"I'm fine now." The Boar King said as his legs finished healing from the injury. He landed on the ground and turned around to stare at the three figures that had barged into Compartment 10-A.
"Rejoin with my other body, Yarsha." He spoke upon judging the amount of Prana left in him, "I have less than three thousand Prana. That's not enough against these beings. Your current state makes you vulnerable to their abilities. They're not good-natured enough to avoid targeting your weakness from the get-go and holding you hostage against me."
"With me around, they cannot attack you directly…" Yarsha Zahara stopped speaking upon staring at Raaha, an expert in area-of-effect attacks. It took her a second before the Boar King's words clicked in, staring at him apologetically, "When did you…"
"Come on, Yarsha. I'm your husband. If I cannot even detect that you've given birth just recently, then what kind of a man am I?" The Boar King said, not sparing a glance at her, "Physically, mentally, and even your presence is stretched to its breaking point. It's a wonder you're even able to move."
When Ruvva was born, the Major Treasure of Attribute revealed itself. Until then, Yarsha Zahara had been in a battle against the people of the Brimgan Empire for a decade, harassed by them nonstop.
Even with the help of her children, she was unable to take a breather. After all, she couldn't always make her kids farm in the land and clean the constant thrash being thrown into Varahan Mansion. She needed to educate them, train them in Skills, and ensure that they grow and mature properly.
She had the burden of doing all that while keeping the situation under control to avoid interrupting the Boar King's cultivation at the Gaja Enclave. For a decade, she bore the burden physically and mentally.
And then, there was the strain due to childbirth. Ruvva had barely been born when Virala targeted her family, forcing Yarsha Zahara to take action, and not giving her enough time to rest at all. Adding to that was Orakha's attacks, which caused her to lose some of her Sumatra Gold, stressing her out further.
The Raid Team then appeared, her children got injured, and when her situation became despairing, Resha arrived to her rescue. But right as that happened, she recalled the memories of her Sumatra Chronicles self, getting messed up completely.
Her two selves fought each other and forcefully came to a conclusion using Grehha's Empyrean Incubator. Yarsha Zahara didn't have enough time to come to terms with her changed self, feeling a disconnect with reality.
She was merely going along with the flow for the moment, focusing on her kids as a priority. Even then, she was too exhausted to properly make use of her abilities.
In such a state, she fought against Resha and the Raid Team to protect her kids and then joined the Boar King to face Geugeu and Boul Brimgan. Even now, she gave her everything to steal the two fruits from Blola while trying her best to make a move before Orakha.
If only she had a couple of months of free time to fully synchronise her body and mind to ascertain her character, values, mentality, and purpose in life, Yarsha Zahara would have been able to deal with this situation a lot better than she had done until now.
Without a moment's rest, she had been fighting nonstop, both physically and mentally. In Sumatra Chronicles, she bore Resha's child. In this life, she was the Boar King's wife. Basically, she was in a relationship with two of the greatest mortal enemies of Sumatra.
Adding to that was Virala, with whom she birthed Ruvva. Virala had a bond as a Mammoth Clansman with Resha but the latter wanted nothing more than to kill him. Similarly, the Boar King considered him as Loot and wanted to kill him too.
Having given birth to the children of the trio was none other than Yarsha Zahara. Even though Resha's child didn't exist in this timeline, it made no difference, for to her Sumatra Chronicles self, that was no different from reality.
Caught in the centre of the mess, Yarsha Zahara's mind felt like it was about to break apart. Her disposition constantly wavered, a reason why she mostly shut off her mind and focused on passively protecting the Boar King.
It had been ten hours since the Attribute Revealed itself. She had been fighting nonstop during this entire time, and against pinnacle experts at that. The moment she relaxes for even a moment, her body will shut down, forcing her into a state of unconsciousness until she stabilised both physically and mentally.
"I…am…" Yarsha Zahara bit her lips upon observing the Boar King's side profile, able to feel that he was hurting from within. And soon, the dreaded question arrived.
"The body I left under the mansion was combusting itself to fuel the genetic development of our kids. In that state of being, forget giving birth, it's impossible for its body to even generate a single sperm." The Boar King released a deep sigh as he made eye contact with her, "So, who was the father of your latest child?"
Her eyes reddened upon seeing his pain. Until now, no matter what he faced, the Boar King remained proud. But now, she could no longer see that in him. He just felt so…fragile.
Part of her was hurting to see him like this but the other part relished the scene. Accepting her children was fine, for they were hers and were innocent in both timelines. But she had yet to come to terms with the Boar King. Her two selves loved and hated him the most respectively, two conflicting thoughts with equally powerful emotions.
"Tell me, Yarsha." The Boar King said and unleashed a dome-shaped rock to cover up the entrance, unwilling to be disturbed by the three powerhouses for a few seconds. His facial muscles twitched as his eyes lost their lustre, "Tell me…who was it?"
