Roxanne’s voice had changed, carrying a lethal edge beneath the persistent tremor. The trembling was still there—coiled beneath every syllable like a serpent waiting to strike—but something unbreakable had emerged.
"Thrown from their
original world
. Cast out. Banished to this realm like prisoners condemned to a lesser existence."
"These aren’t just powerful
ancestral families.
These aren’t just old money and older grudges. These are families
descended
from real
Original Beings
, the
Progenitors
—entities that saw the creation of worlds. That shaped reality before humanity crawled from the primordial muck."
"Let me explain."
Roxanne’s hands twisted violently in her lap, knuckles bone-white against her trembling thighs. "The
Heavenchilds
are the
Original Angel bloodline
. Not angels as in messengers, or angels as in servants of some mortal god—the first
angel.
She swallowed hard, the sound audible in the frozen silence.
The pieces clicked into place with terrifying clarity.
Roxanne nodded urgently. "And so on. Every Legacy family traces back to a
progenitor
of unimaginable power. Beings that existed before existence had a name. You’ll discover what family carries what bloodline as you navigate this world—some are obvious, some are hidden, some are secrets that families would kill to protect."
"But here’s what matters, Phei.
Before the exile
—before these progenitors’s families were cast out from their original realm, the
World of Powers
as they
vaguely
call it—a prophecy was made."
"This last generation
before the
Destined Day
on which they’ll awaken.
The one who born lastly before that awakening. The heirs and heiresses of every Legacy family in Paradise." She locked eyes with him, her gaze devastating in its intensity.
The words struck Phei like a physical blow, driving the air from his chest.
Phei’s mind spiraled through endless, horrifying implications.
A bitter laugh tore from her trembling lips.
"Prince.
As though that title could contain what he truly is."
"But Phei... all the
progenitors
were
male."
"Every single one. The
First
Angel.
Fenrisúlfr. Jörmungandr.
The
First Devil
. All of them—male entities from a realm where power apparently organized itself along lines these ancient beings found... comfortable."
Phei saw the horrific conclusion barreling toward him. The dread crystallized in his chest, colder than his own Void-Ice.
Roxanne’s question was rhetorical. The answer clawed at them both.
"Impossible." She nodded, slow and deliberate. "A male progenitor cannot claim a female body and a female soul. The architecture is incompatible. The soul cannot anchor itself to a soul flesh that contradicts its fundamental nature."
"They would
reincarnate
in the
bodies of the previous generation
instead." Roxanne’s hands clenched into white-knuckled fists against her thighs. "The
fathers.
Jonathan Montgomery
doesn’t have a son to serve as vessel for the First Devil. So the First Devil would awaken in Jonathan instead."
"They
wouldn’t be as powerful
as they’re supposed to be!"
Phei finished, the truth exploding through him like shrapnel from a bomb. "The previous generation won’t awaken with the same potency as the current one. If a progenitor reincarnates in the body of a
father
instead of a
last child
, it would be
three to five times
weaker
than the other progenitors who
claimed the correct vessels
!"
"That
progenitor
would be
diminished.
Lesser. Vulnerable to the others who reincarnated properly." Her voice cracked like thin ice. "And for some reason, the Legacy families cannot
accept
that. At least some of them. Families like the
Montgomerys
who have spent millennia preparing for this moment—they refuse to see their
Progenitor
awaken as anything less than the Supreme he once was and supposed to be."
"But they can’t do anything about it. It’s not like they can kill their daughters or—or change their gender—"
Phei’s eyes widened in pure horror. His mouth opened, but no sound came—only the strangled silence of a boy witnessing evils beyond imagination.
Roxanne laughed, a dry, brittle sound that echoed with years of suppressed agony. The sound of something long fractured finally shattering.
The question detonated in his skull like thunder.
Her voice turned clinical and cold, the tone of someone who had lived with this horror for far too long. "Because the Maxtons are their only ticket to the
rightful reincarnation
of their progenitors."
"Yes, you might wonder why the Heavenchilds are among these families when they already have Marcus—a perfect male vessel for the
First Angel
." Roxanne’s smile was a razor, sharp and devastating with forbidden knowledge. "But the First Angel wasn’t singular. It was a
pair.
Twins. That’s why
Paige
and
Brielle
are so important to that family. That’s why those girls exist at all."
The blood-soaked mathematics of ritual murder etched themselves into Phei’s mind.
She seized his hands with the frantic strength of a drowning soul.
Her nails bit deep into his flesh. Her voluptuous body shook with uncontrollable sobs, tears flowing freely as the last vestiges of the composed Legacy matriarch dissolved.
"Please." The word ripped from her throat like a final prayer.
"Please save my Sierra."
"Jonathan has already made a deal with the Maxtons."
"Sierra is going to die in order for the
First Devil
himself to awaken at his prime."
A/N:
If anything is confusing... I am happy to explain, guys.