Eldritch 47

Issei had a few dreams like this.

He was standing next to Rosseweise, who was holding Green on her hip much like a mother would. In front of them were bunnywomen of this tribe, all kneeling and prostrating before them.

"O Great Kungur, Ruler of All Flesh and Stars, we beseech your forgiveness," Tully begged in absolute submission. "We had no idea that this woman was yours. We meant no disrespect."

"It's alright, you can look up," Issei assured as the bunnywomen sat up but remained on their knees.

Rosswese smiled and placed Green down, as she ran over to Tully and embraced her. "Tully! I was so scared you would all be gone forever!"

Tully smiled softly and reverently as she embraced the young god. "So was I, Lost One."

Issei smiled at the scene, but could feel the uncertain and apprehensive eyes on him. Future him kind of left him in an awkward spot. How to explain this?

"Lady Tully," Rossewise said as she stepped forward and got on one knee to be at her level. "The Kungur did not subjugate you all to that as punishment, but a warning."

Tully blinked, and Issei realized that his future self might not have left him high and dry after all. "What do you mean?" the bunny leader questioned, Green watching curiously.

"Years from now, the Kungur will have a great battle," Rossweise informed solemnly. "Against whom, I do not know. All I foresaw was that he will crash upon this realm amidst the fighting. What you experienced was the fate that will befall this realm and all within it if they are present on that terrible day."

Issei's eyes widened in understanding.

As did Tully. "The Kungur wasn't trying to punish us, but-"

"Warn you, yes," Rossweise confirmed with a smile as she looked at Green. "That was what you saw, Lady Green. The Kungur wants to spare them this fate. For in that timeline, he found you after his power had already consumed this place."

Green gasped and looked at Issei. Or rather, through him to another him. "Thank you so much, Kungur!"

"Um! You're welcome!" Issei accepted before adjusting. "Though, in that case, we should probably find you all a new place to live soon."

Tully sighed deeply. "It will be hard. To lose our Green God and to leave our ancient home. I have been here for so long; finding another home feels daunting."

"Don't worry, I'm sure the Eldritch will find you a space," Rossweise mused before looking at Green. "Perhaps her mother can help, if their planet is safe for you."

"I would love to share my home with Tully and everyone!" Green said brightly. 

Tully and the others smiled at their tiny god.

Issei smiled. It was kind of interesting; this cult was more like a collection of mothers and big sisters for their god rather than servile worshippers. Actually, strike that, it wasn't interesting. It was adorable.

"Now, if you'll excuse me," Rossweisse said as she stood up and turned. "The Kungur and I need a word."

Issei raised an eyebrow at her, but followed her as they wandered a not-so-short distance away to avoid their ears. "So, did you make any of that up?"

Rossweise shook her head. "No, your future self told me all of that. Or put it right in my brain, rather."

"Don't suppose he told you who I'll be fighting?" Issei asked with a frown.

Rossweise furrowed her brow. "I don't think that is set in stone. Just that you'll land here during some great struggle."

"Lovely," Issei mused. "So, what is a Norse baddie doing in the fae lands?"

"Norse baddie," Rossweise repeated mildly. "My queen sent me here to find the Lost One so that we could help her return home. It's supposed to be a gesture of friendliness from the Norse faction to the Eldritch faction."

"Well, gesture definitely received. Though it sounds like your queen knew some extra details that she didn't mention," Issei mused. "So, why you, exactly?"  

"Well, I THOUGHT it was just because the Queen valued my skills and loyalty," Rossewie said in annoyance. "But like you said, she probably knew I had...or, will have a connection to you." 

"A connection?" Issei questioned.

Rossweise shrugged. "Obviously, I'm an ally of yours in the future. The exact nature of our relationship is... ambiguous."

"Is that what the Nordics call it?" Issei asked in amusement.

Rossweise blushed a bit and glanced away. "Anyway. Yes. The Queen sent me specifically because your future self wanted to both avoid the Doom of this tribe, but also to teach you to boost sanity as you did with me."

Issei blinked. "I literally caused a paradox just to teach myself a trick ahead of time. That is kind of concerning."

