Chapter 400: Cloud of Bats
"Hmm," I let out a sound of satisfaction as I gulp down a glass of blood in one sip, observing the entertaining future of Pandora.
"Grimm, you seem excited," one of my clones says to me as I nod, placing the glass on the table and giving her a smile.
"Yes, I’m seeing some very fun things." Watching Pandora is always highly entertaining right now, she’s kicking the humans’ boats, flying high and then descending with a kick, cutting through the ships and sinking them.
She seems to be trying to force them to retreat faster, and it’s amusing to see, as even weakened, Pandora is still far stronger than the average human, and those Pandora’s servants have already dealt with most of the threats before Pandora entered the battle against the ships.
But even while trying to hide it, Pandora is clearly exhausted, and even just doing this is tiring for her, as her body is quite debilitated, so it’s cute to see how she strives and only hides the pain to maintain her king’s image intact.
And it becomes even more entertaining because, although she can truly maintain her image of a powerful king for the servants, she cannot maintain that dignified image against me, since I have already done several things to her that she considers humiliating.
"You know, Pandora is doing very well." The fight between Pandora and the heroes was entertaining, although I must honestly say I was worried I’ve never seen her "die" so many times in such diverse ways before.
I even thought she might really die this time, it was the most dangerous situation she’s been in so far.
’It’s still a complete mystery why I always see Pandora die, but she always comes out alive...’ I don’t understand, and this mystery is captivating in the end, her being my soulmate is clearly destiny.
"Grimm... just one question... where’s Azazel?" The clone asks, and I quickly look around, realizing she’s not here as she should be.
"Ah, she’s... she... DAMN IT!" She was here a second ago, and I despair, knowing she must be wandering around causing trouble, at least I know she can’t leave the castle area, and I even improved the barrier.
’Damn, why does she always disappear like this?’ I stop observing Pandora’s future and decide to focus on finding that little pest before she does something she shouldn’t.
I quickly get up and start running through the castle, and what I find in the corridors are the bodies of maids without blood, which is strange since she had stopped killing maids after finding Pandora.
’Something’s not right, why did she disappear?’ She had stopped with this behavior, and although I search the entire castle super-fast, I don’t find her, so I go outside.
"AAHHH!" I see maids running stupidly outside while screaming, there are several of them running back and forth as they are chased by something unusual.
’Bats?’ I look, seeing a black cloud of thousands of bats flying in the castle courtyard, but I don’t recognize the type they are completely black and something seems to be dripping from them.
I stand watching as the cloud of bats moves in perfect synchrony, chasing the maids, and as soon as they catch a maid, they cling to her, biting in several places and draining all her blood in seconds.
Soon they all release the dry body when she dies and start chasing another, I continue to observe for a while, recognizing the pattern, and using magic I capture one of the bats.
"Giih!! Giikk!" The bat growls furiously at me, trying to escape, but not attacking me directly.
’This... is viscous?’ I hold the bat by the wing, it desperately tries to break free, but its body is viscous and almost liquid, just like its magic reveals what this bat is.
When I realize what these bats are, I give an immense smile that makes the clone next to me shiver completely.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" I laugh at this completely excited as soon as I release the bat, it flies back to the cloud of bats, returning to the perfect synchrony of each bat’s movements.
"What an... entertaining thing, don’t you think?" I ask the clone this black cloud of bats attacking maids is Azazel, from the form I deduce that this is Azazel’s true form, because it resembles Pandora.
It’s the same viscous black liquid, only unlike Pandora, who has a viscous and united body like a giant slime, Azazel has a body divided into thousands of small bats that move together.
But the magic is still the same as Azazel’s, as is the attack method, although on a much larger and deadlier scale, and of course the black liquid that composes these bats is identical to the black liquid that Pandora releases in her true form.
’Is it because she’s a vampire?’ Her true form is quite unique, she probably transformed without meaning to, and is hunting maids because she doesn’t know how to control her body.
Pandora at the beginning also didn’t know how to control it, and like an irrational beast, she just attacked everything alive and near her, Azazel is probably doing the same, attacking any living thing, although she avoids me because I’m her mother.
’The synchrony is interesting.’ The bats, despite being thousands, move in unison as if they were a single being, and in a way they are a single being, but they have one annoying problem.
"Daughter, you shouldn’t be killing my servants again," I murmur, using magic to lock Azazel in a giant structure, capturing her entire body at once, then I use magic to force her back to her normal form.
It’s not that difficult, I’ve already observed Pandora’s training and her true form, I more or less know how it works, plus the true form consumes a lot of the user if they’re not properly prepared.
Even though this is her true form, her mind and body are not prepared to maintain it, so with massive power consumption, she ends up being forced back to the smaller form to adjust and recover from the expenditure.
’Why can she already do this?’ I’m not sure, Pandora couldn’t easily use her true form, maybe the hybridization between a vampire and a Tenebris Abyssus has made this easier, since vampires have different bodies.
But the reason doesn’t matter, knowing that my daughter can already enter her true form fills me with joy for two reasons: first, because I was the only one to witness her first transformation.
And second, because I will finally be able to have a mother-daughter experience that Pandora will never share with Azazel, and that is to train Azazel I will train Azazel so that she can use her true form because she wants to, and so that she can control it.
"Finally!!! Finally, something that will be just mine and Azazel’s, and that Pandora will never be able to participate in again!" I get excited as I release Azazel, seeing that it worked and she’s back to her normal form.
However, she’s unconscious, probably too exhausted to stay awake after the transformation. Quickly, I grab her and lift her up, giving her a tight hug.
"Your true form is so cute." Pandora is just a black sludge without a direct physical form, which gives Pandora incredible freedom, but also makes her form visually "simple" and not as interesting.
Azazel’s form, on the other hand, although still a black sludge, has a more solid form with the physical aspect of thousands of separate bats acting as a hive mind, and although she probably has less freedom in terms of body modification, she still has her own advantages and interesting points.
"If Azazel’s true form is thousands of bats in a hive mind, what would the forms of Pandora’s other children be?" Now I’m curious Azazel probably has this bat form because she’s half vampire.
And a basic metamorphosis that vampires know how to do is turn into a bat, because bat is a small animal and a blood drinker, which gives a certain degree of ease in transforming into it.
But of course, bat is not the limit, I myself can turn into any animal, and even various other forms through metamorphosis, even being able to copy the appearance of other people.
It all depends on the degree of power the vampire has, and that’s why Azazel’s form is even more curious could she be an agglomeration of something more than just bats? Or is her form stuck in the form of thousands of bats?
Regardless of the answer, I’m very happy I will train my daughter with my own hands and make her even stronger, and when the time comes, I will show off in Pandora’s face, showing that I made Azazel control her true form in record time.
"Clone, prepare that reinforced room in the basement! I’ll start Azazel’s training as soon as possible! Also, get new maids," I order coldly as I start to take the unconscious Azazel inside the castle.
"It should take half an hour," the clone informs as it starts going in another direction, while I’ll use this time to plan Azazel’s training routine.
’She’s so cute!!! Pandora is charming, but not really cute in her true form.’ Pandora’s true form as a gelatinous mass with hundreds of arms and eyes is not exactly cute, it’s more exciting.
But Azazel, with her large cloud of bats, has that graceful and cute vampire vibe.