An uneventful spring night it was, when Cattleya and the hooded god celebrated the one-thousandth anniversary of their first meeting at the golden glass.
After winning so much that some of the casino's managers had to invite them over for a private game, Cattleya and the hooded god went back to their respective homes intending to meet once again.
That was how the friendship between the two began, a few centuries later, they could be considered best of friends.
Sometimes, the two won so much money at the Golden glass' casino from some certain people who did not happen to like losing. They were attacked more times than they could remember but the duo were beings who could potentially be masters of entire pantheons, dispatching a few assassins was hardly a workout.
One time they sparred with each other in Bracken and ended up dwarfing a few star systems, prompting the dwarven deities in charge of that galaxy to descend to put an end to their fight.
Normally, this was the point where they agreed to stop but the mischievous Cattleya suggested they beat up the dwarf, alongside the main entity of bracken who came as back up. This lead to them becoming wanted fugitives in nearly half of bracken.
Unfortunately, as they had disguises on, the dwarves could not figure out their identities.
The two hit off easily and began spending more and more time with each other, going on adventures to random universes, sometimes leaving trails of destruction in their wake, only to return and act like heroes to those who were affected by their earlier actions.
They ended up getting quite a few masters of small to mid-sized pantheons in their debts. When they weren't deceiving poor masters who could not stand up to them, they spent their time in various bars drinking.
Dwarven-made liquor was so potent that even high-level existences like superior gods and Arch devils like Cattleya could get drunk off it despite their high resistances.
They both decided to acquire various houses and mansions around their favorite bars so in the event one of the two passed out from drinking, the other would carry them back home quickly.
One of the reasons for this decision was the time when Cattleya blew up a planet in her drunken state, luckily, it was uninhabited.
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"You really had me lost for words there, who knew you could be such a bad drunk?"
"I'm not okay?!"
Cattleya shot back with reddened cheeks and bloodshot eyes upon hearing her hooded best friend's words. The man, however, only chuckled before taking the beer jug filled with alcohol mixture from her hands and placing it back on the table.
"You've had way too much tonight. You even bought the new liquor on sale. We're going home now."
"It was on this day, a thousand years ago that we first met, cheers to our friendship anniversary!"
"Yes, cheers. Now give me the bottle."
**THUMP!!
He grabbed the bottle from her and turned to put it away only to find hear a loud noise, upon turning back, he saw she had passed out on the table. Sighing in exasperation, he wondered if he would be able to make the trip back home since he was only a little bit less drunk than she was, he just had excellent self-control.
There was a nearby penthouse owned by the duo where he planned to take her to. It was built with the intention of being able to relax anywhere in the entire place.
He entered the living room and activated the magic security locks on the door, before walking into the living room with the intention to place the sleeping Cattleya on the sofa bed there.
However, right in front of the sofa, as he was about to lay her down on it, she did something he never expected.
She suddenly got off his arms that were carrying her, before swinging hers around his neck and planting a kiss on his lips.
"Huh? W-wait, Cattleya. Y-you're a bit too d-drunk now."
"It's not the alcohol that's making me do this you know? I just wanted to try it out at least once."
Cattleya replied as she licked her lips seductively before attempting to kiss him once more, however, he covered her mouth with his hand and pushed her a bit backwards. Just before he could speak, he felt pain on his palm and reflexively removed it from over her mouth.
"Ouc-mpf!"
Cattleya took advantage of his surprise to jump kiss him this time, pressing her body all over his and using her weight to force him down on the sofa bed.
She positioned herself on top of his waist and separated her lips from his, hot breaths flowed out between the small gap in their lips alongside a thin line of saliva.
Noticing that he was barely holding himself back, Cattleya smiled meaningfully before taking off her shirt and revealing her voluptuous **cough** assets **cough** underneath.
For her best friend underneath her, he was in quite a dilemma. It wasn't the first time he had been in such a situation, however, he had always been able to handle it with ease.
Unfortunately, this time, he seemed to have a harder time holding himself back, the fact that he was currently intoxicated didn't make things any better. It was then that Cattleya took off her shirt and revealed her bare body underneath.
The little voice of reasoning in his head telling him to stop her was instantly overpowered by the one telling him to indulge himself in the meal placed before him.
He grabbed her waist and repositioned her properly before taking the initiative this time, as the both of them were already in the mood, they just let their bodies do the talking...
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Waking up the next morning, Cattleya was about to get off the bed before realizing two things;
One, she was naked, her clothes were all over the floor. Two, there was someone else in the bed with her, someone she knew very well.
Seeing the familiar black hair and round eyes that fluttered open to reveal a pair of obsidian pupils, the memories of her actions the previous night came pouring back in at once.
'Cattleya! Why did you do that?!'
Her face flushed red with embarrassment as she unknowingly twirled her hair around her finger while averting her gaze.
"Looks like your sense of shame has returned, huh?"
He threw in a snide remark as he stood up from the bed before walking up to the closet and pulling out a bathrobe, turning around, he tossed it towards Cattleya who caught it reflexively.
"Um...I'm not normally like that...I mean, although I had those thoughts, I didn't intend to act on them, no wait, I did intend to and I already did, but-!"
"I know, you told me all about it last night."
Cattleya's face turned an even deeper shade of red as she covered herself with the blanket on the bed. Her dark-haired best friend only chuckled before saying.
