One hundred years later.

For most beings in the multiverse, a century was a significant portion of their existence—a period marked by wars, dynasties, the rise and fall of civilizations. For Elias Vance, it had been the most profoundly meaningful hundred years of his infinite existence.

The pregnancy had begun normally enough, or at least as normal as anything involving Multiversal Beings could be. Kaelen had glowed with that distinctive radiance of new life, her aura suffused with the gentle warmth of creation. Elias had immediately adjusted his entire existence around her, delegating all business operations to automated systems and trusted subordinates.

"You don't have to hover," Kaelen had said in those early days, amusement coloring her voice as Elias checked her vitals for the fourteenth time that morning.

"I'm not hovering. I'm monitoring optimal conditions for fetal development."

"Elias, the baby is barely the size of a grain of rice. I think we're safe from complications at this stage."

But Elias had already calculated 847,293 potential complications that could arise during a Multiversal Being's pregnancy. He had no intention of allowing any of them to manifest.

What neither of them had anticipated was how long the pregnancy would last. Normal cultivators carried their children for nine to twelve months. Universe-level beings sometimes required twenty to thirty years as the child's innate power took time to stabilize. But Multiversal Beings?

The first sign something extraordinary was happening came when Kaelen was one year into the pregnancy, and the child showed no signs of being ready to be born.

"Dr. Vex says this is unprecedented," Kaelen reported after one of her weekly examinations. "She's consulted with every expert she can find. Apparently, most Multiversal pregnancies require artificial gestation chambers after the first year because the energy demands become too intense."

Elias looked up from the elaborate monitoring array he'd constructed around their sleeping quarters. "Are you experiencing discomfort? Unusual energy drain?"

"That's the strange part. I feel... amazing. Better than I have in centuries." She placed her hand on her slightly swollen belly. "It's like the baby is giving me energy rather than taking it."

The answer to that mystery revealed itself when the child was thirteen months in the womb. Elias, monitoring the energy flows with his Quantum Divine Processor, detected something that should have been impossible.

The baby was cultivating.

Not the passive absorption of energy that all fetuses engaged in, but active, deliberate cultivation. The child had somehow instinctively begun circulating spiritual energy through pathways that shouldn't even exist yet, drawing power from the ambient cosmos and refining it with a precision that would shame most Universe-level experts.

"She's building her foundation before she's even born," Elias whispered in awe, watching the energy patterns dance across his displays.

"She?" Kaelen asked, her voice soft with wonder.

"The energy signature is distinctly feminine. And her cultivation method..." He paused, running deeper analysis. "It's similar to your Perpetual Ascension Technique, but she's modified it. Optimized it. She's not just absorbing energy—she's creating a feedback loop that generates more than it consumes."

This explained why Kaelen felt energized rather than drained. Their daughter wasn't parasitically feeding off her mother's cultivation base. She was cultivating alongside her, sharing the energy burden, even contributing to Kaelen's advancement.

"Our daughter is a genius," Kaelen said, tears of joy and pride streaming down her face.

"Genetically inevitable," Elias replied with a rare and proud smile. "Though I confess, even I didn't predict she would begin cultivation this early."

As the months turned to years, the child's cultivation continued to accelerate. By year five, she had formed a complete spiritual core. By year ten, she had begun comprehending basic Laws. By year twenty, Elias detected the formation of something that made even his logical mind boggle.

"She's building a Dantian," he announced one evening, his voice carrying a note of disbelief.

"Already? But she's not even born yet!"

"I know. It should be impossible. But she's doing it anyway." He studied the readings more carefully. "And she's doing it wrong."

"Wrong?" Kaelen sat up, concern flashing across her features.

"Not wrong—inefficient. She's trying to construct something similar to a standard Universe-level Dantian, but the architecture is flawed. She's working from instinct rather than knowledge." He stood decisively. "I need to guide her."

What followed was one of the most delicate operations of Elias's existence. Using his perfect control over Reality Law, he carefully extended his consciousness into Kaelen's womb, making contact with their daughter's nascent awareness.

The child's mind, even in its undeveloped state, was already frighteningly intelligent. When Elias made contact, he felt her curiosity bloom like a flower, her consciousness reaching out to understand this new presence.

Father, he felt her concept-sense, the pre-verbal understanding of relationship and identity.

Yes. I'm here to help. What you're building is good, but I can show you something better.

Over the following decades, Elias guided his unborn daughter through the construction of an Entropy Singularity Core—the same advanced Dantian design he himself used. He taught her, concept by concept, how to stabilize the chaotic energies, how to create the perfect balance between destruction and creation, how to build a power source that would serve her for eternity.

The child learned with terrifying speed. Concepts that took him years to master, she grasped in weeks. By year fifty of the pregnancy, she had completed a perfectly stable Entropy Singularity Core, and her power had already reached the peak of Universe Realm.

"She's going to be born at Universe God level," Dr. Vex said during one examination, her voice trembling with awe. "I've never even heard of such a thing. Most children of Multiversal Beings are born at Heavenly Tribulation or Planetary stage at best."

If Elias had been protective before, he became absolutely obsessive as the pregnancy continued. His wealth, already obscene by any standard, found new purpose as he acquired every resource that might benefit mother and child.

Phoenix Marrow Essence, harvested from the bones of reborn cosmic birds—he purchased entire vaults of it, feeding it to Kaelen daily to strengthen her body and soul.

Void Lotus Petals, grown in the spaces between realities—he created a garden dimension specifically to cultivate them, ensuring a fresh supply every morning.

Temporal Honey, aged for thousands of years in time-dilated chambers—he bought out the entire production of seventeen civilizations, much to their shock and delight.

Quintessence Crystals, formed from the compressed essence of collapsed universes—he fed them to Kaelen like candy, each one worth more than most galactic economies.

The other Multiversal doctors and physicians who became aware of this profligate spending reacted with a mixture of envy, disbelief, and outright horror and it further spread to the whole world.

"He's feeding her Quintessence Crystals?!" one ancient cultivator exclaimed upon hearing the news. "Do you have any idea how rare those are? I've been searching for one for the past three thousand epochs"

"He's not just feeding them to her," another replied weakly. "He's grinding them into powder and mixing them with Phoenix Marrow Essence to make smoothies. SMOOTHIES."

"That's... that's obscene. That's waste on a cosmic scale."

"That's love," a third voice interjected, and the others fell silent, unable to argue.

But it wasn't just the resources that shocked the doctors. It was Elias himself—the being who had casually erased Zorak and Morth'ak from existence—behaving with such tender devotion.

He would spend hours each day with his hand on Kaelen's belly, his consciousness intertwined with their daughter's, teaching her, protecting her, showing her the wonders of the cosmos she would soon enter.

He would carry Kaelen through their home when she was tired, despite her protests that she was perfectly capable of walking.

He would cook for her personally—a task he could have easily delegated to servants—because he wanted to ensure every meal was optimized for her and their daughter's needs.

"You're being ridiculous," Kaelen said one evening, watching Elias meticulously prepare a dish that incorporated seventeen different rare ingredients. "I'm a Multiversal Being. I don't even need to eat."

"Need and optimization are different concepts," Elias replied, not looking up from his work. "This meal will provide a 0.003% increase in spiritual energy refinement efficiency."

"That's... that's practically nothing."

"Over the course of a century, that 0.003% compounds. Every advantage matters when it comes to our daughter's development."

Kaelen couldn't help but smile. This was a side of Elias that few in the multiverse would ever see—not the cold, logical calculator who could unmake beings with a wave, but the devoted husband and father who obsessed over fractional percentage improvements because he loved his family with the same intensity he applied to everything else in his existence.

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