Rebirth of the Nephilim-Chapter 514: Path of the Progenitor

Even though she was reading through all eight of the skills made available to her from her secondary class as quickly as possible, Jadis still left everyone in the room hanging for a minute while she processed the information. Eight skills was a lot to take in. By the time she was done reading them, though, Jadis had a smirk on her faces that drew immediate commentary from her lovers.

“Okay, I know that look,” Kerr said as Alex momentarily held her still. “Spill. What did you get offered?”

“Are we sure that sex skills aren’t allowed?” Syd asked in a sing-song voice. “Because this one sounds like a lot of fun.”

“Those are far from a priority,” Aila admonished. However, when she saw the pleading looks that Jadis, Kerr, and even Eir gave her, she huffed out a moan and relented. “But go ahead and tell us what it does.”

With a grin, Syd read the description out loud.

Perverse Spectation

Ritual Spell. Create a link between yourself and the target of the ritual. The target will experience the same sensations of smell, taste, and touch that you experience for the duration of the spell. If you and the target both choose to, the flow of sensations can be reversed, and you will experience the target’s sensations. Both you and the target can end the spell at will. Duration: 3 days.

“Oh, that’s weird,” Sorcha was the first to respond verbally. “Very weird.”

“Interesting possibilities, though,” Kerr speculated with a wicked smile. “I’ve been wondering for a long time now what it feels like to have three cocks sucked at once. Kind of unfair Jadis gets to keep that experience all to herself. That spell would give us all a fair chance, though…”

“Actually, I was thinking about how interesting it might be to experience what the world is like through Alex’s nonexistent shoes,” Jay said contemplatively. “Fun sex stuff aside, I’m curious about how that would work considering how different our physical biology is.”

That brought a lot of stares towards Alex, who was still slowly toying with the therion wrapped up in her tentacles. The Demon herself had closed her three eyes, lost in thought, though she noticed the silence after a few seconds and looked around.

“I don’t… Know…” she shrugged expressively. “Maybe… it wouldn’t work…?”

“I’m not sure either,” Aila frowned. “That’s an interesting thought, though.”

“So, does that mean she gets to take it?” Kerr asked eagerly.

“Probably not, no,” Jay answered before Aila could. “I’ve got some damn good options here beyond that one, even as fun as it sounds.”

Kerr grumbled a bit but didn’t offer up any further complaints. Possibly because she was just as eager to hear the rest of Jadis’ skills, or because Alex had started manipulating her limbs into interesting positions and that was keeping the archer distracted.

Before she continued, Jay leaned in close to Aila and whispered into her ear. Not so quietly that others couldn’t hear, but just to make it clear that it wasn’t a topic to focus on.

“Bookmark that skill for a later review, would you? I’ve got some ideas about it that I want to discuss in the future with Sabina.”

Her whispered words were accompanied by a look at the smith, who didn’t notice the exchange as she was busily drawing something on a page of her own. Possibly another enchantment circle, though Jadis couldn’t tell at its current stage.

“Of course,” Aila answered, the curiosity plain on her face. “Is it important, or…?”

“Not important right now,” Jay waved her off. “Might not even go anywhere. Just a thought I had. Anyway, if I exclude that skill, I’ve got it narrowed down to five possibilities.”

Aside from Perverse Spectation, Perverted Ritualist of D had presented two other options to her that Jadis was able to eliminate from consideration. One was a passive skill that would boost her Focus by twenty points. While that was a nice potential bonus, it wasn’t a necessity anymore. Vraekae had solved all of Jadis’ Focus issues with her Elite Battlemage’s Reserves skill that she had ritually replicated. She was by no means hurting for magic anymore. In fact, Jadis was fairly certain she had the highest magic pool of the whole group now that she was CLR ninety-nine. Of course, she was equally certain that her position at the top of that particular tower would be surpassed by others soon enough, once certain members of the group received a few upgrades. In any case, Jadis didn’t need a passive skill to boost her Focus anymore, so she crossed that one off the list.

The other skill she excluded was a random chance ritual spell. In exchange for permanently decreasing her maximum Eldritch attribute by fifty points, the ritual would unlock an untaken skill for the target. A tempting proposition, except for the fact that beyond the target’s choice of class, the skill unlocked was random. Jadis couldn’t justify permanently losing fifty points of her primary stat for a random chance, even if it had the potential to greatly empower one of her lovers. It would end up weakening them all in the process, especially if she performed the ritual more than once.

