The Bad Offspring

What made us carry this burden? The mistakes of our ancestors? How are we related to the Purifying Revolution? Why do the Gods allow such things?

That was Algos's current opinion. Since childhood, this feeling of injustice grew with him as one of his own organs, but he had made himself a reality, he could not change this, it was not his responsibility. Others had tried long before he was born, like the few deities who still loved humanity, they had tried to protect humanity and negotiate to lift the curse, but they had been swept away and removed their access to the Clouds after a short war between Gods that shook the world for several weeks. But it shouldn't be up to the narrator to say that, the storybooks tell that story much better:

"In the year 713, a few months after the Purifying Revolution, the goddess of fertility, Bahala, tried to resound one last time the city of the Gods, but they did not listen. Stubborn as usual, the goddess tried again and again, until the great deities lost patience. The anger of these deities was so big that they spread the Clouds below Bahala and her followers, causing them to fall from the divine city and force them to live with mortals forever. This was the beginning of the Crack. The gods disinherited from their rights tried to ascend to the Clouds, but they were stopped by the other deities. Blood, roar, anger, sadness shouted in the skies. The repeated blows of the gods resounded heavily in the air, tearing, cracking the sky above the great Khaar River. Time passed and the crack widened, crumbled, letting a divine light flow into the clear water of the river. After the war, Bahala cried, her tears fertilized the desert soil, transforming the place into a large tropical forest. The goddess decided with her followers to abandon the struggle against the Cloud Gods and chose to live with humanity. Bahala had many children, Delio too, Wenirh too, all the gods who accompanied Bahala had children with men and women. They did this in the hope that their divine genes would allow humanity to continue to live and prosper. This is how the first demigods were born, firmly rejected by the Ancient Cloud Gods, but now accepted by the New. This creates an imbalance in the Clouds, which often forms many cyclones and storms. Some people like to say that the New and Old Gods come into a confrontation when the sky becomes so threatening."

It was one of the first storytelling classes given to children, mainly for boys. It was an obligation, the children had to know why women looked at them with devouring, sad or overwhelmed eyes when they were still so young. This was essential to the child's survival; he had to know as soon as possible what could be a danger to him, and women were one of them, so in general, contact with them was prohibited. Only the mother had the right to be close to her child. However, the older the boy got, the more he was allowed to meet people. I mean, that was for the boys we chose to give a chance to.

The most common case was that the boy was castrated from birth to avoid future problems such as mockery, pain, death, etc. But over time, the boy would effeminate and it was sometimes difficult to tell the difference between a young man and a young woman.

In other cases, the most extreme, some parents were so overwhelmed that their children were boys that he decided to avoid all suffering for them. An abortion.

What made it strange was that it was only visible in humanity. The other races that inhabited the great city of Denois, such as the Elves or the Dryads, were not affected by the curse, so you could see elven men, grow slowly and become men, even if it took several centuries to see them grow old.

But, generally, in the streets, no man walked in the alleys of the city… oh! Sometimes a real man appeared, a man with a beard and male facial features crossed the streets, it proved that he was not neutered. A Lucky as many like to call them; this kind of guy attracted everyone's attention whether he was handsome or not, he was a rare specimen after all. And human men were known for their very special states of mind, their gastronomy, but also for what they have in their pants, so the presence of only one man had some magnetic influence, especially with women and this even if they are Elves, Orcs, Werecats or Demons.

Most of the big cities were run like Dinois, a Salvatrix controlled everything with the help of one of several Cardinals, below them were the Purifiers who worked with the bishops and the Blowers who worked with the priests.

Algos's mother was a Blower, she held masses in one of the city's churches every week and helped the souls of the deceased to find their way by 'blowing' on them. Algos had always thought it was strange, he imagined his mother blowing on a void place in the middle of the street in front of the local shopkeepers looking at her, incredulous. He laughed for a moment as he dressed in front of the small mirror in his room and looked at himself quickly.

Rather small because of certain growth problems, a slightly muscular body thanks to the sports he played as soon as he started to feel excited to calm down, a masculine face, light gray eyes whose iris was dotted with small yellow spots that sheltered a deep and destabilizing look, and, hair of a bluish-black like a raven's feathers. He looked at himself in the mirror again, but this time he was completely dressed. He was quite satisfied; he liked the clothes he wore, they had sewn them with his mother and aunt, a mix of a suit and more relaxed clothes in dark-blue and white tones.

The ceremonial clothes of the transition to a.d.u.l.thood had to be created in this way and not otherwise, it was traditional, and that for all races, only slaves were not allowed to be treated in this way. The garment had to be created and sewn by the person participating in the ceremony and by his or her family. It also allowed Algos to see his aunt again, who like his mother, she's a distant descendant of Bahala, the goddess of fertility. He had not seen her since she left for the Capital several hundred kilometers away, located in the middle of the desert. She was… unrecognizable. His skin had too much tan. He and his mother had made fun of her, the mockery was a family trait, everyone was used to it. It was a kind of fun intimacy that showed mutual trust between each family member. This made Algos just as happy as the simple fact of having to insert his s.e.x into a young woman's v.a.g.i.n.a in the hours that followed.

