"Trial number fifteen," Rory grumbled before yawning. "Eighty-eight percent noxious, eight percent blood, four percent heavenly…. And start."

Mentally counting down in his head the moment he saw the eggs ejected from the mite, right on schedule, at exactly zero seconds, the eggs burst open.

Immature Scourge Mite Empress

Level: 1

Sitting upright instantly, Rory's exhaustion faded.

Holy shit!

For hours, he had been experimenting with different mixes of conceptual elements, and his results had always been monsters that were little more than glorified locusts and leeches, looking to consume whatever was closest to them to sustain their growth.

This was different. For the first time, a Queen-type monster had been spawned that wasn't a direct Blight-variant.

As for the monster itself, whereas the Blight Mite Empress was like an inflated sack with spindly legs and a creepy tube proboscis, the Scourge Mite Empress was… not much better, to be honest.

Why…. Why does it look like a facehugger?

It was undeniable: the resemblance, with eight almost skeletal legs and a long, swishing tail. There were some differences at least: the Scourge Mite Empress was blood-red and charcoal black in color, with a pair of oversized, spider-like fangs.

Speaking of which.

The bound circle enclosure apparently wasn't large enough for two mite-type empresses, as the two squared off. Whereas with every prior monster Rory had made a point of stopping violence before it could occur, this time Rory made the executive decision to allow it to play out.

In the end, it was rather anticlimactic. His newest empress reared up on its long tail, its eight legs twitching as it lunged toward the original Blight Mite Empress. The Blight Mite empress attempted to defend itself, its proboscis lurching out like a speargun, but midair, the Scourge Mite Empress clutched upon the appendage, its charcoal and crimson-colored legs tearing apart the proboscis as the original mite empress made an odd squelching noise of panic.

Rory would be lying if he said he hadn't been rooting for the Scourge Empress. Having eliminated the one weapon of the original empress, it flared up once more before pouncing, its fangs stabbing into the flabby blight mite empress's body, the rest of its appendages holding it in place.

And there you have it: proof that just because two things are at the same level, it does not mean they are equal.

Having achieved total victory over its predecessor, the Scourge Mite Empress flexed its body. Like a blanket being unraveled after being tightly folded, its entire body seemed to split down the middle, as it used its skeletal legs to draw in the deceased or otherwise paralyzed blight mite empress into the center of its body.

Grisly.

Literally stuffed, when its body stitched itself closed once more, it was as if someone had pumped it full of air; the entire thing comically inflated like a balloon animal from hell.

Interesting.

Rory watched for over half an hour as its body began to deflate, and once it had returned to its regular size, Rory guessed as to what to do next. Taking the same concentration of conceptual elements that had given rise to its conception, Rory began to infuse a pile of conjured dirt with it. Yet as fast as he procured the stuff, the Scourge Mite Empress consumed it, unstitching its body and shoveling the stuff in, its entire body thrumming with a strange heat.

When it finally stopped gorging itself, Rory knew it was time to see if everything had been for naught. Its body unstitched one more time, and three pods were deposited. Accelerating their maturation with liberal pouring of pneuma into the bound circle, the pods split open like blooming flowers, from which three monsters appeared.

Scourge Mite Common Drone

Level: 15

"Fifteen? Damn," Rory let out a low whistle, impressed. "The Blight Mite common drones were only level one; it was their royal drones that were twenty-five."

The two common drones were interesting enough, but it was the third monster that appeared that really caught his attention.

Immature Scourge Mite Queen

Level: 1

Unlike the blight mites, where the Blight Mite Slave Empress looked distinct from the queens, in the case of the scourge mites, the only difference was that the Queen looked like a less visually striking version; its tail wasn't as muscular, nor were its legs as serated and clawed in the same fashion.

Either way… Bingo.

His tests had succeeded. Not just had he succeeded in propagating a new strain of the mite-type monster, the new derived variant was capable of recreating more queens.

Meaning I can continue to hopefully selectively breed these buggers.

Still somewhat curious, Rory made a point of supplying enough material within the bound circle for the scourge mites to use for… whatever. Happy to leave the rest of the operations to the lower maintenance of the Pneuma Crushers, Rory dusted himself off.

"Alright, folks," Rory said as he instantly caught the attention of the monsters, swiveling to face them. "Let's not have a scene straight from the Alien movies, you hear me?"

As if to drive his point home, Rory flared his aura, making it a point not to crush the low-tier monsters beneath it. Still, even basking in the glow of his aura was enough to press the batch of hellish bug monsters to the ground.

"Good…. Hmm, I wonder if this will work."

