[Tree] Chapter 503: Twins

Ashlock had been reborn as a tree after living as a human for decades.

He became recognized by a human girl as her father, defied the heavens at every turn, built a sect, and became recognized as a godlike being—even going so far as to create his own afterlife. So it was suffice to say that few things could shock him into silence anymore. Yet the announcement from Elaine, something so simple, so human, had done so. And not just him, everyone was wide-eyed, with Douglas being the most understandably shocked.

Douglas stepped back, looking Elaine up and down. His eyes reddened as his mouth opened, and he stammered, "R-Really?"

Elaine gave him a purposeful nod.

"You're really pregnant? With twins?" he repeated, as if needing absolute clarity.

"Yes, Douglas. I'm sorry for keeping it from you until now. Are you mad—AH!" Elaine yelped as Douglas pulled her into a tight hug and spun her around. He burst into laughter with a massive grin.

"Yer fucking serious! Yippe!"

"Put me down, you big oaf!" Elaine jokingly yelled as she smacked his back.

"Okay, okay," he laughed and set her down. Wiping a tear from his eye, he muttered, "I can't believe it. I'm going to be a dad."

"Not for long if you throw me around like that," Elaine said, pouting.

Douglas scratched the back of his head, "Sorry, I got carried away—oof!"

"You big idiot!" Elaine said as she rammed her head into his chest, knocking the wind out of him.

Their antics helped break the surprise and tension in the air. Despite Elaine's annoyance at being spun around, she was a Star Core Realm cultivator. It would take a lot for her to sustain any real damage. But it did raise many questions. Ashlock hadn't really thought about how cultivators had children and the proper precautions around them until now. Did it still take nine months like it did for people back on earth? What affinity would the twins inherit? Void, illusion, earth, or a combination? What if they had no affinity at all? Could their affinity be changed depending on the conditions they experienced while in the womb?

Could Elaine raise super cultivators if she were put in the Eternal Realm?

All of that aside, these twins would be the first members of the Ashfallen Sect's second generation.

"Hopefully, the first of many to come," Ashlock mused to himself. As an immortal tree, he thought he was mentally prepared for what that entailed, but witnessing it for real was different. The passing of time... it could be a beautiful thing.

"I can't believe it," Douglas said, shaking his head as he rubbed his chest where Elaine had headbutted him. "This is the best news I've ever received!"

"Congratulations, Elaine and Douglas!" Diana said, rushing over and hugging Elaine. Elysia gleefully joined in, while Grand Elder Redclaw shook Douglas's hand and offered his own congratulations to the crying man.

The atmosphere was joyous, but Ashlock could see there was something still weighing on Elaine's mind. So through Anubis, he asked, "Elaine, do you want me to check on them with my eye?"

She shook her head, "I appreciate the offer, but I can check on them easily myself. They are both developing correctly and are healthy."

"I see, that's good then," Ashlock said, surprised to have already learned something unique about cultivator pregnancy compared to Earth. Though it made sense, as cultivators could even look at their own souls. "But why do you still seem... tense for lack of a better word?"

"Well, there's a reason I've kept this to myself for a while, as there's a slight problem," Elaine said with a sigh.

Douglas's mood switched instantly from the epitome of joy to terror. "A problem? What is it?"

"The twins. One is a boy and the other a girl. The girl is fine—she has inherited your earth affinity, Douglas." Elaine paused, her eyes settling on the ground. "But the boy, he inherited my void affinity."

"Oh no," Douglas said, his gaze hardening.

Elaine balled her fists. "I can make this right. I just have to reach the Nascent Soul Realm, and he can have my infant soul with illusion affinity."

"No!" Douglas said resolutely, "If you do that, you will die from old age in a few centuries and leave them without a mother."

"So?! If I don't, he will suffer the same fate!" Elaine said, tears streaming down her face. "I feel like I've cursed him to die."

"Well, that's rather mean, to call your mother a curse."

Everyone's gazes snapped to Morrigan, the Origin of the void, who was leaning against the mouth of the cave.

Elaine tensed. "Mother... that's not what I meant. It's just..."

"Trust me, I know dear," Morrigan said, appearing behind Elaine and startling her by hugging her. "Nobody likes the void. It's cold and lifeless. A place where reality bleeds and dreams are non-existent." She ran her fingers through Elaine's hair. "I'm sorry to say this, dear, but the void cannot be escaped. Not by me or you. At least one or both of your kids would have been born with it, and it will continue to be passed down."

"Passed down? What do you mean?" Elaine asked, her whole body tense like a pole.

Morrigan's eyes held a deep resolve in them. "I don't usually admit it, but the Voidmind bloodline is passed down so I can continue to live."

Elaine slowly looked up, her eyes wide as she stared at her mother. "What?"

"Because a child with the void affinity cannot be naturally born," Morrigan began to explain. "The Voidmind bloodline that you possess has been passed down for eons so that if I'm ever killed, I'll have a new vessel to reincarnate into." Morrigan slipped away with a sad smile. "As I'm stuck at the Star Core Realm, you have no idea how many times I've died even while staying down here on the ninth layer of creation."

