Chapter 205: Is This Cannibalism?

As the sound of rumbling started to get ever closer, Malachi looked at his daughter for ideas on next steps.

"What do you think? Where should we hide?"

"Bu.... "

"What do you mean you don't want to hide? Nightmares will swarm this place in an instant if we linger here too long."

"Da!"

"The hell do you mean this is a chance for self discovery? And what kind of newborn worries about things like that when their soft spot hasn't even closed yet?!"

*frustrated cooing*

"Alright, alright, Dad is sorry, he knows you're special. Just tell me what you had in mind."

-

A few moments later, a pack of hulking figures emerged from around the corner of a ruined building; eagerly looking for their next meal.

They were quadrupedal in stature, with bodies reminiscent of furless black hounds with mouths that split apart like tentacles and enormous claws filled with dark noxious venom.

The group of hounds found something in the area where they had been called, but it wasn't exactly food.

It was another one of their collective, although it looked and felt very different.

The group of hounds circled it from all angles and sniffed at it curiously.

What they were staring at was a smallish nightmare of around seven foot tall with four snake-like tails swaying behind his back and long dreadlocks that floated in the air above his head.

His face had no eyes, ears, or even a nose, only a single mouth filled with black dagger-like teeth- yet it seemed undeniable that it's senses were better than theirs.

Drastically better in fact.

The creature held another, smaller nightmare creature in it's arms.

It... was a lot stranger.

Surely a nightmare creature, but... also not.

A baby-like thing with two leathery bat wings jutting from it's small back and it's cute and nubby fingers were replaced with black claws that were as long as pocket knives.

The skin up to it's elbows was completely black in color, as was the top half of her forehead.

Short but lethal looking horns curled out of her forehead that were reminiscent of a demon's.

Her eyes were completely black and empty as if they were devoid of all light or charity, and their was no escape from them.

Interestingly enough, she looked more like some sort of cross species than the one holding her.

But still, both were beyond strange.

Almost on cue, the entire pack of baphomet class beasts sat onto all fours as they stared at the odd pairing like they were waiting for them to do something.

Malachi and Cami looked at all members of the pack calmly while trying to remain as nightmare-like as possible.

Out of all of the things Mal may have been expecting to happen, this was far from among them.

He was honestly kind of glad that his daughter had suggested they do this.

'I gotta say, muchkin. You really-'

Ever since he'd gotten his powers and started training, he had only learned how to put things down effectively, not cleanly!

Who did he have to go to in order to learn some G-rated violence?

'Wait. Maybe I can..?'

Malachi suddenly threw both of his hands out and held the three nightmares firmly in place.

Concentrating on their body temperature, he amplified it and amplified it by several hundred degrees until he was literally cooking the creatures from the inside out.

Today, Mal learned by complete coincidence that the smell of slow cooked nightmare is more appetizing than one would have ever expected.

It had a sweet yet smoky smell like slow roasted barbecue that practically made his mouth water.

As the nightmares fell over dead, he seriously contemplated walking right up to them and taking a bite out of their flanks.

"This... is a little bit like cannibalism, no..?" he wondered aloud.

He quickly shook off his macabre thoughts as he heard audible giggling coming from above his head, and he remembered the fact that his young daughter just watched him slaughter hounds casually.

But as he looked up, he found that she was not even paying attention to him, much less his fight with the hounds.

Instead, she was in the arms of a mature and beautiful woman with an empty silhouette filled only with darkness, stars, and swirling nebulas.

Her little toes were being nibbled on playfully, and judging by the fits of giggles she had fallen into, this had been the most enriching experience of her whole life.

Smiling wryly, Malachi sat atop the fallen body of the nightmare he'd killed and watched his mother be the best grandmother in the world.

Eventually, Nyx felt his eyes upon her and she shuddered before she floated down from the air and sat atop the hound's corpse alongside her son.

"...You're looking at me like you've seen a ghost."

"More like a stranger. I've hardly seen you since I've been back, you know? You kind of ran off on me." Mal said honestly.

"Hardly that. We've been apart for longer than a few das before, haven't we."

"I guess." he admitted with a shrug. "But somehow this time around just feels.. different."

Nyx bit her lip uncomfortably as she avoided her son's ever piercing gaze.

She casually looked up into the sky above their heads and divulged her feelings honestly.

"I... suppose you could say that I find it very difficult to face you ever since your return. Do not mistake my words as I am elated beyond belief, but... I did not do well in your absence."

"I heard that no one did." Mal admitted.

He took Cami away from his mother with great difficulty, and she returned to her normal appearance as she delighted over the receiving of back to back affection.

Nyx brushed her hair from her face as she bit her lips uncomfortably.

"I... fear that I handled things worse than most. I did things that I knew you would abhor in the name of my grief and out of determination to not think about the void losing a child left within my life."

Nyx lightly touched her son on the hand and stared at him with a serious look in her eye.

"If you are willing.. and if you promise not to despise me for what I have done...I would share it all with you."

Smiling, Mal took her hand gratefully and spoke to her in his usual deep and gentle voice.

"If you tell me about how you slept with Aubrey and her girlfriends, I am going to kill myself."

"...Maybe I did not miss you as much as I thought."