With those two skills stricken from the list, and the sexy one removed as well, there were only five options left to choose from. Since she had four free slots open, that meant she only needed to choose one of those five to exclude. A task easier said than done, since Jadis thought all five of the remaining options had merit.

At least she didn’t have to decide all on her own.

“Okay, reading these off in no particular order,” Jay announced to make sure she had everyone’s attention. “Just going to go through all five and then we can analyze.”

Salacious Transposition

Ritual Spell. Replicate one passive skill from a target other than yourself and pass it on to a second target. The ritual can be used on multiple targets, up to a maximum number equaling 0.1 of your Eldritch attribute. Only one skill can be received by each target. Repeating the ritual on a target that already possesses a replicated skill will overwrite the previously transposed skill. Effect from a single target persists until the ritual is repeated and a new skill is selected. This ritual cannot be performed on yourself.

Exhibitionistic Accession

Ritual Spell. Increase a single target’s lowest non-zero attribute value to equal the target’s current CLR. If the target has more than one attribute tied for lowest value, the effected attribute will be chosen at random from those attributes that qualify for the ritual. The altered attribute value will keep pace with the target’s current CLR without need for repeating the ritual. The ritual can be used on multiple

Vital Overflow

Ritual Spell. Increase the maximum health pool of each participant by 10 points, multiplied by the number of ritual participants. The maximum number of participants cannot exceed 0.05 of your Eldritch attribute. The spell effect will last for six months before it requires recharging, or until the target dismisses the spell.

Sleep of the D

Ritual Spell. Mark an enclosed space with an Eldritch Sign. Those who sleep within the ritually marked area will recover from exhaustion more quickly and require less sleep overall. Only one instance of this specific Eldritch Sign can exist at a time; recasting this ritual will destroy the first instance. The spell effect will persist until the Eldritch Sign is removed or destroyed.

Delayed Needs of the Body

Ritual Spell. Participants in the ritual will have no need for food or water for 3 days. The body will function as normal unless acted upon by an outside force capable of overriding the ritual. Once the timeframe ends, the targets of the spell cannot participate in the ritual again until they have consumed an appropriate amount of food and water to satisfy their needs. The maximum number of participants cannot exceed 0.05 of your Eldritch attribute. The spell lasts until the timeframe expires, or the target consumes food or water.

Reading the full list of remaining options out loud did wonders for Jadis’ own decision-making process. While all five looked like valuable additions to her repertoire of rituals, taking the time to speak the words for everyone to hear made a few things clear for herself. Namely that the first three spells she had listed were absolute must haves so far as she was concerned.

“Unless anyone has anything convincing to argue against this,” Dys called out almost as soon as her other self was finished talking, “I am definitely going to take Salacious Transposition, Exhibitionistic Accession, and Vital Overflow. They might not do much for me personally, but they will massively empower all of you. That makes them perfect in my book.”

There was quite a bit of commotion as everyone began discussing the five ritual spells Jadis had listed, with a particular focus on the three that she had declared as top choices. Even with her three different perspectives to view the goings on from, she still had trouble keeping track of all the conversations with so many voices speaking up at once. One exchange that Jadis noticed in particular was between Bridget and Severina.

The Seraphim’s brow was furrowed in consternation, as though everything Jadis had just said was too much for her to take in. As the blonde silently stared into the void, the orc sitting next to her leaned in close and murmured a few words into her ear.

“You’ll get used to it. Eventually. Her level ups are always bloody insane.”

While Bridget did what she could to help Sev through her moment of shock, others were bringing more salient points forward for discussion and review.

“Based off of your current Eldritch stat value, Vital Overflow would give each participant two hundred and seventy health points,” Aila said as she reviewed her calculations. “Presuming the ritual was performed with the maximum number of people, of course. That isn’t a large sum of health compared to Jadis’ current maximum, but that would be a large increase for the rest of us. My current health is one hundred and twenty, for example. Vital Overflow would give me more than a two hundred percent increase.”

