Chapter 2: Surprise parenthood!

"Alright, this is it!" The fake hero exclaims out loud.

Standing outside the grand entrance of the Monster Lord's Castle, the young man, illuminated by the morning sunray has all he ever needed; a sword and a dream.

'Don't forget about me~!' A playful voice chimes in his mind.

'And me...' Calm as always, another voice joins in.

'Mm...' Nodding to them back, is the reassuring presence of their quiet friend.

'Confident, aren't we? That's the spirit!' Fiery replying, the last voice fills them all in determination.

He smirks in affirmation. Of course, how could he ever forget the girls supporting him all this time?

"I'll reiterates then; this is it, Everyone!" And as the four spirits cheers together in his mind, Luka reminisce about everything that has happen in his life to get here. When he first met Alice at the start of the year, to their strange developing relationship moving forward, to meeting and helping so many different people across the world on the journey and finally, to where he is right now.

He can do this! Last night, he slept a whole 8 hour! This morning, he cooks the best omelet he had ever made! His feet are as swift as the wind! His mind as steady as the still ocean! His body as taught as the earth! His soul is roaring in anticipation!

Pulling out Angel Halo, he started warming himself up for the fight ahead! "This is amazing! I feel INCREDIBLE! YES! YES! YES! YES! I can win! I feel great! I. CAN. DO. THIS! HAH!"

'...How long is he gonna hype himself up?'

'Just let him have this moment...'

"YES! I'm here! I'm ready! This is going to be a start of a new age of coexistence! I'm awake! I'M WIDE AWAKE!" Finishing off his enthusiastic morning exercise with a flourish of powerful swords slashes, he pointed his partner into the sky!

"This is it, Alice! I'm going in right now!"

'Save the bedroom talk after we find her, young man.'

'Hmm...'

...He'll ignore that, not going to let them win this time!

"Alright! Just like the plan Alice gave me last night." He started, finding it easier to remember if he recites it out loud. "First thing first, I'll need to go through all of Alice's subordinates before facing off against the Four Heavenly Knights in order to gain their respect and approval in this new way of coexistence. Then I'll made my way towards Alice in her throne room and together, we'll inform every monster living inside the castle of our new alliance and intention."

After that... well, they'll get there when they get there. It's best if he just focuses on what is here now.

Nodding to himself in one last victory reassurance, Luka made his way inside the-

CRACK!

"What the-!?" His eyes widened like a plate as he witnesses the sky above him cracking open. The sound it makes is a disturbing cracking of glass echoing in the background as it continues to grow bigger and bigger.

And suddenly, as if the situation couldn't get any more bizarre, a group of children ended up falling out of the crack!

"This is not according to my plan!"

"AHHHHH!"

"Neris! Hold my hand!"

"What in the world!?"

"Honestly..."

"Fly~"

6 voices reach him, and at that moment he immediately moves his body to act. Summoning the power of the wind, he launches himself up to see who needed the most help and the answer literally slammed right at him.

"Oof!" Her body knock the wind out of him as they collide.

"Woah there! Thanks for catching me!" Opening his eyes, he got a good look of her, with bright blue eyes, fluffy golden hair that reaches past her shoulders, a scientist lab coat over a purple shirt that wraps around her loosely, nine fluffy golden tail behind her and a cheerful smile, she introduces herself.

"My full title is too long! Just call me Megumi!"

"Ah, right, my name's Luka Morningstar! It's nice to meet you, Megumi!"

At his words, she froze in his arms before pushing back to see his face in full.

"D-Dad!?"

"!?"

"Your here!" She cheers and any lingering fear in her eyes went away.

Well... he wasn't expecting that.

It's not like he was oppose to it. If it helps them became calmer thinking of him as their father then he's fine with that.

As the ground grew closer, the fake hero focuses on the others who were also falling. One of them, a boy with dark blue hair pulls the other close to himself and cast a spell on them both to make it safer to land. Another one, a Dragonkin stabilize herself in the air before using the two powerful wings on her back to safely glides to the ground. Looking around, he saw the last two children is already on the ground, staring up at him as he summons the power of the earth to brace his legs for impact.

