"A what?" I stared at her in disbelief.
"A child. Lena's sibling, you know?" Anathasia leaned back against the couch. "We can raise one just fine… and we're financially stable too."
She suddenly paused, tapping her cheek as her gaze drifted toward the desk.
"In fact… we might even be overqualified."
I gently placed the papers beside me before leaning back against the couch, my eyes drifting up to the ceiling.
"If you say you're ready," I said, turning toward her, "then I don't have a problem with it. I was just a little concerned about you, that's all."
"But I think you could handle it just fine."
"It will be hard, I'm sure…" she hesitated before finally meeting my eyes. "But I can handle it."
Seeing her like this, I couldn't help but smile.
Without thinking much about it, I reached out and gently patted her head.
"Of course… you're not the same person you were back then, after all."
That was what I said.
But…
How do Outer Gods even have children in the first place?
That part, I honestly had no idea.
After the day ended, Anathasia and I returned home. The moment we stepped inside, two familiar voices drifted from the living room.
One of them was unmistakably Carthanalenia.
But the other—
"…this is…" the person muttered just as we entered the room.
"Roselia?" Anathasia raised an eyebrow, her eyes narrowing slightly. "What are you doing here?"
Roselia immediately looked up from the chess set. Lena turned toward us as well, still in her child form.
"Ah, Mom. Dad. Welcome home."
"Ah, yes… Miss Veridielle and Mr. Abe." Roselia stood up at once, lowering her head slightly before offering us a polite smile.
"I don't mean to intrude…" her eyes flicked down toward the chessboard before returning to Lena.
"But your child here is… or rather, Carthanalenia…"
A brief pause followed.
"How is she this good??"
Almost instantly, both Anathasia and I wore the same dry expression.
Then Anathasia walked over to Roselia and gently patted her shoulder.
"It's okay… I know how it feels."
Roselia froze.
Then her eyes widened.
"So she defeated you as well???"
Anathasia nodded before pulling back her hand, her gaze drifting toward Lena, who was still quietly arranging the chess pieces on the board.
"The only ones she hasn't defeated yet are Rania," she said, gesturing toward me, "and Kyle."
Roselia fell completely silent.
All three of them did, in fact.
"…okay, but why exactly is Roselia here?" I asked, walking over to Lena before gently patting her hair.
Roselia immediately snapped out of it and straightened up on the couch, clearing her throat.
"Of course." She adjusted her posture, placing both hands neatly on her lap. "Regarding an event within one of the Collective Spheres Miss Veridielle recycled recently."
"You mean four years ago?" Anathasia chimed in, taking a seat beside Lena while I settled down on the other end of the couch.
Roselia nodded.
"Those newly formed structures… may or may not have produced quite a few anomalies, as Kagariel and Rania have put it."
"But none have given us much concern. None possess the properties necessary to match Demiurges, though their potential may warrant observation."
She paused before gently shaking her head.
"However, knowing Miss Veridielle… I suppose there should be little to worry about." She flashed us a quick smile. "Yes?"
A brief silence followed.
Then Anathasia simply crossed her legs and leaned back.
"Well, there isn't much room for concern. Any entity attempting to transcend those structures is bound for Non-representation in the first place."
She paused briefly before snapping her fingers.
The room around us instantly dissolved into an endless void.
Between us and Roselia, structures began to manifest.
Spherical constructs appeared, containing smaller, innumerable spheres within them, which in turn held even tinier ones nested inside. It was difficult to see clearly, but they were small.
Almost like atoms.
"If anything even tries to get out of one of the smaller spheres inside this one…"
She zoomed closer into one of the larger spheres, then into a smaller one nested within it.
A faint speck of light appeared inside, seemingly rushing toward the edge, but never quite reaching it.
"Well, that's assuming they can even find the edge in the first place."
Anathasia shrugged.
"Each one of these things is expanding endlessly from within."
Then she leaned forward slightly, a small smile forming on her lips.
