Chapter 519: Sublimation
Perhaps you’d wonder how it had come to this.
Cecilia was reading about quantum physics on her phone when she felt wet.
She had been sitting on an exercise ball, rotating her hips in slow circles the way Dr. Lazuardi had recommended to loosen the pelvic floor.
That was when the sensation of sudden and warm and very much ambiguous wetness emerged. It was ambiguous because it could mean anything from a bladder accident... to something far more significant.
These days, the egg had been pressing on her bladder, after all, so she assumed the former. She sighed, set down her phone, and prepared to waddle to the bathroom for a change of clothes.
Then she saw Oathran sway.
His mist-grey eyes rolled back in his head, and he toppled sideways.
"Oathran?!" Cecilia lurched upright from the exercise ball—"AAAAAAAAAA—" and immediately doubled over as a contraction seized her suddenly and brutally.
It was like a vise grip closing around her spine. The pain was not the gradual tightening she had read about in the pregnancy books, but very sharp.
Oathran was only out for two seconds. He snapped back to consciousness the way he had snapped awake a thousand times on battlefields.
The moment he saw Cecilia hunched over, her face contorted in pain, his senses kicked into overdrive. He got lightheaded because he smelled the fluid, after all. It was definitely not urine, and his brain reached the correct conclusion immediately.
"You’re in labor. You’re in labor. You’re in labor—" He was already on his feet, already at her side, his arms wrapping around her. He had faced down leviathans and gods and was more terrified now than he had ever been in his life.
"C-call Prof—? Doctor...? Call Dr. Lazuardi..."
"Yes, yes, yes, yes." Oathran, without realizing it, had already begun the rhythmic breathing pattern the internet had taught him, the one meant for pregnant mothers managing contractions.
He breathed with her, his chest rising and falling in perfect synchronization with hers.
"Huuuu—" Cecilia followed along, her hands gripping his forearms.
"I’ll call Eastiel and Arkai too, alright?"
"Sure—"
The fluid kept dripping down her thighs, deeply undignified. "P-please help me take off my pants..."
"Okay. Want to change clothes completely?"
"No..." Cecilia’s voice wobbled.
The fear was creeping in now, very unexpectedly. In the first place, she had never thought she would go this far. She had never thought she would give birth. She had spent months preparing to let this baby go, but now the baby was coming.
"Goddess Momo... why are you not here when I need you...?"
She said it out loud. Even letting Oathran hear.
[Y-you surprised me, Cecilia! P-please don’t say such things again!]
Even the System was startled.
"Not even His Majesty can calm me down, because he’s a man! Who’ll never give birth!" Cecilia sobbed, her tears mixing with the sweat already beading on her forehead.
"I’m sorry. Forgive me for being a man—" Oathran fumbled with her exercise pants, his usually steady hands trembling as he worked the damp fabric down her legs.
He led another breathing session, his voice cracking slightly on the exhale. "Sh-should I call your sisters too?"
"Nooooo..." Cecilia was straight-up wailing now, her voice echoing through the apartment. Then the next contraction hit, and her wail dropped into a low, guttural moan. "Why is this suddenly painful...?"
Oathran put away the drenched pants and fumbled for his phone in turn. "Maybe because you panicked. I made you panic. I’m sorry, forgive me—"
He was right. She had panicked because she saw him passed out. Perhaps in reality, the contractions weren’t that painfu—"OOOWWW—"
"How can the contractions be so close already?!" Cecilia groaned, her fingers digging into Oathran’s shoulders.
"Perhaps because the fluid separating your womb and the egg has drained..." Oathran was already dialing. "You two! Finally, you picked up. She’s in labor. Go home."
He hung up without waiting for a response. "Are you sure you don’t want your sisters?"
"I’m scared of them, why do I want them here...?" Cecilia whined again.
"You’re scared of them when I’m here?" Oathran frowned at her, his misty-grey eyes searching her face.
"You don’t understaaaaaaaaaaaaaand—"
"Okay, okay, okay, okay."
That was how she ended up in her birthing suite’s pool, kneeling inside the warm water, moaning in pain. Lazuardi arrived not five minutes after receiving Oathran’s text, his medical bag in one hand.
Then Arkai burst through the door, his wolf ears flat with panic. And lastly, Eastiel, who had apparently sprinted across the city, arrived just in time to witness the scene and immediately turn pale.
From that point forward, the men took turns passing out. Eastiel went first. As said before, he had glanced toward the pool at exactly the wrong moment, caught a glimpse of the birth canal beginning to open, and toppled sideways onto the tile with a soft thud.
Oathran had been doing so well. But he would also sway and feel lightheaded, before falling backwards or sideway, only to be revived by his own sheer will.
Arkai was surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, the one who didn’t get lightheaded.
He knelt beside the pool with his sleeves rolled up, his hands never leaving Cecilia’s shoulders. He counted her breaths. He wiped her forehead with a cool cloth. He glared at his brothers every time one of them started to wobble.
