(At 10 years and 1 month old)
(3rd person PoV)
Henryk was finally able to introduce his triplets to the pair of dragon bunnies. He initially wanted to bring his children to Orario for a visit, but he decided against it. He could feel it. His sons took after him. While they were not exactly introverted, they liked to keep their human interactions to a minimum.
After some convincing, he managed to bring Nephelont and Eucleia to Preblica instead. Nephelont expressed the desire to go flying in, which Henryk approved of. A small scare after a long while would not hurt anyone, he thought.
And thus, we are here, with Nephelont and Eucleia both in their dragon forms flying over to the village. The alarm bells were rung all over the village. Monsters were not supposed to come as close as they did, not as fast or steady as they did.
"KHAAA!!" Nephelont and Eucleia roared in unison. Henryk insisted they did. The addition of red lightning arcing all over Nephelont made it even worse. Nephelont, getting carried away, cast a lightning spear that remained in his hands. He kept it in his hand as he approached the wall and watched as the guards and the people fled in panic.
Eucleia was not finding joy in this, but participated, nonetheless. Henryk did rope her in by saying that it will help them remain alert to outside threats. She was motivated to help once their state of defense was mentioned.
Even during that chaos, one of the guards, Shane, was able to glimpse that Henryk was not making a move. Rather, he was holding back a laugh. 'That bastard! So this was just another elaborate joke from him from the start!'
"HENRYYK!!" The old man ran up to Henryk and drop-kicked him off the rafters.
"Pfftt! Uncle Henryk was thrown to the ground!" The people, hearing this dragon talk, halted their steps. They slowly but surely put two and two together before turning towards Henryk with all kinds of unpleasant glares. Henryk was chased down by an angry mob while Nephelont landed inside the walls, in human form, and started laughing uncontrollably at his uncle's situation. Eucleia hurried over to cover him with a cloak for now.
(After Henryk was given a well-deserved earful by Arnold)
Nephelont was now wearing clothes that Eucleia carried in a bag with her. As for her, she was talked into being okay taking on her dragon because her clothes will stay intact in some sort of subspace.
Nephelont had only came to his senses after minutes of laughter. Once he stopped laughing, he started taking in the scenery of the village. To take a better look, he started taking into the air again, remaining in human form. He flew around the entire village and took in its farms and homes. The livestock grazing, the children now returning to their games after everything calmed down; it was a different view from Orario's.
When he returned to Eucleia, he saw a swarm of the village's kids surrounding her and asking her questions. Having become accustomed to Henryk's antics, kids and adults alike, the villagers became capable of brushing aside their worries once it was proven that it was his doing. As a result, the kids even thought that it was cool that Eucleia could do with her falna things they could not.
It seems that Nephelont arrived when Eucleia was making new friendships with the kids here. They were chatting with smiles and eyes brimming with interest. Eucleia had already taken her sling out and was talking to them about it and some of their dungeoneering stories.
Nephelont ran towards them screaming. "Don't leave me out!"
Unfortunately for Nephelont, some of the boys were at an age at which they started admiring the appearances of girls around their age. It did not help that Nephelont was already too tall for his age.
"Another pretty girl..." To his dismay, they called him pretty, and the wind picked it up for him. Nephelont stopped dead in his tracks and glared at them very intently. He was upset.
"Nephelont's a boy! You dummies!" He shouted with tears in his eyes before flying away.
Poor Nephelont grew up to have his mother's face and voice. Little by little, he grew up to resemble her more than anyone else. While he enjoys the fondness that appearance of his deepened between him and Ais, he dislikes that he is regularly and consistently being mistaken for a girl recently.
He did not fly for long this time before a shadow passed by and snatched him out of the air. He was kidnapped by a predator that terrorized the skies of Preblica for the last dozen years.
"Fey hunted a flying Mr bunny~!" Fey was the culprit. She was asked by Henryk to bring the two of them to his house in the village.
"Put me down! Put me down!" Nephelont, affected by the remaining human instincts in him, forgot that he could transform to force himself out of Fey's grip. He started pulling himself closer while trying to claw his way out of Fey's talons.
"Fey! Enough scaring the kid!" Henryk shouted from down below.
'Scared? I was scared of what again? The ground? I can just fly or, better yet, transform' Nephelont was hit with the realization like a tidal wave. He took the wind from around Fey's wings, making her plummet to the ground.
"Whaaah!!" Fey screamed. This was the second time in her life that someone did this to her. She knew what to do. She just had to let go, so she did.
Nephelont floated down gently but let Fey nearly crash-land before letting her regain control of her flight.
"Take a dose of your own medicine! Fey!" Nephelont said triumphantly. It was not every day you get to defeat Fey.
