Ten Lucky Draws: I Became OP-Chapter 311: The First Pantheon (4)
The moment Ash and the Originats stepped fully into the throne room, every sound died. ππ«ππ²ππππ§π πππ₯.πππ
Every breath hitched.
Specifically, among the women.
Heat flushed through them as if someone had slipped an aphrodisiac into the air.
Ash exhaled quietlyβhis Erosence was restrained to its absolute limit... yet even that wasnβt enough. Lower beings like these couldnβt help but react to him.
Before anyone could lose control and pounce at himβ
SNAP!
Time froze.
Everyone in the room went stillβexcept for two figures floating before the projection.
Sandra and Shia remained untouched by the time change.
Sandraβs eyes widened, and as if needing to confirm with her own hands that the man before her was truly her sonβ
She vanished.
And reappeared with a fist already flying.
BOOOOOM!
Her punch detonated against Ashβs faceβonly for him to stop it with a single finger.
Since becoming an Asura again... Sandra had never been quite warm in the normal sense.
While she mightβve hugged her daughters.... her sons?
That was totally different. Asuras softened just a bit for their female children... but for their sons, strength was truly the only language.
And Ashβs presence stirred something far more primal in herβsomething only power could ignite.
Ash smiled, tilting his head as he held her fist effortlessly.
"Long time no see, Mother~"
Seeing this woman againβafter all this time, after everything he had becomeβAsh felt... nothing. Not in the cold, hollow sense, but in the clear, settled way of someone who had outgrown the need for old attachments.
If he was honest, he no longer held familial ties to her.
Not to Sandra. Not to Nia or Shia eitherβnot in the simple, mortal sense of "siblings" at least.
When Ash first appeared on Elaris, he assumed he was like any other transmigratorβsomeone dropped into a new world with memories of another life, someone who owed nothing to the family tied to his new body.
That was the logic he clung to at the start.
But it didnβt take long for that illusion to break.
This wasnβt a borrowed life.
It wasnβt a vessel.
It wasnβt a second chance wearing someone elseβs skin.
It was his lifeβand had always been.
Once he realized that, he embraced everything that came with it. The family problems, the history, the responsibilities, the chaos.
He accepted it fully, without hesitation.... just in his own way of course.
But that was before he awakened every incarnation.
Before he lived countless lives across countless cycles. Before he became whole in a way no single lifetime could contain.
Now, standing here again, he felt the difference sharply.
Old sentimentsβgood or badβno longer held meaning. Old wounds no longer stung.
And old bonds no longer defined him.
He wasnβt the boy who stumbled through life without a true direction.
He was the sum of every life he had ever lived. And from that vantage point, the pastβits comforts and its woundsβno longer held the same weight.
Sandraβs voice cracked as she pulled her fist back.
Even as an Asura, her humanity had never fully disappeared even after regaining her raceβand seeing the man her son had become, the man who had grown without her, pierced her heart like a hundred needles.
"Ash..." she whispered. "Iβm sorrβ"
Ash leaned in and stole her lips.
Mwah.
Sandraβs abyssal eyes widened, shock rippling through herβbut she didnβt pull away. Not even for a heartbeat.
From the side, Nia sighed and shook her head.
"Honestly? Iβm not surprised.... I even warned our grandmother."
After knowing Ash for so long, how could she not expect this?
To her, it was obviousβAsh would take his mother and Shia just as naturally as he took anyone else, he desired. In her mind, it was practically inevitable.
Why else would they still be alive?
Vaeloria nodded. "Youβre not wrong. I had the feeling long ago... back on Elaris."
While they chatted, Sandra melted into the kiss, lost in itβwhile Shia watched with a storm of conflict twisting inside her.
And Ash?
He was no longer βstandingβ in the throne room.
He had stepped directly into a sacred place within Sandraβher Sea of Consciousness, the inner place that housed Lysa.
-----
Inside her Sea of Consciousness stood two thrones facing one anotherβone pure black, the other pure white.
Lysa sat upon the white throne, the other half of Sandraβs soul. For a long moment, she and Ash simply regarded each other in silence.
Ash had known of her existence for ages, through the affection Sandra carried. But seeing her directlyβseeing both halves of his mother laid bareβmade everything fall into place.
With a single glance, he understood their entire story.
Not just their time on Elaris. Everything before it as well.
It was the same with his newer wives.
After awakening all his incarnations, he no longer needed to sift through memories or watch lives unfold piece by piece.
He saw the totality of a person instantlyβpast, present, and the threads that shaped them.
[A/N: Their backstories will still be revealed. Just in a different manner.]
And in this moment, Ash saw everything.
The brutal childhood of the Asurasβchildren thrown onto battlefields the moment they could walk, taught to bleed before they ever learned softness.
Their entire culture was built on conflict, not comfort.
Love, care, even hatred... all filtered through strength itself.
Seeing the full shape of Sandra and Lysaβs lives, how they were molded from birth, he understood why Lysa had rejected the mortal kingdom, why she tried to force Sandraβs soul to heal by taking control.
It wasnβt cruelty.
It was instinctβan Asuraβs way of living.
Ash smiled faintly, speaking with casual ease.
"Hm. Should I call you βmotherβ as well?"
Lysa didnβt smile or frown. She simply studied himβthe being who had once been the boy cast out by his own kingdom, the stain of Solace.
"Are you here for revenge?" she asked.
It wasnβt an unreasonable question.
If he was here, then he obviously knew she existed. Which meant he knew she was the one who turned a cold shoulder to himβnot Sandra.
Ash shook his head lightly.
"Thatβs far too childish," he said. "I like to think Iβm a bit more mature now."
With a single thought, the woman with long black hair streaked in white appeared directly before himβnot because she moved, but because he wanted her there.
BADUMP!
Lysa instinctively stepped back, her heart pounding. Before she could retreat further, Ashβs hand closed around her waist, steady and unyielding.
A faint, knowing smile touched his lips as he leaned in close and took her lips.
His voice echoed directly through her mind, calm and resonant.
"Let the past stay where it belongs. You and Sandra are not the same. And from now... you will live as yourselves."
The words struck her harder than any physical blow. Confusion flickered across her features, but with her trying to fight off her building lust she couldnβt think too deeply.
Before she could respond, a soft white radiance enveloped them both.
This kiss was no simple gesture. Ash wasnβt just acknowledging her β he was separating her.
A new vessel formed around Lysa, shaped by Crearaβs will the moment Ash desired it.
A complete body.
From now on there would not be two souls in one body... but they will be completely separate entities.
Ash no longer drifted with fate. Every action now carried intention, precision, and purpose. And in his eyes these two women would be much better separate than they would be together.
The light twisted, and the throne room returned around them.
Sandra blinked as Ash pulled back, breath unsteady. Lysa stood beside her β whole, independent, overwhelmed by the sensation of having a body of her own for the first time.
Ashβs gaze shifted to the last person frozen in place.
"Shia," he said, voice cutting through the silence, "are you going to keep standing there like an idiot?"
