Threads of the Soul

Chapter 449 - 449: Great Detective

Seth had to restrain the urge to smile as he listened to Nixie ramble out her explanations. She was weaving different excuses and complaints about the system in with her explanation, hoping to get away with what she had done or at least get a lighter punishment.At the very least, she was hoping that Seth would be a little understanding of her plight that there were two prizes and she wanted both. It was a very understandable plight, in all honesty.

The reason Seth wanted a smile so much was simple. She was being simply so adorable in her ramblings, it was hard to stay mad at her. Which was good because he wasn't mad in the first place.

Just as he felt the need to embarrass Titus, there was just something about Nixie and her adorable reactions that fuelled his need to act strict and tough.

Truthfully, there were times that he felt a little sorry for her. She aged much faster than any kid born at the same time as her and, even if she slowed down in comparison now, she was still too strong for those same kids.

Making friends was next to impossible for her. She would either leave them in her dust and become too old, or as her aging process rubber banded in the opposite direction and slowed down massively, she would be forced to watch them grow old and die - if such a friendship even lasted that long.

There was a reason Prometheus had spent hundreds of thousands of years trapped on a backwards planet just for the chance of death. Because Immortality was truly a curse. While Seth might not remember much of what he did to create Nixie, nor was he able to understand it all.

He knew one thing for certain. If it was Prometheus guiding him, then there was no way that he would have bestowed that curse into the person that would come next. The only problem was, Seth had no idea how long Nixie would live for even without that. She might even outlast him.

Plus, living with three different fathers now probably wasn't easy for anyone. He himself still struggled with it. I mean... Do you know how weird it is to see your girlfriend with another man, and that man is... you?

It wasn't like she was cheating on him with his twin brother. They were all him, in some way, and it wasn't fair on Astra to be mad at her for that or to his other self for wanting to be with the woman he also had memories of. But even knowing it wasn't fair, that still didn't stop those feelings of weird jealousy from bubbling in his stomach every time he saw it.

In short, their lives were an utter mess. So, why not enjoy them a little?

Seth placed his hand on Nixie's shoulder when she finally stopped her ramblings, before pulling her into a tight hug. That seriously confused her, but what baffled her more was that he was all smiles when he pulled her out of the confusing hug.

"You're right. It is unfair. Plus, It's not like you are doing anything to help honey or cheat. She is just having her chance to show off, while Bob helps her do that. Nothing wrong with that."

Nixie nodded softly, staring at him with wide and confused eyes. "Yeah... nothing wrong with that. That's what I said..."

She blinked slowly, staring at his smiling face with complete and utter bafflement. Where did this come from? Why did he go from strict to happy at the drop of the hat? Was he possessed? Did something happen? Was he... dying?!

A million thoughts rushed through Nixie's head about the possible cause of this clearly suspicious behaviour.

"Come on, Why don't we go up to the stands and get a better view from there. We've still got time before the actual match starts, at least. It should be great. We can even get you some snacks."

Seth smiled again, holding out his hand to Nixie. She glanced between it and his face suspiciously, before taking it and drifting back down to the ground to walk beside him, vowing to herself that she would figure out what was wrong like the great detective of old, Batman.

It might have looked like, a few minutes later, that she was just sitting in the stands enjoying herself as she was devouring a meat skewer, but that was all apart of her plan to lure this dastardly fiend into her trap. She had definitely not forgotten about the mystery that she was supposed to be have been solving as soon as she got treats in her hand.

If her father had been stolen by a body snatcher, she would just beat them up and that would be the end of it. Until then, she decided, today was a great day.

***

Today was a horrible day.

That was what Corvus was thinking as he lay motionless underneath a literal mountain of rubble. Just before the cavern had come crashing down onto him, he had managed to wrap himself in a cocoon of his threads by harvesting the weave that had failed. It managed to keep the rocks from crushing his body into a fine pulp, but it left him buried under rock and submerged in the royal jelly.

This would have normally been fatal for anyone else, but it seemed that a benefit of his Celestial body was that it didn't require much oxygen to survive. By his estimate, he felt like he could probably hold his breath for close to a week before he needed to breathe again.

Naturally, along with the name of Celestial and the fact that Thor had come from the sky like a meteor, it got him wondering if his body was becoming adapted for interstellar travel. Or at the very least, surviving in outer space.

He was tough enough that most space debris wouldn't hurt him, especially if he put up an actual defence and didn't just try to face tank it. The ambient radiation, however, was an unknown factor that would have to be tested. However if his own physical body couldn't withstand it, then his Celestial transformation would.

His soul form was unlikely to care about some silly radiation.

The more that he thought about it, the more he considered that it was true. But even if it was, he felt like there was something more to being a Celestial than just flying through space buck naked.

There was a feeling, during those battles, as if there was a lock inside him that was slowly being pried open. As if he was gazing upon something deeper than what he was currently, but couldn't quite grasp it.

Whatever it was, he had plenty of time to think about it, since he was currently stuck under this rubble. He was constantly trying to wiggle his toes, waiting for the venom to leave his system, unable to turn fully into his soul form until it did so. All the while the jelly was making his back unbelievably itchy as it pressed against the gash that was left.

However as uncomfortable as that feeling was, he knew from experience it was the feeling of his flesh rapidly knitting itself back together. The jelly was healing him.

Bathing in the Royal Jelly, with the view from his puppet replacement to entertain himself, It took nearly 12 hours for the venom to fully leave Corvus' system. When the feeling finally returned to his limbs, he let out a mental sigh of relief before his body evaporated into thin air.

Instead of teleporting away, Corvus instead floated up through the rubble and destroyed tunnels of the bugs until he was once more standing on the surface of the alien planet half naked, as his clothes were torn to shreds.

His eyes wandered across the alien landscape and the unfamiliar sky as he contemplated the question of what Thor had said. What did it mean to be a Celestial?

As he thought it over, he idly played with a jar in his hands. When you could create wondrous weapons out of even a drop of blood or a potion from a strand of grass, carrying containers became second nature to you.

This particular jar, as well as three others, were filled to the brim with the Royal Jelly.

Corvus glanced at the perception of his spying paper tigers and realised that nothing had changed since the last time he had looked. Not ideal, but it gave him time to think over this question.

Perhaps what he needed was a wander, a grand pilgrimage just like the kings of old. So he may as well take a stroll across this planet, see what other goodies it had before it was time to make his grand reappearance.

What better place to start, than the Jelly in his hand? Honey came from bees and milk came from cows, so why not Jelly from alien ants?

He opened the jar, scooped some out and tentatively put some into his mouth. It immediately melted against his tongue, bringing with it a typhoon of unexpected flavours. Just like honey, it was incredibly sweet. Like if you mixed soda with melted ice cream and drank the result.

It also brought with it a flood of energy that filled every inch of his body. All of his dull aches and pains were eliminated, his exhaustion from the previous battles eradicated. It was amazing, it was invigorating. It was... too much energy.

His hand immediately clamped over his crotch, as he realised what all that energy was heading.