“That’s only if we have twenty-seven participants, correct?” Eir asked for clarification. When Aila nodded in confirmation, she continued with a point of concern. “Considering how most of Jadis’ rituals go, would that many participants be feasible?” freēnovelkiss.com

“That really depends on the nature of the ritual,” Jay mused as she ran her fingers through her hair. “Not all of my rituals have been specifically explicit. At least a couple of them have been fairly innocent, like Dance of the D. But yeah, chances are good it’ll be lewd.”

“The name doesn’t give much to go off of,” Syd added. “I mean, I feel like we can assume Salacious and Exhibitionistic are going to be pervy. But Vital Overflow doesn’t sound lewd to me at all.”

“Even if it does end up being one of those kinds of rituals,” Aila analyzed with a few scratches of her pen on paper, “I’d still agree with taking it. There are ten of us to participate in a—”

“Fuck ritual!” Kerr interjected gleefully.

“—lewd ritual,” Aila pushed past the interruption. “That would mean an extra one hundred health points for each of us, at a minimum. Absolutely worth it.”

“W—What about, ah, Exhibitionistic… Accession,” Thea struggled to get out the words. “Is that, ah, best?”

“Sounds fucking awesome to me,” Sorcha replied with a grin. “I mean, I’ve got five attributes that all stink. Actually, they all have the same value of five. Five of five. Weird… Anyway. I’d love it if any of them were boosted up for free, especially if it lands on a useful one like Will or Fortitude.”

“That could be controlled,” Sabina pointed out without looking up from the sheet of paper she was sketching on. “If you don’t mind sacrificing four free attribute points, that is. Which wouldn’t be much of a sacrifice, since you’d be getting fifty-two points in an attribute that you want in exchange.”

When the distracted smith failed to elaborate on her mumbled suggestion, Sorcha reached over and poked her in the side.

“And?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah,” Sabina smiled happily at her friend. “You just put one point in each of the four low stats that don’t matter to you. That way they aren’t tied for lowest, and it’ll increase the one you do want up to your CLR when you do the ritual! I mean, pretty simple math, right?”

“Yeah, that would solve the randomness problem,” Sorcha murmured, looking like she was just a little embarrassed that she hadn’t thought of the solution herself.

“I can see that being more of a problem for you, though, Thea,” Aila cut in as she flipped through her journal to look at a page further back. “Your lowest stat is… Dexterity, at ten points. The next highest is Agility, at twenty. Dexterity wouldn’t be helpful for your combat role, and you’d have to put eleven points into it in order to make Agility a lower stat. The ratio would still be excellent, though. That’s a forty-six-point increase.”

“Ah, no,” Thea shook her head as she quietly objected to the line of thought. “I d—don’t mean that. I mean, the name. Of the s—skill. It sounds… risky.”

That did bring some pause to the others. While words like Debauched and Licentious certainly conjured lewd imagery, they were still fairly nebulous terms. They could mean practically anything sex related, and some things that weren’t for that matter. Exhibitionistic left little room to wonder what form the ritual was going to take.

“Eh, what’s the big deal?” Kerr shrugged as best she could considering the position Alex currently had her in. “So what if a few dozen soldiers see us fucking through a window or something? I mean, if anything, it’s kind of doing them a service. It’ll give them something to wank off to when their feeling lonely in the barracks.”

Aside from the general stir of outraged and embarrassed comments that suggestion brought up, it was the Demon in the room who offered a more workable solution to Thea’s concern.

“The temple… Priests…”

“That’s a good point,” Jay said as she grinned at her demonic lover. Turning to the others, she elaborated to make sure they all understood the intention behind Alex’s words. “If we need to, we could perform whatever exhibitionistic acts the ritual requires at Lyssandria’s High Temple. Having the priestesses their watch or whatever would be a lot less embarrassing than a bunch of random strangers off the street.”

Stolen story; please report.

“They’ve seen all of us naked before, anyway,” Syd shrugged.

“The idea of… performing in front of a group of temple priestesses doesn’t put you off?” Eir asked with a mix of curiosity and trepidation. “They would be people you know by name.”

“I mean, I’m not thrilled about it,” Dys said as she looked up at the ceiling. “But it doesn’t upset me or anything, either. I kind of got the jitters out of my system when it came to the thought of others knowing what we’re doing alone a while ago. We aren’t exactly subtle.”

“Besides, if Kerr and Aila can do what they did in that one restaurant that one time, I bet we can find ways of doing this ritual without being caught,” Syd cackled mischievously.

“What did they—?”

