The crimson ocean washes against the shore, red waters crashing against the stones and the pink crabs that litter the beach. Tree roots sink into the thick waters, filtering the water and absorbing the mana contained within. The few crabs stupid enough to try gnawing on the roots are swiftly dealt with.

“The creatures of the ocean are fickle and cruel. They do not consider our lives as equal to theirs,” I tell Adler, recalling what the ferrets told me. “They only respect beings of the water.”

“I still think this could be going too far,” Adler says. “Do you have to do this now?”

“If they’re as difficult as I’ve heard, then it’s best to make contact now while we have time to work with them. If we delay, we might end up at war before we even have a chance at diplomacy.”

“Are you sure you’re not just looking for an excuse to get out of the house?” Adler asks. “I mean, I do love them, but taking care of the kids is draining.”

“I’m still around the house,” I say.

“Your machine is, and you know that the kids don’t like that body of yours,” Adler says, shaking her head.

“I was tempted to have a machine built to do this dive, too,” I say, avoiding the real topic. “I just need to practice my Skills.”

I may be distracted by motherhood, and my attempts at running a school, but I haven’t given up on my own self-improvement. The most interesting and challenging of which is transformation, through the use of my extended mana control.

My summoned claws are easy enough to manifest, but to become a creature of the ocean, I need more than just claws. I need a tail.

I need to be a mermaid.

Exchanging my legs for a tail is unacceptable for obvious reasons, but the trick is that I don’t need a real tail just the effect of one. Cosplayers have already beaten me to the punch here, but they’re the reason I got the idea in the first place.

A functioning mermaid’s tail that covers my legs, that’s the goal, and it should be possible.

“I’ll start now, flow your mana through it and try to… whatever you do,” Adler says, resting her hands on me and the massive fish beside me. We need to build my tail from something after all.

I slowly cycle my mana outwards, claiming the flesh that crawls up along my naked legs. An intense surge of nausea rises inside as I burst out of my own body.

My sense of self and identity warps as I feel the extra muscle like a tumorous flesh rapidly growing around me, cocooning me deep inside. My heart pounds heavy in my chest, and I swallow the sour saliva filling my mouth.

“It’s going fine,” Adler says, brushing back my hair. “You look rather pretty like this, though I might be biased as the healer designing you.”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to be rude to my wife,” I say.

“I don’t remember having any marriage ceremony,” Adler says, laughing lightly.

My lower body is covered in metallic pink scales, ending in a wide tail that’s partially transparent. It’s the image of a mermaid’s tail, encompassing my ass to the tips of my toes.

My mana flows a little steadier through the new flesh now that I can see its true shape. I try to kick up my new tail, but it’s heavier than I thought.

“I haven’t finished on the internal muscles yet,” Adler says, resting a hand on my tail to steady me.

“This isn’t going to be perfect,” she continues. “It’s just packing flesh on top of your legs so while it will look fine, it’s not going to have the same power and musculature as a real tail would.”

“But this way, I can just strip it off afterwards,” I say, watching the flesh ripple around, adding mass to me.

“Yes,” Adler nods. “When you reach a breakthrough in healing magic, or one of the other specific magics that allow for transformations, you’ll be able to do this part yourself.”

“I’m not sure it’ll be that easy for me,” I say. “It’s difficult to accept my own body being reshaped. It’s just… it messes with my head. A breakthrough would be difficult given that.”

“Perhaps,” Adler says. “Or maybe you just need to focus on changing yourself to suit your own image. If this mermaid’s tail is comfortable enough, perhaps you can use it as practice for learning to adapt to the new magics?”

“It’s worth a thought at least,” I say, shivering as my naked legs crawl with new flesh filling out the space between skin and scales.

Down in the house, Nel and Vii are taking care of the kids. My mechanical body is with them, but none of the kids much like it. I’m just hanging around the edges awkwardly.

As much as I’ve grown used to taking care of the little ones, I feel more and more lost. It’s like I’m not doing enough, like there’s something I’m forgetting, or something more that I could be doing for them, but I don’t know what.

“You could’ve left this mission to us,” Leai says, her tentacled hair wrapping around her fingers. “We’re naturally suited to this job, don’t you think?”

“Fighting in the waters, sure,” I accept, “Diplomacy? No way in hell. Which is why you are here as my guards, not my ambassadors.”

“With you here we won’t get any fun fights!” Leai says, pouting only to break out into a cheerful smile moments later. “It is fun to be fighting together again.”

“I’ll leave the fighting to you,” I say. “I’ll step in if things get particularly dangerous. I get the feeling there’ll be a few monsters down there that’ll be too much for you.”

“Yay!” Leai cries out in joy. “Did you hear that, sis, we get to fight and we’ll have the empress herself personally cheering for us!”

“Yes, I heard,” Seia nods obligingly. “We will have to take good care of her, no?”

“We will,” Leai says, bouncing in her step. “Are you ready to go yet?”

