To be reborn as a supreme being wasn't something one accepted with a yawn and a stretch, and Aura Ooal Gown was no exception. Despite her fresh form, she retained memories of life in Yggdrasil as a floor guardian. But that Aura was a construct, a lovingly crafted NPC. This Aura was flesh and blood—imperial blood—a princess of the Nazarick Empire. And as confusing and awe-inspiring as that was, the only thing harder to digest than metaphysical rebirth was boredom.
Fortunately, her parents—Mom and Dad, not Lord Ainz and Lady Buku, as she'd been scolded for calling them—believed in starting their kids young. And Aura couldn't have been happier about her first assignment. The imperial princess was now the de facto goddess of all things four-legged, feathered, scaled, or finned. Flora? That was someone else's headache. Fauna? That was all her, and the first item on the to-do list was to populate the forests, lakes, and rivers with animals, fish, and insects.
Aura was born with the ability to recreate every life form she knew in detail, but at the moment, it was mostly creatures from Yggdrasil worlds, which was not ideal. There was an option just to create a completely new ecosystem, but since it wouldn't be isolated from the rest of the world, she could accidentally create an ecological catastrophe. The last thing she wanted was to show incompetence; thus, an expedition to learn about local life forms was approved by her mother. With a sizable escort, of course.
Aura stood on a hill that overlooked miles of misty green wilderness. She took in the pleasant sight and relished the scents of pine and damp earth. The wind ruffled the hem of her white runecloth suit, which shimmered faintly under the midday sun. Beneath it, dragon leather hugged her limbs like a second skin, supple and warm. The vest she wore over it was fashioned from the scales of black dragons—one scale each from nearly every adult—a show of devotion. The leather was a tribute from a wyrm who'd won a tournament.
She personally thought the suit somewhat subpar compared to her original one, but she understood the dragons' devotion, as she held similar reverence for her parents.
Around her, ten whelps–her personal attendants–buzzed around playful and carefree, playing catch and overall having a good time. Aura didn't see the need for them to just stand in rows in their human visages awaiting her orders. If she needed anything, she would just say it. The young dragons, less than two years old, were roughly her mental age and were still as playful and mischievous as any child, although they understood their duties. Together, they were waiting for her guards, led by Nefarian, to show up.
The two lead dragons insisted on assisting her and Mare, and since her brother was dealing with the druids, an undead dragon like Nefarian wasn't the best choice; thus, Mare got Onyxia to help him.
She crouched slightly and examined the landscape with scientific curiosity and delight. Aura was capable of recreating any creature she understood in sufficient detail—a gift that would eventually let her seed entire ecosystems. But now, most of her catalogue came from Yggdrasil's data and design files. Dumping otherworldly creatures into Azeroth's forests could end in an ecological apocalypse. Imagine what would happen if a level 80 [Dire Maneater Sloth] got loose and made a home in Elwynn Forest. So, field research it was for her first major outing as a Supreme Being of the Nazarick Empire.
Her wait wasn't long as Nefarian was known for his punctuality, like her father. Behind came the guards, posing as well-armed adventurers, forming a diamond-shaped escort formation with Aura at its centre.
"So I need an environment similar to Jarnvidr to gather data on the appropriate species," Aura announced without formality. "Oh, I also need to see a few human settlements. Dad suggested I create some farm animals as well."
Nefarian bowed his head. "The forests of Elwynn and the Hinterlands will suffice. As for the farm animals, they await you just outside the mountain, your Imperial Highness," the undead dragon stated.
"Just call me Aura and lead the way." She nodded as her attendants stopped playing and made a loose perimeter around her.
Nefarian opened a gate without hesitation and motioned for her to go through. On the other side, fenced enclosures lined the sides of a neatly arranged farm plot, with soft earthen pathways forming clean rows between pens, a pair of animals and birds in each. Cows, horses, pigs, chickens, ducks, sheep, goats, and even horse-sized rams gathered for her. Behind her were a set of much larger empty enclosures for testing purposes.