Rossweise coughed slightly as she scratched her cheek. "He....or You,  also might have done it this way because he wanted to punish the bunnywomen a tiny bit for how they treated me."

"....Right, ambiguous," Issei said with a snort. "Well, at least I'm dealing with my grudges constructively?" 

"Yes, those are definitely words," Rossweise said dryly before sighing heavily as she put her hand over her face.

"You okay?" Issei asked in concern.

"Yes, and no," she answered, pulling her hand down to look at him oddly. "This is so strange for me. I just met you, but thanks to this little temporal incident, I feel like we've known each other for years. I look at you and.... I feel like smiling."

Issei scratched his cheek. "Yeah, stuff like this can take some getting used to. The idea of meeting my future self would have thrown me for a loop before I met Aza. Now, it's just another new experience I shrug at. Though that might just be from Yog resetting time so much."

"Yog? Ahh, right, the Outer God of Time," Rosseweise recalled curiously. "Where are they in all this?"

"The Feylands are apparently a place that exists as 'Where Time Sleeps' in a very literal sense," Issei explained. "I don't think they can get too far into here without getting sleepy. And I kind of don't want to know what a drowsy time god can do."

"They?" Rossweise questioned.

"Hmm? Oh, right. I was including Yad, the Elder God of Time," Issei explained.

Rossweise blinked. "You have two time deities?"

"Technically, they're the same one on different scales, but it's easier to treat them as two separate people," Issei explained. "Eldritch? What are you going to do?"

Rossweise sighed. "Apparently, befriend them, at minimum," she said, before looking back at Green and the tribe.

Issei looked and smiled. Green looked like she was already getting tired as she rested against Tully.

"What happens now?" Rossweise asked curiously.

"Well, I take Green to her mother and see about getting these ladies moved to someplace else. I don't think that fight is soon, but the sooner the better. After that? I have some friends I need to give sanity boosts to. And between all of them, figure out how to respond to the Norse faction's helping with this," Issei explained. "But there is also something very important I need to do as soon as possible."

Rossweise blinked. "And what is that?"

"Screw my wife silly," Issei answered bluntly.

Rossweise could only stare with a deadpan expression. "Really?"

"Trust me, she is the hornier one between us, and you don't want to see Aza when she's not getting enough vitamin-Issei," he explained with a grin.

"I believe you," Rossewise admitted, shaking her head. "Just trying not to think the safety and sanity of the whole world somewhat relies on you having sex with her regularly."

"Well, not always sex. Cuddling, dating, just spending time with each other," Issei said with a bashful smile.

Rosswise observed him before smiling. "Then I suppose we have nothing to fear about her gaining a deficiency," she joked before tilting her head. "Though I'm mildly surprised she allows you to have a harem of any kind. She seems like the type that would want your attention only on her."

"You'd think so. Her being the queen of the Universe and all that," Issei said with a smile. "But Eldritch don't think like most creatures, and Aza is Eldritch even to other Eldritch in a lot of ways. Yet, she ended up falling in love with a mook like me."

"I think I'd like to hear that story another time," Rossweise said softly. "For now, well, let's worry about getting Green to her mother so I can get home."

"Eager to get rid of me already?" Issei asked playfully.

"More like eager to take a bath and sleep," Rossweise countered as she turned to head back to the bunnywomen and Green.

Issei watched as she walked away before glancing up. "Okay, future me? Of all the reasons to cockblock myself, I think this was all worth it."

Meanwhile

"Oi, at least that's over with," Yog said to herself in relief, lying on the ground in exhaustion with a flushed look on her face.

"So, this was where E'lior's child found herself," Yad mused, gazing at the portal in the ground to keep an eye on Issei.

Yog chuckled. "I'm sure she'll be extra grateful to the Kungur for bringing her baby home. Little Green might have a sibling."

Yad rolled her eyes. "You know very well that no Eldritch goddess will bear the Kungur's progeny before Aza has that joy."

"True," Yog said slowly as she sat up. "But after what just happened, that might be sooner than later."

Yad frowned as she closed the portal. "The Kungur is ascending faster than he should be, even in the most ideal timeline. I wonder if perhaps this wasn't what he was waiting for."

