Noah stood quietly for a moment, his gaze settling on the girl, who was still admiring her handiwork. The moment he took his first steps towards her, the child’s excitement quickly shifted back to one of curiosity towards the other person who closely resembled a parental figure to her.
"Second papa?" The child was still bent on calling Noah as such, but now that Noah was aware of her and the skeletons’ circumstances, he wouldn’t take the skeletons’ place. Even still, the child’s mistake elicited a smirk from him.
"No...You can call me Noah."
Her face scrunched in thought, showing that she was trying hard to process the information. "Noah..." she repeated to herself. Her gaze looked up to her side towards the skeleton before looking back to Noah.
"Not Papa..." A hint of understanding crept into her voice, though there was still a lingering hesitation, a small part of her clinging to the idea of ’Papa’. But for now, it seemed enough. She nodded slowly, as if solidifying the thought in her mind.
Noah watched as the little girl eagerly pointed to him, her eyes glistening with a sense of pride in her understanding. "Noah," she said firmly, then pointed to the skeleton. "Papa." Finally, she pointed to herself, her small voice filled with an innocent affirmation. "Me."
"That’s right." Noah nodded, taking a step closer to her as he knelt down to meet her gaze. "But you need a name too."
The girl blinked in surprise, her face scrunching into a frown as she processed what he was saying again. To her, the idea of another name didn’t make sense. She had already believed that her name was ’me’.
Noah watched the confusion spread across her face, her small frown deepening as she tried to understand. She pointed to herself again, repeating, "Me?" as if questioning whether that wasn’t enough. To her, that identity felt simple and true.
He shook his head gently, realizing that there wasn’t any other way to have her completely understand, obviously she knew what a name was, but trying to get her to understand why she was wrong about her name was a different struggle. Instead he stared intently into her eyes.
"From now on, you’re no longer ’me’, you’re now ’Eve’."
The name seemed to instantly resonate with something deep within her. Her once confused gaze showed a hint of excitement as she repeated the name to herself.
The atmosphere created around them was warm, and oddly weird, considering the corpses that were still displayed around them. Follow current novels on n0velfire.net
However, the mood was destroyed when a heavy panting sounded directly behind Noah.
"Master! Look, look!" Fenrir’s boastful grunts quickly gained Noah’s and the others’ attention. Fenrir’s massive frame stood proud, his eyes gleaming with excitement as though he had just accomplished a grand feat.
But in the midst of the distraction, no one noticed the subtle transformation that had come over Eve. As the others attention diverted to Fenrir, her once innocent and childlike expression dissolved. Her eyes, now gleaming with dark, mischievous intent, flickered with the calculating thoughts of someone far more aware than she appeared.
Her gaze lingered on Fenrir, sizing him up. The towering wolf had stolen Noah’s attention, and that fact alone unsettled her. Within those demonic, darkened eyes, the playful mischief she’d exhibited during her earlier transformation was back, stronger than ever, and her innocent facade seemed to crumble.
Fenrir’s initial excitement faltered the moment Eve’s dark, unsettling gaze pierced through him. His ears perked up, and a shiver ran down his spine as if he sensed an ominous threat lurking behind Noah. His head snapped toward the girl, but by the time he laid eyes on her, all he saw was the innocent, excited expression of a child eagerly awaiting whatever it was that he had to show Noah.
"Is this what you wanted to show us, Fenrir?" Noah’s voice pulled the massive wolf’s attention back to the present. Shaking off the eerie feeling, Fenrir focused on Noah, chalking up the earlier sensation to nothing more than the wind. His tail wagged a bit slower now as he turned to where Noah’s gaze had settled.
Taking Noah’s advice, the titan zombie that became an abomination was officially brought into his pack. With its initiation brought about a special mutation within the creature. Almost everything was the same, except for the mouth rooted in its stomach. Inside the mouth, its teeth were no longer made from the same enamel as other life forms. They were now coated in a hardened metal that was eerily similar to Fenrir’s exoskeleton. And even deeper in its mouth, overlooking its tongue, there was pure darkness as if anything that it managed to swallow would disappear into another dimension instead of its body.
