Blessed by Night

"…And I think that just about sums it all up.. any questions?"

Unsurprisingly, at least sixty hands went up at the same time.

Malachi sighed and elected to just tackle all of the questions one at a time.

"Umm let's start with you then, Vanessa."

"Those snake things on your back… do they have names?"

"Manda, Gwiya, Onini, and Vritra."

"That's clever."

"Thank you."

Once she put her hand down, around five others also followed suit.

Despite wanting to relax a bit, Malachi figured that he wasn't out of the woods yet and elected to save that for a later time.

It wasn't long before he settled on his next question from Bianca's own father.

"Mr. Ali?"

"So those alien-in-laws of yours… they came and destroyed the whole world and killed all of those people… as some sort of messed up way to eliminate all of our strife and conflict?"

"That's pretty much it, yea… They kind of follow the 'A thing must be destroyed before it can be rebuilt' line of thinking."

"And do you share that line of thinking with them?"

"No… but I understand how they reached that conclusion."

Malachi's answer made the entire mess hall become noticeably tense as if they weren't quite sure how to handle the implications of what he had just said.

Ali in particular felt his eyes narrow noticeably.

"Now… we don't have to worry about you following in their footsteps, do we?"

"Not unless you suddenly take back your blessing, then- Ugh!"

Bianca punch Malachi in the side as hard as she possibly could and without sending him flying.

As a result, she obliterated all of the ribs on one side of his body and caused him to double over in pain.

"I'm an adult who can decide things for myself, thank you! I told you that we don't need his permission!"

"I was just trying to lighten up the crowd…"

"W-Well don't do it at my expense!"

As quickly as the tension formed in the air, it disappeared and was replaced only by a mild sense of pity.

Another hand went up, and Malachi called on it as he rubbed his own ribs to speed up the healing process.

The next question came from another one of the actual guild members, a young woman named Roxanne.

"This is less of a question for you, Malachi, and more so a question for the girls in a relationship with you… is it weird to bone an alien? Like does his junk look the same?"

"…why the hell would you-"

Sei : "T-That.."

Luna : "The snakes took a moment to get used to, but I barely notice them anymore."

Anna : "It was always big, but now it's thicker and it's easy to tell that he's not really human anymore just by looking at it."

Joanne : "It makes foreplay a requirement or else there's no way it'd fit."

"Can you girls please?!"

Nadine : "But it's not unpleasant, ya know? It's almost like-"

"Okay!"

Malachi used shadows to cover the mouths of all of the girls other than Sei, as she was the only one who he trusted not to say something unnecessary.

Unfortunately, the damage was done.

Most every woman in here was staring at him with object curiosity.

The men were equal parts envious and disgusted.

Malachi wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

"Alright… any other questions?"

Several hands went up and Mal's brow began to twitch uncontrollably.

"That don't involve my private business…"

Almost all hands went down afterwards.

"Christ."

Out of the corner of his eye, Malachi saw one hand that did not go down, and he realized that it was Celeste who had something that she wanted to ask next.

"So… the aliens are gone. There are no more gates opening up and we are still in the middle of a civil war… I guess what I'm trying to ask is, what's next for us?"

This admittedly made Malachi pause a bit as he wasn't exactly sure either.

He was generally the sort of person who took his life day by day before the world ended, so it was difficult for him to plan out his future sometimes.

But even still… he was more than a little certain that the months or days to come would not be quiet ones.

"I won't lie to you.. even without the gates and stuff, earth still has monsters running around. Only problem is now they look just like humans.

It's no secret that two of our most precious members were imprisoned by the Revival Regime for several months.

I won't go into detail, but if they're doing the same thing to other blessed that they were to my girls… we have to destabilize that whole system."

Joanne trembled slightly at the memory of that hellish place that was practically a blessed internment camp.

It was easy to tell that her mind was going to some very upsetting places.

Like a ray of sunlight, Anna took her mother's hand and offered her a reassuring smile.

Her experience was less traumatic than her mother's since she was asleep for most of her stay, but she was far from unsympathetic to how her mother was feeling about the whole ordeal.

And once she felt her daughter was trying to comfort her, Joanne felt all of her tension and bad memories beginning to slip away like bad dreams.

"But just because we have beef with the Revival Regime doesn't mean that we are going to start throwing in with the New Day either. Any civilization that thrives off the backs of another… is one that we can't let stand."

The humans inside of the base all felt a massive wave of relief flow through them.

It was nice to know that Malachi truly hadn't changed… and that he was still thinking of a better future for both humans and blessed alike.

"And… there's a new threat that we weren't aware of in the wastelands.

They call themselves the Abomination Faction, and they are humans who have given themselves the power of monsters from the gates.

The scout team that we just brought back today had a run-in with them and got a little banged up in the process."

"Oh gods…"

"H-How is that possible..?"

"We're all going to die…"

Malachi noticed the air began to get depressive once again and he hurriedly tried to correct it.

"Hey now, ain't no need to get all upset like this. I know things seem crazy but all of you are going to be safe here. You have my word."

"How can you honestly promise us that, Mal?" Rowan asked sincerely.

Smiling, Malachi wrapped his arms around two of the girls behind him and presented them before the crowd.

"Just make a little bet with me. How long do you think it'll take me and three of my girls to erase a whole faction from what remains of the United States?"