Hearing those words, not just Xeros, but his wives as well... they all arched a brow.
Xeros he was six cycles old or in other words six trillion years old.
He had never once in his long life felt this particular resonance in his blood, except with one other personâEllyn Eidora, his younger sister.
Yet here it was again, burning like nothing else, maybe even more than when he was with Ellyn.
But it wasnât just resonance; it was fear too.
And now he was staring at the woman who claimed to be his younger sister and Isis, who suddenly appeared at her side.
He frowned, his grip tightening on the black staff that had reappeared in his hand.
"I donât know who you are," he said in a low voice, "or what nonsense youâre spouting."
He leveled the staff at Aurora as mana began to gather at its tip.
"Hand over the Heart now, and weâll let you and that dragon leave safely."
His four wives moved forward in perfect unison, forming a loose semicircle around himâeach exuding a power strong enough to shatter verses.
The first wifeâtall and lithe, her skin like burnished copperâspoke first, her calm voice carrying the weight of absolute certainty.
"You should listen to him closely," she said, tilting her head as if tasting the air. "From what I see.... You canât be more than a cycle old... Better to live than die for nothing, right?"
The second wifeâshorter, athletic, with short-cropped obsidian hair and scarsâcrossed her arms.
"We donât have time to argue with them. We need this heart to help us back on the Earth plane. Who knows how far those damned invaders have come?" she said, glancing at the others.
The rest spoke up too, but Aurora only tilted her head at the staff aimed at her and Isis.
"Tsk, if Daddy knew you were threatening me like this," she murmured. "Oh, I wonder how heâd beat you."
She spoke, then began to giggle, her laughter carrying deliberate melodies that made Xerosâ staff melt away.
Xerosâ eyes narrowed, but instead of reacting as expected.... the word she uttered echoed like a thunderclap in his mind.
Of all the women Ashâs fourth incarnation had gathered, only Aphrodite and Persephone were pregnant.
He knew this well, as they all lived in the same palace.
More than that, he had long heard tales of how his father had died protecting their family back when the invasion of the Earth Plane first began.
"W-what Da... What Father are you talking about?!" he roared, his anger truly beginning to boil over.
"My father diâ"
Aurora cut him off with a wave of her hand. She didnât know how to explain the mystery of their fatherâwell, she could, but it would take far too long.
Instead, she used a projection to quickly show him images of Ash and herself throughout her childhood.
Even though the current Ash looked vastly differentâimmeasurably more beautiful than his Fourthâthere was no mistaking him. He faintly resembled the many paintings scattered around the palace.
"Fa... Father?" he murmured, confusion clouding his thoughts. Aurora dissolved the projection and cast a sharp glance at his wives.
"I will consider your past threats as mistakes," she said with a smile.
"I donât know about the Family on the Earth Plane... but we Originats donât take threats kindly."
Meanwhile, Isis had no idea how to react.
She wasnât even sure when Aurora had so effortlessly erased her side of the battlefield.
As she had no way of feeling Divinity or her powers, so one moment she was fighting and then the next she saw Aurora having a standoff with this group.
She had been ready for a fight, but who couldâve guessed they were actually related.
"Does your father... have a lot of women or something?" she asked, and at that...
"Thatâs an understatement," both Aurora and Xeros muttered.
He turned to Aurora, letting out a long breath.
"Talk... what the hell is happening?"
-----
While the children of the Unus God were finally gathering, the man himself was in the First Heaven of the Earth Plane.
Ash, Sylvie, Katherine, Rune, Aeloris, Seraphiel, Madison, and Morgana had all arrived just a few days earlier.
What they found was unlike anything Ash had seen in his past lives, yet it matched what he knew had been happening in this Middle Dimension for some time.
Only days before, this place had none of the earthly architecture or bustling cities like New Yorkâeverything lay in complete ruin, and not a single soul remained in the lower heavens.
All had long since died or ascended to the few heavens that remained.
But that was just days ago. Now, Ash sat alone atop a skyscraper in a familiar cityâthe very place where his journey had begun on the Earth Plane.
The City of Vyke, which he had recreated much like the entire first heaven and onward up to the sixtieth.
Beyond that, countless clans and civilizations still fought to defend their homelands.
Elysia appeared on his lap in her full form. "Feeling some reminiscence?" she teased, already knowing what was truly on his mind.
"Yeah, right. Iâm just wondering how I should go about things."
Since arriving, he hadnât just recreated the heavens but had also gained updated information, all of which came flooding in the moment he focused on a topic.
He wanted to know exactly which Dimensions were invadingâspecifically, the sixth Dimension.
"Should I give them a good old annihilation... or let Aphrodite and Persephone handle it?" he mused aloud as Elysia shook her head.
"You should probably let someone else handle it. Once we sort out this little situation here... I think itâs time to update your verse again."
She then reminded him about the four or five blank dimensions still waiting for him.
"And besides, Aurora and Xeros have just met each other."
Ash smiled.
"Good, well, let me be a dutiful husband and father," he said as he stood.
At the moment, his women were... resting after some fun. It went without saying that if they wanted it, they would get it.
He knew that, just like Madison had felt, a few of his other women would be arriving soon. So, heâd given them some extra attention during his downtime from recreating this place.
Which meant he would be handling the situation in the higher Heavens on his own.