Ancestral Lineage - Chapter 256

Chapter 256: Love Is In the Air
Athelia knelt with her head bowed low, her wild, radiant hair cascading around her like a veil of fire and ice. The air felt heavy as the wives gathered around her, their expressions unreadable but their eyes sharp—piercing into her very soul.

“Who are you again, and why do you smell like Tia?” Clara asked, narrowing her eyes, her voice edged with suspicion.

“She also smells like Angitia,” Carmen added, folding her arms tightly across her chest.

“She is…” Ethan began, but—

“Shut up!” they snapped in unison, cutting him off with the force of a collective storm.

“Okay. Geez,” he muttered, raising his hands in surrender.

“Who are you?” Harley asked at last. Her tone was calm—calmer than the rest—but it carried weight. As the First Empress, she had learned to wield composure like a weapon. She was the eye of the storm, the anchor in the chaos.

Athelia slowly raised her head. Her eyes glimmered—deep, infinite pools of crimson and cerulean.

“I am Athelia… and I love Ethan,” she declared without hesitation.

Ethan blinked. “Was that part necessary?”

Harley turned her head slightly toward him, her golden serpentine eyes glowing with slow, simmering heat. “Honey, I’d prefer if you kept mute,” she said, her voice calm—too calm.

Ethan wisely shut his mouth.

Ethan took a cautious step back, subtly hiding behind a boulder he’d created.

Athelia tilted her head, blinking slowly. “Did I say something wrong? I just wanted to be honest.” Her voice was soft, almost innocent—but layered with something ancient. Something overwhelming. That dissonance made the hair on everyone’s neck stand up.

Lisa leaned toward Harley, eyes never leaving Athelia. “She’s giving off…weird fusion vibes. Like a blood-and-brain smoothie.”

“I second that,” Clara said, her fox ears twitching. “It’s like… if Tia and Angitia went into a blender and then got kissed by a star.”

“That’s not how biology works,” Carmen muttered.

“It is when Ethan’s involved,” Lisa shot back.

Harley sighed, taking a step forward. She crouched in front of Athelia, eyes locked with hers. Her tone softened—but just enough to be unnerving.

“You say you love him. But do you even know who you are?”

Athelia blinked. Once. Twice. Then she gave a small, strange smile.

“I am the sum of what was lost and what was born. I am blood, memory, flame, and thought. I am the answer to a question no one asked—until now.”

Harley stared at her for a long moment. Then she stood up slowly, brushing invisible dust off her dress.

“She’s either insane… or she’s telling the truth.”

“Can’t it be both?” Lisa offered.

“I vote both,” Clara added, her tails flaring out behind her.

“I still don’t like her,” Carmen said flatly. “She smells too much like unfinished business.”

Ethan hesitated. Then, in a rare burst of courage (or foolishness), he stepped forward and gently placed a hand on Athelia’s shoulder.

“She’s not a threat.”

Athelia instantly brightened, glowing with warmth, psychic shimmer radiating from her like sunbeams dipped in moonlight.

“Ethan,” she whispered, eyes wide, “do you accept me?”

He froze.

All eyes turned to him.

Clara’s tails rose threateningly.

Lisa crackled with lightning.

Harley just smiled. That terrifying, calm First Empress smile.

Carmen flexed her fingers, and the ground trembled beneath them.

“I—I mean…” Ethan coughed. “Define accept—”

“Wrong answer,” all of them said in perfect unison.

Ethan turned to run.

Too late.

A psychic pulse exploded from Athelia’s chest—pure instinct—and it yoinked him right back into her arms like he was on a bungee cord of destiny.

She squeezed him, sighing with bliss. “He’s mine.”

The earth shook.

Clara’s eyes went full beast mode.

Lisa raised her hand. “I say we obliterate and sort out what’s left.”

Harley just nodded. “Agreed.”

Athelia smiled sweetly. “You’re all welcome to try.”

And just like that, everything went still. Not quiet—still.

The calm before the storm.

And Ethan, still trapped in Athelia’s arms, whispered the last, tragic words of a man who knew his fate.

“…I am so screwed.”

BOOM.

…

The grove cracked, split, and roared in protest as Ethan and Athelia tore through the sky like celestial missiles, trailing golden and red streaks across the clouds. The mountain behind them rumbled, its peak fracturing from the sheer force of their launch. Birds scattered. Lightning flashed. The world seemed to gasp in the wake of their ascension.

High above it all, suspended in the air like a divine being on the verge of apotheosis, Ethan paused. His body remained tense, taut with restrained power, but his mind was racing.

‘I have to do something about this… or it’ll be another war. These women could rip this realm apart over a misunderstanding. Damn it. I wish the system was still active…’ he gritted his teeth, glancing at the still-clinging Athelia, who was humming softly and nuzzling into his chest like this was a honeymoon and not a looming apocalypse.

Then, like a light bulb snapping to life, realization bloomed in his mind.

“Let’s see… Got it.”

With a sudden motion, Ethan threw his arms wide open.

And the world froze.