“Are you?” Adler asks, “I’ve done all that I can.”

“It’s better than I was expecting,” I say, slowly moving my legs back and forth, flipping my tail in the shallow waters. “It’s functional, I think I can get used to it.”

It moves how I want it to, and more importantly, it should earn me a certain basic respect from the underwater society that I’m reaching out to.

“Let’s go,” I say, calming my breath and focusing on the movement of mana through the false flesh… no not false flesh, but additional flesh. A prosthetic that is as much me as my mechanical body is. An extension, not a tumour.

Slipping into the shallows, I kick my tail through the water. I can feel the pressure of the water on my scales, but not anything so clear that it makes me uncomfortable with the new tail.

Like a massive set of flippers, the tail catches the water and launches me forwards with more power than I was expecting. I skim through the thick currents nearly crashing into a large crab.

While I have power, it’s a little more difficult to steer myself.

“Yeah, this isn’t so bad,” I say, using my force magic to steer me back to Adler.

“Then, if we’re done, I want to return before the babies forget about me,” Adler says.

“Hey now, who do you love more, me or the kids?” I ask, affecting a fake pout and poking out my tongue at her.

“The kids,” Adler replies coldly.

“You’ve only known them for a few weeks,” I say laughing, “I guess they are cute in an ugly sort of way… when they’re not shitting.”

“Or screaming,” Adler adds, groaning. “I’m still not sure if Tanya likes me much.”

“That’s just Tanya, she was born with a grumpy face.”

“You shouldn’t say that,” Adler says. “When she starts to understand you, she’ll remember it and start to hate you for it.”

“I love her grumpy face, though,” I say. “It’s like she’s an angry old man, I mean even when she poops herself she glares at me as if she’s trying to tell me that she can deal with it herself.”

“That’s what I’m talking about. It’s the sort of thing you should avoid saying around her… even if it’s true,” Adler admits, chuckling to herself. “Good luck and be careful. I know how you can be biased against ‘ugly’ people, and I have the feeling that you’ll find many where you’re going.”

“It’s not that I hate ugly people,” I cry out. “I just naturally assume that ugly things aren’t people.”

“However you want to put it,” Adler says. “Would you like someone killing one of our kids because they seem ugly, and ‘not a real person’?”

“Ugh,” I drift back a few metres. That’s a little too close to possible. From the right angle, our precious little kids don’t seem like much more than writhing, squirming little grubs. Especially when seen from the perspective of an intelligent tree or squid.

“I’ll be careful,” I promise.

“Be back before they forget what you look like,” Adler says, waving me off as she takes her leave.

I race away into the ocean as my mecha-me body steps closer to Vii and the kids.

The house is exactly as I left it, and Vii is stirring up a breeze just from running about. Tanya is giggling in her arms, her hair flying about from the stirring wind.

I think that’s the first time I’ve seen that kid genuinely seem happy. The others are a little more what I expect of a baby, a chaotic blend of happy and laughing, crying and shitting. I honestly don’t know how people back on Earth handle all this with just the two parents, especially those who have triplets or more.

Eamon gazes up at me in confusion when I enter the room. His big eyes wide as he crawls toward me.

“Come on, it’s me!” I say, opening my arms wide as I approach. He just stares at me and starts hitting me with his wings and crying.

“No, not this again!” I moan, trying to calm him.

“They don’t like the fake you,” Vii says, laughing as she takes little Eamon from the crib and starts to rock him back and forth in one wing while cradling Tanya in the other. She spins around and they start laughing and giggling.

“It’s still me,” I complain, crossing my arms and leaning back against the wall.

“Well, they don’t like what they don’t like,” Vii says. “You should be glad they like the real you better than the fake, it’d be horrible if it was the other way around, wouldn’t it? Like they only like the robot you?”

“Yeah, sure,” I grumble, crossing my arms over my chest and focusing back on my diving expedition. If the kids don’t like me, then there’s not much I can even do around the house.

I feel useless again, I don’t even know what I’m supposed to be doing, but I should be doing something.

“Kyra, did you waste countless priceless resources having that body constructed just to use it to sit about moaning?” Nel asks, “If you have nothing else to do, then come with me and help with the cooking.”

“Why don’t we just get one of the chefs to make something?” I ask.

“It’s not the same,” Nel says. “Now come along, it will be good for you to learn a thing or two about cooking.”

“Do we have a microwave?” I ask, following her into the kitchen.

Meanwhile, our diving expedition is progressing smoothly, or at least it seems to be going smoothly.

The thick rust in the water provides a dark haze that’s nearly impossible to see past. There’s no ground, and nothing in sight, just an endless impenetrable haze. I don’t know where exactly we’re going, or what we might find when we get there.

I’m pushing ahead, forging through the unknown hoping that I’ll be able to overcome whatever challenges appear before me all while doing my best with what I have.

