At the edge of the training grounds, Captain Kaelen and Sora were in the middle of a sparring match when the sky turned golden. They both stopped, their weapons lowered, as they listened to the Emperor’s proclamation.
Kaelen let out a booming laugh, sheathing his claymore. "A little prince or princess. Can you imagine the mana capacity of that kid, Sora? With his blood and her ice?"
Sora wiped the sweat from her brow, her sharp eyes softening.
"It won’t just be a child, Kaelen. It’ll be a monster of a talent. But more importantly, it’ll be soone for him to protect. Our lord has been looking at the stars with too much hunger lately. This will ground him."
She smiled, looking at her soldiers who were already tossing their helts into the air.
"Co on, Kaelen. If the Emperor says we celebrate, I want the best at and the strongest ale in the barracks!"
In the Royal Gardens, the news hit the three girls who had beco the heart of the palace. Eterna, Flama, and Diva used to calling Aegis "Papa" were stunned.
"A baby?" Flama shouted, her crimson hair flickering with excitent. "Does that an I’m going to be a big sister? I have to teach them how to make fire! I have to be the best sister ever!"
"Hehehe..." Diva giggled, her hands moving over her harp to play a bright, soaring lody.
"We’ll have to compose a lullaby that can be heard across the whole planet. Papa will be so happy. He won’t be so grumpy during war etings anymore!"
Eterna, the oldest and most composed of the three, felt a tear prick her eye. She rembered the cold, lonely days before Aegis had unified the world. She rembered how he had taken them in when they had nothing.
"Father finally getting his family back. A True family," she whispered. "But— Are we not needed anymore?"
"What are you saying, Eterna," Flama rebuked. "Papa will always love us, no matter how many kids he have."
"True, true," Diva added.
--
As night fell over Aqua City, the capital beca a sea of lights. Massive holographic whales swam through the air, and the Xylosians used their Dyson Swarm mirrors to create a gentle, artificial aurora that danced in the sky. The sll of roasted ats and sweet sea-nectar filled the streets.
Inside the palace, the celebration was more intimate but no less grand. Aegis had invited his top subordinates to a banquet that lasted long into the night.
Felix was already three bottles deep, telling embarrassing stories of Aegis’s early days as stage 1 Skylord. Kaelen and Sora were engaged in a friendly drinking contest with the Xylosian engineers, who were trying to calculate the alcohol’s effect on their synthetic processors.
Aegis sat at the head of the table, his hand never leaving Bella’s. He watched Flama and Diva arguing over what the baby’s first toy should be, while Eterna sat quietly by Bella’s side, asking about the baby’s nursery.
He looked around the room. These people were his subordinates, yes, but they were also the family he had built. And now, at the center of it all, was the promise of a future that went beyond conquest.
"You’re thinking about the Chatbox again, aren’t you?" Bella whispered, leaning her head on his shoulder.
Aegis shook his head, a look of absolute peace on his face. "No. For the first ti, I don’t care about the Star-Reapers or the Nebula Kings. Let them have the stars. Tonight, I have everything I ever wanted."
He looked at his hand on her tummy. He thought of his father’s stern pride, his mother’s gentle smile, and the fatso calling rude sister he had lost to the void.
He felt as if their spirits were finally at rest, seeing that the line of the Sea God would not end in blood and ash, but in a new dawn.
Later that night, after the guests had stumbled ho and the city had settled into a happy, drunken slumber, Aegis stood on the balcony of the bedchamber.
He looked out at the Helios-9 system, the stars twinkling with a clarity that seed different now.
Before, he had looked at those stars as targets. He had looked at the Interstellar Chatbox as a list of enemies to surpass. But as he felt the tiny heartbeat of his child through the bond he shared with Bella, his perspective shifted.
The Conqueror’s System pulsed in his mind, ready to offer new quests and stage-upgrades. But Aegis ignored it.
"I will build a world for you," he whispered to the void, his voice thick with a new kind of resolve. "Not a world of war, but a world that is truly whole. I will reach Stage 20. I will beco a Universal Pillar. Not for the glory, but so that no one in this universe will ever be able to take you away from ."
He realized then that a child wasn’t just a joy; it was the ultimate motivation. The Red Dragon Emperor and the empires of the High Tier sectors were no longer just rivals. They were potential threats to his family’s peace. And he would annihilate anyone who stood in the way of his child’s future.
Bella stepped out onto the balcony, wrapping her arms around his waist. "What are you thinking about, my Emperor?"
"I’m thinking that I need to build a bigger cradle," Aegis said, turning to take her soft body in his arms. "And maybe a few more planetary shields."
Bella laughed, the sound a silver bell in the night. "You’re going to be a terrible, overprotective father, aren’t you?"
Absolutely, Aegis replied, his lips eting hers. The most overprotective father the multiverse has ever seen.
As they stood there, the planet Eternia continued its journey through the dark, carrying the hopes and dreams of a billion people and the tiny, glowing life that would one day inherit the stars.
The ordinary day had turned into the most significant mont in the history of the Empire.
Reviews
All reviews (0)