She was witnessing Parker using his power for the first ti, and he wasn't flexing so wild energy attack or doing sothing flashy. No. The guy was just moving his hands with a quill—an actual phoenix feather, dripping endlessly with the most precious tears in existence.
Who said phoenix tears were rare when this jackass was out here scribbling nonsense on the dirt with them?.Like, people would literally die just to see a phoenix tear. Gods would kill for them. And this man? He was using them like cheap calligraphy ink for his drawings.
She didn't even realize she'd been staring, mouth slightly open, until Parker huffed a laugh without looking up.
"Are you gonna stand there and gawk at all day? I know I'm handso, but co on, at least try to be subtle about it."
Ere snapped her mouth shut so fast she almost bit her tongue. "You—ugh. I was having a mont, asshole."
He grinned. "And now you're having another one—called getting roasted." She would've thrown paws if she wasn't low-key still trying to process what the hell he had just drawn.
Because it wasn't just so random scribble. It was—a doorway.
A massive, intricate design etched into the earth, filled with symbols she didn't recognize, but sothing in her gut told her they mattered. The strokes, the flow—it was like a language older than ti itself had been written in the deepth of the doorway drawing.
And Parker? He stood back, dusting off his hands, completely unfazed by what he just did.
"Alright, fuzzball," he said, holding out a hand. "I need your help to turn this thing on."
Ere squinted at him. "Oh, so now I'm useful?"
"Yeah. Like a battery."
"I fucking hate you."
"Yeah, yeah, I love you too. Now get over here."
She huffed, padding forward and placing her paws over his hands. The mont she did—
Power surged.
Energy flooded from her into him, then into the painting—spreading through the lines, igniting them with a pulse of raw Omni Energy. The symbols glowed, the strokes ca to life, and before her eyes, the doorway ford.
A gateway. A real fucking gateway.
Ere just stared. "Okay, what the hell, dude."
Parker smirked. "What? Never seen art this imrsive before?"
The mont the gateway lit up, Parker didn't waste ti admiring his own work—he could do that later. Instead, he nudged Erebus forward.
"Alright, in you go, fluffball. Before this thing attracts—"
Ere didn't need to be told twice. One second she was staring at the glowing masterpiece on the ground, the next, she was diving through it without hesitation. No awe, no stopping to gape at the reality-bending flex Parker just pulled—straight through, like this was just another Tuesday.
Parker exhaled, rolling his shoulders before stepping in after her. The mont he vanished, the gateway snapped shut behind him like it had never existed.
And then—
A scoff.
Not the wind. Not so random shifting of the trees. No—a deliberate, mocking snort. Like soone—or sothing—had been watching.
Then silence.
On the Other Side
They erged into sothing out of a dream.
A cave, yes, but not the dark, damp kind that slled like sothing had died centuries ago. This was breathtaking.
Smooth crystalline walls curved into an endless ceiling, faintly glowing veins of energy tracing delicate patterns across the stone, casting a soft golden-blue hue. Stalagmites and stalactites weren't jagged—they looked polished, like they belonged in so celestial palace instead of the earth's crust.
And at the heart of it all? A platform.
Or rather, an altar.
Erebus barely took in the grandeur because her gaze had locked onto three eggs resting on the altar. And Parker? He sighed.
"Of course. Because why the hell would anything be simple?"
The first were two eggs…strange. Their shells pulsed faintly, radiating an aura that felt ancient. Almost alive. They weren't just sitting there like fancy stones—they were breathing, pulsing, waiting. The warmth from them was unmistakable, like tiny suns contained in fragile shells.
But the third egg?
It was different. It didn't pulse with warmth—it humd. There was sothing deeper about it, sothing that made Parker's instincts flare like a goddamn alarm. The sheer pressure rolling off this one was on a different level, as if it didn't just hold life—it held a storm.
Erebus finally tore her gaze from the eggs, looking around—and then she nearly choked on air.
Ere was just standing there, staring.
Because—of course. Of course. Even in the middle of nowhere, even in so ancient-ass hidden cave, Parker had sohow managed to make it look like sothing straight out of a mythical Jade emperor's private hall.
The walls? Gleaming. Smooth as jade, polished like they'd been hand-crafted by gods with nothing better to do. The cavern was bathed in an ethereal glow, soft and rich, like the place had been kissed by divinity itself.
Even the damn air felt expensive, like it refused to carry anything but the scent of old magic and wealth.
Pillars of pure crystalline stone stretched towards the ceiling, refracting the glow in a way that made the entire chamber shimr. And the floor? Not rough dirt, not uneven stone—no, that'd be too normal. It was a smooth, reflective surface, sowhere between marble and liquid gold.
Erebus let out a slow, unimpressed breath.
"This man is obsessed."
Even when he wasn't trying, Parker surrounded himself with beauty, grandeur, and riches. It was like the universe had simply given up and decided, "Fine, fuck it, everything around you will look like royalty. Happy now?"
"What the actual fuck?" Why turn a cave into a jade palace and a treasure trove.
Because the cave wasn't just beautiful—it was loaded too.
Everywhere she turned, treasures glead. Gold coins spilled from ornate chests, gemstones the size of her damn paws rested in open displays, and rare artifacts—things that shouldn't even exist—were casually stacked like thrift-store bargains.
This wasn't a hoard. This was a statent.
Parker didn't collect things for himself. He wasn't so gold-obsessed gremlin. No—this was for soone else?
Soone with wings, claws, and a dangerous love for hoarding?
But Erebus wasn't given much ti to dwell on that because Parker was already walking up to the eggs, gaze locked onto sothing between them.
A note.
With his own handwriting.
Parker pinched the bridge of his nose before he even read it. This was going to be bad.
And then he read it.
>> Bwahahaha! What? Did you expect to just co and find these babies already born?! No way. It's ti to be a father. No, wait—this is my future self, so I should be writing this to myself—Ugh, just when I thought I could have the last laugh. So I dood future into raising these three from eggs? What was I thinking?! I can't even imagine the pain of going through this again! The pain that cos with raising them again! I CAN'T HAVE THE LAST LAUGH! I'M SUFFERING JUST THINKING ABOUT IT!
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