Yog raised an eyebrow. "You think he turned down Aza until he would gain something like Ddraig's boosted gear to speed up the process."

Yad hummed. "I think our Kungur is only so patient and would not wish to rely on others when he could not return the favor."

"So, he did blind side you, niece."

Both of them stiffened, turning to look into the darkness.

A pair of gleaming golden eyes stared back as Nyarly intruded upon this realm between times.

"I was wondering who I might have to punish for interrupting his dates," Nyarly mused as she strolled forward and gazed down the portal. The image rewound to show the future Kungur,  donned in the draconic armor that he had long outgrown. "But it seems our good sovereign had other plans."

Yad observed Nyarly pointedly. "You protect him and yet avoid him, O Crawling Chaos."

Nyarly's eyes settled on the Elder counterpart of time. "I will show myself to him whenever he deigns to call upon me. No sooner, no later, Lesser Yog."

Yog chuckled. "You say that, but we both know that Issei is that one line that, if you crossed, wouldn't end well for you."

Nyarly smiled. "The same is true for any that might so boldly act against the Kungur. And yet, many still will, Greater Yad," she mused in an airy voice. "What joy it will be to see him subjugate Reality with his own mighty limbs."

"And if he fails along the way, you get to see what terrible wrath Aza will unleash," Yad mused.

"I'm insulted you think I would be content with such a petty consolation prize," Nyarly said with a smirk, giggling at the God of Time's uncertainty. "Well, tata~"

Yad's eyebrow twitched when Nyarly suddenly vanished, like a mirage of shadows that were never there. "I am going to enjoy it when the Kungur meets here at last."

"You say that, but we have no idea how that'll turn out," Yog mused, glaring off to the side. "Dear old Aunty never lets herself be seen in 'time' unless she wants us to."

"True, but I don't see him having the same patience for her antics as Aza does," Yad mused, glancing down at the portal, returning to Issei's current present. "I do believe they are ready to leave."

Meanwhile

"Do I really have to leave without them, Kungur?" Green asked nervously.

"Don't worry, Green, Issei here will take you to meet some people who can help take you to your mommy," Rossweise promised.

"Okay," Green said in a small voice.

Issei smiled. Unlike his run-in with Shub's kid, this one was a lot more like a normal human. Just another reminder that Eldritch Children ranged from masses of insanity to normal children and everything else in between and beyond.   

Tully knelt down to Green and took her hand one last time. "Thank you for everything you have done for us, Our Precious Lost One," she said, kissing the hand with a strange mix of worship and maternalness.  

Green smiled, leaping forward to wrap her in a hug. "I promise, I won't forget you! I'll ask Mama to bring you all to our home if she can! And if she can't, I...I don't know, but I'll try!"

Tully embraced Green as well, with tears in her eyes; the rest of the tribe looked just as bittersweet about the parting.

Issei and Rossweise waited until the moment ended, Green parting from Tully and allowing Issei to pick her up. "Right, now we just need an exit," Issei mused.

As if by his very words, the wind picked up and drew their attention. Right outside the village, a pool of water appeared, as if it had poured out of the ground itself. The bunnywomen were awed by the seemingly divine act. Well, it was a divine act, just not directly one of Issei's doing.

"I guess that would be our ride," Rossweise said with a smile, looking at Issie and Green. "Ready to go?"

Issei wasn't sure who she was talking to, but Green nodded against his shoulder, and he grinned as he looked back to the tribe. "See you soon, ladies! I'll get you a new home if Green's isn't too friendly!"

With that final farewell, they jumped into the pool of water. Once they did, the pond seemed to implode upon itself, the water springing up in the middle before there was a brilliant flash. When the tribe looked again, they stared up in awe at a small tree that took the water's place, the branches filled with red leaves.

"Our little lost god has finally gone home," Tully said softly, her tone bittersweet at the loss of her charge. "Thank you for everything, Little Lost One. .If we never meet again, my Green God, then may tears never fall from your face, and your smile be eternal."

Meanwhile

When they came through the portal, Rossweise was almost annoyed to see they were in another forest. "Did it just take us back to the Fey Forest before Green's realm? Do we have to find our way out of here, too?"

