Gen returned to the sect two days later.

Risa was still out there spreading words about their sect.

He greeted Nangua while that weirdo was growing all kinds of weird trees who birthed pumpkins and called them his pumpkin trees…

Gen decided to simply ignore the man.

He went to look for Ame.

…

Ame uncertainly asked him back “Can you repeat that?”

Gen slowly enounced it again as he held the baby girl forward: “Please take care of the baby”

Ame shook her head sideways in refusal: “Why would I take care of your baby?”

Gen tilted his head. There was some kind of misunderstanding there. He quickly tried to explain it: “It’s not mine”

Ame inquired: “Then whose fucking baby is this?! Did you kidnap a baby?!”

Gen waved his hand: “Of course not, I bought it legally”

Ame looked at him with both disgust and awe. She found him extremely ballsy to dare say such a thing so straightforwardly. And she found him ignoble for daring to actually do such a thing.

That’s when Drem walked to them. He hugged Ame from behind as he asked Gen: “Is that her?”

Gen nodded as he still held the baby forward.

Drem glared: “You wanted her, you take care of her”

Ame asked: “What’s going on?”

Drem explained it to her as he did not want to lose her because of more lies. He told her how it was an old soul within a new body.

Ame frowned even harder as she asked: “What happens when the old soul awakes? I mean, to the young soul?”

Gen shrugged: “It remains a part of us but it amounts to nearly nothing compared to our entire lifespan”

Ame pointed at him and harshly stated: “You will take care of that baby and you better do it well”

Gen looked at the baby and then at Ame before he seriously stated: “I cannot feed it”

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Ame turned around and went back inside the small house leaving the two men on the porch. Drem looked at Gen without a hint of sympathy.

Still, he considered the baby and said: “Go hire a wet nurse to take care of it”

Gen frowned: “Can you keep it while I go hire one?”

Drem sighed and grabbed the baby from Gen. Gen thanked him and left once more.

Drem closed the door and went back inside only to be face to face with an angry Ame. She told him slowly: “I said no”

Drem said: “Just until he grabs a wet nurse for her”

Ame sighed.

…

A few days later, Gen had brought back twenty wet nurses to take care of the baby.

However, unknowingly, those few days brought new ideas and instincts to Ame…

…

Twenty-five days later,

Risa returned.

She had gone around all the villages close-by. She traveled through at least fifty and she expected that words would have been spread to those further away that she had no time to go to.

In one month, they would open the sect’s doors to recruit new disciples.

The first batch.

…

…

…

Far away,

On Cardus,

East side, in the neutral territory of the Seagull,

At the Capital named Low Point,

Nightmare sighed as he gazed upon the gigantic city that spiralled downwards as if an abyss. Made of red and dark stones, the buildings made it look like the entrance to hell.

It was home.

He had not been here for a long time. It was only now that he was back that he somehow felt nostalgic. The last time he came here was also for a meeting and after that one they did stir the world up.

Good times.

He chuckled.

It was about to happen again.

He began his descent to the depth of the city.

At the very lowest point was a single cave entrance. The doors were ten meters tall and made of an unknown substance. Faces and limbs seemed to try to silently break free from it in constant motions making it extremely creepy.

The guards, both at the 59th realm, clad in entire dark armor, bowed respectfully at the Nightmare before opening the doors.

He strode in.

He walked through the corridor and then down the spiraling stairway to reach a grand hall.

It was mostly empty except for a dozen tables and seats. They were nearly all taken. Of all the beings here, all belonged to the Evil faction and all of them were at the very least at the 60th stage.

They greeted the Nightmare as he walked towards the frontmost table.

There, he found his brothers.

Brother Fumes, Brother Chaos, Brother Seagull.

The crawler’s chair was empty for obvious reasons but why was Clown not there? Seeing his frown, brother Fumes hurriedly pointed to the right: “He’s over there with a new friend”

“A new friend?” asked rhetorically Nightmare.

He turned around to a surprised vision of Clown and Gaelic toasting to each other. It was quite intriguing to see the inmate and the jailer shoulder to shoulder enjoying themselves. It made the Nightmare chuckle.

He turned back towards the ones that were there: “I see that he remains the same. That aside, it’s been a while, Brother Chaos, Brother Seagull. How are the two of you doing?”

Brother Chaos grinned: “Glad to see you again! I’m rather excited about what will happen next to be honest! I haven’t had fun in a while, you see!”

He turned to Brother Seagull. The man who had been forced to take an oath by the Celestials to remain Neutral and forever stay in Low Point.

“Days come and go and life remains nice, Brother Nightmare. I can still sail through my ghost clones and no one bothers me” smirked Seagull.

Nightmare nodded and stated: “In any case, since everyone’s here…those that should be…let us first go greet our Master and then discuss the future”