The World's most Overpowered Side-Character

Chapter 190: Muse.

NEWS! I drew Ikaris and I can't stop looking at her! she's on the book's home page as an official listed character, starting a discord to share more of them and their process of creation seems like a good idea, who should I draw next?

Sol?

Dina?

Arla?

***

"Sol." Ikaris knocked on a door and then slowly pushed it open, finding him seated behind a table with dozens of scrolls and books opened around him almost hiding him from view.

"Yes, Ikaris?" He looked over everything at her. "Do you need my help with something?" He asked seeing her clearly worried expression.

"I am not powerless, you know." She huffed and approached smiling as the books and scrolls were all enveloped in a golden aura and began packing and sorting themselves away upon Sol's gesture. "Is this why you wanted a study?" She asked, catching one of the scrolls out of the air and looking at the text with her brows furrowed. "This is not Atlan, Arkadian, nor is it of earth." She looked up at him.

"I've been studying different languages, from other universes." He reached out and pulled her into his lap, cradling her carefully and resting his hand on her belly, it was now the fifth month of her pregnancy.

"You already have the ability to understand what anyone says, why study the language?" She asked and he hummed and took the scroll from her grasp.

"I can understand speech, sure. But I am still a dunce to their written languages, and if I can't read it then how else do I learn their histories aside from having someone explain it to me?" He asked, and Ikaris nodded agreeing since she had to also learn Arkadian text even though she was able to understand.

"Ikaris." He called to her again and she raised her elbow over his neck and kissed his forehead. "How do you feel?"

"Five months pregnant." She chuckled gesturing to herself. "It has been painless and stress free, and I do not have any weird outbreaks or swelling, it is not what I expected at all.

"Well you're not mortal nor just immortal, you're a goddess, the Goddess of goddesses, if something went wrong I'd fucking panic." Sol laughed nervously at the thought of her having some kind of complication. "But anyway, are you going to keep stalling?" He asked when she picked up his pen and began drawing circles on his cheek.

"You make it hard for me to speak my mind sometimes, when I already know how you will respond it feels like asking certain questions is a waste of time." Ikaris answered honestly.

"Try me."

"You have been having frequent lapses recently." She stared at him seriously and he closed his eyes and sighed. "See, there it is again, the "I'm fine" sigh you always do." She poked his forehead and tried mimicking his voice.

"Have you lost trust in me, dear?" Ikaris asked, genuinely concerned.

"No, never, I'll trust you completely even if you ask me to take a bath in hellfire." Sol slightly sat up with her wrapping his hand around her waist and pressing his palm against her stomach again.

"Then why have you been keeping this one thing from me, can you not see how much it bothers me?" Ikaris huffed and stood.

"And do not tell me it is nothing, you are Godslayer, there should be nothing that can make you this distracted unless you choose to be, but you have been passively losing focus ever since we came to earth, so tell me Sol, what bothers and concerns you so much?" She asked seriously while he leaned forward and closed his fists before his forehead.

"Why are you suddenly trying to bare this burden alone?

"I promise you, I'm not trying to do that, but... Ikaris you're pregnant, the last thing I want to do is worry you."

"Master." Ikaris went on her knees before him and rested her hands on his legs staring pleadingly into his eyes. "I am already worried sick, the power you possess is the most frightening yet there is something that has compelled you to cast a barrier across the entire planet preventing anything in or out, how am I supposed to interpret such an absurd countermeasure?" She asked.

"I am not worried because you are staring out in space, you have always done that; I am worried because you are clearly scared of something and you insist on keeping it to yourself."

"Ikaris..." Sol held her by her arms and raised her off the ground, ushering her to the door and stopping with his hand on the knob.

"This might be the only instance I ask something like this of you, but I need you to trust me that telling you will do more harm than good, there's no benefit to a straight answer." He rested his palm on her cheek and kissed her forehead just as she had done his earlier.

"Can you promise that it will be fixed soon?" She asked, lowering her gaze sadly and then raising her teary eyes to meet his again. "If there's anything I can help with-"

"This time the best way to help is by staying away from it, Ikaris." He closed the door behind himself. "That's why I haven't said anything, I know how you are and telling you is going to make you uneasy and you're going to want a confrontation, I can't allow you to do anything like that when you're pregnant, please understand."

"And if I promise to not confront whatever or whomever?" She held her belly as he walked behind her.

