of boots into her backpack.

“No, not really. But I’m going to do it anyway. Weren’t you the one who told me I should make my peace?”

Jay let out a huff of breath through her nose, shaking her head.

“Yes, I did. But are you really ready to do that right now?”

Kerr turned to look up at Jay, an almost helpless expression marring her beautiful features.

“Look, I’ve got the itch to do it now, so I need to do it now before I talk myself out of it. We’re about to go into a serious situation. Very serious. I know we aren’t talking about it much, but some of us could die attacking Kastoria. You might die. I might die. This isn’t going to be some equipment recovery mission in a backwater town, and you know how bad even that shit can go. If I’m going to make some kind of peace, now’s the time.”

Grabbing her pack, Kerr secured the buckle before tossing it over one shoulder. Taking a few steps closer to Jay, she reached out and patted her affectionately on her thigh.

“Thanks for asking, though. Besides, we’ll probably get up there and find out the schweinehund died last week. Then we can just pour a drink on his headstone and get the fuck out of there.”

Jay didn’t have much of a response to Kerr’s words, so she simply gave her lover a kiss on the cheek and followed after her as they headed out of the shared bedroom to the front garden of the temple where everyone was already waiting for them. All other preparations had been made, so other than their goodbyes, they were ready to depart.

Kerr’s request the previous night had been for Jadis to fly her up to her clan’s ancestral homeland in the Verdant Sea so that she could meet with her dying father for what would likely be the last time. Considering Kerr hated her father and had cut all ties to her clan because of the falling out that had occurred between them, Jadis knew that the request wasn’t as off the cuff or spontaneous as the archer was making it out to be. Ever since their discussion during their flight from Eldingholt to Thracina, when Kerr had been forced to sit with and speak to her brothers and sister on the Leviathan, the veteran mercenary had been giving her father’s request for her to return to the clan and speak with him long and careful thought. Jadis had made it clear that she wasn’t going to force Kerr to see her father if she didn’t want to, and that she would support her in whatever decision she made, but she had demanded that Kerr at least face the situation directly and not ignore it. So, when the therion had asked Syd during an impromptu blowjob if she wouldn’t mind taking her on a trip north, Jadis took the request seriously, regardless of immediate circumstances.

As Jadis had proven so well via her daily back and forth trips to the Hall of Memories, her ridiculously high attributes and Succubus wings allowed her to rapidly cover massive distances that even the new airships couldn’t rival. A trip that would ordinarily take weeks or longer on land could be accomplished in a single day. So, the plan was to fly all the way to the other side of the continent, stay for a brief visit of no more than half a day, and then fly back.

Of course, the main issue in the plan was that Jadis didn’t have enough magic power in her reserves to fly that far. Each cast of her Succubus wings only lasted fifteen minutes and cost two hundred magic points. That meant she would be out of magic after only an hour and forty-five minutes. Nowhere near enough time for her to cover the distance they needed to travel to get to the Verdant Sea in a single day. That meant that certain preparations would need to be made, and that Kerr wasn’t going to be Jadis’ only passenger for the flight.

“I love you… Very much…” Alex told Hope as she gently kissed the baby’s tiny fist which was wrapped around one of the Demon’s fingers. “You must… Be good… For Eir…”

“I will guard her with my every breath,” Eir told Alex as she held the infant against her chest. “I promise, nothing will happen to her while you are gone.”

“I know… You will… Keep her… Safe…” Alex agreed without hesitation. Leaning close, she kissed the elf on the cheek. “I know… You love Hope… As you love… Jadis…”

As Eir smiled and gave the Demon a return kiss, Dys prepared the custom-made travel harness Sabina had made for Alex. Thanks to the frequent trips and some complaints from both the Dryads and Jadis’ lovers, the clever smith had quickly fashioned a series of leather harnesses that would secure a rider to Jadis’ backs or fronts, depending on preference or how many were being carried by her, without interfering with her range of movement. The main feature of the harnesses were the clips that would help hold the large, thick blankets that protected her passengers from blowing off in the wind. Alex didn’t have issues with extreme temperatures, but Jadis was still going to make sure that her lover was as comfortable as possible for the trip.

Thanks to her massive magical regeneration and ability to transfer that magic to others, Alex was once again pulling duty as a mobile battery. With a few enhanced potions that Amarantha had kindly supplied them, Alex would be able to keep Jadis going for the full trip to Kerr’s homeland, with no need to stop or rest beyond lunch and bathroom breaks. Since they would be going so far, Jadis and Alex had both agreed that it was best for Hope to remain behind in Eir’s care. While this would be the first time that both of them had left their baby at the same time, neither were concerned for Hope’s safety. Eir would sooner die than let anything happen to the little Succubus, and there was no danger of that happening, either. Not with Aila, Thea, Bridget, Sabina, Sorcha, Severina, Meli, and Maeve were staying behind as well. Not to mention Wilhelm and his companions, who wouldn’t let anything happen to Jadis’ family on their watch. No, Hope was just about the most securely protected infant in the world, even without Alex and Jadis to watch over her.

Of course, that knowledge didn’t stop anxious first-time parent feelings from getting in the way.