"Good job, little man!" Henryk smirked. He did not have the heart to punish her for playing with her younger stepbrothers so dangerously, and she knew it. He let them be because she never endangered them, and they enjoyed it. Henryk was still concerned, however. The kids did not have their first update yet, even after 11 years.
(Inside the house)
"Oliver! Hugo! Arthur! Dad's home!" Upon Henryk's announcement, a loud shuffling noise was heard from somewhere inside the house. "A storm's coming..." Henryk braced himself.
A shadow launched itself from behind some doorframe, latching onto Henryk's face. Henryk tried to get away but failed. The first shadow was followed by another two, clinging to Henryk's arms.
"Mom!" Three tiny, happy voices called. "We caught dad today!"
'This is what family does to a man. I let myself lose, they enjoy the game, I see them smile, win-win' Henryk chuckled a little. He plopped onto his back, completely surrendering.
"Shira! Help! Our little kittens tied me down! Help me out!" Henryk tried lifting them up, apparently to no avail. He was enjoying this hunter-prey game so much.
"Final Blow!!!" Shira shouted something before joining in on the fun. She threw herself into the mix as if to aid her children in holding Henryk down.
"Oh no! What am I to do?!" Henryk let himself go limp at this point and talked in a scared and panicked voice.
It was then that the three boys and their mother recognized the smell of people who were new to their house. Shira recognized who they were, but the boys did not. The three of them looked up to see Nephelont kneeling down and poking Henryk's sides, checking if he was okay. They looked to the side and saw Eucleia giggling at the endearing sight.
"Welcome to our home, Nephelont, Eucleia" Shira said while rubbing her face all over Henryk's chest before standing up. The boys did something similar with the parts they had a hold of before quickly rushing to hide behind Shira.
"Welcome" The three boys said shyly. Having clung to either side of their mother, Oliver and Arthur left Hugo with no place to peak from, forcing him to hide partially behind Oliver.
As Henryk stood up, Nephelont was surprised that he never noticed him transforming. Henryk now looked the part, displaying the same general racial image Shira has. It was the same transformation he showed Nephelont over a year ago. At a later time, Nephelont would ask Henryk and would be told that Henryk wanted to look like his wife and kids, that it would make them feel a little closer.
Nephelont's eyes drifted back to the boys. While they looked more like their father, they still had a very apparent feature from their mother, her platinum blonde hair... and fur. Their eyes were heterochromatic, meaning that they were like his, one having a different color than the other. They all had an amethyst-purple, gemlike right eye and a viridescent-green, vibrant left eye. They also have four ears and a fluffy-looking tail.
(The amethyst purple color is clear in everyone's imagination, I would assume. This is the Hex code for the degree of green I meant #32CD32)
"Come out, my little kittens. These two are the friends dad told you about" He talked to his children with such care and softness that it weirded Nephelont out of his skin for a moment.
'This isn't the uncle I'm used to!' He felt a great sense of dissociation. He only recovered from it moments later when Henryk jabbed his shoulder. The triplets were fine witnessing this interaction. They have seen it before, that their father has a soft spot for them and their mother, that he only acts that soft for the four of them and no one else.
"Uncle, you are a big softie!" Nephelont pointed an accusing finger at Henryk with a victorious smile, as if he had a hold of one of Henryk's weaknesses.
"Regardless" Henryk brushed Nephelont's comment aside, upsetting him. "What say you about our home?"
Nephelont and Eucleia looked around. They noted the ridiculous number of wooden swords, spears and sticks with strings hanging from one of their ends. They recognized the unstrung bows, as they have seen Henryk string one before. Not to mention, they have seen Riveria finishing up her daily bow training and unstringing her bow repeatedly. It was a familiar sight to them.
"Uncle, why do you have so many weapons lying around?" Eucleia asked. Between her and Nephelont, she was the one who was more interested in many different types of weapons even if she would not wield them in battle herself.
"It's a family tradition from my side of the family. Don't worry about it" Henryk reminisced about how his home in his old world looked while his parents were alive. He practically lived amongst a forest's worth of wooden blades and spears. He was taken out of memory lane by the feeling of being hugged soothingly by his entire family.
'Mom, dad, the time is near' He thought happily as he hugged his family. He quickly let go as not to let the two guests feel left out.
"Now, your mother and I will leave you to play with these two friends. They're the ones I talked to you about" Henryk patted their little heads. As he did so, he noticed Shira's tail flicking around impatiently. She wanted what he was giving to their children.
'Jealous Shira, a sight often unseen' He marveled, earning an urging stink-eye from her.
"Alright, alright!" He let out an amused laugh. He gave her what she wanted as they walked away.
