Chapter 3606: The Weirdest Fine (Part 1)
Chapter 3606: The Weirdest Fine (Part 1)
Friya wasn't healed so much as reborn.
The healing tank was akin to a womb that allowed Faluel to share the Guardian blood that even Lesser Divine Beasts carried over from their ancestral primogenitor with her Harbinger.
The Hydra's latent Dragon essence nurtured Friya into the next best thing to the perfect fusion between the human and Hydra life force.
The strong fed the weak, pouring more of Faluel into the smaller creature until they became one. Where one minute ago a human woman with traces of Hydra blood in her system floated in pain, now stood a Hydra woman with traces of human blood.
As the process neared completion, Friya's body started to change. Large green scales bloomed over her skin, and six more necks sprouted in the space across her shoulders. Her nails turned into claws, and a long, stumpy tail formed on the small of her back.
Very few things of her former human appearance remained, but more than enough to make Friya blush wildly as her eyes regained their focus. Her body avidly consumed the Hydra's blood to restore its strength, leaving her more exposed by the second.
"Guys, turn around, dammit! Stop staring at me!" She yelled as embarrassment painted her many serpentine snouts of a bright shade of purple.
Her right leg stopped fading and reappeared from knee to toe. Then, it was the left leg's turn.
"Why does it have to be the legs? Give me my damn arms back first!" Friya curled up in a foetal position with the only result of offering her friends a different point of view.
As soon as new life flowed through her body and her right arm returned, Friya covered her crotch. Her bountiful bosom had to wait until her left arm returned as well.
"It is done." Faluel panted heavily and let herself fall to the side on the ground. "Friya is going to be okay."
All of Faluel's scales had lost their luster, and she looked somehow diminished. Her presence wasn't that of an apex predator anymore but that of a wounded beast struggling for survival.
"I hate you, Faluel!" Friya sat down with her back against the healing tank. "Why didn't you give me my clothes back, and why didn't you guys turn around? I didn't stutter!"
"I noticed." Lith said to Faluel, ignoring his friend. "The crazy yelling and the wild blushing sort of gave it away."
Faluel started to laugh, only for it to turn into a dry, violent cough.
"By my Mom, Faluel, are you alright?" A wave of Solus' hand restored the tower's normal functions and removed the Menadion Set from the Hydra, lightening the burden on her debilitated body.
It also got rid of the healing tank, allowing Friya to recover her Featherwalker armor. Or at least she tried.
"Why doesn't it answer my call?" She extended her hand, but the enchanted metal remained on the floor where Faluel had tossed it.
"Friya!" Nalrond rushed to her and was about to wrap her in an embrace when he stopped abruptly, afraid to hurt her.
He moved slowly, as if she might shatter upon contact, and covered her with his own body.
"You almost gave me a heart attack. Don't you dare scare me like this again." He rested his head on her shoulder, letting warm tears of relief finally flow.
"It wasn't my intention, and believe me, I have no desire to repeat the experience." She returned the embrace, and only then did she notice the changes in her body. "Wait, what?"
Her eyes looked along her scaled arm until she saw her clawed fingers.
Then she turned around to look at her right shoulder just to meet the flabbergasted gaze of three small serpentine heads emerging from her collarbone, shoulder blade, and shoulder respectively.
"Good gods!" Friya and a choir of six voices that sounded just like hers shrieked at the same time, almost bursting her own eardrums.
She reacted to the noise by turning her head to the left shoulder, finding three more serpentine heads and screaming again. She kept turning left and right, screaming in a cycle that stopped only once the sound of laughter filled the room.
"It's not funny!" Friya said in a dolby surround effect. "Why did nobody tell me I look like a monster?"
"That's the worst thank you I've ever received." Faluel groaned.
"She's right." Head number one from the left said with Friya's classic grumpy tone. "Show some gratitude, you brats. Also, keep the monster part for yourselves. I look alive and that's plenty enough for me."
"Shut up!" Head number two from the right replied. "I almost died, and Lith and Protector took their sweet time ogling at my naked body. I'm traumatized."
"Big deal. We all almost died, drama queen." Head number three from the left shrugged, making Friya scream again when she realized the other heads could move her body without her consent. "More importantly, the hole in my chest moved to my stomach.
"All this healing and shapeshifting made me hungry. Let's go eat some food."
"How can you think about stuffing your face in a moment like this? First, I need to put on some clothes!" The first head from the left said in outrage.
"I love you, Friya, but I swear to the gods that if you make a habit of literally talking with yourself, from now on I'm going to need a lot of personal space." Nalrond said, drawing the attention of all seven heads to himself.
"With seven mouths, you are noisy, annoying, and way too intense."
All seven heads narrowed their eyes, their expression twisted in an angry grimace.
"How can you say that? I'm still shocked from the transformation and you-" Nalrond held her in his arms and gave the humanoid head a deep kiss, cutting the secondary heads short as well due to the delighted expression appearing on the six serpentine snouts.
"I'm sorry, babe. I just wanted you to stop bickering with yourself, so I said something I knew you all would agree about." He said once he was out of breath.
"It's no big deal." Friya smiled as her other heads looked disappointed.
They had never stopped breathing, which made the kiss too short for their taste.
"You made them agree alright but it's not anger that did the trick." Faluel chuckled in the smallest laugh she could afford.
"Master Faluel!" Friya's snarled as she blushed a little and her secondary heads hissed like angry cats.
"I'm glad you are alright, Friya, but Nalrond isn't the only one who was worried about you." Lith's heart started to slow down as the anxiety gripping it loosened its hold. "Can we also congratulate you and give you a quick check-up?
"Just for our peace of mind."
"Yes." Friya took a step back and then stuck to Nalrond again. "I mean, no. Why aren't my clothes answering my commands?"
"If it's clothes you want, I can solve the problem easily." Solus conjured a sky-blue day dress around Friya's body.
"Thanks, Solus… Wait a minute, why didn't you do this when I asked for clothes the first time?" Friya grunted but went to hug her friends anyway.