Chapter 16 - Of Two Paths, The Second Is Revealed.

In the Burning Realms, the mother of the prophesied 'child of destruction', Arch devil Cattleya, was currently seated at a dinner table, participating in a heated game of old maid with a few other people.

"I win, again!"

She said as she attempted to jump up slightly only to be forced down by both her mother and brother sitting next to her.

Looking at her nine-month pregnant daughter who was acting like a child who just received their first toy, the Leviathan Arch devil and consort of the devil king, Inglis sighed to herself in exasperation.

She was a beautiful woman, slim and tall woman with fair smooth skin and a duchess-shaped nose that complimented her oval face. She had always put on a warm smile that could melt the heart of many.

However, those who knew her personally knew fully well that her smile was just a cover up for her true character. Her glossy black hair was long enough to reach her knees, she was known for her changing hairstyles and today she had her hair kept in braids. She had a set of dark colored eyes looked so deep they appeared as if they could peer into your soul. Funny enough, they actually could.

Opposite her was her fellow consort, a woman with literally flaming red hair, she possessed a slightly darker skin tone and a stoic looking face. She had red eyes, beautiful enough to burn someone's heart. Her height and body structure were similar to that of Inglis. One time they sported the same clothes and hairstyle, although their hair colors and attitudes were different, they looked like sisters. This was none other than Creuserey's mother, the phoenix, Aurora.

At the head of the table sat Cattleya's father, the Devil king, Diablo. Seeing his daughter's current attitude, he dropped the cards in his hand and finally decided to address the elephant in the room.

"Did you really call us all over here just to play a card game?"

"Obviously not."

"Then why haven't you stated your reason for calling us here."

"Obviously because you never asked."

Hearing this reply, Diablo barely managed to contain his annoyance as he forced a smile and asked.

"So why did you call us here?"

"Glad you finally asked." Cattleya smiled brightly as she answered. Seeing her unconcerned look, the corners of Diablo's lips twitched slightly but he did his best to force them back to normal.

She laughed lightly at her father's reaction and finally decided to answer.

"So today's the day of 'Black sun' and-" Before she could continue, her brother cut her off immediately.

"Hold up, you don't casually say that like you were ordering a drink at a bar." He face palmed at his sisters careless attitude before asking.

"How and why do you think it's today?"

Once again, Cattleya unconcernedly dropped another bomb surprising even the stoic phoenix sitting on the other end of the table.

"As of this morning, the protection from the law of casualty has disappeared completely."

Hearing her words, the Aurora spoke,

"Didn't your brother just warn you not to say serious things so casually?"

"How else was I supposed to say it, I told you last month that the protection had started weakening, and today it disappeared so I called you all to tell you that."

Sighing she continued,

"I even suggested we play old maid to lighten up the mood because it was serious."

"Old maid isn't exactly a game to lighten up ones mood you know?" Inglis retorted immediately before asking in a serious tone.

"Is that really all you called us for?"

"As expected of you mother, you know me best, that's not all, the father's gonna be coming here today so i just thought to inform you beforehand. That's why i had you create 'that'."

Once again, she dropped another bomb for the members of her family. Hearing this, Diablo stood up from his chair and asked loudly,

"That bast-!, I mean, that man is coming here?"

"Yes father, and he's not a bastard." She replied yawning lightly.

"How's he gonna pass through all the barriers we put up?" Creuserey asked looking at her.

"I had mum make me a device for that."

"But there's a problem, it's gonna need his energy to work." Inglis interjected.

"Yeah, i know, solved that months ago." She replied as she brought out a pitch-black crystal from her subspace. "I'm sure this has more than enough energy make it work."

Seeing the crystal filled with an enormous energy that was unmistakably divinity, Diablo was too surprised to ask his question on what sort of device the two Leviathans were speaking about. However, the one who had the most intense reaction to the crystal was unexpectedly Aurora. For the first time in a while, the stoic look on her face was broken and she showed a look of great shock.

"That!"

Seeing her unusual reaction, it didn't take long for them to figure out that she recognized the owner of the divinity in the crystal.

"Oh, you know who it is?" Cattleya asked, obviously amused.

"How could I not!" She replied loudly, almost screaming.

Creuserey walked over to his mother before attempting to calm her down while shooting Cattleya a look that said. 'Stop with your teasing'

Seeing her brother's reaction, she laughed before asking Aurora, knowing fully well how he would react.

"So, who is it?"

"Cattleya!"

And he reacted exactly as she expected, shrugging her shoulders she said with an aloof look.

"What, it's just a question."

Before he could retort, his mother tapped his shoulder's saying,

"Calm down son, it's just a question, seeing that just brought up some memories I'd rather forget."

She then turned to look at Cattleya before continuing.

"Does that really belong to who I think it does?"

"How am I supposed to know, I don't know who you think it belongs to." She paused slightly before asking in a teasing tone.

"Who do you think it belongs t-, wait that's no fun."

