Children of a Lesser God

After a few deep breaths... and then a few more, Laz was ready to begin.

Strangely, he noticed that Malene looked a little flushed and couldn't help but say,

"Relax. It's only me and Ruby here and I will be gentle."

How could Laz know that Malene was being watched by more than just Ruby? Behind her phone's camera lens was also Kennedy, Leona and Vivi. Even if they were all as close as sisters, that didn't mean that it would be normal for them to be naked around each other. Especially when it involved Laz.

"I know," she said, although he face still turned a bit redder.

Laz just let out a breath before summoning the black flame. Spreading out his spiritual sense to inspect energy pathways of Malene's body, he noticed that she was also observing closely as well, along with Ruby.

Despite having the two onlookers, Laz felt relaxed as he went to work.

Having done this twice on others and once on himself, Laz's movements were quite fluid. He was surprised at first. Malene had been awakened a bit longer than he had meaning that her pathways had been used for a longer period of time. Due to this, it seemed like they were quite a bit more firm in their orientation that someone who had just awakened, or even his own. The difference was small over all, but there was a difference.

Seeing Laz pause, Ruby's voice entered into his mind.

:Is something wrong?: She asked.

:No. But seeing her pathways compared to my own or someone who has just awakened, I noticed that there is a big difference in the stiffness of them.:

:Does that mean something?: She asked, concerned.

:No. It just makes me think that improving the pathways is best done as soon as possible and that the longer you wait, the less flexible they become.:

:Good to know.: Although Ruby was speaking, Malene was listening. As such, both girls made a mental note as Laz continued.

This was their strategy to begin with. One person to observe and one to experience. They felt that this would lead them to having better success when they tried doing it in the future. Due to this, Ruby asked a lot of questions. Even Malene posed a few when she was able to. For her, the process didn't really hurt, but it did feel uncomfortable at times, causing her to be distracted.

They both gained a lot as Laz's hand moved the flame around, improving her flow of energy, strengthening weaknesses and fixing slight imperfections.

It was, in almost every form, a rebirth.

When he was done, Malene's body shook as waves of energy from without came pouring in while she cycled her energy around. Seeing this, Ruby took out a small chunk of crystal and held it close to her. The crystal was giving off pulses of energy that Malene's body greedily absorbed into itself.

Just when the surge of energy looked as though it was done, Malene's body suddenly turned black as a smell spread out into the room.

As soon as Malene opened her eyes, she noticed the smell, looked at her skin and yelled.

"EECCCCCKKKKK.".

She suddenly sprinted for the bathroom to clean herself while Ruby was just looking at Laz in mild shock. She knew what had happened and she also knew that this type of cleansing and strengthening was very special. Seeing that Laz could cause this to happened made her eyes light up.

She didn't care about the smell at all. Instead, without a word, she undressed, pulling the dress up over her head and letting it hit the floor. She then walked over to Laz and pulled his arm, causing him to rise from the bed. Before he could ask questions, she yanked the top cover off of the bed and threw it into the corner before dragging him back to the bed and laying down.

Reaching up, she grabbed his shirt at the collar, pulled him down into a kiss while wrapping her strong and well toned legs around his waist.

Just when Laz thought he was going to lose control, she whispered,

"Do me next. Right now."

Laz blanked for a moment before laughing.

'She's always like this,' he thought to himself. He started to understand that these girls he was involved with were really crazy about getting stronger. While there was an opportunity in front of them, nothing else mattered.

Laz then took the time to examine Ruby's body before beginning the process.

Before long, she was finished as well. And just like with Malene, the whirlpool of energy began flooding into her, further powered by the crystal she had left sitting next to her.

Once again, after the energy rush concluded, Ruby's body pushed out a messy layer of impurities, causing her tanned skin to turn a dark color and sending her running for the bathroom to clean off.

Seeing that he was now alone and the room really did smell awful, Laz just casually went back out to the balcony, poured himself a drink and sat down. Putting his feet up on the railing and leaning back, Laz looked out on the lit up city with a sigh.

"Am I really going to do this? Am I really going to lead a bunch of people into god knows where because some giant talking bird told me to go? Honestly, what the hell is wrong with me? And what the hell is this thing really? Who the hell ever heard of black fire? The flames make it look like some sort of bad cgi effect. Sigh... I'm not some sort of hero and yet I keep getting myself involved with shit..." Laz had once again started questioning himself. With the big event on the horizon, it was hard for him not to. And while doing so, he was even speaking out loud since he was alone.

It was a bad habit he had picked up since separating from Vivi.

He had no idea he wasn't actually alone though. The three people watching from the other side of a phone did their damnedest to control themselves, not that it would have mattered. Ruby had turned the volume off after all. Originally, she was just doing this so everyone could hear Laz's story. Then it stayed on to watch the procedure.