And all that he was going to live was thanks to him because he had managed to survive until then… he never thought he'd be able to do this. There were sometimes times when the pain he felt because of the curse would make him fall to the ground. It was the kind of moment when he thought it was over for him, but every time he held on. There had once been, at the beginning of his puberty, around the age of 11, a time when he was near death, the curse had knocked him unconscious and he fell headfirst down the stairs, this had caused him a brain trauma without any real damage, but he still had a scar on his eyebrow arch, as a reminder of that day to remind him of the curse of men each day of his life.

However, he had done his best to control himself, to do sports, to practice meditation, to read and learn a lot, even books on s.e.x.u.a.lity, to be able to project a s.e.x.u.a.l scene and to be able to control himself better and better with time, that is why the Lucky, were not so lucky, certainly they had divine genes and God's blood, but in ridiculously low percentages and their survival was not due to luck, but thank to considerable efforts, daily exercises, repeated over and over again for about ten years. It was this tenacity that allowed Algos to survive until the age of 17. And thanks to this, he would receive a gift from heaven, a remembrance of Bahala's d.e.s.i.r.e, that the human race should continue to prosper.

This is what every man with divine blood obtains after the ceremony of the transition to a.d.u.l.thood. Only human men were entitled to it, other races already have enough advantages, such as the ability to live without restriction. For example, many Orcs are no longer v.i.r.g.i.ns long before the ceremony, after all, the church does not punish this fact, so everyone was taking advantage of it.

After he had stopped thinking, the young man shook his hair in all directions in the hope of making an acceptable haircut, but as usual, his hair didn't listen to him. He blew with a resigned look before someone knocked on his room door.

"It's Mom. Are you almost done?" she asked in a calm voice.

"Okay, but hurry up, the meal is ready and you shouldn't be late for the beginning of the ceremony."

"I do my best to be fast." he growled as he lifted notebooks to see if important papers were lying underneath.

"Well, do even more than your best, it's not fast enough for me yet." she continued her sentence while going down the stairs to the ground floor, but Algos couldn't hear her.

"Ah! You're here." he exclaimed when he saw his ring that had fallen to the ground.

He put it on his ring finger and reached the ground floor. His house was simple but big, so he could live with his mother and aunt without any problems. Her mother had inherited the house and she had proved to be very useful, otherwise, they would probably have ended up on the street soon after the clergy ordered the destruction of a corrupt part of the city.

He headed straight for his meal, a salad, probably to avoid the misadventures that other foods could have given him, you had to avoid stomach aches or nausea during the ceremony, it could be quite shameful after all.

"So, Al, excited?" asked a woman's voice deeper than her mother's.

"Well… it would be a lie to say no." he replied without looking at his aunt in the eye.

"The little one is embarrassed!" she exclaimed as she rubbed the young man's head just to annoy him. "Come on, I'm sorry, you know me. Eat now, or your mother will grumble again."

"Did I say anything? No, you must have had an auditory hallucination, old girl."

"Two real kids." laughed Algos as he looked at his aunt. "Otherwise, how are the preparations for the ceremony going, you work there, right?"

"Everything important has been finished for the past two days, there are only a few small details left, but it's not my job. I know there have been some problems… hmm… what do they call it? Optional administrative, or some shit." she explained while eating her salad. "But this isn't my job, I'm a decorator, not a secretary. Your mother's going to have a tough day tomorrow, tho."

"Aaah… please, Mag, stop calling me 'your mother', I think I have a name, 'Philia' I think." she grunted, putting a pitcher of water on the table.

"You get angry like when we were little! Come on, don't sulk, come to give your big sister a hug!"

Algos smiled when he saw the situation, it had been like that for a little over a month, the atmosphere had changed, we could say that the house seemed a little more lively. Although these two people were his family, he also saw them as women: the mother, a little more serious because of her difficult past, had a sinuous body, a fairly small pair of b.r.e.a.s.ts, soft blue-gray eyes and auburn hair falling under her shoulder; on the other hand, her aunt was a woman a little more curved than her mother, which must have been due to her professional activity, her b.r.e.a.s.ts were quite big, and just like her sister she had blue eyes, but who was inhabited by a playful glow, her brown hair was cut short, which was surprisingly good on her.

The family was sacred in this world, it was something that had to be taken care of, so Algos had done his best in his childhood to protect his mother. However, that is also why a rumor has been made that parents who have chosen abortion will not have the right to the Way of the Soul.

Al decided to stop thinking again, it was better for him. He finished his meal, cleaned his dishes and went to brush his teeth and perfume himself. No stains on his clothes, his face awake, smelling good. However, the criterion: 'to have a nice haircut' was not respected, but… well, with rebellious hair like his, he couldn't even hope to do anything with it.

