Kafka's eyes fluttered open.
He blinked once. Then again.
The sunlight streaming through the tall glass windows immediately hit him, the warm golden rays painting his room in a soft, tranquil hue. The familiar high ceiling above him, the polished marble floor beneath the silk carpet, the faint smell of stinky clothes he hadn't put in the laundry…
His bedroom.
He was lying comfortably under his blanket, tucked in snugly as if he hadn't just experienced the most soul-crushing revelation in cosmic history.
"…Hah…" A relieved breath escaped him as he slowly sat up, eyes squinting at the light.
"It was a dream." He muttered to himself. "Oh thank god…Thank the heavens. That ridiculous request, it had to be a dream. Something like that couldn't possibly be real. Something like…impregnating my own mother?"
He chuckled, nervous and light.
"Yeah. Right. No way. That was definitely—"
A calm voice interrupted him like a guillotine blade.
"Oh, you're finally awake, Kafka."
His entire body froze.
That voice.
He knew that voice.
Slowly, painfully slowly, he turned his head to the side, like a man dragging himself to look into the abyss.
There she was.
Evangeline.
Seated neatly on the cushioned chair beside his bed, legs crossed, hands folded neatly on her lap. Waiting. Watching. Her face utterly calm, as always.
"…It wasn't a dream, was it?" He asked, a bitter, tired smile twisting his lips.
"No. What happened last night was most definitely not a dream." Evangeline shook her head. "Every word, every revelation, true. The request you received…is real."
Kafka stared at her, his eyes begging her to say she was joking. That this was all some cruel prank and she'd soon laugh and say. "Just kidding!"
But her expression remained still. Unyielding.
"…So it's true." Kafka muttered after a long silence, sinking back into the bed like a man returning to his grave. "The final request…is really to impregnate my own mother."
He laughed. It was a humorless, exhausted laugh. The sound of someone on the verge of existential breakdown.
"What a joke. What an absolute joke…"
With a sigh, he threw the blanket off and sat up fully, feet touching the cold floor. He turned to Evangeline, voice tired but laced with morbid curiosity.
"What happened last night? Did I knock myself out?"
Evangeline reached for the silver teapot beside her and began pouring him a cup of steaming tea.
"You fainted…" She said calmly. "…the moment the final request was transmitted to your divine consciousness. Lady Vanitas panicked, a lot. Her screaming nearly split the ocean open. Fortunately, I managed to calm her down. You were carried to your bed and have been resting ever since."
"…And now it's morning." He accepted the cup with both hands and took a sip. "Hm. This tea's good."
"It's Ethereal Hibiscus blend. One my favorites from the heavens." She replied.
Kafka nodded absently, before glancing around the room. "Where's my mother?"
"She's outside." Evangeline said. "But before we speak of her…we need to finish talking about last night."
Kafka exhaled heavily but nodded. "Right. Go on."
Evangeline adjusted in her seat, her tone shifting into something quieter. More serious.
"You're probably wondering why such an…absurd request was given to you. Why that is the final trial you must pass in order to become a demigod."
Kafka gave her a look that said 'obviously.'
She continued. "It ties back to the nature of the divine trial itself. You see, when Lady Vanitas ascended and became an Eternal Sovereign, she did so with her heart, soul, and thoughts entirely consumed by you. Her love, deeply forbidden and dangerously strong, was all she could think about during the trial."
He furrowed his brow, listening carefully.
"So when the universe granted her a new divine title…" Evangeline went on. "…it was not as the Godof Vanity, as she once was. No. It gave her a new identity, one born from her overwhelming obsession with you. The universe named her…The Godof Forbidden Love."
"Right." Kafka nearly dropped the tea cup again, his eyes twitching. "I remember that part…There's no need to bring it up again."
She nodded. "And because of that title, because her very existence is now aligned with the concept of forbidden love—the trial adapted accordingly. Your previous tasks were wiped clean. The trial reshaped itself…around her. Around the bond between you two. And so, the request changed into what it is now."
"Which is…" Kafka whispered, as if saying it louder would make it more real.
"To create a divine progeny between yourself and the God of Forbidden Love." Evangeline didn't flinch. "Your mother, that is."
Kafka held his breath.
The silence stretched long.
Finally, he spoke.
"…You've got to be kidding me."
"I'm not." Evangeline said, utterly serious. "The heavens sees her as your destined partner. She is the source of the trial, and thus, she is the key to unlocking your ascension."
Kafka sat there, eyes heavy, staring into the depths of his teacup as if hoping the swirling liquid might whisper him a better explanation. One that wasn't cosmic incest.
He took a long, steady breath, then looked up at Evangeline.
