Villain Retirement
chapter-999

"Enel is the one who will end this Universe. Enel is… Nothing."

"..."

"..."

"Such rudeness, as expected of one of father's earliest offspring."

There was a somewhat hostile silence brewing in the air, only lightened up by Lucy as he pointed right at Karina's face, looking her in the eyes before just randomly walking around her while humming the original soundtrack of his favorite TV show.

"To call our youngest sibling nothing, why would you utter such nonsense for someone who is supposed to be so old?" Lucy scoffed as he stood right in front of Karina; placing his hands in his pockets before planting his forehead on Karina's forehead; pushing her bangs away, "Of course, he is nothing — he is a child, not even 5 years old yet."

"...What are you saying?" Karina could really only lean her head away and take a step back, "I meant he is Nothing."

"Rude," Lucy slightly raised his head to look down on Karina, "I admit that you are more beautiful than Renna, but I will not allow you to treat our youngest like that — I am the only one allowed to antagonize and discriminate against our siblings in this family."

"Some of those comments are unnecessary, Lucifer," Renna just blankly looked at Lucy's back, "And if she is more beautiful than me, then you are also admitting that she is more beautiful than you."

"Blasphemy!" Lucy turned his finger to Renna, "I knew it, the female species would always take each other's side! Arthas, come forth — you are my only ally here."

"You guys…" Karina squinted her eyes as she looked back and forth between Renna and Lucy, "...Could it be you don't know who Nothing is?"

"Ah," Lucy covered half his face, "So, it was a name — forgive my brief journey across nincompoopish land."

"That is not a word, Lucifer."

"It is now," Lucy scoffed before crossing his arms, "The dictionary has no choice but to add every word I say. And you — oldest sister, cease your hostility at once!"

"Can your retarded ass just calm down for a little bit? Just dial it down a notch for me, okay?" Karina slightly groaned as she placed her hands on her waist, "My god, and I used to believe I was weird. Arthas, back me up here. Tell them who Nothing is."

"I… have no idea who that is?" Arthas only scratched his chin as Renna and Lucy looked at him.

"Aerith didn't tell you?" Karina breathed out in disbelief as she looked at the confused expression on Arthas's face.

"No…?" Arthas squinted his eyes.

"Wh—"

"I think the better question here is, how do you know about Nothing, sweetie?"

And before Karina could finish her words, Lucy and the others found her suddenly standing straight as her mother, Katherine, finally approached them with the other mothers,

"And why would Aerith even tell you about something like that? I haven't even seen you have a serious conversation with her in the past 600 years."

"N… no, not Aunt Aerith — Aerith Aerith," Karina shook her head as she sighed, "Arthas's younger sister."

"Huh…?" "We were not informed that we have another younger sister, Karina." Both Lucy and Renna looked at each other.

"No…" Karina pinched the bridge of her nose, "...She's Arthas's sister from the future."

"..."

"..."

"...Aha, you jest," Lucy let out a sigh of relief before chuckling, "I did not know that the firstborn is capable of making jokes — I have to admit, it is not very funny but I will still laugh because I am a very considerate person."

"Time travel?" Renna placed her hand on her chin, "Traveling to the future is possible, it is what happened to Father and the others — but traveling to the future has always been possible, we are doing it even now — I believe Father, Aunt Miss Pepondosovich, and Aunt Esme were merely trapped inside some sort of pocket dimension in space where they felt time pass quickly. The three of them are ageless, after all…

…But traveling back to the past? I believe that is impossible."

"It's already happened," Karina shrugged while shaking her head, "If you've met Aerith'Ross, you would know she's from the future. She looks almost identical to Aunt Aerith while carrying some physical traits from Dad."

"It is not my intention to question the integrity of your knowledge, Big Sister…" Renna shook her head, "...But how can you truly confirm that Aerith'Ross is from the future…

…and not just some special variant of Aunt Aerith who wishes to cause confusion and chaos?"

"Because he knows about Dad — Dad is a singular existence in the entirety of all Creation."

"My mother knows about our Father, she is not from your original universe," Renna shook her head, "There is a high possibility she already knew about Father from other sources — traveling to the past is impossible…

…And I believe it to be more wise to question Aerith'Ross's existence instead of believing it. Unless there is definitive, indubitable, irrefutable, and indisputable proof — you should refuse to believe it true, Big Sister."

