Chapter 297: Mother Dearest
"He should be by your side, by our side! He should learn about his destiny. He was meant for greatness!" Cassie hated the idea of Kai living like a mortal. He, by birth, was a Primordial Diety, and Cassie wanted him to live like one.
"He should be living his life the way he wants, not being groomed to be what he doesn’t wish to be," Leo argued
"He didn’t even know who he was until a few months ago. You had him "die" so you could slowly introduce him into his divine side, but he should have known that since the beginning, and he shouldn’t be calling another woman mother, especially a fucking mortal!"
Leo didn’t blame Cassie for feeling that way. Any mother would be devastated after having their child stripped from them, especially after their other children were killed by her husband.
He stole her chance at mothering Kai and even had him be raised by another woman. While Cassie didn’t hate mortals, she did not see them as her equals.
Leo had been dealing with Cassie pestering him about Leo for eons, and now that Kai was old enough to make his own choices. He didn’t want her to meet Kai. In fact, he strictly forbade her from doing so.
"Fine. Come with me. I’ll take you to him."
"No. I don’t want you to monitor my every move while I see MY son. Remove the restriction you’ve placed on me and let me see him on my own."
Leo didn’t want to comply, but he trusted that Kai wouldn’t be swayed by her words. "Fine." He waved his hand, and Cassie felt a lock in her chest vanish.
She hadn’t felt this free in years. Her restriction to traveling anywhere she wanted was never removed, but she wasn’t able to ever travel where Kai resided, but now she could.
"It seems like you do still care for me." She hugged Leo and even gave him a kiss.
"Cassie, regardless of everything, I still love you, and you will always be my queen of the universe. But don’t make me regret this. You know what happens when I get angry."
"Don’t worry, I won’t do anything that will make you upset. Ta-ta." Cassie vanished, and Leo hoped everything would go well.
---
"To the left, Barry! The left! Do you not know where left is!"
"I’m sorry! I’ve never sailed a ship before!"
From the crow’s nest, Amaya shouted down to the rest of the crew. "Incoming!"
Hundreds of cannonballs nearly missed them as they crossed Pirate territory. Kai wanted to go to the western islands, where the demon king was, to explore a bit before fighting him.
But as they sailed there, they crossed Pirate Territory, and before they could even get the chance to pay a toll or explain why they were there, the pirates opened fire on them.
"Uhhh, Kai, it’s a massive wave!" Barry had no idea where to steer and just kept spinning the wheel until something happened.
"BRACE FOR IMPACT!"
BOOM!
The wave crashed into the ship, nearly capsizing, but Kai had a feature where the ship would automatically realign itself to prevent it from tipping over. Everyone stumbled around, expecting to be tossed over the side, and fell to the floor.
"What the heck was that?"
"How did we not capsize?"
"Oh god! Bleghhh!"
"That was pretty cool!"
"Kai, what did you do to this ship?!"
"Hahaha! Everyone okay?" Kai expected their reaction. He had never expierenced capsizing before, but their ship, even in the open sea, never capsized, so even Kai’s girls never expierenced the ship autocorrecting itself.
No one responded to Kai’s question, but it made sense since they were still trying to wrap their heads around how the ship not toppling over.
"That was crazy, huh? It’s a feature I added to the ship to make sure we don’t ever capsize. Pretty cool, right?"
Again, no one answered Kai. This was odd because he would have at least gotten a response by now, even if it was Sasha throwing up.
’Wait, I don’t hear her throwing up anymore. Hold on, everything is quiet, too quiet.’ Kai had been lying on his back with his eyes closed, but he got up and looked around. What he saw left him extremely confused.
All of his companions, no, everything around him was frozen, as if time was standing still. Nothing moved, nothing made a sound, he didn’t even know how he was breathing, but he was.
"What the fuck? Leo, what sick game are you playing? You’re not mad at me for beating your high score in a game that one time, right?"
To his utter surprise, Leo didn’t answer Kai.
"Leo? This isn’t funny, man. Or was this you, Aquaphina? Listen, you were the one who wanted me to help Barry, don’t be upset with how I’m helping him."
An unfamiliar voice spoke up behind Kai. "I’ve been waiting for a long time to see your handsome face."
Kai wasted no time and powered up to maximum. He held nothing back as he attacked the mysterious person, attempting to kill them and ask questions later.
Normally, his punch would go through a person or completely obliterate their body, but this time, his punch didn’t even reach this person’s face. Not because of some barrier or anything, but because of the sheer overwhelming pressure the woman in front of him gave off.
"What the fuck?"
"Fufu, your first instinct is to attack me? That’s not nice." The woman pinched his cheeks.
"Hmm. You know, I’m not a fan of hitting women, especially ones as beautiful as you, so I’m going to apologize for doing that. Ahem, now, is it okay if I ask who you are?" Kai could feel that he was not on the level of this person, regardless of how many points he could dump into himself.
Also, pinching the cheeks of a person is a sign of friendship, or at least close to that in Kai’s head, so he assumed she wasn’t there to harm him.
"Kai, you’ve grown up into a fine young man, and I’m so glad that I can finally meet you."
"Haha, s-sure, yeah. So who are you, like my sister or something? I thought Leo said all my siblings are dead."
"Fufu, no sweetie." Cassie pulled at his cheeks again. "I’m your Mother, Cassiopeia."
Kai’s head nearly exploded. "MY FUCKING WHAT?!"