BXBX NOVEL Chapter 213: Mother of Change.
"Usami, why aren\'t you spending more time teaching her to control her mana?" Dina stood over them watching Ikaris raise her hands, slowly undoing the damage Gia had caused while Arla and Sara checked if the three were alright. "If none of us were here she could have really hurt them."
"I know, I have my reservations about teaching her though, honestly I\'d rather Gia grow up without the use of magic at all, but with the direction the world is going she\'s gonna have to learn in order to use the system to her advantage." Usami answered with a sigh.
"I don\'t want my baby to use magic and draw attention to herself, magic pretty much ruined my life, I\'d hate it if what happened to me happened to her, I would never forgive myself..."
"Then give her the power she needs to never be taken advantage of." Dina shook her head. "I get it, you fear that others will try to use her if they find out right, but imagine how much worse it will be in a world of superhumans if she\'s completely normal." Dina gave her a different perspective.
"Instead of trying to raise her to be normal you ought to consider giving her an advantage, make her so strong that she\'s feared instead of desired, it\'s better..." Dina looked across at Sol who was listening to her advice. "It\'s better to be so terrifying that even the gods fear you."
"Well said." Sol closed his palm and turned to the staircase.
"Are you going to tell us what happened with the emissary of Fate?" Usami looked at him leaving after no explanation.
"What she said isn\'t really important right now, but the bottom line is that I\'m not ready for what\'s coming, this makes the third time she\'s given me this warning and after what happened with that breach I have to strongly agree with her, they\'re human, completely human; yet they can do all sorts of fantastical things, and on top of that they\'re unrealistically strong, I got lucky this time but there\'s no telling what comes after this, so I\'ll be in my study if you need me."
"What will you be doing?" Arla asked what everyone else was afraid of asking.
"I\'ll do as I\'ve always done when faced with a powerful enemy," Sol paused at the top of the staircase and looked down at them feeling the full weight of each life resting on his shoulders as he stared at their expressions and their gazes aimed straight at him. "I will evolve and grow stronger." He answered and then left.
"What does that even mean?" Usami looked at Ikaris for an answer but she shrugged and sighed.
"I told him I would trust his decisions and I intend to keep that promise, but even I am totally unaware of how someone as strong as he is can gain more strength; I have lived my entire existence believing there to be none stronger than the Godslayer, it is rooted in my memories the things the first one did, and it remains engraved in my mind the things that Sol has done, what greater power could there possibly be than his?"
"Something else, apparently." Dina started up the stairs as well. "If Master sees a need to grow his strength then I will follow in his example, it is far from the same but I will not sit idly by forever under his shadow, I want to evolve with him." She confessed, and Ikaris sighed and looked down at herself.
"I too thought the same, too, until I saw the depth of the Godslayer, it is something unfathomable, and yet he was hurt by a mere human."
"Hurt?" Usami stared at her confused. "That woman didn\'t put a scratch on him, though." She argued.
"That is what you saw, what you observed with your naked eye, but what I saw was a Sol easily capable of crushing a world the size of Arkadia with a casual clench of his fist get his armour which could withstand that same level of power smacked by a woman who we now know is entirely human, the strongest being in our collevtive universes was hurt by what amounts to a foot soldier in an army of stronger soldiers, is there any hope that we will ever be strong enough without him to face them?"
"Personally, I don\'t need to be strong enough to blow them away, I just need to have enough firepower to rend their flesh, that\'s enough for me, as long as I can overcome that obstacle then they\'re killable, because at the end of the day, as we have been saying repeatedly; they\'re only human." Dina smiled at everyone after giving another set of good advice and then left.
"Enough to rend their flesh... enough firepower to tear them to shreds." Ikaris stared at the seats and began slowly walking towards them. "She says she does not want to fight, but she actively seeks it even more than I do sometimes."
"Whether it is the fine arts she observes and passionately practices as a pastime, or battling a powerful enemy within inches of her life, as a being set to always evolve she will grow attached to whatever field she sets her mind to, right now for her that field falls under your safety, Milady." Arla smiled at Ikaris.
