Siblings

Xia Lun and Aina stared in silence at the images within the water mirror. The mirror’s surface still rippled faintly, and the remnants of the reflections burned into their minds like searing brands.

The sheer amount of information contained within was overwhelming.

They never expected that peering into Mian’s dream would yield such a bombshell.

Especially at the end—that distant gaze cast by “Xia Lun” from across time and space, as though he had already noticed their presence.

“Who is he?”

Xia Lun’s voice broke the silence, carrying a dryness he himself hadn’t noticed.

“Didn’t the Goddess say? He’s the Chieftain of the Celestial clan.” Aina, nestled in Xia Lun’s arms, lifted a hand and tapped his forehead playfully, her tone like a teacher scolding a careless student. “Xia Lun, you don’t pay attention when it’s important.”

“I mean… his name,” Xia Lun said, looking at Aina with mild exasperation. Even in a moment like this, she found a way to tease him.

“Oh, you probably don’t know—back in the Epoch of Nothingness, no one had names. Everyone was referred to by their title.” Aina suddenly understood, leaning into his embrace. “Since he was the leader of the Celestial clan, he was simply ‘the Chieftain,’ and the Goddess was called ‘the Priestess.’ Other clan members addressed them by those titles too… After all, there were so few Celestials back then that names were unnecessary. Names only became a novelty during the Epoch of Chaos.”

“I… see?” Xia Lun was startled, gaining a fresh perspective on that distant era.

Even now, the Goddess had no name—because she was the Goddess, and she alone held that title, following the tradition of the Celestial clan.

“As for the Demon clan…” Aina’s voice was muffled against his chest, carrying a trace of laziness, “Some of their non-humanoid forms had names that were simply unique vibration frequencies, ones that couldn’t even be translated into sounds we can hear.”

She rubbed against Xia Lun’s chest like a kitten seeking comfort.

Xia Lun nodded. That didn’t seem much different from the current demonic beasts.

“But that ‘Chieftain’… does he have anything to do with me?” Xia Lun finally couldn’t hold back and voiced the question that weighed on him. The man who looked almost exactly like him lingered in his mind, refusing to fade.

“I don’t know,” Aina surprised him, shaking her head.

After killing the Goddess and seizing the world’s authority, Aina had gained fragments of the Goddess’s memories—only broken images, offering limited information.

What Aina knew was merely what the Goddess had allowed her to know. Some things, the Goddess had deliberately erased, lost beyond recovery, buried in the river of time.

“Still, what the Goddess had in mind is quite clear now,” Aina said, pulling back from his arms and instead pulling him into her own embrace. “Her ‘love’ for you was false, Xia Lun… She created you only as a replacement for another man. But I—I am different. I am the one who truly loves you.”

“Was I created by the Goddess?” Xia Lun murmured to himself.

He wasn’t surprised. Until now, his origins had always remained a mystery. The Servi couple had found him in the Elf Forest back then, with no parents in sight. His swaddling clothes bore no clues about his family.

That Xia Lun was created by the Goddess—he had never truly been shocked by the idea. Though he had never been overly concerned with his past, he had certainly taken notice. Yet even after becoming a famed hero, he had found no trace of his biological parents.

What he did find were plenty of impostors claiming to be his kin; after Aina verified their bloodlines, Xia Lun had chased them all out with a dark scowl.

In retrospect, Xia Lun had harbored vague guesses: either his parents had passed away, or… He knew he was special. He had never been ordinary. After all, no one else had ever received such powerful blessings from the Goddess.

“And what about you, Aina?”

Xia Lun’s gaze settled on his wife’s flawless face.

Since he had been modeled after the Chieftain, then Aina… with her striking resemblance to the Goddess—it was hard not to wonder if her background was equally extraordinary.

“I had biological parents,” Aina said, frowning as if reluctant to associate herself with the Goddess in any way.

“Then I must have had some too. Maybe the Goddess intervened in an embryo to create me,” Xia Lun reasoned. “Our situations must have been similar.”

Aina pursed her lips. Xia Lun’s speculation wasn’t wrong—it was quite plausible.

“But why would the Goddess create me?” Aina suddenly countered. “If she truly loved you, she wouldn’t have created me at all… I’d rather believe I just happen to look like her.”

“And Yisi?” Xia Lun looked down at his wife.

If Aina were just a coincidence, then Yisi couldn’t be explained away. A single coincidence might be chance, but two made it a pattern.

“Who knows what that woman was thinking? She’s dead anyway,” Aina said, shifting restlessly in irritation. Xia Lun wisely dropped the subject, tightening his arms to hold her closer.

Silence hung in the air for a while, broken only by their interwoven breaths.

Suddenly, a thought struck Aina, and a strange expression crept across her face.

“What’s wrong, Aina?” Xia Lun pinched her soft cheek.

“What if… Xia Lun, since we were both created by the Goddess… does that mean, in a way, we’re siblings?” Aina tilted her head up to meet his eyes, a cryptic glint in hers.

Xia Lun was taken aback.

Siblings? Him and Aina?

What kind of absurdity was that?

“N-no… that can’t be right. We’ve had children together…” Xia Lun’s voice stumbled, rare panic flickering across his features. “If the Goddess had known, she would have stopped us…”

“Relax, Xia Lun, I was joking,” Aina giggled, covering her mouth. “Don’t worry, there’s no issue. We have no blood connection. See? I’m a vampire, and you’re a human—there’s no way we’re real siblings.”

Xia Lun let out a sigh of relief.

“What I mean is, Xia Lun…” Aina licked her lips, leaning close to his ear and gently biting his earlobe. “Would you like me to call you… Brother from now on?”

Xia Lun’s breathing grew heavier.

The Demon King spread her crimson bat-like wings.