"That manipulative bastard Heaven’s Will," Alm spat dryly.
Isla, the reincarnation of the creator of the tattoos, had been born as their childhood friend. Coincidences like this are always obvious interferences from the Heaven’s Will. This meant that from the moment they reincarnated from Earth, they were already being manipulated.
Bruno, however, was skeptical and questioned the dwarf: "But... how could she have done that? She couldn’t retain memories from another life!"
The will of the God of the Forge placed his hand on his chin, thoughtful. "Don’t you remember anything strange? Anything out of the ordinary before she died? For her to have done this, surely something happened at some point…"
Alm and Bruno sighed. Some memories of the time they spent happily with her were a curse that always haunted them. But there were other memories they forced themselves to forget.
"Something strange…" Alm reflected, and his gaze trembled. "There was a moment; right after we got married and had our first night together. The next morning, she didn’t wake up…"
Bruno remembered that almost forgotten fact and spoke quickly: "We desperately took her to the doctor, but he said, after examining her, that it was our fault. We were cultivators, and she was a mortal. When we united, our abnormal Yang as cultivators invaded her, causing that."
At that time, they were very worried about her health, but the doctor assured them she would be fine after taking several expensive pills. Isla only woke up a week later.
Now, recalling that moment, Alm and Bruno fell silent, deep in thought. When Isla finally woke up, she was different from usual. She looked at them in an oddly deep way...
"Shit..." Bruno spat. They had always avoided remembering that, but now, analyzing it calmly, there was no doubt. "She really... yeah, that look wasn’t from a mortal. It was the gaze of an ancient figure who had lived a long time. Did she regain her memories? How is that possible?"
The dwarf listened to everything and asked for some details. After reflecting, he concluded: "You’ve always had a divine soul. When you united, and you were careless with your Yang, her technique, engraved in her soul, must have reacted. The power of a divine soul was what she was seeking all along, and she must have siphoned a bit from you, awakening her memories. Didn’t you feel anything during that?"
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Alm and Bruno sighed... Isla was as intense as Ruri. Due to their lack of experience, the nights with Isla always left him exhausted to the limit; they thought the tiredness was normal. They had just reincarnated from Earth, without knowing anything, and the exhaustion back then was probably the depletion of their divine souls.
"After that day, we promised her we would be careful... but she quickly retorted, furious, saying she wouldn’t accept being spared or treated as inferior. She insisted she could handle everything; I was ignorant, and after another night, she was actually fine. So, we just ignored it and obeyed."
Now it all made sense; they had become high-grade fertilizer for her. Every night, she would drain a part of their souls.
The dwarf asked, "At some point, she must have said something or given hints about everything, or about her Dao."
Alm and Bruno thought deeply, unlocking all the memories from that time, little by little.
Isla obviously knew about their divine soul and, during their interactions, subtly asked questions that left them confused back then. Alm used many ideas and knowledge from Earth to make their lives easier, believing they were in a generic isekai, like the ones he had read so much about on Earth.
In the end, his knowledge was somewhat useful. But Isla quietly gathered information from him, immediately realizing he was a different kind of missionary from the others.
After finding nothing too relevant, Alm and Bruno sighed. There was an extremely painful memory, something as intense as the moment of her death, that they never wanted to relive, but had to.
It was on a peaceful day, a year after their marriage. Young Alm was experiencing unique things with Isla, despite the exhaustion. Until Isla called him to see a stunning sunset.
At a certain moment, she murmured calmly, without stopping: "As someone experiences death, they become withered and disheveled, like an old, dry tree. Dying is the same as turning into rotten wood, having lost all life."
"But even dead wood can sprout new shoots. However, while dead wood might summon new growth, an old tree is still an old tree. A new branch and lush leaves might bring a bit of green to the dead wood, but they could never restore the tree to the true vibrant vitality of a newly born sapling.
"And it was even more impossible for that dead wood to grow into a mighty new tree. Complete rebirth is something that violates the rules of the heavenly laws, just like an old man on the brink of death rejuvenating and being restored to his youth. That, naturally, was simply impossible.
"But... if the new shoot that grew from a piece of dead wood could absorb all the nourishment from that old tree and then take root in the soil; then it could actually grow and become a mighty tree that reached the heavens. Destroying everything to nothing and then rising again – that was the perfect union of Yin and Yang."
It was a long and philosophical speech that, obviously, Alm just listened to without understanding anything at all. He didn’t even get confused because it seemed like she was speaking in another language.
Only one thing stood out in those words to young Alm; his eyes trembled, and he quickly spoke:
"Life, death? Are you saying this because you can’t cultivate? Don’t worry, when you start aging, I’ll get Almin to find many pills to keep you looking young. His wife used a lot of those; you won’t wither. We’ll be happy until the last day of your life."
Isla saw Alm’s innocent and genuinely concerned expression and chuckled lightly. To her, it was like dealing with a child who hadn’t seen anything of the world yet. After a few seconds, she looked deep into his eyes and asked:
"Do you really love me?"
At the time, Alm was stunned and tried in every possible way to convince her that he did, which made her laugh and enjoy herself quite a bit.
But... looking back on those memories now, Alm and Bruno understood why she asked. They liked her a lot, but it didn’t compare to what they feel for Ruri now.
Back then, they didn’t want to get married and didn’t truly love Isla. They were deeply frustrated when they discovered they would never be able to cultivate properly, having been born in a mediocre place with no support.
After nearly dying, they gave up on cultivating. Their will was as weak as anyone who came from Earth. That was a trauma for them, so they returned to their village and married their childhood friend who had always loved and waited for them.
When they proposed to her, the only thing on their minds was: Isla, being mortal, would live less than a hundred years. They could easily live twice that. They would enjoy life with a woman for the first time and then have the other half of their lives to live freely.
Alm and Bruno scoffed, recalling those shameful thoughts. They definitely took advantage of her. But... in that same memory, after Isla laughed and had her fun, she turned to him and spoke gently:
"You don’t need to worry about my beauty and health..." Remembering her gaze, Alm and Bruno were certain: she knew she would die soon due to the queen’s laws.
"You won’t be alone and will remember me until the day you die. After all, a child is forever. He or she will remind you that I existed, and you will never forget me."
She said this with a smile, placing her hand on her belly. That was when they discovered her pregnancy. It was the happiest and, at the same time, the second most painful moment of their lives. That’s why they tried their best to avoid remembering these memories.
"That... yeah, remember when we defeated the hero and were left alone in the universe?" Bruno said painfully to Alm. "At some point, we were still one, but it felt like all the evil in us completely reversed. That was so strange... it was definitely the beginning of our soul splitting. After we found out about the queen, everything reversed again; we always had two personalities, but it wasn’t literal yet." (Chapter 1/2)
The dwarf heard that and added: "Her method was still a developing theory. She probably absorbed your divine souls to gain more power and then engraved everything onto your souls before dying. As the years passed and your cultivation advanced, it developed further..."
"Yeah, before we came to the queen’s universe, we were probably so close to splitting completely that the Heaven’s Will got tired of waiting and gave a subtle push to finish it." Alm added coldly.
It wasn’t the Heaven’s Will that split them; it was her. The Heaven’s Will just sped up the process, which would have taken longer. Then, it gave her technique to them; the two accepted it as if it was the most natural thing to do.
Their power fit perfectly with it. It was so easy to use the tattoos and cultivate with them that it seemed tailor-made for them... because it actually was. Their souls had been split and shaped by that technique from the start.