"What's done is done and can't be undone, well it could but that's a lot of work and I'm not up for that. Let's just act like we always do with each other, though that may take a while."
"Yeah I get but, let's get dressed first shall we."
Cattleya replied with a smaller voice than usual before the two proceeded to dress up properly.
Exactly as he said, they were not able to meet each other for a while, not because of anything serious but simply because they were too embarrassed to look each other in the face.
This situation lasted for about a month, however, when they next met, the news Cattleya had for him was the farthest from any of his expectations at the time.
"So, I'm pregnant."
She said it so casually as one would order a drink at a bar, however, the contents were not so casual. Especially for her dark-haired best friend and father of her unborn child.
He almost choked on his drink when he heard her say that, to which she laughed at him like she was expecting it.
"You sure?"
"Yep."
Cattleya replied as she took a sip of the orange juice in her hand before narrating how she discovered she was pregnant.
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It was a normal afternoon, about 24 hours before she broke the news to him. Cattleya went over to meet her elder brother, Creusery, to ask about something while the latter was conducting experiments with an authority of his.
The red-haired, half devil, half phoenix was seated on the floor in the center of a circle of light red translucent flames.
"What are you doing?"
"Hmm? Oh, it's just you, Leya. I'm experimenting to see how long I can-!"
He suddenly stopped talking and snapped his head in Cattleya's direction. Ignoring her surprise at his action, he tapped the floor and a ring of translucent flames expanded with him at the center, passing through Cattleya's body as it joined with the original flame circle.
"Leya."
"Yes?"
"Why...can I sense two life signs from you?"
"Huh?!"
This time, it was Cattleya's turn to be surprised as she never saw that coming, however, Creusery asked her the same question again before explaining what he sensed.
"I sensed two life signs from you, one that's large and is stuffed with so much destructive energy that I'm hard-pressed to call it a life sign. The second is weak, weaker than that of a child even. It's almost like that of an...an unborn child...
Leya, you're...pregnant."
His words shocked Cattleya no less than hers did her dark-haired best friend. Creusery had a bit of Diablo's life-sensing ability so Cattleya was more inclined to believe him. After making him promise to keep it a secret for as long as he could, she dashed out of the area instantly.
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Hearing her words, the dark-haired man could not help but sigh in exasperation. He then remembered his wife who turned a woman that threw herself at him once into a flowerpot and shook in fear slightly.
'She's going to be so pissed!'
The duo then talked about the issue seriously and came to various agreements, one of which was that Cattleya was keeping the child. Her dark-haired best friend was also unlike some gods who had an elitist attitude and discriminated against other races despite having multiple affairs with the women of said races.
In situations where they were to conceive a child, these gods either forced them to abort or denied knowing about it.
Her dark-haired best friend decided to go back home and come clean to his wife about the matter while Cattleya spent most of her time avoiding Diablo's gaze.
All seemed fine until one of Diablo's aides, a Marquis of the Devildom, Drirnos, received the two prophecies relating to the 'child o destruction' who was said to be able to bring an end to the gods.
After hearing the prophecies, she felt that it was similar to her situation, however, she ignored them believing there could not be such coincidences.
Her father ordered for a neutral stance to be taken in regards to the matter, however, Cattleya's dark-haired best friend had other thoughts.
He had multiple people with fate, destiny, foresight, and oracle related abilities look into it but the results were less than satisfactory.
That was the case until the day where he had them attempt to search for information about the child in their presence and lo and behold, they saw all that they needed.
The appearance of the unborn 'child of destruction' alongside his mother could be seen, naturally, it was Cattleya.
Upon telling her, Cattleya still refused to believe, but when the law of causality began taking action to protect her from multiple attempts on her life, she had no choice but to accept the reality.
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As she recounted the events that led to her meeting with the father of her child, down to discovering her unborn child was also the one in the prophecy, the anger on Diablo's face kept on increasing, as he wanted nothing more but to beat up the god who was responsible.
Unfortunately, although he could take guesses on his identity, there was no way to confirm it as Cattleya did not directly say who it was.
After promising her brother and father to not do anything that will put herself in danger, she went on to break that promise immediately afterward as she ordered for rumors to be spread that she was the mother of 'the child of destruction'.
"With how those gods are snooping around, someone would have figured it out sooner or later, either by sacrificing someone to take the hit from causality or some other means. I only hastened the process."
That was what she told Diablo when he heard what she did and summoned her in rage. It was a logical argument and he barely had a reason to scold her after hearing it, only shaking his head in exasperation before making her take multiple high-ranking devils as guards, just in case.
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"It's quite funny how you can say all these without feeling embarrassed. I'm the one hearing it and I'm cringing over here."
Arthur held his shoulders and shook his head as he spoke, Layla also nodded in affirmation with a slight blush on her face.
"Still...to think you were the one who instigated it. I never took you for the aggressive ty-OW!!!."
Cattleya flicked Arthur's forehead while he was speaking, causing him to scream out in pain as he held his head with both hands.
"I never expected myself to be that aggressive though, I guess the alcohol had to do with it."
She placed her hand on her chin as she tried to remember her thought process on that fateful night. Meanwhile, Arthur was questioning his existence after discovering that he may have not been born if his mother was not intoxicated that night.
"So, your highness. What happened after you spread the rumors?"
Layla's question brought her out of her thoughts as she continued with her narration, ignoring the look full of grievance Arthur was giving her.