Rebirth of the Nephilim-Chapter 662: Train Wreck

There were times when Jadis simply did not have the time to properly process a situation. Even with her high attributes giving her advanced reaction times, the world around her would continue to move with or without her input and she was often forced to take action with only a fraction of a moment to consider what exactly her actions should be. Even with three bodies with three separate perceptions to see things from multiple angles, she wasn’t always able to take in the full picture.

This was not one of those times.

Her Dys and Syd selves were in the perfect positions to see the full sweep of reactions that her lovers had in the moment that they realized that Wilhelm, the Hero of Valtar, was holding a naked woman towards Jadis like a piece of accusatory evidence, and that the naked woman was, somehow, Amarantha. The spread of emotions ranged from shock, to confusion, to concern, to intrigue, to amusement, to glee, and finally all the way to smug satisfaction. If Jadis had had more time, she might have laughed at their many reactions, as they were such picture-perfect encapsulations of her lovers’ personalities. However, she had no time for laughter. Not with what she could see coming through her Jay self’s eyes.

From Jay’s perspective, Jadis could first and foremost see Amarantha. There was no doubt in her mind as to the woman’s identity. Sure, Amarantha was a Lares, which meant she should have been a small cat with fire for fur, but Jadis didn’t have any trouble accepting the abrupt change. For one thing, she was sort of used to it. Alex had been a tiny tentacle monster before suddenly showing up in the middle of the night as a much larger, far sexier, tentacle monster. Non-humanoids turning into sexy women around her wasn’t a new experience for Jadis.

For a second point, Jadis and her lovers had already discussed the possibility of Amarantha trying to become more human-like. The Lares had implied an interest in Jadis, as well as a desire to become more physically compatible with her. Jadis had suspected that the fiery cat person was trying to make a potion that would accomplish her somewhat nebulous goal of transformation. She just hadn’t known what shape that transformation would come in. Part of her had expected Amarantha to make a potion that copied Jadis’ form, so the Mystic would have ended up looking like a duplicate version of Jadis. Another part thought that her efforts would have made a potion that changed Amarantha’s race to be a Nephilim, just not a clone of Jadis. A very, very small part of her was worried that the mischievous feline was going to make a potion that was intended for Jadis to drink, which would have turned her into a Lares.

None of those possibilities had come to pass, it seemed. Instead, Amarantha had either purposefully or accidentally gone down a route that Jadis was privately thrilled to see, though she made sure to tamp down that response for the moment. There was a time and a place for everything, and this particular time and place was not the one for letting out her inner anime nerd.

Amarantha had transformed into a catgirl.

There really was no getting around it. Jadis had consumed a decent amount of anime, as well as hentai, back on Earth. Not so much that she was running around in cosplay or buying body pillows, but she had subscriptions to a few of the more well-known platforms that catered to the particular medium. So, while she wouldn’t rate herself as all that high up the totem pole of nerd hierarchy, she had witnessed her fair share of catgirls, and that was exactly what Amarantha had become.

She looked human, for the most part. A short human, but still mostly human. At a guess, Jadis estimated that Amarantha was around four feet and eight inches tall, give or take an inch. It was a little hard to tell exactly since Wilhelm was holding her up off the ground, but she was definitely sub-five-feet. Her skin was a pale, milky white without a single freckle or blemish of any kind. She was thin and petite, but she had surprisingly wide hips. Jadis couldn’t help but notice the thigh gap she had going on, though she was doing her best not to stare. What she couldn’t help but stare at, though, were the ears.

Amarantha still had her cat ears. Her face was human, and honestly an exceptionally cute one with big eyes, a button nose, and pink lips that couldn’t quite hide the sharp fangs that were poking out of her mouth. But her ears were still very much the triangular cat ears of a Lares, perched perfectly on top of her head. If Jadis hadn’t been able to recognize Amarantha from her two-tone green and blue eyes, she certainly would have figured it out from the cat ears.

Or the flames.

Probably the flames, realistically.

Despite having cat ears and a cat tail, Amarantha didn’t have fur. Nor did she have hair. She had fire. As a Lares, Amarantha had fiery flames instead of fur; that trait had carried over into her new, human-like appearance. Aside from the flames that covered her ears and tail, she also had long hair-like flames that spread out down her back, sort of like normal hair, except that it was still all very much fire and was burning like such. It was a weird sight, and a little harder to visually make sense compared to when she was a cat, but ultimately Jadis was able to just mentally box the unique look into the category of “catgirl with fire hair” and move on.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

All of these details were at the fore of Jadis’ mind, but only for a span of a few seconds. Unfortunately, she had to devote some of her attention to what she could see beyond the transformed Amarantha. Putting aside Wilhelm’s red-faced panic, Jadis could also see two more figures running up the path that led from the street to their building. In point of fact, she could make out a variety of confused and disrupted persons, some of whom were priests, others guards, and a few who looked like they were just normal citizens who happened to be walking by at an inopportune moment. While none of them looked harmed, a few were lying on the ground like they had flung themselves out of the way of some great, fast-moving danger. Or a man running with a catgirl over his shoulder. Aside from those people, however, and far closer, were the immediately recognizable forms of Jocelyn and Ludger, both of whom looked like they were just as panic-stricken as Wilhelm. Jadis estimated that at the speed that they were running, which was likely Jocelyn’s top speed but certainly not Ludger’s, they would arrive within the next five or so seconds.