But now, it was recording the musings of Laz about his insecurities, something that was far more revealing than anything else he had done since arriving.

"What's wrong?" Malene asked with her hair still wrapped up in a towel. She was currently wearing a white tank top that was skin tight alone with loose blue shorts. It was an outfit that screamed comfortable, something Laz hadn't seen her in before. Every time before, she was always dressed to impress so this change was a bit staggering.

But only for a short moment. Laz could put two and two together and understood that her comfortable clothes indicated that she was comfortable around him and didn't feel the need to try to dress up more than needed.

"Nothing really. Just thinking to myself some thoughts." Laz replied taking a drink while his gaze drifted back to the city.

After having dried her short hair the best she could, Malene threw the towel aside and sat down on Laz's ŀap, making herself comfortable.

"What thoughts?" She asked while taking a sip from his cup.

"Where do these powers come from? How do we get what we get while others get something different? Is it really because of some sort of blood infection?" Laz shared his more general concerns keeping his lack of faith in himself a secret.

"Well... about that. Actually, we've always wondered the same thing. And to be honest, we have a bit of an idea." Malene said, stroking Laz's chest.

"Really?"

"Yeah. So like I said, this is only a thought. But. Have you ever heard of Ragnarok?"

"The Norse's myth of a great world changing battle?"

"Yeah. So what if it wasn't just a myth?"

"Seriously?"

"Go with me here on this."

"Ok. Go on." Laz felt like this might be a stretch, but since he didn't have any ideas, something was better than nothing.

"Our world and the various cultures in it have many legends and many myths. Up until now, people just assume they are either downright lies or fabrications or exaggerations of things that happened in the past. But what if aren't? And better yet, most of these things are ideas from people about the past, which we consider to be only around 3,000 to 5 thousands years old. But what if those stories take place much earlier than that?"

"This..."

"Wait, let me finish. Also, a lot of stories seem to have things in common with each other. What if they are really just second or even third hand accounts of things that happened in the past as told by stories that were past down, from one person to another? At the beginning, the story would be accurate or at least more so than what would be told thousands of years later. For example, one of the beliefs of Ragnarok is that at the end of the great battle, the world would be covered and drowned in water. Then you consider the great flood of Noah? And sure, Christianity is one of the youngest religions on the planet, but they get their stories and what not from somewhere right? Even if it is just a collection of pagan beliefs that had been drawn together by people thousands of years ago. Either way, when you go back far enough, there are many similarities between religions and the things happening on Earth."

At first, Laz was too convinced, but as Malene spoke more, some things started to make sense. Thinking about something else though, he couldn't help but ask,

"So... what about gods? Most religions believe in several gods and it's only the newest ones that have a single ruler..."

"Gods. Tell me, if you were a god of one country and you came into contact with the god of another country, how would you react? How would they react? A massive war between the leading powers of the times? Haven't we already had two of those in the last 120 years?" Ruby said as she walked over.

Pulling up a chair, Laz noticed that she was still wrapped in a towel around her body and her hair, obviously having just crawled out of the shower. Laz couldn't help but wonder if she had at least put on underwear, but he soon saw the answer was no after catching a quick peak of her hidden valley.

Seeing Laz's gaze, Ruby's face lit up in a smile. She pulled over another chair and sat down right next to Laz, mutter something about Malene taking the best seat in the house and proceeded to grab Laz's arm and hug it like a body pillow. She even sniffed it a few times, almost causing Laz to have a reaction.

"So... if that's the case... then?" Laz said, coming back to the story.

"So think about it. If people with our abilities were alive back then, what would the normal populace say about us? And more importantly, if you consider Ragnarok itself, didn't they have two sides that couldn't stand each other? One side being gods while they called the other side monsters or the ice giants in their language?"

Realization suddenly hit Laz.

He knew what they meant, what they were getting at.

Then didn't that mean?

"So... you're say.... we are the descendants of monsters?"

"Not just the monsters. Even the gods liked to fuck other creatures. Remember the minotaur? The wife of that god, Minos, let a bull fuck her, claiming it was because she was bewitched. Girl was just a hardcore sŀut if you ask me pinning for some bull cock. No... what I'm saying is that we are the bastard race of what was left behind when everything was over. One on hand, you've got the purebloods over there, or what we call the chosen. And on the other hand, there is us. We are what's left." Ruby said, grabbing a drink for herself since Malene had taken Laz's. She then poured him one as well and left him to sit with his thoughts.

How much of this was true or not... perhaps only the remaining gods knew?

He felt that one day soon, he should ask them.