Not in time—but in force.

A tidal wave of power burst out from his body—golden white, blindingly pure, and vast in magnitude. It slammed into everything like a gravitational shockwave, halting the ten furious women in mid-flight. Even Barki, mid-transformation, stopped cold. Clara’s tails stilled, Lisa’s lightning fizzled, and Carmen’s tremors ceased. Harley narrowed her eyes but didn’t move.

The aura didn’t just radiate—it commanded.

From the shattered peak of the mountain, down through the valley, across rivers, through the trees, the golden white light expanded outward, reshaping the space itself.

Then—it folded.

The very fabric of reality twisted like paper drawn into a cyclone. The sky warped. The air shimmered. Everything within the radius of Ethan’s aura began to bend, as if the laws of physics had suddenly been told to take a break.

A rift opened—silent, vast, and smooth like polished glass—hovering in the air before them. It was a mirror and a door, a tear and a creation. Within it: stars blinked in unfamiliar constellations, trees towered with crystalline leaves, and the ground shimmered like silver silk. Time… moved differently inside.

Faster.

Much faster.

Ethan took a deep breath, placed a hand on Athelia’s forehead to still her manic affection for a moment, and stepped through.

The world shifted behind him.

No longer sky. No longer the grove.

This was a sanctuary built from his will—an isolated microcosm. A pocket dimension. A realm of stilled storms and clear intentions. Here, time raced ahead compared to the world they’d left. A day here would be seconds outside. A week here—mere minutes.

He set Athelia down gently.

She blinked. “Where… are we?”

Ethan floated a few steps away, staring out across the field of glowing grass, beneath a sky painted in twin suns and a nebula that danced like auroras.

“This,” he said, “is my world.”

“I created it just now—compressed reality, layered over the core of my essence. Time flows faster here. I needed space. We need space. To talk, to understand, to fix this… without blowing up the continent.”

Athelia stood slowly, her expression unusually calm now. “You made a realm… just to talk?”

“I made a realm to stop a war between my wives and a fusion goddess with a cling complex,” Ethan muttered under his breath.

Athelia giggled.

Ethan turned to her, his expression firm but not unkind. “Athelia… you’re powerful. Conflicted. You have memories and emotions not entirely your own—and you’re overflowing with love for me, but you don’t really know what that means yet. Do you?”

Athelia looked away. “I know that I ache when you’re not near me. I know that everything inside me says you’re mine.”

“That’s not love. That’s imprint.”

She flinched.

“But that doesn’t mean it’s not real. It means we have to shape it. Understand it. Separate what’s Tia, what’s Angitia, and what’s truly you.”

Ethan walked closer and gently touched her cheek. “That’s what this place is for.”

Athelia looked up at him, her three eyes glowing softly, the third one flickering in uncertainty.

“And… if we do all that… what happens then?”

“Then,” he said, “you’ll know who you really are. And then—you’ll choose what you want. Not because your heart was programmed to. But because you are.”

For a long moment, silence hung between them.

Then Athelia smiled. It was faint. But it was hers.

“Okay,” she whispered.

And the twin suns rose over Ethan’s new world.

A place where time raced, hearts healed, and gods found themselves—one day at a time.

But—

“Ethan Kael’Dri Smith! Let us in or lose us forever!” Carmen’s voice thundered across the fabric of the realm, her fury transcending dimensions, vibrating through the air like a divine decree.

Ethan winced. “Yeah… I know they technically can’t break in,” he muttered, rubbing his temples, “but I’m not taking any chances.”

Athelia tilted her head. “But won’t they—?”

“No,” Ethan interrupted, already moving. “In fact, they’re the reason I created this world in the first place.”

With a swift gesture, he conjured a shimmering rift—pulling it open through one of the twin suns like peeling back a layer of divine fire. The light twisted, parted, and formed a passage.

Moments later, one by one, they entered.

Harley stepped through first, her golden serpentine eyes gleaming with restrained power. Clara came next, her fox tails bristling with tension. Lisa crackled with storm-light, Barki’s presence rumbled like molten rock, Andriel’s face was as indifferent as the moon. Pisces looked like she could swallow up Athelia. Seraphis and Christel were radiating palpable jealousy though their expressions were cold. Elaine looked like a mad zombie and… well, Carmen was pure judgment incarnate.

Their faces all shared the same unmistakable expression—jealousy, frustration, and territorial possessiveness wrapped in god-tier beauty.

Ethan had barely opened his mouth when he realized something was off.

He looked down.

Athelia had already climbed into his lap, her arms wrapped around him, her body pressed to his chest like she’d grown roots there. He hadn’t even noticed.

“Really?” he asked, deadpan.

She purred.

The women’s eyes narrowed in unison.

Ethan let out a slow, tired sigh and leaned back, arms out like he was surrendering to fate.

“This is gonna be a long time,” he said, smirking. “But honestly… I think I prefer it that way.”

And with that, the newly-forged realm prepared itself for days of chaos, therapy, training, jealousy-fueled duels, and… maybe a little peace. Maybe.