56 Pet shopping (1/2)

Part 1

”Er... Miss... What exactly are you planning on doing...?”

Lilith was guiding Evlin to the location of the nest of monsters she had discovered.

”Depending on the results... It might be the best idea I ever had or the dumbest move in the history of dumb moves...”

”... That... Doesn't answer my question...”

”Can't you just use future sight to find out?”

”Very well... Oh... Oh!!”

”So... Does it work...?”

”I... ”

”Wait... Never mind... I want to figure it out by myself...”

”I- If you say so...”

The two women finally reached the nest. A small group of monsters was resting on top of an open rocky formation without a care in the world. Large beast-like creatures who looked like mixed parts of different animals stuck together.

”Ok... Time to test my theory... Let's go Sphinx!”

Evlin used her magic and combined with Sphinx to change into her winged form.

”Wish me luck Lilith.”

She started to walk towards the area of sleeping beasts and tried to gently wake one up. A large ox monster with six horns on top of his head and a snake for a tail. He sensed Evlin's smell and begun to approach her.

”...”

The ox monster started to sniff Evlin's golden fur and began to circle around her. She had her hand close to her crossbow in case she needed to engage in battle, but the ox suddenly lost interest and left. Evlin released a deep breath she was holding in and returned to Lilith's side.

”Looks like it worked!”

Lilith was unsure as to what just happened.

”Miss, I think I might need a little bit of explanation.”

”Lilith, we need the monsters to be on our side right?”

”Yes...”

”But they will never join forces with humans, correct?”

”Correct...”

”So... We need to find out if we can trick them into thinking we are not humans!”

”What...? So your plan is...”

”I need to find out if we can trick them with this appearance... If we do, we can just change everyone else's images with my recreation magic.”

”So... Your plan is to disguise all seven of us as monsters?”

”Six actually... Recreation magic doesn't work on shape-shifters like Daren, I tested it on Marcus and he just returned to normal after a few seconds... Give me a piece of silver metal.”

”Ah... Here... What are you going to do with it...?”

”I need to know if monsters can sense this thing since we will be carrying a lot of it...”

Evlin returned to the nest, and once again, slowly walked into the middle of a group of monsters. Many were starting to wake up right now thanks to the sun starting to shine in the sky and eliminating the night.

She tried to observe if any of the creatures around her could smell the scent of blessed metal, but it seemed like she would be safe. Nothing was approaching her with any signs of aggressiveness.

”Looks like I have nothing to worry about...”

Evlin left the nest and met with Lilith once again.

”All right Lilith, now it's your turn”

”Ehhh???”

”Don't 'Ehhh' me. This is an experiment, we need to find out what works and what doesn't. They didn't react to someone disguised as a monster or to someone carrying a silver metal. The only thing left is to see if they react to someone with a blessing.”

”O- Ok... But how are we going to do this...? Are you going to combine me with Sphinx?”

”I rather not... Sphinx may gain a lot of stress if he keeps being recreated with different people... I don't want my memories and yours start mixing up inside his head...”

”I see...”

”That means we will need to find another monster for you!”

Evlin grabbed Lilith and pushed her to stand in front of the nest.

”Go ahead and pick one!”

”Eh...?”

Lilith was face to face with the nest and staring at all the monsters inside of it. Ria would probably be jumping of joy from the idea of fusing with a monster but Lilith just couldn't help but feel repulsed by it.

Ever since she and her parents were attacked by a demon monkey that stole their food one day after they returned from a trip to the church, she began to despise demons with a passion. She still found trouble swinging her sword to cut humans due to her personal trauma, but she had absolutely no problem attacking monsters.

She was trying really hard to not show any expression of disgust on her face after hearing Evlin's request.

”Do I really have to do this...?”

”Unless you have a better way to get these guys on our side...”

Lilith didn't want to become a monster. She hated monsters almost as much as she hated the goddess of the east. She tried to focus on one target of her hate to help her calm down her other target of hate. She kept telling herself that this was something she needed to do in order to get revenge against East.

She tried to look around the area, but none of the creatures in it seemed to appeal to her. All the monsters looked either ugly, disgusting, or scary in her eyes. She didn't want to combine with them, she wanted to take out her sword and start slashing every single one of them.

She continued to see if there was another griffin since she too began to get real close to Sphinx as time went on. She kept looking around and didn't found any but managed to encounter something similar.

”That one!”

She started to point in a direction and guided Evlin's eyes to the monster she had chosen. A humanoid female figure covered in red feathers with a pair of wings where her arms should be and bird legs on her lower half. Her feet were massive talons that looked like it could tear a tree in half like a chopstick. Strangely enough, her face looked rather human-like. Evlin tried to recognize the monster.

”Is that... A harpy?”

”Half-human, half-bird... It would mix well with your griffin disguise right?”

”Very well, one harpy coming up!!”

Evlin started to climb the rock the harpy was resting on and managed to capture her by modeling a pile of rocks into handcuffs.

”I'm really sorry about this! I'll promise to let you go once this is all over.”

She knocked out the bird-woman and brought her towards Lilith's side. The monsters seem to have noticed her action but didn't look like they really cared.

”Ok Lilith... Try using your future sight to see if it's safe to do this.”

”Understood. ... ... ...”

”Well?”

”It seems like I will receive a small shock due to our memories merging together... But nothing I can't handle...”

”Very well, get ready to start wanting to eat worms!”

”Wait, what?”

Evlin covered Lilith and the bird monster with recreation magic and focused on combining the two beings into one, trying to make sure the mind in charge belonged to Lilith.

After she was done, Lilith found herself covered in red feathers. Her body had become taller and larger and her arms and legs were replaced by wings and talons, just like a harpy. Her hair was also red and it had gotten much longer than before.

”How do you feel?”

”Strange... Very, very strange... Oh my... She... She ate a lot of people...”

Lilith fell on her bird-like knees and started to throw up a little. Good thing they haven't eaten breakfast yet.

”Oh... I'm so sorry!!”

”It's fine... My head was filled with painful images already... A few more won't make a difference...”

”Riiiight... We need to find you a therapist once this is all over... Come on! Let's test your disguise!”

Lilith approached the nest just like Evlin commanded and tried to observe if she raised any attention from the beasts inside of it. Just like Evlin, not reaction from any of them.

”Looks like we will be ok...”

”Nice! Let's regroup with everyone else and continue with our Halloween party!”

Part 2

The rest of the group was having a hard time taking Evlin's plan seriously, but they finally gave in after seeing that both her and Lilith were doing ok even while entering the monster's nest.

”You never cease to surprise me sis...”

”Thanks Ash! So, what are you going to pick?”

”Huh...”

”Ah!!! I want to be a dragon!! Please, please, please!!!”

Ashley seemed completely uninterested in going ahead with this idea, while Ria acted like she just had won the lottery.

”All right... Does anyone see any dragons around here?”

Daren started to shiver towards the word ”Dragon”. Maybe he had some bad experience with them? Gustav managed to spot one sleeping on a tree nearby. It didn't have wings and it's appearance held a strong color of green. One could mistake it for a large snake if it wasn't for its arms and legs.

Evlin repeated her capture process and brought the creature handcuffed. She released some magic towards Ria and the reptile monster and fused them together. Ria was now possessing a green skin covered in scales and was much taller than before. She had claws on her hands and a massive tail behind her back.

”Gurahhh!!! I'm the dragon lady!!! Feed me your hearts if you don't want to die!!”