Severina’s question was cut off by Aila loudly clearing her throat.

“Focusing on the task at hand, please. I think we can all agree that Exhibitionistic Accession and Vital Overflow are both excellent options.”

The statement was met with various nods and murmurs of agreement. However, since nothing had been said on the topic yet, Jay brought the point up.

“No one objects to Salacious Transposition?”

“Fuck no,” Bridget exclaimed loudly. “That skill is… Fuck, I don’t know. It’s mad!”

“Even though we can’t gain one of your extraordinarily powerful passive skills from it,” Aila explained with a little more depth than the excited orc, “we would still be able to gain powerful passives from others. Alex alone had multiple exemplary passive skills that would be incredibly useful when applied to others in this room. And that’s not even taking into account future skills that any of us could be unlocking this very night.”

“Exactly what I was thinking,” Jay grinned in agreement. “I just hope whatever ritual it requires isn’t too extreme.”

Her comment was made in conjunction with a significant look towards Alex’s swollen belly. Jadis had not been able to have penetrative sex with her demonic lover for a while, since there were concerns about the safety of the baby. That hadn’t stopped them from having a lot of other kinds of sex, but it was a strong limitation, at least until Alex gave birth to their firstborn child.

“I suppose we won’t know until you confirm your selection,” Eir said with a fond look towards Alex.

“That said,” Aila pushed forward with the discussion. “All we truly need to decide is which option is the better one between Sleep of the D and Delayed Needs of the Body.”

With everyone’s thoughts reoriented to the task at hand, the conversation proceeded quickly. When it came down to it, both of the rituals were powerful utility spells that could be put to good use, in the right situation, though they had their limitations. Breaking them down to their basics, the choice was between better, faster sleep, or a delayed need for nutrients.

The initial thought was that Delayed Needs of the Body was the least useful choice. There weren’t many situations where Jadis and her companions had been without food or water for an extended period of time. There were far more times where they had been in dire need of a good night’s rest and hadn’t been able to get it, at least not fully. By that standard, Sleep of the D was the better option.

However, as Eir and Thea both pointed out, it wasn’t all that long ago that their smaller group had been lost in the dark caves under Weigrun. Not having to worry about food and water in that situation would have been a great boon to them all. Sure, the need wasn’t likely to be frequent, but if they were ever at a point in the future where water was in short supply, Delayed Needs of the Body would be sorely desired.

While it was a good argument, the counter to it that ultimately won out was the fact that Sleep of the D had no true expiration on the effect. Once Jadis created the Eldritch Sign, whatever that was, on the enclosed space, then they would have a permanent spot where sleep would be greatly improved. Since the spell description only said it needed an “enclosed space” they all agreed that it was likely that the Leviathan would make a suitable location for the ritual. It would be a straight improvement to their travelling lives overall if they could achieve better rest while sleeping inside their airship. And furthermore, even if the eldritch sign couldn’t be applied to the Leviathan, the ritual could be used on their room back at the capital, which would have a different, yet still desirable effect.

“We could get so much more fucking in at night if we didn’t have to sleep as much!” Kerr cajoled the others to agree with her way of thinking. “Imagine going a full night with all of Jadis, and not being worn out in the morning because the three hours of sleep you got between dick and dawn was more than enough! It would be awesome! Tell me I’m wrong.”

“I think Kerr has a really good point, actually,” Syd said with complete seriousness. “I mean… I would have loved to have had that effect the night before we left on this trip.”

“I hate to admit it, but I agree with the perverts,” Sorcha nodded along. “I think we’d make too much use out of that spell to pass it up.”

“I agree as well,” Eir smiled with a twinkle in her eye. “Less need for sleep will be very useful once the babies are born.”

That point brought the whole room up short for half a second. Then, a chorus of voices rang out as one.

“You’re taking that ritual spell.”

“Fucking take that spell!”

“Dear gods, please take Sleep of the D.”

“Alright, alright,” Jay held up her hands to stop the deluge. “I get it, I get it! No arguments from me! Sleep of the D it is.”

With that final decision made, Jadis had picked the four new skills she’d gained for her secondary class. All three were ritual spells, which was a small surprise, but they were all powerful and useful, which wasn’t a shock at all. As Jadis ran through her notifications and accepted her choices, the requirements for performing the rituals entered her mind. She tried not to get distracted by the system-generated knowledge since she still had her tertiary class skills to go through, but she couldn’t help at least a little bit of a comment.

