The Incubus System Chapter 1361. Holy Stepfather?

The Incubus System Chapter 1361. Holy Stepfather?

She nodded without hesitation. “Yes.”

My stomach turned a little. I took a slow, mechanical sip of my drink, even as my soul internally went ‘wait wait wait what now.’

That meant… siblings.

Or something like that.

I cringed internally.

So that meant I had siblings.

Sort of.

Divine half-siblings, maybe.

Or half lightborn echo children.

I didn’t even know the term for this.

Okay. More than that.

That meant… Xenos wasn’t the only one?

Gabrielle had another husband up there?

So I was some kind of… Some kind of stepchild?

Stepfather.

Holy. Stepfather.

WHAT. THE. HELL.

How messed up could this get?

I had a dead human father.

A demon king as my current dad.

And now… apparently a holy stepdad who ruled the celestial realm and hated Gabriella’s love life?

I cringed. So hard.

My face literally said ‘What the hell is going on?!’

Like I was caught in a cosmic soap opera directed by fate and written during a wine bender.

This was beyond complicated.

This was past identity crisis.

This was full-on celestial paternity puzzle with speedrun DLC.

And she noticed.

She must’ve read my face because she chuckled softly.

“Don’t overthink it,” she said with a patient smile. “Angelic children aren’t the same as human ones.”

Too late.

I had already overthought it, over-felt it, and nearly over-threw up from the mental image of family dinners with two kings and one confused incubus.

“Oh, good,” I muttered. “Because this wasn’t confusing at all.”

“We don’t give birth,” she explained calmly. “We use our power to nourish the holy seeds on the Tree of Lumiel.”

I blinked. “Tree of…?”

“The sacred tree of the light realm. The children born from its branches and roots, from the radiance of our soul power, are considered ours. If they’re born from my essence, they are my children.”

“That’s…” I looked at my juice box. “Weirdly botanical.”

She smiled. “That’s how Gabriella had so many sons. Sons of light. Born not through her womb, but her energy. And Erebus…” Her smile faltered, just slightly. “Erebus… was different.”

She turned her gaze away, soft but heavy.

“He was born like a human. Not from the tree. Not from divine energy. Gabriella… gave birth to him.”

She sighed, looking distant. “Among all creation, fate seemed to play with Gabriella the cruelest. She… fell in love. With Xenos.”

“The supreme leader of the dark realm,” she added, glancing at me.

‘Yep… she just undelined that.’

She gave me a knowing look. “You think it was a mistake?”

I opened my mouth. Paused. “I don’t know.” Well, I didn’t feel like a mistake though.

She huffed softly. “It wasn’t. It was her choice.”

There was something raw in the way she said it. Like she’d fought people on this before. Like she was still fighting them.

“But my husband,” she continued, “the king of the light realm… he didn’t like it. He never accepted it.”

I blinked. “The king?”

She smiled again, almost amused at my reaction.

“I never introduced myself properly,” she said, placing a hand gently on her chest. “My name is Lysathiel Aurealis. I am the queen of the light dimension.”

I choked mid-sip.

Holy shit.

The queen?

The queen of the light realm just boob-hugged me and fed me juice.

My entire system shut down for two seconds to let that information sink in.

My voice came out about half a pitch higher than usual. “So the queen now… has eyes on me?”

“Not like that,” she said, though her smile was way too warm for my safety. “You’re special. A bridge. You shouldn’t exist, and yet you do.”

“I’m not sure if that’s reassuring or terrifying.”

“A little of both.”

I took another sip. It was mostly just to give my hands something to do.

“And Larry?” I said, turning slightly. “You won’t… do anything to him, right? He’s just a human. Don’t drag him into this.”

Her gaze drifted to Larry, who stood behind me like a bodyguard who really wanted to quit but couldn’t abandon his post. He had that look. That demon hunter expression. Eyes locked, body tense, mouth set in a line that said ‘don’t mess with me even though I have no idea what the hell is happening.’

She looked at him for a long moment.

Then said, “I won’t. But that doesn’t mean he’s ordinary.”

Larry tensed slightly.

She narrowed her eyes. “He has something inside him. A trace of your energy… and something else.”

I held my breath.

“Puriel’s power,” she said quietly.

My heart dropped.

Larry didn’t speak.

I didn’t either.

Because yeah. I knew why. I knew exactly why.

The so-called holy vaccine the demon hunter association used. It wasn’t just divine favor. It wasn’t an invention of human faith.

It was a stolen fragment.

Of Puriel.

She was… distilled. Harvested. Converted into holy serum. Turned into the one thing mortals could inject to fight demons.

And Larry… had taken it.

As a hunter.

Not knowing what it really was.

I swallowed thickly. “About Puriel…”

Lysathiel looked at me again. Her smile was gone now.

“The realm,” she said quietly. “Has abandoned her.”

Just like that.

Abandoned.

It sounded so casual.

So final.

But I felt the weight behind it.

“She wasn’t supposed to be here,” the queen added. “She wasn’t supposed to go down without permission.“

“She’s not like the others,” I said.

“No,” Lysathiel agreed softly. “She never was.”

“And now?” I asked.

“Now… she’s forgotten.”

I clenched my fists.

Because I knew where Puriel was.

“She deserves better,” I said.

The queen looked at me again. “Then maybe you’re the one who can give it to her.”

I blinked. “Give what?”

“Peace and happiness,” she said simply.

Of course. That mystical, overused, abstract thing every protagonist in every divine movie is apparently born to inspire. No pressure, right?

I just nodded and muttered, “I’ll try.”

She smiled, but it was small. Faint. The kind of smile you give when you know the real answer’s going to hurt, but you want to believe anyway.