Seven Mothers: All My Seven Mothers Are Beautiful Valkyries?!

As I stood in the infinite field of white, the reality of her words crashing down on me, I couldn't bring myself to speak. The room felt heavier, though I knew it was all in my head. My hands trembled slightly at my sides, and I clenched them into fists to steady myself.

That's when her voice cut through the silence again, softer this time, almost hesitant.

"Do you hate me?" She asked.

Her words startled me, and I looked up, though there was nothing to see.

"Do you hate me, Luca..." She continued, "...for barging into your life like this?..For throwing all this at you so suddenly? For…taking away the peace you could have had?"

Her voice, once commanding and divine, now carried an uncharacteristic vulnerability. It wasn't the tone of an all-powerful goddess, it was the tone of a mother, uncertain and afraid she had hurt her child.

"If I hadn't come into your life, you could have lived normally. A simple, mortal life...No trials. No impossible tasks...None of this." She sighed, the sound heavy with emotion.

I could sense her bracing herself, as if preparing for me to lash out, to yell, or to simply retreat into dull resignation.

For a moment, I considered how I should respond, but then the sheer absurdity of it all hit me. And I laughed.

"Haha!~ Hahaha!~ Hahahahhahahah!~"

It wasn't a chuckle or a polite laugh. It was loud, unrestrained, and entirely inappropriate given the situation. It bubbled up from deep within me, spilling out in a way I couldn't stop even if I wanted to.

"Not at all!" I managed to say between bursts of laughter.

The silence on her end was palpable, almost as if I could feel her blinking in confusion.

"Not…at all?" She repeated, her voice uncertain.

"No, Mom...Not at all!" I laughed harder, wiping at my eyes as tears formed—not from sadness, but from the sheer overwhelming absurdity of it all.

She didn't speak, but I could sense her waiting for me to explain.

"At first, I thought this was a nightmare." I said, my laughter calming into a soft chuckle. "I mean, how could it not be? You show up out of nowhere, tell me my entire existence is on the line, and then give me that trial...It was overwhelming, sure. But then...Then I really thought about it."

I paused, taking a deep breath, my voice steadying.

"And I realised something. This isn't a nightmare...It's a dream come true."

"What?" Her voice was quiet, almost disbelieving.

I nodded with a confident and brazen look on my face.

"My whole life, I've been pushing them away. My mothers...Not because I didn't love them, but because I loved them too much. It felt wrong to think of them that way. They raised me, for crying out loud! But I couldn't help it...They're everything anyone could want—beautiful, talented, kind. They're perfect!"

Her presence wavered slightly, as if she was caught off guard by my obsession over my mothers.

"So I ran away from those feelings." I continued, my voice softer now. "I pushed them away, acted out, built walls around myself. I told myself it was for the best, that I was protecting our relationship."

"...But the truth is, I was just scared. Scared of how they'd see me if they knew."

I let out a shaky breath, my lips curling into a small smile.

"But now? Now you've given me a reason to stop running...You've handed me a way to finally be honest with myself and with them." I said with an accomplished look on my face, as if I finally found a way to break away from the chains that have bound me my whole life.

I could feel my mother's hesitation, her uncertainty, as if she didn't quite believe what she was hearing.

"You think this trial is cruel." I continued, a hint of laughter still in my voice. "And yeah, maybe it is. But it's also freeing...For the first time in my life, I don't have to hold back. I don't have to feel guilty for loving them...You've given me permission to follow my heart completely and without any shame."

There was a long pause, and then she spoke, her voice softer than before.

"You…You really feel that way, Luca? You really feel that way towards my beloved little sisters who raised you?"

I laughed again, a joyous, almost mad sound.

"Of course I do! Mother, this is the opportunity of a lifetime! No, scratch that—it's the opportunity of an eternity...I've spent years trying to suppress my feelings, but now?...Now I can finally chase them! Now I can finally love them the way I've always wanted to!"

She was silent, and I could sense her grappling with my reaction. This wasn't what she had expected; that much was clear.

"You're...an unusual child, Luca...But the type of unusual that makes me so proud for having such an enigmatic son, who actually laughs in the face of something that even the Gods up above would consider impossible." She said finally, her tone a mix of exasperation and amusement.

"Unusual...I get that a lot, Mom," I replied, smirking. I then continued saying sincerely, "But really, Mom...Thank you...From the bottom of my heart, thank you."

"For what?" She asked, sounding genuinely confused.

"For giving me the chance to live my dream...A chance to chase after the women who call me their son and steal their hearts." I said simply.

And with that, I laughed again, wild and free, as though the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders, thinking that if this was the path I had to take, then so be it.

Seeing me laughing like a madman, my mother let out a long, almost theatrical sigh, breaking the silence that had followed my laugh.

"To be honest, I wasn't expecting this to go so smoothly, Luca." She admitted, her tone somewhere between amused and relieved. "I thought our first meeting would involve shouting, tears, maybe you storming off in anger...I had all these arguments prepared, you know?...And yet, here you are, accepting it like it's just another Tuesday."