“Oh, those rituals are going to be fun…”

“Nnnm, I want to know…” Kerr whined. “Don’t tease!”

“I can show some mercy, for now,” Jay shot a look at the tangled therion. “But I’m moving on. We’ve got a lot of skills to get through, and not just mine.”

Indeed, there was a ton of discussion left to be had before everyone’s new levels had been addressed. They couldn’t waste too much time with teasing and banter. Even if it was fun.

Mentally reviewing the skill selections she had available to her for her tertiary class, Jadis realized that this part was going to be both easier and harder than the past two discussions. Easier, because she could already spot a fair number of skill options that could be immediately excluded thanks to the criteria that Aila had set up. Harder as well, though, because Progenitor of the Succubi was a weird class and Jadis really didn’t know what to expect from it. The options she was already seeing were… well, some were expected. Others certainly weren’t.

There was an additional issue that Jadis caught on to halfway through reading the skill descriptions. The problem hadn’t come up with either Mirror Knight or her Ritualist class, but it was rearing its ugly head for her Progenitor class. Jadis had seven levels that gave options to select from, going from level seven to level nineteen. While she could take a skill that had been offered to her at an earlier level to fill a higher-level slot, the system would not let her do the reverse. If she didn’t like either options given to her for level nine, for example, she couldn’t fill that level’s open slot with an option from level eleven. She’d have to take one from level seven, or earlier. That limited her flexibility, though it wasn’t the worst situation to be in. She just had to keep aware of the restriction.

Having read through all the notifications for her tertiary class, Jadis started by mentioning the ones she wanted to exclude first. She doubted anyone would object to her assessments, but she wanted to be certain she wasn’t missing something, which was a big reason why they had these group discussions.

There were two passive skills available to her that boosted her attributes, but did not increase her Eldritch stat. Since they were for her Focus and Will, and her Fortitude and Resilience, she felt confident they could be skipped, which everyone agreed to. Passing them over quickly, Jadis described another passive skill that she considered a low priority. Considering it would only increase her Fortitude and Resilience while she was in the nude, she didn’t think it was a worthwhile trait to have. Jadis had no intention of becoming a bare-naked barbarian in this lifetime.

Another passive skill Jadis had little interest in was one that would mitigate the effectiveness of diseases on her, so long as she was pregnant. Beyond the fact that she didn’t like the idea of taking skills that improved her stats that were only in effect while she was with child, she considered Eir to be her true protection against disease. Considering how powerful a healer the oracle was, it just felt like a superfluous skill to take.

On the same vain of thought, Jadis crossed out a spell option that would allow her to put pregnant women at ease. It was a nice thought, since it was long lasting and would largely erase the pains that her lovers would no doubt suffer once they unpaused their pregnancies, however it really wasn’t that great of a spell. Wasting a whole skill slot just to soothe sore feet felt ridiculously indulgent. Besides which, it only worked on women Jadis had herself impregnated, so its use was severely limited.

The next option Jadis read out to everyone was a little harder to dismiss, though she still felt like it wasn’t the best option to take. It was an omni-boosting passive skill, meaning that it would increase all of her attributes at the same time by fifteen points. That was a nice boost no matter how a person looked at it. However, it came with the caveat that Jadis had to be pregnant for the effect to be active. Again, Jadis didn’t like the idea of being dependent on being pregnant for a skill to work. She fully planned on having many children, however, she wasn’t going to turn herself into a baby-making factory, either. There was the option to get pregnant once and then just leave the fetus on pause indefinitely, but that felt cold to Jadis in a distinctly undesirable way. She and her lovers had only paused their pregnancies because they weren’t ready to settle down and raise children, not with the demonic invasion still going on. Pausing the gestation of a future child just to increase her own power made Jadis curl her lip in disgust.

Even after explaining her line of thinking to the others, the omni-boosting skill was only sidelined, not excluded. As Aila pointed out, it was okay to take a skill that was only useful under specific conditions. Once Jadis was at the stage that she didn’t need to pause her pregnancy, she probably wouldn’t need the omni-boosting skill anyway. So, the skill was shelved, not discarded, depending on the other available options.

