Chapter 792 Transformation

A billowing cloud of sparkling smoke rose up around Oats, obscuring all sight of her. Since Ammy had immediately backed away from the energetic so Jadis made sure to keep everyone else back as well. No mention had been made regarding incidental effects transferred to those who were nearby, so the smoke was probably harmless. Probably. Not a chance Jadis was willing to take, though.

The dark cloud shone with a haze of bright white sparkles, reminding Jadis strongly of a nebula, or a sea of stars in an inky black sky. The smoke had taken up a space that was roughly ten feet across and reached all the way to the ceiling, proving that it had been a good idea to move their experiment to the large open room that had been left empty ever since most of the Demons had been removed from Building Four and sent to Techne’s care. With everyone present and eager to see if the transformation worked, they had needed a big enough space to fit a crowd.

As time passed, the cloud did not dissipate, and the gathered observers began to whisper amongst themselves. Jadis didn’t think that Oats had been harmed, but the risk of something going wrong was still present. As Ammy had pointed out multiple times, the potion was intended to transform a Lares into something “more like a Nephilim” and she had not tested the substance on anything or anyone other than herself. There really was no saying how a Demon’s biology would react to the magical effects of the transformation concoction, though in principle it should work. After all, healing potions worked on Demons just the same as any other creature. Jadis tried not to think about chemistry when dealing with Alchemy. Magic played by its own rules.

“Oats? Are you okay?” Jay called out after a few tense moments. “Can you hear me?”

There was no audible response, but she though she saw a flicker of movement inside the dark cloud. Taking a cautious step closer, she waved her hand against the edge of the smoke, trying to clear the fog that smelled faintly of peaches and leather.

“Oats? Oa—”

Jay reeled backwards as a huge tentacle swung close to her face. The limb was massive, just as thick around as Alex’s leg-tentacles were. However, they could not have come from her lover. Her Dys self was already standing next to Alex, and she wasn’t even in her demonic form anyway.

When the tentacle flailed through the air near Jay again, she reached out and grabbed hold of it, pulling firmly but not so hard as might cause harm. The tentacle wrapped tightly around her hand and arm as more and more of it, then other tentacles, were revealed. As Oats was pulled out from the slowly dissipating cloud, a gasp went up from all those who had crowded close to get a look at the transformed Demon. Jadis wasn’t ashamed to admit that she contributed to the chorus.

The Demon’s lower body was a mass of long, thick tentacles that were the color of dark red cherries, nearly black but with an inner sheen of crimson. It was hard to count how many tentacles there were with the way they were writhing around in unstable confusion, but Jadis guessed at least ten. Each one was as thick around as a body-builder’s bicep and was at least fifteen feet long, ending in a tapered tip. Where the tentacles met was a wide-hipped torso that led up to a muscular, humanoid waist that had prominent abdominals but no sign of a navel. Above that flat, toned stomach were…

“Impressive,” Kerr muttered in an appreciative tone. “Ce sont de sacrés gros seins.”

The Demon was, in Jadis’ expert opinion, stacked. Eir and Bridget were the two most blessed among Jadis’ lovers when it came to the boob department and neither woman could compare to the massive mammaries on display. While she didn’t normally stare like a slack-jawed moron at every pair of pretty breasts she saw, Jadis couldn’t help but let at least one of her selves linger on the honestly remarkable anatomical display.

Moving beyond the boobs were shoulders, arms, and hands that were all fairly normal, other than the fact that they were extremely muscular. They weren’t exactly bodybuilder levels of cut, but the two arms on display had the toned look of a very, very strong woman. There was only the one pair, though, which meant that at the very least a second set of arms wasn’t a guaranteed feature of a humanoid Demon, despite what Alex’s form seemed to indicate.

At last Jadis’ examination came to a rest on Oats’ face. Like the rest of the Demon, her skin was dark, nearly black, but still shaded red like a black cherry. A singular crimson eye blinked slowly up at Jay, unfocused and clearly dazed. Despite being a cyclops, the single red eye was not in the center of her face but rather off to one side, in the normal position of a right eye, while the space where a left eye belonged was a blank, smooth surface. She had a nose, and a mouth, but both were faintly alien in nature, somehow smooth and clean in a way that made Jadis think of a mask. Above her oddly lopsided facial features was a mop of extremely thick black hair with bright red tips. Each strand was many times wider than normal hair, though not as thick as the tentacles that Alex had on her head when she was in her demonic form. Instead of looking like medusa snakes, the hair on Oats’ head appeared far more normal, except that the individual strands were still slithering around like they were just as tactile as any Demon’s tentacles would be.

“Oats, can you hear me?”

Again, there was no audible response to Jay’s words. However, the tentacle wrapped around her arm squeezed her twice, signaling acknowledgement.

