"Aunt Lily, are you planning to take Daddy away?" asked Daisy.

  Rose and I spat our food at the sudden remark. What’s Daisy thinking by asking that out of the blue? She's making things awkward between us.

  "Daisy! What are you asking?! Don't be rude to Aunt Lily," shouted Rose as she knocked her head.

  "I was just curious, Mommy. Lily likes Daddy, right? She's beautiful and Daddy likes beautiful women. I’m just worried she might take Daddy away,” she retaliated.

  “I’m not going to take your dad away, Daisy. You don’t have to worry about that,” said Lily as she petted Daisy’s head.

  “Really? Even if Daddy jumps on you, are you going to push him away?” she asked.

  It was at this point that I walked up to Daisy, placed both of my fist against the side of her head, and pushed them together tightly. Daisy started screaming in pain and asked for forgiveness.

  “You were begging to be walloped, weren’t you? You were being disrespectful to your father by saying that he’s gonna cheat,” I smacked the top of her head, which left a bump.

  “Daisy, what you said was not something nice. Apologise to both aunt Lily and your father,” warned Rose.

  “Sorry, Aunt Lily and Daddy,” answered Daisy as she pouted.

  “Goodness, what made you ask these kinds of questions? Have a little faith in your father. He won’t abandon us, am I right, Zen?” she glared at me.

  “What are you glaring at me for? I literally didn’t even do anything wrong. If anyone is at fault for making her like this, it should be you for telling her that it’s fine for me to marry Lily and she should be happy about it,” I frowned at her.

  “W… what? I never told her this. Never. Who did you hear it from?” she sounded genuinely surprised.

  “Don’t play dumb. She told me about what you spoke to her before, just today. Didn’t you, Daisy?” I turned to look at her.

  “What are you talking about, Daddy?” it was her turn to look confused.

  “Didn’t we talk about this earlier today when I carried you on my shoulders before we had your evening snacks?” I asked her.

  “We didn’t talk about this. We just went for a walk when you said you were tired and wanted to sit. That was why we sat down for some snacks,” she replied.

  “W… what? Are you certain? Was that the only thing that happened today?” I clarified with her.

  She nodded her head with an “Em”. Rose and Lily turned to look at each other with concern. They must be worried that I’m losing it. As though my curse was not bad enough, now I’m even hallucinating. Great, is this going to be the end of me? Dying due to some unknown cause?

  “Zen, you told me you were fine this afternoon. Why didn’t you tell me you had this?” asked Lily.

  “Are you saying that this is because of you resurrecting me? One of the side effects?” I replied her with a question.

  “I… don’t know, Zen. There had never been anyone else,” she answered.

  “What do you mean by that?” I questioned her.

  “Alright, enough questions. You need some rest, Zen. Let’s finish up so we can get back to our room,” said Rose.

  “I’m fine. No reason to rush our meal. I'm just fed up that Moi might be messing with my head,” I blurted out.

  “Huh? You too?” asked Rose with genuine surprise.

  “Um, we’ll talk later about this,” I told her.

  “Moi is my best friend! She visits me every night to play with me,” smiled Daisy.

  “W… what?!” Rose and I shouted at the same time.

  “Umm… sorry, but who is Moi exactly?” asked Lily.

  I turned towards Rose, and she too was struggling to figure out a way to explain. How do we even begin to explain something that we don’t even understand?

  “She’s… a little girl that we met during our journey back from the City of Lilies Dahlee. We— still don’t know who or what she really is, honestly speaking,” I shrugged.

  “In my dream, she’s a beautiful lady that brings me on all sorts of adventures,” said Daisy with a cheerful tone.

  “Daisy, sweetie, Mommy is gonna ask you more about her later, alright?” she asked her.

  “Sorry to pull you in on our family issues, Lily. We should have spent more time talking about you instead,” I told Lily.

  “Oh, it’s alright. When the both of you told me that everything was going great, I assumed things were fine. But as it turns out, things were worse than I thought,” she chuckled.

  “Oh no, things are relatively great. Really, these were things we literally just knew moments ago, which we’ll need to sort out later. You don’t need to worry about it, Lily,” Rose spoke with an awkward smile.

