Chapter 167: you are blessed

Chapter 167: Chapter 167: you are blessed

Her father glanced at her through the rearview mirror, but he didn’t answer immediately.

Amelia leaned forward, resting her hands against the back of his seat.

"Because I have a lot of them. I healed Reid’s wound without knowing how, and then I destroyed a rogue with my bare hands. My hands were glowing, Dad. I could feel something inside me, and I knew what to do even though nobody had ever taught me."

Her voice grew more strained as she spoke, the memories returning faster than she could sort through them.

"How was I able to do that? What are these powers?"

Her mother’s shoulders began to tremble.

Amelia fell silent.

She could see the effort her mother was making to keep herself together. Her fingers were clenched so tightly that her knuckles had turned pale, and she kept her face turned toward the window as though she couldn’t bear to look at her daughter.

Her father noticed, too.

Without taking his eyes off the road for long, he reached across and covered his wife’s hand with his own. She turned her palm beneath his, gripping his fingers as if his touch were the only thing keeping her from falling apart.

The sight made Amelia’s frustration falter.

"Mom?" she asked, her voice softer. "What’s wrong?"

Her mother shook her head, but the movement was unconvincing. She pressed her lips together, drawing in a shaky breath.

"Please," Amelia continued. "Just tell me what’s happening. I’m not asking you to make everything make sense right now. I just need to know why this is happening to me."

Her father drove for another minute before finally pulling the car over along a quiet stretch of road.

The engine continued to run, but the sudden silence inside the vehicle made the air feel heavier. He kept both hands on the steering wheel, staring through the windshield as though he needed a moment to gather his thoughts.

Amelia waited, her fingers curling against her knees.

When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet but certain. "The reason you are this way... is because you were blessed."

Amelia frowned.

"Blessed?"

"By the Moon Goddess herself."

For several seconds, she simply stared at the back of his head.

Of all the explanations she had considered, that wasn’t one of them.

"The Moon Goddess?" she repeated. "You’re telling me she gave me these powers?"

Her father nodded.

Amelia leaned back against the seat, trying to process his answer.

"Why?" she asked. "Why would she do that?"

Her father remained quiet for a moment before turning slightly in his seat.

"Do you know why you’re our only child?"

Amelia shook her head.

"Your mother and I tried for fifteen years before we were able to have you." He paused, and his expression softened as he glanced at his wife. "Fifteen years, Amelia. We went through the same ritual over and over again, praying to the Moon Goddess to bless us with a child."

Her mother’s fingers tightened around his hand.

"We wanted you so badly," she said, her voice trembling. "Every time we performed the ritual, we hoped it would finally work. And every time it didn’t, we told ourselves to keep praying."

She turned in her seat, looking at Amelia with tearful eyes.

"We never stopped hoping for you."

Amelia’s chest tightened.

She had known her parents loved her. She had never doubted that. But hearing how long they had waited for her, how desperately they had wanted a child, made something inside her shift.

Her father nodded slowly.

"Then, one night, the Moon Goddess appeared to us in a dream. She told us our prayers had been answered and that she had blessed us with you."

He paused, his fingers tightening around the steering wheel.

"She told us you had been given divine gifted powers."

Amelia looked between her parents.

"Divine gifted powers," she repeated. "So you knew I would have abilities like this before I was even born?"

"We knew you would be different," her mother answered carefully. "But we didn’t know exactly what your powers would be like, or when they would awaken."

"Then why didn’t you tell me?"

Her mother flinched as though the question had struck somewhere tender.

"We wanted to," she admitted. "There were so many times I thought about sitting you down and telling you everything. But we were warned that your powers had a purpose, and we didn’t know what would happen if we told you before the time was right."

Amelia stared at her.

"You were warned? By the Moon Goddess?"

Her father nodded.

"She told us that your powers weren’t given to you without a reason. You were blessed because there was something she needed you to do."

He stopped speaking.

Amelia waited for him to continue, but his expression grew heavier, and her mother lowered her eyes again.

"What?" Amelia asked, her uneasiness returning. "What is it that I’m supposed to do?"

Her father took a deep breath.

"You are meant to fight against the followers of the Demon King."

Amelia blinked.

Then she let out a short, disbelieving laugh.

"Wait. The Demon King is real?"

"Very real."

"And you’re only telling me this now?"

"We wanted to protect you for as long as we could," her mother said quickly. "We knew that once you understood what your powers meant, you would have questions. We also knew that you might be afraid."

"Afraid?" Amelia repeated, looking at her mother in disbelief. "Mom, I just watched a rogue break through a barricaded door, and then I made it disappear by touching it. I think I’m already past the point where a little information is going to scare me."

Her mother’s lips parted, but no answer came.

Amelia turned back to her father.

"What exactly is the Demon King? And why does he need to be fought? If he’s so dangerous, why hasn’t someone dealt with him already?"

Her father looked at her through the rearview mirror.

"Because no one has been able to defeat him."

Amelia’s brows drew together.

"Nobody?"

"Not anyone born without a gifted power," he explained. "Ordinary fighters, no matter how skilled or strong they are, have never been enough to bring him down. Even those who received gifted powers after they were born have tried and failed."

He paused, letting the weight of his words settle.

"You are the first person born with abilities powerful enough to rival his."

Amelia’s mouth went dry.

She looked down at her hands again, remembering the strange warmth that had spread through her when she healed Reid. She had barely understood what she was doing, yet her father was telling her that the power inside her might be the only thing capable of standing against a being no one else could defeat.

"That’s a lot to put on one person," she murmured.

Her father turned more fully toward her.

"I know."

"Do you?" Amelia asked, meeting his gaze. "Because you’re telling me that I was born for a fight against a Demon King I’ve never even heard about, and apparently, I’m the only person who can stand against him. What happens if I can’t do it? What happens if my powers aren’t enough?"

Her father’s expression tightened.

"Then we will find another way."

"But you just said no one else can defeat him."

"We will still find a way," he insisted. "You are our daughter before you are anything else. Whatever the Moon Goddess expects of you, we won’t simply stand aside and let you face it alone."

Her mother reached back and took Amelia’s hand.

"We never wanted you to grow up feeling as though your life belonged to someone else," she said. "You are not just the powers you were given. You’re our daughter, and we love you. That has never changed."

Amelia swallowed, her fingers closing around her mother’s.

For a moment, she didn’t know what to say. She was angry that they had kept so much from her, frightened by what she had learned, and overwhelmed by the thought that her entire life might have been leading toward a battle she had never known existed.

Yet beneath all those feelings was something else: the knowledge that her parents had been carrying this secret for years, waiting for a moment they had probably hoped would never come.

She drew a slow breath and looked at her father.

"Then there’s one thing I still don’t understand."

He nodded for her to continue.

"If the Moon Goddess is powerful enough to give me these abilities, why can’t she handle the Demon King herself?"

Her father fell silent for a moment before answering.

"Because the gods aren’t allowed to interfere directly with the world."