CRASH!

'Do you want the good news, or the bad news~?' The spirit of wind playfully asks her contractor.

'Nothings broken; it will just hurt to walk for the next couple minutes...' The spirit of water cuts in, giving him the full answer and ruining her fellow spirit's fun.

'Aww~ Why you do that, Deeny?'

'Now's not the time...'

And she's right, it isn't the time for it, seeing as he was immediately surrounded by a bunch of kids as soon as he gently let Megumi down.

"Father! Why did we get teleported here?" Worriedly calling out to him, Luka got the expression this one is very polite.

"Daddy! Who's that girl you were holding! That's not fair~ why didn't you catch me instead?" Childishly complaining about his decision to help one of them, Luka has a feeling this one is very spoiled.

"Ehh!? What's so bad about dad catching me?" Tilting her head in confusion, the young Kitsune seems to be excitedly looking at everyone in fascination. Luka could see that she's a very curious kid.

Though, considering monsters and their blatant disregards for the human ways of determining age, she could very well be hundreds year old and this is only the appearance she chose to kept.

"Father." A stern, yet concern voice calls out to him from behind. Looking back, his kind blue met the sharp yellow of the previous Dragonkin standing before him, her beautiful ivory sword drawn in case of an attack. Her vibrant scarlet hair is braided into a low ponytail, a silver circlet worn on her forehead while her outfits consist of a set of silvery lower body armor that covers her hips to toe and a casual black shirt that completes her style. There are also her wings that's curled behind her at the moment, a light green color scales covering it just like some other parts of her body.

All and all, she's a curious mixture of casual and combat ready. Luka got the impression that she's a very responsible person.

"Uhh... yeah, what is it?" Luka decided to tackle on issue at a time. First thing first, let's find out how everyone got here first, then he'll ask about them referring to him as their father. "Do you know what just happen?"

She shook her head in regrets. "No, unfortunately I lack the information of such occurrence. However, it seems we have a much more urgent matter to discuss..."

There is!? His expression must've asked her already as she reply in urgency.

"Indeed, if mother were to find out you cheated on her and have multiple other children with her friends behind her back... I'm not sure if even you could survive the hellish fury she's going to unleashed upon you!"

The purplette has no idea who her mother is, but seeing as how worried she is, he has a feeling it's best if he stays on that woman's good side.

"...Right, thanks for telling me...?"

The Dragonkin's concern grew as she places a hand on his shoulder, "Father! Have you lost your memories!?"

That got everyone's attention. While he was doing his best to make sure all of them were fine, Luka consciously took on the fatherly role they have all assign him to.

After all, can he really call himself a hero if he can't even comfort a group of kids?

"...Can you all tell me your name?" He gently asks them instead.

The colorful group of children looks toward each other with different levels of concern before the Slime Girl raises her watery hand.

"Omu~" She simply said.

"Hmm?"

Was.. Was that her name?

"Name~" She simply confirm.

Alright then, good to know. With a light blue body roughly the shape of an adorable young girl, some ruby red gems around her head similar to a crown, hazy purple eyes, and a slurry voice, the cyan slime gave him the impression of a calm and gentle child.

He smiles kindly at her. "It's nice to meet you, Omu."

"Hmm~"

Perhaps encourage by her action, the rest of the kids also started introducing themselves.

"The name given to me by my father and mother are Mithra Morningstar. I am a proud Dragonkin! The Brightest Knight! And I'm honored to be here with all of you." In a perfect bow, the young Dragonkin introduces herself in both the most prideful and humblest way to everyone.

"I'll go next!" Joyfully stepping forward, Megumi follow up with her own introduction. "I'm a nine-tailed Kitsune just like my mom! When I was born, my mom and dad said I was the biggest blessing in their life! So, they decided to call me Megumi, 'The Child of Fortune'!"

To his side, as Megumi is introducing herself, the boy with dark purple hair, dark blue eyes, custom black button up suit with a red tie and an arrow tip tail stare blankly at her.

When Luka looks over to him, the boy looks away before introducing himself.