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Slashing his palm, Rory struck out as four droplets of blood shot forward like an arrow, striking the monsters without inflicting damage.

Without human faces to read expressions or emotions from, Rory was uncertain whether it had worked, but impressing his intent within Ghost Message couldn't have hurt.

"Alright, behave."

Because as much as Rory would have loved to continue his experimenting like the Precursor Architect that he was, he had something more pressing to attend to.

It's about that time.

He had some kids to meet.

Apostolos was nervous.

He shouldn't be, but he couldn't help it.

"You alright, Dad?" His son-in-law asked, crossing his arms as he munched on a snack.

"Fine, fine," Apostolos said, waving the concern off before frowning. "No, being truthful, Jim, I'm nervous as all hell."

"About the Lord Founder?" Jimmy asked, raising an eyebrow at his father-in-law.

"Yes, this will be the first time he meets my family. How can I not be nervous?"

Jim chuckled as he grabbed a drink and handed it to his father-in-law.

"Dad, for being the most important person in the city, you always get worked up over the smallest things."

"Of course he does," A new voice said as several figures walked in, arms filled with bags. "My dad could be worried about what shape a cloud takes."

"Oh, be nice to your father, Chloe," Violet said, chucling as several smaller figures darted around her legs.

"Kids, is now the time?" Chloe sighed as her children ran around and played tag.

"Daddy said a special guest is visiting!" One of Chloe's daughters said, raising her arms overhead.

"Mhmm," Apostolos's daughter said with a nod before turning to her father. "Quite the special guest."

"When is Isaac supposed to be arriving?" Apostolos asked, changing the subject.

"He's coming in from the mine operations, so a bit later."

"And Susanna and the kids?"

"She's supposed to already be with 'em."

"Oh, E.O.N. above," Violet suddenly grumbled, setting the bag of food on the table. "Did anyone warn the triplets to put on a nametag or something?"

Apostolos winced, catching on. His son Issac and his wife Susanna had three sons, who had all come out looking identical. Mychael, Marty, and Mason, his son and daughter-in-law, had a rather particular sense of humor regarding their naming scheme.

Lost in thought for nearly a minute straight, his family had begun cooking and chattering amongst themselves when the door was opened once more. For a moment, feeling a flare of nerves, Apostolos settled when he saw three identical faces peek their way in.

"Would you three knock it off?" Violet said, yanking the door open the rest of the way as the three men walked in. Unlike Chloe and Jim, his son Isaac and his wife had had children in their mid-twenties; the triplets were now themselves in their early twenties.

Mid twenties? Or maybe late twenties. Oh, how time flies.

"Sorry," Marty grinned, elbowing his brothers. "Is Dad here yet?"

"No, shouldn't be too long though," Chloe said as she glanced at a timepiece on her wrist. "Where's your mom?"

"Being slow," Mason said with a roll of his eyes.

That was until yet another figure appeared, smacking him over the head as he winced.

"I heard that," Susanna said before walking in and giving Violet a big hug. "Sorry about Isaac, you know how serious he takes his job at the mines. Doesn't want any accidents occurring on his watch. Takes after our Chief Protector in that way."

Susanna continued her rounds of giving hugs and kisses, stopping by Apostolos himself to conclude.

"Hey, Dad. How are you feeling?"

"Exhausted," Apostolos said honestly. "It's been quite the eventful week."

"The wave and the Lord Founder returning would suggest as much."

"Yeah, and yet Rory still finds ways to bring chaos alongside him." Apostolos said, deciding to not mention their recent 'adventure.'

"Oh, old man," Mychael walked up, poking his mother in the side. "Can Effie come by?"

"Who are you calling old man?" Apostolos said with a grin, grabbing his grandson and forcibly rubbing his head as he held him trapped under his arm.

"Oye, sorry," Mychael said with a laugh, the exchange far from new.

"And to answer your question, sure. You two have been pretty serious, haven't you?"

"She's all he talks about," Mason took the moment to chime in, smirking at his annoyed-looking brother.

"Oh, what about Collin?" Apostolos asked as he looked at Marty.

"We broke up," Marty said with a shrug.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Apostolos said, having stuck his foot straight into his mouth.

"Don't be, it was his own fault," Mason continued to gossip. "Marty here got caught making out with Elena."

"Elena!?" Apostolos said, surprised. "Sweet little Elena?"

"The same," Susanna said, answering for her son. "I'm not very happy with Marty here for what he did," Susanna glared at her son, who visibly withered. "But, I can forgive, given it was Elena."

The conversation continued in such a manner for another twenty minutes, consisting primarily of topics of minor importance. The main point was simply being a time for familial sharing, something Apostolos found himself relishing as always.

