month later

Vermilion City

Theo's Company Building

"W-What the hell are things things?!" exclaimed Theo as he stared at the 'things' lying by his bedside. "Can something like these exist in the world?!"

"Theo, you're over reacting." replied Nichola who was sitting right beside Theo's bed.

"No I'm not! Look at them! Look at these angels! My children cant be this cute! But they are so criminally adorably awesome!"

"For someone who was comatosed for one month, you're surprisngly energetic my love" said Juno

"What did you expect? The last time I saw them, I was fighting to stay awake. This time around, I can take my time basking in their cuteness." said Theo as he gently burried his face on the heads of his infants. "Whose a little cutie. Yes you are my wittle cuddlypoos~"

It was a bit frustrating that he only had one arm. If he had both limbs, he would be capable of unleashing 500% more cuddles.

"Ugh.... First your weebo languange, now baby speach? Give me a break." said Nichola

"Dont be like that Nichola. You'll be like me in 9 months time."

Theo reached out and touched Nichola's belly.

It was still relatively flat, but there was definitely life within it.

"H-hmph! Dont put me in the same basket as you." replied the blushing Nichola.

However, the raven haired beauty could not help but hide her greatest worry.

"Odds are, my child will inherit my curse.... *sigh*... I really rather not have the poor kid suffer through what I went through."

"Now that you mention it, when does that curse kick in?" asked Juno.

"Around 13 years old."

"Right in the child's growth spurt huh... That cant be good." said Theo.

The growth spurt varried between genders. 8 to 13 for girls and 10 to 15 for boys.

Becoming a shriveled up husk would definitely traumatize the poor child, especially when he/she was in the chaotic stage of puberty.

"*sigh*... Yeah... But now that I think about it, my child will be in a better situation than I was." said Nichola as she smiled gently at Theo. "Unlike me, the little one will have a loving family who's ready for the curse. So... yeah...."

Nichola Uses Bashful Mode

It was super effective!

If Theo had both limbs and were not in the presence of his adorable twins, he would have lunged at Nichola and shower her with his 'love'.

"Ah yes. Diabetes Nichola has struck again." said Juno. "But back to the topic of your future kid. If it's a guy, then there's no problem. He can chose any one from the Reformants and let one rip. Cant say the same if your kid is a girl though."

"True enough. Sex has a more long lasting effect to the female anatomy compared to the male's." replied Theo in agreement.

A man's body was capable of spreading his seed to as many wombs as possible.

Aside from the accursed STD, a sickness that Theo hated with passion, having sex with many women inflicted virtually no damage to a man's body.

If you remove STD from the equation (which females were more prone to), pregnancy was a constant risk in every sexual encounter.

Contraceptives such as condoms and pills would have solved this problem, but this could not be used on those girls who share Nichola's curse.

The white beam of justice must be untainted when it enters the kingdom of heaven.

Theo would really rather not have his future daughter take such a risk at such a young age.

But more importantly, he wasnt going to let some random bastard touch his daughter. The brave fool was going to go through hell and back before that happens.

However, Theo soon realized that there were some differences in common sense and values between him and Nichola.

"Like I said, my child is lucky to have a loving family at her side. If my child is a daughter, you can make love her like you made love to me." said Nichola

"...What?" replied Theo who could not believe what he just heard.

"Huh? Did I stutter? I said just that you having sex with our future daughter will solve all of your concerns."

"Hold up! Do you even understand what you just said?!"

"Ofcourse I did. In the off chance that our daughter gets pregnant, you dont have to worry about the character of her husband since it's your child." replied Nichola with the 'how can you not know this?' face.

"That's incest! If she does get pregnant with my child, her offspring would have lethal birth defects!"

"Oh. Right. I forgot that you're a pure science guy. Allow me to enlighten you. Havent you ever wondered why the Pharaohs only married within the family?"

"To keep the bloodline pure. And besides, the Pharaohs died off thousands of years ago."