“She’s going to try to suck the magic out of everyone she touches,” Syd reminded Aila and Sorcha, who were standing with her. “Without Alex around, that means—”

“Yes, we know,” Aila cut Syd off before she could repeat herself again. “We know Hope just as well as you. Trust me, we are prepared to handle her.”

“I do trust you,” Syd agreed immediately. “But you know how much magic she pulled out of Jocelyn yesterday before we could stop her. She can’t even talk yet, and she’s already so sneaky sometimes.”

“No worries,” Sorcha spoke up from around Syd’s knees. “If the greedy guts gets to someone she isn’t supposed to, I’ve got these to help out. No one’s going to be hurting for magic while Alex is gone.”

The two wands that the goblin witch waggled in her hands were the latest successes from her many crafting experiments. The first was the result of the elk horn that Jadis had brought her just that previous night to experiment with. Sorcha was calling it her Magic Recovery Wand, as it boosted the amount of magic a person naturally recovered over the course of an hour by a flat twenty-five points an hour for four hours. Since the cost to cast the spell with the wand was only five magic points, it was essentially a trade of five points for one hundred. The only downside was that the effect didn’t stack. It took four hours to get that one hundred points of magic, then the spell had to be cast again. Not great for in the heat of battle, but a good wand for recovery during downtime. Or for making sure Hope stayed fed.

The second wand was one made from an ingredient that Soteria had offered the goblin when they had met a couple of days previously. After Sorcha had mentioned what her class was, the ancient Dryad had casually reached up and broken off one of her own branches that made up her strange hair and offered it to the shocked witch. She had then told Sorcha to try using the branch for a wand, and to ask for more later if she needed them, after Soteria had some time to regrow.

Sorcha had, quite naturally, had some misgivings about using what was essentially one of the older woman’s body parts for a wand, but Meli had assured her that it wasn’t much different from using a flesh-based person’s hair as an ingredient. In the end, Jadis was glad that Sorcha had gotten past the weird factor and made the wand, as the final product was a great boost to the goblin’s support capabilities. The rest of the second wand was constructed from the same ingredients as the first, what were a whole lot of herbs and roots used in the making of magic recovery potions that Amarantha recommended, and the result had been a similar yet more immediately useful version of the same wand.

The Instant Magic Replenishment Wand, as Sorcha had dubbed it, could instantly give a person one hundred points of magic for the low cost of only ten magic points per cast. The value of getting that much magic back during a battle or similarly tough situation could not be understated. Of course, such a powerful effect had to come with a restriction, and it was substantial. Each target could only receive the one-hundred-point boost once every twenty-four hours. Not great, but Sorcha hoped that she would be able to improve the effectiveness of the wand with time and levels, now that she knew how to make the base version.

“Okay, I’m here and I’ve got my boots. Let’s get on the road already!” Kerr shouted as she came hurrying out of the temple door. “Or sky. Winds? Let’s get on the winds already!”

“We Seraphim usually say, ‘let’s spread our wings,’ to refer to taking flight,” Severina said dryly from off to one side of the garden.

“I’ll spread something of yours after we get back,” Kerr quipped before looking over at Alex and Dys. “We all packed?”

“Good to go,” Dys gave the archer a nod as she adjusted the harness and blankets encapsulating Alex.

“Just need you to get in your harness,” Jay said from behind the therion, arms spread wide with a blanket between them. “And we can go.”

Kerr pulled a face at the sight of the blanket but didn’t object as she was wrapped up like a kitten going to the vet for the first time. Once she was secured to Jay’s armored chest, she called out to Maeve.

“Keep an eye on this group, okay? Soprattutto quella ragazza alta con i capelli rossi laggiù.Sono tutti troppo ingenui.”

“I’ll be on watch,” the Fetch called back while making a strange hand gesture that Jadis thought she had seen Kerr’s clan make in the past.

“I know you’re talking about me,” Aila frowned at the therion.

“Yup. Okay, Big Stuff. Let’s ride.”

With only a few more loving farewells, Jadis, Kerr, and Alex lifted off from the ground and headed northeast, towards the distant nation on the far side of the central continent where the archer had been born. As they rose through the air, Severina, Nox, and Tacitus flew around them, seeing them off until Jadis reached what she had started to think of as cruising altitude, after which she started to fly at a much faster pace, leaving her winged companions behind.

“Holy ice titties, these blankets weren’t a bad idea after all,” Kerr cursed just loudly enough for Jay to hear as she tucked her head further into cover. “I should have asked for some enchanted fire or something!”

Jay laughed, but she didn’t bother to respond just yet. What she hadn’t told Kerr was that while she, Syd, and Aila had been having fun in a closet the night before, Jay had sought out Severina and performed the ritual that she had been delaying for some time. With the help of a willing Seraphim and Wanton Replication, Jadis had duplicated Seraphim’s Holy Flight, which increased her flight speed by half of her Agility stat. Considering how said attribute was tied to her Eldritch, which was what her normal flight speed was governed by, and Jadis had effectively become a rocket fueled jet.

A high-pitched scream of mixed terror and exhilaration could be heard for miles around as Jadis carried her lover to the Verdant Sea.