The final skill that Jadis felt might not be worth it was a spell called Defensive Surge. Reading the description out for the others to hear, she found that she was still on the fence regarding it.

Defensive Surge

Active Spell. Expend all of your current magic pool in a single attack. Damage done by the spell is dependent on the amount of magic expended. Cost: variable. Range: touch.

“That has the potential to be a powerful last-resort attack,” Severina mused aloud. “Or an opener meant to quickly finish an opponent.”

“Potentially,” Aila agreed with some hesitation. “I don’t like that it doesn’t give a damage ratio, though. Is it one to one for the magic expended, or is there a multiplier?”

“It also doesn’t say what kind of damage it does,” Sabina pointed out, this time looking up from the etching she had been working on non-stop for the past fifteen minutes. “Physical? Arcane? Elemental? I mean, it comes from a class where the primary stat is Eldritch, so I doubt it’ll be a Divine smite or anything like that, but I still wonder what the actual spell effect would be. Oh, what if it does something weird with the body, like some of those Eldritch curses can do?”

“I don’t want to think about that right now,” Sorcha blanched at the suggestion. “I’m sure anyone Jadis might use it on would deserve it, but that shit can be stomach-churning.”

Jadis’ only experience when it came to possible Eldritch spells intended to do damage came from things she’d seen Demons do on the battlefield. With that thought in mind, she was a lot less interested in taking the spell that she had been a moment before.

“That doesn’t mean it isn’t still a good option,” Aila let out a little sigh. “Though one thing I will say is a true weakness of that skill, is that in any situation where you are using it as a last resort, you probably won’t have full magic reserves at hand. I’m certain you will have already expended a lot of magic on other spells, so at that Defensive Surge would have diminished effectiveness.”

“Good point,” Dys nodded along as she ticked off the spell in her own mental list. “Better news, though. If I exclude that option, that means all my choices have been made for what I am taking. At least, as long as none of the remaining options have a flaw to them that I didn’t notice.”

“I’m going to start reading them off,” Jay said as she shifted around in her seated position. “Starting with the one I have to take at level seven and going up from there.”

Progenitor’s Occultism

Passive Skill. Increase the Eldritch Attribute by 15 points.

The skill was just a basic passive boost to her Eldritch Attribute. Nothing fancy, but solidly useful. The only noteworthy thing about it that Jadis could say was the fact that it was a fifteen point boost, which was huge for a level seven option. As good as Jadis’ Mirror Knight class was, even it was only getting ten-point boosts at that level, and those had been split between two different attributes. The only other class that could compare was Alex’s Paladin of Jadis class, which also gave a fifteen-point boost early on.

“A fair choice given the other options for that level,” Aila nodded as she scribbled along in her journal. “What’s next?”

Convergence of the Progenitor

Active Skill. Regenerate magic power at 5 times the rate of the Will attribute. The proper form of meditative stance must be maintained during the duration of the skill’s use, or the effect will be cancelled. No other skills or spells can be in active use during Convergence of the Progenitor.

“Now that is an excellent skill,” Aila said, her tone impressed.

“Almost identical in nature to my prayer skill I use for magical recovery,” Eir commented as she tilted her head in thought. “Only better, as mine give me a force multiplier of three, not five.”

“Yeah, but does she need it?” Kerr asked. “I mean, any time she wants, Jadis can just suck her own cock and refill that way.”

By that point, Alex had finally set Kerr down and the therion had resumed her former position next to Thea. She wasn’t groping the poor brunette anymore, but that didn’t stop her from making lewd gestures to accompany her crude words.

“That clearly isn’t always an option,” Dys rolled her eyes.

“True,” Kerr cut in before she could continue. “Have to save some of that sweet cum for Aila, huh?”

“It’s a solid alternative to increased magic recovery,” Jay stated firmly before an argument could start between the archer and the arcanist glaring at her. “I like it. Better than the Naked Defense one, anyway.”

“What else you got?” Bridget asked gamely, clearly amused by the stare down going on between Aila and Kerr, but eager to move on.

“This one I’m less certain about…” Jay murmured before reading it out for everyone.

Skew the Legacy

Passive Skill. Set the likelihood that your progeny will be a particular race. This skill cannot guarantee the outcome of an impregnation, but it will heavily affect the odds.

“I mean, is it really necessary?” Jay said after finishing the description. “I don’t think I need to dictate whether my children are Nephilim or not.”