"…Alright. Then tell me this."
Evangeline, ever calm, tilted her head slightly in curiosity.
"If the reason this is my new trial…" Kafka began. "…is because of some divine reaction to my mother's feelings…then what the hell was up with my previous one?"
Evangeline blinked. "You mean the one with the older women? Or MILFs, as the mortals like to call them."
"Yes…" Kafka rolled his eyes. "The one where I had to flirt with MILFs, seduce housewives, shamelessly telling me to grope them when we're just talking, and somehow act like that was divine duty."
"Back then, my mother was the Godde of Vanity. That has nothing to do with MILFs…So why did I get stuck with that kind of twisted trial?"
Evangeline finally gave a soft sigh and poured herself another cup of tea before responding in her usual composed tone.
"Every demigod's trial is shaped by two things…" She explained. "…their fated domain, and the emotional bond they share with their divine parent, which helps shape the lens through which that fate is manifested."
Kafka narrowed his eyes. "Go on…"
"For example…" She took a sip. "If someone's fate is to become the God of Oceans—they may be tasked with building an underwater kingdom, mastering aquatic beasts, or ruling tides. If it's fire, they may be asked to tame volcanoes or forge pacts with dragons. Trials reflect future divinity."
She then looked directly at him.
"But you…were born with a very specific fate. You were born as the Incarnation of Lust."
Kafka stiffened.
"So…." She continued. "The trials you were given were inherently…lust-driven. It wasn't just chance or the universe being perverse. You were destined to become a being tied to desire, so the path laid before you had to be filled with acts that reflected that: temptation, intimacy, seduction."
Kafka rubbed his temples. "So shaving Bella's pum-pum was because I needed to adhere to my nature."
"Yes." Evangeline didn't even blink.
"And the MILF angle?"
"That…" She said gently. "…came from your relationship with your mother."
Kafka's face twitched.
"That conflicted, unresolved, love-hate dynamic you've always had with Lady Vanitas…it shaped the trial's form."
"The bond between child and parent feeds into the soul of a demigod's growth. And because your emotions toward her were already so twisted, affectionate, bitter, resentful, longing, it created a very complicated filter."
"That's why your trials revolved around women who shared traits with her. Older, beautiful, commanding women. Women who mirrored the mother figure."
Kafka snorted. "So it all boiled down to my mommy issues."
"Essentially, yes." Evangeline nodded.
"Great. Just great." Kafka laughed bitterly. "I officially had the weirdest divine trial in recorded history because I couldn't sort my feelings out."
"We did think the heavens were joking when your trial was first revealed." Evangeline admitted. "I've never seen anything like it. None of us had."
"And now?" He muttered. "I'm guessing the the change in the trial has to do with how I look at my mother right now."
"Yes. Because the relationship has changed." She said gently. "What was once a conflicted bond laced with hate and longing…has turned into something else. Into love. Romantic love. That change infected the very structure of your fate, and so the trial evolved accordingly."
Kafka just stared at the floor, while Evangeline hesitated, then added.
"There's…another reason too. One you might not want to hear."
He groaned. "Of course there is. Go ahead, hit me."
She exhaled. "Because Lady Vanitas is now the Ruler of Existence, her true desire carries immense weight. Her innermost longing, that is…"
"…her wish to bear your child, is strong. Strong enough to influence reality."
Kafka blinked once. Twice.
"…You're saying." He said slowly. "Because my mother wants to carry my child, the universe gave me that as a divine trial?"
"Yes. It may be hard to accept, but that's the essence of it." Evangeline nodded solemnly. "Your final trial exists because your mother's most sacred, buried desire…is to conceive your child."
"And because she now rules existence itself, the heavens accepted that wish as truth, and your trial was reshaped accordingly."
Kafka just stared blankly.
"I didn't want to say it so directly." Evangeline added softly. "But…that's the truth."
Kafka sat motionless for a few seconds.
Then he collapsed onto the bed, groaning into the pillow.
"Forget fainting. I want to be erased."
"You're handling it better than yesterday." Evangeline noted mildly.
"I'm not." Came his muffled reply. "I'm just in shock."
She reached for her tea again. "Well, try to recover fast. Because you still have a divine trial to complete."
"If you say that again, I will throw myself out of the window." Kafka turned his head slightly.
Evangeline simply sipped her tea. "That won't help. You're immortal now. You won't even have a single scratch if you tried to throw yourself into a volcano."
"Ughhhhhhh!"
Kafka couldn't help but groan into his pillow seeing how fate was fucking all his holes, while even Evangeline couldn't help but feel slight pity for the boy who was tasked with knocking up his own mother…