"And if something somehow managed to bypass that principle, which is absolute. Then it would have to be something beyond Demiurges."
"But Miss Veridielle," Roselia cut in, reaching out and swiping at another angle of the holographic structures. "The only entities above… well, not above. But outside Demiurges are…"
"Outer Gods," Anathasia finished. "Us. Continuity, Finality, Equilibrium, Causality, and Stillness."
"And to become an Outer God, you either need to be a Fragment Bearer… or come into existence through the resonance of two Fragments."
She glanced down at Lena and gently ruffled her hair.
"Like our daughter here."
She paused briefly before glancing at me, then looked back at Roselia with a faint smile.
"And the second child we're expecting."
Roselia smiled back, leaning against the couch as she clasped her hands together.
"How… joyous. Congratulations, Miss Veridielle."
Then she suddenly froze.
Her smile stiffened as she turned to look at me, then slowly back at Anathasia.
"Hold on…" her smile twitched slightly. "A second child… Carthanalenia is the first… and she is already at the same level as Rania's Equilibrium. And she was born from Continuity and Stillness."
I stayed silent, simply holding Lena close as she nuzzled against me. Anathasia, on the other hand, continued smiling calmly while Roselia's eyes slowly widened.
"Miss Veridielle… Fragments can only resonate once—"
"She isn't born from resonance," Anathasia gently cut her off. "Similarly to how humans do it, if you understand what I mean."
Roselia's body visibly stiffened. Her arms slowly rose near her chest as she instinctively leaned back.
"Humans… you mean… you and Mr. Abe have—"
"We're married. Isn't it normal?" Anathasia interrupted again with a scoff.
Roselia buried her face in her hands, letting out a shaky laugh.
"I was not even aware Outer Gods could… procreate in such a manner…"
She slowly lifted her face from her hands.
"Miss Veridielle… how is that even possible…?"
"I'm embodying a human, why not?" Anathasia replied casually. "Is human physiology really that difficult to embody?"
She waved her hand dismissively.
"That said, our second child isn't actually here yet. More like… planned."
At those words, Roselia's shoulders immediately slumped in relief. She leaned back against the couch, resting the back of her hand against her forehead.
"Oh, goodness… I genuinely thought—"
"But they will be here in the future," Anathasia added.
Roselia froze again.
"But they won't exactly be an Outer God… something more, perhaps."
For the third time, Roselia went completely stiff.
"What does that mean…?"
"It means—"
Anathasia suddenly leaned against my shoulder, smiling brightly.
"—they'll be a mix of Plenitude and Stillness~"
—
The silence that followed after Roselia walked out was deafening.
Anathasia, however, merely tilted her head.
"Is it really that big of a deal?"
"Mom…" Lena replied dryly.
She slid down from my lap as her hair lengthened and her body shifted, gradually taking on her adult form. Clothes formed around her as her childlike appearance faded away.
"You just said my little sibling is going to be someone who isn't even part of our current structure…"
She let out a long sigh, shaking her head as she walked over to the other couch before sitting down.
Meanwhile, the endless void from earlier slowly faded away as our living room returned.
"I was wondering as well," I chimed in, gently raking my fingers through Anathasia's hair while she continued leaning against me. Her long white hair slipped between my fingers in thin, silky strands.
She shifted slightly against me, making herself more comfortable.
"Hm?"
"About our second child," I continued. "If they're not going to be an Outer God… then what would that make them?"
For a moment, Anathasia went silent. Then she reached for my free hand and, for some reason, began nibbling lightly on my fingers.
"Well… think about it like this," she said.
Lena, who was sitting on the other couch, leaned forward slightly as well.
"Stillness is the foundation… and my Plenitude is the source, yes?"
I nodded, continuing to comb through her hair.
"The combination of those two is what made existence possible in the first place. And since our second child will carry both of those traits within them—"
She nuzzled against my hand before glancing up at me.
"—that would make them something closer to another source… one capable of creating a different kind of existence."