Obelix seemed agreeable enough, but Illerion had slunk over and whispered something to three of them.

"This is pretty strange. Stay alert, Obelix is the spawn of Primordial Chaos, he doesn't leave his own domain without good reason."

"Primordial chaos?..." Klaire muttered to herself. "...Excuse me Obelix, have you come because I received a wedding gift from Primordial Chaos?"

"No, whilst I'm not at odds with them, we haven't spoken in centuries. I'm here as the patron of slimes, which I understand Carl to have elevated."

"I don't want to come across as brash, but I want to make it clear we're protective parents." Klaire said, with a tone both polite and warning.

"Never fear, I was merely curious if we could meet at some point. I sense him at first, but then something happened and this "Squidge" was completely disconnected from me."

"Not right now, if we bring him over, getting him home will be a nightmare. When we return we'll invite you over." Klaire explained, knowing that he would immediately take on the state of a poltergeist and stalk them.

"Fair enough. I'll look forward to it, my realm is well hidden but most of the elves know the way."

"Out of curiosity, why do you mentor other races? We're still new to immortal interaction and I find it interesting."

Obelix laughed. "Well simply put, because I am one of few patient enough to tolerate immortal youths and when they are well educated and disciplined, Thingness is a more tolerable place."

The group laughed with amusement, then began question time.

"What do you mean by "Thingness"? I'm aware of it in terms of philosophy, but never heard it used like that." Gillian asked with sincere curiosity, showing his academic nature for the first time in a while.

"It is the same, in essence. Primordial Chaos is the progeny of the law of Nothingness, which also happens to be a realm and kind of anti-universe as well as where Primordial Chaos resides. Thingness is what we of that line call any space that has been occupied by anything physical."

"Carl mate, make me some paper or something to tak-..."

Carl didn't wait for him to finish before he created a slate and passed it over, wherein Gillian began typing furiously to record every word. "...Carl, can you make a cam-"

Once again Carl didn't wait before producing a camera drone. "Sorry Obelix, I'm aware I'm asking a lot with this, but could you take this and record some lectures? I won't be offended one way or another, but Gillian will cry if I don't ask."

"That will be fine, I was wondering what meeting the new species of slime would cost me and that is far less than I imagined."

"Honestly, I feel bad asking, just bring it with you when you come to visit and it will be uploaded onto that slate he has..." Carl said, acting more humble than he realised, which was not a good thing to do in front of unknown immortals.

[ PRIVATE MESSAGE RECEIVED FROM KYUBI : REMEMBER DEAR, YOU HAVE TO ACT A BIT POMPOUS AT LEAST. GIVE SOME OF THESE AN INCH AND THEY WILL TRY TO TAKE A MILE. ]

"...Besides that I was going to let you meet him regardless, then I was going to dangle one of the gluttonous-slimedra in front of you to have for yourself. We just cut through some of the charade and this will be a great asset in terms of educating our own factions students and even their teachers."

Obelix remained quiet, but saw through Carl's half-hearted guise as easily as the air between them. "That is an enticing offer indeed. Since you have access to my wealth of knowledge, might I still have one of these creatures?"

"Sure, I would hate to be disrespectful to anyone who offers us something so valuable."

Carl proceeded to produce a gluttonous-slimedra and blinked for a while...

"Okay, I have to be dreaming about this one." He said with unfettered disbelief as the creature came into existence from nothing.

"What is it Carl? Something go wrong?" Klaire asked a little bit concerned.

"Err kind of, that only took like five-thousand divinity and to make it more confusing, I made it to the same specs as Squidge was at prior to our ascension..." Carl said looking at the three metre long baby. "...Obelix, I had best warn you. When I release it, it won't be completely loyal to you, if Rhea is anything to go by then it will still hold some attachment for me."

"No matter, I expected as much."

"Okay then, listen up Buddy. Obelix is going to take care of you, let me know if he's mean and I'll come get you."

[ Gluttonous slimedra released into the care of Obelix ]

The first thing the slimedra did was bite his new caretaker, ripping his right leg off at the him, then start bubbling and bulging as he turned a deep black colour with neon-green ripples running through it.

"Truly fascinating, a perfect merger between lifeforms."

"Are you okay? You kind of just lost a leg."

"Hm? Oh, right. No bother Carl, I'm a slime of a sort myself. I simply chose this form like all of us immortals do."

"Am I the only one that is just human..." His entire group started laughing first, followed closely by the others and then Carl realised that whilst he was human, he still chose what form he took. "...Right, like I said we're new to this."

As humble as Carl was, that moment of having everyone laugh at him was still a humbling one.

When the slimdra was done processing it's new material, it was like a three dimensional shadow.

"Truly a fascinating organism, it can process anything?"

"Yeah, I'm not sure, but I think ingesting divinity mutated them early on."

"Not sure?"

"Well, I've had divinity since I was ten, but my blood only turned gold when I was eighteen. Squidge didn't really have much of a personality for about six months though, so I think he bit me and drained a whole one point while we were sleeping."

"I see. You are aware that would make your Squidge a living avatar of divinity? That is a truly terrifying creature..." Obelix turned to the others who arrived with him. "...In light of this development Illerion, I believe you may have come to the correct answer, even if the math was wrong."

"Oh wow! Not very often you consider violence."

"Yeah, I'd rather you settle down. I think they'll all agree signing a non-disclosure agreement is fair." It didn't take much convincing and they soon all agreed with Carl's suggestion, none of them liking their odds against Illerion on her own.

With that in mind, the idea of fighting Illerion, Obelix, the fox, what they could see was a decently-ranked vampire and the two new immortals they had no gauge of... Well, it was about as far away from thinkable as it could possibly be.

"Fine... I guess it's been a pretty nice day, I'd hate to ruin it by staining my dress."

With everyone relieved, Carl got the non-disclosure agreements sorted and then Obelix produced a pact of his own and then he yielded the floor to whoever wanted to speak next.

"I suppose I should speak then..." The one to volunteer was a strange being that wasn't entirely identifiable, like a blurry photo of themself. "...I want to know what you intend to do with Lord Mobius' realm."

"Seriously?..." Illerion stood, the weight of her sudden outrage oppressive enough to make Kyubi's tails bristle. "...You fail to introduce yourself, you ask what an immortal intends to do with rightfully claimed territory; things I can forgive. Calling one of those fools who became villains "Lord", are you still loyal to him?"

"It doesn't matter regardless, Illerion. Margo and Mobius have heard none of this and never will. Just try using your divine sight to see outside..." Carl waited for her to do so, then she looked back with her smile restored. "...See, I erected it the moment your portals opened."

"Oh, so you were baiting us in, were you?"

"Yeah, kinda, but do you mind if we get to that later?"

"Sure, I can be patient." Illerion said as she bounced back.

"Sorry, but are you still loyal to Mobius?"

"Yes, I am, but the real Mobius. The Mobius that nurtured the flow of time and unified it across every realm he could, the Mobius he was before Margo led him astray."

"Well, no point in hiding it. Nergal, wanna come help me explain this?"

"Sure, why not, I was wondering if you knew I was here."

"You bribed my daughter with a cookie, you should have bribed her siblings too, they're a package deal and covet cookies above all."

"I see..." Nergal considered it then shrugged. "...So I guess I'm here to tell you that Carl here might be my nephew..."

Nergal's sentence ended like a cliff, so blunt and shocking people had to work at joining the dots themselves and more satisfied with deciphering it as they could be upset by the conclusion.

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