Blessed by Night

Chapter 83  No Longer Human?

"Luna tried to take you to the hospital but... apparently Nyx appeared in front of her and told her that such a thing wasn't necessary. " Sei explained. "What? Why not?" As a response, Sei looked like she was having a hard time figuring out what to say. "Honey... that form you took... how much can you recall about it?" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Not a lot for real... I just know that I was crazy powerful."

"Well, yes... but that form also seems to have killed you in a sense."

"Say what now?"

Sei tried her best to recall Luna's explanation that was filled with terms that she didn't understand. "Well, basically in that state you were something like like sentient darkness and energy and because of that your physical body was completely destroyed...

Apparently after you returned to normal you were still only a layer of skin over that swirling mass that Luna described... over the past few days you literally have been regrowing your flesh and bones."

Malachi already felt like his head was going to explode, but a sudden voice that he was all too familiar with nearly caused him to leap out of his skin. "That's right, isn't that cool?"

"KYAAA!!"

"WHAT THE HELL!?"

Nyx had appeared as she always did, silently and wearing a beautiful and radiant smile.

She was sitting casually in a chair in the corner of the room, wearing her usual black dress with no shoes. "Fufufu~ The two of you should be more aware of your surroundings. This is why Serana has almost caught you two in the middle of your intimacy so many times before."

""Ah...""

The couple looked at each other briefly before making a silent vow to be more careful in the future. "Anyway, this is what it means to accept me as your mother, Mal. The power at your disposal is truly great, but I must also warn you of something."

Nyx's tone became uncharacteristically serious, and Malachi knew that whatever warning she was about to give was a stern one. "If you use that form too much, you will cease to be human."

It seemed like all sound had been sucked out of the room and both Malachi and Sei stared back at Nyx with shocked expressions. "What do you mean?" Sei asked in a hushed voice. "I mean that his body will be just as it was in the dungeon, the avatar of night itself. Continued usage will cause his body to become permanently accustomed to the changes, and as a result he will be something more than a blessed, less than a god, but undoubtedly not mortal.

He won't need to sleep, eat, or piss, and he will heal from even the most grievous of wounds so long as they are not... special in origin."

So far, Mal was hearing nothing but benefits. So why was his mother still acting like it was such a bad thing?

"But... it also means that you will not be able to have children and that you will be truly immortal... and that is a very lonely road.

Those girls Luna and Bianca will live for a few hundred years, but sweet Sei here and that cute little... oops, I've almost said too much." Nyx said as she covered her mouth.

Mal's entire body suddenly tensed up. Living without the people he loved by his side... it was a nightmare that he didn't even want to consider. He and Luna might not have been in an official relationship yet, and there were still things to be sorted out with Bianca but he was knew that he enjoyed their company beyond belief.

And what about Aisha, Aubrey, Serana and even...

'Anna...' Mal was surprised when such an unfamiliar name bubbled up into his mind, but he could not help but admit that the beautiful young woman had caught his eye and begun to grow on him.

Relationships aside, he had never thought about having kids before.

But he couldn't say for sure that he didn't want them, and he also wasn't sure how the girls felt about them either. More than anything else, he believed that he'd like to have the option. Now he wasn't so sure if he ever wanted to use that power again. "Tsk."

Nyx suddenly made an annoyed expression as she clicked her teeth, signaling that her time here had run out. "I'm sorry, my son but this will probably be the last time I'm able to visit you for a while. I wish I could stick around to help you make a decision, but unfortunately even we gods do not get everything that we want."

She stood up from her seat and came beside the bed and took the hands of both her son and his girlfriend.

"I will support you two no matter what decision you make, I just wanted you to be aware of all of the options that lie in front of you." Surprisingly, the she gave the two of them a light kiss on the forehead before she vanished right before their eyes. Malachi and Sei sat in silence for a moment after Nyx left, and it was clear that both of them were still trying to process everything that they'd just heard. Finally, Mal decided to break the ice and asked the very uncomfortable question. "Sei... are you-"

"Honey."

Sei suddenly straddled Malachi and took his face into her hands. "When I decided to be with you, I was already prepared for the reality that I might die before you do... and as far as kids are concerned... I did not enjoy being pregnant the first time around so I got my tubes tied after Serana was born."

Suddenly Mal remembered that he and Sei had never once used a condom and he always finished inside of her. Blessed generally have lower birth rates, but with the amount of sex the two of them had he should have already figured that there was some sort of extra factor at work.

Tears fell form both of their eyes as they shrugged off their clothes and embraced each other like it was the very first time.

"So I don't want you to let me interfere in your decision. You do whatever you feel is best so that you can protect us."

As always, Sei's words were incredibly genuine and seemed to hit Malachi directly in the heart. As he pulled her in for a kiss, he realized that there was no way he could ever live without experiencing the sensation of these lips at any point in his life. Tears fell form both of their eyes as they shrugged off their clothes and embraced each other like it was the very first time.

Or the very last.

-

In the morning, Mal got up despite Sei clinging onto his arm in her sleep. He wanted to stay in bed with her and spend the entire day intertwined, but after last night he felt like he had to do something with himself or risk going insane. Since he was technically still in the middle of working on a project, he texted Anna and asked where he should meet her today and received an almost immediate response. After he ensured her that he was fine to be out, she texted him the address of the music shop where she worked and told him to meet her at 10.

He got dressed in a simple outfit of black sweats, a compression shirt and slides before he prepared to leave his house. Serana seemed to have left already to work on her own project, and didn't seem to be aware that Mal was awake yet. 'She sure did leave me a lot of messages to read when I woke up though..' He thought as he looked at his phone. Not just her, but his sister and practically everyone from immortal moon had wished him a speedy recovery. It made him remember the girls that were wounded alongside him, and he silently decided to go and visit them before the day was over.

Opening the door to his apartment, he was surprised when he found the very beautiful Luna Autumn standing outside looking flustered. "Luna?"

"H-Hello!" She said politely. Mal could not help but notice that her cheeks were unusually pink. And judging from the way she was constantly avoiding his gaze, he concluded that she did not expect him to be awake.

"I'm glad you're okay... you have no idea how worried I was..."

"Sorry to scare you." He said with a helpless smile. "You know I'm the type who has to make things interesting."

"Fufufu~ Yes, I do."

It seemed like his attempt to break the ice had been somewhat successful as Luna no longer seemed to be as tense as before.

Now that she was more relaxed, she was able to tell him about the gala that she was throwing for the guild and a few special guests. After raiding that last dungeon the value of immortal moon shot up tremendously and they were now one of the top 5 richest guilds in the entire world. As such, Luna was in quite the celebratory mood. "You're free to bring dates of course, I'm sure that Sei will be delighted to... Oh?" Suddenly, Luna came closer to Malachi and stared hard at the diamond shaped mark on his forehead. "No wonder we couldn't find the beast egg... when did you fuse with it?" "I'm not too sure." Mal said honestly as he tried not to peep down Luna's shirt. "When I woke up that mark was just there but I don't feel any different." "You won't notice anything until your beast actually hatches but who knows when that will be. Nonetheless it seems like you've got your hands on a great treasure." For some reason, Mal found Luna's bright pink eyes to be particularly beautiful this morning, and he felt like it would be easy to get lost in them. "Yea...I really do." Luna suddenly became aware of just how close she'd gotten to Mal, and she was reminded of the last time they were close together like this.

"Mal... do you remember what you said to me in the dungeon?"