“She is… Adjusting…” Alex murmured, reaching out to the other Demon with one tentacle.

Jadis wasn’t sure when it had happened since she had been focused on Oats, but Alex had switched to her full Demon Lord form. Her many long tentacles swayed in the air, creating meaning that Oats’ singular eye latched onto. Soon, the wild flailing of the smaller Demon’s tentacles settled and her demeanor calmed. Slowly, Oats put her tentacles under her and she rose to what Jadis supposed could be considered a standing position for a being that had tentacles instead of legs.

Smaller Demon was, Jadis decided, a bad description. Not that Oats was taller than Alex. She was definitely shorter than Alex’s massively increased height. However, in her settled position, the red-eyed Demon was somewhere around seven feet tall, certainly a few inches taller than Aila, and far more meaty in build. She had a strong, muscular frame that combined with her great height to give off an imposing visage that a barbarian queen would envy.

Overall, despite the strangeness, Jadis thought that Oats looked pretty damn good.

“Can you speak?” Jay asked, still holding onto the one tentacle.

“Mmm…”

A humming noise came from Oats, low and throaty, yet still multi-tonal in the same way as Alex’s voice was.

“Give her some time,” Ammy commanded as she pushed her way to the front. “It took me a while to get used to the change when I first transformed. I was bouncing off the furniture for the first ten minutes at least.”

“You still bounce off the furniture,” Bridget muttered under her breath.

“Let me see you,” Ammy told Oats, yanking on her arm and pulling her face to within her limited reach. “I’ve got to check your potion status and make sure this is working the way it should.”

While the witch proceeded to utilize various powders and potions to assess the still adjusting Demon, Eir and Aurea both stepped forward and touch Oats together. The glow of Divine magic suffused their hands before they turned to each other with agreement in their eyes.

“I sense nothing wrong with her physically,” Eir observed. “No negative status effects.”

“There are no health defects with her internal systems and organs,” Aurea added, a faint glow still pulsing from her hand. “Nor am I sensing any deleterious aftereffects that might stem from the consumption of certain alchemical ingredients.”

“Of course not,” Ammy stated primly as she blew a powder across Oats’ face that made the Demon blink. “I’m not some two-skill fuckwit selling potions out of my cart to illiterate farmers who can’t tell a healing potion from a poison.”

“I’m still thankful that you joined us to check for any potential issues,” Jay addressed the high priestess with a smile while putting a firm hand on top of the sassy Lares’ head. “Your help is very appreciated.”

“I am happy to be of service. I am also… intrigued by the possibilities of this potion and the effect that it may have on Demons…”

The effect Aurea was talking about was not the physical alteration, Jadis had no trouble interpreting, but the potential change in how Demons and the rest of the races interacted. Part of the reason why Alex had been able to integrate so easily into imperial society was her appearance. Not because she was beautiful necessarily, but because she had hands and legs and a face that displayed recognizable human expressions. It was easy to think of a Demon as a mindless thing of destruction when it was just a ball of tentacles and an unblinking eye. It was a lot harder to dismiss their intelligence when they looked like a person.

Seeing as all of their concerns for Oats’ health had been put to rest, Jadis ushered Eir, Ammy, and Aurea away from the Demon to give her some space. Alex, however, stayed with her. The two were talking with motions and scents, their attention focused on each other, communicating in a way that was difficult for Jadis to follow even with her growing experience with demonic language. She could tell that Oats was adjusting, though, her movements growing more confident with each passing second. However, she had yet to release Jay’s hand, seemingly using her physical contact as a supporting anchor.

“Twelve.”

“Hm?” Syd looked down at Noct, the woman having watched silently for the whole process thus far.

“Twelve tentacles.”

“She’s right,” Sabina chirped from her spot next to the Valravn. “That’s an interesting design! Four tentacles in the middle with eight more tentacles ringed around those four. It’s sort of like the four tentacles in the center are her legs and the other eight are like a big dress, except all of them are her legs really, but it still kind of makes me think that way.”

“I can see that,” Syd agreed, tilting her head to one side. “I wonder if she has a vagina in the center of those four middle tentacles.”

When no response came to her comment after a few moments, Syd looked to her side to see both Noct and Sabina staring at her blankly.

“What? It’s a legitimate question,” Syd said defensively. “The only Demons who seem to be able to lay eggs naturally are matriarchs, and the only Demon who produces sperm seems to be the Demon Lord. Pretty sure that the only reason why Alex was able to be impregnated by me was because she merged with a human body when she became a Greater Demon, and even then, it was probably affected by her class being a bonded one. If Oats’ transformation made her more like a Nephilim, does that mean she has a vagina or cloaca or whatever Demon Matriarchs normally have? Can she lay eggs now? Or produce sperm? Or did her physical change not include those bits? It all kind of has important implications, you know.”

