Beyond SSS-Rank After Getting The God System

As Carl listened, he saw the depth of Gaia's wisdom. They all hid it masterfully and wore masks to conceal it, but all of them carried indescribable loss and innumerable painful experiences.

As the stories were shared, questions asked, he swore a silent oath to himself. 'Whatever it takes, however long it takes, I'll do my best to ease their minds.'

"Papa, can we go play?" Kitsunoko only used the word "Papa" when she was tired, so Carl's instincts told him to get them to bed before they got a second wind.

"Gaia, would you like to stay or are you wanting to return home?"

"Haha! A typical father, powerless before his daughter. Yes, I will stay the night, just to protect your pride and let the girl play."

"You heard Aunt Gaia, go play you four."

The kids ran to and hugged the parents before running off to Kitsunoko's room, though Raziel stayed behind to promise to keep them out of trouble.

"It used to be an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other... That fox is taking my children's place quite quickly."

"Well, after seeing how her mother was at that age, I'm hardly surprised." Klaire chuckled as she pinched Kyubi's flushing cheeks.

Not long after, the immortals decided to all head to Lillim's home, including Kyubi.

Carl and Klaire washed up then headed to bed. As they laid side-by-side

Carl asked how her hunger was, when she said it was embarrassingly manageable, she apologised for letting herself actually become addicted.

"Don't worry, the fact it's cleared up so quickly shows you hadn't gotten properly addicted. You just had a few things compounding and couldn't tell the difference. Want to have a drop of low concentration?"

"No, I want to wait til we go on our trip at the very least."

"Okay, then..." Carl yawned and stretched, then rolled in to hold Klaire as he drifted off.

Sleep came easily as Carl thought about everything that had happened that day and remained that way until Kyubi joined them a couple of hours later.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up." She said meekly as she laid down behind Carl.

"Don't worry about it, hope you had a good night." They both replied.

"I did and I still have a bit of energy if you two want to make it even better..."

"You tired me out earlier, but feel free to go to Archyon, it would be weird to have you guys do it next to me while I'm sleeping."

Carl thought about it, he was actually leaning towards it, but it felt weird to him to leave his wife to sleep with his girlfriend who they were both dating.

"Sorry, no pressure Carl..." Kyubi said as she nuzzled in for sleep instead.

"No, it sounds good, let's go check on the kids and then head to Archyon."

"Already did, they were all snuggling in the bed and asking Raziel to turn down the light in their sleep. Gaia nearly cried she was so happy." Kyubi opened a portal and rolled through before reaching back and pulling him through.

The next day, they returned bright and early, a little tired but wanting to prepare breakfast in case Gaia chose to leave early.

"I love you Kyubi, I appreciate you being so patient with me."

"Don't be silly Carl. I love you too and you're worth the patience, I would love to be with the both of you, but I understand you need to adjust and I want to apologise for the other night. I pulled you into it and that wasn't fair, Klaire even told me it wouldn't be, but I couldn't help it."

"I understand, it was no different to Klaire's hunger, you opened a floodgate and needed relief from it. In that situation, I don't have a problem being pushed into something, besides it's not like I don't want to. Just don't want to devalue the extent of the change I put myself through."

Kyubi turned to him and kissed him. "I really don't deserve you dear."

"No, you deserve someone better, luckily you have klaire as well."

As if summoned by her name, Klaire joined the moment, giving them a kiss and a hug good morning.

"Did you two have fun?" Klaire asked as she slumped onto the kitchen table, getting an awkward nod from Carl and a much clearer non-verbal response from Kyubi. "Wait! Did you two take protection?"

Kyubi chuckled. "No dear, you must have forgotten in hunger, with experience and fine control you'll be able to control your own fertility. Obviously I'll teach you how, if you want, I can do a memory glyph like Faylorna did and show you last night."

"Okay we can do that tonight, I hate having to use it."

Kyubi and Klaire giggled as Carl continued to cook red-faced, which made them giggle even more.

Gaia was the first to awaken, coming out as Carl was getting ready to dish up. She sat down at the kitchen island as Carl served her first and the other two went to get the kids up and moving.