"We swore on our souls to put you first, to honour you in health or death, you are our first lady and the primordial goddess of balance, your safety comes above all else for myself as well."
"Gosh..." Usami watched Arla follow after Dina and leave toward their room to do gods know what to gain more strength, following Sol\'s example.
"Milady." Sara gestured to the seats and Ikaris sighed with a smile and followed after her, stretching her legs as the maid went back to the kitchen and provided her with something to eat, while Gia bounced over and sat next to her. "You are worried, it shows in your eyes."
"I am." Ikaris didn\'t hide how she felt.
"Everyone has some part they have to play in all this and it feels like it is all happening because of me, I do not know how to react anymore, I am being called by a title I do not know, and invaders are coming after me because I am some kind of refugee apparently, I am confused about who I am supposed to be now, Sara." Ikaris confessed her thoughts, and the maid hummed and sat on her other side picking up her feet and resting them in her lap for a slow and well needed massage.
"You are and always have been Ikaris."
"But what if I am not?" Ikaris answered. "I don\'t know what the Vatui is or why so many people seem to want me and my child dead, Dina, Arla and Master are stressed because of it and I cannot help but feel that my disappearance could somehow save them-"
"Wrong, Milady." Sara cut her off, seeing the pattern of Ikaris only calling Sol by his title when she was stressed herself or at a loss of options and sought some kind of guidance. "Your disappearance would kill them; it would do far more harm than Amy good you believe it would, please do not speak such things in any of their presences."
"I will not." Ikaris sighed and relaxed when Sara\'s expert hands started kneading into her muscles. "I just... I want to help and not feel this useless."
"Aunty isn\'t useless." Gia stared at the TV while she spoke, not even looking at them.
"And what would a little pumpkin that has yet to even ripen be able to tell me of myself that I do not already know?" Ikaris smiled at her, playfully running her fingers through the girl\'s hair and chuckling when she pouted and leaned forward.
"Aunty Ikaris is pretty, and you have a hungry baby in your big belly and...and the baby in your belly needs you ...so not useless." Gia looked up at her.
"The child is right." Sara agreed, looking at Gia with her brow raised. "Milady, what you are housing inside of you someone out there fears, in fact whenever people try to destroy a race, whether that race is good or pure evil like the demons were, it is purely out of fear is it not?" She asked and Ikaris went silent as she thought about this.
"VOID, Orion and Sitri, they were killed by sir strictly because they were evil to the bone and everyone feared the power they wielded, the Pantheon; Psikos and Diablos, and even Saat tried killing Sir because he was too strong, because they feared the power he held, they feared his evolution, here in human history, the great dictators of the past were all killed the first time they made a mistake and exposed a weakness because their enemies understand that all it takes is one decision, one order, one action and they could destroy everything in their path." She lectured Ikaris, and the goddess sucked in a breath as this was a new approach she hadn\'t even considered; and insightful one.
"Sara, sometimes I am a little bothered by how insightful you are, not even Sol pays as much attention as you do, iynis honestly kind of unnerving."
"Well..." Sara stopped massaging her leg and looked at her.
"I live to serve you, Your Holiness, your daily needs, your hourly wants, my only purpose is to make the Vestic family as comfortable as they will ever want to be, it may not be my destiny, but I frown at any other destiny than this one, my love and adoration for Sir runs deeper than my own self worth, and you Milady are an inspiration to behold every day when I look at you; mother of a new race-"
"What?" Ikaris stopped her. "What did you just say?"
"You are the mother of a new race." Sara repeated her statement.
"That beautiful child you are nurturing is the first of her kind, that is apparent from how the invaders reacted upon hearing you were pregnant from Alpha\'s explanation, they are afraid of you both, you, the Vatui in hiding, and her, the child of said Vatui and a Godslayer, this is why I believe they are so adamant to get you and will soon return; you are far more special than you realise."
"Inside of you may lie creation, destruction, or both, but with everyone scurrying about endlessly Milady it is quite obvious that she is as feared as you are, perhaps even more so..." Sara smiled at her.
"You are now the Mother of Change."
"The catalyst they have been trying to avoid."