Chapter 884: 884
His arrival now, while entirely expected, was something they deeply appreciated. It was a tangible victory, their family pantheon had just grown remarkably stronger, adding a vital, foundational pillar to their collective power.
Roth carefully cradled the small, fragile bundle in his arms. He stared down at the child’s face, tracing the quiet, unawakened path of her bloodline with his divine sight.
Without breaking his gaze from the infant, Roth glanced up slightly to meet the eyes of Ursula and Ikem.
"May I offer my blessing to the child?" he asked, his cold voice dropping to a soft, expectant tone.
Ikem stepped forward, closing the distance until he stood right beside Roth. A deep, earnest sincerity softened the young father’s features. "Your ascension was timely with her birth. It would please myself and my wife if you blessed her and the honor of naming our daughter."
Roth nodded but offered no verbal reply. His expression remained an unreadable mask of focus as he slowly raised a single, long hand. Bringing his pointed, dark fingernail down to the center of the sleeping child’s forehead, he applied a sharp, precise pressure. He pricked a tiny hole in her soft skin.
Immediately, a bead of crimson fluid began to well up and leak from the small wound.
The surrounding gods instinctively stiffened, a collective ripple of shock passing through the room. They were taken aback not just by Roth’s sudden, seemingly harsh action, but by the stark color of the girl’s blood. She was bleeding the exact, deep red color of a mortal. Yet, as the Origin Gods narrowed their eyes, a closer look revealed something hidden deeper within the fluid, microscopic, glittering sparks of pure gold swirling amidst the crimson.
The sharp prick instantly jolted the child awake, and she began to cry out in distress.
Her wails, however, were short-lived. The moment the bead of blood fully formed, a tiny, vibrant, blood-red flame ignited from the prick on her forehead. The flame didn’t burn or consume, instead, it behaved like a living liquid, expanding rapidly and washing over her entire body in a warm, protective wave of divine energy.
A look of absolute comfort spread across the child’s face as the blood-red flame enveloped her. Her cries ceased instantly, and she instinctively snuggled closer against Roth’s chest, completely at peace within the warmth of his presence.
Roth, meanwhile, did not smile from the gestre. Instead, a deep, contemplative frown marred his features. He slowly looked up, his crimson gaze cutting across the room to lock onto Ikenga and Crepuscular who, coincidentally, were already staring directly back at him.
A look of understanding dawned on Ikenga’s face, and in turn, he gave Roth a deeply appreciative nod. Beside him, Crepuscular’s eyes flashed with a brilliant, momentary gold as he, too, fully grasped what was happening.
"That is quite the gift you have gained, child," Crepuscular said, his deep voice echoing with genuine respect as he looked between Roth and the resting infant.
Roth, however, was far from pleased by the compliment. Hearing Crepuscular words, his frown deepened. He slowly looked away from the child and stared down at his own pale palm, watching the residual divine sparks dance across his skin.
"Am I so weak?" Roth murmured quietly to himself, his voice a barely audible whisper against the silence of the room. He had ascended to godhood to master the chaotic threads of nature, yet his very first act as a deity was a stark reminder of just how much farther those threads could stretch beyond his control.
His words, though whispered, sliced through the silence of the room. Every god present caught the murmur perfectly.
"On the contrary, son," Ikenga’s said stepping forward. "You just have a superficial understanding of the Origin source."
Roth’s brow furrowed tightly at how Ikenga referred to him. Son. It was a title that felt like a reminder, that the being in front of him was the father to his little brother. He remained silent, listening, his grip on the child steady but tense.
Ikenga shifted his gaze down to his newborn granddaughter, his eyes softening " You tried retracing her bloodline back to its source. But she does not have just one. She has two distinct sources, one from myself, which she inherited through Ikem’s blood, and the other from Crepuscular, which she inherited through Ursula."
He gestured slightly to the blood-red flame still gently warming the infant’s skin.