"I still won't say." Sol answered honestly, and felt the concern she had been pressuring him with through their connection ease as she accepted his advice and stopped pushing for an answer.

"Okay, love, I will trust your judgement." She looked over her shoulder with a smile and Sol returned one, poking her cheek as he lead her down the stairs towards Sara who was seated in the guest lounge with Henry jr while his family was out.

"Little man, what's up?" Sol waved at the boy.

"Good afternoon, Mr and Ms Vestic!" Henry jr blushed when he saw Ikaris smiling at him.

"Ikaris and I are going out for a treat at the new cafe do you want to come with us?"

"Is there going to be cake and ice cream?"

"Absolutely!" Ikaris clapped. "As much as we can eat, so much we might get sick!" She laughed when he leapt from his seat and looked at Sara who was tutoring him.

"I have my keys at-hand." Sara reached into her pockets and pulled keys from her shadows raising them out and dangling them before the excited boy who almost leapt for joy as the four of them began making their way to the door with Ikaris significantly slower as she tried being careful.

***

"God where did they find such a woman...?"

"She's so pretty I could die!"

"I'm gonna ask her out as soon as we're done here."

"I've never seen anyone like her before."

"Arla is amazing...."

"She has the grace of an angel, where did professor find her?"

The art room was filled with murmurs in the last few minutes while Arla sat still hugging a plastic skull with a rose sticking out of it to her abdomen and slightly smiling at it, the classroom was packed with students both art and otherwise after her visit to Dina turned into her being a temporary muse when the woman who was scheduled to come called in sick at the last moment.

"Thank you for volunteering like that, you seem to have inspired my students to put their best forward, I have never seen quality work like that in this classroom before." The male art professor held out his hand to shake hers after the class had concluded, but Arla stood a few feet away with her hands locked behind her and slightly inclined her head instead of touching him.

"It was no problem, Dina is an art major so I volunteered for her sake." Arla explained turning to said person when she approached.

"You're too much, you're dressed so modestly and you're still attracting more eyes than an eldritch demon in a church." Dina pouted at her and Arla laughed out and extended a bag with servings of food she had bought on the way. "Did you drive?"

"I did..." Arla answered as the two of them; ignorant of everyone else went to one corner and began chatting while eating together.

"Where did that woman come from?" One student asked. "I think if she came as muse every time we'd have a full class and straight masterpieces from everyone trying to impress her." He chuckled.

"You're one to talk, I've never seen you paint individual strands of hair before, but this time you even did crush lines and folds, I had no idea you could produce such quality!" The girl next to him elbowed him in his ribcage. "But... I don't think you stand a chance with either her or your crush." She looked at him.

"I heard that they're both from 10.B, you know that super rich estate neighbourhood that only allows blue, white and green tags that's being built a few miles from here?"

"Really, no wonder they're friends-"

"No there's even more, someone who lives there said they saw Dina with her before, coming from the same house, the biggest-"

"They live together!?" The man blurted out causing the entire auditorium to go quiet.

"You fucking idiot!" The girl punched him in his neck sending him falling and gasping while she panicked and fell to his side.

"They live in the same house?" He wheezed looking up at her.

"Y-yeah, and nobody can touch them, they're protected by the president himself."

"Holy fuck, they must have deep pockets and even deeper connections." The man sat up and rubbed his neck, clearing his throat. "I'd do anything to get in."

"Are you deaf?"

"I heard that anyone can get in and the housing is actually super cheap but the requirements can't be negotiated, I'm a green tag so I have a chance at least, if I can live there then I can meet Dina on a daily basis, who knows one thing might lead to another if we see each other enough." He chuckled as he schemed.

"It seems you are the popular one." Arla laughed when she saw Dina slump and rest her head against the desk she was eating on, blowing her hair out of her face.

"I used to like the attention, but I have master now, I don't even want to be seen let alone talked to." Dina complained.

"Well, as long as they do not touch you..."

"Never, I've been super careful, I don't want a repeat of the first day, if a bunch of people start disappearing the campus might shut down but I just want to finish my last semester and be done with it." Dina shuddered as she remembered Sol causing a random orange tag to go insane and run into a moving truck after he grabbed her ass when she was enrolling.

"You never did explain why you wanted to come back." Arla leaned her head and took a bite of her food.

"I like completing what I start." She answered and then looked up at Arla.

"I miss master."

"Me too, being away from him makes me uneasy."