The Rise of the Black Plain

Minos and Abby saw the commotion inside that place as they came to the side of one of the windows of that woman's house.

A few women were coming and going from one room to another, sometimes carrying white cloths soiled with blood and bowls of water.

Besides what they carried in their hands amidst their hurried steps, they had in common expressions of doubt and fear due to the abnormal situation they were witnessing.

At the same time, an old woman leaning on a crutch and having several necklaces around her neck was standing by the laboring woman's room door.

This old woman was saying words repeatedly, praying for something to go wrong. "This will be an abomination! How could you have gotten pregnant outside your marriage? Worse, this little bastard will not be a good thing. I can feel it!"

"Lady Fraley, if you don't want to be here, why do you bother coming to tell us this nonsense?" One of the women inside that room asked in an irritated manner.

It was worrying enough to have to deal with demanding labor, but the presence of that old woman there only increased the tension in this place even more.

After seeing and hearing that, Minos and Abby's curiosity grew, and they slowly tried to enter that place to take a closer look at the situation.

'Hmm? Won't these people stop us?' Minos noticed that no one seemed to be looking in their direction. 'That's strange...'

Abby then walked into that place in front of him, carrying him held by one of her hands, not even bothering about the people in the surroundings.

They then arrived inside the room of that pregnant woman, where that person was lying with her legs spread in the middle of a large bed.

A red trail of blood could be seen between her legs and the white sheet of that bed, while a pale face with an expression of extreme pain was on her face.

'That...' Abby looked at Minos as she saw the face of that redheaded woman, as it was highly similar to Gloria's.

Minos was also shocked, staring intensely at that face he knew so well. "How can that be? She has the same appearance as Gloria!" He exclaimed, but only Abby noticed his voice.

"Push!"

"Push hard!" The midwife said as she stood with her knees bent in front of that bed, looking directly between the pregnant woman's legs.

Minos did not want to look at that so as not to spoil the beautiful image he had in his mind, but Abby looked closely, feeling a chill in her belly.

'Is this what childbirth looks like?' Her eyes opened wide, and she felt a little afraid, even considering her great desire to have a child.

Meanwhile, two of the midwife's helpers stopped beside Minos and Abby and commented to each other, "I don't think she will survive..."

"Yeah, we've been at it for over three hours now... At this rate, even a Spiritual Emperor like her will die of hemorrhaging."

"What will we do? Will we be able to save the baby?"

The old woman heard that and said aloud. "Definitely not! Save the mother! If she dies and that bastard lives, we will face the worst! Believe me!"

"Tsk!"

"Get that old coot out of here! She's full of shit!" The midwife finally said this in anger, feeling the difficulty of having to make a difficult decision.

She then looked at the pregnant woman in labor and saw the desperate look on her face. But amid the desperation, there was a certain brightness in her that seemed to say that such a woman would be more than happy to die to give birth to the child of that man, her lover.

"Come on..."

Just as the midwife was about to say something, all the people in the surrounding area froze in their positions, and a voice came into Abby's mind.

'This is the beginning of the second test, the first of three decisions you will have to make.'

'1. Save the mother.'

'2. Save the baby.'

'3. Let them die.'

'You have 10 minutes to make up your mind.' The female voice ceased, leaving a highly tormented Abby having to make such a difficult choice.

"Abby, what is it?" Minos asked since he had not heard anything.

"The Goddess of Life wants me to choose how this situation will end..." She said, already a little pale from having to be involved in the death of at least one of those two.

Minos' eyebrows frowned at that information. 'What is the meaning of that?' He tried to understand but soon heard from her that there was a time limit.

"My love, what do I do? Unfortunately, I don't have much time to decide."

He looked seriously in the direction of the woman who had Gloria's appearance and felt this was a provocation to him. "Save the mother, Abby."

"The mother? But what about the baby? Don't you think he deserves a chance?" She looked into his eyes, remembering what she had heard outside this residence. "Didn't you hear? She's an adulteress! How can we save someone like that instead of an innocent little baby?"

He also remembered something and said. "Maybe this baby doesn't have a good future, or rather, maybe its survival will bring evil to this place. Didn't you listen to that woman from before?"

"Do you want to listen to that old woman's mean comments? Who can assure you she is not trying to harm this redhead?" She argued.

"Because she was trying to keep her mother's life." He said. "That old lady knows the mother would hate her once she recovered and found out she lost her baby. But still, such a person was here to do something."

"That..." Abby looked to the side, from where the old woman from before was no longer standing due to the woman who kicked her out a few moments ago.

"Besides, regardless of whether she's good, the baby could die without the mother, even if we save him. So, there is no guarantee that he will survive. But the mother is here."

"She can be saved!" He exclaimed.

Abby then looked seriously at Minos and asked. "If this woman was Gloria and her baby, would you still make this decision?"

Minos clasped his hands together and answered truthfully. "If it were Gloria here, or you, or Ruth, I would choose a million times to save you, even if you would hate me for abandoning our babies."

"It would be a shame for our children, but my love for you cannot be compared to my feelings for a child who wouldn't even have been born yet."

Abby understood Minos' words, but her desire to be a mother made her feel strange.

It was against her instincts to abandon the baby!

All she had wanted for the past ten years was to have children with Minos. Because of this, she understood the desperation of this woman in labor, who seemed to be longing to have her baby in her arms.

Even if it cost her her own life!

"My love, if that ever happens to me..." She was about to say, but he would not allow her.

"No, Abby, I won't do that. I won't risk losing you, no matter what. You need to accept that." He held her in his arms, feeling bad that he had to see Gloria's look-alike in that situation. "If you want to have children with me, you must accept that."

"You are my priority, and I will choose you for endless times if we have to go through this."

Gulp!

She swallowed her saliva and felt that Minos would not change his mind and that he might even stop trying to get her pregnant if she was too stubborn. "Okay." She said as she shed a tear from her left eye, feeling that she had to understand her man's side.

'Hopefully, we won't have to worry about that...'