"He had your body, character, and presence. I…was fooled." Yarsha Zahara said, blinking as her hands slowly raised to her cheek and felt the burning sensation there, unable to react to the Boar King's slap.
"This is the first time I've hit family." The Boar King stared at his hand that had slapped her reflexively, chuckling self-deprecatingly, "Oh, how I've fallen."
"I didn't…that wasn't my…" Yarsha Zahara wanted to prove her innocence, but words failed to come out of her mouth. She was unable to figure out what to say here.
"Where's that child now?" The Boar King asked after a silence of ten seconds, one that felt like minutes.
"Loot snatched her from me." Yarsha Zahara bowed her head in shame.
"The fault isn't yours. I'm not blaming you." The Boar King turned away from her and sighed, wiping a tear that he shed for the first time in his life, "It's just…this world is filled with grotesquely cunning monsters. Even I've fallen prey to them multiple times. As a sheltered princess who was pampered since birth, despite your intellectual superiority, you're just too innocent to face them."
"Now, go." The Boar King waved his hand weakly, "My other body has been using all the Natures of Internal Inertial Gravity. He's actively suppressing the influences of the Empyrean Tusks' hive-mind nature while controlling his hatred. His mental state and physical condition aren't as sensitive as mine."
"So," He stared at Yarsha Zahara, "Before you reach him, heal yourself so that you don't look like someone who has given birth mere hours ago. He definitely won't notice, since before the split, we couldn't perceive your state of being as a woman who had given birth. It just felt like you were exhausted from the repeated battles."
"Tell our children to do the same too. Act oblivious to the situation." The Boar King's voice was faint now, almost a whisper, "An ignorant man is a happy man. The fact of you giving birth…take it to the grave, all of you."
'I…can't do that. She's my child too!' Yarsha Zahara controlled her thoughts, unwilling to hurt the Boar King, even though her Sumatra Chronicles self was happy to do so. 'That never happened! Fuck that hatred!'
"I'm sorry," She said with a resolute expression, "I don't wish to hide anything from your other body. It was the result of my foolishness and I am prepared to accept the consequences."
"The only consequence you have to face is a sight of me blaming my powerless self." The Boar King chuckled without an air of confidence and arrogance from before, "My wife suffered through a lot while I was ignorantly stuffing myself fat at the Gaja Enclave."
"After two millennia, I finally have a family that I love. And I…" The Boar King seeped Prana into the monolith nearby and crushed it to form a boat in which he placed Yarsha Zahara, uttering as he sent it flying towards the gate leading into Compartment 9-A, "am ready to go to any extent to protect my family."
"So, I beg you, Yarsha." He said, "If you're unable to kill that child, treat her as non-existent until our kids have children of their own. That'll make my suffering worthwhile. Or if better, kill Loot first. I wouldn't mind raising that child then."
"That's my compromise and something I request of you." He said as the boat carrying her sped towards the gate leading to Compartment 9-A. His gaze then focused upon the figures of Raaha, Geugeu, and Boul Brimgan who broke through the dome of rock he had erected around the entrance, "I'm not in the mood for this. So, the lot of you can die as you please, since I'm tearing this place down."
He stared at the ceiling of the Attributed Region and observed the raindrops, "A place that can kill even me. So that's what a Major Treasure does. Then, I simply need to be prepared for it."
"My main body, I'll leave the rest to you." Saying so, the Boar King unleashed a presence to signal Sumatra Continent that he had reached the pinnacle of the Pranic Beast Path and wished to enter the Transcendence Stage, inviting a Bolt of Transcendence towards him.
His figure flickered to reach the gate leading to Compartment 9-A before Yarsha Zahara, watching a Bolt of Transcendence pierce through the ceiling of the Attributed Region and reach him, losing most of its power by the time it reached him.
"Urgh!" He grunted in pain, feeling his body beginning to melt faintly in response as he summoned a second bolt, adjusting the way his presence emanated to attract a Bolt of Transcendence that ran straight through the gate to reach him.
It poked a hole through the gate, allowing the boat-shaped monolith to pass through it and head towards the gate leading to Compartment 8-A. The Boar King erected a rocky pillar to block the gate long enough for it to close before Raaha and the rest managed to enter it.
His figure flickered to the other end of Compartment 9-A and invited a third Bolt of Transcendence, using which he cleared a path in the rain, making it easy for the boat-shaped monolith to travel without being bombarded by rain.
Boom! Crash! Kaboom!
The Bolts of Transcendence were repeatedly attracted by the Boar King, using which he tore through the gates and headed deeper into the Attributed Region, 'I…need…to…hold…on!'
A ginormous sea of knowledge carried by the Bolts of Transcendence poured into his mindspace, also containing with it data related to the Attributed Region that the Bolts of Transcendence melted through and absorbed. His body began to break down as the Body King desperately churned Prana, 'I need to endure. Just a bit more.'
'Until I transfer all of this accumulation to my main body and finish creating the Wean Clan!'