Chapter 333 - Leaving Forever
This new Gaia lacked the mythical dryad-like green tint that her old self had.
However, as if to compensate for that, the clothes she chose to create around her well-proportioned body made her look like a beautiful naturalistic flower.
With a beautiful life-like light cyan hue, a green floral print short-sleeved skater dress was wrapped tightly around some parts of her new body, while it merely hung loosely around others.
A tight fitting dark purple belt was strapped around her slim waist, as if to keep her dress from flying away or revealing too much of her sparkling skin.
Her only piece of accessory was a neat silver rune-filled bracelet that was hugging her bare wrist.
"Whew, it\'s finally over!" Gaia finally gained awareness in her new body and hugged herself with a whisper that was full of unimaginable relief.
The pain she had experienced the past few hours was something she\'d rather never experience, ever again.
"How are you feeling?" Kayla\'s weak voice came from the side, out of her currently tiny clone, seemingly exhausted beyond reason, evident by the strain marks all around her body.. It seemed as though this clone of hers was about to fall apart.
"Eh, it seems pretty difficult to move. Err, I guess I feel heavy," Gaia said, pondering, as she tried to move and stretch her body around. "It\'s a funny feeling, really, having the entirety of my planet-sized body compacted into this human form.
"With that in mind, I have to say that the feeling is merely psychological, and it should not take long for me to get used to it. Physically, this body is hundreds of times better and more natural that any clone I\'ve ever created! So, Kay, thank you so much! I owe you a bunch!"
"Eh, don\'t think anything of it," Kayla waved her hand. "I\'ve promised Rave that I\'ll get you out of here, and giving you a body is just my means of doing so.
"With that being said, I can\'t help but think of how badass this is; right now, with every move you make, you represent the movement of an entire planet. So one punch from your body is ought to be deviating, hehe…"
"Well, it\'s technically two planets," Kayla corrected herself with a tired smile. "You have two Planes in you; Human Plane, and Demon Realm!"
"Hehe… you\'re right! That\'s huge! Err, both physically and metaphorically!" Gaia commented with a giggle. "By the way, you look extremely tired, will you be okay?" Saying that, she quickly supported her, allowing her to straighten herself.
"Err, this is just a clone, and the power inside of it has almost been exhausted, but the real me is okay don\'t worry," Kayla comforted. "You go see Liz, I\'ll go to Clacer."
"Huh, why not just call him over?" Gaia asked.
"I have his bracelet, remember?" Kayla shrugged. "Well, technically I could use Raven\'s Oasis: Mind Link, but I need to go to the moon anyway. You\'re not planning on leaving it behind, right?"
"Uh, the moon!" Gaia glanced at the moon in the distance. This very moon that had kept her company since the beginning of time. "I\'ll come with you. You should be able to call Liz over since she has a bracelet, right?"
"Err, I guess that\'s one way to do it. Alright!" Kayla agreed and headed towards the sparkling side of the moon, under the sun\'s hot rays. "Oh, by the way, although you\'re technically still a Star Nine, your body can now withstand the attacks of a Star Twenty. You\'re pretty tough now!"
Hearing that, Gaia merely grinned while giving an approving thumbs up.
…
Not long after, everyone was standing away from the moon while Kayla had already allowed her Cyber Particles to penetrate its core.
"This is pretty weird…" she muttered while narrowing her eyes.
"Eh, what\'s the matter?" Liz asked curiously.
"Yes, Lady Kayla, what\'s weird?" Calcer asked. Currently, he looked normal, and the Sea of Blood that\'s usually accompanying him was nowhere to be found; obviously, it had been retracted to his body. "I have been training her for a while and I haven\'t found anything out of the ordinary."
"Hm, Calcer, didn\'t you feel that the moon was giving off sole World Energy?" Kayla asked.
"Err, yes, is that not normal?" Calcer asked, confused. "Earth was filled with World Energy that we used to strengthen ourselves and use for our skills."
