I am guessing that means he is hungry, so I take out the glove, warm it again, and feed him. He eats his fill, but this time he doesn’t go straight to sleep, he goes back to exploring. He is still exploring when Lin and Mercy enter, so I motion them to come over quietly.

Lin says “What’s this?”

“A puppy.”

Asuna says “I found him!”

Mercy says “Another kid?”

“Potentially. It will depend on him and if he bonds with me.”

One by one I have them hold out their hands for him to sniff while I pet him so he knows he is safe. As long as I am touching him, he stays calm and doesn’t mind others touching him. However, if someone touches him and I am not, he freaks out a little and only calms when I touch him.

Lin says “From how he calms at your touch, I would say that him bonding with you is a pretty sure thing.”

Mercy says “A new kid, right after we find two women to bring the numbers even. Does this mean we need to find another woman?”

“No! It absolutely does not!”

Both of them laugh at me, but the sudden noise scares the puppy and I have to calm him down. As soon as he calms down, he starts mewling for food again, so I refill the glove and feed him. Once he has eaten, he falls asleep in my lap and I carefully move him to his nest.

Mercy says “Have you thought of a name for him yet?”

“No, not yet. I also don’t plan to name him until he has at least opened his eyes. He is too young, the energy of the naming might hurt him. That will give me time to think of a good name.”

Asuna says “You could name him from SAO, like you did for me and Yui.”

“The only name left would be Kirito and I’m not sure if that would suit him.”

Lin says “Actually, I like that name. I know the character from the anime might not fit the puppy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use the name.”

Mercy says “I like that name. We can always call him Kir or Kiri for short if it doesn’t suit him.”

“Okay, we can plan for that to be his name, but I still won’t name him until he has his eyes open at least.”

Lin says “Now that that’s settled, what’s next?”

“Next, I summon an angel.”

Mercy says “We are going to have both an angel and a succubus? That should be interesting! Go ahead and summon it. Let’s see what you get!”

Lin says “I’m betting on female!”

“I’m not betting against that. Knowing my luck that is exactly what it will be.”

Lin says “Only one way to find out!”

“Alright. Summon Angel!”

Ability Failed! Missing components: Ritual Circle, Open Sky!

Lin says “Nothing happened? What went wrong?”

“It says it requires a ritual circle and the open sky. This palace has a flat roof, do either of you know how to get up there?”

Mercy says “No, but the servants are sure to know.”

“Good point.”

Asuna says “I want to watch, but I don’t want to leave the puppy alone. What should I do?”

“Use your human form, then you can carry him.”

Asuna says “Okay!”

Asuna picks up the puppy, nest and all, and follows the rest of us as we look for a servant. It isn’t hard to find one and they quickly lead us to the stairs up to the roof of the palace. All I have to do is think about the ritual circle needed and the information appears in my head.

Most of the palace roof is a rooftop garden, but luckily there is an open area I can use. I use my mana to carve the ritual circle needed into the roof, but I remember something. Instead of starting the ritual, I dig into my pouch for the core of the six-winged angel.

I place the core in the middle of the circle and pour mana into the circle until it lights up. When I activate the ability this time, I don’t get a failure message, the ability works. A column of bright white light comes down from the sky and slams into the circle.

The light is blinding and it quickly spreads beyond the circle, bathing all of us in energy. I can tell from the feel of it that it is divine energy, so it shouldn’t hurt any of us. If Damona were here, that would be a completely different story, but the rest of us should be fine.

Asuna says “Dad, dad! Something happened to the puppy!!”

I quickly turn to see what she is talking about and find that the puppy is now pure white. I am guessing that the holy energy affected him, something I didn’t know was possible. Then again, I had no idea that the summon would create so much divine energy.

I am guessing that this is happening because I am using a core to create a new angel. Normally, the spell would just summon one of Seronia’s angels, at least I think that’s how it would work. I should have expected something like this to happen when creating a new angel, but I didn’t think about it.

The puppy is still breathing and doesn’t seem to be in distress from the energy. Just his fur changed color, nothing else about him has changed from what I can tell. Since I don’t even know what breed he is, I have no way of knowing if his adapting to the energy is normal.

I will just have to wait and see how he develops as he grows, just like my other kids. I didn’t know anything about any of them, or what to expect, and it worked out somehow. I will just have to hope that my luck continues to hold with the puppy.

The light finally starts to die down, drawing my attention back to the ritual circle. As the light fades, I can see a figure in the middle where the angel core was placed. To my dismay, as the last of the light fades away, I find myself looking at a female child.

She looks around ten years old, with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She also has four small wings that are the color of storm clouds with white highlights that look like lightning. She is wearing a white toga like dress and nothing else as she stands up and looks around.

??? says “What is this? Who are you? How can you be my master when you aren’t even a god or demi-god?!”

“My name is Ash. I am the champion of the goddesses Seronia and Krenocia. I am also a max level Sacred Crusader. However, none of that is why you are here. I created you with my own mana from the core of a six-winged angel that I defeated in combat. The ability was given to me as my reward for completing the quests of my goddesses and reaching max level.”

??? says “And this gives you the right to create a divine being such as I?”

“Right? I had the power to do so and permission, what else would I need?”

??? says “Power? You don’t look that powerful!”