In the end, Bast was left to notify the old king to send men to bring the unconscious T'Challa and the two beast god corpses back to Birnin Zana.
Seeing T'Challa unconscious, T'Chaka was worried for quite a long time. But once he heard that T'Challa had just passed out from absorbing the divine liquid Bast gave him, his worry vanished, and he smiled so wide his gums showed.
He completely forgot about his royal dignity. The more T'Chaka looked at Daniel, the more he liked him, right now he almost couldn't resist the urge to propose marrying Shuri off to him.
Luckily, he didn't bring it up, otherwise Daniel would have probably lost his temper.
Before they left, T'Chaka repeatedly told Daniel to bring Susan along the next time he visited Wakanda. He could tell that Daniel loved Susan deeply and planned to adopt Susan as his goddaughter whenever she came over.
'If I can't marry off my daughter, can't I at least adopt a goddaughter?'
The old king was planning his moves very well.
T'Challa woke up in the evening, just in time for dinner, and during the meal, Bast was there too.
Now that she could come out whenever she wanted, she refused to go back to the divine realm to play with the past Black Panthers, insisting on staying outside.
The ingredients for the dinner were the meat of those two unlucky deities, the Crocodile God and the Gorilla God.
When the bodies were brought back, T'Chaka had specifically looked for devout believers of the Panther Goddess. Yet, even so, the men were so scared when they saw the two bodies that they fell straight to their knees.
As Wakandans, even if they didn't worship these two gods, they still knew what they looked like, and suddenly seeing their corpses left the people who came to collect them completely at a loss.
The bodies were secretly brought back to Birnin Zana. When T'Chaka first saw them, he was shocked and speechless for a long time, but now, looking at the way he ate the meat of these two gods, his movements were incredibly smooth.
He didn't stop once, eating with total enthusiasm!
Everyone ate the god meat, but Daniel, Carol, and Bast did most of the heavy lifting.
The old king and queen only ate a little before their bodies couldn't take any more; it was just too heavy and nourishing. T'Challa, who had just been powered up that afternoon, managed to keep eating for half an hour.
Only the trio of Daniel, Carol, and Bast kept eating without stopping.
Because T'Chaka and his family were there, Daniel and Carol minded their manners, eating slowly and politely instead of letting their hands blur into afterimages to grab the meat.
Daniel picked up a piece of meat with his fork, but just as he was about to put it on his plate, the meat flew straight into Bast's mouth.
Smack, smack.
Bast even chewed loudly.
"What are you looking at me for? Keep eating," Bast said to Daniel.
Since it was the first time, Daniel didn't make a big deal out of it with Bast. Later on, Carol also had a few pieces of meat snatched away.
"The taste is really good! Panthers are supposed to eat a lot of meat anyway!"
Bast completely forgot that she had just said she was a god who hadn't eaten for thousands of years. Seeing the meat get less and less while Bast kept stealing their food, Daniel and Carol looked at each other. Then, Daniel spoke up.
"How come I suddenly want to eat panther meat?"
Carol nodded in agreement. "Yeah, a little bit."
Then, they both turned their eyes toward Bast at the same time.
Bast was eating happily when she suddenly noticed Daniel and Carol setting down their forks, staring at her with bad intentions while flexing their fists.
Gulp.
Bast swallowed the meat in her mouth, wiped her mouth with a chubby paw, and then rolled over onto the sofa.
"I'm full."
Daniel and Carol clinked their glasses in satisfaction, took a sip of wine, and kept eating their meat. The siblings had a perfect understanding, half for each, and nobody was allowed to eat more than their share.
After finishing dinner and chatting for a bit, they each went back to rest.
Though the two beast gods were a bit weak, their meat tasted really good and was great for the body.
After T'Chaka finished eating, he went back and kept the queen busy for half the night.
Daniel accidentally overheard it with his super hearing, and even he felt a bit restless in his heart, wanting to go back and find Susan, but he felt too embarrassed to just leave.
The next morning, when they met for breakfast, Daniel saw T'Chaka greeting him, looking completely refreshed and energized.
"Morning!"
T'Chaka's voice was much louder than yesterday, full of energy.
…
By the time the sun was high in the sky, the sleeping Lion finally woke up.
"I'm hungry..."
The Lion said to Carol.
Carol originally wanted to get him some cooked meat to help him recover.
Instead, the Lion couldn't hold back, so completely ignoring the two beast gods he had called friends just a couple of days ago, he lunged straight forward, wanting to bite into the meat of the Gorilla God.
Daniel stopped him, because he didn't want to eat the Lion's spit, so his eyes flashed with heat vision, cutting off a large chunk of meat and throwing it to the Lion.
The Lion was already impatient, as he pounced on the meat and tore into it, getting blood and juices everywhere.
"Stupid beast!"
Bast spoke up with total contempt.
The Lion didn't care and kept eating, and only after swallowing several chunks of meat did he look up, realizing everyone was watching him with strange looks.
"They used to bully me all the time," the Lion God explained in a quiet voice, his mouth still covered in the blood of the Gorilla God.
Watching from the side, Shuri was scared to tears, as the Lion God used his tongue to lick the blood clean from his mouth.
"I'm actually not usually like this. I was just a bit hungry today."
He showed a mouth full of sharp teeth, which only made Shuri cry louder. The poor kid was completely traumatized. The queen carried Shuri away, as the sight of the Lion God eating wasn't fit for a child to watch.
After finishing the piece of the Gorilla God's meat that Daniel cut for him, the Lion God still wasn't full and ate another large chunk of the Crocodile God's meat.
Burp.
The Lion let out a loud burp. "I've come back to life!"
Having eaten his fill, the Lion wagged his tail and prepared to slip away. He felt that the way everyone was looking at him was really weird, making him feel pretty uncomfortable.
"Where are you going?"
Seeing that the Lion God was about to leave, Carol blocked him.
"I'm going out for a walk to digest my food. Don't worry, I'll be back by evening. I won't run away."
"Hmph, I bet you wouldn't dare!"
Carol was about to let the Lion God go. Right then, Bast spoke up. "He's definitely going to look for lionesses!"
Bast knew exactly how messy the Lion God's divine world used to be. Hearing that, Carol looked at the Lion God with an unfriendly stare.
"No, I really just ate too much and need to go out to digest it. Really!"
"Then that works out perfectly," Carol said. "I'll go out with you. I didn't get enough of riding you yesterday!"
The Lion God tucked his tail between his legs and walked back. "I'm not going anymore. I'm done digesting."
"That fast?"
"Yeah, I am the Lion God, after all!"
"The former Lion God!" Bast added from the side, looking very proud of her victory.
The Lion God shot Bast a look, thinking to himself, 'You are dead panther, just you wait!'
The Lion God rubbed against Carol's leg. He realized that if he wanted to get back at Bast, he had to please Carol. But the moment he rubbed against her, Carol kicked him away.
"Go wash yourself clean!"
Only after the Lion God washed himself thoroughly did Carol let him come near her.
"Right, do you have a name?" Carol asked the Lion God next to her.
"Yes, I am called..." The Lion God was only halfway through his answer when Carol interrupted him.
"Let me give you a name," Carol said. She thought for a second. "From now on, your name will be Leo."
"I..." Just as the Lion God wanted to argue, he saw Carol staring at him, so he lowered his head unhappily.
"Fine, my name is Leo."
The Lion God didn't like the name Leo at all, but he had no choice, as Carol already had her fist raised, but still he felt very wronged.