"That is wrong. They still exist though they dont call themselves 'Pharaohs' anymore. And yes, they have kept their bloodline pure even to this day." said Nichola, much to Theo's horror. "You are also wrong about the reason. Similar to breeding dogs, prestigious families who wield powerful magic concentrate on passing on traits when producing offsprings. Inbreeding is the most effective means to strengthen a desired trait."

"And the genetic defects?"

"Easily solvable via magical means. There are many ways to do it, but the most common method is the potion therapy. Quite simply, if a certain defect is detected, it gets bombarded with a potion specifically made to counter it. The process is about 1-2 weeks max. This is actually the slowest anti-inbreeding cure, but it's the cheapest."

"How do you even know that?"

"I've been offering the potion therapy service for almost a year now, so of course I know quite a bit about it."

"And is it a common practice amongst the mages?"

"It's not widespread but it is accepted in our circles. I'd estimate about 10% of all mages practice it."

Theo felt a little relieved when he heard that. While 10% was still a very big number, atleast he could rest easy that 90% of mages followed common sense.

"Juno. What's your opinion on this?" asked Theo, which he immidiately regreted.

"You're asking the most depraved member of your harem what she thinks of the most immoral sexual action possible?" replied Juno who didnt even bother hiding how appealing the idea was to her.

"*sigh*. You're right. Stupid of me to ask a pervert like you."

"I am honor to recieve your praise my husband."

"That was not praise you stupi-! Ah! Forget it!"

As a long time weeb, Theo was very familiar with the whole incest themed animes that have had been popular for a while now.

The 'incest is wincest' meme was used quite a lot back then.

However, anime was not real life and there was a reason why most animals had an instinctive aversion to mating with a blood related kin.

Unfortunately, Theo was also someone who knew when to squash his personal beliefs for the sake of efficiency.

With all the facts presented to him by Nichola, it was definitely more efficient for him to bone his own daughter in order for her to avoid suffering through the Rasputin curse.

Sadly, every viber of his being violently rejected the idea.

He was letting his personal views get in the way of the most cost efficient method of solving his future problem.

As a man who practiced lived by the motto 'Prevention is better than Cure', refusing the clear prevention to the issue damaged his pride quite a bit.

And like anyone who used his personal preferences instead of the cold hard facts in a debate, he was most certainly losing this argument.

Fortunately, before Nichola could drive Theo into the proverbial corner, Pani walked into the room.

"Statement: Assistant Clone No. 58912213 is relieved that husband has has finally awakened." said Pani in her typical monotone robotic manner.

"Thanks Pani. Glad to be back." replied Theo as he stroked Pani's small yet fine ass. "I assume you're not here just to greet me, am I right?"

"Correct. Reoport: Alial Milza, The Lord of Vermilion, Miss Samantha, Mother Leticia, The Doctor and Corlo Nosferatu requests a meeting with husband the moment he wakes up. Tomorrow, representatives from the Volsung Norsca Clan, the Ecclesiarchy and the Yagyu Clan of Zifang has requested a meeting."

"So much crap right from the get go huh. No rest for the wicked I see."

"Given what went down in Eldorado, I think this level of annoyance will continue for a bit." said Nichola

"Really? It's just a coup de tat. That happens at least once a year somewhere in this world." replied Theo.

"Trust me, it's so much more than that. Go to your meeting and prepare yourself. You're in for a surprise."

-:-

1 hour later

A conference room in Theo's office building

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" Theo exclaimed as he watched the video on the widescreen monitor.

A video clip that was taken by some bystander with a fancy HD camera approximately 2 kilometers from the hotel Theo fought in. It was about 1 minute long, but only the 10 seconds at the middle was important.

The first suspicious thing in the video was the bright golden light. The battle happened in a dark cloudy night, so the day-like sunshine was out of place.

Second: some sort of dimensional gate opened a few hundred meters above the hotel.

