Juliet saw a feminine figure appear a few seconds after she had called out Jacob’s name. She experienced a flood of emotions through the Ancestral Bond. This was clearly someone Jacob knew.

“Epagogia?” Jacob's voice got stuck in his throat.

“Jacob? What the hell happened to your body?”

A woman came out of some Spiritual Herbs bushes. However, calling her a woman was maybe a stretch. She had some particular characteristics.

For starters, her skin was not pink but a mix of purplish and blueish. Also, she had two big horns by the side of her head, close to her skull.

“Wow,” Juliet said, seeing a gigantic giggling pair of—

The woman not only had horns and a violet-like complexion, but her hands had claws, and she had a tail too.

But if you asked Juliet what truly struck her the most, it would be the minimal amount of clothes the woman was currently wearing.

“Epagogia? How are you—”

The woman ran toward Jacob in her skimpy dress and hugged him.

“Oh, Jacob! My God! I thought you were dead! I told you not to go fight the goddamn Black Dragon! But then, I thought I had just died. So how did I come back to this weird world and at the start of things too? And why are you so short and scrawny? Where did all the muscles go? Did you thing shrink too?”

Jacob’s face was buried in the woman’s breasts, and he could barely breathe.

“Who the hell are you?” Juliet asked, astonished by her familiarity with Jacob. The woman was extremely tall and had a figure that humans could only reach through repeated plastic surgery.

“Who am I? Who are you, little kid. Wait, are you a female or a male? I can’t really tell from the chest. I don’t remember if your males kept their hair long or short, weird tailless pink creatures,” the woman sneered, finally releasing Jacob from her grip.

“Jacob?” Juliet looked toward him. However, Jacob was so confused that he could barely muster any speech.

“Epagogia? What, how—”

“Honey pot, I wish I knew! But it’s nice to be back with you!” she bent forward with her soft and full lips looking for Jacob’s.

“Woah,” Jacob backed up before the situation escalated.

“What’s the matter? Embarrassed because of the little boy with you? I remember you not caring that much when we were living together.”

Juliet finally lost it, feeling all sorts of emotions for herself and through the Ancestral Bond.

“Ok, one of you, either you start talking, or I burn you to ashes,” Juliet summoned the Phoenix’s Fire.

“Uh, the little boy has the Phoenix’s Fire! But, oh my, sugar, does he have some sort of Phoenix Constitution? And is the old goat of the Phoenix Sect still around? Ah, I’d be damned if I don’t go smack his ass right now if he is!”

Jacob was so overwhelmed by the bombastic person that only the huge rise in temperature from the Phoenix’s Fire woke him up.

“Wait, Juliet, wait! Put away the flame! For God’s sake!” Jacob pleaded and gestured to Epagogia to stand down.

“This is…” Jacob didn’t know how to explain himself.

“His beautiful girlfriend!” Epagogia coiled her arm around his and her tail around his waist.

“Your what?!” Juliet spluttered.

“From my past life, Christ. This is absurd. It doesn’t make any sense. The Plate brought me back, but I had no idea it could actually do something like this. The implications are terrifying. What if Karma is involved,” Jacob started talking so rapidly neither woman was following his trail of thoughts.

“Come on, little boy, calm down! No need to be angry with me! I can introduce you to some cute Devil too!”

“I AM NOT A BOY, I AM A GIRL!” Juliet shouted.

“Oh, really? Well, sorry for your chest then. You looked like a boy to me. You can easily tell Devils’ gender apart at a glance. It’s harder with you flat-chested humans.”

Juliet brought her hand protectively around her chest, mightily offended by such remarks.

“Ok, can we just stand down for a second?” Jacob asked. “I have no idea about what’s going on, but I need to sit down before I get a stroke.”

And so he did. Jacob sat down and breathed in and out.

“I have no idea what’s happening here, Epagogia. But please give me a second to process all this.”

“Oh, ok,” Epagogia kept her springy attitude and did not sit down, though.

“Juliet, this is Epagogia. Epagogia, this is Juliet. She comes from St. Peter, my city. She has the Sacred Queen Phoenix Constitution, and she saved my life in a terrifying battle against some low-leveled Charybdes.”

“Oh, wow, Jaji-boy, you already fighting Charybdes? Didn’t you tell me that your country, Jadaly, whatever it was called, didn’t have to deal with them at the start of the change? And a Sacred Queen Phoenix Constitution? Wow, she’s going to be strong. Too bad she has a flat chest, and you already have a girlfriend, right?” Epagogia mused.

Jacob looked at Juliet dark frown and knew what was coming next. He felt something halfway through jealousy, possessiveness, and hate from the Ancestral Bond.

“Well, nice to meet you too, Epagogia. Jacob saved my life at the start of this ‘change’, as you call it, by using the Ancestral Bond Technique on me,” Juliet's smile was wide and toothy.

“Oh, Jaji-boy did what now?” Epagogia narrowed her eyes.

Jacob closed his eyes and laid down on the ground, feigning death. He was not ready to deal with all this right now. He had had a terrible conversation with Juliet not even an hour prior, and now Epagogia, out of all people, materialized there.

Jacob remembered reading the Divine Comedy – the greatest Italian literary work of all time – where Dante used to faint whenever it was more convenient for the narration. Right now, Jacob really wished he could faint on cue.