Chapter 528 – Starry Princess (1)

Technically, the egg had already hatched – a little over a week ago.

Percy had been thrilled at the time, watching with bated breath as his new familiar broke out of her shell, only to be disappointed by the outcome. The creature crawling on the uneven floor of the magical hive had looked nothing like any of the three types of wasps that the Queen had told him about.

It had just been a wingless, limbless worm, its glossy exterior sporting a milky white colour. The Princess’s body had still been dotted by the stars giving her species their name, as well as the golden patterns unique to the royal lineage, but those features had been difficult to make out against the pale backdrop of her squishy skin.

More importantly, Nephthys had been in a state of delirium, still not responding to Percy’s repeated messages. Even his Status had failed to acknowledge her existence, preventing him from pulling up her information.

The only part of the reborn goddess that had appeared slightly better had been her soul. It had resembled a yarn ball of three different wisps struggling to fuse – much like Micky’s had done at the start – though she was clearly improving much faster than the crow, likely thanks to all the phantom mana that Percy was supplying her with.

Fortunately, the Queen had been quick to alleviate his worries, explaining that all of the Starry Wasps began their lives in a larval stage like this – one which was supposed to last a couple of weeks. The Violet bug had been downright ecstatic that her royal egg had finally hatched into what she’d claimed was a healthy daughter – especially after decades of failed attempts.

After consuming a lot of nectar delivered to her by her subjects, the Queen had produced some royal jelly to feed the larva. It would have been too little to sustain a Blue or a Green beast – let alone a Violet – but even a trickle was more than enough for a newborn Orange creature barely larger than Percy’s fist.

Obviously, Percy had been somewhat depressed to hear that he had to wait even longer for the result, but he’d ultimately swatted those thoughts aside after realizing that this was probably a good thing.

In his experience, the beast affinity was great at causing mutations and other necessary adaptations to better serve its owners, but such developments only tended to happen when a creature evolved to the next grade or otherwise experienced some major transformation.

Case and point, Micky had developed all of his mutations right after his first core’s advancements. He’d later merged them together after getting his body destroyed and rebuilt during his fusion with Percy.

Going through multiple developmental stages could only benefit the Princess. Her egg was one that had never been supposed to hatch – or even exist. Percy might have rekindled the creature’s waning soul, but nobody knew what other defects the wasp might have been born with. Now, she had the opportunity to deal with them!

After growing to twice her initial size, Nephthys had encased herself in a silken cocoon, beginning her pupal stage. That had happened about four days ago.

Percy was particularly excited today, feeling that the creature was extremely close to emerging in its mature form. The Queen insisted that it would probably take a couple more days at the very least, but he was confident that his familiar would be done earlier than expected.

It wasn’t just blind optimism speaking. He’d already heard some faint ramblings back through the cord, confirming that the Amenthei goddess was well on her way to regaining consciousness!

Granted, her words were sporadic and not very coherent. Most notably, she appeared to speak a language that he didn’t understand, indicating that communication with his new familiar might be a little troublesome at first.

On the other hand, this could only mean that Nephthys had retained at least some of her memories and intellect, unlike Micky who had begun his new life as a blank slate, having to slowly develop his mind and learn Remior’s language as his first.

A tear appeared on the cocoon less than a day later, Percy’s hearts skipping a couple of beats as he watched a black foreleg pierce the silk. Micky instantly placed his hand on one of the Queen’s limbs to reestablish their mental link, just in case they needed to act urgently for some reason.

The Violet insect had her gaze glued on the creature much like he did, though Percy didn’t pay her much attention. Before the Princess was even done escaping from her self-imposed confines, his Status rushed to notify him of their success.

[Congratulations! You have acquired a new familiar: Nephthys!]

This message was another new one that he was certain he hadn’t received during Micky’s creation – though he’d been too unconscious at the time to tell. It only made sense though. If Phoebe’s twice-upgraded Decree would inform him when a familiar got destroyed, then why wouldn’t it do so when a new one came into existence?

