(Jamie)

"There's someone in our room," Max and I say in unison when we reach our door, then look at each other.

"I'll go in first," he tells me. "I'm better-equipped to handle whoever they are."

I nod, then he opens the door and enters, stopping just inside and not moving. I look past him and find a boy around ten or so sitting on my bed, with black hair and blue eyes, dressed in shades of red.

"Hello, Max," the boy's smile is kind, but his words drip with venom. "Did you really lose track of Jamie earlier? Despite my instructions to train him and ensure he survives?"

"Father-" Max protests, and the boy holds up a hand.

This boy is his father? He only looks ten, how could he-

Unless this isn't his real form, much like that isn't Max's. As the ancient god begins to reprimand Max, I enter the room and close the door, focusing on the being sitting on my bed, doing my best to see through his illusion.

For a moment, something flickers in my vision, too quickly for even my heightened AGI and PER to allow me to discern.

New Skill! Perspicacity Passive Your eyes see through illusions and deception, and even those in other forms are laid bare to your gaze.

Wait, what did he just say?

"No," Max shakes his head, trembling.

"I said," the god's voice reverberates through the room, shaking it with the sudden shift to a deep, thunderous voice filled with magic. "Get over here and bare your ass!"

He did say that…

Max begins to walk towards his father, but from the strain on his face, I don't think he's willing. His father is a scary being if he can force people to obey his commands like that.

I continue to focus on the god, doing my best to see his real form as Max reaches his father and bares his ass, then upon another command, bends over his father's knees.

The god begins spanking Max, and judging by the vibrations and the thunderclap, it is not light.

The god's form flickers every now and then, giving me a glimpse of his true appearance, and I manage to get it to last longer and longer, until Perspicacity rises another Level. I continue to push, eventually seeing the god's true form along enough to make out what it looks like.

He looks like a human child with his transformation or whatever, but that is not what he really looks like. At all.

His true form still has a similar-sized body, but with a more adult face. Not, like, a dwarf person's kind of face, but just an adult face. His eyes are a swirl of red and gold, no pupils or whites at all, a third one above the slits for his nose. A pair of crystal-like horns protrude from the sides of his head, curving inwards and back. His ears are a little bit pointed.

I'm not sure if he's really naked and using an illusion for clothes, or if, when I see their true form, I see them, and just them, but the form I see is naked, without hair and with plenty of muscle, even if still slender in form.

His skin isn't red or black, as I expected, nor does it have the odd coloration of Max. Instead, it is pure gold in color, with a series of crimson runes glowing around his body, the runes shifting and changing every moment. If I blink, they're all completely different than before.

A pair of silver, feathery wings with red flecks extend from his back, somehow both contained in the room and extended fully to a span that should push it through the wall to his right.

I focus on Max, pressing until I see his real form, and determine that I see just the true form, nothing else, then return my gaze to the god, who stares down at his son with an uncaring gaze as the Demigod has been reduced to tears, resigned to the spanking he cannot escape.

When the god finally stops, he shoves Max off his lap.

"You're pathetic," the god says. "A Demigod of your caliber should be capable of keeping track of a mortal like Jamie no matter the situation around him, even if he's not used to crowds in a mortal settlement. Learn your lesson well, son, and don't do it again. At least he was able to adapt to this one through the random proc, but it is not always something that can happen just because the situation calls for it. He can handle a fair bit more now, but if he ever enters a situation like that again because of your negligence, this will seem like a fun thing."

The god slides off my bed, then smiles at me.

"Hi," he says, his childish voice bright and cheerful. "I'm Max's dad, Itimar, the God of Chaos. Sorry you had to see that, but my son's arrogance nearly cost you your life, and he needed to be punished.

"I'm sure we'll meet again," he tells me. "But for now, I will be going. Enjoy the Skill you managed to acquire and Level without Limitless Adaptation, and good luck with your Classes and continuing to Level your Skills, due to those boosts my son caused you to acquire."

He gives his son a quick glare, then vanishes in a swirl of darkness and fire.

I walk over to Max and check on him. He's sore and can hardly move, so I help him undress, then lie him on the bed. His ass is so red right now, though he doesn't look broken, despite the beating and helplessness he must have felt.

He looks furious.

I soak in the bath for awhile, cleaning my body and relaxing, then head to bed.

When morning comes, I wake to find Max standing at the table, eating breakfast.

Guess his ass is too sore from the spanking to sit.

"Are you alright?" I ask.

"No," he grumbles. "I can't believe Father did that again."

"Again?"

"He does that to all of his children," he snarls. "Whenever we do something that heavily upsets him. It's infuriating! If I could beat his ass, I would!"

"You're not going to take my head off, are you?" I ask.

"What?" He looks at me, his anger replaced by confusion. "Why would I do that?"

"You're half-Demon," I say. "And you're very angry."

"I'm able to restrain myself, you know," he sighs. "It's clear I'm scaring you."

"Just a tad."

"Sorry," he says. "I won't hurt you, I promise. I'm just pissed at Father. The siblings are probably howling with laughter already."

It looks like that pisses him off just as much. Note to self: keep him away from his sister for awhile.

"I don't think," he tells me. "I'll be able to train for a few days, or even leave here much."

Which means I'll need to stay as well, unless I want to risk getting him into trouble some more. I nod, then walk over to the table and eat. Once we finish, I clean up as he lies on his stomach on the bed, moaning from the pain.

"Soak in the bath."

"No."

"Get your rear-end in the bath," I order. "Or I'm going to spank you. The warmth will help soothe your rear."

Oh, jeez. I just went into big-brother mode.

Max groans, but walks to the bathroom. I finish taking care of the breakfast stuff, then go to the bath and join him. He's sitting in the bath, leaning against the edge of it, eyes closed, face scrunched in pain.

I climb into the bath and join him, watching as he relaxes. It takes awhile, but he does.

"Jamie?" Max asks after an hour of soaking.

"Yeah?"

"What did Father refer to?" He asks. "About the Skill?"

"Perspicacity," I answer. "It allows me to see one's true form, whether they're in another or cloaked in an illusion, and allows me to see through illusions and deception. It lasts for about half a second for you at Level 2, but your father? Holy shit, it wouldn't stay around. It was so fast I couldn't register anything other than it occurring, and it would barely speed up as I tried, managing to reach Level 2 of it. I might be near Level 3, now, and I could barely catch enough glimpses that lasted just long enough for me to actually make out his real form."

"Yeah?" He asks, and I nod. "What color's his skin?"

"Golden," I answer. "With the same green as yours, only instead of swirls, they were runes that shifted and changed constantly. He had a pair of crystalline horns protruding from his head as well, and-"

"Okay," he holds up a hand. "Yeah, you saw it. Oooh, my ass hurts so bad."

"Did you gain any Stat Points from it?" I ask.

He cracks an eye open in a glare.

"It's a serious question."

"Six Endurance and two Constitution."

He got spanked over a thousand times by a god, and he only gained that many? Damn. How high are his stats?

We finish soaking in the bath, then dry off and eat a small snack. After that, Max lies down on his bed, and I practice in our room as best I can to improve my raw skills.