Rhea, Tiamutael and Kitsunoko walked themselves but Raziel was clinging to Klaire half-asleep still.

"Is she okay?" Carl asked a bit confused by the sight, given that so far she had been the least clingy of the their children.

"I'm okay..." As she spoke, Klaire passed her over to do the plating up. "...Keeping Kitsunoko out of trouble is exhausting."

"Well, you are our little angel. Thanks for looking out for her, don't be afraid to tell us if she's acting up, it's not your job to babysit her."

"Okay Dad, can I go back to bed after breakfast?"

"That's a no, you'll be fine after food and a morning bath with everybody." That was all the convincing she needed as her ears pricked with the word bath.

"You just found the shortcut to a celestial's heart, they love bathing like no other species." Kyubi chuckled.

After everyone had eaten and bathed, Gaia and Rhea said their goodbyes and headed home before Carl called Aegis to babysit for a couple of hours so the others could do a spot of sparring.

"I feel a little outmatched here, I'm not a combat type remember."

"He says after pushing an elder god known for lethality..." Kyubi chuckled.

"What!? How did you know about the sparring match?"

"We stopped for a break and decided to see how things were going with you."

"We thought we'd give you time to volunteer showing us your new fighting skill, but typical Carl didn't want to show off for us..."

Carl groaned, he knew Klaire enjoyed sparring with him whenever he learned something new, but having two of them with that inclination terrified him, especially with the abilities these two had.

As they stepped into the sparring hall, Klaire took position opposite Carl and then as soon as Kyubi gave the signal to begin after throwing up a barrier to protect the building, disappeared from normal sight and reappeared ready to attack.

The only reason Carl kept up was because he was channeling divinity into his senses and watching the immediate future.

For a non-combat type, he was managing defence and evasion quite well, but after getting some distance he saw a premonition of Klaire replaying her opening move, him evading and then still getting hit.

The vision played out exactly like that and he was sent flying a few metres and had the wind knocked out of him.

"Come on, you're not taking me seriously Carl, you should know better."

As he wheezed and tried to regain his composure, he managed to groan a couple of words of apology as he rolled onto his feet.

He retook his stance and Klaire disappeared again, but the moment she did, his soul partially emerged and blinded her. With how fast she was going, she lost control thanks to the surprise and shot past Carl and into Kyubi's barrier.

"Well, thankfully she doesn't have raw stats as power of that one attack. I don't think that will stay true for long though."

"Damn! Kyubi, watching that with farsight and in person were totally different. Shit, that hurts!"

"I know, it's like he focused the light of his entire soul into the piece he shows. Are your eyes okay?"

"They will be, but it hurt. Leave "Conniving Carl" to use a cheap trick like that..." Klaire moaned.

"where did "Conniving Carl" come from?" Kyubi chuckled.

"It's what kids called me at SATS because I had to lure them into traps to stand a chance." Carl moaned.

"What sort of traps were they that earned you that nickname?"

"The kind that end with them being hammered by Squidge or rubber bullets." Klaire laughed.

"No wonder Kitsunoko is such a daddy's girl." Kyubi chuckled.

After that Kyubi took over and opened with an illusion of her, one that stood in front of him and started to reach for him, but the moment he realised he used his law of Divinity to force Kyubi's actual body into that of her double.

"wha-" Carl interrupted her surprise with a kiss.

"Sorry, after you two told me about your duel, I started planning that incase I needed to pull you out of trouble. Can we go outside please?"

The girls looked confused but agreed and Carl told Klaire to shoot a round out into the water.

"Okay..." Klaire done as asked, but as she prepare the round and pulled the trigger, Carl infused his own divinity into it and increased her firepower tremendously. The water displacement causing a spout to erupt even grander than the one produced by Nergal.

"Look, I'm sneaky, but I just don't have the abilities you two do. Sometimes the hero isn't the one swinging the sword but the one keeping it sharp."

Kyubi hugged him, then Klaire joined when she recovered from the unexpected recoil.