"Yeah, Ross? I don't think so," Issei said evenly while staring up.

"Hmm?" Rossweise looked at him and looked up as well. "What do you meeeeeeeean?"

Above them was a pink sun, the light dancing among the canopy.

Green blinked up at it. "That star. It looks kind of like home...." 

All at once, there was a shift in the air as the trees began to flow and move.

"You feel that?" Issei asked with a frown.

Rossewise nodded grimly. "Something noticed us and doesn't like that we're here."

The forest groaned as a heavy presence came over them. And on the wind, the voice of a woman, protective and forceful.

"Who intrudes upon my world? I-"

"Mama!?" Green called out in joy and shock and many other emotions.

The voice paused, and Issei could feel the disbelief seeping into the area. "Da.....Daughter?" the voice whispered now, as if daring not to hope.

Rossweise blinked and traded a look with Issei, who had relaxed quite a bit already. 

The bark of a nearby tree bent and snapped, a figure emerging from the confines of the plant. It was a woman, or shaped like a woman. She was green, even more so than Green herself. Her long hair was all vines and branches and moss, her arms and legs made of bars. Her entire body seemed to be in a battle between being a beautiful woman and a monstrous plant.

"Ahh, so that's Ei'lor," Issei mused to himself.

"Mama!" Green exclaimed again, crying as she jumped out of Issei's arms and ran to the entity.

"Daughter!" Ei'lor called out as she embraced her long-lost child once more. "I thought I might not see you for eons, my sprout."

"Mama! I'm sorry!" Green said quickly. "I got scared and got lost, but some nice lady helped me find a place, and I made a lot of friends, but I missed you so much and I-I-I-!"

Green just started crying in joy and sadness as her mother held her closer.

"Well, that was quicker than I expected," Issei mused with a smile. "Still sweet."

"Yeah, but...are they crying sap? And are they...fusing?" Rossweise asked uncertainly.

"Their roots and branches are merely embracing, Valkerie."

Issei looked behind himself and found there was a black haired woman smiling at them, one he didn't recognize.

Luckily, Rossweise did. "Lady Titania?" she said in surprise. "What are you doing here? Where even is here?

"More than one place, actually," Titania answered coyly, looking beyond the pair to the mother and daughter. 

"Mama! Mama! That's the lady who found me and gave me a place to hide after I was lost!" Green informed me happily.

Ei'lor pulled back a bit to look at the trio. "You have returned my daughter to me, th-" her thanks were paused instantly.

Rossweise blinked as the Eldritch Goddess suddenly grew cautious and, dare she say it? Fearful?

"Mama?" Green asked in concern. "What's wrong?"

"Kungur," Ei'lor said, bowing her head deeply to Issei. No, it felt like every tree and blade of grass suddenly tilted towards the young Eldritch God. "I did not realize it was you. Please, forgive my rudeness."

"It's okay, Mama! Kungur is nice!" Green assured confidentiality. "He came to make sure my friends don't get squished when he falls on them."

What might have been an extremely confusing statement for most was only slightly so for the Eldritch mother. "I see you have had a little adventure, daughter," Ei'lor said with a smile before looking cautiously at Issei.

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "It's fine, we were a bit surprised to be here ourselves."

"Perhaps we should sit down and discuss things, Kungur? Star-Seed of Kr'llyand?" Titania suggested regally. With a wave of her hand, plants and branches sprouted from the ground to form the shapes of a table and chairs for them all to sit at.

Ei'lor hummed as she eyed the "furniture" strangely before taking a seat. "I would like to know how my daughter has been returned to me," she said curiously, placing Green into her lap.

Issei shrugged. "Well, I'm not going to turn down a chat with a few beautiful ladies."

"She is married. Just so you know, before you cause an incident, Kungur," Rossweise informed with a knowing smile.

"Ahh, thanks for the warning," Issei said in understanding.

Titania almost pouted as she looked at Rossweise in disapproval. "This is my thanks? You ruin my fun before it begins?"

Rossweise's smile grew a little tense. She'd rather not get on the bad side of the Fey Matriarch if she could help it.