Cynthia looked at the regenerated Gravis with a slightly opened mouth. She seemed rather shocked by what she saw. "You look incredible," she commented.
Gravis blinked a couple of times out of confusion. Then, he pointed at himself with a questioning look. "Me? How do I look incredible?" he asked in genuine confusion. Where did that comment suddenly come from?
Cynthia looked back at Gravis with an annoyed expression. "Don't act like you don't know," she said.
Gravis shook his head in surprise again. "But I genuinely don't know. I really don't get it. No one has ever said something like that to me," Gravis said.
Cynthia was a bit taken aback. "No one?" she asked.
Gravis nodded. "Yes, no one. I really don't get it. You're some kind of cat, and I'm some kind of lizard thing. My body doesn't even conform to any general look of any other beast. How could something like this be incredible or attractive?" he asked.
Cynthia lifted one of her eyebrows in confusion. "So, you really don't know?"
Gravis groaned. "No, I don't," he said.
Cynthia looked at Gravis again and scanned his entire body. "The more powerful we beasts become, the more we realize the combat potential of different bodies. At the beginning of our journey, we mainly look at beasts that look similar to us, but at some point, we can only see the inadequacies of other bodies. This completely changes our tastes for a mate."
Gravis was still confused. "But you have fur, while I have scales. You walk on four legs, while I walk on two. You have paws, while I have hands. We both are nearly as far away from each other in terms of looks as it gets."
"That's why you look incredible," Cynthia said. "When you didn't have any arms and legs, you looked weak and vulnerable, something we powerful beasts despise. After all, we all want to reach supreme power, and mating with someone like that would produce weak offspring."
"But as soon as your limbs have regenerated, all these weaknesses left. Yes, you look entirely different to me, but that is why you are so attractive, and I'm definitely not alone in that opinion," Cynthia explained.
Gravis closed his eyes a bit to get the mental image of mating with a cat out of his mind. He was a human, and he really didn't have any romantic interest in a cat. He hadn't felt any attraction for any beast. It felt disgusting to him.
"Could you explain it in more detail, because I still don't get it," Gravis said.
Cynthia scoffed. "If I weren't so sure that you're not lying, I would suspect that you're fishing for compliments," Cynthia said but then sighed.
"It's like, by looking at you, I can see the weaknesses in my own body," Cynthia slowly said as she scanned Gravis, which made him really uncomfortable. "Your scales are superior to my fur, which means your defense is better than mine."
"Your tail is longer and more powerful, and I can see that even if you lost that tail, you would still have no issues with your balance. You can use that tail more effectively than I can use mine. Your legs have claws and have a form that gives you optimal acceleration."
"Your waist is thin and flexible, but the defensive weakness of your waist only exists in theory. Your claws, chest, and forward-leaning position keep your waist protected. Like this, your waist has no disadvantage while simultaneously granting you great flexibility."
"Your chest is wide, which allows you to use more power with your arms. Your arms are long, powerful and allow you to grab stuff. Additionally, you can injure your enemy with them. Your mouth has strong teeth and a powerful jaw, but your head isn't big enough to become an obvious target for the enemy."
Cynthia sighed again. "All in all, you have the most effective body for combat I have ever seen. I see no weaknesses at all. The only thing I could criticize is that you only have two arms. A second pair of arms could make you even more powerful," Cynthia said.
Gravis scratched his chin with his right claw. "Hm, so it's all about the power of the eventual offspring, right?" Gravis asked.
Cynthia looked at Gravis like he asked a dumb question. "Of course. Power is everything. No powerful beast wants to have weak offspring. The more powerful our offspring, the better. Don't you feel that?" she asked skeptically.
Gravis still felt uncomfortable with this whole topic. Talking about the sexual attractiveness of his weird lizard-body with a cat really wasn't something he had expected he would ever do. This whole situation felt bizarre.
Gravis shook his head wildly to get his bearings back. "How could you even consider me as a mate? We are so different. I doubt we would even be able to produce offspring. How would such offspring even look like?" Gravis asked.
Cynthia looked again like Gravis had asked a stupid question. "Of course we can mate," she said. "As soon as we become Lords, there is no restriction regarding species anymore. Our bodies are powerful enough to force the conception of a new life," she said.
Gravis was taken aback. "What?" he simply asked.
Cynthia huffed. "Now you're just messing with me. Every beast knows that. After all, we all feel the change in attraction. It's instinct. You're a beast, so you should have felt that too," Cynthia said with an annoyed tone.
Meanwhile, Gravis remained silent. After some seconds, his right claw went back to his face to scratch his chin. 'I've never heard about that before. Is this some kind of rule or Law that the highest Heaven put into place? I mean, it would probably increase the quality of the beasts without needing to increase their Energy consumption. This would force humans to become more powerful.'
Gravis continued thinking with narrowed eyes. 'I mean, something like this would make sense. Beasts would also act as more powerful tempering. Yet, if every beast can mate with every other beast, how come I haven't seen a single really weird-looking beast before? All of the beasts I have seen previously could fit into a specific category.'
"If that's true, how come I've never seen some weird looking beast? If beasts can just mate with anything, the beasts would start looking really weird after some point," Gravis asked Cynthia.
By now, Cynthia realized that Gravis honestly didn't know about these things, which felt unreal to her. "Because the offspring looks identical to the parent with the higher combat potential," she said like it was something obvious.
Gravis' eyes widened. 'So that's it,' he thought. 'This would explain why I didn't find weird amalgamations of meat running around. So, in comparison to humans, the offspring of beasts don't take on a mix of both parents' looks but copy one of them.'
Gravis looked at the horizon. 'And since every beast can modify their body as much as they theoretically want, their appearances all still make sense. After all, beasts wouldn't just make their bodies half and half.'
Gravis had been thinking for quite a long time, while Cynthia just looked at him in confusion. Why wasn't he saying anything? He just had this awkward and painful expression on his face while he looked at the horizon.
Suddenly, Gravis shook his head wildly. Then, he turned to Cynthia. "Thank you for telling me these things. I honestly didn't know about them."
Cynthia was a bit surprised by Gravis shaking his head like that, but she giggled a little. "You're weird," she said. "But no problem. You can ask me anything," she said.
Gravis nodded. "I will. Anyway, I should get going. It's time for me to gather some ore and forge some armor and weapons."
Now, Cynthia looked confused again. "How can you forge armor and weapons? Your body is full of weapons, and your scales are powerful armor. Also, what's ore?" she asked.
Gravis sighed. "Since you've shared some knowledge with me, I see no issue with sharing some knowledge with you. After all, it's your King that's forcing me to stay here, not you," Gravis said. "I'll tell you on the way."
Cynthia nodded with interest.
Then, Gravis and Cynthia started hovering. After a second, Gravis flew in a random direction, and Cynthia followed.
It was time to search for some ore.
