Chapter 908: Current Level

"Hubby!" Yasmine was the first to return to her senses, moving forward and jumping straight into his arms.

"Yes, your hubby SOB is no more, I am sorry." The crying monk continued to cry, wiping his face with his sleeve.

Vritra opened his arms, embracing Yasmine tightly, even leaning into the familiar softness of her body.

He closed his eyes, inhaling her familiar scent that he had almost forgotten with the slow passage of so much time, it still felt like a dream.

He had been away from them all for so long, that at one point he even forgot what was even the point of the repeated torture.

"Father, what are you doing? Vritra is clearly alive and perfectly fine." Shitless felt second hand embarrassment, as he pulled him up by the arm.

"T- That's what I am saying, I am sorry that- Vritra is alive?!!"

Startled, his eyes widened as he looked around and finally saw Vritra, who was holding Yasmine tightly in his arms.

"Huh? But he… when did he return? No, how did he return?" the crying monk felt extremely confused but also felt extremely relieved.

He sat down and patted his heart, deciding to wait quietly until Vritra was done with meeting his family.

"I missed you." Vritra muttered, pulling back slightly and kissing her forehead.

"Hubby SOB, please don't ever leave me for so long." Yasmine couldn't stop from weeping in his arms, feeling happy and sad at the same time.

Vritra hugged her again, burying his face into her neck and hummed softly.

They had been away from him for a few hundred years, but what he had been away for so long that everything started to feel meaningless.

He got so focussed on one sole task that for a moment he even forgot his own name, that realm became his reality and everything else a mere dream.

Forgetting about all that, he just allowed himself to relax as all his wives moved closer, one after another.

They all hugged him one by one, from Vanessa, Diana, Yennefer, Fiona, Maeve to Teresa.

All of them couldn't stop themselves from crying as they hugged him tightly, telling him how much they missed him, telling him about their training, the god's war.

Ava didn't disturb them as she looked at her son with teary eyes, and when all seven of his women had finally stepped aside, she too moved forward and hugged him.

While Gunter patted his shoulder firmly, saying: "Good job, son."

Shitless and Onest also came forward, grinning, lightly hitting his arm in greeting.

"Welcome back." Vritra gave a faint smile, before walking towards the sofa and slumping down into it.

Closing his eyes, he pushed his long hair back with a tired hand.

This place felt so much safer and comfortable, unlike the place he had been in for so many years, and a wave of drowsiness instantly hit him.

When was the last time he had slept? At least not in the last few thousand years.

But then he opened his eyes again, he can sleep later.

Before anyone else could say anything, the crying monk could no longer hold back his curiosity and asked:

"When did you get out of that realm?"

"Just after you arrived." Vritra replied, laughing softly as he remembered the crying monk's condition from before.

"B- But how?!"

"Along with that staff, how else?" he replied with a lazy shrug.

"But you were clearly not there, I scanned the whole place so many times!" then remembering something, he asked:

"And even the fragments were gone, s- so I thought some titan had revived."

"You just didn't see me." Vritra said simply, not giving any other explanation.

Then, the crying monk pulled out the staff, and finally observed it closely and was shocked. The rings around the top slowly showed the extra lives that were still available to Vritra.

And only less than a quarter of them had been used, so he didn't come out after using all his lives, then what was the reason?

"Wait, how long did you stay inside?" the crying monk continued to ask, as doubt slowly began to creep into his heart.

The others didn't disturb them and simply watched the whole exchange curiously.

Without a pause, Vritra replied casually: "Around a million years."

"!!!"

This time, all of them were extremely shocked, and the crying monk even had to hear it twice over to confirm he hadn't heard wrong.

A million years?!!

How is that possible? That was nearly the maximum time he had arranged, of course, the crying monk was sure Vritra would end up using all the lives way sooner than that.

The shock in others' hearts was no small thing, the sheer number made their minds shake.

He had been in that realm for a million years, how much suffering did he go through? No wonder he seemed so different now, both in look and in nature.

The women became teary eyed again, and wanted to comfort him for all that he had silently been through.

"A- Are you okay?" the crying monk asked, looking very worried.

"Yea, I am alright." Vritra replied calmly and waited for more questions that he already knew were coming.

"So, you managed to absorb the fragments? How many of them?"

After a brief pause, Vritra answered: "Nearly all, but there were too many, so I fed many of them to my mythic halos."

As he spoke, a colourless flame and a greenish flame quietly appeared over Vritra's palm, appearing far more terrifying than they ever had before.

Finally the crying monk realized why he had failed to see or sense Vritra's presence earlier, it was thanks to the misty essence mythic halo.

Wait, it can even affect someone at his own level?!

Vritra not only devoured so many fragments, but when he could no longer devour them himself, he allowed his mythic halos to absorb them instead.

Only the creation mythic halo so far had managed to reach such a terrifying level, but then the crying monk became even more exasperated.

If his mythic halos had grown so strong, then what about himself? Divine had made preparations in that realm, and had left a lot of the titan's fragments behind with the titan emperor's help.

Vritra had devoured most of those fragments?

A shiver ran through the crying monk's body, he had only hoped for him to devour a fragment or two, he wasn't even sure about that much.

'W- What a monster…' his shaky gaze shifted from Vritra to his staff, and he saw a little of the time Vritra had spent there.

And his emotions only became more turbulent, he had literally devoured those fragments, so many of them- too many!

Vritra felt he was done with answering for now, so he looked at his wives and changed the subject: "Since I had so much free time, and after I had reached the higher being's level, I pondered ways so you all can get stronger quickly."

Then with a wave of his hand, he produced tiny black seed like objects.

"What are these?" Vanessa sat down beside him, she hugged his arm, her big soft breasts pressing against it.

"I made these from those fragments, it can build a path for you towards higher levels."

Then he sent a seed floating towards each of them, since he had been away for so long, he ought to bring some kind of small souvenir for them all.

All of them received the seeds, Diana and Fiona received two each while Yasmine received three.

They looked at him quizzically, and Vritra explained that the extras were for their halo and mythic halos, while Yasmine had gotten the third one for the child.

As she looked closely at the seed, she could tell that all of them were distinct from one another, the smallest one was for the baby, Vritra had clearly put so much thought into it all.

"Thank you, son." Gunter cupped the seed gently, his eyes finally becoming teary, now he too could become a god.

Or maybe even higher than that.

Even Ava had gotten one, at first she wasn't sure, but seeing that there were enough for everyone, she accepted it happily.

Feeling a quiet warmth in her heart.

"Whoa, you created them? Such fine treasures, even among higher beings, they would be very valuable." The crying monk said, observing the seeds Shitless and Onest had received.

But he paused again and looked at Vritra, then asked: "Currently, just how strong are you?"

Vritra, being a mere demi god before, had no idea about the stages or progression of the higher beings, but there clearly were different ranks.

Otherwise, some higher beings wouldn't be so much stronger than the others.

But upon finally stepping into the higher being realm, he was clearly aware of the ranks now, things he simply couldn't see or sense before.

The difference between a mere god and a true higher being was so immense that one single thought would be enough to annihilate thousands of gods in a mere instant.

Devouring those fragments had helped him get stronger in many ways. His physical body had strengthened immensely, and his level itself had risen so much.

The concepts, his abilities, his control over everything had all immensely improved.

Vritra's level had quietly saturated several thousand years ago, and devouring more fragments no longer was of any real help to him, that's why he started using those fragments for other things instead.

Like strengthening Goop, and others.

After a pause, Vritra finally replied.

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Thanks for reading... adios