After returning from the bathroom, he checked that he had his ring and did another deep relaxation exercise one last time, the legend says that even after the boy turned 17, the curse remained hidden in the shadows until the ceremony, so he preferred to proceed.

Algos put on his shoes and walked out the door while his mother repeatedly told him to hurry.

"Mag." he began by turning to his aunt. "Do you know where Felicia is? I haven't seen her all morning."

"Ah, your cousin, huh… well, my dear daughter left two hours early, you know her…" she explained, scratching her head. "Always stressed… but I just let her do it, anyway she wouldn't have listened to me… Humm… you should find her not far from the public toilets, as we get closer to the fateful moment, she must be stressing like never, she might even have temporary diarrhea, but well, I hope everything will go well for her."

"I see… Thank you… At least you know your daughter well…"

"Ahahah! Fortunately, I'd be a bad mother if I didn't!" she exclaimed, giving her nephew a tap on the back. "Come on, go ahead. I'm not delaying you any longer. We'll join you with Philia when all this shit starts… and, your mother is very stressed out for you, that's why she got upstairs."

"Don't worry, I guessed it, the fact that she's so grumpy shows that she's stressed."

"At least you know your mother well."

"Fortunately, I'd be a bad son if I didn't." he replied with a sarcastic smile.

"Ahahah! Go on nom, you'll be late!"

Outside, the streets were full of people, in some of them we were quite close to the human tide. This time of the year was a blessing for the shopkeepers, after all, the teenagers who were about to become a.d.u.l.ts came to the city for the ceremony, certainly, there was also the Capital which proposed this ceremony, but the whole northern part of the country met in the small metropolis that Dinois is.

Algos snuck in between the people and headed for the large square behind the cathedral that proudly overlooked the city. It took him a good half an hour to reach his goal, even taking shortcuts and unfrequented places. The cathedral was monstrously large, if you were underneath, you had to look up completely to see the end of it.

Behind the cathedral was the big square, most of the time the market took place there, but there it was a huge wasteland with cobblestones all over the ground. A platform had been placed as close as possible to the cathedral and, as an extension of it, two rectangles had been delimited by large torches fixed to the ground, the first was reserved for those who passed the ceremony, the second, three times larger was for families. On the sides were the famous toilets he had heard of, people came out and came in, frequently. He waited near it for a few minutes before seeing a face he knew. Slightly taller than him and slightly chubby body, b.r.e.a.s.ts larger than her mother's, blue eyes that showed signs of anxiety and brown and curly hair that fell to shoulder height.

His cousin, in turn, recognized him and walked towards him.

"H-hey… What are you doing here?" she asked in an embarrassed voice.

"I wanted to smell your diarrhea." he waited for his cousin's reaction, but she just looked at him with a haggard look. "I was waiting for you, you idiot, that's all, don't look at me like I'm the last asshole of this world."

"I'm not the one saying disgusting things, am I?" she said, rolling her eyes.

"Excuse me for trying to lighten the mood." Algos breathed as he put his hand on the young woman's head. "Maybe you want to go get something to drink before you go fill out our papers?"

"Um… No thanks… I'd rather we go now. If we're ever late, it would be a big problem…"

They both headed for the place. Many foreigners and people from other cities had joined the place; as expected, there were very few humans and… the human present were all nobles. The nobles had a better "chance" of surviving, most of the time they were drugged with plants to calm their hormones or their d.e.s.i.r.es were anesthetized with magic, but this had harmful effects on the body. They could become infertile, have visual disturbances, tremor in some parts of the body or even poor quality, damaged and more easily damaged skin.

In the eyes of the people, these kinds of guys were not a Lucky, but a Poisonous, that was the nickname people had given to them, but no one dared tell them that kind of thing, after all, nobles can feed their slave stocks from the streets. It was an act tolerated by the Gods since the female population completely submerged the cities, there were too many people to house, so the Gods made a radical decision: allowed slavery, but only to a few types of people. Including the nobles.

Generally, these nobles envied the Lucky, however, they did not know the efforts it would take to get where Algos was. Maybe they would have succeeded, but Algos had big doubts about that. From what he could see, these rich men's sons were generally weaklings who either pretended to be tough or who ran a slave trade to make themselves look tall, many hid their frail bodies under several layers of clothing to prevent it from being noticed too much.

However, the moment a girl sees this, they will feel more uncomfortable than anyone else. Instead of laughing, Al preferred to sympathize and gave a conciliatory smile to the various nobles in front of him. His answer was a spit that he managed to avoid and despicable looks, only two of them gave a smile in return for his.

The young man blew and left to join Felicia who had taken the lead. They walked in front of everyone with their identity cards, which made a lot of people growl, and joined a second, much smaller queue. Since they lived in Dinois, they had already filed the primary papers and only one attendance paper remained to be signed. After that, they reached the main square, it started to fill up slowly with people, which was quite impressive. Felicia and Algos decided to join the rectangle assigned to the participants of the ceremony in advance to get some space.

"You know…" she began with a perturbed look.