Chapter 225: Chapter 224: Pre-Adventure Workout

Lillim and the others weren’t entirely confident his plan was going to be as easy to pull off as he was making it seem. An understandable sentiment, given that he had been an incredibly inexperienced immortal, needing to copy the divinity signature of others to even stand a chance against one of Lillim’s daughters.

In the end, Carl knew that no matter how much he didn’t want to talk about it, he couldn’t hide the fact that he was the new incarnation of the law of Divinity. Not that he wanted to hide it from them, but he would have preferred a bit more time to process it himself.

“Now I know my truth, I know I can take care of myself.”

“So, you finally admit that you have romantic feelings for Gillian and that love is making you feel invincible?” Klaire laughed in a very successful attempt to ease the sudden tension, especially when Carl and Gillian held hands and asked who was hiding it.

“No. I wish that was it, because compared to the real truth that would be far less complicated…” Carl looked back to Gillian. “…Not that I don’t love you man, just need to keep the ladies happy too.”

It was a ridiculously mundane moment, his parents and their actual partners shaking their head whilst others laughed. The only ones not laughing, were those few who already knew.

“Mums, you might want to listen to this one… It’s kind of insane to be honest and I ha-”

“Ki-ko, keep your older-little brother’s secrets to yourself. You have a responsibility to respect the secrets you’ve learned and only share them if you think the situation outweighs the breach of trust and worth the loss of the person’s confidence.” Kyubi’s lecture resulted in Ki-ko jumping on her brother dramatically and begging his forgiveness, though it was clearly just an attempt to make him choose between her getting free reign to spill his secrets or a hyper-clingy sister.

Unfortunately for Kitsunoko, she had underestimated how upset her brother was with everything that happened and how comforting he found her affections. When she realised though, her priority quickly deferred to her responsibility as a big sister.

“Well, anyway…” Carl said, as he took a moment to consider how much the three of them had grown in such a short time. “…I was the law of Divinity….”

He proceeded to tell them all the whole story, helping all the pieces click into place, filling in the blanks for those that were there.

“So you intend to make me the queen of hell? Glorious, my first decree shall be the eradication of every step in the infernal realms.” The others had a good laugh at the most tame demonic coronation in history, but that was what proved the straw to break the camel’s back.

“How are you all so relaxed? I’m technically responsible for everything. Kyubi, your people, I-”

“Don’t you dare take that weight on your shoulders. Whatever you were, you have always and will always be, nothing more or less than Carl to us. You gave up everything you were, cast aside more power and influence than anything else in existence, just to show everything else in existence that it was meaningless anyway.” Kyubi started what snowballed into a series of lectures.

“Okay, I get it. I love you all, but now we need to get back to it. I know we can do it in time for the new year, but that doesn’t mean we can afford to waste time. What realm can I do the most and be back before you know it?”

“That would be the realm known as “Second hand”. A year over there amounts to a single second in this one, what do you need to do?”

“I’m going to have a family discussion with all my aunts, we’ll need them for the battle to end Gilgamesh’s rule.” The declaration brought a smile to Lillim’s face, the idea of a human challenging her clan in its totality was both preposterous and entirely thrilling.

“Good. The sooner that lot stops clinging to my coat tails, the sooner they can stop limiting themselves by idolising me. So do you want me to call them one at a time when we get over there?”

“No, I said this is a family affair, they need to respect both me and the faction leadership so they don’t act up when Kyubi, Klaire and I leave.”

“True, I guess an all versus all tournament will be fine.”

“Are you up for this? You haven’t done anything since you burned your system away.”

“He’s fine, the moment I learned the truth in the book, I began dismantling the system’s assist features. He’s been operating on nothing but instinct for a while now. Not to complain, but technically the only thing that got burned away was the literal bond between us.” Sis couldn’t help but look incredibly saddened by that and it was something Carl could empathise with.

In the past eight years, Carl had never been alone, always with his family, friends, pets and although she couldn’t communicate properly, Sis. Now though, she would truly be alone if she was by herself.

Like any sibling who had raised their younger sibling, Carl’s ability to separate the roles of sibling and parent was skewed and it felt a lot like she was leaving home.

“Sis, you know you can always ask Tiamutael to bring you over to us and I have no doubt that Omy will be staying with you and I’ll probably still pester you. You’ll always be my twin sister, even if your mum and I don’t get on.”

“I know, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Now get going already, you’re the one who said we don’t have time to waste.”

Carl hugged her goodbye, then Lillim called up the combatants who would take part in the tournament. Carl, Kyubi, Klaire, Leanna, Blanc, Gillian, Equinox, Aegis and the kids as soon as Kyubi pinched Kitsunoko’s cheeks and finished scolding her for cracking her knuckles.

“This is…” Lillim looked at them gathered and realised how outmatched her tens of thousands of daughters were. “…Unfairer than I remember the stakes being. Do you mind if I help them out?”

“Don’t lie Grandma, you just don’t want to be left out, but yes I don’t mind you joining as long as you go easy on the kids.”

“Agreed!…” Lillim decided not to waste any time, taking them to the realm and summoning all of her daughters. “…Now ladies, the usual rules of restraint are lifted for all but the children. Any who fall here shall swear their allegiance to Carl’s faction, any who are left with no other choice but to surrender should do so immediately rather than shame their family.”

“Dad, can I thin out their numbers a bit? I’m not really feeling like dragging this out.”

“I don’t need to tell you not to kill them do I?”

“No.” Carl shrugged, then gestured for him to take the lead, but he just transformed and prepared the same breath attack that made even Nergal feel threatened. Having seen it firsthand, Lillim winced and began counting down to the inevitable mass-surrender of her daughters.

“Begin!” The word was followed immediately by Tiamutael’s opening attack. A hyper focused beam of both Chaos and Order drawing a line in the sand that acted as a warning of the battle that waited beyond it. “…Girls, don’t be too proud to acknowledge your opponent’s strength.”

It was followed immediately by the surrender of some ten thousand demons, then every remaining combatant took their true form and all hell broke loose.

Equinox took it upon himself to meet Lillim in battle, but after she easily carved a deep gash into his massive body which had made him a vulnerable target, he resumed his human form.

“Apologies, that was a rather insulting display of carelessness on my part.”

“Equinox, your entire charade is rather unseemly…” Lillim’s bloodlust flashed in her eyes for an instant. “…Show me that force of sheer destruction you exhibited for Cocytus.”

“Very well.” Equinox bowed respectfully, or so it appeared, but the entire space that had been carved out by the others to avoid being caught up suddenly rotated ninety degrees so he was standing upright still and Lillim lost her balance for a second. “…Realm of Balance, is the pinnacle of my power and also the bane of my existence.”

“Interesting description. You truly are Carl’s creation, simply couldn’t resist saying the name of your ability, come Equinox and show me the extent of your most powerful ability.”

As she finished speaking, she found her voice echoey and couldn’t understand it, but then she looked to the side and saw a more orderly version of herself, then looked back to Equinox.

“How many times in your existence have you wondered what it would be like for you as your polar opposite and do you think you would be allies, or enemies?”

“Neither, one would be dead and I would be me excited.”

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