Chapter 9: Chapter VIII: A new family is born.

Isaac watched the slime battle with morbid curiosity. There were currently two of the colored blobs – a quick scry told him they were one ice and one fire slime – getting surrounded by a bigger group of their own kind.

The ice monster slammed itself into the group in what could only be described as a headbutt. One of the aggressors, a yellow slime, was launched a few meters into the air, crashing into a tree. It seemed like the pair were stronger individually, but they were facing seven-to-one odds.

“Doesn’t it look...kind of ridiculous?” the man asked. As heartless as it sounded, it was the truth. To the creatures, this was a matter of life and death. To an unrelated observer, this just looked like a bunch of colored, harmless blobs bumping into each other for no reason at all.

The goddess shrugged. “They are slimes. Were you expecting any better? Wait until the fight escalates.”

Pom. The ice slime crashed yet another time with one of its enemies, and once again, one of the red blobs was launched backwards. Isaac heard Tyrannia stifle a laugh beside him.

“See what I mean?”

“It does look ridiculous...” she repeated as she fought another chuckle. The red slime slowly and shamefully boing boinged its way into the main group.

This happened several times during the next ten minutes or so. One of the blobs would approach the group, only to get smacked away by a very determined Ice slime. The fire one was not fighting, but rather seemed to cower behind the first one. After a while, the slimes began to generate the same kind of appendages they had used against the prophet earlier that night.

Despite their initial jovial tone, the duo soon found themselves entranced by the fight. The Ice slime seemed kind of impressive, actually. It was managing to hold on against all of its opponents, even after the battle escalated from headbutts to tentacle fistfighting. It would parry, dodge, counterattack, all without giving an inch of ground. Isaac wasn’t even sure if he could have won a fight against it. Its arsenal was also rather varied, from axes to swords to spears, and something that looked like a bow, though clearly the creature did not know its intended usage.

Even then, its enemies were simply too many. It had held on well, but by now the fight had clearly taken its toll on the blob. It began to slow down, and little by little, the slime found itself taking some hits. For some reason, Isaac couldn’t help but think the monster was rather human in the way it moved. He could feel its panic and its nervousness. How its movements became more frantic after it commenced to lose ground. And yet, for whatever reason, the ice slime refused to run away.

“Is it...protecting the other one?” Isaac asked.

“This is the first time I see something like this.”

Slowly, but surely, the bigger group began to overwhelm the single blue slime. It parried faster, dodged more, attacked with more fierceness, yet it wasn’t enough. Something viscous began to drip from the top of the creature as it seemed to realize this battle was already lost.

“That appears to be a slime tear.”

“Huh?”

“A slime tear. Contrary to popular belief, slimes do feel pain. Cause enough of it, and a miniscule percentage of them will begin to ‘cry’. It is a rare and precious material. But this one has not received enough damage for that to even be a possibility.”

A horrific thought crossed Isaac’s mind. “Could they be sentient?”

“...I would rather not think about it, considering how slimes have been treated for eons. They are considered something closer to insects than normal animals, let alone monsters. A plague. People regularly exterminate entire populations for training, like we have done, or torture them to try to find one that is able to produce tears. If it just so happens that they have been aware of it all this time...”

“Damn...”

“Indeed. But I doubt it. After this many eons, we would have noticed.”

Finally, one stray tentacle hit the guardian slime, and it was sent away flying. It tried to quickly bounce back towards what Isaac was assuming was their loved one, but it was too late. A second, green blob got in the way, and the few seconds the ice slime had to take to dispatch, it proved too many. The slime began to ooze even more tears. Clearly, this one was at least capable of feeling emotional distress.

“I’m starting to feel bad.”

“You are oddly compassionate for someone who accepted a deal that involved killing your own kind.”

The man shrugged. “My disdain for humans doesn’t extend to animals. Or slimes. Think we could take those two as servants?”

The woman nodded. “We may as well, indeed. They do seem strong for their kind.”

The red slime was finally forced to put a defense. Instantly it manifested multiple tentacles of all shapes and forms – from axes to scythe-like appendages, from thick fist like arms to pointy, almost needle-like ones. Its sudden bout of force was almost more impressive than the blue one. Suddenly, the bigger group was being pushed back, but even Isaac could tell that wasn’t going to last. There had to be a reason it hadn’t gotten involved until now, and soon that became apparent.

It slowed down significantly after half a minute. It almost seemed to be in pain every time it moved.

The ice slime tried to break through the bigger group, but each time it tried, it was repelled by an impenetrable wall of tentacles, only managing to hurt itself in the process. It began to cry more and more profusely, to the point where the man could almost picture it sobbing. A stray tentacle suddenly hit it from its blind spot, knocking it down. This time, it didn’t have enough strength to stand back up again.

