Three Divine Wishes: Yes, I'm OP!

While Akasha, Luna, and Yume continued enjoying themselves, Akashi had already introduced herself to the companions of her son over the last few hours.

She sat at the edge of one of the many ponds that made up the oasis on Akasha’s peak, far enough from the Golden Apple Tree that the treehouse was only a gold-and-white mass in the distance.

Her pale, almost-gray hair flowed down her back, and the purple infinity beneath her left eye stood out softly.

She looked at ease, as if the mountain had always reserved a special place for her to sit and listen.

The others had all come together at the same water’s edge.

In that moment, Jovian, Harlan, Liliana, Calista, Melvin, The Empress, General Salvatore, Amaterasu, and Nara sat in a loose circle around her, each gazing at her with their own unique shade of awe.

Jovian gave a slow shake of his head, as though whatever Akashi had just said was still tumbling over and finding its place somewhere behind the fabric that covered his eyes.

"Wait... you’re his mother?" He questioned, repeating her.

"And... he destroyed our Minor Existence?"

It was obvious the moment she introduced herself—every single person in the room was dying to know where Akasha had been for the last hundred years.

On top of that, they’d all been trapped here with no means of escape, which had thrown countless plans into complete disarray.

Yet, when he spoke, his words hung in the air unanswered, the silence stretching on.

Harlan’s gaze lifted from the pond to the void, measuring.

Melvin kept a straight face, but the chill in the air grew sharper around him.

Amaterasu’s flames kicked once, then flattened, like she had refused to give the news the satisfaction of a flare.

The Empress only watched, black eyes taking the shape of the mountain, the six orbiting worlds, the distant universes and multiverses and dimensions hanging out there as minor hubs.

From this height, the threads stretching from those hubs toward Pantheos were massive, as thick and distinct as cables, and that alone was enough to convince them that Akashi wasn’t exaggerating.

"Mother Dream..." Nara began, her voice respectful despite the clear worry threading through it.

"If he truly destroyed the universe," she continued, "does that mean he also ended the lives of everyone within it?"

While she had already come to terms with the possibility that the Celestial Accord might be gone for good, she still had her best friend and the entirety of her Pantheon.

In truth, she hadn’t really lost anything—except for Sunya, who had been missing ever since she departed from the Celestial Moon’s Star System.

And yet, the thought lingered in her mind—if everyone had died, then losing Sunya wasn’t something she was ready to accept.

"Indeed," Akashi said with a smile that carried a hint of pride in the accomplishment.

"That’s exactly what they deserved for making my baby boy angry."

For a moment, the pond fell completely still, save for the gentle sound of water.

They exchanged glances without uttering a word—not in agreement, not in protest, but with that kind of stunned silence people share when they can hardly believe the words they’ve just heard.

Yet, in the stillness, Liliana’s crimson eyes remained fixed on Akashi.

A question had been burning inside her, one she hadn’t quite figured out how to voice without tripping over the words, and beneath it lingered the same heavy sorrow she’d carried ever since Amber disappeared.

Harlan’s expression was a little different, but both of them carried visible grief.

Akashi saw both faces and shook her head.

She knew everyone’s worries with perfect clarity, but she didn’t exactly plan on doing anything.

"Well," she said. "I know what worries you all the most, but I won’t help... Not unless Akasha asks me to."

She tilted her head thoughtfully, studying them for a moment before launching into the story of what had happened to Amber.

There was no sugarcoating in her words—she laid everything bare, recounting her beginnings and the path that led to her downfall, holding nothing back and sparing no one’s feelings.

And then, as those moments and events spilled into the open, it was as if time itself froze—Liliana’s world came to a sudden, shattering halt.

The pond, the void, her father’s presence, Nara’s green eyes—all of it receded until there was only the sentence.

Her pupils widened, unblinking, her breath coming unevenly.

It was as if the black dress she wore belonged to someone else entirely, hanging on her frame without any connection to the person inside.

"I... killed my Amber?"

The words slipped out softly, as if she was unsure they belonged to her at all.

"I... killed Amber."

Her fingers dug into the grass, oblivious to the dirt clinging to her skin.

Seeing her sink into that state, Salvatore’s shoulders tightened, his body torn between stepping toward his daughter and moving closer to Akashi, unable to choose either.

"I killed my Amber?" Liliana repeated, her voice trembling this time. "No... I wouldn’t. I could never, I—"

Her words knotted and fell apart.

Her red eyes stayed far too wide, and it was as if she were collapsing in on herself, caught in an endless loop of those same three words, like a pit she couldn’t climb out of.

Salvatore looked at Akashi and stopped bothering with manners.

In that moment, his aura flared without him even realizing it; he had never seen Liliana in such a state before, and he knew it was partly because he’d been absent from her life for so long.

The thought weighed heavily on him, and deep down, all he wanted was to live peacefully with Liliana and his wife—someone they still hadn’t met, even though she was somewhere in Dream Land.

But how could he just sit there, knowing it was Akashi who had put those words in her ears?

It wasn’t so much what she said as how she delivered it that stung.

HUMMMM!!!!!

"Did you really have to tell her that?" he muttered through clenched teeth. "Look at her. Did you have to say it like that?"

HUMMMMM!!!!!

In that instant, as instinctive as Salvatore’s reaction had been, Akashi’s was even sharper.

She had never in her life been yelled at, let alone spoken to with such blatant disrespect.

If it weren’t for the fact that they still served a purpose to Akasha, the sheer audacity in his tone might have been enough for reality itself to strip him of the ability to speak.

And... His words had barely left his lips before her eyes shifted—purple fading away, replaced by pure black dots, flat and depthless.

The smile that accompanied such a change... carried no trace of warmth.

"You know... you should mind your tongue," she said lightly, still smiling, "before you lose it."

Seeing such an abrupt change—and even more so, feeling as though something was clawing at a place deep inside him that he couldn’t quite name—Salvatore froze.

The anger still clenched his jaw, though the rest of him had already caught on.

If he let his emotions get the better of him, he wouldn’t be able to think straight in the very next moment.