"You just used four words with the same meaning, Renna," Lucy let out a loud breath as he pointed at Renna, but he was completely ignored.

"Because Jennifer, Paige's future counterpart, is also with her and she is aware of the prophecy and—you know what, I'm not gonna explain this," Karina just let out a small sigh before turning to look at Enel, who was soundly asleep even while being carried by Esme around his neck,

"You know what, whether it is real or not, I think it still doesn't change the fact that out of all of us — Enel would be the most capable of destroying the last vestige of life. Born from the strongest variant of Aunt Esme and Dad."

"Uhm…" Arthas raised his hand to join the conversation, "...Although I have no idea what's happening right now, except your mom and our two other aunts, everyone in this room is capable of killing, ending everyone. I think it'll only be a question of…

…why would any of us do that?"

"Because we are our father's children," Karina closed her eyes and sighed before backing away and returning comfortably to her seat as if she had not just revealed some crucial things to everyone, "Someone among us is bound to have inherited his—"

"Who wants some mango jelly milk!?"

And before Karina could finish her words, Katrina suddenly clapped her hands; even using her wind abilities to amplify the noise and causing everyone to just turn toward her.

"Aaah! Me!"

And with Lucy raising his hand, Karina lost all chance to say what she wanted to say. But of course, she also did not fail to notice that Katrina did it purposely.

"I… see," Karina nodded her head as her eyes met with Katrina's. She then turned to look at Lucy, who was dragging Arthas to the kitchen. Enel also woke up as soon as he heard milk; quickly struggling and releasing himself from his mother's grasp, "You guys…

…are really lucky."

"Do you hate us, Big Sister?" The only one who did not follow Lucy to the kitchen was Renna, who chose to stay and sit just a meter apart from Karina. Katherine was about to console her daughter, but as soon as she saw Renna, she just held what she was going to say for later and followed the others to the kitchen, leaving the two sisters alone.

"Why… would I hate you?" Karina meekly said as she shook her head.

"Because Father was there for us," Renna looked to the floor. And although the tone of her voice was still quite monotonous, there was a hint of hesitation in them, "I have asked Father about you several times, Big Sister — and I know that you have been neglected because of the circumstances of your birth."

"That…" Karina could really only look at Renna, "...Your name's Rennalyn, right?"

"Yes," Renna nodded her head, "But please call me Renna, I and everyone else have already been accustomed to that, Big Sister."

"You talk like Dad, it's creepy."

"I apologize, Big Sister."

"Psh, no. It's fine," Karina chuckled, "That's quite lucky, honestly — the thing I inherited from Dad is this wide mouth"

Karina then stretched her lips into a smile with her fingers as she tilted her head and faced Renna. Renna, however, only blinked a couple of times as she stared at Karina.

"Yes, you are very beautiful, Big Sister," Renna nodded.

"That's… not what I…" Karina looked awkwardly at the emotionless Renna before just letting out a small giggle, "Well, Renna — you asked me if I was envious, and I suppose… yes and no?"

"Yes and No?" Renna tucked her hair behind her ear as she subtly sat closer to Karina, "What do you mean by that, Big Sister?"

"I would be lying if I said I wasn't envious of the two of you—

three of you growing up with Dad, because I am, you know? I've always wondered what it would have been like," Karina stretched her legs forward as she relaxed her back on the sofa, "But at the same time…

…I was surrounded by the Universe's greatest people growing up. I can't really ask for more than that."

"Then when you said we were lucky, what did you mean by that?" Renna blinked a couple of times, "I am taking a guess that it is not because we grew up with Father, Big Sister."

"You… don't need to know just yet," Karina's eyes slightly wavered while shaking her head, "You have hundreds of years, heck — we'll have thousands of years. You'll find out more about Dad eventually sooner or later… what he did, what he was. But knowing that, you could probably just ask him and he'll answer you quite honestly - I'm sure you're fully aware of what he's like."

"Did you want to ask me something, Renna?"

And as soon as Karina finished his words, the door to the terrace suddenly opened up. And there, Riley just casually entered the living room from the outside,

"And Karina, I suppose it has been a very long time for you since we last met?"

"D…

…Dad?"