Leai and Seia are having a better time of it, or at least show none of the same hesitancy that I feel in my bones. They move a little more confidently in the water, directing flows of pressure to direct them through the sea. My own writhing is rather pitiful by comparison.

My efforts in the kitchen are just as ungainly, but Nel is a good teacher.

“Hey, hey you. What are you doing?” the chirping comes from deeper than I can see.

“Are you talking to us?” I ask, spitting bubbles into the ocean.

“Yes you, do you see anyone else in these parts?” They reply. “Wait you’re cursed. You can’t see much, can you?”

“Not really,” I say, keeping my guard up and scanning the waters around us. “We’re new around here and the water is much clearer where we come from.”

“Clearer? This is clear,” they say, surging up from below. A dark shadow blooming through the world below, it’s large but not massive. The darkness resolves itself into something… less than terrifying.

It’s an octopus, if the creatures of the ocean were all designed by cartoonists aspiring to be the next Walt Disney. Its massive eyes glow faintly but it’s somehow adorable rather than terrifying, the twelve limbs that I see are colourful little banners rolling through the thick waters.

“So, what’s got three cursed ones floating through these dangerous waters?” He asks. “You guys get your homes wrecked? Lost? I can help if you need it.”

“Cursed?” I ask.

“Yeah, you’ve got all those pale floppy, land dweller parts,” he says.

“The elvish parts?” I ask, “Is that a problem?”

“I mean, is it?” he asks, floating up and around us. “Most cursed ones struggle to survive, but if you’re okay with it no one will give you trouble or anything. Or they shouldn’t.

“Wait, is that why you’re here? Were you driven out of your homes for being cursed?” the big guy, Pi, from now on, puffs up in rage. “Tell me who they are, we’ll send them to the shore if they’ve done anything to you.”

“That’s not it,” I say, waving my hands to try and calm him down. “We’re new, we live in the dungeon and wanted to see what was going on out here.”

“Oh, is that it?” he relaxes, looking us over a little closer. “Is that right? Well, all are welcome down here in the deeps, just respect each other and be prepared to share.”

“Is there anything we need to worry about?” I ask. “The surface is rather violent, and the monsters on the shore aren’t the most welcoming.”

“They’re the ravaged,” Pi says, bobbing in the water in way of nodding. “Their minds are gone, they’ve been too far away from the collective, or they’re outcasts.”

“The collective?” I ask, my gut sinking as I think of another Unity.

“It’s great,” Pi says. “We’re all one great big community down here, we decide on everything together. Everyone’s voice is heard, it’s nothing like the surface world.”

“I heard it was a democracy?” I ask.

“Yep, we decide on everything together,” he says.

“What about the waves?” I ask. “We encountered one on our way down, and it was rough.”

“Ah, I’m glad you made it through. A terrible thing that,” he shakes his tentacles. “I’ll explain on our way down, you did want to meet everyone didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I’d like to see if we can’t trade or work on an alliance, or something,” I say.

“I’m sure we can figure something out,” Pi says. “We have to work together to keep the waters free.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stats and Skills

~Mana Form:

Current mana crystallisation:

-2.1% at 78,231 (Stage 2)

-97.9% at 60,892 (Stage 1)

Current mana volume: 30,450 / 30,450 shards

Mana volume at Stage 1 crystallisation (Max. mana volume):

Kyra: 30,271 shards

Kyra’s armour: 20,777 shards

Kyra’s throne: 1,109,298 shards

~Forms

Mana Canon

-Annihilation Heart (Adapted)

-Blood Fuel (Adapted)

-Bone Magic Storage (Adapted)

-Nail Shifters (Adapted)

Dancer

-Flash Nerves (Adapted)

-Quick Perception Mind (Adapted)

-Burst Reflex Muscles (Adapted)

-Layered Space Muscles (Adapted)

Turtle

-Rebinding Tissue (Adapted)

-Catalyst Sweat Glands (Adapted)

-Repulsive Skin (Adapted)

-Prehensile hair (Adapted)

-Fatty Tissue Blood Storage (Adapted)

Investigator

-Wide eyes (Adapted)

-Wide ears (Adapted)

-Sharp nose (Adapted)

Misc.

-Clean bowels (Adapted)

-Mana Drive (Adapted)

~Favourited Skills:

Magic:

-Annihilation Magic (Customised)

-Fire Magic (Functional)

-Space magic (Broken)

-Force magic (Functional)

-Ice magic (Broken)

-Wind magic (Broken)

Movement:

-Hand-to-hand casting (Mastered)

-Mana surge movement (Customised)

-Stealth (Functional)

Senses:

-Eyes of an Empire (Customised)

-Combat Awareness (Mastered)

-Watchmen (Functional)

-Hidden bug (Mastered)

-De-tagging (Mastered)

-Anti-stealth sight (Mastered)

Special:

-Spirit Transformation (Broken)

-Conformity (Broken)

-Training mana form (Functional)