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MAZE - Chapter 1103 - Second Ophidianite
🕑 Added 2025-09-02 04:01:04 +0000 UTCHera reached Zaxalam so quickly that it was impressive even for Nimbus. Of course, the Sentinel would be able to go faster, but she didn't even consider asking for his help during her frenzy. A few of the dwarves noticed her arrival and tried to speak with her, but she quickly dismissed everyone, just bolting towards the house she shared with her father.
"Dad, are you here?" she shouted the moment she stepped through the door. But there was no response.
"Oh no, oh no, no, no no no no," she started gasping and looking around to see if there were any notes or any signs of where everything might have gone to. When she found nothing, the Empress quickly moved to the front door, ready to step outside and start shouting her dad's name across the city. A lot of people would freak out about her reaction, but she couldn't really think about it right now.
But the moment she did so, Eridan was stepping into the streets where they were living.
"Dad!" Hera ran and rushed towards him.
"Hera?" his voice was full of surprise. "What did you do? Did you do anything?"
Eridan stared at her for a moment. "No, I would never do anything without you."
"Good, good," Hera took a few deep breaths, stabilizing herself.
Now that she thought about it for a moment, it made a lot of sense that her dad would never start the process of becoming an Ophidianite without her. As a matter of fact, no one would. Even Shane, with all her frenzy about becoming one, wouldn't do anything without talking to her first, just so she would be more aware of what to expect.
But when thinking about that, Hera realized another issue. Shane would be absolutely livid once she found out that that Eridan, had become an Ophidianite before her. It was something that didn't even make much sense, but still, Hera just brought her dad back to their place so they could have a proper conversation.
"Okay, Dad', what exactly did you get? What kind of quest?"
"It's a quest called Ascension. Not sure if I like the connotations of the name, but still, it says that I can ascend now that my skills have met the requirements," Eridan replied.
The Empress nodded, understanding that this was the same that was given to her, or at least a very similar variation. Before anything else, Hera stopped and looked deep into her father's eyes.
"Is this something you really want to do? You know it's not the type of thing that you can take back later, right?"
Eridan didn't take a moment to process the idea. Instead, he replied right away. "Of course. I already made my decision a long time ago, Hera. I know that I am your father and that I am supposed to die before you do. But I can't handle the idea of letting you leave for hundreds of years without me. It may be selfish or egocentric of me, but I feel like that would hurt a lot. After everything I made you go through with your mother, this is the least I could do."
"Dad, no. We already talked about this, and I don't blame you for what happened with Stella. You made mistakes, but we're okay. I don't want you to do this thinking about it as a way to redeem yourself or something. That's not what this is supposed to be."
Eridan chuckled. "I know, I know. And that's not how I am treating it. I truly want to be here with you to support you for this long. And I'm not doing it just because of you or what's worked. I'm also doing it for myself. Your dream of traveling the MAZE was not just your own. That was something that I always wished I could do during my youth. And now, if I become an Ophidianite, I will gain back the time I lost."
"Well, you're sort of right. Part of the deal is that you don't get younger. Your relative age stays the same. Even now, I am technically 60 years old. Or at least my body is," Hera explained.
She had gotten actual confirmation that this was the case. When she first became an Ophidianite, Tara wasn't able to give her a proper answer. But as time went by, the ancestor was able to confirm that indeed, Hera's Ophidianite body was proportional to her previous age.
Or in other words, since she had already spent roughly 20% of her life, that would still be the case now that she was an Ophidianite. Which meant that for Eridan, who was in his mid-40s, he would be around 120 to 130 years old.
Eridan took Hera's hand and looked her in her eyes. "Listen to me. I want to do this. I want to be with you for many, many more years. Before, I would be lucky if I stayed in your life for, let's say, 70 years. Now, I can double that time. That's more than worth it, no matter what. So yes, I understand that this is something that I can't take back, and I understand that I will never be able to go back to Earth, and that there's probably going to be a lot of politics involved in this. Heck, I don't even know what's going to happen to my bank account or if I'm going to need a new ID or something."
"You're in the MAZE now, dad. People don't really use things like that here. If anyone wants to know who you are, they can just inspect each other."
"Oh, right! I always forget that's an option," Eridan looked down.
Hera chuckled and asked, "Okay, but what level are you currently?"
"I'm level 6. But it had been a few weeks since I leveled up, so maybe I'm getting close to leveling up," Eridan replied.
Hera nodded, but she didn't comment on anything. Her dad had been in the MAZE for a while already, yet she couldn't help but feel like his leveling speed was really slow compared to how things happened with her. Then again, maybe she was just on the faster side. After all, unlike her, Eridan wasn't really running any dungeons or going out hunting. He was leveling up purely by crafting and doing more mundane things.
"So, Dad, do you want to go right away? Or do you want to do something else first?"
"If it's okay with you, I would like to eat first. Or, do you think it's a bad idea to eat before the Ascension?"
"It's fine if you want to eat now. The worst thing that's going to happen is you're going to throw up during the process. But I don't really remember if that was the case with me."
"Why would I throw up?" Eridan gave Hera a confused look.
"Well, you are pretty much remaking your entire body. So you might need to get rid of anything that is not part of you first, you know?"
"I see..." Eridan frowned.
"Still, if you need it, you will have some help there," Hera smiled. "Let's go eat something."
"Yeah, let's."
