Chapter 13 - Uproar

As the rumors of Cattleya being the mother of the prophesied child of destruction spread, there was an uproar among all those who heard. While some initially didn't believe, it was hard to remain unbelieving when shown the appearance of the five months pregnant Cattleya.

Various pantheons had multiple reactions to this confirmation as some made attempts on her life only for the assassins sent to be erased by the law of casualty.

After one of the public assassination attempts revealed that she was being protected by the law, the attempts on her life ceased as many theorized the birth of that child was the will of the universal sea that gave the prophecy in the first place. Also, not many wanted to go against the will of the cosmos that housed the universes they ruled and lived in.

As many of the hidden spies sent to watch Cattleya's actions were witnesses to this event, it cleared all doubts of her identity as the mother of this prophesied 'child of destruction'. This also made many beings to ask the question of how her identity was discovered, it seemed a little too convenient, as if something or someone wanted them to find out.

It didn't take too long for them to figure out that Cattleya herself was the one who released this information. Upon this discovery, many gods were enraged at the fact that she led them around the nose, however they could do nothing but sit back and bite their thumbs as any hostile action against her is met with repercussions from the law of casualty.

Some felt that though they couldn't harm her, her family members, loved ones and close associates were not off limits. When she discovered what they planned to do, she simply laughed as she had absolute confidence in the strengths of the beings she truly cared for.

This confidence was not unfounded as all attackers and assassins sent towards them were all promptly dispatched with relative ease. Even a situation where some important officials of a territory under her brother's control was taken hostage to lure him out, he simply showed all who were watching his excellent flame control and reminded them why he was known by the moniker of 'Black Phoenix'.

Creuserey and Cattleya were born from different mothers, for the devil race, although they value bloodlines, they are not as elitist as other races that do so which is why both of them were accepted without issue even though they both were not pureblood devils.

Cattleya is the daughter of the Queen of the Leviathan Devil tribe, Inglis. As the daughter of a leviathan devil, a tribe known for their magic proficiency, she naturally has a high mastery of various types of magic, along with her sword skills that are enough to compare to sword kings, she is one of the most proficient magic swordswomen of the devil race.

As for Creuserey, he is the son of one of the strongest phoenixes to ever exist in the hell universe. Inheriting his mothers powerful flames and mastery over all forms of fire, he spared no effort in training himself to go even further. Mixed with the abilities of his devil blood gotten from his father, his flames became a deep black color unlike his mother's bright red flames.

This color change however, did not mean a reduction in the strength of his flames, it was simply a minor side effect of his flames becoming stronger after being combined with his powers as a devil.

Because of his powerful black flames he became known as the 'Black Phoenix'. When using his flames, he can manipulate the in a way in which they burn only what he wants to be burnt, everything else remains untouched.

The speed in which his flames burn is also fast, fast enough to burn an average adult to ashes in seconds. His flames also have the attribute of ignoring a certain percentage of the targets defenses, both physical, magical or spiritual.

With such an ability, it's only natural he's able to dispatch the assailants easily without a single hair on the heads of the hostages being burnt. This once again reminded various powers of the strength of the devil race. Despite being currently in a state of pseudo-peace, they haven't stopped improving themselves for the eventual case of a war breaking out.

Through the multiple attempts on the lives of the members of the Devilian royal family, a little bit of this strength was revealed.

The attacks on Cattleya's mother, Inglis ended up in the assailants being used as test subjects for her magic and alchemy experiments. A public statement was even published, where she encouraged more powers to send more assailants as she needed more test subjects for the new spell series she was developing.

This enraged many, especially the ones who were responsible for the attacks in which she gained her first batch of test subjects. The attacks on the other members of the branch families of the Devilian royals were also considered failures as they easily subdued their assailants and shipped them to Inglis to utilize as test subjects.

Although things would not be so easy in the event of an actual war, no one was foolish enough to declare official war on the Devils of the hell universe as this was a very delicate time. The devils of hell weren't the only devils that existed neither were the devils as a whole the only ones who anticipated the birth of a being who could end the arrogance of the god race.

More universes controlled by pantheons of the devils existed, as well as more enemies of the gods in the form of the giants, titans, formories, fallen celestials, demons and many more. Although the gods had allies in the, celestials, elves and some of the great dragons, both sides knew that an all out war at this time would be nothing more than pure foolishness.

As Cattleya still acted without a care in the world, as if she wasn't one of the instigators of the current uproar, she encountered many who simply wished to interview her or ask certain questions, either for journalism purposes in their respective worlds or other reasons.

There were others who hoped she might let some sort of weakness that could be targeted slip, however Cattleya knew better than to make such mistakes. Some even questions about the identity of the father of her child however they all received one reply.

"You would all eventually find out, not like it could be hidden forever, may be sooner than later, who knows?" continuing she said "What i do know is that i would definitely not be the one to tell you."

After hearing this some began to wish for time to move faster so they could find out who he was, various people had various ideas on who he could be. Some said he hid his identity because he was weak, some said it was because he was too strong, others said it was because he was afraid of the attention he'd get, some even went as far as to say it was because his appearance was less than desirable.

Most of these were meant as provocations to make him reveal himself, however the person in question was busy gambling in a casino in Verchester alongside the mother of his child.

As she had many eyes on her every action, Cattleya had to leave a clone possessing most of her strength to fool her many not so secret watchers. She then changed her appearance with various magic items then went over to the golden glass casino/bar where they both met to have a few light drinks and play some games in the casino to kill time.

After this they decided to rent out an entire restaurant for the fun of it before having what one could consider an unnecessarily lavish meal. During the meal, her hooded friend seeing as there was no one around to see decided to take of his hood before finally asking the question that had been bugging him for over a month.

"So mind telling me why you decided to reveal that you were carrying the child spoken of in that damn prophecy?" the look on his face was one of pure curiosity as he didn't seem even the slightest bit angry about the issue.

"If they were going to find out eventually, why not tell them earlier, it changes nothing." She shrugged as she replied. Her companion however, interpreted her word differently.

"So you were bored and wanted to cause some chaos so you took advantage of the fact that they were all scrambling for information on the prophesied child's parents and used it to cause greater chaos."

"Exactly, you know my thought process so well."

"Hard not to when I've known you for decades and had to personally experience the results of some of your weird trains of thoughts."

As he said, that he recalled the ridiculous situations she had put him through over the decades. Sighing in exasperation, he continued his meal as they moved on to other topics.

While the culprit of the chaos was enjoying a meal with her best friend, others were counting down the days to when the child of prophecy would be born. One of them was Apollo, the Olympian god of sun.

"If she got pregnant in spring, I'd say we should be expecting the child's birth in winter."

He sighed lightly before continuing,

"It's currently late autumn, we've only got about three months left, these are gonna turn out to be a very long set of three months."