Reincarnation to the Past

Chapter 97

Lì's POV

"It's a long story!"

"I have nothing better to do right now..."

I didn't like the silence. Had I pushed her too far?? Persea was just staring at my face, frowning. I don't know what was going through her head, but just as I was about to tell her we could let it go, she sighed deeply and slid herself closer to me, placing a hand on my chest and pushing me onto my back. She wraps her hands around me, her face nestling into the curve of my neck and her left palm resting above my beating heart.

"Fine... So long long ago, I'm talking centuries, eons ago... before the dawn of time..."

I looked down at her and spoke, my voice laced with surprise and confusion. "Yeah, when you said it would be a long story, I wasn't expecting it to be that long." Persea looked up at me with her lips pressed in a thin line, her eyes squinting adorably, "No interruptions, please!" I had to bite back my smile at that comment.

"Anyhoo... Galaxies ago, before the world was created, there was a being who shall not be named. Ok, his name is Chaos—never seen him or heard from him, not even sure he actually exists. But that's how the story goes. He created the galaxies, the planets, and all that nonsense. And then created the first immortal beings, known as the primordials, to govern the various domains he created. One for the earth, one for the water, and one for the skies, day, night. You get the picture. Now two of these primordial, let's call them Earthy and Sky, fell in love and had a whole litter of kids, giving rise to the next generation of immortals, known as the titans. Then Sky started becoming unbearable and pissing Earthy off and testing her limits. Apparently, he didn't know how to take a hint. Finally, Earthy couldn't take it anymore, she snapped. She banded together with her kids and lopped off his head, sliced up his body to tenny-tiny pieces, and trapped him in the skies forever."

"Yikes, that just got dark... fast." I commented, to which she responded with a glare. "Sorry, please continue." My lips were stuck in a permanent smile and I'm not sure if it's because of her story-telling manner or the side-eye that is definitely growing on me.

She huffs but continues, "Ya, where was I? Ga—I mean Earthy—"

"Before that, is there a reason you can't tell me their real name??"

She props herself up and gives me a stare, to which I smile innocently, "Names have power. Saying the names of such beings can invoke their notice. They're very jobless and self-obsessed so they tend to notice when we use their names. Anyway, Earthy and the kids killed Sky and then Earthy went into a deep sleep—cause why not? Killing is oh-so tiring. And then the Titans started marrying each other. Two of the Titans, let's call them... umm... Let's call them Time and... umm... uhh... Lioness got together, got married, and proceeded to breed the next generation of immortals, called the gods—all small, plural. But see, Time was the one who cut up his father and before the actual cutting happened, Sky cursed Time, saying his children would do the same to him as he did to his father. And this prophecy scared Time and he was constantly worried that having children would lead him down his father's path. So every time Lioness popped a baby out, Time would swallow them whole. Five children went down his throat like that."

"My, what a big mouth he has... and stomach!" I couldn't help it; it just had to be said. Persea giggled at my comment before smacking me on the chest, "No interruptions. So, five kids went down the hatch. They were alive and continued to grow, and with every addition that came, they'd shrink their size to accommodate the next."

"And he didn't' have indigestion?" I gaped. I couldn't help it. This story was so ridiculous that required constant commentary. It was that bizarre. I half expected Persea to be making it up as she went. Persea huffed in exaggeration and stared at me expectantly, "Do you want to hear the story???" When I nodded, she followed up by saying, "Then shush! Later, Ra—Lioness got fed up with losing her children, and the next time she was with a child, she managed to get Time to swallow a rock instead of the son."

My eyes widened, "And he couldn't tell it was a rock??!" I think by this point, she's gotten fed up with telling me to shush because she just answered my question with a shrug. "He swallowed five kids; at this point, he just wanted his wife to stop bringing him more. He didn't even look at it; he just sent it down the hatch. Anyhoo, Lioness then snuck the baby—"

Persea paused so I looked down to see her deep in thought, her brows scrunched together, all before she snapped her fingers and spoke, "Jerkface! Let's just call him Jerkface. She took Jerkface to a mountain and some nature spirits took care of him. Years later, Jerky stormed Time's abode, freed his siblings, and killed his father. Immortals don't die per se; they just keep, um, respawning. But they..."

"How?" I interrupted.

"How what??"

"How did--Jerkface free his siblings??" I clarified.

"Ohh... Well, Jerky infiltrated the castle where Time resided, posing as a cupbearer... Lioness' suggestion. Jerky can't think up a good plan to save his life." Her snort after that statement made me smile. If it wasn't obvious from the assigned nickname, it was pretty clear now that she hated whoever this 'jerkface' was. "He mixed up a concoction of nectar and mustard and fed it to Time; the latter just puked the kids right out." She snickered at the image she was painting while I stared at her in a mixture of disgust and disbelief.

"Eww..." I commented, the corners of my eyes and mouth crinkling in disgust.

She shrugged. "Trust me, you can't make this shit up. I wouldn't even have a talent for that."

"Oh, I'm sure our kids will love your storytelling." My eyes bulged as I realized what I had just said. Shit!!! Kids?? OUR kids??? I did not just say that. I cautiously looked at Persea to see her cheeks tinted pink, the blush extending all the way to her ears and the back of her neck. Instead of addressing my slip, she cleared her throat and continued with the story.

" With his siblings freed, they helped each other and together managed to trap Time the same way he did Sky. There were three boys and three girls in total. Jerky formed a council with them and divided the earthly domains—the air, water, and underworld—among his two brothers. He chose the sky. The three brothers were called the big three, and are the strongest. The six siblings are called the original six. They married, had affairs, had a bunch of kids, and formed the Olympian Council, which was comprised of four of the original six and eight minor gods or goddesses. These gods have a divine form or godly aura—that's what you know as qi. Usually, they should have been able to release and recall it at will but for some reason, they are not even aware that they are subconsciously releasing it or that humans are absorbing it."

"And the gods don't mind?" If she weren't lying on me, I would have sat up in shock at this bit of information. She had mentioned before that the qi originated from certain powerful beings but I never suspected they were gods.

"They don't know. It's not like humans are absorbing such vast quantities of qi. Although humans can absorb the divine aura of gods, what they absorb is actually diluted qi that is mixed with impurities. The majority of what you absorb is impurities that are removed from the body through cultivation and breakthrough. In reality, a single human wouldn't even be absorbing 1/1000th of the godly aura at a fixed point in time. It also helps that this aura replenishes on its own. Whatever is spent is automatically replaced."

"But if we both are absorbing the same qi and we just know it by different names, how could you absorb the amount you have? That too at your age???" I asked confusedly, my mind racing.

"I'll come to that... Anyhoo, the gods had one major flaw. They could never keep it in their pants. They loved to run around among mortals, fall in 'love' (her face scrunched up adorably in disgust as she used her hands to create air quotes), and more often than not, they'd force themselves on the human and then disappear, leaving the woman with a child. Being half-human and half-gods, these children were called demigods and inherited their parent's powers—at varying rates that too, some more, some less."

Persea propped herself upwards using her hands and looked down at me, staring me straight in the eyes with uncertainty and fear swimming within her sea-green orbes, before taking a deep breath and letting out the next bombshell. "I'm the demigod child of Pose—the middle big three, the seas' ruler."