"Dad! Mom!" Their boys called out to them. "Can you keep watch?"
Henryk looked at Shira. She nodded.
"What about playing near Grysia? Shira and I will be sitting under her shade while you play" Henryk suggested to the pleasure of all the kids. The kids kept playing all kinds of games and fighting with wooden weapons all day long while Henryk and Shira sat under the great tree, leaning on each other.
The kids started slowly and somewhat stiffly, but got swept up with the games' pace, opening up to each other quite quickly as the day went on.
(At 10 years and 5 months old)
"Uncle! Where are you?" Nephelont was hunting for an elusive lifeform. Henryk was playing hide and seek with him. For this session of hide and seek, Nephelont was absolutely forbidden from using the wind to detect Henryk. It added to the challenge, and the satisfaction that followed.
Henryk left the little fellow clear signs of where he went, guiding him towards a certain place within the forest they were playing in. When Nephelont stepped into the intended spot, Henryk jumped him, binding him in rope.
"Hey! I'm the seeker!" Nephelont whined.
"And I'm a hider that was bored of playing the part" Henryk said as he undid the rope. "A lesson you'd do well learning; no prey's prey forever. It could always decide to fight back or ambush its predator. Be wary"
"By the way, uncle" Nephelont prepared his most useful weapons, his hopeful eyes. "Can you break my limits again? I want to do the same before trying to rank-up to level 4"
(Flashback, at 9 years and 4 months old)
"Uncle, when should I rank-up to level 3?" Nephelont said before taking a bite from his rations. They were currently in the dungeon, after Nephelont resolved himself to train harder. Nephelont noticed the difference in strength between him and Eucleia. That spurred him to go on his own dungeon dives with Henryk alone. He did not want to be weaker than Eucleia, who is already quicker to learn new skills compared to him. He still enjoyed playing with her, but he also wanted to be the stronger one. It was not for any particular reason. He just felt like he must be stronger than Eucleia.
"Have you reached S rank on all parameters?" Henryk said as he opened his lunch box, "Lovingly made by your wives!" written on it with three distinct handwritings. He somehow managed not to have all three of them fighting over him. Looking at the message, he smiled. 'Now that Hephaistos and Ais knowingly took the brunt of the experiment, and knowing that both Nephelont and Eucleia didn't display any weird mutations, I can finally proceed without the fear that I will bring children to this world only for them to be suffering their existence from birth'
"I reached the limit a few days ago" Nephelont said. For some reason, his sclera turned black.
Henryk took a look at Nephelont, deep in thought about a certain subject. 'I have broken through the soft limit of S999 before. Now that he is old enough that he should start making his own decisions, I should give him the chance to make them'
"Kiddo, it'll be deathly painful, but I could help you break the barrier to surpass the S999 limit" Henryk said.
Nephelont gulped. Although he became accustomed to it, to pain, and the thrill of a fight that it comes with, he did not like pain. That reflected on his fighting style. Even if the hit would not injure him, he avoided or blocked it. Nephelont was eager to surpass the limit, he really was, but his unwillingness to experience pain held him back. He needed a push.
"Let me ask you something, Nephelont" Henryk took him out of his thoughts. "Do you want to be the one who protects Lia?" 'Bell and Carillon might attempt murder if they knew of what I'm doing to this little guy'
Having his eyes opened to that possibility, he shook his head and his eyes' sclera blackened even further while his pupils became even thinner slits in anticipation of the pain he was determined to power through.
"Nephelont wants to be able to protect Lia!" He momentarily lost control over his scales, which now covered his cheeks and hands.
'Take a load of this guy! To think he treasured her this much! Their friendship is just too precious!' Henryk was fawning over the bundle of overflowing cuteness and innocence in front of him. Without being told or compelled to do it, Nephelont chose to endure the pain he did not even know the extent of, all so he could protect his friend.
Henryk chanted his magic, casting the spell on Nephelont. What happened there and then should never be spoken of.
Still, Nephelont was satisfied with the results. All five parameters went beyond the limit, even if by a little.
Months later, he hit what Henryk called the mild limit. That was around SSS1699. Nephelont elected to go through that pain again. He later hit a hard limit of EX1999, which Henryk's magic could not break through for him.
Nephelont's rank-up to level 3 involved the massacre of a horde of minotaurs and almirajs. He was reluctant to hurt a monster that was the spitting image of his father, but Bell's encouragement made him less reserved about it. Albert was standing on the sidelines, nervously watching over his precious grandson.
(Flashback end)
"Alright. Be prepared. The procedure is more painful the higher your level is" Henryk started chanting without giving Nephelont much time to brace himself for the incoming pain.