"What?! Is that true?! Congratulations!" Muku spoke excitedly.

"What do you mean congratulations?! It's our baby. We did it together" Hope replied with an eye roll.

She was pleased by his happiness though. It would have sucked if the father wasn't happy about it. While she felt they were a bit too early in having children, such was life. They did what leads to pregnancy, so they could only accept the consequences.

Not to mention Althea said they still had a few years before the baby came, so they had some time.

"Ah. You're right. Sorry, I got overexcited. How are you feeling now? Do you need anything? Maybe you should lie down. Should we go tell the others?" Muku started saying whatever came to his mind.

"I'm fine. It's not that far gone yet. Plus I doubt there'll be any of those problems considering my strength. As for telling the others. I'm not ready yet. Let's wait until you've settled all of them" Hope replied in an amused tone.

It was cute to see Muku already panicking with care like this.

"As you wish my lady. What do you mean settle them all?... Oh. Do you know how long that will take? It's not something that can be casually done after all" Muku replied animatedly.

"Yeah. I know. But we have years, and I doubt you'll last that long. So we're okay," Hope replied in a semi-hateful tone.

While she was okay with sharing, like the other girls, she was a little hateful at the same time. Couldn't he just choose one back then? Specifically them?

Of course, for Hope, this might be the best-case scenario since she wasn't in the equation at all back then. So she couldn't complain too much.

"Years? Isn't it nine months? Less than that since it will start to show sooner. So what do you mean?" Muku asked confusedly.

"Oh, about that. Let me tell you what Althea told me. She's the one who found out I was pregnant. Anyway, she said..." Hope went on to tell Muku what Althea told her.

"Ah. So that's how it is? What an interesting turn of events. But we can't be certain since she has no human experience of such things. Besides, the incubation period is generally different in all species so we can't trust her to take even if it might be true. So I say we should tell the others now before it's too late and too awkward..." Muku reasoned.

"I guess you're right. But let's do it after everyone has advanced so no one is too affected by it. Especially the pregnancy. After all, everyone wanted to be the first to have a child so..." Hope accepted his reasoning, though with a little compromise.

She still didn't want to do it. But it had to be done. It was going to be the most awkward talk they had ever had by far. She wished she didn't have to be there when Muku told the others. But she knew it was unavoidable.

"As the lady desires. Now don't you think there's something important we need to do?" Muku asked Hope seriously.

"What's that? Going back to the others?" Hope asked confusedly.

"Reinforcing the baby of course" Muku replied then pulled Hope closer before throwing her to the bed and jumping on top of her...

...

Around an hour later...

"That's not a real thing. You just wanted to take advantage of me you pervert" Hope replied while lying next to Muku naked and breathing heavily.

It was great as always and she loved it, but she didn't want to seem easy.

"Of course there is. How else will the baby grow big and strong? But I'm sorry. If you don't want to do it again, then fine. We won't" Muku replied apologetically.

"What? No. I didn't say we shouldn't do it again. I was just... You jerk. Hmph!" Hope tried to explain in a panicked voice when she noticed Muku's knowing smile.

She stopped, cursed him, and looked away.

"I'm sorry my love. You're just so cute I can't help but tease you. Anyway, we can't stay here too long even if I slowed down the time in here. We should clean up and go back" Muku apologised.

"Okay. But let's stay like this a bit longer... Nit for me, but for the baby" Hope shamelessly hid behind the baby that was still not fully formed yet.

Muku could sense a lot of crazy demands coming in the future with the baby as the excuse. He felt his head hurt a bit since the others would also be like this, but he didn't mind. It was the life he chose and he quite liked it.

He was kinda looking forward to it honestly.

"Sure. Love" Muku replied as he pulled her close for a tight hug...

....

In Hope's room...

"Aww. So cute. To think they could be so lustful and loving at the same time... Wait, does watching them make me a pervert? No, of course not. From what I've found out. Watching other species having sex isn't perverted behaviour at all. It's completely normal. At least that's what human logic dictates"

Althea spoke to herself while peeking at Muku and Hope, as she said she won't.

To be fair, Hope knew that this was going to happen. She might have forgotten about it when Muku pulled her closer but she knew initially. And that's all Althea needed for permission to watch...

....

A while later...

Muku and Hope left the room completely clean and unsuspecting. Except for Hope's suspiciously glowing face of course.

Anyway, she returned to Althea and Muku went to join the others.

....

Hope and Althea continued the excruciating cultivation for two months after that until Hope reached the peak like Jade.

After her, the others went and had similarly painful experiences as Hope.

Sadly for Althea, none of the others were pregnant yet. Which meant less drama for her.

Anyways, after more than a year later, it was finally Muku's turn to advance right after Raya.

Currently, he and Althea were facing each other as Althea had done with the girls.

But she didn't immediately go into business like before. She was currently touching Muku's shirtless upper body all over the place.

"Interesting. So this is what a human male upper body looks like up close. I mean, this one is so perfect it might as well be unreal, but I guess it's still from the same origin" Althea spoke with a serious look on her face.

"Umm. When are we going to start?" Muku asked after ten minutes of being poked, squeezed, and patted.

Was she some kind of pervert or something? Because this was definitely sexual harassment.

"Shh. Don't interrupt me. Can't you see I'm admiring this art? You can leave if you don't want to be here" Althea admonished.

"But it's my body. How can I leave it behind?!" Muku replied in a wronged tone.

"Ah. Oh, forgot about that. Sorry. Let's get this over with. Your body isn't that amazing anyway" Athea replied in a displeased manner.

"Sure" Muku chose peace.

Althea held out her hand and placed her finger where Muku's core was like she did with the girls.

Then she pushed a stream of pure mana from the reservoir she had into it.

Unexpectedly, Muku, like Jade didn't feel any pain.

But it wasn't that he and Althea had affinity. It was that the mana was instantly changed to match his own as soon as it entered his core by some unknown source. Something that should have been impossible.

But that's what was happening.

Before Althea could say anything, she felt a weird force rise from inside Muku and flow into her.

She instantly wanted to break free but she was immobilized and couldn't do anything but defensively feel her body getting invaded.

She couldn't even say anything to Muku who was currently in a meditative state and appeared not to notice anything.

Soon her whole body was completely covered by the force.

She then felt it press on her trying to make her submit.

At first, it was weak and she thought she would soon break free

But it didn't go like that. It kept getting stronger and stronger until she felt despair as she could hardly breathe at that point.

She would have died had she needed air regularly like unranked beings.

She tried to resist a while longer but eventually she submitted to the force.

She didn't want to submit to anyone with anything as a proud Monarch, but she felt that whatever this force was. It was something that went beyond her.

And so, the moment she completely stopped resisting, she could move again.

However, she felt an imprint in her mind. She tries poking around it with her divine senses. And it was the biggest mistake she had made that day it ever really.

She was immediately pulled into an illusion where she was completely covered by grey and there was nothing else.

She felt so insignificant that even a germ was way bigger than her.

Then a single word appeared in her mind.

{Nihility}

{Impossible!} Another thought appeared immediately after...