  “Then I guess I shouldn't take more of your time then. I should take my leave now. It was fun meeting the both of you again. I hope it won’t take another five years for our next meet-up. I promise to visit you more often when I visit the West,” said Lily as she stood up.

  “Oh, you’re leaving already? See you soon,” waved Rose.

  “I doubt it’ll be soon as I have my trainings to get to. It was a pleasure to see you three once again. Fare thee well, you three,” waved Lily as she headed out the tavern’s main door.

  “Bai bai~” waved Daisy in response.

  “She doesn’t know that we’ll be travelling together, does she?” I asked Rose after she left the premises.

  “I guess she will know sooner or later,” she chuckled.

  ***

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  We were back in our room now. What a difficult talk we had to convince Daisy that she will be under Peter's care until we figure out what is causing the monster attacks on the city. It was certainly heartbreaking seeing her cry and hug Rose, refusing to let her go. A lot of explaining and convincing were needed until she eventually gave in. Her mood was certainly sour after the talk that we decided not to ask her about Moi and leave it for some other time instead. I hate leaving her alone, but Rose insisted on coming along on the investigation. Her sixth sense was telling her to follow me along and I didn’t bother persuading her otherwise as she was having none of it. I was not planning to talk her out of it as I felt that I needed her help. Whoever is controlling these monsters is definitely a powerful being, capable of attacking both East and West at the same time, that is certainly no easy feat.

  “I guess you were wrong about Lily, Rose,” I broke the silence when we were alone in our room.

  “Huh? In what sense?” she asked in confusion.

  “You said she wouldn’t find someone else when I’m still around, but she told me she had a partner now,” I answered.

  “P... partner? Are you sure? She never said a thing about it when we spoke,” she frowned.

  “Well, that’s what she told me,” I sighed.

  “Run me through what happened. I need more context here,” she scratched her head.

  “Ehhh, nah… I’ve already told Peter, and I don’t wish to tell it again. It was a painful experience for me,” I sighed.

  “Zen, Onii-chan~ Tell me about it, and I’ll do the thing that we talked about. It’s strange that Lily would hurt you in any shape or form. I wish to know what happened,” said Rose.

  “Y… you sure? You’re not just saying that to get my hopes up, are you?” I asked in eagerness.

  “Yes, so spill it already. I’m dying with anticipation here,” she nagged.

  I told her what happened after she had beaten me in the tournament, to our interactions thereafter. Her words still stung my heart when her sudden outburst told me to stop following her. Or perhaps when she told me that she had a partner of her own. Either way, I really don’t wish to tell the story again if I can help it.

  “No wonder she felt like she was down in the dumps during our fight. So it was because of you,” she squinted.

  “A… are you saying it was my fault? What did I even do wrong?” I asked with a sad tone.

  “Zen… you need to remember. Lily loves you, probably as much as I do. While I get to indulge in your love, she does have that luxury since you refused to accept her. The more time you spend with her, the more she longs to be with you. I know you are horrible at detecting behaviours, but just try not to forget that. Lily is just trying to push you away so as to not get hurt again,” she sighed.

  “So… it was a lie that she has a partner?” I clarified.

  “Does it even matter? You don’t want to marry her either way, so wouldn’t it be better if she actually has a partner of her own? Now, get on the bed and strip. I don’t want to end up hurting my knees,” she shooed me.

  “Yes, ma’am,” I obliged as I hopped on the bed like an eager puppy.

  ***

  “The things you make your wife do for your pleasure,” spoke Kirin as he shook his head.

  It was the familiar grassy land where Kirin and Byakko resided to meet me in my dream world. And as usual, Byakko was sitting on his favourite spot atop a flat rock.

  “Hey, I didn’t force her or anything. She offered to do it in the first place,” I retaliated.

  “You could have rejected her offer,” answered Byakko.

  “Why should I? It feels special when she does it. And it’s not like she does it often anyway,” I shrugged.

  “What a selfish host to think of your own pleasure over your own wife,” squinted Kirin.

  “Did you two summoned me just to judge me? To torment me?” I folded my arms together and frowned at both of them.

