Chapter 26: "The Baby Moon's First Birthday Party (And the Cult That Wants to Sacrifice Her)"
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🌙 Section 1: Moona's Big Day
Kai woke up to a terrifying sight: balloons. Hundreds of them. Floating, glowing, some leaking mana. One exploded in his face.
"Happy Birthday to our moon-baby!" Elyssaria screamed as she blew a celestial trumpet.
Kai jolted. "Wait, what? Already?"
Malvexa kicked open the bedroom door. "You forgot your daughter's birthday, mortal. That's punishable by divine spanking."
"I didn't forget!" he shouted. "I was just... prioritizing existential survival over party planning."
Caelith floated in, trailing songbirds and confetti. "Don't worry, I've already composed a lullaby symphony written in nine languages of love."
"And I've organized a moon cake that bleeds starlight," Yui added dryly, flicking a clipboard with terrifying precision.
Kai turned toward the crib.
Moona, still in her chibi moon-baby form, levitated with excitement, orbiting small rocks and plushies. "P̸̡͐ä̸͇́r̴͇̐t̷̨͝y̶̨͋!"
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🎉 Section 2: Guest List of the Divine (and a Few Uninvited)
The palace bloomed with divine decoration. Invited guests arrived through portals of starlight and dimensional slips:
The Goddess of Harvest, carrying a wheat cake that kept growing legs.
A minor demon duke, trying to flirt with Caelith and getting turned into a plush.
The Goddess of Lost Memories, who kept forgetting she was invited.
"Where's the entertainment?" Moona chirped, spinning midair.
"That's where I come in!" shouted a rogue bard god with three lutes and no pants.
"You're not on the guest list," Yui muttered, launching him into a void crack.
But among the flashes of teleportation magic, one portal opened... quietly.
No divine flare. No trumpet. Just a cloaked figure carrying a gift box that pulsed with an ominous glow.
Unseen. Unnoticed. Slipping into the crowd.
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🕯️ Section 3: The Cult of the Sacrificial Moon
In a secret chamber under the palace, a summoning circle burned softly.
The cloaked cultist unwrapped the "gift": a shard of blackened lunar crystal.
"We offer the blood of the new moon," they whispered. "The Goddess of Null Light demands her heir returned to the void."
Runes flared.
Above, Moona danced through the air, blissfully unaware.
Kai was too busy trying to stop Malvexa from launching moon-fireworks shaped like herself.
"I'm not narcissistic," she said smugly. "They explode perfectly."
Kai sighed. "Why do I feel like I'm missing something incredibly important?"
At that moment, the divine cake screamed.
"THE CAKE IS ALIVE," Caelith shouted.
"No, it's possessed!" Elyssaria countered. "By a cursed sugar wraith!"
They all started fighting the dessert.
Nobody noticed the faint shadow slither across the palace walls… toward Moona's crib.
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🧨 Section 4: The Explosion of Love (And Also Actual Explosions)
Suddenly—
> [SYSTEM WARNING: SACRIFICE CIRCLE DETECTED BELOW PALACE]
Target: MOONA.
Threat Level: GLITCH-CULTIST.
Yui's clipboard shattered.
"CODE PURGE MODE!" she screamed, leaping into the air.
The floor cracked beneath Kai.
A cultist burst out from below, chanting:
> "We return the Moonspawn to the Voidmother! We offer her first blood!"
The entire hall screamed.
Kai turned toward Moona.
The baby looked at the cultist.
Then frowned.
Her body glowed.
The moon overhead began to shake.
> [MOONA'S PASSIVE: PHASE ONE – FIRST CRESCENT AWAKENED]
She let out a soft baby scream.
The cultist disintegrated.
Everyone froze.
Then Moona burped. A star popped into existence and fell into Kai's coffee.
"Did… my baby just vaporize a void cultist with a moon scream?" he asked.
"She's growing up so fast," Caelith sniffled.
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🌌 Section 5: The Cult Leader Arrives
Unfortunately, that wasn't the end.
From the broken sacrificial chamber, a larger figure emerged.
Clad in robes woven from night, masked with void obsidian, he radiated a pressure that felt like a black hole.
> "I am Prophet Cravox. Herald of the Null Moon. She was never meant to belong to you, Kai."
"She is the seed of entropy. Give her, or we take her."
Moona clutched Kai's leg. "N̵͔̾o̵͇͗."
Kai stepped forward, shielding her.
"I don't care what cosmic prophecy says. She's mine. She chose me. She's my daughter. And you—"
He summoned a blade of divine glitch-code.
"—are not getting anywhere near her."
The goddesses flanked him.
Elyssaria glowed like the sun.
Malvexa snarled like a burning hellstorm.
Caelith sang her voice into a war cry.
Yui activated full Debug Mode.
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🩸 Section 6: A Birthday Battle Royale
The fight was like poetry written in destruction.
Yui hacked the cultist spells mid-air, twisting hex into healing.
Malvexa roared, her war axe slicing through void summons.
Caelith sang Moona's lullaby into a weapon, turning her cries into sonic booms.
Kai fought Cravox directly.
Each swing of his sword clashed against the Prophet's staff. Reality bent. Time hiccupped. Stars blinked out in the reflection of their blades.
But Cravox was powerful. He struck Kai down.
Kai gasped, coughing blood.
Moona cried out.
> [MOONA'S PHASE TWO: HALF MOON AWAKENED]
A halo formed behind her.
She grew—still childlike, but her power swelled.
> "Y̵̪͌o̶̢͘u̴̟͝ ̷̨̅h̸͔͝u̵̞͌r̷̞̈́ẗ̷̮́ ̸͖̽m̴͂͜y̵̠͌ ̷̬̆d̵̳͐a̷̡̿d̸̨̔.̸͓̒ ̷̳͠Ḏ̸͝i̸̙̍e̶̲̋.̷͍͛"
A moonbeam fell like judgment.
Cravox screamed. Then imploded into himself.
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🎂 Section 7: The First Birthday Cake (Again)
Everyone stood in stunned silence.
Then, slowly, a second cake floated in from the kitchen.
Moona blinked.
"C̴̢̈́a̴̱̚k̴͙̚e̴͍͐?"
Kai, bruised and bloodied, chuckled. "Yeah, baby girl. It's still your birthday."
Yui sighed. "Emergency threat neutralized. Now someone sing happy birthday before the next cult shows up."
They gathered around.
Moona blew out a star instead of a candle.
It granted a wish.
Kai didn't say his out loud, but it echoed in his heart.
> Please… let this family stay together—even if they're all chaotic divine lunatics.
Moona giggled.
Somewhere, another void cultist died spontaneously.
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❤️ Section 8: The New Guest
As the party resumed, a final guest arrived.
Tall. Graceful. Pale gold skin that shimmered like dawn.
A goddess Kai had never met before.
She smiled.
"I am Auralith. Goddess of Forgotten Tomorrows. And I think your daughter just changed destiny itself."
Kai blinked. "Are you… another ex-fiancée?"
She winked.
"No. But I might be… your next."
Cue dramatic music.
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✅ End of Chapter 26