While Noct’s expression turned into one of curiosity and contemplation, Sabina let out a puff of relief.

“Phew! For a second there, I thought you were going to try and have sex with Oats! I mean, she’s got those great big boobs and I get the attraction because they are just so perky that they don’t even look real! No sagging at all! Very impressive, really, and I wonder if I can make armor for her that would accentuate her curves except Oats doesn’t ever go into battle so I don’t think that she needs the armor. Anyway! I’m just glad you aren’t trying to have sex with Oats because I’m pretty sure that she wouldn’t be interested because the only thing she ever wants to do is bake and be around Hans.”

“You really thought I was asking about that because I wanted to fuck her?” Syd asked incredulously. “Sabby, you’re acting like I try to have sex with every pretty girl I see.”

Noct and Sabina paused and looked at each other.

“You have to admit that you do have a pretty high ratio on that count.”

“Oh, shut up,” Syd waved off the grinning half-elf. “Noct, please back me up here.”

“No comment.”

“Traitor.”

While Syd was happy to joke around with her loves, the question that she had posed was a serious one. Jadis had already considered the possibility before even asking Ammy to come back with her to Eldingholt to use the potion on Oats. What if the magic changed the Demon enough so that she could breed? The possibility was there considering the potion had made her and Ammy compatible. It wasn’t a guarantee, however, since avatar races were already naturally compatible, at least on the cellular level, since they seemed to have been designed by the gods to be able to breed with each other. The ability for Ammy to have Jadis’ babies technically already existed even in her catlike form, as improbably as the biology was. The same could not be said for Oats or any other non-matriarch Demon. They were like worker ants. Female, but incapable of reproduction. So, the question remained. Had Ammy’s transformation potion changed that?

Nor was the question of sex and reproduction the only one on the table now that they knew that Demons could be reliably transformed into a “more Nephilim” appearance. Was the appearance that Oats possessed how all Demons would look when exposed to Ammy’s potion or was her class a factor? What would happen if the potion was given to a mire hound, for example? What about a grundwyrm? What about a Demon who had not yet chosen a class at all? What if a Demon who had not yet chosen a class transformed with the potion, then accepted a class that caused merging with objects the way Cobbler’s class did? What about later, if they reached CLR twenty? How would later class options be affected by the transformation, or vice versa? The unique biology and interactions that existed between Demons and the Class System created so many questions, all of which needed an answer.

While most of Jadis’ thoughts focused on the possibilities, both good and bad, one part of her self stayed centered on the immediate. Oats had adapted quickly, her movements appearing natural as she continued to communicate with Alex. Jay was just giving thought as to what they should do next when the newly transformed, red-eyed Demon abruptly released her hold on her hand and started sashaying across the floor towards the door like an overconfident sea witch.

“Woah! Where are you going?” Jay asked as she walked alongside the dodecapodal woman.

“Hans…” came the throaty reply. “Bread…”

“Oats wishes… To return… To the Kitchen…” Alex further explained while putting a hand on Jay’s shoulder. “To be with… What she… Cares for…”

“Talk about single-minded,” Maeve commented dryly.

“Oh, this is something I have to see,” Kerr said at the same time as she moved to follow the Demon. “I bet—aw, come on! Let me go!”

“No,” Dys told the therion. “Don’t turn this into a drama.”

“But I wanna see…”

“And would you please run over to our room and get Oats one of my shirts?” Jay asked Meli. “Pretty sure I’m the only one who has anything that will fit her.”

As Meli raced ahead, Oats continued to make her way across the work yard, drawing a series of surprised shouts and disbelieving stares from those workers who rose with the sun to begin the day’s tasks. Jay winced as she watched Violetta drop a box of metal pieces and trip over the spillage while Crispus, Sabina’s older brother, seemed to wobble between picking the purple woman off the ground and staring at the unbelievable sight.

“I better go talk to the troops before rumors start spreading,” Jay muttered aloud.

“I think we all might need to help with that,” Aila agreed as they watched Meli try to pull a shirt over Oats’ head while a gaggle of Sorcha’s extended family condensed around one of the other buildings, all pointing and chattering and, in some cases, putting hands over the eyes of children.

And husbands.

“We must also… Speak with… The Demons…” Alex said, one hand pointing to the four who still waited inside.

“Yes, yes we do…” Jay agreed as her Syd self sped off towards the goblins with Sorcha under one arm. “But first… I think I’ll grab us something to eat from the kitchen.”

“Oh, sure, you get to spy on them and I don’t!” Kerr shouted indignantly. “If Oats tries to fuck Hans within the first hour, I win the bet!”