Truly, nothing better.

The conversation slowed for a moment as a knock was heard at the door.

"Must be dad," Mason said, walking over to the door and pulling it open.

While Isaac was indeed at the door, he wasn't alone.

"Yo," Rory said, waving. "Hope I'm not intruding."

The silence was deafening, as aside from Violet and Isaac, who had arrived with Rory – exactly why Apostolos could only speculate – everyone stared at Rory, the reality of who was standing there sinking in.

"Rory," Apostolos said, breaking the silence. "What is that?"

"Oh, this?" Rory held up a jar containing a rather horrific-looking creature. "A present!"

"Rory," Apostolos sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "What is a Scourge Mite Drone? Why is it level fifteen, and why is it in a jar?"

"Oh, so many questions," Rory said, smiling easily. "Err, if I may?"

Waving at the doorway, it was Isaac who spoke up.

"After you," His son said, waving Rory on ahead.

"Much obliged," Rory said, putting on a weirdly drawling voice.

Following Rory, Isaac quickly made his way to Apostolos, hugging his father as he whispered into his ear.

"I ran into him on the way back. He was pacing back and forth nearby. Considering I didn't recognize him and it was clear he was glancing at our house, I put two and two together. He's a bit of a strange one."

Apotolos felt the corners of his mouth turn upward briefly, nodding before whispering back, stifling a laugh as he did.

"That he is,"

"So, Rory, the jar?" Violet asked after Rory had entered, pulling him into a hug.

"Oh, yeah, this. After Apostolos and I's little excursion, I was doing some experimenting. As I was getting ready to leave, I realized I should bring a gift. So, tadah!"

"It's looking at me," Marty said, the Scourge Mite pressed up against the glass, staring at one of his grandsons.

It's a good thing all but the youngest are at least tier three.

"Oye, don't be a dickhead," Rory said, giving the glass a shake. As he did, his aura spiked for a split second, and everyone felt it. Mason even went as far as to lean against the wall, knees weakening for an instant.

"Oh, whoops," Rory said, reigning his aura in instantly. "Anyway, here you go!"

Thrusting the jar over to Apostolos, Apostolos took a moment to check on his youngest grandchildren, all three of them still racing around and playing tag, oblivious.

Oh, good, at the very least, he made a point of excluding them.

"You're an idiot," Apostolos said with a sigh as he accepted the jar.

"Grandpa said a bad word!" His youngest grandchild, Ivy, suddenly ran up to him, frowning and shaking her chubby little hands before looking up at Rory.

"Granpa needs to say sorry to Mister."

"He does, doesn't he?" Rory turned to look at Apostolos with a shit eating grin. "Well?"

"I'm sorry," Apostolos felt like he was chewing on glass as Rory continued to grin like a moron.

"Apology accepted," Rory said with a snort.

And with that, it was like any tension in the room had deflated, Ivy nodding at Rory.

"So, Rory, you mentioned an excursion?" Violet had waltzed over, putting her hand rather firmly on Apostolos's shoulder.

Oh… Rory, please, spare me.

"Yeah, we went into the Blight Khan's inner territory, where we managed to snag a nice prize, hence the little guy," Rory said, pointing at the jar. "I had Apostolos scram with that, while I distracted the Khan, not the nicest fellow, let me tell you that."

"The Khan you say?" Violet asked sweetly, the grip on his shoulder increasing severalfold into a proper deathgrip.

Oh, well, it was nice living.

"Yep," Rory said as if it were no big deal.

"Like, the same type of Khan as Blue Lightning?" Mason and his brothers were suddenly standing nearby, their attention eraptured.

"Ehh, not exactly the same, Blue Lightning is way nicer. Also, he doesn't smell like a garbage heap."

"And you fought this Khan with the old man?" Mychael asked, looking at Apostolos with newfound respect.

Oye, you little shit, is he only now believing his grandfather's status isn't just for show?

"Why don't I start the story from the top?" Rory said, ready to lurch into storytime.

He's going to get me killed.

Glancing at Apostolos, Rory took in the sight of Violet's hand firmly gripping his shoulder.

And then he winked.

Oh, that asshole, he's doing it on purpose!

"So, there I am, making my way to the limit of the Khan's territory, when who do I find there other than Apostolos?"

Yep, it was a good run.

One glance at his wife's face was enough to say the rest.

Rory, the long-lost adopted brother and bringer of chaos.

As much as Violet was going to chew him out later, Apostolos couldn't help the smile from spreading on his face.

Yeah. This feels right.

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