Aura walked from animal to animal and added their data to her primary ability, Life Manipulation. This ability lets her spawn, control, communicate, and even change the age or size of animals. To the class standards of this world, she was a hunter with a beast master specialization, but unlike her, the rest of the beastmasters could only tame, heal, and communicate with beasts.
Even the supreme beings adhered to the system of primary classes. Hers was beastmaster, hunter-aligned. But unlike mortals, who were more restricted to their class limitations, she and her family could learn any abilities, so her parents and brother could learn hers while she could do the same with theirs. Her mother, Buku, was primarily a warrior with a paladin subclass; her father was a necromancer and mage, and her brother was a druid. With such diversity in their skillsets, it made sense that she and Mare were the first to be reborn. They made the ideal foundation for the empire.
Once the data was collected, by placing a hand on their head, she could test out the creation of life. Picking an enclosure, she extended her hand, and four hundred cows with forty bulls popped into existence. Feeling that the animals were no different from their natural-born counterparts, she moved on and did the same with the rest of the farm animals, filling all available enclosures to the brim.
Aura quickly noted that it took a minuscule amount of her power. Thus, she could single-handedly populate the farms with all the necessary food animals and resolve the meat issue.
"You know, if there was more space, I could make a lot more." She commented, hands on her hips, surveying the braying and clucking results.
"In that case, I'll make necessary preparations. My kind will be thrilled, Lady Aura." Nefarian licked his lips, his gaze set on the cows.
"That's great, but let's move on. Mom doesn't want me wandering around at night," Aura urged impatiently, with a pout and a theatrical sigh. Buku had fully embraced the role of protective mother and, in Aura's eyes, went a tad too far as there was unlikely to be anything in the world that could as much as scratch her.
"Of course. After you." Nefarian replied with a courteous bow, opening another Gate. This time to a lush forest area.
"This is Elwynn forest. We must be careful, as the Emperor is adamant about not causing more conflicts with the Alliance." Nefarian cautioned.
"Sure, so we are avoiding settlements and not flying here?" Aura sought clarification. If her father demanded caution, she would do her best not to be seen by any intelligent life.
"Yes, any of us flying in our natural forms would be seen as hostile action."
"In that case, hop on." Aura just summoned her pets and hopped on Fenrir, a massive wolf the size of a warhorse with long flowing fur. Three of her attendants assumed their humanoid forms, as high elven children roughly her age, and joined her. The rest mounted the other four beasts she summoned: two reptilian beasts named Kirin and Basilisk, a bug-like creature with long hair named Long Hair, and a red lion named Red One.
With her not needing to stop to collect data, she followed Nefarian, who rode on Kirin and guided her through unpopulated areas of the human kingdom. In just over an hour, she had found all the notable life forms of the area and could move on.
Hinterlands, by contrast, presented far fewer restrictions. The local wildhammer dwarves and forest trolls were not formally aligned with either the Alliance or Horde, and because of that, their opinions on the expedition didn't matter.
The dragons assumed their natural forms, and Aura dismissed her pets, ready to ride one of them. That's when she ran into her first logistical nightmare of the day. The whelps were too small to carry her–barely a meter long, they were still in their early growth stages and better suited to gliding than proper flight. On the other hand, the wyrms were too large for her to sit on their necks comfortably.
With a huff of frustration, Aura knelt awkwardly on Nefarian's massive neck and grabbed onto the dragon's grey -black scales for balance.
"I need flying beasts. Does this world have anything appropriately sized for me?"
"I could call a younger dragon who would be more suitable, Lady Aura." Nefrian offered.
Aura made a face. "I'll pass. Having a dragon as a mount is nice and all, but I want to add flying beasts to my collection. Something that doesn't stick out too much."
Nefarian chuckled dryly. "In that case, you should be able to find gryphons in this area. They are used widely by both Alliance and neutral factions."
"Sounds good. Let's find some, then." Aura agreed as Nefarian took flight.
It was harder to locate animals as the massive dragon covered most of her vision, but Aura did her best and got a few additional species in her collection. Yet the gryphons eluded her. She was told they were highly intelligent and likely fled upon sensing dragons.