"Guess it's my turn now, huh?" With an easygoing voice, he smoothly swept his hair back and gave them a showman's bow. "It's a pleasure getting to meet all of you, my name is..." He pauses, looking over Luka's direction before continuing.

"...Damian, my name is Damian Morningstar. I'm an up-and-coming magician." The smile he gave everyone was very bittersweet.

The fact he didn't speak about his parent and his race at all wasn't lost to anyone, but they all decided to let him keep it to himself for now.

Lastly, the unidentical twin decided it was time for their introduction. "My name is Nero Fateburn... the only male descendent of the Fateburn line of generation. I'm named that because my parent wanted me to grow up strong... people also call me a prodigy of sorts, but I don't really feel like one..." He shily finishes.

"And I'm his twin sister! The name is Neris Fateburn, the cutes monster to ever be born!"

"They gave you an award for that?" Damian sarcastically quips.

"I don't need an award! Daddy said I am the cutest, so it's the truth!"

"Of course..." Damian role his eyes in exasperation.

It was a lot to take in, this whole time Luka has been slowly getting more and more baffle by the events before him. The only reason he wasn't freaking out was due to his girls calming him down and helping him figuring out what's happening in his mind.

'You are the father! Congratulation, Luka~!"

Well... most of them.

SPLASH!

'Gwabrbrbrb!?'

Ignoring the drowning wind spirit in the background, Undine advices him to carefully think it through.

'Don't let it overwhelm you, find the answer unclouded by the shock and disbelieve...'

...

'Morningstar... they all have that last name, the one my mother gave me...' He calmly pointed out. Omu probably has that as a last name too, but she's just restricted by her strange speaking manner (either that, or she could just be lazy).

'And what does that mean...' She coaxes out of her contractor, gently guiding him to the truth.

'All of them... there're all really are my...'

He stood completely still, confused and dazed by the realization. The puzzle in his mind started putting themselves together to create an impossible answer.

But if it's impossible, then why does everything make so much sense now?

"Ah."

THUD.

Luka Morningstar passes out from the sheer shock.

'...'

'...'

'...'

'...'

The Four Spirits could only watch as their contractor loses consciousness, falling face first on the ground as all of his future children started fussing over him.

'Welp, at least you tried.' Said Salamander, the spirit of fire. Looking over her fellow spirit, Undine, the spirit of water could be seen sighing to herself.

'I did my best not to let it overwhelm him, but I suppose I wasn't being careful enough...'

'Don't be sad, Deeny!' Chimes the spirit of wind, her previous drowning experience completely forgotten. 'It was pretty crazy how this all even happen! Luka hasn't got enough crazy in his tank to power through it like us!'

'As if you even help at all, Sylph!' Salamander angrily admonish the fairy.

They know that, as talented as their contractor is when it comes to using their powers, he was still just a young man with only around 6 months of experience with adventuring this bizarre world they're in. Something as world shattering as meeting his future children is bound to take some time for him to get used to.

To be fair to the purplette, he was often the 'tsukkomi' whenever he would encounter an absurd situation like this. He has built somewhat of an immunity towards it, but this has been simply too much for him.

For them on the other hand, being who have existed for millions of years? Sure, it caught them by surprise, but that's about it. They were all pretty quick to accept the fact time travel exist without any problem unlike Luka.

'...' Shaking her head in concern, Gnome, the spirit of earth asks her friends how they should handle the situation from now.

After a bit of back and forth, they decided to simply wait it out an observe the situation for the time being. If anything dangerous were to happen, they'll reach out to his consciousness and try their best to defend his physical body.

"Oh no! Dad passes out!"

"Did father got hit with a sleeping spell!?"

"I'm pretty sure it's just the shock. Gives him some time~"

Hearing this, the young Dragonkin fixed a suspicious gaze on her (supposably) alternate timeline step-brother. "You seem to be nonchalant about seeing this happen, mind sharing why?"

Not at all bothered by her thinly veiled threats, he simply chuckles. "Pops was always a worrywart for as long as I can remember. Him fainting because he realizes how many kids he could end up having in the future is pretty in character~"

Seeing that she couldn't sense any lies coming from him, Mithra changes the topic to something else that might catch him.