Regardless, he didn’t pull up the goddess’s page yet, wanting to examine her with his own two eyes first.

Her soul was still a patchwork of two colours. The bulk of it sported a dull grey shade, indicative of Percy’s blessing. It probably meant that she had inherited his spectral traits too, which could be a bit of a problem if she didn’t develop a soul affinity of her own.

The blessing’s influence was bound to fade over time, rendering her unable to endure the strain of multiple fiends. It was precisely to avoid such a scenario that Zoris had advised Percy to wait until after he internalized the concept to begin absorbing his additional traits.

Micky hadn’t run into this problem, because Percy hadn’t possessed any traits during his creation. Later, he had only acquired them indirectly – through the clone. Of course, things were different now that he had fully fused with Percy. They shared a single soul anyway, so even the part resting inside the elemental body was constantly washed by the blessed phantom mana, maintaining its elevated durability.

‘Oh well… it should be fine as long as I send her mana often.’ He shrugged.

His clones were in the same boat as the goddess, yet none of them had shown any sign of losing the concept even after staying away for months. It would probably take years for that to happen, giving him ample time to keep refreshing the blessing.

Turning his attention back to Nephthys’s soul, Percy noticed that it was less of a jumbled mess than before. The part pertaining to the goddess’s soul shone in a bright silver colour – more so than a regular mortal soul, at least – suggesting that it still carried traces of its former radiance.

More importantly, this brighter shade was scattered over the surface of the familiar’s soul, forming watermark patterns no different from the golden markings on her physical body!

‘Interesting…’ Percy thought, wondering what that was about.

Other than that, the Princess was shaped more or less like a regular wasp, appearing like a miniature version of her mother. The colourful dots and golden ripples now contrasted properly against her black exoskeleton, giving the young creature’s chitinous exterior a majestic – almost regal – lustre.

The only exceptions were her eyes, stinger and the insides of her mandibles which sported a dull grey colour, a couple of shades lighter than the rest of her black carapace even in Percy’s regular vision. He guessed that this had been caused by the same Soul Predator mutation that Micky had been born with, allowing Nephthys to observe, interact with, and even consume foreign souls.

There was another detail that he hadn’t expected.

Both the golden marks on Nephthys’s body and the silver marks on her soul grew denser closer to her head, twisting together into a three-pronged spiral that converged into a single point on her forehead. There, a tiny, crimson gem was embedded firmly into her exoskeleton, shaped like a triangular pyramid. Inside it, Percy saw numerous golden dots shimmering faintly in his regular vision, and just as many pale dots doing so in his Soul Vision.

‘I suppose that answers what happened to her people. I wonder what it’ll take to grant them a proper life of their own though…’

Satisfied with his cursory examination, he finally opened his Status, seeing no mention of the Starry Wasp in there. Evidently, the Decree was still intent on treating his clones and familiars as extensions of his own page, rather than parts of it.

Shrugging, he followed the ethereal cord connecting his forehead to the Princess’s, shedding more light on her abilities.

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Nephthys (The Lone Wanderer's familiar)

Mana cores:

·       [Mana core 1 – Orange – Beast]

·       [Mana core 2 – Seed – ???]

Mutations:

·       [Soul Predator] – Allows one to more easily interact with the souls of others.

·       [Royal Lineage] – Grants a royal wasp additional abilities befitting of their role.

·       [Divine Spark] – Grants endless inspiration when developing one’s magic.

·       [Spectral Ark] – Allows one to carry and preserve the souls of others.

Spectral traits:

·       [Weaving] – Boosts one’s proclivity in manipulating one-dimensional structures.

·       [Insomnia] – Eliminates the need for sleep.

·       [Scribing] – Boosts one’s proclivity in expressing meaning onto any written medium.

Mindsets:

·       [Structured Amnesia] – Selectively suppress or curate memories to minimize their mental load.

Decrees:

·       [Moirais’ Decree (Fractured)] – Grants the seed of a second mana core. Requires potent life and mind mana to germinate.

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