Luck still smiled on her, though. With her sharp vision, she noticed a gryphon hatchling. One wing was bent at a sickening angle, and its feathers were matted with dried blood. The poor creature trembled under the meagre shade, eyes darting about in terror.
"There!" Aura pointed, her voice urgent.
Nefarian didn't hesitate. He angled into a sharp descent. Trees swayed violently beneath his approach, dirt erupting in a cloud, scattering the birds and stirring startled animals from their hiding spots. He hit the ground, claws gouging the earth and tail curling protectively toward where Aura would dismount.
Aura hopped off and approached the hatchling. The animal let out a frightened screech and tried to run off, but she was having none of it. With an exhale, she activated the control beast ability and brought the hatchling under her control, ordering the small gryphon to approach her. The wounded beast was a blessing; she could test both animal healing and animal transformation.
First, she healed the hatchling's wing, getting an excited squawk in response.
"Much better. Here, for being a good boy." Aura pulled a piece of raw meat out of her inventory. The hatchling snatched it greedily, talons gripping the earth as it tore into the treat, jerking its head back in delighted gulps.
"What to call you…" she mused, tapping her chin. The little gryphon looked up with a streak of blood on its beak, completely unconcerned. "I know—Beakers," Aura exclaimed, drawing inspiration from the creature's comically oversized beak.
Beakers let out a squawk of approval and resumed feasting on the meat.
"I thought you might like it. Now let's change your size." Aura turned the gryphon into an adult, boosted the beast's overall power, and then reduced its size so she would be comfortable riding her pet.
"Lady Aura, isn't it suboptimal to forcefully age this creature? It would retain its infantile mind." Nefarian questioned. He stepped closer with folded arms and a voice tinged with curiosity. The late orc warlock Gul'dan, credited as the first warlock, had created a spell that let him age his own kind. Unfortunately, he could only force physical maturity, creating childish warriors not mentally prepared for adulthood. Maim Blackhand was one of such aged orcs, and it took him a long while to deal with the mental issues caused by this process. Hence, Nefarian had abstained from using this spell to age dragons.
Aura blinked. "Huh? What do you mean? Beakers isn't infantile—he's a properly grown-up gryphon."
Nefarian approached the beast to inspect it. "But how?"
"I only kinda know how my ability works. It's like–it takes the traits from the creature's parents and uses them as a base to mature it. Like Beakers is his own gryphon, but the life experience comes from his parents on an instinctive level, Dad called it genetic memory or something like that." Aura explained as best as she could.
Nefarian's eyes widened slightly, "Fascinating…" he murmured, stroking his chin like his master, an unconscious imitation he would never admit to. "Would this spell work on… sapient creatures?"
"Maybe. I don't know. Haven't tried it." Aura shrugged, her attention remaining on her newest pet as she couldn't wait to see the limits of Beakers.
"That calls for the tests. Lady Aura, would you agree to try this spell on mortal subjects and black dragons?" Nefarian inquired. He simply couldn't pass up the opportunity. If Aura indeed could properly age a dragon, she could quickly solve the population issue of black dragons. Considering the impossible might of the supreme ones, the princess likely could turn entire armies of young dragons into wyrms and hatchlings into adult dragons.
Aura blinked, then shrugged again. "If mom and dad say yes, sure. Why not? I'm kinda curious how it works on intelligent creatures too."
"Then I shall propose this to the Emperor immediately," Nefarian said, mentally forming arguments to persuade his lord.
"You do that," Aura replied, stretching and glancing toward the horizon. "Meanwhile, I think we can head back. We both will be in trouble if I don't get back by nightfall, and the sun is already setting." She had just enough time to take Beakers for a short flight and didn't want to wait until tomorrow.
Understanding how disastrous it was to anger the Empress, Nefarian opened a gate back to Nazarick. He was presented with a golden ticket, and getting in hot water with his master's wife was the last thing he wanted to do.
Editing by NabeisWaifu, Nick L
Proofreading by I AM THE STRING CUTTER, fvvck, IAMTHEPLOKOKIOPO,
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