Elaria opened the door, and didn't even get to say anything before Mom was speaking.
"Is my daughter here?"
"Yes, Ma'am, she is sleeping in the spare room." Mom visibly relaxed and sighed in relief. "Would you like to see her, or shall I fetch her?"
"I-I'll just come see her so as not to wake her."
I teleported from where I was laying to the kitchen and came out eating an apple. It wouldn't do for me to be there when Mom looks in on my sister.
Elaria quietly led Mom up the stairs to the open bedroom door, where she looked in.
Mom smiled sadly and relieved as she looked at her with her eyes red from crying and her messy hair. "Can she stay here for a bit? Don't tell her I came worried about her."
"Yes, Ma'am, she can stay as long as she likes. After all, a guest room is for guests."
"Thank you, today is a hard day for her. I'm glad she has found friends and somewhere to go. Thank you."
"No problem. Would you like something to eat or drink?"
"No thank you. I'll go back home now that I know she is safe. Thank you."
Elaria walked her to the door while I stood in the kitchen doorway.
After Elaria shut the door, I teleported back up to the bed and lay down in front of my sister again. I snuggled up close, very carefully so as not to wake her and put my arm over her waist.
I closed my eyes and decided to get some more information from Kitty. I'm a little worried about the whole thing of my power being halved when I go to another world. It would be really bad if the random place she put me was dangerous.
'Kitty, will you please tell me how to keep my power from being halved when I go to the next world?'
[Take your magic, for example. You need to replace your lesser energy in the mana core and circles with energy. This has to be done slowly so as not to overload the core. This is the minimum world level you can start at, as you have completed the body forging to a sufficient extent. Still, you should only replace 20% of it now. Still, do it slowly, maybe expel 0.5% of your total, replace it, and let it sit for a while.]
'How long should I let it sit?'
[This isn't math class.]
'So whenever I feel like I could do more.'
[Yes.]
'Is there anything else you should tell me that I need to know so I don't explode?'
[I don't think so.]
She really knows how to inspire confidence.
I dove into my dantian and began dividing out 0.5% of the lesser energy in it. Then I expelled it.
Immediately all of the girls teleported into the room, panic evident on their faces. Oops, I probably worried them with the sudden large fluctuations in the lesser energy.
Lila was dripping with water from the pool, Elaria was holding a knife and an onion, Nona held half folded clothes, and Luna held a spoon.
I put up an illusion of text, "Sorry, I'm just working on something. No need to worry."
There were several soft sighs, and they all left, leaving me alone with my sister again. I started moving a bit of energy that was just spread throughout my body by Kitty into my dantian, very, very slowly. For now, I think Kitty manages where and how my energy was stored without destroying me, but I never bothered to ask her as I don't care.
I spent a solid hour slowly replacing just that little bit I expelled. I think there is going to be the added benefit of energy being more powerful. I will still be in the same realm, but I will be a more difficult opponent, and if I ever fight a battle of attrition, my energy would last longer.
Now that I was done with that part, I did the same thing with my mana core. The girls didn't panic this time; they just all looked through the void at me to make sure I was still fine.
Next, I made a few modifications to the house in my world, an extra bedroom on each floor.
Now that I was finished, I had nothing to do and decided to just sleep until Zari woke up. I slipped my hand off her hip and up under her shirt, placing it against her upper back, and drifted off to sleep.
---
I woke when she started to stir. She wasn't quite awake yet but was waking up rapidly.
She suddenly opened her eyes and partially sat up. She was at an angle due to being restrained from sitting fully by my arm around her.
She looked like she was about to cry again, and a few tears leaked from the corner of her eyes. "Brother."
I placed my hand on her cheek and wiped them away with a brush of my thumb.
I pulled her down against my chest, and her head was next to mine with her ear next to my mouth. I whispered, "I missed you to."
I rolled over so we were on our sides again facing each other and lifted my head to kiss her forehead.
"I placed this universe inside my private world that I formed in my soul. Let's go there."
I picked her up princess-style and she blushed, opened a door to my world, and stepped through, closing it behind me.
I set the time scale very fast so we could spend a lot of time here without any passing for the others.
Next, I teleported us to the large bedroom on the 2nd floor.
I walked into the bathroom where the hot tub was and stepped down into the water, lowering her onto one of the seats.
She was still clothed, but I quickly removed mine while standing on the bottom of the tub and tossed them out.