"Guess I've always been full of surprises." I scratched the back of my neck, letting out a wry smile.

"Full of surprises indeed." She murmured, then added with a laugh. "It's not every day you meet someone who catches feelings for their own mothers...I suppose I should be glad I have such a…unique son."

"Unique is one way to put it." I muttered, trying not to blush at her teasing tone.

Suddenly, I noticed a shift in the endless whiteness around me. The infinite void began to crack, faint fissures of light and shadow spidering out like a glass pane under pressure. The sensation wasn't jarring, but it was unmistakable.

I was being pulled back, back to the mortal world.

I frowned as realization hit me...This was it.

Our time together was ending. After a lifetime of wondering about my true mother, I'd finally gotten to meet her, and now I was being sent away.

Panic flickered at the edges of my mind as I realised how many questions I still had.

'Where exactly had she been all this time?'

'What were the heavens like?'

'Did she watch over me as I grew up?'

'Did she have a favourite dish? A favourite song?'

The list grew longer the more I thought about it, and my chest tightened.

But then, just as quickly, the panic subsided, replaced by a steady confidence...It's fine, I told myself.

I had accepted her trial, and I would see it through. I was more than confident I'd complete it, and when I did, I'd join her in the heavens. Then I'd have all the time in the world—no, in the universe to catch up with her then.

Still, the cracks widened, the whiteness splintering apart. My feet began to feel a pull, as though gravity were returning to claim me. But before I could fully slip away, my mother's voice, mischievous and teasing, cut through one last time.

"Oh, before you go, I have one more question for you, my darling son." She said, a smile evident in her tone.

"What is it, Mom?...You're not going to tell me that I have bunch of other mothers hidden away as well, right?" I asked warily.

She let out a soft laugh and said in an amused tone,

"Do you think—Just like you fell for your mother's down in the mortal world…One day, you might fall for me too, as well?"

My heart skipped a beat.

"What kind of question is that, Mom?" I blurted out, caught completely off guard by her bizarre question.

"Just curious." She said lightly, though I could tell she was enjoying herself. "After all, I am technically the older sister to those wonderful Valkyries of yours...And if they're beautiful, talented, and perfect enough to capture your heart, what about me?...Surely, as their elder, I'd be even more irresistible, wouldn't I?''

I froze for a moment, feeling heat creep up my neck. I knew she was teasing, but the sheer audacity of her question left me momentarily speechless. But then, a smirk tugged at my lips, and I decided to lean into the absurdity of it all.

"Well..." I began, drawing out the word. "...since I've already gone this far, I guess it wouldn't be impossible."

The silence on her end was deafening.

I then continued, suppressing a chuckle.

"You're right, though...If you're the older sister of such amazing Valkyries, then you'd probably be even more beautiful. And if you're as kind, talented, and charming as they are—no, more so—then yeah, I might have a hard time resisting...And who knows? Maybe I'll end up falling for you too, Mom."

The silence that followed was unexpected.

For a moment, I wondered if I had overstepped or said something wrong. Even though I couldn't see her face, the weight of her silence somehow spoke volumes. There was something oddly telling about it, a sense that maybe—just maybe—she was blushing.

'Wait, is she actually embarrassed?'

The thought made me stifle a grin. It was strange to think that a goddess, my goddess mother, could be flustered by my teasing. Then again, if she was as weird as I was, something that wouldn't be surprising given we shared the same blood, then it all started to make sense.

Just as I was about to press the silence further, the cracks in the infinite whiteness began to widen. The world around me was rapidly breaking apart, signalling my return to the mortal plane. Yet before I was fully swept away, her voice returned, steady but now carrying a softness that wasn't there before.

"You know..." She began, her tone laced with a hint of mischief. "...completing this trial won't be as difficult as you might think."

"What do you mean?" I frowned, caught off guard by her sudden confidence.

There was a pause, and I could almost hear the smile in her voice.

"There's a reason why each of your mothers stayed single during all their time in the mortal world and didn't get any partners, even though they didn't have to."

Her words lingered in the air, heavy with implication.

Single? All this time?...My mind raced to decode what she meant, but before I could ask her to clarify, the world around me shattered completely.

The pull back to reality was swift, and I could barely make out her faint image as she appeared in the infinite void right as I disappeared—a hazy silhouette of a woman with an ethereal glow, raising a hand in a gentle wave."

"Goodbye for now, my beautiful baby boy, Luca." She called out cheerfully, her voice already fading. "I'll be waiting up hear in the Heavens so don't disappoint me!...And make sure you bring a load of my cute grandbabies, when you come back! I expect seven of them and even more if you have twins!"

And just like that, I was gone, pulled away from her world and back to my own, leaving behind her cryptic parting words and the faint memory of her playful farewell lingering in my mind…