Lucrecia wasn’t the only golem who managed to gain sentience; every time one of the Stoneguard absorbed two rank-E mana-cores, they would evolve. During the process, a soul from a recently deceased ‘Citizen’ of Luxiana, would swiftly enter inside.

In fact, even lingering spirits from before the town became part of Michael’s territory, would occasionally have the opportunity to resurrect themselves. However, the Wood-Elves who were being killed, seemed to have their souls banished by the other wisps.

The Nephilim muttered “It must be some kinda defense mechanism, so that people wouldn’t be able to respawn within an enemy city… Well, they might be consciously expelling them, but I kinda doubt it. Hmmm, anyway, it’s pretty hilarious how the golems are ripping the bastards apart ‘zombie-style’ and convenient how they even clean up all of the mess afterwards. I wish I had more Demonic Basilisk mana-cores… Oh well, I’m just happy that I don’t have to personally deal with these dumbasses.”

Laura was wearing a white robe and carrying a pure-silver staff, with a large crystalline orb on the end. She walked over and said “Michael, thank you for helping us again… I apologize for our weakness; if we were only stronger, we wouldn’t need you and your Companions to save us all the time. Is Daniel okay? He was being chased by some evil men…”

He smirked, “Of course he’s fine; I used some of those bastards’ mana-cores to upgrade this place, hehe~. Anyway, I’m glad you guys aren’t dead, cause it’d be a pain in the ass to bring you back to life. Oh wait, you’re a Resident, so it’d probably be automatic, huh? So yeah~, I just wanted to let you know that you’re kinda-sorta… a grandmother. Well, she ain’t Elina’s ‘biological’ daughter, but she is ‘mine’. I just figured you’d be interested in meeting Rachael… Sorry Luxiana, but you can’t really fit through my doorway, so you’ll have ta wait till later ta see her.”
Before she had the chance to fully process what he had just said, Michael grabbed her shoulder and the two of them vanished. An instant later, they were standing in a rather spacious, empty and dark, wooden room.

The Priestess immediately cast ‘Illumination’ and when she was about to speak, the Nephilim asked “Is Elina really your daughter… By that, I mean, is she adopted? More specifically, did someone who might look something like me, or one of my other Companions, hand you a baby and say ‘Don’t tell anyone this happened!’ or some such bullshit? This is kinda important, so don’t lie to me, okay? If I have to, I can pry the secrets outta your mind with a bit of telepathy… I don’t wanna do that to you though.”

Laura tilted her head and seemed completely perplexed, “I don’t understand what you’re talking about… If you truly wish to witness the day that Little Lina was born, I have no qualms with allowing you to scan through my memories.”

She had a warm smile, as she stared into his glowing crimson eyes and enthusiastically recounted “I suppose I should start with Elina’s father… As I’m sure you’re aware, I broke my vows to become a mother, like many Priestesses, Monks, Paladins and other devout Luxians. The Goddess of Light is very fond of ‘innocence’, but without children, there would be no true ‘innocence’. Richard Jacobs was such a nice boy, then he grew into a handsome man, and eventually we fell in love with each-other. It was wonderful… Our first child was a boy, so we named him after his father.

“Then there was my first, beautiful daughter, and after that was her baby sister… We also had two more sons, but they died from a plague that swept through the village. That was when things started to change for the worse. Our harvests that year were almost nonexistent… Fortunately, a Convent in the Luxian Warbeast Theocracy was willing to give us enough food to last through the winter, but we had to offer up ten children who were born with the Light Affinity. Jasmine, Elina and Daniel were among the kids who were sent away…

“Rick was more devastated when his little sister left, than when his younger brothers passed away. It was around that time when Lilly began learning to become a Fire Mage from my sister. Everything settled down for a while and the ‘Jacobs Clan’ was regularly hunting deeper into Ariel’s Meadow. There were hundreds of members, so it was rare for any accidents to occur… but I had a bad premonition. An angel spoke to me in a dream and warned me that if I didn’t stop Richard, something terrible would happen.”

Michael snickered, asking “Did she look like your daughter does now?”

Laura shook her head, “No, she appeared as a young elven child, with four ebony wings upon her back and light-brown skin… I remember one of her eyes being azure and the other crimson. It was very strange, and I assumed that she was some sort of demon, trying to deceive me; I was wrong. Jasmine and Lina were caught umm, ‘fooling around’ by one of the instructors at the Convent. You see, in Luxiana, we’ve always taught our children that love is something that’s beyond Race, religion, and even gender, but most places aren’t like that. In the town that they were sent to, relationships between two men or two women, were viewed as abominations against Lux… even more so, since Elina and Jasmine were cousins.”