“I disagree,” Severina argued before anyone else spoke up. “You are trying to rebuild your entire race, are you not? This skill would greatly aid you in that effort, since it would help make certain any children you have with other Avatars like myself are Nephilim rather than Seraphim or Cherubim. Additionally, you are the progenitor of the Succubi. If this nascent species is to flourish, you may need to help their numbers along early on.”

“Those are… actually really good points,” Jay said after a moment of consideration.

“It would also help make sure Severina gets her wish of having a Seraphim heir,” Sabina pointed out. “Which would be great for her, since I know she needs to make sure her family had a continuation of their house lineage and all of that! It’s a good choice for both of you!”

It was barely an instant, but Jadis was watching Sev, so she noticed when the Seraphim’s cross-shaped eyes went wide at Sabina’s words. Clearly, she hadn’t actually thought about how the skill was helpful for her own goals and had instead focused entirely on how useful it was for Jadis. However, that fleeting look of surprise was almost immediately covered by an expression of self-assurance.

“Exactly,” Severina nodded confidently. “We both win.”

“Fair,” Jay agreed while doing her best not to smirk at the Seraphim. “I guess that one’s locked in. Next one I know you’re all going to like.”

Progenitor’s Blessed Recovery

Active Spell. Boost the natural recovery rate of the target after they give birth. Any minor complications that stem from delivery will be lessened if not outright resolved. This spell cannot heal major complications. Cost: 50 magic.

“It kind of steps on your toes as a healer,” Syd said as she looked at Eir. “But it doesn’t cost much magic-wise, and it could save us all some trouble in the long run.”

“I think it’s an excellent idea to take that spell,” the elf smiled at her brightly. “I can easily heal any damage that might be done during a rough childbirth, but I cannot decrease the natural recovery period that all new mothers go through the way this spell indicates it can do. Please, you should choose this spell.”

Eir’s words were followed by a chorus of agreement from the others in the room. While they were all looking forward to being mothers, none of them were eager to experience the pains that went along with motherhood. Anything that lessened those aggravations was welcome.

“Then there are just three options left,” Jay said as she ran her gaze over the group. “Honestly, these are the three that I had the least concerns about taking, so unless anyone sees any issues with them, I think I’m set.”

“Awesome,” Kerr grinned at her. “What are you waiting for, then? Spill the wine already!”

Jay grinned back at Kerr, then read all three options out without a pause between them.

Progenitor’s Prenatal Protection

Active Spell. The target’s unborn infant will receive increased protection from physical damage. This protection extends to the mother’s womb but does not otherwise increase the target’s overall Fortitude or Resilience. Cost: 50 magic. Duration: 1 month.

Aura of Fertility

Passive Skill. Emit a constant aura of fertility with a range of 100 feet. The longer an individual remains within your aura, the more potent the effect.

Progenitor’s Protective Sanctuary

Active Spell. Designate a space as your physical dominion. Any who enter the designated area with hostile intent will experience sharp but harmless pain and will emit a distinctive glow for 15 minutes. The size of your sanctuary is dependent upon the amount of magic put into the spell. Minimum cost: 300 magic. Duration: 1 year.

While all three choices were great as far as Jadis was concerned, the one she was most excited about was the Aura of Fertility. The whole time she read the description, she maintained eye contact with Eir, whose expression shifted from calm happiness to momentary disbelief, then ecstatic joy. Before she was even fully done reading the last option for the others, Eir had leapt forward to be in Jay’s arms.

“It will work, won’t it? It will work?” the elf murmured as she pressed her face into Jay’s neck, creating a wet spot with her tears. “Soon, yes? It will work soon?”

“I’m positive it will,” Jay assured Eir as she stroked her back lovingly. “Not even a question.”

While Eir happily sobbed her overwhelmed emotions into Jay’s embrace, Aila quietly cleared her throat to catch everyone else’s attention.

“How about we take a short break? This seems like a good time to stretch legs or maybe get something to drink.”

“Sounds good to me,” Bridget said as she ducked her head to hide the tears starting to well up in her own eyes. “I’ll make a run to the kitchen. Any requests?”

“Gods I wish I could ask for wine,” Kerr smiled as she watched Eir fondly. “Just make sure you bring a lot of whatever you can get. I think we’ll be here a while yet.”

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