"AAAAAAAAH—"
"Rock gently... yes, like that..." Lazuardi said, calm despite the chaos around him. The dragon doctor’s sky-blue hair was tied back in a neat ponytail, and his young face was serene.
Eastiel woke up just in time to catch Oathran’s trembling hand that was still holding the snack plate. Oathran’s eyes looked dull, almost rolling back in his head once more.
"Brother—uuuuhghgh, stay... strong... Cecilia... stay stron—" Eastiel managed, his own face still pale as paper.
Even Arkai, who was trying so hard to stay strong, looked dazed now. His wolf ears were drooping, and his voice had taken on a slightly hollow quality. "You’re doing so good—"
"AAAA—" Cecilia felt something small, or perhaps something large, tearing down there.
She couldn’t tell.
But she also wouldn’t say anything. These men might genuinely get knocked out together if they heard what she was feeling. So she gritted her teeth, gripped the edge of the pool, and bore down with a scream.
Lazuardi’s voice cut through. "Alright, we push? One, two. One, two. One, two, three!"
"AAAAAHHH—"
"Good job!" Lazuardi’s hands were gentle but firm, guiding without interfering, supporting without controlling.
"I want... I want to try squatting... Can I squat...?" Cecilia asked, all desperate.
"Follow your instinct!" Lazuardi answered, his blue-sky hair damp with steam, his young face beaming with encouragement.
"Okay—"
Cecilia widened her legs and planted one foot firmly on the bottom of the pool, shifting her weight sideways. The water sloshed around her and she felt gravity become her ally. That was when—"Ah—"
She felt it. The unmistakable sensation of something solid sliding down, surrendering to the rhythm of her body, emerging from the darkness of her womb into the golden lamplight of the birthing suite.
"AAAAHHH!"
"Push!"
She pushed. And then, in a rush of fluid and light, the egg slid out of her body and into Lazuardi’s waiting hands.
"HAaaaaaaa—"
Cecilia looked back and down.
It was cracked. A web of fine fissures spreading across its obsidian surface, and through those cracks pulsed veins of glowing golden light, like magma flowing beneath cooled volcanic rock.
Cecilia almost passed out, her vision went gray at the edges. Her body, which had been running on nothing but adrenaline and desperation, began to slump forward into the water.
But then something euphoric surged through her, even stronger than the adrenaline that had carried her through the final push. It flooded her veins like liquid gold, like the divine power that had awakened on the rooftop.
She smiled in overwhelming happiness.
"Sol..."
[Danger! Cecilia! Immediately consume the Healing Elixir! Danger! You’re actively losing blood!]
The System’s voice was panicked, shrieking in her mind. It cut through her euphoria, and she moved quickly. Her hand, still trembling from the effort of birth, reached over her chest and answered the pop quiz that materialized before her eyes.
In exchange, a small crystalline vial of amber liquid materialized from the light in her chest into her palm. She uncorked it with her teeth and drank. The warmth of the elixir spread through her veins, slowly knitting tissues back together.
[P-please drink another one, Cecilia!]
It wasn’t enough?
[N-no, just drink a Miracle Elixir instead! Please, quick!]
Heh. The System was clearly worried. The cosmic entity that had once feared nothing but the gods themselves was now terrified for her life.
But Cecilia didn’t protest. She answered another pop quiz, and a second vial materialized in her hand. This one was larger, its contents a swirling, shimmering thing. She drank it without thinking or hesitating, without even tasting it.
That was when she realized the four men around her were frozen.
Lazuardi, who had been cradling the pulsing egg in his steady physician’s hands, was staring at her with his jaw hanging open.
Eastiel, who had been reaching for her with tears streaming down his face, had stopped mid-motion. Arkai’s wolf ears were pinned forward in absolute bewilderment. Even Oathran was gaping at her.
"WHAT KIND OF DRUG DID YOU JUST DRINK?!" Lazuardi’s voice cracked through the birthing suite in horror as the only medical professional in the room.
"I... I can explain..."
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Guys, I have made a terrible mistake! 😭
DrippingVoid just pointed out that Chapter 511 was duplicated. 1,228 words accidentally doubled to over 2,400 words. This was completely on me, and I’m so sorry!
Thank you so much for letting me know. My best guess is that while editing, I copy-pasted the same draft twice in the middle and somehow didn’t catch it before publishing. (Yeah... I forgot to double-check. That’s on me.)
I know this is unfair to those of you who paid for the Chapter, and honestly, it’s pretty embarrassing on my end. So here’s what I’m doing to make it right.
I’ll edit the Chapter now and republish it with new content to match the full word count you already paid for. Once it’s up, please refresh the Chapter to see the added material!
And since I owe you all something extra... I’ve decided the new content will include a ’little’ smut scene. 😉
Thanks for your patience and support. I really appreciate you sticking with me despite my slip-up. Let me know what you think of the new version once it’s live! (In a couple of hours!)