"I see, forgive my suspicion. As a Dragonkin, my race has always been protective of our family. On that note, do you mind if I ask what race of monster you are, Damian?"

He lazily waves his hand at that, "Eh, our pops just pass out, that's not very important right now~"

No sign... His heartbeat is stable, his face is unchanging, even his voice doesn't waver a single bit...

"No, I insist, it would be great if I could know your mother's side of the genetic."

Again, he just scratches the back of his head and replies, "It's not that well known, you probably never heard of it~"

"Specific name, if you don't mind?"

"I do~"

"And why is that?"

"Personal information~"

"Could it really be that much of an issue to simply tell me?"

"Probably~"

Ugh! Why is he so good at answering with none confirming answer!? That's basically not admitting anything!

Her lie detector magic would not work unless it's a bold face lie. Why is it that he's acting as if he already knows how it works!?

As this was happening between the two, their remaining step-siblings were having an entirely different arguments in the background. Particularly, a certain spoiled princess is having a heated discussion with a fluffy scientist while her brother and a slime watches.

"No, no, no! Me and my brother are the original! We're the fated kids, not you!"

"It's 'my brother and I'." The Kitsune corrected.

"Don't care! We're still the original!"

"That's a bit presumptuous don't you think?"

"No, it's not!" Turning around, she asks her brother. "What's that word mean?"

"It's when you're too confident about something to a point of arrogance." He patiently explains.

"What!? I'm not arrogance! I'm just always right!"

"That... sounds right to me." Megumi tilts her head in amusement.

"Of course I am!" With a triumphant huff, Neris turns away from everyone, basking in her 'victory' of the dispute.

"Is she always like that?" The Kitsune ask Nero.

"Only when father is not around to curve it. And he's unconscious right now..."

"That sounds rough..." Megumi patted the boy's back in sympathy.

"I'm used to it..." His eyes told her a different story.

"Pa~" Poking the still unconscious young man with her slimy tendrils, Omu repeatedly calls out her to one of her creators.

Although lacking in his usual level of strength and experience, it was undoubtably the same being that contributed to her creation. The young slime doesn't understand the reason as to why she's brought to the past and her unconscious creator share also seems to lack this information as well.

So, with that in mind, she simply extent another tendril from her body and makes contact with the back of her distracted step-brother. In emits a small shine of light before Nero flinches away from it, surprised by the unknow slimy sensation on his nape.

"H-Hey! Don't do that!"

The boy's indignant shout drew attention from everyone, though Omu simply ignores it as she started studying every bit of knowledge from Nero's memories. From his birth, to his first words, then his first sentence, then his first incantation, and lastly the same exact words he had just said to her.

12 years' worth of memories, and she processes it all in the span of 0.2 second.

"Fascinating~"

The slime girl nodded to herself, finally understanding the situation or, at the very least, a better grasp than before.

"Hey! What did you just do to my brother you jerk!"

Lifting her arms before her, Omu enjoys the improved sense of clarity she has now achieved. Either she had reached another milestone in her growth, or that her step-brother's memories simply contain enough information that it pushes her to experience an explosive amount of cognitive evolutions.

Nevertheless, it seems about time she addresses the most pressing matter at the moment. Particularly, their bizarre situation.

"Have any of you ever heard of the multiverse theory~?" In perfect fluency, Omu asks her step-siblings.

Their befuddled expressions gave her a light laugh.

She will never grow tired of doing that.

END OF CHAPTER

Author's note: And now from Luka's perspective! It feels strange / refreshing to write about the original version of him after writing Shy Hero Luka for so long. Some parts are easier, but there are moments where I'm a bit unsure how to write his reactions to stuff happening. Let me know if I'm doing a good job so far!

As for the kids, I'll make a list of names / titles so it's easier for reader to remember.

1. Nero Fateburn, Shy prodigy

2. Neris Fateburn, The cutest monster in the world

3. Mithra Morningstar, The Brightest Knight

4. Damian Morningstar, Up-and-coming magician

5. Megumi, The Child of Fortune

6. Omu

As we go further, I'm gonna add their backstories and how they ended up the way they are so stay tune for those!