  “No. We are here to warn you about the dangers ahead. Your previous endeavours had you angering a Cosmic Being. We do not know which, but it is certainly one of the old ones. Certainly not a relatively new God that just started out,” warned Kirin.

  “Old ones? New Gods? You never told me that they were young or old Gods before. Do they procreate and give birth to new Gods or something?” I asked with curiosity.

  “Hmm… let’s just say that Gods are created from beliefs, emotions, or faith. When there are many beings that share the same values or emotions, it gives birth to new Gods. The old ones are those that had already existed for centuries due to common emotions or beliefs,” Byakko explained.

  “Do you know their identities? How many Cosmic Beings are there out there in total? The Goddess of Divinity? The Imperatrix of Mortal? Are these actually real Cosmic entities?” I asked them.

  “We… can never be certain that these beings exist as we were never allowed to enter the Ethereal. All we feel is their emotions of the Gods overflowing from the Ethereal or the sign of birth of a new God. That is all we are allowed to know, sadly,” sighed Kirin.

  “So, we don’t even know which one I angered. Great. But why though? Is it because I angered Son and their flock? That’s the only thing I can think of. I don’t believe that the Imperatrix of Mortal, who is supposed to be the God for humans, would be angered when I didn’t even harm them. And I’ll be extremely disappointed if she’s really helping them,” I recalled what happened previously.

  “We do not have the answer for you. All we can say is that you need to be careful on your next adventure. You do not want to anger another Cosmic Being,” warned Kirin.

  “Quite the party you have here,” spoke a voice behind me.

  I quickly turned around and was genuinely surprised by who it was. Should I really be surprised when she had been appearing in my dreams twice now? But… this is supposedly a secret meeting between my two legendary items and the Celestial Beings that reside in it. How can she be here?

  “M… Moi? What are you doing here? And how?!” I asked her.

  “Well, I heard there was a party so I thought I’ll stop by,” she chuckled as she glanced at Kirin and Byakko. She was no longer carrying her teddy around but maybe only in dreams.

  “Moi… I don’t want to sound rude or anything, but leave Daisy alone. This is the only warning that I’m giving you. She has done nothing to you,” I pointed at her.

  Moi was intrigued by me and stared at me with a smile. She walked towards Byakko, who appears to be afraid of her. What’s going on? A Celestial Being afraid of a little girl? For real?

  “Do you mind if I sit on you? You seem to have nice, soft fur that looks rather comfortable to sit on,” she asked him while seemingly eager to leap on him.

  “Uhh… be my guest?” Byakko submitted to her.

  Kirin too was speechless, as he seemed to be afraid of her as well. Two celestial beings afraid of her? Who the hell is she?

  “Moi,” I asked again.

  “You never knew, did you? Zen Hawthorn?” she asked as she rested herself on Byakko’s body but eventually lay flat on him as though she wanted to make a snow angel.

  “What about exactly?” I asked back.

  “The reason why I appeared in your dream twice,” she smirked.

  “No. I do not. I’m a dense person, as many had told me. I hope you can shed some light on what you’re trying to convey to me,” I answered.

  “Not just dense, stubborn, and distrustful too. But I’m not here to diss you. Baku— was a vessel of a Cosmic Being. And you two, you and your wife, had defeated it, sending him back to his maker. Did you really think the Cosmic Being would allow you to roam freely after eliminating its vessel?” she questioned me.

  “W— what?! A vessel of a Cosmic Being?!” I turned towards Kirin and Byakko, who started to sweat upon hearing those words.

  “I’m rather surprised that both of you are unaware of this. You two are a few of the oldest Celestial Beings out there, but you’re still like little animals. Allow me to explain then,” sighed Moi as she sat up and crossed her legs, still sitting atop Byakko. She seems to be much more mature in dreams than in reality somehow, but savage enough to insult both of my Celestial Beings.

  “Listen very carefully. A Cosmic Being cannot step into our realm of reality. Even a Celestial Being can only exist as a spiritual being or as an object. This is the rule set upon and agreed by all Cosmic Beings. Should any Cosmic Beings choose to break this rule, well, let’s just say that all hell will break loose as Godly Beings will be fighting against one another in the Ethereal. Which would basically mean the destruction of this world as well,” she explained.