Elaine looked mortified. "You're going to use me as a vessel? But it's possible to get a second affinity! Just like I did! Why won't you do that?"

Morrigan looked at her strangely. "And what affinity will your infant soul have? Remember, I'm the void itself. Cultivating another affinity isn't something I can do."

"Um," Elaine furrowed her brows. "Illusion affinity..."

Morrigan smiled. "It seems like you have answered your own question. As I said, the inevitable call of the void isn't something that can be escaped, only delayed. Even if I could create an infant soul from another affinity, if I died, the infant soul would live on, but I would enter the cycle of reincarnation and end up in... you."

Elaine said through gritted teeth, "So the reason I suffered, unable to cultivate like other people, and had to start cultivating all over again with a second affinity, was all so that I could be a vessel for you if you died?" Elaine looked horrified as she cradled her stomach. "And the same is for my unborn son?"

Morrigan nodded. "Don't worry, I should take over your body first before your unborn son. But if I mysteriously disappear and your son starts to display an odd amount of knowledge and has nightmares every night as memories come flooding back—just know I picked the fresher body and it's me."

Elaine withdrew her sword and held it up to her neck. "And what if I were to cut myself down right now? You would be without a vessel."

Morrigan stared at her blankly. "I would go and raise another child."

"So another person can suffer because of your selfishness? You're nothing but a monster!" Elaine screamed, rushing at Morrigan with her sword raised.

Morrian's black hair suddenly turned rose gold like Elaine's, and she snarled, displaying two rows of teeth. In an instant, she had gone from a noble woman to revealing her true nature as a primordial being from before reality was created. A wave of power flowed out of her, freezing Elaine in place. All the color drained from her face as if she had seen a ghost. Divine energy in the air crackled violently around Morrigan in response, as if trying to purge her existence.

"Do you think this is the first time I've had this conversation?!" Morrigan shouted over the divine static. "You are not the first, second, or even hundredth Elaine. The Voidmind family has risen and fallen a thousand times. I've had as many children as there are stars in the sky and reincarnated thousands of times. Do you think I want any of this? Do you think I enjoy being seen with such hatred by my kin whenever I have to reveal this?"

Elaine collapsed to her knees. "Why?" she whispered under her breath.

Morrigan relaxed her onslaught of power and raised a brow. "Why what?"

Elaine slowly looked up to meet Morrigan's gaze. "After living for so long, why do you keep going?"

Morrigan paused. She crouched down, her hair returning to black, and that monstrous aura around her finally faded away as if it never existed. "You were right, Elaine. As an origin, it's fair to call me a curse. You see, I'm cursed with true immortality. No matter how many times I die, I'll come back, and the memories of the past will haunt me. If that wasn't bad enough, unlike other origins who are guaranteed to reincarnate in reality, if nobody is carrying the Voidmind blood, I'll be sent to my home—the void, where nothing happens, and I'll never die. Just float there for eternity. Conscious but not really living. Tell me, Elaine, am I selfish for doing everything I can to avoid that fate?"

Elaine furrowed her brows, unable to give a response.

Ashlock found Morrigan's words very enlightening. Immortality was coveted because it gave someone the ultimate agency to decide when their time was up. However, true immortality ironically robbed this crucial choice, forcing one to continue living when they no longer desired to. For some reason, his thoughts drifted to Senior Lee.

His running theory, devised with Stella, was that Senior Lee had given him one of the divine fragments for a simple reason: because he wanted to die.

"As a being who could traverse the void and stop time, he was no doubt a high god. Someone who sits at the very top, possibly even an Origin like Morrigan, meaning they are unable to truly die. For such a powerful being to come down to the 9th layer of creation and be friends with a Voidmind researcher working under Morrigan is suspicious. He also saved Stella, who has the ancient Crestfallen bloodline known to topple the Nine Realms whenever they appear." Ashlock paused his thoughts and rid himself of them.

Whether he was being raised to kill and devour a god or was just looking too much into it, his path forward was set. He would reach Monarch Realm, initiate the era of ascension, gather the nine divine fragments, become a true god, and topple the heavens. All so he could finally say he and his family were safe and he could rest. Only then would he question his existence. If something was truly threatening him, then Stella would figure it out and speak up. But she had promised to keep what she had supposedly discovered about the origin of his system to herself until they reached the top.

His job was to grow and devour so he could protect those he cared about.

"You are selfish," Elaine said eventually, gritting her teeth. "But I also can't blame you. I can't even imagine what you've been through, how many lives you've lived. Still, I hate the idea that you could take over the body of my baby."

Khaos stepped forward. "Allow me to take on your soul should you die, Origin of the void. That way, you have no need to go after the child."

"No, that doesn't fix anything. It only delays the inevitable," Ashlock said. "The problem isn't that Morrigan needs a new body—it's the underlying issue of how Origins reincarnates. While you're unlikely to ever die, Khaos, in the off chance you somehow do, Morrigan's soul will find its way into Elaine, her son, or any other children her bloodline chooses to have in the far future."

