>>5844989“Okay, everyone, let’s regroup over here, there’s a place in this palace structure we can make a decent base camp.”
“Got it boss, see you there.” Cheelai confirms.
“We’ll regroup with you shortly!” Don Para declares.
As you head off, you let Darutanias know, “Whatever spells we attempt, it might be better that we wait just a bit on getting you back to normal. At least until we have a proper grasp on how this kind of Magic operates. Better we iron things out before we turn you into like, a rapidly aging pile of bones or something.”
‘That… would be ideal, yes.’ he responds hesitantly. He initially seemed disgruntled at the thought of waiting, but putting that image in his head has tempered that reaction.
“Also, you have brought up worries about your subject’s mental state before, but might there be something in the texts we’ve recovered that could help with that?” you inquire.
There’s a clear pause of hesitation. ‘…I would not get your hopes up. But the possibility exists, yes.’
“Good. Also, let us know ahead of time if there’s some load-bearing structures in here. Don’t want this crashing down on us.”
‘Of course, of course.’
Back towards the entrance, Shun Shun teleports the boys to your group, and you decide it’s better to get things over with quickly. Piccolo and Haru Haru set down a number of the tomes that’ve been collected, especially the ones relevant to the task at hand, and Darutanias reveals how to properly open them up. At the same time, you telepathically ask Piccolo, ‘Hey, you got anything you can use to subvert Darutanias’ sudden yet inevitable betrayal once he’s back to a more human form? Maybe we could seal him away in something… oh! Like a rice cooker!’
Piccolo raises an eyebrow. ‘...The part of me that remembers being in that state wants to glare at you. The part of me that remembers being Kami finds your request reasonable. In either case, I can do that, but I don’t know how necessary that’d be. The fool’s overconfident in his own abilities, and even moreso the idea that he’s been the one manipulating you.’
‘Better safe than sorry.’ you say, and spot him subtly materialize one.
(cont.)