"Technically, even though Earth is a planet, it is not a requirement for it to have World Energy," Kayla explained. "The reason behind its abundant World Energy is Gaia." Saying that, she pointed at the beauty in the green floral dress.
"However, the moon should be nothing but a lifeless celestial body. In a way, it is similar to the other planets in our Solar System," she continued. "In theory it should not have any sort of World Energy, yet it somehow does… truly, strange…"
"Huh, is that good or bad?" Gaia asked, confused.
"I don\'t know," Kayla shrugged casually. "And honestly, I don\'t care at the moment. I\'ll pack it for you, then we can quickly leave. We\'ve already spent so much time here and if anyone is planning to intercept us, we\'re giving them too much time to catch up."
Saying that, Kayla extracted some dark purple rune-filled structure from her own bracelet.
"Is that a bone?" Gaia asked. "I thought you used all of them already."
"I mean, I\'m glad that I at least thought this far ahead..." Kayla simply said.
Gaia was taken aback as she felt somehow offended, even though she didn\'t understand why.
Moving her fingers as though she was playing a fragile harp, she urged her Cyber Particles to fill and intermix with the entirety of the moon.
Now that she got the chance to think about it, Kayla realized that this moon was surprisingly the largest in this Solar System. It was even larger than many dwarf planets in the neighboring Solar Systems.
\'Truly strange,\' Kayla muttered to herself this time, as if to confirm her own belief.
Slowly, as she worked around with her tender fingers, the moon started to shrink in a way that was similar to Earth before.
Over time, it too got to the size of a small marble.
Approaching it freely, Kayla extended the dark purple rune-filled structure -which was in fact a processed angel bone- towards it.
Entering the center of the structure, the tiny marble-sized moon finally came to a stop.
With a delicate move from Kayla\'s hands, the dark purple bone started moving like a viscous liquid and fully wrapped itself around the moon, forming a mixed structure.
And with another twist from her, this small mixed structure started changing forms, until eventually, it resembled a beautiful white spider lily hairpin.
"Here!" Kayla said while handing the newly configured hairpin to Gaia.
"Oh My! This is so pretty! Thank you!" Gaia said one word after the other, almost too quickly. She was just as happy as her wide smile made everyone think she was.
"Let me help you!" Liz offered while extending her pale palm towards Gaia.
Handing her the hairpin, Gaia turned around. Gently, she felt her short curls being twisted into a bun. Momentarily after, she felt the soft touch of the hairpin against the top of her head.
"Haha, looks pretty good on you!" Kayla chuckled gracefully.
"It\'s all thanks to you!" Gaia suddenly hugged her. Truly, Kayla has done so much for her up until that moment and she subconsciously started feeling the weight of this debt.
"Hehe, I told you, don\'t worry about it," as if seeing through her thoughts, Kayla winked at her.
"Alright," she suddenly continued in a serious tone. "Since we\'re done here, it\'s time for you all to leave.
"Gaia, you technically still have the Teleportation Gates within your body so you can teleport everyone here to one of the planets that were chosen as a destination.
"As for me… this clone will probably disperse soon since I\'ve used most of its power and what\'s left now is not enough to maintain it for long.
"So, I\'ll stay here to monitor the situation and see what happens after you leave. It\'s important for me to know if someone is actually coming, or if the angels are doing something else, which may be even worse for us…"
"Uhm, I understand," Gaia replied with a serious nod. "We\'ll get going. You tell Raven and Maya to take care. I want to see you all soon, okay?"
"Aye, we\'ll follow you soon!" Kayla said in an attempt to reassure her and everyone else.
"Wait, why will you follow us? Will we not be meeting back here?" Liz suddenly asked. "You and Raven surely have a way to restore everything to the way it was before, just like you always do, right?"
"Meet back here? Restore everything to the way it was? Nope, unfortunately, that\'s a no for both questions," Kayla slowly shook her head.