She put her hands on her chin wearing a pensive look on her face. After a few seconds, she clapped her hands together and asked.

"Where, do you think he's from?"

Hearing her question, Aurora took a deep breath before answering,

"Olympus."

"Bingo! I'd normally give you a treat for answering it right but I left all those in my room."

Everyone unanimously ignored the later half of her statement and focused on the earlier half. Diablo in particular was actually getting truly annoyed.

"Do you really think he'd let you keep that child, we're not exactly on the best terms with Olympus and they're also one of the ones who sent assassins to you. What if he wants to kill the child as soon as it's born?"

"I already considered that, besides I've known him for years so I'm sure that he's not like the others who are so stuck up."

"Was he the one who informed you in advance about the assassins Olympus sent?" Creuserey suddenly asked. He took a seat next to his mother and although he was still very much curious as to what relations she had with Olympus, seeing as she said she'd rather not recall those memories, he decided not to ask and instead focused on Cattleya.

"Yep, even though they didn't tell him about it, he still has his ways of finding out, he also doesn't really care of people find out who he is, the only reason he hadn't said anything was cus I told him not to."

Hearing her daughters reply, Inglis had a sudden thought and decided to confirm it,

"Catty, do you possibly have-"

"Nope" Cattleya cut her off before she could finish asking. While Inglis was still stunned, she continued,

"It's definitely not what you're thinking, even this was the result it was a one-time thing." She said gesturing to her belly.

Seeing this, the two men in the room failed to understand what she was speaking of, it was expected, after all Cattleya didn't even let Inglis finish her question. The only other woman in the room, Aurora, understood fully well. She laughed and spoke to Inglis,

"Don't push it Inglis, if she says she doesn't, she doesn't."

Hearing this only confused the men further, however they decided against asking because they knew they would never get an answer.

Diablo sighed as he sat down and stared at his daughter, he was even more worried than the day his wives gave birth. Although it was quite rare, it was still possible for even the strongest of devils to lose their lives during childbirth. He knew this better than anyone, after all his mother was one of those who were unfortunate enough to lose their lives at childbirth.

As his thoughts reached this point, he realized that today being the day of 'Black Sun' meant it was the day his daughter was supposed to go into labor. Right before he spoke up about this, there was an urgent knock on the door.

Deciding he could speak about it after hearing what the one who knocked had to say, he gave permission for the person at the door to come in.

Upon receiving permission, Belphegor stepped into the room. After bowing before the Devilian royal family members seated in the room, he then spoke,

"It seems the skies have begun darkening, Mammon also said he noticed the moons of various worlds have started moving towards the path in between them and the stars acting as their suns."

After hearing his words, Cattleya jumped up shouting,

"Yeah! I was right."

However, right before she landed back on the ground there was a sudden splashing sound. It was not very loud, but the people in the room with her were all powerful Arch Devils, there was a phoenix there but she possessed a little bit of devil blood so she could be counted as a devil in some cases. They all possessed superhuman hearing so they instantly noticed where it came from.

Feeling everyone's eyes upon her, Cattleya realized they had all figured the source of that sound, the smile on her mother's face disappeared and she asked despite knowing the answer.

"That wasn't you, right?"

Cattleya just laughed and scratched the top of her head before replying,

"So, I think my water just broke."

Hearing her reply, Creuserey shouted once again.

"Stop speaking about serious things so casually!"

◇　◇　◇

As Hades was leisurely making his was to Cattleya's home, he suddenly realized he was being tailed by some lesser divine beings. Noticing them he frowned lightly in annoyance before flicking his fingers, a trace of magic could be detected as he casted a high-grade illusion spell upon them without them noticing.

Although he had realized that his siblings had probably figured out his relation to the prophesied child, he still did not want any flies buzzing around him so he used an Illusion to fool them into going towards a different direction. By the time they realized, he should have long arrived at his destination already.

He thought back to the reason he was going towards the domain of one of the races not exactly on good terms with Olympus and sighed.

'I just wanted a good friend I could share some of my worries with over drinks, i got that but i also got something else too. Maybe I should have never gone out drinking that day, Thanatos even warned me not to.'

Although Thanatos could not have possibly predicted what would have happened a few hours after warning his boss not to go out that day. He simply did that so he would not be left with extra work to deal with.

"Well, it's happened and it's not exactly a bad thing."

He laughed as he spoke to himself. Looking around he noticed multicolored strings of energy around him as remembered his father, the Titan of time, Kronos.

'This was probably why his control over time was so strong, and Tartarus was full of it too, after being able to sense it I've suddenly started becoming stronger at a faster rate, I wonder if the child would be able to use this in the future. Well, that's for the future.'

He laughed lightly as the aura emanating from him increased in intensity. If any one of the Olympians was there to see this, their eyes may have fallen out in shock.

'Tch... I still haven't figured out how to control this well, how does he always do this comfortably, I have to avoid meeting him so he doesn't figure it out. At least until I can control this well.'

Retracting his aura, he continued making his way towards the home of his unborn child's mother.