The Nephilim smirked, “Hehehe~, yeah, the whole ‘incest is bad’ thing was mainly a form of preventing parents from abusing their kids and keeping close relatives from having children with birth-defects. Of course, it also had to do with politics, legality issues, and all kinds of other bullshit. Anyway, if there’s no weird time-travel nonsense involved, then there’s no reason for us to be all secretive about this.”

He abruptly teleported the two of them into the kitchen, and Michael telekinetically pulled the ‘Arcane’ jar of elbow macaroni into his right hand. All of his gear was swiftly unequipped, except for a white t-shirt and black boxers, as he grabbed a mithril pot from beneath the counter. The sink was able to fill it with already boiling water, so all he really needed to do was pour out a pound of pasta and use the stove to keep it heated.

In fact, he was able to do everything with telekinesis, he was simply too ‘used’ to needing his hands to physically move objects. Laura sighed, as she watched him cooking so rapidly and efficiently; she muttered “Such convenient magic… In Luxiana, most of us have to use firewood to-”

“Holy shit! I can’t believe I forgot about that! Hahaha~, damn, it’s a good thing you said something before winter. Hmmm, geothermal heat would probably be the most consistent and efficient… but the price is pretty high. Well, I’ve already invested so much fucking money already, so why not? It’d be different if I had to manually install them, or even just ‘design’ the shit, but since it’s just an option… This should make it possible to have hot-water too. Yeah, I don’t even know how you guys survived with such archaic technology. Welp, there goes fifty-gold… It’s still not really enough though; it’d be nice if there was a way to have gas stoves, but magic is probably even better. And now I’m completely broke. Whatever, it shouldn’t be too hard to earn it back later.” Michael had casually upgraded the quality of life for everyone in Luxiana, but with all of the chaos that was happening because of the violent Wood-Elves, it would be a while before anyone even noticed.

A few moments passed, before he turned to Laura and asked “Okay~, so what happened after the two naughty kitty-cats were kicked out of the Convent for being horny lesbian cousins?”

The chubby woman chuckled, then continued her story: “Jasmine lacked the faith and dedication required to truly become a Priestess, but Little Lina was able to develop a pure Light mana-core before she was even eighteen. While my lazy niece was fooling around all day, all three of my children joined the ‘Jacobs Clan’. They were in a seven-person Party called ‘Feline Grace’, thus starting what was ‘supposed’ to be a successful career as adventurers. It was at that time when a strange elven girl came into town.

“She had these snake-like crimson eyes, long and curly red hair… her skin was shiny and bronze. It wasn’t the first time that she stayed in Luxiana though; eighteen years before that, my older sister was really sick. We though that she was going to die, but that mysterious woman gave her some sort of miracle potion and within a few hours, my sister was completely healthy again. I believe she called herself… Minari Sarina Jalicia? It was such an odd name.”

Michael started laughing hysterically, adding various spices to his concoction and saying “Ah~, I think I finally get it now, but anyway, keep going with your story.”

Laura sighed, “When she came by the second time, she agreed to join the Jacobs Clan on a fairly dangerous hunt. I normally stayed in Luxiana, but she convinced me and Jasmine to go with her and the others. There was a herd of over a thousand ‘Horned Rabbits’, though none of them was very powerful. Once the battle ended, there were a few dozen seriously wounded, and at least ten deaths. However, Minari managed to heal and resurrect everyone.”

The Nephilim finally finished cooking the pasta and telekinetically removed it from the boiling water. He placed the macaroni on two plates, then covered it in a rich and creamy ‘white-sauce’ that was mostly garlic, vegetable oil and ‘milk’.

It was debatable which ‘animal’ the milk came from, but Laura didn’t seem to care. She just gratefully accepted the meal and sat down in the comfortable golden and white chair.

After he handed her a fork, he sat to her left, in Talia’s seat, and began eating. The Priestess eventually said “She was definitely extremely powerful… My husband and sister were both over level fifteen and Elites, but I suppose, compared to yourself, they wouldn’t have seemed very strong. Still, I believe that Minari was probably more powerful than you and your Companions… Even though she was so strong, she merely watched as the rest of us struggled to survive against that monster. It was a level-ten Boss, an enormous hedgehog and it had an army of porcupines assisting it. The battle was terrible… In the end, only a dozen of us survived.”

Michael sighed, asking “What happened to the elven girl?”

Laura smiled wryly, “She collected the mana-cores from everyone who died and told me ‘We’ll meet again in ten years or so… I won’t be able to resurrect everyone until then.’ With a wave of her hand, she teleported all of us back to Luxiana. Jasmine’s father was furious… He took his daughter with him and chased after Minari, in hopes of having my sister brought back to life. However, I still trust her for some strange reason… Especially after meeting you, I feel like it won’t be long before she comes back and fulfills her promise.”