Having the knowledge that Wilhelm’s best friend and his reciprocal crush were running up behind the man while he stood in the open doorway holding a naked catgirl up in the air for all to see left Jadis with several options for her next course of action. Since she had those few seconds to consider all of the possibilities, she came to the firm conclusion that the best thing for her to do in that moment was… nothing.

Sometimes, it was best to just sit back and watch the train wreck unfold.

“Wihelm!” Jocelyn yelped, her pitch shrill and full of panic. “Stop!”

“Willy!” Ludger shouted at the same time, his bellow cracking a bit as he rushed forward. “Come back!”

Wilhelm, in his bewildered and agitated state, swung halfway around at the sound of his name being called, though his attention was still on Jay. As such, he was only sort of half-facing into the room when Ludger, arriving slightly before Jocelyn, slammed into the Hero. The big man collided with Wilhelm like a freight train, wrapping his arms around him and lifting him off his feet as he carried him forward into the building. As he was tackled to the ground, Wilhelm let go of Amarantha, who was facing off to the right side thanks to the way the Hero had been twisted slightly to his left. The catgirl hung suspended in mid air for a fraction of a second before falling to the ground, landing on her two feet with a slight wobble before she reached equilibrium. Grinning at the success of having maintained enough balance to remain upright, Amarantha held her head up high with an expression of gratified accomplishment.

“Wilhelm!” Jocelyn called again as she entered through the doorway a second later.

The sudden shout caused Amarantha to jump forward in surprise, and the transformed Lares lost her balance and crashed to the ground in an inelegant mess that left her fluffy fire tail puffed and sticking high into the air, while her face was flat on the floor.

“Oh, Ammy!” the Oracle gasped as she spun on her heels. “I’m sorry!”

Jocelyn immediately went to Amarantha’s side and wrapped her up in a red blanket that Jadis just noticed she had been carrying with her. The Lares struggled a bit to right herself, seeming to fight with Jocelyn’s attempts to cover her up while also grumbling protests and obscenities under her breath.

At the same time, Ludger and Wilhelm were rolling around on the floor in a tangle of muscular limbs. While the Hero still had his armor on and Ludger was unequipped, it seemed that the blond man had something of an advantage over his shorter friend, at least in terms of grappling power. Ludger had managed to put Wilhelm into a headlock and was holding onto him firmly while keeping him sprawled on the ground.

“You can’t do that, Willy!” Ludger was shouting as he struggled with his friend. “Running around in public with a naked lady is obscene! What if everyone starts calling you Wilhelm the Lecherous!? It’s not right!”

“You just exposed Amarantha to dozens of strangers!” Jocelyn added, her own face red with embarrassment as she continued to struggle with the Lares. “She is naked, and you carried her around in public! That—that was indecent! And rude! Rudely indecent!”

“Who the fuck cares!?” Amarantha shouted with her typical sass as she managed to get her head out from under the blanket Jocelyn was attempting to wrap her in. “I don’t! I walk around naked every day!”

“You are not a—a cat, right now!” the Oracle replied with confused distress. “You are exposing yourself!”

“Literally everyone here has seen my butthole before!” the Mystic said with exasperation. “What do I care if they see it again!”

“It—it is not the same!” Jocelyn shot back with her own sort of put-upon exasperation.

“Get ahold of yourself, man!” Ludger was still shouting as he struggled on the floor with Wilhelm. “Absconding with a naked girl right in front of Jocelyn! How’s she supposed to feel about that!”

“Wai—what?” the woman in question blurted, her eyes doubling in size as she looked away from Amarantha.

“Ew! Like I’d let him mate with me!” the Lares scoffed while taking the opportunity Jocelyn’s distraction provided to wiggle out of her grasp. Crawling quickly across the floor on all fours, the catgirl slipped between Meli and Maeve’s legs, disappearing behind them with a final shout. “Jocy is the one he wants to breed with, anyway!”

“Ammy!” the Oracle squeaked in a voice so high-pitched Jadis thought she heard a window crack.

“Grr-argh!” Wilhelm made a noise not too dissimilar to a dying sea lion.

Deciding that the show had gone on for as long as was prudent, Jay crouched down so that she was closer to eye-level with the two struggling men. She reached out with her left hand and took Ludger by the shoulder, stopping him from rolling to the side while she addressed him.

“Hey Ludger.”

“Good evening, Jadis,” the blond man panted, though he put in the effort to display his usual bright and white-toothed smile for her. “I am sorry to disturb you and your own. This is all just a bad missverständnis—misunderstanding, I am sure.”

“Maybe so,” Jay agreed with a slight nod of her head. “I think we probably need to have a talk, though.”

“Agreed!” The man grunted as he adjusted his grip.

“But if we are going to have a discussion of any kind, I’m pretty sure Wilhelm is going to need to be able to speak,” she motioned towards the man whose face had turned from red to purple from lack of oxygen. “And breathe, too…”

“Ah, verdammt…”