She blushed again, and I figured she should do the same, "Are you going to take yours off, or would you like a swimsuit? I figured in this place, we can talk."
She looked conflicted for a moment before stripping off her clothes also and tossing them out. She was underwater up to her neck, and the bubbles hid her body. "You can't go out like that."
I grinned, "I didn't say I would get out."
She looked at me stupidly before her face got redder when she realized she was now naked for no reason. "Can… can I please-"
I gave a wicked smile, "Nope." I'm not getting one for her now.
I sat down right next to her, turned sideways towards her, dragged her onto my lap, and stretched my legs out along the bench.
She was stupefied at first with a beet-red face. I could feel her butt against my little brother who rapidly grew hard. I leaned her against my chest, and I rested against the corner.
"So, what do you want to ask me?"
Some tears fell from her face, "Why did you leave?"
What? She didn't become stupid, right? "I died."
She gave a sad laugh, "Why did you ride your bike in front of that car?"
"I had the intelligence to come up with bad ideas but not the wisdom to decide they were bad. It's the same reason I went to university; I wanted to avoid a conversation with mom about wanting a job. So I decided to go to university because that was easy to tell her, and decided to spend $23,000 and get a lower-paid job than what I wanted to do. I came up with a stupid idea to avoid a conversation I didn't want to have and didn't think it was stupid."
"In what world did you think you were faster than a car?"
Hahahaha, "I am."
"Stupid, you know what I mean."
"I thought I could beat it."
I sighed, "What else do you want to know?"
"What realm are you in?"
"Quasi-Immortal so if your trying to compare, you can't. That's like a baby trying to punch god."
She looked like someone had knocked the wind out of her sails and a little angry. Sister, I didn't do nothing to you! You have no right to be mad about it.
I waited a few seconds and tapped her nose, "What else do you want to know?"
"Umm, umm, umm, do you?" Her face turned red again before she just blurted it out. "Do you really sleep with all of those girls?"
"Talk to Lila about things like that. But Luna and Lila are my wives."
She covered her mouth and mumbled, looking mortified, "That day."
I laughed again, "Lila likes sharing. You're not the first. Elaria got it first, now Luna is used to it. She'll definitely give you much more in the future."
Her face was redder than I'd seen even Luna's. It took her a few minutes to calm down.
I spoke again; there was really only one question I had for her, "Do you care that I'm your brother?"
She turned her head without hesitation and kissed me; my tongue brushed against her lips, prying them apart, our tongues entwined, exploring the inside of each others mouth. She didn't need to give a spoken answer. I turned her around, and her legs wrapped around my waist when I scooted away from the wall.
I produced a ring that had tracking and communication functions engraved into it; it would link to the rest of ours. I broke the kiss and leaned her back a bit, pulling her right hand between us, sliding it on her finger. I know most people from my culture would put a ring on the left hand, but I preferred the right one.
She looked at it. The band was platinum, which gave it a white shine and beautifully complemented the tiny tanzanite gemstones embedded around the 1/3rd on top of her finger. On the inside of the band, my name is inscribed, although it's not like she'll ever forget who she belongs to, but, ya know, I just like it.
"Although you can't activate it yet, in addition to it being the ring I gave you, it is an artifact; you can use it to locate the others and talk to them. And, of course, me."
She buried her head against me, "It's ok, I'll just be with you forever, so I don't need it."
"You still have to go home, or mom will worry about you; then we can talk with it anytime."
"She doesn't matter."
"I don't want her to be sad though; we have to find a good time to tell her we're going on vacation or something."
I could almost sense her having bad thoughts; I was right, "She won't be sad if she's dead."
She wants to kill her so she doesn't have to be apart from me for even just a little bit? How the hell did she come to the conclusion that the best solution was kill our perfectly kind and lovable mother?
I held her in front of me and forced her to look into my eyes, "I would be very sad if you did something to her. You're not allowed to. We'll find some way to tell her you're coming with us soon."
She looked disappointed she wasn't allowed to send our mother to her grave. Whew, crisis averted, at least for a bit.
She started wiggling and looked away with a cute expression; it was clear what she was getting at but was too embarrassed to say it. It was so cute it took all my self-control not to go mad with lust.
I spun around with a splash, so she was the one sitting on the bench and unwrapped her legs from my waist. I sunk under the water and started kissing my way upward from her ankles.
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