The two of them ate, and Hera showed the roots that she brought in hopes of getting something that could work against the Spirits. She also told her dad about everything she found in Deakoshara so far. The conversation lasted a few hours, and eventually, Hera found the moment to go to the bathroom.
In there, she quickly wrapped herself in a cacoon made out of [Blade Accord] and [Noble Shroud] in order to send a message to the Guides. More specifically, to Tara. She told her that Eridan was ready to become an Ophidianite and asked if there was anything he should do to prepare. The answer came right away, with the Naga ancestor more than happy to share some information about the Ascension. Tara even sent a voice message to explain everything.
"He will get level one of every single Ophidianite skill. Specifically, the ones that you made yourself, Hera. For the rest of them, if someone else makes an Ophidianite skill, then they won't be added to the Ascension quest. If he already has the skill, then nothing's going to happen. It's just going to make the process a bit easier in the sense that it's going to take less time. What's going to happen is the same thing that happened to you. You're going to take him to a doorway, and from there I'll talk to him. But there will be no need for him to go over the whole trials that you did to see what aspects of each species should be kept, because, well, you already done that part."
After listening to the message, Hera asked, "So you're saying that he's only going to need to go to that pool?"
"Pretty much," Tara replied. "He's going to be able to tailor his body to a certain extent, you know, the color of the scales and the size of the tail, and then start the transformation."
"And how long will that take?"
"Something close to 8 hours. It's going to be a full night. For him, it's going to be like a long night of rest, at least that's the time for the process itself. If we take too much time with the questions or in organizing his body, then it might take longer."
"Got it. And you will be there with him the entire time? Is he even going to be able to see you?"
"He is," Tara replied. "Anyone who tries to become an Ophidianite will be able to talk to me. Only explorers can do what we are doing right now. For others, there will be a quest that might pop up for them to help people, and then we might be able to communicate more often. But they're only going to be able to ask things about their new species. I can't talk about anything else with them unless we're just chatting about movies or something."
"So you are going to be able to talk to them about random things?" Hera was very happy to hear about that. It was one thing to know that Tara could talk to her, but another to know that the ancestor would be able to talk to other people. Even if she could talk to the Guides, meaning that she wasn't entirely alone, it was nice to have more interaction with others.
"Sure will," Tara replied. "There's going to be a few restrictions and only certain circumstances that let me talk to people who don't have the Guides skill. But if they have the Guides skill, I'll be able to talk to them just like I do with you."
"Shane is going to love meeting you. It's been a struggle to not mention you near her."
"I can imagine. I saw her in Spiral and she seems really fun." Tara paused but quickly continued with an explanation, "Just like the Guides I can also check up on what's happening around the MAZE. But instead of focusing on a specific Room, I can focus on the entire group of people. Meaning mostly you right now."
"Why can you see Shane and my dad? Is that something to do with the skills?"
"Yeah. Ever since your dad and Shane got to a certain level of Ophidianite skills, I've been able to keep tabs on them. I can't talk to you about what's happening with them or to them about what's happening to you. That's a line I can't cross under most circumstances. But I can at the very least follow along with what they're doing."
"That's both creepy and endearing at the same time."
"I promise I'm not watching people all the time," Tara protested.
"I know, I know," Hera replied and quickly changed the subject."Are you ready to welcome the second Ophidianite?"
"Sure am," Tara replied with excitement in her voice.
The ancestor was mostly sending voice messages instead of text, and thankfully, Hera was using her soundproof bubble to make sure that no one was listening. She walked out of the bathroom and spent a bit longer with her dad, just enjoying this moment before he became an Ophidianite as well.
Then, the two of them left the main city of Zaxalam and headed towards the nearby doorway. Usually, this area would be somewhat dangerous in the middle of the night, but with Hera and her Court, they could walk around without having to worry about anything.
"You know, I don't think I asked you. What skill did you manage to get to rank 5?"
"It was the scales. I increased their rank on my own a couple of times," Eridan replied.
"You did?" Hera frowned.
"Yeah. I am not very used to some of the tools that I've been using lately, and more often than I would like to admit, I've been hurting my fingers when I'm working with wood. The scales kind of help to stop me from being too injured. Are you going after a healer every time I get hurt?"
Eridan nodded. "I am. There are few healers in the city that know to be close to me when they're having a slow day."
They eventually reached the doorway, but before Eridan touched it, he stopped and turned to Hera for a moment.
"Say, you mentioned that I could pick the color of my scales, right?"
Hera nodded, " That's one of the things you can do. There are a few other choices to be made too."
"Do you think purple would fit me? Like yours?" Eridan asked.
Hera paused for a moment and looked at her father before shaking her head. "I don't think so. Mine is a very pastel color. I don't like gendering colors, but it's kind of feminine. If you want the same one, I think you should go for a darker tone."
"And would you mind if I picked something close to yours?"
Hera gave him a big smile. "Of course not, Dad. I don't think we will stop looking alike even after you ascend. Since even now we still resemble each other. But I would love to have the same color of scales that you do."
"Okay," he nodded and stared at the doorway for a few more moments before saying, "Well, I suppose there's no time like now."
"I agree," Hera nodded, "And Dad?"
Eridan turned to his daughter. "Yes?"
"I love you. And I will love you no matter who you turn into."
"I love you too, sweetheart."
And after taking a deep breath, Eridan touched the doorway and disappeared, vanishing to be together with Tara, leaving Hera behind to wait until her dad was done with the Ascension and had truly become the second Ophidianite.
#### Author's note ####
How pissed will Shane be?
