Urban Plundering: I Corrupted The System!

The room had quieted after Parker and Zhang Ruoyun vanished in a swirl of divine presence, their forms dissolving into shadow and flame like prayers made visible. Silence settled—not the awkward kind that pressed against your throat, but the peaceful sort that felt like a fire dimming into embers, warm and safe and complete.

Outside, the sky was lavender—brushed with the last dying streaks of a sun that had painted the world in gold before surrendering to twilight. The balcony lights shimmered on with the soft whisper of activated magic, casting gentle halos over the marble floor that made everything look touched by starlight.

Tessa had drifted to the edge of the balcony without quite realizing it, her hand resting lightly on her stomach.

Not visibly showing yet—but already glowing with something more than power. Something quieter. Older. Something that felt like the universe itself had decided to take root inside her and grow into tomorrow.

Maya watched her with that knowing glint in her eyes, the one that said she'd been reading people's souls long before she'd learned to bend reality. "You weren't going to tell us until your belly started showing, were you?"

Tessa arched a brow, feigning the kind of pride that came from being caught in an act of stubbornness. "I was waiting for the right moment."

"Oh please," Nyxavere said, flopping back on the pillows with the graceless abandon of someone who'd never met a dramatic gesture she didn't like. Her legs tucked beneath her, her beautiful galaxy eyes wide with amusement that sparkled like captured lightning. "You were waiting until you couldn't wear your leather pants anymore."

The observation was so perfectly, devastatingly accurate that Maya burst into laughter—the kind that came from the soul, not the lips. The kind that made the air itself seem lighter, like joy had weight and could lift the world if you let it.

She walked over to Tessa, movements flowing like water given purpose, and cupped her face gently with hands that had once wielded enough power to crack moons but now chose to simply offer comfort.

"I'm so happy for you," she said, and her voice was steady as stone, warm as summer rain. "Truly."

Tessa's expression softened like ice melting in spring sunlight, all her careful masks falling away to reveal something vulnerable and shining underneath. "You are?"

The question carried weight—not doubt, exactly, but the kind of careful hope that came from being afraid to believe in good things.

"Of course," Maya said, and the certainty in her voice could have anchored ships in a storm. "You've given so much of yourself to be there for hm when he was lost and had no one. I am sure you would've bled for him. Fought for him. Sacrificed pieces of your soul to keep him safe if you had to. That I am sure and that... I respect. Now you get to give something to yourself too. Something beautiful. Something that's yours. Ours as family."

The words hit Tessa like gentle rain on drought-cracked earth, seeping into places she hadn't realized were dry.

She blinked rapidly, trying to keep the tears from spilling over. "Gods, don't make me cry in front of the child. I have a reputation to maintain."

Nyxavere rolled her eyes with the theatrical flair of someone who'd learned dramatic timing from cosmic forces. "I've seen people vaporized by starfire, Aunt Tess. I've watched dimensions collapse into themselves while screaming. You crying over your babies... my little sister and brother of my own, won't traumatize me."

The casual mention of witnessing universal destruction delivered in the same tone other teenagers might use to discuss homework made Tessa laugh—but it cracked halfway through, a bit of emotion slipping through the fractures in her composure like light through broken glass.

Maya pulled her into a hug without hesitation, arms wrapping around her with the kind of fierce protectiveness that could have shielded her from the heat death of the universe. Warm and unyielding and absolutely safe.

Nyxavere joined them a moment later, flowing into the embrace like she'd always belonged there, her arms wrapping around them both while her cheek pressed into Tessa's shoulder with the trusting affection of someone who'd never doubted her place in this family.

"I always wanted a little sibling," she whispered, and her voice carried the weight of lifetimes spent watching other families from the outside. "You're giving me two. That makes you my favorite person after Mom and Dad."

Tessa smiled into Maya's neck, the expression soft and wondering. "That's because you haven't met them yet. They might drive you absolutely insane."

"I already love them," Nyxavere said with the kind of simple certainty that could reshape reality if it chose to. "I can feel their little souls choosing their paths. They're going to be perfect chaos."

Maya stroked her daughter's hair—silk threads that held starlight between the strands—and let herself believe, for this one moment, that maybe the universe wasn't trying to end them all. Maybe some stories got to have soft middles full of laughter and hope.

"Then they're already the luckiest children in existence," she said, and meant every word.

And for the first time in what felt like eons, the three of them stood in a moment completely untouched by prophecy, war, or ancient secrets that bled shadows into the light. No cosmic threats lurking in the corners. No manipulation hiding behind perfect timing. No games being played with pieces that looked like love.

Just a mother, a sister, and a daughter-to-be—wrapped in laughter that tasted like honey, warmth that felt like coming home, and the impossible softness of hope that dared to believe in tomorrow.

Outside, the first stars promised to begin to appear in the lavender sky like scattered diamonds on cosmic velvet, and inside, three hearts beat in perfect synchronization with the quiet rhythm of a universe finally at peace.

At least for now.

At least for this.

And sometimes, Maya thought as she held her family close, sometimes that was enough to build entire worlds on.

The feeling started slowly—like the first crack of dawn after the longest night in existence.

Their world, which had been fracturing at the edges ever since Nyxavere disappeared, began to piece itself back together. Not with the violent snap of broken bones healing, but with the gentle whisper of flowers deciding to bloom again after winter.