"I am inevitable," Morrigan said with a grin as she appraised Khaos for a moment, then more carefully. She paused, tilting her head. "That's not right," she muttered, stepping closer. "This isn't right at all," she traced her finger down Khaos's chest, her brows furrowing as she did so. "You're in the Nascent Soul Realm? As a void monster that isn't a Worldwalker?"

"I am," Khaos replied simply.

Morrigan snorted and shook her head. "Not possible."

"It's quite possible, with the power of my Lord."

"Not even a contract with a high god can surpass the restrictions of creation—only creation itself could do something like that," Morrigan said, laughing. She looked like she was about to say something else when she suddenly froze. Her eyes drifted in the general direction of Ashlock's infant soul that was being inhabited by the system, the divine flesh tree. "Oh, I see now," she muttered under her breath. "It was a Conceptual Origin."

"Conceptual Origin?" Douglas asked before Ashlock could.

Morrigan laughed nervously. "They are... best not spoken about. Especially in their presence."

A system message suddenly appeared in Ashlock's consciousness, scaring the shit out of him.

[Notice: Stella has exited the Eternal Realm]

The mystical fog parted as a shadowy figure walked out. It was Stella, with a droopy Bob cradled in her arms. While it wasn't as stark a difference as when he fell asleep for a long time as a sapling and missed years of Stella's childhood, there was no mistaking it. She had grown up from the slight changes to her physical appearance to how she carried herself. The light of his Inner World brightened her hair as she stepped out of the cave's mouth and smiled at everyone.

"I'm home!" she said happily, "I've missed you guys!"

The tense mood temporarily shifted.

"Oh my," Diana said, stepping forward with a grin. "You made that whole speech about not wanting to be apart from us for too long, only to spend an eternity in there! What has it been? A whole year? Look how much you've grown up!"

Maple leapt from Diana's shoulder and took his rightful spot on Stella's head and swiftly fell asleep, totally unfazed by the matters of the mortal world.

Stella chuckled as she gently rubbed his head, making Maple's ears happily twitch. "Yeah, I was in there for way longer than I expected. How long were you in there for?"

"About two weeks in real-world time or a little over half a year inside," Diana said, crossing her arms. "I reached the third stage of the Nascent Soul Realm and thought that was good enough. But just from standing near you, I can tell... that you have surpassed me."

Stella nervously laughed. "I spent so long rebuilding my foundation by searching within myself and making use of the daos and incredibly pure Qi in the pocket realm that I felt I had to push for as high a stage as I could once I got the opportunity. I then kept going... until my stage would match Ash's."

Diana stepped back in pure shock. "You... don't tell me."

"Yep. 7th stage of the Nascent Soul Realm," Stella grinned. "I'm not too far from the Monarch Realm now." Her head swiveled upwards as she easily pinpointed exactly where Ashlock was watching from. "Ash, when I left, you were in the 6th stage. I didn't know how much of my Qi would get mirrored to you, but I wanted to pay you back as much as I could while being someone strong enough that you can depend on in the future."

"You've surpassed my wildest expectations, Stella," Ashlock said honestly. "No matter the pocket realm you found yourself in, to go up almost a whole realm in a single year is an insane level of dedication. As much as I don't want to admit it for your safety, you rank among the top powerhouses in the sect now. Welcome home, my daughter."

Stella beamed. "Thank you, Dad!"

"However," he added with a mischievous tone, "I'm going to have to trample on your dreams of surpassing me as I already reached the 7th stage from mirroring Diana's Qi, and I imagine the boon I'm about to get from the time you and Bob spent in that pocket realm will far surpass that."

Stella shook her head happily. "The sooner you get to the Monarch Realm, the sooner we can rescue my mom. I mainly worked so hard so I won't be left behind again."

"I'm just glad you're finally home."

The Eternal Realm behind Stella suddenly pulsed. Ashlock was stunned as his consciousness was overwhelmed by an immense amount of information regarding the daos of spatial and aether that Stella had comprehended while in the pocket dimension, which was mirrored to him.

[Comprehension of spatial and aether dao has drastically increased]

Ashlock felt the world lurch back into existence, and he looked around with a brand new understanding of everything. However, he didn't have time to relish the novel feeling as Qi flooded his Inner World, making it violently tremble. Everyone gathered struggled to keep their footing, with Douglas swiftly moving to support Elaine as best he could. Ashlock felt his cultivation stage increase by one and then continued as he rose to a second stage. Eventually, after a long few moments, his Inner World calmed down, and his system appeared in his mind.

[Demonic Demi-Divine Tree (Age: 10)]

[Nascent Soul Realm: 9th Stage]

[Soul Type: Nine Moons (Desolation)]

He was now in the 9th stage, a stone's throw away from the Monarch Realm.

"Thank you, Stella," he said, "and Bob, you did well too."

Bob jiggled with excitement.

"You're welcome, Ash," Stella smiled. She then surveyed the group, slowly frowning as she noticed their expressions and dried tears. "Did... I miss something?"

Morrigan stepped forward. "Elaine is understandably upset having learned her fate." She side-eyed Elaine. "It's simply something she will have to come to terms with as a member of my Voidmind family."

Stella narrowed her eyes. "I don't like the sound of that. Explain."