  “So, what do Cosmic Beings do in their own time? Well, they play games with each other. All the realms are their playground to participate in. They can choose two beings to do their bidding in each realm. One is a Vessel, who executes the demands of their God, while the other is a Champion, who’s chosen by their God to spread their name, gaining more followers to do their bidding. Champions usually receive direct blessings or powers from their God as rewards. Both are very dangerous individuals that are not to be trifled with. Do remember that,” she continued.

  “Okay—so Baku was a Vessel of a Cosmic Being. And you visited me and Rose in our dreams to protect us? How come you’re not affected by it? And how does this relate to you and Daisy?” I questioned her.

  “Your microsleep was due to the side effects of defeating Baku. You and Rose were experiencing them without even realising it. I was there to wake you up. As for Daisy, well, she was the one who came looking for me, honestly speaking,” she chuckled.

  “Woah, hold up. So all these microsleep is due to us slaying Baku since sleep was his weapon. But, why microsleep? It rather harmless, isn’t it? And what are you trying to say? Daisy was in the city where we left her. How could she even find you? What you’re telling me just doesn’t make sense,” I rubbed my forehead.

  “One thing at a time, Mister Zen. Microsleep is actually more dangerous than you think. Imagine falling asleep in the middle of combat; that pretty much spells defeat. And besides, I was the one who woke you up. Who knows what would have happened if I had not? Perhaps you might have been stuck in the dream world forever,” she started rolling on Byakko’s fur as she explained further.

  “As for your daughter, well, she’s more powerful than you think. She has a deep connection to the Ethereal and she has a strong spiritual essence. Be warned though, if she’s careless, the Cosmic Beings might not be fond of her using the Ethereal as a way to communicate with other individuals. She— misses both of you when you were on the Northern continent. Which was how she met me, seeing that I was the closest to both of you at that point in time. Aren’t I right, boys?” she smirked at Kirin and Byakko who curled their lips in fear. How does Moi know so much that even these two doesn’t?

  “You two… knew about Daisy’s powers? Why didn’t any of you say anything?” I stared at them with utmost surprise.

  “Just say we did, would you have believed us? She visited this place when she was just a baby. You had no idea how nervous we were when she suddenly appeared out of nowhere. We were afraid that your kid was some Cosmic Entity in the making, but thankfully, she was not. So far, we only know she can visit us here, but nowhere near the Ethereal. One thing’s for sure, she was never afraid of either of us. Even now, she still visits us once in a while. You had no idea the number of times she rode on Kirin, who happily took her for a ride,” laughed Byakko.

  “H… hey! She rode on you too. I deeply recall someone letting her sleep on your fur and you were so afraid to wake her that you stayed perfectly still for hours,” shouted Kirin.

  “As you can see, Mister Zen, I was not lying to you,” Moi chuckled.

  “Let’s assume what you told me is real, and seeing that somehow you were not affected by Baku’s side effects, then what ‘are’ you? Are you a Vessel or Champion yourself? Why help us?” I questioned.

  “You’ll know sooner or later, Mister Zen. Let’s just say, I grew fond of you and your family after spending time together. The both of you were willing to help the City Of Lilies Dahlee despite having the option to walk away. A noble act, despite knowing the consequences that you might end up dying. And I enjoyed the things that you had shown me so far,” she smirked.

  “That being said, I’ll need to cut short this conversation. I’m here for a reason, and it is twofold. Firstly, I am here to ensure that you no longer suffer from the side effects. Where you’re going, it would be certain death for you even without them, so I’ll help what I can. Secondly, there are two things you need to remember,” she raised up two fingers.

  “Please do remember this upon waking up. You must remember them, Mister Zen. First of all, you must protect Rose at all costs. She must live no matter what,” she started walking closer to me casually but appeared to be floating higher with each step. She placed her index finger on my forehead and gave me advice that I never expected.

  “And lastly, FEAR THE NEW BLOOD,” her voice grew deeper as I was thrown out of the dream world in an instant.

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