"You tried to refine her bloodline within your Crimson Spark, attempting to forcibly reawaken the innate gift she wasn’t able to ignite on her own. If this were any common mortal being or even a standard godling, your method would have worked flawlessly. You would have carved a clean path straight to the root."
Ikenga looked back up, his eyes locking directly onto Roth’s crimson gaze.
"But you felt it, didn’t you? The moment you tried to bypass her genetic lock, you weren’t met with a single, linear thread. Instead, you were met with two absolute, unyielding sources actively coexisting within her small frame. They didn’t blend, they stood side-by-side, a paradox your domain couldn’t simply overwrite."
Roth looked down at the child, his voice dropping into a hard, defensive tone. "My divinity should have gotten past that. I am the God of the Crimson Spark, the architecture of lineage is my domain."
"But it did not," Ikenga said firmly, his voice cutting through Roth’s pride. "The reason being, you tried to touch upon a higher source. An Origin source. It is one of the greatest mysteries of the cosmos, one that for eons has not been fully understood by anyone, or any civilization."
Seeing the deep furrow in Roth’s brow, Ikenga’s tone softened slightly, offering a rare piece of validation. "But you did not fail, child. Through your actions, our sources which previously could barely reach the girl due to her distance from us now have a direct channel to get through. You bridged the gap."
Ikenga then turned his head, his gaze meeting Crepuscular’s solemn eyes.
"Only, there is a catch. She can only bear a gift from one source. Not both. Any more... and we risk the death of the child."
The moment the word death left Ikenga’s lips, a cold shockwave rippled through the room. The surrounding gods gasped, the joyful atmosphere instantly evaporating. Ursula and Ikem stiffened, absolute terror flaring in their eyes as they stared at their sleeping, fragile daughter wrapped in Roth’s blood-red flame.
"This was your first time using and applying your divinity. You should count it as your luck," Ikenga said, his tone serious.
Nearby, Ikem and Maul glanced at each other, a silent look of mutual recognition passing between the brothers. They knew that exact look on their father’s face. It was the expression he always wore right before he was about to deliver a severe lecture and Ikenga was doing exactly that with the newly ascended Roth.
"Such a wild usage of your gift," Ikenga continued, stepping closer, his imposing presence bearing down on the younger god. "You completely lost the element of control, which is the single most important factor when it comes to wielding divinity."
Roth’s jaw tightened, but he remained silent, holding the warm bundle of the child as the Origin god dissected his performance.
"Without control, one risks having their divinity perform beyond its intended purpose, and worse, risks tainting one’s faith. If the girl in your arms right now were a common mortal, what your gift just did would have forcibly reawakened every single genetic lock in her bloodline simultaneously."
Ikenga pointed a massive finger toward the tiny girl.
"Which, likely, would succeed in giving her power. But it quickly becomes a volatile race of luck for her. A race where one can only pray she awakens a single, overwhelmingly strong innate gift that can suppress all the other competing bloodlines until that open channel finally closes"
"...or the latter," Ikenga continued, his voice dropping to a more heavy tone, "which is that no strong gift awakens. The channels are flooded, overwhelming the body, and the end result is a mere pool of blood and melted flesh."
Gesturing directly at the tiny girl, Ikenga shook his head. "You could have carefully guided your gift to a single source. But due to your lack of control, two absolute sources were jolted awake simultaneously. If Crepuscular and I were without the will to suppress them, if we had simply let go and allowed our source energies to flood that open channel..."
"Your little niece would have become quite a grotesque sight," Ikenga said, letting out a sudden laugh that cracked the heavy tension in the room.
The dark humor did nothing to soothe the terrified mother. Ursula instantly moved, lunging forward with an instinctual, protective fury to snatch her daughter away from both Roth and Ikenga, cradling the infant tightly against her chest.
Hearing the sharp intake of breath from his family, Ikenga looked at his son and daughter-in-law, his laughter fading into a reassuring smile. "Just a little fun, I won’t hurt the little one."
