"They called it… Project Sirius."
The air grew tense at Selena's words.
Akira's lips twitched. "Serious experience, huh? …I have a feeling this is something related to me."
Selena gave him a sarcastic smile. "Oh, really? What gave that away?"
Akira crossed his arms with a dramatic seriousness. "The Force is telling me."
Before Selena could snark back, Erika cut in sharply. Her mood was already frayed, and she couldn't handle the siblings' side-tracking. "Both of you, stop. This isn't the time."
"Sorry," Akira and Selena muttered at once. Selena coughed awkwardly before continuing her explanation.
"Remember how I said more than half of the elders of that generation sacrificed themselves? Well, the remaining ones sacrificed themselves, too. But for a different reason." She smiled faintly.
Akira frowned. "What reason?"
Selena's smile softened. "It was to save all the worlds destroyed in the second war. At least… what was left of them."
Akira blinked. "What do you mean by what was left of them?"
Selena's voice grew solemn. "When Oblivion attacks, they don't just destroy. They erase things from existence, not just physical matter but the very data of reality itself. Sometimes fragments of data remain, but if left alone, they dissolve too. What our ancestors did was sacrifice themselves to activate one of the castle's functions. They used this bubble dimension as an anchor and stitched those fragments together into one world."
Akira froze, realization striking. "Wait, you don't mean…"
"Exactly what you're thinking, brother." Selena's voice was firm. "The world you've been living in until now was created by our ancestors from the fragments of many destroyed worlds."
A hollow laugh escaped Akira. "Ha, I see…" The question that had plagued him ever since his reincarnation finally made sense. Of course, if this world was an amalgamation of countless broken worlds, no wonder so many anime characters from different stories existed here.
Erika, overwhelmed, whispered, "They… created the world we live in…?" Her emotions were a storm, each revelation another weight pressing down. These past few minutes had been too much for her.
Selena nodded. "Yes. They pieced it together forcefully, like combining puzzles from different sets and forcing them into one. It only worked because of our ancestors' sacrifice and the power of this castle. Afterward, the remaining Asterians stayed here and started Project Sirius."
Akira tilted his head. "Why is it called Project Sirius, anyway?"
A small smile touched Selena's lips. "Because Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. The project's mission was to bring forth at least one true Asterian again, one with both pure bloodline and pure soul. A being who could shine brighter than anyone else, a star of hope strong enough to turn the tide. That's why they named it Sirius."
Akira leaned back, letting the name roll over his mind. "Sirius, huh… the brightest star." He nodded slowly. "Makes sense."
Selena's eyes gleamed as she continued. "Remember, how our ancestors lost their strength because they kept marrying other races? Their souls and powers grew diluted generation after generation. So our ancestors decided to reverse the trend completely. Instead of mixing, they chose to concentrate the bloodline. To bring back a pure Asterian."
Akira's face twisted into a troubled expression. He hesitated, visibly uncomfortable, then asked the question gnawing at him.
"…So… is that just a fancy way of saying inbreeding?" His voice dropped on the last word, as if he was forcing it out against his better judgment.
The moment the word left his mouth, Erika's cheeks turned crimson. Her eyes darted between Akira and the memory of his parents, who shared the same pale white hair and those deep purple eyes. A realization struck her; she had always admired how strikingly similar they looked, but now, with this context, her mind spiraled.
"Wait… no… did I really never notice...it can't be right?" She buried her face in her hands, flustered.
Selena, however, waved her hands furiously. "No, no, no! It's not inbreeding! More like… controlled selective breeding."
Akira squinted at her. "That sounds… way too clinical to make me feel any better."
Selena pressed on quickly, eager to explain. "It worked like this: when two Asterians married, they performed a secret technique. That technique ensured only their Asterian parts, their bloodline, and soul traits would be passed down to their child. Everything else, all impurities, was stripped away. Because of using this secret technique, they could only ever have one child. But that child would inherit their combined powers completely."
Erika's eyes widened, still pink from her embarrassment. "So… every generation became stronger than the one before?"
"Exactly." Selena nodded, looking relieved that Erika picked up the point. "That child would grow up, marry another Asterian child, and the cycle would repeat. Each generation, the child would carry more concentrated Asterian essence than the last. Do this for thousands of years and eventually..."
"…you get a pure Asterian again." Akira finished. He could understand, but he didn't look convinced. "Still sounds like we're one step away from family tree turning into family circle."
Selena gave him a patient smile. "That's where the precautions came in. Our ancestors weren't fools; they meticulously recorded genealogies, keeping track of every bloodline. They actually decided marriage pairings long ago, to make sure no close relatives ever mixed. They split the Asterians into two great branches: one focused on cultivating the purest soul, and the other on cultivating the purest bloodline. Each line refined their aspect separately for generations, until the time came to reunite them."
Akira raised an eyebrow. "So they had matchmaking charts spanning… what, thousands of years?"
"Pretty much," Selena admitted.
Akira slumped in relief, exhaling deeply. "Thank goodness. For a second, I thought we were going full House Targaryen. And we all know how that ended."
Erika blinked, tilting her head in confusion. "House… Targaryen? Is that a new anime?"
Selena brightened immediately, seizing the chance. "Oh, no, no, Erika-chan, it's from a story called Game of Thrones. It's got dragons, betrayal, a throne of swords, and…"
"SISTER NOOO." Akira held up a hand, cutting her off. "It's too soon for her. Trust me. Stick to anime references for now."
Selena puffed her cheeks in mock annoyance but let it go with a smile. "Fine, fine. We'll talk about it later, Erika-chan."
Akira sighed a little. "So then… if both branches were reunited, doesn't that mean…"
Selena nodded solemnly, her playful tone fading. "Yes. Our mother, with the strongest soul and energy manipulation, and our father, with the most powerful bloodline, were meant to complete Project Sirius. Their marriage should have created the one true Asterian."
Akira leaned forward, holding his breath.
"But…" Selena's eyes softened, and she said with a weird, playful smile. "Something went wrong. Instead of one child, twins were born. Me, with the highest soul power, but a really, really weak body. And you, with the strongest bloodline. We were born as two."