It reminded Theo of the Hellgate Incident in Vermillion City. However, this gate seemed to much more 'orderly' compared to the 'chaotic' hellgates.

Last: A massive golden arm made of some sort of metal exited the gate and flattened the hotel.

Based on the magnitude 10 earthquake that followed soon after, the arm was in the hundred thousand tons range. Probably close to a million.

And as sudden as its appearance, it was gone.

"How the hell did even I survive that?" asked Theo in confusion.

If his guessed the weight of that golden hand correctly, there should have been nothing left of his body.

Yet despite that, the only injury he recieved was the severe malnutrition from overusing his midas alchemy and being comatosed for 1 month.

"We were actually hoping that you would answer that kid." said the frog faced doctor.

"Dude, that obviously is some magical god shit right there. As a science based power user, that crap is beyond my capabilities and experties." replied the confused Theo

"So you are absolutely sure that this phenomenon is not of your own doing?" asked Alial Milza

"I may have been delirious at the time so I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I'm sure as hell that I am not capable of that."

Alial Milza and Mother Leticia exchanged nods before beginning their explanation.

"We've explained our hypothesis to Lord, Miss Samantha, the Doctor and Nosferatu a couple of weeks ago. We, as in I and the Ecclesiarchy, believe that you have been chosen to be an Apostle by the Machine God." said Mother Leticia.

The Lord of Vermillion (who as only present in audio), Miss Samantha, the Frog Faced Doctor, Nosferatu and Theo squirmed uncomfortably in their seats.

They knew that the 'Machine God' was nothing more than a stupid prank by a bored immortal vampire.

However, recent events dictated that there might be something else at work here.

They could not simply write off Mother Leticia's comments as naive belief at something that did not exist.

This time around, they had to listen.

"What do you mean by 'Apostle'?" asked Theo

"Whenever a 'god-like' gains enough power to manifest his abilities into this world, he often has allies with him. These allies were capable of using some of the god-like's powers to some extent. It does not matter if that person is physically capable of wielding such power or not."

"Er... Doesnt this sound like The Herald of the Creator and his 12 Apostles?"

"Oh? I did not expect you to be the type of person who reads the Ecclesiarchy Codex."

"I may not be the devoute I once was, but I still do go attend the congrecations every sunday."

"Hahaha. Good to know. And yes, you are correct about the 12 Apostles. The Herald himself was a god-like that eventually ascended into true godhood. His 12 followers were Apostles and became the founding members of an organization which eventually led to the present day Ecclesiarchy."

"And you think I'm becoming an Apostle of the Machine God?"

"Technically, you already are."

"Since when? And how?"

"When? I dont know. How? As far as the Ecclesiarchy records show, Apostles were chosen based on affinity between them and the God-like. Quite simply, the Machine God likes you. Plain and simple."

"I see... So what happens now?"

"That is pretty much up to you. But I would highly suggest maintaining a good relationship with the fledgling god. Out of the 981 confirm god-likes right now, the Machine God is by far the strongest of them all. Never have I seen a fledgling god manifest so much power into the material world."

"Oh? Do tell Mother Leticia." inquired Alial Milza with great interest.

While Mother Leticia and Alial Milza were engaged in conversation, those who were in the know squirmed in their seats.

There was no such thing as a Machine God.

Only a stupid prank, a fancy looking power armor made of golden metal and a guy who was slightly good a bullshiting.

Theo racked his brain to find the answer to the Machine God Mystery.

He did remember that he felt something was off when he activated all 3 archon batteries at once during his battle with the old Yagyu samurai, but this was hardly the first time he ever used the adamantium arm at full power.

Then why did he manifest power he did not posses this time around?

Theo despised not understanding his own predicament.

Suddenly, he had a eureka moment.

Wasnt there another person who was as much of an enigma as his new found power?

"Okay Juno, it's been way overdue. Time to tell me your secrets just like you promised."