The red one wasn’t faring much better, being only seconds away from being overwhelmed.

A purple slime approached the downed blob, trying to land a finishing blow. A spear-like arm shot forward, killing intent clear on every inch of the amorphous creature.

Isaac stopped the appendage before it hit the guardian slime.

“Do you understand me?” He tried asking as he pulled its attacker towards himself, doing the same trick he had perfected during his hours of training. Namely, slamming the fuckers against the ground over and over again. Tyrannia’s eyebrows shot up as the blob seemed to bob up and down slightly. “Okay, that makes things easier. You can go rest for now. I won’t let anything happened to the red one either, don’t worry.”

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The blue slime stopped moving, but it didn’t turn into liquid. It had passed out, bizarre as that seemed.

 

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“You are full of surprises, Isaac.” Tyrannia commented as she held the fire slime in her arms. It was badly hurt, but conscious. Had they been a couple seconds later, it would probably be dead instead.

The man shrugged. “Worst-case scenario, we release them back into the wild when they stop being useful.”

He was carrying the ice one, who was still knocked out cold, having given literally everything it had. “If that is the case, and they are indeed sentient, would it not be better for us to kill them?”

“Oh, that’s true.” The blue bob stirred in the man’s arms. “Stay still. I don’t know how slimes heal, but it can’t be that fast.”

“They will heal much faster once they become our servants. Want to try it?”

“Sure, what do we need to do?”

“First...” the woman’s eyes scanned the clearing before finally stopping on one enormous boulder. “Let’s set these two there.”

Isaac did as was told, setting the ice slime on the rock, Tyrannia following with the fire one moment later. The man noticed that the surrounding area had gotten quiet, almost as if understanding that there were greater powers messing around of the forest. The silence combined with the eeriness of the misty woods gave him a bad feeling.

The goddess began to draw some symbols with her fingers on top of the blue slime. A purple light trailed behind her digits, forming runes as she moved her hand. After a minute, she switched her target to the other blob. Both the creatures stared in what Isaac could only read as mild confusion.

“Now, state your name and title.” She commanded. The air around them felt different, electrified.

“Isaac Refenes.” He wasn’t sure about what was his title in exact terms, so he took a guess. “Tyrannia’s prophet.”

A sudden gust of wind shook the entirety of the woods surrounding them. “State the terms of the deal.”

The man thought about it for a second. What would a couple of slimes even want? He was working under the assumption that they were sentient, so he began from there. What would he ask for if he had been in that situation? A loved one almost getting killed? Surrounded by his kind as they tried to kill him?

He soon found his answer.

“I offer you power.” he stated. “So that you will not ever find yourselves in a situation like what just happened. And I will personally make sure that, if you do, you will both make it out alive. In exchange, you will serve me until I find no more uses for either of you.”

The blue slime rotated on itself slightly, looking at the red one. After a couple of seconds, it turned back to Isaac and bobbed up and down. A nod. The red one followed shortly after.

Suddenly, a magic circle appeared beneath the duo, purple in color. It was made of three rings, each one of them connected to the other two like by a series of lines, like the wheels of a bicycle. Runes of all types decorated the two outer loops. The center one was empty, save one specific symbol. Isaac instinctively knew that was their sigil.

Moments passed as the circle glowed stronger and stronger. Soon it grew to encompass not only the slime duo but also him. He closed his eyes, the light too strong for him to keep them open. A couple of seconds passed in silence as he felt the wind rushing through him. A burning sensation assaulted his body, but he didn’t resist it. He welcomed it. He felt stronger, faster, sharper. For a moment, he felt like he could take on the world and not lose.

Then, as soon as it began, it stopped.

Isaac opened his eyes.

“We do need to give them a name.” Tyrannia’s voice echoed through the clearing.

“Hmm...a fire slime...and an ice slime....” Isaac approached the duo. “Winter and Summer. Those will be your new names.”

“Then so be it. Welcome to our family.” The goddess nodded, satisfied. Then she turned back, extending one hand towards Isaac. “Now, let us kill some more monsters. We will pass through the city gates tomorrow morning.”

“What is a...geit?”

The goddess expression completely froze, hand hanging mid-air, as she robotically turned her head in the direction of her new companions. Then she looked at Isaac. Then back to the slimes.

“Summer doesn’t know.” The blue slime further clarified, then, it seemed to look down. “Winter doesn’t know either.”

“Isaac, have I gone insane?”

“No...” the man replied, equally dumbfounded. “Remember when I asked if they were sentient? I think we have our answer.”

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