The creature had more of a sense of awareness than when Neal was made into its pack, but it wasn’t intelligent enough to associate with any of them there. Its mind was still more of a blank slate that would gradually gain more of a sense of sentience now that its brain was in a more active state.
Nonetheless, Fenrir’s excitement wasn’t because of the new change within his new member of his pack, nor the fact that it had gained a new addition to replace Neal’s death. What excited Fenrir the most was something so profound, that it left the others unsure of how to respond.
"I also gave him a name!" Fenrir’s tail wagged even more furiously, so that the nearby bodies began to be repelled by the wind it generated.
"His name’s Dummy! Arachne, I’m not ’Dummy’ anymore, you can’t call me that." He gave a creepy smile, clearly satisfied with his supposed victory over Arachne. Convinced that by naming the zombie "Dummy," he had outwitted his ’big sister’ and rid himself of the derogatory nickname. For a brief moment, he basked in the triumph of his cleverness.
However, Arachne barely spared him a glance, her silence cutting deeper than words. It was as if she didn’t even acknowledge his attempt at reclaiming his dignity. Yet, her dismissive attitude only fueled Fenrir’s pride, making him believe even more in his triumph.
But then, her voice broke the silence with a single word.
Fenrir’s ears flattened, his tail slowly coming to a stop as the impact of Arachne’s new insult hit him. He deflated instantly, his excitement crashing down as if a weight had been placed on his shoulders. The word "stupid" rang in his mind like a curse, and he immediately realized she had found a way to diminish him once again, no matter how hard he tried to escape her jabs.
"Stupid! Stupid, stupid! Hehe!" The sudden sound of Eve’s giggle made it even worse. Fenrir’s ears twitched in dismay, his head turning slowly toward the little girl, who was now laughing at his expense. Her mischievous eyes sparkled with amusement, clearly enjoying the show. To Noah, it seemed as if she found a new word she had learned, but deep down, it was her way of getting back at Fenrir, so she was eager to mock him with it.
"Interesting...I think I might come to like her," Ailetta said with a soft, eerie chuckle as she approached Eve, her voice dripping with curiosity. Her many eyes darted around, some of them settling on the child while others wandered lazily. She reached out, fingers brushing through Eve’s hair in a strangely affectionate gesture.
Eve, startled at first, quickly looked up. Her wide, curious eyes flicked from one of Ailetta’s many eyes to another, struggling to figure out where to focus. Despite her initial hesitation, a hint of mischief glimmered behind Eve’s innocent expression. Ailetta could sense it; something deep within the girl that mirrored her own darker tendencies.
Yes, there was potential here. Ailetta smirked inwardly. This one has a mischievous streak, she thought, recognizing how Eve was attempting to mask it. It was clumsy but promising. Ailetta knew they could get along well, perhaps even form a bond, as long as Eve understood her place in their strange and ever-shifting hierarchy.
Noah could feel all of the different emotions flowing through their bonds, but with so many surging and conflicting emotions, he was satisfied that it seemed that everyone was getting along. However, there was still someone without a name.
"Are you able to understand me?" Noah questioned the skeleton, now standing directly opposite it. The creature’s body remained still, but its head turned slowly, its hollow eyes locking onto Noah’s. A faint flicker in its gaze hinted at some form of recognition or acknowledgment, though its movements were minimal. To others, the creature’s response might have seemed insignificant, but Noah’s taming perk allowed him to grasp the essence of the skeleton’s attempt to communicate. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for him to sense its understanding.
Noah nodded slightly. "You’re also officially one of us now," he continued, his voice steady. "Unlike Eve, ’Papa’ isn’t a name any of us would prefer to address you by." He paused, contemplating for a moment, knowing that this creature deserved something more fitting; a name that matched its strength and dark power.
"So from here on out, I’m going to call you... Diablo."
The skeleton, now Diablo, stood motionless for a beat longer, but a brief pulse of energy flared in its core as though it had accepted the name. The spikes behind it began to sizzle with unfathomable energy as it subtly released some of its miasma as a show of understanding, as it even understood the name’s meaning.